February 13, 2008 by admin.

To healthcare professionals:

We ask our clients and patients to eat more healthfully, reducing their fat and sugar intake, and increasing their intake of fiber by eating grains, fruits and vegetables.  Is that really the whole message of healthy eating?  If so, why are we getting the backlash of such books as “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan and “The Gospel of Food” by Barry Glassner?

Are we too “nutrient-focused,” telling people to eat more tomatoes because of the lycopene in it or eat more spinach because of the iron?  And with this focus, have we taken the joy and pleasure out of eating as Glassner proposes in his book?  Do you think if our message was to have pleasure in the eating process that we would have even more obesity in our country?  Obesity has increased under our watch.  What is the healthcare industry doing wrong?

Are we actually being too negative when we tell people what not to eat?  Being told the negative of something gets one to focus that much more on it.  Maybe we’re fostering food obsessions by pointing out what shouldn’t be done. 

Many studies today pull out particular nutrients of interest to study and then draw conclusions from the results.  We then stray away from the concept of whole foods and emphasize the concept of individual nutrients.  In so doing, we encourage people to take supplements of individual nutrients instead of just seeing the value of eating a variety of foods.  Do consumers lack confidence that our food supply can provide us with all we need?

I wonder if we’re presenting the consumer with too much information.  Do consumers have to know what happens to individual nutrients in the body (e.g., saturated fat can lead to the production of plaque)?  Or would we get more followers if we just talked about good food choices and not give the reason why they’re good for you?   In some ways, we’ve opened pandora’s box by giving some information but not all of it.  Most consumers couldn’t absorb all the information we in the heatlhcare industry know about physiology, metabolism, etc.   I think we’ve created a population becoming obsessed with individual nutrients and forgetting the big picture.  While the food guide pyramid provides a list of good foods, it also tells us what to avoid.  And even with the government’s efforts, it seems that there is still a large portion of the population that is in the dark about what healthy eating is all about.

So, if you were to create the “big picture” of healthy eating, what would it look like and how would you market it to the general population?

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February 11, 2008 by admin.

I’ll bet that your first response would be “food that is low in fat, low in calories, low in sugar, and high in fiber.”  But I’ll also bet that you never thought about whether the food you’re referring to is tasty.  Many Americans equate the concept of healthy foods with foods that they think they SHOULD eat rather than with foods that they WANT to eat.  Often eating those “should” foods is followed by eating “want” foods so, in the end, more food has been consumed than necessary.

Are your “want” foods really unhealthy?  To answer that you need to decide in your own mind whether low-fat, low-calorie, low-sugar, low-fiber, etc. foods are as unhealthy as you’ve been led to believe?  If eating them causes you to to “overcompensate” by eating foods with just the opposite profile - high in fat, sugar, and calories - now that’s unhealthy.

Maybe we need to move away from the concept of “legal” foods and think more in terms of what our bodies need for us to run at optimal efficiency.  If eating sugar-laden foods makes you feel that you need to take an afternoon nap, I’d say those aren’t healthy foods.   If eating very salty foods makes you feel bloated, you need to ask yourself why you would treat yourself in such a way that makes you feel you’re not living at the best level of health.  If you’re overweight and find climbing stairs makes you feel winded, whatever you’ve been eating that contributed to your weight gain is obviously not good for you.

 On the other hand, let’s take the individuals who aren’t overweight, seem to have plenty of energy no matter what they need to accomplish during the day,  and don’t find themselves fixating on food, what do you think they would say about their diet?  I bet they’d say that they don’t live to eat but eat to live.  I’ll also bet that they eat “closer to the land”, meaning the foods they eat are less processed and more as nature intended them to be.  For example, natural peanut butter is simply ground peanuts with nothing added.  It’s high in fat but so what.  You’re not sitting down to eat the whole jar (I hope!).  Dried fruits can be very sweet.  They’re high in natural sugar but so what.  There’s just so much you can eat of them before the palate will tire of the flavor and at least you’re getting nutrients along with the sugar.

Maybe the answer to what is healthy eating is eating that which will do you no harm and, at best, that which will improve your health.  Think about what you’re eating in terms of what good it can do for you.  Drink milk or eat cheese because they’re good sources of calcium.  Eat fish because it’s a good source of those healthy omega-3 oils.  Eat whole fiber foods because of the beneficial fiber they contain.  Eat fruits and vegetables since they’re like eating your multi-vitamins instead of relying on pills.  I could go on, but you get the idea.  The best advice I can give is eat in terms of what you want to eat and not in terms of what you shouldn’t eat.  Focusing on the negative (”you can’t eat that”) makes you lose focus on what is good for you.  You and I both know that when I say something like that doesn’t give you the go-ahead to eat anything and everything without thought.  But don’t obsess either.  A large part of healthy eating is enjoying what you eat and who you eat it with.

If you’re interested in learning more, consider reading Barry Glassner’s “Gospel of Food.”  It will make you sit up and question the choices you’re making.  Everything you do is a decision.  And if you feel you need help with making those decisions, consider reading “Is Your Personality Type Making You Fat?”.  Visit www.advantagediets.com for more information.

I’d love to hear from you as to what you think healthy eating is.

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February 4, 2008 by admin.

There was an interesting article in theFeburary 2008 issue of Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter called “What does the latest research on weight mean to you?”  The article reviewed a study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute that concluded ”overweight people are actually less likely to die from a wide range of causes.”  Note the word “overweight”.  To classify people as either normal weight, overweight, or obese, the BMI or Body Mass Index is most often used, a number that comes from inserting your height and weight into an equation.  (If you want to know your BMI, go to: http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/fitness/multimedia.jhtml?multimediaId=/templatedata/fitness/multimedia/data/1129756657157.xml&ordersrc=msn2bodymassindex_cgy&cobrandId=ww5&s_kwcid=TC-935-1066821554-e-24318059.  In the left-hand column at the top is a BMI calculator.  The BMI for “Normal weight” is 18.5 to 2.5, “Overweight” is a BMI of 25 to 30 and “Obese” is a BMI greater than 30.

It seems that obesity is associated with an increased risk of cancers (colon, kidney, breast, esophagus and pancreas), yet a decreased risk for lung cancer.  But being overweight made one at a slightly reduced risk from most cancers.  The results are not an invitation to get fat.  One still needs to eat right, be active and not smoke.

The conclusions being drawn are that maybe the definitions of “ideal weight” need to be reconsidered.  And that maybe having some reserves on board (meaning a little extra weight) would be beneficial to withstand an adverse situation.  It also has been bandied about that BMI may not be the best measurement of risk.  Since the BMI doesn’t consider fat stores or fitness, two very important parameters in cardiovascular health, public health recommendations may have to focus more on waist-to-hip measurement, as well as fitness.  For a waist-to-hip measurement, divide the size of your waist by the size of your hips.  Anything over 0.85 for women and 0.9 for men is considered “apple-shaped” and a higher risk for heart disease.  Anything less means you’re shaped more like a “pear”.

The researchers of the study warn that the results aren’t meant to encourage people to eat whatever they want.  But most people know intuitively that what they’re eating is either good for them or not.  No one questions that fried food can’t be passed off as health food.  Be careful, though - just because manufacturers put words on the package that imply healthy doesn’t mean the food is healthy.  If you visit my website at www.advantagediets.com you can learn more about what makes for a healthy way of eating.

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