About 9 months ago I couldn't go a day, let alone a few hours with out hearing about Isagenix. Some of my clients were using it and I was hearing about it more and more from my colleagues. As with most things in nutrition, I like to try certain things out for 3 months to get a first hand perspective on what it’s like myself to better advise my clients. I did this for Vegetarianism, Carb Cycling, Atkins and now I decided it was time to do it for Isagenix and detoxing. Now before you continue on with this post I need to fully disclose that this is my personal experience with the product and not a direct attack on it or the people that are happy with it, that being said, let’s move on. Isagenix, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the brand, is a company that creates a whole line of products aimed at the health and wellness categories. Their primary product base promises weight loss with before and after photos of its users boasting six pack abs, leaner and happier people. They achieve this by having “Nutritionally complete” shakes, cleanses, detoxes, reducing your cravings and suppressing appetite. This is done with an onslaught of herbal ingredients and whey protein powder. Now that you have the jist of what Isagenix is about it’s time to dive into the actual experience. Now I won’t go too far in depth with the scientific issues with Isagenix as you can read about it on Abby Langer’s (a fellow Dietitian) review here, I’ll just talk about how the product made me feel. Now we all know how I feel about cleanses and detoxes, and a first-hand experience with the concept has made me hate it even more. My first cleanse day felt like I was going through withdrawal from pain killers from when I was hospitalized. It felt awful! I couldn’t think, I had no energy and was irritable. I just wanted to rip someone’s head off. I went to the Facebook support group for Isagenix and was horrified to learn that the Isagenix reps claim that this is “normal” (In what world is this normal?) I tried to last 12 hours but I couldn’t do it, I had to eat not for my own wellbeing, but for the sake of everyone else around me. After I ate the world was good again, I could do something as simple as read where as I couldn't even concentrate enough to do this during the cleanse. In fact the whole detox experience was reminiscent of a really bad hangover as I was stuck to my couch just marathoning TV on Netflix. So then I contacted the Isagenix support pages asking them for this amazing research that has been done on their products and I was extremely disappointed. This amazing research had nothing to do with the product at all. I was sent poorly conducted research on intermittent fasting to justify detoxing, which isn’t related at all! There were also more poorly conducted and privately funded research papers on individual herbal ingredients found in the product with no significant findings, in fact all the research papers showed no clinical or statistical significance in a small group of 10 people. When I got in touch with the support staff at Isagenix I was told there was exciting research coming out on the product, 9 months later and nothing. I was then sent to videos on their website which feature the Isagenix Dietitians speaking at a large conference explaining how the product works. Aside from flowery language and high-energy evangelical-like public speaking about the product the video offered nothing. They only spoke to the scientifically found ingredients in the product, which is only the Whey protein, and completely ignored the herbal ingredients. There’s no denying that the way the videos, representative meetings and any material sent your way about this product is so overwhelmingly positive that you’d think that this is some sort of cult, and it’s not too far off. The popularity of the product isn’t due to the taste (as it’s awful) but in the group support that you get when you enter a network-marketing business model (think legal pyramid scheme). They promise the glory of starting your own business (which it isn’t) and financial relief from the real world (which it doesn't), often citing one or two high level Isagenix representatives earning multi-million dollar salaries and lying on the beach all day mis-representing the majority of the representatives. Furthermore, the Facebook support groups are saturated with gym and mirror selfies with people talking about how the product has changed their life even though the vast majority of the pictures shown have been manipulated in on way or another. No I don't mean they were photoshopped, but if you want to look like you have a ton of muscles or lost a ton of weight then get a good workout in at the gym, snap a shirtless photo in the mirror as your 'after' pic (making sure you pic the right angle to over exaggerate everything) , then proceed to go home, binge on soda and heavily salted snacks to get you midsection as bloated as physically possible as your 'before' pic (and remember to pick the least flattering light and pose, oh and don't forget to frown). Low and behold you have the secret to the majority of before and after weight loss product pictures (Don't worry, I'll be posting a video explaining this at a later date). The promise of that kind of life coupled with the infectiously positive representatives is the appeal, at least for me because the products offered nothing in regards to health. I was starving all day trying to replace 2 meals with those shakes and wanting to commit a felon on the detox days. Did I lose weight? Of course I did, that’s what happens when you’re starving yourself. I lost about 5lbs of muscle mass as confirmed via skinfold assessment but I missed food. I mean I REALLY missed food. I was constantly thinking about it, craving it and just waiting for dinner every single night, at which point I would end up binging on dinner because I was so damned hungry. It’s not even funny; Isagenix took Hangry to a whole new level with me. I hated “eating “ lunch with my coworkers because they’d actually have food and I’d have a stupid shake that came out of a vacuum-sealed package that I hated. I was alienated and angry and just wanted the whole experience to be over. Let’s just say I didn’t end up lasting the 3 months that I originally wanted to do, it was close to a month before I stopped their suggested system and used the shakes as snacks and post workout shakes, at which point I returned to normal cognitive and physical functioning. Oh, and I gained weight at this point. All in all I think you get the picture, I hated the experience, would never do it again and wouldn’t promote it. I get that there are people out there that can do something like this, but I highly suspect those people didn’t care much about food in the first place. For the rest of the population, I’m afraid this falls under the category of a band-aid solution. This is another product that creates dependency and isn’t realistic or sustainable. Furthermore it doesn't address the underlying issue, so no matter what you're just avoiding the actual problem. So if you’re considering Isagenix or any other similar product like Shakeology or Usana, then ask yourself: “Is this something I can do for a year or five?” because if the answer is no, then you might as well explore other ways to get healthier and to create true sustainable change. Ben Sit, RD, Sports Dietitian Owner, Founder and President of Evolved Sport and Nutrition Complete Lifestyle Management
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Of all the hot topics in nutrition, the one that keeps holding onto centre stage is sugar. The World Health Organization (WHO) released an updated guideline in 2015 regarding sugar intake for adults and children. They recommend reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake. WHO suggests a further reduction of the intake of free sugars to below 5% of total energy intake. The premise behind this is if we ingest calories from these free sugars, it may reduce our intake of nutritionally dense foods. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that an increase in free sugar intake is associated with increase in body weight. Sugar is a term used to describe a type of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are our main source of fuel, and we need them to survive and be healthy. Sugars are small molecules, either one or two molecules bonded together. Some are naturally found in food sources such as fruit, dairy, and honey while others are added to foods. Both are similar molecules, and WHO categorizes them as “free sugars”. Although sources from dairy and fruit have natural free sugars, they contain other health benefits and are not so much of a concern as are foods that have sugars added during manufacturing and processing. Obvious sources of free sugars include sugar-sweetened beverages such as pops, juices, energy drinks, and chocolate milk. Other obvious sources include cakes, cookies, and candy. There are however, some food sources that aren’t so obvious; fruit flavoured yogurts, granola bars, cereals, salad dressings, sauces (ketchup, bbq sauce, teriyaki), flavoured hot drinks (hot chocolate, pumpkin spice latte), peanut butter and bread. Other items that have high sources of free sugars (not added, but naturally high) are things like cold pressed juices, homemade smoothies with lots of fruit, or granolas sweetened with agave nectar to name a few. Let’s back up a minute. It’s great that these recommendations from WHO are available, but what does it really mean for us Canadians? Nutrition labels must list the amount of sugar per serving in packaged products, but they don’t have to indicate how much of that sugar is added. So how can we know if we are having too much? An easy place to start is to consider if there are any sources of added sugar in your diet. Take a look at the example below: Breakfast Vanilla Latte with 2 toast, peanut butter and jam Lunch Salad with protein, fruit, chocolate chip cookie, water Mid-Afternoon Snack Commercial granola bar, tea with 1 tsp sugar and milk Dinner Chicken, Rice, steamed veggies, 1 cup of juice Evening Snack Fruit There are 6 sources of added sugar; the latte, jam, cookie, granola bar, sugar in tea, and the juice. If your diet it somewhat similar to the example above, you’re likely getting over 10% of your total calories from free sugars and mostly in the form of added sugar from low nutrient food sources. So let’s make some adjustments; swap the flavoured latte for plain, try no-sugar-added jam, keep your cookie (we are human after all), switch to a no-calorie sweetner in your tea or go without, bring a homemade oat bar with little added sugar, and replace your juice at dinner with water or herbal tea. By making small changes you can easily reduce both the amount of free sugars and overall calories you consume. Now how do you go about setting a goal that is individualized to your lifestyle? Research has shown that if you set small, realistic goals in a reasonable amount of time that you are more likely to reach them. If you are a person who drinks pop every day and you make a goal to eliminate it entirely without allowing yourself any flexibility, chances are you won’t be successful. Having a black and white mentality to change is not beneficial when setting realistic, achievable, long-term goals. Happy Eating! Emilie Trottier, RD, Sports Dietitian Sports Dietitian at Evolved Sport and Nutrition Complete Lifestyle Management Why do you eat? A question that seems like common sense, but actually encompasses significantly more. For most of us, if we ate based on our bodies’ needs and actual hunger alone we would be our ideal weight. However, we often eat for many reasons, beyond basic hunger and fueling our bodies. Sometimes there are social gatherings held over food and drink, other times we eat out of appetite or cravings for specific foods. A hot word buzzing around the web these days is emotional eating that affects a great deal of us without even realizing it. Emotional eating is eating in a way to feed our emotions, not our physiological needs. It often leads us to eat too much, to eat unhealthy foods, and can lead to a very unhealthy relationship with food. Not everyone is an ‘emotional eater,’ but many of us eat emotionally at some time. Without overcoming emotional eating, achieving and maintaining your long-term goals can be a struggle. So what really is the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger anyways? Usually as we expend energy throughout the day, natural physical hunger comes on gradually and can be put off if you do not have access to food, whereas emotional hunger comes on very suddenly and feels like it needs to be satisfied immediately. When people experience physical hunger, they are open to eating whatever is available, open to options with lots of things sounding good and we stop eating when we are full. Conversely, when we feel like the hunger can only be satisfied by specific foods, craving comforting items there is an emotional link, leaving us feeling unsatisfied by just feeling full. The key difference between the two comes down to how we feel after we eat however, with emotional eating resulting in guilt, shame and powerlessness, feelings not felt if you are merely fueling physical hunger. Wondering whether you emotionally eat? Take time to honestly ask yourself the how often you do the following:
The truth is, if you emotionally eat you are not alone, especially during the cold months when the sunshine is hidden away and we are cooped up indoors. The main strategy to overcome this is to consciously realize what you are doing. Take steps to address the emotional eating by practicing mindfulness. Start by identifying your triggers and raise awareness. Complete a diary for one week, noting emotions felt & situations prior to eating. Once complete, look through your week and identify triggers, such as emotions, time of day, social influences, places, habits, and so on. After you know the cause, find other ways to feed your feelings. This step is essential to overcoming emotional eating and achieving your lifelong goals. Here are some suggestions:
Pause when a craving hits. You want to be aware that you are feeling a craving, don’t push it off. Think about something that makes you feel powerful and proud, like how well your last workout went. Instead of telling yourself “I can’t give into my craving,” tell yourself “I can have X if I wait 5 minutes.” During this time, try to remove yourself from the food you are craving (leave the kitchen) and check in with yourself. How are you feeling? What’s going on emotionally? Even if you end up eating, you’ll have a better understanding of why you did it. Try doing one of the activities mentioned above. This can help you set yourself up for a different response next time. Accept your feelings, good or bad. Then after 5 minutes, ask yourself “will eating X really help?” and “do I still feel like I need X?” If you can, have a healthy snack instead of X, if you can’t have X and repeat this again the next time you are having a craving. The truth is, you are human. Cravings happen! We are constantly surrounded by stimulus that bring upon nostalgia and mixed emotions. The main thing is being honest with yourself and fueling your body with what it really needs. Alysha Coughler, MHSc, RD, Sports Dietitian, PTS Sports Dietitian and Personal Trainer for Evolved Sport and Nutiriton I know I’ve written about this before and it probably won’t be the last time I write about it, but it needs to be said; it’s best to think twice before taking dietary advice from anyone other than a Dietitian. Far too often do Dietitians hear about their patients/ clients taking dietary advice from unqualified nutrition “experts.” This list includes doctors, personal trainers, health advocates, celebrities and people that have tried the most recent fad diet (the list goes on, but I’m going to save you a headache and stop right here). You maybe asking or saying to yourself; Aren’t doctor’s more qualified to talk about this? But my neighbours wife lost 30lbs in 2 weeks doing this! But my personal trainer has the body that I want! (And again, I’m going to stop here to save you another headache). The answer is no, they’re simply not qualified and this ends up causing more harm. An this is not one of those situations where the end justifies the means. There’s actually a very simple good and simple reason for this issue. None of the mentioned people/ practitioners fully understand what food actually means to the individual. Now before I go on I have to say that there are many AMAZING doctors, personal trainers etc. that respect the limitations of their training. This article is not an attack on Doctors or personal trainers as a whole. It’s merely addressing the MANY concerns and issues that are currently preventing the population from actually eating healthy and proper nutrition, which is making the problem worse. This blog post is addressing those practitioners that don’t seem to respect the limitations of their training or the complexity of nutrition and seem to think there’s nothing wrong with giving dietary advice when they are not qualified to do so. Earlier last week I woke up and a fellow Dietitian posted a link on her social network page that read “Insulin makes you fat, fasting makes you thin, according to Scarborough doctor.” Now having read the title, I obviously clicked the link to read the article (found here), and what I read was just insanity. The article discussed Dr. Jason Fung’s new book “The Obesity Code” which argues that obesity isn’t caused by overeating, but by excessive insulin. After reading the entire article and interview my reaction was “Is this guy kidding me?” Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist and founder of The Intensive Dietary Management program (which surprise, doesn’t have a Dietitian on staff and he’s the only one running this program) promotes fasting as a “new” way to combat obesity. There are just too many issues with this. Aside from the fact that he’s looking at just patients in his nephrology clinic to generalize to the entire population (because it’s completely rational to take what he learned from kidney damage and kidney failure patients and apply it to everyone else) it seems that no one bothered to tell Dr. Fung about Insulin resistance, how Insulin actually works instead of his insane “thermostat” analogy, that fasting isn’t new at all or about the difference between fat mass and lean muscle tissue. Dr. Fung seems to have a complete misunderstanding of the obesity issue and doesn’t realize that his “effective system” can actually do more to promote disordered eating. I will give him some credit, he recognizes the impracticality of his proposed “diet,” but that doesn't seem to stop him from promoting it. He just doesn’t understand any of the issues related to obesity at all. Let’s not forget almost anyone can write a book. Dr. Fung isn’t the first one to try to do this. The Bernstien diet, Dr. Poon’s Metabolic Diet are just a few others. What’s worse is they advertise medically supervised weight loss, but when you look closer at the program, the term ‘medically supervised starvation’ is more appropriate. Further more the strict inclusion and exclusion criteria of the Dr. Poon program raises ethical questions about how successful the program actually is. Lastly, have you ever wondered why these programs don’t post statistics about how successful their clients are at keeping off the weight? That’s because none of them are actually sustainable and therefore they’re just a band-aid solution that causes more harm in the long run. In the same week I had to call a personal trainer that works out in the Oakville area because he had been verbally harassing and manipulating a client of mine to the point that she was in tears during an assessment. This personal trainer seemed to think his ‘newborn clarity’ of how damaging our food system is and how animals are unethically treated allows him the right to verbally harass everyone that disagrees with him. It also appears that in his “research” he failed to understand the fundamental differences in American and Canadian food production systems and regulations. After admitting that he has no actual training in nutrition aside from a few Google searches, reading nutrition books written by Doctors that simply do not understand nutrition and watching a few documentaries, he plainly stated that he has no intention on stopping despite my educating him in the error of his ways. Ironically no one seemed to explain to him how unethical it is to force your own PERSONAL ethical/ moral code onto other people. Now you may be thinking to yourself “But Ben, that’s only two examples.” And you’re right, I’m only giving you two examples, because if I listed them all I would never be able to finish this article, also, it was a slow week. All Dietitians have had countless arguments with these self appointed “Nutrition Experts,” so many that we have lost count, and that’s just within our first year in the profession. What’s the ultimate issue in all of this? (Aside from the lack of formal training in Dietetics and that these practitioners can’t seem to respect the limitations of their scope of practice). These interventions completely ignore the individual. They’ve ignored so many facets of information that desperately need to be considered and are vital to success and sustainable behaviour change. They’ve ignored what food actually means to people. Of course it’s easy to lose weight when you have no actual relationship with food and you think food exists only to fuel the body. The reality is that this type of person is the minority. For the majority of the population, someone’s food choices are a reflection of their culture, their religion, their ethical/ moral beliefs, the way they were raised, their income level, their political beliefs, and their emotional state with many other factors at play. Essentially, someone’s food choice is their identity; it is a reflection of them. Think about that for a second. If someone comes in and tells you to change EVERY aspect of your dietary patterns you may be able to maintain that for a week, maybe a month, but at some point you will abandon that diet or meal plan because you can’t recognize who you are anymore, making the extreme diet methods even more unsustainable and damaging. Am I being overly dramatic here? Not at all, because the emotional toll these changes take on a person are devastating. When you ignore the individual’s identity or relationship with food what you have is a recipe for failure. Furthermore what these practitioners don’t seem to understand is that it’s the Dietitians that have to clean up their irresponsible messes. And what’s worse? These diets cause so much damage that it makes weight loss and healthy living so much more difficult! The truth is that these people may know one or two things about food and the human body, but by no means does that mean they know anything about nutrition. Nutrition involves so much more than just calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, food groups etc. Nutrition involves many social sciences, the study of cultural and religious aspects of food, economic patterns, societal and political differences, microbiology, organic chemistry and the list goes on. The important thing here is that Dietitians have been trained to combine all these complex topics into a recommendation specific for the individual that has no other agenda then to improve that person’s health. Most other self-proclaimed “nutrition experts” cannot even fathom how complicated it is to balance that many things and simplify it to a recommendation that promotes health. That is the real art of what a Dietitian does. At the end of the day, a doctor is only qualified to look at what they’ve been trained to look at. A personal trainer is only qualified to give exercise recommendations and teach you how to safely perform an exercise. The training Doctors get in nutrition is one course over one semester and personal trainers get one chapter in a text book, and what’s worse is most of the nutrition information is completely wrong! (I know because I was a personal trainer) I’m not even going to explore anything else here. If you want someone to give you GOOD dietary advice, go to a Dietitian. A Dietitian has a minimum of a 4-year undergraduate degree and a master’s degree or has completed an internship. A Dietitian will create something specific and personalized for you. So would you trust the dietary advice from someone that took one nutrition course or read one poorly written chapter in a text book over someone that has over 5 years studying nutrition and before they can be considered an entry level Dietitian? I’m hoping you say no, because taking dietary advice from someone without formal training makes as much sense as getting a plumber to install a new hardwood floor. I'm not saying that they're wrong, I'm just saying maybe you should consult with a Dietitan before making any changes, after all Dietitians are the specialists in Food and Nutrition. Ben Sit, RD, Sports Dietitian President of Evolved Sport and Nutrition Complete Lifestyle Management Have you been in the situation recently where you are shopping in the grocery store and catch yourself gasping at the food prices and think “$7.99 for a head of cauliflower, $13.00 for two chicken breasts?!” Seeing these prices can make a person who is trying to eat a healthy, wholesome diet feel discouraged and frustrated. As per the University of Guelph’s Annual Food Price report, the cost of food rose 4.1 % in 2015 when it was expected to rise by only 3.0%. This rise in food cost was significantly above the rate of inflation. There are many reasons for this; the dollar losing value this past year, our high dependency on imported produce, global draughts, and living in a northern climate. All of these factors make for buying affordable, healthy food challenging. So is it possible to stick within a budget while still eating a healthy diet? Let’s explore. Instead of purchasing expensive produce such as asparagus or cauliflower, opt for items such as broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. Be flexible with your recipes and substitute inexpensive vegetables where possible. Swap your baby carrots with large bagged carrots (you can find a deal for $1.99 per 5lbs for those orange suckers!). You can also get a bag of 3lb onions for as little as $1.69, which gives you about 8 onions – more than a weeks worth. As for fruit, apples, grapefruits, oranges, and bananas are relatively inexpensive year round and remain your best value. Frozen vegetables and fruit are also a suitable option. Frozen fruit and vegetables are picked at their peak ripeness and flash frozen so nutrient damage is minimal. Taking a cost comparison, you can get a bag of 600g of fruit for under $5.00 on sale. At best, fresh berries are on for $2.50 per 200g. No deal there. If you choose to use canned, make sure you run your veggies under water to rinse out the excess sodium that is used for preserving. As for nuts, almond and hazelnut prices are at an all time high. Replace these with alternatives such as peanuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds to reduce the cost while maintaining similar nutritional value. You can roast them, add them to your oatmeal, use them in homemade granola bars, or mix into your yogurt. They have that same crunchy nutty flavour but at a much lower price. Another way to save on cost is to reduce your consumption of meat. 2016 is the International Year of Pulses. Pulses are part of the legume family and refer to a family of dried items such as beans, lentil and chickpeas. Pulses are a great source of protein and fibre, are low in fat, and have a low carbon footprint. An easy way to incorporate pulses are replacing half of your meat with them, or opting for more vegetarian meals throughout the week. Another great way to reduce cost is to utilize all of your food and minimize waste. Keep the stems of your broccoli and the ends of your celery and make homemade stock. Plan your meals ahead of time and make a list. It sounds old fashioned, but making a list minimizes the “oh we could use that” mindless shopping while strolling the aisles. This way you know what you are getting and may be less likely to stray from that list. But by far, the biggest way to save money is to reduce your food waste. If your produce begins to look wilted or unappetizing, throw it in a stir-fry or add it to a stew. And best before dates are more of an indicator of quality and not necessarily safety. Be grateful for our lush availability of international foods and be kind to your wallet. Healthy eating in the midst of rising food prices isn’t easy, but is possible. Emilie Trottier, RD, Sports Dietitian Registered Dietitian and Sports Dietitian at Evolved Sport and Nutrition Emilietrottier.RD@gmail.com How many people look at nutrition claims on the front of food product labels when at the grocery store? Now, how about looking at the back of the packaging for nutrition facts tables and ingredient lists? Food labels serve the purpose of giving basic information about the characteristics of a product to the consumer, providing information pertaining to nutrition and health, presenting safety instructions for safe handling and storage, and acting as an advertising and promotional tool. Any information that appears on a food labels must be truthful, including the accuracy of ingredients lists in descending order of proportion, nutrition facts labels reflecting correct nutrient amounts in product, precise net quantity declared, and nutrition claims. We all can imagine what food labels look like. Something consumers may not be aware of, is front-of-package labels act as a marketing tool for food manufacturers. Claims that appear are often given the term “health claims” despite that lack of formal recognition by government food regulatory departments. The general definition for claims by Health Canada that will be used for this paper is, “any representation in labeling and advertising that states, suggests, or implies that a relation exists between the consumption of foods or food constituents and health”. Manufacturers in recent years have had an increasing interest in using health claims. Not only do these health claims act as marketing tools, but act as educational tools to inform the public. With the growing focus on evidence linking diet, nutrition and health, consumers are becoming more aware of approaches to enhance their health, taking responsibility to make better food choices. Diet is one of the major contributing factors affecting the incidence and severity of diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer. A large portion of direct and indirect health care costs come from these diet-related diseases, placing an increased strain on the medical system. The primary purpose of claims is to better inform consumers, leading to healthier food choices and better overall diet quality, resulting in prevention of chronic disease and improved health outcomes. Evidence regularly shows that there is a high awareness of nutrition claims on labels. Consumer surveys show increased perceptions of the healthfulness of food items bearing claims. The unfortunate truth is that awareness of nutrition claims does not translate into full understanding of the information provided. Inconsistent and insufficient evidence is available on the power of nutrition claims on front-of-package labeling in modifying behaviour, food choice and intake. Usage of front-of-label claims are impacted by many factors causing varied usage, including mood, time pressure, social pressure, type of product being purchased, cost, interest in nutrition, motivation, health state, literacy, and understanding of claims/ nutrition. These factors may explain why the chain of effects leading to the ultimate goal of healthier diets and obesity prevention may not be plausible. Evidence shows that claims can lead people to categorize food as good or bad for their health. This thought process causes people to underestimate the number of calories in foods thought to be good for health, while overestimating calories in less healthy option. Individuals therefore give good foods a “health halo”, effecting the quantity consumed, resulting in overconsumption. Nutrition claims may also cause the consumer to look at individual nutrients and not foods as a whole. Claims may not be appropriate if usual consumer serving size is different from the standardized portion listed on the nutrition table. Nor do these claims provide direction on frequency of consumption of a food item in the context of the whole diet. Recent use of claims in combination with other front-of-label designs to disseminate healthfulness of a food product can be very confusing for the public. Since the use of claims on labels is voluntary, it does not guarantee the provision of valid information. As a general trend, the food industry has a tendency to highlight the good qualities of a food product, while neglecting the negative attributes, such as a food bearing a low-fat claim but is high in sodium. In Canada, the increased use of nutrition claims on food products offer the potential to change consumption. It has already been proven that nutrition claims have caused increased consumer awareness, offering a convenient way for consumers to make healthy choices. Nutrition claims offer the potential to remove barriers to eating healthy by simplifying nutrition information on labels, making it easier to understand. Much of the population’s food preference is learned and therefore can be modified through exposure and modeling. Although the downside of claims exist, learning how to read labels and understand information provided pose the potential to change food choices and eventual preference. Alysha Coughler, RD, MSHc, PTS Sports Dietitian at Evolved Sport and Nutrition With the New Year upon us comes time for New Years resolutions and goals to change dietary and lifestyle habits to become healthier, but there’s something you need to be aware of. For the past decade, healthy eating seems to be the biggest craze and for the first part of this boom I couldn’t be more excited as a Dietitian for a more health conscious society. Unfortunately that focus on healthy eating took a turn for the worse when more and more healthcare practitioners identified Orthorexia Nervosa, a term originally coined by Dr. Steven Bratman in 1997! Orthorexia Nervosa is a medical condition where someone has reached the point of obsession with foods that they consider to be healthy. This condition is furthered by the complete avoidance of foods that would be traditionally deemed to be unhealthy. This condition is so new that it’s not even in the DSM 5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fifth edition), which was released in 2013! But it’s a very real condition as I have seen it many times in my own practice and personal life. Furthermore, my colleagues and I also agree that the numbers are climbing drastically, but why? There are many theories that I’ve read out there on why this is happening, most of the theories out there are just speculation (which is the same in this blog post) given how new the Orthorexia Nervosa phenomenon is. The issue is that Orthorexia Nervosa isn’t like most other eating disorders, whereas the majority of eating disorders are related to a body image issue, wanting to look a certain way or related to some aesthetic desire. Orthorexia Nervosa is the obsession with trying to be as healthy as possible. With all this being said, I thought I would offer my own thoughts as to what has contributed to this sudden rise in obsessive healthy eating. One of my first thoughts is the rise of Social Media and the same rise in popularity in the Physique competition world. Now this has been a social phenomenon that occurred and has been established for quite some time now, but I remember when Facebook was exclusive to University students only. Now everyone is on, and with the rise of other social media platforms everyone seems to be an expert at nutrition to the point where “Instagram Models,” Fitness Models and Personal Trainers are giving out nutrition tips that are wildly unfounded in research or logic. Societies have always established a poor connection with how someone’s body looks and their knowledge on nutrition. For example “Oh he must know how to eat properly because he has a six-pack abs and lots of muscles.” This is such a fallacy in logic. What this one person has done is figure out what works for him or her but that does not mean that they have the complex training to actually give advice on the topic of nutrition or health. Another thing that needs to be mentioned is the juxtaposition in the physique competitor world where healthy eating and physical activity is held in such high regard, however there is no second thought is given to the damage that the anabolic steroids and other pharmaceutical methods that are used achieve that body aesthetic. My second thought for the rise in Orthorexia Nervosa is the simultaneous rise of the fad diets and the popularity of detox cleanses. Now fad diets have existed prior to this phenomenon but ever since the rise in Social Media it’s taken on a whole new level. From Paleo to Self-Diagnosed Gluten-Free to Veganism to Juicing, these extremely strict ways of eating have created a black-and-white culture of foods and their health value. Now let’s get one thing straight, this is not an attack on these eating styles but rather I bring this up to highlight my point; restrictive eating became much more popular and accepted with these diets. It also doesn’t help that anyone that tries these diets out with some form of success immediately advertises to the world that all of their health problems have been solved to the point where the promotion of said diet becomes abusive (seriously, there are a ton of people out there that will harass others online and in real life if their food beliefs are not in line with anyone else’s). What these people don’t understand is the profoundly deep connection that people actually share with food. Food is more than just food, food is culture, religion, political, ethical and a person’s identity, harassing others to conform to your deeply personal choice to eat the way you do is an attack. Someone may have chosen a restrictive eating style for their own reasons, but don’t ever assume that other people need or want to do the same. My third and final thought is the rise of extreme body image issues that have been exacerbated by social media and highly unrealistic expectations. The world of advertisement, media, the fitness industry and social media posters have created an atmosphere an unsafe enviornment for anyone suffering from a body image issue, which are a lot! Through my discussions with colleagues and other health professionals there seems to be a general consensus that the obsession with healthy eating is used as a cover up to body image issues. One of my colleagues actually raised a very good point that for someone with a body image issue control is really important, having such an obsession with healthy eating provides some form of. This makes complete sense and it does explain why we’re seeing it in younger and younger people. For many, body image issues stem from a very young age. It can often come from peers, advertisement or their own parents. Additionally, at a younger age where there typically isn’t a lot of ability for a child to express their individuality, food choices can be used as a vehicle to express their individuality. I’m glad there’s increased interest in healthy eating and healthy living, but not if it’s going to create it’s own set of problems. I’m glad that there are more and more people speaking out about the dangers of these obsessions. One person in particular, Jordan Younger, is telling her story about how Veganism and extreme dieting negatively impacted her life in her recently published book ‘Breaking Vegan.’ Yes, I agree that health is important, but physical health should not come at the expense of your social, mental and emotional health. True health is a balancing act. It’s being able to incorporate foods that aren’t considered healthy into a lifestyle that also looks at healthy foods and an active lifestyle. It’s the ability to engage in social events without having obsessive thoughts about if all the ingredients are locally sourced or vegan or whatever. Once this balance is disturbed then health no longer exists, because your physical health has come at the expense of another aspect of your health. So step away from social media and really start to question where your information is coming from, because health has a variety of meanings all profoundly personal. No two definitions of health are the same, some people will value one thing over another but at the end of the day we will all be happiest when we own our own definition of health. Ben Sit, RD, Sports Dietitian President of Evolved Sport and Nutrition Complete Lifestyle Management To Track or Not to Track? Nutrition & fitness trackers, the good, the bad, the downright ugly30/11/2015 There are an estimated 40,000 health, fitness, and medical apps. They range from references to calculators to diaries to tracker apps, such as diabetes managers and heart rate monitors. Choosing the right app is highly dependent on what your goals are and what your lifestyle is like. Keeping consistent with entering data and understanding the information produced by the apps all impact how a dietitian might make a recommendations to clients. From an initial assessment perspective, these apps can be helpful to get an idea of where people are starting to build a diet plan. For some people, they do not know where their intake lies, letting tracking from time to time act as gauge for setting goals and making adjustments to their diets. They also serve the purpose of helping people overcome plateaus to see where there could be areas for improvement. Other benefits and uses of tracking apps include:
Are they really all that? There are many benefits and uses for tracking as seen above but when all is said and done, it is definitely not for everyone and may pose some draw backs. For starters, it can be a very tedious and time consuming task to record what is taken in, adding extra stress to an already hectic schedule. For most it is not real life to get fixated on everything that is consumed. The reality is life happens with family celebrations, nights out and sick days when chicken noodle soup and crackers become someone’s best friends. The Calorie Counting Game Many apps utilize the age old theory of calories in, calories out. They are formatted to make users believe that to lose weight, calories must be reduced (either eat less or burn more), to gain weight, calories must be added, and to maintain weight, calories kept constant. The truth of the matter is this is not completely true or simple. Yes, calories absolutely count. And, yes when someone loses weight, they generally have expended more than they consumed but there is a major misunderstanding about calories, body weight, fat loss, and health. The main part of this equation that these apps oversimplify is the calories out, only taking into consideration the calories used during activities. They are unable to take into account individual variations for resting energy expenditure, the energy used to handle basic, day-to-day physiological functions and maintenance of health and lean mass, or the thermic effect of food, the energy used to digest food and process nutrients. Someone could drop energy intake and maintain their resting metabolic rate while burning the same amount of energy digesting food (even though they’re eating less of it) and working out. Our bodies have an amazing ability to handle a surplus of calories consumed on occasion without putting on mass. So when these apps show that little red alert stating a person is over their daily calorie allowance and predicts a specific amount of weight gain, this could create negative feelings unnecessarily. These apps may create problems related to restrictive dietary rules, including the development of obsessive behaviours towards food. The same issues may be seen with calorie counting in general, where individuals may feel guilt or stress over goals, and even avoid social gatherings to prevent overages in caloric intake from occurring. Natural hunger and satiety cues should not be overlooked or forgotten in favour of eating by numbers. Others may focus solely on hitting calorie and macro targets from whatever foods they want, ignoring the importance of micronutrient rich foods from fruit and vegetables. The principles should remain the same; get plenty of nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods in the diet. Focus on food quality and caloric intake, not just one. The Take-Away It should be noted that not all apps are created equally. Some are more user friendly, while others contain only verified, accurate statistics on food. When all this is said and done, evidence that smartphone applications actually work to promote healthy behaviors in users is scant. The usefulness can vary greatly depending on the user, it is completely individual dependent. Using these apps still pose the benefits to help some people stay on track with monitoring intake never being simpler. Whether or not you choose to use an app, the primary focus should be on building better habits and consistency with eating good quality food first. Alysha Coughler, MHSc (c), RD (c), PTS Dietetic Intern at Evolved Sport and Nutrition There's no Barrier that you can not Overcome Vitamin D has been getting a lot of attention in the sports nutrition community in recent years for it’s potential benefits in performance and recovery. Since the days are getting shorter and sunlight is at an all time low, what better time than now to discuss Vitamin D! Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that promotes calcium absorption in the gut and regulates calcium and phosphorous in the blood stream, which helps maintain bone health. Vitamin D is often in the spotlight for being essential for bone health, which is true, but I think this nutrient deserves more credit than it’s given. In fact, it has a host of metabolic uses. Vitamin D regulates over 900 gene variants and can affect many processes such as exercise-induced inflammation, glucose metabolism, and skeletal muscle performance to name a few. If you’re an athlete, getting adequate amounts of Vitamin D is important to reduce your risk for things like stress fractures, muscle weakness, and cognitive functioning. Due to the chemical nature of exercising, athletes may be susceptible, if not more than the general population of becoming Vitamin D deficient. Evidence suggests that 56% of athletes are deficient in this nutrient (Farrokhyar et al., 2014). This could be a huge hindrance to your performance. What’s makes Vitamin D such a popular topic in the athletic community is the discovery of Vitamin D cell receptors in skeletal muscle tissue. It hasn’t been until recently that research has looked at Vitamin D supplementation and its effect on muscle strength, power and endurance. A recent study examined 14 elite rowers over an 8 week time period to examine the effects of Vitamin D supplementation on V02 max (the ability to transport and utilize oxygen in the blood to various tissues). One group of athletes were supplemented with 6000 IU of Vitamin D daily while the placebo group was not given any supplementation. V02 max was significantly higher in the test group compared with the placebo (Jastrzebski, 2014). This is important for endurance athletes because V02 max increases aerobic capacity. Another recent study investigated high dose Vitamin D supplementation in male soccer players. The test group showed significant improvement in their force and power production (Close et al., 2013). But where can I get Vitamin D? Vitamin D is available from both diet and sunlight. There are two forms of dietary Vitamin D; one from plant sources and the other from animals. Plant-based Vitamin D is not as well absorbed, however. Below are examples of foods that are rich in Vitamin D: Cod Liver Oil 5 ml (1 tsp) 427 IU Salmon, sockeye/red, canned, cooked or raw 75 g (2 ½ oz) 430-699 IU Trout, Cooked 75 g (2 ½ oz) 150-210 IU Halibut, Cooked 75 g (2 ½ oz) 144 IU Dairy Milk 250 ml 91 cup) 103-105 IU Egg yolks, cooked 2 large 55-88 IU Unfortunately, sun exposure in Canada for the next few months is minimal and dietary sources of Vitamin D are quite limited. Even if you were to intake the foods listed above on a daily basis, the amount of Vitamin D is inadequate to meet needs for most individuals. The most effective way to get Vitamin D during the winter months is through supplementation. Choose Vitamin D3 tablets, otherwise known as Cholecalciferol. Health Canada recommends men and women between 19 and 70 aim for 600 IU and not to exceed 4000 IU per day. The Canadian Cancer society recommends 1000 IU per day during the fall and winter for all Canadians, and 1000 IU yearlong for those at higher risk of Vitamin D deficiency category (dark skin tones, little sun exposure year long, older adults). It is important to note that sample sizes in research studying athletes are often quite small. When you want to study an elite bunch of human beings that excel in one area, your sample pool is already quite limited. This makes it difficult for researchers to have statistically significant outcomes when studying elite athletes. Many studies that look into Vitamin D supplementation and athletics are not statistically significant because of this. But that does not mean that their outcomes aren’t important. Vitamin D is essential, and supplementation this time of year is highly encouraged by many Sports Dietitians. Do your bones, mind, and performance a favour and get some of that Vitamin D in you! Emilie Trottier, Registered Dietitian, Sports Dietitian References Farrokhyar F, Tabasinejad R, Dao D, Peterson D, Ayeni O, Hadioonzadeh R, et al. Prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy in athletes: A systematic-review and meta-analysis. Sport Med. 2014;5:365–78. Jastrzębski Z. Effect of vitamin D supplementation on the level of physical fitness and blood parameters of rowers during the 8-week high intensity training. Facicula Educ Fiz şi Sport. 2014; 2:57-67. Close GL, Russell J, Cobley JN, Owens DJ, Wilson G, Fraser WD, et al. Assessment of vitamin D concentration in non-supplemented professional athletes and healthy adults during the winter months in the UK: implications for skeletal muscle function. J Sports Sci. 2013;31:344–53. Food Sources of Vitamin D. Dietitians of Canada. http://www.dietitians.ca/Your-Health/Nutrition-A-Z/Vitamins/Food-Sources-of-Vitamin-D.aspx I can remember this vividly, a few years back someone uploaded a video to YouTube entitled “Sh*t girls say” which spawned off a whole bunch of stereotyped parody videos. Why is this relevant? Because someone decided to do a parody video entitled “Sh*t Dietitians Say” and it was extremely accurate. So accurate to the point that is highlighted the fact that all Dietitians at one point in their professional career have given the advice that “all foods fit.” “All foods fit” was a way of encompassing dietary diversity as well as recognizing and supporting better relationships with food for many people. But there is one issue and that is as a Dietitian we are trained to use an evidenced based approach to nutrition. When there isn’t any evidence then we are to rely on our clinical skills and expertise. For years “All foods fit” was given as advice when the evidence was lacking, now there is some evidence that’s definitely worth looking into. Researchers in the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston performed a study using 6,814 participants of varying races and genders and measured dietary diversity and it’s impact on health with different tools. These tools include the total number of different foods eaten in a week, the distribution of calories across different foods, and the differences in individual food attributes that are relevant to metabolic health (eg sodium, fiber, trans-fat etc). The researchers looked at the association of dietary diversity and changes in waist circumference in 5 years and the development of Type 2 Diabetes at 10 years. When the researchers finally gathered their data they looked at food count and evenness and found no associated changes in waist circumference or the development in diabetes. Which basically means the dietary diversity was not linked to better health outcomes. In fact, it was discovered that participants with the great diversity in their dietary intake had the greatest increase in waist circumference with 120% compared to those with the least food diversity. I know what your thinking, diversity means nothing if the food quality isn’t there right? Well the researchers took a look into this as well. Using the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score and the alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEL) scores it was found that dietary quality was not associated with a change in waist circumference at 5 years. However at the ten-year mark a higher diet quality was associated with a 25% lower risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. The researchers, and I, were surprised to find that participants with greater diversity in their diets had a worse overall quality. But they found those had a higher dietary diversity were choosing more unhealthy foods than healthy foods, which could explain the relationship between less diversity in the diet and a reduced waist circumference. In fact one of the researchers went on to say that Americans with the healthiest diets actually eat a relatively small range of healthy foods, which makes complete sense because you’re focusing on higher quality foods rather then getting diversity for diversity’s sake. Ben Sit, RD, Sports Dietitian, PTS Owner, Founder and President of Evolved Sport and Nutrition Complete Lifestyle Management References University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. (2015, October 30). 'Everything in moderation' diet advice may lead to poor metabolic health in US adults. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 9, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151030161347.htm |
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