Today I was craving color.
Along with some edamame hummus for added protein and flax seed chips for omega-3 fatty acids and carbs.
Abundance of color = abundance of nutrients. (Fruit Loops don’t count!)
There are some things that make me shake with anger. A few:
The last one on the list is unforgivable, and unfortunately it happens constantly. This article, Big Food Exerts Unhealthy Influence on America’s Nutritionists, which I read on Grist.org, discusses a problem that I sometimes briefly forget is all too prevalent in the nutrition industry.
The processed food industry is trying to woo dietitians into promoting products that are usually labeled as “unhealthy” or “snack food.” With endorsement from a nutritionist or dietitian, these products receive credibility from a professional who’s job it is to tell the public what and how to eat right. The nutrition field is already rife with conflicting views, lies, and unclear data, and it’s only discredited further when dietitians partner with Big Food companies who’s goal is not public health, but to make a buck.
Often, food companies sponsor events for the American Dietetic Association, and other industry groups, providing housing, event space and food for free - an attractive option for groups lacking funds. But now these conferences are packed with booths for companies like Yum! Brands, Pepsico, General Mills, McDonalds, etc, and they are seriously influencing the people who matter.
A recent conference held a panel titled A Fresh Look at Processed Foods, which was attended by hundreds of RDs and health professionals. One panelist, Lindsey Loving of the International Food Information Council, announced to the audience that processed foods, “represent sources of important nutrients for consumers and should be eaten along with fresh fruits and veggies.”
How could a trained RD take this seriously? Impossible, right? Wrong. Unfortunately RDs and nutritionists can be bought, if not with a paycheck, then with fancy hotel rooms at conferences, free flights, gift baskets, and further recognition. I often find that dietitians partner with brands to make themselves more visible, giving them the opportunity to attend events, meet professionals and test new products. The dietitian’s customer base grows and the food company gets acknowledged by a trusted and trained professional. The cycle continues…
Dietitians and nutritionists who work with brands are breaking a code of ethics that is crucial to performing their job successfully and credibly. They are damaging the profession’s reputation and harming consumers, just to get ahead. If a dietitian wanted to make personal gains without any regard for the public, they probably should have gone into finance instead. Please leave the task of bettering the health of our nation to those who actually want to make a difference.
Check out my new guest post for The Feed, a community blog about all things food related.
Things I find irritating:
- Kid’s menus
- “Kid” specific food
- Sneaking vegetables
Plenty of research and parenting has shown that the best way to get children to eat healthy foods and actually like them is to lead by example. Prepare fresh vegetables, cooked correctly, and enjoy them alongside a child and there’s a good chance they’ll eventually develop a taste for broccoli and spinach. It won’t work with every food, but at least it will steer them away from requesting buttered pasta and frozen chicken fingers.
Jane Brody’s article about counting calories in the New York Times this week may not seem shocking, but I was happily amazed to read something so truthful about nutrition. Her article discusses counting calories as a diet plan, and the new research which shows that it is very likely outdated. According to the article, the specific foods you eat DO matter and some are better for you than others.
The goal of the food industry is to convince consumers that there are no “good” or “bad” foods and that everything can be enjoyed in moderation. This is how they convince buyers that junk foods are okay, as long as you are staying within your allotted calorie range and getting enough exercise. They will do ANYTHING, including lobbying for legislation changes, to stop health professionals from saying otherwise.
This is why I was shocked when I read this quote from Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health:
“There are good foods and bad foods, and the advice should be to eat the good foods more and the bad foods less,” he said. “The notion that it’s O.K. to eat everything in moderation is just an excuse to eat whatever you want.”
Finally, someone telling it like it is! I can’t wait to read the food industry’s rebuttals to that one.
The study followed participants eating and lifestyle habits for 12-20 years and found that the average participant gained 3.35 pounds every four years, for a total of a 16.8 pound weight gain in 20 years. Even with proper exercise, those who did not pay as close attention to diet did gain weight, which proves that you cannot just focus on fitness, but you must watch what you eat as well.
As for the foods contributing to weight gain:
French fries led the list: Increased consumption of this food alone was linked to an average weight gain of 3.4 pounds in each four-year period. Other important contributors were potato chips (1.7 pounds), sugar-sweetened drinks (1 pound), red meats and processed meats (0.95 and 0.93 pound, respectively), other forms of potatoes (0.57 pound), sweets and desserts (0.41 pound), refined grains (0.39 pound), other fried foods (0.32 pound), 100-percent fruit juice (0.31 pound) and butter (0.3 pound).
No surprise there.
Foods that didn’t affect weight gain? Whole fruits and vegetables of course. Surprisingly dairy had a neutral effect on weight gain — which is good news for me. Another great item to see in print was about nuts! I often hear people state that nuts are fatty and shouldn’t be eaten often. I include a serving of nuts in my diet almost daily. They’re full of healthy fats, fiber and protein to fill you up.
And despite conventional advice to eat less fat, weight loss was greatest among people who ate more yogurt and nuts, including peanut butter, over each four-year period.
Nuts are high in vegetable fat, and previous small studies have shown that eating peanut butter can help people lose weight and keep it off, probably because it slows the return of hunger.
Overall, this article provides an incredibly helpful and easy to follow picture of human nutrition and is a great model for those looking for some healthy eating tips!
“It is in the interest of food companies to have people believe that there is no such thing as a “good” food (except when it is theirs); that there is no such thing as a “bad” food (especially not theirs); that all foods (especially theirs) can be incorporated into healthful diets; and that balance, variety, and moderation are the keys to healthful diets - which means that no advice to restrict intake of their particular product is appropriate.”
- Marion Nestle, Food Politics
I don’t know how I’ve managed to come this far without having read THE book on the food industry, Food Politics. Well, I’m reading it now and it’s as enlightening and controversial as I hoped it would be, even for someone who’s already read a ton of information on the subject. Her take on the public’s confusion about nutrition couldn’t be better explained and I plan to do a longer post on this topic in the future!
If you are (or have been) a vegetarian or vegan you are extremely familiar with this phrase. I’ve never looked over at an omnivore’s plate and exclaimed, “DO YOU KNOW IF THAT COW WAS PASTURE RAISED?” however I have repeatedly been questioned about my diet choices as a vegetarian.
I’ve found that it’s caused me to sometimes question my diet as well. “Am I getting enough protein?” I consider myself a conscious vegetarian, meaning that I think about all the nutrients going into my meals during the day to make sure I’m getting enough of everything. I’ve never been a huge fan of protein powders or supplements, as I don’t really believe they work and I feel I can get enough protein without taking them.
In my nutrition class this summer, I had a chance to find out for sure - Am I getting enough protein? As part of my final grade we had to participate in a Diet Analysis. For 3 days I wrote down every single piece of food I consumed, the quantity, time of day and place I ate that meal. I also filled out a several page “food frequency questionnaire” which asks how many times you eat certain foods daily, weekly, and monthly. I tediously entered all of this information into the Nutritionist Pro software, which calculated averages between the two and spat out all of my nutrient intakes. I had my BMI, BMR, fat mass and other stats calculated on a fancy bioelectrical impedance machine.
I took all of this information into account and then wrote an analysis. What did I find? I AM GETTING ENOUGH PROTEIN. And enough of everything else too.
As a reference, the Dietary Reference Intake for carbs, protein and fat (whether you are dieting or not!) is:
Now, these are recommendations made for a large chunk of the population so they need to be broad. A better way to calculate your specific protein needs is to multiply your weight in kilograms (pounds ÷ 2.2) and multiply by .8. For example:
So, what were my results?
Not only am I getting enough protein, I’m getting MORE THAN ENOUGH protein if you calculate using the .8g/kg/day method. (In fact, having too much protein in your diet can be harmful!) It feels great knowing that although I choose to eat an alternative diet I can maintain the necessary nutrient levels in my body. So where do I get my protein?
From beans!
And quinoa!
From avocado and low-fat cottage cheese!
From whole grains, nuts and seeds!
And of course, I do eat eggs. I’m not vegan, but that’s not to say vegans don’t get enough protein.
So the next time someone asks me, “How do you get enough protein?” I’ll be sure to tell them how!
I’ve been dealing with a manageable sore throat for a few days which transformed into a stuffy nose yesterday and this morning I woke up with a full blown cold.
I’m sick.
Doesn’t my body know I have tests to study for and a marathon to train for? I think my body is telling me I’m doing a bit too much… so it’s time to scale back this week.
A main symptom that tells me I’m sick rather than just under the weather is the disappearance of my appetite, and I’ve got that today. UGH. This never happens! But I do know it’s importantly to stay properly fueled so today I opted for a healthy and raw salad.
Just spinach, tomatoes, avocado and a dollop of cottage cheese. I think store bought dressing is a FOOD CRIME since it’s so easy (and healthier) to make your own!
In my dressing:
I mixed this up and poured it on top. The dollop of cottage cheese came after because I like to keep it separate, like dessert on the side!
I’m not usually a big juice drinker but today I feel the need for C. On my way home I picked up some fresh squeezed orange juice. While also tasting better, fresh squeezed orange juice contains a higher content of vitamin C because it has had less exposure to oxygen (which degrades the Vit-C) than the carton type in a supermarket. Of course, juices like Tropicana often enrich their juices with vitamin C to make up for this degradation…. but that’s a whole other argument not for this sick day!
I’ll be spending the afternoon napping, watching the season finale of The Killing (!!!!) and studying. I’ve almost missed sick days….
Last week in my nutrition class we discussed nutrient and health claims that companies print on their products.
I’ve written about my disgust towards health claims before, but I didn’t know much about the laws (and lack of laws) that make these claims even more insidious.
There are two types of health related claims: HEALTH CLAIMS and STRUCTURE-FUNCTION CLAIMS.
- example: “Fiber may reduce the risk of heart disease.”
- example: “Promotes a healthy heart.”
Basically, food companies got on the FDA’s case and complained that they wanted the ability to make claims for things that could be true, arguing that “holding only the highest scientific standard for claims interferes with free speech.” AND THIS WORKED!
Now, companies can print possible benefits as long as they don’t relate the claim to a disease or health-related condition.
Guess what types of products you can find structure function claims on!
SUGARY CEREAL!
We know health claims are everywhere, but now we know that the FDA really isn’t doing all that much to regulate them. Not shocking news, but still depressing.
This morning I saw a clip from the Today Show about a man who lost 135 pounds over three years. Pretty amazing, right? The video shows the all-you-can-eat lunches he consumed his workplace, a serious component of his weight issues.
This photo shows his typical lunch: two sodas, grilled cheese, fries, cookies and pizza. Pretty bad, right? That lunch is full of empty carbs, saturated fats, and sugar.
His new lunch has half the calories:
This brings me to my issue.
What is nutritious about this lunch and HOW does this man stay full by eating this? Baked Pringles and the sugarfree pudding snacks have zero values. They are still empty carbs, just lower in fat. And that sandwich? It’s hard to see what’s in there, but I’m guessing its about 3 slices of ham, one slice of cheese and some mustard.
What really gets me is that everything on this table (except the water) is processed and full of additives and chemicals. Aspartame in the the sugarfree jello. Various processed corn products in the chips. And I can tell even from this tiny photo that the bread likely has about 50 different ingredients. Even the bright yellow cheese looks processed.
If I ate this lunch I would be hungry in about 1 hour.
I’m not trying to take away from the fact that this man lost a LOT of weight. That is amazing and couldn’t have been easy. What bothers me is that programs like The Today Show constantly promote incongruous facts about health and nutrition. I would never call this a healthy lunch and awarding it the “low calorie” label on the show sends a false message of wellness to viewers.
I just finished reading “Food With Benefits, or So They Say” from this weekend’s New York Times, and while there wasn’t much new information presented, it was great to see the topic reported on in the Times.
The health claims on products in the food store is starting to spiral out of control. Products claim they’re heart healthy even when they’re full of sugar, that they contain beneficial fiber but leave out the fact that you need to eat 3 servings a day, and they stop just short of saying they’ll making you smarter, more beautiful and cure you of all diseases. Enough!
I remember reading this quote from Michael Pollan a few years ago which has really stuck with me:
“If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.”
So true! These are marketing techniques, not magical cure-alls. The research is conducted entirely by the brands and they can manipulate the variables however they’d like in order to get a desired result. The best example I’ve heard of this practice was mentioned in the article:
“Kellogg had indeed commissioned a study that compared children who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast with children who had only water for breakfast. But only about half the children in the Mini-Wheats camp showed any improvement in attentiveness after three hours, compared with their baseline before breakfast, according to the F.T.C., which filed its complaint in 2009.”
First of all - they compared the mini-wheat eaters with kids who were just drinking water for breakfast? That sounds pretty misleading to me. A kid who’s consumed a bowl of sugar is probably going be more attentive than one who’s stomach is growling.
I have a simple solution to avoiding products with health claims, even if it seems a little crazy. What is it? Don’t buy products that come in a box. Obviously I make some exceptions (hellooo Annie’s Mac & Cheese), but for the most part I buy real food that hasn’t been processed or marketed to the same extent as Cheerios. [This is cheaper too!] And it seems like my health is doing just fine, so Big Food can keep it’s health claims to itself, thank you very much.
I get a little too excited when The New Yorker publishes essays about food. My favorite magazine writing articles on my favorite topics? They’re always good. This week I read “Snacks for a Fat Planet,” a piece about PepsiCo and their shift towards becoming a “good company.” The current CEO, Indra Nooyi, is spending a great deal of money on researching products that are healthier alternatives to their sodas and chips.
Of course, the plan is full of marketing techniques and lies, but she’s making an impressive effort. Impressively ludicrous. My jaw dropped open a few times while reading the article and I’d like to share those key bits with you:
1. Nooyi: “I’m providing the same great taste - that’s the common denominator - so you don’t have to make a choice between health and taste.”
2. “Lay’s does make baked potato chips, but not from actual potato slices. Baked chips are fabricated from potato flakes that are shaped into chips after baking.”
3. “PepsiCo’s newest crusader - a robot that the company’s scientists have fitted with human taste buds - in the quest for the holy grail, a natural, zero-calorie sweetener that tastes exactly like sugar…’Before the robot we had people tasting all those things, and it took forever. But now the robot tells us what we’ve got.”
4. “Let’s say you give a kid a carrot,” Nooyi explained. “And he says, ‘I don’t want to eat a carrot.’ But you say, ‘I tell you what, I’ll give it to you in a wonderful drinkable form that’s still as close to the carrot as possible.’ All of a sudden, what have I done? I’ve drinkified a snack!”
There are so many more gems in this article, but I’ll leave with those. I’m going to make a smoothie out of strawberries, peanut butter and milk. LOOK WHAT I DID! I DRINKIFIED A SNACK!
I have some big news to share today. There are some momentous changes happening in my life and it’s time to come clean! But first.. a little history..
I graduated from NYU film school 5 years ago, and have since spent my time working in documentary production. I’ve had some amazing opportunities, working at the BBC, Travel Channel, HBO Documentary, and most recently at Morgan Spurlock’s production company. I am doing exactly what I hoped to be doing when I first started college, which is an incredible realization. The problem is, I haven’t been happy.
For almost as long as I’ve been out of school, I have been considering the thought of going back to school to study something food related. I started eating a vegetarian diet in 2006 after falling into an internet hole of sites on animal cruelty, factory farms, and healthy eating. It took me about a year to go full-veg, but this process changed my life. Completely. My new interest created a path for my apathetic self, concerned mostly with college life, weekend plans and reality TV, to become a well-informed woman with real opinions and the ability to voice them in a meaningful way. My newfound interest in a plant-based diet lead to my interest in environmentalism, which lead me to my interest in food policy and nutrition. This, combined with the stress I experienced from starting a new job, introduced me to fitness and running. In some respects, I feel like I am a completely different person than I was 5 years ago. While many of my innate personality traits have remained the same, my interests couldn’t be more different. All of this eventually lead me to my current decision.
I am embarking on a career change that will officially begin on June 1st. In two weeks I’ll be leaving my current job, career, contacts and life as I’ve known it to begin the process of becoming a Registered Dietician. For the first time in years I feel blithe, sunny and enthusiastic about the direction of my life and confident about the decisions I’m making.
Thanks to my college years, which were spent running around with a 16mm camera and writing scripts (none of which I feel was a waste of time!), I need to complete several science and math prerequisites before I can even apply to graduate school. This summer I’ll be starting with Chemistry and Nutrition I and continuing throughout the year with organic chemistry, statistics, biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, and a few other terrifying topics. One of the reasons I’ve put this decision off for a few years (other than wanting to be 100% sure) was because I’m terrified of math and science. These were NOT my strong subjects in high school and I haven’t taken a science class in TEN YEARS. Somehow, I’ve convinced myself to conquer my fears and my plucky new self is actually excited to take on these new challenges. Something tells me that times have changed when I am voluntarily paying large amounts of money to study chemistry.
Those of you who’ve been following my blog for awhile are well aware of my obsession with food policy and nutrition and I can’t wait to support my ramblings with some solid facts and knowledge. I hope you’ll continue following along with me as I dive into this new career path. I can’t wait to get started!
Today’s Lunch: Sammich and things
Now that I’ve called out that quack dietician for skipping lunch, here’s what I had:
By my amateur calculations (I’m not usually a calorie counter), this is probably about 500 calories. And it tastes a lot better than nothing.
My coworker sent me this article from Marie Claire, which interviews 5 nutritionists about what they actually eat, as opposed to what they recommend to their clients. Normally I detest women’s magazines because they are full of over-priced clothes, the sense that you need to look perfect in every way BUT ALSO BE YOURSELF!, and make women seem generally like a bunch of morons.
I like Marie Claire a little more than the rest because it usually includes a few articles of substance. Sometimes.
The 5 nutritionists they picked have very varied diets and nutrition plans. A few eat just like I normally do. One…. well, I’m not a nutritionist (yet), but I feel like I know enough to say her diet plan is absurd.
Observe:
TOTAL DAILY CALORIES: 1,779
So… you ate 3 calories for breakfast, nothing for lunch, fruit for dinner, and then went to town on a box of macaroons??? What the hell is wrong with you? “I don’t recommend this diet to beginners.” What diet? Eat nothing and then binge eat candy at night?
I am confused, Marie Claire, I am confused.
WHERE DO AMERICAN’S GET THEIR CALORIES? [1970-2008]
Between 1970 and 1980, calorie intake is relatively stable, rising only 1.2 percent. Between 1980 and 1990 consumption jumped 9.6 percent. Then, from 1990 to 2008, the last year with data available, the number of calories rises another 11.4 percent for a grand a total of 2,673 calories available per person–23.3 percent more than consumed in 1970
(via civil eats)
**Notice how the amount of fruit intake stays almost the same and the veg and meat/egg/nut intake drops. All while the grains, added fat and sugar gets significantly larger. I was definitely surprised by the the amount of protein falling!
Accent theme by Handsome Code
Welcome to my blog! I’m Michelle, a 26 year old vegetarian, runner, future doctor, and healthy-living enthusiast. My life revolves around food. Cooking food, eating food, discussing the politics of food. We’re surrounded by so many false advertisements and misconceptions about nutrition, its difficult to know where the truth lies. This is my attempt to make everything a bit clearer.
Follow me while I eat delicious food, cook healthy meals, run marathons, and strive to separate the food truths from lies, while living an exciting life in the Big Apple.
Questions/Comments? Send me an email! Michelle@thehonestpalate.com
