The Honest Palate

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  Her article discusses counting calories as a diet plan, and the new research which shows that it is very likely outdated.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!

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.

“You always know that if you reduce the cost or increase the cost of something, consumption of that item will change,” Dr. Popkin said. “What we don’t know is whether you will buy something equally bad or worse. In this case, we found that people would get healthier.”

Can we get behind the soda tax now? I know we hate regulations in this country, but maybe the decisions made by money hungry corporations aren’t always the best for our health. Sure, this doesn’t solve the root problem: corn subsidies create cheap high fructose corn syrup that makes soda a cheap, high calorie beverage.  That is an immense task, so I see no harm in working at the issue from the other end.