Three Easy Steps You Can Take to Drastically Improve Your Nutrition Knowledge

Let’s face it, when it comes to nutrition, everyone thinks they know nutrition, when in reality, their knowledge is probably quite limited.  Now to be fair, this isn’t their fault.  I mean, when you think about it, where did you learn about nutrition?  When and where did you develop your views?  Nutrition is nowhere to be found in the k-12 education system and doesn’t have to be taken in college.  So where do we receive our nutrition education? 

Food marketing/advertising, the news media, and word of mouth……it’s no wonder we don’t know what the hell we’re talking about when it comes to nutrition.  Here are 3 simple rules for better understanding nutrition.

1) Don’t Believe Anything Food Marketing Tells You. 

All Natural, Clean, Organic, High-Fiber, Cholesterol Free, Sugar Free, Reduced Sodium, a Good Source of, Light, Diet, Simple Truth, Fresh, Inflammation Fighting, Plant-Based, Collagen and Gelatin, Superfoods, Juicing, Cleansing, Detoxing, Antioxidants, Multi-Grain, Gluten-Free, GMO-free, Artisanal, BPA-Free, Antibiotic-Free, Hormone-Free, Probiotic, Omega-3, Grass Fed, Cage Free or Free-Range, Made with Real Fruit/Sugar, No Artificial Flavors or Preservatives, High-Protein, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Local, Real, Freshly Caught, Wild, More Protein than Sugar

Meaningless nutrition buzzwords + a grain of scientific evidence = food marketing strategy

Now, I know that this equation is an oversimplification.  Some of these buzzwords are relevant to human health in a specific context and some people reading this are going to be irked that I am glossing over or ignoring their importance.  However, do you really think that people are going to take the time to figure out which words are important and in what context?  I don’t think so. 

Food marketers constantly utilize non-contextual “facts” to help create ambiguity about the healthiness of their food product and/or to create a “health halo” whereby a food is now thought to be good for you when in fact it has very little nutritional value (example: regular yogurt contains an excessive amount of sugar, yet that can be overlooked because of the “health halo” created by the probiotics yogurt contains).

Arbys: We Have the Meats

I actually prefer the straight forward advertising of Arby’s “We have the meats” and Hardee's/Carl Jr.’s advertisements that are completely tasteless (supermodel sexily eating burger).  At least their approaches are straightforward: our food tastes good and is bad for you but you the consumer are not concerned about your health, so go ahead and eat a ton of this cheap, crappy food.  At least this type of advertising is to the point rather than food companies often trying to “educate” us into thinking their products are “healthy” by throwing a catchy jingle, nutrition buzzword, and soft female voice together in a commercial explaining how healthy their food is (A hem…. Panera!).  I challenge you to compare and contrast the calorie counts of Arby's and Panera Bread.

Panera Bread: Clean Eating

2) Don’t Believe/Trust Media Sources.

I bet you’ve never heard this one before, “According to a recent study…”  This is classic FM radio, television news, and Today Show banter and what I refer to as factoids and tidbits.  I don’t even know what the point of these supposed public service announcements are other than to confuse us and plant seeds of doubt in our minds.  People have short attention spans.  I get it.  So, you want to compress the information into a short period of time before losing them.  But tell me, when was the last time you learned something from one of these stories and applied it to your life?  My guess is never.

If you really want to learn more about something, you have to work at it.  Firing off 30 second, non-contextual factoids isn’t doing anyone any good.  I think we’d be far better off not covering these “news” stories at all or taking the time to do a featured story on the topic at hand.

3) Find Health Mentors/Trusted Sources of Information.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to obtain a MS in Exercise Physiology and a PhD in Bioenergetics and Exercise Science.  Along the way, I was mentored by several exceptional scientists who taught me so many things including how to think critically, form and test hypotheses, and how to decipher bullshit from real science.  I devoted much of my life from 2000 to 2013 to learn about nutrition, exercise science, and health and wellness.

But you can say, Todd, that’s all fine and dandy, but I don’t have 13 years to devote to learning about nutrition, nor do I have access to academic mentors.  How do I find reliable sources?  Well, I’m happy to say that I have done some of the dirty work for you. 

I have a shortlist of people I think you should follow if you want to learn more about nutrition/health & wellness.  After graduating with my PhD in Bioenergetics and Exercise Science in July of 2013 I have been constantly searching for people that I could continue to learn from within the health & wellness field.  Here are the best of the best (in my opinion via Twitter):

Nia Shanks

Stephen Guyenet, PhD

James Wong

Brad Schoenfeld, PhD

Dylan Mackay, PhD

Brenda Davy PhD, RD

YLMSportsScience

Kevin C. Klatt

Kevin Hall, PhD

Kevin Folta

Dr. Michael Joyner

Ted Kyle

The reason why these individuals are such great follows are that

1) they post often

2) their posts contain relevant, reliable, scientifically sound information

3) don’t have (an obvious) agenda/ax to grind

4) are curious and in search of the truth

5) are not going to steer you in the wrong direction.

If you follow these three simple steps

1) Don’t Believe Anything Food Marketing Tells You. 

2) Don’t Believe/Trust Media Sources.

3) Find Health Mentors/Trusted Sources of Information.

You will be well on your way to better understanding nutrition and health & wellness in general.

Sincerely,

Todd M. Weber PhD, MS, RD

Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI), the Next Big Thing in Wearable Technology: a Review

When I say, PIE, what comes to mind?  Apple, cherry, strawberry, banana cream or pumpkin of course.

Figure 1. Google Image Search of Pie.

But that’s not what I’m referring to here.  What I’m talking about has the potential to be the next big thing in wearable fitness technology, Personal Activity Intelligence or PAI (pie).  Sounds cool and catchy, right?  We have smart phones, smart cars, smart thermostats, finally, we have “smart” exercise. 

PAI is the product of a collaboration between a company called MIO GLOBAL and a Norwegian Sports Scientist, Ulrik Wisløff.  I first encountered PAI and Dr. Wisløff at the American College of Sports Medicine National conference in Denver, Colorado in June of 2017.  To say that I was excited about PAI after this conference was an understatement.

Figure 2. MIO GLOBAL SLICE.

The reason why PAI is such a breakthrough is that it solves the following problem: not all steps (movement) are created equal.  Walking, running, taking the stairs, strolling through the park, window shopping, and climbing a mountain are performed at far different intensities and have drastically different effects on energy cost, fitness levels, and health, yet the majority of wearable devices treat all steps as being the same (see their video below).

Although many of today’s fitness trackers can measure heart rate, most people have no idea how to use this information (other than bragging about resting heart rate).  This is where PAI comes in.  PAI awards you “PAI points” for moderate to vigorous activity as indicated by your heart rate data.  The more vigorously you exercise, the more PAI points you accumulate.  PAI then tallies your points over a 7-day rolling average.  If you have 100 or more points over a week, you’re good to go, less than 100, you better get some more exercise.

Figure 3. Seven Day Rolling PAI Average.

Figure 4. One Day of PAI; Hour by Hour.

Not only is PAI easy to understand, it also simplifies exercise prescription.  When you think about it, how is exercise prescribed and tracked?  Our current recommendations are diverse and are prescribed under the following variations:

1. Thirty minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity on all or most (5+) days of the week and
2. Resistance exercise 2-3x/week or
3. Obtain 10,000 steps/day or
4. Track your distance in miles

Here are the problems with each of these measures that PAI solves.

1) I’ve never spoken with anyone who diligently tracks exercise time.  You might say, let’s go for a walk but do you actually track the total time you walk and add it up over the course of a week?

2) Accelerometers (i.e. Fitbit) do a terrible job of tracking resistance exercise.  I’ve known (and personally experienced) a great number of people lifting very heavy weights (think CrossFit) and yet after a workout that nearly kills them, they obtained a measly 800 steps.  Are you kidding me!  I almost died during that workout.  Squatting down to sit on the toilet hurts and yet, you’re only giving me 800 steps?  [Insert your expletive of choice here]!

3) People can obtain 10,000 steps per day without an elevated heart rate.  For example, as part of their jobs (i.e. a department store worker) many people will be active for a large majority of his/her workday (6+ hours) but will be operating at an extremely low intensity because they are not a) continuously moving fast enough or b) repetitively lifting something heavy.  Although they have spent a great deal of time being active, they were not moderately to vigorously active to the point where they will become more aerobically fit.

4) One can also track distance covered (in miles) but this seems to be more common in runners and cyclists rather than the general public.

PAI solves each of these problems by being able to distill down time, exercise intensity, steps/day, and heart rate into one meaningful, understandable metric, PAI!

In my mind, PAI could be the new exercise currency.  Not time, not reps, not steps, not distance, PAI.  Instead of 10,000 steps/day or 150+ minutes of exercise per week, get 100 PAI each week.  If you can get 100 PAI over a 7-day rolling average, you’re right on track!  And there is sound scientific evidence to back PAI up.  PAI also puts into action what we've known for some time, that when it comes to health and longevity, fitness is more important than physical activity (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Effects of Physical Activity versus Physical Fitness and Relative Risk of Mortality (Williams, PT 2001 MSSE).  Fitness (PAI) is a much better health predictor than physical activity (total steps).

My Review of PAI:

Now with all the potential that PAI has, I must say that I have been extremely disappointed and frustrated with this device (MIO GLOBAL SLICE) for the following reasons:

1) PAI seems to be WAY too dependent on vigorous exercise.  For example, I rode my bicycle 18 miles (to and from a brewery) and yet I received “0” PAI!  An 18-mile bike ride should warrant some PAI.  I understand the connection between moderate to vigorous exercise and fitness (Figures 5 & 6) but anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t “lolly gag” on a bike!  I’m in decent shape but not the kind of shape where I can ride 18 miles without elevating my heart rate.  

2) De-valuing movement.  Tying into point #1, low intensity and moderate intensity exercise gets treated like (insert derogatory metaphor here) by PAI.  Exercise physiologists and public health professionals might as well have a giant Metabolic Equivalency Table (MET) bonfire.  Gardening, yard work, washing dishes, doing laundry, vacuuming, and walking for your health…apparently, none of this “low” intensity physical activity matters anymore.  Figure 4 shows that I was "low intensity" active for 1 hour and 29 minutes on July 24th and yet received no PAI. 

According to this system we should just do 14 minutes of high intensity exercise/day and call it quits (I might actually try this).  In a society where public health professionals are fighting our “sedentary” epidemic, I don’t think it is a good idea to encourage people to adopt an “all or nothing” approach to getting physical activity.  Presumably I could bike 100 miles at a low intensity but wouldn’t get any PAI.  This doesn’t make sense.

Figure 6. PAI Zones for a 35 Year Old

3) Mystery PAI.  I have accumulated 40 PAI overnight when not even wearing my device.  This is just plain stupid.  I don’t know how else to address this flaw.

4) Low battery life.  MIO GLOBAL claims that you can go 5 days without a charge.  That doesn’t seem possible as more often than not, wearing the MIO GLOBAL for one day results in a battery at less than 50%, so I charge it overnight to ensure that I can use it the next day.  That’s fine.  I charge my I-Phone every night but when you’re used to a Fitbit Zip that requires a battery change once every 3 months, this is a big ask.

5) I don’t trust the heart rate feedback.  Maybe I should have listed this deficiency first or maybe I am saving one of the best for last.  But there have been numerous times where I am working exceptionally hard (uphill, near maximal effort on bike) and my heart rate is 126?  Give me a break.  In addition to the heart rate being inaccurate/untimely, oftentimes I will perform a workout at a given time, let’s say 3pm and my PAI points in the application will show up at 6pm.  It would be useful if PAI was better synced with the time I am performing my exercises so that I am more aware of the types of exercise that award me more points.

6) Your PAI data is deleted after 7 days. While writing this post I decided to look back at my PAI data and compare it to my Fitbit Zip.  Much to my chagrin, PAI data is erased from its application after 7 days.  Grrr.

7) Other observations.  The MIO GLOBAL SLICE is priced comparably to other wrist worn activity trackers.  I haven’t worn a Fitbit or Garmin activity tracker but they can’t be as uncomfortable as the SLICE.  Please take a note out of Timex’s book: they make an ultra- comfortable wrist watch for $30.  I know these devices are completely different but please make it happen.  I know, I know that means millions of (re)design hours and distribution complexities that I don’t even begin to understand, but…..please. 

Final Conclusions:

1) Don’t buy a MIO GLOBAL SLICE (PAI) in its current version!  It’s not worth it!

2) PAI is a super cool concept that could be the future of the accelerometer world.  For the fitness world, PAI could become as commonplace in our vernacular as the previous non-existent terms/things such as the I-POD, I-PHONE, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  It has the potential to be a game changer.  It’s just not there yet.

3) It is important to note that PAI is a fitness tracker, not an activity tracker.  If your goal is simply to move more, a Fitbit Zip will do the trick.  Although I didn't show you the data, the SLICE was horrendous at counting steps, not even close to the Fitbit Zip I was simultaneously wearing. 

4) Wearing the MIO GLOBAL SLICE has been interesting.  I want this to work more than anything.  I was so excited about this.  I even had a client of mine buy one of these.  For his sake and mine I regret buying this.  It just isn’t ready yet.  The theory is great.  The execution is terrible.  Maybe I should have listened to the online reviews.

Figure 7. PAI Reviews on Google Play.  Maybe I should have listened.

Todd M. Weber PhD, MS, RD

Evolutionary Perspectives on the Paleo Diet: Advantages and Flaws of Ancestral Nutrition

In recent years, the word “paleo” has transcended the realm of scientific jargon and become commonplace in the American vocabulary. Sadly, this not due to the fact that Americans have suddenly become interested in paleontology and anthropology (sigh), but because of the explosion in popularity of the Paleo diet. This diet, which is modeled after the feeding behaviors of our human ancestors, has created a paradigm shift in how some nutrition experts and enthusiasts interpret “optimal” nutrition, though it is not met without significant controversy. Unfortunately, most nutrition professionals have little to no understanding of even the most basic concepts in the field of evolutionary biology, or even realize how fundamentally important it should be to approach nutritional science from an evolutionary perspective. As Theodosius Dobzhansky, a prominent evolutionary biologist once famously said, “Nothing in biology makes sense, except under the light of evolution.”

Seeing that nutrition is inherently a biological science, it should not be exempt from this evolutionary light, and furthermore the Paleo diet should be praised for illuminating that light. However, as with any good scientific hypothesis, it should not be met without critical examination and/or rigorous testing based on the best evidence available. 

Caveman: (courtesy FOODmanufacture.co.uk)

So, what is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo Diet encompasses a short list of foods that either come from animals or directly from the earth. This includes grass fed meats and seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, nuts, seeds, and plant oils from sources such as olives, walnuts, avocados, and coconuts. This diet strictly prohibits grains, legumes such as peanuts and beans, refined sugar, and virtually any food that has been processed. 

Advantages

At the most basic level, the Paleo diet offers many improvements to the typical Western diet that are comparable to those of the highly touted Mediterranean diet. One of the most significant improvements is the replacement of processed, chemical, and sugar laden foods with whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and meat. This simple replacement will not only improve the nutrient density of one’s diet, but there is mounting scientific evidence that it can improve a plethora of health issues including diabetes and metabolic syndrome and anecdotal evidence suggesting improvements in depression and digestive disorders.

Aside from a few controversial foods such as butter, coconut oil, and red meat, the majority of the foods on the Paleo diet promote health in many ways. This diet has been shown to be particularly effective at reducing inflammation and may be capable of restoring the body’s microbiome, which mounting evidence links to a host of modern day chronic diseases. This is largely due to the fact that the Paleo diet is rich in nutrients that are rare in the Western diet, particularly omega 3 fatty acids, phytonutrients, and prebiotic fiber.

In addition, “empty calories,” especially those in the form of simple sugar, bread, cookies, candy, etc. are virtually non-existent on the Paleo diet. Carbohydrates are in relatively low supply compared to what most Americans consume or are recommended to intake, and when carbohydrates are consumed, they typically come in the form of fruits, starchy vegetables, plant fiber, and small amounts of honey. 

Flaws

The Paleo diet cuts out a tremendous amount of the foods that comprise the American diet (which in some cases can be a good thing); however, it also eliminates beans, dairy, and whole grains, which are considered to be healthful by the vast majority of dietitians. Non-paleo plant based foods such as chickpeas, beans, whole grain cereals, and peanuts are high in protein and other essential nutrients, and many “healthy” people eat these foods in large quantities. While Paleo supporters argue that there is evidence that properties in these foods are inflammatory and/or toxic, others argue that the evidence for the existence of these negative properties is weak and that we should probably just ignore this line of reasoning all together.

The Paleo diet also tends to come with a dogmatic, all-or-nothing culture surrounding it, which is almost never beneficial for nutritional quality. Certain foods, such as arrowroot, spark endless internet debates about whether they qualify as worthy of being considered Paleo, even though your ancestors probably never ate them. The Paleo diet also allows breads and pastries to be recreated with nut flours such as almond and coconut flour, which your ancestor probably never ate.

In addition, the use of cooking oil in the Paleo diet is interesting as the development and use of cooking oil occurred after the Paleolithic era ended (for example: the earliest accounts for the use of olive oil occurred within the past 6,000 years, well past the end of the Paleolithic era of 10,000 years ago).  Finally, the Paleo diet relies upon the use of butter and ghee, which are both dairy products and thus should technically not be part of the Paleo portfolio.

In other words, the “paleo-ness” of many foods is debatable and often subjective.

The Paleo diet is very rigid in its nutrition guidelines, which are over-simplified compared to what the data suggests “cavemen” were likely eating. There is no single ancestral diet, rather, human populations all over the planet ate different foods in different amounts depending on the environment in which they lived. Paleolithic humans were opportunistic eaters, which means that they ate whatever was available to them in order to survive. To assume that all early humans ate the exact same foods is scientifically inaccurate. Ironically, humans were probably able to successfully radiate across the globe partly because they are physiologically flexible enough to survive off of such a variety of foods. This trait is actually favored by natural selection, and is not unique to humans. 

Take Home Message

Survival is the essence of what drives evolution. A species that cannot pass its genes down to the next generation will go extinct unless it can adapt to a changing environment and reproduce even when conditions are less than optimal. A common misconception in evolutionary science is that evolution produces species that are perfectly adapted to their environment. The success of a species depends on whether or not it produces offspring, not on how well suited it is to its environment. The Paleo Diet assumes that Paleolithic humans were perfectly adapted to the food they consumed, but there is no evidence to suggest that this is true. Like all other species, early humans probably cared little about consuming an optimal or specific diet and more about surviving on what was “good enough.”

The premise of the Paleo diet is founded on several evolutionary misconceptions, which should be taken into account by anyone who is strictly following it. From an evolutionary perspective, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that the foods listed on the Paleo diet should be optimally suited for the human diet. The rate at which foods such as grain and dairy were introduced into the human diet was at the evolutionary speed of light (i.e. within the last 10,000 years), however, the human genome did not stop evolving after the Agricultural Revolution. Nor was it ever ideally adapted to the Paleolithic food supply in the first place. While there are many positive aspects of the Paleo diet, particularly its emphasis on whole, unprocessed foods, it is certainly not the “perfect” diet. It is a model which, like all other evolutionary hypotheses, should questioned and rigorously tested. As of now, there has been little research on how the Paleo diet impacts human health, especially when compared to other diets. Until more experimental data is available, it is hard to draw meaningful conclusions that support the diet’s health claims. 

Meredith Fontana, MS

Paleontologist and future dietitian

Is Coconut Oil Good for You, Bad for You, or None of the Above?

Beginning in 1961, the American Heart Association (AHA) began recommending Americans reduce saturated fat intake.  By 1973 the AHA went a step further in recommending Americans limit saturated fat intake to <10% of total daily calories.  This advice was based upon the recognition that saturated fat consumption and its ability to increase blood cholesterol was strongly correlated to the incidence of heart disease.  As such, it was (and still is) recommended that saturated fats, especially from animal sources such as red meat, eggs, and cheese be limited.

Figure 1. Fats: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

In recent years, the scientific community has challenged the saturated fat/heart disease hypothesis and reignited the debate regarding the relationship linking saturated fat to the development of heart disease.  At the same time the popularity of the Paleolithic (Paleo) diet has exploded within the fitness community.  The Paleo diet is based upon the foods that were consumed during the Paleolithic era, which spanned the vast majority of human history, starting ~2.4 million years ago and ending ~10,000 years ago.  It was around this same time that  many of the mobile hunter/gatherer societies were slowly transitioning into stationary farmers.

The hunter-gatherer philosophy of the modern day Paleo diet includes many of the foods that were available to the Paleolithic man including fish, eggs, meat, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit and excluding those that were not, such as highly processed foods, dairy, grains, and legumes. 

In comparison to modern day dietary guidelines, the Paleo diet does an excellent job of emphasizing fish, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables while also excluding highly processed, high carbohydrate foods.  However, the Paleo diet’s emphasis on high protein consumption, which in today’s modern societies likely comes from meat consumption (and not just fish and chicken) is in direct conflict with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the AHA recommendations due to the diet’s concomitant high intake of saturated fat. 

Now to be fair, there is some recent evidence in modern humans, anthropological evidence in our Paleolithic ancestors, and more recently in the Inuit population of Greenland that a diet high in saturated fat and animal protein caused little to no heart disease; however, in recent years the absence of heart disease in populations eating a diet high in saturated fat has also largely been debunked.

Figure 2. Type of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease. E = % isocaloric change in energy intake in place of carbohydrate. 1%E = 1% of daily energy replacement of carbohydrate with fat, 2%E = 2% replacement of carbohydrate with fat, etc. Trans = trans fat; Sat = saturated fat; Mono = monounsaturated fat; Poly = polyunsaturated fat.

The best available evidence we have on the relationship between dietary fat and heart disease suggests that trans fat (partially hydrogenated fats that are solid at room temperature and found in cookies, cakes, and pastries as well as other highly processed goods) are by far the worst types of fats, followed by saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats.

Figure 3. Fats, Carbohydrates, and Heart Disease: isocalorically substituting fat for carbohydrates on the risk of coronary artery disease. Substituting saturated fat (SFAs) with refined carbohydrates does not change your risk.  Substituting SFAs with MUFAs (monounsaturated), PUFAS (polyunsaturated) or whole grains decreases your risk of coronary artery disease.  Trans fat always increases your risk.

The vast majority of modern day Paleo diets rely heavily on coconut, butter, ghee, avocados, and olive oil.  In and of itself, the use of cooking oil in the Paleo diet is interesting as the development and use of cooking oil occurred after the Paleolithic era ended (for example: the earliest accounts for the use of olive oil occurred within the past 6,000 years, well past the end of the Paleolithic era of 10,000 years ago).  Furthermore, the Paleo diet relies upon the use of butter and ghee, which are both dairy products and thus should technically not be part of the Paleo portfolio.

This article is not meant to be an indictment against the Paleo diet but the Paleo diet does help to put the use of coconut oil into a context many of us are familiar with.  For many Paleo enthusiasts, coconut oil represents the exclusive cooking oil.  Butter is linked to the development of heart disease but butter is an animal-based, saturated fat product.  On the other hand, coconut oil is a saturated fat but is a plant-based product.  So, are people who ingest lots of saturated fats through coconut oil home free from worrying about heart disease?

Butter is an animal product and coconut oil is plant based.  With that in mind, is coconut oil bad for us, good for us, or none of the above?

Figure 4. Fatty Acid Percentages of Commonly Used Oils.  Greater than 90% of coconut oil’s calories come from saturated fat.  By comparison, olive oil is approximately 14%, and butter is 63% saturated fat (not pictured above), a lightweight compared to coconut oil.

The proponents of coconut oil will argue that the difference between butter and coconut oil lies in the fact that coconut oil, although largely composed of saturated fat, contains a different subtype of saturated fat.  Coconut oil’s type of saturated fat is a medium chain triglyceride, whereas the saturated fat in butter is a long chain triglyceride.  Without getting too technical, medium chain triglycerides are metabolized by the liver directly into energy and do not participate in the synthesis of cholesterol, whereas butter does. 

However, with all that being said, when we recently spoke with a leading expert (whose name wished to not be disclosed) on the relationship between heart disease and diet in the field of medicine regarding the potential health implications of the use of coconut oil in every day cooking.  She told us that

“... as you know it's only within the last 5-7 years that it's (coconut oil) become a popular oil in (certain groups) of the US population, although it's certainly been a common oil in Asian, African, and some South American populations for decades, if not millennia.

A PubMed search for "coconut oil" predominantly results in animal studies, reviews, and a few small trials - predominantly in Asian populations - thus very few (well, I haven't seen any) long-term large-scale human observational studies or trials specific to CVD precursors, and none of "hard" CVD endpoints.  The few short-term trials in humans occasionally show differences, and occasionally show no differences in cholesterol and/or lipoprotein levels compared with a variety of other fats/oils, depending on the study race/ethnicity, underlying medical conditions, duration of feeding, sample size, comparison oil(s), etc.

So, there are a few human studies on inflammatory and lipid markers, a few on unrelated outcomes (skin conditions/diseases, predominantly), but in my opinion, nothing definitive one way or another with respect to CVD.  In other words, if you compare the coconut oil literature to the evidence base that exists for olive oil in CVD, it's like comparing an ant hill to the Alps.  And, importantly, it took that mountain of evidence on olive oil before it could start being consistently recommended by major organization/government guidelines as cardioprotective. In other words, there's still a long way to go before we can declare coconut oil as benign, helpful, or harmful for CVD or other cardiometabolic conditions.” 

In summary: It’s still too early to tell if coconut oil is “bad for you, good for you, or none of the above”.  So before you start exclusively using coconut oil as your primary cooking oil source, let other people be the epidemiological guinea pigs and use olive oil or another mono- or polyunsaturated fat as your primary cooking oil source.  The worst type of fat you can eat is clearly trans fat (avoid by looking for partially hydrogenated on nutrition labels) so stay away from that.  The jury is still out on coconut oil.

So Why Even Use Coconut Oil? Coconut oil is tremendously delicious when used in the kitchen, as its full, rich fatty flavor is enhanced when virgin un-refined oil is used, providing a deep coconut flavor.  It is perfect for adding moisture, and a rich-mouth feel to baked goods of all varieties, without adding an overpowering flavor of only coconut.  It is also perfect for stir-fry, roasting vegetables or mixing it into a morning oatmeal.  There are many great recipes that provide a variety of ways to cook with coconut oil.

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, as other saturated fats are, but its melting qualities are superior for various cooking purposes.  If you wish to use coconut oil to cook with, do so sparingly, mixing your oil choice with other options such as olive oil, canola oil, and peanut oil to incorporate other fat sources.  Be sure to mix it up: remember, a healthy diet consists of BALANCE, so mixing up your oil choices is a large component and helpful hint in practicing this.

Best,

MacKenzie Spears

Todd M. Weber PhD, MS, RD

The amazing chewing gum diet for weight loss and detoxing

Food, drink, and the act of chewing brings us a certain degree of comfort, pleasure, and satisfaction.

For millennia, people have utilized chewing (bark and/or tree sap) as a way to relieve hunger, freshen breath, and increase stamina.  The pleasure and satisfaction achieved by chewing without eating food (also known as non-caloric chewing) is not unique to humans as it is also common across other species as noted by the famed primatologist, Jane Goodall.

In today’s obesogenic environment, our urge to chew has largely backfired.  The comfort, pleasure, and satisfaction we once gained from non-caloric chewing has been replaced with snacking on high-calorie foods, which, over the course of time leads to weight gain.

There are numerous diets out there that cause people to lose weight, but eventually the majority of diets fail because people cannot maintain/adhere to them (Figure 1).   

Figure 1. Self Rated Dietary Adherence. Self rated dietary adherence over the course of 12 months while on 4 common diets.  10 = the best; 0 = the worst.  Dietary adherence decreases as time goes on (dieting is not sustainable).

What people really need is a small change in behavior that burns calories and can be sustainable over the course of time....

 

Chewing Gum is Exactly That!

Chewing gum can help drop excess body weight by unlocking the natural processes of the body.  For example, the act of chewing gum increases metabolic rate, uses energy to build enzymes, tricks our brains into thinking we are full, distracts us from eating real food, lowers stress, detoxifies waste buildup, and promotes weight loss.  How does it do this?  Read below to find out!

Figure 2. The Effects of Chewing Gum on Metabolic Rate.  Chewing gum has been shown to increase metabolic rate by a whopping 19%.

In addition to boosting your metabolic rate, chewing gum may offset some of the diminished weight loss that occurs when you eat fewer calories during dieting.  The process of digesting and absorbing the energy in the food you eat ((which is known as the thermic effect of food (TEF)) is an energetically expensive process.  When people diet to lose weight, they eat less food.  Eating less food results in a decrease in the TEF and acts to blunt additional weight loss.  Chewing gum offsets the loss in the TEF.  Proof of this comes from leading experts in the field of metabolism, which have suggested that humans can lose as much as 10 pounds per year, just by chewing gum.

Figure 3. Theoretical Weight Loss in One Year from Chewing Gum.

Chewing gum may also help to offset the loss of the calories you would otherwise burn through the TEF without consuming unnecessary calories by increasing the production and secretion of enzymes (the proteins the body makes to break down nutrients in food you eat).  To build enzymes, cells in the body must utilize energy (burn calories).  Chewing gum also stimulates saliva production and secretion, which is also an energetically expensive process.  Building enzymes and producing and secreting saliva reduces the loss of the TEF you would otherwise experience when you eat less food during dieting.

Chewing Gum Increases Enzyme Production and Starves “Bad”, Inflammation Producing Gut Bacteria: Over the past 30 years carbohydrate consumption has substantially increased in the United States (Figure 4).  The enzyme in our saliva responsible for breaking down carbohydrates (salivary amylase) has not kept pace with the amount of carbohydrates we consume.  The “bad” bacteria in our large intestines responsible for increasing inflammation feed on this excess in carbohydrate, leaving us metabolically and physically sick.  Chewing gum increases the production of salivary amylase, reduces the amount of carbohydrate available to the “bad” bacteria of the gut, and therefore makes us metabolically and physically healthier (and reduces inflammation at the same time).

Figure 4. Macronutrient Intake in the United States from 1970 to 2006

Chewing Gum Detoxifies Waste Build-Up: In addition to increasing the digestion of carbohydrates and starving the “bad” bacteria of the gut, chewing gum in the absence of food ingestion cleans out the digestive tract by allowing the enzymes produced during chewing to act on food particles that haven’t been fully absorbed or passed through your digestive tract as fecal matter.  In other words, the digestive enzymes can now clean out the leftover food in your colon that was causing nutrient malabsorption and inflammation because the enzymes produced during chewing gum cleans out your digestive tract.

Chewing Gum Tricks Your Brain into Thinking You’re Full: Chewing stimulates the neurons that act on the satiety (fullness) center of our brain, the hypothalamus, through the gut-brain axis.  Chewing gum tricks the brain into thinking there is food in our digestive tract and causes peristalsis (wave like muscle contractions that propel food through our intestines).  In the clinical setting, when post-operative ileus patients were instructed to chew gum after surgery, the muscles in their intestines were contracting faster than the patients who were not chewing gum and this leads to greater levels of fullness.

Chewing Gum Distracts You from Eating Real Food: Not only does chewing gum increase energy expenditure, it reduces your intake of extra calories you might be tempted to eat in between meals.  Have you tried eating food while chewing gum?  It doesn’t work.  It is not only difficult to chew gum and food simultaneously, but it is also highly unsatisfying to get crumbs mixed into the gum.  Chewing gum acts as a distraction from eating real food similar to the way smoking deters people from eating (which is not recommended as a weight loss method).

Chewing Gum Lowers Your Stress and You Eat Less: Stress hormones, like cortisol, can influence your appetite and cause you to eat more and crave higher-fat and higher-sugar foods.  To make matters worse, too much stress can cause the body to go into a catabolic state and actually break down calorie-burning muscles.  Luckily for gum chewers, a recently published study showed that chewing gum alleviates stress.  Scientists at the Collaborative Centre for the Study of Natural Medicines and Neurocognition in Australia found cortisol levels were reduced in subjects who chewed gum while under stressful situations compared to subjects who did not chew gum.

So far, thousands of people have used this system (started chewing gum throughout the day) and have seen amazing results!  This is the next big trend in health and wellness because it’s easy, inexpensive, and it actually really works!  If you’re tired of being let down by 30-day crash diets that eliminate your favorite food, then join the Gum Detox Movement.  Don’t wait! You have calories to burn.

By the way, this is all a hoax.

This is exactly what millions of “pseudo-nutritionists” and even licensed health professionals disseminate into the worldwide web in order to start a following and profit from a phony claim (or multiple phony claims).

How do they do it?  Just like this article, evidence is attributed to credible sources and is strung together to come up with a seemingly plausible argument.  In writing this article, we turned legitimate nutrition science into quackery.  We took advantage of our knowledge and status as trusted experts and abused it to entice those with vulnerabilities about weight, frustrations from low-self confidence, and a general lack of knowledge regarding the human body to buy into our utter nonsense.

Think this doesn’t really happen?  It does.  The take away message is and always has been: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Don’t fall victim to nutrition miscommunication: follow us on social media for trusted health & wellness advice. 

Our best,

Monica Salafia, dietetic intern

Todd M. Weber PhD, MS, RD

With So Many Claims, What Eggs Should I Buy at the Grocery Store?

This post was written by MacKenzie Spears and Todd M. Weber.

With so many options, claims, and prices what eggs should I buy?  Picture courtesy Sweet Potato Chronicles.

Have you ever stood in the egg section of your grocery store and been paralyzed by the enormous number of egg options, marketing claims, and prices?  If so, you’re not alone.  Deciding what eggs to buy at the grocery store has become a very difficult and overwhelming decision.  With so many options available to us, we are forced to answer the following questions before making a purchasing decision:

• is it worth paying the extra $1.50 for cage free eggs?
• what does cage free even mean?
• is it better to pay extra for organic eggs?
• should I buy eggs from chickens fed omega-3 enriched feed?
• what makes eggs from chickens fed a vegetarian diet special?
• is pasture raised better than cage free?

The bottom line is, we don’t want to feel like we are being “ripped off” by purchasing a more expensive egg that really isn’t any better than a less expensive egg.  But with so many egg options and so many egg claims how do we know what egg offers the most “bang for our buck”.  To answer this question, MacKenzie Spears and I purchased 8 dozen different types of eggs from two local grocery stores (Safeway and King Soopers) in Denver, CO.  The types of eggs we purchased are shown in Figure 1 and their characteristics are shown in Table I.

Figure 1. Egg Brands. Reading left to right, top to bottom. NestFresh, Lucerne, Open Nature Cage Free, the Happy Egg Co., Eggland's Best, O Organics, Organic Valley Omega-3, and Alfresco Pasture Raised Eggs by Vital Farms.

To assess the quality of each type of egg, we performed a simple eye test.  The quantity of pigments associated with the vitamin A content of an egg can be inferred by the deepness and the richness of the orange in the egg yolk.  The deeper and darker orange the yolk is, the more vitamin A (retinol or precursors) that egg contains.  Although we did not scientifically quantify other properties of the egg such as viscosity or vitamin/mineral content, we think our results are pretty compelling.  See for yourself.

Interestingly, these eggs are arranged by order of cost.  If you read left to right, top to bottom, the most expensive egg is on the top left and the least expensive egg is on the bottom right.  Price does not equal quality!

If we reorder the eggs based upon color and not by price we can make some pretty interesting observations.

Paying more for an egg doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting a better egg.  The clear winners of our visual experiment were Alfresco and the Happy Egg Company (price in green) and in our opinion, the clear losers were O Organics and Organic Valley Omega-3 Eggs (price in red).

When we look at Table I to determine what separates the good, from the bad, from the ugly, we see a clear difference!  

Table I. Egg Claims. Visually, Alfresco and the Happy Egg Company produced the best eggs, hands down.

If your egg does not come from pasture raised chickens, none of the other claims really matter when it comes to vitamin A content (and by inference the quality of the egg)!  Now, to be fair Organic Valley Omega-3 eggs and Eggland’s Best market their products as containing more omega-3 fatty acids than a “classic” egg but there are numerous other foods that you can obtain your omega-3 fatty acids from as well.  I think we can all agree that we would purchase eggs from a local farmer if we had access to them, but most of us do not have this luxury.  MacKenzie and I wanted to figure out, given our options, what the best egg would be to purchase in your local grocery store.  After performing this experiment, it makes intuitive sense to us that pasture raised chickens would produce the highest quality eggs because their living and feeding conditions most closely resemble chickens raised on your local family farm.

While working on this project we also found some nice visuals that help explain our findings.

What Egg Carton Labels Really Mean for You and the Chicken courtesy Andrea Moore.

Cage Free Hens.  Cage Free does not mean Free Range. Photo courtesy Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images.

Classification system for caged, cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised courtesy Vital Farms.

In conclusion, the price you pay for eggs does not necessarily dictate the color, quality or taste of the egg yolk.  The Alfresco Egg, priced at $5.99 came in first place, being the deepest in color.  In second place for color depth and egg yolk quality was also one of the higher priced eggs, the Happy Egg Co. that costs $5.49.  Surprisingly, the third deepest colored egg yolk was Nest Fresh, priced at $3.99 (which would offer you the most "bang for your buck"). 

With these results in mind, eggs such as O Organics and Organic Valley Omega-3 that have claims stating Non-GMO and USDA organic do not have the most color in their yolk.  Even the eggs with ‘Cage Free’ claims did not result in deeper egg yolk colors.  Our experiment showed that perhaps the generic egg from the supermarket does indeed compare to the egg that is twice its price despite the various health conscious claims on the carton.  

So which eggs should you buy when you get to the store?  Use your best judgment!  It all depends on the purpose of what you are using the egg for.  Are you using the egg to make egg whites, a blueberry muffin mix, hard boiling it or to cook a quiche?  What you are using the egg for should dictate what type of egg you buy.  Hopefully after reading through the results of our experiment, you can stare at the egg section of your local supermarket with a more thorough understanding of the relationship between egg price, egg claims, and quality the egg (and not be concerned that you are getting "ripped off")! 

Todd M. Weber PhD, MS, RD

MacKenzie Spears

For more information on the differences between what constitutes a “cage free”, “free range” or “organic” egg there are several excellent resources available here, here or here. 

Dietitians Don't Eat Perfectly and You Don't Have to Either

There is a widely held belief that health & wellness professionals (and especially dietitians) eat some type of “holier than thou, pristine diet”.  Many dietitians feel like their diets are constantly under a microscope and that they must live up to the public’s perception of what it means to “eat healthy”. 

There is a pressure for dietitians to present themselves this way (the media largely shapes this) and there is a danger of being “found out”, that we don’t actually eat as well as we are supposed to eat, and that ultimately, if we are to be “found out” that we will lose the trust of the people we are trying to help eat healthier.  I’m here to tell you that I’m TIRED OF THIS TYPE OF THINKING and that the public’s perception of the dietitian eating the perfect diet does more harm than good.  

To demonstrate how a dietitian eats (and in full transparency) I want to share with you what my fiancé, Kathleen, and I eat for our meals and snacks and I’ll let you be the judge of whether I eat like a dietitian should eat (and whether you can trust my nutritional advice).

Whoops, dietitian Todd, just got "caught" eating Doritos.

Breakfast

For breakfast Kathleen typically eats a bowl of cereal or oatmeal with skim milk, with or without a banana.  The cereals we tend to eat are:

1. Cracklin’ Oat Bran (with sugary cereal topper)
2. Honey Nut Cheerios (with banana)
3. Frosted Mini Wheats
4. Post Oh’s (with banana)

Our Sugary Cereal Toppers are

1. Cascadian Farms Oats and Honey Granola
2. Cocoa Pebbles

By sugary cereal topper I am referring to pouring a ¾ bowl of Cracklin’ Oat brain and then “topping” it off with a sugary cereal such as Cocoa Pebbles to give it a little extra kick.

I, on the other hand, tend to eat a THOMAS’ 100% whole wheat bagel with cream cheese every morning.

Obviously both of us could be criticized for our choice of breakfast foods – Kathleen for the high sugar cereal choices and myself for a saturated fat containing bagel and cream cheese but we enjoy these options and find they start our days off right.

Every weekend (Saturday or Sunday) we eat a breakfast of eggs, breakfast potatoes, and some type of breakfast meat.  This is usually made at home, so we can incorporate extra veggies we have laying around into the eggs (usually spinach or mushrooms).

We both also drink at least 2 cups of coffee every morning and use creamer and/or regular sugar.

Lunch

For lunch we tend to switch back and forth between one of the following meals

1. Salad – Spinach, Romaine, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper (green/red/yellow), shredded cheddar cheese or feta, hard-boiled egg, sunflower seeds with lite Ranch, Greek or Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing.
2. Spinach Mushroom Quiche
3. Zesty Quinoa salad
4. Chicken Salad
5. Ham or Turkey Sandwich
6. Peanut Butter and Jelly

Commonly eaten side dishes/snacks to go along with our “main dish” are

1. Greek yogurt (sometimes with granola and/or frozen fruit in it)
2. Whole wheat tortilla with hummus
3. String Cheese
4. Almonds
5. Baby carrots
6. 1-2 fruit options (e.g., grapes, bananas, peaches, pears, apples, strawberries, oranges)
7. Cheez-Its, Wheat Thins, pretzels
8. Cottage Cheese
9. One Hard boiled egg
10. Granola bar

 

Dinner

We try to plan for 4 dinners/week.  When planning these dinners, 2-3 must provide us with left overs to either supplement our lunches or another night’s dinner.  Most weeks we also plan out at least one crock pot meal because this eliminates a lot of cooking time.

To make grocery shopping, meal planning, and cooking easier we utilize an application on our phones and computers called the Paprika Recipe Manager.  Before we started using the Paprika Recipe Manager we made 20 or so recipes over and over and over again.  These were the only recipes we knew how to make and were comfortable making but our diet was pretty monotonous.  Since that time we have "branched out" quite a bit and we currently have over 51 recipes to choose from.

One of the recent updates to the Paprika Recipe Manager that has made our "branching out" easier is Paprika’s new Google Search recipe function.  Within Paprika, you can perform a Google Search for new recipes and import them directly into your Paprika recipe manager.  This feature makes finding and importing new recipes so easy!  

We are also trying to incorporate more fish and vegetarian dishes into our diets but many of the meals we have traditionally eaten are meat based.  There’s nothing too special about the meals we eat for dinner.............they just aren’t horrible for you and we eat them in moderation.  Here’s our list of dinner meals that we eat frequently, occasionally, and rarely.

Side dishes (usually some form of vegetables, 1-2 options most nights) include:

• Roasted mixed vegetables
• Baked Acorn squash
• Raw veggies with hummus or ranch dip
• Side salad
• Steamed broccoli/mushrooms/bell peppers/asparagus
• Roasted Brussels sprouts
• Baked Sweet potatoes
• Baked white potatoes
• Boiled small red potatoes
• Fresh bread or rolls with soup or red sauce meals
• Pasta salad
• Potato salad
• Grilled ears of corn (summer favorite!)

Sweets and Desserts

I really enjoy ice cream treats, so we usually have some sort of ice cream in the freezer, although that has decreased in frequency with Kathleen’s recent reluctance to eat so many sweets.  I am also a big fan of Doritos, the occasional Sunday morning donut, cheese and crackers, and drink one diet Mountain Dew/day.

Alcohol

I can’t lie, we enjoy having a drink or two most nights of the week, either at home or out with friends.  Craft beer, wine, and cocktails all are fair game.  It usually just depends on our mood (or which friends we are meeting up with).

Eating Out

The vast majority of our meals are eaten within the home or prepared in the home and I have written on the importance of this before.  We're not Puritans and we do like to eat out or order pizza in but we don't make a habit of doing so.  It is possible to eat healthy when eating out but if you eat out infrequently like we do, I prefer to "pig out", eat what I want, and as much of it as I want.

Last word

Kathleen and I don’t have any special plan or secret sauce that allows us to remain active and healthy.   We are always tweaking our routines and “getting back on track” when we fall off the wagon.  With all the crazy programs and diet advice out there, we find that it’s best to keep it simple.  As I have said before, use a Fitbit to find out how much or how little you move throughout your days, use the Paprika recipe manager to meal plan and grocery shop, join a gym or exercise group to strength train 2x/wk, figure out what your obstacles to health are and find solutions to them, establish your own nutrition rules, and for God’s sake, be happy, be healthy, and enjoy life!!!!!!!!!!  It’s much too short to do otherwise.

Todd M. Weber PhD, MS, RD

*See how well Todd followed his own advice in 2015 

8 Common Food/Drug Interactions to Watch Out For!

The following article is a guest post written by MacKenzie Spears.

You may have never even thought about it, but there are potential risks to consuming food with certain medications and/or over the counter drugs.  Some of these food/drug interactions are mild and will result in minor irritation, while others can have severe consequences, including, but not limited to death. 

Our friends at Blink Health recently shared a really cool infographic with us explaining some common food/drug interactions that we are now sharing with you below.  In each of the infographics it should be pointed out that everyone reacts to food a little bit differently and many of the body’s responses to foods while taking these drugs can display alternative symptoms (for more information please click on the hyperlinks).

However, on some level it should also be noted that each food you consume influences your body’s absorption of the drugs you are taking and may either 1) intensify the drugs’ response or 2) decrease the drug’s ability to work within the body.  When these food/drug interactions work together to mimic a higher dose, this combination exaggerates the drug’s effect, essentially doubling down on the dose and causing unintended consequences.  When the latter occurs, the drugs will not be as effective.

There are also instances when the food you consumed with the drug serves to block how the medicine is broken down and too much of the medicine remains in the blood stream.  Instead of the drug being broken down or excreted in the urine, it circulates the body several times and with each passing has an effect on your body.  To prevent these unintended consequences we are sharing a list of eight common food and drug interactions that you might want to be aware of.  If you’d like additional information on any of these food/drug interactions just click on any one of the pictures.  I have hyperlinked each picture to more in-depth articles.  Enjoy!