Health halo effect: Don't judge a food by its organic label

Health halo effect: Don't judge a food by its organic label

A common misconception folks have about food labels. Just because it says Organic, doesn't mean it has less calories. People tend to do this with "Vegan" labels too. Just because there is no milk or egg in that cookie doesn't mean it's not loaded with table sugar and empty calories ...

America Runs on Dunkin'

As a born and raised New Englander I have a soft spot in my heart for Dunkin Donuts. On a recent last minute trip to the Boston area, I frequented the DD's every day for their famous ice coffees. And since it was vacation and I didn't want to cook, I also ate some donuts.

I ordered the Old Fashion donuts with an ice coffee with skim milk. My favorite Dunkin' order. I had read somewhere before that those donuts have less saturated fat and less calories. Today I went onto the Dunkin Donuts nutrition website to look up exactly what was in these cakes. And was I way off on my assumption.

The Old Fashion has 320 calories (I thought it had 150-200), 25 grams of Fat (34 % of DV) and 10 grams of Saturated Fat (50% of DV). I scrolled through the other donuts and discovered that the Chocolate Donut had only 240 calories, 11 grams of Fat (23% of DV) and 4.5 grams of Saturated Fat (11% DV). I never would have guessed the chocolate one would have been a better choice..

Are either of these great nutrition breakfeast choices? No. But I only do it 4-5x a year. I also paired the donuts with a cup of strawberries and I had a 15 minute walk to DD and back. Point is I knew it wasn't the best choice in the world when I was doing it, but I wish I had selected the donut that was only 25% of my DV for Saturated Fat and not 50%. Just goes to show that you need to look this information up and be fully aware of the food choices you're making.

Weight Report Cards

Schools in Massachusetts have adapted policies to report on students' BMI numbers in grades 1, 4, 7, and 10. The main goal of this policy is to alert parents when their child is overweight or obese so that parents may take action and correct the situation.

In a nation where childhood obeseity rates are climbing and Type 2 Diabetes is being diagnosed at younger and younger ages, perhaps this policy is a good way to combat unhealthy trends we're seeing in children. It's bringing awareness and forcing parents to deal with poor nutrition choices.

But are parents really unaware that their children are overweight or are unaware of the dangers of a poor non nutritious diet with lack of exercise? Is it necessary for schools to report on this? It's certainly a debate that can be had of government intervention & Nanny State, but overall, is it really providing feedback that parents aren't already aware of?

Can this be successful and what are the dangers of "weight report cards"?

It seems like these BMI reports are opening flood gates. More than likely parents can tell if their children are obese, and the only thing that these reports are going to do is damage a child's relationship with food when he or she receives an "F" on their weight. Think of how a 7th grade girl is going to accept a poor grade on her body. If you're a thirteen year old girl, and you're told by your school nurse that you're overweight, how well can you process that? Even a woman at 30 will have problems with a doctor telling her she is overweight.

These BMI reports are nothing more than stating the obvious about children's weight. Telling a kid he or she is fat, is not going to change anything. If schools in Massachusetts want children to be healthier they need to change what food is being offered in the schools and increase the physical activity the children have. Labeling and sending home report cards on a child's weight will only insult a parent and cause insecurity in the students.

Anyone who watches the news or picks up a paper knows that children are at greater risk for obesity and Type 2 Diabetes now a days. Pointing fingers at those who are at risk is not going to solve anything, all it will do is make a child feel bad about his or her weight and body image. The best thing the schools can do is find a way to increase activity on daily basis for students and take away foods like chicken patties, french fries, and candy.

This is a poor stab to improving the welfare of these students. If the schools really cared, they'd remove the vending machines & soda from their schools. But since companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi pay schools to host their products, the schools will continue to serve things like Doritos and Reese's Cups. Hopefully I'm proven wrong and there is no damage but only positive outcome from these BMI reports. We shall see.

Athletes & Carbo-loading

“I gotta carb up for the run tomorrow” Does this sound familiar? Something you or perhaps a friend has said the night before a race or long work out? Carbo-loading is something done by a lot of athletes in days or night before a marathon or century. A lot of athletes will carbo-load the night or day before a long training run as well.


What is Carbo-Loading?

It’s a term used to describe an increased intake of complex carbohydrates one or two days before an endurance event. By storing carbohydrates in your body, you’re storing glucose/glycogen, which is what your body uses for energy. The goal is to store energy in your body so that you extra fuel to get you through your endurance event.


Why does this work?

Our bodies rely on glycogen for energy. Glycogen comes from sugars and starches within our diet. When you're running/cycling/swimming/climbing, etc for a long distance your body burns up it’s initial glycogen and it looks to stored glycogen for more energy. Your body will pull energy from the stored glycogen. Your body can pull energy from stored fats, but it’s not as as easy to access, and your body is more efficient when it uses energy from glycogen.


How to Do It?

It’s pretty simple! The day before your event (or two days before if your stomach prefers) eat your normal caloric intake of food. Replace fruits, fats, dairy, vegetables, and proteins with complex carbohydrates. You don’t need to solely eat starches, you can add in the other food groups so that it’s enjoyable. A good example of this would be to swap a spinach salad for a
wheat pasta salad for lunch.


Common Misconceptions


1. Over Eating - You don’t need to binge on pasta. Eat the normal amount of calories you would eat, just increase the complex carbohydrates and swap them for other food groups.

2. Eating Table Sugar - Your body won’t be able to use the sugars from a piece of cake the night before a marathon. The only time your body can use simple sugars for energy is when you consume them during the race/training run. Dean Karno famously describes doing this during some of his all-night-long-ultra runs.

3. Using Protein for Energy - Your body doesn’t want to use protein for energy. It wants glycogen. Furthermore, you can’t store protein. Your body needs a certain amount of protein every day, any protein consumed over that amount is stored as fat. Which is another area that your body dislikes getting energy from.

4. Carbo-Loading for Any Activity - You really only need to carb up for activities that require at least 90 minutes of cardiovascular activity.

Cake is Getting a Make Over!

Great News! Cake is getting a make over. We hope to continue to post new articles every week on nutrition related news (school lunch, new statistics, controversial diets, etc) and we will also make finding information easier. There's been feedback that it's been difficult to post comments, so that will also now be super user friendly. The new information that is coming will consist of the following:

Proteins/Fats/Carbs:
What they are, where we find them, how much we need, why we need them. Proteins: Incomplete & Complete - what we need, what they are, how we need, and you can’t store protein. Types of Fiber, Types of Fat, etc.

Athletes: Hydration, Eating & Refueling, Carboloading, Post Work Out Snack

Changing Your Eating: Easy ones to make, the steps, grocery shopping, planning your meals. How to plan nutrition/eating for traveling Eating out for Dinner - healthy options Eating by the Clock, Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full Hollywood Stereotype Ideals vs Eating Healthy Do it on a budget

Diets & Quacks: Explain a fad diet & why it fails, how to tell what a fad diet is, explain false credentials, how to decipher news. We'd like to have a weekly fad diet article as well.

Nutrition Related Illness: Diabetes, CVD, Obeseity, Eating Disorders, What can Impact your Eating & Health?

Food Groups & Food Servings: what are the food groups, how many servings do we need, and what a serving size looks like

Definitions: terms that often come up in articles, or will come up here that might be helpful for people to do a quick look up.

We hope to have the new site up and running by next week. Stay Tuned!

Portion Control vs Serving Size

Portion Amounts & Serving Sizes are hot topics in weight loss, nutrition, and foodies. What’s the difference?

A serving is the recommended amount/size of food that the My Pyramid & American Dietitic Association set forth for us.

A Portion is the actual amount on our plate. Typically restaurants will over serve, and you may be consuming 2-3x the amount of food you may actually need.

How can you tell what a portion looks like? Look below at some guidelines.

2-3 oz of meat = the size of a deck of cards

1 Baked Potato = the size of a computer mouse

1 Pancake = 1 CD

1 piece of fruit (Apple, Organge) = A woman’s fist

3 oz serving of Fish = Check Book

Important to Keep in Mind!!! If you look at the Nutrition Label on the back of your Food, it will tell you HOW MANY SERVINGS are in that package of food. Use this a guide for portion sizes.

Example: Cheese

If you bought a block of cheese, you will most likely see that it has 8 servings in that block. If you were to divide the block into 8 equal slices, one of those slices will equal 1 serving.

Healthy Cooking - Try this Swap!

If you like to make baked goodies in your home, try this in your recipes:

• 
  
  1 Cup of Buttermilk - SWAP for 1 Cup of Reduced Fat Milk + 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 
  
  2 Tablespoons of Butter - SWAP for 2 Tablespoons of Reduced Fat Margarin
• 
  
  2 Cups of White All Purpose Flour - SWAP for 1 Cup of All Purpose White Flour & 1 Cup of Wheat Flour
• 
  
  1 Egg SWAP for 2 Egg Whites

You'll be surprised how much these swaps can help make goodies a little bit healthier and you won't even notice the difference!!! Happy Baking!

Healthy Foods Under $1

Healthy Foods Under $1 Great article from the American Heart Association! This ties into previous discussions and posts on how to buy healthy foods with out wiping out your checking account. The AHA has an awesome nutrition section that's very helpful, easy to read, and informative. Check it out! www.heart.org

Eating on a Budget

"I want to eat healthy, but it's so expensive"

This is a very common phrase and belief that we Americans have. Try hard to banish this from your thoughts. It may seem that buying healthy foods is more expensive, but the truth is, eating junk food for years will cost you significantly more in health care costs in the long run. And if you know enough tricks and are a smart shopper, you can buy healthy foods for a decent price. Here are some tips to lower your grocery bill.

1. Buy on Sale. I recently was at Safeway and asparagus was on sale for $.79 a pound. If anyone here likes this vegetable, you know that it usually runs $5 a pound. I bought a few pounds, and froze 80% of it. I can have asparagus with many of my meals for next few months, and it didn't break the bank. You can do this with chicken, fruit, vegetables, bread, etc.

2. Buy Canned or Frozen Produce. Often times I shop at Trader Joe's. They have very affordable prices. I bought a bag of frozen green beans and a can of pineapple for a combined price of $3.29. That's less than a latte at Starbucks.

3. Buy Local. Look online for farmers markets in your area. Food from local farms are usually less expensive plus you're supporting your community.

4. Rewards Cards. A lot of mainstream grocery stores offer rewards cards that give an extra discount or offer special prices on select items. They're not credit cards, they're free, and can save you 10-12% some times. I know Safeway and Shaws Supermarkets offer these. Check to see your grocery store does too.

If anyone else has some helpful tips on how to cut down grocery bill costs please post in the comments section!

Grains - Too Much?

The other day I had a conversation about food groups & food servings. I said it was my belief that unless a person had health condition (ie diabetes) a person should follow My Pyramid to have a well balanced diet. There was a lot of surprise to that, and one person asked, "What about grains though? Eleven servings seem so much."

Eleven servings does seem like a lot, and I completely understand that as a daunting amount of grains to eat. However, My Pyramid suggests having 6-11 servings of grain. You're not required to eat eleven servings. Also, keep in mind that 1 slice of bread is one serving of grain. If you've had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch, you've most likely had 3-4 grain servings already. Add a cup of rice with your dinner, you're now at 6 servings. Most people are probably eating their required servings of grains, with out even knowing it.

Don't be overwhelmed by My Pyramid or food serving suggestions. We don't realize what one serving actually equates to some times. Piece of Cake will be presenting more on food servings, what they should look like, and how much you should have of each group. Stay Tuned. :)

Non-meat Protein

When people think of adding more protein to their daily diet, they usually think of the Rocky scene where Sylvester Stallone puts raw eggs in his glass before going out for a run. If you are looking to add protein you don't necessarily need to add chicken or steak. Here are some other great sources of protein: Beans (black, pinto, red, garbanzo) Nuts (almonds, cashews, peanuts) Dairy Products (milk, yogurt,cheese) Making a salad with feta cheese and hummus is a great way to add protein to the meal.

7 Secrets of Slim People - Exactly What You Shouldn't Read

7 Secrets of Slim People

This article is a prime example of a mixed messages that's related to eating and weight, which causes confusion on healthy eating. This is all about the "tricks" to being "skinny".

We need to ditch the Hollywood - get slim quick - idea, and focus on eating foods that are good for us. Instead of worrying about the "secrets of skinny people", we should simply just enjoy our food and make healthy choices like, eating an apple for a snack and adding broccoli to our dinner plate.

Carbs: The Complex & Simple Story

There are two kinds of carbohydrates in the world. The ones with one or two units of sugar (simple) and the ones with more than two units of sugar (complex). Carbs have been a buzz word and they’ve been both loved and abused. Here’s a light breakdown of it all.

Simple: Fruit, table sugar
Complex: Potatoes, starch (rice, pasta, bread, cereal)

A Carbohydrate’s Job
Our bodies run on glucose (sugar), so the job of a carbohydrate is to provide our bodies with adequate energy to move. If we don’t receive enough carbs, our bodies experience ketosis. A nasty condition that will leave you tired and fatigued and can turn into a serious medical condition.

How Many Carbs Should we Eat?

Dietary Guidelines call for us to eat 2-4 servings of fruit a day, and 6-11 servings of grain foods. If you can, eat whole grains. 6-11 may seem like a lot, but when you consider that 1 slice of wheat bread is a serving, you’ve already knocked out 2 servings if you eat a sandwich on whole wheat bread.

Dietitians, Nutritionists, and Quacks

What’s a Nutritionist Anyways?

A Nutritionist is a person who engages in the study of nutrition. Some are Registered Dietitians, others are self-described experts, who might not have any training or expertise. An RD is a person who went to an accredited school and earned a BS or MS in dietetics and is registered with the American Dietetic Association.

Fake Credentials: Be Aware

Thousands of people posses false degrees in ‘nutrition’. And hang up signs on their offices with the title “Nutritionist”, when in reality they’re completely unqualified. You should scrutinize these people. Check to see if they went to Correspondence Schools - diploma mills that sell certificates/degrees to anyone who pays a fee.

Real Life Example:

A good example of this is Kim Barnouin, the author of Skinny Bitch. She flaunts her Masters Degree in Holisitc Nutrition - which she acquired from Clayton College. A non credited school that sends degrees that actually filed Chapter 11 recently. Barnouin is also listed on www.quackwatch.com

Eat Your Vegetables!!!

Often a phrase we heard from our parents when we were children, that still rings true today. We should eat vegetables. See guidelines below for adults. Also a quick tip, throw some color variety in your weekly veggies! Squash, Red Peppers, Asparagus, Sweet Potatoes - make a rainbow with your veggies for the week!

Women:
19-50 yrs of age, try for at least 2 ½ cups
51+ yrs of age, try for at least 2 Cups

Men:
19-50 yrs of age, try for at least 3 Cups
51+ yrs of age, try for at least 2 ½ Cups

Making Changes

Change is hard and it's stressful. But it can also be exciting and rewarding. If you've decided you want to make changes in regards to your eating habits, you should know that to be successful you need to make small changes, not big ones. Overhauling your diet and how you eat all at once is too much to take on, and chances are you won't be able to see it through. Take a look at the steps below & examples to help guide you.

1. Decide on the Change: Eat Healthier

2. Set Realistic Goals: Eat 2 vegetables a day

3. Get Resources & Information: Where to buy, how to store, knowing to eat a variety of vegetables

4. Possible Barriers & Alternatives: Eating pizza; eat pizza, but with veggies on top and w/ a salad

5. Have a Plan: Create a menu on Sunday for the rest of week & be sure to include veggies