Nell Stephenson's Blog, page 102

Muffins…Not So Innocent!

Let’s face it.  A muffin is just cake in another shape.  

Sure, you can try to fool yourself into thinking it’s healthy because ‘it has raisins in it’ or ‘it’s a great source of fibre’, but the reality is that it’s almost always going to have some form of refined sugar, some form of a grain and is likely to pack  whopping calorie punch you might not have been expecting.

Case in point-  friend forwarded me a tweet the other day about a 1,000 calorie muffin…but it’s vegan (so it’s good for you?) sold at a popular vegan joint in Toronto, made from sweet potatoes and dates.

Sound benign?  Why, those two foods are actually Paleo!

And here I go.

The issue, even if the rest of the ingredients were Paleo (which they very likely are not, given we’re talking about a vegan theme), it’s simply too much sugar and too many calories.  

Did you know that one date has sixty-six calories, and of those calories, guess how many come from sugar?  Sixty-four.  In one.  You see where I’m coming from.  None of us, not even if we are endurance athletes, needs to ever eat a 1,000 calorie muffin in one fell swoop.

Paleo treats are all too often taken out of context, and I see clients including daily ‘paleo brownies, cakes and bars’ into their regime.

That’s not the idea.  Once in a while, sure, like on a birthday or holiday, but not every day and not in a serving worth 1,000 calories.

Compare that sneaky little muffin to this meal instead: 6 ounces of salmon, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a cup of broccoli. You’d create a Paleo, macro-nutrient balanced meal of half the calories of that muffin, yet rich in nutrients with a low glycemic load and the right amount of volume* to create satiety, not over fullness.

More importantly, stop trying to trick yourself.  Rather than fooling anyone, you may end up feeling a fool!

*Just as an example- the amount of volume will depend on someone’s body size, of course, but the common goal is to finish eating before feeling full and just feeling sated.

The Fast Diet… Coming Our Way Soon

There’s a new book out in England and it’s the diet you’ve been looking for:  (Please note the sarcasm in my written voice here) it’s the 5:2 diet!  

Fast for two days during the week and eat whatever the heck you want the other five.

Co-written by a doctor (and we know that gives lots of credibility in the nutrition field), it focuses on something that’s actually sometimes associated with Paleo- intermittent fasting.

The premise is that, according to the book, “the body begins to turn off the fat-storing mechanisms and turn on the fat-burning mechanisms”.

OK, I’ll buy that, after having read a lot of sound research on that principle, however I still have issues with intermittent fasting and with the idea that we should ‘eat whatever we want for the other five days in the week’.

In my experience working with clients, many state they’d tried it but took a skewed approach to the intermittent fasting concept.  They report  having used it as a reason to, for the few days leading up to the fast ‘go nuts with eating all sorts of junk in mass quantities, telling themselves it’s ok since they’re going to ‘be good on X day and fast”.  Then they’d fast for a period of time, reach uncomfortable hunger levels and end up eating far too much again.

In other words, I find most people don’t opt to implement intermittent fasting because of the science behind it but rather, for the idea that it allows what is in effect, a binge and purge situation.

I am not a fan.

Interpreting it that way makes it no different from following any of the other strange and potentially harmful diets out there.  How long is someone really going to do a 5:2 approach?  The rest of their lives?  Or just until they lose a certain number of pounds?  And then what?  Back to eating anything and everything seven days per week?

Please.  Just going Paleo is an easy way to lose weight, steadily and permanently and in such a manner that you won’t actually want to eat other things any day of the week!

Meatless Monday? No, Thanks.

“Every Monday we feature a non-meat dish in participation with the Meatless Monday initiative. Going meatless, even for just one day, is a great way to save money, eat healthily, and help Mother Earth” was the opening line in one of the food/diet/nutrition newsletters I receive on any given day.

My first response to reading that, quite frankly, was ‘duh’.

I’ve had it up to the eyeballs with the generalized grouping of all meats, whether real and fresh grass-fed, or free range or wild, with processed by-products one might find at a chain fast food restaurants.

The latter is, as referenced above, certainly not good for the planet.  But then, neither is planting soy, corn and wheat in abundance all over the place and stuffing it into food-products (apparently, if you add the word “-product” to the word food or a type of food, such as cheese, for example, it connotes that there is actually a lower amount of the actual food in the product.  Think “Kraft Cheese Product”).

Yes, cut down and then omit completely any meat-products but there is no good reason to not eat good sources of protein every Monday, regardless of whether someone is trying to lose weight or improve their health in general.  In fact, not eating enough wild, clean protein and healthy fats in favor of eating refined carbohydrates is what is causing much of the illness and lack of health in the first place!

Shaking my head and rolling eyes…

Hold the Kale, Please?

We all know how much I love and advocate the consumption of kale.  
 
What to do if you’ve been advised to avoid it? (Heaven forbid!).
 
Case in point -a nutritional counseling client recently confided that he actually loves kale as well, but was directed by his doctor not to eat it; he has kidney stones and was told that kale creates oxalates in the body and contributes to the formation of kidney stones!
 
Let’s dig in.

What are oxalates?

According to Webster’s Dictionary, an oxalate is any salt or ester of oxalic acid, occurring in plants, especially spinach, rhubarb, and certain other vegetables and nuts, and capable of forming an insoluble salt with calcium and interfering with its absorption by the body.

The general consensus, based on a handful of studies I came across seems to be that it is only a rare occasion that prohibiting intake of foods high in oxalate levels alone will significantly cause kidney stones in and of itself.  Other contributing factors include water intake, protein consumption and calcium intake.  Further, dietary intake seems to only account for about 10% of the oxalate that contributes to kidney stones. In other words, the studies I read seemed to convey that some people seem to be simply more prone to get kidney stones than others do, rather than ‘eating kale causing kidney stones across the board’.
 
If you are in the rare position that you’ve been told to avoid kale and other foods higher in oxalates, and you feel that this piece of advice is significantly restricting your diet, I’d suggest perhaps consulting with another doctor, perhaps a naturopath, who might help guide you individually to determine whether anything else in your diet might be playing a role in any physical symptoms you might be experiencing.
 
I know I certainly would!  Life without my favorite leafy green veggies? Yikes!

A Diet That’s Delicious

Sometimes I feel like I’m screaming and no one is listening.   What is with the never ending confusion about what the Paleo diet is and what it isn’t?

Look at it this way:  suppose we took the word “Paleo” out of the equation for a moment and just presented a meal.   Perhaps we’d serve wild salmon, pan seared in coconut oil over a bed of sauteed leafy greens, topped with a handful of blueberries.  Or, maybe a rare grass fed bison steak along with blanched asparagus drizzled with olive oil.

To me, those two meals sound like…food.  Food that would appeal to anyone interested in healthy eating or gluten free eating or non-GMO eating or unprocessed eating.   It would also appeal to those who classify themselves as foodies who might not even be that bothered about eating wisely but focus purely on taste.

So, it’s really just common sense.

My reference to feeling like screaming is when i read articles like that in the Dining Section of the Times the other day.  It recapped the article several days earlier on the Mediterranean Diet (pictured above), and described how (surprisingly?) following a Greek-specific version of Mediterranean also happened to be delicious.

Well, guess what?  So is Paleo.   And, if you really consider someone who eats a mostly Paleo diet -say, for example, they eat Paleo 90% of the time and occasionally eat a piece of whole grain bread or some lentils- they’re really not doing anything different from the Mediterranean Diet at all.

So why does Paleo keep getting torn to shreds in most publications?  Why must it always be presented in mainstream platforms as ‘extreme, radical and not something that is sustainable or healthy long term’?

My only guess is that what’s being represented as Paleo is not really Paleo.  

Paleo is not all about eating processed bacon at every meal, or only eating raw meat or only eating large doses of saturated fats and eliminating all fruits or keeping the veggie intake low.  All of the previous permutations are indeed, not healthy ways of eating so it makes sense that if this is what the masses believe Paleo to be, they’re going to discredit it.

Can we please try to set the record straight?  Any opportunity we all have to show how Paleo is actually very balanced, very healthy, very sustainable long term, very delicious and not really extreme after all is one we have to relish.

Just imagine how many more people would give it a try if it began to receive all the accolades that the Mediterranean Diet gets!

Is My Concoction Paleo?

Recently, a reader shared their version of what they called “Paleo Ice Cream” and I thought a critique of it would make for an interesting blog post.  With the reader’s permission, then, following is the recipe for this concoction (and you know what I fan of those I am!)

Paleo Ice Cream

10 egg whites or 4 eggs
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 cup coconut
1 tsp guar gum
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp Xylitol
water

Blend for 3 minutes

Add lots of ice to turn into an amazing vanilla ice cream 

Overall, it’s not too bad.  Given what one might procure if they tried to buy a non dairy, soy-free, junk-free version of ice cream at the store, this is a better option…however…

(You knew there was going to be a ‘but’, didn’t you?)

1) I’d be sure to emphasize that whatever the vanilla protein powder is, it’s only egg with some real vanilla, nothing else.  We always have to be uber diligent at label reading as often, protein powders have all sorts of additives, some of which I have a hard time categorizing as food.

2) I love the coconut- just hoping the reader is using fresh coconut meat, right out of the coconut itself, rather than a processed version.

3) Here it comes- guar gum… the most offensive culprit on this list.  Derived from a bean, and a potent anti nutrient, this product, often used in packaged foods as a stabilizer is to be avoided like the plague by anyone following AutoImmune Paleo in particular, but all of use who follow Paleo are best served to avoid it to as it often causes GI distress on top of the other negative effects of ingesting anti nutrients.

4) Xylitol, not to be confused with the horrible sugar alcohol, sorbitol, which is also used clinically as a laxative, seems to cause less distress than other sugar alcohols, yet I’d still replace it with honey in a case like this where one is making a treat for a special occasion.

I love the creativity in this recipe and encourage all readers to keep that approach with all your Paleo cooking endeavours!

So Weight Watchers Isn’t Paying Their Employees…

And it’s not because they don’t have the money to do so.  According to an article in last Sunday’s Times, WW ‘lavishes millions of dollars on celebrities to promote its weight loss program’.

Well, that’s not surprising.  Big name celebrities always get large endorsements for lending their likeness to advertising campaigns for major brands while employees in their stores nation (or world) wide earn the minimum.

This situation isn’t the subject of my blog today.  Rather, it’s the fact that we need to have a multi million (or billion?) dollar company (make that plural) whose sole focus is weight loss (or, actually, for many of the commercial weight loss brands*- methods that don’t work long term so your failure and subsequent re-enrollment in their plan is the goal) in the first place.

Losing weight is hard- understood.  Losing weight has many facets- some of which are emotional and are therefore somewhat alleviated by having a support structure in place- understood.  (I have no doubt at the validity of the concept of what Weight Watchers used to be, nor at the selfless contributions made by dedicated group leaders around the world who are so committed to helping others change their lives, they keep doing so even at less than minimum wage.)   However, losing weight does not need to be something that costs anyone anything other than the cost of buying food.

There are no tricks.   There are no quick fixes.  There is no easy way out.  What there is, however, is a brilliant light at the end of the tunnel.  Depending on the amount of weight someone might need to lose, it could take months or years to get there but the beautiful thing is that it’s never to late to begin giving your body the nourishing food it needs to heal itself and stop giving it junk that made it unhealthy in the first place.

By following the Paleo diet and consuming local, fresh veggies at every meal balanced with lean, wild proteins and some healthy fats, your body can begin down the road to a lean, healthy body weight, slowly but steadily, with no more money spent than your bill at the grocery store.

Given the high percentage of Americans who are overweight, or obese even, if you’re looking for a support group and aren’t aware of one in your area that you can attend at no cost, create your own.   Share recipes, share successes, share hard times and congratulate one another as the pounds come off.

That is something that is sustainable, which you can do for the rest of your life… 

*I don’t mean to discredit Weight Watchers in its original format.  From the research I’ve seen, what the plan used to be actually taught people what portion sizes were and how to balance real food meals is a far cry from today’s version where one can technically go to McDonald’s and use all their points on a value meal and still be ‘sticking to their diet’.

Just Not Enough Time for Healthy Food or Exercise?

 

 

“It’s an important question for American families and the nation as a whole: Why do so many kids weigh too much?” was the opening line on a piece the other day on NPR.

One in every three American kids is overweight or obese was the first shocking statistic referred to; shocking not because it was surprising, but shocking because it was not.

NPR recently conducted a poll with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, focusing on what happens in American households during the hours between school and bedtime, which they subsequently referred to as ‘crunch time’.

While most parents or care givers said it’s important that their child eats and exercises in a way to maintain a healthy weight, more than half of children ate or drank something during the “crunch time” window that can lead to unhealthy weight gain.

It went on to discuss common reasons and rationale for allowing this trend to continue: not enough time to prepare healthy meals, the ease of serving kids (and the whole family, for that matter) frozen, processed, pre-packaged meals, the perception that preparing vegetables is difficult, the cost of buying fresh produce vs fast food, lack of time to exercise…

We need to stop making excuses, and fast.   We have to cease thinking of eating real food and moving as anything other than a number one priority for ourselves and our children.

What if you truly cannot find the time?

Get everyone involved. Too busy at work?  Why not engage your teen children to help prepare dinner and even go grocery shopping if they’re old enough to drive?  Have the younger ones help chose recipes and help with easy kitchen tasks.  Let siblings alternate choosing who gets to do what to help with the snack and dinner prep.
Draw out a family calendar to really see who’s doing what, and when, and subsequently where you can carve out some time to get healthy shopping and cooking on the schedule.
Lead by example and make sure you’re eating right and moving, then get everyone else to come along.  Family hikes, walks around the blocks or treks on the local trails are just a few examples of modalities of activity that all can participate in.  We are physical beings and we are supposed to be in motion.

Need extra motivation?  How about the concept that you’re not only making your lives, and your kids’ lives better now, you’re saving them lots of cost, both physically and financially in the long run.

 

Things are only going to get worse if we keep trending as we are right now.

Click here  to listen to or read the full article 

 

Staying Slim in the Kitchen

I came across this little list of tips from some of the most renowned chefs… who manage to find the balance between preparing, and tasting delicious meals at their restaurants but not allowing their eating styles to be thrown out the window in favor of eating rich, decadent meals in too-large portions as a norm.  What a concept!

Enjoy what you love.   “Relish what is excellent, skip anything mediocre and stop when you’re sated”.   


Cook at home often and keep it simple. “Every meal needn’t be a giant event”.


Focus on Flavor. “Complex flavor profiles of spices, herbs, lemon and lime juice can amp up the pleasure and mitigate the need for mindless nibbling”.

I have to agree with all these pointers.  

Why would anyone eat anything that didn’t taste great?  Of course, there may be times when we eat a meal that’s so simple there are no other flavors present than that of the food itself- like the flavor of a piece of wild salmon or raw kale, but if those items didn’t taste good, they probably weren’t fresh and shouldn’t have been eaten!

While eating is indeed a multi sensory experience, it certainly doesn’t need to be a multi-hour procedure on a day to day basis.  Eat fresh, create a lovely presentation and enjoy it, but again, no need to assume you’re going to need three hours every day to do so.

Finally, the idea of mindless nibbling because what you’ve eaten just didn’t do  a good job at providing a properly balanced, portioned meal, is completely avoidable.  Don’t try and ‘save calories for later’ or drastically cut down on how much you eat in a frenzied attempt to drop weight fast.  It doesn’t work and it’s not good.

Eating healthy foods that also happen to be easy to prepare and taste good is actually very simple; simple to conceive and equally simple to execute…even if you are a chef surrounded by rich, decadent foods all the time!

Let’s Be Reasonable…

Why are so many of the articles we read, gadgets we buy and apparatus (for lack of a better way to categorize ‘slimming’ garments) we wear aimed at the very bare minimum?

Statistics, if that’s what they are, or perhaps I should call them ‘tips’, that tell us things like, “people who watch horror films can burn 113 calories in 90 minutes” and “cycling for six minutes can help boost memory”, frighten me.   Do we really need a reason to get our butts off the couch for six minutes?

Why not just stay parked on the couch and instead of moving and eating well to create a healthy, lean body, when you can just buy a ‘slimming garment’ which will ‘hide all the flaws’ and allow you to dress in one or two sizes smaller of your clothing of choice?

And who are we relying on in the first place to give us this valuable information?  If physicians, like the one I referred to in yesterday’s post, are distributing antiquated advice and they’re supposed to be the professionals yet they’re not even right, how are we expecting anything reasonable or valid when we turn to health-advice columns written by actors or nutrition tips from a reality TV stars (the latest of which gave her favorite recipe for a homemade version of ‘soda’ using sugar syrup, aspartame and club soda).

Look.  It’s simple.  There is no such thing as a healthy, sustainable quick fix, nor is there any magic food that will make you lose weight or a pill that will give you gorgeous skin if you’re rotting on the inside.

If you are obese, or have other serious health issues, think about how long it took to get where you are, then work backwards for a reasonable timeline to allow your body to get healthy via a lifelong commitment to Paleo living and moving.

You didn’t gain 50 pounds in two weeks, so why you think you should lose it in such a short time?

Small, steady, baby steps even, is the way to go.   If something doesn’t make sense that you read in a magazine or see online, trust your gut and don’t believe it.

Just be real; eat real, and move for a good amount each day.  That’s all.