What’s the context of your nutrition choices? Episode 57

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What’s the context of your nutrition choices? Episode 57

Have you ever had an authority figure make you feel bad about your food choices? Are you drawn in by people selling sensation rather than by facts around food? We talk peanut allergies, low-FODMAP diet, health literacy, and why you can eat a pound of chocolate if you really want it (but maybe that isn’t the best idea in the end) with our guest Sherry Coleman Collins.

Sherry is an award winning Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who is passionate about making the delicious choice the healthy choice and converting the science of nutrition into bite-size nuggets for consumers and professionals. She’s a writer, a speaker, a social media savvy recipe developer, podcaster and lover of good food.

Key points:

Context is important:

Choose what is right for you in the context of: What you like: you can eat any thing any time, just not every thing all of the time.
You need to know:

Your nutritional goals
Allergies and sensitivity
Long-term health

How to sort through information provided by “authorities”:

Just because someone is trained as a health provider/chiropractor/etc, it doesn’t mean they have nutrition training based in science.
Most of us aren’t health or science literate so we have to check the source of our information:

Is the person an actual authority in science-based nutrition or are they selling sensation?
Is the information based in science, or does it jut sound “sciency”?
Is the website of the source an academy or journal of science or is it a website selling supplements, tonics, diets, or books?

Nutrition science isn’t “sexy.”

The answer is always balance and moderation, but that is hard for people
Moderation is subjective and people want specifics
Sensationalism is sexy (probably a big clue about the quality of information)

More facts equal more enjoyment of food.

Navigating allergies and food sensitivities:

Work with a registered dietitian
Focus on food naturally free of what you need to avoid

provide a list of what you CAN eat
have a conversation in advance with those providing food (school, college, work, etc)
the AND covers food allergies and sensitivities
Peanut allergies are misunderstood:

We believe peanut allergies are more prevalent than they are:

1% of adults
Up to 2% of children

People are fearful about being around allergens

touching and airborne exposure doesn’t create life-threatening reactions
need to provide education for staff and classmates about good hygiene to prevent cross contamination
banning peanuts from an environment can create a false sense of security.

Three tips to overcome Food Bullying:

Know what you believe and why.
No is a complete sentence.
Say what you mean, but don’t say it mean.

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