Diet or Regular?

Do you really need to add that sugar to your coffee?

If you know me, you know how big my sweet tooth really is. I love cookies, candy and soda. I know that when I eat these sugar filled foods that these may not be the healthiest foods, but I definitely have a hard time practicing self control.

                                        A cookie and brownie cake a friend and I made last year


In our class discussion regarding sugar, we focused on the alternative chemical sugars and the if they were a better option compared to natural sugar. When picking up a soda, I usually choose diet coke over regular. Not because I am dieting, but because I think that regular soda tastes too sweet. Our discussion in class made me question if I should pick up the red or the grey label the next time I swing by Cox Hall. In the study conducted published by the American Diabetic Association, the researchers conducted a cohort study to better understand the development of CVD. The study concluded that those who drank diet soda had higher incidence rates of type two diabetes. The risk for type two diabetes was 67% higher among diet soda drinkers compared to those who chose regular. The researchers concluded that this association was higher because the artificial sweeteners in the soda only caused the individual to crave more sugar, and this was a leading factor to them developing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.

The Cleveland Clinic also supports the claim that diet sodas might not be as "healthy" for three particular reasons. The first being that when we ingest sugary foods, our brain starts to crave sweetened foods more and more, and you are more prone to eat empty calories. The second reason, which connects well to the American Diabetic Association's research showing that the artificial sweeteners do interact with insulin. When we do drink diet sodas, the brain registers as sugar and signals to the pancreas to release insulin. An increase in insulin levels has been show to be related to type 2 diabetes.

This infographic explains all of the different effects of drinking soda has on the body within an hour of consumption. I would never have thought that soda had so many negative effects!

In our class discussion we did not really go over the implications that our choices have. We make choices everyday that can impact our health, so choosing diet over regular could be contributing to that heart attack that will happen in 20 years. By choosing equal over sugar to put in our coffee could effect if we need to use insulin shots in the future. I think that as a nutrition student it is easy for us to forget that our choices we make on a daily basis do impact our health. I do not know if I will be able to completely stop drinking soda, but maybe choosing to limit my consumption of diet soda is a good place to start!

Social Marketing and Health

Health marketing has always been an area that I have been interested in,  it amazes me how marketers can take a product and make the public believe that what they are consuming is "healthy". A good example of this is Kind Bars. Although they are packaged to look and seem like a granola bar, they are not much better than a snickers bar. It does not stop at granola bars, this extends into the yogurt aisle too, many of the yogurts we would think of as a good healthy choice, are filled with added sugar. If you would like more information on the "Kind Bar Controversy" CNN Money wrote an interesting article explaining how the FDA is trying to limit this type of misconception.  

Along with how our food is packaged, it is also to consider social marketing campaigns surrounding health. In class, Debbie Kibbe came to speak to our class about social marketing. Kibbe works with the Georgia Health Policy Center and has years of experience in the field, including working with the American Diabetic Association. 

When she first entered our classroom, she asked us to fill out a note card. First, listing the slogan of a for-profit brand and the particular name of the brand. Then we were asked to do the same thing, just for a non-profit campaign. At first, I was stumped. I did not have difficulty with the first slogan writing down the slogan for goldfish "The Snack that Smiles Back!". However, I could not come up with a second slogan. I thought that this was interesting, and it made me think, how closely do I pay attention to social marketing campaigns? 

In the class discussion, we had to come up with our own campaign and decide how 
to persuade a group of people to change their health behavior. My group personally chose "Use Sunscreen" as our campaign topic. It was hard to come up with a slogan and even determine what population we should address. We used the following questions from the Social Marketing National Excellence Collaborative's book, "Social Marketing Basics". 

 

There are ten strategic questions that you can use to help work toward an initial marketing plan. These are:

1.   What is the social [or health] problem I want to address?

2.   What actions do I believe will best address that problem?

3.   Who is being asked to take that action? (audience)

4.   What does the audience want in exchange for adopting this new behavior?

5.   Why will the audience believe that anything we offer is real and true?

6.   What is the competition offering? Are we offering something the audience wants more?

7.   What is the best time and place to reach members of our audience so that they are the most disposed to receiving the intervention?

8.   How often, and from whom, does the intervention need to be received if it is to work?

9.   How can I integrate a variety of interventions to act, over time, in a coordinated manner, to influence the behavior?

10.  Do I have the resources to carry out this strategy alone; and if not, where can I find useful partners?

So some of the challenges that we faced was finding a good audience for our message and finding a way to communicate our message across to the audience. We ended up deciding that our audience would be Georgia Farmers and that we should use a magazine campaign, since this would be the most effective. 

Even though our activity was only a simulation, it gave us an idea of how difficult it was for those in social marketing to get their message across. This activity highlighted how it is truly hard to reach certain populations and encourage them to change their health behaviors! 

Forks over Knives: The Whole Foods Diet

In class, we recently watched and reviewed some of the evidence in the documentary Forks Over Knives. In the film, the viewers are persuaded to stop eating meat and consume a whole foods diet consisting of vegetables and fruits. I love chicken and turkey, so I had a hard time accepting this the film's proposal.

The film followed different patients facing a wide array of diseases from type two diabetes to congenital heart failure. Every patient that was featured in the film was able to take their health into their own hands, and change their outcomes for the better. I felt that these little vignettes were hard to believe, but took most everything the movie argued with a grain of salt.

First, I want to explain what a whole foods diet is. This is a diet that is based main on plants and vegetables and whole grains. The diet tries to eliminate (or reduce) fish, eggs, poultry and refined grains. If you are interested in learning more about the whole foods diet, you can find more information and recipes on their website Forks Over Knives. Although I believe that it is important that we consume at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, I also think that non -processed meat and fish are important parts of the diet.

One concern that I have regarding this diet is that if you were to eliminate all fish and meat from your diet, you would also be eliminating all heme protein sources (and along with that...a major source of iron). Even though iron and protein are found in vegetables like spinach, heme sources are more bioavailable. In a study from the Journal of Elementology, researchers discussed the importance of iron in the body, as it helps to transport oxygen in the blood and is crucial in DNA synthesis and repair. If one becomes iron deficient, they could find themselves at risk for anemia.

So, I am not saying to completely disregard the Forks Over Knives argument for a whole foods diet, just that meat might not be as harmful to the human body as they make it out to be.