Paleo Diet: All Meat and All Meaning?

A "Paleo Diet" is starting to grow in popularity within the media and among fitness junkies. The trendy diet consists of meat, fish/seafoods, whole fruits and vegetables, eggs, nuts and seeds, and some oils. The diet is based on the premise that the diet that was consumed during the paleolithic era is the diet that our bodies would metabolize the in the best way possible. This diet is what we are "supposed" to be consuming.

I thought that the concept of the Paleo diet was interesting, the entire concept that there is a diet that is the one that Humans should follow intrigued me. That this one diet was the way that we are supposed to be eating.

Although in theory this sounds logical, looking at some of the research surrounding the Paleo diet backs up this notion. In a primary research study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers compared the blood pressure, sodium blood levels and glucose levels between a group who consumed a paleo diet and those who carried on with their regular everyday diet. There was a difference between the two groups, those on the paleo diet showed lower blood pressure, lower blood glucose levels, and lower cholesterol levels. These differences became apparent only after a 3 day "transition period" where the experimental group transitioned out of their old diet and gradually consumed more "paleo foods".

The media is still spouting conflicting recommendations and there does not seem to be a consensus on the diet yet. For example, this article from the New York Daily News claims that following the paleo diet will lead to weight gain. At the University of Melbourne a research study was performed where mice were fed a paleo diet, which resulted in a 15% body weight gain increase for the mice. The mice also developed a glucose intolerance. Meanwhile the article from Biz News claims that this study from the same university should be retracted since the article made too many bold statements.

In the Biz News article, Dr Akil Palanisamy, a US board-certified integrative medicine physician was quoted supporting the paleo diet, stating that it would work well for diabetic patients since it is a low glycemic option. Overall, the article does suggest that there is not one solution for diabetic patients but the paleo diet should be considered. 

Not everyone is supportive of the Paleo diet, Michael Pollan lists his reasons for critiquing the paleo diet in this Mother Jones article. I think that Pollan brings up good points, especially the third point he makes regarding microbes. Knowing how important our micro biome is to our health (and that these microbes come from foods that are not found in the paleo diet), Pollan uses this as a reason to sway away from the paleo diet. 

Hopefully a consensus will emerge between the two camps! 

Food Cravings and what they mean

Although this blog was not directly coming from a class lecture, I found myself doing some googling and then realized that this would make a good post!

Everyone always has random food cravings, however this past week it seemed like I had been getting craving for certain foods more frequently. I did a quick google search to see what was out there and found some articles that explained the meaning behind your craving. Here is an example:

I thought that this was an interesting concept, that our cravings is our bodies way of telling us that it is lacking in a certain nutrient or mineral.  I did not put much stock into the chart, but  I dove further into the research and found an article published by Tufts, explains that cravings are more closely linked to our diets being too routine rather than not nutritious enough.

Another and more prominent reason behind our cravings is our addiction to food. In a research study, investigators put individuals in an MRI and prompted a craving for their favorite food. The regions of the brain that are most closely related to addiction (Hippocampus, Cruadate and the Insula) all lit up with activity. The hippocampus plays an important role in forming memories, and so by giving into a craving we are only positively reinforcing the craving. Cravings are also brought on by conscious and unconscious marketing along with the role that hormones play in our body.

Now that I knew more about why I was getting random food cravings. I wanted to know more on how to stop them, or at least find a solution to distract myself. I found another article describing a study that found that playing tetris for less than 5 minutes every day can help lower the risk of experiencing food cravings. By playing tetris and being distracted both visually and mentally stopped the food craving. I thought that this was an easy finding, and the interference proved to be effective. The strength of the craving was decreased from about 75% to 50% just by playing three minutes of a tetris game!

Pretty neat huh?

Your Micrcobiome: More Dogs and Fewer Antibiotics

The other day in our class, a professor from the Nursing school came in to guest lecture about the microbiome. She explained that everyone has about 3 pounds of bacteria growing within them, and how our microbiome is technically the largest organ within our body. We have bacteria growing in our stomach that can work in our body in a variety of ways including boosting the immune system. Here is a youtube video explaining all about the microbiome!

I had been exposed to the concept of the microbiome when I was taking antibiotics for a bad sinus infection. My doctor had recommended that I take a pro-biotic with the antibiotic so my stomach flora was not disrupted permanently. I suffered from 4 long drawn out sinus infections and was on four separate courses of antibiotics. I was consistently eating yogurt and drinking Kefir to consume micro bacteria.

During the lecture, I remembered how my sister had jokingly warned me that taking antibiotics for such a long time. She teased me about it for a while because she had read an article in The New Yorker about Crohn's Disease and H. Pylori. When sitting through the lecture, I remembered this and decided to explore the topic more.

From my research, I found a research article from the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology  that explored the connection between taking antibiotics and Crohns Disease. They conducted a retrospective cohort study (and there were some selection bias issues with the study) however, the results displayed that those who had developed Crohn's were three time more likely to have taken antibiotic treatments as children (our microbiome develops until about age 3). I thought this was an interesting connection, although it is loose since a lot is not known about Crohn's disease. There is also a suggestion to continue research and look into the interactions with the environment and how that could influence the development of Crohn's disease.

Something new that I learned about from her lecture was The Human Gut project, she told us that people sometimes pay up to $100 to have their feces analyzed to better understand their microbiome. Honestly, idea of sending my poop to a lab grosses me out (let alone paying $100 to do so...) However, the concept of knowing what bacteria growing in your stomach is novel. After looking into this project more, I found a link for another article describing how the microbiome of pet dogs is similar to their owners, and researchers can tell which dog belongs to which owner from their fecal samples alone. This seemed really cool to me, mainly because I love dogs. I also just love the idea that your pet is growing the same bacteria as their owner.

The article described how living with a dog during infancy can help lower one's risk of developing asthma and allergies later in life. I started to notice patterns on how our first few years and our environments during this time affect our health later in life. It also highlights how important our microbiome is in our health and how we need to keep it from becoming "the forgotten organ".

GMO OMG! An Independent film exposing the harsh reality of our food system

Our class recently watched the film GMO OMG, which is a documentary following a young father and his family on the quest to learn more about how our food system is being infiltrated by genetically modified organisms and the impact these foods have on our body. 

I would recommend the film, I believe that it does have an educational value but it also is entertaining and captures your attention. The family road trips to many different sites in the United States such as the Seed Savers Heritage Farm, which are working to preserve biodiversity and natural seeds. It was interesting to learn more about these initiatives and these organic farms across our country, I never knew these organizations existed before seeing the documentary.

I first learned about genetically modified organisms in my high school biology class, but it was not until watching another documentary Food Inc. that I learned more about how GMO's in our food system had started to affect farmers and shape our agriculture industry. Monsanto, is a corporation that developed the round up ready soybean, so the farmers could continue to use the round up pesticide, without compromising the plant's growth. The seeds are patented, so farmers are required to purchase new seeds every season. There are many issues with this patenting process, mainly because the GMO seeds are often spread unintentionally. Monsanto is pursuing lawsuits with numerous farmers and are looking for legal retribution, only to scare farmers into buying their seeds.
It is corporations such as Monsanto that is limiting the food autonomy. In this article by The Atlantic, the author explains how biodiversity is starting to become an issue that we need to worry about. The article explains how soybeans are one of the most commonly grown crop, and how half of all soybeans are GMOs. Three fourths of soybeans grown in the world come from the US, Brazil and Argentina, and are mainly used to feed cattle. By continuing to use GMO soybeans, we are keeping the genes of soybeans from evolving, limiting biodiversity.

Here is a blog from the La Via Campesino, which is an organization that works to fight for food sovereignty. They are currently fighting large companies such as Monsanto that is taking the power away from the people and are coercing them into planting their seeds. I first learned about La Via Campesino during my Fast Food Slow Food course, and we focused on how there are small groups of people who are focused on regaining autonomy within their food system. La Via Campesino is the perfect example of

In the film, Jeremy (the young father) tries to interview Monsanto officials and the secretive character of the company is highlighted. He stands outside explaining how he made attempts to contact the company asking for an interview, however he never heard back. Then when he walks into the office, immediately a receptionist tells him that someone is on the phone and would like to speak with him. The voice on the phone tells him to leave right away. This scene of the film struck me and showed how strong and intimidating this company is. If they were not willing to even be interviewed, it left me wondering what do are they hiding? Even if an audience member was not familiar with what Monsanto is, or their products; I believe that viewing this scene would leave them with questions to be answered.

I really enjoyed this documentary and I would recommend this film to anyone who is interested in learning more about the food industry and how corporations have taken more and more control. 
 

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.