“It’s a Matter of Fact” That You Health Mattersby Lisa Booth, Dietetic Intern 

March is National Nutrition Month.  This year’s topic is “It’s a Matter of Fact”.  This topic focuses on the total diet as an approach to a healthy lifestyle.  The balance of food along with moderation and exercise are some of the keys to a healthy lifestyle.  The American Dietetic Association presented the top 10 nutrition facts to supplement this theme.  These facts include the following:

• Using Mypyramid.gov
• Checking if nutrition advice is based on science.
• Getting nutrition facts from registered dietitians
• Balancing physical activity and a healthful diet for managing weight and overall health and fitness.
• Thinking nutrient-rich rather than “good” or “bad” foods.
• Looking at the big picture rather than one food or meal making or breaking a healthful diet
• Preparing, handling, and storing food properly to prevent food-borne illness
• Not falling prey to food myths and misinformation
• Reading food labels to make smart choices
• Finding the healthy fats when making food choices.

MyPyramid website is a great reference for personalizing your nutrition needs.  On the website, a MyPyramid Plan offers you a personal eating plan with all the foods and amounts that are right for you.  The MyPyramid Tracker offers a detailed assessment of your food intake and physical activity level.  Also available on the site is advice “Inside the Pyramid” to help make smart choices from food groups, find a balance between food and physical activity, getting the most nutrition out of your calories, and staying within your daily calorie needs. 

Nutrition advice is provided through the news, books, media, and word of mouth.  It is important to check if the source of nutrition related information is scientific based because the majority of information presented to the public is either biased or not reliable.  Take the extra minute to look for a scientific article or credible source for the information presented.      

A registered dietitian can often be confused with a nutritionist.  A Registered Dietitian has completed academic and experience requirements established by the Commission on Dietetic Registration, ADA’s credentialing agency, including a minimum of a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and an accredited pre-professional experience program.  RDs must successfully complete a rigorous professional level exam and must maintain ongoing continuing education to maintain their credential.  Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist.  You decide where to get your nutrition information from.

Balancing physical activity and a healthful diet for managing weight and overall health and fitness is a simple concept that involves self motivation.  One way to do this is to go onto the MyPyramid website.  To succeed with this on your own you can create an exercise plan for yourself at your level.  For instance if you currently walk once a week for 20 minutes, increase it to two times a week for 20 minutes each time, then increase to even more after a few weeks.  Keep in mind that weight control is much easier with a balance of exercise.

Thinking nutrient rich rather than “good” or “bad” foods prevents you from binging on foods you are denying yourself from.  No food is technically “bad” for your body.  Any food is fine in moderation.  For instance, a piece of dark chocolate provides antioxidants called phenols.  These were found to prevent the bad cholesterol from causing plaque buildup in the arteries.  Chocolate also contains iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.  On the other hand though, eating a bar of chocolate can provide high amounts of fat and sugar.  So enjoy foods but remember the rule of everything in moderation. 

Looking at the big picture rather than one food or meal making or breaking a healthful diet.  A good way to do this is by thinking of your diet as a rainbow.  Red foods include apples, strawberries, and tomatoes contain phytochemicals, which may help with prevention of cancer.  Orange/yellow foods include oranges, mangoes, and pumpkins.  These contain beta-carotene which is a precursor to vitamin A, which helps with vision, growth, and immune function.  Green foods include broccoli, spinach, and avocados.  Green foods are good for vision, bone, teeth, and helps prevent some cancers.  Blue/purple foods include blueberries, eggplant, and plums.  These are good for the urinary tract, memory, and prevention of some cancers.  White foods include bananas, cauliflower, and potatoes.  These fruits and vegetables are important for cardiovascular health and healthy cholesterol levels. 

            Preparing, handling, and storing food properly to prevent food-borne illness can protect you and your family.  Recent studies show that E coli and certain other foodborne illnesses can sometimes trigger serious health problems, such as kidney failure, months or years after patients suffered an initial bout (1).  Easy standards for food safety are:

            -Clean – Wash hands and surfaces often

            -Separate – Don’t cross-contaminate

            -Cook – Cook to proper temperatures

            -Chill – Refrigerate promptly.

For more information on food safety visit www.USDA.com. 

“Loose 10 pounds in just two days!’  Hearing these appealing methods of weight loss may seem like the perfect solution but in reality they hinder health and are not proven to work.  Not falling prey to food myths and misinformation involves being skeptible about nutrition information presented to you.  It also involves the recognition of fad diets, supplements, and nutrition sources that are not credible.  Many diets eliminate or limit at least one of the necessary food groups or replace meals with supplements.  Diets can result in a reduction or lack of vital nutrients along with a psychological and physiological response of feeling deprived.    

Food labels are distinctive, easy-to-read formats that enable you to more quickly find the information you need to make healthful food choices.  The food label provides information on the amount per serving of saturated fat, cholesterol, dietary fiber, and other nutrients of major concern.  Nutrient reference values, expressed as % Daily Values, help you see how a food fits into an overall diet.  Claims present the relationship between a nutrient of food and a disease or health-related condition, such as calcium and osteoporosis, and fat and cancer.

Finding the healthy fats when making food choices can help reduce the risk for heart disease.  Saturated fats and trans fats can worsen blood cholesterol levels.  Saturated fats are mainly animal fats and therefore found in meat, seafood, whole-milk dairy products poultry skin, and egg yolks.  Some plant foods are also high in saturated fats, including coconut and coconut oil, palm oil, and palm kernel oil.  Trans fatty acids are fats produced by heating liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogenation.  Most of the trans fats in the American diet are found in commercially prepared baked goods, margarines, snack foods, and processed foods.  Unsaturated fats are good for your body because they can improve blood cholesterol levels.  These fats include polyunsaturated fats (which are found in high concentrations in sunflower, corn, and soybean oils) and monounsaturated fats (which are found in high concentrations in canola, peanut, and olive oils).  Although some fats may be more beneficial to your body, it is still important to limit your diet to 30% fats (2).

Apply the theme of National Nutrition Month to your life and long term health.  It is important to focus on the total balance of foods you consume, rather than any one food or meal.  Take the advice from the American Dietetic Association which promotes healthful eating by providing practical nutrition guidance and focusing attention on making informed food choices and developing sound physical activity habits.  With all the fads, trends, and nutrition information presented to you, keep in mind that registered dietitians are the most valuable and credible source of timely, science-based information (3).

  1)http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080121/ap_on_he_me/healthbeat_food_poisoning

2)http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats.html

3) www.eatright.org