public health

What are Ultra-processed foods? How do they impact health?

October 6, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Have you ever eaten something, looked at the label, and realized that, even though it’s apparently in your native language, you can’t read or pronounce or understand a bulk of the ingredients? I have. Things like hyper-flavored, brightly-colored chips, candies, sodas and packaged baked goods often fall into a category of what’s called “ultra-processed foods.” But what are ultra processed foods? And how do ultra-processed foods impact health?

This is currently a hot topic in the world of nutrition science. Ultra-processed foods have been receiving lots of attention from various nutrition and food policy experts for their potentially detrimental impacts on human health, and many believe they should be a target for decreased consumption (however, with industry funding, this issue keeps getting swept under the rug).

So what does this mean for you, the consumer? Well, I’d like to start by saying most of us probably know that fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grain products are generally beneficial for human health, and that things like Diet Coke, Oreos, Takis, Doritos, etc. But just what are ultra-processed foods, and just how much can they impact health? Read on for details!

*Disclaimer: As always, this is general information intended for healthy adults to gather general information. Your needs may vary based on medical status, lifestyle, or life-stage. Please never replace generalized health information you’ve read online with individualized clinical care.

What are ultra-processed foods?

Ultra-processed foods are foods that are mostly made of cheap industrial sources of dietary energy plus additives using a series of processes (like multiple milling, extruding, molding processes in a single object – ie ultra-processing’) to yield hyper-palatable foods with extended shelf lives.

Often times, they are low in fiber, protein, micronutrients, and are rich in additives, artificial colors, flavors, refined grains, sugar, salt, and/or unhealthful fatty acids.

Examples include hyper-palatable chips, snack foods, candies, packaged baked goods and pastries, and microwave foods, and artificially-sweetened beverages.

Basically, ultra-processed foods are the foods you can’t really recognize the original ingredients in in the final product (for example, when I see a Dorito, I don’t think “oh yeah, the first ingredient in that is definitely corn.”)

Processed versus Ultra-Processed Foods:

I think it’s important to distinguish processed versus ultra processed foods. Many foods are processed, including things like table salt, tofu, frozen vegetables, and dried or canned beans. Processing does not automatically make foods detrimental to human health.

However, ultra-processing often yields foods riddled with artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, sugar, and salt, and fewer micronutrients, fiber, and protein compared to lesser-processed foods.

Unprocessed or minimally processed foods are things like fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs, etc.

How Do Ultra-Processed Foods Impact Human Health?

A recently published randomized control trial compared food intake of participants given an ultra-processed diet versus those given an unprocessed diet. The researchers admitted 20 participants into clinical center for two weeks, where they were allowed to eat ‘ad lib’ and monitored for 14 days.

Individuals in the ultra-processed group ate, on average, 508 calories more per day than those in the unprocessed group.

If you think about it, considering ultra-processed foods are often micronutrient-poor, it’s possible they don’t have the same nourishing effect as lesser-processed foods, leading to increased need for food to obtain the proper balance of macro and micronutrients.

Another study in JAMA found a correlation between increases in ultra-processed food consumption and increased risk of mortality in adults over 45. At 10-years follow up, those with the highest levels of ultra-processed food consumption had a 62% higher risk for all-cause death than did the people in the lowest ultra-processed food consumption group.

While correlation never explains causation, it could be that adults who consume lots of ultra-processed foods have less stomach space for minimally or unprocessed foods, like healthful fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, etc.

When ultra-processed foods displace micronutrient and fiber-rich foods in the diet, it’s easier to eat large volumes of energy-dense food that are rich in unhealthful fatty acids, artificial colors and flavors, refined sugars, and/or high fructose corn syrup, while still not fulfilling your body’s micronutrient needs.

Do I need to stop eating ultra-processed foods?

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Nutrition for Vegans: What to Know About Plant-Based Diets

September 22, 2019 by Katherine Baker 2 Comments

Hey friends! Today we are going to be talking about nutrition for vegans. If you’ve been on my page before, you may have noticed I frequently post about nutrition, and I also frequently post vegan recipes and lifestyle stuff. However, it recently dawned upon me, that besides this article about B-12, I rarely post nutrition for vegans.

Specifically, I want help vegans, vegetarians, and/or veg-curious people understand what nutrients they need to watch for on a plant-based diet.

There are a lot of misconceptions about vegan diets and their nutritional adequacy, so my goal is to provide you with the information you may want to help you make informed choices about your diet and health.

I hope you enjoy this post about nutrition for vegans! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below, and/or reach out to me on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

*Disclaimer: As always, this is general information intended for healthy adults. Your needs may vary based on medical status, lifestyle, or life-stage. Please never replace generalized health information you’ve read online with individualized clinical care.

Video version here.

So, what is a vegan diet?

In case you don’t know, a vegan diet is a diet that avoids all animal products, including meat, eggs, dairy products, fish, gelatin, etc, and sometimes (depending on the vegan) honey.

Are vegan diets healthy?

Vegan diets can be healthy. Vegan diets can also be unhealthy. The same holds true of pretty much every dietary pattern. It really depends on what you eat most of the time.

There is some data that suggests vegetarian diets are associated with lower blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol levels, improved blood glucose control for those with type two diabetes, and lower rates of cancer.

It is likely that the increase in plant-foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, and seeds – all of which are beneficial for human health and prevention of chronic disease – among vegetarians and vegans is the reason for these findings.

Furthermore, vegans and vegetarians don’t consume processed meats and red meat, both of which have carcinogenic (cancer-causing) properties.

That said, ‘vegan’ does not automatically mean ‘healthy.’ Pre-packed vegan snack foods, baked goods, cookies, crackers and chips may not be better than their non-vegan counterparts. It’s important to eat a balanced vegan diet to ensure you get enough of the correct nutrients to be healthy, feel your best, and to thrive in your life. Hence this nutrition for vegans blog post!

Are vegan diets adequate?

If properly planned, vegan diets can be nutritionally adequate. Vegetarian and/or vegan diets can support all life stages, including childhood, adolescence, adulthood, pregnancy, and periods of lactation.

Vegan and vegetarian diets can also support active lifestyles. Yes, vegan diets are even appropriate for athletes. There isn’t too much research looking into dietary patterns and athletic performance, but one recent study I found showed no difference in athletic performance between meat eaters and vegans.

I have heard some people believe (or have been told by health professionals) that it is not possible for growing adolescents, children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, or females with amenorrhea to be healthful on a vegan diet. This is not true.

The American Dietetics Association and Dieticans of Canada, have stated it is possible to maintain a healthful vegan diet at any life-stage if done properly.

And from my prospective, it’s all about what you eat. You can do any diet properly or improperly; it’s all about making sure you get a diverse, balanced diet that contains all the macro and micronutrients you need in optimal amounts.

What nutrients do vegans need to watch?

As I mentioned above, properly planned vegan diets can be nutritionally adequate. Notice the phrase properly planned. There are some specific nutrients vegans should be keeping track of to ensure they are obtaining a healthy diet that meets their physiological needs.

Vitamin B-12

If I could urge vegans to monitor only one micronutrient in their diet, I would tell the watch their vitamin B-12 intake. Vitamin B-12 is an essential micronutrient that plays a role in DNA synthesis, the formation of red blood cells, and helps maintain proper neurological function.

Vitamin B-12 also acts as a cofactor for methionine (an amino acid) synthase, which catalyzes the conversion of homocysteine to methionine. This is important because high levels of homocysteine are associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke, and the formation of methionine is important, as it is required for the formation of S-adenosylmethione (or SAM), which is considered a universal methyl-donor for a multitude of substrates, including DNA, RNA, proteins, hormones, and lipids.

Signs and symptoms of deficiency include weakness, fatigue, lightheadness, pale skin, pale skin, diarrhea or constipation, tingling or numbness (especially in hands and feet), depression, memory loss, behavioral changes, depression, and vision loss.

If you want to know more about B12, I wrote an entire post about it. But basically, it is very important, and it can also be very hard for vegans to get enough of!

Vitamin B-12 is found mostly in animal products, like fish, meat, eggs, poultry, milk, milk products.

It’s also found in a couple vegan-friendly foods, like algae products, nutritional yeast, vitamin B-12-fortified breakfast cereals, and other fortified foods. Some plant milks and mock-meats are also fortified with B-12. If you’re curious, read labels.

I advise vegans who do not eat a lot of nutritional yeast and algae products (heck, even meat eaters or vegetarians who don’t eat a lot of eggs/meat/dairy) to seek out plant milks, cereals, and/or mock meats or other foods that are fortified with B-12. If these foods aren’t your thing or you can’t find them, I’d encourage you to take a B-12 supplement.

It’s very important to consume on a regular basis, even if you feel no symptoms of deficiency. Vitamin B-12 can be stored in the liver and if you have ample stores, you may not experience signs of clinical deficiency for a couple years.

However, you still need to make sure you’re getting enough B-12! Besides increasing the risk of heart disease, inadequate B-12 intake can cause irreversible neurological damage. So, please, vegans, make sure you get enough!

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What is Chlorpyrifos? Is Chlorpyrifos dangerous? Here’s what you need to know about the most widely-used insecticide in the US

September 12, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello friends! Today I’m combining my environmental health science and nutrition backgrounds to chat about pesticides – specifically chlorpyrifos. You may have heard of chlorpyrifos. It’s been the news cycle a lot the past couple of years. Long story short, it was supposed to be banned, and then the ban got delayed, and now we’re still waiting for the ban to go through. But let’s back up – what is chlorpyrifos? Is it dangerous?

What is chlorpyrifos?

Chlorpyrifos is a broad-spectrum, chlorinated organophosphate pesticide (aka a chemical compound) commonly used for pest control on crops, animals, and in buildings. Chlorpyrifos was first introduced by DowDuPoint Chemical Company in 1965, and has a variety of registered food and non-food applications.

Chlorpyrifos is considered the most widely used insecticide in the United States.

Notably, chlorpyrifos is used as a pesticide on a variety of food crops, including many fruits, vegetables, grains, and nut trees.

It also has plenty of non-food uses, such as application to golf course turf, industrial sites, greenhouse production, farms, woods, and is often used in residential pest-control (it’s common in roach and ant bait products). It’s also been used as a public health-based application for mosquito-controls (most often in situations where the benefits of broad application outweigh the risks).

Is Chlopyrifos Dangerous?

Yes, chlorpyrifos can be harmful to human health. How exactly? Bare with me through some long scientific lingo and we’ll get to the facts soon, I promise.

Chlorpyrifos is classified as an organophosphate pesticide. Organophosphates inactivate the enzyme cholinesterase, which is responsible for deactivation of the nerve signaling protein acetylcholine, which leads to a buildup of acetylcholine, which over time causes overactivation of nerve targets, including those of the heart, brain, and digestive system, among others.

Overstimulation of these nerve targets is associated with nausea, dizziness, confusion, loss of muscle control, and death. It’s similar in chemical structure as some of the nerve agents used in WWII. It is considered a neurotoxicant.

Within the past decade, concern has risen about adverse health outcomes associated with chlorpyrifos from not only shorter, higher levels of exposure, but also longer-term lower levels of exposure.

In the early 2000s, scientific evidence began to suggest a link between chlorpyrifos use and a variety of adverse developmental outcomes. Perhaps most famously, researchers from th Child Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (HUGE shout out to the alma matar!) found prenatal exposure (from residential environments – ie, spraying for bugs and pests) to chlorpyrifos causes structural changes in brain development.

The researchers at Mailman continued to study the chemical at levels of what wound be considered typical to high exposure, and found that prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos is associated with deficits in working memory and lower IQ at age 7. Yes, that’s right. This chemical can have long-term cognitive impacts.

CCEH scientists have also shown that exposure to chlorpyrifos is also linked to lower psychomotor developmental index scores, and lower mental development index scores in children, and their research suggests boys may be more vulnerable than girls.

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Climate Change and Wildfires: How are they connected?

August 28, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello! Given that wildfires have been all over the news lately, I thought they would make a good topic for a blog post. Specifically, we are going to discuss what ingredients are necessary for wildfires to start, and how climate change and wildfires are connected.

Wildfires have been increasing in the Western US since the 1980s. While there are normal fluctuations in wildfires cycles and climate patterns like El Nino which may impact wildfire frequency and intensity, it is clear that they are increasing.

Projections suggest that climate change will increase wildfire frequency and areas burned moving forward.

Ingredients for a Wildfire:

Before we dive more into wildfires and how climate change exacerbates conditions for wildfires to ignite or spread, it’s first important to understand the ingredients for wildfires.

The main ingredients needed for a wildfires include:

Availability of dry vegetation (“dry fuel”)
Hot and dry wind
And human or natural fire ignition

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What is the difference between Normal Eating, Disordered Eating, And Eating Disorders?

August 9, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

So it seems I have this habit of having an idea for a post, but then deciding everyone needs to be on the same page with some background info before I can really get into the nitty gritty of the next post (hence this entire series about hunger hormones, fasting/fed metabolism, and keto diets, etc). Today I’m planting a seed for a future post: we are going to be roughly defining the differences between normal eating, disordered eating, and eating disorders so we can discuss how to truly live a healthful fulfilling life and maintain a healthy diet, in a future post.

These topics are fragile ground and may bring up certain emotions or reactions. My only goal is to help educate. I hope you find this useful in some way and use it to check in on yourself or others, or use it to simply be a better-educated and self-protecting consumer of classic and social media.

Disclaimer: As always, this is general information. Please never replace individualized clinical care with generalized health information you read online. If you or someone you know suffers from an eating disorder, please see the National Eating Disorders Association website or text ‘NEDA’ to 741741 for 24/7 crisis support.

Now, let’s get onto the differences between normal eating, disordered eating, and eating disorders.

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What are the Social Determinants of Health?

August 6, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello everyone! Today I’m trying out something a little different here on the blog. Typically, I post nutrition content, recipes, recent eats recaps, and environmental health science stuff. But today we are talking public health; specifically, we are answering the question “what are the social determinants of health?”

Are you interested in public health? I am (clearly…I got my MPH). And I want to share some of what I’ve learned with others so everyone reading this can be a better-informed human, better equipped to understand health-related news articles with a greater perspective or understanding.

Lately I’ve been doing some reflecting and wondering what content I really want on my blog. I want my posts to be useful, informative, and entertaining…I am currently leaning more towards info-based posts and less recipe posts. There are approximately 10 million excellent recipe blogs out there, but there are far less blogs (that I know of) that provide science-based nutrition content.

So since I have the time and energy and motivation, I’m currently enjoying writing more science-based nutrition, environmental, and public health-focused post (while still doing recipes!) Let me know what you like to see around here. I’m always open to hearing your thoughts.

Anyways, that was a long random aside.

Back to the social determinants of health. I actually was assigned to write about this for a job I had, and I’m fairly sure my draft never got used. So it goes in content-creating jobs.

But while I was researching and writing the post, I got to thinking about how I wish I had been better educated about this topic from an earlier age. I feel like the social determinants of health was not really ever taught in any of my high school science or even undergrad classes. And as someone who took a lot of science and health-oriented classes, I wish it had been stressed with greater importance from the get-go!

I learned about the social determinants of health formally during my MS and MPH programs, especially in the later. While I have worked with people of many socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, I feel like learning more about the social determinants of health has been important in realistic understanding of complexity and deep systemic causes of many health-related issues, widening my compassion and understanding, and making me a more thoughtful, systems-thinking problem solver.

Moreover, I think the social determinants of health are super important to keep in mind when consuming “wellness” media, which often comes from a highly privileged lens. It’s not easy for most people to snap their fingers and make healthier choices – heck, some people can’t even afford safe transportation to the grocery store. But more on that later in another post. For now, let’s just chat about what the social determinants of health are.

So, What are the Social Determinants of Health?

The social determinants of health are conditions, including environmental, economic, and social conditions in a place a person lives, works, breathes, and learns, that can have a wide range of impacts on many health risks, disease rates, and quality-of-life outcomes.

The social determinants of health can play a significant role in a person or a community’s well-being. Although they have been historically understudied, the social determinants of health are now gaining increasing attention as an essential component of understanding and improving human health.

Examples of Social Determinants of Health:

As mentioned above, the social determinants of health encompass a variety of conditions, including environmental, economic, and social conditions, among others.

But what are some examples of social of determinants of health?

Economic Conditions:

Well, let’s start with economic conditions. Poverty itself is a known health risk factor for a multitude of diseases and physical and mental health conditions. A person’s ability to afford safe places to live, ample basic resource needs such as nutritious food and clean water, and access to healthcare are important to health.

Think about it: if you can only afford a moldy, cockroach-infested apartment near an airport, you are exposing yourself to a wide variety of allergens that someone in a newer apartment in a lower-emission neighborhood may experience.

Likewise, if you live in a low income neighborhood with tainted water, you are more likely to experience health risks than someone who lives in a higher-income neighborhood with clean water, or an individual who can afford a water filter.

Nutritious food also costs money. While it is easy to tell people to simply “get creative” with budgets and low-cost healthy foods like beans or frozen vegetables, the reality is that many people live in food deserts where healthy groceries are not as readily available or extremely expensive. At an even more basic level, some people can’t even afford transportation to and/or from a grocery store.

And then, of course, there’s health care. Many have struggled, or continue to struggle, to afford adequate medical, dental, and mental health care.

Economics can also play a large role in available educational and occupational opportunities a person has available to them. I believe Obama once said “You can’t reach for what you can’t see,” and I find this to be very true. Many in low-resource settings may not be exposed to the same educational opportunities or scholarships to achieve higher education or training of any type. This plays a longer-term role in their financial well-being, creating a difficult-to-break cycle.

Social Conditions:

Social conditions are another social determinant of health. Social attitudes and norms, exposure to crime and violence, residential segregation, and distrust of government, all contribute to a person’s well-being. Discrimination or historical trauma are also considered social determinants of health. Historically marginalized groups may still suffer from prejudice or stigmatization.

Sadly, racism, sexism, stigma, and oppression are still all present in the United States and across the world. These social conditions can impact a person’s physical and mental health, as well as their ability to thrive academically or professionally, which may impact their finances, which also may impact their health.

On the flip side, social privilege can lead to greater health opportunities. We all hear about someone who knows someone who can got them in to see a top doctor or specialist. Those with more financial resources can also afford medical treatments or traveling for medical treatments, as well as more preventive resources, like healthy food, firness classes, mental health therapy, and stress-management treatments like massages.

Environmental Conditions:

And then there are environmental determinants of health, of which, there are many. Environmental toxins, for example, have emerged as a hot topic in recent years. From lead in pipes to quality of the air a person has to breathe, environmental conditions can have an enormous impact on human health.

The built environment also plays a role. Think about the place you live: can you walk or run outside while feeling safe? Do you have access to parks and green spaces? Are there sidewalks and bike lanes? All of these are considered built environmental privileges.

Access to green space, the availability of safe roads, sidewalks and bike lanes, environmental conditions and exposure to toxins, local air and water quality, and even aesthetic elements including good lighting, trees, and benches, can all contribute to a person’s physical or physiological well-being.

Putting it all together:

Together, social, environmental, and economic conditions make up the social determinants of health. Keep in mind the above examples are exhaustive. There are many social determinants of health that can have a snowball effect.

For example, being born into a zip code with an under-resourced school system may limit a person’s opportunities for higher education, and/or impact their professional opportunities and shape their future level of income.

Furthermore, if that neighborhood has no safe places to play, someone growing up in that neighborhood may not have the opportunities to exercise as much as kids in safer neighborhoods. They may also have a harder time getting safely to a grocery store with accessible, affordable healthier food options. All of these can have long-term affects.

With limited income comes limited access other physical, health, and social resources, with potential intergenerational effects (meaning lesser resources for the individual’s children, etc).

I hope this was at least someone helpful and/or interesting to understand some social determinants of health, and help you keep an open mind as to why not everyone can just snap their fingers and make healthier choices. I’m planning a whole post about how this stuff plays into nutrition and the wellness industry, so stay tuned for that.

Until then, feel free to let me know if you did indeed find this at all interesting, and leave questions, comments, or post topic requests below, and/or say hello on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube!

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What is the difference between weather and climate?

August 3, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

What is the difference between weather and climate? Is there a difference? Does it matter?

Even though they are often used interchangeably in daily conversation and certain politicians may not understand or appreciate the difference, there is indeed a distinct difference between weather and climate, and yes, it matters.

I know this blog has been heavy on the environmental health science content lately. I’m just feeling inspired to share some knowledge while my MPH in Environmental Health Science is still fresh and before I start back focusing primarily on nutrition. As always, I welcome questions, post topic requests, comments or concerns here on the blog, or

But that’s enough of me chatting. Let’s get to the point and define weather and climate. Then we’ll chat about the differences.

Weather:

Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a particular time and place. Temperature, pressure, humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, air pressure, and visibility are all components of weather.

Weather is a mixture of events that happen each day in the atmosphere, and is different in different parts of the world. Weather changes over minutes, hours, days, and weeks.

Climate:

Climate describes “average” weather over sufficiently long intervals of time. It describes not only averages of various weather components, like temperature and precipitation, but also describes the frequency of extreme events.

Different regions have different climates. To describe a climate of a location, a scientist may look at trends or averages over decades.

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How Does Climate Change Impact Human Health?

July 28, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hi internet friends! How are you? I was pleasantly surprised by the high level of interest in the “What does it mean when your cell phone says “Unhealthy Air Quality for Sensitive Groups?” post I wrote last week. Turns out, people are interested in environmental health-related issues! Yay information! Due to the interest, I thought I’d roll out some more climate and health-related content. In today’s post, I am going to do a brief overview about how climate change can impact human health.

This has been a more nutrition-sided than environmental health-sided blog lately, but seeing as I’m going back to nutrition as my primary academic focus in fall, why not use my MPH in environmental health science while all the info is fresh!

Plus, it’s super interesting (at least to me, and I hope to many of you) and motivating to make actionable changes in your life and advocate for even more.

So how does climate change impact human health? Well, in a lot of ways! I’m going to do a brief overview of a variety of ways climate change can impact health.

Let me know in the comments below (or on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube) if you’d like more information or a specific post on any of the below subtopics.

I feel very fortunate to have gotten my MPH in Environmental Health Science with my certificate in Climate & Health from the university that pioneered an academic focus in that area. I realize this is a huge privilege to have learned so much about how climate change impacts human health, and I want to share what I’ve learned with others. So please ask questions about anything! I am happy to elaborate!

**Don’t want to read? Check out the video version here, or scroll to the bottom of this post.

Air Pollution

Air pollution causes an estimated 8 million deaths each year. Poor air quality increases risks of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, eye irritation, skin diseases, and neuropsychiatric complications, and even cancer. Air pollution can exacerbate existing medical conditions such as asthma high blood pressure.

Human-produced indoor and outdoor (ambient) air pollution are both serious sources of pollution, both of which contribute to climate change and cause human health impacts.

*Quick side note: does it make sense to you how climate change even occurs? I’d be happy to write a separate post about it. Let me know if that’s of interest!

Allergens

Got allergies? I have some sad news for you. Climate change can make your allergies worse. How? By changing temperature and precipitation patterns that characterize different seasons of the year, climate change may prolong plant pollination period, and thus, lengthen and exacerbate the amount of allergens that make their way into the air in many areas.

Additionally, elevated CO2 concentrations and temperatures increase pollen output of plants. Meaning more stuff will is in the air to make you sneezy, itchy, weezy, etc.

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What does it mean when your phone says “Unhealthy Air Quality for Sensitive Groups?”

July 20, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Ever look down at the weather app on your iphone and see some small text under the temperature that reads “Unhealthy Air Quality for Sensitive Groups?” Ever wonder what that means? And if you should be concerned?

Today we are going to be discussing exactly what that unhealthy air quality for sensitive groups warning means, and what you can and should do when you see it.

While this blog has been heavily nutrition-focused lately, but this post is going to tap into my Environmental Health Science MPH. May as well use it, right?

What is AQI?

Before we can understand what “Unhealthy Air Quality” means, let’s first talk about what it is and how it’s measured. Air Quality Index (AQI) is a term used by government agencies to communicate with the public how polluted the air is or is forecasted to be.

Generally speaking, the higher the AQI, the greater the public health risk. Different governments have different national air quality standards to classify different health risks and communicate these risks to their citizens.

How is the AQI Calculated?

In the US, the EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act, including particulate matter (read my whole post about what PM is here), carbon monoxide, ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.

Air monitors collect and record pollutants over 1,000 locations across the country. The raw data is used to develop a separate AQI for each of the 5 mentioned pollutants. The highest of the AQI values from these 5 is reported as the AQI value of the day.

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Let’s Talk About Dietary Supplements (And what precautions to take when they are marketed to you all over social media)

June 26, 2019 by Katherine Baker 1 Comment

Hello to my wonderful friends from all corners of the internet! Today we are going to be chatting about dietary supplements. I get a lot of questions from friends, family members, and followers about supplements. Should you take a multivitamin? Which brand? Do supplements work? What about if I workout? Do diet pills work? Etc etc. I get it. There’s a lot of confusion out there.

And then, of course, I frequently see people on my Facebook feed, or influencers on my Instagram suggested page, selling all sorts of lovely supplements, making various promises that range from weight loss to improved brain function to increased muscle strength to better sleep. Suddenly it seems like many people feel well-qualified to give dietary advice and sell supplements!

There’s also this extremely bizarre-to-me trend of influencers ingesting all sorts of pre-workout powdery concoctions, bulking up frothy beverages with all sorts of mystical potions, and getting IV “vitamin cleanses,” and acting as if these activities are not only glamorous, but also totally normal ways to improve one’s health.

All of this adds to the noise and confusions about what – if any – supplements are the best for consumers to take. And with the multi-billion dollar supplement industry continuing to grow at a rapid pace, it seems like every day we’re infiltrated with advertisement for a new “essential” supplement to add to our daily routines.

If you know me at all, you know that the spread of illegitimate nutrition information and trends is one of my biggest peeves. So rather than continuing to suppress all my feelings, or end up thrashing out irrationally, I thought it was time to use my platform to shed some truth about nutrition-related issues. Including supplements.

So let’s get into it. The highs, lows, unknowns, and in between of dietary supplements.

Disclaimer: As always, this is general information intended for healthy adults who are not pregnant or breastfeeding. Your needs may vary based on medical status, lifestyle, or life-stage. Please never replace generalized health information you’ve read online with individualized clinical care.

No One Regulates Supplements Before They Hit Shelves

If there’s one thing you should be aware of as a consumer, it’s that no one regulates supplements before they hit the market. That’s right – no one – not the FDA, USDA, etc – regulates dietary or herbal supplements for quality, safety, or purity before you’re able to pick up a bottle at your local drug store.

The FDA does prohibit companies from marketing adulterated or misbranded supplements, meaning they have a legislation in place that prohibits tainted products from hitting store shelves, and outlaws manufacturers from selling products that aren’t as advertised. However, since there is no pre-sale testing required for a product to hit the market, a lot of stuff very easily slips through the cracks.

That means you could, quite literally, be spending your hard earned money on sugar pills, pills that don’t actually contain the amount of supplements advertised on the bottle, or contaminated supplements that contain all sorts of unwanted components, including prescription drugs and heavy metals. All of these have happened, and all of them are worrisome.

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