nutrition

Is Coconut Oil Good for You?

October 29, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Coconut oil falls under the category of foods that some people consider to be a miracle food, and others claim to be poison. Some diets and blogs applaud embrace the oil and speak highly of its alleged health benefits, while others see it as toxic goo that should be avoided at all costs. Which begs the question: is coconut oil good for you?

Let’s take a look at the current state of the science, and see what it says about coconut oil, and I’ll let you make your own conclusions.

*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 ca

What is Coconut Oil?

Coconut oil is a tropical oil made from the kernel (aka the white ‘meat’) of mature coconuts.

There are two types of coconut oil found commonly in the marketplace: copra oil, which is typically made from dried coconut meat, and virgin coconut oil (VCO), which is processed from fresh coconut meat within 24 hours. The two forms have similar nutrient profiles, but VCO is considered “unrefined.”

So what does the science say? Is coconut oil good for you?

Many people believe the fat in coconut oil has beneficial properties; it is often touted upon for containing medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs). MCFAs are absorbed differently than short and long chain fatty acids, and there has been some data to suggest that MCFAs have some unique and potentially beneficial properties.

It is true that MCFAs are considered to be absorbed more efficiently than long chain fatty acids. Unlike other fatty acids, which must be transported through the lymph, MCFAs are transported from the gut directly to the liver, and can enter the mitochondria independently of the carnitine transport system. They also undergo preferential oxidation, meaning they are quickly harvested as fuel for the body.

However, coconut oil is not primarily composed of MCFAs; in fact, it typically contains no more than 14% MCFAs, and is about 80-90% saturated fat.

High levels of saturated fatty acid consumption has been consistently and strongly associated with increased LDL levels.

LDL is a type of cholesterol often referred to as ‘the bad cholesterol,’ as it allows cholesterol to build up in the blood, and can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, which is currently the number one killer in the United States.

It’s recommended that most people consume only 7-10% of their total calories from saturated fat; even less (usually 5-6%) is recommended for those with elevated LDL levels.

Seeing as coconut oil is rich in saturated fats, many major scientific and medical regulatory advisory boards, including the American Heart Association, have suggested limiting or avoiding coconut oil consumption, and replacing it with other types of fat (like mono and polyunsaturated fats, see this article for more).

A review of coconut oil and cardiovascular risk factors published in 2016 supports this recommendation.

Some news headlines and health influencers have also given the public the impression that coconut oil can be used for prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, bone loss, and glycemic (blood sugar) control.

An actual look at the data behind these claims suggests all studies on these disease topics are limited, and fail to show significant or consistent properly-powered results.

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What is lactose intolerance? What causes lactose intolerance?

October 28, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. I apologize for the blip in blogging; I have been crazy busy with school and experiencing simultaneous computer issues. I am really hoping my laptop holds out for service until winter break. I really need it! Eep! Anyways, today while studying for a test, I was reviewing lactose intolerance and thought “Gee, this is interesting. Maybe I can procrastinate studying by writing a blog post about what causes lactose intolerance.”

So here we are! Procrastinating studying by writing about something else I’m studying. Do I know how to have a good time or what? But all jokes aside – this is a topic that impacts the majority of people (yup, more people are lactose intolerant than tolerant – read on to find out why).

I grew up super duper lactose intolerant, and that was back in the day before there was a dairy-free version of everything (I remember kids making fun of my Silk Very Vanilla boxes of soy milk, which by the way, are still delicious). Luckily, lactose intolerance is easy for most to manage, especially nowadays thanks to the dairy-free boom. But let’s chat about what lactose intolerance actually is, and why it happens. Read on!

What is lactose intolerance?

Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest lactose, which is the main sugar found in milk. Lactase, an enzyme, breaks lactose into glucose and galactose, to be absorbed by your small intestine.

People with lactose intolerance have insufficient lactase, meaning lactose in milk can’t properly be split into glucose and galactose for easier absorption.

Instead, individuals who are lactose intolerant have undigested lactose in their colon. Bacteria flock to the lactose to try to break it down. This fermentation process causes osmosis (meaning it brings water to the area) and creates gas, which comes out as, well, gas. The bacterial breakdown of lactose leads to the symptoms associated with lactose intolerance.

What are the symptoms of lactose intolerance?

Bloating, diarrhea, gas, abdominal pain, nausea, stomach rumbling/gurgling sounds, and indigestion upon ingestion of milk or milk products.

Some people may even vomit upon ingestion of lactose-foods.

What causes lactose intolerance in humans?

As it turns out, lactase deficiency is actually the norm for most adult populations. In most mammals (including humans), the gene that transcribes for lactase to be produced is turned off as the mammal matures after weaning off milk from their mothers, limiting their ability to digest milk after childhood.

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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!

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 3 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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Can You Drink Too Much Water?

September 10, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

“Stay hydrated, fam.” is a phrase I hear and see a lot. I don’t know when advocating for hydration became trendy, but at some point it did. I’m a fan of staying hydrated, and I think the reminders are helpful. Being dehydrated is very uncomfortable – not to mention potentially dangerous. However, sometimes people ask me about the other extreme: can you drink too much water?

Well, like I always say, the dose makes the poison. You can have too much of anything (stay tuned for a ‘can you consume too much protein post, coming soon), including water. In this post, I explain how and why you can drink too much water, and why it can be dangerous.

Water 101:

Water is essential for life. Our bodies are made up of about 55-70% water. It’s a vital component of cells, helps to regulate internal body protein, lubricates joints, acts as a shock absorber for the brain and spinal cord, aids digestion, and helps us flush away waste in the form of urination.

While the whole “Drink 8 8-ounce glasses of water per day,” things isn’t based on much evidence in particular, you should indeed drink enough water to quench your thirst and avoid dehydration.

The exact amount varies from person to person, and there are actually very few recommendations made by health organization that specifically state the amount needed per day, but according to the Institute of Medicine, it’s generally thought that males need 16 cups of water a day, and adult females need about 11 cups per day.

This can include water intake from foods (such as fruits and vegetables), as well as beverages (and yes, you can include coffee and tea in your intake tallies).

Again, the exact amount of water needed varies person to person, day by day, but ample water consumption is important to avoid dehydration.

Dehydration can occur if you lose more water than you take in, and can lead to confusion, fainting, electrolyte imbalance, rapid heartbeat, improper kidney function, and death.

Why Too Much Water is Dangerous: Hyponatremia

In the same way that too little water can lead to electrolyte imbalance, too much water can also lead to electrolyte imbalance.

The most common electrolyte disorder is low blood sodium – a condition known as hyponatremia.

Sodium is an electrolyte found mostly outside the cells, and its balance is important for maintaining blood pressure, and normal nerve, muscle, and tissue function.

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How Sleep Impacts Hunger and Nutrition

September 8, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

I am writing this post at 10:00pm on a Saturday night. It’s way past my bedtime, but between coming down with a cold and feeling particularly anxious lately, I find myself up late, creating content. And what better nutrition question to write about than how sleep impacts hunger and nutrition!

I remember learning about how sleep impacts hunger and fullness cues, and overall health during my MS in human nutrition program. One of my professors did a lot of sleep research, and she was very passionate about the topic. I always found it kind of funny to learn about the importance of sleep and the detrimental impacts of stress in very stressful, time-consuming, sleep-depriving programs.

Anyways, today we are going to chat answer questions about sleep, and how sleep impacts hunger and fullness cues, and overall wellbeing. Grab some cozy PJs and get ready to read!

How Sleep Deprivation Messes with your health: It’s all about the hormones

Sleep is the natural, reversible loss of consciousness. And it’s super important to maintaining homeostasis. In addition to allowing your body time to repair itself, sleep supports growth and development, proper immune function, and plays a large role in regulating pathways that affect the central nervous system and metabolism.

Poor sleep quality or sleep deprivation influences the body’s neuroendocrine and stress responses (many believe this is through the body’s hypothalmic-pituitary-axis, or HPA for short). This means, it regulates a lot of hormones related to stress and subsequently metabolism.

Sleep and Cortisol

Sleep deprivation can increase your body’s level of cortisol – a stress hormone. Cortisol can play a large role in regulating other hormones, including those related to appetite and reward systems (more on that below).

Elevated cortisol levels have been shown to increase intake of highly palatable foods, and encourage overeating by influencing the brain’s reward systems.

Excessive cortisol levels may send your body into a “flight-or-fight” mode, and shut down any unessential functions. This includes things like digestion and reproduction.

So, if your cortisol levels are high, due to a lack of sleep, and/or other life . stressors, you may experience some digestive issues, including slower gastric emptying, or acceleration of intestinal transit (meaning it impacts the speed at which your food gets through your GI tract and into the toilet).

How Sleep Impacts Hunger and Fullness Hormones:

Sleep helps you regulate hormones that impact your appetite. If you want a more detailed refresher on hormones that regulate hunger and fullness cues, check out this post about them.

Otherwise, know this: When you are sleep deprived, the level of ghrelin (the hormone that signals to your body that you are hungry) in your body increases. This means, you may feel hungrier if you didn’t sleep enough.

I personally have experienced ravenous hunger upon extended stints of inadequate sleep, and maybe you have too. Whether I’m traveling for days on end, am trying to truck through finals week, or for whatever reason, have several nights in a row where I’m just not sleeping well, I notice I feel much snackier, and this is likely because my homeostatic control of ghrelin is a little off.

But it’s not just ghrelin that’s thrown off. Leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full, is decreased with sleep deprivation. That means, not only are you hungrier if you don’t sleep enough, you’re also less likely to feel satiated.

The increase in ghrelin and decrease in leptin brought about by sleep deprivation may have a direct impact on how much you eat.

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What To Eat (and to avoid) When You Have Diarrhea

September 2, 2019 by Katherine Baker Leave a Comment

Hey everyone! How are you poo-in’? Sorry, I couldn’t resist a poop pun. Not that you asked, but ever since I ate a wonky Subway while road tripping about two weeks ago things have been um…loose for me. Thus, I thought a post about diarrhea, and specifically what to eat (and to avoid) when you have diarrhea, could be helpful or useful to everyone because the reality is, we all have the runs from time to time.

I’ve been implementing several of these tactics into my routine since the Subway incident. If you want to know just how ruthless this bout of diarrhea has been for me, let’s just say, I had a full adult “blowout” at the grocery store the other day. Yup. It was messy. Like, dripping down my legs messy. And the craziest part was, I didn’t even realize it was happening until I felt the cold trickle down my leg and abandoned my cart full of bananas to inspect the situation in the lady’s room.

Well now. I don’t know what else to say except that you probably didn’t want to know that, but now that you do, let’s just move past this awkwardness and read about what diarrhea is, and what you can eat and do and avoid when you have diarrhea.

*Disclaimer: As always, this is general information intended for healthy adults to gather general information about what to eat (and to avoid) when you have diarrhea. 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.

First of all, what is diarrhea?

Well, I’m glad you asked. Diarrhea is defined by loose, watery stools three or more times a day. Diarrhea can be further categorized as acute, persistent, or chronic.

Acute diarrhea typically lasts a day or two and goes away on its own. Persistent diarrhea lasts anywhere between 2-4 weeks. And chronic diarrhea typically lasts over 4 weeks, but may come and go.

Other symptoms often related to diarrhea include cramping, an urgent need to go to the bathroom, abdominal pain, and nausea. You may experience all, none, or some of these symptoms.

What Causes Diarrhea?

Many things may cause diarrhea, including food allergies and intolerances, foodbourne illness, viral infections, bacterial infections, bowel disorders including IBS, IBD, Crohn’s disease and colitis, and parasites.

Anxiety may also lead diarrhea by making IBS symptoms worse.

Why is Diarrhea Dangerous?

All poop jokes aside, diarrhea can be dangerous, and is the second leading cause of death in children under 5 in developing countries.

Even in developed countries, diarrhea often leads to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, both of which can be serious and dangerous. Electrolytes are essential minerals that regulate blood pressure, muscle contractions, and many other bodily functions, and electrolyte imbalance puts the body at risk of heart coma, seizures, heart palpitations, and even death.

Furthermore, diarrhea may cause nutrient malabsorption. Because food is moving through the intestines at such a rapid pace, the body may not be able to absorb enough nutrients from the food consumed, putting individuals at risk of becoming malnourished.

What To Do When You Have Diarrhea:

If you have diarrhea, there are many things you can do to make yourself feel better, or at the very least, avoid dehydration, and/or making your diarrhea worse. Read on for a quick list of things to do when you have diarrhea!

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The Whole30 Diet: Is Whole30 good for you? What does the science say about Whole30?

August 25, 2019 by Katherine Baker 4 Comments

Hey there friends! It’s been a minute since I wrote a science/nutrition type post. Life has been crazy and all over the place. But let’s not dwell upon that. Let’s talk about the Whole 30 diet. A lot of people ask me about Whole 30. But what is the Whole 30 diet? Is Whole 30 Good for you? Today, we will look at the science behind the Whole30 diet?

PS: Video version at bottom of post or watch here.

What is Whole30?

I never learned about the Whole 30 diet in my masters of nutrition program, nor in my undergraduate nutrition classes. The Whole 30 diet is not included in my Clinical Nutrition textbooks, nor is it in my nutritional biochem textbook (granted, these books are a couple years old, but still).

So, I turned to the internet to find see what was out there about Whole30.

I couldn’t find any scientific studies on Whole30 on PubMed nor Google Scholar.

Thus, I turned to regular Google. According to the Whole30 official website, Whole30 is a 30-day diet that emphasizes whole foods and the elimination of sugar (real or artificial, including maple syrup, agave, coconut sugar, date syrup, Splenda, Stevia, etc) alcohol, grains including wheat, corn, rice, millet, etc, legumes of all kinds (ie: beans, peanuts, and peas), soy, dairy, and carrageenan, MSG, and sulfites.

The Whole30 program also forbids consuming baked goods, treats, or junk foods made with “approved” ingredients, as well as stepping on the scale or measuring one’s body during the 30 days.

According to the website, you must completely adhere to the full program “exactly as written 100% for the full 30 days.” If you have any “slip ups,” (even a bite of pizza) you “have” to start over again on Day 1.

Whole30 is also a lifestyle brand, of sorts. The website offers a couple Whole30-related books, and seems to work with brands on “Whole30-approved” certifications for certain products.

What Does Whole30 promise?

The Whole30 website claims that completing the Whole30 program will lead to “stunning, life-changing results.” According to their website, Whole30 can cure digestive ailments, seasonal allergies, skin issues, inflammation, and improve your immune system.

The Whole30 also advertises itself as a “nutritional reset” to help you “end” unhealthy cravings and habits.

There are no links to any scientific studies to support these claims on the Whole30 website. There are, however, links to Whole30 books available for purchase, written by the Whole30 founders.

Who Designed Whole30?

According to the Whole30 website, the diet was founded by Melissa Hartwig Urban, who obtained a sports nutrition certificate from ISSN (according to her LinkedIn page). ISSN is an online nutrition certificate site,sponsored by Bayer, bioPro, CBD+oil, Muscletech, and many other companies.

I can’t speak about the quality of the program as I have never taken the exam.

What Does the Science Say About Whole30?

As I alluded to above, I couldn’t find a single scientific studies on Whole30 and the diet’s impact on health on PubMed nor Google Scholar, nor did I ever learn about it in any academic nutrition setting. It’s not in any nutrition textbook I own, etc.

So, every health claim made by the Whole30 website lacks scientific data. Normally, when researching a diet or trend, I try to weigh the evidence and sift through the science available to determine the validity of claims made. However, in this case, all I can say is, there is no evidence to support any health benefits of the Whole30.

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What are the Social Determinants of Health?

August 6, 2019 by Katherine Baker 1 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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