Food Journaling - A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words!

Here's a topic that comes up often with clients - Food journaling!  We ask all of our clients to journal because it's one of the most valuable tools nutrition professionals can use to monitor your eating habits. Studies have shown that consistent food journaling helps with weight loss success, diabetes and food allergy management, and food intolerance identification.

Unfortunately, some people do not see the value in keeping a journal. Some reasons are that it's tedious, or they simply forget. As a nutrition professional, I cannot tell you how helpful it is for me to see your food journal!  By completing one I can get a very good idea of your habits, as well as any changes or additions that you can make to further aid in improving your health. Perhaps you could think of us as food detectives!

With our method there is no need to focus on calorie counting or specific micronutrient intake. Let's see why! Number-driven food logging does not always take the nutritional quality of foods into account. Additionally, number-driven journaling can have a negative effect because you may become obsessed with the numbers. Also, you may feel the need to only focus on low-calorie foods, instead of truly learning how to nourish your body with wholesome foods.  One small study looked at reasons individuals missed food journaling entries and discovered that "13 percent of respondents intentionally did not journal for not wanting to exceed their caloric budget for the day." How sad! Lastly,
number-focused food journaling could be dangerous for some individuals’ mindset. "One dietitian reported that if a client eats nourishing meals all week long, but then consciously chooses pizza for dinner on Friday night, seeing a high number of calories and grams of fat may interfere with positive progress the client has made in their relationship with food. This “all or nothing” mindset that many chronic dieters experience can lead to further discouragement and feelings of failure. This may even encourage an unhealthy relationship with food."

Thankfully, we focus on your total intake and look at it as a whole. To help us do that we have recently added the use of our Healthie app.  Rather than a number-driven journal, Healthie’s patient friendly app utilizes photo-based food journaling. This is great because you can now easily take pictures of your food, post them in our app, and rate it with categories such as pre-meal hunger, post-meal fullness, perceived healthiness of the meal and more.  Journaling this way allows you to take a view of your intake as a whole rather than being hyper-focused on the numbers.

Believe it or not, photos of your food have been shown to be an accurate tool to help estimate the nutrient content of your meals, as well as their portions! Plus, studies have shown that this type of journaling can lead to improvements in taste perception, recall of food eaten as well as the details surrounding the meal itself, journaling, trying new foods to help you become a better eater, make healthier food choices, and increase mindfulness with your intake. Interestingly, people reported feeling less judgment surrounding their food choices, which increases food journaling compliance. Pretty neat!

As always, we want to help you be more successful in reaching your goals, which is why we integrated photo food logging. Now you can easily and quickly track your food in our patient-friendly mobile app and we are notified in real-time of new journal entries. We may comment on journal entries to increase your engagement and accountability between sessions.

If you are an existing client and have not tried our Healthie app give it a whirl!  Reach out to us too if you need help getting started.  And, for those of you contemplating with working with us what's stopping you!  We're happy to chat with you to see if our program is a good fit for you.  Contact us today!

Reference:  Healthie Staff, July 12, 2017, Photo Food Loggine: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Nutrients., http://blog.gethealthie.com/2017/07/12/photo-food-logging-a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-nutrients/

Diet Linked to Mortality

When you follow our program one thing you will notice right from the start is that your consumption of produce increases, and we also encourage general healthy eating practices like including whole grains, nuts and seeds along with lean protein.  Not only do these foods help with weight loss and weight maintenance, but they are important to aiding in longevity.  Were you aware that there are dietary factors that are linked with major diseases and premature death in the United States?

Sadly, there are particular dietary factors that are associated with more deaths from some diseases.  For example, it was found that the most deaths from heart disease were from low consumption of nuts and seeds, as well as seafood and a high consumption of processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and sodium. Another example is deaths from stroke were associated with a low produce intake from fruits and vegetable and high sodium intake.  Lastly, with type 2 diabetes the most deaths were from a diet low in whole grains and high in processed meats and sugar-sweetened beverages.  Hopefully, this information will inspire you to make any necessary changes.

With that in mind, here is a list of 10 factors associated with increased mortality:

1. High in sodium

2. Low in nuts/seeds

3. High in processed meats

4. Low in seafood omega-3 fat

5. Low in vegetables

6. Low in fruits

7. High in sugar-sweetened drinks

8. Low in whole grains

9. Low in polyunsaturated fat

10. High in unprocessed red meat

Regarding diet, there is no quick fix.  However, over time we can develop healthy eating habits.  To start, compare your current eating habits to the dietary factors listed above and decide what you can do to improve them.  For example, could you include more produce in your regimen? Or could you snack on nuts and seeds instead of chips? Believe it or not, small changes add up over time.

Reference:  Health & Nutrition Letter, Tufts University, July 2017, VOL. 35, NO. 5, Diet Causing 300,000+ Annual Cardiovascular & Diabetes Deaths (p.1&3).

Sustainable Protein

We wanted to take a minute to talk about sustainable protein sources.  As many of you know our program ensures that you are meeting your minimum protein intake.  However, we'd like to dive a little deeper and talk to you about our environment. 

Though consuming lean sources of meat from beef and lamb are quite tasty and pack a protein punch, they also take a toll on the environment.  This is due to the land needed for these animals, as well as the harmful emissions such as greenhouse gases that are emitted.  We're not saying that you need to go out and start eating insects and soy-based imitation meat, but we are saying you may want to consider making small changes.  For example, try shifting towards chicken and eggs as there is less land associated with these protein sources.  Even this small change is impressive as that benefits are close in magnitude to insect and soy protein options.  In addition, just reducing your protein intake from beef and lamb helps too!  We hope you will give some thought to this idea!

Reference:  Health & Nutrition Letter, Tufts University, July 2017, VOL. 35, NO. 5, Seeking Sustainable Protein Sources (p.2).

Physical Activity Helps Fight Inflammation!

Always supportive of my endeavors my husband asked to join me at barre class the other day. His comment at the end was, "I feel like I'm going to vomit." 🤤 He then said he had an appreciation for the exercise I do - what a guy!

Because this is low impact activity you could engage in it while following our plan. Here are some benefits:

IT'S A WORKOUT FOR EVERYONE
YOU'LL FEEL A DEEP MUSCLE BURN
IT'LL BALANCE YOUR BODY (AND YOUR MIND)
YOU'LL GET REALLY FLEXIBLE
AND NOTICE BETTER POSTURE
IT HELPS REPAIR MUSCLES POST-PARTUM
AND OFFER LOWER BACK RELIEF
IT'LL FIRM UP YOUR BUTT

Did you also know that in general physical activity fights against inflammation?  That's right, it's good for your heart, and the main reason why is that it helps ward off inflammation that comes from fat (adipose) tissue.  Unfortunately, adipose tissue plays a role in the development of cardiometabolic disease such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

A study of 1,970 adults aged on average at 65 years old from a multi-ethnic population from regions across the United States showed that the more time people were engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity improved markers for inflammation. This is just another reason to get involved in some sort of activity and to stay regular with it.

Reference:  Health & Nutrition Letter, Tufts University, July 2017, VOL. 35. NO. 5, Physical Activity Is Anti-Inflammatory (p. 2).

Sugar Addiction

Have you ever heard that you could be "addicted" to sugar.  Well, there may be some truth to that.  Though it's not entirely clear research coming out of Australia has shown there is an addictive quality in sucrose, which is the scientific term for table sugar.  As we already know excess sugar consumption can lead to weight gain, among other health conditions.

Did you know that excess sugar consumption not only has negative effects of you physical health, but also your mental wellbeing?  It can actually mess with your brain functioning - yikes!  What happens is that it elevates dopamine levels in your brain.  Dopamine is the feel good chemical that is released in the brain.  Drugs like cocaine, morphine, and nicotine cause a similar release. Sadly, as your brain gets used to an increase in sugar, less dopamine is produced which causes you to need more.

Right now, researchers are looking for ways to counteract this.  One study showed that Varenicline, an FDA approved medication used to help people quit smoking may be able to help.  This is because it's a "partial agonist" and binds to the pleasure and reward receptors in the brain, which would reduce cravings.  That would allow dopamine levels to return to normal.  Before trying this keep in mind that Varenicline is still a drug, so using it to replace another drug may not necessarily be the best strategy.  Talk to you doctor about this.

The purpose of this post is to share with you that sugar addiction should be taken more seriously.  And, if you are someone with sugar cravings it is not because you have no self control, but it may be that it's affecting your brain.


Reference:  Fooducate, Sugar - Food or Drug? http://www.fooducate.com/app#!page=post&id=5937A1E2-3B4E-43DB-483C-9C12003D75C2

How to Lose Belly Fat

Naturally when you want to lose weight we hope it melts away evenly.  However, sometimes we notice that the fat in our belly may be stubborn and hang on longer than we would like.  With that in mind, we may turn to exercise to shed that added weight.  Although that will help tone your abdominal muscles you may not lose the belly fat, or visceral fat, underneath it with exercise.  The thing about visceral fat in your abdominal region is that when you have too much of it you increase your chances of diabetes and heart disease. So what can we do? 

Here are lifestyle changes your can make:

• Increase home cooked meals
• Decrease portions
• Increase lean protein and decrease refined carbohydrates
• Increase healthy fats from nuts and seeds
• Avoid soft drinks and fruit juices
• Eat lots of leafy greens
• Eat fruits, not smoothies
• Eat fiber rich foods such as whole grains and legumes
• Get more sleep
• Exercise

Reference:  Fooducate, How to Lose Belly Fat, http://www.fooducate.com/app#!page=post&id=594F6F0F-1D81-7BF5-4EFF-9FD25425D0CA

The Importance of Protein

We wanted to take a moment to talk to you about protein.  Did you know that along with fat and carbohydrates, protein is a "macronutrient," meaning that the body needs relatively large amounts of it. However, unlike fat and carbohydrates the body does not store protein, and therefore has no reservoir to draw on when it needs a new supply. "Proteins are made up of hundreds or thousands of smaller units called amino acids, which are attached to one another in long chains. There are 20 different types of amino acids that can be combined to make a protein. The sequence of amino acids determines each protein’s unique 3-dimensional structure and its specific function."

Proteins are essential to everything that is vital.  They play a role in the work that takes place in cells, and are necessary for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs.  Here are some functions of protein:

Antibodies - Help attack bacteria and viruses, and help protect the body.
Enzymes - Carry out almost all of the thousands of chemical reactions that take place in cells. They also assist with the formation of new molecules by reading the genetic information stored in DNA.
Messenger - Messenger proteins, such as some types of hormones, transmit signals to coordinate biological processes between different cells, tissues, and organs.
Structural Component - These proteins provide structure and support for cells. On a larger scale, they also allow the body to move.
Transport/Storage - These proteins bind and carry atoms and small molecules within cells and throughout the body.

As you can see protein is very important to your health! With that in mind, when you follow our program we ensure you are meeting your minimum protein needs.  That is important because it's clear your body needs protein to function properly, but it also helps preserve your muscle mass while losing weight.  That's is critical because when you are reducing calories you still need to make sure you are meeting your protein needs.  If you don't some of your weight loss could be muscle.  Because the weight you are losing on our program is mostly fat most clients notice that their clothes start to become loose very quickly!  That's because losing fat also causes your body to lose inches.  Believe it or not fat takes up a lot of space, so even losing five pounds of fat can make a difference.



Reference: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/howgeneswork/protein, What are proteins and what do they do?