|
Jenn and I talk about diet culture and how it negatively impacts individuals wellness goals and even their mindset.
0 Comments
Jenn from Zen Fitness and I got together this time to talk about wellness routines. Mindset, movement, and nutrition. Jenn (from Zen Fitness) and I got together to chap about the top 3 nutrition fails that I come across regularly.  I have been getting a lot of questions about my opinion on the new “Beyond Meat” options being offered at various establishments and thought it was time to just lay it all out in a post. So here it goes... First, let’s consider the establishments that sell beyond meat options, do they actually sell healthy options? No, they don’t so that should be a red flag right there. Burgers and breakfast sandwiches are not healthy options they are something you have occasionally not regularly. Are “Beyond Meat” patties healthier than burgers or other meat substitutes? Let’s break it down.
As you can see they are not healthier, so if you are switching to this burger or menu item for health and wellness reasons you are better off finding an eating establishment that actually has healthier menu items or make your own lunch to go.
If you are consuming it for ethical reasons such as lower carbon footprint. It may be a better option if consumed on occasion. However, if we factor in a poor quality diet has been shown to be a major contributor to chronic diseases and illness, frequent/regular consumption may lead to the opposite effect. Being unhealthy and treating chronic disease increases your carbon footprint if you need to rely on medication. Just a little food for thought. Dana Clark, CNHP, CHC, CHN, RNC, CLE  Want to learn more about choosing quality foods that will help you balance your energy throughout the day? Sign up for one of my 8 week programs below where I will I help you build your knowledge and relationship with food while also addressing mindset and lifestyle factors that also come into play.
Zen Wellness, is my 8 week group/peer support program. Sessions start September 25, 2019 FIND OUT MORE OR REGISTER HERE Foundations to Wellness, is my 8 week one on one program that can be done in person or remotely via online video chat or phone. Program stars anytime! FIND OUT MORE OR REGISTER HERE  Want to meal prep wisely and choose foods that promote overall wellness and will help reach your goals? Sign up for one of my 8 week programs below where I will I help you build your knowledge and relationship with food while also addressing mindset and lifestyle factors that also come into play.
Zen Wellness, is my 8 week group/peer support program. Sessions start September 25, 2019 FIND OUT MORE OR REGISTER HERE Foundations to Wellness, is my 8 week one on one program that can be done in person or remotely via online video chat or phone. Program stars anytime! FIND OUT MORE OR REGISTER HERE Step 1: Ignore all those health and gimmicky claims. Step 2: Educate yourself on various food additives you want to avoid or the various terms for free sugars. Step 3: Look at the Nutrition facts label but take it with a grain of salt, I recommend only using this as a comparing tool. You only want to use this to compare the nutrients to similar food items to be sure you're purchasing the item that will give you the biggest band for your buck nutrition wise.  * Red highlighted ingredients are the questionable ingredients in this list that you want to avoid or limit. Want to learn more about what ingredients you should be on the watch for? Need to learn more? Sign up for one of my 8 week programs below where I will I help you build your knowledge and relationship with food while also addressing mindset and lifestyle factors that also come into play. Zen Wellness, is my 8 week group/peer support program. Sessions start September 25, 2019 FIND OUT MORE OR REGISTER HERE Foundations to Wellness, is my 8 week one on one program that can be done in person or remotely via online video chat or phone. Program stars anytime! FIND OUT MORE OR REGISTER HERE Dana Clark, CNHP, CHC, CHN, CLE
 As a Nutritionist, I am bombarded with individuals who have “googled” their nutrition or have taken advice from unqualified “experts” and often have to debunk the information received. I already tackled Keto and now I am going to tackle 3 Nutrition Fads that make us Nutritionist go cray cray…
Intermittent Fasting: There is a lot of solid science that shows that fasting 10-12 hours a day (time restricted fasting) has a lot of health benefits for most individuals and I always encourage my clients, when appropriate, to implement this simple daily fast as part of their lifestyle practices. Fasts that last longer than 12 hours, however, do not have conclusive quality science backing it up. What we do know about longer fasting is that it can cause low energy, fatigue, moodiness, muscle loss, and slows metabolism. It may put the body into starvation which leads the body to store calories as fat much quicker or prevents the body from releasing fat stored in adipose tissue. Longer fasting durations also increases the risk for malnutrition, elevates cortisol levels, contributes to hormone imbalances in women, may lower glucose tolerance especially in women, and causes poor quality sleep… Ask yourself if this is a risk you want to take, will these health imbalances help you reach your end goal? Instead, learn to eat a healthy whole food balanced diet and implement a simple 10-12 hours fast. Kombucha: Kombucha, like all beverages made with sugar fermentation (beer, wine), is a sugar-containing beverage; don’t kid yourself. Depending on brewing/fermentation technique, 95% or less of the sugar used is consumed by the bacteria. The average home-brewed Kombucha contains 2-6g of sugar in an 8 oz. glass. The sugar present is what we call extrinsic a.k.a added or free sugars, these are the sugars that are not needed by the body for health, and instead contribute to weight gain, and increases risk for various diseases through inflammation and stress… Let’s be real here, this alone should be a clear indication this beverage should not be consumed as part of a healthy lifestyle, but kept to special occasions. Add on to this that currently, health benefits of consuming Kombucha are inconclusive and some studies have indicated risk of the brew producing toxic bacteria, alcohol, and causing liver stress. Store bought Kombucha is generally higher in sugar then home brewed Kombucha and may have unhealthy additives added. Nothing says healthy like sugar and the potential for toxic bacteria! Juicing & Juice detoxes: Juicing removes the fiber (needed for detoxing) and other important synergistic components that regulate the fructose in the body as the fructose is no longer an intrinsic (whole food) sugar and now hits the body hard (stressing the body during a detox is counterproductive). Although touted as being a great source of available antioxidant, in actuality it’s the opposite, those quality antioxidants (important in detoxing) are actually bound to the fiber that has been removed leaving you with fewer antioxidants. The sugar effect of the juice has hypernatremic effect removing water from the cells, thus not supporting health. In addition, sugar also impedes vitamin and mineral absorption (again not supporting wellness and the bodies ability to detox). So ditch the juice detox or daily juices and aim for quality properly formulated smoothies/shakes made from whole foods. If you are interested in doing a detox speak with a Holistic Nutritionist, not a salesperson! If you want to make healthy changes with your diet, take the time to invest in quality sourced information and advice from a Nutritionist or Dietician instead of wasting your time, money, and health on gimmicks. Dana Clark, CNHP, CHC, CHN, CLE Keto, or the Ketogenic Diet, might seem like the latest diet trend, but it was actually created almost 100 years ago, originally designed to help children with unmanageable epilepsy. This diet drastically limits carbohydrates, causing the body to use fat as energy, rather than glucose. When the body starts using fat as energy, it also produces ketones. This side effect can reduce the frequency of seizures in some children with epilepsy when medication doesn’t work. Another side effect is...quick weight loss. Ding Ding Ding - how sexy is that? Because of this side effect, it has been used in a clinical setting for emergency weight loss (under medical supervision and risk factor analysis of course). Fast forward to 2018, and now it's a new diet trend. Why does it ‘work’? Keto is a very restrictive way of eating, so of course weight loss is going to happen. Why it doesn’t work? So many reasons, but mainly because of its restrictive regime, many people can’t sustain it over the long term. To make Keto work, you need to stay in a state of ketosis, leaving any flexibility of just living or what other people might refer to as ‘cheating’ not possible. Not to mention the fact that macronutrients need to be monitored very closely making it necessary to count everything consumed. As a Holistic Nutritionist, I love food journaling and I use it as a temporary tool for my clients. Having said that, to constantly keep such detailed tabs on your food intake is not a healthy or sustainable practice. It is my goal to help my clients develop a healthy relationship with food. I want them to be able to enjoy ‘living moments’ such as pizza and cake on occasion, without guilt or major repercussions beyond a little feedback from their bodies the next day.  In my practice, many of my clients come in with digestive issues, and as a Holistic practitioner, I know how important our gut biome is needed for overall health. A healthy gut biome supports our immune system, stabilizes inflammation, regulates hormones, allows us to metabolize our nutrients, reduces our risk for various diseases, and supports healthy weight management. I am often rebalancing client’s gut biome and addressing their digestive issues. What Keto is not? A digestive system and gut biome friendly diet. It lacks the various forms of fiber, much-needed prebiotics, and resistant starches (which come from legumes, quality intact grains, root crops). Many of the foods consumed on the keto diet, for example, dairy fats, increase inflammation in the digestive system, stress the digestive organs, as well as suppress a healthy gut biome. BUT you’ll lose weight, so all good, right?
Oh man, my nutritionist rant is bubbling up....here’s another thing, I am often addressing inflammation with clients. There are some theories out there that suggest Keto helps inflammation due to its effects on adenosine levels, but the science is still out on whether this is true or not. When it comes to nutrition and its effects on our health, we need to look at the big picture.. Nutritional science is not linear. It would be irresponsible of me to look at one concept or one benefit when there are so many intricacies to consider... Sadly, fitness professionals or ‘Influencers’ lack the formal nutritional education and tend to take the micro view and focus on one aspect of a ‘diet’. My larger, nutritionally focused view takes into consideration that dairy and high animal product consumption increases inflammation in the body through various mechanisms from the gut biome to the bodies ph.levels...I could go on. I know you’re thinking - “But I’ve seen it work!” Here’s why - Keto requires individuals to drop added sugars, and ditch a large number of processed foods. This alone will result in weight loss, regulate blood sugar levels, and reduced pain associated with inflammation. These changes are ones I promote to all my clients; this is what we call an overlap effect and this is why we see benefits, sadly with Keto, it doesn’t last due to the points I made above and much more. This is why I don’t recommend Keto to my clients, especially when there are more sustainable and wellness-focused ways for my clients to reach their goals that do not have the potential for negative health outcomes in the future. Other well documented articles/videos on the keto diet
Dana Clark CNHP CHC CHN CLE Check out this episode of Flying for Flavour with yours truly talking about this exact topic with Stephanie & Cynthia |
All material on this website is provided for your information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction.
SteemitPlease note some of the content is also posted to my steemit account @danaclark
AuthorDana Clark, CNHP, CHN, CHC owner of From the Roots Holistic, Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
Preventative & Complementary Alternative Health Care - Holistic Nutrition - Herbal Medicine - Breastfeeding Support
|
|
|
|
|
|