Get the Real Deal on Your Meal: Week 1

 

March is Nutrition Month and this year's theme is 'Get the Real Deal on Your Meal'. For The Telegram, it's also the start of a month's worth of food and nutrition myth busting from questions submitted by readers. This week we are sorting fact from fiction when it comes to optimal health, and reviewing things like superfoods, detoxing and multivitamins.

Our first couple questions come from Gail. 'Could you address some of the superfoods? Do certain foods help to reduce the acidity of your body and ease arthritis?' If something sounds too good to be true, often time it usually is. No so called superfood can keep us healthy on it's own. Even if foods have beneficial nutrients, our bodies will still need more to maintain health. Currently there is no 'superfood' definition, and because of this the word is often used to describe trendy, expensive foods (anyone see Marketplace a few weeks back)? What's important to remember is that many of what we would consider 'basic' foods can be equally nutritious. Apple, anyone? Having a diet rich in healthy food, and not just the trends, is truly the key to good health.  Another myth here is that detox food and diets are a good way to clean out toxins in your body. This is false. There is no evidence to suggest we need to 'cleanse' our system of toxins, nor follow a detoxification diet. Our bodies are actually already equipped with the organs we need to do this naturally. Our kidneys, liver and intestines. One such popular detox diet has been the 'alkaline diet'. It's basis is that the composition of the modern diet results in excess acid production, which if not neutralized causes disease. It's been extrapolated unfairly to suggest it can improve health and cure diseases including cancer, obesity, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, cellulite and mental illness. This acid ash hypothesis places meat and alternates, grain foods and some dairy products in the undesirable acid-producing food category based on their mineral composition, and considers fruit and vegetables as the only highly desirable foods. There is a lack of evidence for the  usefulness in preventing or treating disease, and claims around this diet are simply not true.  The best bet to keeping a body healthy is to follow a daily diet based on Canada's Food Guide, to get enough sleep and exercise regularly.

Another common myth is that everyone needs vitamin and mineral supplements to be healthy. Simply put most people can meet the recommendations for vitamin and mineral needs by following the food guide. Vitamins and mineral are certainly important, however, there are also other nutrients of equal importance which are found in food, and not in supplements. These things are fiber, carbohydrates, protein and essential fats. Sometimes, for different reasons people do need supplements, but this isn't a one size fits all model and more isn't always better. In general anyone over the age of 50 should have 400IU of vitamin D a day in addition to whatever they eat. Females who are planning to become pregnant, are pregnant or breastfeeding will need a multivitamin with folic acid daily. Both of these supplement recommendations are especially important for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as we are sometimes lacking in these nutrient departments.

For more information on national Nutrition Month please visit www.dietitians.ca. If there is a nutrition question or food myth you'd like to have busted during March please email me at the address below. 

As seen in The Telegram March 5, 2012