Nutrition information - Who can you believe?

Information overload is definitely par for course in the modern world - it is difficult to avoid being bombarded with information, whether you are looking for it or not. One of the most frustrating things for a nutrition professional is to witness bad information being given out by reputable media outlets.

Please read my colleague Rebecca Scritchfield's blog about The Price of Misinformation in the Media - she did such an excellent job of summing up two disappointing nutrition stories done recently by very credible media outlets - Time Magazine and Good Morning America.

The bottom line is this - nutrition is a science, and to reach the absolute truth, you need to go to the science. Please be careful about who you listen to out there - at the very least, taking bad advice can lead to futile efforts and wasted time; at the worst, it can lead to furthering your health problems. Think of all the people who are now inspired to not exercise in order to lose weight - thanks, Time magazine, for your help.

I'm back!

I've fallen off the blog wagon for a bit, here - busy, busy, busy!

Here's a clip from a news segment I was interviewed for on the Suddenly Slimmer Lemonmade diet, which is a new version of the old Master Cleanse diet - my bottom line: this will ultimately make you gain weight.

The baby pounds competition

I was busy in my kitchen, listening to a cheesy entertainment show on in the background, and they reported that a certain celebrity was already looking "fit and fabulous" just 7 weeks after she had her baby.

Nothing irritates me more than the media's obsession with how fast celebrities get back to their fighting weight after a baby; why does it have to be a race? What exactly did she accomplish?

Look - nature designed our body to lose weight after we have a baby. Just like you don't have to think about the baby growing inside of you to make it happen (although you can certainly screw it up by diving into something like alchohol or drugs), you really don't have to be a superhuman to lose the baby weight. You just need to take care of yourself, and allow nature to do it's thing. And, a woman who kills herself with extreme dieting and exercising too soon just to make news that she lost the weight in record time is NOT taking care of herself, in my book.

Annoying nutrition advice

You know, the reason I became a dietitian in the first place is because I was deeply entrenched in the diet mentality, trying to figure out the magic formula to being skinny. I was game for anything, including starvation (although never slipping into a full-blown eating disorder, I definitely dwelled in disordered eating).

So, I spent a lot of time pouring over magazines looking for "diet tricks". Here are some of the most annoying of all time:

1. If you are craving potato chips, try munching on carrot sticks (uhh, not even close)
2. Keep a log on your refrigerator, and log how often you open the refrigerator (why?)
3. Keep a scale by your refrigerator - check to see your weight before you dive into food (hello - that's what your hunger pangs afer for!)
4. Never eat past Xpm at night (how random!)
5. If you are hungry past Xpm at night, brush your teeth instead (mmmm, toothpaste)
6. Put a picture of a celebrity you admire on your refrigerator, to inspire you (will that bring their personal chef, personal trainer, and bank account into my life, too?)
7. Chew each bite 100 times (let's bore that weight off)
8. When you order out at a restaurant, ask the waiter to bag half of your entree before they even serve it to you (or, how to tick off your waiter)
9. When you're craving ice cream, ask for a sample at an ice cream shop, then leave (or, how to tick off the local ice cream shop)
10. To feel decadent when you're dieting, bathe in cream (yes, I read this once as diet advice)

Do you have any annoying diet advice you'd like to share?

Don't should on me and I won't should on you

One of the big drags about the way we eat in the US are all of the shoulds on our shoulders; you really should eat breakfast; you really should eat x number of servings of green and yellow vegetables; you really shouldn't have that piece of pie.

True, it may all be valid advice. But it's still annoying, especially when we really don't wanna.

I believe one of the reasons we tend to eat junkier food is because we are rebelling against the shoulds. I also believe that when we truly like ourself and get rid of the shoulds, we end up taking pretty good care of ourself because that's what we want to do.

In my life, I try to eat healthy because I want to and because it feels nourishing to me, which feels good. I don't eat perfectly because sometimes a Little Debbie feels nourishing to me (hey, it brings me back to my youth!) I NEVER feel guilty about what I choose to eat. That's because I don't allow those pesky shoulds or shouldn'ts into my head. Some days I eat better than others, and I am completely OK with that - and so should you - oops, there I go shoulding on you (sorry).