bite my words

Happy National Cherry Dessert Day

Diana — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:00:28 +0000

Apparently it’s National Cherry Dessert Day. Even though it’s a while until cherry season I’m going to go for it. Why not? Cherries are awesome! One half-cup of red cherries has only 41 calories but has 1.3 grams of fibre, 13 mg of calcium, 631 micrograms of beta carotene, and 8.2 mg of vitamin C. Cherries are delicious as they are but they’re also good in pies, crumbles, and other baked goods.

For fresh cherries, try this cherry cobbler recipe from 101cookbooks.com.

For dried cherries, try these Raw Fig and Cherry Bars from Diet, Dessert and Dogs.

Follow Friday: Eating Rules

Diana — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:11 +0000

Can’t get enough of nutrition blogging? Check-out Andrew Wilder’s Eating Rules American-based blog. Andrew subscribes to the same line of thought as I do. That is, while nutrition can be complicated, healthy eating doesn’t need to be. He writes about whatever inspires him, as well as having menu Mondays (where he dissects restaurant menu items) and posting recipes. He’s also the co-author of that fantastic cooking-oil chart I linked to in a previous post.

At what age is breast no longer best?

Diana — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:00:55 +0000

By now you’ve probably seen the controversial Time magazine cover featuring a beautiful young mum breastfeeding her nearly four-year-old child. The cover was obviously intended to shock people. It’s very sexualized; mum wearing a skimpy tank-top and doing a model pose with her hand on her hip. The three-year-old son looks considerably older than his age. But, this is what sells and this is what gets people talking about “attachment parenting” and this is not what I want to focus on today. This cover made me question the appropriateness of breastfeeding such an old child. It’s difficult for me to really say as I don’t have any children myself. I did a little bit of research and according to La Leche League (the breastfeeding gurus) “A mother and her baby should breastfeed for as long as they wish to breastfeed”. In nutrition we are taught that infants should be exclusively breastfed for up to six months of age and breastfeeding should continue for one year and beyond. Basically, it’s whatever works best for the mother and child. Just because it’s the norm to stop breastfeeding by about one year, and just because people are often uncomfortable about seeing an older child breastfeeding, doesn’t mean that it’s inappropriate or detrimental to the child. I would love to see some long-term psychological and physiological studies about this subject. Although it would be extremely difficult to avoid confounding variables as I’m sure there would be many more differences between women who breastfeed their toddlers and women who don’t.

Teenaged Girls Fail to Lose Weight

Diana — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:34 +0000

Yet another recent study failed to show improvement in diet, physical activity, or weight status in teenaged girls. I, for one, can’t say I’m surprised. This study randomly assigned girls to the intervention group, or a control group. Girls in the intervention group were offered nutrition and physical activity sessions throughout the school day, at lunch hour, and given homework assignments pertaining to these topics. Girls in the control group were given no special nutrition or physical activity sessions.

As well meaning as these types of studies are, they are not addressing the root cause of obesity. Studies like this place the onus on the individual. If you were a teenaged girl (or even in your current situation) would you want to spend your lunch hour learning about nutrition? Or do physical activity “homework”? Why was no difference seen between the two groups? One reason is that, as one researcher put it, “we need to make the programs more appealing and exciting and present information in a way that is meaningful to adolescent girls”. Obviously, if the individual can’t see the incentive for making changes then they’re not going to make those changes. Even when they can see the incentive they often still fail to make changes. That brings me to the second, and more important reason why studies like this one often fail. All of these girls are in the same environment. As long as the environment is obesogenic then it’s extremely unlikely that you will see any meaningful long-term change in weight. We need to make more of an effort to change the environment in which people live so that healthy eating becomes the easy choice and physical activity is supported and encouraged.

Want to lose weight? Maybe you should sleep on it.

Diana — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:14 +0000

Even though a recent study can’t determine causation, I think that it is important to note the relationship demonstrated between “social jet lag” and BMI (body mass index). Many of us scrimp on sleep and for whatever reason it’s seen as a bit of a badge of honour rather than the unhealthy practice that it truly is. You may eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly but you’re still hurting your health if you’re not getting enough sleep. Everybody has different sleep needs, but the average for an adult is 7-9 hours a night. Sleep is when our bodies have the opportunity to repair themselves and rejuvenate. If you’re not getting enough sleep you’re not going to be at your best both mentally and physically. If you’re concerned about your weight then you should add getting enough sleep to your to-do list. There’s no shame in taking care of yourself.

Blue Nose Marathon!

Diana — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:00:06 +0000

I’m taking today and tomorrow off from blogging since it’s a long weekend and I’m running in and then recovering from the Blue Nose Marathon.

I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled ranting on Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

Remarkable Rhubarb

Diana — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:00:43 +0000

It’s just about rhubarb season and I’m so excited! I’ve already seen some at the farmers’ market but I’m going to hold off until I can get it for free from my parents garden.

Rhubarb is one of my favorite vegetables. I love the tartness. When I was a child I used to eat stalks straight from the garden. That might be a little too tart for most people though. Rhubarb is pretty versatile. It’s great in many desserts, especially paired with strawberries in a pie or crisp. Or make it into a chutney to be served with meat or crackers. One of my favourite rhubarb recipes (strawberry-rhubarb fool) comes from the LCBO. I like to make the strawberry-rhubarb part and either use it as in the recipe or mix it with yoghurt and granola for breakfast.

Rhubarb is a good source of calcium, vitamin C, and potassium. It also only contains 27 calories per cup!

Follow Friday: Grist

Diana — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:45 +0000

Grist is an environmental news source that also provides information about food and the interesting intersection between food and the environment. From information about GMO to farmers markets to how insects might feed the world, Grist has it all. You can also follow them on twitter @grist.

Book review: The Cure for Everything by @CaulfieldTim

Diana — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:24 +0000

I finally finished reading The Cure for Everything by Timothy Caulfield recently. I loved that it was an approachable read. Timothy’s writing style and self-revelations made it accessible to lay readers (even those without the slightest scientific inclination), entertaining for science geeks, and informative for all.

I was surprised to learn the importance of lifting heavy weights to fitness. I am also still reluctant to accept that stretching is unnecessary. I agree that stretching doesn’t prevent injuries and I don’t generally stretch pre-workout. However, I think that there are benefits to stretching after exercise or as exercise (e.g. yoga). When I first starting seriously exercising over 12 years ago I had major cramps in my calves due to lactic acid build-up from failing to stretch. Once I started adding a few stretches into my routine the pain went away. Plus, if you want to be remotely flexible, I’m not sure how you’re going to achieve that without stretching. Anyway… this was really my only issue with the book.

It was refreshing to read a chapter on nutrition in which I couldn’t find anything to majorly disagree with. Personally, I don’t go in for calorie counting as I think more focus needs to be placed on developing a healthy relationship with food and finding pleasure in healthy choices. However, I can’t say that no one should calorie count and for some people it is a useful technique in weight management.

While reading the book I was feeling so smug that I believe in science. Then I got to the final chapters… I know that there can be major ethical conflicts with published research but somehow I had managed to push out of my mind how pervasive it can be. My smugness quickly vanished. I consoled myself with the knowledge that good science is still good but homeopathy is pretty much always a sham.

I recommend that everyone read this book. Health care professionals should read it as both a reminder and a source of information on other areas of the industry. Everyone else should read it to help them extract the truth from the many conflicting and misleading messages about health that are constantly inundating us through the media and friends.

The ethics of eating animals

Diana — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:00:27 +0000

The New York Times came out with a recent contest asking readers to tell them why eating meat is ethical. Not sure how I missed this when the contest came out (submissions were due in early April and apparently the winner has been announced although I haven’t seen any of the entries). My first reaction was “How could anyone argue that it’s ethical to eat meat?” As a sporadic meat eater I have no problem with eating meat but I didn’t see how it could possibly be construed as ethical. I decided to revisit the meaning of ethics. After reviewing a little Aristotle and checking out the definition of ethics I can now see how eating meat could be argued to be an ethical practice. If something is ethical because it serves to better mankind or increase happiness then certainly, for those who enjoy partaking, eating meat could be argued to be ethical. Eating meat betters me because it provides me with essential nutrients. Eating meat makes me happy because it tastes delicious. Of course, I think that vegetarians and vegans hold the higher moral ground here. But, as long as your morals don’t preclude killing other creatures then eating meat is not unethical.

After writing the above, I managed to find the winning entry here.