It has to be a lifestyle change!

Hi everyone!

The end of January is upon us & hopefully you're all well into adopting your new lifestyle goals as I am!  Progress report to follow later with pics & metrics.

Anybody who has been playing this lifestyle change game for any length of time knows as well as I do that the odds of making a successful change seem stacked against anyone.

I think it comes down to the framing of the persons' beliefs about what they are attempting to do.  Over the decades that I've been helping people make changes to their lifestyles (the last 10 of which as an RD) I can tell you that one common theme has emerged to those who were successful vs. those who were not.  This belief was that those who were successful were able to mentally wrap their heads around & commit to the fact that they were making a lifestyle change and not just forgoing some things they like for a bit.  Furthermore, these individuals were also able to replace the intent of the original behavior and avoid the usual roadblocks & pitfalls that more often than not occur with lifestyle changes.  As anecdotal as that is, it's based on 10 + years of experience and real results.  Let's call it results based practice.

Let's break down how these people succeeded.

1) They truly understood and committed to a holistic lifestyle change - therefore, they adopted new daily habits in the realm of activity, eating & sleeping. This means that essentially they redesigned their life with their ultimate outcomes in mind.  This requires time & effort & commitment.  Tim Ferris explains the concept of redesigning ones' life extremely thoroughly in his 4 hour book series.  However, you can do it simply by considering what your goals are & then planning out daily behaviors each week that will move you towards your lifestyle goals (i.e. consuming half my plate in low carb vegetables at every meal, etc...).  The other important concept here is that these people embrace a HOLISTIC change and therefore were exercising more and consuming better quality food at the same time.  Each behavior can feed forward on the other.  For example, if you start your day, as I did this morning, with a 6 am CrossFit class, I am much less likely to each a load of crappy food later in the day, because I believe that would undo most of my hard work & don't want to risk that!



2) They also implemented new thinking strategies and beliefs to help them become the best they could be. This keeps their focus on the goal and not the challenges.  This is critical because of our reticular activating system (RAS) that controls our focus (among other things).  This is the system responsible for you noticing the same model of car that you are thinking about buying or same breed of dog that you just got.  Dennis Waitley explained it best when he said it is like the guidance system in a torpedo/missle.  Without it, we just fly around aimlessly.  Unfortunately, the RAS only knows IMPORTANT, not whether it's good or bad (i.e. move towards or away from) and therefore if we focus on the things we are NOT wanting to achieve (i.e. don't eat the cake), our RAS kicks in understanding only that we value CAKE & then we see every crumb of cake from here to Tim Horton's.  The successful people are able to control their mental focus only on the goal or replacement behaviors, which means they did the work to plan out replacement behaviors, etc...

3) One final important distinction is that these successful people reduced their exposure to or eliminated completely processed foods.  This is extremely important because of the fact that processed foods are engineered chemically (that's correct) to stimulate us to over consume them.  It should be illegal, but it's not.  The bottom line is that if you want to maximize your odds for success remove processed foods from your diet while you are trying to burn fat otherwise you will be regularly undoing the progress you have made!

When I say processed foods I am referring to any food that is changed significantly from it's original form before eating. We're talking well beyond junk foods here (those are so obvious I won't mention them here). Examples of processed foods include but are not limited to:

- Sugar - this is a no brainer.  Sugar is refined & this makes it highly processed & therefore highly available carb source to the body, which in fat burning land is NOT A GOOD THING.

- Grain products - think about it, we don't eat any grains right from the ground or off the plant, 95% are ground or milled before preparation for consumption.  This makes them all highly processed.

 - Legume products (lesser extent) - as soon as these become powders & added to other items or pressed into shapes they are essentially as processed as Grain products, but even when consuming them whole they must be cooked for significant lengths of time before consumption, which makes them moderately processed.  A quick caveat is that some people do fine with these included in their diet due to the "safe starches".  However, for fat burning I would include them as a carb and not a protein.

- Dairy (lesser extent) - this is not really true when dairy is RAW from cow, but unless you are getting it directly from your back yard Heffer or a local farmer, it is often illegal (whether just or not) and the market therefore can get sketchy.  If you look at pasteurized milk, what is it, it is de-fatted sugar with some proteins present.  That's it.  Yes, there are some vitamins & minerals present, but they are actually quite unavailable & there's nothing that can't be obtained from other good quality food sources.  I personally have nothing against well raised high fat cheese, grass fed butter or fermented dairy like good quality raw full fat yogurt or Kefir.

Anyway, the bottom line is once you've shifted your thinking/beliefs to make a holistic lifestyle change and then start implementing those daily behaviors, you are making solid progress!  However, limiting your exposure to those processed foods will insure that you are not driven by chemistry to fall back into your old habits/lifestyle.

I hope this info helps you achieve your goal.

Be sure to check out my new website Dietitian Dan T where you can access this blog as well as my new YouTube channel (subscribe today)!  I'm working hard to bring you my view on the latest nutrition research, as well as practical tips to help you achieve your goals & motivation to help kick start your success!

We're expecting our second child in the next week or so, but I will do my best to continue posting blogs & videos as I am able to.  I will probably look a lot more sleep deprived in the next 6 months worth of videos!

Take care & have a great week!

Dan

Pratical Application - My Food Processing Spectrum

My research on choosing the best foods for best results for fat burning & best performance is based on a solid Paleo/Primal research foundation!  With respect to food processing, this translates to our bodies not having the ability to deal with many of the food processing techniques very well.  In some cases food processing increases availability of energy from foods but in many cases our bodies don't recognize the chemical compounds added to foods and often have effects on our bodies that are not good.  However, all of this can often be confusing for some people and put others off completely, therefore, I'm taking a crack at it from a different angle here.

Consider for a moment if everyone limited their exposure to processed foods.  I have discussed this in a previous blog post, which was more theoretical and less practical.  I've gotten a lot of questions about how to apply this and I've come up with my Food Processing Spectrum (below).  This provides a practical tool that people can use to guide them to create the least processed meal options available.

Think of food a spectrum of processing and choose the least processed foods that you can.  I'm not a raw food purist or anything, but be sure to eat more foods that are less processed over those that are more processed.  In fact, for 60 days just omit all foods from the processed side of the spectrum and see how that works for you.

You want to make sure that most of the foods you eat come for the least processed end of the spectrum.  Things that will "process foods" include:

a) Cooking: Bring foods to their safe (bacteria killing) temperatures, but try to avoid overcooking them.  Charring of meats (for example) leads to formation of heterocyclic amines (HCA) that have been shown to be highly carcinogenic compounds.

b) Pasteurization: This is essentially heating to very high temp. Most beverages that were once alive in North America (i.e. Dairy & Fruits beverages) are pasteurized to prevent bacterial growth.  This denatures enzymes that are normally present in the fresh foods. It is currently illegal to sell unpasteurized dairy products in North America.  Putting fruits & vegetables in a blender, however, creates a living smoothie with the entire enzyme profile intact. Canned foods (i.e. fruits and veg) are often pasteurized to prevent bacterial growth, but in doing so many of the plant-derived enzymatic benefits are lost.

c) Blending: Breaks up solids and even cells (depending on your blender).  It can liquefy many of the components and therefore creates a drinkable meal option.  Be VERY careful with smoothies as it's always better to eat your calories vs. drink them!  Depending on the composition of the smoothie, these can be very high in available carbohydrates and therefore cause huge spikes in insulin, therefore stopping fat burning & leading to fat storage!

d) Milling: This is pretty much exactly the same as Blending but with solids (i.e. all grains).  This is used to create flours and much of the original content is removed then added back. However, one of the biggest issues with this process is that it is all done by machine today and the particle size that results from machine milling is so fine that it can penetrate the gut wall and cause overt irritation or at least increase inflammatory response. There is also evidence that some of the naturally occurring irritants in grains (i.e. Lectins, etc...) that are not removed in usual production are causing increased inflammatory responses.  Either way, grains seem to be a bad choice!

d) Freezing: This process cools the food in order to significantly slow down the molecules and enzymes that lead to spoiling.  They are not stopped, but are severely slowed.  The major drawback with freezing some items (i.e. fruits) is that the fluid in the cells freezes and when they are thawed this intra-cellular liquid expands and bursts the plant tissues therefore making things mushy!  Freezing does NOT kill enzymes and is a great second choice to fresh for most people.

e) Chemical additives, preservatives & artificial ingredients: These are the most encountered and least recognized food processing techniques in existence today.  If you eat anything in a package at all, you are consuming these chemical ingredients.  Many are designed to extend shelf-life, decrease cost of production for the food company, and many also have the added benefit of stimulating appetite in consumers can lead to food addiction or over-consumption. Regardless, none of these ingredients are used with your health in mind.  Therefore, we NEED to avoid them as much as possible.

f) Fermentation: This technique is a more natural processing technique. It allows bacteria & enzymes that occur naturally in the foods to work to start breaking down the food into components (example is Eskimos that buried meat & consumed it fermented).  Obviously, this is not without some risk for foodborne illness, but when done properly it can be an awesome way to increase the nutritional value of many food items.

Obviously, there is a lot more to this story, but this seems like a good start.

Be sure to choose the least processed foods that you can on a regular basis.  Try this for 60 days and see how you look, feel & perform!

The Real Deal about Nutrient Losses!

Now, right off the bat let me say that nutrient losses are real; however, I believe that perspective gets lost in the discussion of these concepts

The Taoist saying, "My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon." is not only a testament to the human spirit of optimism, but it also illustrates a point about perspective, and how we can become fixated on an issue or concept (however minute in the overall scheme of things) and then be ignorant to the much bigger picture. I can't tell you how many times I've had "debates" with clients regarding nutrient loss phenomenon.

 

Although it's real, the overall significance of the effect of losing nutrients in many of the foods we consume is ridiculous to even contemplate, especially considering the abysmal state of food quality that most people who start to debate nutrient losses with me.  I would argue that the effect of food processing on carbohydrate availability is even more detrimental to human health and I will cover this in a future post; however for the purposes of our discussion today we will focus on the effects of food processing on nutrient content.  All of these concepts are reflected by food quality anyway.

The major processing techniques that can decrease nutrient content are:

1) Cooking (heating) foods - heating certain components of foods can destroy certain compounds that would otherwise have been nutritionally beneficial.

2) Freezing foods - reducing temperatures of some foods can destroy compounds that would otherwise have been nutritionally beneficial.

3) Drying foods - removing water can destroy and remove (especially water soluble) nutrient compounds.

4) GMO foods - forced genetic selection for specific character traits that either make for tastier crops or heartier crops pay no mind to nutritional content.  In fact a recent study revealed that GMO corn was "nutritionally dead" with 20 x less nutrition compared with non GMO corn.Additionally, GMO crops can contain components that irritate our guts or that can elicit an immune response, therefore driving up inflammation. 

The Big Picture

I hate the tendency that we have towards nutritionism.  This term, popularized by Michael Pollan, suggests that the only value that foods have is that endowed to them by the individual nutrients that science has identified. This is preposterous because it is shifts perspective to the one nutrient in question (on that given day) and completely ignores the whole food element that the nutrient was part of and how that might play a role in any perceived benefits. 

Food companies have certainly taken advantage of these concepts to tempt us with otherwise nutritionally void foods because they contain a few nutrients that are considered good for us.  Some examples include enriching flour with 13 essential vitamins and minerals (sound familiar), or fruit juice with calcium in it, etc... The challenge with all of this is that these foods are all extremely processed (in one way or another) and as a result are nutritionally empty foods.  They are yummy due to the concentrated sugars, etc... but have little in the way of nutritional content.  Furthermore, adding exciting individual nutrients that are good for us back into a nutritionally void food, does not make that food good for us in any way.  Seriously, let's take fruit or vegetable juices for example. If I take a fruit or vegetable that have health benefits, cook the hell out of them, therefore killing any potentially beneficial enzymes and then blend them into a drink, add some sugar or salt to improve the flavor and then add in some vitamins or minerals (usually from a cheap powder), what do I have as my end product.   A high calorie beverage that has little to no nutritional value, especially when compared to its original form (fresh, whole vegetables or fruits).

Here's a quick tool that I've created that can help you choose the best quality and least processed foods.  This tool only addresses the quality of foods related to processing level and does not consider your needs and the amounts that you are eating.  However, I've seen that people can derive benefits (i.e. fat loss, increased energy, etc...) from simply improving the quality or decreasing the processing of the foods they regularly eat!  Give it a shot for 60 days and see how you look, feel and perform and let me know how it goes for you.  I'd love to hear that it worked, or didn't or what tweaks you made that improved it for your n=1 experiment!


Try organizing the foods you regularly eat into a spectrum of processing (similar to the one I created below) and choose the least processed foods that you can.  I'm not a raw food purist or anything, just be sure to eat more foods that are less processed over those that are more processed.  In fact, for 60 days just omit all foods from the processed side of the spectrum and see how that works for you.

Food Processing Spectrum*



*Created by: Dietitian Dan T for this blog.
This is not a quick fix, it's truly a lifestyle change.  It will be challenging at first, but could eventually become second nature.

Perspective Shift

The reality is that we need to burn down the barns of the food industry (figuratively people, I'm not suggesting anything radical). Only then, will we be able to see the big picture, which in this case is that we need to improve the quality of the foods we eat and see how that affects our health!

Honestly, there is nothing better than cleaning up your diet and living better overall.  Better means more in line with our natural genetic adaptations, which I will cover in more detail in a future post, but in the case of today's topic this means as free from the processed forms of foods as possible.

Till next time!

Citations:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=61
http://nutritiondata.self.com/topics/processing
http://www.infowars.com/analysis-finds-monsantos-gm-corn-nutritionally-dead-highly-toxic-2/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritionism

Lessons from a Dietitian to help optimize your odds of fat loss success!

Hi everyone,

Please enjoy my take on some of the key things I've learned over my years consulting as a Registered Dietitian.  For more details you can see my profile.  I want all of you to know that I am embarking on a mission to more completely understand human nutrition.

In the years that I've been counseling clients in the nutrition and dietetics field, I've learned many things.  Here is a sampling of some of my experience-based observations.  Although, anecdotal, they are relevant and might be able to help you break a negative pattern and find your way to achieving your goals!  Furthermore, there is growing evidence to support these observations.  Anyway, here we go!

1) Medicine is for the sick!
You may or may not realize this but the bulk of nutrition research and education focuses on illness and how to treat and examines those populations.  The strongest data are randomized controlled trials and these are pretty much exclusively conducted in ill/metabolically deranged individuals.  So the data gained from this is useful for treatment, mitigation of side-effects and symptoms but tells us nothing of prevention.  Unfortunately, media and some health professionals will concoct guidelines based on these studies for the general populace as prevention.  Obviously, that's like running east in the western hemisphere to watch the sun set!!

2) KISS principle. 

The simpler the nutrition plans/recommendations are the more likely that people will stick with it, which is what has to happen!!!  Complicated diet plans that combine this food with that and eliminate specific combinations are completely ineffective mostly because they are usually very hard to follow long term as can be too detailed a focus on counting calories or other components.

3) Magic bullets & Super foods.
There is no one magic bullet or superfood. It's true that some foods are higher in specific nutrients than others or are the richest available source of blank nutrient (maybe a cancer inhibiting compound), but you need to realize that these foods are marketed as quick fixes and they are definitely NOT that.  Assuming that these super foods are all good, which they are definitely not (another blog post topic in and of itself), you need to start by cleaning up your overall nutrition.  Then add the rich nutrient source food to your already solid nutrition plan. Think about it, if we add the best super food on the planet to the crappiest diet, what do you think your overall effect will be? 

4)  Duplicitous WHYs! 

You need to understand why you are doing what you are doing in TWO WAYS!

a) The people who I've observed to succeed consistently had a compelling reason why they were making their lifestyle changes (i.e. meet my grandchildren, see my daughter graduate University, live to 130, etc...).  It's only critical that this matter a hell of a lot to YOU!  It will keep you going if things get tough!

b) The people who I've observed to succeed also could consistently explain why they were doing each of the lifestyle changes they were making (i.e. people who ate <30% carbohydrates understood why this would help them burn fat; or people eating grass fed beef understand why this is beneficial to their bodies, etc...).  This will give you the internal confidence to keep going as well in the face of the "tree cutters" in your life who like to give you the latest fad and seem to want to sabotage your progress.

5) Behave like a human!
You must understand human behavior to the extent that you understand your tendencies and will be able to overcome obstacles to your success.  Honestly, your main obstacle to successful change is you!  Although, friends & family often do not want to be left behind & can sabotage you, the most common source of frustration and sabotage to a person's successful attainment of their fat loss goal is from within. Strive to understand yourself and then you will be able to handle your own objections much more effectively!

6) Processed foods (i.e. junk foods, flours, etc...) are addictive.  

I certainly have observed more clients have trouble stopping their pastries and/or diet sodas vs. even those I've known who have quit smoking.  Heroin is illegal, sugar and processed foods are not.  Something is wrong here. Obviously, I don't think we should legalize a harmful and addictive substance that can kill us, hmmmm.... Interesting to put that in writing, since junk foods are completely legal!!!  Quite the joke if you ask me.  Anyway, I suggest that we implicate food companies to be responsible for the health burden they have placed on the Westernized health systems across the globe! Until then, we MUST take control of our own choices and those of the people whose lives we touch!!  Make the right ones and cut the crap out!

7) Artificial sweeteners. 

There is always a new sweetener on the horizon.  It's always touted to be healthier vs. pre-existing ones.  One example might be Stevia.  I've heard all the justifications... it's all natural, it's from a plant.  Hemlock is all natural and from a plant, try telling Socrates that was healthy (hint: he's dead because of it).  Interestingly, people will decry some sweeteners (i.e. Aspartame) and then praise other ones.  I explain that they are all chemically altered sweeteners, and that any health benefits observed in any of these compounds were not observed in the chemically processed form but rather the the whole plant form (i.e. natives sucking on the Stevia leaf had health benefits, powdered versions have no known health benefits). Anyway, I'm a realist, by necessity due to the clients I work with.  I do use the harm reduction philosophy of Western medicine with respect to this topic, such that if a client is consuming sodas or high sugar drinks, I want them off those immediately, so artificial sweeteners are a means that clients can utilize to achieve the ends, which I would suggest is not using sweeteners at all!  I certainly don't recommend that people stay on them indefinitely, due to the potential harmful effects.

8) Counting calories.
Most clients came to me after repeatedly failing to achieve their fat loss goals using calorie counting or some derivation thereof.  This doesn't work long term.  There is more and more evidence emerging that calories might not even matter in the absence of refined carbohydrate.  That might remain to be seen, but what is certain is people don't like counting calories, food companies know that people are hyper-focused on calories and as a result, people either go "off the wagon" repeatedly or they are goaded into consuming calorie-reduced foods that are completely processed and void of nutritional benefit and end up derailing folks because of their addictive properties.

9) Dietitians are experts in nutrition or at least they should be!
One of the things I've noticed over my years counseling clients is how quickly clients want to walk away when they realize that I am a Dietitian.  They refer to prior bad experiences and useless education.  Also, when I'm liasing with other health promoter (i.e. gym owners, trainers, etc...) there is a belief that we know disease but know nothing about general health and prevention.  I agree that Dietitians are trained from a Western medical slant and that we are given info on disease treatment and secondary prevention, however, my experience is that most of the Dietitians I've met & remained close to from school and those I've met in the virtual world are all open-minded and know that there's much more effective ways to counsel people with respect to nutritional guidelines than the generic economically driven food guides and pyramids.  Granted we answer to colleges and can't make outrageous claims, but I think our own complacency over the last 20-30 years or so has lead to this feeling of ineffectiveness from clients towards Dietitians.  Therefore, it's time for change.  I endeavor to use this blog as well as my Master's and my PhD (in progress) to continue to advance nutrition knowledge and ultimately answer the question... is there a nutrition and lifestyle plan that will increase my odds of success to achieve optimal fat loss?  and if so, what is it?  I have my ideas on this and am testing them currently and will ultimately reveal them slowly as time goes on.  Please stay tunes.

Anyway, these are some of the key things I've learned in my 8+ years counseling people on fat loss and health management!  I hope you find them useful.

Anyway, to conclude, I will leave you with these final thoughts by me, about me.  I am like you.  I work full time, have my own business to run, am pursuing a PhD in Human Nutrition and have a ever-growing relationship with my beautiful wife and together we have a gorgeous 1.5 year old daughter to nurture & raise!! These things... ALL. TAKE. TIME.  Therefore, I'm endeavoring to research and share/teach what I most need to learn, the most efficient and doable system for complete nutrition and fitness strategies to get lean and be effective in my daily life! Even, if you're not pursuing higher education or are single, I'm sure you can relate to the business of daily life.  Whatever your days are filled with, if health, longevity and leanness are your goals, then you need to get it done and efficiently!  That's what I'm about!

Till next time...

Support YOUR goals, not those of the big food conglomerates!

Live every day to the MAX!

Dietitian Dan T