Nutritional Quackery

Quackery is a term that refers to the fake practitioner, as well as a worthless product and the deceitful promotion of that product. These products make untrue, misleading statements that deliberately and fraudulent claims about health that can be harmful to you and the economy. While you might be thinking this is associated with sleazy individuals selling patent medicine from a covered wagon, you're wrong. Nutritional quacks are SUPER SALESMEN - using questionable scientific information to give their products a sense of authenticity and credibility, by using sophisticated advertising and marketing techniques. Quack products are on the shelves and you might be buying them.


Quackery is a huge business. It's estimated that over 25 billion dollars a year are spent on questionable health practices in the US. Most of this has been spent on unnecessary nutritional products. The biggest outlet for quackery, unfortunately, is today's media (no offense to my media friends - just be more careful please). The media is the consumers' leading source of nutrition information, but news reports for nutrition are inadequate: they do not provide enough depth for consumers to make informed and wise decisions. Headliners are the most deceiving.

Before the passage of the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA), many extravagant health claims were made by some unscrupulous companies in the food supplement industry. Although the DSHEA was designed to eliminate fraudulent health claims, dietary supplements appear to have more leeway than packaged foods to infer health benefits. While labels on dietary supplements are not permitted to display scientifically unsupported claims, many companies make general claims like "boosts the immune system". Federal agencies are understaffed and cannot litigate EVERY case of misleading or dishonest advertising. Unsuspecting consumers will be lured into buying expensive health-food supplements that have no scientific support!

Nutritional quackery is prevalent in athletics because of the following: (1) Eating behaviors of individuals are modeled after athletes who are successful in any given sport; (2) many coaches suggest foods/supplements to their athletes which they think are essential to success; (3) misinformation is found in magazines and books, which present information based on questionable research; and (4) direct advertising of nutritional products are marketed at athletes!

What can you do to avoid quackery? Think about the following things:

1. does the product promise quick improvement in health or physical performance? 
2. does it contain some secret or magical ingredient or formula? 
3. is it advertised mainly by use of anecdotes, case histories or testimonials? 
4. are currently popular personalities or star athletes featured in the advertisements? 
5. does it take a simple truth about a nutrient and exaggerate the truth in terms of health or physical performance? 
6. does it question the integrity of the scientific or medical establishment?
7. is it advertised in a health or sports magazine whose publisher also sells nutritional aids? 
8. does the person who recommends it also sell it? 
9. does it use the results of a single study or date and poorly controlled research to support its claim? 
10. is it expensive, especially when compared to the cost of equivalent nutrients that may be obtained from ordinary foods? 
11. is it recent discovery not available from any other source? 
12. is its claim to good to be true? odes it promise the impossible?

You can find sound nutritional advice or information from either your doctor or the following sources:

1. Books from reputable sources
2. Government, health professional, consumer or commercial organizations (see www.mhhe.com/williams)
3. Scientific Journals
4. Popular Magazines whose articles are written by doctors or credentialed authors
5. Consultants

Be smart people: there is no miracle drug for getting thin and fit and being fabulous. You have to work at it, end of story. Eat healthy - give up the chips and nachos and eat some fruit.


-Leave it all on the Field
-Sources from blog are from Nutrition for Health, Fitness and Sport (Melvin Williams).

Brain + Sports = Good

I wanted to post a link to a great article from the NY Times blog about how Sports focuses the Brain. Check it out here: Bran + Sports = Good

Turkey-Turkey Burgers

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm a fan of red meat - however, I'm a fan of low cholesterol and with a strong maternal family history of heart disease, I'm always looking for ways to keep my 'chances' down, if not eliminate them (genomics! get on it!). Either way, last night I was looking in the fridge and the only dethawed meat we had was lean turkey. What to do? What to do? TURKEY BURGERS!

Here is an awesome, healthy-non-healthy Turkey Burger recipe for you. What you need:

• lean turkey, 
• turkey bacon, 
• onions, garlic, 
• low-fat cheese, 
• salt, pepper
• steak seasoning

Also include the following:

• Guacamole (see the recipe in Here)
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Mustard & Ketchup
• Spinach Leaves

Step 1: Start off by cooking your turkey bacon. Use a non-stick pan, please, for your own sake. Make sure you crisp the turkey out of the turkey if you know what I mean. Take all your turkey bacon, put them on paper towels and let them sit for a bit. Once they've cooled off, crunch them up - make them into tiny little pieces. Use a knife or put them in a baggie and smash.

Steps 2-4: In between your bacon cooling and making the burgers, cut up onions into fine pieces. If you don't use the garlic out of the can that's pre-smashed, smash up some garlic. Put your onion, garlic, cheese and bacon into four separate piles so you can pick out of them.

Steps 5-6: Take your turkey and throw in the pepper salt and steak seasoning: mix it all up. Use your hands here. Gloves are a nice option if you don't want your hands covered in turkey. Take a hand full, or what you think would be a small/medium size burger, and flatten out. Put turkey bacon bits, chopped onions, chopped garlic and as much or little low-fat cheese as out want. Then turn into a pattie! Set on plate.

Step 7 (Optional): If you want, you can lightly cover these in Smart Balance butter if you want a little bit more juiciness involved, but they taste great without it.

Step 6: Place your patties on a warm skillet pan, cover with lid for the first few minutes (until it looks like the top is also cooked). Keep the temp on medium and cook those burgers!


Last Steps: These burgers go great by themselves, or with buns. Add sliced tomato and guacamole (find the recipe from before) and you've got yourself a VERY TASTY, delicious and healthier than beef-burger.

In addition, we used Broccoli as our side dish. Broccoli is filled with minerals and vitamins that help dilate and strengthen your blood vessels. It's really healthy, and really tasty. 

Enjoy!!!

General Nutrition

There are six types of nutrients: these are protein, fat, carbohydrates, water, minerals and vitamins. Each has essential nutrients your body needs to survive.

• Carbohydrates include fiber, sugar and starches;
• Fats include linoleic and linolenic fatty acids;
• Proteins include some amino acids;
• Proteins build and repair body tissues like muscles, provide enzymes for cell generation and stability
• Vitamins include A, B, D, D, E and K;
• Minerals include iron, calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulfer;
• Make up the skeletal framework! Calcium is so important!
• Water is water.

 

Essential nutrients cannot be produced or synthesized in the body in adequate amounts. They are important because nutrients regulate body processes, provide for growth, development and maintenance of the body. It also provides your body with calories.

Calories = measurement of energy from macronutrients. We get calories/energy from:

• Carbohydrates – 4 calories/gram
• Protein – 4 calories/gram
• Fat – 9 calories/gram
• Alcohol – 7 calories/gram
• Not a nutrient, your body does not need alcohol – but alcohol is a major source of calories.

So what should you be conscious of with nutrition? Generally, and in a way not complex manner…

• Eat a lot of nutrient rich foods – whole grains (yes pasta!), vegetables, fruits, low/nonfat dairy and lean proteins (lean meat, chicken, fish and beans). Do not I did not say steak or other red meats – why?, because it clogs your arteries despite the fact that it is oh so yummy!
• Hydrate – drink at least 64 ounces of water a day! That’s 8 glasses folks – whether it’s water with a ‘tasty powder’, Gatorade, iced tea – drink water! Make sure you add electrolytes to your water (beverages) if you’re working out.

A few more things: always drink water before, during and after working out to replenish lost fluids. Maintain adequate energy source to sustain workout intensity. I don’t care if you’re trying to loose 10 pounds – you need a nutrition boost to work out properly. If you’re tired and lethargic – your form is out the window and you’ll hurt your body!

Trans Fats

Heard about them? Did you know that over the past few years they've been causing quite the rucus for restaurant owners and food companies? Why? Because trans fats are bad. very bad. I hope you already know this, but in simple form, they do awful things to the composition of your blood (increasing LDL levels - that's your bad cholesterol - and apolipoprotien B levels) and as a result, make you fat.

Trans fats used to be everywhere: in your bread, pasta, chips, butter, you name it (except fruit, veggies, things green and of this earth). Nowadays, cities are starting to ban them from restaurants! Which is good for you. If you don't know if your city has banned them or not, or if you want to get on the band wagon - you should. Cities like NY City and King County (in Seattle) have already banned all frying/spreads for food with more than 0.5g of trans fats per serving, as well as foods with trans fats!

Check out this article on the Trans Fats Ban

How can you eat less trans fats? Just check the label and even do a little research online. Some of your most common household stuff has trans fats, despite the fact that big conglomerates like Unilever has started to make foods without them. There are healthy options, like Smart Balance, who makes peanut butter, milk, butter, and other foods all trans fat free and full of Omega-3s and other healthy vitamins essential to your diet. Check the label and see where your healthy mind takes you!

The New Chips & Salsa

Yes. Chips, those lovely tortilla chips covered in salt that taste so good but are so bad - they have tons of calories and fat! But what do you do when you want to munch on some yummy guacamole and chips? Substitute chips with CUCUMBERS! Follow this guac-recipe, chop up some cucumbers - and even some red, green and yellow peppers - and you will have yourself a tastey new treat FULL of vitamins, antioxidants, health fat and of course, FLAVOR!

4-5 Avacados
2 shallots
1/2 onion
1 lime (although you can use lime from a plastic thing if you want :-( )
4 jalapeno peppers (remember to take out the seeds!!!)
Cilantro
Garlic
2 baby tomatoes
Salt

Warning: I don't really 'follow' recipes - I just do So the following 'directions' are my 'do'.
1) peel the avocados, cut up into pieces, put in big bowl
2) cut up shallots, into tiny pieces,
3) cut up half an onion (sweet onion, although you can use a red) into small pieces
4) Chop up jalapenos, removing the core AND SEEDS. Make sure they are finely chopped.
5) chop up/mush that cilantro - make it messy
6) Put 3/4 of a medium size garlic through a garlic press (making it mushy!)
7) chop up them tomatos
8) Add all of the above to #1
9) squeeze that lime in there (the whole thing)
10) add some salt (and salt to your liking post taste)
11) MUSH THOSE INGREDIENTS TOGETHER

Now, let it rest for minute.

Clean your kitchen up.

Chop up some cucumbers. Make sure they are in circles.
Chop up some peppers. Into strips.

NOW DIP, BABY DIP!

This is such a healthy, delicious and nutritious snack! Have fun - and remember to share: if you dare.