The Nutrition Statements Not to Ignore, and the Nutrition Claims to Ignore
Written by Kate Taylor, Registered Nutritionist
Kate is a Registered Nutritionist and the Founder of Eat Drink Think Nutrition Limited. Kate supports systemic health & wellness through personalised nutrition, diet and lifestyle strategies & recommendations, and particularly specialises in Brain health, cognitive function and Dementia risk-avoidance.
Diet is an umbrella term for the items that habitually appear on your plate and routinely feature in what you eat. But when a diet-related ‘fad’ comes along with a connected perception that it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, you might run into unsuspected (and unreported) health issues because of your biochemically individuality.
This is the precise entry point of the Nutritionist. The raison d'être of Nutritional Therapy is to personalise food and diet recommendations to best support, nurture and nourish the individual because your biochemical specifics are influenced by a multitude of factors which are individual to you. Therefore, when consulting with a Nutritionist, your dietary recommendations are sculpted with professional discernment and the intention of ‘health-setting’, not ‘trend-setting’.
Having said this, there are some amply-evidenced best options for food and drink which we can all follow to optimise our nutrition and support our health, healthspan and brainspan. Here are a few suggestions for simple, smart and sustainable nutritional tips you can apply to your daily eating habits.
Three nutritional statements not to ignore
1. Chewing
Chewing costs nothing and is infinitely health-beneficial. Chewing activates salivary enzymes (chemicals that speed up a reaction or biochemical breakdown process) and nutrient bioavailability since nutrients become more available to the body within smaller pieces of food. This gifts digestion a head start before food reaches the stomach. Chewing also supports appetite satiety, and the physical action of chewing potentially supports attention, memory function, and activates the expression of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, a complex protein typically gained from exercise, which is highly beneficial to the Brain and cognitive function. So, although chewing does not contribute to your daily step count, the body may indirectly interpret it as exercise.
2. Including a protein food for breakfast
(Ideally, this means a ‘real’ food rather than a fortified food bar/shake/powder.) The reason I mention this is because sometimes quick breakfasts-on-the-go can omit a source of protein which is a missed opportunity to nurture your body at the outset of your day since the inclusion of protein in the first meal helps fuel your body and Brain since protein supports the structure and healing of bone, muscle and skin, cognitive function, mood, and satiety i.e. protein helps keep you feeling full. This does not mean you need to protein-load, simply adding a couple of tablespoons of Greek yoghurt, quark, cottage cheese, an egg and/or slice of chicken or fish is a good start.
3. Including fibre
Fibre is beneficial for almost every aspect of health and healthspan (particularly but not exclusively gut health). Fibre can be found in vegetables and fruit (to varying degrees depending on how you prepare and eat them), in legumes (beans and pulses), and in oats, nuts and seeds. Many national averages suggest not quite enough fibre is optimally consumed on a daily basis, so the inclusion of a fibre-rich food on each plate of food you consume not only contributes to your daily vegetable/fruit count but also supports your body’s intake of fibre. (It is relevant at this point to cross-reference to Point 3 in the next section, which relates to a current ‘trend’ going a bit too far with this recommendation.)
Three nutritional claims to ignore
1. Water fasting can support detoxification
This refers to a dietary intake of only water for a period ranging from days to weeks, and in my professional opinion, it is not at all health beneficial. Interestingly, the research is mixed, but very many factors need to be overseen, supervised, and safety-checked because there is simply not sufficient nourishment in water (and you never know the toxic or microplastic content in the water you are drinking) to warrant a guaranteed healthful or safe ‘water fast’. Short-term disbeneficial side effects may include acid reflux, dehydration (ironically), dizziness, headaches, hunger, dry mouth, insomnia (which is terrible for Brain detoxification), panic attacks, nausea/vomiting, there may be complications in reintroducing ‘real food’ (called Refeeding Syndrome), and if medications are being taken, a water fast could be dangerous for systemic health. If any beneficial effects are experienced, they appear to be highly short-term and unsustainable for any significant length of time. (It is also worth noting that in Human studies, the majority of the trial participants withdrew before the study's end & conclusion.) So the upshot is, daily hydration is beneficial, but daily solo-hydration via water fasting is not.
2. Red wine is okay for your health
The evidence is becoming more and more suggestive that no amount of alcohol is beneficial to your health, in particular, your Brain health. Ultimately, alcohol is a toxin, and studies have shown that even one daily unit of alcohol negatively affects the structure and function of the Brain and may exacerbate the risk of cognitive impairment/decline. The often- cited resveratrol polyphenol content in red wine is not even particularly bioavailable to us in that format, and research has suggested that the quantity of wine needed to obtain a relevant amount would be fatal. So wherever you can, opt for non-alcoholic mocktails or sparkling substitutes such as lime & soda or just a bunch of grapes! Your sleep, skin, gut, liver, kidneys, pancreas, teeth and Brain will thank you, I cannot recall anyone feeling regret at not having an alcoholic drink or the repercussions that come from over-indulging in alcohol.
3. Fibre-maxing support gut health
This is the concept of suddenly and immediately adding lots of fibre-rich foods into your diet, which anecdotally may produce uncomfortable gut-oriented effects such as bloating, flatulence, abdominal cramps, diarrhoea or constipation. As mentioned in Point 3 above, fibre-rich foods are necessary to optimise systemic health, but they must be introduced gradually if your body is not used to them. To go from nothing to a large quantity of anything in many aspects of life rarely reaps the desired dividends, you would not run a Marathon after one training jog and the same principle should be applied to introducing fibre into your diet. Gradual, slow, and thoroughly chewed fibre-rich foods can easily be introduced one at a time to gently acclimatise your body to fibre.
Nutrition and diet are the benchmarks and the starting points which have been recognised since 1903, when Thomas Edison commented in The Newark Advocate, “The doctor of the future will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Our medical sciences are advancing with phenomenal alacrity, but it is important not to forget that underpinning health (especially Brain health) is a respect for fresh, nourishing food, a balanced diet and a wholesome lifestyle.
If a functional medicine perspective to nurturing, nourishing and supporting your Brain health and cognitive function is of interest, the time to act is now, why postpone what could be actioned today? Investing in your Brain health and Brainspan could be the wisest decision you ever make.
Please note that these are general recommendations. They are not personalised and they are not tailored to account for or include recommendations for any existing health imbalances or medical conditions. In these cases. Please consult a medical professional and/or a Nutritionist/Dietician if you have a particular health or dietary requirement.
Read more from Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor, Registered Nutritionist
Kate is an advocate of proactive and preventative healthcare through optimising and personalising the basics, nutrition, diet, and lifestyle. Kate's experiences watching those around her develop and decline from Dementia instilled in her a mindset of 'prevention is better than cure' and that, particularly when it comes to Brain health and Dementia risk-avoidance, the perception 'false hopelessness' should not triumph over health optimism. Whilst sensitive to the fact that Brain health and Dementia risk-avoidance is multifaceted and cannot be solely addressed by nutrition, Kate's professional nutritional aspiration is to empower & inspire people that diet and lifestyle are integral foundations to health, healthspan, and importantly, Brainspan.
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