Five For Fridays – Jul 10, 2009

Happy Friday! Here are 5 interesting nutrition stories of the week that caught my eye. Enjoy and drop a comment to let me know what’s on your mind.

Doubts emerging about restaurant calorie labeling

It has been a year since the chain restaurants in New York City started labeling their menu items with calorie content. A new report raises questions about its effectiveness in changing consumer behavior in the short term and solving the problem of obesity in the long run. New York City estimates that menu labeling will reduce the number of obese New Yorkers by 150,000 in 5 years and prevent 30,000 cases of diabetes. In a city of over 8 million people, these are small numbers; still many are questioning these estimates. Plus many restaurants seem to be “cheating” by posting lower calorie numbers than actually present in certain food items when tested. Does it mean that menu labeling does not work? I think it all depends on your viewpoint. It is not a silver bullet for the obesity problem; simply a step in the right direction. As long as it makes people think twice about buying the high-calorie food, it has a chance to change attitudes. Posting calories is just a start – in fact, complete nutritional information including salt, fat and sugar content should be made available if a consumer wants it. It takes a long time to change consumer behavior and we should keep taking small steps like calorie labeling. This is not a time to shoot it down!

Celiac disease 4 times more common today than 50 years ago

New research from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., according to a New York Times article, suggests that today there are 4 times more diagnosed cases of celiac disease compared to the 1950’s. Celiac disease is a serious immune system reaction to gluten (protein in grains such as wheat, rye, barley) which attacks the intenstines and disrupts the absorption of nutrients. A lot of early cases or gluten intolerance remain undiagnosed. Even though the headlines seems alarming, it is still a small number. I do not mean to diminish its impact, but there is no reason to panic and stop eating wheat or other grains simply because you experience digestive discomfort a few times. Surely, you should discuss it with your doctor who can do a complete checkup. I say this because there is a lot of hype about gluten-free diet these days. Lower your intake of processed foods, and eat more whole grains. Go gluten-free only if needed, and only after consulting with your doctor.

50% of food lost from farm to fork

Amazing, isn’t it? No wonder, the food prices are so high. Improving the efficiency of our food supply chain will not only be good for the environment, it will also result in lower food prices. It strikes me as ironical that when it comes to food prices, the farmer gets the major portion of the blame. Also, the focus is on fertilizer-hungry, high-yield crops which results into a massive over-production. If only we could focus on the supply-chain efficiency, then maybe we could have a more sustainable food chain. This, and other interesting quirks of our current food supply chain are included in this entertaining video from IBM social media – check it out!

Most physicians and nurses use dietary supplements – should you?

A survey of 900 physicians and 277 nurses sponsored by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) showed that about half of the physicians and nurses used dietary supplements regularly. Overall health and wellness was the most common reason given for using these supplements. They were also quite likely to recommend dietary supplements to their patients for a variety of reasons. I think the CRN, which is a trade association representing manufacturers of these supplements, can hardly be considered an unbiased agency for this type of a study. After reading the whole report, I can also say that their sample of physicians and nurses cannot be treated as random. Therefore, the high positive response in favor of supplements cannot be considered as representative of all health care professionals out there.

Having said that, I personally take a multivitamin on a daily basis because I know that even a fruit and vegetable rich diet today is not sufficient to provide all the necessary vitamins and minerals. Our industrialized farming methods have depleted the nutritional quality of the soil, and fruits and vegetables today are not as rich in vitamins in minerals as they were several decades ago. If you are not taking a supplement, discuss with your doctor if you should. Be careful while selecting the dietary supplement – they are not regulated by the FDA and there are many quality and safety problems. Don’t fall for the out-of-the-world claims for all sorts of miraculous treatments and cures; if they sound too good to be true, probably they are. Exercise the same caution when selecting a nutritional supplement for your toddler. For more tips, read Dr. Husbands answer about toddler nutritional supplements on my Ask the Expert column.

Tips for dining out with preschoolers

Dr. Kathleen Cuneo of Dinner Together, who wrote a guest post here, alerted me to this excellent article for tips on dining out with preschoolers. We have personally experienced this challenge because we have to manage two – not one – energetic toddlers while trying to enjoy our own meal. I think her advice of having realistic expectations from your toddlers is right on the money. We have to simply accept that most preschoolers cannot sit still the whole time. This article offers 7 very practical tips you can use with your little ones. One of our tricks is that we order something for our twins right away and request that they bring it within 5-10 minutes. That’s probably the most we can keep them interested in sitting at the table without anything to eat. Once their food arrives, we order ours and feed them while it is being prepared. Of course, if the service is good, we remember to leave a generous tip.

Enjoy your  weekend! And let me know what you think.

Photo source -The Wandering Angel on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

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Tagged as: Celiac disease, Eating out, Five For Fridays, Food sustainability, Gluten, Helpful Tips, Supplement Use