Don’t believe the “whole grain”, high fiber cereal hype

As an R.D., there are certain words on repeat in my office: carbs, protein, fat, greens, probiotics. Another one on this list is fiber, we field a ton of fiber and grain-related questions, especially with the rise in regimes like paleo and keto. Most of us in the nutrition field can agree fiber is a good thing. Fiber is beneficial for your heart and blood sugar,  it’s also important for satiety and weight management. But lumping all sources of fiber together is akin, using fats as an example, to comparing hydrogenated oils to an avocado. All fiber is not created equal and you can’t look at the “fiber grams” on a label to determine if something is worth eating. Quality counts with any type of food.

“Whole Grain” BS

Let’s start with “whole grain” products.  Just the term “whole grain” gives me flashbacks to the food pyramid and the 1990’s. Most of what’s deemed whole grain on food labels (there’s actually a seal and “standards”) isn’t so whole. 

When I think of whole grains, I think of something like this. 

You know, grains in their natural form.

But to earn that snazzy seal, you don’t necessarily have to have whole, as in intact, grains. You see grains contain three parts- the bran, the endosperm and the germ. Products with the seal just need to contain these three parts. You can process, mangle and take the grain apart, but if you have the bran, germ and endosperm it’s whole? If I take off the tires and remove the engine, is it still a car? Well not one that works…

In a Scientific American article “whole grain foods aren’t always healthful”, I came across the following information:

Harvard researchers compared the nutrient composition of 545 grain products and found that those labeled with the “Whole Grain” stamp, an industry-sponsored label for foods containing at least eight grams of whole grains per serving, contained more calories and sugar than those without the stamp. They're also more expensive. 

Fiber 1? Not for this one.

Most mass-produced cereals are heavily processed and the high fiber options are no exception.

Take a look at the Fiber 1 label (above).

We’ve discussed the grains but Sucralose (Splenda), caramel coloring? You cannot eat this and call yourself a healthy person. What’s the expression you can judge a person by the company they keep? (googled and it’s “man is known by the company he keeps” I had the right idea). It’s 2017, we know better than artificial sweeteners and carcinogenic coloring. This is as natural as a nose job. Go to the produce section and grab a container of (organic) berries instead.

Is eating wheat bad?

I’ll share a personal story here. After giving birth to my first son, I started having allergic reactions (eyes swelling shut, skin rashes etc.). I did an elimination diet and determined wheat was the cause. I have been wheat free ever since. This past summer, my integrative doctor suggested “you do know the glyphosate the wheat is sprayed with is probably partially to blame.” I was on PubMed before leaving her office. Glyphosate (herbicide AKA as roundup) use was limited in the 70s when it was introduced. In the last two decades, its use has skyrocketed. It’s interesting that I don’t have symptoms from gluten when I travel abroad… Now, I am a sample size of one, not everyone will react in this way. But, since we have no biological requirement for grains. I’ll leave you with this.

 “Common wheat harvest protocol in the United States is to drench the wheat fields with Roundup several days before the combine harvesters work through the fields.”

Via healthy home economist.

For all you All Bran, wheat bran, believers, the bran is on the outside of the grain (getting drenched) yum. Additionally, and this is probably too large a topic for today, grains contains "anti-nutrients" (phytates and lectins). These, over time,  adversely affect both your gut health and appetite regulation. Specifically, leptin the "you've had enough" hormone. Our modern wheat and the type of gluten is also vastly different from ancient grains. The more I've learned about wheat and gluten, the stronger my stance and recommendations have become. 

So how should I get my fiber?

If you're freaking out, wondering how to get your fiber without whole grain bread and fiber cereal? I did some math with my breakfast smoothie. At Foodtrainers, we’re not big on nutrition calculations. If you’re eating whole foods, you don’t need to weigh, measure and count (phew). Anyway, between berries, chia seeds and pea protein I was at 20 grams, with a salad lunch and family dinner I’d have more than enough fiber, as expected. I know this is a shift if you've been on the bran bandwagon. Not to worry, now you know there are better choices. Get your fiber from fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. And if you’re worried about “going”  fiber from whole, unpackaged food, adequate hydration and good fats and you’ll be fine. If you’re still fat phobic, eating nonfat, skim everything? I’ll cover that another day.

Do you eat any “fiber” products? Or, what to do rely on to help you go?

Is food an issue in your relationship?

Sure you want to eat that?

What are you uncomfortable discussing? Sex? Money matters? I would normally add politics to this list but most of us have extinguished that fear this election season. Today I’m shooting a news segment on couples and food. The producer joked to me “it’s easier to get heroin users to talk to us.” I sent a few emails to clients and friends. We have two women and one man on board to open up about food differences in their relationships. However, the majority of the responses I received went something like “this is a huge issue for us but I’m not sure we want to air our dirty laundry.” Really? We weren’t asking people to strip naked. Rather “he’s a health nut and I’m not” that sort of thing.

When a client enters into a new relationship I always ask, “what kind of an eater are they?” While this may seem unimportant initially, while everyone is on good behavior, you eat three times a day, it will matter. If you love to stay home and cook and he wants to go out every night OR he is gluten free and you are “gluten full” you need a game plan.

No need to completely convert

“We need to work on his eating” a client told me last week referring to her boyfriend.

“No we don’t” I said. Let’s work on your eating. As long as your partner isn’t AGAINST your eating regime, you’re ok. We don’t expect our significant other so think the same way we do and so they don’t need to eat the same exact way either.

My husband loves golf, I promise you he spends more hours golfing than eating. I tried it and I don’t love golf (understatement alert). He doesn’t expect me to golf, we’re good.

Metabolism Matters

When it comes to eating, metabolism, gender and age affect how much you should or can eat.

A tiny woman shouldn’t match a big guy or you’ll have relationship weight gain.

Homemade Helps

Cooking at home allows you to share the experience of meal prep and menu selection. If one person likes fries or steak, you can make baked fries or sweet potato fries and grass-fed steak. Or, you can add a veg for the healthier eater. There’s usually that Venn diagram overlap or some common ground.

No Food Advice While Eating

This is the same advice I give to parents of teens.

“Are you sure you want to eat that?” is never going to be met with “oh you’re right, I don’t’ want to eat that.” If you’re going to say you’re worried about their health, I am sure but don’t worry about it at the table. There is nothing sexy about policing your mate.

Finally, as I said in my blog last week, let’s not be so shy about this. Whether you’re in a new relationship or a longstanding one you can discuss food and eating. Just don’t contact Foodtrainers for “couples Foodtraining” we don’t offer that service for a reason.

We're not on camera, tell me about your relationship food issues. Do you and your partner eat similarly? Was that always the case? If you do not, what do you do to compromise?
And finally, happy halloween...if you missed it here is a link to our "healthy sweets you can eat newsletter".

Cheese is like crack and salad leads us to cheese

Last week I received multiple emails entitled “cheese is crack” referring to an LA Times article.  Yeah, yeah I thought as I clicked through, I could’ve told you that. Cheese is my dietary kryptonite. What I didn’t know was this:

“Casomorphins attach to the brain’s opiate receptors to cause a calming effect in much the same way heroin and morphine do," said Barnard. And since cheese has a concentrated content of casomorphins, Barnard suggested it may be called dairy crack.

While many associate sugar with a drug-like or addictive response, I thought cheese lovers were simply eating cheese because it’s the most delicious food in the universe. I am not sure if this notion of “calming cheese” makes me want to eat more or less of it but it makes sense to me. When cheese is in my life or kitchen, it’s hard to see it in my refrigerator drawer and pass it up. Fortunately, having not been to the Farmer’s market this week, I am cheese free. Fingers crossed no casomorph withdrawal.

Note: casomorphins come from casein (milk protein), all cheese has casein even though some cheeses are lactose free.

In other nutrition news, the NY TimesSunday Review highlighted “just the idea that we can have salad leads us toillicit treats”. The article explains something called the licensing effect. The licensing effect refers to our tendency to make an unhealthy choice following a healthy one. This can be the typical “I worked out so therefore…” or in supermarket studies research shows “drop a bunch of kale into your cart and you’re more likely to head to the ice cream or beer section.” There are some ways to get around this. First, the article mentions that we all have a concept of how healthy or unhealthy we are. When we stray too far from our norm, we’re more likely to compensate. I would say the more you tend to follow a positive decision with a negative one, the more you should opt for gradual, manageable changes versus rash ones. Second, focus on the behavior and not the scale. This licensing effect can encourage us to gain weight after we’ve lost it if the focus is numerical.

So the answer isn’t to skip the kale and head directly for the cheese plate but rather something along the lines of a kale Caesar salad. We need a place for cheese and other treats, crack-like or not, so that we don’t give ourselves license to binge.

Are you a cheese addict? Or what’s your dietary kryptonite? How have you seen yourself “licensing” unhealthy choices?