Maybe you can fight city hall! Recently, the state of Michigan’s Office of Regulatory Reinvention (ORR) made 63 recommendations to Governor Snyder. The headline from the press release (from www.michigan.gov dated 4.16.12) stated, “ORR Issues Recommendations to Deregulate 18 Occupations; Eliminate 9 Boards.” One of the occupational boards scheduled for elimination was (cue the drum roll) the Board of Dietetics and Nutrition.
As you know from previous blog posts, I have been writing about the lunacy of the government regulating who can and cannot speak about nutrition and diet. The American Dietetic Association (ADA), who is changing their name to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, has been very busy trying to pass a law in all 50 states which would limit registered dieticians as the only group who is licensed to provide nutritional advice. In Michigan, this law was signed by Governor Granholm in 2006 but was never enforced.
Thankfully, the ORR has made the new recommendations to dissolve the Board of Dietetics and Nutrition. Needless to say, this is good news to the residents of Michigan. We do not need nutrition police deciding who goes to nutrition prison for giving dietary advice. Now, we need the ORR recommendations passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Snyder.
There are a handful of states that have passed this silly law. In Michigan, a group was formed (www.michigannutritionassociation.org) to fight against the enforcement of this law. The end result of this fight is the dissolution of the Board of Dietetics and Nutrition.
Once in a while it is nice to feel that we do have the power to fight against idiotic governmental regulations.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Is Red Meat Dangerous?
An epidemiological study published a few weeks ago linked the consumption of red meat to a higher risk of death from all causes, cancer, and heart disease. You can read a good summary of it (with a link to the article at the bottom) here:
Science Daily: Red Meat Consumption Linked to Increased Risk of Total, Cardiovascular, and Cancer Mortality.
The study used data from "37,698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study for up to 22 years and 83,644 women in the Nurses' Health Study for up to 28 years who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer at baseline. Diets were assessed through questionnaires every four years."
The study found that "One daily serving of unprocessed red meat (about the size of a deck of cards) was associated with a 13% increased risk of mortality, and one daily serving of processed red meat (one hot dog or two slices of bacon) was associated with a 20% increased risk."
This isn't the first study to link health problems with red meat so we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss its findings. However, given the methodology it used, we also shouldn't be too quick to blame the red meat for the problems it reveals.
Was it the Meat or What's IN the Meat?
The first problem is with the way the nutritional questionnaires are designed that were used in these studies. They ask questions about people's food habits, along the lines of "How many times in the past month did you eat red meat?" and then give multiple choice options for answers like "Less than 5 times" or "6 to 10 times."
What they don't ask is "Where did you eat your red meat?" "Was your Red Meat filled with MSG?" "Was your red meat fried on a grill covered with damaged oils?" "Was Your Red Meat full of pink slime?"
This is important, because you'd have to be delusional to argue that the red meat sold in most chain restaurants is anything but toxic. People who get a daily serving of red meat from a fast food hamburger probably are shortening their lives. Not because of the meat, but because of what else is in the substance they've been sold as "meat."
Did You Get Fries with That?
The second problem with the questionnaires is that they don't ask "what did you eat WITH your red meat? None of us would question that a "red meat" meal that is made up of 3 ounces (cooked) of pink slime on a bun covered with ketchup, sugary pickles, mayo made out of the cheapest oils, and served with a big side of fries cooked in damaged fat, washed down with a 32 oz sugary soda is likely to have severe health consequences, too. But that's how most people at their meat. And if that is the case, the combination of damaged oils and lots of carbs can explain the negative health consequences without any need to demonize red meat.
The Ambivalent Role of Iron
But even so, other research has turned up some significant problems with iron which may also play a part, though as we'll see, we may not be getting the damaging iron from meat since there are other sources of dietary iron to consider.
Iron is essential to life. Without it our blood couldn't transport oxygen to our cells. But too much iron seems to gum up the works. For more than a decade numerous studies have linked higher than normal levels of iron in the brain to the development of Alzheimer's. Too much iron also damages the beta cell, which is why people who have a genetic condition called hemochromatosis where their iron stores grow abnormally large develop diabetes. But high levels of iron also damage the beta cells in people who don't have this gene.
You can read a good review of how iron can cause or worsen diabetes in this article, which also points out that high iron levels contribute to some complications:
The Role of Iron in Diabetes and Its Complications. Sundararaman Swaminathan. Diabetes Care July 2007 vol. 30 no. 7 1926-1933
What Raises our Iron Stores?
So what raises our blood iron stores? Three ounces (cooked) of hamburger are listed as containing 15% of a typical person's daily need for iron. So you'd have to eat a lot of burgers each day to exceed the iron RDA.
Four ounces of rare roast beef contain 43% of your daily need, so if you are eating 12 ounces of roast beef a day, yes, you are eating what could be dangerous amounts of iron if you were doing this day after day.
But it turns out there is almost twice as much iron in a serving of kidney beans as there is in roast beef. (You can find a good listing of the iron content of various foods HERE) And to keep vegetarians from feeling smug, 3 oz of Tofu contains more iron than three ounces of roast beef.
But that's not where the dangerous amounts of iron are coming from, as the link just cited makes plain. Because it also tells us that a cup of "Oatmeal, fortified instant, prepared" contains two and a half times as much iron as a hefty serving of roast beef, clocking in at 10 mg per serving where the 4 oz of roast contains only 4.2 mg.
The key word to note here is "fortified." Because it isn't just your packaged oatmeal that has extra iron in it. Breakfast cereals do. Cheap breads do, too. And of course, you get 100% of your daily iron RDA in any multivitamin not markets as being for "seniors." More iron is absorbed from your food if you consume a lot of vitamin C either from fruits or vitamin pills. The latter fact may have something to do with why large studies have shown that supplementing with vitamin C for a long time raises the risk of death.
But not all the iron in your body comes from your food. You will also get more iron in your food if you cook it in cast iron pans. And cans made out of steel may also contribute iron to your diet, especially if they contain acidic foods. (Details HERE.)
In short, it's very likely that high iron consumption is dangerous. But most of the iron you consume is not coming from the red meat you eat. It might be informative to run a few day's worth of food consumption through some nutritional software to see exactly how much iron you are taking in each day. (This won't, of course account for iron coming in from pans or cans.) If you are consuming a lot of iron, cut back. It might help lower your blood sugar over time.
If your iron intake is high, you might also ask your doctor to measure your ferritin level at your next physical. The hemochromatosis gene is fairly widespread in European populations with 1 in 8 to 12 carrying it and 5 in 1,000 having the two copies that cause damagingly high levels of iron in the blood
it would also be a very good idea for all of us to limit our consumption of red meat to quality meats, avoiding the chemical-laden patties sold in restaurants.
Science Daily: Red Meat Consumption Linked to Increased Risk of Total, Cardiovascular, and Cancer Mortality.
The study used data from "37,698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study for up to 22 years and 83,644 women in the Nurses' Health Study for up to 28 years who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer at baseline. Diets were assessed through questionnaires every four years."
The study found that "One daily serving of unprocessed red meat (about the size of a deck of cards) was associated with a 13% increased risk of mortality, and one daily serving of processed red meat (one hot dog or two slices of bacon) was associated with a 20% increased risk."
This isn't the first study to link health problems with red meat so we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss its findings. However, given the methodology it used, we also shouldn't be too quick to blame the red meat for the problems it reveals.
Was it the Meat or What's IN the Meat?
The first problem is with the way the nutritional questionnaires are designed that were used in these studies. They ask questions about people's food habits, along the lines of "How many times in the past month did you eat red meat?" and then give multiple choice options for answers like "Less than 5 times" or "6 to 10 times."
What they don't ask is "Where did you eat your red meat?" "Was your Red Meat filled with MSG?" "Was your red meat fried on a grill covered with damaged oils?" "Was Your Red Meat full of pink slime?"
This is important, because you'd have to be delusional to argue that the red meat sold in most chain restaurants is anything but toxic. People who get a daily serving of red meat from a fast food hamburger probably are shortening their lives. Not because of the meat, but because of what else is in the substance they've been sold as "meat."
Did You Get Fries with That?
The second problem with the questionnaires is that they don't ask "what did you eat WITH your red meat? None of us would question that a "red meat" meal that is made up of 3 ounces (cooked) of pink slime on a bun covered with ketchup, sugary pickles, mayo made out of the cheapest oils, and served with a big side of fries cooked in damaged fat, washed down with a 32 oz sugary soda is likely to have severe health consequences, too. But that's how most people at their meat. And if that is the case, the combination of damaged oils and lots of carbs can explain the negative health consequences without any need to demonize red meat.
The Ambivalent Role of Iron
But even so, other research has turned up some significant problems with iron which may also play a part, though as we'll see, we may not be getting the damaging iron from meat since there are other sources of dietary iron to consider.
Iron is essential to life. Without it our blood couldn't transport oxygen to our cells. But too much iron seems to gum up the works. For more than a decade numerous studies have linked higher than normal levels of iron in the brain to the development of Alzheimer's. Too much iron also damages the beta cell, which is why people who have a genetic condition called hemochromatosis where their iron stores grow abnormally large develop diabetes. But high levels of iron also damage the beta cells in people who don't have this gene.
You can read a good review of how iron can cause or worsen diabetes in this article, which also points out that high iron levels contribute to some complications:
The Role of Iron in Diabetes and Its Complications. Sundararaman Swaminathan. Diabetes Care July 2007 vol. 30 no. 7 1926-1933
What Raises our Iron Stores?
So what raises our blood iron stores? Three ounces (cooked) of hamburger are listed as containing 15% of a typical person's daily need for iron. So you'd have to eat a lot of burgers each day to exceed the iron RDA.
Four ounces of rare roast beef contain 43% of your daily need, so if you are eating 12 ounces of roast beef a day, yes, you are eating what could be dangerous amounts of iron if you were doing this day after day.
But it turns out there is almost twice as much iron in a serving of kidney beans as there is in roast beef. (You can find a good listing of the iron content of various foods HERE) And to keep vegetarians from feeling smug, 3 oz of Tofu contains more iron than three ounces of roast beef.
But that's not where the dangerous amounts of iron are coming from, as the link just cited makes plain. Because it also tells us that a cup of "Oatmeal, fortified instant, prepared" contains two and a half times as much iron as a hefty serving of roast beef, clocking in at 10 mg per serving where the 4 oz of roast contains only 4.2 mg.
The key word to note here is "fortified." Because it isn't just your packaged oatmeal that has extra iron in it. Breakfast cereals do. Cheap breads do, too. And of course, you get 100% of your daily iron RDA in any multivitamin not markets as being for "seniors." More iron is absorbed from your food if you consume a lot of vitamin C either from fruits or vitamin pills. The latter fact may have something to do with why large studies have shown that supplementing with vitamin C for a long time raises the risk of death.
But not all the iron in your body comes from your food. You will also get more iron in your food if you cook it in cast iron pans. And cans made out of steel may also contribute iron to your diet, especially if they contain acidic foods. (Details HERE.)
In short, it's very likely that high iron consumption is dangerous. But most of the iron you consume is not coming from the red meat you eat. It might be informative to run a few day's worth of food consumption through some nutritional software to see exactly how much iron you are taking in each day. (This won't, of course account for iron coming in from pans or cans.) If you are consuming a lot of iron, cut back. It might help lower your blood sugar over time.
If your iron intake is high, you might also ask your doctor to measure your ferritin level at your next physical. The hemochromatosis gene is fairly widespread in European populations with 1 in 8 to 12 carrying it and 5 in 1,000 having the two copies that cause damagingly high levels of iron in the blood
it would also be a very good idea for all of us to limit our consumption of red meat to quality meats, avoiding the chemical-laden patties sold in restaurants.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The ADA Wants Nutrition Prisons
You’ve got to believe me; I am not trying to pick on registered dieticians (RD’s). Unfortunately, they make it too easy for me. I know some very smart RD’s who are very knowledgeable about nutrition. However, as compared to most of the members of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), the RD’s who are knowledgeable about nutrition are, unfortunately, few and far between.
Presently, we have two-thirds of the U.S. population overweight and one-third obese. Part of the reason we have so much obesity in the U.S. is due to the nonsensical dietary advice the ADA and its members have been promoting. I can assure you, the last thing we need in the U.S. is to have the RD’s control who can and cannot speak about nutrition.
This blog post was prompted by an article in Forbes magazine (4.5.12) titled, “Is the American Dietetic Association Attempting to Limit Market Competition in Nutrition Counseling.” The article can be found here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2012/04/05/american-dietetic-association/
This article is well written and goes into more details about the nefarious activities of the ADA. This article discusses the ADA’s push to pass a terrible law in each state that will only allow RD’s the legal right to talk to patients about nutrition. All others will be subject to fines and jail time.
Let me review what is happening. I posted two blogs about this topic—the first on September 22, 2010 and the second on October 6, 2011. You can access these articles from the archives on my blog page.
The ADA is trying to ensure that only registered dieticians will be licensed to talk with patients about nutrition. If a health professional is not properly licensed to speak to a client about nutrition, he/she would be subject to fine of $10,000 per day of violation and possibly six months of jail. Can you imagine these penalties for counseling someone about nutrition? Think about it, you go into a health food store and the clerk tells you that you should eat less refined carbohydrates. The next thing you know, an ADA enforcer may be there to fine the clerk $10,000 and put them in jail for six months. Does that sound reasonable to you? It is not only health food store clerks who have to worry, it is chiropractors, certified nutritionists, personal trainers, yoga instructors, acupuncturists, naturopaths, homeopaths, nurses and pharmacists who may be barred from speaking to anyone about nutrition.
Maybe we will need nutrition prisons to house all the new inmates. I can hear the prison conversation. “What are you in for? I told someone to eat less carbs and they busted me.” As punishment, perhaps these new prisoners should have to eat food from all the ADA corporate sponsors. Who are these corporate sponsors? Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Mars, Soyjoy, Hershey’s and General Mills are such examples. I think that punishment would be too severe for the nutrition prisoners. But, I digress. Let’s get back to business.
The state of Michigan passed the ADA’s idiotic bill in 2006 and it was signed by the governor of Michigan. Fortunately, this law has not been implemented due to public and professional criticism. My October 6, 2011 blog post contains a letter I sent to the Michigan Office of Regulatory Regulation detailing my complaints about this dumb law.
For those of you that reside in other states, I have two words for you: Watch Out! The ADA is busy trying to pass this dangerous and unnecessary law in all 50 states. They are quiet about it because they do not want anyone to be aware of what they are doing. You have to organize and get the word out. In Michigan, we have formed a group to fight back. More information about this group can be found here: http://michigannutritionassociation.org.
As I said before, we do NOT need the ADA deciding who can and cannot speak about nutrition. This law needs to go away and the ADA should refocus its efforts to properly educate its members about nutrition.
Whether it is from an RD, nurse, or even a health food store clerk, you should have the right to decide who you would like to receive nutritional advice from.
Presently, we have two-thirds of the U.S. population overweight and one-third obese. Part of the reason we have so much obesity in the U.S. is due to the nonsensical dietary advice the ADA and its members have been promoting. I can assure you, the last thing we need in the U.S. is to have the RD’s control who can and cannot speak about nutrition.
This blog post was prompted by an article in Forbes magazine (4.5.12) titled, “Is the American Dietetic Association Attempting to Limit Market Competition in Nutrition Counseling.” The article can be found here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2012/04/05/american-dietetic-association/
This article is well written and goes into more details about the nefarious activities of the ADA. This article discusses the ADA’s push to pass a terrible law in each state that will only allow RD’s the legal right to talk to patients about nutrition. All others will be subject to fines and jail time.
Let me review what is happening. I posted two blogs about this topic—the first on September 22, 2010 and the second on October 6, 2011. You can access these articles from the archives on my blog page.
The ADA is trying to ensure that only registered dieticians will be licensed to talk with patients about nutrition. If a health professional is not properly licensed to speak to a client about nutrition, he/she would be subject to fine of $10,000 per day of violation and possibly six months of jail. Can you imagine these penalties for counseling someone about nutrition? Think about it, you go into a health food store and the clerk tells you that you should eat less refined carbohydrates. The next thing you know, an ADA enforcer may be there to fine the clerk $10,000 and put them in jail for six months. Does that sound reasonable to you? It is not only health food store clerks who have to worry, it is chiropractors, certified nutritionists, personal trainers, yoga instructors, acupuncturists, naturopaths, homeopaths, nurses and pharmacists who may be barred from speaking to anyone about nutrition.
Maybe we will need nutrition prisons to house all the new inmates. I can hear the prison conversation. “What are you in for? I told someone to eat less carbs and they busted me.” As punishment, perhaps these new prisoners should have to eat food from all the ADA corporate sponsors. Who are these corporate sponsors? Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Mars, Soyjoy, Hershey’s and General Mills are such examples. I think that punishment would be too severe for the nutrition prisoners. But, I digress. Let’s get back to business.
The state of Michigan passed the ADA’s idiotic bill in 2006 and it was signed by the governor of Michigan. Fortunately, this law has not been implemented due to public and professional criticism. My October 6, 2011 blog post contains a letter I sent to the Michigan Office of Regulatory Regulation detailing my complaints about this dumb law.
For those of you that reside in other states, I have two words for you: Watch Out! The ADA is busy trying to pass this dangerous and unnecessary law in all 50 states. They are quiet about it because they do not want anyone to be aware of what they are doing. You have to organize and get the word out. In Michigan, we have formed a group to fight back. More information about this group can be found here: http://michigannutritionassociation.org.
As I said before, we do NOT need the ADA deciding who can and cannot speak about nutrition. This law needs to go away and the ADA should refocus its efforts to properly educate its members about nutrition.
Whether it is from an RD, nurse, or even a health food store clerk, you should have the right to decide who you would like to receive nutritional advice from.
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