Ask anything health and nutrition related. I'll answer when I can :)
[AMA] I'm an Accredited Practicing Dietitian. Ask Me Anything
LScamwatcher on 01/05/2019 - 20:04
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yes,
as would be normal coke as long as you stick to a can
The theory I've heard is that artificially sweetened drinks cause similar insulin spikes to real sugary drinks (ie your body acts as if it's about to get a blast of sugar when it actually isn't). Also it raises your taste sweetness level (ie sugary drinks no longer taste excessively sweet). Therefore it's better to avoid both sugary and artificially sweetened drinks, and drink water instead. Personally I find this quite annoying as when I buy a meal in food court or fast food joint (neither is healthy, I know), the drink options are either sugary drink or artificial sweetened drink (both bad according to above theory), or just plain water (and I feel like an idiot since you're basically paying $2.50 for a plastic bottle, since tap water is free, and water isn't a very interesting drink); there need to more options that are healthier & interesting (eg lightly carbonated water with a little lemon or lime juice). But I have zero training/qualification on this theory/area, so interested to hear a dietician's take on it.
The issue with drinking artificially sweetened drinks is that the sweetener is much sweeter than sugar and you crave that sugar high and end up eating more regular sugar anyway. They also have a negative impact on the good bacteria in your gut.
+1 for having more healthy options!
Some places started stocking kambucha which I'm happy about.
A friend has been trying keto diet, and has seen some positive results.
What are your thoughts?
Is combination of proteins and fat diet with no carbs good for body? I am more concerned with impact of fats like butter, bacon etc. and also zero sugar consumption.
Thank you.
What do you suggest as a cheap, nutritious daily meal plan that someone could for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day?
Ie. I tend to go:
Breakfast - bacon and 2 eggs
Lunch - chicken or tuna salad
Dinner - protein and steamed veg.
every single dayI'd try and introduce a handful of Almonds a day, and also a few more carbs, unless you're going for low low carb.
Nice try imposter.
Swap some of your meats for lentils/beans and it'll be a lot cheaper too.
Yeah I've been subbing in tofu or lentils occasionally.
How do you do it? I seem to always want some variety for dinner.
Frozen fruit and veg are always cheaper than fresh.
Lentils, beans and wholegrains are a good way to fill up too.Shrug, Mon-Fri I just want simple, cheap, healthy and delicious. I save the fancy cooking for the weekend. I have fruit as snacks.
Replace:
Breakfast - bacon and 2 eggs
with porridge?
Boooo
What is your opinion of a wholefood plant based diet like Dr Michael Greger promotes and the claims that a WFPB diet can reverse heart disease and cure hypertension?
What are your thoughts on the healthstar food ratings?
They're good if you're comparing like to like products (apples to apples)
I'm glad they cracked down on some products that were gaming the system, like Milo.
How can I prepare my body/diet for an intake of 10+ beers in an occasional night? Is there anything I can do to offset the carb intake? On nights such as these I tend to not eat carbs for the next day which adds to the hangover.
Nothing you can do to prepare, other than hydrate thoroughly.
Make yourself get up early the nest morning and go for a 5km run for a sure fire hangover cure.
Can you recommend some calorie dense foods for someone who doesn't eat much during the day?
(OzBargain friendly would be preferred).Calorie dense? Nuts.
Any that aren't salted or coconut.
As a dietitian, if you were to set up your own practice what would be the expected earnings vs hours invested? And how much of a social media presence would you need to bring in clients?
My wife has converted our family to a whole-food plant-based diet 2 years ago and we're really enjoying it. My wife would love to become a dietitian but income and stability are a big unknown.
expected earnings vs hours invested; WFPB
There are few WFPB dietitians in Australia so there might be an opportunity. But there might be fewer (willing/open to) client opportunities.
A WFPB focus would be an excellent and worthwhile point of differentiation.
Thanks, great points.
Private dietitian practices are a tricky business.
Yes, you need to be marketing hard on social media because getting people in the door consistently is quite hard.
Not sure on hours vs earnings, but don't expect to make a profit in the first year or so.Thanks. Yes the marketing side of things sounds exhausting if you're not social media type.
What is your view on Up and Go breakfast drink? So much sugar yet has 5 star rating
Do you agree that there aren't any essential carbohydrates?
My mother had an angiogram performed recently and found that she has a 70% blockage in one of the main arteries. Doctors do not recommend an angioplasty and said that the only way to prevent more buildup is by changing her diet. Any recommendation on diet/calorie intake? She is 70 years old and exercises 3 times a week (brisk walks, line dance)
She needs to lower her cholesterol.
Get her to increase her fish intake (3x per week)
Increase healthy nuts per day (1 handful unsalted)
Use Extra virgin olive oil and avocadoCut out butter, animal fats and swap to low fat or skim dairy foods
Do they still demonise saturated fats and implicate them in heart disease in the current Dietician Courses?
She does not need to lower her cholesterol. She needs to eliminate inflammation.
Other than "Cut out butter, animal fats and swap to low fat or skim dairy foods" your recommendations were helpful.
Yes, they still do. Cherry picking studies is not good.
@MagicMushroom: Data can always be manipulated in ways that brings about the desired outcome. The problem is the original studies linking saturated fats with heart disease and the mechanism they ascribe are steadily being revealed to be based on flawed assumptions and the data doesn't truly represent those determinations.
what are your thoughts on programs like jenny craig and lite n easy. i lost 20kg on JC but put it all back on within 2 years. considering going back.
Those programs are basically convenient meals that copy the healthy plate model, which is as follows:
1/2 plate non starchy veg (anything that's not potato, sweet potato or corn)
1/4 plate protein
1/4 Low GI carbs (bread, pasta, noodles, or starchy veg)Corn is bad? What about carrots? Are they starchy too?
I'd say corn is actually a good source of nutrients, but it can be useful to think of it as a lower-GI carb, a bit like sweet potato (very similar energy rating from the looks of it).
Eggs, yay or nay? Seems to be a constant cycle of eggs being good/bad.
They're good.
They contain cholesterol, but eating cholesterol doesn't increase YOUR cholesterol.
Eating unhealthy (saturated) fats causes your cholesterol to increase (since your body makes its own cholesterol)
Eat healthy (Poly and Monounsaturated) fats to improve your cholesterolGlad to see the debate about eggs is over.
Now if we could just update these old concepts about fats.
Does the current dietician curriculum still encourage use of margarine to replace butter?Are you some expert who is equally qualified as dietitian or more?
@MagicMushroom: Are you some person who blindly believes anything that comes form someone that can be labelled as an "expert"?
Hello Dietitian,
I would like to be built, I have belly fat and weigh 80kg with fat belly and a lanky body 1.8m tall.
Some people say eat at a calorie deficit to lose fat, some tell be to maintain or lean bulk and don't worry about the belly fat.Some recommend me to do intermittent fasting where I eat for only 5 hours of the day.
What should I do?
First things first.
If you want to get built, do you exercise?Yes, I exercise at the gym averaging 1 to 1.5 hours per session 4 times a week. I to 30 mins of cardio per week and the rest is weight training.
Cut first. You'll still maybe build some muscle due to noob gains, and you get to look good once you start your clean bulk, rather than looking pudgy the entire first year until you cut for the first time.
That is something I'm thinking as well. But will that be enough to lose belly fat?
No such thing as spot reduction, your genetics will determine much of where you store fat. The way to losing belly fat is to reduce total fat percentage. Stop cutting when you see either the hint of a six pack, or a full six pack. Whichever is your preference.
If you bulk while fat, you'll always look soft. If you were getting into powerlifting you might not care, but my guess is you're interested in aesthetics.
Girls generally like slim/fit looking guys over fatter guys regardless of if the fat dudes are also muscular (unless they're into dad bods or bears).
thoughts on eating a clove of garlic each morning, with some honey.
Garlic is great.
I wouldn't eat if for breakfast though.
However it has been actually shown to lower risk of bowel cancer.
How do I check if a dietician is certified?
I am very obese (BMI approx 44) and have struggled to lose weight for many years, even though I generally do 40 minutes of intense exercise 5 days a week, plus other bits and pieces. Anyway, the part where I struggle is with the food. I believe that I eat 80% healthy foods like steak and veg, salmon with rice and veg, Greek yoghurt, etc but do struggle with either having a high daily calorific intake, or the 20% balance eating chocolates, burgers, chips, iced coffees.
I know what to do from a theory perspective but putting it into practice is the hard part. Can you offer any advice as I'm sure you would have seen this often, and is it pschological?Edit: thanks in advance for any comments and serious replies.
Not OP, but a dieter that has lost 96KG.
Consider doing strict calorie counting with an App like MyFitnessPal and track what you eat. It’ll become plain as day what the actual issue is. It could be portions are too large, sauces, oil and much more. An example is fried eggs. It’s very easy to have fried eggs and two slices of bread for breakfast and think that it’s healthy. However, if you are liberal with the oil it can shoot up in calories. Another example is Steak. The steak might be healthy but the oil and sauce can add up to more than the steak itself. Switching to a zero calorie hot sauce and using a spray oil and putting as little oil as you can makes a massive difference in calories.
With regards to sweets, its heartbreaking how little you can actually have and still not overindulge. Realistically I could fit in 50g of Cadbury chocolate as pretty much my exclusive snack while calorie counting to lose weight.
Kudos on the weight loss!
Agreed totally. Kudos!
I too am in process of losing a lot of weight, and it was owing to a breaking point of hardly being able to walk one day owing to my knees being so bad.
I put MyFitnessPal on my phone, bought some Withings smart scales, and a knee brace. I also started at least 30 minutes of good solid walking each day (at a minimum, to/from work).
It forced me to measure or weigh everything I was eating, and I made everything I couldn't verify the content of (the barcode scanner in MFP is great for pre-made lunches in the UK, so it made eating at work very easy).
What I learned by doing this is just how many calories supposedly healthy things like lean red meat or skin-free chicken breast actually has. What I thought would have been a healthy dinner of around 400-500 calories was in fact over 1,000 owing to the size of the portion of protein, butter/oil used, wrong veges or veges cooked in oil/butter etc. (and skip the potatoes). QSR's like Subway market themselves as a healthy option, but you've the devil is in the detail: a 6" Vege Delight may be ok, but not with cheese or dressing, and wheat or multigrain only.
I've now started eating a few boiled eggs for breakfast with spinnach (just raw, I quite like the pepperyness of it), carrot sticks and low fat hommus as a snack (very small serve, around 130 calories), edamame beans, fresh fruit etc. I bulk cook dinners with a cup of brown rice, freeze, and have something on-hand that's tasty and I know exactly what's in it.
Being hangry for the first week was tough, but within 2 weeks I was filled with so much energy I literally couldn't sleep. As you're already getting some good exercise, I suspect if you can follow MFP religiously, you'd find it easier. I was well above your BMI and am now under 40 in 2 months. The hard part in reducing the calories is the first week after starting.
Also, find someone to bounce off. I have a friend who is on MFP and it's amazing how much a friend liking your exercise, or closing your daily food diary with a good calorie count can moviate you (when you close your daily diary it says 'if every day were like today, you'd be xx kg in 5 weeks'). I'd probably suggest ignoring the actual calorie requirements on MFP though to 'lose weight'. See a dietician or other professional to find out how many calories a day you should eat for healthy weight loss (Mine says I can eat 2900 a day to maintain my weight; if I ate that, there's no way I wouldn't gain!). I'm doing around 1500-1800 a day and losing 0.7-1kg a week, and am far more mindful of how/what I eat now.
Oh, and water. Lots of water instead of any other drink. Don't even think about booze!
Lastly: don't give up! :)
a dieter that has lost 96KG
You've lost more that I weigh! That is so impressive. Well-done!
Sympathies.
If you haven't already, try keto. Not because of some magic about burning fat by eating fat, but because protein and fat make you feel full, whereas carbs basically don't make you feel full.
Since you exercise, your weight is a sign of excess calories consumption. You'll eat less if you feel full.
Bonus of going low carb is you stop craving carbs, the natural sweetness of food becomes appealing, ie you won't miss your chocolates (much).
Lastly, my overeating had lots to do with "food as a reward" and "food as recreation". Ie I wasn't particularly happy, so sought joy and comfort in food. If you find an engaging and satisfying hobby (and indeed life path) that can help with problematic eating.
All the best, I wish you well.
Not asking for a medical advice, just an opinion on this one.
A person with very low appetite and does not want to feel eating despite hungry and feeling hungry, blood test results all normal, weight does not change despite being low. <25-35 age>
What could be the a possible cause and solution in your opinion.
hey mate i used to be in that exact same boat. Very low appetite, skipping meals often but very healthy otherwise.
One day I just thought 'hey i'd rather be a little more healthy looking' and started eating bigger meals and more desserts. Had super calorie dense smoothies with fruits, nuts, peanut butter etc. It was a real struggle at first.
I upped my BMI from 18 to 24 over the course of about a year. Going to the gym and seeing myself getting bigger and fitter helps a lot.
Are there tests to show if you are vitamin and/or nutrient deficient how much do they cost?
What's the best way to lose weight and be healthy without exercising (for someone who hates exercise)?
Reduce your calorie intake?
Tap water or Cold Water or Boiled Water?
another genuine question, do you bother to read outcomes of heaps of the studies about healthy diets?
Don't you find that 90+% of them are complete BS? I do.I, personally, have stopped reading them as most of them contradicts each other e.g. coffee is good vs. coffee is bad, keto is good vs. keto is bad and so on.
Just as an example, there is an information with references that cinnamon helps reduce blood sugar (and it is copy-pasted across all portals about healthy diets). Out of curiosity, I had checked the group of diabetics on Reddit and , of course, most of them had tried it, guess what - zero effect.
Another example, when I was a kid I kept hearing from TV that fats are bad, but now, 20 years later, I see articles about keto every second day and how good it is, has science progressed that much since the 90s?
How long was your work placement in completing masters? And when they say fulltime studies is it really the 5 days you are on campus?
Thank you for your time. To what extend do you agree with this "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates
A follow up question, what do you think of hemp oils to be used as medicine ?
I have about 7 bowel movements a day. I'm fit and healthy and have had a colonoscopy. Results were all good. No one can tell my why. Any suggestions?
Would drinking a glass of water with a meal slow down the absorption of glucose ?
I'm underweight. When I try to gain weight I find it requires so much work, counting calories, logging in a food diary and snacking almost every hour to reach the required carb/calorie intake. Usually after few weeks I give up because it is so time consuming, and I tire from eating the same boring nuts each day. At times work can get so crazy busy that I dont have time to snack. Do you have any advice to help gain weight a bit easier? I'm also reducing my meat and eggs intake (personal reasons). Would finding my own personal dietitian help?
Unbelievably easy. Eat some nuts 🥜.
Same here.. @DIETITIAN What are your thoughts on those with fast metabolism, is the only way to eat alot and is it any good to have your body contantly processing food? Is our body just programmed not to have fat? I really need some in my face :\
Eat your next meal before you feel hungry.
how to improve gut bacteria
Those people that are overweight who blame genetics or thyroid problems,
Can you actually get fat from these two.
I thought you can't best physics , calories in vs calories outWhat has been the most difficult patient you have encountered?
What has less of bad fat?
Ham slices or short cut bacon?
thank you
Coke no sugar actually something ok to have when losing weight?