Nutritionism Food is More Than the Sum of its Nutrients

In a nutshell, "nutritionism" is the idea that the healthfulness of a food is based on the sum of the nutrients it contains.  I learned about this concept from Michael Pollan, who you may have heard of... he wrote "The Omnivores Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food", both phenomenal books that I highly recommend.  Pollan makes the argument that this is a reductionist philosophy that assumes we know more about the composition of foods and the inner workings of the human body than we really do.  I couldnt agree more.

Take the carrot, for example... we all know carrots are good for us.  Youve probably heard that theyre high in beta carotene.  Well, when researchers have taken beta carotene out of the carrot and given it to people in pill form, it turns out it doesnt do jack shit.  Is beta carotene useless?  Or is it just useless outside the context of the food it comes from? Context matters.  Were not as smart as we think we are, and we dont have it all figured out.  Studying individual nutrients outside the context of a real food tells us very little about what we should eat, and sometimes it just makes things more confusing.  We dont eat nutrients, we eat food.

If we want to learn how eating a carrot affects our health, then we need to study carrots.  Yet, as obvious as that may sound, we dont often study nutrition in this way.  We study the nutrients on their own, and then decide whether a food is good or bad based on which nutrients it contains.  There are plenty of examples where this paradigm has led us astray... here are just a few.


Dairy Fat
Unless youre from Mars, its been jammed down your throat that you should avoid butter and whole milk, and instead choose low-fat dairy products like skim milk (yuck) and low-fat cheese (double yuck).  Full-fat dairy products are high in saturated fat, saturated fat raises your cholesterol, and then you die of heart disease.  Ohh I never grow tired of hearing that one (**sarcasm**)!  In reality land though, people who eat more full-fat dairy have lower rates of heart disease and diabetes, and they sport better-looking cholesterol profiles (1).

So why are you told that butter kills you?  Because when you take saturated fatty acids out of the context of the foods they come from, isolate it in a liquid formula, and feed it to people, their cholesterol levels go up.  In real life, though, we dont drink palmitic acid from a beaker... it comes in a real food like cheese, along with other fats and lots of other shit we dont even know about yet.

Whole Grains
Whole grains are healthy, we all know that.  Theyre more nutrient-dense than ined grains, and they have more antioxidants too!  This is what Michelle Obama tells you.  What she doesnt tell you... is that whole grains, despite containing more vitamins and minerals, deplete your body of important minerals.  You may have heard of them... zinc, calcium, magnesium... some pretty important nutrients!  Its also been shown in controlled studies that whole grains, despite containing more antioxidants, do NOT increase your bodys total antioxidant capacity!  For real (2, 3).  Nutritionism done set us down the wrong path.

Canola Oil
Ah canola oil... the dietitians new darling oil.  It didnt explode onto the scene until 1998, but it has already become a staple oil in many American households (4).  And because its high in oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat which lowers your cholesterol when you drink it out of a beaker, its been touted as a healthy oil.  But consider how its made...



I cant believe how perfectly this narration illustrates my point.  It really is just too good to be true!

Still think canola oil is healthy?  I dont care what anyone says, having a lot of monounsaturated fat doesnt change the fact that it looks like elephant poop in processing.  Nothing about this process is natural.  Plus, more and more canola seeds are genetically modified (5, 6).  I aint messin wit dat shit.


Dont get me wrong, nutritionism has its place.  Focusing on nutrients has gotten us to where we are today in nutritional science.  Learning about essential nutrients, for example, has allowed us to effectively feed someone through a tube or an IV in severe trauma.  And in all honesty, we can make a pretty good guess at the healthfulness of a food based on the nutrients it contains.

But we would be extremely arrogant to think that we fully understand food and its intimate relationship with our bodies.  Sometimes, you just have to trust real food.  You dont really believe that God put the fat in the milk to kill us do you (7)?

Its Easy to Get In But Harder to Get Out Post Hospital Syndrome or PHS

Bad for your health?

When the Disease Management Care Blog was told by the intern, the hospital social worker, the VP for Medical Affairs or the family that an inpatient "was ready for discharge," it had a favorite test to see if it was really true.  The DMCB would walk into its patients room and ask her to do what she had easily done before she was admitted to the hospital: swing your legs out of bed, stand up and walk across the room.

The DMCB was impressed by how often elderly patients were unable to perform that simple but telling task.

Of course, the best approach was to not let the patient become that debilitated in the first place.  Thats the point of Harlan Krumholzs article on "Post-Hospital Syndrome" that was recently published in the January 10 New England Journal.

In it, Dr. Krumholz shares an important secret: being in the hospital can result in starvation, sleep deprivation, muscular deconditioning, confusion and myriad poly-pharmacy side effects.  In fact, its probably those issues, not the original medical problem that led to the hospitalization, that account for much of the infamous 20% 30-day readmission rate for Medicare beneficiaries.

Dr. Krumholz recommends that hospitals be more attentive to assuring better nutrition, provide a less noisy environment, promote early activity and keep the use of sedative, pain and hypnotic (i.e., sleeping pill) drugs to a minimum. The DMCB seconds that motion and suggests that many of its more savvy colleagues think of this as discharge planning that begins the minute the patient is admitted to the hospital.

And when patients are ready to go home, its not a matter of continuing outpatient treatment for the initial diagnosis.  These patients need comprehensive assessment and planning.  While the author doesnt come out and say it, the DMCB will: these patients need nurse-led care planning and management that addresses the full spectrum of needs that are too often ignored by hospital personnel in the rush to collect on the DRG and minimize length of stay.

Last but not least, the DMCB recommends adoption of the term "post-hospital syndrome" and wonders if it may not deserve the "PHS" acronym.

Anyone who has ever witnessed a previously well person be unable to stand up and walk will know exactly what it means.

Acne and its Treatment

Acne could be a menace. However, it’s not one thing that cant be tackled. There area unit different skin problem skin care products around. we will classify skin problem skin care products into three broad classes –
* Preventive or general skin problem skin care products
* Over-the-counter, specialised skin problem skin care products
* On-prescription skin problem skin care products.

The general skin problem skin care merchandise area unit those that area unit used as acne-prevention measure. These embody cleansers, make-up removers and similar merchandise that facilitate stop skin problem. within the real sense, these skin problem skin care merchandise area unit simply people who ought to anyway be a part of your daily routine. However, a number of these area unit additional familiarized to act like associate degree skin problem skin care product. These skin problem skin care products act against the causes of skin problem e.g. limiting the assembly of sebum/oil and preventing impeding of skin pores. Basically, these skin problem skin care merchandise stop the oil from obtaining unfree in pores and thus hamper the expansion of bacterium that result in skin problem. the overall skin problem skin care merchandise conjointly embody exfoliation merchandise like skin peels. These work towards removing dead skin cells, thus reducing the likelihood of pore-clogging and bacterium development.

Then there area unit specialised skin problem skin care merchandise that area unit on the market over-the-counter i.e. while not the requirement of a prescription. These embody merchandise like vanishing creams that extract the additional oil from the skin. Most of those skin problem skin care merchandise area unit supported blanching agent and hydroxy acid, each of that area unit the enemies of bacterium (and thus acne). you must begin with a product that has lower concentration of blanching agent (e.g. 5%) and see however your skin responds thereto. Alpha-hydroxy-acid based mostly moisturizers are well-liked as skin problem skin care merchandise. you would possibly got to attempt a couple of, before you zero-in on the skin problem skin care product thats effective for you. If nothing looks to figure, you must contact a medical specialist.

On-prescription skin problem skin care products area unit those that area unit prescribed by a medical specialist. this will embody ointments which will be applied on the affected space or oral antibiotics or simply any topical treatment. medical specialist may conjointly counsel a minor operation to get rid of the contents of pustules. However, neer attempt to squeeze or do that by yourself, it will result in permanent harm of your skin. Your doctor may conjointly order a hormone-based treatment (since secretion changes are proverbial to cause acne). Such skin problem skin care merchandise area unit proverbial to be terribly effective in some cases.
So, with all those skin problem skin care products, endeavor skin problem isnt that troublesome.

Image by healthypattern.com
Acne and its Treatment