Dieting & good sense
Guelph dietitian shares smart tips for shedding those extra pounds
AS A REGISTERED dietitian at the University of Guelph’s Health and Performance Centre, Lisa Armstrong sees clients with concerns ranging from excess weight to wanting more energy for sports.
Factor in issues such as cholesterol reduction, intolerance to gluten or lactose, or irritable bowel disease, and her job calls on the range of knowledge she gained while studying for a bachelor of physical health and education and a masters of applied nutrition.
Armstrong also works in a bariatric clinic at Guelph General Hospital where people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more lose weight under medical supervision while learning how to develop a new relationship with food to help keep off unwanted pounds.
With every client, she asks what type of diet they’ve tried. Q: Which diets are most common? A: Weight Watchers is very common. A number also say they eat a gluten-free diet, but if they’re not celiac or don’t have a gluten intolerance, they’re not going to experience changes. Also, some go gluten-free in grain products (wheat, rye and barley), but continue to eat sauces and some flavoured yogurts, which also have gluten.
One benefit to a gluten-free diet is that they start to eat more fruits and vegetables because they’re not eating high-carbohydrate foods. However, a gluten-free diet can be low in fibre and lacking a lot of nutrients.
If they get the right balance, though, a gluten-free diet can be very healthy. Q: What about the trendy Paleo diet? A: I’ve seen a few people on that. It’s basic; the idea is that people eat as they did in the caveman days before you could refine grains. It includes lean meats, seafood, fish, fresh fruit and non-starchy vegetables, and excludes dairy, cereal, refined sugars, salt and all processed foods.
The disadvantages are that it’s quite strict and some things they limit or eliminate do have nutritional benefits. For example, it’s difficult to get calcium and vitamin D without dairy, and it would be challenging to do any kind of athletic activity with a diet that excludes whole grains because they help you re-energize. Q: Is there a diet you like? A: Any diet that encourages a person to eat more fruits and vegetables is beneficial. However, a lot of people don’t know how to be creative about doing that. They just imagine buying bags of iceberg lettuce, and they tend to have negative thoughts about having to prepare vegetables.
Q: What do you think of avocado as a snack for children? Isn’t avocado full of fat?
A: It is, but it’s healthy fat. Some avocado would be a very healthy snack, but watch the quantity. One avocado has 30 grams of fat, which is about half our recommended daily intake. One-quarter of one avocado would be a healthy serving.
Q: Is there an easy way to measure our ideal daily intake of calories?
A: There’s a program called My Fitness Pal, available as a smartphone app or a website (www.myfitnesspal.com). It’s a calorie and exercise counter, and it helps with calorie awareness. You can enter a food or drink, or scan a barcode to see its calorie value. It makes you a little bit smarter about calorie intake. Most people don’t know how many calories they should have for their height, weight, activity level and muscle mass. Metabolism (the rate at which you burn and use calories) is very complex. If you do weight training, it can force up your rate of metabolism. If you eat a low-calorie diet, your metabolism will slow down as your body tries to accommodate your low intake of calories. Q: What is the ideal timing of meals? A: When people diet and restrict calories during the day, they tend to overeat in the evening. If you eat every couple of hours during the day, your blood sugar level will be more stable, preventing those cravings which tend to lead to wrong choices about snacks at night. Frequent small meals are best. I compare metabolism to a campfire: to keep it burning, you need to keep adding logs.
Q: What might a day of frequent, small meals look like? A: Morning: Make sure you get some kind of fuel within an hour of rising. Research shows breakfast eaters can maintain an even body weight, and a healthy breakfast would include some sort of protein with a low-sugar carbohydrate and some fibre. For example, a small bowl of oatmeal with cut-up fruit (mixed berries are best) sprinkled on top and a hard-boiled egg on the side for protein, or yogurt with cut-up fruit or berries and a few bran buds or nuts on top. Smoothies made with milk, frozen berries and yogurt are also good for those people who don’t like to eat first thing in the morning.
Lunch: Then, every three to four hours, have another small, balanced meal or snack, including a lean protein to fill you up and carbs to give you energy. If you choose to make a sandwich, eat one-half at lunch with yogurt and a piece of fruit, and save the other half for mid-afternoon.
As for what should be in a sandwich, it’s best to start with whole-grain bread. The filling could be egg salad or tuna, peanut butter and banana, or a lean luncheon meat like turkey, although lunch meats are higher in sodium. Something that’s good, but people don’t think of it, is to spread hummus on bread.
Dinner: Follow the plate model: half your plate should have two handfuls of vegetables, one-quarter of the plate (the size of your palm) should have lean protein such as fish (ideally three times a week) or extra-lean ground turkey, and one-quarter (the size of your fist) would be a carbohydrate or starch, such as quinoa, brown or wild rice, wholegrain pasta, sweet potato, squash or peas.
You also need a source of healthy fat, such as olive oil used in cooking or salad dressing. Q: What if you still want an evening snack? A: Some people will have physical hunger at night, or it may just have become a habit to eat again in the evening. If a cue triggers the desire to eat, it’s a sign you’re bored, not really hungry. Try to think of non-foodrelated strategies to shake off the boredom.
Some people do need a small, balanced snack because they’re genuinely hungry. Half an apple with a few scoops of Greek yogurt and nuts on top, or a small amount of a high-fibre crisp would fill that need. But oftentimes people grab some quick snack, like cookies, instead. Q: Why doesn’t weight loss seem to last? A: Any really low-calorie diet that relies on external aids, such as injections, shakes with capsules or detoxifying cleansers, will cause you to lose weight, but it’s a quick fix. Usually the cost of those products causes people to go off the diet, but they won’t have learned any new lifestyle habits to help them keep weight off.
People are attracted to the idea of cleansers removing toxins from their bodies, but the liver and kidneys do an exceptional job of that for us naturally.
Weight Watchers offers good support and accountability. Their weekly meetings are a big benefit for a lot of people. However, you can stick to your points quota and still eat a really unhealthy diet because it restricts amounts, but not types of food. Weight >>
Watchers really works best for people who already have a good, balanced diet and just need portion control.
Q: What about the South Beach diet, which was very popular a few years ago?
A: If you get through the first two phases of the diet, which are very restrictive, you have a really healthy diet by phase three.
Phase one, which lasts two weeks, restricts all major sources of carbohydrates, including fruits, starchy vegetables, other starches and whole-grain products. However, you do eat ample portions of protein, good fats such as olive oil, avocados and nuts, and plenty of vegetables.
In phase two, you gradually reintroduce unprocessed carbohydrates that are low in sugar and high in fibre, such as oatmeal, couscous and legumes, as well as fresh fruit and starchy vegetables, till you reach a healthy weight goal.
Phase three allows you to experiment with how much lean meat, fruits and vegetables you can add while remaining at your weight goal.
The difference between the South Beach diet and the Atkins or other common low-carb diets is its focus on integrating healthy fats. It also encourages low-fat dairy and lean protein sources to help limit saturated fat intake, unlike Atkins where full-fat cheese, dairy, cream and meat are all OK.
South Beach is also different in allowing for low-glycemic carbohydrates after phase one.
Q: Are diets and eating disorders quite separate?
A: Some eating disorders begin with dieting. Diets play with your mind, and there are barriers I have to work through, depending on what clients have learned on those diets. Many diets not only fail to focus on strategies to help you keep weight off, they don’t address the emotional issues related to over-eating. Q: What’s the bottom line? A: People wanting a permanent change in their body weight will need to make fundamental changes in their lifestyle. Losing pounds is easy, keeping weight off is much harder, because they haven’t learned a new lifestyle approach to food.
Note: Although Lisa Armstrong is associated with the Health and Performance Centre, she also sees members of the public by appointment. No referral is required. Call 1-519-767-5011.
Workshop may be piece that’s missing
Craving Change, a three-part workshop on developing new eating patterns, is for people who know exactly what they should be eating, but just don’t do it. The workshops blend nutrition and psychology to help people overcome personal food cravings that result in poor eating habits and weight gain. Each two-hour session leads into the next, registered dietitian Lisa Armstrong says, and can bring about sustainable lifestyle change. “For some people, it’s the missing link,” she says. The program is offered throughout the year in Guelph and costs $75 for three sessions, including a Craving Change workbook. For more information or to register, call 1-519-824-4120, ext. 53460, or email larmstro@uoguelph.ca