Month: March 2016

100 Mile Diet

I just ran into this for the first time this morning. The 100 Mile Diet: Local Eating for Global Change is a diet that is more of an environmental movement.

The idea behind the 100 mile diet is this, you only eat food that was produced within 100 miles of your home.

This is a neat idea to think about and is probably very good for the environment as one of the real costs of food both at the supermarket and in our environment is transportation.

Each ingredient in our meals apparently travels an average of 1500 miles from farm to our plate. Although I know that it would be tough, especially depending on where you live this could be a great idea or kind of unworkable.

The people that started the 100 mile diet live in Vancouver, Vancouver is my hometown and is very close to farms, fishing and therefore most things that you would want to eat.

I now live in Calgary and here in Calgary we are 600 miles from an ocean although I can get rainbow trout from the local Bow River, there are farms very close and, of course, lots fo fresh water close by, but no fruit!

What happens though to someone in the middle of Los Angeles or in the middle of a desert, the problem for some people in these places is that there would be no quality food that is grown or produced as close.

In the end, I believe that the ideals behind the 100 mile diet are something that everyone should seriously look at.

Just because some produce from South America is cheaper than what is grown locally does not make it cheaper in the end, I talk about this on this blog very little but our environment is getting worse (I don’t really want to drag this into some pro or con environmental debate) and this seems to be one good first step to making things a bit better.

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Why Take Multivitamins?

Vista Magazine is a great source for many alternative medicine info and I always pick up the latest magazine when I am near a health food store. I read through the latest copy and found a great article that talks about the importance of multivitamins.

As you know from some of my past posts I am a firm believer in multivitamins although I do not think that they are in any way a replacement for good healthy whole food.

Ensuring that your family’s nutritional needs are met can be a pot and pan-noisy event. Add to that the challenge of guiding your family through the piles of nutritional information available and you may feel overwhelmed.

Quiet the noise and feel sure that your family’s requirements are satisfied by discovering what there is to know about multivitamins.

We all know that multivitamins are a combination of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) that are essential for general health and well-being.

The body is a symphony of chemical reactions, each requiring particular nutrients to occur properly.

By ensuring that all of these nutrients are present, the body can function optimally, resulting in feelings of energy, vitality and health.

Are All Multivitamins The Same?

No. There are more than a dozen multivitamins sold in Canadian stores. Investigate the differences to decide which one is best for you.

There are two main groups: synthetic and whole food multivitamins. Synthetic multivitamins are formed by creating all of the essential vitamins and minerals in a laboratory and combining them into a capsule or tablet.

Whole food multivitamins also contain all of the essential vitamins and minerals, but because they are made from concentrates of whole fruits and vegetables, they also contain additional nutrients.

Many of these additional nutrients are necessary for the body to be able to absorb the essential vitamins and minerals.

For example, vitamin C is more efficiently absorbed in the presence of bioflavonoids, which are naturally present in oranges and other whole foods. By using whole fruit and vegetable concentrates, whole food multivitamins offer a more complete nutritional source, and are more bioavailable (better absorbed by the body).

Some multivitamins contain more than just vitamins and minerals. Today, multivitamins may contain green foods, mushrooms, essential fatty acids and amino acids.

All of these nutrients play a part in ensuring that the symphony of reactions in the body is functioning optimally.

Who Needs A Multivitamin?

Nutrients are essential to every reaction in our body. However, there are some age groups that have greater nutritional needs than others.

Multivitamin needs for Kids and teenagers
Growing bodies are working hard to create new cells while still maintaining energy and health in existing cells. As a result, they are in great need of essential vitamins and minerals.

Children, teenagers, athletes and pregnant women’s bodies face these growing nutritional challenges. A multivitamin can offer all of the vitamins and minerals needed to promote healthy growth.

Another area of the body that experiences rapid growth is the immune system. During the invasion of an infectious microbe, the ability of white blood cells to rapidly multiply is drastically affected by nutritional status.

Multivitamins have been shown to enhance many aspects of the immune response (Nutrition, Oct. 2001).

Multivitamin needs for Adults
Adults also need multivitamins. In your 20s, ensuring your diet contains lots of vitamins and minerals can correct any nutritional deficiencies you have developed in your teens and reduce your risk of developing long term deficiencies such as osteoporosis.

In your 30s, running after the kids and trying to manage a career can cause you to reach for convenience foods which lack essential nutrients. A multivitamin can help address the potential nutrient deficiencies. In your 40s, fine lines start to appear and a desire to focus on anti-aging emerges.

The antioxidant power available in a multivitamin can help prevent the aging damage caused by free radicals in the body.

In your 40s, fine lines start to appear and a desire to focus on anti-aging emerges. The antioxidant power available in a multivitamin can help prevent the aging damage caused by free radicals in the body.

Multivitamin needs for the elderly
As you age, the body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients decreases. This can lead to nutritional deficiencies. The risk of malnutrition increases the risk of infection.

Studies have found that multivitamins can reduce the mean annual number of days spent with infection in the elderly (BMJ, July 2005). Daily multivitamin use in the elderly has been recommended by scientific reviews (Clin. Infect. Dis., Dec. 2001).

Now that you know who needs multivitamins I should tell you what I am taking daily and why.

I take a fairly good multivitamin (but not one of those expensive ones), a calcium for my teeth and bones (I don’t drink much milk), a B50 to supplement the B vitamins that are always short in a multivitamin, and an Omega 3-6-9 vitamin for the healthy fish oils.

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Canada Senate Report on Obesity and Food

Post author By admin
Post date March 2, 2016
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Here in Canada, we have a Senate that is quite different than some other countries. The Senate in Canada has it’s members chosen by the Prime Minister and the term is for life. Once someone becomes a Senator here they don’t have to worry about their job.

Sometimes this is good, sometimes it is bad. Today this was a good thing.

Today the Senate standing committee for Social Affairs, Science, and Technology released a large report that had a cool infographic attached (I have put it in throughout this post).

This study and report gave us information that all people interested in fitness and health in Canada, as well as the US, recognise but sometimes have to let our clients know every single day.

Here are the highlights

Senate Recommendations for Diet and Health in Canada

First some perspective. 2/3 of adults and 1/3 of Canadian children are obese – this is up double and triple since 1980. This has caused a huge increase in diet-related diseases and is the cause of 10% of premature deaths.

Even though it is hard to quantify, the study found that health care and lost productivity costs are 4.5 to 7.1 Billion dollars a year because of obesity.

As for the food. The study found that the average Canadian diet is 62% processed foods and that the average fast food meal is 20% higher in calories than a home made meal (I think that number is higher… but I am not politician)

And on the other side of the equation, only 15% of adults are getting the exercise that they should which is 2 and a half hours a week.

Recommendations – From the Senate Committee

The report included a bunch of recommendations that the government was urged to start or institute

A national campaign to combat obesity. This was done with Participaction and other health programs in the past in Canada. Why not again?

A national ban on advertising of junk food to kids. This has been done with alcohol and cigarettes so this is definitely doable.

A new tax on sugary foods. I hate this idea. taxes on food only hurt the poor. This will not stop people from buying super big gulps and ice cream.

Update the Canada Food Guide without industry influence. I joke with the kids that the egg, milk and cattle lobby have enough control in Canada to be named in the food guide. Would be interested in seeing how this goes. Good idea.

Front Of Package Labeling. Again this is a good idea. Would love to know exactly what would be listed. Many of us already read the nutrition labels. Would this be somehow different? Maybe warnings?

I know that lots of people will throw the “Nanny State” term out when they see this advice from the senate but so far we as Canadians don’t seem to be doing a very good job are we?

Really on both sides of the border, we have to start taking our food seriously. The report also talked about computer/screen time, as well as a lack of exercise, but the food is core to the obesity problems we fight.

I have written about what I would like to see in a revised Canada Food Guide before but we need more that that. What Canada and the US really need is a shaming of unhealthy foods instead of what we currently see on the Food Network, which is worse and more unhealthy foods

What Canada and the US really need is a shaming of unhealthy foods instead of what we currently see on the Food Network, and in our common news outlets which are a celebration of the worst meals and more unhealthy foods

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