Nutrition

Understanding Food Allergies

Food Allergies vs. Food Sensitivities

Food allergies are a true immune response.

Food sensitivity involves non-immune driven responses by the body to food. Lactose intolerance is a food sensitivity, as is gluten sensitivity. It's an issue with the gluten protein.

Food allergies affect 11% of adults in the United States. 20% of adults believe they have a food allergy. Nearly HALF of all adults with food allergies report that their food-allergy began in their adult life.

Women(14) are twice as likely to have a food allergy compared to men(7.5.) Food allergies are twice as high among non-white populations (20-25%) compared to white populations (10-12). Children in urban environments have a 4.5 fold higher risk of having food allergies compared to children in rural areas.

Mental and Physical Health Effects of Food Allergies

Food allergies don’t resolve themselves over time, so they can have psychological effects from worrying about the food they consume.
Anaphylaxis and death is an impact, but it is only 0.25% of people who are hospitalized with an anapgylactic reaction die and death rates are only 0.5 deaths per million people. People are not at risk to die from a serious food allergy. IN less serious cases, like sensitivities, are low-grade.
Anaphylaxis is a severe and life-threatening reaction. IT rapidly evolves and affects many organ system and cause swelling, itchiness, low blood pressure, weak and rapid pulse, and difficulty breathing. This reaction always requires medical intervention. Patients are treated with epinephrine to reduce the allergic response along with antihistamines and corticosteroids to reduce inflammation and a beta-agonist. Oxygen supplementation is also used.
Allergies report a lower quality of life due to the stress of worrying about exposure. People also report high anxieties and food-based fears.

How to Detect Food Allergies

Formal tests, plus eating the food.
Food allergy tests work through testing the immune response to the foreign invaders to decide if the protein is harmful or not. The body reacts to it as a threat, and aggressively. There are two tests. IgE tests, which is the protein responsible for the immediate, aggressive allergic response that can result in hives, itchy throats, anaphylaxis, and death. IgE is more specific, and only reacts to a specific protein. IgG tests is the protein responsible for the less aggressive response and is not considered a true allergy but more of a sensitivity.

Sensitivity vs. Specificity

Sensitivity: The ability of a given test to positively diagnose something that is there. If a test reports a 95% sensitivity, the test would accurately identify people with a diagnosis 95/100 times.
Specificity is the ability to correctly diagnose someone without the disease as negative. If they could identify people with a negative diagnosis 95/100 times, then it would be 95%.

Smart Grocery Shopping

One of the most basic needs of human kind is the need for food. Food provides energy, disease prevention, and helps with growth, rpeair of muscles and tissues, and respiration, as well as the nutrients that support these processes. Smart food choices affects energy intake and quality and asequacy of the nutrients we consume.

Consuming energy-dense foods with many calories that are beyond energy needs causes weight gain. Inadequate intake leads to weight loss.
Imbalances leads to issues with vitamins and minerals which affect healtha dn energy levels.
Choosing to eat at home is influenced by decisions at the grocery store.
Soda and sweets is not ideal for optimal health
Selecting healthy goods is not always easy in the environment we are in.

Healthy Grocery Shopping Challenges

A challenge is that our food environment has changed drastically over the last several decades. Fresh foods are rarer. Many processed foods lack the same nutrients in whole foods and contain additavves and preservitaves that are not optimal for health.
Grocery stores and product brands use marketing to encourage you to buy their particular product.
Marketing influences choices
Cost is a factor. Rising prices of foods can influence what people purchase. The cheapest products might not always be the most nutrtitous.
1. Food Choice Avaliability
2. Promotions and marketing by grocery stores
3. Product costs

Food Choice Avaliability

Having an abundance of choices of highly processed foods makes it challenging to:

Determine waht exactly makes a food item “Healthy’
Compare similar products and decide which one is better or more nutritious option
Avoid being tempted ot buy products that do not necessarily support our nutrition goals

Decisions can become overwhelming

Promotions and Marketing Efforts

Food Companies spend their budget on marketing products. They use point-of-purchase displayed (near the checkout) in order to influence purchasing habits. On holidays, many grocery stores have sales on products with greater sale margins in the season, which event thoough they may be unhealthy, they become tempting.
Frequent intake limits the intake of other, more nutrient dense options and are associated with health risk.
Ultra processed foods are marketed as point of purchase products which are difficult ot resit and end up as impulse purchases.
Impulse purchases, once at home, become hard to resist in common view.
Considering the cost of supplements, medications, and medical care that we might need as a result of a poor diet when assessing the true value of what we buy. Whole foods are nutrient dense with a range of minerals and vitamins in order to support health Whole foods minimize the need for expensive supplements ot compensate for nutrient deficiencies.
Promoting optimal health and reducing the risk of several chronic diseases, a healthy diet costs less than paying for healthcare. Dietary changes can support health.
Ultra processed foods tend to be cheaper from their ingredients with a low cost of production.

Cost Comparison

The cost of purchasing processed food might be higher prices in the long term when considering the health risks associated with a poor diet.
Guide to Smart Grocery Choices for Optimal Nutrition has 3 tools:

Planning a smart grocery list
Evaluating food products with your healtha nd nutrition goals in mind
Staying within a budget whle maximizing nutrient intake

Planning a Smart Grocery List

Using a grocery list. Organizes food shopping, limits impulse buys, and stays within a budget. Improves quality of diet and weight.
Ingredients-Based Grocery Shopping is: Based on certain ingredients with certain staples in EACH food group.
Recepe- Baded Grocery Shopping is: Planning certain recepies in a given week plus the number of meals.

Smart Grocery List for Meal Planning with Recipe: Using a weekly meal and recipes planner provides a template to use to organize weekly meals and recipes that will help you create a list of groceries to purchase.

Online Grocery Shopping

Less time spenti n transit to and from stores
Convinience
MInimized impulse purchases
Ability to save and retrieve previously purchased items
THe latter option is particularrly useful for thos who like to buy staple foods an dmake similar meals week to week.

Disadvantiges:

Inability to select fresh produce and assess its quality
LImited control over comparing items
Product substitues that might not be avaliable

Continued:

Use features such as a favorites list for nutrient dense options for meals

Evaluating Food Products

Two wasy to evaluate food products are:

Identifying what food group it fits inot, and how oyu plan on using it in your diet
Reviewing the nutrition label

Food Groups

PROTEINS
GRAINS/STARTCHES
VEGETABLES
FRUITS
DAIRY
These are the foundations of a healthy diet.
Thinking about these food groups helps to meet dietary needs for all nutrients.
Thinking about food groups can be helpful for two reasons:
It helps you identiy whether the product is contributing to meals and adding nutrients to your diet
It helps you acknowledge if the item is going to be a treat that can still fit within a healthy diet in moderation

Nutrition Labels

Key info to look at:

Servings per container
Servings size
Calories

Nutrition Labels can provide information based on the:

Total Fat
Saturated Fat
Sodium
Total Carbs
Fiber
Total and Added Sugar
Protein
Vitamin D, Calcuium, Iron, and Potasium

Fat intake: 20-35 percent of calories, Saturated: >10%.

Daily Values: Based on 2000 calorie diet

5% or under: LOW AMOUNT
20% or over: HIGH AMOUNT
For fiber, 20% or over is good.

Sodium: Some may need to avoid foods such as:

Soups
Sauces
Salad dressings
Cheese
Deli Meats

In order to avoid excess sodium intake

Sugar: Carb Energy

Many foods contain natural sugars that are inherent.
Added sugars should be limited to less than 20% fo daily caloric intake to avoid excess, unnecessary calories.

Check for sugar in:

Sweetened yogurts
Sauces
Breakfast cereals and granola
Breakfast bars
Oatmeal

Fiber: non digestible carb that helps gut health, heart health, and prevents constipation.

30-34 grams of fiber per day, or 25-28 grams per day for women.
Flour loses fiber through processing

Review for:

Cereals, granola
Pasta
Rice
Bread, wraps, tortillas
Crackers

Ingredient List

Foods must indicate ingredients

Plan ahead
Use a grocery list
Focus on whole foods
Evaluate nutritional value of packaged foods
Review sales flyer, on;ine or in store
Buy local, in season, or frozen product.

What you can do NOW:

Evaluate quality of your diet
Plan meals
Build grocery list
Reveiw list of packaged items you may need
Look at sales flyers

Budget

Tip 1. Plan Ahead and Use a Grocery List

Tip 2: Avoid Distracting Sales

Tip 3: Cost Comparison

Guide to Protein Intake for Vegan Diets

What is protein and why is it important?

Macronutrient, alongside carbs and fats
Peotein is used for structures in the form of muscles, bone, adn connective tissue, and also enzymes and hormones.
Protein intake helps lose and maintain body weight, build muscle, prevent age-related decline in mudcle, and maintain bone health.
Not eating enough protein causes weight gain, sarcopenia (bone decay), and osteopenia and osteoporosis.
The average adult needs 10% of the calories per day from protein, or rougly 0.8 g/kg per day.
The average adult following a vegan diet is consuming adewuate protein intake.
People who follow a vegan diet consume 13 percent of their total energy intake form protein, compared to 16 percent for people who consume animal meat.

Plant Based protein vs. Animal Based Protein

Complete amino acids vs incomplete amino acid profiles

There are 20 amino acids. There are amino acids that we have to consume in our diet in order to have our bodt function properly.

All animal sources of protein contain all of the essential amino acids, almost all plant sources of protein are missing at least on eo fthe essential amno acids.

Amino acid deficiency can result in lowered immune function, depression, slowed growth in children, digestive issues, and a host of other medical conditions.

Pairing specific protein sources and the amino acid profiles can help prevent amino acid deficiency.

Complementary Proteins:

Protein Intake for Weight Loss on a Vegan Diet

After 16 weeks of a weight-loss focused diet, individuals who followed a vegan diet lost about 2kg more lean body mass than individuals who folowed an omnivorous diet
Aim for protein intake above RDA and reach 1.2-1.8 g/kg per day.

Protein Intake for Active Vegans and Vegan Athletes

Higher protein requirement
1.4g/kg to 2.0 g/kg.
2-7 hours of vigorous activity per week, you onnly need 1.4-1.6.
More than 7 hours; 1.8-2.0

Guide on Health Food Bars

History of Nutrition Bars: mid-1950s, Hoffman was a weightlifting coach and fitness inspiration. He made a fudge, and then the Piullsbury Corp introduced a space food stick. Two endurance runner in the Bay area mad a carb bar.

Adaptogens are traditionally plant derived compounds in order to manage and handle pgysical stresses. Like ashwaganda rhodiola, maca, and ginseng can be use. Functional food bars can have a health benefit in such as these, or pre/pro biotics.

Excess calories
Excess added sugar
Excess saturated fat

Over reliance on bars

Sugar alcohols are a similar structure taht have half the calories. They are not easily digested and can cause gastrointestinal issues.

Dietary Fats

Focus of many health initiatives by the American Heart Assocdiation and the FDA. Many people still struggle to understand exactly what dietary fats are, how they migth impact their health, what htey should think about them, and what fats they should consume.
They are essential to human because types of fats such as omega-3 and omega-6 fats aret hings that are bodies require but cannot replicate. Fats transport key vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, K.
- Fats are different than carbs and protein because of the molecular structure. Fats are an entire family of molecules “LIPIDS”. These are alrger than carbs, and are made of chains of hydrogen, carbon, and ooxygen. There are many different types of lipids.
Saturated fats are full of hydrogen. They cause heart disease, and are solid at room temp.
Omega-3 and omega-6 help regulate and modulate our immuise system and our inflammatory response as well as helpw ityh metabolic processes like triglyceride and cholesterol production.
Omega 3: Fish
Omega-6: Nuts
Cholestorol helps create cell membranes and helping make vitamin d.

NORMAL BMI: 18.5-25 BODY COMP (<24% body fat for men <31% women).

Does Dietary Fat Affect Your Body Weight?

Low and High fat diets are equally as effective for weight loss and management if the calories are managed.
Not carefully controlling calories, diets that are either high or low can help with management.
Diets with high fat intake with no carb restrictions or calorie counting can result in weight gain.

Only Calories matter!
Fat is stored at higher efficiency than carbs/protein. Carbs have 88 and 66 percent efficiency, when Fat has a 96% efficiency. Overeating fats can cause more weight gain thant the others.
Diets that have a higher proportion of their calories come from fat end up eating more calories than whent hey consume lower fat diets. If you sneak fat into theri diet without them knowing, it does not cause them to eat less, but instead more.
- Dietary fat is a nutrient that hsould be used with tools to control calorie intake.
Saturated fats do not cause heart disease, but unsaturated fats reduce risk.
TRANS FATS CAUSE HAEART DISEASE. Increases risk of disease and deaths by 30%.
Cholestorol. Our body has control mechanisms that modulate how much cholesterol we absorb.

Fats and Chronic Disease

The types of fats impact body weight.

Decoding Nutrition Labels

The daily value for total fat is 78 grams a day and the daily value for saturated fats is 20 grams per day for a 2000kcal diet.
275 grams per day for carbs
2300mg per day sodium
Cholestorol: 300mg
Fruit sugar: Fructose, Dairy sugar: lactose, Grain sugar:maltose, glucose, and table sugar: sucrose.
Fiber: 28g/day

Mindful Eating

People have become disconnected with the experience of eating, with mindful eating being a dietary framework that helps us as individuals break many of the habits.
Behavioral approach to your nutrition and eating habitat that utilizes many of the core concepts of the broader practice of mindfulness.
Focuses on a person’s attention to their food on purpose with sensory and environmental awareness.
Mindful eating needs awareness and intention, while intuitive focuses on instinct. Intuitive eaters do not include calorie counting white mindfulness does.
Corfe principles: Awareness, sensory engagement, conscious decision making, and judgment.
Mindful Eating causes 3.3% loss of body weight while a Calorie Restriction causes a 3.9% loss.
Benefits of Mindful eating
Stress Reduction
Lowers emotional eating through cognitive control.
Relationship with food. Less shame and judgement

Calorie Counting

Calorie counting for weight loss was quite common in the 1920s and 1930s and has been around for more than a decade.
Your body cannot create or destroy energy. We convert energy from one type, to another.
Chemical energy is the starting energy.
Chemical to mechanical
Chemical to heat through metabolism
Chemical to chemical energy in the form of body fat and glycogen stores.
The total energy in a food in a unit known as a kilocalorie is measured. The body can use calories for energy.
We store extra chemical energy in triglycerides (fat) and glycogen (carbs).

Energy Balance

Positive energy balance
Negative Energy Balance
Equal Energy Balance

Energy Intake: The energy going into the body

Energy Output: Energy going out of the body - Includes Resting Energy Expenditure and Non-Resting Energy Expenditure. The energy that your body uses at complete rest.

Determining How many Calories You Need

Why calories are important
What calories are
What energy balance is
What contribute to energy balance

Process of counting calories: 1. How much your body expends 2. Adjust intake

TDEE

BMR =

10 times weight in kg, plus (6.25 height in cm) - 5 age in years) + 5
10 weigh tin kg + 6.25 height in cm - 5 * age in years - 161

To convert pounds to kg, divide by 2.25

To convert inches to centimeters, multiply by 2.54.

Sedentary: 1.4

Active 1.7

Vigorous: 2-2.4

300,1000 less than TDEE

Protein and Carb intake Guidelines for Sedentary, Moderate, and Active levels:

Protein-

Carbs-

Pre-plan

Use an App

Nutrition and Behavior Change: The Power of Positive Habits

The 4 Steps of Habit Formation

Anything that brings about a craving

Craving

The motivation behind the habit

Routine

The usual response to the cue

The reward that the craving is gone, or the benefit

How to build a plate

Utilizing the habit loop

Habit looping

Urge Surfing: Urges pass

15-20 minutes before cravings will go away.