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The problem is how do we
learn to separate good, accurate, health -improving information from the
barrage of nutrition hype that we are exposed to daily. |  |
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Getting Good
Nutritional Information
by
Edwin Krales, MS, CDN
Nutritionist/Outreach
Coordinator, The Momentum Project
Adjunct Professor of
Nutrition, Hunter College
[This article was reprinted from Consumer News]
It's
difficult to integrate a sound nutritional program into our
daily lives. The problem isn't that the information is
unavailable. It's that most of the nutritional information
we hear and read every day is at odds with reality. This
misinformation fits into three main areas. The first is that
the field of nutrition is published by the diet business.
The second is the role of advertising. The third is the fact
that nutrition is still not considered an equal partner in
the war against HIV disease.
We also know that accurate
nutrition education works. According to an article recently published by the
Department of Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, "nutrition
counseling alone led to weight gain or weight maintenance compared with weight
loss in patients who received no advice about nutrition." The article goes to
say that people with HIV disease who were counseled accurately started following
a healthier eating plan.
The problem is how do we learn to
separate good, accurate, health -improving information from the barrage of
nutrition hype that we are exposed to daily. The first point to understand is
that nutrition and weight loss mean almost the same thing in our society.
Depending on whose figures you want to believe, the diet business makes between
thirty and fifty billion dollars each year. Weight loss diets fail their users
at the rate of 95 percent to 99 percent over the course of five years. The
success of the diet business is dependent upon the failure of the diets.
Therefore it is unlikely that the published information is based on sound
science or good health. Rather it is based on what is going to produce the most
money. Unfortunately the writers of these comic books usually come equipped with
lots of impressive credentials. I call them the "D" team. There are MD's, ND's,
Ph.D.'s, LD's, RD's and CDN's. They are all backed by LLD's so that the data
they extract from their imaginations or from unpublished or even unwritten
papers won't put them in the D block at the local penitentiary.
People with healthy immune
systems may get sick from following fad diets. If you have a compromised immune
system, you are more at risk. The last thing you want to do is lose weight. You
may want to change the ratio of fat to muscle in your body, but that goal should
not be approached from the perspective of weight loss, especially if you are
HIV-positive.
The second issue is that HIV and
AIDS has become a huge business. Some products are produced and advertised by
the same people who work in the diet business. Advertising is known for its
effectiveness, not its honesty. You won't see Joe Camel holding up a sign on a
highway billboard that says, "Smoking will make your life hell while it kills
you." By the same token, don't use as your primary nutrition counselor anyone
who sees you as a cash cow. The sales people in a health food store may mean
well, but the information that they present to you has been presented to them by
people who wish they had invented Joe Camel. Keep in mind that the largest food
manufacturer in the U.S., if not the world, is a cigarette producer. Other good
things to remember are some of the nutritional fads of the recent past that have
fallen from favor. They aren't promoted much anymore because people have died.
Three examples are poorly manufactured L-tryptophan, mega-dosing with vitamin B
vitamin niacin, and a love affair with the Kambucha fungus-mushroom tea
concoction. I am sure that in a very short time we will be told that large
amounts of chromium belongs in car bumpers, not on your plate.
Another popular advertising ploy often used in alternative treatments is the
existence of the magic potion. The existence of the magic potion is usually
combined with a conspiracy theory. The conspiracy goes something like this. The
allopathic medical establishment wants to keep people with HIV from getting the
magic potion because it will cure them. If they are cured, then doctors,
hospitals and their bosses, the drug companies, will lose a lot of money. The
problem with this line of advertising is that an increase in sales, not a cure,
is the goal. The manufacturer of alternative preparations are not giving them
away, they are selling them. They present no evidence that their preparations
work. Unfortunately, not many researchers are investigating the efficacy of the
countless preparations that exist. It seems reasonable that some should have
some positive effects. My own personal experience tells me that this is so.
However, no matter what the claims, either in print or by word of mouth, there
is no magic potion.
It is widely accepted that weight
loss is the number one killer of people with HIV disease. Even so, there is no
standard of care for people suffering from HIV weight loss, malnutrition or
wasting. Why? Many studies have been done, and Doctors Donald Kother, Todd
Lazarus and others have been working on the problem for years. Dr. Mary Rameyn
has recently written a book on nutrition and HIV disease. The
Treatment Action Group
has put out a new book called The Wasting Report. The information
is there. So why isn't there a ground swell of activity around feeding people
with HIV disease? Why are meal programs for PWA's being threatened with
extinction? The answers and some possible solutions lie in our view of nutrition
as a social issue.
For the most part, who are the
nutritionists? Women. Women have always fed the world. So it seems "natural"
that the field is dominated by women. Unfortunately women do not share equal
status with men in our society. If a man decides to do "women's work," he
assumes the social status that goes along with it, not to mention the pay scale.
Medicines can be patented, money
can be made. Good nutrition operates in the public domain. The best foods have
been around forever. The less you do to them, the better they are.
Good nutrition is not efficient.
It doesn't lend itself to mass marketing techniques. Aside from people's
different nutrient needs that must be tailored to the individual, different
cultures like different kinds of food. One size does fit all.
Drug therapy can create
dependence and enormous profits. The role of the nutritionist is to make people
independent through education. After learning the basics, students no longer
need the nutritionist and can go further on their own.
Nutrition ultimately falls into
the area of prevention. Prevention is much more cost effective than cure for
individual and society as a whole. On the other hand, prevention cuts into
profits. A drug company is not going to promote a nutrition therapy, no matter
how effective, that will reduce the profits.
What is a person living with HIV
disease to do with such a situation? First, educate yourself. Don't wait for an
invitation. Join community-based AIDS organizations. Meet with the nutritionist,
learn what they have to offer. Always get more than one opinion. Make sure the
people who advise you have nothing at stake but your well-being. Learn how to
eat, what to eat and the role of exercise. Talk to other people living with HIV.
Find out about congregate meal programs, home-delivered meals and grocery
programs. Learn to use the Internet to exercise your mind and keep abreast of
new information.
Don't isolate yourself! Eat more
with friends. Remember your mother was right--
eat your
vegetables!
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