Nutrition

Swine flu season is in full swing. Do you have your flu shot yet? If not, don't worry. Instead, just pick up some Cocoa Krispies, as Kellogg's claims that the super sugary cereal “[n]ow helps support your child’s IMMUNITY.” I'm sure all Kellogg's executives have forgone flu shots for their children, instead relying on copious amounts of chocolate flavored corn bits to maintain the health of their children.

Seriously, I hope no one buys that crap, both in the sense of purchasing and believing. Indeed, this embarrassing claim should throw Kellogg's credibility down the toilet. I don't know if the FDA has the authority to fine companies, but if it does this certainly bogus claim deserves a hefty levy. At least newspaper articles make the rediculousness of Kellogg's assertion quite clear, and hopefully the public will catch on. This article, for example, has a pretty tasty quote from the director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity: “By [Kellogg's] logic, you can spray vitamins on a pile of leaves and it will boost immunity.” I'd go a step further though - the pile of leaves, even without the vitamin spray, is probably more beneficial to an eater's health than Cocoa Krispies!

Okay, throwing stones is easy to do and isn't of much value without offering an alternative. So, I'll offer up a simple diet plan that I follow. (I'm not going into too great of detail about why I like this plan, though if one is curious one can read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain or www.marksdailyapple.com, or just use common sense.) In order of importance from most important to least important, my plan is:

1. Eat whole foods, meaning non-processed foods that have been around forever. Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, nuts. Any food that has been invented or created, as opposed to existing in nature, should be viewed with skepticism. (E.g., see above.) Further, the more recently something has been invented or created, the less nutritious it likely is. Bread and beer are superior to Pop-Tarts and soda, for example. I'll choose butter over margarine or any other faux butter. I'll choose Haagen-Dazs, which typically has just three or four ingredients (and tastes phenomenal!), over low-fat or low-carb "ice cream". The main reason to avoid new foods is that the newer a food is, the more likely it is to be processed and full of stuff that does god-knows-what to its eater. At least I know the damage Haagen-Dazs does to me! A bit of vigilence is required on the part of consumers, as even traditionally lightly processed foods such as bread are often full of crap that should be avoided. Since when does bread require high-fructose corn syrup? Consume processed foods prepared according to recipes that are hundres of years old, if possible. Food processors have their bottom-line, not your health, as their primary concern. (Again, see above.) Eating whole foods isn't a new diet so much as reverting to the way people used to eat.

2. Eat grass-fed meats and ocean-caught fish. As Michael Pollan says, not only is it true that you are what you eat, but you are also what what you eat eats.
This is because all meats and fish are not created equal. For example, the types of fat in meat varies greatly depending on animals' diet. Corn-fed beef has a much higher omega-6 to omega-3 ratio that grass-fed beef. Perhaps even more troubling than the different nutritional content are the chemicals in farm-raised animals, such as antibotics that are necessary for farm raised animals to survive in the terrible environments they're raised in. Now, here's the caveat: be skeptical of any claims that animals are grass-fed. The USDA is not on your side and allows terms such as "grass-fed" and "organic" to be used far too liberally. (See The Omnivore's Dilemma.) This means consumers must be more active in finding true grass-fed meat. While I haven't yet implemented this step, as soon as I have the money I will buy meat from a local farmer that I can trust or, if that proves difficult, will order half a grass-fed cow online and split it with a friend or two.

3. Go organic. I'm not sure of the value of organic food to eaters, at least in terms of nutrients (the studies I've seen are not conclusive). I'm also not sure how many chemicals remain on non-organic fruits and vegetables. Still, I'll err on the side of caution and eventually start buying organic fruits and veggies, beginning with foods that I eat the skin of. Perhaps as importantly as my health, eating organic fruits and veggies (and grass-fed beef!) is good for the environment.

Pretty simple, eh?