Food and diet industry fascinations and contradictions

I am fascinated by the food industry. All that I know about nutrition is roughly the same as a thimbleful of the ocean's waters. The more I read and hear what people, particularly the experts have to say, the more I think the sum of all the knowledge we humans have on the subject would be the equivalent of a barrel-full of the oceans waters.

What I do know is when someone says they have the 'truth' on anything nutrition/diet related, I am immediately skeptical. I mean "Really? The whole truth?" Given all that we don't know, it hardly seems possible.

I receive a number of blog posts delivered to my email. Yesterday, I received one from The Food Revolution Network. It intrigued me. It is a long article. It was written to rebut a paper written suggesting that soy and soy products are not only not healthy for you, but are in fact dangerous. I encourage you to read it with an open mind, follow through to the comment section, where additional details, pro and con are added to the discussion.

I have one major critique of the article. OK two. First, it claims to provide the 'truth' about soy, which immediately throws a red flag in my mind. Given that no two human bodies are identical nor react to foods the same way, I cannot believe that there is an absolute truth on how the body reacts to any stimuli. Secondly, it is short on footnotes and references. If one is going to write about the 'facts' on anything, quoting papers and studies is not enough. One should provide the reader with the opportunity to pursue their own inquiries. Failing to do this is telling your reader, "I've interpreted this for you, you don't need to look any further." 

The more I know, the more I know I don't know anything.

Soy has undergone some incredible changes over the last 15-20 years. Once only found as tofu as part of a Chinese stir-fry, soy has become one of the fastest growing crop products. As 90% of soybeans are grown from genetically modified seed, so as to be resistant to harm from extensive pesticide spraying using Round-up, it has also become highly controversial.

An abundance of research that indicates soy in the diet can be a good thing. Is there some truth to the age old expression 'too much of good thing?' I think there is. I don't know for certain. As I said earlier, what I know, isn't much.

There is a line of argument that says much of the rise in peanut allergies was a result of the liberal use of peanut byproducts used in all forms of processed foods. A similar argument is panned regarding the omnipresence of corn byproducts in processed foods, particularly corn syrup, having a causal affect on the rise of diabetes and general ill health of the average North American. Are we to expect the same thing 5-10 years from now from the pervasiveness of soy products?

The gist of what I do read is the more what you eat is a derived from extensive processing, the less one should eat of it. Eating a wide variety of foods, in my case specifically plant-based foods, that are prepared from their natural state works best for me. I feel healthier than I have ever been before. I think this applies no matter what diet, vegan, vegetarian or omni, you are following.

Getting Started.

When I first talked to my friends about going vegan, the most popular question was, “How are you going to get enough protein?” Followed by “I'm not going to hang around so much if you are going to go on an all-bean diet!”

With some experience growing up in a lacto-ovo vegetarian house, being fed and cooking for lacto-ovo fishetarians I learned to balance foods for that diet plan. Readings of “Diet for a Small Planet” and “Let's Cook it Right” helped in that regard. I felt confident I could learn the balance for full vegan. That said, I am not a nutritionist, and I am going to presume few of those reading this are either.

At the end of my introductory piece, I was taking about the wonderful array of educational material available today. When charting of into the great unknown, or even leaping into waters a little deeper than you are familiar with, a little knowledge can go a long way. Today Google is your friend.

Now the internet is full of stuff. Some of it great, useful bits of insight that can help you step forward in the right direction. Others vague, almost crack-pot claims of cure-all diet plans which invariably lead to links to books or DVDs you should buy. The wonderful world of internet marketing means you will find a lot of these links. They all look different at first, but lead to the same place. Yeah, I passed on that.

Knowing specifically what I felt I needed to know helps me greatly in narrowing down my initial searches. My question was “what do vegan athletes eat?” In my mind, here was a group of people for whom getting the right balance of nutrients is vital, especially if they are looking to to perform at the world class level. Let's get one thing straight. I am not an athlete. I'm a renovations carpenter, not afraid to get on a bike and go for a cycle for a few hours, or place some squash, active , but NOT an athlete. Still my logic was, they understand the balance. Could I find anywhere where they could explain it to someone like me.

Enter Brendan Brazier and his Thrive, The Vegan Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life. This book gave me a significant leg up on learning how to plan my diet requirements. Well written, it contains a simple, yet informative summary of how the body absorbs nutrients. I'm going to summarize some of the key chapter elements as I understood them.

1. Stress. In this Chapter, Brendan outlines the relationship between stress and your health, and more importantly from a dietary point of view, how poor nutrition, actually increases your stress levels.
2. The Thrive Diet. Here Brendan outlines how it works to reduce your body's internal stress levels, increase the body's ability to burn fat first and build lean muscle mass. The key component is 'high net-gain nutrition, a result of eating foods that the body absorbs quickly and easily, satisfying the body's nutritional needs.
3. Food Production, Energy Consumption and The Environment. In this chapter, he discusses the economic and environmental challenges to today's industrial food processing industry. This one I struggled with a bit. There were some valid points made of the energy costs of producing and distributing food, However, living in here in Canada, where fresh produce is not an option year-round, the argument needs more work. But hey, that is me asking questions outside the box.
4. Exercise. Pretty straightforward you would think. The body needs to exercise. Exercise allows the body to flow properly. (The body is mostly water – and if you think about of stagnant ponds and then think of the liquids in your body not getting swished around properly leaving stagnant pockets.... yeah I think about things this way sometimes. I'll stop now.) Most importantly here, Brendan also includes what foods to eat before and after exercise, so the whole routine is complimentary to your body.
5. Staple foods. What foods are ideally suited to giving your body high net-gain nutrition? How are they best prepared for them to be to be most efficiently absorbed into the body? Curiously (to me) the concept of nutritional absorption increases through sprouting or soaking some nuts and grains made me thing more outside that little box of what I know.

The final chapters cover recipes and meal plans. All good. But to me, the information contained in the previous chapters opened up the doors, turned on the lights and said “There you go Martin, you now have enough knowledge to be a little less dangerous and reckless with your path towards a successful Vegan diet”.

This is a book That should be read by all, vegan, vegetarian, and omnivores. I could read all I wanted about what foods have what nutritional value, but without knowing how nutrients were absorbed and worked through the body, I would still be struggling with the right balance.

Food Value Guides
We've all seen the National Food Guides as published by the government (whoever you are, they have one for you). I am a natural skeptic when it comes to information issued by the government. If came by me naturally, some would blame my father. On this charge, I think he's OK with it. We've all heard the “Hi I'm here from the government and I'm here to help you.” In my humble opinion, these national food guides (x amount of meat products, x amount of dairy, x amount of grains, x amount of fruit and veg.) are devised by those in whose interest it is to sell these products. Just have a look at who funds the research.

One online guide I refer to, was one I found through my friend, Mr Google. It is an online chart outlining the nutritional content of various foodstuff. Yes, these charts are 'guides'. The actual numbers will vary by source and food quality. The general outline is useful for those trying to keep track or vitamins, mineral and such. Check it out, The site does have some printable charts as well.

OK, on to restaurants I love to visit. Gojo's Little Africa Cafe has fast become a great place for me to get my Ethopian food fix. Well priced and conveniently located on Commercial Drive, just south of 12^th, it offers a simple, authentic selection of great tasting food. The vegetarian combo has me sated for under $15. Omnivorous friends have also said great things about their meat dishes. So yes, it is a place you can go to with people who need their meat fix.

Until next time.