Food for Thought Now that sweater weather has arrived for much of the country, working to keep up vitamin D levels becomes even more important. After all, the sunshine vitamin is not only important for bone health but has also been tied to a lower risk for certain cancers, heart conditions and depression. That said, where you get your vitamin D matters. Researchers from Australia and the United Kingdom reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (July 2017) that when study volunteers received 600 IU of vitamin D daily via fortified juice or biscuits for 3 months, vitamin D3—the form found in animal foods like fish and eggs, as well as some supplements—was nearly twice as effective at raising blood levels of the nutrient than was vitamin D2, a plant-based form typically used to fortify vegan foods like dairy-free milk and vegetarian-friendly supplements. A separate study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2015, discovered that after supplementation stopped, vitamin D levels declined less rapidly when participants had been taking D3 than when D2 was the supplement of choice. The upshot is that those relying on vitamin D2 to keep up their levels during the winter gloom will likely need more of it than those who get their fill from vitamin D3.
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by Brian Wansink, PHD on Feb 12, 2016
Family-Style Seconds and Thirds Some families serve family-style meals and crowd all their serving bowls onto the table. Other families pre-serve their food directly off the stove or counter. We found that people who served from the stove or counter ate 19% less total food compared with those serving themselves right off the table (Payne, Smith & Wansink 2010). Having to get up and walk another 6 feet for the food was enough for people to ask, “Am I really that hungry?” The answer’s usually “Nope.” On the other hand, if you want to eat more salad, plant that salad bowl right in the middle of the table. If eating family-style—piling all of the serving dishes on the table—is a nonnegotiable must in your house, there might be a workaround. Serving out of bowls with lids might cut down on seconds or thirds. In one of our candy dish studies, simply putting a lid on a candy dish cut down how many Hershey’s Kisses people ate by about a third (Painter, Wansink & Hieggelke 2002; Wansink, Painter & Lee 2006). When food is out of sight, it’s out of mind. The same idea might work if you cover the casserole instead of temptingly leaving the top off. These tablescape changes are easy. What keeps us from making them, however, is that we think we’re smarter than a bowl. As a result we think, Oh, now that I know this, it won’t happen to me, so we don’t make any changes. But during the day’s chaos, our automatic behaviors lead us to make the same mindless eating mistakes we’ve always made. by Christopher Mohr, PhD, RD on Dec 11, 2015 Research suggests the time of day when we consume protein has a notable impact on its ability to rebuild muscle. Protein is always a hot topic. Carbs have been demonized. Fat has been on the chopping block. But protein? It earns a health halo, often connected to everything from weight loss to muscle gains. Maybe this is for good reason. After all, researchers and protein experts around the world are investigating protein’s optimal role in aging and satiety across the lifespan. Yet that doesn’t mean our diets get protein right. Researchers find we’re eating too much protein at the wrong times—and not enough at the right times. Namely, we need more high-quality protein at breakfast and less protein at dinner, the research suggests (Mamerow et al. 2014). Protein: How Much Is Enough? Nutrition experts recommend that protein accounts for 10%–35% of all the calories we eat daily (IOM 2002). How are we doing with that recommendation? A paper published in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that, on average, men and women up to age 70 get about 15% of total calories from protein. While that is within the 10%–35% recommendation, the author of the paper suggests boosting the minimum to 25%, “given the positive benefits of higher protein intake on satiety and other physiologic functions” (Fulgoni 2008). Examining diet in more depth exposes us to a raft of acronyms representing how much of specific nutrients the experts say we should consume. For instance, the Institute of Medicine has several DRIs (dietary reference intakes) for protein: • RDA (recommended dietary allowance) • EAR (estimated average requirement) • AI (adequate intake) All these DRIs are based on nitrogen balance studies, under conditions of energy balance (DGAC 2010; Rodriguez 2015). The most familiar of these acronyms is the RDA—which for protein is 0.8 gram per kilogram of body weight for adults 19 and older. Protein experts like Stewart Phillips, PhD, FACSM, FACN, professor at McMaster University, suggest this level can be misleading. “That level of protein—0.8 g/kg/d or the RDA—is the minimal level of protein to offset negative nitrogen balance in 98% of individuals. The RDA is really, in my opinion, the MDI—minimal dietary intake. Thus, nothing about that level should be recommended, and you’re allowed to eat much more. In fact, for older persons and athletes, there are benefits to consuming protein at levels above the RDA.” Protein Intake and Timing Recently, protein research has moved beyond investigating the optimal amount of protein to eat and has examined the optimal times to eat it. > > Nutrition researchers have found that most Western diets skew protein consumption toward the evening meal—breakfast is typically carbohydrate-rich and protein-poor, while the evening meal is often much higher in protein and calories (Mamerow et al. 2014). In keeping with this, some of the National Institutes of Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data on protein consumption in the U.S. demonstrates that men typically consume about 15 g of protein at breakfast, while women consume about 10 g (Rains et al. 2013). It’s also important to note that only about 40% of Americans actually eat breakfast. Thus, not only are many Americans consuming low-protein breakfasts, but the majority are not consuming any protein at all. And there is increasing evidence of a causal link between breakfast skipping and obesity (Ma et al. 2003). This unbalanced intake doesn’t quite give the hard-working muscles what they need, nor does it do the job of helping curb appetite throughout the day. “Unlike [with] fat or carbohydrate, the body has limited capacity to store excess dietary protein/amino acids from a single meal and use them to stimulate muscle growth at a later time,” says Douglas Paddon-Jones, PhD, professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch and a leading protein researcher. “In other words, your large salmon dinner tonight is probably not going to influence muscle growth at lunch tomorrow.” His research and that of other experts suggest it is best to distribute protein intake evenly throughout the day, starting with breakfast. “It makes perfect sense,” says Phillips. “You’ve just gone 10 hours without food [and] your muscles are catabolic. Protein at breakfast gives your muscles their first chance to rebuild after you’ve slept. It’s a good idea to aim for around 20 g of protein if you’re younger or 30–40 g if you’re older, to give your muscle its best chance to rebuild, since these doses of protein are at the top end of what your muscles need.” This balanced concept suggests that a moderate amount of high-quality protein three times per day may be better than the typical Western diet with too much protein at dinnertime and not enough at breakfast. The balanced protein distribution concept isn’t just about muscle growth and repair, though. It has the potential to affect many health outcomes, such as blood sugar control, moderate calorie intake and satiety (being full) (Leidy et al. 2015). Let’s explore the benefit of satiety. Of course, being more full may affect how much a person eats. If you eat less because you’re already feeling full, theoretically that could help with weight loss. Heather Leidy, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri, has done a lot of the work on protein and satiety. Her group recently completed a 12-week, long-term randomized controlled trial study comparing the effect of eating a normal-protein vs. a high-protein breakfast in those who had habitually skipped the morning meal (Leidy et al. 2015). This study illustrated that those who added a high-protein breakfast containing 35 g of protein every day for 12 weeks prevented gains in body fat compared with those who continued to skip breakfast. In contrast, eating a normal-protein breakfast did not prevent fat gains. In addition, only the high-protein breakfast reduced daily hunger and led to voluntary reductions of about 400 calories in daily food intake. “These data suggest that a simple dietary strategy of eating a protein-packed breakfast can improve weight management,” Leidy said. |
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