UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS
As a Dietitian, I have viewed my consultations as consisting of 2 parts – firstly providing the nutritional information specific to a client’s needs, and then fitting it into their lifestyle to make it workable.
I have always found that providing the information is the easier part. The basics of food science have been with us for years and have changed very little. The challenge has been fitting it into daily patterns….but that’s changing!
Regularly clients arrive and comment that they know what they should be eating, but just can’t do it! When I listen to food histories it is becoming more and more obvious to me that the marketing of foods is ruthless – retailers, food manufacturers and marketers all wanting us to believe that their product is excellent for us. It’s amazing that in this age with so much technology, social media and access to information we can misunderstand the basics of food:
- Coconut oil has always had a high saturated fat content – it’s double the saturated fat content of lard
- An avocado has always consisted of about 25% fat – half an avocado is similar in kilojoules to 3 slices of bread
- Nuts and seeds have always been around 50% fat, so you don’t need many to make weight loss or even weight control difficult
a healthy lifestyle.
