CHEK it out

Nothing rubs me the wrong way more than reading nutrition advice from a so-called "expert" who, not only gets a few scientific facts wrong, but tries to tell you they know better than the rest of the nutrition (or even scientific) community.

Unfortunately, today that person is Paul Chek. Now, I have tried to find what his background is regarding formal education, or anything other than his self-prophesied Holistic Health Practitioner title, but I have yet to find anything. This bothers me because without a basic knowledge of chemistry, biochemistry and biology it hard to "discover" new theories regarding the body. This worry of mine also applies to Paul's good friend Mr. William Wolcott who invented the theory of "Metabolic Typing" and the subsequent diets that are tailored to your Metabolic Type. Again, there are only vague references to Mr. Wolcott's past experiences of "doing research" in the 80's that led him to discovering this "revolutionary" new way of eating right for your metabolic type.

Yikes.

I tried to take the test that would answer the greatest question of all: whats MY metabolic type!? The test, from what I can gather, was invented by Chek and asks questions such as:
1. I often: add salt to my food OR find that foods are too salty for my liking.
2. When eating dairy products, I feel best after eating: richer, full fat yogurts, cheeses or desserts OR lighter, low fat yogurts and cheeses or desserts.
WELL.... I don't know about you, but my answers are not so straight forward as A or B. It kind of depends on the food, the day, my mood...

These questions are "analyzed" and from it you will be categorized as either a person who is a "Carb type", a "Protein Type" or a "Mixed type"
The concept behind this "non-diet" diet is this: eat the proportions of fats/protein/carbs that feel right for you...OH and don't forget to eat the right foods for your type.
There are pages and pages of specific advice for each type- for example an orange, which is normally considered a healthy food, may push a "protein type" out of balance (what does that mean!?).

I don't think so.

Despite all the "groundbreaking research" Mr. Wolcott and Chek have done in their lifetimes, I think the thousands of actual research experiments that have been carried out over the last 400 years may have something to say about that.
If this was the answer to obesity, I think we would have heard about it by now.

Moving on.

I was randomly flipping through his "nutrition" chapter and came across information regarding eating raw. Firstly, he mentions that by cooking fruits and vegetables we are killing vital enzymes that we need to help digestion. This myth has long since been dispelled. If Chek understood basic biology he would understand that an enzyme is a protein and once exposed to stomach acids, they become denatured. This means they are no longer active enzymes by the time they reach our intestines where digestion happens. Not to mention the fact that as humans, we have our OWN set of enzymes that help us digest- we cannot use pineapple or papaya enzymes because we are not fruit.

Chek goes on to talk about how the human body was not designed to eat lots of grains and how meat from herbivores contains condensed nutrition. 1lbs of this meat apparently is nutritionally equivalent to many pounds of vegetables.

OH PLEASE.
We all know that there are different nutrients found in protein rich and carbohydrate rich foods and that we need BOTH to be healthy. Just because you can convert stored fat into carbohydrates does not mean that our body is meant to do this over a long period of time. Our body is meant to use carbs as a main source of carbs and can resort to using our fat stores in times of starvation. Breaking down fat to get carbs (or glucose) over extended periods of time has it downfalls- its called ketoacidosis.

I think the fact that Paul Check states clearly that be "believes meat is essential for optimal health" says it all. This has been proven wrong time and time again- not through the scientists "experimenting on themselves" but in real population studies and lab studies.

I could go on and on about the mis-information you can find in Paul's book but it would take days. My advice to you: when reading about new diets or so called discoveries, refer back to common sense and basic biology 101.

Teens and Sports Supplements

An interesting article was published in the Gazette yesterday regarding teens and protein supplements. It was interesting for two reasons:
1. The newspaper actually spoke to a Registered dietitian who has plenty of experience with sports nutrition- which means the information was credible and
2. It laid to rest the most common misconception about protein supplements: teens (and most people) generally will NOT benefit from eating obscene amounts of protein.

And of course, as is usually the case with nutrition counseling, a young man waltzed into my office that very same day inquiring about protein shakes.

What many people may not realize, is that there is a maximum amount of protein we can store in our bodies. Once our stores are full, we eliminate the extra amino acids and store whats left of the broken-down protein molecule as fat.
Another false claim is that protein builds muscles. Protein does NOT build muscles, but when it is available in adequate quantities, it can help the muscle recover from exercise and grow. Exercise is the only way we can build muscle, and if we do not eat enough protein, we can inhibit that growth.

This brings up another question- how MUCH protein do we need? Well, this all depends on your age, gender and activity level. But if we continue with the same example of a young athlete- they typically need about 1.5g of protein per kg of body weight per day.
So, if my client was 80kg he would need about 120g of protein per day. Knowing that one ounce (or 30g) of a protein rich food (like chicken or beef or beans) contains 7g of protein would mean that my client would need about 17oz of protein rich foods a day. REMEMBER- milk products also contain some protein so meat and alternatives are not the only source!
If one serving of meat is about 21g (100g or the size of the palm of a hand) then he should eat about 5 1/2 servings of meat and alternatives a day. Ideally, one at lunch, one at lunch and one at supper along with 2 or 3 snacks (containing protein) a day containing. Voila- no need to hold your nose and down a protein shake.

Before turning to protein shakes consider this: almost all Canadians eat about double the amount of protein they need to, on a daily basis. Even if you are working out and have higher needs than the average person, you naturally will be eating more protein because you will be eating more calories. Its is carbs that really feed your energy levels- not protein. So if you are looking to stay on top of your game do not leave out the carbs (fruit, grain products and milk products all contain carbs).

The whole topic of protein supplements is quite controversial. However, for the average gym-goer and teen athlete, they are usually unwarranted. If you would like to see if protein supplements are for you, the best thing to do is to speak to a Sports Nutritionist.