I stuffed up
Posted by kathryn in The Micronutrients, Folate, A Balanced Diet, Carbohydrates, Fat, Protein and Q & A Thursday
I stuffed up during this week’s Q&A Thursday. I was asked what would happen if you lived on pasta – no sauce, no cheese, just pasta alone. In my answer I stated, this diet would leave you malnourished and would ultimately lead to death. I also said that, along with vitamin and mineral deficiencies, the individual would suffer from a protein deficiency .
It’s this bit I’m wrong on. As one reader pointed out, pasta does contain some protein, enough to make up your daily requirements, even if your total kilojoule intake is from pasta alone.I wrote my answer after doing only a partial analysis, assuming I knew the rest. I based my protein statements on the belief that pasta alone would not yield enough of the eight essential amino acids, lysine in particular. It’s an embarrassing, first year stuff up, sorry everybody and thanks to the reader who took me to task on this.
The revised answer: deficiencies
Having just done the analysis properly , I’m revising my answer. A diet of pasta alone would lead to:
- adequate intake of carbohydrates, protein, copper, manganese and selenium.
- mild deficiencies in fibre, iron, niacin (B3) and pyridoxine (B6)
- severe deficiencies in fat, calcium, magnesium, zinc, along with vitamins A, C, E, K, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), pantothenic acid (B5), folate (B9) and cyanocobalamin (B12).
Health issues
The problems from this would include:
- scurvy
- anaemia (deficiencies of B9 and B12 will cause anaemia)
- tiredness and lethargy
- mental disorientation, hallucinations and impaired motor control (from the lack of B vitamins and fat)
- vision problems, leading to blindness (lack of vitamin A)
- heart problems (lack of vitamin E, calcium and magnesium)
- breakdown in wound, muscle and tissue healing and re-generation (deficiencies in A and C)
- poor clot formation and increased bleeding (lack of C and K)
- muscle weakness and spasming (calcium deficiency)
- kidney problems (lack of calcium and magnesium)
While eating pasta alone can give you enough kilojoules and enough protein, this would ultimately be fatal.
Even with the addition of meat, sauce, herbs and cheese, you’re still limiting your nutritional intake and not eating a balanced diet.
Depression linked to folate levels
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Folate
A follow up to my posts about folic acid fortification here in Australia, new research from the UK has linked depression to low folate levels.
Last month, the Food Standards Agency in the UK put forward a recommendation that either bread or flour be fortified with folic acid to prevent neural tube defects. It has been suggested that this latest research means fortification may help with depression.
The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health , comprised a review of 11 previous studies, involving 15,315 participants. As the study leader, Dr Simon Gilbody says:
“Our study is unique in that for the first time all the relevant evidence in this controversial area has been brought together. Although the research does not prove that low folate causes depression, we can now be sure that the two are linked. Interestingly, there is also some trial evidence that suggests folic acid supplements can benefit people with depression. We recommend that large trials should be carried out to further test this suggestion.”
How to beat winter lethargy
Posted by kathryn in Seasonal Health
One of the questions I answered yesterday was about eating heavier, more starchy foods during winter. This is a common trend and it’s one of the reasons many people gain a few kilos over the winter months. While I talked about the food side, I didn’t say anything about other aspects of health.
The things we do differently in winter
If you compare your lifestyle at the moment, to what it’s like in summer, I think you’ll find there is a big contrast.
In summer most people are more active. You live more of your life outside, it’s easy to go for a walk or a swim. Plus in summer most people drink more water and eat lighter foods.
Over the past couple of weeks here in Sydney, as well as the rain, it’s been getting colder and colder. It’s dark in the mornings and the days are shorter. It’s hard to get motivated to go for your normal walk and it’s much easier to spend the evening huddled on the couch, in front of the TV with the heater on.
This is also the time of year when people start coming down with winter colds. Everyone is coughing and sneezing on the bus in the morning and work colleagues are either off sick or “soldiering on”, dreaming of a month in the West Indies.
It’s little wonder so many people spend the winter feeling tired, lethargic and constantly sick.
If this is you, then a few small changes to your normal winter routines can make a huge difference and keep you well over winter.
Be active
Rather than staying inside and dropping all exercise, it’s better to at least maintain some level of activity :
- If it’s too cold and dark to do your morning walk, then get out during your lunch-time and stretch your legs for 20 minutes.
- Get off the bus a stop earlier and walk that last 10 minute stretch to work.
- On the weekends meet up with a friend and rather than huddling in a cafe, keep yourself warm by doing a 30 minute walk together. Then you can have the coffee afterwards.
Drink
Plain water doesn’t seem as attractive in winter, but rather than dropping your liquid intake entirely, why not opt for tea, or keep those colds and flus at bay with a big pot of fresh ginger tea.
Nurture your health
It’s not a foregone conclusion that you’ll catch every single cold and virus that goes round. Instead, being well over winter is possible, but it involves looking after yourself. For some tips, see my top 5 ways to keep a cold at bay.
Ending Q & A Thursday
Posted by kathryn in Blogging and Q & A Thursday
That’s the end of Q&A Thursday for today. Thanks to everyone for your excellent questions.
As per usual, let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an email, if you have a question for next week.
Q & A Thursday: best-before dates
Posted by kathryn in Food Labelling and Q & A Thursday
The final question for this week’s Q&A Thursday is from Paul :
I’m frequently amazed at how long some foods can be kept, at least going by the published ‘best by’ date. A couple of examples recently: roasted kumera in oil (nearly 2 months), haloumi vaccuum packed (3 months unopened). Are you aware of any general concerns about ‘best by’ dates on foods?
While it seems incredible how long some foods can be kept, Paul I’m actually not aware of any problems with expiry dates. Although there have been some changes to the labelling laws you should be aware of.
Food technology is quite a science these days. Manufacturers produce packaged food under strict hygiene conditions and by regulated processes. Food is generally checked at several stages of the production process and expiry dates have to be tested and re-tested (and re-tested). Food recalls are expensive and damaging and manufacturers definitely want to avoid them.
Use-by vs best-before
I should note that, in Australia, the regulations about expiry dates changed in 2003. Prior to that, the “use-by” and “best-before” dates were only a guide to how long the food would retain its quality. Food could legally be sold after its use-by date and usually made up the “red-hot” specials shelf.
Since 2003 the use-by date is now the point at which the food actually becomes unsafe to eat , ie it’s the date the food goes off. So you do need to chuck out those old foods lurking in the back of your pantry. If a product is past it’s use-by date, even if the food looks and smells okay, it’s not safe to eat.
Most other foods have a best-before date, this is a guide to how long a food will keep at its peak quality. After the best-before date it’s still safe to eat, but there will be a decline in quality, taste and texture.
Bread that has a shelf-life of less than seven days often has a “baked-on” or “baked-for” date on the label, instead of a best-before. This gives an indication of how fresh the bread is.
Q & A Thursday: what happens if you live on pasta?
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Carbohydrates and Q & A Thursday
Antti-Juhani asked a question that made me smile:
In computer science, there is a thought experiment (due to the late Edsger W. Dijkstra, one of the CS intellectual giants) called “the dining philosophers”: there are five philosophers who spend their whole time thinking – except when they’re eating. Their diet consists of spaghetti, I kid you not, all they eat is spaghetti. My question is, if one were to emulate the philosophers and eat spaghetti only, what would result, health-wise?
While this scenario may seem far-fetched, it reminded me of a report I heard last week. University doctors have to be aware of the signs and symptoms of scurvy as it is occurs in small numbers in student populations.
Scurvy arises from a vitamin C deficiency. In Western societies we think of it as a problem of the past, however it occurs here in Australia, primarily among new students who have just left home. Unused to fending for themselves, some students live on a diet of toast, 2-minute noodles and pasta – all cheap foods that are easy to cook, but lacking in vitamin C – hence the scurvy.
However, on to the question. A diet consisting solely of pasta, with no other foods, would leave you severely malnourished and would most probably lead to death.
Pasta is primarily a carbohydrate food . While it does contain small amounts of other nutrients, they are at low levels, nowhere near what you need to function and stay healthy.
A diet comprised solely of pasta would leave you protein,vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, iron, B vitamin and zinc deficient. Your health problems would be many and they would affect all body systems. Given we haven’t actually done the experiment in real life, here are my thoughts on just some of the problems caused by a diet of pasta alone:
- scurvy
- anaemia (from the lack of
iron, B9 and B12)
- muscle wasting
decreased immune function, given the lack of protein required to make immune factors- tiredness and lethargy
grossly enlarged liver and the development of fatty liver, due to a lack of apolipoproteinsa swollen abdomen due to the lack of proteindiarrhoea due to low digestive enzyme levels (they’re made of protein)- mental disorientation, hallucinations and impaired motor control (from the lack of fat, B1 and B2)
- vision problems, leading to blindness (lack of vitamin A)
- heart problems (lack of vitamin E, calcium and magnesium)
- breakdown in wound, muscle and tissue healing and re-generation (deficiencies in A and C)
- poor clot formation and increased bleeding (lack of C and K)
- muscle weakness and spasming (calcium deficiency)
- kidney problems (lack of calcium and magnesium)
The effects would be similar to kwashiorker, the childhood malnutrition often seen in famine-affected countries. This condition occurs when children are weaned from breastmilk onto a diet that is largely carbohydrate based and protein deficient, similar to a pasta only diet.
Update: I’ve made errors in this post, hence the ugly revisions. Following a reader comment I’ve posted a revised version here.
Q & A Thursday: cow's milk
Posted by kathryn in The Micronutrients, Q & A Thursday and Food & Health Myths
Fiona asks:
Cow’s milk. Nutritionally beneficial? Or only beneficial for baby cows?
While cow’s milk is sometimes painted as the nutritional equivalent of an anti-christ, I don’t have a problem with it, as long as you can tolerate it .
Nutritional breakdown
Nutritionally, cow’s milk is made up of the following:
- 87% water
- 3.3% protein
- 3.8% fat
- 4.6% carbohydrate
- No fibre
And 100ml of milk also contains:
- 120mg calcium
- 158mg potassium
Skim and light milks obviously contain less fat, but they also have slightly more protein.
Calcium
One of the main facts we all know about dairy is it contains calcium. Calcium performs a variety of functions in our body, but the majority of it is used to keep our bones healthy and strong.
There are lots of other foods that contain calcium and many people that survive quite happily and healthily without dairy. However, in our society it’s hard to get enough of this important mineral if you’re not eating dairy, without making some radical changes to your diet .
Calcium RDI
Compared to other nutrients, we need a lot of calcium each day. Most adult men and women need 1,000mg, while that amount is increased for menopausal women, to 1,300mg per day.
Calcium containing foods
As I said before, there are actually a huge variety of foods that contain calcium. Meat, bread, vegetables, fruit, vegemite, all contain some calcium. However most of these don’t contain enough to make a serious dent on the 1,000mg required per day.
The following is a list of the foods considered a serious source, with the amount of calcium per 100g of the food :
- Sunflower seeds: 100mg
- Tahini: 330mg
- Almonds: 220mg
- Brazil nuts: 150mg
- Mustard greens: 130mg
- Parsley: 200mg
- English spinach: 170mg
- Dried figs: 200mg
- Salmon, tinned with the bones: 310mg
And the dairy sources:
- Ricotta: 245mg
- Tasty cheese: 800mg
- Fetta: 340mg
- Low fat yoghurt: 250mg
- Full fat yoghurt: 150mg
- Milk: 120mg
The non-dairy sources can definitely be a useful addition to your daily calcium intake. However, my guess is that most people, in our society , are going to struggle to make their daily 1,000mg without dairy.
Photograph by Mayu P under the terms of a creative commons license.
Q & A Thurs: do you crave carbs in winter?
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Seasonal Health, Carbohydrates and Q & A Thursday
In this week’s Q & A Thursday, Lindsey asks:
I find I REALLY crave different things in winter, so I’ve been eating lots of potatoes, creamy/cheesy things, thick soups, etc. All in moderation of course! But I am a bit concerned about the heaviness of these foods. I was wondering whether you’ve got a few ideas about giving the body what it wants in winter without compromising my health?
I also I want different foods in winter. The salad I have for lunch every day in summer is no longer satisfying and instead I want soups. In the evening stir-fries are no longer enough.
What’s different in winter?
It’s quite common for people to put on a few kilos over winter. Most people are less concerned about how they look, plus they’re wearing more clothes. However, just because it’s common, doesn’t mean it’s ideal.
Generally in winter people move less:
- you spend more time indoors
- you don’t go to the beach at the weekends
- you stop walking when it rains
- people use their cars more
- gym memberships lapse
- evenings are spent huddled in front of the TV, keeping warm
For most people, their energy requirement goes down during winter, however they don’t eat less. In fact, most people eat more energy-rich foods – hence a few kilos creep on.
How to avoid this?
It is the best thing for your health to try and avoid this though. Even in winter I try to follow the 50/25/25 rule I’ve mentioned before. Apart from breakfast 50 percent of my meals are made up of vegetables. If you can fit more vegetables into your day, it will reduce the richness and kilojoule content of what you’re eating.
I still cook the traditionally carb-focussed meals, like pasta and risotto, but I change the recipes to suit my requirements:
- While cooking pasta I’ll throw some broccoli or cauliflower into the pot and or I’ll make a very vegie-centric sauce.
- Instead of having salads, at this time of year I make trays of roasted vegetables, enough for a few nights.
- When cooking a risotto, I use less rice and more vegetables, for example chermoula risotto, or broccoli and leek risotto.
- I make a lot of soups at this time of the year, doubling the amount of vegetables I put in.
- I use a lot of lentils and beans – you still get the starchy feel you’re after, but they’re packed with a lot more nutrition.
- I avoid using cream and tend to stir through ricotta or yoghurt.
- I use potatoes, but only cook a small amount and bulk it up with pumpkin, sweet potato, parsnips and swedes. Or if I’m making mash, I’ll use half potato and half white beans.
- I use a lot of chilli, garlic and ginger in my cooking at this time of year – they’re very warming and nourishing.
There’s no reason why you can’t enjoy the starchy carbohydrate foods in winter, just watch your portion sizes. Make sure you’re still having some protein and use vegetables to bulk up your meals.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a weekly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical and sensible answers to food, diet and health dilemmas sent in by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, then either leave a comment or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Q & A Thursday: protein, vegetarians & breastfeeding
Posted by kathryn in Kid's nutrition, Protein and Q & A Thursday
Following up on my last post about protein, I now want to get down to the specifics of Keltie’s question – how do you get enough protein when breastfeeding?
Do you need more protein when breastfeeding?
When you’re breastfeeding you do need more protein. Your diet is not only providing your own nutrition, but you’re also making milk to satisty your baby’s nutritional needs. At this time you need 1.1g of protein per kilogram of body weight. Therefore a 60kg woman who was breastfeeding would need 66g of protein each day (compared to 49g if you’re not breastfeeding).
How to get enough protein when you’re a vegetarian
The most important thing to remember when you’re a vegetarian is to eat a variety of protein sources. You can’t just rely on lentils or tofu to fulfill your protein needs, but instead need to mix it up. Over the course of a day you should be aiming for at least three different types of protein foods. For example:
Breakfast:
- cereal with milk, a spoonful of yoghurt and a sprinkle of seeds (grains, dairy and seeds)
- baked beans on toast (legumes and grains)
- egg on toast with grilled tomatoes (eggs and grains)
- wholegrain toast with nut butter (grains and nuts)
- porridge with yoghurt (grains and dairy)
Lunch:
- falafel wrap with salad (grains and legumes)
- lentil soup and a wholemeal roll (grains and legumes)
- cheese and salad sandwich (dairy and grains)
- tofu and noodles (legumes and grains)
- salad with nuts and bean mix (legumes and nuts)
Dinner:
- pasta with tomato&ricotta sauce (grains and dairy)
- dal and rice (legumes and grains)
- stir-fry with tofu, cashews and rice (legumes, nuts and grains)
- chilli beans with tacos or tortillas (beans and grains)
- lentil and barley soup (legumes and grains)
To sum up
To make sure you’re getting enough protein while breastfeeding, you need to have one or two sources per meal and vary the types of protein during the day. If you do this, you’re almost certainly having enough protein. A standard day might look like this:
Breakfast:
- 0.5 cups untoasted muesli (5g protein)
- 0.5 cups milk (6g)
- 2 tablespoons mixed nuts and seeds (5g)
- Total = 16g protein
Lunch:
- 1 cheese&salad sandwich (14g)
- piece of fruit (none)
- Total = 14g protein
Dinner:
- 1 cup beans (12g)
- 1 cup cooked rice (4g)
- 2 cups of vegies (4g)
- Total = 20g protein
Snacks:
- 15 almonds&piece of fruit (3g)
- carton of yoghurt (11g)
- Total = 14g protein
- Total for the day = 64g protein
Q & A Thursday: protein & vegetarians
Posted by kathryn in Kid's nutrition, Protein and Q & A Thursday
Question number one, for this week’s Q&A Thursday is from Keltie:
Our family is vegetarian and I’m currently breastfeeding. I’m worried about my protein intake and also protein for my baby once he starts on solids. how do I ensure we are getting enough?
Protein is important for all of us. While it’s one of the nutrients vegetarians need to be careful about, in clinic I also see many omnivores who are not eating enough protein. Keltie, I’m going to answer your question in two posts, as there’s a lot of background to cover. The first post is more generally about protein and about vegetarians. While I’ll move onto your specific concern about breastfeeding in the second post.
Why do you need protein?
Protein is important to all of us. If forms part of the structure of your body. Your hair, skin, nails, muscles, brain, heart, lungs, liver and so on, are all made up of protein. Protein is also used to mend tissue, grow new tissue and make new cells.
In addition to this, most of the enzymes that catalyse your body’s biochemical reactions, are made of protein, along with the immune system factors that protect you from disease. Without an adequate intake of protein all these body parts and processes suffer.
Amino acids
Proteins are made up of smaller units called amino acids. There are about 20 amino acids and these join together, in a variety of sequences to form all the different proteins you need.
Amino acids are split into two groups, essential and non-essential amino acids. This is slightly misleading terminolgy, because we need all of the amino acids for our bodies to function adequately. However, the non-essential amino acids can be manufactured by the body. The essential ones are so called, because we must obtain them from our diet .
There are eight essential amino acids: valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, threonine, methionine and lysine.
Sources of protein
The main sources of protein are meat, fish, dairy foods, legumes, nuts, seeds, eggs, grains. Most people don’t realise grain foods, such as bread and pasta, contain protein. While they are mostly carbohydrate, for vegetarians these foods are an important part of total protein intake.
As humans we need a certain ratio of amino acids to match our needs. However, not all the above foods contain sufficient amounts of each of the eight essential amino acids. Those foods that closely match our requirements are said to have a high biological value (HBV), while those with insufficient amounts of one or more of the essentials are said to have a low biological value (LBV). Most animal foods (meat, fish, eggs) are HBV, while plant foods tend to have a LBV.
Vegetarians and protein
To counter-act the LBV of most plant foods and ensure an adequate intake of all the essential amino acids, vegetarians need to eat a variety of protein containing foods.
The idea is that by using different sources of protein you counter-act the amino acid deficiencies in each food and increase the overall protein value of your meal, with an amino acid spectrum that much more closely matches your body’s needs.
For example legumes have lots of the amino acid lysine but are low in methionine. Whereas grains are high in methionine and low in lysine. Separately their use is limited, but when combined each makes up for the lack in the other and overall provides a much more useful protein meal.
I find it interesting that people in many traditional cultures have been protein combining long before the nutritional significance was understood. Just think of dal and rice, hummous and flatbreads, tofu and noodles, beans and corn tortillas.
How much protein do you need?
For adults, the recommended daily intake of protein for men is a minimum of 0.84g of protein per kilogram of body weight. For adult women (who are not pregnant or breastfeeding), the RDI is a minimum of 0.75g per kilogram of body weight.
Therefore a 60kg woman would need 49g of protein each day, while a man of the same weight needs 50g. Whereas a 90kg man needs 76g of protein and a woman would need 68g.
Note that people who are very active, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and people over 70 need more protein.
Protein content of typical foods
- 100g meat, chicken or fish – 20g protein
- 2 eggs – 12g protein
- 10 almonds – 2g protein
- 250ml milk – 8g protein
- 200g tub yoghurt – 12g protein
- 100g cooked beans – 6 – 8g protein
- 100g tofu – 12g protein
- 100g cooked lentils – 5g protein
- 1 cup cooked pasta – 6g protein
- 1 slice bread – 3g protein
Q & A Thursday is open
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
I’ve received a long list of juicy questions already for today’s Q&A Thursday , but there’s room for more. If you want to lodge a question to be used this week, then let me know before 15:00 today, Sydney time. Simply send me an email , or leave a comment.
Positives & negatives of fortification
Posted by kathryn in Folate
Fortification is always a controversial policy. Food Standards Australia New Zealand ( FSANZ ) have led the move to mandatory fortification and have been considering this issue since May 2004. In their opinion, mandatory fortification is the most effective, the safest and most economically viable way to reduce neural tube defects.
On the other hand, the Australian Food and Grocery Council , who represent food manufacturers, have stated that reducing NTDs requires a public health solution, not medication of the food supply. They believe most consumers are against fortification and it may lead to a rise in food costs.
It should be noted, the current scheme is much more modest than the original proposal, which was to fortify all flour with folic acid. This would have affected bread, but also cakes, pasta, biscuits, muffins, pastries, pies, pancakes, doughnuts, etc.
Public health campaigns, aimed at changing peoples’ dietary habits are expensive and difficult to implement. It takes a lot of money to reach and persuade all the people you need to target. Moreover, many find it very difficult to make changes to their diet. Fortification bypasses these problems.
However, adding a nutrient to the food supply, via a common food, doesn’t just reach the target audience. It’s not just women who are about to fall pregnant who eat bread, almost the whole population does. While one group benefits, it’s difficult for others to avoid fortified foods, unless they pay the extra for organic bread (or make their own).
Supplementation & education
It’s important to note that fortification is not expected to work by itself and this has certainly been the case overseas.
In the US, despite mandatory fortification since 1998, there has only been a 25% reduction in NTDs and women can still be folate deficient at the time they fall pregnant.
While mandatory food fortification is being introduced here in Australia, if you want to fall pregnant you cannot rely on food sources alone to give you adequate folate. You still need to take a supplement.
Consumer education is still at the heart of NTD prevention. The message about NTDs and folate needs to be promoted from all angles and the campaign needs to be long-term. It’s not just the responsibility of doctors, but effective folate use needs to be promoted Australia-wide by the media, GPs, naturopaths, pharmacists, nurses, other health professionals, nutrition education and food labelling.
What do you think about fortification? Will you be avoiding fortified breads, or does it make no difference to you?
Reminder
Q & A Thursday is tomorrow – let me know if you have any questions about food, nutrition and health, either by sending an email or leaving a comment.
Eating locally
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Food Labelling and Sustainablity
While there is a growing locavore trend in the US, here in Australia it’s still a fledgling movement. Most shops do not regularly display where their produce comes from, apart from an occasional “Australian grown”, which makes it difficult to work out what’s local.
In the Herald, Robert Cornish decides to eat locally for one week. He shows you can find a wide variety of produce grown within a small radius of where you live, but it takes many phone calls and questions to suppliers and retailers. He also discovered that eating locally in Victoria, meant giving up coffee, sugar and bread.
Rising concern about climate change means people are becoming more aware of the distance their food travels. Transporting produce around the country and overseas uses up fossil fuels, which exacerbates climate change. Eating more food that is locally produced is one way of counter-acting this.
At the moment it’s difficult to know where your food comes from. If you are concerned, I’d suggest you start asking some questions. Talk to your local greengrocer and email your supermarket. Ask them where their produce comes from. Let your local retailer know you are concerned about climate change and want to eat locally – and ask them to make it easier for you, by labelling their produce.
Reminder
Q & A Thursday is tomorrow – let me know if you have any questions about food, nutrition and health, either by sending an email or leaving a comment.
Why fortify foods with folic acid?
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Folate
As I posted yesterday, folate is a vitamin we all need. Our bodies use it in DNA replication, for catalysing cell growth and repair, as well as in making red blood cells. It’s found in a number of different foods.
Women are advised to take folate supplements in pregnancy, to prevent neural tube defects (NTDs). These are a group of birth defects which include spina bifida and anencephaly. It’s estimated that up to 70% of NTDs are preventable through increasing the mother’s folate intake.
How often do NTDs occur?
Since the 1980s there has been a marked decrease in the number of babies born with NTDs. Improved pre-natal screening techniques can show up the presence of NTDs early in pregnancy.
While there aren’t accurate figures on the incidence of NTDs here in Australia, it’s estimated that between 300 and 350 pregnancies are affected each year.
What about taking supplements?
Since 1993 health authorities have recommended women who are trying to fall pregnant top up their dietary intake of folate with supplements. Despite this, the majority of women in Australia are not taking folate supplements when they fall pregnant.
Part of the problem is half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Moreover, despite the health campaigns, there is a lack of awareness about the timing and benefits of folate in pregnancy, with many mistakenly believing they only need to start taking folate once pregnant.
It’s this which has led the charge, here in Australia and many other countries, to add folic acid to foods. This forced supplementation through the food supply is meant to prevent women from being folate deficient when they fall pregnant and thereby reduce the number of NTD affected pregnancies each year.
Reminder
Q & A Thursday is tomorrow – let me know if you have any questions about food, nutrition and health, either by sending an email or leaving a comment.
Reminder: Q & A Thursday is tomorrow
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Tomorrow is Q & A Thursday. Last week I answered questions on:
If you have any food, health or diet dilemmas for this week, then let me know by leaving a comment or sending an email .
How much folate do you need?
Posted by kathryn in The Micronutrients and Folate
Following the news that bread-making flour is going to be fortified with folic acid, I thought it timely to look at what folate is and why we need it.
What is folate?
Folate is one of the B vitamins, it’s B9 and in our bodies it’s used in the production of new cells and the replication of DNA. It also plays a part in the maintenance of existing cells, by assisting protein production.
Folate is needed to make red blood cells. A B9 deficiency means that red blood cells cannot mature properly and causes a type of anaemia called megaloblastic anaemia.
Folate is of particular importance in pregnancy, to prevent neural tube defects.
Everyone, at every life stage, needs folate and we all need it on a regular basis.
How much?
The Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of folate for adults is:
- 400mcg per day for men and non-pregnant women
- 600mcg per day for pregnant women
- 500mcg per day for breastfeeding women
Folate vs folic acid
Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate. It’s found in supplements and is what will be added to flour under the new fortification code.
On average we absorb about 50% of the folate contained in the foods we eat. Folic acid however, is more easily absorbed: you’ll absorb 85% of the folic acid in fortified foods and 100% from supplements.
Foods that contain folate
Folate is in a whole lot of different foods, from green vegetables, through to legumes, seeds, liver and some fruit. The following is a list of foods, showing the amount of folate per common(-ish) serve:
- Lentils, blackeyed beans, cooked (1 cup) – 358mcg
- Spinach, cooked (1 cup) – 263mcg
- Chick peas, pinto beans, cooked (1 cup) – 280mcg
- Beef liver, cooked (85g) – 221mcg
- Broccoli, cooked (1 cup) – 168mcg
- Rice, white (1 cup) – 153mcg
- Beetroot, cooked (1 cup) – 136mcg
- Papaya (1 papaya about 300g) – 116mcg
- Vegemite (1 teaspoon) – 100mcg
- Parsnips, cooked (1 cup) – 90mcg
- Asparagus, cooked (4 spears) – 89mcg
- Sunflower seeds (1/4 cup) – 76mcg
- Raspberries (1 cup) – 65mcg
- Mung beans, sprouted (1 cup) – 63mcg
- Corn (1 cup) – 57mcg
- Orange (1 orange) – 54mcg
- Tofu (100g) – 50mcg
Are you deficient?
Folate deficiencies are common, with many people only getting half their recommended intake. If you want to check how much folate you’re getting, then try Choice’s dietary folate calculator.
If you’re concerned you might be deficient, then you can ask your GP for a blood test to check for megaloblastic anaemia and confirm your folate status.
If there is any chance you might fall pregnant, then take a folic acid supplement , to make sure you’re getting enough and prevent neural tube defects.
Otherwise, try to include more of the folate-rich foods in your diet, for example:
- sprinkling sunflower seeds on your morning cereal
- mixing some beans into a salad or stew
- having a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice with breakfast
- add handfuls of baby spinach to pasta, risottos, salads and soups
- make some lentil soup
Bread to be fortified with folic acid
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Folate
A decision was made last week by the Food Regulation Ministerial Council, that wheat flour used in bread-making would be fortified with folic acid.
Until now, the fortification of foods with folic acid has been voluntary, here in Australia. Manufacturers have been able to choose to put folic acid in their foods and then include a health claim on the packaging.
Over the next two years however, a mandatory code is being phased in. This will require all wheat flour used in bread-making, to have between 200 and 300mcg of folic acid added per 100g of flour.
It’s estimated that mandatory fortification would provide pregnant women with half the dose of folic acid required to avoid neural tube defects (NTDs). This could prevent between 14 and 49 NTDs per year, ie between 4% and 13%.
From the ABC News report:
Child health expert Professor Fiona Stanley says the decision will particularly benefit the babies of disadvantaged women.
Australian research has found about 70 per cent of pregnant women are not taking enough folic acid, and Professor Stanley says this leaves their babies at risk of birth defects such as spina bifida.
“Women who are having unplanned pregnancies, very young women, Aboriginal women, women who have a poor education were not taking notice of the advice to eat folate before getting pregnant,” she said. “It was devastating, they didn’t really have the opportunity to reduce the risk of having a spina bifida baby.”
There is one exception to the mandatory fortification – breads that are made using organic flour, do not have to include folic acid .
Further information
- For when and why folate is important in pregnancy take a look at this post.
- To find out how much folate you’re already having, use Choice’s online folate counter.
Energy density is key to weight loss
Posted by kathryn in Weight loss
Results of a new study show that eating foods which fill you up, but provide fewer kilojoules, make it easier to lose weight .
Sounds obvious doesn’t it? However it’s still something a lot of people who want to lose weight are not doing.
The research from Pennsylvania State University split women into two groups. One group simply reduced their total kilojoule intake. While the other group reduced their kilojoule intake, but also increased the amount of fruits, vegetables and other low-energy density foods they consumed.
At the end of a year both groups had lost weight, but the group who filled up on low-energy foods had lost more. They also reported feeling less hungry.
“Incorporating low calorie-dense foods into the diet is an effective strategy for lowering calories and reducing hunger when you’re trying to lose weight,” study co-author Dr Julia A. Ello-Martin, of Pennsylvania State University said.
“This is an approach that allows you to focus on the foods that you should be eating” rather than focusing on restricting kilojoules, she added.
Of course there’s an extra benefit, by increasing your intake of fruit and vegies, you’re also improving your overall health.
Last week's menu
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
Mid-week meals can be tricky. If you’re late home or tired, then putting together a meal that’s quick, easy, healthy and tasty can be a big-ask.
A while ago I posed the question what’s your perfect mid-week meal? Two themes that came through the responses were, pre-preparing meals on the weekend (which could then be frozen and re-heated), and making use of leftovers.
Last week I had a few meals which illustrate both of these scenarios. For starters, I did some cooking on the weekend. This gave me a combination of prepared meals and cooked ingredients that could be used in other dishes:
- two batches of soup
- a jar of harissa
- a tray of roasted pumpkin
- several containers of cooked lentils, white beans and barley.
And this is how I put everything together last week:
Monday
Lunch: Lentil soup (made on the weekend)
Dinner: Roast pumpkin with white beans&barley (took about 10 minutes to make, using the pre-cooked pumpkin, beans and barley)
Tuesday
Lunch: Leftover roast pumpkin with white beans and barley
Dinner: Tofu and vegetable stir fry with noodles (made from scratch)
Wednesday
Lunch: Roast pumpkin and pear soup (made on the weekend) with sourdough toast
Dinner: White bean falafels (made from scratch, using white beans cooked on the weekend) with mixed greens (took about 15 minutes in total)
Thursday
Lunch: Leftover falafels in a wrap with avocado and salad
Dinner: We ate out (Thai)
Friday
Lunch: Lentil soup (made on the weekend)
Dinner: Pasta with tomato, garlic and caper sauce (made from scratch)
Saturday
Lunch: At a cafe
Dinner: Lablabi (using harissa made on the weekend)
Sunday
Lunch: Mixed greens with white beans and harissa (both made on the weekend) on a slice of sourdough toast
Dinner: We ate out (sushi train)
As you can see, my week was a combination of using pre-cooked ingredients, making new dishes from scratch and eating out on a couple of occasions. When I did cook, I generally made enough for lunch the next day. In amongst all the one-pot meals, the white bean falafels were a great contrast.
And . . . I still have lots of soup in the freezer, along with barley, white beans and lentils.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes, Recipes: legumes, Recipes: soups, Recipes: vegies, Sustainablity and Weight loss
- Family Nutritionist has a recipe for green and orange ribbons with fettucine, a lovely way to balance out the vegetable to starchy carbohydrate ratio. If you can’t get mustard greens you could use silverbeet.
- I wouldn’t recommend this approach to anyone, but here’s what happens when a meat addict goes hard core vegan for one month.
- I love the sound of these Turkish Red Lentil Balls – I think I’ll be cooking them this weekend.
- Chew On This blogs about eating organics on a budget. Given most of us can’t afford to be 100% organic, what are the best buys for your health and the planet.
- I’m currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver – one family’s year of eating foods either grown locally or from their backyard. They have a website, including a seasonal tour of what’s happening in their garden – I particularly love the photo of asparagus emerging from the ground.
- DietMotion lists the small steps you can take to lose weight and improve your health. You don’t have to do all these at once. Instead, pick a few and adapt those into your daily and weekly routine. Once you’re used to doing them, add a couple more in. In that way you are edging your way towards being healthier.
- I’ve been coming across beetroot recipes all week. It’s my favourite vegetable and I’m always happy to find new ways of cooking it. My personal favourites are Lucy’s beetroot soup, Well-Seasoned Cook’s yellow beets with walnuts, a baked beetroot and chickpea salad with a dash of pomegranate molasses and every child’s nightmare, roasted beets with rice, greens and brussel sprouts.
How much food do you throw out each week?
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Fruit and Vegetables
According to this article on the Wild Oats website, people in the US throw out 25% of the produce they buy, because it’s gone off . I suspect it’s a similar situation here in Australia. What a waste!
The article is an excellent guide to getting the most out of your fruit and veg. It covers storage tips, information on why food goes off and (my favourite part) a list of the fastest to the slowest spoilers.
You can use this to avoid waste, by eating the fastest spoilers first and the slowest last. However, it’s also a great resource for when you’re doing your shopping. Buying a mixture of fast and slow spoilers, ensures you are eating a variety of fruit and veg, while also giving you food that stays fresh and delicious the full week .
How much food do you throw out each week?
Q & A Thursday is closed
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
That’s the end of Q & A Thursday for today. Thanks to everyone for your great questions.
As per usual, let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an email, if you have a question for next week.
Q & A Thursday: seaweed and radiation therapy
Posted by kathryn in The Micronutrients, A Balanced Diet and Q & A Thursday
Another question, this time about the use of seaweed to counter-balance radiation during cancer treatment
“I read Anne Marie Colbin’s book called ‘Food and Healing’ recently and I recall her saying that when she has x-rays, she goes home and makes a meal with a seaweed like arame or hijiki as a way of counter-balancing the radiation.”
Seaweed contains the mineral iodine. It’s an important mineral to our health but, certainly here in Australia, it’s one of the ones we’re often deficient in.
Iodine is used by your thyroid gland, which is located in your neck. It’s important for the production of the thyroid hormones, which regulate your basal metabilic rate.
We’ve all seen the cold-war films where the spies are dosed up with iodine, to counter-act any nuclear radiation they come into contact with. Radioiodine is released in nuclear weapons testing and it was also released during the Chernobyl reactor disaster.
Radioiodine is absorbed into the body and taken up by the thyroid gland, where it can cause terrible damage. This can be counter-acted, to some extent, by dosing people up with iodine supplements. This floods the thyroid gland, preventing the uptake of the radioiodine and its concentration in the gland.
Unless you have thyroid cancer, radiation therapy does not use radioiodine. The targeted cells are elsewhere in the body and different types of radiation delivery mechanisms are used to reach those cells. Taking iodine, therefore, is not counter-balancing the effects of the radiation therapy.
The most important thing is to be eating a good diet. To be getting the maximum amount of nutrients, enabling your body to function as best it can during this intensive treatment. Given that iodine is a common mineral deficiency here in Australia, eating small amounts of seaweed and fish are a good idea in general.
Q & A Thursday: cooking in oil
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
A question from rgh
“when you fry food, but you don’t use oil, why is there such a difference in flavour, to when you do use it? Or put more succinctly, what effect does oil have on the food you fry?
To answer this question, I’m going to have to refer to the great Mr Harold McGee . According to On Food&Cooking , when pan-frying, the oil is doing a number of different things. Firstly it lubricates the surface between the pan and the food, preventing sticking, but more importantly it enables the food to be cooked at a higher temperature.
McGee calls this the browning reaction. If you think about the difference between cooking something in oil and cooking it dry, or in water, the food will brown quickly in the oil. Food cooked in water or dry-fried either doesn’t brown, or it takes a lot longer.
The browning reaction relies on a high temperature, at least 154°C. At this point there is enough energy to force carbohydrates in the food to react with amino acids, resulting in a number of chemical reactions that lead to the brown colouration and an intensification of flavour. It only happens on the outside of the food, because the inside doesn’t reach the same temperature (typically it remains about 100°C).
Therefore by using oil you are inducing the browning reaction in the food you’re pan frying. It’s this that changes the flavour of your food, in ways that are intrinsic to the process, rather than to the food itself.
Q & A Thursday: soy
Posted by kathryn in Antioxidants, A Balanced Diet and Q & A Thursday
I’ve had a couple of questions about soy. Firstly how much soy is too much and, secondly, do soy foods, contribute to hormonal cancers in any way?
Soy often appears in the media. One week it’s a wonder-cure and the next week it’s the root of all evil. I’ve blogged about soy before and this post will answer many of your questions about the health affects of soy, particularly in relation to cancer.
How much soy
It’s hard to answer the how much is too much question, as we all have slightly different physiologies and reactions to food. Quite a number of people have a soy intolerance and for them, it’s a food to be avoided. For the rest of us though, 1 – 2 servings per day are fine and of benefit. Over that and I would suggest you’re possibly limiting your diet and missing out on other important foods.
Which soy foods to choose
The quality of the soy foods you’re eating are as important as the frequency of your soy consumption. Tofu, tempeh, miso soup, mochi, soy sauce – all have a long history of use, are made from the whole soy bean and contain a variety of nutrients. I would recommend using small and regular amounts of these. Try to buy either organic, or non-GM soy products.
Soy has been an integral and regular part of the diet in a number of countries. These communities do not eat highly processed, flavoured, coloured and extracted soy products . Instead, the long history of use, is eating the soy foods mentioned above.
If you are trying to increase your soy intake because of a cancer scare, I would recommend avoiding all the not-bacon, soy sausage, not-chicken products. These are highly, highly processed foods and there is no evidence for their benefit.
If you’re not a regular soy eater, then you can increase your intake by:
Q & A Thursday: trans fat free margarines
Posted by kathryn in Fat and Q & A Thursday
A reader asks:
Are you able to tell me what margarines are trans fat free? I have an intolerance to dairy products, so are there any without milk products in them, or at least only a very small amount. The one I use (Nuttelex) says it is virtually TFA free, whatever that means.
I’ve blogged about trans fats quite a lot before and some basic posts are: what’s the problem, what foods contain trans fats and a reality check.
In terms of specific brands and their differing fat contents, I’d refer you to Choice’s article on just this subject. The article is here and there is a table of the best choices. This outlines the saturated, trans, mono- and poly-unsaturated content of a variety of spreads. I should note, this article is a couple of years old now and some spread manufacturers have re-formulated their products to reduce the trans fat levels. The list of best choices is still a good guide though.
Nuttelex advertise themselves as being “virtually trans fat free”, which is partly clever marketing. It contain 0.5g of trans per 100g of the spread, which translates to about 0.02g per teaspoon. How much trans you are getting from your spread, therefore depends on how much of it you’re eating.
While this is a low level, here in Australia there are a range of non-dairy spreads with a zero trans fats level (eg Bertolli Light, Melrose Omega 3, Becel Diet Polyunsaturated spread and Weight Watchers Canola spread).
Bear in mind you can also use other foods as spreads, and these are trans fat free and have many other health benefits. My regulars are tahini, ricotta, hummous and avocado.
Q & A Thursday: coconut oil
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Fat and Q & A Thursday
Before getting on to this week’s questions, I have to clear up one issue from last week. Nick asked about coconut oil:
Something I’ve been somewhat confused about is the health effects of saturated fat in coconut oil. Coconut oil is very high in saturated fat, but I’ve read things that suggest there are mitigating factors that somehow prevent this particular saturated fat from significantly raising one’s LDL cholesterol, like butter would for example. Is this real
3 comments
30 June, 2007