8 Reasons not to drink bottled water

Over the past few years, it has become almost trendy to drink bottled water. Somewhere along the way people got the idea that bottled water can help you be healthier, more fashionable, and even environmentally friendly. The commercials with fresh water flowing down waterfalls gives us the image that bottled water is more pure and special than tap water. We feel as if we're drinking straight from "the source". Bottled water is also convenient, available everywhere, and portable. The truth is that bottled water is costly, wasteful and damaging to the environment. Here are my top 8 reasons to "just say no" to bottled water:

1. Waste - According to the Sierra Club, "every year about 1.5 million tons of plastic go into manufacturing water bottles for the global market, using processes that release toxics such as nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene. In the U.S. alone 1.5 million barrels of oil are consumed in making the bottles". On top of all this, most of the 30 billion bottles sold each year are not recycled and end up in landfills.
2. Ecosystem damage - The water must come from somewhere. Companies pump large amounts of water from specific areas that can have a significant environmental impact, damaging ecosystems by sucking water from underground aquifers that are the source of water for nearby streams, wells, and farms. Lakes and wet lands are also damaged. Bottled water is also very energy intensive. In fact, it takes 3 litres of water to produce 1 litre of bottled water. Even more energy is used to transport the water to bottling plants, for transport to stores and homes, and to landfills or recycling centres.
3. Harm to wildlife - most plastic bottles are not recycled and can end up in the ocean, and can harm wildlife.
4. Costly - Sure, $2 here and there may not seem like a lot, but let's put it in perspective. Bottled water costs approximately 400-500 times what tap water does. The cost of tap water (U.S. data): $0.0015 per gallon, filtered water: $0.13 per gallon, bottled water: $1.27 per gallon! Nestle, Coke and Pepsi are making billions off the water in your own backyard.
5. Privatization - companies are literally selling your water back to you. At $1.27 per gallon or more! Nestle has taken over small, independent companies and is aggressively looking to expand their share of the the U.S. bottled water market. Coke (Dasani) and Pepsi (Aquafina) use cheap municipal water in the United States. Coke set up a bottled water facility in India, which contaminated the water supply and depleted resources for the local people.
6. Human rights - There have been numerous stories about Nestle, Pepsi and Coke violating human rights for their bottling practices and, often times, the government is the enabler. "In Michigan, Nestle received $9.6 million in tax breaks to site their Ice Mountain bottled water plant in Mecosta County. Yet in Detroit more than 20,000 families have had their water shut off because of inability to pay their water bills when the state refused to provide a subsidy." Sierra Club.
7. It doesn't come from a glacier - In fact Coca Cola’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina are tap water coming from places like Queens, NY and Jacksonville, FL with some additional treatment.
8. No health benefits - The perception seems to be that bottled water is safer than tap water. In the U.S., "the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has strict water quality standards for tap water, but the EPA does not oversee bottled water." Inspections are required by the FDA for water sold across state lines, but due to an lack of manpower to do widespread monitoring, the industry does the inspecting itself. That's like marking your own test in school. For the record, FDA regulations do not prevent bottling companies from drawing water next to industrial sites, underground storage tanks, or dumps. To date there have been numerous reports of harmful chemicals or bacteria found in bottled water.

What you can do:

If you really don't like tap water in your area, home filters are a good option. Secondly, purchase and use a stainless steel water bottle that will be good for refilling for years to come. Use pitchers of water at your Club and community events.

For more information, visit the Sierra Club

Community Kitchens

As one of the last (YAY!) projects in my internship, I was part of a community kitchen group which taught people in the community how to start and run their own kitchens.

A Community kitchen (also known as a "collective kitchen") is a group of people that get together a few times a month to plan and cook meals together. Groups can be composed of people with similar issues or needs (teen moms, seniors, single fathers, etc) or can be a mix-mash of people. Groups often gather with the intent to make low cost meals, but some groups can spend quite a bit more on meals and make more difficult recipes or are more adventurous.

Although there is usually a facilitator, or someone that runs the kitchen, a collective kitchen (CK) is not a cooking class in that there is no "teacher" and students. Everyone learns from each other.

The point of a CK may be to learn how to cook, or it may be for the social aspect, or to make low cost meals.

Being part of a CK is really quite neat. People often try things they wouldn't have tried on their own, improve their cooking skills and make friends. And at the end, everyone goes home with a ton of great food! For those who love food and/or cooking, I highly recommend you check out kitchens or cooking groups in your area.

In Vancouver - check out Fresh Choice Kitchens

In Calgary - check out the Community Kitchen Program of Calgary

What is a "Healthy" food? A look at Nutritionism.

I've recently done some reading on the concept of "Nutritionism". Nutritionism is the idea that the sum of all the nutrients in foods (fat, protein, calcium, etc) make up the nutritional value of that food. Although most nutrition professionals are well aware that there are many influences that affect the nutritional content of a food, no doubt, this is how many nutritionists and physicians base their recommendations.

All this got me to thinking, what is a "healthy" food?

As someone who firmly believes that the health of the planet is directly connected to the health of the people living on it, I believe that a healthy food one that is also healthy for the planet, or at least does minimal damage in being produced, harvested and transported (ie: local, organic foods). On the flip side, there are many dietitians who will not recommend anything until there is years and years of scientific evidence to back it up. Sure, this is definitely good in some ways. But I have found that this often leads to two things:

1) By the time sufficient evidence comes out to convince them to make a recommendation, they are often way behind the times.

2) They often adopt the "innocent until proven guilty" frame of mind, meaning, they will say such things as "pesticide residues found on food have not been proven to be harmful, so don't worry about it" rather than saying "So far, evidence hasn't shown them to be harmful" and letting people make their own decisions regarding whether or not that's a risk they want to take.

Unfortunately, I think it's impossible to be a true expert in such a dynamic field, and anyone who thinks they are is fooling themselves. By "true" expert I mean someone who is all knowing and has all the answers. New research is coming out daily, and there are always so many things to consider, it's impossible to be an expert in every situation. Furthermore, expertise is all relative. The person who knows the most of the best information available today is who we, as a society, consider the expert.

In researching for this post, I came across this statement regarding Michael Pollan's take on nutritionism (from Wikipedia):

"They key to Pollan's understanding of nutritionism is "the widely shared but unexamined assumption ... that the key to understanding food is indeed the nutrient." Since nutrients are invisible, it is now necessary to rely on nutrition experts to make food choices. Because science has an incomplete understanding of how food affects the human body, Pollan argues, relying solely on information regarding individual nutrients has led people and policy makers to repeatedly make poor decision relating to nutrition. Pollan blames nutritionism for many of the health problems relating to diet in the Western World today. He compares Nutritionism to a religion, relying on "priests" (nutritional scientists and journalists) to interpret the latest orthodoxy for the masses. Like a many religions, nutritionism has divided the world into good and evil components, although what is good or evil can change dramatically with time."

But the fact is that people don't want to be told "We don't know" - they want answers. And in spite of the many flaws in the scientific method, it's the best we have and has led to some really great advances in medical and nutritional history, and so, should not be discarded completely. So why go to a dietitian after all this? Again, the point is that expertise is relative. Just like any profession you see (a physician, stock broker, etc), a knowledgeable dietitian will be able to present you with the best and latest in the evidence available, and help you make sense of it enough to make a decision that you're comfortable with.

One question I get often that makes me cringe is "Is (enter food here) bad for me?". When thinking in pure nutritionism terms, there are SO many components that go in to a food, there is no black and white answer. In some ways nutrition is more of an art than a science. It's extremely difficult to say whether some foods are "good for you" or not (except for highly processed food-like products - that's a no-brainer) without considering the diet as a whole. Is that butter you put on your toast bad? Again, it's all relative. It depends if it's the only butter you use that day or is you go through a block every few days. It depends if you weigh 130lbs or 330lbs. It depends if it's salted and you have high blood pressure. It depends if you have a cholesterol problem... and on, and on and on. A dietitian is really the best thing to help you look at all the considerations that will decide whether your diet is healthy or not.

Homemade Granola Bars

Ok, so I made this recipe with the intent to make a healthier, homemade granola bar, but in fact they turned out to be slightly healthier date squares. Delicious, none the less. I cut them into extremely tiny portions, and hey, everything in moderation! They would also be a great pre or post workout snack.

It started with an Oatmeal, fig and walnut recipe from Epicurious.com. The store didn't have figs, so I substituted with dates (thus, the "date square" taste).

Ingredients:

Filling:

2 cups chopped stemmed dried figs (10 to 11 ounces)

1 cup water

6 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts, toasted, coarsely chopped

Crust:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

1 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I substituted 1 cup white flour and 3/4 c whole wheat flour)

1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar (I used a bit less than this - they were still very sweet!)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) chilled vegan "butter" (such as Earth Balance) or margarine, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used regular butter)

1 cup powdered sugar (I left this out)

For filling:

Combine first 4 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 5 minutes.

Uncover and simmer until figs are very soft and filling is thick, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Mix in lemon juice and vanilla, then walnuts. Cool completely. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

For crust:

Position rack in top third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2- inch metal baking pan with nonstick spray. Combine oats and next 5 ingredients in large bowl and whisk to blend.

Add cubed "butter." Using fingertips, blend until mixture forms small moist clumps.

Firmly press half of crust mixture (about 3 cups) over bottom of prepared pan.

Spread filling evenly over crust. Sprinkle remaining crust mixture over filling; press to adhere.

Bake bars until deep brown and firm to touch, about 35 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Cut crosswise into 6 strips. Make 8 lengthwise cuts, forming 2x1-inch bars. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover pan with foil; store at room temperature.

Place powdered sugar in medium bowl. Using narrow spatula, remove as many bars as desired from pan. Roll half of bars in powdered sugar to coat. Arrange coated bars and plain bars alternately on platter. (Again, I left this out)

This recipe was an absolute hit with my fiance, and I agree, they were tasty. What I like about this recipe is you can fool around with the ingredients. I would definitely cut down on the sugar next time... I think you could use about half the amount and not miss it. I am also going to experiment with mixing up the dried fruits and nuts... almonds, figs, cranberries, raisins, maybe even some blueberries.

If anyone has any great ideas for how to cut out some of the butter and still make the crust stick, I'd love to hear it!

Friday Wrap up

My favourite stories this week from around the web:

Will Genetically-modified Alfalfa be the end of organic milk?

The world of subsidization and Why a salad costs more than a Big Mac.

From Fooducate: 9 Easy Behavioural Modifications for Healthier Living, an absolutely disgusting look at a very common "food-like" substance, and 3 Reasons to Rethink diet coke.

Interesting post and discussion on why weight loss isn't just "Calories in vs. Calories out" from Sweat Science.

Would you go to an overweight doctor, dietitian or personal trainer?

Dr. Sharma wrote a post this week about a physician who was trying to help a patient who was near exactly his own height and weight, with weight loss. The physician grappled with his ability and authority to offer advice to someone, when he himself was struggling with his weight. This is a controversial topic, and something that nutritionists, dietitians, and personal trainers all struggle with as well.

Of course, even though someone may not look the part, doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re talking about. It just means that for any number of reasons, they’re not taking their own advice. Take sport coaches for example. After their competing days are through, and age, injury and a slowing metabolism have reared their ugly heads, they often don’t look like they did at the peak of fitness. But, they might also be the most experienced and knowledgeable coach in that sport. Or, the physician I mentioned above, who blames his weight gain on his hectic academic schedule, followed by running a busy practice.

On the flip side, I have known many personal trainers who certainly looked the part, but had little to no real education, and used drugs and drastic diets to get a sculpted body. The ironic thing is they usually had clients signing up left and right. People were willing to risk their safety and health because their trainer looked good.

The fact is that there is a certain “X” factor that comes along with looking the part. Visuals hold a lot of weight (pardon the pun) with people, and when you can’t see how smart people are just by looking at them, that rock hard six-pack can certainly do a lot to sway a decision when picking a personal trainer.

Some say they are intimidated to go to a super fit fitness trainer or stick thin dietitian, and want someone who can understand what they’re going through. Other say they want someone who looks the part and even inspires them.

In the end, I don’t think there’s a black and white answer one way or the other. People have different preferences and different needs. One thing I do strongly believe is that health care provider should look “healthy”, but the word “healthy” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

My advice: do your research. When looking for a dietitian or personal trainer, find out what their experience is with the issue you’re wanting to tackle. Not all dietitians specialize in weight loss, and not all trainers or nutritionists have a formal education. A lot of dietitians and trainers also have very different philosophies on health, fitness and weight loss. Finding someone who has a philosophy that works for you is also important.

What do you think?

It's Here! Nutrition Month!

For those of you who haven't heard, March is Nutrition Month in Canada and the U.S. and the theme (I love!) - "Celebrate Food - From Farm to Table".

Seeing as I am scrambling to finish a presentation for Wednesday, I only have time to send you in the direction of some great Nutrition Month links:

Nutrition Month Canada 2010 Website for recipes and info.

Dietitians of Canada's Nutrition Month website for resources, events, info and more.

American Dietetic Association Nutrition Month website.

Fooducate post on the shortcomings of Nutrition Month and the American Dietetic Association

More nutrition month goodness to come in the weeks to come - I promise!

Friday Wrap Up

My favourite items of the week:

From Calorie Lab -

Can napping make you smarter? and Chocolate without the fat. Dr. Sharma's post on how drinking water before meals can lead to weight loss Is it healthier to eat like a caveman? From Darya at Summer Tomato Dr. Yoni Freedhoff's post and an interesting theory from a Coca-Cola rep on how Coke does NOT play a role in obesity

Fitness Tip - Macro, Meso, and Micro

This week's fitness post from Kalev Personal Trainer, Virgil Isaacs:

Two weeks ago I went through a period of low energy and lack of motivation in the gym. I would try my hardest to psych myself up before a workout…before a set…and nothing would come of it. I don’t know why, but for some reason the “fire” just wasn’t there. I began to think that maybe I’ve been over training. Maybe I was getting bored (which played a small roll. Thank goodness for muscle confusion). I thought maybe I needed to redefine my goals and change my approach, but I couldn’t think of any other performance or fitness levels I would like to train for. Before almost being ready to accept the stage as nothing but a “funk” I was in, I remembered my lessons in school about periodization.

Long term specific programs should be broken down into periods; cycles. The macrocycle is the entire program, taking you from point A to Z. The mesocycles are subdivisions of the macro, and the microcycles are further subdivisions of that. Every mesocycle has a rest period at the end of it to allow the body to completely heal and recharge for the next push.

Depending on what you’re training for, you may or may not have your program designed so rigidly. It may not be necessary. What’s most important is to remember that after every so often its important to take breaks like the ones at the end of every mesocycle, and allow your body to completely recover. I believe this is the step I forgot to take in my program which is the reason why I had such low energy levels. Instead of continuing to push myself for those two weeks, I should have backed off and stuck to a light cardio program for just one week, and I bet I would’ve been back in action the following week, ready to pick up from where I left off.

At least I know now for the end of the next “mesocycle“, which typically comes around every month on average.

Healthy Hospitals

Major institutions such as hospitals are becoming known for their negative environmental impact. Food waste, heavy use of chemicals, and massive consumption of resources are just a few of the ways hospitals are leaving their mark. Recently, organizations such as Health Care without Harm have popped up to encourage these facilities to look at more responsible practices.

In terms of food, hospitals have a long-standing reputation as serving less than appealing meals. And what’s more, the food available and sometimes served in health care facilities is often not much better than what’s available at any fast food restaurant or off-site vending machine. It is not uncommon to see vending machines stocked with pop and candy, and cafeterias serving burgers and fries to staff and visitors.

"We have a health system that doesn't care about food and a food system that doesn't care about health"

-- Wendell Berry, American philosopher on food and farming

Fortunately, “green” has been slowly making its way into health care as of late, and with this movement often comes healthier and more nutritious foods. Health care organizations are starting to realize that the food they serve is directly and indirectly related to overall population health and disease prevention. The huge amount of money spent by these facilities in food dollars also means they have a huge opportunity to send a message to distributors by the foods they’re buying.

Trends in Healthy Food in Health Care right now:

• reducing meat on patient menus and adding more vegetarian items
• sourcing sustainably-produced, hormone-free (U.S.) and antibiotic-free meats and dairy
• sourcing locally-produced produce and meats
• increasing amount of organic food purchased
• reducing food waste and composting

Institutions such as Kaiser Permanente (California, Hawaii, Oregon), Allen Memorial Hospital (Iowa), and Duke University Medical Center (North Carolina) have even started on site farmer’s markets, increasing staff, visitor and patient access to fresh, healthy foods.

In the U.S., privately owned hospitals have more freedom to experiment with new ideas, and may be able to incur a bit of a loss in revenue in order to improve the health of their patients, staff and visitors. In the Canadian Health Care system, things are a bit different. For governments to actually implement this into the Canadian Health Care system, strategies need to be used that will ensure the benefit is larger than the loss, in terms of revenue. Another strong argument is that the investment for Canadian Health Care in terms of food dollars will be dramatically outweighed by the dollars saved in chronic disease treatment down the road.

For more information, visit:

Foodmed.org

Health Care without Harm

IFMA Foundation

Institute for Agricultural Trade and Policy