Ask a public-health/nutrition student

[Aractus]

Is a bmi of 17.1 bad bad or meh bad?
Follow up question. What do I do to gain weight without eating junk food and sweets?

BMI is an imperfect measurement for estimating a person's risk of NCDs (non-communicable diseases). Being underweight in and of itself is not a problem, as noted in my textbook (Understanding Nutr. Aust./NZ ed.), a person who is healthy at their present weight does not need to gain weight. BMI is an indicator that a person might not be healthy, not a iron-clad guarantee. However it is established that the human body has an equilibrium with weight that it wants to maintain (in the absence of external influences), and it's believed that for most people this equilibrium is somewhere between 18.5 - 24.9 BMI. Underweight can be caused by hyperthyroidism, malnutrition, diabetes, other disease, genetics, hunger/appetite, or metabolic factors.

Specifically, underweight individuals are at greater risk of macro and micro nutrient deficiencies, and at greater risk for mental illnesses including eating disorders, depressive disorders, and body dysmorphia. The non-mental-health health concerns including bone demineralisation (which results in osteoporosis), iron deficiency (/anaemia), weakened immune system, coronary heart disease, certain ocular disorders, it can lead to digestive problems, and the body breaking down essential parts of the body (heat muscle, brain mass, etc). We don't really understand yet all the effects that it can have.

My textbook notes (although I did have a tutor vehemently deny this) that adaptive thermogenesis can raise (or lower) energy requirements to accommodate a higher (or lower) kilojoule intake. And the tutor was a dietician, so you'd think she should know that. If you want to gain weight you'll need to look to develop new eating habits that include higher energy-dense foods (either more energy at meal times or more snacks or both). Nuts and legumes are energy-dense, as are higher-fat meats and fish (beef and salmon), avocados, fruit juice, muffins. Have extra meat/dairy/discretionary foods at meal times (more ham, more bacon, more cheese, more dairy). The textbook notes that with fats prefer foods higher in poly- and mono- unsaturated fats.

No pressure, Aractus, but I REALLY need an answer to my éclair question from a nutritionist.

Boru

I'm not a nutritionist. The predominant thought among dieticians remains that weight gain is associated with high kilojoule intake. However many now argue that it is the food itself that is the problem: highly palatable food that tricks the body into ignoring the hormone signals for hunger. So it's probably best to avoid your bacon-wrapped éclair whether as a desert or an entrée.

Question #2:  I recently bought a packet of processed food (doesn't much matter what).  While reading the ingredients list, I saw that it contained '...not less than 0.02% of rehydroxylated glutonium or abstract of debentured soybean genitalia, whichever comes first.'  So, my question is:  What wine would you pair with this?

Boru

Red wine.

[paulpablo]

I recently bought a nutri ninja, It's similar to the vitamix, what do you think of these powerful blenders and the drinks they can produce?

Ideally I start the day off with mixing a blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, banana, apple, carrot and maybe a stick of celery if there's one around.

Sometimes I make a more tasty but probably slightly less healthy mix of banana, milk, and spinach.

What do you think of my ingredients and mixes?

Everyone in my work thinks they sound disgusting when I describe them and they are green in colour but I swear they taste so good, most the times even while mixing up all the veg and fruit I have the main taste that comes through is still the banana which I love the taste of.

Have you ever read or listened to the audio book of "Salt, Sugar, Fat How The Food Giants Hooked us"?

Does it ever frustrate you watching people consume cigarettes and energy drinks constantly?  I think this might just be personal to me but I work in a really working class environment where people have a heavy smoke break every two hours and usually guzzle down an energy drink or two within that time.

[Dystopia]

Aractus, I'm a 21 years old male. I eat a considerable amount of food, far more than I should. I weight about 10kg excess and it's not very noticeable. I noticed I lose weight very fast if I simply cut back a little on food I don't need, like extra snacks, too much chocolate, white bread, etc. Is this normal and what causes me to be like that?

[Aractus]

I recently bought a nutri ninja, It's similar to the vitamix, what do you think of these powerful blenders and the drinks they can produce?

Most nutritionists don't think much of them. Juicing or creating smoothes is simply a way to extract the energy, and most of the micro-nutrients, and leave the fibre behind, you're better off eating the fruits/vegetables whole (or as a salad). Besides, blending vegetables together generally tastes like shit (which is why your work colleagues are put off), and so could end up turning people off eating vegetables, or people will find other ways to make them more palatable (adding milk/ice-cream, etc).

Whilst adding milk isn't necessarily going to make it unhealthy, it probably results in lowering the bioavailability of the calcium and phosphorus (which will bind to the plant lectins).

With that said I know someone who told me that they can't eat enough vegetables and keep them down, so they blend them together and eat the slush - it tastes like shit but it stays down.

Have you ever read or listened to the audio book of "Salt, Sugar, Fat How The Food Giants Hooked us"?

No, but I have seen the "men who made us fat" documentary series which I enjoyed, and if I watch it again I can provide further insight. But suffice to say they get a lot of their facts right*:

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https://vimeo.com/44450267
https://vimeo.com/44892521
https://vimeo.com/45786862

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*(edit) I just remembered their description of BMI as "arbitrary" is not entirely accurate. It doesn't matter who invented BMI, it is widely used as a guideline to define relative health risks in populations, and just like anything used in a "population" it has more limited used in individual cases.

Does it ever frustrate you watching people consume cigarettes and energy drinks constantly?  I think this might just be personal to me but I work in a really working class environment where people have a heavy smoke break every two hours and usually guzzle down an energy drink or two within that time.

It doesn't bother me, no. Lung cancer is a disease of old age (generally), the median age is above 70. Emphysema has a more meaningful impact on smoker's health at younger ages. In any case it's a dose response, if people cut down to only a handful of cigarettes per day (let's say 3 or 4) then most of the negative health impact is mitigated, and is probably a lot easier to maintain than quitting. Please note that the current thinking on Gambling Disorder is to help patients to manage their spending not to completely irradiate the behaviour, so for that reason I personally think the same philosophy can be applied to other addictions.

Energy drinks are no different to regular soft-drinks, the only difference is they're caffeinated with the amount of caffeine found in a cup of coffee. But basically they're just sugar and water. I don't like the fact that "Red Bull" advertises that it contains taurine, when in fact the taurine content is in a meaningless amount for any proposed cognitive benefit (from memory it would need to contain at least 10x as much to have a small probable impact on cognitive function).

[Aractus]

Aractus, I'm a 21 years old male. I eat a considerable amount of food, far more than I should. I weight about 10kg excess and it's not very noticeable. I noticed I lose weight very fast if I simply cut back a little on food I don't need, like extra snacks, too much chocolate, white bread, etc. Is this normal and what causes me to be like that?

Yes that is normal, but it may become more "difficult" as you age. It's your body returning you to your equilibrium.

[vorlon13]

Question #2:  I recently bought a packet of processed food (doesn't much matter what).  While reading the ingredients list, I saw that it contained '...not less than 0.02% of rehydroxylated glutonium or abstract of debentured soybean genitalia, whichever comes first.'  So, my question is:  What wine would you pair with this?

Boru

Tincture of iodine and maybe a Formula 409 chaser.

[paulpablo]

Most nutritionists don't think much of them. Juicing or creating smoothes is simply a way to extract the energy, and most of the micro-nutrients, and leave the fibre behind, you're better off eating the fruits/vegetables whole (or as a salad). Besides, blending vegetables together generally tastes like shit (which is why your work colleagues are put off), and so could end up turning people off eating vegetables, or people will find other ways to make them more palatable (adding milk/ice-cream, etc).

Well in a smoothie what you're drinking is the whole food.  There's no extraction process.  That's the difference between a juicer and smoothie maker.
And I'm sure people who say blending veg tastes bad must have never tried it because I blend veg then just blend in bananas with it and I pretty much just taste banana.  Especially if it's just spinach and banana, I can seriously fill most of the container with spinach and salad and it will still taste mainly of banana.  They definitely aren't put off by the taste because they've never tasted it, they pretty much drink red bull all day and smoke.

[Catholic_Lady]

How do you feel about gluten?

[Aractus]

A small number of people have an intolerance to gluten. An intolerance is quite different to an allergy though in that people with an intolerance to a nutrient can still consume that nutrient, but in a smaller amount. The physiological mechanism for food intolerances is often largely unknown. People tend to self-diagnose food intolerances, and it's not always the best idea, it's better to get advice from a practising nutritionist, dietician, or physician. Off-hand I don't know how gluten intolerance is clinically diagnosed (assuming the mechanism is unknown, it's probably though trial and error of first testing for an allergy using skin prick tests and then excluding foods in the diet), but there is no reason for most people to avoid eating gluten without a proper diagnosis.

[Aractus]

Well in a smoothie what you're drinking is the whole food.  There's no extraction process.  That's the difference between a juicer and smoothie maker.
And I'm sure people who say blending veg tastes bad must have never tried it because I blend veg then just blend in bananas with it and I pretty much just taste banana.  Especially if it's just spinach and banana, I can seriously fill most of the container with spinach and salad and it will still taste mainly of banana.  They definitely aren't put off by the taste because they've never tasted it, they pretty much drink red bull all day and smoke.

Well that's somewhat correct (see this page), but I would personally be cautious because of the plant lectins reducing the bioavailability of the dairy nutrients (which are very important for bone & teeth health). If you're just using fruit, vegetables, and water/ice then it's probably not an issue. But if you're using a serving of yoghurt or milk then you probably should pick up most of another serving of dairy later in the day that isn't consumed with plants, tea, or coffee (so instead of 2.5 serves of dairy, 3.5 for the day).