350th Episode: Ask Me Anything with Nutrition Diva
Nutrition Diva answers questions from listeners on how to lose weight, biggest nutrition misconceptions, how to boost nutrient absorption, and more.
Monica Reinagel, MS, LD/N, CNS
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350th Episode: Ask Me Anything with Nutrition Diva
To celebrate the 350th episode of the Nutrition Diva podcast, I opened the floor to you, the readers and listeners who have made the last seven years possible. Thanks to all of you who called in and emailed. Some of your questions were best suited to full-length episodes, so stay tuned for those in coming weeks.
The first question is from Mark.
“How do you come up with a new topic every week? I would have thought that after 350 episodes, you would have run out of things to talk about by now!”
When I first started recording the Nutrition Diva podcast, back in 2008, I was a little concerned about that myself. But I shouldn’t have worried. For starters, nutrition is a constantly evolving field, with new research and information coming out every week—not that we need to overhaul our diets in response to every little study that makes the news.
One of the things that I try to do in the podcast is to put all the headlines that get churned up by the daily news cycle into perspective, so that we’re not getting buffeted around by every little breeze that wafts through the medical journals. All that research is valuable, but very little of it actually merits a change in our daily behavior.
I get the vast majority of my topic ideas, however, from readers, who send in a never-ending stream of interesting questions and challenges. Sometimes it’s a matter of sorting through conflicting claims or fact-checking dubious assertions. A lot of times it’s just helping people focus on the things that are going to make the biggest difference and not get sidetracked by the little stuff.
The subtitle of my book, Secrets for a Healthy Diet, is:What to Eat, What to Avoid, and What to Stop Worrying About. And I find that the third category (what to stop worrying about) is actually the one I most often talk about.
Should You Space Out Your Vitamins?
The next question is from Gina, of Nashville, TN:
“I’m a fairly new listener. I like to eat most of my calories at night but I worry about nutrient absorption. Should I be spacing out my intake of vitamins and minerals, such as calcium?”
Most of the questions I get about eating at night have to do with whether or not it will lead to weight gain. And it’s a little hard to generalize. For those who are trying to lose weight, some research suggests that eating more of your calories in the first part of the day can help you lose weight a little faster. If you’re already at a healthy body weight, however, and you’re eating the appropriate number of calories over the course of the day, it doesn’t matter a whole lot what time of day you’re eating them.
But this question isn’t about weight loss; it’s about nutrient absorption. For some nutrients, like Vitamin D or K or iron, there doesn’t seem to be any downside to getting the lion’s share at a single meal. You could even take in a couple of day’s worth at one time—unless you take blood thinners, in which case it’s important to be consistent with your vitamin K intake.
For other nutrients, such as protein, calcium, and certain antioxidants, there are limits on how much the body can absorb at a time. Dividing your daily intake across two or three meals might have some advantages in terms of your absorption and utilization of those nutrients.
What’s the Best Advice for Weight Loss?
Here’s a question from Patrice, of Laurel, MD:
“I’ve been listening to your podcast since the beginning and also read several of your books. I’m a big fan. What is the one piece of advice you would give to your listeners if they want to lose weight?”
It’s hard to say what one thing would be the most important without knowing where you’re starting from. For example, if you’re someone who drinks sweetened beverages—like coffee drinks or sodas—on a daily basis, that would be, hands down, the first thing I would suggest you change. But if you never drink sweetened beverages, that obviously wouldn’t be helpful.
See also: How to Overhaul Your Diet
If the problem is habitual overeating or out-of-control snacking, then the most important step might be to reengineer your environment to support healthier choices; things like not bringing sweets and snack foods into the house and not eating in front of the television.
See also: Why We Overeat, Why Willpower Isn’t Enough, and How to Overcome an Unsupportive Environment
A couple of years ago, I did a month long series where I invited people to experiment with a couple of different diet approaches to see how they worked, in terms of how hungry they felt, how easy it was to stick to, how well it fit with their lifestyle and food preferences. The idea is that the most effective diet is the one that you can stick to for the long term—and that what works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else.
The idea is that the most effective diet is the one that you can stick to for the long term—and that what works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else.
See also: How to Create Your Own Best Diet
Another thing about “diets” is that they tend to be temporary, and so does the weight loss. So I’ve also talked about ways to reframe your weight loss effort, focusing less on short term changes in weight, and more on long term changes in lifestyle.
See also: How to Lose Weight Without Dieting and Shift Your Focus to Make Dieting Easier
What Are the Biggest Myths About Nutrition?
Our last question comes from Jeff:
“What would say is the biggest popular misconception about nutrition?”
There are so many myths and urban legends about nutrition, it’s hard to pick just one.
There’s a whole category of misconceptions that fall under the general heading of black-and-white thinking. People view foods as either “good” in which case you can eat as much as you want or “bad” in which case you can never have a single bite. I can’t really think of many foods that fit into either category.
See also: Biggest Nutrition Traps, Part 2: Quality v. Quantity
Red meat is a good example of this all-or-nothing thinking. Studies have found that people who eat red meat on a daily basis have higher rates of heart disease and certain kinds of cancer. And there are lot of people who think that red meat—in any quantity—is basically deadly. But red meat also has a lot of good nutrition to offer. And those same studies find that people who eat red meat once a week or less have absolutely no increased risk. I think we always need to remember that context and quantity both have a lot to do with whether a food can be considered “healthy.”
See also: You Don’t Have to Give Up Red Meat to Be Healthy
We also often forget that something can be true without being terribly meaningful. I’m thinking specifically about all the hay that gets made out of foods or behaviors that supposedly affect your metabolism. While it’s true that certain diet and lifestyle choices can affect the rate at which your body burns calories, the magnitude of this effect is far smaller than most people realize. And I think we waste a lot of energy on that when it doesn’t really make a huge amount of difference.
But maybe the biggest—or at least one of the most unfortunate—misconception is that the right diet (whatever that might be) can prevent or even cure every disease. And of course the flip side of this coin is that every disease or health problem was caused by poor diet choices, which is also not true.
Good nutrition is obviously important to being well and, whether we are dealing with a health crisis or enjoying excellent health, we want to support our bodies with the best nutrition we can manage. But there are a lot of reasons that things go wrong with the body and some of them have nothing to do with food.
See also: Can the Right Diet Prevent Cancer?
That’s why it’s also important to enjoy the many other things that food offers, such as pleasure, creativity, ritual, culture, and community.
Thanks for your questions and your company over these last seven years and 350 episodes. Keep those questions and comments coming. You can post them below or on the Nutrition Diva Facebook page. And for more food and nutrition advice, please visit NutritionOverEasy.com.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Monica Reinagel is a board-certified licensed nutritionist, author, and the creator of one of iTunes’ most highly ranked health and fitness podcasts. Her advice is regularly featured on the TODAY show, Dr. Oz, NPR, and in the nation’s leading newspapers, magazines, and websites. Do you have a nutrition question? Call the Nutrition Diva listener line at 443-961-6206. Your question could be featured on the show.