Nutrition Gimmicks vs Science
I need to vent!!! Yesterday I saw a celebrity on a talk show preparing food and promoting her new cook book. As she was making her trail mix and smoothies (of course- isn't that the latest fad that everyone's doing??!!), I felt myself rolling my eyes at the advice she was giving. She was making untrue claims about food...what she said has not been backed up by any science and has not been proven! What gives her the right to tell people untrue nutrition advice? The worst part, because she's a celebrity and she was so confident in what she was saying, people will believe her and follow this advice.
Fast forward to 2 hours later when I was in the grocery store. There I was buying beautiful peaches and berries and right beside the berries were these cute containers. I'm human and love packaging and other marketing gimmicks so of course I picked it up to take a look. It was "organic cotton candy". I started laughing! People are going to think that because it's organic and available at this particular grocery store with this particular packaging, that it is somehow different and "healthier" that cotton candy! With a smile on my face, I headed to the cash and right in front of me was a big package of "Skinny Chews - the perfect option for cravings and nighttime eating" created by a doctor. I once again was intrigued......let me take a look at this "miraculous" product that was being sold for $12.99 for 30 pieces. It was basically a tootsie roll with added fibre. Again I laughed! (*Side note: I looked up this doctor when I got home and she is not a medical doctor....this information was hidden in the FAQ section)
I began thinking of these events and the more I thought about all of the misinformation out there, the less funny it all became. I was able to laugh because I'm a dieititian who has the education to know the difference but what about everyone else in the population? Everyone is always looking for the next best thing, the miracle product that will change their lives. How about we start looking within ourselves and realize that we should be spending less time trying to change what we look like, and more time on self care and self acceptance! If there is something that sounds too good to be true....it is; otherwise we'd all be buying the product and be "perfect"!
Why don't we start changing society's attitude towards nutrition, health and body image! Let me start by reminding everyone that your body is an amazing machine that really does it all! It's time to trust it to know what it's doing. Stop trying to fight it all of the time! Stop spending money on all of these gimmicks and remember that if you treat your body right by feeding it everything in moderation, exercise it in moderation and get proper sleep, it will do everything it needs to!!!! It may not be what you are hoping for and in the timeframe that you were hoping for but you will get very healthy results! It's time to change our thinking not our diets! Let's take a moment to thank our bodies for putting up with us and doing a job well done!
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