I had to share this with you all as I came across a website and more importantly some ridiculous information about a nutrition program. As I read through their website, I found it irresponsible in the way they are promoting their program and its meal replacement products.
As a nutritionist and a health and well-being expert I love promoting wholefoods and food as medicine – lets all eat the way nature intended us to. To me it’s a pretty simple fundamental of life and nutrition; however, the more I go through life and this journey the more I discover the lack of knowledge and understanding the greater population have. Therefore, as a practitioner I feel it’s my duty of care to educate the wider community in what is good for you and what is not so good for you.
A colleague directed me to the above mentioned website and on first impressions its much like all of those other quick fix meal replacement loose weight fast websites – that never give you the long term tools to do it on your own but makes you have to rely on them for your success. What took me back was one of the pages talked all about the formula of food and how we shouldn't let ingredients scare us. Which completely scared me as I thought I’m all about what’s in food and making people aware of what they are putting in their mouths. This whole page of the website is about breaking down the ingredients of a banana and justifying that their products have these components too. Let me give you an example; 2-methylbutyl ethanoate is what gives banana its flavour – the older the banana gets the stronger its flavour gets. As a nutritionist a banana is a banana, it’s full of good sources of carbohydrates, fibre and vitamins and minerals – yes there can be a few techo words in it such as 2-methylbutyl ethanoate, E460 and so on but it’s all part of what makes a banana a banana. What this piece of writing fails to address is that everything that is in a banana is naturally occurring and the wonderful mother nature made this recipe; so each ingredient enhances and supports the other. More often than not one element is required for the breakdown, digestion or activation of another so saying they have put the things that are in a banana in their products is a real disappointment from a nutritional perspective and a little misleading if you ask me. Yes, if you google a banana it does seem to get some publicity about its ingredients and on face value it looks like a lot of weird things are in it, however keeping in mind it’s been produced and packaged by mother nature herself and there is definitely no question about quality and nutritional content.
I guess the thing that bugged me the most is that there are “health” business out there giving people a false impression about their products, the quality and the benefits of eating them. “How very dare they!” I hear you all scream and I am 100% with you. Nothing can beat fresh whole foods and managing weight; be it thought weight loss, weight management or healthy eating by putting in nutrients the way nature intended us to. That is the best way. I say it a lot and it’s pretty simple, we are primal beings we weren’t designed with the modern world in mind as it didn’t exist during the evolution of the human race, so man made and modern manufactured or altered foods just don’t and shouldn’t cut it as healthy options. GMO foods are another good representation of this issues – but that’s a blog post for another day.
The takeaway from this is not all food are created equal – especially those that weren’t manufactured by nature, so don’t loose sight of what you want for what you want now. A quick fix is never the way to long term success and remember knowledge is power so make sure you know what it is you are putting in your body and if you don’t then don’t do it. Even better seek guidance for your health and well-being goals from a reputable practitioner that aligns themself with your beliefs as well. When we can understand and engage with the advise and support we are given we have a much greater chance of success.
So if this resonated you or you just want to have more power in your food knowledge and choices send me an email to get started with a complementary 15min online nutrition review. melanie@onelifehealth.com.au
Yours in health,
Melanie
