Juice detox, superfoods and fad diets — people are constantly being inundated with information on myriad of options to get healthy and live a longer life, but do they all have our best interests at heart? Dr. David Jenkins, Canada research chair in nutrition and metabolism, has seen it all, so we asked him for the straight goods on eating our way to a healthy life.
Everybody seems to be signing up for or talking about doing a juice detox, but do they work?
They’re interesting, but we don’t have, to my knowledge, any experimental data. Medicine has become aware that we can’t make a statement unless we can back it with some experimental data: put one person on one diet and someone else on another and compare them.If we do those studies, and they are very important studies to be done, then you’re close to seeing if these diets can be done. These diets haven’t been done in that way. I don’t think these detoxes are life and death matters, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be exposed to some experimental practice. They haven’t been, so we’re left in the dark. To get rid of toxins, we have a kidney and we sweat, and in may ways, that’s enough.
Why don’t fad diets seem to work?
I don’t think we can blame fad diets. Some can be quite healthy while others wouldn’t be healthy. I wouldn’t want to clump them together. We used to call Dr. Atkins’s diet a fad diet. I don’t agree with it, but it’s become quite standard so it’s hardly a fad. Dr. Ornish had a diet where he put people on vegetables, and they had meditation and they had an overall positive impact. So many fad diets become mainstream and have an effect on clinical practice.
What is a warning sign that a diet program might be problematic?
Fad dieting is fashionable, and I don’t think diets need to be harmful. We do have a dietary advisement of keeping your calories around 1,500. If you get below that, you will probably need some medical attention.
Does thin equal healthy?
Thin is certainly, in many ways, healthier than fat. As people get older they’re allowed to carry on a bit more weight and be classified as healthy. There are people who are morbidly thin just as there are people who are morbidly obese. If your BMI [body mass index] is 18 and under, we think you’re unhealthy. And if you’re above 25, you’re overweight.
What is the easiest way for someone to lose weight?
I think that probably having willpower, joining other people who can support your willpower, taking regular exercise, probably about an hour to two hours a day, wearing the right shoes and getting enough sleep — those go a long way with helping people lose weight. And plant-based foods are very helpful because you can gulp down your nutrients very quickly. Sticky fibre foods are also useful and nuts are useful.
How many nuts should we be eating?
If you want to lower your cholesterol, a couple of handfuls. If you want to keep in good shape, one handful a day. A handful is about one ounce.
If I ate a lot of salmon and blueberries, could I live forever?
I think that you could live quite well, but be careful because our marine life is under stress. We’re going to lose our fish market in 2050. More and more of our food supply is becoming more corrupted.
What are your superfoods?
I currently think tofu is pretty good. It’s got protein in it, but it’s the sort of food that people don’t overdose on.
Is vegetarianism the healthiest option?
I think that’s the most responsible option. I think having a varied vegetarian diet and you make sure you take formulated meats (meats with B12 in them). If you don’t want meat, make sure you have a complete protein source. But you can be a heathy vegetarian or an unhealthy one.
How can we develop better eating habits?
I think by thinking of not only ourselves but thinking about the environment. If you think of both, you will have a more complete look of what we do and how we eat. How things are packaged, how clean our water is, these are things that need to be addressed.
