A Little Dietary Information (repost from my food blog)

A few semesters ago, I took a public health/nutrition class. As a project, I was asked to make a nutrition blog. This is the first post and I really liked it. I need to dig up the sources I used, they are somewhere on my hard drive. So, I will add them when I find them.

Nibbler, my three year old pug. Nibbler loves fruits and
vegetables and you can too! He also loves the baby swing

Ease in to your new healthy lifestyle
If you are a dog lover (like I am!), you know that changing your dog's diet is a gradual process. If you change your pup's food too quickly, they will suffer a range of gastrointestinal upset (1). It's the same for humans. If you suddenly switch from a processed diet to a whole foods diet, you will get diarrhea, bloating, and gas (2). No one ever told me this. Slowly, replace junk food with whole foods to give your gut fauna time to adjust. Also, a gradual change will make it easier for you to keep the change.

Don't give up if you don't like the new foods in the beginning. 
Over time, your palate will adapt to the flavors of foods that aren't designed to get your mesolimbic (reward pathway in your brain) all excited. High sugar, sodium, and fatty foods cause your brain to release the feel good neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Scientists theorize that this is an evolutionary tactic to get you to select the foods that are optimal for survival (3). This tactic is maladaptive in our current ecosystem (at least in the western world). Food is readily available, so it is easy for you to ingest the high energy foods that were once so imperative and scarce. You are the result of humans who survived long enough to reproduce. The genetic factors that made your ancestors the most fit in times of scarcity are working against you now (4). So, fruits and vegetables don't provide the immense pleasure  you get from a doughnut. Your brain will adapt and this will actually lower your junk food cravings. It will be much easier to not graze eat (5). And, you will find yourself enjoying a big plate of vegetables.

Don't be afraid to add vegetables to a meal
When I eat on campus, I add vegetables from the salad bar to everything. I put spinach and mushrooms in tortilla soup. I add tomatoes and peas to my grilled cheese. My friends often remind me that I am adding calories to my food. But I am also adding filling fiber and water (6). Fiber can keep your blood sugar stable which keeps you from feeling ravishingly hungry in a few hours. And don't forget that I am adding precious micronutrients (vitamins and minerals that humans need for biochemistry to work properly).

Ditch potato chips for vegetables as a snack
Sometimes, we just feel compelled to eat. We might find ourselves eating an entire bag of potato chips while watching a few episodes of 30 Rock. Ideally, you should avoid mindless snacking. Too bad we don't do that. I like to employ, what public health professionals refer to as, harm reduction strategy. You're going to mindlessly snack but you can reduce your harm by swapping a bag of lays for a bag of snap peas. The entire bag of snap peas has far less calories and far more fiber and nutrients.

Don't buy in to marketing gimmicks and fad diets
Food corporations have taken note of the healthy food trend. Nutritional and health science is rapidly evolving. As a result, scientists are better able to tell consumers how they should be eating. Highly trained advertising executives are using this to sell more food. Cereals with similar nutritional value to cake are being marketed as healthy foods because they are fortified with vitamins. They have been fortified with vitamins for decades. They have also been fortified with sugar for decades. (Watch for a post on the history of cereal in the coming weeks.) Similarly, foods that have eliminated trans-fats are marketed as health foods. These foods are better for you now, but they are usually still junk.

This brings me to fad diets: juice fasts, paleo diet, atkin's diet, gluten free foods, and to some degree veganism and vegetarianism. Paleo and low carb diets work by shifting the kinds of foods you eat to healthier alternatives. A lower carb diet would have you swap refined grains for whole grains and that's great. But you don't have to follow a strict diet. If you switch to a whole foods, plant based diet you will lose weight. Extremely low carb diets are actually quite dangerous because glucose is the brain's preferred fuel. (again, watch for a post). Juice fasts are silly to me because they cut out all of that wonderful fiber. They are downright stupid if you use a juice cocktail. You should juice on your own. Or better yet, just puree fruits and vegetables. Gluten free diets are designed for people who suffer from celiac's disease. They are not necessarily better for you and Lady Gaga probably won't lose that extra 25 pounds on a GF diet. Gluten isn't evil, unless you have an intolerance to it. Finally, veganism can be a great whole foods diet. However, it isn't automatically whole foods. Plain lays potato chips are vegan.

Meet with a registered dietitian at least once in your life
RD's use evidence based practice to provide you with the most accurate information. He or she will provide you with plans for a healthier you. You don't need to go in looking to fix a specific problem.

An Abridged Autobiography

I'm Cati; I have a lot of thoughts. Too many for the social media platforms I currently use. So, at the recommendation of several friends and family members, I have decided to take up blogging. I don't exactly know what I am doing, I do not have and editor, and I am not a professional writer. Therefore, you should expect typos. Please don't berate me for them. Of course, this only matters if I can even get anyone to read this blog.

I'm 25 years old and I am about to move from sunny Southern Arizona to chilly Upstate New York. I am working towards a master's degree in clinical dietetics, but I have a passion for research. I did undergraduate work in Public Health and Nutrition, at The University of Arizona.

High school Caitlin. Note the sweet foil hat.

Growing up, I was always extremely passionate about science. I hit a lazy spot in high school, which really held me back. In high school, I abandoned my dreams of being an astronaut, or a meteorologist, or a biomedical researcher. I decided that I wanted to be a housewife who had no kids. I found a boyfriend with dreams of becoming a mechanical engineer. I figured that I could just marry him and let him support me in exchange for a clean house and a full stomach. He wound up graduating 7th in our class, he was quite smart, and would no doubt make something of himself. As a result, I gave up in school. I tried just hard enough to keep my parents happy; this basically meant not dropping out of school. I was bright enough (and went to a crappy enough school) that not trying still made me an honor roll student. I earned As without studying. I half-assed my homework, I spent lectures daydreaming, doodling, and writing fictional stories. But, learning comes naturally to me. I didn't read a single assigned book for English class, I could barely tell you what happens in the book Things Fall Apart, something about a yam hut and polygamy.  I flat out refused to do math homework, yet I earned Bs and Cs on all of my exams. I didn't ever give up in my science classes, though. I was fascinated by everything that science has to offer, and studying science didn't feel like a chore, it was just fun. I graduated 205th out of 800, earned a 27 on the ACT without studying, and I was accepted to every college I applied to. I was admitted to the University of Arizona without provisions, despite having earned Ds in all of my math classes. I suppose my 25 on the math portion of the ACT made up for my math GPA.

I decided to go to college, mainly to have fun. My boyfriend was going to the same school, so I just had to hold him down until he graduated. I figured I would drop out in 2010, and marry my boyfriend. While in college, I realized that I had

19 year old Caitlin. She even looked like a bitch.

grown tired of my boyfriend. I met a lot of cute boys, and I was quite attractive (5'5, 120 pounds, 34C cup bra, shiny blond hair, flawless skin). I got a lot of attention from potential mates. Plus, my boyfriend was doing poorly in his freshman engineering classes, despite being amazing at math. He couldn't pass chemistry in the fall, and he still couldn't pass it in the spring. He was kicked out of school for having a D average. I broke up with him (I know, 19 year old Caitlin wasn’t a great girl. But don’t worry karma punished me). He went to community college to be an auto mechanic. He later went back to school, earned a bachelors degree in economics, and is now employed for a major home loans corporation. But, I digress.

I earned a 2.5 GPA freshman year, the result of 3 Bs and a D in sociology 101 (I didn't like the idea of categorizing people and using stereotypes, even if they were statistically validated).

Jamba Juice days. 

I started working at Jamba Juice in the spring semester of freshman year; I quickly made my way to assistant manager. I loved all of the money I made from working full time. I also made a lot of trashy friends. Sophomore year, I couldn't have cared less about school. I started dating a mall employee who was not very bright. He came from a white trash family and was chauvinistic, rude, immature, and a little abusive. He wanted to be a firefighter; I figured he would have enough money to support me, so I rode it out. Too bad, the fire academy exam was too hard for him. He became enraged when I tried to help him with the chemistry and first aide portions of the exam. He didn't understand simple physics. "How can a pound of feathers and a pound of lead possibly weigh the same amount?!" He would become frustrated, yell at me, and eventually hit me.

I put up with him for all of sophomore year. Fall of sophomore year, I was placed on academic probation for having a 1.87 overall GPA. I had stopped going to class, only showing up for exams. I still feel guilty about all of the money I wasted that semester. Fall of sophomore year, I had to earn a 2.0 semester GPA to stay enrolled in college. I was enrolled in 3 classes: History of Western Civilization. Economics, and Introduction to Communication Disorders (a class I had mistakenly taken, thinking it was a communications class. I wanted an "easy" major). I chose to attempt to stay in college because both of my parents hold masters degrees and I couldn't imagine telling them I had been booted from college.

I fell in to old habits. I missed almost every day of History of Western Civilization because it was at 9 am, and I was consistently out partying with my mall friends. But, I wrote strong papers that earned me 100% every time. The night before the midterm, Valentines Day, my boyfriend began withdrawing from some drug, I think it was cocaine, but it may have been oxycontin. He was very sick. He kept me up all night with his whining and vomiting. I slept through my midterm. The course was graded on 4 papers, a midterm, and a final. I emailed my TA, I told him I didn't have a great excuse, just that I had just overslept. He told my professor I was a great student, which was sort of a lie, as I had missed almost every day of discussion section. He didn't even know me, aside from the As I had earned on the first two papers. He told me I would be allowed to take the final and have it weighted to account for the missing midterm. The only condition was that I didn't miss any more discussion sections. This was a lot of pressure; I could not screw up on the final. But, I hadn't studied for the midterm, so it was actually a blessing. I attended maybe 4 of the lectures following the midterm. I went to discussion, but didn't participate. Finals week rolled around, we were given 5 essay prompts and were told that 3 would be on the final. We could select one of the three on the exam. I did not study for the final (stupid, I know). But, by some miracle, the prompt regarding the bubonic plague was on the final. I was fascinated by disease and had studied read all about the plague in my free time, all throughout high school and college. I also, happened to participate on the discussion section regarding the plague, so I learned all I needed to know about the social and economic impacts. 70% of the exam grade came from the essay, and 30% came from defining terms. I got 100% on the essay and 18% on the terms (I only knew the terms that pertained to the plague, like flagellants.) Possibly by divine intervention, I earned an 80% in the class.

I struggled in economics, despite doing all of the homework and never missing class. I earned Ds or Fs on all of the exams. At the end of the term I was earning 55% in the class. My professor gave the class the option to take a final and have the grade from the final be our final grade. As they say in economics, there is no free lunch. The score from the final would be your course grade, even if it was lower than the grade you had earned during the semester. At the end of the final, I told my professor that I feared I had earned a much lower grade than 55% on the final. He said that he would curve the grades such that 55% was a D. Then he said I could throw my exam away. I walked away feeling uncertain about my future. I didn’t know my history of Western Civ grade yet and I had earned a C in Communication Disorders. My fate was very uncertain and I hated myself for it. I managed to pull off a 2.0 semester. So, I got to stay in school.

I worked 50-60 hour weeks for the summer between sophomore and junior year. I now had two jobs. One was a dull customer service job. I realized that I need intellectual nourishment. I needed a career in science and I needed to start applying myself in college. I was lucky enough to be given the chance to redeem myself. 

I went back to school in the fall uncertain of what major I wanted to choose. I took courses in astronomy, planetary science, biology, atmospheric science, physics, and acoustics. I discovered a love of biology and health science. I decided to pursue a career in health. I loved research, but I felt limited by my perceived lack of creativity. I couldn’t imagine coming up with useful studies. I had an urge to practice medicine, but I knew no med school would take me. So, I declared public health, with the intent of working as an industrial hygienist. I also began making the dean’s list every semester. I had turned my poor academic performance around.

I began volunteering at a hospital and was exposed to all sorts of career options. At the time, I had an excellent chance of getting in to physician assistant school. I was also taking a clinical nutrition course that I loved. By the time I was ready to apply to grad schools, the PA school requirements had changed to match med school requirements. Admissions counselors consistently told me not to waste my time applying, even though, I had pulled my GPA up to a 3.0 in 2 years. Feeling discouraged, I applied to a nutrition graduate school. To my surprise, I got in. 

I guess I'll have to get used to grant writing.
and yes, I do know that is a
erlenmeyer flask, not a beaker.
Photo credit: Cyanide and Happiness
http://bit.ly/11ShDm4

I start fall of 2013. I have been considering thesis options, and I have discovered that I am much more creative than I give myself credit for. My current ideas are: the possible link between autism and food, why women binge eat during the luteal phase of menstrual cycle, GMO foods and disorders of the GI tract, food-drug interactions, and possible links between nutrients/malnourishment and disease. I would like to take part in all of the emerging research in nutrition and it's relationship with disease. Perhaps, there is a food answer to a lot of aliments.

As I get deeper in to my grad school career, I will post articles on my findings. In the meantime, I will focus on social and political issues (with emphasis on healthcare and internet rights), corruption and fraud in academia and the government, health science/public health stuff, and technology. I have been referred to as insightful and hopefully that wasn’t just flattery. I am also quite skeptical, the information on this blog will include legitimate sources and will make note of shortcomings in data, much like the discussion section of a peer-reviewed paper. I will also strive to provide both side of the argument. I am not here to convince you to think just like me, I want to open your minds to a world of possibilities and hopefully teach you to question everything.  Please read; please offer comments and constructive criticism. I am open to all idea, provided differing opinions are presented in a mature and constructive fashion.

Thank you for visiting!

Just so you know who you are dealing with!
I'm the blond one...obviously.
Note the skull and cross bones shirt. The skull has lab goggles
and the bones are test tubes.
Also, the darker Jewish boy is my current boyfriend (Jordan)
The lighter one is fat Roey (he's now called buff Roey : ))