The importance of making sure the information you read or hear is valid

If you listened to everything you heard or read about related to nutrition and diet, then you'd probably be doing some pretty wacky things! This past Sunday, Good Morning America aired a segment featuring a "nutritionist" named Kimberly Snyder from NY. She presented a lot of misinformation yet she is a practicing nutritionist. NY doesn't have licensure laws so anyone can claim themselves as a nutritionist and therefore disspell nutrition information. The problem with that is that you don't always know where the practitioner got their training and the extent of that training.

Anyway, below is a summary of what Kimberly said.

1. Don't eat protein bars!! She said that protein bars contain soy protein isolate which is a processed and genetically modified ingredient and it can suppress thyroid function (she gave no research to support that statement and did not specify if it was specific to certain populations). Instead she wants people to eat a whole avocado a day. Yikes! Avocados, per Kimberly, have non-clogging fat. Even if avocados have heart-healthy fat, it's still fat. If you ate an entire avocado, you would be consuming over 300 calories and almost 30 grams of fat which is about half your day's requirement.

2. Fruit snacks make kids moody and hungry. Ummm, ok. I have to admit that I give my 1 year old fruit snacks and they in no way make him moody or hungry. Instead of fruit snacks she wants kids to have almond butter sandwiches. She claims almond butter has less sugar than peanut butter. Well, not if both are all natural. The sugar content is the same!

3. Don't drink diet soda. It has a high glycemic index which means it'll spike your blood sugar. The last time I checked, diet soda contained artificial sweetener which means there is no sugar in it which means it can't spike your blood sugar. Now there is some talk about diet soda and the insulin response but that's a whole different issue which she didn't address....thank goodness!

4. Don't eat fruit after dinner because it sits on top of heavier food and will "back you up". What???? That's news to me. Never learned about that one in any of my physiology or nutrition classes.

Take home message from all of this?? Make sure you know where your information is coming from. There is a huge difference between a nutritionist and dietitian. If you hear something that you find interesting, research it yourself. Understand who said it first and what that person's training involved. Otherwise, like I said earlier, you could be doing some wacky things!