26 February - I really want GPS tracking shoes, so I can think about fitness

I'm a techy nerd at the best of times, but these shoes have really got my geeky juices going. Imagine just popping on your joggers and going for a run. Then, returning to your computer which already knows how far you ran, what speed you ran at and how this session compared to previous runs.

Currently, you've got your heart rate monitor. You can get a strap-on GPS tracker and there's even a Nike gadget that talks to your iPod and computer. But to use all these I have to think. I have to remember to set it up, to take it, to download it, etc, etc. I don't want to think. I just want to run and focus on my workout, no buttons, no flashing lights and certainly no wires.

With a current price tag of $US 325, they are too expensive for me to justify. In the not-to-distant future though, I will have GPS tracking shoes. Everyone will.

17 February - Dr Jillian McKeith: Real doctor? Real advice?

When I tell people that you don't need to take a poo sample to tell if someone has a shocking diet and that Dr Jillian McKeith of UK You Are What You Eat fame is not a real medical doctor I get surprised looks. But it's no surprise that UK newspaper The Telegraph this week reported that Jillian McKeith agreed to remove the title `Dr' from some of her company's advertising after a complaint to the UK Advertising Standards Authority.

This isn't the only news about McKeith. According to medically trained doctor Ben Goldacre, writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ - 10 Feb 2007), McKeith has a non-accredited correspondence course doctorate from the United States. Goldacre is highly critical of McKeith's claim that chlorophyll is high in oxygen and that you should eat “lots of dark green leaves, because they will really oxygenate your blood.”

He writes, “As any 14 year old biology student could tell you, plants only make oxygen in light: it's very dark in your bowel; and even if, to prove a point, you put a torch up your bottom, you probably wouldn't absorb too much oxygen through the gut wall.”

You can read more about McKeith at Goldacre's website - BadScience.net. Although it's a long article, it will really help you understand why you need good science behind your nutritional recommendations.

Back in the BMJ, Goldacre says, “Basic uncomplicated dietary advice is effective and promotes health. Overly complicated, confusing, tinkering nutritionism is poorly evidenced because it's a branch of the entertainment industry.”

I agree with Goldacre. Many tagging themselves as `Nutritionist' just get the science wrong and make it too hard for people to follow their advice. Sure, dark green leafy vegetables are good for you. And sure, Jillian McKeith is doing a great job at promoting increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. But I think these simple, practical messages get lost amongst the dubious science and overly zealous dietary regimes that make great television.

As one commenter at BadScience.net posted in responses to Goldacre's expose, “Her programmes should be proceeded with some kind of warnings of 'Don't try this at home' as Jackass or others.”

16 February - Don't let diet and nutrition information overload you

It's great being a dietitian who teaches non-dietitians about nutrition because there is so much nutrition information out there to make sense of for you.

For instance, today on NewsNow.co.uk the following news stories came up when I searched 'diet' and all within the previous two days:

• Fish in mother's diet benefits child, study finds
• New diet pills may also treat drug addiction
• Cheesy diet: A Cambridge man says he has eaten nothing but cheese since her was a boy
• Innovative new energy juice puts the kick back in a healthy diet
• Kate Winslet denies diet-therapy at health centre
• Vitamin A-rich diet may halve stomach cancer risk
• Diet is the key to a long lifespan
• Restart diet after Mardi Gras splurge
• Couple finds love on diet web site
• FDA gives diet pill makers new tips
• Couples diet better together
• Warnings issued on natural diet aids
• The better sex diet
• A little lard OK in an otherwise well-balanced diet
• Red foods can brighten your diet

Top | Subscribe | Send to a friend