Straight from the Expert

Nutrition - Tiffany Krahn

Nishta Saxena Clinical Dietician Peter Munk Cardiac Centre

March is Nutrition Month so UHNews met with Tiffany Krahn, Registered Dietitian, TWH, to discuss why eating breakfast is important, how you can successfully eat the right amount of fruits and vegetables, how to lower your sodium intake and figure out what organic really means.

We’ve constantly heard breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why is that?
At breakfast, we do just that — we ‘break the fast’. In the morning, our bodies have typically gone eight or more hours without refuelling. By eating breakfast, we ensure that we are recharged to meet the days challenges. Studies have shown that people who eat breakfast have better concentration and are more likely to have a healthy body weight. I suggest trying to consume a breakfast that includes foods from three of the four food groups such as:

• A smoothie made with silken tofu, vanilla soy beverage and fresh or frozen strawberries;
• A parfait made with low fat yogurt, fresh fruit and topped with whole grain crunchy cereal;
• A breakfast burrito made with peanut butter and banana wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla — try making it the night before so you can just grab and go;
• An omelette made with eggs, peppers, onions and cheese.

Do you have any tips on how to get the daily recommended number of servings for fruits and vegetables?

• Learn more about the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables by visiting Canada’s Food Guide at Health Canada (www.hc-sc.gc.ca)
• Include vegetables and fruits at each meal and snack. Consider them to be the foundation of your diet.
• Use the plate model — divide your plate into the following:

1/2 plate - vegetables

1/4 plate - meats and alternatives such as chicken, beans or lentils

1/4 plate - grains and starches such as pasta and rice.

• Make it fun! Try setting a goal to consume a new fruit or vegetable each week. You could try snacking on pomegranates or stir frying some broccolini, which is an interesting mix between broccoli and kai-lan, Chinese broccoli. You could roast a butternut squash or make a salad with endives instead of traditional lettuce. Be adventurous.
• Think you don’t have time? Try precut fresh or frozen vegetables, keep grab ‘n go veggies and fruits in stock (baby carrots, bananas, apples, cherry tomatoes), or take an half hour out of your week to cut up vegetables such as peppers, celery and broccoli that can be thrown into a bag and taken with you or stirfried after a busy day at work.

I have read a lot about Canadians consuming too much salt in their diet, but I don’t add salt to my foods - so what’s the big deal?
Salt is actually made up of sodium and chloride, and it’s the sodium in the salt that is the concern. Canadians consume more than double the amount of sodium that is considered to be an adequate intake. What some people don’t realize is that the majority of this sodium comes from processed or restaurant foods (77 per cent) and only 12 per cent is from salt added at the table or during cooking. The remaining sodium occurs naturally in foods. High dietary sodium intake can contribute to increased blood pressure and has also been linked to obesity, gastric cancer, osteoporosis, asthma and kidney stones.

To decrease your sodium intake:

• Consume fresh foods prepared at home more often.
• Limit your intake of restaurant foods, fast foods and take out meals.
• Flavour your foods, but not with salt. Try herbs, spices, lemon/lime, garlic, onion or using fruit purees as a sauce.
• Watch out - most sauces and condiments are salt-laden including soy sauce, hoisin sauce, salad dressings, olives and pickles. Use sparingly.
• If it says salt in the name, then salt is the game. Whether it is sea salt, kosher salt, garlic salt, seasoning salt or Himalayan salt, they are all high in sodium and can impact your health the same way that table salt can. Limit or avoid these sources of sodium.
• In general, canned goods (especially canned soups) are high in sodium. Try to consume these items sparingly or if you do choose to consume them, look for a reduced sodium version.

There is so much hype around organic foods. Are they better for me?
In June 2009, Canada implemented a new process for regulating and identifying products as organic — including the development of a new logo. These regulations allow consumers to make informed choices about the foods they are purchasing. Producers of organic foods use techniques such as compost to enrich the soil and allowing livestock to live in a way that allows for the natural behaviour of the animal. These producers avoid using such things as synthetic pesticides, genetically engineered products/materials and antibiotics.

The research studies that compare the nutrient content of organic food to food grown by conventional methods can be difficult to interpret as many factors can affect the nutritional content of a food, such as soil, temperature and light.

In general, the studies have shown that:

• Vitamin A, beta-carotene and the B vitamins are at the same levels in both conventional and organic foods.
• Some phytochemicals, plant chemicals that are thought to have health protective or disease preventive properties, are higher in organic produce.
• What this means is that depending on many factors, some organic products may be higher in nutritional value, some may be the same, and some may be lower when compared with conventional products.
• In terms of food safety, both conventional and organic farms can produce safe foods when proper procedures are followed - both by the farms and by your routine practices at home.

Examples of this include:

• Cooking chicken thoroughly and washing counter surfaces well to help prevent foodbourne illness when preparing conventional and organic chickens. This is particularly important for organic chickens that have been found to have higher levels of salmonella due to avoidance of antibiotic use.
• Following precautions for produce, whether it is conventional or organic. This includes washing vegetables and fruits prior to preparation and consumption. For a food safety fact sheet for fresh fruits and vegetables, visit the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at www.inspection.gc.ca.

Use of organic foods is a personal choice based on many factors such as price, appearance and personal beliefs. Organic produce may offer some small benefits (such as in phytochemical content), but whether you choose to consume organic or conventionally produced foods, it is important to choose foods based on Canada’s Food Guide.

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