Erica Melling, is an intern in the University of Houston internship who is working towards becoming a Registered Dietitian. She wrote this post while she was with me earlier this month. Great job Erica!

We live in a society of instant gratification. We don’t want to wait for the mailman; e-mail brings responses in seconds. We don’t want to drive to the movie store; we can stream the newest releases from OnDemand or Netflix. We don’t want to slave over the stove; we can stick a meal in the microwave for a fraction of the time. Just look at advertising: “quick weight loss”, “instant savings”, “SlimFast”, “60 second abs”. We evaluate products by which ones offer the biggest rewards in the least amount of time and minimal effort. So, it is no wonder that in the realm of nutrition, we expect nothing less—hence the popularity of dietary supplements.

Supplement. It’s in the name, and yet we still tend to think of them as magic pills that cure unhealthy eating habits. You cannot eat fast food three meals a day, take a pill, and call your diet nutritious. A healthy diet is so much more than meeting 100% of your Daily Value of vitamins and minerals, and that is what we have lost sight of. There is a growing body of research showing that taking dietary supplements is not improving our health. In fact, in some cases, it may be harming it. This month, the American Medical Association published a highly publicized study on postmenopausal women and dietary supplements. Stirring up much debate, it found that common vitamin and mineral supplements may be linked to an increased risk of mortality.

A few things to point out about the study:

• This study is on older, white women from Iowa. Therefore, the ability to generalize to the general population is limited.
• Results varied by supplement. Multivitamins, B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper were associated with increased risk. Iron had the strongest association with increased mortality risk, while calcium was associated with decreased mortality risk.
• Nutrients have a U-shaped curve of safety and efficacy. Too little can cause deficiency and too much can cause toxicity. More is not necessarily better.
• Interestingly, supplement users exhibited characteristics we typically associate with lower mortality risks: more educated, leaner BMI, more active, non-smoker, and lower incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes.
• Authors concluded that there is insufficient evidence of any benefit to support a general recommendation that healthy adults take a supplement.

What does this mean? First, let me acknowledge that there can be countless factors that impact a study’s results. So, I am by no means suggesting that these results warrant a complete abandonment of supplement use. However, I believe that this study along with several others should cause us to think twice about how and why we use dietary supplements. Foods are so much more complicated than we realize. We don’t give nature enough credit when we break food down into a handful of vitamins and minerals to be taken in pill form and think that we are recreating the same benefits. More than anything else, I hope that studies like this one encourage individuals to be more mindful of what they are eating.

Ask yourself, do the dietary supplements you take really supplement healthy choices or replace them? If the answer is replace, work on incorporating real foods instead. For instance, rather than take a Vitamin E supplement, work on consuming healthy oils and incorporating almonds as snacks. Rather than meet 100% of your Daily Values with a pill, make a more conscious effort to have a balanced diet of real food. The jury may be out about whether supplements will cause you harm, but getting your nutrients from real food never will.

Last week, I talked about how the period from the beginning of October through New Year’s is a calorie and weight “Danger Zone.” This is also true for endurance and ultra-endurance athletes. Triathletes have finished their training and racing and are entering the off-season. They are ready to unwind and enjoy some time without the rigors of training. On the other hand, marathon and ultra-runners are starting to gear up. The fall marathon season starts in October and goes into the spring.

For those of us training for fall and spring marathons, it is really, really, really easy to use our training as a way to over-indulge in holiday foods. For those entering their off season, it is really, really easy for them to use the holiday foods as rewards for all of the hard training they have done over the past few months.

Endurance athletes have to watch the holiday season just like everyone else to avoid weight gain that negatively impact performance. Yes, maybe you did just run 18 or 20 miles. That doesn’t mean you can have a whole pumpkin pie! And, just because you did a Turkey Trot the morning of Thanksgiving, doesn’t mean you can eat like it is Thanksgiving day all weekend long. If you are in your off season, you do not want to gain extra weight over the holidays that you then have to work harder to get off the first couple of months of the year. If you are training, you don’t want to put on extra weight over the holidays you have to carry during your race or have to worry about losing before the race.

The trick I use is to only use the “I just did a (fill in the blank) workout. I get to eat (fill in the blank).” once a day on the day that is not race day. If you just ran a marathon, go ahead and celebrate that day, but follow the rule for the two following days. Starting on the third day, return to your normal eating. If you do a long workout, you can use the excuse once a day for a maximum of two of days. It is easy to eat as much or more calories than we burned off by telling ourselves it is OK to indulge because we worked out. And, yes, I deal with this, too.

As the Halloween candy starts to appear, remember to not use your workouts as an excuse to over-indulge. Yes, if you have a long or hard workout you can indulge some. You just can’t use it as an excuse to indulge all the time through the holidays.

This post was originally published in 2009. However, I think it is worth repeating. . . with a few minor changes.

October, November, and December are what I call The Danger Zone time of the year. Within these three months we encounter all sorts of eating challenges. October is the time of CANDY! Candy seems to appear just about everywhere – in offices, on desks, in kids’ backpacks. However, just because candy is around does NOT mean you have to eat it. A previous post had some tips for dealing with Halloween candy. I have two tactics to add this year. The first is to mentally label the Halloween as “not my food.” The candy is for other people, or the kids, or the trick-or-treaters. Every time you think of or see the candy, tell yourself “that’s not my food” and find something else to do. Second, if you do have more candy than you had planned, do not use that slip as an excuse to keep slipping the rest of the day (or week, or month). Recognize that you made a slip, but tell yourself, “that’s OK. I can make better choices the rest of the day that will help me stay on track.”

Once we’ve made it through Halloween, we are faced with Thanksgiving, then Holiday Parties, Christmas, Hannuka, Kawnza, New Years, etc. These holidays and parties are typically food-focused, family-focused and filled with stress. One way to make this year easier and less stressful is to start thinking now about how you will handle any food challenges that come your way.

For example, do you have a hard time (like me) staying away from buffets at parties? You can start thinking now and visualizing how you will deal with the buffets this year. Perhaps make a rule that first you will put fruits and vegetables on your plate then small bites of other items. Or, that you will only make one trip to the buffet. If alcohol is a challenge, make a rule that you will alternate each “beverage” with a glass of water. Do you over-eat at Thanksgiving dinner? Start visualizing how your plate will look this year – with half filled with fruits and vegetables, a quarter with protein, and a quarter with complex carbohydrates or starch (you can also review the Quarter Your Plate newsletter for more information on how to do this). And, don’t forget to visualize what your dessert plate will look like, too.

The last three months of the year do not have to be filled with scary food situation. You just need to plan ahead for how you will deal with them so you are prepared when they happen.

Have a healthy day!

A couple of weeks ago I was in San Diego for the American Dietetic Association (ADA) conference. Traveling, and conferences in particular, have always presented an eating challenge for me. However, this year I was determined to watch what I ate. Part of the problem at the ADA conference is the expo hall. Dietitians deal with food. This means the expo hall is FILLED WITH FOOD! And, in order to tell my clients about new products, I have to sample them. So, the ADA conference is not just an issue with eating while out of town, but managing sampling foods on the expo floor. I used a few strategies this year that I hope will help you manage your eating on the road, too.

Tip 1: Before you go, make a list of foods to have handy. If there are quick and easy meals or snacks you can put together without cooking, have a list of the items you need to make them with you. For example, I’ve started eating a few whole wheat crackers, a couple of wedges of Laughing Cow cheese, and some grapes for breakfast or dinner. Super easy and doesn’t require an oven. Add some peanut butter and you have a great snack of some peanut butter on the crackers. Also, plan for any food you need to support your training and working out. Do you need to pick up sports drink? What about your pre- and post-workout foods?

Tip 2: Find a grocery store. If you made a list before you left take it with you and get your hotel room stocked. If you don’t have a list, stop on the way in and make one so you can avoid impulse buys.

Tip 3: If you are going to drink alcoholic beverages, alternate them with water. This does two things. First, it slows down how fast you drink the alcoholic drinks (and the calories they contain). Second, it helps keep you hydrated since alcohol is dehydrating.

Tip 4: Use an appetizer as your entree. Most entrees in restaurants are 3+ servings. Rather than ordering an entree, order an appetizer to use as your entree. You can still order a salad (dressing on the side) or soup (broth-based) as your appetizer.

Tip 5: Order a  salad (dressing on the side) or soup (broth-based) as your appetizer then split an entree with someone else in your group. Most of us think that everyone at the table wants to indulge in a big meal, but in reality just about everyone at the table is probably conerned with managing their weight. One of your dining buddies may be very thankful for the opportunity to split and entree.

Tip 6: If you are eating alone and order an entree, get a to go box and put 1/2 to 2/3 of the entree in the to go box and set it off to the side. If you finish what is on your plate and wait a few minutes and are still hungry, you can retrieve some of the saved entree from the to go box. If not, you can leave the box behind. If you feel bad about leaving food behind, ask yourself if you’d rather have the extra weight on your body as a result of eating that food, or not. Personally, I’d rather leave the extra in the to go box than have it end up on my hips.

Tip 7: Often when traveling you may not know when food will be available. Either pack some snacks to take with you or pick some up at the store that you can keep in a briefcase, computer case, or purse. I like KIND bars, frut, and fig bars as options.

I hope these tips help you while you travel. If you have tips of your own, I’d love to hear them!

On another note – I’ll be moving the newsletter to MailChimp next week. The format will be a bit different. You shouldn’t have to do anything to move with me. If you have questions, please send me an email.