Nutrition Tools & Trends

By Susan Burke MS, RD, LD/N, CDE
eDiets Contributor


We're winding down toward 2007 and for this final column of the year, I'd like to feature some important nutrition news, including information on a couple of products I sampled recently.

Some trends have fallen by the wayside, especially "ow carb" packaged food, and the "glycemic index" has replaced "ow carb" as the nutrition trend of 2006.

New York City's Board of Health's brave ban of trans fats in restaurant food will set the bar for the rest of the country to follow. All NYC restaurants with standard menu items must make calorie information publicly available at the point of purchase by posting it on menus and menu boards. When you can see that your large latte has more calories than a bagel with a “schmear," it may help you make a better choice.

Nutrition Trends

Low Carb
In 2006, the marketplace saw fewer low-carb products, and even the Atkins program has discontinued marketing "ow-carb breads" and other substitutes for grain-based foods. In 2003, the low-carb craze was at its zenith, and when I saw low-carb pasta and even beer, I thought it wouldn't be long until the bubble burst. After all, as Marion Nestle said, "ow-carb pasta is an oxymoron."

"ow-carb pastas" and breads are still available in the marketplace, made from soy flour, generally, but they're a poor substitute for good ol' semolina. Most wheat flour substitutes have a pasty, gummy texture and are tasteless. Ultimately they were the undoing of many manufacturers, who were left with unsold inventory when the low-carb fad vanished.

Meal-replacement bars and shakes full of sugar alcohols and too much sucralose were sickeningly sweet and not calorie-free; consumers complained about gastric distress, and wanted their money back.

Still, carbs continue to be bandied around in diet speak. And if people eat fewer refined carbs and switch to whole grains and more servings of fruits and vegetables, that's a good thing (more about the glycemic index below).

The Atkins company's shakes, bars and candy fit into its graduated approach to low-carb living. Unlike other “carb-free" products on the market, Atkins' contains zero grams of trans fat, and Atkins shakes have only 2 grams of sugar alcohols. If you're sensitive to sugar alcohols, watch out because candies contain up to 9 grams per serving.

Low GI
As "low carb" loses favor, the glycemic index is the fad du jour. "ow GI" labels are showing up on more packaged foods, and restaurants are advertising "ow glycemic index" meals, as they try and stay current with diet trends. The glycemic index reflects the way a food affects blood glucose. High-GI foods usually are refined carbs, such as juice and white rice. Low-GI foods are whole grains, unrefined breads and cereals and combination foods.

Although the glycemic index is highly variable and not well-accepted by most health experts (the American Diabetes Association, for example, prefers people choose foods based on portion size and nutritional value, including grams of fiber per serving), the glycemic index continues as a trend for 2006.

The launch of “GI" products is especially strong in the UK and even stronger in Australia. According to NutraIngredients.com, by June of 2005, 19 low-GI products were launched in Australia, 13 in the UK, and only nine in the United States. And low-GI foods and restaurant menu meals grow in popularity. Punch “glycemic index" into Amazon.com, and see the extent of the latest diet fad -- more than 1,500 titles, including books, magazines and articles are available for purchase.

eDiets ' Glycemic Impact plan uses the best information about foods and balance. Rather than the unreliable glycemic index (after all, a chocolate bar has a lower GI than does mango or baked potato), our Glycemic Impact program is balanced nutritionally (approximately 40-percent unrefined carbs, 30-percent lean protein and 30-percent healthy unsaturated fats), offers high-fiber whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and avoids processed foods.

Eat Organic
Organic foods are increasingly popular, perceived as healthier and safer than conventional foods. Just-foods.com reports that U.S. organic food sales totaled nearly $14 billion in 2005, representing 2.5 percent of all retail sales of food, and it cites the Organic Trade Association's 2006 Manufacturer Survey that projects sales of organic foods to reach nearly $16 billion by the end of 2006.

Organic-food purchases increased in virtually all the major categories. Fruits and vegetables sales grew by 44 percent over the past year. Milk and other dairy products increased by 30 percent. Cereals, breads and pastas were up 29 percent. Sales of organic meats and poultry and packaged foods, such as snacks and beverages, grew by 26 percent. Organic eggs went up 21 percent, while organic soups and sauces increased by 16 percent over the past year.

The Department of Agriculture regulates the “organic" claim, and 95 percent of the ingredients in products that carry the "USDA organic" label must be farmed without the use of chemicals, hormones, pesticides or any method regarded as harmful to the environment. Since organic foods may be contaminated by pathogens in “natural" fertilizers, and may also be contaminated by human handling, treat organic food as you would any food and wash it carefully before eating. Also, avoid cross-contamination by using separate cutting boards for meat, poultry and produce, and sterilize utensils before putting them away.

Trans Fat
Since January of 2006, all food manufacturers are required to list the amount of trans fat contained in one serving of food. New York City's Board of Health just passed a regulation that all restaurants need to switch to trans-fat-free cooking oils by next July and eliminate all trans fat from their menu within 18 months. You'll still be able to buy foods containing trans fat in NYC -- from grocery stores and even from restaurants that may sell the foods in the manufacturer's original packaging (think plastic-wrapped crackers made with hydrogenated shortening). But since the information is listed on the package, a smart consumer can read the label and make an educated choice.

By the way, many of the largest fast-food chains already have switched to healthier cooking oils (Arby's, Wendy's, even KFC's fried chicken and French fries are trans fat-free), but McDonald's and Burger King still use the artery-clogging shortening to fry food.

Dairy Sales Up
The dairy industry's “Got Milk?" campaign generated controversy, but this year found more research to support the benefits of low-fat dairy. Remember, the type of fat in whole-milk dairy is saturated fat, plus cholesterol, but today's markets offer consumers a wide variety of favorites in low-fat and nonfat versions.

A study published in Diabetes Care (July 2006) found that women who included nonfat or low-fat dairy in their daily diets lowered the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Other recent studies have suggested that increased consumption of low-fat dairy may lower the risk for metabolic syndrome, enhance weight loss, lower blood pressure and lower the risk of developing insulin-resistance syndrome, which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes. Americans still consume less that the USDA-recommended three servings daily (based on a 2,000 calorie diet).

Nutrition Tools

E4B
There are some neat packaging features available nowadays, such as resealable pouches designed by Japanese scientists for NASA astronauts. Just look out for the misleading labels on E4B: "Easy 4 Busy" as in “easy for busy people," “100-percent fruit puree" and “natural."

Don't rely on the front of the package to tell you the complete truth about the product -- just some of the truth. A package may contain only “fruit" and not preservatives or added white sugar, but that's not the whole story. For example, the strawberry-banana version also contains cherry juice, apple-juice concentrate and aronia-juice concentrate. I don't know about you, but I've never eaten “aronia" fruit.

Fruit-juice concentrate is just another name for “sugar." By concentrating juice, the water is removed, leaving the added sweetener fructose, which means extra calories. Each package contains three servings, so don't forget to triple the calories per container (3 x 70 = 210 per package) if you consume the pouch in one sitting.

The manufacturers advertise each serving as containing equivalent to one serving of fruit, but as with fruit juice, you get a lot of quick calories for almost no fiber. I will use eDiets ' Nutrition Tracker to demonstrate. If you ate real fruit, for example half of a small apple, a half banana and six small strawberries (approximately by weight equivalent to ingredients in one serving of E4B), you'd get about 90 calories, 23 grams of carbohydrate, but no added sugar or additives and four times the fiber in one serving of the packaged stuff.

One serving of E4B strawberry-banana has 70 calories, 18 grams of carbohydrate plus 16 grams of sugars, from the added juice (a sweetener), but you're cheated of the fiber from real fruit (only 1 gram). Instead of spending your dimes on this overly processed and sweetened stuff, how about eating a cup of strawberries on your breakfast cereal, and snacking on an apple and a banana? Apples, pears, bananas are ultra convenient anyway -- they come in their own portable packages. By the way, the pear/caramel version is more like dessert than fruit. The Web site suggests using in slushy alcoholic drinks.

Not Nuts! Trail Mix
People with food allergies need to read food labels to be certain that the ingredients don't contain a potentially dangerous allergen. Not Nuts! is a healthy mix of crunchy pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried fruit and dairy-free chocolate chips, and it fits into the diet of people with a multitude of food allergies because it's free of the most common food allergies: gluten (wheat), dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy and, of course, fish and shellfish. This product makes a nice snack for everyone.

Not Nuts! Trail Mix is still crunchy, despite containing no nuts. The crunch comes from roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and the dried fruit -- raisins and apples -- add fiber and sweetness. I think they could leave out the nondairy chocolate chips (kind of waxy) and have a better product, but it's still on my “recommended" list. There are six 1-ounce servings in the bag; each contains 140 calories, 5 grams of protein, 0 grams of cholesterol, only 45 milligrams of sodium (very low sodium!) and 8 grams of total fat (1.5 grams of saturated fat and 0 grams of trans fat).

It's very easy to snack with abandon from the bag, so split servings into smaller baggies to practice portion control. By the way, unshelled nuts are best for people watching their weight because they take longer to eat. Since nuts contain a lot of (healthy) fat, the calories add up quickly.

Not Nuts! is available at your local Whole Foods grocery or most natural foods stores, or order online from the Gluten–Free Mall.

eDiets Chief Nutritionist Susan L. Burke is a registered and licensed dietitian and a certified diabetes educator who specializes in both general and diabetes-related weight management.