Episode 1 - Introduction to Nutrition & Research

Hello and welcome to Evidence Based Eating!

This podcast series was created as an introduction into the biochemistry and research of nutrition and exercise science. The goal of this podcast and website is to break-down complex topics into simple actionable steps. We hope that at the end of each episode you feel encouraged to learn more by following the the linked resources and that you feel inspired to talk with your doctor about your nutrition and exercise as it relates to your health.

This podcast series is going to cover the biochemistry behind foundational nutrition and exercise concepts. In order to give you accurate and unbiased information I will be using expert sources these include institutions such as the National Institute for Health (NIH) and peer reviewed publications.

Before we get started I want to get into some important building blocks such as what is research anyway?

Research is when we evaluate something, ideally in a thoughtful manner and with the intention of getting to a better understanding. For example, you can do research for a book report where you read about the topic of your report. And you can do self-research where you journal and reflect. But in contrast to those examples there is clinical research.

Clinical research is when we evaluate an intervention that has impacts the participants health.

-FDA: Different types of clinical research

- GSU types of study designs

The highest level of data, meaning the best and most valuable data that we can produce in research, is gathered through a double blind placebo controlled study, these are also called randomized controlled trials (RCT). Randomized controlled trials are the only type of study that can show cause and affect. Lets break down what the components of these studies are:

- Randomized meaning that people enrolled in the study are randomly allocated to a specific treatment or placebo.

- Controlled meaning there is a group that receives the placebo which is called the control group.

- Double blind means that neither the researcher nor the participant knows which arm of the study they are in. With one arm being the treatment group and the other arm being the control group.

- Peer reviewed = meaning experts in the field reviewed the publication for accuracy and quality

Research can be challenged with many flaws, and nutrition research faces these challenges too (Ioannidis, 2018, JAMA) specifically the following 4 critiques show up quite often in nutrition research:

1. authors tend to use causal language when reporting findings when the data does not show a cause-effect relationship

2. the bias of the researchers heavily influences the design of the study

3. the evaluation of the data coupled with extensive residual confounding and selective reporting leads to inaccurate conclusions

4. studies often lack significant power (low sample size) or controls.

One of the reasons why the aforementioned critiques show up in nutrition literature so frequently is because the intervention being studied is inherently complex. For example an apple is composed of hundreds of chemicals therefore it is difficult to know what part of the apple is creating the outcome seen in the study, is it the fiber or the vitamins, or the water, or the sugar? So a study could look at an apple vs. fiber but that still doesn't look at how the water and the fiber in the apple interact to affect the outcome.

This does not mean that nutrition research is not useful, in fact there plenty of excellent nutrition studies that I will be talking about in this podcast. I only bring up these critiques so that you have some perspective when you are out there reading a nutrition study. I want you to have your critical thinking hat on when you are looking at research.

All of our guidelines are based on the accumulation of years of nutrition and exercise research. The recommendations by the USDA on https://www.choosemyplate.gov/ are all based on experts in the field accumulating years of research and evaluating it for quality and accuracy. Part of why I created this podcast was so that I could go through how we arrived at the guidelines. These guidelines take time to create because they want to put forth the best studied information, that is why sometimes it can feel like they are so last year. New publications come out all the time and they sometimes disagree with our current recommendations. However, we only change the guidelines when there is a sufficient accumulation of data to support that change. I also want to note that guidelines are inherently generalizing information because it is meant for the general public. That is why I encourage you to talk with your doctor about the guidelines and how they should be applied to you as an individual.

Some important concepts that I want you to think about as you start to apply the concepts we talk about in this podcast to your life. The self-experiments that we try are great as long as they are built on a foundation of solid information. If you are going to self-experiment you need to collect data. How you can get the most out of collecting data about yourself.

• Be Consistent: Our general perspective is that health is maintained through consistency. Chronic diseases are also perpetuated through consistency. There are many disease that happen due to genetics and the environment that are completely outside of our control. Managing any condition still comes down to consistency. Being consistent in taking medications and being consistent in rest, activity, and nutrition is paramount for your health.

• Keep A Log: Whenever we decide to integrate a change in our lifestyle it is really important to document our experience – this is really the only way you can know if what you are doing is working for you. For diet and exercise phone aps have made this easy – any ap that you like is fine- as long as it allows you to log your food and exercise everyday. The best way to be accurate is to get a food scale and weight out all the food you eat, alternatively you can use measuring cups/spoons (but be mindful that a single cup can be filled with a wide range of weights and so it is not as accurate as a food scale). After you log your food use the notes section in the ap or a note ap on your phone to document how you feel. After a week, reflect. Look at what might have triggered eating food that made you feel bad; look at the food that made you feel good. How did this week affect your goal? From that week think about what you might want to change in the upcoming week.

Where should you start if you want to learn more about nutrition?

Start with these links on the basics of "Healthy Eating," Research, and Physical Activity - the below are US Guidelines and give you different approaches to understanding the guidelines

• National Institute for Health (NIH) - healthy eating & Calories

• US Department of Agriculture - What is in Food?

• The academy of Nutrition and Dietetics - How to read a food label

• Office of Disease prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) - Evolution of dietary guidelines

• Harvard: Types of Research

• Centers for disease control (CDC) - Physical Activity is for everybody

• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) - Exercise guidelines