Kevin Klatt, PhD, RD

I had a soon-to-be-RD friend of mine ask me to write up a brief article on how clinicians can respond to clients who would like to go, or are, Paleo. 1. No diet is perfect by name - it's all about the nutrients you intake. Most dietary mantras (Mediterranean, Veg*n, Paleo, etc) can be healthful assuming you get adequate amounts of all your nutrients, but many have their drawbacks - Paleo is no exception. When it comes to Paleo, there's a few nutrients to keep in mind: Iodine: eschewing dairy and choosing sea salt can potentially cut large sources of iodine in the diet. Advise individuals to consume seaweed, incorporate some iodized salt, or take a Kelp extract supplement (be careful not to overdue with the supplements if it gets to that point, many contain 2-3x the RDA).  Manganese: It's not a mineral we hear talked about a lot, but the major sources of it are grains, especially brown rice. If the individual is just concerned about gluten, brown rice can be a great op...

I just got back from the American Society for Nutrition's Advances and Controversies in Clinical Nutrition conference and came back with a lot of ideas for blogging.  I was happy to see a number of things i've blogged about and my thoughts on clinical nutrition were covered at the conference, with similar conclusions - I identify more as a scientist and less as a future clinician so it's good to see i'm not totally off base with reality. One very interesting talk was given by the chair of the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the Institute of Medicine (IoM). Before I go on to discuss some relevant points from her talk, there's a few definition you'll need to be sure of (1): Dietary Reference Intake (DRI's ): reference values that are quantitative estimates of nutrient intakes to be used for planning and assessing diets for healthy people (Recommended intakes and Upper Limits) Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) (newly called AMDR): the average daily ...

If you're reading this expecting me to either endorse or stand in opposition to high-protein diets, turn back now. In nutrition, it's difficult to make a simplistic recommendation out of the mounds of scientific literature that exists on a topic - I can't imagine the stress that the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is under while making population-level recommendations. Protein is probably the most well studied of the macronutrients, from a physiological and biochemical perspective - the worldwide obsession with ensuring adequate 'complete' protein intake enveloped a lot nutritional sciences research in the 1900's. From this research, we learned a lot about amino acid metabolism/catabolism and understand the basic needs of most humans. It's known now that it's not necessary to only eat complete proteins, and that eating a combination of plant foods can provide all of the amino acids - hence, vegetarians not completely wasting...

That title is half a fiber joke and half pointing to the need for a Nutrition Fact Check website (similar to the politics version ). Fiber also happens to be a great way to slow down digestion, to reduce the surge of blood sugar following a higher carbohydrate meal and maintain satiety for longer (1). I see/hear a lot of things about Glycemic Index and many of them are not factual, misguided or simply untrue. The most common myth I've heard lately is that all whole grains have the same Glycemic Index value as processed grains (it varies a lot, some do , some don't - see below). Besides the fact that one should be using the Glycemic Load and ditching the Glycemic Index, it's hard to substantiate those rumors - I don't like to call out web sites, simply type into google "whole wheat same GI as white wheat" if you want to see the numerous websites passing around this myth. If you would like a reliable source regarding general Glycemic Indices, try this Ha...