From Seed to Table

In my previous position as Assistant Food Service Director for Hingham Public Schools, I had the wonderful opportunity to lead the Hingham High School Farm to School team. One of my responsibilities in that role was to grow lettuce for the high school cafeteria lunches!

At the high school, we grew lettuce with the EvanLEE Organics' Grow Towers, which are indoor growing racks. We had grow towers in the cafeteria kitchen, classrooms, and even the high school greenhouse.

The grow towers use a terraponic system. In this system, plant trays are planted with soil and seeds as usual, but instead of watering the soil directly, water is added to the water pan that the trays rest in. Holes in the bottom of the planted trays allow the soil and plants to take up water as needed.

Students and staff helped to plant, maintain, harvest, and serve the greens that we grew. The lettuce was offered in the high school cafeteria lunches and donated to the Hingham Food Pantry. I enjoyed working with the community to offer fresh, delicious, and nutritious meals. In the 2019-2020 school year, we served over 150 pounds of our own organically grown lettuce!

To learn more about the EvanLEE Organics' Grow System at Hingham High School, please watch this video.

The Cranberry Bog and Nature Trail at Patriot Place

Hidden behind Patriot Place is a hidden Ocean Spray Cranberry Bog and Nature Trail! This 7-acre bog is the last active cranberry bog in Foxborough, MA.

Fun cranberry facts

• Did you know that cranberries are one of the few fruits originally native to North America?
• Cranberries do not grow in water. They grow on vines, and air pockets inside fresh cranberries allow them to float on water.
• Cranberries may be dry or wet harvested in the fall. In the dry harvest method, a mechanical picker harvests the cranberries from the vines. With the wet harvest method, cranberry bogs are flooded with water, and water reels mix the water loosening the berries from the vines. The cranberries can then be gathered together, because they float on water.
• Only around 5% of cranberries are sold fresh while the other 95% are sold as cranberry sauce, juice, dried cranberries, and more.
• Around 400 million pounds of cranberries are consumed by Americans a year! Almost 80 million of these pounds are eaten during the week of Thanksgiving.
• There are numerous health benefits associated with eating cranberries. They contain antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber, including vitamin C. Cranberry consumption may also reduce the risk of developing urinary tract infections.

Learn more about cranberries and the bog when you walk along the 1/2 mile trail at Patriot Place. It's open from dawn to dusk, 7 days per week, at 1 Bass Pro Drive, Foxborough, MA.

Sources:

• https://www.oceanspray.com/
• https://www.patriot-place.com/tenant/cranberrybog/
• https://thatsitfruit.com/blog/10-interesting-facts-about-cranberries/

19th Annual Harvard Nutrition and Obesity Symposium: Sugar

The 19th Annual Harvard Nutrition and Obesity Symposium was held on July 11th and 12th. This year’s topic was Sugar: Epidemiologic, Physiologic, and Policy Considerations of the Sugar Epidemic.

The 19th Annual Harvard Nutrition and Obesity Symposium: Sugar

According to research from the National Cancer Institute, Americans consume around 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day, with ~50% of added sugar coming from beverages. Because sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of added sugar in the American diet, many studies have delved into this topic. Increased intake of sugary beverages has been associated with negative health effects, such as weight gain, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, gout, and tooth decay. Higher intake of sugary beverages has also been associated with decreased student academic performance, including the areas of grammar, reading, writing, and math.

To address some of the negative effects of sugar, a number of cities in the U.S. and other countries have added soda/sugar sweetened beverage taxes to discourage their purchase. Some have even taken it a step further, with junk food taxes added in Mexico and Hungary. Meanwhile, Chile is taking an impressive and large-scale approach to confront the obesity epidemic. High sugar beverages have a hefty 18% tax. Warning labels are put on the front of food and beverage packages with added sugars, sodium, saturated fats, or calories that surpass certain thresholds. Restrictions are placed on child marketing. In addition, there is a total advertising ban on all TV and cinema from 6 am – 10 am, with warning messages on TV outside of this time. 

Funds raised from sugar sweetened beverage taxes and similar taxes may be used for public health initiatives, such as supporting nutrition and physical activities in schools. Benefits of these taxes can include decreased consumption of unhealthy foods, decreased rates of overweight and obesity leading to healthcare cost savings, decreased mortality rates, increased number of quality of life years, and increased years of life for individuals.

Conflicting results have been found regarding whether low/zero calorie sweeteners are better or not compared to caloric sweeteners. Dr. Richard Mattes suggested that rather than lumping  sweeteners into a category, each type of sweetener presents a unique metabolic challenge. Taste receptors are located all over the body, and the signaling cascades they initiate vary depending on the sweetener type and where it binds to in the body. Dr. Eran Elinav noted how the human microbiome varies according to the individual, and how consumption of the same food or beverage has different effects on different people.

Overall, the fewer added sweeteners you consume, the better it is for your health. Different guidelines exist for recommended limitations on added sugar intake. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggests limiting added sugars to less than 10% of total caloric intake. The American Heart Association recommends an intake of no more than half of one’s daily discretionary calories to come from added sugar. For most women, that's approximately 6 teaspoons per day, or 100 calories from sugar. For men, it's about 9 teaspoons per day, or 150 calories. While it may be difficult to determine the amount of added sugars in your foods and beverages, changes are coming to nutrition facts labels. Added sugars are scheduled to be declared on nutrition facts labels by 2020 for large manufacturers and by 2021 for small companies. Some manufacturers have already begun updating their nutrition facts labels!

The New Nutrition Facts Label

Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Boston!

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics annual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) was in Boston this year! This is a national meeting that offers over 100 research and educational lectures, presentations, and culinary demos.

Sessions I attended included "Food Allergies: School Guidelines and Education," "Using Science to Further Define FODMAPs and Simplify Patient Education," and "The Gut-Brain Highway: Can Traffic Be Regulated by Diet?" In The Gut-Brain Highway session, I learned that the microbiota was impacted differently by the amount of almond processing in Taylor et al.'s research. Chopped almonds were found to have the most impact compared to the control, rather than whole almonds, roasted almonds, or almond butter.

FNCE Educational Session

In addition to lectures, over 300 exhibitors participated at FNCE Boston. I discovered many new food and nutrition related products and had samples galore! One tasty find was Biena Chickpea Snacks, roasted chickpeas that are light, delicious, and crunchy.

FNCE Boston Exhibitors

I enjoyed going to FNCE and learning about the latest nutrition research, learning about new food products, and talking with other nutrition students and professionals!

FNCE 2016 Boston

Probiotics and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

This past April, I presented my research with Dr. Suzanne Neubauer on Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Probiotics at the Massachusetts Dietetic Association's Annual Nutrition Convention and Exposition. This research was a part of the Seminar in Clinical Nutrition course that I took in Framingham State University's Coordinated Program in Dietetics. Below is a summary of my findings.

Presenting Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Probiotics at MDA's ANCE

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by abdominal pain or discomfort and abnormal bowel habits, with an estimated global prevalence of 11%. It has unclear causes and is diagnosed based on symptoms rather than structural abnormalities. Probiotic supplementation has been proposed to treat IBS, because the fecal microbiota composition of patients with IBS has been found to be significantly different compared to healthy patients. 

A review of 21 primary studies was performed to examine the efficacy of probiotic treatment on IBS symptoms in subjects over 16 years old. Most of the studies reviewed were double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized controlled trials. While some trials examined multi-strain probiotics, others assessed the influence of individual probiotic strains.

The results suggest abdominal pain, bloating, stool frequency, stool consistency, adequate relief, and quality of life are not adequately addressed with multi-strain probiotics in patients with all types of IBS. Different dosages, compositions of probiotic mixtures, treatment lengths, and subtypes of IBS studied make trials on probiotics hard to compare. The results were also impacted by the placebo effect, which may be a common occurrence in IBS trials, because IBS has unclear etiologies and is diagnosed based on subjective report of symptoms. 

Meanwhile, impacts of single strains of Escherichia, Bifidobacterium, Saccharomyces, and Lactobacillus were limited and varied according to specific strains. Drawing general conclusions from the studies on single-strain probiotics is not straightforward, as outcomes were strain specific, and some results were only observed in one bacterial strain in one trial.

Due to the inadequate number of studies that demonstrate substantial benefits of probiotics, single- and multi-strain probiotic supplements are not recommended for IBS treatment. However, if patients with IBS are interested, taking up to 8 strains of probiotics and up to 9x10^11 CFU per day has been shown to be safe.

I was surprised to discover there was not enough evidence to support supplementing with probiotics to treat IBS. However, following a low-FODMAP diet may help to manage IBS symptoms. In addition, find out what else probiotics may be good for at the Boston Fermentation Festival this Sunday!

Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Probiotics Research Sources

1. Begtrup et al. Scand J Gastroenterol. 2013;48(10)1127-1135. 

2. Cha et al. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2012;46(3):220-227. 

3. Ford et al. Am J Gastroenterol. 2014;109(10):1547-1561. 

4. Jafari et al. Arch Iran Med. 2014;17(7):466-470. 

5. Ludidi et al. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2014;26(5):705-714. 

6. Roberts et al. BMC Gastroenterol. 2013;13:45. 

7. Shavakhi et al. Adv Biomed Res. 2014;3:140. 

8. Simrén M et al. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2010;31(2):218-227. 

9. Sisson et al. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2014;40(1)51-62. 

10. Søndergaard et al. Scand J Gastroenterol. 2011;46(6):663-672. 

11. Wong et al. Dig Dis Sci. 2015;60(1):186-194.

12. Yoon et al. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2014;29(1):52-59. 

13. Kruis et al. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2012;27(4):467-474. 

14. Choi et al. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2011;45(8):679-683. 

15. Dapoigny et al. World J Gastroenterol. 2012;18(17):2067-2075. 

16. Ducrotté et al. World J Gastroenterol. 2012;18(30):4012-4018. 

17. Ligaarden et al. BMC Gastroenterol. 2010;10:16. 

18. Stevenson et al. Nutrition. 2014;30(10):1151-1157. 

19. Guglielmetti et al. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2011;33(10): 1123-1132. 

20. Charbonneau et al. Gut Microbes. 2013;4(3):201-211. 

21. Pineton de Chambrun et al. Dig Liver Dis. 2015;47(2):119-124.

Dietetic Internship Rotations at Needham Public Schools

As a part of the M.S. Coordinated Program in Dietetics at Framingham State University, I completed my food service and school nutrition rotations at Needham Public Schools (NPS) this spring. At NPS, the school cafeteria is considered the nutrition classroom, where students can learn about healthy eating through the nutritious and delicious food options offered.

For my food service rotation, I visited and learned about how each of the school cafeterias in the district operates. At NPS, each school is lucky to have its own kitchen! Projects that I was involved with included updating and training the cafeteria managers on the department's standard operating procedures and designing and running a plate waste study at the three secondary schools. I attended meetings and events, such as monthly manager meetings, the USDA Foods Conference, and The Education Collaborative (TEC) food service director meetings. During staff relief, I helped to manage the cafeteria at High Rock Middle School, which is a HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC), Gold Award of Distinction winner. The HUSSC is a voluntary certification, highlighting schools with healthier environments by encouraging nutrition and physical activity.

Buffalo chicken "wings of fire" with a warm biscuit, melon, vegetables, and salad for lunch at Needham High School

In addition to food service, I had the opportunity to teach nutrition lessons in the classroom for students in elementary, middle, and high school. This included an activity on the five food groups with third grade students at Mitchell Elementary School, and a lesson on food marketing with middle school students at Pollard Middle School. I enjoyed teaching to students of various age levels at the different schools.

Teaching the five food groups with MyPlate

Throughout the experience, I worked with a variety of staff in the Nutrition Services department, including the Nutrition Services director, Nutrition Outreach Coordinator, secretaries, cafeteria managers, and food service workers. I also worked with other staff and members of the school community, including teachers, custodial staff, and students.

I learned a lot about school nutrition at Needham Public Schools. I'm looking forward to continuing to learn more about school nutrition by assisting the food services department at Dedham Public Schools!

Nutrition Experiences at Framingham State University

This past school year I had the opportunity to work as a graduate assistant at The John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition at Framingham State University. The John Stalker Institute (JSI) provides information, resources, and workshops for Massachusetts school and child nutrition professionals, to address child nutrition and healthy nutrition environments. My work involved publicizing professional development, resources, and information about school nutrition through social media. I also attended JSI workshops and events, such as a Back to Basics: Fresh Vegetables and Fruits Workshop to Go and the 2015 Healthy Kids, Healthy Programs Summit.

Prepared dishes from a Back to Basics: Fresh Vegetables and Fruits Workshop to Go

2015 Healthy Kids, Healthy Programs Summit: Day One - The Learning Connection with Dr. Robert Murray

I enjoyed learning about school nutrition and expanding my skills in online communications through my work at JSI. Read posts that I wrote for the JSI blog and that I contributed to about the Chefs in Schools initiative in Beverly Public Schools on the Chefs Move to Schools blog.

Although I am no longer at JSI, I have an exciting and busy year ahead! This will be my final year of graduate school in the Coordinated Program of Dietetics at Framingham State University. My research for the fall is on a contemporary topic: treating irritable bowel syndrome with probiotics. Supervised practice experiences that I will have include a clinical rotation at Lowell General Hospital, foodservice and school nutrition rotations in the Needham Public Schools, and a community nutrition rotation to be determined. After beginning to study nutrition at Boston University for my bachelor's degree in 2007, I am looking forward to being eligible to take the national exam to become a registered dietitian next year!

School Nutrition and Gardening

Welcome to the new school year! This month I begin my position as a graduate assistant with the John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition at Framingham State University. The John Stalker Institute (JSI) provides information, resources, and workshops for Massachusetts school and child nutrition professionals, to address child nutrition and healthy nutrition environments. Visit the JSI website to learn more about the institute. My work will relate to social media and online communications, and I am looking forward to learning more about school nutrition.

On the topic of school nutrition, I would like to share an infographic that I made and some information that I gathered on school gardening and nutrition, for my Computers in Nutrition Education course that I took last semester. Enjoy!

School Gardening and Nutrition

There are many good reasons to incorporate gardening into the classroom. School gardens are a great way to get children physically active, and to engage student interest while teaching them about science, nutrition, and numerous other topics. In particular, several studies have demonstrated benefits of school gardening in relation to nutrition. For example:

• In 3^rd-5^th grade students who participated in gardening activities in Texas, students had an increased preference for vegetables and an increased preference for fruits and vegetables as a snack.
• Morris and colleagues found that in 1^st grade students involved with a school-gardening program, students better identified food-groups and were more willing to taste vegetables.
• In a study on 4^th grade students in California, the students who were involved in garden-based nutrition education had a greater preference for vegetables, including snow peas and zucchini, compared to a control group and a group that only had classroom-based nutrition education. In a six-month follow up, the garden group still had greater preferences for broccoli, zucchini, and snow peas compared to the other groups.

The development of eating habits begins at an early age, and garden-based learning is one effective way to incorporate nutrition education into the classroom and to promote healthy eating habits. For more benefits of school gardening, please see the infographic below (click on the image to enlarge it if needed).

Sources:

• The child in the garden: An evaluative review of the benefits of school gardening
• Garden-enhanced nutrition curriculum improves fourth-grade school children's knowledge of nutrition and preferences for some vegetables

A Weekend in Chicago

This past weekend, I visited Chicago with my brother and sister. We were only there for less than forty-eight hours, but it was fun exploring the city for the first time!

Because the three of us are foodies, we pretty much arranged our schedule according to where we dined. And while I will not cover everything that we did throughout our trip, I will highlight some of the places that we visited!

Friday I arrived in Chicago before my siblings, so while I was waiting for them, I set out for the Chicago French Market. Along the way I passed by Kramer's Health Foods.

Kramer's Health Foods

In the front of Kramer's, there is a health food store with prepared foods, beverages, produce, supplements, and more. Meanwhile, upstairs there is a healthy vegetarian cafe and juice bar. Unfortunately the cafe was closed when I stopped by, but I still purchased a prepared tuna sandwich from the front of the store, which was made with (real) tongol tuna, mayonnaise, Ezekiel Bread, tomatoes, green onions, celery, and barrel pickels. For only less than $6 it was a great, delicious, and healthy purchase!

After walking a little over a mile I arrived at the Chicago French Market- a year-round, indoor marketplace with local artisans and purveyors.

At the Chicago French Market, I stopped at Raw, which offers 100% raw and plant-based foods. While I am not raw nor vegan, I love trying new and different healthy foods! 

Raw

Signature Muffin (Carrot and Raisin, left) and Kale Chips (right)

I purchased the carrot and raisin signature muffin and the dehydrated kale chips. Although dense, the muffin was very tasty! The kale chips were alright, although I was not a big fan of the seasonings. These kale chips were made with kale, tahini, lemon juice, HSS, garlic, agave, spirulina, nutritional yeast, and cayenne. However, when I make kale chips, I usually season them more simply: a little olive oil, salt, sesame seeds, and optional garlic powder. Raw also had some delicious looking and sounding salads, other prepared foods, beverages, and more. Check out the menu here. If you are looking for healthy food in Chicago, I'd recommend to stop by Raw!

After the Chicago French Market, I took a train to Green Grocer Chicago. Green Grocer Chicago is a small, neighborhood market featuring locally grown and produced produce and specialty food items. The store is small, but a neat place to check out if you are interested in local and organic food items! At the store, I picked up a copy of Edible Chicago. And of course, my visit to Chicago would not have been complete without a tasting of a local kombucha brew. Green Grocer Chicago offers NessAlla Kombucha as a local brand option, which is produced in Madison, Wisconsin. I tried the raspberry kombucha. It was slighty sweet and had nice effervescence!

Green Grocer Chicago (left) and NessAlla Kombucha (right)

Saturday morning, my brother, sister, and I had lunch at the Mexican restaurant, Xoco. My favorite item that we got were the churros. They were light, crunchy, and delicious!

Churros with a chocolate shot (left) and Aztec hot chocolate (right)

Afterwards, we visited The Art Institute of Chicago. I enjoyed the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism exhibit the most, which features works of Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, and more.

Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877

American Gothic by Grant Wood

Next, we went to Mana Food Bar, a vegetarian/vegan food bar that also offers smoothies and freshly squeezed juices. Everything that we ordered was beautifully prepared and delicious! Some of the items we ordered included the mana slider made with a brown rice and mushroom burger with spicy mayo, chilled yellow wheat noodles tossed in a spicy sesame peanut sauce with shredded peapods and carrots, and spicy tomato braised okra over blue-cheese grits.

Mana Food Bar's outdoor patio

Spicy tomato braised okra over blue-cheese grits

On the next day, Sunday, we had Easter Brunch at Nana. Nana is a family-owned restaurant that sources from organic, local, and sustainable food producers. We enjoyed the food here, and ordered the sweet potato doughnuts made with dark chocolate, cherry gastrique, and sweet potato chips as an appetizer. For entrees, we shared the nanadict (made with pupusas, chorizo, poached eggs, poblano cream, and home fries) and the "biscuits and duck gravy" (made with two eggs, biscuits, duck confit gravy, cipollini onions, and seasonal veggies). The biscuits in the "biscuits and duck gravy" dish were huge, but other than that, the dish was perfect!

Nana

"biscuits and duck gravy" at Nana

After Nana, we visited Millenium Park, and we were lucky that we had such nice weather over the weekend! Of course, we also stopped by Cloud Gate at Millenium Park, also known as "The Bean."

Millenium Park

Cloud Gate

Overall, we had a great time in Chicago. The city is more spread out than other cities, such as compared to New York City, and to get around we made use of the city's public transportation and Zipcar. Other noteworthy places that we dined at in Chicago included Avec and Urbanbelly. In addition, we had deep-dish pizza at Gino's East, but were not impressed. Places that I would have liked to stop at if we had had the time includes the Dill Pickle Food Co-op, a farmers market such as the Green City Market, and other cultural attractions. I will just have to visit those the next time I am in Chicago!

Recap: Weston A. Price Conference 2011 - Mythbusters!

Due to a scholarship, I was very lucky to be able to attend the Weston A. Price Foundation's 12th Annual Conference - Mythbusters! in Dallas, Texas in November.

In short, The Weston A. Price Foundation is "a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated nonindustrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets." The Weston A. Price Foundation is run by President and Treasurer, Sally Fallon, and a board of directors. To read the rest of the foundation's mission statement, go here.

The main part of the conference ran from Friday, Nov. 11 - Sunday, Nov. 13, and there was always plenty to do: lectures typically ran from 9 am - 10 pm, with breaks for meals and time to visit the exhibitors, in addition to optional yoga and and a few other pre-breakfast activities. There were so many lectures at the conference that it would be impossible to cover everything, so I will highlight just a few of them here!

Exhibitors at the conference included Fab Ferments, Cultures for Health, and many, many more

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride spoke about GAPS: Gut & Psychology/Physiology Syndrome. GAPS is a condition that establishes a connection between the health of the gut and the health of the rest of the body. The father of medicine, Hippocrates (460-370 BC) stated "All diseases begin in gut." We also learned that gut flora:

• Are "the housekeepers of our digestive system"
• Protect us from invaders
• Aid in detoxification, vitamin production, digestion, and absorption
  
• Compromise 90% of our cells
• Help to modulate the immune system
  
• Is important for the health and integrity of the gut

Many factors can damage gut flora, including: poor diet, antibiotics, drugs, steroids, birth control, bottle feeding, stress, infections, disease, pollution, radiation, alcohol, dental work, toxic chemicals, and more.

According to Dr. Campbell-McBride, diseases are related to an unhealthy gut, such as autism, ADHD/ADD, dyslexia, epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia, any digestive or autoimmune disorders, and more. Thus, by addressing the health of the gut, one can positively impact many health conditions. To learn more about GAPS, visit Dr. Campbell-McBride's websites here and here, and read her book: Gut and Psychology Syndrome- Natural Treatment for: Autism, ADD, ADHD, Depresseion, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Schizophrenia.

I also listened to David Wetzel, owner of Green Pasture Products. Green Pasture Products produces high-vitamin butter oil and fermented cod and skate liver oils. Cod liver oil is the most important superfood of the Weston A. Price Foundation, because it naturally contains vitamins A and D, "which Dr. Price found present in the diet of primitives in amounts ten times higher than the typical American diet of his day." In addition, the foundation recommends consuming cod liver oil with high-vitamin butter oil, because Dr. Price "found that cod liver oil on its own was relatively ineffective but combined with butter oil produced excellent results" due to the presence of vitamin K2 in grass fed butter oil.

David Wetzel spoke of how his fermented cod liver oil differs from other cod liver oil brands on the market. For example, some brands of cod liver oil may go through processes that remove some of the natural vitamins, resulting in a product with low levels of vitamins A and D, or a product that has manufactured vitamins A and D added to it. Green Pastures cod liver oil is a naturally produced, "fermented high-vitamin cod liver oil that is made using a filtering process that retains the natural vitamins." The business aim of Green Pasture Products is to "provide high-quality sacred-food oils just as they were made prior to the industrialized food and farming revolution...Fermenting the livers of fish to extract the oil is an old world practice that may go back as far as biblical times..."

Vitamin D is important because although the skin can synthesize Vitamin D with sun exposure, in northern latitudes one cannot make adequate amounts of vitamin D from sun exposure alone, especially in the winter. Learn more about vitamin D here and here.

Samples of Green Pasture products were available in the exhibitors section. The Cinnamon Tingle BLUE ICE Royal Butter Oil/Fermented Cod Liver Oil Blend was by far the tastiest of the fermented cod liver oils, and I did not even attempt to try the Skate Liver Oils given the negative reactions of some of my fellow peers. However, they do have capsules of their fermented fish liver oils if one prefers not to taste them. I also took home a sample of one of their skin balms made with their cod liver oil and butter oil blend. Even though I make my own natural body products, my skin never felt so soft as when I used their skin balm, so incorporating cod liver oil in my own body products is definitely something that I will be working on in the future!

Dr. Joseph Mercola gave the keynote address at the conference awards banquet on Saturday. He spoke on a variety of topics, including some of the dangers of fructose. Fructose is one of the leading sources of calories in the U.S., often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, such as in sodas and processed foods. Fructose causes wrinkling, cellulite, beer belly, and obesity, and is also a major cause of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Fructose itself isn't bad, however the problem today is that individuals are consuming fructose in much larger quantities than in the past. Around a century ago, individuals only had around 15 g of fructose per day, such as from vegetables and fruits. Today, the typical adolescent may get as much as 73 g fructose/day from sweetened drinks. Read more about what Dr. Mercola has to say on fructose in these articles.

Dr. Mercola also discussed fitness. He says what many exercisers do wrong is doing too much cardio, which causes oxidative stress. Instead, Dr. Mercola recommends what he calls peak fitness: an exercise program in which for no more than three times a week you exercise, by raising your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold for 20-30 seconds, recovering for 90 seconds, and repeating this cycle for 8 repetitions. You would also begin this exercise with a 3 minute warm-up, and end with a 2 minute cool down. If you follow this routine, every time you exercise will only be an investment of 20-25 minutes, which he says is better than traditional cardio. Peak fitness exercises increase the amount of human growth hormone (HGH) you produce naturally, because it engages the white muscle fibers, which are the only muscle fibers that increase production of HGH. HGH is "key for strength, health and longevity." Dr. Mercola first learned about this approach to fitness from Phil Campbell, author of the book "Ready, Set, Go!". For more about peak fitness, read Dr. Mercola's articles: "The Major Exercise Mistake I Made for Over 30 Years..." and "Flood Your Body With This 'Youth Hormone' in Just 20 Minutes," which includes an explanation and demonstration of the peak fitness program with Phil Campbell himself.

The food provided at the conference was in line with the Weston A. Price Foundation's nutrition principles, including grass-fed meat, butter, and dairy products, plenty of bone broths (have you ever had beef broth in a Starbucks cup?), fermented foods, and much more. I thought there should have been more vegetables with the meals, but the lack of vegetables may have been due to the drought in Texas.

Overall, it was a great conference with diverse speakers on a variety of nutrition and health-related topics, and it was great to meet others who were also interested in nutrition and their health. I also enjoyed visiting Dallas, Texas for the very first time!

The Pioneer Plaza Cattle Drive in Dallas, Texas

Read more details about the 2011 Mythbusters Conference here, visit this page for conference recordings from 2006-2011, and stay tuned about the Weston A. Price Foundation and their next annual conference on their website. I hope this article has given you some food for thought, and here's to a happy new year!