4/5/24 - Chemophobia; Spotlight: Dylan MacKay; Video pick: Mandy Enright; Subscription/Donation Deal; "Food Noise" podcast...and more

☠Chemophobia

We’re starting to see more and more comments, reels and videos on TikTok about chemophobia, i.e. a fear of unfamiliar ingredients with long ingredient names, that aren’t typically found in our kitchens, that may be bioengineered…You know, like citric acid, yeast, natural and artificial flavors. People calling these ingredients “poison” and “toxic” and expressing a distrust of the FDA(aka “Feeding Death to America”), the government, and “Big Pharma”.

Some are using rating apps (mentioned in this issue and this issue of our newsletter) to check to see if their food choices are “safe”, to avoid processed foods, bioengineered ingredients and to try and buy more natural and/or organic products (Appeal to Nature/Natural Fallacy) that they think are safe or get rated as “good” or “excellent” or “Bobby Approved”.

🔽🔽Here are some resources that might come in handy to answer consumer/client questions:

The Flavor Rundown: Natural vs. Artificial Flavors - Science in the News (harvard.edu)

Our friend Food Science Babe - “What’s In Natural Flavors” https://fb.watch/rdmZHbUPvZ/

and this piece as well: Facts & fallacies on artificial flavors, natural flavors and spices | AGDAILY

Bottom Line: This level of chemophobia could certainly provoke restrictive eating habits and result in unnecessarily spending more money for food. Acknowledge concerns, but present accurate information about the safety of these ingredients…and remember, “Dose Makes the Poison”.

💡SPOTLIGHT:

Dylan MacKay-Nutrition Educator & Researcher

Dylan MacKay is an Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Chronic Disease in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences and the Department of Internal Medicine Section Endocrinology at the University of Manitoba. He is also a person who lives with Type 1 diabetes. Dylan’s work concentrates primarily on Type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease…. He has been a member of the Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines Steering Committee since 2020.

Q1:  What research have you worked on that you wish more dietitians knew about/would read? 

Answer: “…the Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines chapter on Remission of Type 2 Diabetes and its users guide…We have had a lot of feedback from some dietitians that weight loss cannot work long term, or that including research which involves weight loss interventions in an evidence-based guideline should not be allowed because of the known barriers many people face in achieving weight loss. This guideline chapter is the very first evidence-based guideline on the topic, ….so I wish more dietitians would read it before they make a judgement on it. The user’s guide is also great because it is a more practical publication for clinicians, geared towards helping them support people who may be interested in type 2 diabetes remission, and it is not restricted to the standardized Diabetes Canada guidelines methodology and format…. the chapter will have to be updated as… we get more and more data on how the new classes of weight loss drugs impact diabetes remission….”

Q2:  Often one of the criticisms of research is about who sponsors/funds it and COI (conflict of interest).  How would you address/explain this to someone who doesn't do research? 

“…I always look at the research question and judge that first, before looking into how the project was funded. Is the question a good one? Are the methods used to try and answer it the right ones? Do they have the right controls? and …what kind of potential does the research have to help people? This last point is key, it can determine if the research is for the greater good, for the good of the researchers’ career, or if it is just advertising for something.

There is good research, asking good questions and using good methodology that is funded by industry, just as there is poorer quality research funded by governments or non-profits etc.…. Beyond funding, there are many other potential biases that I look at….Individual researchers and research groups all have personal and/or team biases and many can fall into the trap of falling in love with their hypothesis. Personally, I try very hard to fall in love with my methods, because I believe this is the way to do better research.

😁Best of the Week - April 1st Video - “Wellness Influencers”

This well-done and fast-paced video by dietitian Mandy Enright spoofs the tactics of some of our “favorite” wellness influencers and their attempts to scare us about food and to promote misinformation.

🖍10th Anniversary Coloring/Activity Book

For every coloring/activity book sold, we’ll donate $1 to World Central Kitchen (WCK). Check it out in our AMAZON store HERE

🤝April Subscription Donation Deal

Our April Subscription/Donation deal will benefit World Central Kitchen (WCK). When you become an Annual Subscriber (only $45/year) we’ll donate $5 to WCK.

❓When someone asks, “What do you do?”

Do you avoid telling people you’re a dietitian? Make up a different occupation? Here’s what one member of our Build Up Dietitians CAREER Advice group wrote:

🎧Podcast Pick:“Food Noise”Nutrition Diva & Nina Crowley

😒😡Another Negative Article about RDs

(& the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics)

But we’re not going to bother to link to it because we don’t need that kind of negativity in our lives.