Build Up Catch Up - 6/16/23
Soil & Supplement Sales Pitches, Bonjour New Team BUD member!, Podcast Pick, Book Recommendation and....3 Things to Notice.
Supplement Sales Pitch
(Disclaimer: This is not about being anti-vitamin/mineral supplements. It’s about the rapacious and unethical tendency of people who hawk supplements by using false narratives and tropes to try and create fear about food and distrust of farmers.)
Here’s one of the tropes: ‘Soil health is bad/depleted, so food is less nutritious, therefore you need to take supplements’.
You may wonder, 🤔What does this have to do with dietetics and dietitians? ANSWER: how can we talk about food unless we understand what our customers are afraid of eating and why? OR Why our customers/patients/clients feel like they need to take supplements?
How many times have you read/heard that, ‘soil health is worse now than it was 50 years ago and our food lacks nutrition’ and this then becomes a justification for why someone needs supplements. As dietitian Abby Langer noted, “The people who perpetuate myths about our food being less nutritious are usually biased, or they’re looking to profit. They include chiropractors and companies selling supplements (SHOCK), farms selling organic produce, and activist organizations promoting their own agendas.”
Here are some expert reactions to the myth that soil now is depleted:
✳Peter Ballerstedt - MS (Agronomy & Crop Science), PhD (Forage Production & Utilization) (via Twitter) “Soils can naturally be deficient in various minerals. - Pre-modern agriculture created vast areas of degraded soils. - Nutrient contents of plant source foods (PSF) vary tremendously.”
🔅Kevin Folta - Professor, University of Florida - Plant Biology - (via Twitter) - “It is a common trope. Soil is not one thing….”
🎆Stuart Smyth - Agri-Food Innovation & Sustainability Enhancement Chair, University of Saskatchewan - (via Twitter) “Soil organic matter has been increasing over the past 20 years in the Canadian prairies as tillage is removed. Higher organic matter contributes to improved soil health.”
🎇James Wong - Botanist, Science Writer and Podcaster - (via Twitter) - “It’s rubbish…not based on any good evidence.”
and more resources:
Was Great-Grandma’s Food More Nutritious? | CommonGround Nebraska
Bottom Line: Soil is not one thing. Soil can have different composition based on where you live. Soil composition can even vary in the same large field. Soil isn’t static, it’s dynamic and changes with environmental conditions like rainfall, drought, what crops are planted etc. as well as inputs from the farmer. Like soil, the nutrient content of crops, whether grains, fruits or vegetables, can vary depending on the variety/cultivar. Plants and trees wouldn’t produce if soil was of poor quality. Eat a variety of foods - especially fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and seeds…and remember, #FoodFirst before supplements - ignore what “Big Supplement” sellers say.
Podcast Pick
This Podcast Will Kill You : Episode 96 - “We Encyst You Listen”
Everything you wanted to know about tapeworms…..their lifecycle, where they come from, their typical host, how they affect humans and what does this have to do with the “Tapeworm Diet”.
Book Nook Recommendation
“An Edible History of Humanity” by Tom Standage
A look at food and farming. How technology and innovation has revolutionized our food supply….”To ensure an adequate supply of food….it will be necessary to assemble the largest possible toolbox of agricultural techniques….It is far too simplistic to suggest that the world faces a choice between organic fundamentalism on the one hand and blind faith in biotechnology on the other. The future of food production, and of mankind, surely lies in the wide and fertile middle ground in between.”
Bonjour new Team BUD member!
Please join us in welcoming a new moderator/admin to Build Up Dietitians!
Sarah Séjourné Laudouar is a French Registered Dietitian and lives in a small town between Lyon and Grenoble in France. Sarah sees patients with obesity, eating disorders and renal disease. She believes strongly in the importance of critical thinking and evidence-based practice and hopes that being part of Build Up Dietitians and contributing articles in French will help encourage other dietitians in France to #stand4science.
DYK we have over 20 dietitians who help with the Facebook page, our private/closed groups, newsletter and website? Our Build Up team includes dietitians in Canada and Spain. Team BUD dietitians work in a variety of career paths: LTC, acute care, public health, renal dietetics, GI dietetics, weight management, retail and more.
If you’d like to be more involved with the Build Up Dietitians platform by moderating or contributing content let us know! builduprdns@gmail.com
3 Things To Think About This Week
#PrideMonth Resource
We have 2 more “Things to Think About”…upgrade to being a paid subscriber to see them!
2. Top 5 Tips for Public Speaking - these tips from FFA (Future Farmers of America) are helpful. Like #4: Remember to breathe and pace yourself.
Do you have a favorite tip or technique that helps you with public speaking?
Consider joining Build Up Dietitians Career Advice group
3. Barriers to Obesity Care - image below from Dr. Michael Crotty (Ireland). As Mary M. wrote in our Build Up Weight Management (Bariatric/Metabolic Treatment) - “What a great conversation to have…” .
Along with this, the words of Ted Kyle of Conscien Health: “The bottom line here is simple. Words matter. Language frames our beliefs about obesity and our response to it. The language we use betrays the implicit biases we harbor. Even more important, language shapes our thoughts. When we hold onto implicitly stigmatizing language, we reinforce the stigma of obesity.”
Does Sarah Séjourné Laudouar treat patients with obesity from a weight neutral or weight loss perspective?