Help with misleading advice

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bpotts44
bpotts44 Posts: 1,066 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My local news paper has a fitness column written by a local personal trainer. I have often questioned the validity of her diet advice and she has as far as I can tell no nutritional training. She wrote a column basically saying that eating 6 small meals a day would increase your metabolism and she recommended eating a lot of nuts and whole grain breads which I have no problem with but think it is very easy to overeat your calories on them when you are not tracking. She mentioned nothing about diabetes in her original column BTW. Here is the email I sent her and here is the response. Anyone care to help me respond back or comment? Thanks!

My email:

I read your column today about the thermogenic effect of food. Unfortunately your information was misleading. You will capture the same thermogenic effect of food no matter the timing of your meals. All legitimate research has shown that meal timing (as long as you eat every 48 hrs) has no effect on metabolism. Eating 5 or 6 small meals a day has gone the way of broscience. Further, recent evidence is points towards intermittent fasting being very helpful for increasing metabolism and weight loss as you confine your intake to shorter periods and the fast period helps moderate insulin, cortisone and other hormones during the fast to assist in fat consumption while increasing metabolism as your body encourages you to hunt for food. Many people looking to lose weight would be much better off to restrict their intake to meal times or by skipping breakfast and extending their overnight fast. Also, I think people trying to lose weight would be better served with focusing their meals on lean protein sources and fruits and vegetable while avoiding calorie dense foods like bread, nut butters, and nuts which can easily be overeaten for the amount of satiation that you receive. They also should focus on moderate calorie deficit, and shooting for 1 gram of protein per lb of lbm. The lean protein keeps macronutrients in line and the fruits and veggies take care of micronutrient requirements.

Her response:

Thank you for taking the time to send me an email. I hear what you are saying but I will agree to disagree with you J Current research does agree with all the information in my article. I take my articles very seriously and never want to mislead anyone, or talk outside of my scope of practice. I do not arbitrarily write my articles, everything in the article was researched extensively.

Broscience is the predominant brand of reasoning in bodybuilding circles where the anecdotal reports of jacked dudes are considered more credible than scientific research. Thought that was an interesting term you used in your email, but in no way do I use that type of information in my articles. Also if an individual is diabetic the concept of eating 5-6 small meals a day will keep their blood glucose levels more stable and their cells more insulin receptive, and research confirms over and over again that eating too few calories or skipping meals can indeed place the metabolism in jeopardy.

Here are some current articles written by PHDs and RD’s that back up the premise of my article.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130129080620.htm
http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/expert-insight-article/3/2172/can-you-bust-four-common-fitness-myths-part-2/
http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/expert-insight-article/3/2461/do-men-and-women-have-different-nutritional/
http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/expert-insight-article/3/2461/do-men-and-women-have-different-nutritional/

I am happy to hear that you have lost weight on your plan. I wish you much wellness!!

I find the quoted articles to be off the mark or irrelevant. But I would greatly appreciate any help in a response.

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