Defeating Dietary Displacement Part 1 - The food

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Defeating Dietary Displacement

Part 1 ­ The Food

by John M. Berardi

 

http://www.t-mag.com/nation_articles/293def.jsp

 

 

The Origin of Obesity?

 

So there I am, sitting in my favorite coffee shop across from my " coffee

friend. " Things are off to a good start. We’re laughing, she’s playing with

her hair, and she’s reaching across the table touching my arm when I make a

particularly witty comment. Note to self: " I’m in there! "

 

I order a green tea, a pitcher of water, and two chicken breast sandwiches

(no bread, no mayonnaise, double the vegetables, please). Because it’s my

" free " or " cheat " day, I pre-order dessert­ a slice of warm apple pie. With

mouth agape and that " where do you put it all? " look on her face, my coffee

friend orders a chocolate brownie and a double latté. Then it happens: she

starts asking the nutrition questions.

 

Internally, I groan. Only fifteen minutes into the meeting and we’re

talking about the subject I usually like to steer clear of when I’m off the

clock, especially with new people. It’s better to slowly wean them onto my

diet ideas than to launch right into it during the first meeting. Damn my

buddy and his " coffee dates " !

 

But then, during the ensuing conversation, which wasn’t as bad as I'd

initially predicted, something else happened. In talking nutrition with my

coffee friend, I realized that during this meal I was getting a very clear

insight into the very " obesification " of North America.

 

Now, this girl is definitely not obese. She’s young, thin, and a real

hottie. But in ten or twenty years, she will be obese if she continues to

regularly dine on rich chocolate brownies and frappaccinos for lunch,

bagels and coffee for breakfast (her admitted breakfast of choice), soda

throughout the day, and leftover casserole for dinner.

 

Of course, obesity isn’t imminent in her case. She’s a young, intelligent,

and reasonably disciplined woman, and she’ll probably be able to restrain

her eating habits (i.e., curtail her total daily energy intake) enough to

stave off full-blown obesity. But the fact is, simply moderating ones

portions isn't enough to achieve optimal body composition and health.

 

 

Dietary Displacing: The " All-Treat " Diet

 

At this point some of you might be thinking, " Hold on just a minute, JB,

didn’t you order the apple pie? Why are you railing against her when you’re

just as guilty of ordering junk as she is? " Sorry, that sort of thinking is

flawed.

 

There's a big difference between a healthy diet to which treats are

occasionally added and an all-treat diet. In the former, less healthy foods

are consumed rarely and in addition to healthy foods. In the latter, less

healthy or unhealthy foods are consumed often and instead of healthy foods.

This is called food displacement and must be avoided if optimal body

composition and health are your goals.

 

Sure, I did indulge in a slice of sugar-laden junk food, this being one of

the two " treats " I ate that week. But looking only at the junk food that we

ate presents a woefully incomplete part of the picture. The presence of bad

food in both of our diets is much less important than the absence of good

food in hers.

 

To elaborate: I ate a small amount of junk food in addition to my

antioxidant rich, protein filled, nutrient dense meal, which was just one

of seven such meals I ate that day­and that was one of seven such days that

week! She ate some junk. Period.

 

She started her day with junk, ate a lunch of junk, and filled the rest of

the day with junk as well. I got all the antioxidants, micronutrients, and

protein I needed, while she spent the entire day eating the nutritional

equivalent of a cardboard box.

 

Based on our activity levels and basal metabolic needs, we both probably

met our energy needs for the day (in terms of total energy ingested vs.

total energy expended), but I actually got some nutrition that day. She

just got calories, and her calories came from what we call " displacing foods. "

 

You see, the bagel, the brownie and latte, the soda, etc. were consumed

instead of good healthy choices. So, in essence, their empty calories

displaced the good, nutrient dense food she could've otherwise eaten. She

consumed nothing but empty calories, calories more likely to be stored as

fat than burned, calories that actually degrade health or do nothing to

improve it, calories that'll make her hungry and food-obsessed all day, and

calories that'll make her tired just an hour or two after consumption.

 

I ate 49 healthy meals plus two treats that week. She had all treats. Big

difference, huh?

 

 

Convenience and Calories: Overfed, Undernourished

 

Know anyone else like this girl? Chances are you know lots of other

individuals like her! In the US alone, there are about 129.6 million

overweight individuals and probably many more well on their way, just like

my coffee friend. These stats beg the question­how did otherwise

intelligent people get to be so bad, exchanging good nutrition for empty

calories? While an explanation is probably multifactorial, there are a few

simple answers that pop into my mind.

 

First, I think that North Americans strive daily for nutritional

convenience. Sure, when the typical person goes out for a nice dinner at a

restaurant, he or she usually gets a decent meal. But, unlike many

Europeans (the French and the Italians come to mind), North Americans

select everyday meals for speed and convenience.

 

A nice egg and spinach omelet with oats and pineapple on the side takes

some time to prepare and eat. On the contrary, a bagel and coffee can be

carried into the car and eaten on the way to work. So in our quest for

speed and convenience, we get very little in the way of good nutrition.

That’s why we’re overfed and undernourished, and that's how people can eat

so much yet still have nutrient deficiencies.

 

Secondly, I think we’ve gotten too calorie conscious. Most people who make

poor food selections aren’t stupid. They know if they want to be thin, they

can only eat a certain amount of calories per day. If they eat more, they

either feel monumentally guilty or, much less often, they head to the gym

for marathon cardio sessions designed to exercise those extra calories off.

 

In trying to walk that thin tight rope of energy balance, they realize if

they eat good, healthy food (i.e. marinated chicken breast with a spinach

salad and a piece of fruit), they’ll be eating a bunch of calories which

simply don’t taste as good as the brownies they’re craving. In this sense,

the healthy food will displace the tasty junk they often crave.

 

So in an attempt to get the tasty brownie calories, they choose instead to

displace the good chicken and spinach calories, kicking them out of the

diet. In their minds, " a calorie is a calorie " and therefore if they simply

eat a brownie instead of the chicken, they’ll stay just as thin. Thin, in

our society, is synonymous with healthy. Little do they realize they’re

setting themselves up for losses in lean body mass, an ever slowing

metabolic rate, micronutrient deficiencies, and all sorts of nutrition

related health problems including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and

syndrome-x (basically insulin resistance).

 

It’s hard to stay lean when the metabolism is dwindling as a result of

insufficient protein intake and a low thermic effect of feeding. The

metabolic rate takes another plunge because of deficiencies in essential

fatty acids, not to mention decreasing muscle mass.

 

It’s also pretty difficult to stay lean if you’ve got diabetes,

cardiovascular disease, and/or syndrome-x. To support this notion, all we

need to realize is that in the last twenty years the incidence of obesity

has doubled, yet our average daily energy intake hasn’t increased much at all!

 

North Americans aren’t getting so darned fat and/or unhealthy simply

because of overeating. Often they replace good foods with the super-sized

sugars, the trans fats, and the other nasty fast food ingredients. The good

foods have the power to negate the effects of these nasty, health-degrading

junk foods, but because people become too concerned with energy balance,

they simply displace the good stuff.

 

In fact, if people simply ate a high protein, antioxidant and micronutrient

rich diet supplemented with junk food, they’d end up leaner and healthier

than those who got the same amount of calories (and often even fewer

calories) from empty, displacing foods.

 

 

Cheat Meals

 

People often ask me what I think about cheat meals. Generally, what they

want to know is, " Do I really have to eat clean all the time? " The answer

is a qualified " yes. " You should plan out your diet in advance, choosing

only clean foods, and then eat everything on your plan. One or two days a

week, if you so desire, you can eat foods that wouldn’t normally be found

on your plan in addition to and not instead of the healthy foods.

 

Usually I add such foods at the end of the day, when I’m already stuffed

with lean meat, EFAs, fruits and veggies. That tends to limit my ability to

indulge. Of course, in strict fat loss phases, these calories should be the

first to go.

 

Bottom line: As long as it doesn’t displace the good calories, you can have

your cake and eat it too. Chew on that a while and then check back next

week for Part II of this article: " Displacing Debates " !

 

 

About the Author

 

John Berardi is a PhD candidate in Exercise and Nutritional Biochemistry at

the University of Western Ontario, Ontario Canada. John is also president

of Science Link, a human performance and nutrition consultation group

dedicated to translating research into results. The Science Link team

works with clients from around the world and from all walks of life

including elite athletes to cardiovascular patients. To find out more

about his products and services, visit him at www.johnberardi.com