Note: This is the next guest post by Stefanie Stevenson, Nourish’s Integrative Physician, who is attending the Nutrition and Health Conference in Boston this week!

The morning began in an interesting way – 3 experts (Weil, Willett, and Hibbeln) discussing the health benefits of the various types of fats (saturated, omega 6 and omega 3) and they were not all in agreement.  It does underline the difficulty in studying nutrition and how the information is interpreted.  The next talk was about nutrition and bone health.  There was a general consensus on calcium and vitamin D recommendations for both men and women, but the most interesting thing that I took away was a typical Western Diet with overly processed foods causes an acidic load on the body.  The skeleton buffers this load by losing its calcium.  Another way to buffer this acidity is by eating 9 fruits and vegetables a day!

Dr. McClafferty, a pediatrician, gave a wonderful talk “What’s a Parent to Do?  Children’s Nutrition and Environmental Medicine.”  One of her goals was to raise awareness about diseases that may be related to environmental toxins in children.  As a parent of three children this lecture certainly raised many concerns about the toxins our children are exposed to daily in our environment.  The endocrine disrupting chemicals – Bisphenol A, phthalates, flame retardants – are currently a key area of research.  I learned of two great resources – the Environmental Working Group and GoodGuide.

Finally, Dr. Weil talked about food and mental health – a huge topic!  There is currently a huge shift that is taking place in how medical researchers and clinicians are thinking about the causes of depression.  There is a growing body of data that SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – an example is Prozac) work no better than a sugar pill.  In fact, long term SSRI may lead to prolonging depression due to the brain making less serotonin and decreasing the number of serotonin receptors.  We have seen an analogous story in the stomach with long – term proton pump inhibitors (an example being Prevacid).   The two strategies that have the strongest evidence to both prevent and treat depression are exercise and fish oil.

Once again, if you have any questions, ask them in the comments section!

Note: This  is a guest post by Stefanie Stevenson, M.D., the Nourish Integrative Physician. She is attending the Nutrition and Health Conference in Boston this week and sharing her experience via the blog!

Hi everyone! Day one of the conference was terrific! Here are a few of my personal favorite “nuggets” of information from today’s lectures:

Dr. Robert Lustig gave a lecture on “The Trouble with Fructose” (he was recently featured on 60 minutes and has a you tube video “Sugar:  The Bitter Truth). Fructose (from high fructose corn syrup and it makes up 50% of table sugar) drives insulin resistance.  Insulin resistance is one of the key factors in obesity and the development of metabolic syndrome. The liver metabolizes fructose the same way as alcohol, which causes the liver to make fat and deposit that fat in the liver, at the same time it induces liver insulin resistance, which drives weight gain and continued consumption.  He also commented that about 80% of all the products in an average grocery store have added sugars.  Our food environment promotes obesity.

Dr. David Eisenberg from Harvard Medical School shared cooking lessons with his talk “Cooking and Culinary Literacy.”  In 1960 America spent 74 billion dollars on food and 27 billion dollars on health care; compare that to what America spends now – 1.25 trillion dollars on food and 2.5 trillion dollars on health care.  Who would you rather pay – the doctor or the grocer?  Culinary literacy is at an all time low.  Learning to cook can be a catalyst of societal change!

There was a great review of the newest FAD diets (FAD = falsely advertised diets), including the sleep doctor’s diet, raw foods diet, the paleo diet, the alkaline (or pH diet), and the BHCG diet.  At any one time, 40-50% of Americans are dieting, making the weight loss industry a > 40 million business.  The take – home point on all of these diets is they may have a kernel of helpful information to them, but taken in their entirety, there is lack of evidence for benefit.  The BHCG diet can pose specific health risks, especially if the active drug is being taken.

Dr. David Ludwig from Harvard Medical School gave a wonderful lecture on childhood obesity.  For all those parents (me) that struggle with getting your child to eat healthy food, Dr. Ludwig suggests two main constructive methods – protect the home environment (if it doesn’t support health don’t have it in your house) and model the behavior you want your child to have.  Young children are programmed to learn about new foods by watching adults.  Teach children what to do, rather then what not to do.  Authoritative parenting styles (respectful with clear boundaries) have been correlated with the lowest risk of a child being overweight.

Look for another update soon and feel free to ask any questions via comments!

This is a guest post by Stefanie Stevenson, M.D., our Integrative Physician at Nourish.

I’m so excited to go to Boston for the 9th annual Nutrition and Health Conference in a few days.  It may seem obvious to many of you that the two go together, but you would be amazed by how many doctors do not recognize the connection between the two (health and nutrition) although this is beginning to change.   I understood the connection on a superficial level before I attended my first conference three years ago, but came away with a much deeper level of understanding and a passion to pass on the information I learned.  For the first time I felt my role as a physician broaden.  Yes, I see myself as a healer, but also an educator, an activist, and a public health servant.

I want everyone to be able to experience this conference!  Since I can’t bring you all to Boston, I will bring Boston to you.  Please look for my conference updates next week, where I will share my most important learning take-aways.