• Support
  • Advertise
  • Locations
  • Contact
Sunday, January 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTERS
San Clemente Times
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • Money Matters
    • Best of San Clemente
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Triton Football Preview
    • Go See Do
    • The Green Issue
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • Money Matters
    • Best of San Clemente
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Triton Football Preview
    • Go See Do
    • The Green Issue
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
No Result
View All Result
San Clemente Times
No Result
View All Result

Health & Nutrition 101: Nutrition Chaos

Staff by Staff
April 14, 2022 3:20AM
in Opinion Columns, SOAPBOX
Health and Nutrition 101: Food for Thought: Would You Like a Quarantine Do-Over?

Gina Cousineau

0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Gina Cousineau

By Gina Cousineau

I love to hike, so I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to free docent-led hikes for all fitness levels with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy group at letsgooutside.org.

While there are awesome trail systems right here in our own backyard, I love the opportunity to meet new people and explore trails that I never knew existed in my 37 years of living and hiking here.

During these hikes, it is bound to come up that I am a culinary nutritionist, with a focus on preventing disease, and so the questions commence.

I happen to love talking all things food and fitness, so I welcome these conversations.

I begin these encounters by listening very carefully to the questions/statements shared with me. Then I thoughtfully decide what my next move will be, swaying between comments such as these: Where did you hear that? What are your goals? Or why would you consider that?

At the top of the list of comments I hear are “What do you think of the keto diet?” “I intermittent fast,” and “I was told to avoid dairy and gluten.”

I often cut to the chase with the goal of education and providing background to where the latest diet craze came from.

In the case of the “ketogenic diet,” this was a medical nutrition therapy designed by clinicians working with children who had uncontrolled epilepsy, way back in the 1920s. As you can imagine, this was a huge medical breakthrough, as every seizure potentially damages the brain, so taking extreme action was necessary.

These children were followed closely and supplemented with nutrients they would inevitably be missing from this high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carbohydrate diet, missing out on important vitamins, minerals, and much-needed fiber. This was not meant for the general population.

Much of what I do in life is to try to get people to consider if their latest diet approach is reasonable. And for me, when we talk about consuming high amounts of fat, including “heart damaging” saturated fat, along with removing major food groups, aka the “keto” diet, I have to ask, “Why?”

Unfortunately, the nutrition strategy is usually driven by the desire to lose weight, not the desire to improve health.

And while most new clients come to me with the primary goal of weight loss, within a few weeks of educating them, I would say most, if not all, buy into the desire of preventing, halting, and reversing disease processes with the goal of a long, healthy, independent and joyful life. And, surprisingly, the almighty scale follows suit.

Most of my clients are excellent dieters, meaning they have tried many, and some admit to having been “on a diet” for most of their adult lives. When I ask about their success, they always state “the diet worked until I went off it.” (Deep sigh from Mama G.)

With the influx of social media and access to the internet, opinions abound in the multibillion-dollar nutrition and health industry, so we must be very careful with whom we allow to influence us.

While bullying and brainwashing have existed from the beginning of mankind, the concept of “gaslighting”—making people question the validity of their own thoughts—is alive and viciously present today.

My hope with my readers is to empower them with health and wellness information that is “reasonable”; consider goals when it comes to health; understand that a decrease in weight of only 5-10% can remarkably improve your health, but that it doesn’t have to come with a punitive and restrictive diet approach; move toward more wholesome food choices; gather in the kitchen to cook and eat meals together; and get outside and enjoy this beautiful place in which we live.

Gina Cousineau is an interventional culinary nutritionist. With an extensive education—a BS in Dietetics and MS in Integrative and Functional Nutrition, as well as being a trained chef and fitness professional—her goal is to help her clients’ health thrive using “food as medicine.” She is offering a complimentary, four-week webinar series this month (all sessions recorded). Subscribe at mamagslifestyle.com or at mamag@mamagslifestyle.com to participate.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Tags: Dana PointHealthHealth and Nutrition 101NutritionNutrition ChaosOrange CountySan ClementeSan Juan Capistrano
ShareTweetPin
Staff

Staff

Related Posts

San Clemente Girls Soccer Finishes Early, Moves into First Place with Shutout of San Juan Hills

San Clemente Girls Soccer Finishes Early, Moves into First Place with Shutout of San Juan Hills

January 28, 2023
Artifex Releases Beer ‘Created by AI, Brewed by Humans’

Artifex Releases Beer ‘Created by AI, Brewed by Humans’

January 27, 2023
Calvada

Planning Commission Gives Go-Ahead to Mixed-Use Development South of Downtown

January 27, 2023
Council to Hold New Election of Mayor Pro Tem Amid Debate over Voting Process

Council to Hold New Election of Mayor Pro Tem Amid Debate over Voting Process

January 26, 2023
Next Post
At the Movies: ‘The Lost City’ Is Easy Weekend Viewing

Editor's Pick: Sensational Springtacular

Discussion about this post

No Result
View All Result

SC Times Daily
Get important news and updates delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here.

Subscriptions
Don’t get the SC Times delivered to your home? Subscribe today.

Advertising
Get new customers and drive traffic to your business. Advertise with us.

Support Local Journalism
For less than the cost of a couple of cups of coffee a month, become an “Insider” member and continue to get “Local News You Can Use” from the only independently owned, dedicated local news organization in South Orange County.

Contribute today.

Picket Fence Media is a proud member of the SoCal Media Network.

  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Dana Point Times
  • The Capistrano Dispatch
  • Terms of Use
  • About Us

© 2023 Picket Fence Media

No Result
View All Result
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • Money Matters
    • Best of San Clemente
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Triton Football Preview
    • Go See Do
    • The Green Issue
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who

© 2023 Picket Fence Media