ADA Food and Nutrition Conference & Expo 2011 - Highlights (part 2)

Hey all! In this post I will continue sharing the best of FNCE 2011. I hope you enjoyed the first part of this FNCE highlight series. As I said before, FNCE is a conference that gives content to talk about for a while. It’s impossible to cover all topics, thought. So, I just selected some of the topics that are in my opinion more interesting. Otherwise you can access to speakers presentations on the FNCE website. 

§    The Skeleton’s Out: A Standardized Approach to the Recognition and Documentation of Malnutrition. The ADA Malnutrition Workgroup and the ASPEN Malnutrition Task Force have worked together to get a consensus on how to diagnose and document malnutrition. Several characteristics of malnutrition were acknowledged and any 2 or more of these 6 characteristics can be used to diagnose malnutrition:

o       Evidence of reduced intake: for instance > 5 days with intake of < 50% of total estimated energy requirement (acute illness/injury category or suboptimal intake like > 1 month with a nutrient intake of <75% of total estimated energy requirements (chronic illness/condition category)

o       Unintended weight loss: > 2% weight loss in 1 week or > 7.5% in 3 months

o       Changes in body composition: loss of subcutaneous fat

o       Changes in body composition: loss of muscle mass

o       Changes in body composition: fluid accumulation

o       Measures of physical function/performance: hand grip strength, stair climbing

The speakers (Dr. Jane White and Dr. Annalynn Skipper, both dietitians) mentioned that these characteristics to identify malnutrition represent a work in progress and that they may change overtime as evidence is collected to support their appropriateness. If you are interested in learning more, here is the handout.

§    The War on Obesity: A Battle Worth Fighting? This was a provocative debate between an antiobesity researcher, John Foreyt, PhD, and Linda Bacon, PhD, a nutrition researcher, author of Health at Every Size (HAES), where she proposes an approach were people don’t have to lose weight to live longer and encourages “Accepting and respecting the natural diversity of body sizes and shapes”. Bacon presented research that shows that obese people live as longer as normal weight people. But, how can she ignore the quality of life of the obese? Or the cost of their health care? I don’t agree with Bacon statement “the best way to win the war against fat is to give up the fight”and neither have I agreed with Foreyt when he dismissed mindful or intuitive eating. One thing, where the two speakers have agreed is that restrictive diets don’t work. But, we can’t just say that “diets don’t work”. We need to help people to incorporate life lasting healthy eating habits. Don’t you think?

§    The Skinny on Bariatric Surgery: Illuminating the Evidence from Early Stage CKD through Transplant. Dr. Maria Collazo-Clavel from Mayo Clinic highlighted how post bariatric surgery patients started to show up at the Stone clinic as renal stone formation (specially calcium oxalate stones) became a common condition after bariatric surgery, mainly due to dehydration, diet composition (low in protein/calcium),  fat malabsorption with hyperoxaluria. The next speaker, dietitian Judith Beto, PhD pointed out how bariatric surgery can be useful in reducing BMI to decrease surgical risks prior to renal transplantation. Nutrition therapy for renal patients after bariatric surgery is well addressed by Rachael Majorowicz (moderator of this session) in “Nutrition Management of Gastric Bypass In Patients With Chronic Renal Disease” (Nephrology Nursing Journal March-April 2010:37:171)

§    How Risky is Our Food? Clarifying the Controversies of Chemical Risks. In this session, Julie Miller Jones, PhD, LN, CNS, board member of ILSI, showed that despite acrylamide is considered a carcinogen in the laboratory, studies have reported that everyday exposure to acrylamide in food is too low to be of concern.  Acrylamide in food forms from sugars and an amino acid when foods are cooked, specially at high temperatures. There are some ways to reduce acrylamide in your food, like: toast lightly (scrape off very dark areas), allow long yeast fermentation, bake and fry at right temperature (don’t over-brown), store potatoes properly (not in the fridge) and cook them with skin on.

The next speaker, Carl Winter, PhD, a fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists and a Board member of the FDA, showed his research about organic foods and challenged all their claims. He questioned the methodology used by the EWG on the “dirty dozen list” and showed data where organic foods are not healthier than conventional ones.
Great piece of the audience criticized this session for the lack of balance. Would have been nice to hear from researchers that supports organic foods as well. Take a look at the handouts here.

That’s all by now. Don’t miss the next post, with info about new products presented at the Expo and closing session remarks!

- Romina

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