Yesterday I had an occasion to wear a new little black dress that I had bought, and remembered the last time I wore one. Ironically, it was for my Master’s convocation just over 11 years ago, and the dress was a size 16. My degree was in Human Nutrition, yet I was very overweight and … Read more
Note: this article is both an editorial (expressing my personal opinion on the subject) as well as an article rooted in the literature. The new Canada’s Food Guide (CFG) hangs on three Guidelines and unfortunately many people discount the Guide entirely because of the caveats to which they are linked. In my opinion, this is … Read more
People who eat a low carb or ketogenic diet often ask about calculating “net carbs” and are surprised by my reply, as it differs from what they’ve read online. The commonly held advice is to subtract “fiber” from the total amount of carbohydrate on the label to arrive at “net carbs” can lead to an … Read more
Introduction The infographic below has been making the rounds recently on social media and is based on the idea that high Glycemic Index (GI) foods can be represented by the effect those foods have on people’s blood sugar, compared to teaspoons of sugar. Below is an infographic developed by Dr. David Unwin that describes the … Read more
A new study published today in Preventive Medicine estimates that excess body weight, including overweight and obesity is expected to become the second leading cause of preventable cancer in Canada, after tobacco over the next 20 years. Cancer Rates Expected to Triple The results of the new ComPARe study (Canadian Population Attributable Risk of Cancer) … Read more
In its recently published Consensus Report (April 18, 2019), the American Diabetes Association confirmed something that I have written about in several previous articles, including most recently in Part III of Carbohydrates are Not Evil and that is that it isn’t biologically essential to eat carbohydrate containing foods in the diet. From the top of … Read more
On April 18, 2019, the American Diabetes Association published a new Consensus Report which not only includes the use of a low carbohydrate eating pattern of 26-45% of total daily calories as carbohydrate, but in this report also includes the use of a very low carbohydrate (ketogenic) eating pattern of 20-50 g carbs per day. The … Read more
Yesterday, the headlines screamed out from around the world that a new study from Oxford University found that there is a 20% higher chance of developing colorectal cancer from eating as little as one strip of bacon per day. This sounds terrible, but is it true? To understand what this study is reporting, it is … Read more
A newly published large-scale epidemiological study has reported that taking vitamin and mineral supplements does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease such as heart attack and stroke, cancer rates or other causes of health-related death. The study published Tuesday, April 9, 2019 in the Annals of Internal Medicine analyzed US nutritional data from 30, … Read more
Note: This article was originally posted on April 9, 2019, and was updated and reposted on November 9, 2025. Introduction Did you know that “complex carbohydrates” are just long chains of sugar molecules, like pearls on a string? How quickly and how high blood sugar spikes depend on what those sugars are. This article … Read more
A recently published meta-analysis of 43 cohort or nested case-control studies up until July 1, 2018 [1] did not find that higher saturated fat intake is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. This is the first study to examine the effect of total dietary fat intake and the intake of specific fatty … Read more
Introduction I came across a social media post about someone who wanted to drink green tea for its health benefits, but couldn’t get over its “bad taste”. I followed the origin of the thread to Reddit, where people guessed whether green tea’s “off taste” for that person may be genetic, like the taste of cilantro. … Read more
I’ve heard that some types of cancer feed on glucose (the sugar in our blood) and I know of a few people that started a ketogenic diet as adjunct therapy to be used along side surgery and chemotherapy in the treatment of glioblastoma (a form of aggressive brain cancer), but just came across an article that … Read more
If you live almost anywhere in Canada and are looking for a Registered Dietitian with experience in food allergy or sensitivity, including celiac disease and IBS as well as the specific of providing low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet support, I can help. Whether you live in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova … Read more
INTRODUCTION It is well known that adults are at risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) due to obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, but it is now known that children and adolescents are also at risk of premature coronary artery disease and stroke for the same reasons. New Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association According … Read more
Most people think of pre-diabetes as a ‘warning sign’ that they are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes, but it is the final stage before diagnosis. The criteria for diagnosing prediabetes is having a fasting blood glucose between 6.1-6.9 mmol/L (110-12.4 mg/dl) and/or HbA1C between 6.0-6.4% [1], and the criteria for diagnosing Type 2 … Read more
INTRODUCTION: Last Friday, February 8, 2019, the Montreal Gazette published a special article with accompanying video by Dr. Joe Schwarcz, Professor of Chemistry from McGill University, titled “Keto Diets Work, but is There a Catch?” and this morning the follow-up was published titled “The Known Benefits of Low-Carb Keto Diets”. This post contains a summary … Read more
INTRODUCTION It is not uncommon for people to post their “before” pictures after they’ve reached their goal weight to show how much they’ve accomplished, but why on earth did I post pictures of myself when I was still obese and metabolically unwell? That’s a good question. There’s a saying that “it is not the healthy … Read more
The new Canada Food Guide encourages a whole food plant-based diet which is a good option for those who are metabolically healthy — especially those who are insulin sensitive. The challenge is that I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes 10 years ago and while I am in partial remission now as a result of dietary changes … Read more
INTRODUCTION: In a recent article titled Carbohydrates are not Evil I referred to myself as a “nutritional centrist” and in this post I’ll elaborate on what I mean by this. This post is more of an editorial than a standard ‘Science Made Simple’ article. References can be found in the previous articles by using the … Read more
Much of the discussion about nutrition these days on social media seems to take an “all-or-nothing” stance on carbohydrates. On one hand there are those who promote a plant-based diet that necessarily comes with a large amount of carbohydrate as grains, legumes (pulses) such as beans and lentils as well as carbohydrate-containing vegetables and fruit, … Read more
There has been some discussion on Twitter that the macronutrient estimated in the previous article of an average ~325-350 g of carbohydrate per day based on a 2000 kcal per day diet for the new Canada Food Guide was “too high”, so in the interest of determining whether it was accurate, I’ve evaluated the carbohydrate content of … Read more
This morning at 10 AM EST, the new Canada Food Guide was officially released in Montreal. The suite of Food Guide resources includes: Canada’s Dietary Guidelines for Health Professionals and Policy Makers Food Guide Snapshot Resources such as actionable advice, videos and recipes Evidence including the Evidence Review for Dietary Guidance 2015 and the Food, … Read more
We’ve come to expect that as people age they will gain more fat, loose bone mass and have decreased muscle strength which in time leads to difficulty in them getting around on their own, a greater risk of falls and eventually to physical disability. We commonly see older people with spindly little legs and bony arms and we think … Read more
A new report released on January 16, 2019 by the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet and Health sets out what it calls a “healthy and sustainable diet” [1] for the whole world. The EAT-Lancet report proposes what it calls the “Planetary Health Diet”; a largely plant-based diet which aims to address the simultaneous global problems of malnutrition (under-nutrition) … Read more
