Patricia Chuey

Food and Nutrition Expert | Recipe Developer

It feels like yesterday in many ways, yet 30 years ago I began studying food+nutrition and headed out on a communications journey trying to make sense of it for consumers.

In 2019, I was humbled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at my alma mater, the University of Saskatchewan.

In 2014, I was honoured with a Fellowship and Alumni of Influence Award for work in encouraging Canadians to eat well and protect their well-being.

Three decades of immersion in consumer food concerns has provided very valuable perspective. I’ve seen good, bad and ugly health habits. I’ve studied what the healthiest people on the planet do. I've toured farms and food factories. From my kitchen office, I share simple thoughts with the goal of continuing to inspire guilt-free, genuine well-being and peace of mind with food – despite what might be hot in the news, on food labels, in the workplace, at the gym or tweeted on social media.

I was fortunate to have parents from farm families who were never on diets. Instead they grew a big vegetable garden, taught us to cook whole foods, to share meals, to minimize food waste and be grateful for the amazing access we have to good food. They were ‘trendy’ and didn’t even know it. 

I’ve worked with consumers on healthy living issues in many settings – their kitchens, the grocery store, farmer's markets, workplaces, professional sports team locker rooms,  food industry board rooms, restaurants,  school classrooms, prenatal classes, the news room, cooking show sets, fitness classes, marketing departments, magazine editorial meetings, and one-on-one chats.

It's time to officially rant share the important perspective this has provided. Thanks for your interest in reading! #ChueyOnThis

They say we need to “Eat More Plants”

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And, they’re right!

It’s great advice! In fact, it’s possibly the single most-important healthy eating measure you can take as part of an overall approach to well-being that also includes breathing fresh air and addressing exercise, stress, sleep and other habits. Eating more plants is the theme of the shiny new Canada’s Food Guide released in January 2019 as a refresh to the one of 12 years prior. (Note that every previous food guide has also included eating vegetables, fruit and grains.) Additionally, eating more plants is considered a critical strategy for world food sustainability.

So where do we get all these healthy plants?

Of the 30 million folks to feed in Canada and the 300 billion worldwide, thank goodness for farmers who grow food. While over half of Canadians worked on farms 100 years ago, today less than two per cent of Canadians do. Backyard and balcony gardens are valuable for all sorts of reasons from teaching kids where food comes from to enjoying the special taste of homegrown food. However, without large-scale farming we wouldn’t even come close to feeding our own country or being able to help nourish the rest of the world.

If you’ve never had a chance to do so, it is extremely worthwhile to visit a farm and talk with farmers to understand the passion they have for the land, the sustainability of the environment and the food they grow to feed their families and share.

Farms by province

In Canada 97 per cent of farms are family-owned. Of the close to 2.5 billion acres of land in Canada, only about 6.5 per cent is farmed. Towns, cities, industrial areas and land not suitable for farming for being rocky or in the wrong climate make up the rest. Here are some other nifty facts about Canadian farms by province from The Real Dirt on Farming:

  • Saskatchewan is the largest producer of crops such as wheat, lentils and canola
  • Manitoba has the highest proportion of young farmers
  • British Columbia has the largest number of small farms
  • Ontario produces more soybeans than any other province, and is responsible for two-thirds of Canada’s greenhouse vegetable production
  • Quebec leads the country in dairy, maple syrup, pork, nut, fruit and berry production
  • Nova Scotia grows more apples than any other province
  • Newfoundland and Labrador market their products directly to consumers to a greater extent than anywhere else in the country
  • Alberta has the most beef cattle
  • Oats are the most common field crop in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, excluding hay and alfalfa
  • Forty per cent of the land in PEI is used for farming. PEI and New Brunswick grow a lot of potatoes

Canadian farmers are on trend

Our farmers grow a diverse range of food and are deeply committed to doing so with safe, sustainable and state of the art methods. Whether the oats in your granola, the hemp hearts blended into your smoothie, the lentils in a veggie burger or the juicy strawberries enjoyed on summer days, the availability of the plants we require for good health is not only a function of the sun and rain. The planning, equipment, supplies and people all factor into the success of the farm as do government-approved technologies from scientific advances such as pesticides and biotechnology.

Understanding where food comes from and the high standards farmers must meet to remain in business is important. Without ever being at a farm, or several, and without ever experiencing the challenges of growing food on a large scale, it is a very dangerous thing to spread inaccurate anti-farming information. With less than two per cent of people growing our food, do we want to put them out of business?

Just like many non-food businesses in our country, farmers run diversified operations in which they don’t only grow one crop. It is common for farmers to grow many crops (a mixed grain operation), raise chicken for eggs and perhaps also raise cattle or other animals.

Let’s support those who grow our food

I grew up in an agricultural province – Saskatchewan. My parents grew up on prairie farms. As a dietitian in the business of food communications, I’ve spent three decades talking with consumers about food and health. Interestingly, the loudest and harshest criticism I’ve heard about farming has always come from miles away from any farm. I’ve visited many farms and food production facilities. I am extremely confident that the food supply in Canada is not only safe, but first class. The quality of the food and farming methods used in Canada are envied around the world.

I encourage supporting farmers rather than spreading dangerously inaccurate information that can put our food supply at risk. Just a few of the many ways to show support:

  • From cranberries and barley to chickpeas and eggs, visit as many Canadian farms as you can to understand where the food you feed your family comes from and the passion and commitment of the people who grow it. Also enjoy the fantastic access we have to many other fruits and vegetables due to our ability to import them from countries with climates suitable to growing them at different times of the year.
  • Before saying the soil is depleted and that’s why you need to rely on multiple vitamins, know that food will not grow if there are no nutrients in the soil.
  • When dining out, know that hormones are not used in ANY egg farming in Canada. Be assured that every Canadian restaurant serving eggs in any form is using hormone-free eggs.
  • Before making statements about biotechnology being dangerous, take time to learn about the safe and sustainable advances it has created. Know the whole story.
  • Know that every plant on earth is made of natural chemicals. An apple, for example, contains over 300 different chemicals, including naturally-occurring acetone and formaldehyde. Yes, still eat apples. Knowing the difference between risk and hazard is VERY important. Correlation is not the same as causation.
  • Know that pesticides are extensively tested and regulated, as much as or even more than prescription drugs. Both are chemicals that have jobs to do. Both come with benefits and risks. Thirty three per cent of the global population are small farmers whose livelihoods depend on their own farms. One bad harvest or crop destruction and they would be ruined.
  • Understand that the benefits of eating that plant-based diet rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains FAR outweigh the risks from pesticides used to grow them
  • In your quest to eat more plants and feed your family nutritiously, take time to acknowledge those who made those nourishing foods readily available for us to eat, grow on and thrive from.
  • Cook at home as often as you can and feature in-season Canadian-grown food when possible. For some terrific recipes to try in each season of the year, check out From Farm to Food , a wonderful recipe project I had the pleasure of teaming with other Canadian foodie dietitians to create in partnership with CropLife.ca.

Eating Healthier May Not Be the Answer

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If 2019 is the year you plan to make major strides towards improved health and energy but in a way that will last forever rather than just while you’re on ‘the diet’, healthier eating may not be the answer. Eating well is indeed a very important part of achieving optimal health, but on its own it simply is not enough.

There is one word that sums up what the healthiest people on the planet have mastered: CONSISTENCY. Vibrant, optimistic, energetic people who rarely get sick have made physically and mentally healthy habits a permanent part of their lives. Think about it for a second. Are the healthiest people you know constantly gaining and losing weight or trying the latest fitness trend? Do they always want to talk about their food intolerances or eating style? Generally, they’re people who are positive and very healthy throughout their whole lives. How they do this is by permanently, consistently and carefully balancing the multiple variables that contribute to optimal health. It’s a daily commitment and frequently requires tough decisions in a world full of unhealthy options and threats – including extreme negativity. Many of the factors that enhance well-being are illustrated in the Wheel of Health here. Some of them, like genetics, are not in our control – at least not yet. Other factors, like economics or addictions, may be adjustable, but definitely are not easy things to change for many.

The Wheel of Health is always in motion. Constant fine-tuning or micro-managing of just one or two spokes in the wheel – commonly healthy eating and exercise – will never produce optimal health. Given that we are physical, mental and spiritual beings, to maintain optimal health, we must take measures that address ALL of these areas…and throughout our whole life. If you’ve pretty much got healthy eating mastered, there may be an opportunity to look at other spokes in your efforts to get healthier.

A few days ago just before the start of the new year, I came across a news article suggesting how one adult can eat nutritiously for $65 per month. The dietitian who contributed her time and expertise to this article most likely did so voluntarily – as is the case for many  of these types of stories. I don’t know her.

This article was most likely designed to encourage the notion that healthy eating can be achieved on a reasonable budget (and it can) despite popular misconception that to eat healthy requires shopping exclusively at natural food stores or sourcing expensive food. There were practical ideas in the story that some readers likely found helpful and appetizing.

I haven’t been back to check but the day I read the online article I also reviewed the comments readers had posted about the story. On that day, the feedback was unfortunately overwhelmingly harsh, negative and in my opinion, extremely unhealthy. The fact that a short article with a few meal and snack ideas could infuriate so many people is deeply concerning to me. If it’s not your preferred eating style, I recommend letting it go and putting the rage-like energy into something more productive…and healthy.

Everyone eats, has preferences and deeply personal beliefs around what approach works best for them. In fact, that is an important thing to establish. If how you eat keeps you energized, happy, at a healthy weight with healthy blood pressure, normal cholesterol, steady blood sugar, disease-free and out of the doctor’s office, know that your eating approach is likely working. Don’t change it.

Unfortunately, food has become a replacement for traditional religion for some. It’s as if it’s the new, open church where you find the ‘squad’ or ‘tribe’ that’s aligned with your beliefs – whether it be only people who eat ‘clean’, all the people who are against animal agriculture, purely those who exist on carefully sourced coffee and energy bars or other ‘congregations’ for example. Over the past decade, food choices have become a statement, a badge to wear or a negatively-charged dialogue to have instead of simply being enjoyment, sustenance and fuel for life. Innocent bystanders on the edge of these articles and conversations end up feeling guilty and wondering if they’re eating the right thing – even if the approach they follow is truly keeping them healthy.

I’ve been immersed in consumer food and nutrition issues since I began studying to become a dietitian 34 years ago. Over the past 3 decades I’ve kept my ear very close to the ground and been in thousands of conversations about eating and healthy living. I’ve also had hundreds of in-depth counseling sessions (a minimum of 3 hours each) with individuals looking to improve their health whether it be by losing weight, recovering from cancer, enhancing their professional athletic career, managing their food allergies, resolving digestive system woes, expanding their repertoire of healthy meal ideas, or nourishing their active family well on a budget.

It is crystal clear to me that endless micro-managing of ones’ food intake without acknowledging or addressing the other spokes in the wheel never fully or consistently produces optimal health. Getting angry and raging about one dietitian’s suggestion of how to eat well for $65 per month indicates to me that there may be room to work on some of the other spokes in the wheel. Definitely if a sense of health-enhancing calm, peace, joy and energy is the goal. (And the article I chose as an example is just one. Pretty much every article I’ve seen written about food in the past few years is harshly and excessively critiqued.) I feel for the genuine food experts who share from their science and fact-based education, career long experience and client successes who get chewed up for just about every morsel of advice they write while it was shared in the spirit of improved well-being.

Maybe the whole trip of life is driven by the fact that perhaps we never truly achieve optimal results with every spoke in the wheel? It’s as if we need to have something to be working on to keep us alive, interested, talking and making it happen. It’s like juggling multiple balls. If we no longer have any left in the air perhaps our life ends?

In setting health goals for the new year and far beyond, taking measures that can be consistently and permanently maintained is best. Over-managing any one area, as all too often happens with food, won’t do it. Operating with kindness rather than harsh judgement towards our bodies, others and our planet, achieves better and more lasting results than aggression and hurt. Thirty years of seeing individuals overcome great challenges and achieve health success has clearly shown me that.

Wishing you a happy, healthy new year!

It’s Rarely Just About The Food: Reflecting on my career and what it’s really all about

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Finally adding this to my own website. 🙂 As a mentor, I give a special shout out here to every nutrition student, intern and dietitian colleague who may read this. As long as people eat and people age, there’ll be important work to be done and endless opportunities to carve out a rewarding path.

Although I feel I have so much more to come in my career, in June 2017 at the annual national conference of Dietitians of Canada, I was deeply humbled to be honoured with the Ryley-Jeffs Memorial Lecture Award. “This award recognizes one Dietitians of Canada member annually, nominated by peers, who has made outstanding personal and professional contributions to the field of dietetics and exemplifies the pioneering spirit of the namesakes, Violet Ryley and Kathleen Jeffs. Past recipients have included: educators, clinical practitioners, physicians, engineers – all of whom helped advance the dietetic profession through research and practice. Their contributions have helped Canadians to achieve optimal health.” (Dietitians of Canada)

The following story is reprinted from Dietetic Practice and Research, Volume 78, No 3, 2017, Dietitians of Canada.

ABSTRACT

Why are you a dietitian doing what you do? Although we absolutely must keep food central in our conversations about nutritional well-being, our work is rarely ever about food alone. There’s always so much more than meets the eye. Reflecting on an entrepreneurial path over 3 decades, the meaning of it all became clearer with each role. Patricia shares perspective on how the more deeply we understand this “thing”, the more success we’ll have. It’s crucial to our effectiveness as communicators, counselors, colleagues, and citizens of the world. To truly make a meaningful difference and have a tremendously positive impact on the health of Canadians, we must talk about it.

INTRODUCTION

The live presentation of this lecture began with a video to the simple words of children’s musician Raffi [1]. “All I really need is a song in my heart, food in my belly, and love in my family. And I need the rain to fall, the sun to shine, to give life to the seeds we sow, to give the food we need to grow. And, I need some clean water for drinking, some clean air for breathing, so that I can grow up strong, take my place where I belong.” Many colleagues were acknowledged for being part of Patricia’s career.

ON COMMUNICATION

Close your eyes. Imagine you’re looking at someone you love dearly. Reflect on how you truly feel about them. Visualize them full of joy. Do you feel calm and happy? Still with your eyes closed, imagine you’re with them and they’re thriving, but YOU can no longer see. Your other senses are still working, and they get even stronger, but you can’t see. Think about how this changes your feelings. Are they intensified? Imagine that you wouldn’t be able to see again. Would you still be able to communicate? Do you feel an even deeper desire to express your love?

Although 80% of communication is nonverbal and assumed to be visual (actually 93%) [2, 3], does not being able to see make us love the people and projects in our life any less? Maybe it puts us even more in tune with our true feelings? There’s always more than meets the eye in the relationships in our personal and professional lives. Perhaps there’s been a missing link in how we communicate? Maybe there’s a tremendous opportunity to not only communicate verbally and visually but also from our heart?

Life is full of gifts, sometimes packaged in the most difficult to open wrapping. It’s serendipitous I should end up sharing my story in a year themed “More Than Meets the Eye.” When our one and only child was 8 weeks old, I lost 100% of my eyesight. For 1 month, I couldn’t see him or anything. The doctors didn’t know if or when I’d regain my vision. Over the course of a very dim, foggy year, my vision gradually returned to 80% where it’s at today. That year, 19 medical specialists later, I was diagnosed with bilateral optic neuritis and later, celiac disease. Along with my incredibly supportive family, a counsellor from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) helped me deal with the reality of possibly never seeing again. My experience was one of the scariest things that’s happened to me. It was far from the worst thing that can happen. Like any crisis or loss, if there can be a silver lining, it puts things into perspective and brings us closer to what really matters. I always tried to operate with compassion and empathy, but as a person who makes a living as a communicator, I later came to realize the gift that this vision loss was in helping me communicate from and to the heart.

CAREER STORY

In my professional life, as I suspect it has been for many colleagues, it’s always about trying to create peace of mind for people around food in their lives. It’s been far less about number crunching and diet math than it has been about love. I’ve done most of this as an entrepreneur.

Two Saskatchewan farm kids were my earliest influences. My Dad was a teacher and the same for 2 of my sisters; the other, a talented pastry chef taking care of the 20% in the 80-20 rule! My Mom was a lab technician, mostly a Mom and a true foodie I lovingly refer to as “Martha Stewart of the prairies”. I was 16 and working at McDonalds when I first heard about the College of Home Economics at the University of Saskatchewan and realized that being a dietitian might just be the perfect combination of teaching, health, and food with endless opportunities to be creative in helping people.

I was lucky to begin my education under Dr. Shawna Berenbaum. As the years passed, I realized my career foundation was influenced by one of the most imaginative thinkers in our profession. In her Ryley–Jeffs (RJ) address, Shawna remined us of the importance of imagination in driving our profession and shaping our future [4]. During internship, I was lucky to attend a game-changing marketing workshop by legendary entrepreneurial dietitian Helen Bishop MacDonald. I’ve encountered numerous imaginative colleagues along the way, including the stories of pioneers Violet Ryley and Kathleen Jeffs, who’ve inspired me to continue pushing the envelope. Always remember: As long as people eat and age there’ll be work for dietitians!

Having spent much of my career needing to be my own “marketing department”, early on I developed strong convictions in my philosophy of practice. Before advising anyone, I feel it’s critical to listen carefully and really hear what they’re after. I talk about the “wheel of health” where food is just one of many spokes influencing health and peace of mind. Self-worth and exercise play equal roles to food. I’ve never looked at a food diary without acknowledging the many other realities that affect each person’s unique food decisions. I’m a strong advocate of an 80–20 approach to healthy eating. Remembering to keep food in all nutrition discussions is critical.

In thinking about any impact I’ve made by breaking ground in practice, l share from 8 roles, or branches of my tree. In each, I’ve tried my best to mentor colleagues who’ve also taught me so much.

Nutrition counsellor

After my first position in the biz as a Public Health Nutritionist in rural Saskatchewan with outstanding early mentors, I started a private practice. In 1995, I moved from Saskatoon to Vancouver. With no contacts, I took out a yellow pages ad and rented an office space. In my first month, I saw 1 client who paid $165. With over $1000 per month of fixed costs, I was very motivated to connect with medical, sports, business, and school communities-anyone who could benefit from dietitian services. Pre-internet, this involved a ton of in-person networking. I became one of the first dietitian members of the Vancouver Board of Trade. I learned that my clients’ success was going to be the most important advertisement, and if I wasn’t effective in helping them, this business would go nowhere fast. I’d spend a minimum of 3, 1-hour appointments with each person to together create results-orientated plans. I built the business to the point of attracting 30 new clients and doing 10 speaking engagements each month. I travelled to every corner of British Columbia’s (BC) lower mainland. Four other dietitians and many student volunteers joined me. One was Diana Steele who later bought the company that continues 22 years later. It was rewarding work, yet my heart became incredibly heavy as I listened to countless stories of struggles with food, weight, and illness. I’d hear about funding for practice-based research but had no time to pursue it. The lessons I learned from those many clients profoundly shaped my understanding of how to truly help people eat well and what it really takes to live a healthy lifestyle. This influenced how I approached EVERYTHING moving forward including not letting inflexible work or bad relationships compromise health and how damaging it is for creative people to be in an environment that doesn’t allow creative freedom. RJ winner Sandra Matheson powerfully reminded us that the entrepreneurial mindset is available to anyone prepared to rely on their own abilities for their economic security and expect no opportunity without first creating value for others [5].

Media spokesperson

In 1995, I did my first TV appearance. Global TV invited me to discuss pros of a new diet, The Zone, while heart health dietitian Shauna Ratner, who I met for the first time on the air that day, talked about cons. I knew we’d be on the same page. Two weeks later folic acid in pregnancy was news and I was asked back for comment. The producers invited me to be a regular. After 260 appearances, I was ready for a break. I connected them to Diana Steele who has appeared every Tuesday since. Just 5 minutes on the “nooner” and I was recognized almost everywhere I went in BC. I’d get free meals at restaurants and spied on when grocery shopping. It was an exciting time! Business thrived and I created an audience for my first book. It also had a dark side. I’d be asked about irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by random people in the drugstore and provide free consultations on taxi rides. Feedback was 99% positive, but I also faced haters even in those pre-social media days. I later did a series of Meal Solutions segments for grocer Save-On-Foods and 48 episodes of a national show What’s Cooking. I earned the nickname “The People’s Dietitian“. Helping other dietitians do great work in media remains a passion and we’re so lucky to have amazing leadership on this front from Sue Mah, Gina Sunderland, the DC Media Team, and today’s many dietitian superstars putting us on the map in hospitals, academia, and many other settings.

Writer and recipe creator

In 1999, I published my first book “The 101 Most Asked Nutrition Questions“. I provided a bottom-line for questions ranging from “how do I lose weight” to “which is better, butter or margarine”. Although some of my contemporaries didn’t agree, I knew consumers needed me to take a stand to truly help them. I went on to write 5 cookbooks, have regular newspaper columns and many recipes published in magazines. I’ve shared with many colleagues about how to write a book. When I first finished internship, I taught a cooking program for pregnant teens. Today, I’ve come full circle back to teaching cooking classes, which seems to be the perfect place to share everything I’ve tried to teach consumers over the past 3 decades.

Sports nutritionist

I had the opportunity to be one of the first dietitians to work with an NBA team in Canada. From 1996–2000 I was a member of the sports medicine staff for the Vancouver Grizzlies. Working with a pro sports team seemed to be worth more than any university degree to consumers and this led to much work with athletes and the Coaching Institute of Canada. I’ve assisted in creating new sports dietitian positions in BC and mentoring aspiring sports dietitians-a huge opportunity in our field for those willing to get well-equipped for the game.

Retail dietitian

Now onto 2000. I’m heavy-hearted again from so many sad stories of talented athletes fixated on being 6% body fat, women trying to lose 5 pounds to keep the attention of their straying husband, or wanting to lose weight because “being thin is better than being cancer-free“!? I felt so alone with the load. I took 4 months off. After almost leaving the profession, I circled back to thoughts I’d had as a first-year student. Maybe intervening with consumers right at the point of food purchase was a logical place for a dietitian to work? I pitched an idea to a grocery chain and spent 9 years developing programs for customers, employees, and suppliers. I created a second full-time dietitian position and maintained opportunities for over 90 BC and Alberta dietitians as tour leaders in a Shop Smart program originated by entrepreneur Laura Kalina. Grocery was an outstanding vantage point from which to watch the low-carb wave first roll in. Pre-wheat belly, I attended a gathering in Rhode Island of North American bakery experts discussing what the long-term impacts of this trend would be. I toured the Natural Foods Industry in Colorado. I was a founding member of Canada’s first retail dietitian advisory group and had a tremendous opportunity to share and learn from leaders in retail dietetics-an expanding area of our profession with so much untapped potential.

Product developer

Time in the grocery business combined with being an avid baker sadly faced with a diagnosis of celiac disease in 2010, led me to venture into food product development. I googled “Can regular people invent food products?” and created an all-purpose gluten-free flour that was sold in stores. I plan to do more product development particularly with pulses. I encourage all dietitians who see innovative products in the store and think they could have invented it, to go for it.

Speaker and businesswoman

Being a dietitian has allowed extensive travel for me. What’s Cooking TV took me to beautiful Quebec City 12 times. Board work has taken me from coast to coast. I’ve toured almond orchards in California, potato fields and a McDonald’s French fry factory in Idaho, and a massive fresh food commissary in Virginia among other farm and food tours. I’ve learned the value of continuously networking, maintaining existing and building new relationships throughout your career-and letting go of the unhealthy ones. I’ve addressed hundreds of audiences and talked about building a successful brand to dietitians in Canada and the U.S. As a mentor, I encourage always putting yourself in the shoes of the learner. In the dark side of business, I’ve unfortunately witnessed lying and bullying in the workplace and even in the sadly “competitive sport” of parenting. There is absolutely no situation where this is healthy, productive, or acceptable and we need to stand up against it.

Mom

My most important role by far, one that has taught me the most about nutrition, is that of Mom. Although I’ve purposely kept them off social media, I’ve never downplayed my family or acted like they were secondary to my work. I’ve chatted with many colleagues about the importance of always maintaining work–family balance as these years won’t come again. I’m currently 12 years into a 20-year “break” but thanks to social media I’m continuing to leverage our family meals into billable projects.

IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE

Each branch on the career tree moved me closer to understanding the role of love in our work. Love isn’t necessarily something we study or formally talk about. In fact, it’s often easier for us to discuss bowel function than love. Yet, love (or even just like) is the one thing most people want or at least wouldn’t complain about getting more of. You can still push the envelope, inspire others, advance the profession, and make the world better by operating with love and not being a big jerk. Dietitians are some of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and we need to share that, not hide it. We’re brilliant and already tough!

Unfortunately, our inability to differentiate between romantic love and compassionate love is why we often forget about love in our work lives [6]. Yet we live and work in the business of relationships. Employees who feel they work in a culture of love have less absenteeism, better teamwork, and less exhaustion [7]. For a loving work culture to happen, if we’re in management we must behave like decent human beings. It’s not about being sappy, but showing genuine concern. In our work and beyond, loving people can become habit by doing 3 things: believing in people’s potential, knowing people’s dreams and celebrating their accomplishments, and sacrificing our time for them [7–9]. According to ancient Greeks, there are 7 kinds of love [10]. I want to highlight a couple of these as they relate to our work.

Self-love

In her RJ address, Vesanto Melina reminded us that to inspire others to make healthful choices we need to keep ourselves healthy [11]. To effectively help others, we must put our own oxygen mask on first. That doesn’t mean we’re selfish. Vesanto also said that when you’re on the cutting edge it’s challenging and people are likely to resist. You need to make your own cup so full and then surround yourself with amazing friends, partners, co-workers, and clients who will benefit from soaking up your great ideas and joy instead of being abusive or jealous. Shawna advised us to stay away from negative people as they can kill our creativity and make us afraid to think outside the box [4].

Loving what you do

This requires being good at it or at least quite comfortable with it. To be good, you must work hard in a way that authentically fits for you and feels like an extension of your personality; a way that allows you to express yourself creatively. You need to be in tune with your true passions, know why you’re a dietitian and what you’re trying to do to make the world a better place. Trust your expertise and give yourself credit for your talents, because others may not. Don’t fear sharing from your own important experience along with the evidence in the published literature. Celebrate your resourcefulness-the world needs it!

Love your clients and others

Really listen, genuinely care, share, and embrace how much you can learn from them. Make things make sense to them and their level of understanding. You get what you give. Don’t be afraid to talk with them about the importance of self-love in making good health choices. Have you ever felt unloved or rejected? Had a job layoff? At times like those, did you feel excited to make almond butter energy balls or read labels to eat less sodium? Don’t be bitter if someone has a showpiece kitchen they never use and you don’t. Be happy for them and encourage them to use it!

Love and support your colleagues

It’s true that we are stronger together. Respect and learn from those who came before, those here now, and those who will come after us. It’s human nature to compete to survive but we can’t forget about love. Be open with colleagues about the emotional load of our work and take opportunities to decompress together. Don’t look at leaders or stars in any area of our profession with hatred or jealously. The sky doesn’t have one star only, and every star twinkles in its own way making a very important contribution. Recognize the passion and grueling work they’ve done to get where they are.  The late Mary Sue Waisman said we need to celebrate our accomplishments and cherish one another [12]. On collaborating with colleagues, Kelly Anne Erdman said new eyes have new vision, new insight, and creativity to improve what has been created [13]. And sometimes when collaborating, you have to speak with one voice, even if it’s not your preferred one.

Love good food

We must always keep food in our nutrition messages. People eat food, not numbers. And they want to eat, not do diet math. Don’t wear your own amazing food preferences like a badge. Instead, share in a way that is accessible for people. Respect the realities facing many Canadians who may not be able eat 100% organically or locally grown. Reassure them they can still achieve great health and there are many entry points on the healthy eating continuum.

Recognize that fear and what I and others [14] call a “love deficit” may be behind many of the issues people struggle with. We don’t talk about a love deficit much but in my own evidence-based years spent counselling, this was very apparent. I’ve seen it in relation to some weight struggles, food intolerance, and orthorexia situations. We’re in a weird time of dizziness-induced malnutrition of the wealthy with issues like orthorexia, photographing food but not eating it, judging harshly, and everyone being a food expert, qualified or not. I’ve also seen a love deficit in cases of jerk behaviour. Sometimes a supplement, perhaps in the form of love and deep understanding, is needed to bump things back up to normal before going forward.

Dietitians must take their rightful place as creative leaders in this field [11]. To effectively do this, we need to operate from a genuine place of love. We need to observe, listen, and feel what our clients really need from us. We must understand that there’s always much more than meets the eye. We also need to keep putting dietitians on the map in a BIG way and show Canadians that there’s also much more than meets the eye with what an amazing dietitian can do to help them be their healthiest.

Thank you for this tremendous honour.

The live presentation of this lecture ended with the song Put a Little Love in Your Heart [15].

Acknowledgements

Thank you to 3 very special colleagues who nominated me for this prestigious honour: Vanessa Yurchesyn, Kristyn Hall, and Cathy Paroschy-Harris.

References

1. Raffi. Album: Baby Beluga, Song: All I Really Need. Trobadour Records; 1980.

2. Thompson J. Is non-verbal communication a numbers game? Is body language really over 90% of how we communicate? Psychology Today; September 30, 2011.

3. Yaffe P. The 7% rule: fact, fiction or misunderstanding. Ubiquity 2011(2011): 1-5 Crossref.

4. Berenbaum S. 2005. Imagination nourishes dietetic practice. 2005 Ryley-Jeffs memorial lecture. Can J Diet Pract Res 66(3): 193-6 Link. Abstract

5. Matheson SA. 2013. Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset. Can J Diet Pract Res 74(3): 146-9 Link. Abstract

6. Huppke R. Don’t be afraid of love in the workplace. Chicago Tribune; January 20, 2014.

7. Barsade SG, O’Neill OA. Employees who feel love perform better. Harvard Business Review; January 13, 2014.

8. Barsade SG, O’Neill OA. 2014. What’s Love Got to Do With It? A longitudinal study of the culture of companionate love and employee and client outcomes in a long-term care setting. Adm Sci Q 59(4): 551-98 Crossref.

9. Burton N. These are the 7 types of love. Psychology Today; June 25, 2016 [cited 2017 Jun 26]. Available from: www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201606/these-are-the-7-types-love.

10. Simmons G. What’s Love Got to Do With It? Tier 1 Performance Solutions; 2017 [cited 2017 Jun 26]. Available from: https://tier1performance.com/2017/02/15/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/.

11. Melina V. 2016. Five decades: from challenge to acclaim. Can J Diet Pract Res 77(3): 154-8 Link. Abstract

12. Waisman MS. 2012. Stepping out: dare to step forward, step back or just stand still and breathe. Can J Diet Pract Res 73(3): 147-50 Link. Abstract

13. Erdman KA. 2015. A lifetime pursuit of a sports nutrition practice. Can J Diet Pract Res 76(3): 150-4 Link. Abstract

14. Staik A. Redefining narcissism as a love deficit. Psych Central; 2017 [cited 2017 Jun 26]. Available from: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships/2017/04/redefining-narcissism-as-a-love-deficit/.

15. Darren C, Jeremy J, Carlos V, John B. Album: The Flash: Duet (Music from the Special Episode), Song: Put A Little Love in Your Heart. WaterTower Music; 2017.

Never Met a Farmer I Couldn’t Trust

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Not sure if you can totally trust the food grown and raised in Canada? Talk to a farmer.

Not only will you be 100% assured that Canadian farm-grown and raised food is safe and nutritious to feed your family, you might just end up with a personal invitation to visit and tour their farm. Until you can get there, they may grab their smartphone and show you a quick little video of the clean and bright conditions from the webcam they’ve openly installed in their chicken barns. (Thanks for that Clinton Monchuk, farmer and Executive Director of Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan.) I grew up in Saskatchewan, surrounded by farmers. Then and now, they are salt of the earth people.

I recently attended Grow Canada 17, an annual national gathering of Canadian leaders in agriculture. Despite what some unbalanced documentaries about farming may have left you thinking, Canada’s farmers are committed to complete openness and transparency about the food they grow to feed their families, you, all Canadians, and our fellow humankind around the world. The misconception that farmers are ‘hiding something’ couldn’t be further from the truth in Canada. This misconception is so out of control it is threatening the livelihood of the less than 2 percent of Canadians who work on farms, growing our food. We aren’t doomed because of advances in farming technologies, we’re in serious trouble if dangerously inaccurate beliefs about farming continue to abound and farmers no longer want to farm.

Although they may work on a mini scale should you wish to move to the country and start a little farm that feeds your family only, can the farming methods used in the early 1900’s work today to safely grow ALL OF THE FOOD needed for Canadians and other parts of the world, absolutely not! Like every other industry, farming has evolved profoundly. It benefits from incredible advances in technology. Vegetarian or not, if you want to have access to anything made of oats, wheat, corn, quinoa, eggs, pulse crops like lentils and chickpeas, barley (that nifty new craft beer perhaps?) and more, embracing the proven safe farming methods used today is critical.

I want to share 15 facts discussed at Grow Canada 2017. I was right in there learning along with nearly 600 farming professionals from across our land. These folks aren’t just staying current on how to minimize pests and threats to their crops. Their understanding of today’s consumer is solid and they’re growing food with the utmost respect for what their customer wants. They invest time and money in learning from world-leading authorities on subjects that impact their business.

Here’s just a sampling of the range of fascinating information and inspirational thoughts gleaned from a couple great days in Calgary, Alberta. References are cited at the bottom.

  1. Our brain is hard-wired to get evidence of cooperation, commitment and credibility (3 C’s) but this is also driven by ‘social capital’. Science hasn’t yet proven why it’s so, but consumers are 40% more trusting of online information than information delivered from real live people! A scary reality given the amount of anti-farming information online versus the humble, genuine relationship-building, non-social media personality style of the actual farmers who grow our food.
  2. We should never back off efforts to advance the fact-based scientific message simply because there is a CONSTANT, very loud unscientific message to counter. It is a LONG game and the qualified experts must stay in it.
  3. Fresh, healthy, convenient, and affordable are the on trend, admirable values that have led to the quick global rise of Freshii, a leading healthy fast-food chain. Buzz words like ‘clean eating’ and ‘raw’ are not what is driving their success.
  4. Over 3 million children die every single year on our planet from malnutrition. It’s not just about agriculture, but distribution and other very complex issues. There are agricultural technologies available that can feed the whole world.
  5. There is a difference between GMOs (genetically modified organisms in which a gene is added to an existing organism) and gene-editing, where an existing gene in an organism is altered. Gene-editing has been used to make those new non-browning apples you may have heard of. The one gene responsible for browning has been turned off. No other gene alterations have been made. Whether or not your personal choice will be to eat them, this change allows for apples to be cut into snack slices for use in many other feeding applications instead of rotting and ending up as waste. (Genetic modification and gene-editing are also responsible for tremendous life-saving disease treatments and advances in healthcare.)
  6. 53% of the groceries consumed in Canada come from discount retailers. Increasingly, people are buying canned goods and dry staples at discount places and putting the savings towards buying fresh food at higher end retailers. There is room for many different retailers to exist. Most people ‘shop around’ and not exclusively at one place. Judging based on where one shops is not helpful.
  7. It is not accurate to bucket people into large groups of generalizations, eg millennials. Still, it is a fact that today’s younger generation wants and has the right to know every single detail of where and how their food has traveled from farm to plate. Farmers welcome and embrace this.
  8. “Natural” is a bigger driver of food choices than “organic”. This is terrific news for Canada’s farmers who remain and have always been in the business of nature-made food.
  9. Mandatory culinary education (by qualified people without orthorexia) for kids before age 14 would seriously help clear up a lot of the mass confusion about food.
  10. We are living in the biggest period of mass institutional change in history and at the biggest time of disconnectedness despite our online ‘connectedness’.
  11. Everyone on social media is a ‘node of broadcasting’ in addition to being a recipient of broadcasting. We are no longer just a physical self, but a virtual self as well. Two-thirds of a person’s working day is now spent in their virtual identification rather than their physical. People share way more freely in their virtual self than their real self – including opinions, fact-based or not, about food.
  12. On family makeup, 66% of today’s marriages are the result of online meeting. People who met online have a 15-17% lower divorce rate than those who met off-line! Increasingly, their food is ordered online too.
  13. According to futurist Leonard Brody of The Great Rewrite, by the end of 2025, 28-35% of ‘live entertainment’ revenue will come from entertainers who are no longer living. This is possible from life-like, 3D computer-generated, tailored entertainment options.
  14. Today’s farmers are CIOs – Chief Information Officers – and need to understand data in a BIG way. (On data, 90% of the data created by humans since the beginning of human existence has been generated in the last 24 months!)
  15. On food preferences of the future: DNA self-test kits will increase the demand for individually-tailored food based on one’s own unique gut biome.

Again, these are just a few random snippets from the MANY conversations held at Grow Canada 17. Farmers are ON THEIR GAME in a BIG WAY! Let’s continue to support, embrace and celebrate our beautiful bounty of safe, home-grown food and the 2% of families who make this possible for all of us!

Thank you Crop Life Canada for the tremendous opportunity to be part of this event! I look forward to next time!

References:

Dr. Brynn Winegard, Brain Science Professor, Schulich Executive Education Centre, University of Guelph, DeGroote School of Business, and Ryerson University.

Ted C. Fishman, Journalist and Author of China, Inc.

The Honorable Stockwell Day, former minister responsible for the Asia-Pacific Gateway.

Matthew Corrin, CEO and Founder of Freshii

Robb Fraley, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Monsanto Company

Graham Sherman, Entrepreneur and Owner, Tool Shed Brewery “Unleashing Your Disruptive Behaviour”

John FT Scott, Economist, Speaker, Consultant to the food distribution and retail sector

Claire Tansey, Chef, Teacher and Food Expert, Food Director, Chatelaine Magazine

Leonard Brody, Business and Technology Visionary, The Great Rewrite

3 Secrets to Healthy Aging Revealed

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Stop looking in a package of all natural specialty seeds from South America or an expensive, teeny-weeny jar of face cream. Instead, chat with active, healthy, happy people in their 80’s and 90’s and the true secrets will quickly be revealed.

I recently spent some time with a group of healthy, happy older adults in the kitchen as part of a food skills class. Over the course of the 6-week program, pretty much everything I’ve ever learned about food, nutrition and well-being was so very beautifully reinforced by these keeners. In each class, we cooked 5 recipes and shared the lunch meal we’d made together. Before we started cooking each week, we spent time discussing healthy living – much of which can be summed up with the letter F: food, fitness, fruit (and vegetables), fibre, good fats, fun, family, faith, friends, fresh air…

As we discussed current topics in nutrition ranging from ‘which is better, butter or margarine?’ to ‘should everything I buy be organic?’ we operated with the guiding principle of ‘reflect on the healthiest people you’ve ever known’ – especially anyone over 80 who everyone thinks is still in their 60’s. What are they doing to look and feel that youthful and healthy? We all agreed that it isn’t about whether or not they buy everything organic or only use coconut oil. Although genetics factor in, the group identified that the healthiest people they know have mastered one thing.

The coveted ‘secret’ they’ve mastered is: consistency! A lifelong commitment to consistently taking a few measures. Not because they have to but because they choose to. You’ve heard me speak about the boring subject of consistency before. It’s completely unsexy compared to a magnificently packaged, expensive food or skin care product emblazoned with amazing claims. Thing is, consistency truly works!

Consistency doesn’t even require an unobtainable long list of measures to take.

These are the 3 consistency secrets to healthy aging that these class participants so wonderfully demonstrated:

  1. An optimistic outlook. These keenagers, as you’d expect for anyone nearing 75 or older, have endured a lot. They’ve dealt with massive change over the years whether in technological advancements, all that comes physically and emotionally with raising a family, the immeasurable stress of losing loved ones, health scares at times, moving to new places, divorce, job changes or job loss, downsizing a home full of memories and SO MUCH more. Through it all, a lighthearted attitude of optimism kept them believing life is a precious gift they weren’t willing to give up on. Putting out into the world the kind of positive, helpful energy you hope to receive back also seemed to be a driving force for them. Being an active lifelong learner is key as well and is what led them to being in this cooking class. The course brought together 12 people who’d never met before. As the program ended, the group made plans for a potluck lunch at one of the participants’ homes as a fun get-together and what they hope will be the continuation of new friendships made over the 6-week program. It’s never too late to expand your circle of friends. I’ll be right in there with these very special new friends of mine!
  1. A lifetime of home-cooked meals of real food. One 89-year old class participant (who looks more like 70) shared that when she grew up of course there was no such thing as commercial fast food. Still, when her mother would see unexpected guests arriving in the farm-yard, it seemed to take her no time at all to quickly whip up a batch of fresh biscuits to serve with homegrown raspberry jam and a cup of tea. If the guests ended up staying for dinner, she recalled that it didn’t even take that long to prepare a chicken (one that started out roaming around the farm-yard earlier that day!) The food they ate was minimally processed, home-grown or sourced locally as much as possible and wasn’t heavily labeled and packaged in an attempt to convince you to buy it. Not that baking everything from scratch daily or rounding up a live chicken regularly is required to experience high level health and age gracefully. However, emphasizing wholesome, real food is. This trusting generation expressed how tricky and confusing grocery shopping has become. The store is far too big. They grew up believing what the butcher, the baker and their local grocer told them. They find it challenging to now navigate the barrage of ads and labels promoting pro-biotics, GMO-free, natural, etc. They also find it disheartening to learn how misleading many of these claims are and that they aren’t necessarily a guarantee of a healthy choice. They agreed that the closer foods remain to their natural state, the better. These folks have been ‘trendy’ their whole lives and didn’t even know it.
  1. Fresh Air. These people were outside a lot as kids and continue to live that way in their golden years. They weren’t just outside in the farm-yard but in walking to school, walking to friends’ houses, playing, skating, swimming in the lake, tinkering around in the yard, etc. There’s space outside and that allows for running, jumping and moving further and more freely than when inside. Exercise was never a prescriptive, scheduled task, but simply a normal, fun part of daily life. These seniors, although now mostly living in urban settings, still get out daily or at least regularly for walks and other active pursuits. They’re living proof of the value of fresh air!

I’m so grateful to have had the chance to work with this group and be a student of their wisdom and experience!

Meet Patricia

Eating well is just one spoke in the wheel of health. An active life...

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