Nutrition information online is often inaccurate and can leave people more confused than when they started their search. Is it better to graze throughout the day or eat fewer large meals? What vitamins should I be supplementing? Where do the people on TikTok even get their information from anyway?
The Ubyssey sat down with Celeste Bouchaud, registered dietitian and PhD student in human nutrition, to answer some of our editorial’s most burning nutrition questions.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Do multivitamins work? Are they needed for the average person?
CB: Multivitamins usually give a dose that meets the recommendations for all vitamins and minerals required in the diet for most people [of a given demographic]. There are multivitamins for children, for adults, for older adults, with different dosages depending on the life stage.
Usually people will be able to meet most of their needs through nutrition alone and will only be needing to go to multivitamins in certain cases — such as veganism or if someone is diagnosed with anemia or any other conditions — [where] you would then consult with [a] doctor and dietitian to be able to determine [which] supplements could be right for you, and it may not be a multivitamin. It might just be specific supplements, like iron or calcium.
There are supplements that are recommended in general. In Canada, vitamin D is often something we recommend. People don’t eat enough of [it] and there’s not much sun in Vancouver, unfortunately.
What’s the deal with intermittent fasting? Is it beneficial and clinically backed?
CB: Intermittent fasting is essentially when you restrict your eating time. One of the very popular [types] is fasting for 16 hours and eating over a period of eight hours. [It] can look like skipping breakfast or skipping dinner or … eating for smaller periods of time throughout the day.
Intermittent fasting has been researched a lot in disease states such as diabetes, heart disease and has also been researched in weight loss. For diabetes, heart disease, etc., there can be beneficial effects to intermittent fasting depending on the person, on their state and depending how realistic it is for them to follow that over time.
For weight loss, it will really depend on the person. It can be beneficial to help reduce the amount of calories that we’re having overall because we’re restricting time. But it can also backfire on people. If they’re super, super hungry, they might end up eating more calories than they would have otherwise. So overall, it really would rather depend on your hunger cues.
Fasting is [also] a part of a lot of different cultures, such as Ramadan [and Lent]. [There are] plenty of different cultural and religious reasons to fast, and that’s not problematic for health. There are ways to do it properly, just to make sure that you’re meeting your nutritional needs, but fasting in itself is not problematic.
Related to the timing of eating, is it okay to eat after 8 p.m.?
CB: We want to have a bit of a fasting window overnight. If you’re a student going to bed at 1 a.m. … maybe [stopping eating at] 8 p.m. is a really long time … and you’ll be hungry at or later than 8 p.m. — totally fine to eat after 8 p.m. if that’s the case.
Usually, we want to aim to stop eating about two hours before bed, just to avoid any digestive discomforts. Because when you’re lying down, your body hasn’t had the time to digest what’s in your stomach and things like that can cause some reflux and discomfort in that space.
You’re also thinking about the fact that sleeping [uses] less energy, so it may be worth having more energy earlier in the day when you’re able to actually use it to do things, to learn, to study, to do exercise, etc. So having a massive meal in the hour before you’re going to bed isn’t necessarily going to be the most useful.
Does drinking warm water or liquids in general before meals aid digestion?
CB: There’s no evidence to say so, it’s really anecdotal. Some people sometimes find that works [and there are] no issues with that, [but] there is no scientific evidence to back that up at the moment.
Staying hydrated [in general, with hot or cold water], however, is really helpful for digestion, for making sure that your bowels are working properly, so hydration [is] really, really important for digestion [but] hot water [is] not necessarily more beneficial than other things, but not problematic at all to have.
Where can students find credible nutrition information?
CB: Ideally, [you’re] looking for someone who studied nutrition, so registered dietitians are a great place to start.
There is a dietitian on campus that you can take an appointment with as well, if that’s pertinent for you. There are also dietitians available in Vancouver that you see with or without a referral for more personalized advice.
Generally on the internet, again, [you’re looking] for blogs that are ideally by dietitians or reviewed by dietitians. Dietitians of Canada has a whole list of blogs that are by dietitians.
You can submit your own burning nutrition questions to [email protected] to potentially be included in a future What’s eating you? article.
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