Everything You Need To Know About Easy-To-Understand Credible Science-Based Info

Why you won’t want to miss this episode of Making it Real

This week Kiki is joined by two holistic nutrition experts, Lindsay Carvalho and Lisa Klich. They are here to give you the BEST places to find the most credible information for your practice. Whether you are looking for information on food nutrients, supplements, medical conditions, scientific studies, and so much more, Lindsay and Lisa have the answers. Trust us; you don’t want to miss this episode.

Firstly, let us introduce you to Lindsay and Leesa

Lindsay is a Nutrition Consultant, Biologist, and Chef whose love for holistic nutrition started after developing Hashimoto's Thyroiditis in 2008.  Lindsay is a teacher at CSNN and MacEwan University, where she shares her nutrition knowledge with eager students.

Leesa is a health writer and self-proclaimed research nerd who wants to support nutritionists to be seen and heard by creating unique content that stands out.

Okay, let’s dive in

1. How to find nutritional information on particular foods

How many times have you been stood in a store wondering, ‘how many milligrams of magnesium does this have?’ Or ‘how much vitamin C is actually in a red pepper?’. Well, the place you can find out is the USDA website. Just type in the name of the food, and you will find out all of the nutrients it has in it.

2. How to find nutritional information on supplements

There are so many supplements out there, and you may have clients asking about particular ones that you may not be familiar with. We need to be making sure that we are choosing the best ones for ourselves and our clients, and as you know, not all supplements are created equal.

According to Leesa, one of the best things you can do is go back to the original site of whoever makes the supplement and look for evidence of third-party testing. Ensure that they have had an impartial party sampling and do quality control not affiliated with the company.

The other thing we can all do is take a more detailed look at whatever ingredients or nutrients are in that supplement specifically. From there, we can start looking into if it's going to do anything beneficial. Put your research caps on and start Googling. Just make sure that whatever evidence you're finding is repeated somewhere else.

3. How to find the latest research on health goals and medical conditions so you can really understand the science behind them

We’re always learning more about medical conditions, and it’s such an important area to research as part of your practice. One of the places that Lindsay goes to when looking at different conditions is MedlinePlus.

Why?

Because it’s well organized, easy to search through, and has a ton of credible information managed through the National Institutes for Health (NIH).  

One of the best parts of NIH is the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. You can look up herbs, different kinds of conditions, and information, and it will tell you the latest research and put everything into context.

4. How to keep up with the latest scientific information

Many of you will have heard of PubMed, a government-run database of peer-reviewed research articles vetted by specialists in that field.

It is one of the most popular databases to use, but as Lindsay and Leesa say, it can be intimidating.

Try these tips to get you started.

Find a review article on a topic you’re passionate about on PubMed and honestly sit down with a dictionary and highlight all the words you want to find out more about.

• If you're looking through and struggling to understand what a randomized control trial is, a clinical trial, or a cohort trial, go on YouTube and type in ‘how to understand experimental design’.
• If you struggle to understand the statistics, again try Youtube, as there are so many great science communicators online that can help walk you through it.

Hot tip: To find what you’re looking for on PubMed...filter!

After you’ve typed in your search in PubMed go to the side and filter systematic review. This will cut out 90% of the articles and present you with the highest quality studies because a systematic review is a study that systematically reviews many other studies. Filtering by newest first is also a good tip!

Make sure you listen to the podcast to find out more resources and top tips!

Finally, what research is getting Lindsay and Leesa excited?

For Lindsay, it’s how much we’re learning about the strong connection between gut and brain health.

“More and more, we're seeing this direct connection, including the gut affecting brain plasticity, which is important for longevity, and just overall brain health and your mental health.”

For Leesa, the recent study on the difference between people eating unprocessed foods, minimally processed, and ultra-processed foods are fascinating. There are so many things we can all take from this study. Listen to the podcast to find out more!

We know you’ll want to connect with Lindsay and Leesa, here’s how:

Check out Leesa’s website at leesaklich.com. She has lots of resources on her blog that you should spend time looking at. You can also find Lindsay at lindsaycarvalho.com. Together they have a podcast called rEATsearch, dedicated to demystifying the latest health research and bringing it to you. So if you want to hear more from this incredible duo, we recommend a listen.

As always, enjoy this episode of Making it Real.

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