Q&A With a Sensei Dietitian

We have a great blog today, an interview I did with a Dietitian from Sensei! She’s going to come back and answer questions from our blog guests. Post any question you have about dieting and nutrition in our comments section.

Hi, I’m Renee Melton, director of nutrition services for Sensei.  I’ve been a dietitian for over 20 years and my career has taken me everywhere from hospitals to private practice, to research and teaching at a university and developing web based courses.

I’ve always been interested in using technology to educate people about health.  As it is, most people rely on the internet when they want to research something.  Sensei is the marriage of all things I love:  nutrition, preventive health, teaching and technology.

Hi Renee!

Tell us from a Dietitian’s perspective, what is the most important thing someone can do to lose weight and stick to their eating plan?

Planning is really the key to success.  Without a plan, your best intentions to eat healthier and lose weight go out the window as soon as someone says ‘Let’s go out to eat’ or brings donuts into the office.

Find a plan that works well with your life (rather than make you change your life to fit it) and lifestyle.  If you don’t like to cook or eat fast food at lunch, your plan should let you do that, but at the same time, it should teach you how to make better choices wherever you are.

I noticed that the Mediterranean diet plan that I selected uses yogurt frequently; can you tell us about the value of probiotics in maintaining good health?

Probiotics are healthy bacteria that help maintain balance in the intestines by helping to keep harmful bacteria under control.  They also appear to boost our immune systems.  Yogurt contains Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is one of the most prominent bacteria in the intestines.

Probiotics have been credited with reducing inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease and helping to control diarrhea due to antibiotics or infection. A recent study in new moms suggests probiotics might be helpful in reducing belly fat after pregnancy.  There’s ongoing research looking at the benefits of probiotics in treating some infections, allergies and even certain types of cancer.  But more research is needed before we can truly determine their effect in all these areas.

Bottom line, we know probiotics are good for our digestive systems and a good thing to have.  Check the label on your yogurt and make sure it contains live cultures.

We know water is important, but from a Dietitian’s perspective, for those that have difficulty drinking a lot of water, what is the minimum amount of water you need to drink; and what things can you do to help yourself get into the habit of drinking more water?

Water is one of the most important nutrients we can get…we can’t live without it.  How much you need varies greatly.  It depends on things like your gender, body size & composition, climate and activity.  Healthy conditions can also affect your need.

On average we lose 10-11 cups of water from the body each day through urine and breathing.  The Institute of Medicine says the average healthy women need about 9 cups and men about 13 cups of water per day.

You should drink enough so that you don’t feel thirsty throughout the day and your urine should be colorless or slightly yellow.  If the color is dark yellow (concentrated), chances are your aren’t drinking enough.

The good news is that not all your fluids need to come from water.  You get some water from all the foods you eat (about 20% of your needs), plus anything you drink.  But be careful of the calories in the drinks you choose.  They can add up fast and lead to weight gain.

If you don’t like water, try some of these:
low calorie sports drinks
water with lemon slices or lemon juice added
diluted juice (dilute with water as much as you can to your taste)
herbal teas (hot or cold)
green tea (hot or cold)

I thought that the pop up “behavioral ques” on Sensei were fantastic. Is it helpful to print things out like this from the site and tape them in your kitchen?

I’m so glad you’re finding the messages helpful.

How you use them is really a personal choice.  You’ll probably find that a couple of the messages really resonate with you, enough that you might want to take it on almost like a mantra.  When you find these, I think it’s a great idea to print these up and post them wherever you will see them frequently.

Anything that helps keep you motivated and on track is a good thing!

Why do you think, as a Dietitian, that a plan like Sensei is better than the pre-packaged plans that come with food? More variety? Cost effectiveness?  Fresher foods?

One of the biggest downsides of prepackaged plans is the cost.  Not only do you need to pay for the delivered food, which can be very expensive, but then you have to go to the store and buy all the fresh things too.  Sensei’s grocery lists are significantly less expensive that popular pre-packaged plans.  Plus the Budget Friendly plans can save you up to $100 per month on your grocery bill.

With Sensei you’ll have more flexibility and variety.  You can choose menus that have store bought frozen meals, or you can find really quick and easy recipes, or you can go out to eat.  The choice is yours and you can change it at any time.