Joy Erdile, MSc, RD

Constipation is one of the most common problems that people face, with between 2 and 28% of the population in Western countries reporting having this [1-3]. In 2007 in the United States, 19.4% of people reported problems with chronic constipation[4] and in Canada between 15% and 27% of people reported having sought health care support for … Read more

Quite a few physicians that I know that recommend a low-carb diet to their patients have mentioned to me that those who had previously been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and who suffered for years reported significant improvements within a short time of adopting the dietary changes and have asked me why. That is the … Read more

Have you recently been told by your General Practitioner (CP) or gastroenterologist that you have “diverticulosis” and wonder how you should be eating differently to keep it from getting worse? What is “diverticulosis”? Diverticulosis is where your colon (large intestine) has small “pockets” in it called diverticula which can cause a number of symptoms or … Read more

An analysis was published last week in the British Medical Journal which raised several important concerns about the World Health Organization (WHO)’s draft guidelines on fatty acids; including saturated fat. The international group of 16 nutrition experts who wrote the paper are concerned as “many governments consider the WHO dietary guidelines to be state of … Read more

Note: This article is a combination of a Science Made Simple article, with the references below and an editorial which provides my opinion. Dietary advice — especially National Dietary Guidelines ought to give clear, consistent messages. It would seem that the new Canada Food Guide ‘snapshot’ outlined in the previous article may inadvertently cause considerable … Read more

Note: This article is a combination of a Science Made Simple article with references below and an editorial which provides my opinion. This past Monday, Health Canada released the Canada’s Food Guide “snapshot”[1] in 28 languages which is not intended to be a stand-alone resource, but to be used as a tool to guide people … Read more

The maintenance of blood sugar is very tightly regulated; with a healthy person’s blood glucose being kept in the range from 3.3-5.5 mmol/L (60-100 mg/dl) between meals, however a new study indicates that it may be newer variant of a gene that determines how well (or not) we are able to maintain these levels. After … Read more

INTRODUCTION: There much debate in the health community about the effect of dietary fat — especially saturated fat on cholesterol levels and whether there is an association between dietary saturated fat intake and cardiovascular disease. In the first part in this two-part series titled High Cholesterol and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease, I explained what cholesterol … Read more

INTRODUCTION: There is much debate in the scientific community about the effect of saturated fat on cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease. To best understand this complex topic, I have broken the subject into two articles. In this first part, I explain the different ways cholesterol values are assessed, what they are used … Read more

INTRODUCTION National dietary guidelines in both Canada and the US focus on the variety of foods available in each of several defined ‘food groups’ and make recommendations about “healthy eating” based on how much of particular nutrients are in specific foods. In Canada, for example, foods that are rich in saturated fat, sodium, or sugar … 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 on April 18, 2026 What Is the Difference Between Sugar and Starch? Sugar and starch are closely related, with starches being just long chains of glucose molecules. While simple sugars exist as single molecules, starchy foods consist of large chains of glucose … 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

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