-
Foods Nutrition Experts Can't Live Without
Tweet Share on Facebook March 28, 2013 CommentI find it funny when a patient becomes bored while trying to eat healthy. (By the way, that same patient never complained about eating a plain bagel and cream cheese each morning for years before we met.) For many, there seems to be a strong disconnect between eating healthy and loving what they are eating.
-
New Ways to Lower Cholesterol with Diet
Tweet Share on Facebook March 27, 2013 CommentIf you're among the 14 percent of American adults with high cholesterol, you've no doubt received the standard diet advice: lose weight; limit your intake of cholesterol-rich foods like eggs, butter, cheese, red meat and shellfish; and lower your intake of saturated fats from animal foods and hydrogenated plant oils.
[See Plant-Based Diets: A Primer.]
This standard advice is problematic. For one, many people find that cleaning up their diets of saturated fat and cholesterol isn't a surefire way to improve their lipid profile, unless significant weight loss follows. (It's common to replace those saturated fats with excessive carb portions; when that happens, cholesterol levels may not respond as favorably as one might hope.)
-
The One-Day Diet
Tweet Share on Facebook March 26, 2013 CommentWhether you're trying to lose the few pounds you gained this winter, or simply need some creative ideas to get your shopping cart—or dinner plate—in shape, there's no need to purge your pantry, eat unusual foods or completely overhaul your eating regimen. And despite what you may have heard, you don't need to fast, juice or otherwise "detox" to lose weight and improve your health.
[See Why Juice 'Cleanses' Don't Deliver.]
To help you get a food and nutrition pick-me-up and infuse new life into your eating routine, why not follow this no-fail "one-day diet" plan. Rather than being a so-called diet you go on and off of, this plan is more of a sensible, specific course of action you can turn to on any given day—for example, after a weekend of overindulging, when you feel stressed or when you simply want to take off, and keep off, a few stubborn pounds. There's no need to implement all of these strategies at once, so pick and choose the ones that work best for you, whether you're home or on the go, traveling or enjoying some vacation time.
-
Favorite Foods and Drinks from Expo West
Tweet Share on Facebook March 25, 2013 CommentA few weeks ago, I attended the Natural Products Expo West, which is the world's largest natural and organic food and product tradeshow. It can be a bit overwhelming with over 3,000 exhibits at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, but it is a lot of fun! I saw many products using chia seeds, quinoa, seaweed and kale and wanted to share some of my favorites with you!
[See Mango or Papaya? Spinach or Kale? Food Face-offs]
Here are my top five favorite finds:
-
Easter Candy Face-Offs
Tweet Share on Facebook March 25, 2013 CommentThe Easter bunny is just a hop, skip and jump away from filling our baskets with candy and our kids' teeth with cavities—not to mention tightening our skinny jeans! It's no surprise that your kids love sugary foods (don't you?), and they probably can't make it through the grocery store this week without grabbing handfuls of pastel-colored goodies. The holiday sugar rush can derail even the most nutritious of parents—those who typically earn gold stars for household sugar-control throughout the year. Whether you're a famously nutritious parent year-round, or someone who takes a free-for-all approach to the holidays, consider these Easter candy face-offs:
-
Should 'Junk' Really Be a Food Group?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 24, 2013 CommentHealth, which matters enormously to every one of us as individuals, particularly once we've lost it, just doesn't make the top of our societal priority list. Wealth does, of course. But health tends to get thrown under the bus when that facilitates money making. So perhaps it's no great surprise that we can't see our way clear to restricting sales of high-capacity ammunition magazines useful for nothing but carnage, or curtailing the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages in single-serve buckets.
But even so, we do love our children. So perhaps we can manage at least to ask the right questions on their behalf from time to time. I've got one now: Should junk really be a food group?
-
Which Passover Foods Should You Avoid?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 20, 2013 CommentWith Passover looming right around the corner, I've already started to get the questions I usually hear this time of year, like: How can I avoid holiday weight gain? How do you count matzo? And how do you avoid that corked-up constipated feeling?
When I was a kid, there were slim-pickings on Passover. The supermarket shelves weren't filled with the copy-cat granola bars and cereals we see today. Now we find full shelves carrying products that wear the 'Kosher for Passover' label, making Passover a little more interesting, and even better ... a little healthier. Let's walk down the aisle together and do some comparison shopping:
-
How (and Why) to Introduce Allergens to Your Infant
Tweet Share on Facebook March 19, 2013 CommentIn the last decade, prevailing beliefs about timing the introduction of highly allergenic foods to babies have undergone a sea change.
For decades, parents were advised to delay introducing allergenic foods until 12 months (cow's milk dairy), 24 months (eggs) or even 36 months of age (fish, tree nuts, peanuts). Then, in 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) retracted its previous guidelines on the matter, acknowledging that there was insufficient evidence to support delayed introduction of allergens as a strategy to reduce the risk of food allergy. But beyond that, the organization did not offer specifics as to whether there was an ideal window during infancy to introduce these foods, nor did it comment on whether delaying introduction of foods might actually increase risk of developing food allergies.
-
Dietary Fat: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2013 CommentThere was a time, not long ago, when all dietary fat was bad for our health. It was not truly bad, of course, but we talked ourselves into believing it was. How we responded behaviorally to that belief never made any sense, but that's a topic for other columns, past and future. For now, it suffices to note that we labeled all fat bad, and we were wrong.
One would think, and certainly hope, that having engendered years of public policy and massive shifts in the food supply and prevailing behavior with a misguided boondoggle, we would be extremely cautious about doing it again. But not so! Repeating the follies of dietary history has become something of an honored vocation, if not a national pastime.
-
There's No Such Thing as 'Perfect Eating'
Tweet Share on Facebook March 15, 2013 CommentIt seems like people are always on the hunt for that perfect, "magic" meal plan that will get them to their goal weight. Which foods are "good" and which ones are "bad"? What's the formula for exactly what to eat, how much of it, and when to eat it that will give you the fastest results? When my clients approach me with these requests, my answer is always the same: Just like in a game of darts, nutrition isn't about getting a perfect bull's-eye every time. You get points for just hitting the board, too. In other words, it's not about eating perfectly all the time, every time. It's about your overall habits—getting points on the board. Maybe you get a bull's-eye once in a while, but you didn't fail just because you were a little off target.
