Karen is a Registered Dietitian who promotes healthy eating as a nutrition news columnist, speaker and consultant. Her columns include “Nutrition Notes” and “Nutrition-Wise,” now named “Health Talk,” which are both syndicated nationwide.
More Vegetables and Fruits – Healthy Eating Made Doable
Every so often, my clients and friends say that recommended targets for vegetable and fruit consumption seem unrealistically high, and that we have to accept as a fact that we just can’t get enough of them, especially when eating away from home. I just returned from a terrific vacation to beautiful northern California where I learned that this doesn’t have to be the case. The delicious foods I enjoyed there showed me the many ways – regardless of specific produce choices based on seasonal availability – we can include vegetables and fruits in our meals all day long.
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What a “Natural” Label Really Means
Ask ten different people what “natural” on a food label means and you’ll likely hear ten different answers. But almost everyone will probably indicate that the food is healthier. People are usually surprised – and maybe even a little indignant – to discover that for most foods, “natural” on the label can be nutritionally insignificant.
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Cholesterol Won’t Go Down? Check Your Healthy Eating Strategy
I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me healthy eating doesn’t work to lower their blood cholesterol. Indeed, some people’s cholesterol is resistant to diet. Yet more often than not, when I ask what they’ve tried, it’s “a low-fat diet.” The good news: If that sounds like you, you haven’t begun to see the impact of a broad-based strategy of healthy choices on your blood cholesterol and overall heart disease risk.
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For Women with Heart Disease – Mediterranean or Low-Fat Diet?
Many people automatically assume heart-healthy eating means low-fat eating. But it’s the Mediterranean eating pattern, which focuses on nutrient-rich plant foods and healthy fats, that studies say may be the best bet for many. That’s especially true for women, because it’s an eating pattern linked with higher HDL (“good cholesterol”) levels, which are key to reducing women’s heart disease risk.
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Seven Things Women Must Know About Heart Disease
Major research trials have changed the recommended priorities for preventing heart disease in women over the past decade, yet many women still focus on messages based on older studies based primarily on men. We’ve achieved major drops in death rates due to heart disease over the last few decades, according to the American Heart Association (AHA), but now deaths from heart disease in middle-aged American women actually seem to be increasing.
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The Diabetes-Cancer Connection: What Does It Mean?
OK, call me a Pollyanna, but some good can even come from realizing the increase in cancer risk linked to type 2 diabetes. By supplying evidence of an important pathway in cancer’s development, we have more clarity on steps that can have double impact, decreasing risk of diabetes and all its complications as well as decreasing cancer risk at the same time.
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Broccoli – Something Special or Just Another Green Vegetable?
Exotic tropical fruits come and go as “super foods” in the spotlight, but for years broccoli has maintained a place on the A-list of healthy vegetables. Is it really justified, or is it just another example of nutrition hype? Do some of us benefit more than others? No single vegetable can provide all the compounds found in plant foods that seem to play a role in reducing cancer risk. Broccoli – along with its other cruciferous vegetable “cousins” – really does seem to rank among the all-stars.
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How Bad Is a Little Bad?
Someone recently asked me, “If my blood sugar and blood pressure are only a little high, not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes or hypertension, does it really matter?” This person acknowledged that he’d been gaining weight over the last ten years and asked, “Do I really need to go on a diet now?” This is metabolic syndrome, and one in every three American adults has it. It doesn’t only change your risk of heart disease, it also affects your risk of cancer and other diseases. Fortunately, you can do something about it.
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Fighting Inflammation with Your Fork
Identifying a food as “anti-inflammatory” comes close to giving it “super food” status, since avoiding or reducing chronic low-grade inflammation offers potential to reduce risk of cancer, heart disease and more. The scientific-sounding explanations of what makes a food or diet anti-inflammatory, however, aren’t always as solid as they seem.
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Raising Vegetable Eaters
We hear about vegetables’ importance to health all the time, but many children and adolescents still don’t eat even one serving a day. Some parents assume that eating vegetables is something kids pick up later in life. Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report in a recent survey that only 13 percent of high school students say they eat at least 3 servings of vegetables per day. Besides, researchers say, kids who skip vegetables miss out on health benefits that start to build early. It turns out that parents who serve vegetables in ways that they themselves enjoy are the most powerful influence on raising a vegetable eater.
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Reducing the Risk of Breast Cancer
Since there are several types of breast cancer, we shouldn’t be surprised at how challenging it is for researchers to identify which steps can most effectively reduce risk. Study results vary about the impact of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, total fat and different types of fat. However, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recently published an update to its 2007 expert report looking at lifestyle and breast cancer risk. This is the largest review of research on this topic ever conducted and has confirmed that weight control, regular physical activity and limitation of alcohol are the foundations of a lifestyle that lowers breast cancer risk.
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Keeping Track for Success
Keeping a log of eating and activity habits has long been considered the gold standard for effectively encouraging behavior change in relation to weight control and other health goals. Studies repeatedly show that people who monitor food and exercise consistently tend to be most successful in changing their habits.
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What’s Your Relationship with Food?
Eating in response to emotions and stress has been linked to weight problems for decades. The implications: People who haven’t learned traditional coping skills are more likely to engage in emotional eating, which then leads to overweight or obesity. Some experts now suggest this link may not be so clear-cut. Regardless of how emotional eating begins, recognizing the signs and developing a new approach to eating are essential skills that are necessary to build a healthier relationship with food and with yourself.
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What’s Your Vegetable-to-Meat Ratio?
Studies keep linking diets that are high in red meat with increased cancer risk. Could part of the risk reflect an unhealthful balance between vegetables and meat? The Mediterranean and Asian eating patterns show lower cancer risks. These diets both limit meat and strongly emphasize an abundance of vegetables.
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Much Confusion Over the Causes of Cancer
The public perception about cancer risk is grim. According to a recent survey, nearly half of American adults think that “almost everything” causes cancer. That same percentage of the public believes that preventing cancer is either “impossible” or “highly unlikely.” Yet these views are in stark contrast to the optimistic findings detailed in a major international report on cancer risk. In fact, experts estimate that about one-third of today’s cancers could be prevented with weight control, regular physical activity and a healthy balance of foods.
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Putting Red Meat in Perspective
News reports about a major study looking at the health effects of red meat may have made many a meat lover take note. Before this study, the American Institute for Cancer Research’s recent report found that limiting red meat to no more than 18 ounces per week lowers your risk of colon cancer. Now, several studies are adding further insight regarding the recommendations to limit red meat. And, as the studies show, it’s not all or nothing.
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Nutritional Gatekeepers – How Big a Role Do They Play?
For many years, research found that one person in every family, called the “gatekeeper,” controls the majority of food purchased and eaten by all family members. Now some question whether cultural changes are removing gatekeepers’ power. This is a particularly important question for parents who wonder how much impact they have on their children’s nutrition and health.
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Chronic Inflammation: The Elephant in the Room of Our Health
Most Americans know that health risks such as high blood cholesterol and blood sugar are important to monitor, but a growing number of researchers believe that other major factors with far-ranging effects on heart disease and cancer should be getting more attention. One of these “big” factors is inflammation. Basic lifestyle choices are the key to fight inflammation, including weight management, which may be the most powerful anti-inflammation step of all.
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The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.
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