Nutrition

The latest issue of Nutrition Action Newsletter hit my doorstep this week and there’s an interesting article, “Rooting for Fruit,” about using our fruit bowls as a medicine chest. Of particular interest to me was the explanation for why cranberries can help prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs)  if consumed regularly. [click to continue...]

Not too long ago, I wrote about a recent study that concluded that simply consuming less calories is more important than the type of diet you choose when trying to lose weight.  Portion control is a key factor in any weight loss program, but it can be tricky. Dietitians recommend portions the size of our palm, or a hockey puck. But whose palm? (Your husband’s if you’re real hungry) And just how big is a hockey puck anyway?

So you might be interested in a new weight management tool that I found online.  It’s called the Northstar Portion System, a series of 11 containers with lids in various sizes that will help you measure healthy portion sizes for everything you eat and drink.  The System also includes eight laminated cards for comparison of hard to measure foods such as a muffin, burger or baked good. There’s a helpful guidebook and a daily guide to keep track of how many portions you eat from each food group. It costs $34.95. [click to continue...]

I was excited to read that a recent study has found that a tart-cherry enriched diet can reduce belly fat.  That’s certainly good news; eat something sweet and delicious and lose fat at the same time! Is this for real?

I searched the internet to find more details about the report and lo and behold I found that tart cherries also may lower the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease by lowering total cholesterol levels, triglycerides, insulin and fasting glucose levels after 90 days.

But that’s not all.  According to the report, “cherry-fed groups had lower levels of a plasma marker of oxidative damage and increased blood antioxidant capacity – not surprising since cherries are one of the richest sources of antioxidants.  Additionally, the cherry-enriched diets reduced “fatty liver” or the accumulation of triglycerides and cholesterol in the liver.”

Can you guess who funded this study? The Cherry Marketing Institute, of course, and their public relations firm, not the research facility, is the contact for information.

This is yet another example of a research study reaching a conclusion that the funder is seeking.

Researchers at Harvard have confirmed what we’ve really known all along. If you want to lose weight, eat less! That’s it.  Exercise helps too.  You can pick any diet – Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig,  Zone, South Beach, or Atkins.  It doesn’t matter because, as the researchers concluded, any diet that reduces your caloric intake will work. [click to continue...]

Women’s Health Magazine has compiled a list of The Best Fitness Foods for Women and I was pleasantly surprised to find goodies like chocolate milk.  Sure, it offers lots of calcium, but isn’t it even more fattening with chocolate added? Sports nutritionist Susan Kleiner, Ph.D, author of High-Performance Nutrition: The Total Eating Plan to Maximum Your Workout , explains that “there’s way more to milk than just calcium. In fact, it’s a damn near perfect food, giving you a lot of valuable energy while keeping your calorie count low. [click to continue...]

If your sweet tooth is sabotaging your diet or daily work-outs, take some advice from Dr. C.W. Randolph,  the author of From Belly Fat to Belly Flat: How Your Hormones Are Adding Inches to Your Waist and Subtracting Years from Your Life — the Medically Proven Way to Reset Your Metabolism and Reshape Your Body. In his current newsletter, he suggests these snacks when you’re experiencing food cravings;

• Tangerine slices -  Citrus fruits contain a substance called D-Limonene, which has been shown to promote the detoxification of extra estrogen.

•  A low-fat yogurt smoothie with 2 tablespons of flax seed – Flax seeds are part of a food group called lignans that reduce estrogenic activity at a cellular level.

• Carrots & Cukes – Toss slighty steamed carrots with sesame seeds and cucumbers and sprinkle with rice wine vinegar. The tart taste will help eliminate sugar cravings.  Since carrots, cucumbers and seeds are all insoluble fibers, they help decrease your extra estrogen load by binding to the estrogen itself and moving it out of your body through the bowel.

You can subscribe to Dr. Randolph’s free newsletter on his website.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal offers a list of ten fruits and vegetables that, along with apples and pumpkins, are abundant this time of year and provide numerous health benefits, which are summarized below.  See the entire article, by Pervaiz Shallwani, for a lot more information about each food along with suggestions for cooking: [click to continue...]

I found a terrific list of 100 healthful foods that every woman should include in her diet. Compiled by Alissa Miller on her blog at Nursing Degree.Net, she has grouped them into nine categories and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by some of the foods on her list: [click to continue...]

Cruciferous vegetables are the centerpiece of Dr. C. W. Randolph’s anti-estrogenic diet that he suggests in his book, From Belly Fat to Belly Flat: How Your Hormones Are Adding Inches to Your Waist and Subtracting Years from Your Life — the Medically Proven Way to Reset Your Metabolism and Reshape Your Body.

Why? As he explains in his book, these types of vegetables can help decrease the body’s load of unhealthy estrogens and reduce an overall unhealthy condition of estrogen dominance. (For an explanation of estrogen dominance, see my previous blog post just below). Dr. Randolph also states that a “very noticeable benefit” of eating more cruciferous vegetables will be decreased abdominal circumference of the waist. [click to continue...]