KTK-Nutrition

Recently the walnut industry has been advertising walnuts a lot on TV.    Eat walnuts for heart health, put walnuts on your salad.   Are walnuts good for your health?   Dr. Oz wrote a column with “walnuts: the superfood” and a posted blog post, The Wonderful Walnut .   So why does Dr. Oz and many nutritionists think walnuts are a superfood? Omega-3 fats – these fats are the “good” fats, the fat that is good for our hearts.   Walnuts are full of omega-3’s.   Studies have shown that eating walnuts actually improves heart health.   How?   By lowering the bad cholesterol, LDL and even helping to lower blood pressure.   Omega-3’s are also good for reducing inflammation.   Diabetes – eating walnuts helps lower blood sugar and reduces your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.   ( Nuts Good for Some with Diabetes) .   Eating walnuts 2-3 times a week is helpful in lowering Type 2 diabetes risk.   Vitamin E, manganese, copper – all provided by walnuts What amount of walnuts are good fo

Recently a relative stated their Fitbit didn’t seem to accurately reflect how many calories they burned up during exercise.   Many calculators I have used do seem to overstate the calories burned in an activity.   Calculators that are simple relying on weight and duration may not be as accurate as calculators that require more input like gender, height and that provide a much broader array of activities.   Some activity calculators are built into apps like Lose It! and others are online stand-alone exercise calculators.   If you want to know how many calories you are burning at the gym, doing routine chores or exercising outdoors here are some calculators to try: Health Status – Calories Burned Calculator – This provides an extensive listing of exercise and common daily activities.   You enter your age, gender, height, weight, and number of minutes for the chosen activity and it estimates calories burned.   As the calculator notes, it takes 3500 calories to burn up one pound of b

What is the DASH diet and why is the DASH diet so good for your health?    As noted last week, every year for the past 6 years, US News and World Reports ranks the best diets ( Best Diets 2016 ).   They gather a panel of diet and nutrition experts and rank 38 diets on a number of criteria.   What diet ranked the best for overall health?   The DASH diet.      What is the DASH diet? This diet was originally designed to help stop hypertension or high blood pressure.   They have now found it also helps prevent and control diabetes and supports a healthy heart.   Thus, it is a diet to follow for overall good health.   Diet doesn’t mean one is trying to lose weight.   Rather it is a healthier pattern of eating.   What nutrients are emphasized in this diet? This diet promotes potassium, calcium, protein and fiber.   Although most people know to limit sodium because sodium (salt) is linked to higher blood pressure, many people aren’t aware the diets higher in potassium help lower bloo

Every year for the past 6 years, US News and World Reports ranks the best diets ( Best Diets 2016 ).   They gather a panel of diet and nutrition experts and rank 38 diets on a number of criteria.   They rate various diets on areas of: -ease in following -diets ability to produce long-term and short term weight loss -how nutritionally complete the diet is -safety of the diet -if the diet has the potential to prevent diabetes, heart disease or helps manage these diseases What are the Best Diets Overall?   The ranking for best diets is based on ratings that included safety, weight loss, sustainability, and other factors. DASH diet – The DASH diet also came in as number one last year.   This diet was originally developed for high blood pressure and the acronym stands for D ietary A pproaches to S top H ypertension.   But it is also a nutritionally complete diet, very safe, helps prevent and control diabetes, supports healthy hearts.   MIND Diet – maybe you haven’t heard

The New York Times Well Blogs , featured their most popular health questions for 2015 Most Popular Health Questions You Asked This Year .   Some of these questions and responses are highlighted below. (Q and A adapted somewhat for this blog.) Q:   What is the Best Time to Exercise to Lose Weight? A:   Running on empty seems to work.   Some research shows working out on a completely empty stomach stimulates the body to burn more fat and even stave off weight gain.   But for me, exercising on empty would only lead to low blood sugar and poor performance.   Even before I go for a morning walk I at least eat a banana to have some energy. Q:   How Can I Reduce Belly Fat ? A:   Belly fat is not only of concern for appearance sake, it also can be a health risk.   The Mayo Clinic and other researches ( Central Obesity ) have noted those with large waists are more likely to have health problems such as cardiovascular disease than those with normal waistlines. So if you are trying to