KTK-Nutrition

Are there foods that can fight inflammation?   In the nutrition classes I teach, students often ask what foods are anti-inflammatory.   Livestrong has a great article on Inflammation-Fighting Foods to Eat Every Day .   Another great resource is WebMD at: 11 Food Do's and Don'ts to Tame Inflammation Why fight inflammation?   Inflammation isn’t all bad as it is a way for our bodies to respond to an injury or infection.   But chronic inflammation can lead to more serious problems.   Inflamed arteries can make way for heart attacks or strokes.   Others try anti-inflammatory diets for help with arthritis pain.   What foods cause inflammation? Just as there are anti-inflammatory foods, there are foods that contribute to inflammation.   According to Livestrong, these foods include: o    Fried foods, especially foods fried in lard or hydrogenated oils. o    Foods high in added sugar such as candy, sugared soda.   L...

What city is going to tax soft drinks and other beverages?   New York City tried and failed to do this.   This week, the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, decided to be not so friendly to soft drinks and other beverages.   The City Council passed a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on many beverages.    Doesn’t sound like much, but buy a 20 ounce soda and the tax would be 30 cents.   Want a 12 pack of sodas?   Then add $2.16 to your bill.   This doesn’t include the 8% sales tax that would be charged on that soda.   What beverages are being taxed? Sugary beverages including sugared sodas, sports drinks, Iced Tea like Snapple Iced Tea, lemonade, Gatorade, Energy Drinks like Monsters Energy Drink, Powerade Mountain Berry Blast would be taxed. Diet sodas like Diet Coke, Coke Zero are also taxed.   V8 Splash Carrot Orange Drink would be taxed as it is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and contains only 15% juice.   Vitamin Water such...

Every month I get the Diabetes Forecast magazine.    It always has some interesting articles on nutrition.   The January/February and May/June 2016 issues have many interesting updates on nutrition and health.   Here are a few.   Sit Less, Move More.   Can sitting increase your risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes?   Apparently so.   To study this researchers gave 2,497 adults 24 hour activity monitors.   The 2,497 adults included 1,395 with normal glucose, 714 with type 2 diabetes, and 388 with prediabetes.   Study participants were tracked for 8 days.   The activity differences didn’t seem like much as those with Type 2 Diabetes sat 26 more minutes a day.    Every hour sitting and not moving can increase your chances of developing type 2 diabetes by 22%.   This doesn’t mean you have to run a marathon as study authors noted just standing up every hour helps.   Watching TV, then stand up and walk around during ...

Ever go to the grocery store and find “All Natural” written across the package front?    Doesn’t that sound healthy?    A good for you food?   As some of your friends what “natural” means and you will get a lot of different answers.   So what does a food labeled “natural” or “all natural” mean?   As noted in What Does "Natural" Mean to the FDA? ,   Unlike “organic,” which is legally regulated, “natural,” when seen in the aisles of your local supermarket, can mean pretty much anything the processors like. The federal government has yet to regulate the term “natural” or “all natural” so manufacturers use the terms to sell you on their product.   I was buying something once that said, “all natural ingredients”.   Then I looked at the ingredients and found “sucrose” or white table sugar listed. There is nothing “natural” about table sugar, it is highly processed food almost devoid of vitamins and minerals.   What is FDA doing about...