KTK-Nutrition

Look on any package and you usually see the amount of saturated fat grams listed.   Nice information but what is the average consumer supposed to do with that information?   Why are saturated fat grams on the nutrition label and how do saturated fats affect our health? What are saturated fats? Think of fats solid at room temperature like Crisco, lard, butter or bacon fat.   Look at steak, bacon, pork chops, salami and you can see the streaks of white – that is the saturated fat in the meat.   Whole fat dairy foods like whole milk, whole fat cheese contain saturated fat.   The chemical structure of saturated fats means the fat has no double bonds, is saturated with hydrogen and these fats can pack tightly together, and that is why saturated fats form solids at room temperature.    Foods with saturated fat What foods have saturated fats? The American Heart Association is a go- to place for information on diet and heart health.   The heart association and other sou

Feeling tired?   Could a lack of the mineral magnesium be the problem?   Most people know we need iron our diets and “iron poor blood” or iron deficiency anemia can lead one to feel tired.   But magnesium is also an important mineral for many reasons, one of which is energy.   An article in Environment Nutrition noted that not having enough of the essential mineral, magnesium, can lead to feeling tired or fatigued.    More Americans are low in magnesium, why?   Many of us are eating more processed food like white bread, white rice, white pasta, and Pop Tarts.   When they refine the grain to make white flour, white rice, etc., they remove most of the magnesium. Because of all the processed food we eat, they estimate we are getting only about 50% of the magnesium our bodies need each day.   The Recommended Dietary Allowance for magnesium is 310-320 mg per day for women and 410-420 mg per day for men.    Why do we need magnesium?   Cells in our bodies need magnesium, especia

Whenever one hears about bacteria, they think disease or illness.   But there are actually bacteria that are good for your health.   As WebMD notes , probiotics are live bacteria that are good for you, especially your digestive system.   This week in the nutrition class I teach, we are learning about probiotics and another term not often heard, prebiotics .    What are Probiotics? These are the “good” bacteria and these good bacteria help keep you and your gut healthy.   You have “good” and “bad” bacteria in your gut and when you eat foods with “probiotics” or good bacteria, you change your gut to have more good than bad bacteria.   A healthy thing to do.   There are many “probiotics” as there are many different types of bacteria.   Usually in foods like yogurt you will see on the label: Lactobillus – this is a probiotic commonly added to foods like yogurt.   Interesting that these bacteria digests some lactose, the natural sugar in milk.   So, people who are lactose intol

I just started teaching another semester of nutrition.   Each semester I ask students to write down some of their nutrition questions on a stickie note and then post them on the board.   Throughout the semester I answer the students' questions.   One of the students asked “ What is the best way to minimize sugar intake ?”    What “sugars” should we cut back on? Many people are confused about sugars in our foods.   We should cut back on “added sugars” but what about the natural sugars occurring in foods?  Added Sugars – how much should we have in our diets? Many foods we eat have sugar added to the food.   Surprisingly, most foods we buy in the store such as soup, pasta sauce, catsup and many more foods have sugar added during the manufacturing process.   The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends we limit “calories from added sugars to no more than 10% each day.   That’s 200 calories or about 12 teaspoons, for a 2,000-calorie diet.” What are Added S

We all have heard of processed food.   If it comes out of a bag, box or can, the food has undergone some processing. But now there is a new term to know, ultraprocessed food.   What are ultraprocessed foods and do they affect our health any differently than processed or whole foods?  1.  Ultraprocessed Food The definition varies but one definition for “ultraprocessed” foods can be described “as ready-to-eat formulations with five or more ingredients, often including flavor-enhancing additives, dyes or stabilizers”.          2.   Processed foods are foods that have undergone some processing – frozen, canned, dried , cooked or packaged.   These foods may be fortified or preserved in some way.   These include cereals, bread, fruit juices, canned vegetables like canned tomatoes, frozen fruit, frozen vegetables, pasta sauces and crackers.   Examples of even more processed would be frozen pizzas or a microwave dinner.       3.   Whole Foods – foods like fruits, vegetables,