KTK-Nutrition

Who doesn’t enjoy some popcorn?   Many people love to indulge in some popcorn when they go to the movies or pop their own at home when watching a movie on TV.   So, what is the bottom line? Is popcorn good or bad for your health?   Well, that depends on how you prepare the popcorn and what you put “on” the popcorn. Does popcorn have any nutritional value? Popcorn is actually loaded with good nutrition.   A few years ago, I was preparing for class and a student came in early and was eating a snack.   I happened to walk by her seat and she hid the snack bag as fast as she could.   I asked her what she was snacking on and she sheepishly pulled out a bag of popcorn.   I told her popcorn is whole grain and a very healthy snack – good choice.   She then proceeded to openly enjoy her bag of popcorn.   Popcorn is whole grain.   Corn is unusual in that it can be a vegetable when we eat corn on the cob, whole kernel corn, creamed style corn...

So many people are now at home and more people are cooking at home.   This can be good for your health.   When you are preparing food for yourself and your family, what cooking oil are you using?   Just like most things in nutrition there are a lot of myths about what cooking oils are good for your health and what cooking oils are not so good.   Why would a person buy a cooking oil that is bad for their heart health?   I noted this before but I was watching a couple in the cooking oil aisle struggling to figure out what cooking oil to buy.   They would pick up a bottle, look at it, talk about it, put it back and then pick up another bottle.   Choosing and buying a healthy cooking oil is not hard.   Here are some tips. One might think most cooking oils are the same.   And they are pretty much the same when it comes to calories and fat content.   But, the type of fat in the oil really makes a difference health wise. Healthy Choices for...

So, which is better for your health, butter or margarine?   And why?   For years we heard “skip the butter and choose the margarine”.   Margarine popularity soared and butter became a no-no.   But, has something changed?   Is butter back?   Eat This, Not That! Has an interesting article , “ What Happens to Your Body When You Eat Butter ?”   Are there health benefits to going back to the real thing, butter? Registered Dietitian, Vanessa Risetto notes that butter does provide some vitamins like vitamin A and some Vitamin E, B12 and vitamin K.   Butter also has lauric acid – sounds bad but it actually is important in treating infections.   Butter also has the fat called butyrate.   You don’t need to know the name of the fat but to know that it promotes healthy bacteria in your gut .   What about saturated fat?   Isn’t butter high in saturated fat? Yes, butter has some saturated fat.   We don’t have to eliminate satur...

Can you eat to improve your memory?   Apparently so.   A recent article in CommonHealth describes how one can eat to essentially clog up those brain pathways or how one can eat to unclog your brain and improve your memory.   Another article reviews 15 foods to eat for a healthy brain.   What food clog up your brain? We all know that eating high fat foods, especially those high in saturated fat, can clog up your arteries and are not good for your heart.   Another fat, trans fat, is especially bad as it builds up in our blood vessels and damages them.   So those French fries loaded with fat and foods high in saturated fat like bacon, are not only not good for your heart, they might not be good for your brain. The Diets high in cholesterol and fat might speed up the formation of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain.   These sticky protein clusters are blamed for much of the damage that occurs in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Recommendat...

Is coconut oil healthy?   So many people think so.   So many students in my class have told me they use coconut oil as someone recommended it to them as being good for their health.   Not surprising since the NY Times reported that 72% of Americans think coconut oil is healthy.     Even more surprising is that 37% of nutritionists thought coconut oil was healthy.   A recent article in USA Today highlighted on MSN probably says it best as the title of their article is:   Coconut oil is about as healthy as beef fat or butter . What does the American Heart Association say about coconut oil? The go to place for information on heart health is the American Heart Association, at heart.org.   There are so many misconceptions about coconut oil, the American Heart Association has released a report advising against coconut oil.     Why is coconut oil bad for you? Coconut oil raises your bad, LDL cholesterol.   Why?   Prob...

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 ...