KTK-Nutrition

Hard to avoid “processed” food.   Some of my students say that to eat healthy one should avoid “processed” food.   But most of the food we eat is “processed” to some extent.   Eating whole wheat bread is healthy but bread is “processed” as they harvested the grain, milled the grain, made the flour and then made the bread.   Cereal, even whole grain cereal, is processed.   Canned vegetables are processed as is canned fruit in syrup.     But some food is “ultraprocessed” so much so that this processing adversely affects the nutritional processing of the food.   What are ultraprocessed foods and how is the nutritional value of this type of food affected?   Are there any consequences to your health if you eat a lot of ultraprocessed food? What are ultraprocessed foods ? Not only are these foods processed but often these foods have lots of added sugar, salt, and fat as well as preservatives and many have artificial colors.   Foods that ar...

Look around and you will see so many kids who are overweight.   Often these kids also have parents who are overweight.   CDC reports that childhood obesity in the USA has become a very serious problem.   Being overweight puts adults and children at risk for poor health.   How many kids in the US are obese? For kids ages 2-19 years of age: 18.5% are obese which equates to 13.7 million obese kids in the USA 13.9 % of kids ages 2-5 are obese 18.4% of 6-11-year olds are obese And 1 out of 5 or 20.6% of 12-19-year olds are obese Moms (and Dads) play an important role in helping prevent obesity in their kids.   Medical Press has a good article discussing 5 healthy habits of Moms that can reduce obesity risk in their kids.   The article published by the journal BMJ discusses research about 17,000 female nurses and their 24,289 kids and looked at five healthy habits of the moms.   These 5 healthy habits lowered their kids risk of being overwei...

Are you eating whole grains?   Can you name 3 whole grain cereals, name 3 whole grain crackers?   In the class I teach, it is amazing how few students eat whole grains until they learn how very important whole grains are to their health.   How can you add more whole grains to your day and why are whole grains so important to good health?           1.   What are whole grains?       The Whole Grains Council provides excellent guidance on whole grains and even have a tutorial,  Whole Grains 101 .  We are all familiar with grains – wheat, corn, oats, barley, quinoa, spelt, rye, rice.  It is interesting that all grains start out as “Whole Grains”.  It is only in refining that parts of the grain are removed, the healthiest parts.  When a grain is refined, it is no longer a “whole grain”.  Whole Grains include ALL 3 Parts of the grain – the bran (rich in fiber, antioxidants and B vi...

How can you add some activity to your every day life?   So much to do?   Commute to work.   Sit at a desk job. Commute back home and watch some TV or have some other screen time.   How can you switch up a sedentary lifestyle to a more active lifestyle?   And doing so will lower your risk of a number of diseases.   Just moving more can help one lose weight or keep off the weight you have lost.   And reducing your weight by 5% or more can lower your risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.   An article in Verywell Health described, 9 Ways to Beat a Sedentary Lifestyle .   What are some of their suggestions and others you can try? Walking – aim for a 30 minute walk a day.   I used to commute to work, have a desk job, but planned a walk with friends at lunch every day.    No time for 30 minutes?   Then take three 10-minute walks each day. If you commute by bus or train, then get off a few blocks before your stop and wa...