KTK-Nutrition

Processed meats are everywhere – on breakfast plates, in lunchboxes, at backyard cookouts, and tucked into charcuterie boards.    Think bacon and eggs, hot dogs, deli turkey sandwiches, pepperoni pizza, sausage and pancakes – they’re convenient, tasty, and deeply woven into our food culture.    But there’s a growing body of research showing that processed meats can come with a serious health risk, an increased risk of cancer, especially colon cancer. If you’re trying to eat healthier or you want to reduce your cancer risk, understanding  why  processed meats are linked to cancer—and how to make smarter choices—can lower your risk.  🥓  What Counts as Processed Meat? According to  MD Anderson Cancer Center , meat is considered processed if it has been  smoked, cured, salted, seasoned, or preserved with chemical additives . That includes: Bacon Sausage and bratwurst Hot dogs Deli meats and lunch meats Ham Pepperoni and salami Corned beef J...

Are you being fooled by foods promoted as “healthy” that turn out to be not so good for your health?   Some foods marketed as “healthy” can still be high in sugar, salt, or unhealthy fats.   To make informed choices one has to read labels and understand the nutritional content of foods.   What are some examples of misleading “healthy” foods?      Plant-Based Meat:   These have been the rage but now seem to have lost their popularity.   Good thing as many of the plant-based meat products are not so good for your health.   I had a student that was so proud of switching from eating a regular hamburger to a plant-based hamburger and really thought that this was so much better for her health.   Was it?   McDonald’s tested the McPlant burger based on Beyond Meat but it ended in 2022 and never went nationwide.   Burger King offered Impossible Burgers in 2019 as the Impossible Whopper.     The Burger King website says t...

Everyone has heard of “processed foods”.   But now they talk about “ultra-processed” foods.   When teaching nutrition we did talk about why processed foods can be unhealthy but only recently has the term “ultra-processed” foods come into vogue.   In a previous blog post, Should You Avoid Ultraprocessed Food? , I noted that some of my students say that to eat healthy one should avoid “processed food”.   What they did not seem to understand is that most of the food we eat is processed to some extent.   Whole wheat bread is a healthy choice but bread is a “processed food”.   They harvest the grain, mill the grain, make the flour and then make the bread.   Cereal, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, 100% juice – all are processed to some extent.   But now there is “ultraprocessed food”.   These foods are not only highly processed but often contain a lot of added sugar, salt and fat as well as preservatives and many have artificial coloring ad...

The “C” for cancer is a word that people don’t want to hear.   Are there foods you can add to your day that may help fight cancer?   WebMD and others have good articles on cancer-fighting foods .   As WebMD notes, there isn’t one food that can prevent cancer.   But eating a combination of cancer-fighting foods might make a difference.   What are some foods you can add to your diet that might lower your risk of getting cancer? Color – yes, add some color to your diet and the more colorful the better.   Why?   Fruits and vegetables “are rich in cancer-fighting nutrients – and the more colorful, the more nutrients they contain”.   (See:   Enjoy a longer life by adding some “disease-fighting foods to your” day .)   By adding a rainbow of fruits and vegetables to your day, you are adding those healthy antioxidants that fruits and vegetables provide.   Did you know each color provides different antioxidants?   Eating more fruits ...

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. ...

Are there things you can do to lower your risk of cancer?   Cancer – such a scary word.    All of us have known people who have had cancer.   Are there things you can do to lower your cancer risk?   I was surprised this week as I was meeting with a nurse practitioner and when I asked her about diet and lowering your risk of cancer, she responded that it is all genetics.   There was nothing one could do to lower their risk of getting cancer.    She is partially correct, genetics does play a role. The American Cancer Society notes that “although our genes influence our risk of cancer, most of the difference in cancer risk between people is due to factors that are not inherited”.     The American Cancer Society is a great resource about things we can do to lower our risk of getting cancer.    In fact, the American Cancer Society states, “for most Americans who do not use tobacco, the most important cancer risk factors that can b...

Welcome to March and welcome to National Nutrition Month sponsored by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.   Their theme this year is “Go Further with Food”.   The theme reminds us to “eat healthfully for ongoing energy and plan meals and snacks in advance..”     When I told my husband that March was National Nutrition Month, he asked, “and how do I celebrate National Nutrition Month, eat an extra carrot?”   Well, planning healthy snacks is a good nutritional practice – so yes, you can eat the extra carrot. To have more energy during the day, dietitians recommend you start your day off with a good breakfast.   There are foods that one should skip at breakfast and there are foods we should add for better health. Foods to Skip at Breakfast – Skip the high calorie Danish, donut, chocolate croissant - yes, they make look tasty in that glass window but eat them and you’ll get that sugar high and then the sugar low.   These are loaded wi...