KTK-Nutrition

So much confusion about fruit.   So many people avoid or cut back on fruit because they say, “fruit is high in sugar”.   What is the truth about fruit and its sugar content?   The Washington Post had a great wellness article , “The sugar in fruit doesn’t make it bad for you, despite some trendy diet claims”.   The article is written by a dietitian who notes more and more dietitians are hearing from their client’s phrases like, “fruit has too much sugar”, “don’t eat bananas, they are too high in sugar”.   One quote in the article is, “fruit is toxic”.   Now that one I haven’t heard.   But there is so much confusion about fruit.   In the class I teach one student said to avoid Naked Juice as it has too much added sugar.   Yet, Naked Juice has NO ADDED SUGAR and is one of the healthier juice choices because they provide juice blends with no added sugar.   Naked Juice now offers juices with half the “sugar” from fructose, called “ Half Nak...

Who doesn’t like some fresh fruit?   My husband brought home a watermelon this week.   It was summer sweet.   All kinds of fruit will soon be coming your way as summer approaches; strawberries ripened on the vine, cherries from Washington, blueberries from Michigan.   Not only is fruit delicious it is super healthy, low in fat and low in calories.   Consumer Reports has an excellent article on 100 calorie summer fruits (June 2018) and 100 calorie picnic foods .    If you are going on summer picnics or barbeques soon, read what a 100-calorie serving of barbeque foods look like.    Enjoy some 100-calorie fruit:   most fruit is so low in calories that you can eat a handful or more and enjoy a number of servings throughout the day.   Yes, fruit has “sugar” but this is the natural sugar, fructose.   It is the “added sugar” that we should be cutting back on, not the natural sugar in fruit.   Some people mistakenly believe f...

Last week I wrote about how you can eat to fight off the afternoon doldrums.   But how can you start your day strong and full of energy?   What can you eat at breakfast that has “staying power” to get you through until lunch without hunger pains taking over at 10 AM?   Although the morning slump and being tired may have many reasons, one reason could be nutrition and what you are fueling yourself with at breakfast. Eat Breakfast – eat something .   Your body has been on “starvation” mode all night and now is running on empty.   You need to refuel to fill that empty tank.   Eating breakfast will help you be more alert, improve your concentration and even help you keep the pounds off as you won’t be heading for the snack machine at 10 AM.     Carbs – carbs provide the instant, short-term energy.   But not the “bad” carbs, the highly processed white flour and sugar carbs.   Eat the fruit for instant energy, the whole grains for a slower...