KTK-Nutrition

Have you ever heard of brain food?   Foods you can eat for a healthier brain?   I always told my students that before an exam they should drink some water.   Why?   Because even being slightly dehydrated (1%-5%) can adversely affect brain function .   A 2% decrease in brain hydration can result in short term memory loss and have trouble with math computations. Besides staying hydrated, what foods can you eat for a healthier brain? My sister sent me an interesting article, “ People who eat magnesium-rich foods like spinach and almonds may have bigger, healthier brains” .    Why magnesium?   According to NIH , about half of Americans have diets deficient in magnesium.   It is known as a “silent deficiency” as most people are totally unaware that they are lacking in magnesium.   What are the health benefits of magnesium?   Magnesium is a mineral that has many roles to play in your body.         Heart – ...

Are you missing some nutrients in your diet?     There is a lot of focus on health and healthy eating, yet many Americans have diets low in one or more nutrients.   What are the top 7 nutrients commonly missing in people’s diets?   WebMD has a great slide show on   The 7 Missing Nutrents in Your Diet .   This week we will focus on 4 of these nutrients and next week cover 3 more. Are you missing or Low in These Nutrients ? Potassium - almost everyone knows we should cut back on salt and sodium but few realize potassium helps negate the harmful effects of all that salt in our diets.   Well sodium is linked with increasing blood pressure, potassium helps lower your blood pressure.   Those into weight lifting and body building may want to focus on potassium rich foods as we need potassium for our muscles. Good sources of potassium – bananas, sweet potatoes, avocados, legumes, milk, potatoes 2.        Mag...

Who among us isn’t trying to reduce the size of our bellies?   Are there really foods that can help cut the belly fat?    MSN listed foods this week that are worth a try.   Even if you don’t add all of these, some are really easy to incorporate into our diet and daily routine.         Onion and leeks – so easy to add to our diet.   Onion slices on our hamburger, onion in our salads.   How do they work?   Onions produce butyrate which is a prebiotic that encourages the growth of good bacteria in our intestines.   The butyrate also helps one burn body fat.            Artichokes and asparagus – on a recent trip to the Cheesecake Factory, my daughter and I enjoyed the fire-roasted artichoke appetizer.   Absolutely delicious.   Asparagus is now plentiful at our local farmers markets where I live and a great health food.   These two are also prebiotics and they produce acet...