KTK-Nutrition

Who doesn’t like to go out to eat?   Fun, good food and so many places to choose from.   But, eating out can lead to lots of calories, sodium and too much fat in our diets.   How can one enjoy eating out without loading on the calories and fat?   Are there healthier menu options to choose from?   In their November 2016 issue, Consumer Reports has a great articles on Dining Out:   Where America Eats and How to Eat Healthier at Restaurant Chains .   They note how much money we spend on eating out, a lot.   On fast food, Americans spend $262 billion a year and on sit down table service restaurants, $206 billion.   The article focused on rating the restaurants but also contained great advice on healthier menu options at America’s most popular table-service restaurants.   What should consumers do BEFORE they go out to eat?   Most restaurants have their menus published online and most provide detailed nutrition information.   T...

How often do we hear, “eat healthy”, “eat nutritious foods”?   Are there small changes you can make to boost your nutrition without giving up every fun food?   I like to focus on what you can add to your diet to make it healthier rather than focus on taking things away.   An article in Environmental Nutrition has some simple, easy ways to boost your nutrition by focusing on foods that are full of nutrition.   How can you Make Your Diet More Nutrient-Dense ?   Some suggestions adapted from this article: Organic Milk – is organic milk healthier?   It is more expensive but is it worth it?   A study in the British Journal of Nutrition noted that organic milk has more of the heart healthy fat, omega-3, a lot more, 56% more.   Milk is not a great source of iron or vitamin E but these were higher in organic milk.   Not to mention the healthier aspect of no hormones and no pesticides in the milk.   Why a higher nutritional value?   They...

How can you make eating healthier a habit?   Are there easy things to do that can help you and your kids eat healthier?    A recent article Place Your Order In Advance has some great tips.   Suggestions have been modified to include those I teach in my nutrition classes.   1.          Put healthy foods in front of you:   studies have found that if it is easy to get to, you may eat that food first.   So make the healthier foods ones that are easy to get to.   Keep healthy foods on the counter – a bowl of fruit, a pitcher of water   Cut up veggies like green pepper, carrots, celery and have them in the fridge for a quick snack 2.        Supermarkets:   shop the perimeter:   focus on healthier options by shopping the perimeter of the store.   Did you ever notice the perimeter has the fruit and vegetables, the dairy, the meat group?   3.   ...

Many people are looking for ways to cut back on calories with little effort.   Are there simpler ways to cut back on calories than go on some stringent diet?   To lose one pound a week, you need to cut back on 3500 calories or 500 calories a day. But it doesn’t have to mean cutting back on 500 calories of food, one can also increase their exercise and burn up 250 calories a day and then cut back on 250 calories, which would be a lot easier to do.   Trying to cut 500 calories a day is a lot and many people would feel hungry doing so.   For some ideas on how to cut back on calories, WebMD has a few suggestions in their article, 20 Ways to Cut Back on 500 Calories A Day .   A few of their suggestions are highlighted below: Choose black coffee and skip the grande latte.   Even with no added sugar, the grande latte adds 220 calories to your day.   Black coffee has almost no calories, adding only 2 calories to your day.   And for those of you drinki...

Smoothies are the rage and many people have their favorite smoothie recipe.   Which one is better for you?   A recent article in the New York Times, Are Smoothies Better For You Than Juices? , outline the pros and cons of juice vs. smoothies.          1.          Juice – to be healthy, juice has to be real, 100% juice.   Many people buy Sunny D, Hi-C, or Capri-Sun juice drinks and think they are getting real, 100% juice.   But these are fruit drinks or juice drinks and not 100% real juice.   These fruit drinks may contain some juice as Hi-C drinks contain about   10% real juice.   Simply Fruit Punch Juice Drink contains only 15% juice.   The rest is mostly sugar water.   The added sugar in these drinks is often high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar which provide only “empty calories” without the nutritional benefits of real juice.     Choose "juic...

As school gets underway this fall, it is important to remember to feed kids breakfast every day.   Also, important for parents to eat breakfast every day.   Many have said, “Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day”.    More and more research is demonstrating how important breakfast is to our overall health.   Yet, surveys show less than half of us are eating breakfast every day.   What is so important about breakfast? Nutrients – breakfast is a great time to get calcium, vitamin C from orange juice, potassium from orange juice, bananas or other fruit, some protein from milk or yogurt.   All to boost your energy and brain power throughout the morning.   Healthier eaters throughout the day – those who eat breakfast eat healthier foods throughout the day.   Maybe because they aren’t hitting the snack machine for candy bars or other sustenance around 10 AM when hunger strikes and reminds them they haven’t eaten breakfast. Better ...

School has started or will soon be starting across the land.   How can you pack lunches that are not only healthy but contain some super foods?    Kaiser Permanente recently published, 8 Superfoods to Pack in Your Child's Lunch .   Why are these Super Foods?   For one, these foods are loaded with nutrients.   Thus, even a small serving packs a big nutrition boost.    Second, since they are packed with nutrients these foods fuel your child’s body and their brains.   So what are the 8 Super Foods?                      1.  Berries – all berries are super healthy foods.   They are full of vitamins like vitamin C which can help fight off infections and they have a lot of antioxidants.   Serve berries at breakfast by adding them to oatmeal, dry cereal, a smoothie. Pack in a lunch box with some yogurt or in a container for your child to...