KTK-Nutrition

Who doesn’t like pizza?   Is pizza healthy?    How can you make healthier choices and still enjoy pizza?   Many people, including some nutritionists, ban pizza thinking it is unhealthy.   But we enjoy pizza at least once a week.   We make modifications to our pizza to make it healthier and we add some healthy sides.   Consumer Reports had a great article on the Best Frozen Pizza .      They taste tested 26 frozen pizzas and found some that are reasonably healthy.   Yes, ordering out and having that pizza delivered is great.   But many of us enjoy a frozen pizza a couple of times a month.   If you do, what are some of the highly rated frozen pizzas and how can you “doctor” them up to be healthier? What are some healthier options in frozen pizza? Frozen pizza would probably not be considered a “health food” but there are healthier options.   Choose a plain cheese pizza or a veggie pizza if you want a healthier cho...

So many food fads come and go.   In the nutrition class I teach, it is interesting to hear about the latest food fad trends.   A current trend is alternative milk.   For some reason people are shunning real milk for fake milk.   Another faux milk is coming to a store or coffee shop near you.   Some food fads are really unhealthy fads like coconut oil.   Almost every week I hear someone talking about adding coconut oil to their diet.   Thankfully, this unhealthy fad seems to be coming to an end.    1.  Oat milk – yes, you read this correctly, the newest alternative to real milk is made from oats.   Time magazine’s article, The dairy aisle’s next new thing , describes this faux milk and why it is being used as yet another replacement for real milk.   Apparently, almond milk was the number one faux milk but has fallen from grace recently.   Why?   According to Time, almond milk was linked to the drought in Californ...

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...

Can what you eat affect the mood you are in?   Can eating better actually affect whether you get down in the dumps or not?   My sister sent me an interesting article, Eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains slashes depression risk by more than 10%.    Now 10% doesn’t sound much but eating more of certain foods can improve the mood you are in and can help you have more energy throughout the day.   So often we hear that to eat healthy we have to cut things from our diet.   A current fad is cutting gluten from our diet which is not really a healthy thing to do unless you have Celiac disease.    Now many people are on the Whole30 diet that cuts out grains and dairy.   One person on this diet told me how tired they were, too tired to exercise.   No wonder, cut out the grains from your diet and you are cutting out the carbs needed to energize yourself for the day and you are cutting back on the many B vitamins our bodies need to make energ...

Last week we looked at five ways you can lose weight without going on a “diet”.   Let’s look at five more habits you can adopt to drop a few pounds and start to get in shape for the summer.   Too often we go on a “diet”, lose some weight and then regain it once we go off the “diet”.   But what if we adopted habits that helped us not only lose a few pounds but keep the weight off when we do lose it.   So instead quick diets, quack diets, fad diets, try some new eating habits and lifestyle habits to take off the extra holiday pounds.   Here are five more habits to try from the article:   10 ways to Start Losing Weight, No Matter How Unmotivated You Are. 1.  Set some health goals that have nothing to do with the number on the scale Rather than just focus on losing pounds, focus on getting some health measure healthier.   Have cholesterol a little high, how can you change eating and exercise habits to bring down your cholesterol?   A r...

Did you make a resolution to drop a few pounds in 2018?   Or are you thinking about summer, swim suits, shorts and want to just drop the few pounds you gained over the holidays?   Are there some “habits” you can adopt to help you take off some weight without going on a crazy diet?   Just listening at the gym, one hears all kinds of myths and crazy diets people go on to lose weight.   Many of these diets result in you losing more nutrients than pounds.   Many people are trying the Whole30 diet and then surprised to hear that the U.S. News & World Report has ranked it as one of the worse diets to be on in 2018.   In fact, the experts ranking the diets tied the Whole30 diet with the Raw Food Diet “ as the worst of the worst for healthy eating. ”   Probably because the diet bans grains, dairy grains and beans so you are cutting out important nutrients like calcium and vitamin D from your day.   Probably a good thing it is only a 30 day diet and ...

Feeling upbeat?   Feeling down in the dumps?   Can the food you eat affect the mood you are in?   Apparently so, according to How Food Affects Your Mood .   Although most “experts” will tell you there is no relationship between eating a lot of candy and a sugar high causing hyperactivity.   But ask any Mom or Dad and they will dispute this.   Want to improve your mood with food?   Here are some suggestions from WebMD and other sources: 1. Don’t Forget the Carbs   - so many times we hear people say, “I am watching my carbs.”   So many times I hear my students say, “that food is high in carbs” as if that is something bad.   We want carbs in our diet – lots of carbs.   Carbs are our primary energy source.   Low carbs=low energy.   But we want “good” carbs in our diet to give us energy. Not refined carbs loaded with added sugar.   Sure that will give you an instant energy boost and then a crash when you feel even more t...