KTK-Nutrition

Trying to drop a few pounds for summer?   Everyone knows that better nutrition and exercise are good ways to burn off calories and drop some pounds.   But are there some easy tips that can enhance weight loss?   Sometimes it is stress that is adding pounds, especially to our stomach area.   How?   According to Dr. David Greuner from New York City Surgical Associates, when we are stressed our bodies produce more cortisol.   This causes our blood sugar to rise and our bodies to store more fat.   Not a good picture. So reducing stress may help reduce those inches around your midsection.   What are some tips to try to lose a few pounds or to keep that weight off?   1. Kitchens – keeping healthy snacks handy is one way to be sure you are eating healthier.   Researchers have studied snacking behaviors in cluttered kitchens and in a more organized, standard kitchen.   They found people ate more cookies in a cluttered kitchen.   ...

What foods should we eat together?   How do some foods help our health when eaten together?   Environmental Nutrition has an interesting article on Food Synergy Boosts Nutrition .   What food combos should you eat together to boost your nutrition? 1. Add some fat to your salads – so many times we hear, “cut the fat” out of our diets.   Yes, we should cut the fried food but healthy fats we need to add to our diet.   Especially when we are eating salads.   a.        SALAD + FAT – forget the fat-free salad dressing and reach for reduced fat or full fat dressing.   Why?   Salads, such as mixed spring salad mix are loaded with vitamins like vitamin A, E, K and folate.   They are also loaded with antioxidants. To best absorb these healthy nutrients, we need some fat in the meal.   A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that some fat on your salad improved absorption of antioxidants li...

Fast Food anyone?   Who doesn’t like an Egg McMuffin for breakfast or some grilled chicken at KFC?   Or, a good Subway sandwich and chips?   Can you enjoy Fast Food and still be healthy?   Registered Dietitian, Christy Brissette, has some easy rules to follow for Fast Food.   Her motto is the 80:20 rule.   At least 80% of the time, eat healthy.   Less than 20% of the time, “treat yourself” and enjoy some junk food.   Brissette wrote that a client asked her, “How often can I get away with eating junk food?”   She has given this advice to many of her clients and found that it worked well even with chronic dieters.   You have met these folks.   People who are always “on a diet” and then have one cookie or a Fast Food meal and they have “blown” their diet.   Learning to eat healthy and enjoying “treats” is a way to learn healthier eating habits and get off the on-again, off-again dieting spiral.   Brissette notes that once h...

Who knew there are things you are doing that can sabotage your weight loss efforts.   Chemicals in food and other substances that may promote weight gain and not weight loss.   What are these chemicals and where are they Chemicals that may be sabotaging your weight:   What are some things that can sabotage your weight loss progress that you didn’t think about?   Did you know that there are chemicals in your everyday life that may promote the pounds rather than shed the pounds?   The U.S. News & World Report has an interesting article , Chemicals May Be Keeping You Fat .   What are these chemicals and what do they have to do with your weight? What are the chemicals?   They are called PFASs, substances found in food packaging, and in common household cleaners.   They include chemicals such as BPA and BPS.   What do these chemicals have to do with our weight?   A study in PLOS Medicine , found that people who lost weight were more...

What is this “new sugar” that Nestle has developed? Nestle researchers have been trying to reduce the amount of sugar in chocolate.   The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend we reduce our intake of “added sugars”.   So it would be a good thing if chocolate candy has less “added sugar”.   What Nestle is doing is changing the actual structure of the sugar molecule.   Basically, it will be hollowed-out sugar molecule so you taste the sugar on your tongue but it will be hollow inside, and thus reducing the sugar content by 30%.   In their press release , Nestle introduced their new Milkybar , their first candy with the reduced sugar content.   Not yet available here in the U.S.A., but will be appearing in the United Kingdom and Ireland.   Nestle describes the new sugar as, an aerated, porous sugar that dissolves more quickly in the mouth. This allows someone to perceive the same sweetness as before while consuming less sugar.   Hopefull...

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...