Eating For Health

When I teach nutrition, I always emphasize the importance of breakfast.   Break – fast really means to break the fast.   Our bodies have been “fasting” since dinner the night before and we need to refuel.   Some recent research from Harvard ( Circulation ) highlights how important eating breakfast every day is to our overall health.   Researchers at Harvard University studied 26,902 males over age 44 and asked them if they ate or skipped breakfast.   About 13% of the men studied were breakfast skippers.   Over the next 16 years, 1,527 of the men suffered from fatal or non-fatal heart attacks.   The breakfast skippers were 27% more likely to have coronary heart disease than the men that ate breakfast.   Eating late at night was also not good for one’s health.   The men that were late night eaters had a 55% higher risk of coronary heart disease.     The researchers conclude that eating breakfast can help prevent heart disease but...

There is an old saying, “An apple a day will keep the doctor away”.   But what about bananas?   Will “A banana a day keep the doctor away?”   Will eating a banana a day improve our health so we are less likely to need a doctor?    In a way, yes.   Bananas are a rich source of potassium.    We hear so much about sodium in our diets and how we all should control our sodium but very little about potassium.   But potassium helps control the harmful effects sodium has on our bodies.   Eating foods like bananas that are rich in potassium and low in sodium can help us lower our blood pressure, prevent heart disease, and reduce our risk of stroke.    So while sodium raises blood pressure, potassium has the opposite effect and helps keep our blood pressure normal.   People with high blood pressure or those having a family history of high blood pressure, should focus on lowering sodium in their diets but they should also focus ...

How do today’s teenagers compare in health to teenagers of a few decades ago?   Not very well according to a National Institutes of Health study.   A recent article noted, Most teens not the picture of health .   Unlike years ago, the typical teenager in America is not out playing basketball, baseball, riding bikes, hiking, walking to a part-time job.   Too many teens today are inside playing video games, watching TV, or cruising the internet.   Not only are they not outside and exercising, their diets are also lacking. The study from the National Institutes of Health studied 10,000 teens in 39 states ages 11-16.   They found that only 50% of today’s teens participate in physical activity for 5 or more days during the week.   As to their diet only 1 in 3 teenagers ate fruits and vegetables every day.   This is compared to the recommended amount of at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day and many teenagers aren’t eating any fruits and vegetab...

Most of know that eating foods high in added sugar can cause our blood sugar to spike.   We then feel great and energized.   But this spike in blood sugar is followed by a drop that leads us to feel tired and not at all energized.   But then they are others who have proclaimed a calorie is a calorie and sugars, whether naturally present in foods like fruit or added like in candy are metabolize the same way.   Are they?   Is there a difference in how our bodies handle different carbs? A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition   (June 13, 2013) looked at how we handle sugary drinks, sugary foods, white bread and processed carbs.    This study looked at 12 overweight and obese men fed meals high in processed carbs (high glycemic index) or low in processed carbs (low glycemic index).    After eating the high processed carb meal, the men showed lower blood glucose levels, more hunger, and higher food cravings.  ...