Eating For Health

Have you heard of people going on a Detox Diet?   A guy at the gym says he detoxes every January.   For him it is a week long fast with nothing to eat.   He drinks water but his main source of calories is a bit of real juice to drink. Usually during this detox week, he has very little energy and feels light headed.   What a surprise.   When one doesn’t fuel their body, they will not have the energy for exercise and because of low blood sugar can feel lightheaded.   Is there really any reason a person should “detox”?   Is it healthy?   Are there health risks? The Mayo Clinic has some good information on Detox Diets.    Why do some people want to “detox” their body?    Some people think because our environment has pesticides and our food is contaminated, they need to cleanse themselves of harmful chemicals.   Yes, there is some mercury in fish, arsenic in rice and they do use pesticides on the foods we eat. ...

Have you heard of the 5/20 rule when it comes to reading food labels?   Most people haven’t, but it is an easy and handy rule to use.   Students in my class often ask what they are supposed to look for when reading food labels.   Food labels can be confusing so applying the 5/20 rule can help you decide what foods are healthy to eat. What is the 5/20 rule? The 5/20 Rule has to do with the % Daily Value on Food Labels.   The % Daily Value shows you how much of a nutrient you are getting in each serving of that food.      When you look at any food label you will “% Daily Value” and then a lot of numbers and %’s by various nutrients.   To paraphrase The Moxy Kitchen blog, “By the 5/20 Rule, a % Daily Value at or below 5% indicates a low amount of a nutrient in the food, whereas a % Daily Value at or above 20% indicates a high amount of a nutrient in that food.”  In the 5/20 rule, what is the 5% or less?    ...

Carbs – so many myths about carbs.   Come January, you hear about people going on diets and many people say they are “cutting my carbs”.   Are there carbs you should cut back on?   Yes, but there are also carbs you should be adding to your diet, not cutting.   Healthy carbs add important nutrients to your diet.   And carbs are your body’s fuel.   Low carb diets can mean low energy diets.   I love carbs and we aren’t cutting carbs in our family.   Recently, I was out eating lunch with my two daughters.   The waiter asked, “would you like a bread basket?”    We all responded in unison, “YES!”   And we enjoyed every piece of bread in that bread basket. So, what are the “healthy carbs” and what are the carbs we actually should be cutting back on? What are carbs? I showed a video in the nutrition class I teach that asked people on the street, “What are carbs?”   Most people really couldn’t answer that question. ...