Eating For Health

A relative just asked me about their triglyceride levels.   She wanted to know what to do if her triglycerides were high.   What are triglycerides?   What does a high level of triglycerides mean for one’s health?   Do we get triglycerides from food?   Does our body need triglycerides? What are triglycerides? Triglycerides are a fat that circulates in your blood and is the most common fat in your body.   After you eat a meal, you burn up some of the calories from food but your body converts the calories it doesn’t need right away to triglycerides and stores these triglycerides in your fat cells.   If you need energy between meals, your body can release some triglycerides from the fat cells to use for energy.   What do high triglyceride levels due to our health? High triglyceride levels in our blood can lead to several health issues including heart disease, stroke and even pancreatitis.   Why?   Too many triglycerides in our blood...

Are you drinking one or more sugar sweetened beverages every day?   Some of the students in my class drink sweet tea which is common in the South.   Other common sugar sweetened beverages besides soda and sweet tea include:   Caramel Latte’s, sports drinks, fruit drinks (not real juice), or other beverages loaded with added sugar.   One student drank Gold Peak Sweet Tea and noted they added 347 calories to their day.   This would be 347 calories of added sugar and empty calories.   It is also common for parents to serve even very young children sweet tea or a soda at meals instead of milk.   The meal is then loaded with empty calories instead of the nutrition a glass of real milk provides.   This sweet tea is loaded with added sugar. Why cut back on sodas and other sugar sweetened beverages ? The Dietary Guidelines for 2015-2020 recommends limiting foods and beverages high in added sugars: Added sugars:   Less than 10% of calories per da...

Looking to lose weight before summer?   So many people focus on cutting back starches to lose weight when cutting back on added sugars may be more beneficial.   People are more willing to cut back on the slice of bread but not the sugared soda.   As stated by Laura Schmidt, professor of Health Policy at UC San Francisco, “Too much sugar does not just make us fat; it can also make us sick.” Is Sugar Making Us Sick? Recent research shows that cutting back on added sugars is a good way for obese kids to lose weight.   (The Berkeley Wellness Letter highlighted this study in “Yes, it’s the sugar”, March 2016.)   Cutting back on nutritious foods needed for growth is not a good idea when a child is trying to slim down. But added sugars add calories and not nutrients needed for growth and development. What did the research find about added sugars? Two universities, University of San Francisco and Touro University of California studied 43 obese kids ranging i...

Recently a student asked me if high fructose corn syrup was something to avoid.    Good question as there is so much being written about high fructose corn syrup.   If you watch the commercials sponsored by the high fructose corn syrup industry, all is well and there is no difference between sugar and high fructose corn syrup.   Others have renounced high fructose corn syrup almost from day one.   So what do some of the experts have to say about high fructose corn syrup? Is high fructose corn syrup the same as sugar? Actually, no.   Table sugar is about half fructose and half glucose.   High fructose corn syrup has a higher ratio of fructose to glucose having 55- 65% fructose and the rest glucose.    Does the higher fructose content of high fructose corn syrup cause health problems?     Some studies are indicating, YES.   The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that beverages sweetened with high fructo...