There’s a new eating plan in town and it focuses on foods commonly eaten in Scandinavian countries. It’s called the New Nordic Diet, or Nordic Diet for short. Read on to learn how this eating plan can benefit your health.]]>
You might be familiar with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are developed by nutrition experts and approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The first edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans was issued back in 1980. Since then, a new version has been published every five years. It’s time for a new edition this year. What will be different? What will be new? And how might these guidelines affect people who have diabetes?]]>
With the increasing rates of diabetes and obesity in the United States today, and the fact that heart disease is the number-one killer, it’s not hard to see why healthy eating trends have become headline news. Some of the most common health news stories are about foods that you “must avoid” if you want to lead a happy and healthy life. Sometimes it’s hard to know what and who to believe.]]>
If you have children, you may be tempted to try and lower their heart disease and diabetes risk by cutting out as much fat and sugar as possible from their meal plans. However, a recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, published in the journal Pediatrics, has shown that a little fat and sugar may actually help improve the overall quality of your children’s diet. The researchers suggest not telling children that foods containing fat and sugar are “bad,” since a little bit of these foods benefit your child’s health. In addition, sugar can be a good thing in small doses; a teaspoon of brown sugar, for example, may get your child to eat high-fiber oatmeal instead of sugary cereal for breakfast. Therefore, it is suggested that parents loosen up on their restrictions of fat and sugar, and start getting children more involved in grocery shopping for the fruits and veggies they enjoy. Allowing children to help prepare meals and healthy snacks can make them more likely to try a wide variety of healthy foods. Parents are encouraged to provide children with a few different healthy choices during meal and snack time, and to not get upset if [...]]]>
According to health and environmental scientists, POPs (persistent organic pollutants) are a serious public health problem. POPs are a group of substances that can stay in the environment for a long time, especially in the food we eat. This puts human health at risk in a variety of ways, even after the substances are no longer used. With this in mind, researchers at the University of Granada in Spain wanted to find out if there is a link between POPs, obesity, and other major metabolic problems. In this study, which was published in the journal Environmental Pollution, researchers measured the levels of pollutants in the fat tissue of almost 300 men and women. In particular, they looked for the following POPs: DDE: A main ingredient in DDT, an insecticide popular in America the 1980s. Though dangerous to human and environmental health, some countries still use it to fight malaria. PCBs: Another dangerous group of chemicals, used mostly in industrial equipment. Even though the use of these POPs is restricted, the researchers found them in the bodies of all of the study subjects. But they were more likely to be found in high amounts in those who were obese, or [...]]]>
Every month, a lot of research is published about the best foods to eat for type 2 diabetes. A balanced meal plan should include enough vitamins and minerals, protein, healthy fats and fiber to help you control your blood glucose levels and avoid diabetes complications. But did you now that how and when you eat can also impact your health? ?A new study from the Wolfson Medical Center at Tel Aviv University in Israel has shown that eating a heavy breakfast but a light dinner may help people with diabetes avoid dangerous blood glucose spikes. This was a small study. The researchers looked at 8 men and 10 women with type 2 diabetes. Each subject was being treated with either metformin (a common glucose-lowering medicine) or a controlled meal plan. They divided the subjects into two groups and gave them separate meal plans to follow: Breakfast Diet: People in this group ate 704 calories at breakfast, 607 calories at lunch, and 205 calories at dinner. Dinner Diet: People in this group ate 205 calories at breakfast, 607 calories at lunch, and 704 calories at dinner (the reverse of B). After 2 weeks on these meal plans, the researchers measured [...]]]>
New dietary guidelines put out by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) state that Americans should no longer be worried about eating high-cholesterol foods like egg yolks and shellfish. However, some experts in the nutrition field, such the chairman of cardiovascular medicine at Cleveland Clinic and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, are afraid that this new guideline is sending a mixed message about how people should view fats in their daily eating. Experts make it clear that although it is okay to eat high-cholesterol foods, it is important that they have low amounts of saturated fat. When saturated fat is digested in the body, it is moved to the liver where it is changed into “bad” LDL cholesterol, which can raise your heart disease risk. Foods that are high in saturated fat that should be limited as part of a heart healthy eating plan include: Margarines Fatty meats, especially if they are processed Fried foods Processed baked goods Candies with hydrogenated oils Instead, try to focus on including more heart healthy unsaturated fats, such as olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado, and fatty fish. A moderate amount of healthy fats each day, along with plenty of [...]]]>
The number of obese children in the United States is growing every day. Obesity puts children at a high risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that over two-thirds of obese children have at least one risk factor for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides (another type of blood fat). A study recently published in?The Journal of Pediatrics?found that a plant-based meal plan may help lower the risk of heart disease in obese children.?Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio looked at a group of obese children who had high cholesterol levels. The children were asked to follow either a plant-based eating plan or the American Heart Association’s (AHA) plan, which is low in fat, sodium (salt), sugar, red meats, and processed foods. The children on the plant-based meal plan ate plenty of plants and whole grains, no animal products, and limited amounts of avocado and nuts. Both groups had weekly, two-hour long nutrition sessions. At the end of the four-week study, the children in the plant-based group had lower body mass index (BMI) and weight, smaller waist and arm measurements, lower blood pressure, and lower [...]]]>
Recently, healthcare providers and health researchers have suggested a few big changes to the eating guidelines they give to Americans. For decades, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans have suggested limiting foods with a lot of cholesterol, including: Egg yolks Red meat Butter, lard, and tallow (beef fat) Shellfish, like shrimp and lobster Cheese, cream, and whole milk But now, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which meets once every five years, believe it’s better to cut back on sugar than to avoid cholesterol-rich foods. They say there is very little research to support the idea that cholesterol from food raises LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in the blood. Instead, they think that too much saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium (salt) leads to heart disease. While some members of the committee did not agree that there is evidence to blame salt and saturated fat for heart disease, every member was happy to see new limits set on added sugars. In particular, they support the FDA’s idea to label added sugars on processed food and drink products, like soda, juice, candies, and baked goods. The committee wants to encourage Americans to focus on the overall quality of their meal plans, instead of small [...]]]>
If you keep up with health news, you may know that inflammation is often at the root of metabolic problems, like high blood pressure, obesity, high triglycerides, high blood glucose, and type 2 diabetes. Inflammation is a process in your body that helps you heal from wounds and other urgent issues, but too much of it can lead to serious chronic health conditions. This is why researchers are always looking for new ways to lower inflammation and prevent it from leading to bigger problems. A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine has shown that fasting, or limiting your food intake in other ways, is linked to lower levels of inflammation. Researchers at the Section of Comparative Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine looked at mice and human immune system cells in a lab. They found that fasting, or restricting calories, causes the body to make a substance called BHB. This substance blocks the kind of inflammation–called NLRP3–responsible for diseases like Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. The study also showed that you can make BHB with high-intensity exercise and a very low-carb meal plan (sometimes called a ketogenic diet). However, more long-term research would be needed [...]]]>
People who struggle with obesity (BMI over 30) are often told to eat less and get more physical activity to achieve a healthy weight. But according to researchers at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center, these lifestyle changes do not help 80% to 95% of obese people. They wrote an article for The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology stating that taking in fewer calories tends to make obese people gain even more weight over the long term. For these people, the body tends to do as much as it can to stay the same weight, and lifestyle changes are not enough to stop this process. The researchers wrote that even people who have maintained weight loss after being obese do not have the same biology as people who were never obese. They will always have a higher risk of weight gain than people who are overweight or normal weight. They called this “obesity in remission,” meaning that obesity cannot be cured, but is usually just avoided for a short period of time. There are a few effective options for obese people, however. They are: Weight loss (bariatric) surgery Anti-obesity medicines Intra-abdominal vagal nerve blocking [...]]]>
Metabolic syndrome in children is on the rise. This condition, which carries a high risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers, has a range of symptoms.]]>
Protein is an important nutrient in any heart healthy, balanced meal plan. Not only does it help you maintain lean muscle mass and keep you full between meals, it also supports many other important processes in your body. People with diabetes know that they must keep track of how many carbohydrates they eat each day, but protein may become lost in the carb counting. A recent study published in the journal Clinical Nutrition has found that those with diabetes may not be getting enough protein each day.]]>