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Eating Well for Better Health

Lately, I've had several friends ask about the whether they should try the ketogenic diet. And others have asked about intermittent fasting. It seems every few months there is a new diet to try. Having been a dietitian for more than 20 years, I always go back to the tried and true -- for a healthy lifestyle, eat a ...Read more

The men in your life face an uphill battle keeping healthy.

Some 35 percent of men age 20 and older are obese, and 32 percent of men have high blood pressure, according to the World Health Organization. Another 18 percent of U.S. men, age 18 and over, smoke. Add to all that the fact that men are less likely than women to get routine exams, such...Read more

Healthy Food on a Budget

Most of us spend about 12.5 percent of our annual household budget on food each week -- for the average family, that's about $135 a week. There is a persistent myth that eating healthy takes a bigger chunk out of the family budget, but it's not true.

As a supermarket dietitian, I spend my time trying to refute that ...Read more

Sweeteners and Your Blood Sugar

Controversy surrounds the use of nonnutritive, or artificial, sweeteners versus sugar. Among the concerns is whether nonnutritive sweeteners raise glycemia -- the glucose level in the blood. Two food science and human nutrition researchers at the University of Illinois analyzed current research on four of the ...Read more

Seeing the Rainbow Clearly

For those of us reaching for our glasses more often to read, it's a sobering reminder that we are aging -- daily.

New research suggests that those of us who eat lots of leafy greens and a variety of other fruits and vegetables may have less risk for developing eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration ...Read more

Prunes to Strengthen Your Bones

Most of us worry a little about bone health and future falls or breaks as we get older. Osteoporosis (which means "porous bone") is a disorder that occurs when one's body loses too much bone density, makes too little bone or both. It's more typical among the elderly and more common in women because of lower ...Read more

Building Muscles

It would be great if we could drink a magic formula, swallow a pill or sprinkle fairy dust on our food and watch our muscles grow. That's often what young athletes hope will happen from eating protein.

Unfortunately, the reality is that eating protein doesn't equal big muscles. Instead, muscle growth is a complex process that ...Read more

Research confirms that we need protein at each meal. Most of us do pretty well getting our protein at lunch and dinner, but breakfast can be a little more challenging.

Toast, bagels, oatmeal and cold cereal provide plenty of carbs, but adding protein may provide health benefits, such as weight loss and muscle tissue preservation.

A higher-...Read more

My friend's 10-year-old daughter just broke her arm playing at school. Her mom and I talked about how much bone-strengthening milk she drinks a day. The answer? Not enough. Most kids may drink a carton of milk at school, but that's not enough.

Do you think about your children's bone health when you think about their nutrition? Most of us know ...Read more

Are whole eggs a better choice than egg whites? A new study at the University of Illinois in Champaign finds the choice of whole eggs over egg whites makes a big difference in how well muscles recover after a workout.

Results of the study were reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

So that widespread practice of throwing away ...Read more

Nutrition for a Healthy Heart

Even though I'm a dietitian, I'm still amazed at the role food can have in lowering our risk of diseases and keeping us healthy. Even if there's a genetic tendency toward something like heart disease, making good lifestyle choices can make a difference when it comes to whether that tendency leads to a heart attack....Read more

The key to healthy eating is bringing healthy foods home from the grocery store. This impacts your lifestyle, and goes for your kids as well, especially teens. In fact, planning healthy meals for your kids will help the entire family.

Get your kids involved in learning healthy cooking skills and they'll end up planning healthy meals when they ...Read more