Nutrition/Healthy Eating Articles

Whether it’s poultry pumped with banned substances, animal cruelty in industrial farming or salmonella in peanut butter, we seem to be hearing more often these days about profound problems within our food supply chain. A recent measure signed into law by President Barack Obama that outlines the strongest federal whistleblower protections in history could change that.

Your mom or grandma likely taught you their tried-and-true methods for stopping a cold in its tracks—or at least for making you feel better. Was it homemade chicken soup? Perhaps it was tea with lemon, honey and even a shot of something a bit more, er, medicinal? Have you ever tried slurping a bowl of steaming Vietnamese pho or adding hot chiles to a dish to help “sweat” out the stuff that ails you?

There’s nothing like a busload of dietitians geeking out over a single food ingredient and the great things it can offer one’s body and tastebuds.

You deliver the best physical conditioning you possibly can to your clients, but how are you helping them with nutrition—perhaps the most confounding part of a balanced wellness profile?

Looking for a vegetarian option for your Super Bowl chili or for a way to spice things up for your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day? This recipe will fill you up with fiber while delivering great flavor. It takes just 20 minutes to prep; cooks in 55 minutes; and yields 12 one-cup servings. Bring 4 cups of water to boil in large saucepot. Add barley, turn down heat and simmer 30–40 minutes or until cooked through. Drain any excess liquid; partially cover to keep warm.

Perhaps it’s time fitness professionals schooled physicians on how to solve the obesity problem. According to researchers from Johns Hopkins University, a significant percentage of polled primary-care physicians don’t feel qualified and educated enough to treat obesity. The study, published in BMJ Open (2012; 2: e001871), included Internet survey data from 500 PCPs throughout the United States. “We evaluated physician perspectives on the following topics:

Hall, K.D., et al. 2012. Energy balance and its components: Implications for body weight regulation. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 95 (4), 989–94. Energy balance represents the complex interplay between the fuel we consume and the energy we exert, which makes this balance integral to the process of losing weight.

Widespread media coverage on the dangers of salt, and recent public-health efforts to reduce it in foods, seem to make salt the bad guy of nutrition. Is salt harmful for people who have hypertension, and can they still consume it? What about those without high blood pressure? And can you get too little salt in your diet?

As a nation, we talk about food a lot. In fact, we are mildly obsessed with it. Every day there is a new study touting the benefits of the latest “superfood” and another that criticizes last year’s thinking about it. In fact, there is so much to read, interpret, digest and use or discard that just keeping up with the latest in food and nutrition can be a full-time job.

Answer: The importance of protein in our diet cannot be understated, especially when we are engaged in an exercise regimen. Luckily, we can obtain protein from a variety of animal and plant sources.