|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||
 |
Missed an issue of our Nutrition Intelligence Report health and nutrition eNewsletter? No worries! Browse our newsletter archives below to catch up on nutritional news and healthy living tips from AppleBoost.
The Executive Editor of Nutrition Intelligence Report is Suzanne Dixon, MPH, MS, RD. Suzanne is an internationally recognized expert in nutrition, chronic disease, cancer, as well as health and wellness.
With the hundreds of nutrition stories we hear in the media each year, it’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. What’s meaningful? Some stories are downright interesting, but don’t really apply to our lives in a useful way. And if you can’t apply research, you can’t improve your health.
With this in mind, we’re highlighting two interesting and applicable nutrition stories from the first half of 2010. We’ll give you the summary of each study along with practical tips on how to put this new information to work in your life.
Every week, it seems, we hear the latest news on this or that miracle nutrient. It may be “just the thing to fight diabetes” or “the cure for cancer.” It’s unlikely that a single nutrient can cure cancer, but mounds of research does support that some foods provide unique nutrients with particular health benefits.
With this in mind, we’ll tell you about three important phytonutrients. We’ll describe what they can do for you and how to get more of them into your diet. But first, a little background on phytonutrients.
Lack of fat in the diet is not a major concern for most Americans. But for those of us who eat healthfully and make nutrition a key part of our wellness plan, watching fat may be second nature. The urge to limit our fat intake has a foundation in good science. One gram of carbohydrate provides 4 calories. One gram of protein gives our bodies 4 calories too. One gram of fat contains more than twice that, with 9 calories. Fat is a very dense source of calories.
Who Are the Guidelines For?
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released every 5 years, are the cornerstone of federal nutrition policy and nutrition education activities. The 2010 Guidelines have just been released in draft form. They are available for comment by anyone who would like to have input .1
The idea that acid-alkaline balance in the body can affect health has been around for many decades. According to this theory, our modern American diet makes our bodies more acidic. A more acidic body, in turn, will lead to chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease. But does this theory hold water?
Consider the example of cancer. A Google search on the phrase “acid diet cancer,” will give you a listing of 1.9 million links. Search “diet acid cancer” and the number of links jumps to 6.6! Clearly, this is a hot topic. Unfortunately, hot does not always equal true.
Last week, we brought you a summary of key findings from the recently released President’s Cancer Panel (PCP). We’re touching on this topic again because it’s so important and, because, at over 240 pages, we’re pretty sure not too many people are reading the full report! But we have. And we’re bringing the PCP scoop to you.
A recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) consumer health warning caught my eye.1 The FDA is raising the alarm on a widely used diet drug known as orlistat. Orlistat is available by prescription only, as a medication called Xenical®. The medication also is available over-the-counter and goes by the name Alli®. The only difference between Xenical (120 mg) and Alli (60 mg) is the dose. Both medications contain the active ingredient orlistat.
The FDA report details the possibility of a rare, but life-threatening side effect of using this diet drug. In a small number of people, orlistat has been linked to liver failure. Not just liver damage, but liver failure.
Your body, like a bank account, requires regular deposits of healthy, nutritious, disease-fighting foods. Your body can tolerate a few withdrawals here and there. A little junk food now and again never killed anyone. But too many withdrawals will lead to health problems.
However, I firmly believe food is to be enjoyed. We just have to pick and choose which foods are worth a withdrawal on our health and which are not. Nothing is truly off limits. But to avoid a major hit to your health bank account, limit or avoid the following five foods.
Super-Sized Fast and Restaurant Food Meals
The main problem with restaurant meals these days is the obnoxious serving sizes. Consider the evolution of pizza. From a reasonably healthy, vegetable-rich, thin-crust pie of decades past, we’ve arrived at the Pizza Hut Double Deep Pizza. Have a couple of slices and you’ll be blowing the fat and calorie budget.1
Queen of Moderation
I know what you’re thinking. I think it myself all the time. “Not another one of those food police types telling me what I can’t eat.” It’s rare that you’ll hear me say a particular food has no place in a healthy diet. I am the queen of moderation. As long as your “dietary vices” aren’t contributing more than five to ten percent of your dietary intake, no sweat.
Spend Wisely
But I do believe that an informed consumer is a wise consumer. Nothing is truly off-limits. But knowing which foods and ingredients are the worst for health can help you decide where you’d like to “spend” your vices and which foods simply aren’t worth it.
Last week we brought you the first five foods on our Top Ten Healthiest Foods to Eat Now list. We also detailed why most top ten food lists fall short.
A quick review of several top ten healthy food lists shows a failure to focus on the most well-researched healthy foods, a focus on the ‘superfood’ of the moment while skipping over tried and true nutritional superstars (apples anyone?), completely missing the boat on entire food categories we all need to eat, and lacking the explanations for why these foods deserve the top spot on the plate.
