Sometimes being a dietitian/nutritionist provides the opportunity for an imaginary movie to appear right before my eyes. The latest experience happened on Wednesday when our daily community newspaper hit the breakfast counter along with National Geographic’s August 2013 issue. My imaginary movie was a train wreck; the following are some details of the wreck. The […]

I know that case studies are not powerful; statistically speaking that is. But I must confess that I really enjoy reading case studies of those who have lost weight – made lasting change to their eating style. Besides the joy of reading about someone’s success, what cases do offer are ideas about what might work […]

I’ve been telling friends for quite a while, to beware of the ‘zero trans fats’ on food labels; and have encouraged reading the ingredient portion of the label. In addition, I’ve encouraged them to avoid food products that list “partially hydrogenated” in the ingredient list. Of course most of us have known for a long […]

Choosing today’s topic began by simply glancing at our subscription of Sierra Magazine’s cover (July/August 2013 issue) – a darling little girl with a bug leg hanging out of her cute little pink rosebud lips, her hand clutching a popsicle stick on which was impaled a large beetle with the portion missing around the right […]

Yogurt is an old food; actually it’s one of the oldest known to mankind. I assume that since Greece was one of the early civilizations, that they’ve had plenty of time to practice making extraordinary yogurt. The makers of Greek yogurt use different bacterial cultures than our regular American-style yogurt. Those cultures and the straining […]

There’s something warm and fuzzy about the feeling I had when I opened the April 30, 2013 Wall Street Journal article, Hummus Is Conquering America. In this article I learned that Virginia farmers who were accustomed to growing tobacco on their beautiful, fertile ground, are embarking on the growing of chickpeas. Yes, they’re going to […]

I’ve been thinking that the general public would probably not fall for the Paleo diet; but it looks like there’s always a draw to try something new, weird or different. There is little or no valid research showing that the Paleo diet can solve the challenges of modern man; but it appears that some are […]

If like me, you enjoy cutting-edge science, you may enjoy the publication in Nature Medicine (doi:10.1038/nm.3145) by Robert A. Koeth et.al. just published on line on April 7, 2013. If science is not your thing, but you do like to know what’s happening in science, I’ll translate the results into non-scientific terminology. Knowing the gist […]

For readers of this blog, it will not come as a news flash that as convenient and often as tasty as they are, processed meats need to be used very sparingly. Many populations in poorer countries use any kind of meat sparingly, and up to a point, the less they use, the more health they […]

As you know if you’ve read my old post about sugar and junk food, we prefer sweetness from birth. What a surprise! I remember what a tough time I had 30 or 40 years ago when my children were little and I believed that I always needed to have cookies on hand for them. (O.K., […]