Regular readers know I’m not a big fan of diets. In a recent Journal of the American Medical Association article, researchers from Stanford University Medical School worked with about 300 overweight women, ages 27-50, who hadn’t gone through menopause to see what diet worked best. They divided the women into four groups, according to diet.
Category: Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Vitamins, & Herbal Remedies
Nutritional counseling focuses on helping clients understanding foods and their role in preventive nutrition. Nutrition, supplements, vitamins and herbal remedies help achieve and maintain healthy body composition, (lean muscle-to-fat ratio) in order to improve health, manage disease, feel better, and reduce the risk of serious conditions.
Q&A: Red Meat
Q: My fiance eats red meat once a week, and I feel it’s terrible for his body. Am I right that our bodies aren’t made to eat it that often, that it doesn’t break it down?
Organic Milk
Click here for the original post. Personally, if it weren’t for cheese pizza, I’m for dropping dairy from our lives altogether. Cow’s milk is for nourishing calves, period. We’ve been sold an amazing bill of goods from the National Dairy Council, variations of (remember this?) “you’ll never outgrow your need for milk.” I clearly recall […]
Don’t Forget Your Selenium
And, in point of fact, if you do forget your selenium, you might start forgetting other things as well.
That’s what some epidemiologists from Indiana University recently reported. They selected a fairly obscure village of 2,000 people in China where the people had lived their entire lives and eaten largely the same food. After analyzing hair and fingernail samples for selenium levels, the researchers ran psychological tests on intellectual function.
Fast Food Favorites: Spinach
What kind of fast food could I ever recommend? The kind that will make your hair shine and your complexion glow.
You can make easy and enormously healthful choices every day that will make a real difference in the way you feel and look. Yes, your appearance, mood, and stamina are directly tied to the nutrients you take in.
Q&A: Supplements for Recovering Alcoholic
Q: I have a friend who is a recovering alcoholic. She’s gone through detox and is doing well managing her disease, but she wants to know if there are supplements (like milk thistle?) to support the liver that she should take to help her body recover and stay healthy.
Breaking the Fast with Breakfast
Breakfast breaks the fasting period our bodies undergo while we’re sleeping. You can quickly see why breakfast is essential: your body has just gone through hours with no nutrients. When you awake and begin your day, you need fuel.
Importance of Magnesium
People who schedule visits with nutritionists are usually surprised to find themselves almost always walking out with a bottle of magnesium tablets along with some suitable vitamins and a healthful eating program.
Q&A: Vitamin D
Q: You’ve written a lot about the value of vitamin D, especially for women living in overcast places. I live in Minneapolis and I’m wondering how much I should take every day. Also, I read that vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and there are risks if you take too much. How much is too much?
Vitamin Graveyard
Do you have a “vitamin graveyard?” You probably do but just never called it that. You’ll find it on your kitchen countertop or along a shelf in your medicine cabinet. Maybe it’s your bathroom window ledge.
Q&A: Bromelain Dose for Anti-Inflammatory Effect
Q: Ever since you wrote about bromelain I’ve wanted to try it, as you suggested, instead of aspirin or ibuprofen. I’m managing my heel spur pain well with the help of my physical therapist, but she encourages me to take an anti-inflammatory when I have pain. Would you tell me what dose of bromelain I should use? Also, does it work for arthritis?
Another Reason You Need Vitamins
During my now rather lengthy professional career, I’ve been hearing the same song-and-dance from conventional physicians about vitamins. It’s a variation on the theme “our food is plenty nutritious by itself” (now proven untrue) or “you just end up having nutritious urine” (the B vitamin riboflavin colors urine a dazzling yellow).
Ginkgo Biloba
Ginkgo biloba has the longest life span of any tree, with some ginkgo trees
estimated to be more than 1,000 years old. Even more astonishing is that
ginkgo, as a survivor of the Ice Age, has been around for more than 200
million years.
Holiday Stress Rx: Part 2
Click here for the Health Tip link. Women play such a central role in family and celebration, to the degree that the stress of holiday demands can make you feel exhausted, anxious, and sick. Taking some time for yourself may seem counterintuitive, but it’s precisely what you need. Here’s another prescription for keeping healthy during […]
Most Common Deficiencies: Zinc
Click here for the Health Tip link. A popular blood test in our office measures levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It seems reasonable that as long as you’re spending good money on nutritional supplements, you might as well see if they’re being absorbed. It’s also helpful that some health insurance companies (notably, Blue Cross) […]
Nutritional Bad News
Click here for the Health Tip link. The government has made official what’s been common knowledge among nutritionally oriented practitioners for years: the vitamin and mineral content of our fruits and vegetables has been in steady decline since the 1950s, when scientists first began to measure them. Researchers sampled produce from grocery stores all over […]
Ginkgo Biloba
A lot of my patients ask me about taking ginkgo for memory. Here’s my answer, with a little extra detail: Ginkgo biloba has the longest life span of any tree, with some ginkgo trees estimated to be more than 1,000 years old. Even more astonishing is that ginkgo, as a survivor of the Ice Age, […]
Homocysteine and Your Health
The medical profession has done a good job alerting the public to the dangers of high cholesterol, with ample help from the pharmaceutical industry.
Q&A: Supplements for Better Breathing
Q: My husband has congestive heart failure. While he’s getting excellent care from his physicians, I’m wondering if there are any supplements you could recommend that would improve his breathing. A: The single most useful supplement for congestive heart failure is coenzyme Q-10. Many cardiologists are aware of this, but because it’s not yet FDA-approved […]
Preventing Cancer with One Good Choice
You can prevent cancer by eating more vegetables, and specifically more cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts.
More than half of all cancers in US adults are likely caused by poor diet, and many others develop because we’re exposed to a gruesome soup of environmental toxins in our food, air, and water.