Jun
10
2017
Pregnancy diet high in refined grains could increase child obesity risk by age 7, NIH study suggests
Children born to women with gestational diabetes whose diet included high proportions of refined grains may have a higher risk of obesity by age 7, compared to children born to women with gestational diabetes who ate low proportions of refined grains, according to results from a National Institutes of Health study. These findings, which appear online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, were part of the Diabetes & Women’s Health Study, a research project led by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Gestational diabetes, or high blood sugar during pregnancy, affects about 5 percent of all pregnancies in the United States and may lead to health problems for mothers and newborns. The authors noted that previous studies have linked diets high in refined grains — such as white rice — to obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The researchers compared records from 918 mother-child pairs who took part in the Danish National Birth Cohort, a study that followed the pregnancies of more than 91,000 women in Denmark. They found that children born to women with gestational diabetes who consumed the most refined grain (more than 156 grams per day) were twice as likely to be obese at age 7, compared to children born to women with ...
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Jun
10
2016
Happy birthday MyPlate!
Adults and kids of all ages need healthy nutrition and physical activity. MyPlate was invented just for you!!!
MyPlate is a reminder to find your healthy eating style and build it throughout your lifetime. Everything you eat and drink matters. The right mix can help you be healthier now and in the future. This means:
Focus on variety, amount, and nutrition.
Choose foods and beverages with less saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.
Start with small changes to build healthier eating styles.
Support healthy eating for everyone.
Eating healthy is a journey shaped by many factors, including our stage of life, situations, preferences, access to food, culture, traditions, and the personal decisions we make over time. All your food and beverage choices count. MyPlate offers ideas and tips to help you create a healthier eating style that meets your individual needs and improves your health.
Build a Healthy Eating Style
All food and beverage choices matter – focus on variety, amount, and nutrition.
Focus on making healthy food and beverage choices from all five food groups includingfruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, and dairy to get the nutrients you need.
Eat the right amount of calories for you based on your age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity level.
Building a healthier eating style can help you avoid overweight and obesity and reduce your risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and ...
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Nov
25
2015
Nutrition tips from the NIH
We make dozens of decisions every day. When it comes to deciding what to eat and feed our families, it can be a lot easier than you might think to make smart, healthy choices. It takes just a little planning.
The food we put into our bodies is our fuel. It provides us with nutrients—the vitamins, minerals, and other compounds our bodies need to function and thrive. Research shows that good food choices are especially important for children’s growing bodies and minds. Smart choices have both immediate and long-lasting benefits for you and your family.
“My best advice is for parents to be good role models by eating healthy and being physically active with their children,” says Janet de Jesus, a nutritionist at NIH. “Keep healthy foods around the house for meals and snacks. If you save desserts and treats for special occasions, it will be more special. Involve children in the meal planning and cooking, and they will be more likely to eat the meals.”
“Parents can begin teaching their children about healthy eating from the day they are born,” says Dr. Donna Spruijt–Metz, whose research at the University of Southern California focuses on preventing and treating obesity in minority youth. “Setting a good example is very important.”
Try the GO, SLOW, WHOA approach to food. GO foods are great to eat anytime. They have lots of nutrients and ...
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Apr
03
2014
A report from NIH News In Health
Vegetarians miss out on lots of foods. No grilled burgers or franks at picnics. No holiday turkey or fries cooked in animal fat. Strict vegetarians may even forego honey made by bees. But vegetarians also tend to miss out on major health problems that plague many Americans. They generally live longer than the rest of us, and they’re more likely to bypass heart-related and other ailments.
The fact is, eating a more plant-based diet can boost your health, whether you’re a vegetarian or not.
What is it about the vegetarian lifestyle that can protect your health? And are there risks to being vegetarian? NIH-funded researchers are looking for answers. They’re exploring the many ways that diet and other factors affect our health.
Vegetarian meals focus on fruits and vegetables, dried beans, whole grains, seeds and nuts. By some estimates, about 2% of the U.S. adult population follows this type of diet.
People have many reasons for becoming vegetarians. Some want to eat more healthy foods. Others have religious or economic reasons or are concerned about animal welfare. “Vegetarian diets are also more sustainable and environmentally sound than diets that rely heavily on meat, poultry and fish,” says NIH nutritionist Dr. Susan Krebs-Smith, who monitors trends in cancer risk factors.
Most people think of vegetarian diets as simply eating plant foods and not eating meat, poultry and fish. “But ...
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Mar
07
2014
From a World Health Organization (WHO) Report:
Free sugars contribute to the overall energy density of diets.
Ensuring energy balance is critical to maintaining healthy body weight and
ensuring optimal nutrient intake.
There is increasing concern that consumption of free sugars, particularly
in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages, may result in both reduced
intake of foods containing more nutritionally adequate calories and an
increase in total caloric intake, leading to an unhealthy diet, weight gain
and increased risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
Also of great concern is the role free sugars play in the development of
dental diseases, particularly dental caries. Dental diseases are the most
prevalent NCDs globally and though great improvements in prevention
and treatment have occurred in the last decades, dental diseases
continue to cause pain, anxiety, functional limitation and social handicap
through tooth loss, for large numbers of people worldwide. The treatment
of dental diseases is expensive—costing between 5 and 10% of health
budgets in industrialised countries—and would exceed the financial
resources available for the whole of health care for children in the
majority of lower-income countries.
The objective of this guideline is to provide recommendations on the
consumption of free sugars to reduce the risk of NCDs in adults and
children, with a particular focus on the prevention and control of weight
gain and dental caries. When finalized, the recommendations in this
guideline can be used by program managers and policy planners to
assess current intake of free sugars relative to a benchmark and develop
measures to decrease intake of ...
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Nov
20
2011
As many of you know already, the USDA has changed its eating and nutritional educational system from a pyramid to a plate (www.ChooseMyPlate.gov). All of the nutritional information is based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is a structured knowledge base to help people make better nutritional choices. The main messages from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines and ChooseMyPlate.gov are the following:
It’s okay to enjoy your meals but eat less
Avoid overeating and sized portions
Make half your plate fruits and veggies
Switch to fat-free or low fat (1%) dairy products
Follow a lower sodium diet
Drink water in place of sugary beverages
Cut back on solid fats (e.g. trans fats, saturated fats), refined grains and added sugars
Eat more whole grains
Add more veggies to each and every meal
The Nerdel Company, a multi media company that wants to empower kids all over the world with the knowledge and information to make healthier nutritional choices and improve their physical fitness, has produced a new PSA (Public Service Announcement) that encourages kids to eat more fruits and veggies and to grow them in their own garden. The short video, titled Nerdel Loves Fruits & Veggies: From My Garden To MyPlate, features the amazing puppets of The Nerdel Company: Nerdel, Chef Mangel (pronounced Mahn-jel) and the Zeppets. You can see this entertaining and educational video at www.nerdel.com, at the top right corner.
The Nerdel Company has also been ...
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Mar
22
2011
Hello my fans. I am interrupting my Best Diet in the Universe series, which I hope you all are reading and following, and want to mention National Nutrition Month. Sponsored by the, American Dietetic Association*, March 2011-Eat Right With Color,has been designated as the month to promote eating healthy and exercise. As you all know, The Nerdel Company’s prime health directives besides its motto “everything good for kids,” includes making healthy choices in what you eat and to get plenty of physical activity. So what exactly does all this mean for you and me?
Well, it has to do with following the newly released 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans** and the physical activity guidelines as well. Let’s break it down into easy facts you can use: Here are the highlights:
Manage your weight by: 1. trying to prevent and reduce being overweight, 2. Improve your eating behavior and increase your physical activity
Control the amount of food you eat daily. That means for those of you overweight, REDUCING your calorie intake. Portion Control.
Increase your exercise and physical activity time DAILY! Cut back on the amount of time your are sitting!!!
Closely watch your weight in each stage of your life and balance the calories in with the calories out!
Cut back on salt-reduce the amount of salt in your diet to 2300mg daily. If you are age 51 and older, African American, have diabetes, hypertension ...
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Jan
14
2011
Wow, by the response from my last blog, you guys and gals are ready! It seems that many of us are ready to get the weight off. I am proud of all of you honest folks-yes, we let it out-we are honest-we gained weight and we are not happy campers. And now, you took the first five steps: 1. You got rid of all of the junk food in your kitchen-had to be done 2. You have weighed yourself-good or bad-had to be done 3. You set a weight loss goal that is realistic-had to be done 4. You made an exercise schedule and finally you went for (or have scheduled) a checkup with your medical provider-had to be done. Great job! Had to be done! Must be done! You are well on your way to success. Now you are all wondering, what’s next? What other secrets can you tell me? Tell me Graehm, please, please!
So let’s talk food! That’s right “da food!” What type, how much and when can I eat it? Isn’t that what we all ask several times a day? In my family, we ask it before we even finish our first meal of the day. We need to know! And we need to know now! We all think about food incessantly. It makes us feel good knowing what ...
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Jul
14
2010
As you read in my article on The New Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) Part 1, the new guidelines offer many differences and some similarities to the 2005 DGA. There are encouragements to eat more good mono and poly unsaturated fats (e.g. fish and plant varieties) over their bad cousins-the saturated fats (meats, poultry and dairy). There is more emphasis on eating whole grain products (e.g. brown rice, whole grain breads and pastas) over the refined and processed white starches. There is a new buzz word that has emerged from these guidelines-the SoFAS-solid fats (animal fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils) and added sugars (sugars and syrups and other caloric sweeteners added to foods during processing, preparation or consumed separately), which according to the statistics, have contributed to 35% of the total calorie (energy) intake of all Americans. These SoFAS are said to be responsible for the overconsumption of saturated fats, cholesterol, and added sugars and have taken the place of the important dietary fibers and nutrients (like vitamin D, calcium, potassium and unsaturated fatty acids like omega-3s) in the diet. There is a recognition that portion control in the home and at restaurants needs to be monitored and is responsible for the overconsumption of calories. In fact, restaurants and the food industry are being encouraged to offer lower calorie, foods with lower SoFAS, portion ...
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Jul
06
2010
I can’t believe how quick five years has been. The last Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005 (DGA 2005) came out five years ago. And now here comes the 2010 report. Does everyone reading this article know what I am talking about? Okay-let’s review. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans is a joint project between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to provide advice for people (two years and older), on how and what to eat, and how good nutrition and fitness (physical activity) can help promote good health and reduce the risk of major diseases. Information about choosing a nutritious diet, maintaining a healthy weight, achieving adequate exercise (part of the Physical Activity Guidelies for Americans), and food safety were all included in the 2005 report. The committee that makes these recommendations is composed of experts in the fields of nutrition, exercise, medicine and science. The committee takes into consideration many factors including the current status of chronic diseases in our society like heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and bones loss. The current levels of physical activity, obesity, food insecurity and nutrient ...
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