General Health

For the next four weeks, I will review some of the top 24 diets, in order from very best to best to “so, so”, as rated by a U.S. News and World Reports expert panel. Some of the programs are well known, others you may never have heard of before.

List 1: Toasted thin slices from a baguette, endive spears, celery sticks, small rye squares, baked pita chips

List 2: Pesto sauce, chunky tomato sauce, salsa, white beans pureed, hummus

List 3: Sliced pickles. cherry tomatoes cut in half, roasted peppers, thinly sliced cucumbers, sliced mushrooms, pine nuts

Maybe you have a parent, grandparent or loved one who is older and struggling with weight issues. Lacking the financial resources to get help can be a huge impediment for seniors to lose weight and improve their health profile. Chronic obesity and recent significant weight gain can be an incredibly challenging health issue for the aging population.

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Recently there has been a fair amount of discussion about “safe amounts of weight to gain” during pregnancy, especially if you are already carrying excess weight. The Institute of Medicine has suggested that overweight pregnant women should target a lower range of weight to gain, when compared to average weight women.

The I.D.E.A.L. Diet study and a more recent study that looked at dieting and its impact on pre-menopausal women’s bone health found that what you choose to eat, when cutting calories, can profoundly impact your bone health.

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With so many lesson plans to teach, it is sometimes hard to assess the particular impact of a lesson plan on students, over a 2 year school curriculum. Recently, Kaz De La Torre, a Coordinator who teaches at George Washington Educational Campus in New York City, shared a wonderful “impact moment.”

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Though many food and nutrition experts agree that “no foods should be completely banned from your diet if you really want to eat them,” they also agree that certain ingredients, methods of preparing foods and marketing terms should put you “on alert” and force you to further assess whether or not it’s a good choice to eat them at all, or even in moderation.

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Understand that the nutritional breakdown label information almost always applies to ONE serving.

When counting carbohydrates, like most people with diabetes do regularly, make sure not to forget to include beverages.

Understand that all fats are not created equal, but even the healthier ones are high in calories and require portion control.

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