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Nutrition

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In a world teeming with dietary advice and various nutritional ideologies, finding reliable guidance can seem like a Herculean task. It has never been more paramount to be discerning in choosing the right expert to lead you toward optimal health. This need stems from the undeniable link between nutrition and well-being, a bond so significant that it invariably shapes life’s quality and longevity.

In the age of information where anyone can claim expertise, it’s vital to scrutinize the qualifications and credentials of potential nutritional experts. Degrees in nutrition, dietetics, or related fields, along with certifications from recognized bodies, often serve as a testament to their proficiency.

Besides qualifications, a nutritionist or dietician’s approach and philosophy are of considerable importance. Such a person fosters a holistic view of health, considering the connection of nutrition with other facets of well-being, including mental health and lifestyle factors. Moreover, a genuinely proficient one would tailor advice to the individual, recognizing diversity in nutritional needs and preferences.

This brings in the focal point of this discourse: understanding how to choose the appropriate nutritional experts.

Assess Which One You Need: Nutritionist Or Dietician

Two prominent figures emerge as key players in your health journey: nutritionists and dietitians. These titles, while sometimes used interchangeably, denote professionals with varying levels of education, expertise, and roles in the healthcare spectrum. To make a good choice, you need to learn their roles and understand the differences between these two experts. Doing so will help you choose the right one for your needs and goals.

In this regard, the most critical starting point is to align your needs with the expertise of the professional you intend to consult with. If you’re grappling with medical conditions requiring a specialized dietary approach, a consultation with a dietitian is your best bet.

On the other hand, for general guidance on wholesome eating, improving dietary habits, or achieving fitness goals, a nutritionist is your ally. These professionals provide insights and strategies to nurture a balanced relationship with food.

Check for Qualifications and Credentials

In this day and age where information is overflowing, nothing is more significant than ensuring the guidance you seek comes from a well-qualified and credentialed expert. Differentiating between someone with formal training and proven expertise versus someone knowledgeable in wellness trends is a crucial first step.

A credible professional in nutrition would have undertaken extensive studies in relevant fields such as dietetics, nutrition science, or public health nutrition. Their educational qualifications should be complemented by certifications or licenses from recognized bodies or associations in the field, as these act as a testament to their commitment to upholding competence and high standards.

Beyond the formal qualifications, one must also consider professional development and continued education. The field of nutrition is dynamic and continually evolving. A competent professional would be engaged in continuous learning, staying abreast of the latest research, and incorporating new insights into their practice. This signifies a commitment to professional excellence and ensures that you receive guidance based on the most recent and reliable data.

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Go Through Recent Patient Reviews

When choosing a nutritional expert, reading recent patient reviews is essential, as these can give valuable insights into the expert’s experience, qualifications, and communication style.

When reading patient reviews, look for the following:

  • Positive Reviews: Are there any common issues in the positive reviews? Do the reviewers seem satisfied with the expert’s services?
  • Negative Reviews: Are there any repeated red flags that serve as negative reviews? If so, what are the specific complaints?
  • Overall Rating: What is the nutritional expert’s overall rating?
  • Date of Review: When were the reviews written? Are they recent?

As you skim through past patients’ reviews, however, do note that not all are created equal, as these come from a personal perspective. However, there’s still no discounting how reading recent patient reviews is a helpful way to understand an expert’s reputation and qualifications better.

Choose a Professional That Matches Your Personality

In addition to the abovementioned factors, choosing a nutritional guidance professional who matches your personality is also essential. This will make it more likely that you’ll be able to work with them effectively and achieve your health goals.

Along that line, here are a few things to consider when choosing a nutrition expert:

  • Communication Style: Do you prefer a more formal or informal communication style? Do you want someone direct to the point or someone gentler and understanding?
  • Approach to Nutrition: Are you looking for someone who takes a holistic approach to nutrition or someone who focuses on a specific diet or eating plan?
  • Personality: Do you feel comfortable with someone who is outgoing and talkative or someone who is more reserved?

Remember, as with hiring other health professionals, take this as a trial-and-error process. If you are uncomfortable with the first professional you meet, you can always try someone else.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right expert to give nutritional guidance is indeed an investment in one’s health and well-being. In this quest, the points above have underscored the vital importance of credentials and educational background as fundamental pillars that substantiate an expert’s reliability. Yet, their approach and philosophy also truly define their effectiveness, as they ideally blend science with empathy, offering solutions grounded in research and tailored to individual needs and preferences. Remember, the best experts empower you, fostering a collaborative relationship where your input is valued and your goals are prioritized.

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Best dishes to cook are ideal for any kind of emergency. Whether you simply want to make a fast meal for surprise guests, or for life threatening emergencies, you will definitely get certain thing easy to make and to take on these situations.

Dried foods are also known as survival meals. They are items that have gone unique preservation methods that involve eliminating the moisture content that will extend the life for about some months.

This method of protection can be dated back to old times but is performed on these days with modern equipment. Dried food recipe are one of the best kinds of endurance food found in the market now for plenty of reasons. Being able to stay in storage is one main thing.

When no people actually know when a calamity or an emergency could hit, it assists to be made. Hence whether disaster hit this month having stored of edible endurance food at house that is
instant to make and consume is excellent survival plan.

Aid at Emergencies

Emergencies might last extend for some days, or for weeks. And due to this, your meal stocks should be able to last long. With dried items as long because they are stored perfectly, they will last long.

Items like these, along with extreme shelf life, are certain best nutritious ones found. The drying method item undergoes let it to stay much of the nutritious material and minerals that would be lost when maintained by other ways.

This is essential aspect when are planning to choose survival food. During emergency or on the normal days, your nutrition is very much vital. With the dried foods, you will recognize that what you have stored at house or what you are consuming is healthy for you and for the family members.

Dried foods are found in different variety of types and flavors, they are not boring. They are available in best selection of flavors you can pick from, whether you are considering for meat, fruit, vegetables or full recipes or cuisines.

Healthy and Nutritious

Freeze dried items are one of the versatile protective food out there. These items are healthy, nutritious, they are available in different variety of tastes and they will last in the storage shelf for a long time.

Freeze dried items are available in kits. A normal kit has prepared foods for lunch and breakfast and separate vegetable, fruit, carbohydrates, protein packaged in cans and bags. For making, you simply want to heat the instructed level of water and include it to a serving of the dried items.

After it re-hydrates, it is now ready to consume. Even though freeze dried items is easy in case of emergency, it should be stored in the proper conditions in the house. Water and light can worsen the food and so all buckets, bags or cans should be placed in a dry and dark space. The benefits of best dishes to cook are appearance, portable, flavor, long shelf life and simply include water.

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San Francisco city has approved a measure for the November ballot that would place a two-cents-per-ounce municipal tax on sodas and other sugary beverages.

San Francisco is hoping to become the first major city to successfully impose such a levy.

Other US cities have tried and ultimately failed to tax sugary drinks. Among them has been Richmond, California, across the bay from San Francisco, where a penny-an-ounce tax was defeated after a multimillion-dollar campaign by the American Beverage Association.

San Francisco’s plan, which was approved on July 22 by a 6-4 vote of the board of supervisors, would be applied to any nonalcoholic, sweetened drink with more than 25 calories per 12 ounces.

“I think the nation is watching what happens here,” said John Maa, a surgeon on the board of directors at two organizations that support the measure, San Francisco Medical Society and American Heart Association.

“It has been referred to as a last stand.”

San Francisco city has approved the soda tax for the November ballot

San Francisco city has approved the soda tax for the November ballot (photo AP)

Roger Salazar, a spokesperson with Coalition for an Affordable City: Stop Unfair Beverages Taxes, a project of the American Beverage Association, said that if the city wants to educate people about health issues it should do so without taxing the most needy.

“Taxing sugar sweetened beverages won’t alter lifestyle,” Roger Salazar said.

“All it really does is impact the very people that are struggling to get by in San Francisco at a time when they can least afford it.”

San Francisco’s office of economic analysis estimates that the tax would bring in $35 to $54 million per year and, if it’s passed directly on to consumers, as expected, it could reduce consumption by 31%.

Income from the tax would go towards funding city programs to improve food access, health and nutrition.

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California Senator William Monning wants to make his state the first in the nation to require warning labels on soda and other sugary drinks.

Democratic Sen. William Monning’s bill proposed Thursday would require the warning on the front of all beverage containers with added sweeteners that have 75 or more calories in every 12 ounces.

The label would read: “STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.”

California new bill would require the warning on the front of all beverage containers with added sweeteners that have 75 or more calories in every 12 ounces

California new bill would require the warning on the front of all beverage containers with added sweeteners that have 75 or more calories in every 12 ounces

The new bill is backed by several public health advocacy groups.

The first proposal of its kind would put California, which banned sodas and junk food from public schools in 2005, back in the vanguard of a growing national movement to curb the consumption of high-caloric beverages that medical experts say are largely to blame for an epidemic of childhood obesity.

A growing body of research has identified sugary drinks as the biggest contributors to added, empty calories in the American diet, and as a major culprit in a range of costly health problems associated with being overweight.

More than a third of all US adults and nearly 17% of children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

State Senator Bill Monning, who sponsored the warning label bill and whose effort to push a state tax on sugary drinks died last year, said the new measure was crafted in such a way as to address criticism leveled at other measures.

CalBev, the California arm of the American Beverage Association said in a statement that it is misleading to suggest that soft drink consumption is uniquely responsible for weight gain.

“Only 4.0 percent of calories in the average American diet are derived directly from soda,” they said.

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A new research suggests that high-dose vitamin C can boost the cancer-killing effect of chemotherapy in the lab and mice.

Given by injection, it could potentially be a safe, effective and low-cost treatment for ovarian and other cancers, scientists at the University of Kansas say.

Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, they call for large-scale government clinical trials.

Pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to run trials, as vitamins cannot be patented.

Vitamin C has long been used as an alternative therapy for cancer.

High-dose vitamin C can boost the cancer-killing effect of chemotherapy in the lab and mice

High-dose vitamin C can boost the cancer-killing effect of chemotherapy in the lab and mice

In the 1970s, chemist Linus Pauling reported that vitamin C given intravenously was effective in treating cancer.

However, clinical trials of vitamin C given by mouth failed to replicate the effect, and research was abandoned.

It is now known that the human body quickly excretes vitamin C when it is taken by mouth.

However, scientists say that when given by injection vitamin C is absorbed into the body, and can kill cancer cells without harming normal ones.

The researchers injected vitamin C into human ovarian cancer cells in the lab, into mice, and into patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

They found ovarian cancer cells were sensitive to vitamin C treatment, but normal cells were unharmed.

The treatment worked in tandem with standard chemotherapy drugs to slow tumor growth in mouse studies. Meanwhile, a small group of patients reported fewer side-effects when given vitamin C alongside chemotherapy.

Co-researcher Dr. Jeanne Drisko said there was growing interest in the use of vitamin C by oncologists.

One potential hurdle is that pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to fund trials of intravenous vitamin C because there is no ability to patent natural products.

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According to a New Zealand study, first-born children may be more likely than second-borns to be overweight in later life.

A small study of middle-aged men living in New Zealand found children born first into their family were about 14 lbs heavier and had a bigger BMI than second-borns.

They also had more insulin resistance, which can lead to health problems.

Birth order may affect the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, say researchers.

Larger studies are needed to fully evaluate this link, they add.

First-born children may be more likely than second-borns to be overweight in later life

First-born children may be more likely than second-borns to be overweight in later life

There is some evidence to suggest birth order may influence the body’s fat make-up and metabolism, from infancy to the teenage years.

However, the potential impact in mid-life is unknown.

Prof. Wayne Cutfield and colleagues at the University of Auckland studied 50 overweight but otherwise healthy men between the ages of 40 and 50.

“First-born men were heavier and had lower insulin sensitivity than second-borns,” they report in the journal, Scientific Reports.

“Thus, first-born adults may be at a greater risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.”

Prof. Wayne Cutfield said the risk of developing obesity or diabetes occurs when enough risk factors come together.

“Being first born is one such risk factor, it does not mean first-borns will become overweight or diabetic, being first-born simply increases the risk.”

The researchers say the study needs to be repeated in pairs of siblings and with more subjects.

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According to a medical team at Cleveland Clinic, good cholesterol, or HDL, also has a nasty side that can increase the risk of heart attacks.

HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol normally helps to keep arteries clear and is good for heart health.

But the team at the Cleveland Clinic showed it can become abnormal and lead to blocked blood vessels.

Doctors say people should still eat healthily, but that the good cholesterol story is a more complex tale than previously thought.

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is “bad” because it is deposited in the walls of arteries and causes hard plaques to build up that can cause blockages, resulting in heart attacks and stroke.

HDL cholesterol is “good” because the cholesterol is instead shipped to the liver.

HDL cholesterol also has a nasty side that can increase the risk of heart attacks

HDL cholesterol also has a nasty side that can increase the risk of heart attacks

The evidence shows that having a high ratio of good to bad cholesterol is good for health.

However, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic say trials aimed at boosting levels of HDL have “not been successful” and the role of good cholesterol is clearly more complicated.

In their study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, doctors showed how HDL cholesterol could become abnormal.

One of the researchers, Dr. Stanley Hazen, said HDL cholesterol was being modified in the walls of the artery: “In the artery walls it is acting very differently to in the circulation. It can become dysfunctional, and contributes to the development of heart disease.”

Small quantities of the abnormal HDL seep back into the bloodstream and this can be detected.

Tests on 627 patients showed that levels of abnormal HDL in the blood could be used to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Stanley Hazen added: “This data does not change the message of eat healthily.”

Instead, he said the findings would be used to develop new tests for abnormal HDL cholesterol and research on drugs to help block its formation.

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According to a new research, fruits, vegetables and whole-grains might be an unlikely treatment for asthma.

The animal study results, published in Nature Medicine, showed that a high-fiber diet could reduce inflammation in the lungs.

The extra fiber changed the nutrients being absorbed from the gut, which in turn altered the immune system.

The researchers argue the shift to processed foods may explain why more people are developing asthma.

The airways are more sensitive to irritation and more likely to become inflamed in people with asthma.

It leads to a narrowing of the airways that make it harder to breathe.

However, a possible solution may lie in another organ, the gut, and the bacteria which live there.

The cells of the human body are vastly outnumbered by the trillions of microbes that live in and on it.

There is growing evidence that these bacteria have a significant impact on health.

Fruits, vegetables and whole-grains might be an unlikely treatment for asthma

Fruits, vegetables and whole-grains might be an unlikely treatment for asthma

A team at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland showed that the high and low fiber diets altered the types of bacteria living in the guts of the mice.

Bacteria which can munch on soluble fiber, the type found in fruit and vegetables, flourished on the high-fiber diet and they in turn produced more short-chain fatty acids – a type of fat, which is absorbed into the blood.

The scientists said these fatty acids acted as signals to the immune system and resulted in the lungs being more resistant to irritation.

The opposite happened in low-fiber diets and the mice became more vulnerable to asthma.

Their report argued that a dietary shift away from fiber in favor of processed foods may be involved in rising levels of asthma.

It said: “In recent decades, there has been a well-documented increase in the incidence of allergic asthma in developed countries and coincident with this increase have been changes in diet, including reduced consumption of fiber.”

One of the researchers, Dr. Benjamin Marsland said some of the differences caused by high-fiber diets have already been observed in people by comparing diets in Europe and Burkina Faso.

The team in Lausanne is also investigating the role of diet in long-term lung inflammation such as COPD, which is set to become the world’s third biggest killer.

An alternative to tweaking diets is giving the purified fatty acids themselves as a dietary supplement.

This worked in mice, but Dr. Benjamin Marsland warns there “certainly needs to be more work” before this is suggested in people.

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French researchers have cast doubt on the value of vitamin D supplements to protect against diseases such as cancers, diabetes and dementia.

Scientists writing in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology suggest low vitamin D levels do not cause ill health, although they did not look at bone diseases.

More clinical trials on non-skeletal diseases are needed, they say.

Vitamin D supplements are recommended for certain groups.

French researchers have cast doubt on the value of vitamin D supplements to protect against diseases such as cancers, diabetes and dementia

French researchers have cast doubt on the value of vitamin D supplements to protect against diseases such as cancers, diabetes and dementia

Recent evidence has shown it may also have a role to play in preventing non-bone-related diseases such as Parkinson’s, dementia, cancers and inflammatory diseases.

Prof. Philippe Autier, from the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, carried out a review of data from 290 prospective observational studies and 172 randomized trials looking at the effects of vitamin D levels on health outcomes, excluding bone health, up to December 2012.

A large number of the observational studies suggested that there were benefits from high vitamin D – that it could reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by up to 58%, diabetes by up to 38% and colorectal cancer by up to 33%.

But the results of the clinical trials – where participants were given vitamin D supplements – found no reduction in risk, even in people who started out with low vitamin D levels.

And a further analysis of recent randomized trials found no positive effect of vitamin D supplements on diseases occurring.

Prof. Philippe Autier said: “What this discrepancy suggests is that decreases in vitamin D levels are a marker of deteriorating health.

“Ageing and inflammatory processes involved in disease occurrence… reduce vitamin D concentrations, which would explain why vitamin D deficiency is reported in a wide range of disorders.”

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According to British cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, the risk from saturated fat in foods such as butter, cakes and fatty meat is being overstated and demonized.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra said there was too much focus on the fat with other factors such as sugar often overlooked.

It is time to “bust the myth of the role of saturated fat in heart disease”, Dr. Aseem Malhotra writes in an opinion piece in the British Medical Journal.

However, the British Heart Foundation said there was conflicting evidence.

It added reducing cholesterol through drugs or other means does lower heart risk.

The risk from saturated fat in foods such as butter, cakes and fatty meat is being overstated and demonized

The risk from saturated fat in foods such as butter, cakes and fatty meat is being overstated and demonized

Studies on the link between diet and disease have led to dietary advice and guidelines on how much saturated fat, particularly cholesterol, it is healthy to eat.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a cardiology registrar at Croydon University Hospital, London, says the “mantra that saturated fat must be removed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease has dominated dietary advice and guidelines for almost four decades”.

The cardiologist says saturated fat has been “demonized” and any link with heart disease is not fully supported by scientific evidence.

The food industry has compensated for lowering saturated fat levels in food by replacing it with sugar, he says, which also contributes to heart disease.

Adopting a Mediterranean diet – olive oil, nuts, oily fish, plenty of fruit and vegetables and a moderate amount of red wine – after a heart attack is almost three times as powerful in reducing mortality as taking a statin, writes Dr. Aseem Malhotra.

Statins are a group of medicines that can help lower rates of cholesterol in the blood.

Cholesterol can also be reduced by eating a healthy, balanced diet, maintaining a healthy weight and doing regular physical activity.

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According to a new study, healthy adults do not need to take vitamin D supplements.

The study published in The Lancet found the subjects had no beneficial effect on bone density, a sign of osteoporosis.

Experts say many other factors could be at play and people should not stop taking supplements.

University of Auckland researchers analyzed 23 studies involving more than 4,000 healthy people.

The New Zealand research team conducted a meta-analysis of all randomized trials examining the effects of vitamin D supplementation on bone mineral density in healthy adults up to July 2012.

The supplements were taken for an average of two years by the study participants.

Healthy adults do not need to take vitamin D supplements

Healthy adults do not need to take vitamin D supplements

Bone mineral density is a measure of bone strength and measures the amount of bone mineral present at different sites in the body. It is often seen as an indicator for the risk of osteoporosis, which can lead to an increased risk of fracture.

The trials took place in a number of different countries including the UK, the US, Australia, Holland, Finland and Norway.

Although the results did not identify any benefits for people who took vitamin D, they did find a small but statistically significant increase in bone density at the neck of the femur near the hip joint.

According to the authors, this effect is unlikely to be clinically significant.

Prof. Ian Reid, lead study author, from the University of Auckland, said the findings showed that healthy adults did not need to take vitamin D supplements.

“Our data suggest that the targeting of low-dose vitamin D supplements only to individuals who are likely to be deficient could free up substantial resources that could be better used elsewhere in healthcare.”

Writing about the study in The Lancet, Clifford J. Rosen from the Maine Medical Research Institute agrees that science’s understanding of vitamin D supports the findings for healthy adults, but not for everyone.

“Supplementation to prevent osteoporosis in healthy adults is not warranted. However, maintenance of vitamin D stores in the elderly combined with sufficient dietary calcium intake remains an effective approach for prevention of hip fractures.”

The Department of Health currently recommends that a daily supplement of vitamin D of 10 micrograms (0.01 mg) should be taken by pregnant and breastfeeding women and people over 65, while babies aged six months to five years should take vitamin drops containing 7 to 8.5 micrograms (0.007-0.0085 mg) per day.