Tanya earned her dietetics degree, completed a dietetic internship and served as a clinical dietitian in several Cincinnati hospitals. With more than 20 years of nutrition education experience, she is also a member of the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
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Have You Prepared a Flu Emergency Kit?
There are many unknowns as the fall cold and flu season draws near especially related to the threat of the H1N1 virus.
Of course, we all hope our families stay healthy and avoid any cold or flu illnesses this year. However, with children back in school, sports teams back in play and talk of pandemics throughout the news, we all may do well to follow the old Boy Scout motto of being prepared.
What if your entire family becomes ill and no one feels up to running to the local store to get what you need. What if home confinement was required to control the H1N1 virus spread rate? Would you have what you need on hand? Here are some basics for preparing a flu emergency kit.
Posted 9/14/2009 6:00:00 AM By: : 71 comments 37,928 views
Is There Any Benefit to an Anti-Inflammation Diet?
The body's immune system is a marvelous thing. When an unwanted antigen invades the body, armies of white blood cells work hard to provide protection. The body produces antibodies to destroy whatever it perceives to be harmful. Typically, that means antigens such as viruses, bacteria, or toxins. Sometimes, an allergic response occurs due to a reaction to an external antigen that the body would otherwise normally ignore, creating a hypersensitive response. Another type of hypersensitive response occurs when the body responds to normal body tissues. Sometimes this happens in transplant patients because the body doesn't recognize the tissue as its own. It can also happen with the body responds to what is its own in an autoimmune response. These hypersensitive responses can affect almost every major system of the body including the nervous system, gastrointestinal and endocrine systems as well as the connective tissue and skin, eyes, blood and blood vessels. Typically, management of allergic hypersensitive responses is accomplished by reducing exposure to the allergen. Transplant responses can be reduced with specific medications. However, when the hypersensitive response is to normal body tissues causing the body to attack itself, it is not always so easy to identify and control. This autoimmune response many times leads to disorders and diseases that cause tissue deterioration and adverse side effects that can alter day-to-day life more than just avoiding allergens or controlling responses. There are about 50 million Americans living with autoimmune disorders or diseases today and it is estimated that about 30 million of those people are women who are affected about three times more often than men are.
As I shared in my But What if I Can’t Lose Weight blog, I had two-thirds of my thyroid gland removed back in the spring of 2002. What I did not mention in that blog was why.
Posted 9/3/2009 12:00:00 PM By: : 58 comments 27,752 views
How Do You Feel about End-of-Life Nutrition and Hydration?
One of the roles I performed as a Clinical Dietitian was helping medical teams determine artificial nutrition needs for people when they had difficulty taking adequate food and fluids by mouth. Sometimes that nutrition and hydration support came in the form of a special IV formula and other times required a liquid formula combination delivered through a tube into the stomach or intestines. The goal was to provide adequate fluid and nutrition support following surgery or a prolonged illness so the patient could return to health as quickly as possible.
I have personally been on the other side of nutrition and hydration support decisions as well. When my sister-in-law was in intensive care on a ventilator for over five weeks, specialized IV support was vital and necessary to provide all of her nutrition and hydration needs. The need for nutrition and hydration support was straight forward because the care plan obviously intended to promote healing and restored health. The situation was different when my grandmother with Alzheimer's disease was no longer able to eat or drink sufficiently. The family conversations related to artificial nutrition and hydration were different as well. We had to take a deeper look at how we really felt about nutrition and hydration.
Posted 8/27/2009 6:24:04 AM By: : 184 comments 37,973 views
Nutrition 101: Is Beet Juice the Next Super Food?
When I saw a new report last week about the benefits of beet juice, I thought it was worth looking into further. It was only after I did a little more investigating that I discovered, beet juice just might become the next marketing focus right behind pomegranates as a potential super food you should be including in your diet.
As we continue to look at some nutrition basics in our ongoing Nutrition 101 series, let’s look at beets and see whether the benefits are real or nothing more than propaganda and if this is a super food worthy of marketing hype.
Posted 8/20/2009 6:00:00 AM By: : 132 comments 125,996 views
5 Nutrition Blogs You May Have Missed This Year
It is hard to believe we have been sharing information with you on the dailySpark for an entire year. Some of the nutrition series I have been doing during the year remain popular and prevalent such as Nutrition 101, Food on the Run, Diet Friendly Dining, and Weight Busters. In honor of our one-year anniversary, here are five nutrition topics you might have missed during the past year.
Posted 8/17/2009 12:00:00 PM By: : 11 comments 11,986 views
Weight Busters: All Carbohydrates are NOT Created Equal
Carbohydrates are important and necessary in our diets and have generated a great deal of attention over the past decade due to the low carbohydrate weight loss craze. Marketing trends have played off of that low carb craze and so have dieting plans that count "points" and provide different "rules" based on what carbs are being consumed. Could this confusing information and marketing ploy be affecting your weight loss success?
Posted 8/13/2009 6:46:47 AM By: : 50 comments 24,962 views
Can Vitamin D Reduce Your Risks of the H1N1 (Swine) Flu This Winter?
Vitamin D research and information is in the news everywhere these days. One of the most shocking results came from a nationwide study in the U.S. that found about 9 percent of the children were vitamin D deficient but 61 percent of them were vitamin D insufficient. Conversations are also ongoing related to how much vitamin D is enough. Last week an Institute of Medicine committee held meetings in Washington D.C. to review dietary reference intake recommendations for vitamin D and calcium. Some preliminary reports imply the recommendation will go up because of the overwhelming information that suggests a high level of insufficiency is present in both children as well as adults.
Hearing about a need for vitamin D for bone health is not new. Information related to the benefits of adequate vitamin D to reduce risks of heart disease or improve inflammation is also not new. What may be new in vitamin D research is the investigation of a relationship between vitamin D levels and a potential role in reducing risks for influenza, especially when the H1N1 pandemic is looming. This may provide a new reason to take your vitamin D intake a little more seriously this fall and winter.
Posted 8/10/2009 6:00:00 AM By: : 55 comments 39,369 views
Weight Busters: Take the First Step of a Thousand Miles
I was overwhelmed by the comments on the But What if I Can't Lose Weight blog. So many of them expressed many of the same feelings I have had over the years. While having hundreds of people that feel the same way and share the same frustrations can provide reassurances and support, it doesn't provide answers, which is what many of us really want.
Last week I was reading an interesting article entitled, Wanted: The Best Diabetes Diet for Optimal Outcomes from Today's Dietitian online. The author reviewed the research related to various dietary practices manipulating macronutrients in order to achieve optimal outcomes for glucose control, weight management and lipid profiles. The title caught my attention and I read with excitement to find "the" answer that could help those with diabetes as well as many others like myself that have glucose intolerance concerns. What did I find?
Posted 8/3/2009 6:45:20 AM By: : 142 comments 20,237 views
You Asked: Is Muscle Milk Good for You?
Performance enhancing supplements have become big business. Many drinks, powders and bars promise a competitive edge through increased strength, development of an ultra lean body or increased recovery responses so you can work out harder and more effectively. We encourage all our readers to use care when selecting and taking any pre- or post-workout supplement and to only use them as pre- and post-workout snacks and not as meal replacements for dieting purposes. Recently a reader contacted us about a new type of supplement called Muscle Milk, wanting to know if it was different than other supplements and a good option for her and her husband. Here is what we learned.
Posted 7/30/2009 12:53:56 PM By: : 91 comments 273,328 views
Weight Busters: Finding Strategies to Keep Moving When the Scale Will Not
I appreciate the positive responses and “club” name ideas shared by readers of my earlier blog, But What if I Can’t Lose Weight. I am starting a new series to provide ideas, topics and suggestions that may help you move forward in your quest for weight loss and improved health and fitness especially when progress is slower than expected. I hope the topics and ideas shared will provide new ways for readers to think about the basics of nutrition, fitness and health and how they can apply them in their own lives to see success and reach goals.
Many of us experience weight loss at a slower pace than desired and are frustrated. Some of us are in this situation because of medical conditions or changes in life stage, which have altered how our bodies respond to diet and exercise. For others, following the recommendations and calculations does not bring the desired results. Whatever the reason you are finding that you are working hard and the weight is not responding as you had hoped, perhaps one or more of the topics we cover in this new series will make a difference in your quest for success. To get this new series started we are going to take a closer look at why we are all not metabolically equal.
Metabolism is not only the rate at which the body uses energy but also the efficiency in which available energy and nutrients are used. There are several methods that can be used to calculate estimated energy needs by nutrition professionals with the Harris Benedict equation being the most common. However, this equation and calculation "could" be what is keeping you from having weight loss success. How?
Posted 7/23/2009 6:18:06 AM By: : 140 comments 65,767 views
But What if I Can’t Lose Weight?
We are excited to hear stories about people who choose to make positive lifestyle changes like Birdie Varnedore and lose significant amounts of weight. When we read about people who have accomplished wonderful results for their days, weeks and months of dedication and commitment, we are encouraged to continue in our own quest to reach new health and fitness goals.
However, for every wonderful success story like Birdie’s, there are several other people out there that have been equally dedicated and committed to their health that didn’t see the same results. They kept careful track of how many calories they consumed on a daily basis, exercised faithfully and sacrificed a great deal. Unfortunately, instead of seeing the scale move 100 pounds in 10 months, they only saw their scale move a couple of pounds. Some of them heard family members, friends or even their doctor tell them they must be doing something wrong or “cheating” with what they were eating or how much they were exercising. If this sounds like an experience you have had in your healthy living journey, this blog is for you!
Posted 7/20/2009 6:00:00 AM By: : 639 comments 161,054 views
The VITAL Study is Coming!
The VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) research study will officially begin recruitment for participants in January 2010. The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether taking omega 3 fatty acids from fish oil or vitamin D supplements helps reduce the development of cancer, heart disease and stoke in healthy people.
Think you might be interested in participating?
Posted 7/9/2009 10:46:45 AM By: : 44 comments 20,599 views
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Top 8 'Mediterranean Diet' Foods You Should be Eating
A European Mediterranean eating style is considered a healthy way to eat by many health professionals. One primary reason is because of its plant based focus as well as that it is low in refined sugar and preservatives. These are very different eating patterns compared to the typical American diet.
Harvard School of Public Health researchers and the University of Athens Medical School in Greece spent more than eight years investigating over 23,000 Greek men and women. The men and women were participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) which looked at overall health related to Mediterranean diet adherence. The researchers found that some food choice patterns provided more health benefit than others. Which foods were more beneficial?
Posted 7/6/2009 6:00:00 AM By: : 87 comments 100,447 views
3 Creative Ways to Use Your Garden Surplus
There are many benefits to growing your own food in a backyard garden. Early in the summer, many of us are able to keep up with what our gardens produce as we take our precious products from the garden directly to our tables. As the summer goes on, keeping up can become a challenge. We check the garden before heading out of town on vacation and realize there are many things that are ripe and ready for use but we don't have time to do anything with them. Or, perhaps our green thumbs have produced more than we can keep up with at the table and our storage space is already filled to capacity. What are we to do?
Here are 3 creative ideas to help you put your extra garden produce to good use.
Posted 7/2/2009 10:00:00 AM By: : 56 comments 24,604 views
What Defines Your Life?
Over the years of our marriage, my husband has commented many times about how amazed he is that there are many songs I can hear and remember when they came out and were popular. It isn't every song by any means, but there are many that define different significant times and events in my life. Last week I realized just how much music defines my life.
Posted 6/29/2009 6:00:00 AM By: : 80 comments 12,663 views
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