Proteins

• Healthy Living 101: Understanding Whole Grains

  Whole grains are made up of the entire or "whole" grain, including the bran, germ, and innermost part of the kernel, the endosperm. Each portion of the grain or seed plays an important role in...[more]

• Healthy Living 101: Classifying Foods

  Foods can be classified by the way they affect the body and/or by their food group. It is important to understand both in order to balance your meals and achieve optimal health. Macronutrients The Merriam-Webster...[more]

• Proteins, Fats, and Carbs: How to Balance Your Diet

  Dieting can be confusing. High-protein diets claim to help you lose weight quickly, but can lead to high cholesterol and increase your risk for heart disease. High-carbohydrate diets may be low in fat, but can...[more]

• Healthy Living 101: How to Read a Nutrition Label

  Too often, purchasing food can be confusing, especially with all of the persuasive marketing tactics used by food companies. Learning how to read, understand, and compare food labels can help you maintain, manage, control, and/or...[more]

• Eat This, Not That: Calorie Cutters

  If you eat more calories than your body needs, your body will inevitable store them as excess weight. The trick is to reduce your calorie intake without feeling like you are depriving yourself - and...[more]

• Eat This, Not That: Breakfast Edition

  You've heard that breakfast is the most important meal. It boosts your metabolism, staves off hunger, and provides you energy to start and get through your day. But what if you are making bad breakfast...[more]

• Real FitDay Users Share: What Was Your "A-Ha" Moment?

  What sparked you to embark on your fitness journey? For many of us, it was one moment or incident - the "a-ha" moment - that got our butts in gear and changed our lives forever....[more]

• Meal Planning Made Simple

  The key to long-term weight management and healthy eating is consuming a balanced diet. Restrictive eating and fad diets may provide temporary weight loss, but they may also provide fatigue, hunger, food fantasizing, malnutrition, binging,...[more]

• Healthy Kitchen Staples to Start 2012

  If you want to make over your health, refrigerator, and pantry, then make a note of these 12 staples that will get you eating right in the New Year. 1. Assorted Whole Grains Cereals, pasta,...[more]

• Spilling the Beans on Bean Benefits

  We all know that fiber is an important part of a healthy diet. We also know that fiber is likely our closest ally when it comes to feeling full in between meals and snacks, which...[more]

• Omega-3 and Omega-6: The Essential Fatty Acids to Include in Your Diet

  Essential fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that we must get from food. They are necessary for optimal brain function, metabolism regulation, hair growth, bone health, and many other vital physiological reactions. Omega-3 and omega-6 fats...[more]

• Stress Eating: What You Can Do to Keep It at Bay

  Stress, boredom, or any array of emotions can lead to cravings for food. If these cravings take control too often, you might find yourself eating large portions of high calorie, sweet, and/or fatty foods. However,...[more]

• Can Eating More Frequently Lead to Weight Loss?

  Have you ever wondered how some people can eat quite frequently but never seem to gain weight? It's often said that eating smaller, more frequent meals fuels your metabolism and helps keep you satisfied throughout...[more]

• 5 Ways to Prevent Weight Gain When You Can't Make Your Own Food

  Staying healthy can be difficult when you have limited resources. College students, for example, typically live in dorm rooms with only small refrigerators and no access to stoves or other kitchen appliances. Frequent business travelers...[more]

• Understanding Metabolism: How It Influences Weight Control

  It may be tempting to blame your failed weight loss attempts or weight gain on a slow metabolism. However, it is rare that excessive weight gain from a medical problem slows metabolism, as in cases...[more]

• Not All Calories Are Created Equal

  For decades, we've been taught that weight loss comes down to the simple idea of "calories in versus calories out." This equation is simple and can not be escaped. To lose weight, you must take...[more]

• Kañiwa: The Next Superfood?

  People are always on the lookout for the latest and greatest foods to help enhance their health and prevent risk of disease. The term "superfood" has captivated consumers and increased their interest in purchasing products...[more]

• 4 'Bad' Foods That Are Actually Good for You

  As a dietitian, I sometimes find people carefully watching what I choose to eat. The common misconception is that while I have a healthy lifestyle and maintain both my weight and physique, I must greatly...[more]

• Carbs and Dairy: Is It Really Safe to Skip Them?

  As a child, I was taught that my meals needed to come from 4 simple food groups: grains, seafood/meats (including beans), dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese), and fruits/vegetables. Since then, the USDA has issued numerous versions...[more]

• How Do Nutrition Needs Change with Age?

  As a dietitian who primarily works with children, I receive a lot of questions about whether or not nutrition needs change or increase as a child gets older. The simple answer is yes; the more...[more]

• Quick, Healthy Snacks and Lunches-to-Go

  When life gets busy, eating right can be hard to do. Our increasingly chaotic lifestyles are jam-packed with so many long hours working, taking care of families, trying to maintain healthy relationships, and many other...[more]

• US News Ranks the "Best Diets"

  US News and World Report recently released with a ranking of twenty diets. Their findings were based on seven criteria: short term weight loss, long term weight loss, ease of following, nutrition, safety, effectiveness for...[more]

• Nutrition and Exercise: Eating to Fuel Your Workouts

  World-class athletes know that success depends on training and nutrition. They carefully choose the foods they eat, so the right combination of nutrients will fuel them to success. Take some tips and transform your eating...[more]

• 16 Surprising Sources of Protein

  Protein does more than just build strong muscles. It also strengthens bones, increases satiety, protects against heart disease, and helps support a healthy immune system. We also know that consuming plenty of protein is an...[more]

• Eat This, Not That: A Comparison of Two Meal Plans

  Every day, we are constantly faced with choices about what to eat. For most of us, it's got to be quick and easy, and it's got to taste good. Unfortunately, the healthy benefits of a...[more]

• 3 Steps to Smart Snacking

  If you ask anyone in the health profession how often you should eat, you will most likely be told to eat 5 to 6 small meals spread out over the course of each day. The...[more]

• A Dietitian's Take on the New MyPlate

  The USDA's familiar MyPyramid has just been replaced with MyPlate. The consensus seems to be that this new model is simpler and easier to understand than the previous version, and I completely agree. Consisting of...[more]

• Drinking Chocolate Milk as a Protein Source

  Chocolate milk provides protein, fats and carbohydrates, although milk does offer more fulfilling ratios than a lot of other options. Ultimately, the drink does not provide enough protein to act as a primary protein...[more]

• Chocolate Soy Protein: Too Much of a Good Thing?

  Chocolate soy protein is something that you might be interested in taking if you're trying to gain an advantage in the weight room. When taken for a short period of time, chocolate soy protein...[more]

• The Secret Nutrition in Soy Protein

  The nutrition soy protein can provide is an area that has been extensively researched. Soy protein can make a valuable contribution to a healthy eating plan, as well as being a substitute for meat...[more]

• What Nutrition Is in Soy Protein?

  Nutrition from soy protein has been much lauded for its beneficial health effects. Proponents of soy protein say that it helps prevent heart disease, breast and other cancers and osteoporosis. Some also believe that...[more]

• Quinoa: The Protein-Rich, Incan Superfood

  From its modest origins in the Inca civilization in the Andes some 6000 years ago, quinoa has reached new heights with its high nutritional value. Pronounced as “keen-wah”, this protein rich Incan super food...[more]

• Protein: How Much Is Too Much?

  Our body can’t do without its daily dose of proteins. Proteins are one of the three macronutrients that the human body needs to create the hormones and enzymes. Muscle, hair, skin and connective tissue...[more]

• Building Complete Proteins from Nuts, Grains and Legumes

  Proteins, and more importantly, complete proteins are needed for the growth, development and manufacture of hormones, antibodies and tissues.  It is also needed for the development of bones, muscles, skin, cartilage and blood. Hair...[more]

• Incomplete vs. Complete Proteins

  Protein is an essential part of a diet to maintain balanced nutrition. It performs many important functions, such as building lean body tissue and creating digestive enzymes. Not all protein is created equal, however....[more]

• Ways to Turn Pasta into a Complete Protein

  With low carbohydrate diets all the rage, most people have done their best to avoid all wheat products, especially pasta. But once you understand the ways to turn pasta into a complete protein, you...[more]

• 10 Great Vegetarian Protein Sources

  The average sedentary adult should have 40 grams of protein per 100 pounds of body weight. This statistic also includes those that are vegetarian, and there are many foods that do not contain meat that...[more]

• Naturally Combating Hyperthyroidism And Involuntary Weight Loss

  Hyperthyroidism, which is also referred to as thyrotoxicosis, is a condition in which an overactive thyroid gland produces an excessive amount of thyroid hormones that circulate in your blood. The thyroid hormones circulating in...[more]

• Calcium For Women

  Calcium for women is essential through every phase of life. It is needed to help build strong bones and teeth, and it also helps to regulate heart beat, clot blood and conduct nerve impulses. As...[more]