Going Beyond the Grill: Nutrition Tips for Dad

My dad does most of the grocery shopping. He did while I was growing up, and he still does for my mom and for my brothers and sisters who live at home. But, even though he grills sometimes, my dad doesn’t really cook (spoiler: my mom does most of it). And, actually, if I had to guess, I would say that my dad is not really that interested in food at all. While I sometimes wish my dad paid more attention to food, like me, I know that he’s not unique in that regard. Many American men don’t read nutrition facts panels, ingredients lists, or other information about the healthfulness or nutritional benefits of different foods. HOWEVER: Men do tend to trust friends and family to let them know which foods to eat or avoid. In the hopes that maybe you’ll trust me, Dad, here are my top food and nutrition tidbits for you to keep in mind the next time you’re buying groceries, grilling, or figuring out what to order at a restaurant: 1. Fiber matters: Fiber consumption is associated with a plethora of health benefits, from weight management to blood glucose control to gut health. Many plant foods are good sources, including fruits and veggies, beans, oatmeal, and even (your favorite) popcorn. 2. Eat fish twice a week for heart health: Salmon, sardines, and tuna are all great options rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Canned fish is just as good as fresh! 3. Frozen vegetables and fruits can be just as nutritious as fresh ones: I know you figured this one out a long time ago since frozen produce also can be more affordable when feeding a big group, but it never hurts to have a reminder. Frozen produce may offer even more nutrients than fresh. 4. Keep […]

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The Case for CRISPR

When some people hear the term “selective breeding,” they assume it’s a fairly recent technology. Well, they would be off just a little bit — by about 12,000 years, to be precise. Practices such as breeding crops for desirable traits are almost as old as agriculture itself. Fast-forward to barely 150 years ago when we first began to understand genetics. Our working knowledge of DNA dates back only to the mid-20th century, and only then did genetic engineering get more sophisticated. Just a few decades removed, the intersection between science and food is at perhaps the most exciting place yet. With the rise of “big data,” we are beginning to see the connection between genetics and the food we eat, also called nutrigenomics. And now we stand on the cusp of a potentially revolutionary technology called “CRISPR.” It might sound like a drawer in your refrigerator, but it’s actually a tool that could bring enormous benefits to the food system. What is CRISPR? Before we dive into CRISPR, trust us, you may want to be sure to brush up on some basic genetics and biology so that the terms we use aren’t too foreign. CRISPR is one of many methods to alter the genetic information in the cells of living things — plants, fruits, vegetables, etc. That genetic information is called DNA, which are chains of molecular building blocks called nucleotides. DNA can produce proteins that define what an organism’s cells do or don’t do — kind of like how software controls the operation of a computer. Snippets or “sequences” of DNA called genes, pass down inherited traits over generations, tend to be stable, changing only slightly over time as organisms evolve and adapt to new conditions. Sometimes these changes are visible, such as the color of a flower, and […]

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Gut Check: Fiber and the Microbiome

If I were to go out and do a Jimmy Kimmel-esque Pedestrian Question on why fiber is good for us, I’ve got a few guesses on how it would go: “Fiber keeps you regular (hehe)” “I think fruits and vegetables have a lot of it?” “It feeds our gut” “You’re the dietitian, aren’t you supposed to be the one telling me?” All of these responses would technically be correct – including the last one (and yes, that’s a large part of my day job). We’ve recently written about the basics of fiber and its many health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, blood glucose control, weight management, and yes, constipation relief. But exactly how does a nutrient that we’re not even able to digest play such a big role in our health? A large part of the answer lies in our microbiome. Right now, every one of us has billions of bacteria living in us and on us (sorry if you’re in the middle of lunch right now). Most of these are concentrated in our lower digestive tract, known as the colon. And ongoing research is coalescing around the idea that some of fiber’s benefits aren’t delivered directly to our bodies, but are mediated by our gut bacteria. Humans are total pros at breaking down fats, protein, and many forms of carbohydrates. But we’re not great at metabolizing fiber – we just don’t have the right enzymes. So while the rest of our food is being digested and absorbed along the gastrointestinal tract, fiber passes through essentially unchanged until it hits the colon. There it’s broken down by many types of bacteria that use fiber for their food supply. We humans are then gifted with the byproducts of this bacterial feast, which are called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The cells lining our […]

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Gut Check: Whole Grains and the Microbiome

We’re back again with another edition of Gut Check. This time, we’re exploring the connection between whole grains and the gut microbiome. If you’ve spent some time poking around FoodInsight, you’ve probably noticed that we’re big fans of whole grains. Diverse foods like oatmeal, popcorn, brown rice and whole wheat bread all have one thing in common: the entire grain seed of the plant — including the bran, germ and endosperm — is intact in the final product. This distinguishes them from refined grains like white bread or white rice, where processing leaves only the endosperm, the largest, carbohydrate-rich component of the grain, in the finished product. The bran and the germ are full of vitamins, minerals, a small amount of healthy fats and a good deal of fiber. When we lose those parts of the seed, the nutrients leave right along with them. Like we mentioned in our first Gut Check post, our microbes love fiber, a vital component of whole grains. So how does eating whole grains impact our gut microbiome? Let’s take a closer look. Our Gut Loves Grains We humans, as incredible and talented as we are, aren’t able to digest fiber. We just don’t have it in us. Literally — we don’t have the enzymes needed to break it down. When we eat a piece of whole wheat bread or a bowl of popcorn, some components of the food are broken down in the stomach and small intestine, but fiber passes through the gastrointestinal tract intact. When it reaches the large intestine, it’s fermented by the gut microbiota. The end result of this fermentation is the production of the short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) butyrate, propionate and acetate. These SCFAs are then either taken up by the intestinal cells themselves (which use butyrate for energy) or […]

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Gut Check: Low-Calorie Sweeteners and the Gut Microbiome

We’re back again with another edition of Gut Check, our series on the relationship between food and the gut microbiome. So far, we’ve taken a closer look at how whole grains, fiber, and fermented foods affect our gut microbes. In this article we’re taking a closer look at low-calorie sweeteners (LCSs) and the growing body of research on their connection to our microbial communities. LCSs (sometimes referred to as non-nutritive sweeteners, high-intensity sweeteners, artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes) provide sweetness without adding a significant amount of calories. They have a long history of safe use in a variety of foods and beverages, ranging from soft drinks to candy to tabletop sweeteners. In the U.S., the most common LCSs are acesulfame potassium (ace-K), aspartame, monk fruit, saccharin, stevia and sucralose. LCSs are some of the most studied and reviewed ingredients in the world today. And yet, research on their relationship to the gut microbiome is very much in its infancy. Most LCSs are not metabolized by our digestive enzymes, so they travel through the digestive system intact and pass out of the body unchanged. Because of this, scientists have long thought they have no effects on the body. However, recent research has revealed that some LCSs may influence the bacteria in our gut. Most of these studies have been done in animal models and have shown wide-ranging results—from reductions in total bacterial count to increases in short-chain fatty acids, which are made by gut bacteria and are thought to be beneficial for gut health. The translation of these results to humans can be tricky and, in many cases, it’s just plain impractical. A primary reason? Lab animals are often genetically identical to each other and live their lives in the same environments, while in humans the microbiome is reflective of widely […]

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Gut Check: Sugars and the Gut Microbiome

Welcome to Gut Check, our running series where we explore how the food we eat is connected to our gut microbiome. We recently took a look at how low-calorie sweeteners impact the microbes living in our gut (I’ll summarize here: we still don’t know if, or how, they do). In this article we’re taking a closer look at simple and added sugars and the (limited) research on their connection to our microbial communities. Although you’d never know it from the headlines, eating sugar can be part of a healthy diet. And that’s because sugar isn’t just in candy bars and doughnuts—it’s found naturally in fruits, grains, and dairy products, and even some vegetables. Sugars belong to the group of foods known as carbohydrates, one of the three major macronutrients that we need to sustain life (the other two being fat and protein). When we think of sugar, it tends not to be the sugars found naturally in whole foods. Instead, what typically comes to mind is table sugar, known in science-y terms as sucrose. Sucrose is made up of two sugar molecules, glucose and fructose. We use sucrose in baking, to sweeten our coffee, preserve jams and jellies, and to fuel the yeast that helps us create a loaf of homemade bread. Sucrose, glucose and fructose are classified as simple sugars because they’re not linked in long chains like starches and fiber are. Added sugars are the sugars and syrups that are put into foods during preparation or processing, or added at the table (like when you sprinkle brown sugar on your oatmeal). Since added sugars are usually simple sugars, we’ll lump them together just for today. Unhealthy diets, including those with too many calories from added sugars, are associated with an increased risk for conditions like obesity, type 2 […]

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Gut Check: Prebiotics and Probiotics [INFOGRAPHIC]

We hear so much about eating to improve our “gut health.” These conversations almost always involve a discussion about foods that contain prebiotics and probiotics. But what exactly are they? Where can we find them? And do they really benefit our health? Read on for the details. The World Health Organization defines probiotics as, “live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host.” The premise is that consuming probiotics will enhance or restore balance to our gut microbiome, which are the microbes that inhabit our gastrointestinal tracts. Probiotic bacteria are necessary for the fermentation of milk into yogurt and kefir. They’re also responsible for transforming vegetables into foods like kimchi and sauerkraut. During fermentation, bacteria or yeasts convert the starches and sugars found in foods into alcohol or acids. As their popularity grows, probiotics are being added to all kinds of food and drinks. Probiotic-containing products will mention them on food packaging with the phrase “contains live and active cultures.” The product label will also list specific types of bacteria in the ingredients list. The technical definition of prebiotics is “a substrate that is selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit.” In simpler terms, we can think of them as substances in foods that can’t be broken down by human digestive enzymes. Instead, prebiotics travel to our lower gastrointestinal tract where they’re fermented by probiotic bacteria. In a nutshell, probiotics are microorganisms that are beneficial for our health, and prebiotics are what feed probiotics. Fruit, vegetables, cereals and other edible plants all have potential to provide prebiotics. Artichokes, asparagus, bananas, berries, chicory, garlic, green vegetables, legumes (like peas and beans), onions, tomatoes, oats, barley and wheat are among the sources of naturally occurring prebiotic fiber. If you’re a food label reader, you […]

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What a Dairy Farmer Wants You to Know

Many healthy and delicious foods that come from cows, including milk, cheese and yogurt, are staples in many of our homes. While some people opt for cow’s milk alternatives, a great number of us desire cow’s milk instead. A recent consumer survey of ours found that 62 percent of Americans only buy cow’s milk as opposed to other plant-based milks such as almond or cashew. It could be for a taste preference, tradition or for the hearty nutrition profile that cow’s milk offers. It may make sense that high quality dairy products start with properly cared for cows. But what do dairy farmers do to ensure that their cows are well taken care of and that they produce the best milk possible? To learn more, we caught up with California dairy farmer Brian Fiscalini to tell us more about how he cares for cows and what consumers should know about the dairy business. Q: How long has your family been in the dairy farming business and how have you seen the business change over the years? A: The Fiscalini family has been in the dairy business for over 100 years in California. My great-grandparents dairy farmed in Cambria before relocating to Modesto in 1912. We have been dairy farming at the same location that my great-grandparents purchased over 100 years ago. My love of dairy farming has not changed, although the challenges and volatility of commodity prices have. Q: What are some key challenges you have faced while being a dairy farmer and what did you do to overcome them? A: We continue to clear up misconceptions that consumers may have about our practices and products. We use various platforms to share our story and remind consumers that the care of our cows and land help us produce safe, healthy […]

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