View:
Sorted by:
Fat Replacers Found in Food You Eat
The problem with eating high-fat foods is that fat doesn’t immediately satisfy hunger the way that sugary carbohydrates do. Therefore, eating too many fat calories before realizing that you’ve had enough [more…]
How Hormones Affect Your Nutritional Needs
Hormones affect your resting energy expenditure (REE) —the amount of energy (calories) you use when your body’s at rest. Men and women need different amounts of calories and different types of nutrients [more…]
How Your Body Uses Vitamin K
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin. You need a miniscule amount in your diet. About 300 mcg (from the diet and additional supplements) is the optimum daily intake of vitamin K. Supplements are used for [more…]
Potassium: Nutrition for Blood Pressure Regulation
Potassium is an essential nutrient contained mainly within cells. You need at least 2 grams (or 2,000 mg) of potassium a day, which is fairly easy to obtain from your diet. Potassium helps to balance and [more…]
Premenstrual Food Cravings Related to Ovulation
If you just can’t say no to premenstrual cravings, even when you are dieting, you have a good reason: Your body doesn’t want you to. Your body wants extra calories and increased nutrition when you have [more…]
What Carbohydrates Mean to Your Daily Diet and Good Health
The most important dietary sources of carbohydrate nutrients are plant foods — fruits, vegetables, and grains. Milk and milk products contain the carbohydrate lactose [more…]
Why Your Body Needs Water
You must have water in your diet. It is brimming with minerals and electrolytes, and you can’t live without it. Water is a solvent. It dissolves other substances and carries nutrients and other material [more…]
Phosphorus: Essential Nutrition for All Body Cells
Phosphorus is an essential macromineral, meaning to be healthy you must include this nutrient in your diet. Dietary sources include almost all foods. Phosphorus is the second most abundant mineral nutrient [more…]
What Is “Good” Cholesterol and “Bad” Cholesterol?
Your liver creates cholesterol from nutrients in your diet and your body cannot function without that cholesterol. Because cholesterol is known to increase risk of certain diseases, many people are confused [more…]
How Your Body Uses Vitamin A
Vitamin A is essential in a healthy diet. This crucial fat-soluble vitamin was the first vitamin to be officially named, so it became vitamin A. Your body needs a steady supply of A to maintain healthy [more…]
What Factors Affect Your Calorie Needs?
Your dietary calorie needs depend on your age, sex, metabolism, activity level, and body size. To get an idea of the total calories you should include in your daily diet, multiply your current weight by [more…]
Iodine for Healthy Thyroid Function
Iodine is a required nutrient for humans with limited natural dietary sources in some areas. The best foods for adding this nutrient to your diet are seafood. Iodine was the most common mineral deficiency [more…]
Molybdenum, Selenium, and Vanadium: Essential Elements from Soil-Grown Foods
Not a lot is known about these three trace minerals, but they are essential nutrients. Getting them from your diet depends on the soil in which your food is grown. Therefore, most multivitamins contain [more…]
Iron: Essential Element for Energy and Red Blood Cells
Iron is an essential trace element, meaning a healthy diet must include this nutrient. Dietary sources of iron are abundant, although vegetarian sources of this iron are more difficult to absorb. [more…]
How Do Phytochemicals in Your Diet Benefit Your Health
Beneficial phytochemicals — nutrients found in plant foods — appear to be antioxidants, hormone-like compounds, and enzyme-activating sulfur compounds. Including phytochemicals in your diet helps maintain [more…]
Keeping Sugar to a Minimum in Your Diet
Sugars, which are simple carbohydrates, are found naturally in many nutritious foods, including milk, fruits, some vegetables, breads, cereals, and grains. Many of these are a part of any healthy diet. [more…]
Soothing the Common Cold with the Right Foods
Proper nutrition strengthens your immune system, but no diet can keep you from catching a common cold. Some surprising foods can soothe your symptoms. This is not about chicken soup. That issue has been [more…]
How Your Body Uses Vitamin C
Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is an important nutrient found in many fresh fruits and vegetables. It is essential to a healthy diet. Vitamin C breaks down readily when foods are heated or when they sit [more…]
The Water You Need Every Day from Food and Drinks
Because you don’t store water, you need to take in a new supply every day in your diet — enough to replace the nutrients and minerals you lose when you breathe, perspire, urinate, and defecate. On average [more…]
Zinc: The Immune System Nutrient
Zinc is thought by many nutritionists to be the most important mineral supplement because it is commonly deficient in the diet. Zinc is the nutrient that aids the immune system. [more…]
Manganese: Trace Mineral Important to Metabolism
Manganese is an essential nutrient found in the greatest concentrations in seeds, and whole grains. Dietary sources also include peas and beans, which contain lower amounts of this mineral. Often confused [more…]
Food Label Terms and What They Really Mean
All the nutrients that a food contains are important; however, to achieve weight loss, the total fat and calories are the most important to track from nutrition information on a food label. Cholesterol [more…]
Why Your Body Needs Some Fat to Be Healthy
A healthy body needs some fat, which contains essential nutrients. Your body uses dietary fat to make tissue and manufacture biochemicals, such as hormones. Fats in your diet are sources of energy that [more…]
Nutritional Guidelines and the Food Guide Pyramid
The Food Guide Pyramid contains the building blocks for a healthy diet. If you follow the recommended servings listed for each food group in the pyramid each day and eat lowfat, low-sugar, and low-sodium [more…]
What to Look For on Nutrition Labels
Since 1990, when the Food and Drug Administration’s Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA), went into effect, all packaged food products (with a few exceptions) carry labeling that states the nutritional [more…]
