Category Archives: Diet And Food

On a rainswept drive home from her new restaurant job, Uniyah Gollett begged her boss to pull over.

From the passenger seat, she had been watching homeless people sitting by the roadside, unsheltered from the storm, and it had brought her to tears. Gollett who was raised in Broward Countys foster-care system most of her life felt like she was looking in a mirror.

The 23-year-old talked her supervisor, Jake Miller, into an impromptu shopping spree. They pulled into a Dollar General and stuffed deodorant, sunscreen, feminine hygiene products and toiletries into 20 plastic bags. At stoplights, Gollett and Miller handed out care packages to every homeless person they saw.

I was one of them, Gollett says. I know what its like to be a woman on the street with your cycle on. Theyre still people. They deserve a chance like everyone else.

Perhaps it was her new server position at the Sunrise eatery, FK Your Diet, but Gollett felt light-years away from her recent past.

The rainbow-colored diner opened in August on Commercial Boulevard with an ambitious premise: pairing heartwarming good deeds with ridiculously over-the-top breakfast foods.

The FK in the name is not an expletive. It stands for foster kids.

Roughly 30% of FK Your Diets employees are former foster kids. A few are former convicted felons and recovering drug addicts.

Owner Jake Miller hugs a client during breakfast service on Sunday, Sept. 19, 2022, at the new FK Your Diet in Sunrise. (Joe Cavaretta/Joe Cavaretta)

The restaurant which provides second chances showed up exactly when Gollett needed one. She had just aged out of the foster-care system on July 22, her 23rd birthday, when her temp agency job expired. A social worker told her that FK Your Diet was hiring.

I didnt know where to go, I didnt have anyone to call, and God brought me to Mr. Jake, she says.

Mr. Jake is Miller, the 24-year-old owner of Sunrises FK Your Diet and himself the son of a former foster kid.

During the job interview, Miller says, he heard Gollett describe a lifetime of foster-care hardship. She said shed worked at Chipotle, McDonalds, The Cheesecake Factory at Sawgrass Mills. Shed even graduated from culinary school.

He hired her on the spot.

When Gollett admitted she didnt have transportation, Miller offered to drive her to and from work. But Miller says he was astounded when Gollett proposed care packages for the homeless last weekend.

I was like, This is a great idea. Why didnt I think of that? Miller says. Shes worked here, what, three weeks? Shes already phenomenal.

Now Miller is training Gollett to one day replace him.

Shes got a great attitude, he says. My dream, I told her, is to help teach her how to run a restaurant, become a general manager, and then own this place.

FK Your Diet Sunrise owner Jake Miller, left, cooks a 5-pound breakfast burrito as Uniyah Gollett, right, watches from the sidelines. (Joe Cavaretta/Joe Cavaretta)

Born in Pompano Beach, Gollett says she lived with biological parents who kept her out of school and abused her in ways she prefers to forget. By age 7, she says, the states foster-care system intervened.

Her guardian ad litem at the time, Beverly Russell, taught me how to read and write, and instilled in me that education is power, and made me into the woman I am today, Gollett says.

Over the next 11 hardscrabble years, Gollett bounced around 15 shelters, foster and group homes, sometimes out of state, including in New York and North Carolina.

It was like a box of chocolates, she recalls. A lot of the homes I was in, I was neglected and abused. But I can honestly say the bad always outweighed the good.

In Broward, about 2.5 out of every 1,000 children enter the states child welfare system monthly, while that number is 1.73 out of every 1,000 children in Palm Beach County, according to a Florida Department of Children and Families report published in October 2021. That number is higher statewide: 2.92 out of every 1,000 children.

In Florida, foster children age out of the program at 18. After that, they become eligible for after care programs until their 23rd birthday, provided they meet certain criteria, such as finishing high school or being employed at least 80 hours per month.

Uniyah Gollett wipes down prep tables during the busy breakfast rush on Sunday, Sept. 19, at the new FK Your Diet in Sunrise. (Joe Cavaretta/Joe Cavaretta)

For Gollett, the stability of home life constantly eluded her. By the time she turned 11, she lived exclusively in group homes with 15 or more children, most of them even younger. Foster parents who worked all day left them unsupervised, sometimes without meals. By necessity, she taught herself to cook. Gollett boiled rice and scrambled eggs at least three times a week for younger kids in the group home. She baked biscuits from scratch by reading back-of-the-box instructions. She grew to love honey so much she drizzled it over everything, especially fried chicken.

Gollett even acquired a new nickname around the neighborhood Pooh because, like Winnie the cartoon bear, her love of honey was insatiable, outmatched only by her joy of cooking.

When she turned 18, Gollett aged out of foster care, but she discovered an organization, Fort Lauderdales FLITE Center, that helped her learn self-sufficiency, like filling out job applications, and found her transitional housing. She enrolled in the culinary program at Coconut Creeks Atlantic Technical College and graduated in May.

A criminal background check for Gollett reveals some significant charges, including two felonies and a 2019 stint in a Broward County jail. Gollett does not dispute this, adding that she was young and had no guidance, and that her new employer does not judge her past mistakes.

Being incarcerated was a wake-up call for me and a blessing, because I know now what not to do, Gollett says. But I havent been in any trouble the past few years. FK cares about the now, not my past, and Im grateful for the opportunity.

People make mistakes, Miller says. I mean, were dealing with the foster-kid system here. What guidance did they ever have not to do the right thing? To me, it makes Poohs story that much cooler. It shows that shes really turned her life around.

Once she landed the server job three weeks ago, Miller insisted Gollett have breakfast on the house. She declined out of modesty but they were serious, like, Take the meal, take the meal, " Gollett says, with a laugh. I had some very amazing shrimp and grits with biscuits and lots of honey on my very first day, and it was really good.

People like Mr. Jake are supposed to live forever, she adds. This job is more than a job. This place makes sure that you always have a huge quantity of food.

Picture hamburgers sandwiched between deep-fried doughnut buns, 5-pound belly buster breakfast burritos as fat as footballs, maple bacon-flavored milkshakes and Southern-fried chicken eggs benedict.

FK Your Diet Sunrises indulgent menu is the brainchild of Millers father, Doug, who was raised in Ohios foster-care system.

Doug Miller and his wife, Amy Eldridge, opened the diners flagship location in Fort Myers in 2018, later adding outposts in Orlando and Cape Coral. He says he created FK Your Diet to help foster kids overcome the fears that had defined his childhood. One solution: a comfort-food menu overstuffed with cheat meals.

FK Your Diet's 5-pound "belly buster" breakfast burrito, roughly the size of a rolled-up gym towel, is loaded with fried potatoes, eggs, bacon and veggies. (Joe Cavaretta/Joe Cavaretta)

You never know where your next meal is coming from, says Doug Miller, who lives in Fort Myers. So we give you so much food that you dont know what to do with it. Were pushing all this food so maybe, if youre in foster care, youll worry less.

He remembers the bitter spitefulness he felt toward foster parents who abused and neglected me as he bounced around more than a dozen foster and group homes. His guardians would put padlocks on the refrigerators, he says. One foster mom served him nothing but cake for three consecutive months. Other times, public-school lunch was the only meal he ate in a day.

[RELATED: South Florida restaurants now open: Maris Kitchen inside Fort Lauderdales Sistrunk Marketplace, plus Bokampers is back in Miramar]

I didnt feel empathy toward my foster families then, but I do now, he says. Its not easy being one of those parents. The burnout rate is high. I learned to cook all these recipes from kind foster moms. Our cooking is not fancy, nor is it exotic. Its how you would cook at home if you knew how to cook.

The restaurants locations partner with area foster charities to host Thanksgiving feasts and Christmas gift giveaways in the dining room.

Twice-weekly

Dining out, cooking in and all the South Florida restaurant news and information you need.

Although its only been open a month, FK Your Diet Sunrise has already begun working with Broward nonprofit organizations that support foster kids, such as 4KIDS, The Hands and Feet, Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options and Flite Center, Jake Miller says. FK Your Diets menu also includes so-called Meal Deals that benefit local foster kids, ranging from $12.50 for single meals to $500 for multiple pairs of Nike sneakers.

Tracie Catalano of Mary Ann's Closet and her foster kids enjoy breakfast at FK Your Diet. (Joe Cavaretta/Joe Cavaretta)

During her shifts at FK Your Diet, Gollett is fast and intuitive.

Bacon smells ready! she calls to a line cook on her way to bus tables in the dining room. She loves the slogan that is written on a rainbow mural in the dining room, which reads: Be the rainbow in someone elses cloud.

I love seeing that, Gollett says. You dont know what a human being has endured when they come to the restaurant. Their cloud can be stormy, but whats important is you make them feel happy.

[RELATED: New South Florida restaurants coming soon: Duck Donuts in Miramar, Blackbird in Jupiter]

Last week, she says one of her former caseworkers surprised her with a visit to the restaurant.

She told me she was proud of me, said God has a plan for me, and shes proud of the woman Ive become, Gollett says. I may be a foster kid, but that doesnt mean Im going to fail. Theres room to prosper and elevate.

FK Your Diet is at 9210 Commercial Blvd., Sunrise. Visit FKYourDiet.com or call 954-832-7102.

Excerpt from:
FK Your Diet: The new Sunrise restaurant with the provocative name has a heart of gold and a mission - South Florida Sun Sentinel

Everyone knows that Alaskan brown bears are big. Still, different brown bear populations survive on varying diets, so how do these populations achieve similar body weights despite various diets? A team of researchers led by North Carolina State University studied 51 bears in 3 Alaskan National Parks, and found that the secret may lie in the bears gut microbiome.

We think of bears as having simple digestive tracts, so its easy to slip into thinking that they therefore have simple gut microbiomes, said co-author Erin McKenney. But this study shows there can be tremendous diversity in the gut microbiomes between individual bears, and that this variation can be very important to the physical condition of these animals.

For example, the amount of fat that bears are able to store is absolutely critical to the health of wild populations, said study co-author Grant Hilderbrand. If female bears are able to reach levels where 19-20% of their body mass in the autumn is fat, theyll reproduce. And knowing that they can take different dietary paths to reach those fat levels is a valuable insight.

The fact that these populations have distinct diets is valuable, because it allows us to understand the role that the gut microbiome plays in helping bears extract nutrition from very different food sources, explained study co-author Sarah Trujillo.

We found that bears benefit from having diverse dietary niches, and the gut microbiome does play a role in extracting nutrition from those diets. Ultimately, that means that the bears in these parks were able to achieve very similar body conditions, despite eating very different things.

The information gathered from this study is crucial for brown bear preservation. According to Diana Lafferty, the findings can serve as a baseline for future research.

This study is also important because it gives us a snapshot of bears and their diet in these parks, said Hilderbrand. Knowing what bears are eating, and that these diverse diets can all be used to reach similar body conditions, can help us spot emerging challenges for these animals. It can also help us understand how many bears these ecosystems are capable of supporting, even as those ecosystems change.

In short, this study has given us significant insights into both the park ecosystems that these bears inhabit, and the microbial ecosystems that help these bears thrive, said McKenney.

The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

By Erin Moody , Earth.com Staff Writer

Continued here:
Gut microbes help bears gain weight regardless of diet - Earth.com

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 Understanding the frustrations that diabetes patients as well as caregivers go through in preparing suitable daily meals, the For Your Sweetheart campaign has commissioned Nik Michael Imran of 2011 Masterchef Malaysia fame to create a series of recipes, ranging from fusion to local cuisines that can be prepared in less than 20 minutes.

The recipes were developed in consultation with Poh Kai Ling in her capacity as a council member of Diabetes Malaysia (DM), as well as a former committee member of the Malaysian Diabetes Educators Society (MDES).

Debunking The Diabetes Diet Myths

It is important to understand the facts about diabetes, so that both patients and caregivers can make informed decisions about dietary requirements. Some popular myths, especially for newly diagnosed patients and caregivers, include skipping meals to manage fluctuating blood sugar levels, consuming sugar free or sugar-substituted products freely, and avoiding eating potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and corn.

Skipping meals or eating less does not help to reduce sugar intake. It is advisable to follow the hunger cues, eat when the body needs. Ignoring hunger cues tend to create craving issues, making it hard for the person to control food intake in the subsequent meals. It is also important to read food labels to understand nutrition contents better, as not all sugar-free products are carbohydrate-free, Poh said.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and corn are all part of the carbohydrate food group. It is true that carbohydrate intake will increase blood sugar levels.

However, these starchy vegetables are highly nutritious, and contain various vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fibre, which are essential to our bodies. One should never avoid these foods. The key is to control the portion sizes.

So What Can Diabetes Patients Eat?

According to Poh, a diabetes-friendly diet does not need to be restrictive, boring, and hard to swallow. Having diabetes does not have to limit a persons meal choices. Healthy eating for people with diabetes is no different than for everyone else.

What is important is to eat a controlled amount and serve a portion of carbohydrate rich food. One of the ways is to take note of the Glycemic Index (GI) of the foods. GI is a value to measure the rate of how quickly carbohydrate in food raises the blood glucose. To put it simply, foods that are low GI (between 0-55) are considered good carbs and high GI (70-100) foods are considered bad carbs. The higher the GI value, the greater the effect on blood sugar levels. Understanding the GI of foods can help us in controlling diabetes along with carbohydrate counting, she said.

The collaboration between Nik Michael and Poh in developing the recipes in the Simple Healthy Cooking e-book ensured that the meals are not only enjoyable with a wide variety for different tastes, but also simple, easy to prepare, and appropriate for people with diabetes. The result is a variety of win-win recipes delicious restaurant-style meals that are also healthy and GI-appropriate.

Ive tried all 10 recipes and I must say they are really delicious. Kudos to Chef Nik! My personal favourites are Brown Pasta Alla Puttanesca, Coconut Crepes and Tenzaru Soba, said Poh.

Sharing his experience in developing the recipes for this campaign, Nik Michael said: It has been a meaningful journey for me personally. My dad, who was a chef and loves good food too, was recently diagnosed with diabetes. I understand the heart of caregivers in wanting to give the best to their loved ones who are living with diabetes.

That was what drove my inspiration in developing these ten recipes. I aim to retain amazing flavour while modifying their nutrient intake without making patients feel like they dont have a choice regarding their diet. I hope many people will give these recipes a try and enjoy some special moments with their loved ones while doing it, he added.

Research shows that one in five adults in the country is living with diabetes, a long-term chronic illness which requires prolonged caregiving and long-term management.

Unhealthy levels of glucose in the blood can lead to long and short-term health complications, particularly affecting the heart and kidney.

This is why Poh is on a quest to educate and debunk the myths, because eating right can help in reducing the risk of diabetes-related complications such as heart and kidney diseases.

The Possibilities: A Diabetes-Free Malaysia?

Malaysia currently has the highest rate of diabetes in Asia at 17.5 per cent, with over 3.5 million Malaysians living with the condition. The Diabetes Education Manual 2020 published by MDES reported that based on current trends, an estimated seven million Malaysian adults are likely to develop diabetes by 2025.

Looking at the statistics, the dream of a diabetes-free Malaysia seems far-fetched. But, it is this very trend that spurs the For Your Sweetheart campaign to keep doing what it has been doing for the past three years.

Any effort to slow down the trend is better than none. The campaign encourages all Malaysians to Think Diabetes, Think Heart, and one of the initiatives is through early detection.

In encouraging Malaysians who may be at risk of developing diabetes or have a family history of diabetes to take tests for early detection, the For Your Sweetheart campaign will be having free diabetes HbA1c screenings at participating clinics nationwide.

The free diabetes screening effort is supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, in partnership with MDES, Malaysian Endocrine and Metabolic Society (MEMS), and Persatuan Diabetes Malaysia (PDM).

Click here to register for your free screening today. the For Your Sweetheart screening campaign is ongoing until December 31, 2022. Nik Michaels recipes for the For Your Sweetheart campaign can be downloaded here.

Read more:
Diabetes Diet: The Myths, The Truths, And The Possibilities - CodeBlue

Breadcrumb Trail Links

There is no escaping the importance of a good diet, especially when it comes to autoimmune diseases. There is a very strong connection between foods and inflammation and the immune system attacking self.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Whether you have MS, Hashimotos thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, or any of the autoimmune diseases there is one marked commonality: Once you strictly adopt an anti-inflammatory diet you then have traction to turn the disease around. You can not only halt progression, but you can also eliminate all the symptoms that you were experiencing.

A number of years ago, my partner became progressively more achy, more miserable and fatigued over a six-month period. However, because he had experienced several significant injuries in that period, it took a while to realize what was going on. However, when he could only crawl up the stairs and couldnt even put socks on his feet due to the swelling then it was definitely time to get tested. He had a very aggressive form of rheumatoid arthritis (despite being negative for rheumatoid factor).

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Of course, the mainstream approach is to immediately start a course of prednisone and methotrexate (a chemo drug) or a biologic (which also carries a host of side effects). Which made it a no-brainer for my partner to opt for a natural approach. One of the first steps was to get food sensitivity testing done, as well as checking for parasites (bacteria, protozoa, and more).

Very often, one of the underlying factors that triggers an autoimmune disease is an unresolved low-grade infection so these need to be identified and treated. Interestingly, in my partners case, Campylobacter was one of the organisms discovered a few years previously on a trip in the US he developed food poisoning, and clearly, he had not quite gotten rid of the causative bacteria.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

So, he went on a course of herbs to clear the bacteria and other parasites, and a diet that eliminated gluten, night-shade vegetables, soy, corn, and cow dairy. As well as sugars and other problematic foods. It took a couple of months, but he started to look and feel a lot better than before. However, everything would go sideways the moment he deviated from the diet or when he was under a lot of stress. And it would be harder and harder to get things back on track. Which was when I convinced him to change his diet to Auto-Immune Paleo and that made the biggest difference. Eliminating legumes removes a number of inflammatory proteins in particular, saponins and lectins. Surprisingly, everyones favourite non-gluten grain quinoa contains a fair amount of lectins, saponins, and other inflammatory compounds. And, to someone who is very sensitive, all of these will interfere with healing. So, the gluten grains and legumes were effectively maintaining intestinal inflammation and leaky gut.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Tied into the food-inflammation complex is the issue of a leaky gut where the cells that line your intestines become unglued with long-term cellular damage. Larger undigested molecules are then able to migrate through openings and into your circulatory system setting off inflammation throughout the body. So, no treatment is complete without repairing and healing the gut walls. And then maintaining all of those improvements.

Five years since the diagnosis, my partner has no joint pains, no swelling and no joint malformation. And, all without pharmaceutical interventions.

However, there were and are a number of supplements to take daily. These are primarily antioxidants and minerals. The most important of the antioxidants would have to be Vitamin D3. D3 modulates immune function and, in optimal amounts, plays a key role in reducing the likelihood of developing an autoimmune disease, as well as simply lowering inflammation.

pascaline@naturalpanacea.ca

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

Go here to see the original:
Autoimmunity and your diet - The County Weekly News

It is not necessary that youll have to eat the gooey oats, however, you could also make muffins using oats. Eating these muffins will helps to add fibres to your diet.

Photo : iStock

New Delhi: Fibre is considered to be extremely important for the gut as they help in the digestion process and also keep the gut microbes nourished. Fibre is also essential as they help to lower the level of bad cholesterol in the body and along with that, it also reduces the risks of diabetes and heart diseases among other health conditions.

Fibre can be obtained from a whole variety of foods but it is extremely that you include a good amount of fibre in your diet. When you dont eat enough fibre, it might lead to several health issues. However, incorporating fibre into your diet can also be a challenge. Here are a few ways in which you could add more fibre to your diet.

Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purposes only and should not be construed as professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or a dietician before starting any fitness programme or making any changes to your diet.

Excerpt from:
Dietary fibre is important for your gut health, ways to incorporate more roughage into your diet - Times Now

Surely you must have heard about the alkaline diet, also known as the pH diet. One of its foundations is that Some diseases develop more easily in acidic environmentsSo to avoid these it is best to alkalize your body through food. But what does this mean?

When we talk of alkalinization we are talking about raising the pH level of our blood. According to this diet, it provides our body with A. will help make dietary detoxification And eliminates excess chemical substances, which cause acidity. The goal is to have the alkaline level in the blood between 7.35 and 7.45.

The alkaline diet is based on prioritizing the consumption of foods that are alkaline and mineral. To better understand how to carry out this diet pattern and follow some of these weight loss tipsWe must bear in mind that foods are divided into two large groups: alkalinizing and acidifying.

seasonal fruits vegetables

Most vegetables are among the most alkaline foods.

It should be emphasized that This division has nothing to do with the taste of the food. For example, lemon tastes acidic, but it will be in the alkaline group because it is a fruit.

In addition, there is another range of foods that are called neutral, such as natural fats, starches and sugars.

The alkaline diet gives priority to the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Ideally, 80% of our diet is based on alkaline foods, and we only consume 20% acidic foods. Our goal is to alkalize the body and keep the pH level in the blood stable.

with this diet The consumption of collagen, magnesium, calcium and bicarbonate is also promoted. Although there are products that are rich in calcium that can enter the so-called paradox, as they can also acidify the body.

As we have mentioned, alkaline diet Make the consumption of fruits and vegetables a priority, so there are a range of excellent foods that you should incorporate into your daily life if you decide to embark on this new adventure:

The alkaline diet recommends reducing the consumption of proteins such as meat and fish. Apart from this, it is completely prohibited to consume any of these 20 Highly Processed Foods,

As we have seen, the alkaline diet is based on prioritizing the consumption of fruits and vegetables that are healthy foods, but still, it can be considered an unbalanced diet. Banning certain foods can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

In other words, the alkaline diet Will be included in the bag of miraculous food, Hence it is not recommended by nutritionists.

Andrea Caldern Garca, Professor of Nutrition at the European University of Madrid and Scientific Secretary of SEDCA (Spanish Society of Dietetics and Food Sciences), explains that the alkaline diet is based on a mistaken association of ideas:

See the rest here:
Alkaline Diet To Lose Weight, Does It Really Work? - World Nation News

When it comes to food allergies, anyone can have them and they're not dependent on family history. In addition, only about 2-3% of children under three years of age are found to have peanut, egg, and milk allergies, according to the Prevent Allergies Organization.

For first-time parents, or even parents who have been around the block a few times, introducing your baby to foods associated with allergens is a scary and overwhelming process. However, introducing these foods early on in life can significantly reduce the risk of developing certain food allergies by up to 80% in infants.

"Babies should be introduced to foods classically thought of as allergens around six months of age, [but] not before four months of age," says Dr. Scott H. Sicherer, M.D., professor of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, and the author of The Complete Guide to Food Allergies in Adults and Children "But over the last several years, the recommendations have been quite the opposite," he explains.

It's best for allergens to be introduced early on in a child's lifeamong the normal foods typically fed to infantsas in some cases, it may even help prevent allergies in the future and/or reveal any severe reactions that are good to catch early on. Dr. Sicherer recommends parents stop, "treating foods possibly thought of as allergens differently than any other food."

With all of this in mind, we asked the experts how to best help you understand and prepare for the day you start giving your baby foods that could contain allergens. These are the seven tips and tricks to properly, safely, and effectively introduce kids to allergens.

Step one, as we've discussed above, is to bring allergen foods into the equation as early as possible. After babies reach the four- to six-month range, you'll be able to appropriately examine their reactions to food outside of breastfeeding and/or formula. But what foods does this include exactly?

Foods that may cause an allergic reaction or intolerance are those that are or contain milk, egg, wheat, soy/soybeans, peanut, tree nuts, fish (mainly shellfish), and sometimes even sesame seeds. "It's OK for babies to be introduced to these things that are sort of allergens. And it might be even better to have it among the earlier foods they're introduced to," Dr. Sicherer says.

Multiple studies and reviews have found that introducing allergens to infants within the beginning of their first year (4-6 months) combats the development of allergies to food as the child grows up. It's also possible that if the process is delayed for too long, then there's a greater chance that a child can become allergic or more sensitive to common allergy-related foods.

"The introduction of peanut, for example, is generally recommended around six months of age, [and] not before four months," Dr. Sicherer explains. But, he says, "for babies showing signs of allergy, it might actually be given earlier in that four to six months window of time." Early attempts can allow parents to see any physical discomfort, and allergies can be spotted and then dealt with quickly (and possibly even before they reach a severe level).

Sign up for our newsletter!

This is one of the easiest tips to stick to. Don't start giving your child any foods they're not ready to consume yet. While you may be concerned about how your child will react to certain foods, "we have to take into consideration the baby's ability to eat solids," Dr. Sicherer explains.

"Some babies are ready for solids and they're able to take those pureed foods and keep it fine," he says, "others might dribble it out and not be ready yet." Once infants begin to wean off of liquids as their only forms of nourishmentwhich can be past the six-month period in some casesthen it's officially time to start introducing allergen foods.

Although, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about this first-time experience. You're definitely not going to want to try giving a baby whole peanuts as their first go-around, because they can and will choke, Dr. Sicherer explains. Along with pieces of nuts, "peanut butter is a choking hazard for babies" he says.

As you feel out when your child becomes ready to take on solid foods, they should be presented in a safe matter. This is going to be foods that are in the form of purees, pastes, sauces, and (for some of the fast learners) tiny pieces that don't require chewing.

While you're starting to bring the long list of allergens into your child's diet, you should be aware of what it looks like when they're having an allergic reaction to a new food. This is especially crucial since there are both mild and severe reactions when it comes to food allergies.

"The biggest thing that a baby could have that would make you think they might have allergies is if they have skin rashes called eczema or atopic dermatitis," Dr. Sicherer says. These rashes are itchy and might occur on a baby's face, arms, legs, chest, and/or back.

While it's believed that babies who experience eczema in their first few months of life may be more prone to allergy, Dr. Sicherer explains, "it doesn't mean they are experiencing a food allergy, it just means that they're someone that might go on to have a food allergy."

Other common and more subtle allergy symptoms, according to Dr. Sicherer, are often going to be gut-related or visually obvious within a short time period after the baby eats these new foods. These can be anything from having diarrhea or blood in the stool, vomiting, hives, swelling, rashes, or even signs the baby isn't growing enough.

On the more severe side, you're going to see an extreme case of eczema or atopic dermatitis, or the child may have trouble breathing, cough or wheeze, or turn pale or blue in the face. However, this is not to sound the alarms! "Those are not going to be common for babies being introduced to these foods first off," Dr. Sicherer says.

"If the baby doesn't really show any signs of allergyno eczema or anything elsethere's no strong reason to expect there's going to be a problem," he explains.

According to Main Street Pediatrics, many severe reactions will typically happen about 10-15 minutes after eating the food, but some mild reactions could take a few hours to begin to show up.

Now, if your infant is trying allergen foods for the first time and you are seeing any of these signs (mild or severe), immediately stop! Take a deep breath and treat these reactions or symptoms like you would any other conditiongive your child (allergy) medication following the advice of your doctor and visit your doctor for assistance and an evaluation if needed.

When getting ready to share these new foods with your baby, it's best to keep in mind that, "allergens are essentially the same as any other food, [and] they still have to be given in a way that a baby isn't going to choke on it," says Dr. Sicherer.

On average, the first foods fed to babies in America are normally ones like grains or oats (mashed up without any chunks) and pureed food in jars. These are almost always single-ingredient foods or vegetablessuch as oatmeal, squash, peas, or applesauceand can remain the initial solids you decide to give your infant, before stepping into the realm of allergens.

When allergy-related foods come into the picture (and with any other new food), Dr. Sicherer recommends smoothing out choking hazardous components into warm water to make a sauce or liquidy paste (apple sauce is a great example of this!).

"Tree nuts are real hard," he explains. But if you're really adamant about adding them to your infants' diet as soon as they're ready, then it's best to "have it in forms that are going to be baby-safe. That would be made into butters that can be smoothed out, for example, or flours."

If you're looking for something simple to start within the allergens family, try some soft cheeses, yogurt, or eggs. "Eggs could be pretty easy," Dr. Sicherer claims, while "babies should not eat raw egg, you certainly could make scrambled egg and mash it up into small bits."

Another great trick is mixing an allergen food into baked goods, specifically for introducing wheat, milk, or soy. Even the slightest bit can go a long way, as an infant only needs to consume a small amount of an allergen food to be considered as exposure.

Even though it's frightening not to know the outcome, it's still not a great idea to postpone the introduction of allergens to babies. One way to create this safe pattern where the immune system is more accepting of foods, is for your child to "have a diverse diet," Dr. Sicherer explains, and it's "been seen to help prevent food allergies."

"The more things the baby can eat, the merrier," he says. Doctors and researchers are more confident than ever that early exposure to allergens, as well as all foods in general, is even better for the child's gut and immune system because they'll learn to digest more (including "worry foods") in a normal and healthy manner.

As you start your search for pureed foods and other solids for your child to try to diversify their diet, there's a new product on the market that might be of interest to you. Baby food companies are coming out with products made specifically with the intention of serving allergens into an infant's diet as early as possible, as well as keeping them a part of their everyday foods going forward.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

They're all "baby-safe, pre-made, measured products," Dr. Sicherer says. Certain baby food companies claim that they are good "specifically for prevention of allergy types," he explains, but they're not FDA approved to do so. Spoonful ONE, an example of this baby food manufacturer, sells powdered mix-in options and dissolvable puff snacks that are meant to introduce 16 different allergen foods.

These introductory products that outwardly claim to be allergy preventative are more expensive than other baby foods, but "there's a choice in this situation between the convenience versus the cost," Dr. Sicherer explains. If you use most all other baby food company products, you'll have to use your own blending method, measure a good quantity, and then it will be ready to serve.

RELATED:5 Healthy Fast-Food Kids Meals for Busy School Days

In the very beginning, infants need to be consuming either breastmilk or formula as their main source of food and nutrients. "Cow's milk is not appropriate for an infant," says Dr. Sicherer, "but if the baby's going to have formula that's made out of cow's milk, that's okay, because it's made for babies"

Then, once your child hits the six-month milestone (or older) and has moved on to more solid foods, you might want to know other ways allergens can make it onto your little one's plate. Now, to be clear, there's no need to worry about these foods if you're baby hasn't shown signs of allergy quite yet, but they're good to keep in mind if you begin seeing allergy signs (discussed above) come up shortly after consumption.

Normally, there's a pretty solid understanding that milk, cheese, fish, and nut-butters in their standard form are all allergen foods. On the contrary, there may be some other foods that are not as commonly known to have an allergen-related ingredient. Groceries such as pasta, (which is made out of wheat), breaded chicken (which usually has some sort of egg in the breading), certain breads (which may have a milk component), and some thick sauces (inexplicitly could have peanuts).

You should also stay aware of any type of cross-contamination situations that could arise. Dr. Sicherer, explains, "You're making a chicken broth, but you're also making a cream soup next to that, and you put the spoon from the cream soup into the non-milk soup, then you would have cross contacted the soup that wasn't supposed to have milk in it."

View post:
7 Tips for Safely Introducing Your Baby to Allergens, According to Experts Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

Navratri fasting tips 2022: Managing blood sugar levels remains an everyday struggle for people with diabetes and when it comes to planning diabetes diet during Navratri fast, it is advised to be mindful of what you are eating and when you are eating during the day to prevent experiencing spike or drop in glucose levels. Stocking on low GI items is a good idea and there is no dearth of such vrat-friendly foods which will prevent sugar spikes. From singhara flour, buckwheat flour, roasted makhanas, peanuts, nuts and seeds, vegetables to fruits, there is a lot that diabetes can safely include in their Navratri diet. (Also read: Navratri 2022: Benefits of fasting)

"People with diabetes need to structure their meals and plan in advance to enjoy the full benefit of Navratri fasts. The main goal is to keep the blood sugar levels within normal range," says Dietician and Nutritionist Dr Poonam Duneja Founder of Nutrifybypoonam Diet & Wellness clinic.

Dr Duneja also offers the following fasting tips for people with diabetes.

- Keep your body hydrated and try to walk for 15 minutes after every meal.

- The navratri plate should have complex carbs and low-calorie drinks and meals distributed throughout the day. Do not eat heavy meals.

- Include low GI carbs like buckwheat roti in your meals. Add vegetables and also include a salad before all your meals to keep your post prandial sugar levels in check.

- Include good fats to reduce the glycemic load of the meals.

- Include low fat dairy proteins in buttermilk, yogurt, paneer to eliminate any sugar cravings and replenish your energy levels throughout the day.

- Mattha, vegetable raita, lassi, chaach, nuts and seeds can be added as an excellent protein source for people with diabetes during fasting.

- Including fruits and veggies result in better plasma carotenoids and Vitamin C levels, deliver antioxidants and phyto compounds. Try salads, fruit chaat, vegetable smoothies, vegetable soups and avoid readymade soups mix, fruit juices and sugary preparations.

"Researches show adding less than 30% calories from fat results in reducing glycated hemolobin levels (HBA1C levels). Include high fibre diet, less saturated fat and cholesterol less than 300 mg. Include omega-3 fatty acids (flax seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds) to provide unsaturated heart healthy fats which results in elevated HDL levels, better serum lipids LDL and HbA1C," says Dr Duneja.

Follow more stories on Facebook &Twitter

Read the original post:
Navratri fasting tips 2022: Dos and don'ts for people with diabetes during fasts - Hindustan Times

Ana Maafs-Rodrguez recalls the first time she recognized what she has come to think of as the gap.

She was working as a nutritionist in her hometown, Mexico City, and she met with a young woman who suffered from diabetes and renal failure. Recent research that Maafs-Rodrguez had helped to conduct had shown her what type of fish could be safely eaten by patients with those illnesses. She counseled the patient accordingly, and all seemed well.

However, during the patients subsequent visits, Maafs-Rodrguez learned that the woman was having trouble following the advice. The patient shared that numerous factorsprice, availability of the recommended fish types, limited cooking experience (and time to cook), and incompatibility with the diets of friends and familywere leading her to disregard the advice.

Thats when I realized that I was failing to effectively guide people in their food choices, Maafs-Rodrguez said. Iand theyknew what they needed to eat, but that knowledge was not translating into long-term behavior.

That was the gap Maafs-Rodrguez discovered: the space between providing information about healthy eating choices and seeing individuals change their behavior based on that information. That discovery inspired Maafs-Rodrguez to want to understand how to better communicate research-based nutrition information, in ways that would positively affect individuals behaviorand, in particular, the behavior of Latinos.

She enrolled as a masters student in the Nutrition Interventions, Communication, and Behavior Change program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She earned that degree in 2020 and is now on track to complete her doctorate within the next 18 months.

For her doctorate under advisor and Friedman School associate professor Sara Folta, Maafs-Rodrguez is working on three distinct assessments as to why some messages about healthy eating fail, especially among Latino populations, and how communication strategies can be improved to help guide people to better nutrition choices.

One of the projects, the Youre the Mom campaign, a part of Tufts ChildObesity180 initiative, aims to pinpoint which messages shared via social media are most effective with mothers in supporting their childrens healthy eating habits. Before any social media content was developed or posted, an early phase of the campaign involved soliciting from Black and Latina mothers information about their needs as parents, what messages they would hope to see in a campaign about healthy eating, how they usually access social media, and what type of content catches their attention.

Working with Friedman School Dean ad interim Christina Economos, Maafs-Rodrguez is focusing on that early phase of the campaign, studying the ways in which mothers social media use and expectations ultimately influenced the campaigns strategy. We believe using the mothers own voices to inform the campaign ultimately will increase the likelihood that our content resonates with the audience, said Maafs-Rodrguez.

For a second project, an ethnically tailored dietary intervention, Maafs-Rodrguezs goal is to better understand how culturally adapted messaging might influence quality of diet. In the study, researchers divided participants into two groups, according to their Caribbean or non-Caribbean Latino heritage. They determined key differences between the groups. Among their findings: while both groups tend to eat unhealthy food choices, Caribbean participants were more likely to choose these in response to cravings while non-Caribbeans did so during special social occasions. Researchers then crafted specific text messages that promoted healthy eating during each situation for the respective heritage group.

When there's a lack of cultural adaptation in the messaging, some messages may fail to resonate with all populations equally well, Maafs-Rodrguez said. Our aim was to provide tips that are related to healthy eating, while tailoring the tactics to the beliefs and attitudes that are relevant to each group. This work is being done in conjunction with researchers at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, led by Dr. Josiemer Mattei.

In addition, with support from Folta, Economos, and Mattei, Maafs-Rodrguez has devised her own study in which she will analyze Internet videos that feature advice about healthy eating aimed at older Latino adults and assess the videos messages based on their cultural relevance, their consistency with U.S. dietary guidelines, and their persuasive power for older Latinos in the U.S.

When she finishes her current projects and her dissertation, Maafs-Rodrguez hopes to secure a postdoctoral position to continue her explorations of how to make messaging around healthy eating as effective as possible for specific audiences.

The pandemic made clear the importance of effective communication about health issuesand its power to drive opinions and behavior, she said. Now our focus can be on improving and customizing what we communicate.

Continue reading here:
Mind the Gap: How Culture-Specific Messaging Can Lead to Better Nutrition - Tufts Now

Two mass strandings in Tasmanian waters in a week has left about 200 pilot whales and 14 sperm whales dead.

On Monday, 14 juvenile sperm whales died and washed ashore at King Island, in Bass Strait. Approximately 230 pilot whales became stranded on Ocean Beach, west of the Tasmanian town of Strahan on Wednesday.

Tasmanian authorities said on Thursday that they would be transitioning to carcass recovery and disposal operations in the coming days. But how do you safely dispose of the massive beasts?

If cetaceans are left onshore where they have stranded and died, their decomposition can pose a biohazard risk, said Dr Olaf Meynecke, of Griffith Universitys coastal and marine research centre. The removal of the animals is a major issue and something that we kind of forget once a rescue mission is over.

In warmer climates, the internal decomposition of dead whales can result in spontaneous explosions. Gut bacteria in the whales can multiply quickly, producing large quantities of methane gas. If the rest of the body is still intact if the outer layer, the blubber, is still intact and not broken up then it can lead to an explosion, Meynecke said.

In 2004, the decomposing carcass of a 60-tonne, 17-metre sperm whale exploded on a busy street in the Taiwanese city of Tainan, showering cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours.

Researchers would probably carry out checks on the recently stranded animals, including necropsies to look at gut content, and assessing overall health indicators such as the thickness of their blubber layer, Meynecke said.

Usually necropsies cannot be conducted more than after a few days after a whale dies, due to the risk of explosion, he says. Its actually part of the risk assessment the animal has to be assessed beforehand and if there are signs of swelling in the gut area, the pressure needs to be released ahead [of the necropsy].

If theres anything of benefit, its that the dead individuals will be an opportunity to contribute to science, said Dr Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist affiliated with Macquarie University, who described it as the silver lining of a sad situation.

We can learn more about their diet, their genetics, how similar these individuals were to the population that stranded before, she says, referring to a 2020 mass stranding event at the same location, in which 350 pilot whales died.

Cetaceans that die onshore after stranding should be towed out to the ocean, Meynecke said. They should be returned to sea thats where they belong.

Sam Gerrity, of Southwest Expeditions, has been involved in the logistical effort after both the most recent and 2020 mass strandings near Strahan. He said the disposal involved a pretty confronting process of towing dozens of carcasses out to sea.

Open decomposition and burial were both trialled after the 2020 pilot whale stranding, but authorities have said they are not the preferred methods for the most recent stranding. Our first option will be long-lining the carcasses out to deep ocean, the incident controller Brendon Clark, said at a press conference on Thursday.

But the logistics for larger whale species are far trickier than pilot whales, which weigh up to three tonnes. [For a sperm whale] were looking at probably over 15 tonnes or more. Once theyre not in water any more, they become too heavy to drag with normal equipment, Meynecke said.

Burying whales should be avoided, he said. Disposing of a sea animal on land is generally not a good idea. The animals will decompose a lot slower once theyre buried it will take months and its a very slow process.

In 2017, a New South Wales council buried an 18-tonne humpback whale at Port Macquaries Nobbys beach and then excavated it a week later, due to community concerns about heightened shark activity.

If youve got a connection to the water table theres a chance that it does leak out into the ocean it could potentially attract predators but thats not fully proven, Meynecke said.

An infamous whale disposal case occurred in the US in 1970, when the Oregon Highway Division tried to get rid of a decaying sperm whale by blowing it up with dynamite.

The humour of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell everywhere, said a reporter in a now-viral TV story.

Meynecke called the incident proof of human stupidity. We laugh about it, but its the same thing as burying something only because we cant see it, it doesnt mean its gone, and only because we blow it up it doesnt mean its gone its just distributed in smaller pieces and it creates more problems.

Why mass whale strandings occur is still not entirely clear. Pilot whales misnamed as they are actually a large oceanic dolphin are known as the most susceptible species to mass strandings, because they are highly social and form pods of several hundred.

They end up in these big groups, but they dont know each other very well, Meynecke said. If one of them starts to panic there is a lot of miscommunication, because they dont actually know each other and the calls dont make sense to them. He likened it to panic among humans at a concert or other crowd. There is that emotional stress that actually drives them to continuously restrand as well.

Sperm whales, however, do not usually mass strand, and the deaths of more than a dozen at King Island was concerning, Meynecke said.

It probably isnt a coincidence that these two species stranded at similar times, because they might have been looking for prey closer to the islands, he said. We do have drastic changes in the marine environment related to climate change. Thats also what was related to the stranding of sperm whales in Europe in 2016.

That incident was linked to changes in water temperatures and the movement of food sources into shallower waters in the North Sea. We might see more of these strandings in future, Meynecke said.

Read more:
Whale strandings: what happens after they die and how do authorities safely dispose of them? - The Guardian