Eat Fresh Health

Did you know that pale skin and spoon-shaped nails might be a physical sign of iron deficiency? Or, that weight gain may be related to fluid buildup in body tissues and determined by touch? Registered dietitian nutritionists, or RDNs, can perform a physical exam. The Nutrition Focused Physical Exam, or NFPE, is a physical exam that RDNs perform to assess nutritional status or evaluate malnutrition. This exam may be part of your nutrition assessment when you meet with an RDN. Step 1: Getting Started Before conducting the physical exam, the RDN will make sure you have privacy and are comfortable. He or she will explain to you what to expect during the exam. Step 2: Conducting the Exam During the exam, the RDN looks for signs of nutrient deficiencies and malnutrition. How in-depth the exam is can vary based on the setting. For example, the exam may be more extensive in the hospital. In an outpatient setting, the RDN may do a shorter version of the NFPE. There are several areas an RDN may

  Malnutrition Malnutrition is a common and detrimental condition that must be addressed quickly and comprehensively. Registered dietitian nutritionists are working hard to improve the speed and accuracy of malnutrition diagnosis and nutrition interventions in health care. Malnutrition is a physical state of unbalanced nutrition. It can mean undernutrition or overnutrition. When most people think of malnutrition, they usually picture undernutrition, which can be caused by a lack of calories, protein or other nutrients. This occurs frequently in areas of the world without adequate access to food and clean drinking water. Overnutrition comes from eating too many calories. Someone can eat more calories than their body needs and be malnourished at the same time. They may not be eating enough nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, beans, low-fat dairy, nuts and seeds. This can result in vitamin, mineral or protein deficiencies. In the United States, this mo

  Is it possible to lose weight without diet or exercise?   The short answer: yes, but only if you change your habits around food. The longer answer? If you change your habits around food, you’ll lose weight, but those new habits can make any diet or exercise program *substantially* more effective than if you’re fighting bad habits. Think about it like paddling a canoe on a river.  If you’re paddling upstream, against the current (i.e. bad food habits) you’ll have to work really hard to make any progress. And if you stop paddling, you’ll be carried backwards. But if you’re paddling downstream, with the current (i.e.  good food habits ), you’ll make progress quickly, and with less effort.  That’s what changing your food habits is like. These “paddle downstream” techniques I talk about below are the same ones that my student Christine used to lose 39 pounds .   I discussed some of them in my TED Talk “ A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit ”, which was the 4th most viewed TED talk of 2016, v

  Is having nighttime cravings a living nightmare for you? Are you always asking yourself: why do I binge eat? The reasons for nighttime binge eating could be physiological, psychological or both. Learning to recognize which category your binge eating falls into is the first step toward taking back control of your food habits. Finding the right tools and support to help you achieve and maintain the changes you seek is the next step. Balance Your Blood Sugar Being on a blood sugar rollercoaster can cause you to feel driven to eat at less than ideal times. When consuming high quantities of foods containing sugar and other simple or refined carbohydrates, the body must produce more insulin to respond to that glycemic overload. If you subsequently stop eating for a few hours, as is the case when going to bed at night, the extra insulin your body produced may cause your blood sugar to drop uncomfortably low. You may then feel as if you need to go eat something to bring your sugar back up. T

  Stress-snacking plagues a lot of people. Stress affects our hormone balance, including our hunger and satiation signals. Snacking can lead to undesirable changes in your health, yet it can be difficult to stop emotional eating. Take steps now to disentangle your eating habits from your emotions. Control Your Stress Stress increases cortisol and depletes your body of nutrients it needs. It can drive you to consume larger quantities of quick-energy foods such as sugar, as if your body perceives that you are getting ready to fight a wild beast. Controlling stress may be easier said than done, but there are simple changes you may be able to make to head in the right direction: Get sufficient sleep and try to maintain a consistent bedtime schedule to put your circadian rhythm in balance. Insufficient or erratic sleep can disrupt the recovery time your brain needs for making sense of things you have experienced or helping you find solutions to problems you’re facing. Set aside time for sel

  If you eat to manage your emotions, you are not alone. A 2020 study of 638 women between the ages of 19 and 39 found that   52.8% reported moderate to high   emotional eating tendencies. Learning how to stop emotional eating is possible, but first, you have to get to the root of why you do it. Defining What Causes Emotional Eating Do you find yourself wandering to the refrigerator or cupboards and grabbing something to eat even though you know you aren’t hungry? You probably reach for the comfort foods when you do, grabbing something sweet, high in fat or carbohydrate-heavy. Most people don’t seek out healthy food on these occasions. Emotional eating isn’t about getting the right nutrition or feeding your body. It’s about feeding your emotions, making yourself feel better and soothing negative feelings with food. Common Causes Any negative emotion can lead to emotional eating. When a negative emotion arises, you learn to use food to comfort yourself instead of confronting your feelin

  Do you sometimes eat beyond being full? Do you feel like your brain is wired to crave food? It turns out you may be right about that. This discussion about the relationship between food and feelings explains how curiosity may be the simple key to breaking the cycle of emotional eating. Recent research indicates that parts of our brains may be working against us to reinforce food cravings and confuse our relationship with food and weight. Understanding how emotions affect the brain’s reward system is the first step toward breaking the  persistent habits  that can develop around eating. Our Brain’s Reward System Early humans had to find or kill their food in order to survive. Hunger was the sensation that triggered the need to eat food. Eating satisfies hunger and supports the survival of the species. Because our brains continually evolve to help us adapt to our environment, the triggers and rewards associated with food have shifted. Food is readily available for most people now. Survi

  The term comfort food is such a part of the American lexicon that many people assume they understand what it is, though perhaps not why they crave it. Eaten occasionally, comfort food does not have to be a problem, but it becomes one when someone has the habit of consuming it as part of their regular diet. Defining Comfort Food When someone says these words to you, chances are your mind calls up very particular food types and the feeling you associate with them. The specific food you think about depends on   your culture, family background  and personal preferences. Comfort food is supposed to have a positive impact on your emotions and your sense of well-being. It is supposed to make you feel better. At least, that’s what people believe. How Your Brain Works Food is strongly associated with our   brain’s natural wiring  that seeks reward for our behaviors. When you eat food that makes you feel at least temporarily better, you learn to identify food with an improved mood. Evolutionar