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Does meal timing really impact your weight?

Published April 22, 2015 | By Lisa Nelson, RD

Could weight loss be about more than the foods you choose to eat? What if you could lose weight by simply changing your meal time?

This is not a new idea. However, is it just a gimmick or actually supported by research. Well, I found three different studies regarding meal timing.

Study #1: Timing of food intake predicts weight loss effectiveness

This study was published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2013. The goal was to determine the relationship between meal timing and weight.

The study had 420 individuals divided into two groups – early eaters and late eaters. Early eaters were defined as eating lunch before 3pm. Late eaters defined as eating lunch after 3pm.

Both groups followed a 20-week weight loss treatment.

Study results show late eaters lost less weight and had a slower rate of weight loss compared to early eaters. The late eaters also skipped breakfast more frequently than early eaters.

The surprising piece is that energy intake, dietary composition, estimated energy expenditure, appetite hormones, and sleep were similar between the two groups.

Conclusion: Eating late may influence weight loss success.
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Posted in Heart Health, Lose Weight

Lower Your Blood Pressure without Medication

Published April 8, 2015 | By Lisa Nelson, RD

Here are 7 ways to lower your blood pressure without medication.

1. Use a home blood pressure monitor

Monitor your blood pressure at home, as well as your doctor’s office. Combining your readings with your doctor’s will give a better measure of your high blood pressure and treatment to control it. Home monitoring will also rule out if you suffer from “white coat hypertension”. It is ideal to monitor your blood pressure at the same time every day.
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Posted in Lower Blood Pressure | Tagged blood pressure

Saturated Fat: Do you need to limit your intake?

Published March 25, 2015 | By Lisa Nelson, RD

Dr. Bowden is a board-certified nutritionist and author of 14 books including The Great Cholesterol Myth co-authored with cardiologist Stephen Sinatra.

I was interested to know if Dr. Bowden supported diets unlimited in saturated fat. Dr. Bowden provided key clarification when answering…

The problem isn’t with the saturation of fat, but with its toxicity.

If you consume fat from feedlot raised animals, they have received hormones, antibodies, steroids and pesticides. All of this is stored in their fat. Fat you then consume. This is not a healthy fat and in no way recommended.

Let’s look at this from another angle to ensure you understand the point Dr. Bowden is making.

Inflammation promotes degenerative diseases — Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, etc. Inflammation is tied to the relationship between omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Omega 6 is inflammatory. Omega 3 is anti-inflammatory. You need both in your diet. You cannot simply eliminate all omega 6 fatty acids. You need an appropriate balance between omega 3 and omega 6. The current ratio, according to published research in the World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, Vol 100, is 16:1 for most Americans. The desired, healthy ratio is between 1:1 and 4:1.

Accordingly to Dr. Bowden, this poor balance is due to the removal of saturated fats from our diets. Saturated fat is a neutral. It’s neither inflammatory, nor anti-inflammatory….as long as it is not toxic. A very small percent of the US population consumes grass-fed beef free of toxins. If you consume the standard feedlot raised beef, then no longer restricting your intake is not wise. Yes, the saturated fat itself isn’t going to lead to heart disease, but the toxins contained in that saturated fat are a big negative for your health.

So, what are some foods containing saturated fat that Dr. Bowden considers okay to eat?
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Posted in Heart Health | Tagged AGES, eggs, grass fed beef, Heart Disease, jonny bowden, saturated fat

Why do we think saturated fat causes heart disease?

Published March 11, 2015 | By Lisa Nelson, RD

I discussed heart disease in connection to saturated fat with board-certified nutrition Dr. Jonny Bowden.

Dr. Bowden is the author of 14 books including The Great Cholesterol Myth co-authored with cardiologist Stephen Sinatra. He explains that “I’m out to rehabilitate the reputation of saturated fat, a perfectly healthy fat that we collectively demonized when we wrongly believed it lead to heart disease. Recent research has shown that there’s no connection between saturated fat in the diet and the incidence of heart disease. Instead of saturated fat and cholesterol, most leading edge experts are now looking at inflammation as a prime mover in the development of heart disease.”

Today I want to cover what Dr. Bowden shared on the history of saturated fat and it’s believed connection to heart disease.

Why is there so much news lately in regards to saturated fat and its connection, or lack of connection, to heart disease? Accordingly to Dr. Bowden, the media is finally catching up with what we’ve known for 15 years. Nothing has changed. It’s just becoming more difficult to ignore the mounting evidence. It never caused heart disease.
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Posted in Heart Health | Tagged Heart Disease, jonny bowden, saturated fat

Lower Blood Pressure with Blueberries

Published February 25, 2015 | By Lisa Nelson, RD

There is trial data indicating blueberries help reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

This double-blind, placebo controlled trial assigned 48 women to receive either 22 grams of freeze-dried blueberry powder or 22 grams of a control powder daily for 8-weeks. Results indicate that blueberry consumption may reduce blood pressure and arterial stiffness.

These improvements may be linked to enhanced nitric oxide mediated vasodilation. Vasodilation refers to the widening of blood vessels, which in turn lowers blood pressure because the heart then exerts less force against arterial walls as it circulates blood.

At the conclusion of the study, participants consuming the blueberry powder daily on average reduced systolic blood pressure 5.1% and diastolic blood pressure was lowered on average 6.3%.

Twenty-two grams of freeze-dried blueberry powder is equal to about 1 cup of fresh blueberries daily.

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Posted in Lower Blood Pressure | Tagged antioxidants, blueberries, dietary fiber, insoluble fiber, lower blood pressure, manganese, soluble fiber, vitamin c

How Long Have You Lived with High Cholesterol?

Published February 11, 2015 | By Lisa Nelson, RD

Long-term high cholesterol significantly increases lifetime risk for heart disease, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.

The longer you live with high cholesterol levels, the higher your risk for heart disease as you age. According to this study, for every ten years cholesterol is mildly elevated between the ages of 35 to 55, heart disease risk may increase 40 percent.

It’s suggested adults with longstanding mild or moderately high cholesterol levels, might benefit from more aggressive treatment plans.

How was this increased risk determined?

Data from the Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948, was studied by researchers. A group of 1,478 adults without heart disease at age 55 were evaluated to determine what length of time each lived with high cholesterol. They were broken into segments of no high cholesterol, high cholesterol for one to ten years, and high cholesterol for 11 to 20 years. This group was then followed for 20 years, ages 55 to 75, to see how high cholesterol levels impacted their risk of heart disease development. Beginning at age 55, there were 389 participants who had lived with high cholesterol for 10 years, 577 lived with cholesterol 11 to 20 years, and 512 participants did not have high cholesterol.

Research results indicate increased heart disease risk with longer exposure to high cholesterol levels.

For example, participants with high cholesterol for 11 to 20 years before the age of 55 had a 16.5 percent overall risk of heart disease.

Those with one to ten years of high cholesterol exposure had an 8.1 percent risk.

Participants without high cholesterol had a 4.4 percent risk for heart disease.

It was found that each decade of high cholesterol increased risk of heart disease 39 percent.

What should this mean to you?

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Posted in Heart Health

Does meal timing really impact your weight?

Lower Your Blood Pressure without Medication

Saturated Fat: Do you need to limit your intake?

Why do we think saturated fat causes heart disease?

Lower Blood Pressure with Blueberries

How Long Have You Lived with High Cholesterol?

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