As the hype surrounding probiotics continues to soar so does our appetite for bug-laced fermented foods and drinks, including trendy kombucha. The probiotic-rich fermented tea has become way more visible in recent years as a bevy of brands have muscled their way onto beverage shelves with a rainbow of colors and enticing flavors.
Here’s the thing: I adore kombucha. The first time I sipped the vinegary drink after a hard-charging bike ride I was smitten. It contains the perfect blend of tang, sweetness, and effervescence. I also convinced myself that it’s gotta be
relatively healthy. After all, it has probiotics, right? Marketing words like “detox” and “renew” made it even easier to swallow the high price tag. It offered a much more interesting way to stay hydrated than yawning tap water.
That restaurant meal may be killing your health goals. That s the finding of a new study that links eating out and higher incidence of disease, including all major lifestyle conditions. In fact, the more you eat out, the worse your long-term health outcome is predicted to be, according to a review study that tracked 35,000 adults for 15 years. Those who ate out the most were also the most likely to suffer heart disease, cancer, and every other major killer. Not to take away the joys of eating out, right as restaurants are opening back up, there are ways to eat healthy anywhere, even at your local diner.
May 11, 2021
Oskar Valles enjoys a meal at Mana restaurant in Central, Hong Kong. Valles used to rush his meals and often turned to food when he was stressed. Now he is more mindful of what and how he eats.
South China Morning Post
Oskar Valles thought he was in tune with his eating habits. Then in 2019 he attended a “mindful eating” workshop and left with a greater understanding of what it means to “eat with intention while paying attention”.
Like many people, Valles used to rush through his meals so he could get on with other tasks. He would at times turn to food when stressed, and would eat just because it was time to eat and not because he was hungry.
Liver Damage Is Off the Charts
Alcohol and fructose fuel surge in liver disease amid pandemic lockdown
Rates of alcoholic liver disease have soared 30 percent in the last year at the University of Michigan’s health system, a rise doctors blame on higher amounts of alcohol intake during the pandemic. Anecdotal reports suggest that some patients increased drinking to a bottle of wine or five to six drinks daily from March 2020 to March 2021, an amount that raises the risk of severe liver disease.
Speaking with NPR, University of Michigan liver specialist Dr. Jessica Mellinger said, “In my conversations with my colleagues at other institutions, everybody is saying the same thing: ‘Yep, it’s astronomical. It’s just gone off the charts. ” Mellinger said the pandemic “supercharged” already rising rates of liver disease, which are now also showing up in younger populations.
Care map created to help health professionals navigate nutrigenomics An expert advisory panel has developed a care map for health care practitioners (HCPs) who are, or are considering, helping their patients make use of personalised nutrition tests.
A recent statement from the American Nutrition Association declared that “personalized nutrition is the most powerful antidote to chronic disease,” while the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ 2017 Visioning Report stated that dietitians “can assume an increasingly important role in the emerging health care system that focuses on genetic testing.
While the practical use of nutrigenomics still remains a topic of debate, it is becoming more common in clinical practice with patients bringing direct-to-consumer nutrigenomics reports to HCPs for interpretation, and some HCPs offering nutrigenomics tests to their patients.