Food & Nutrition: Culinary Techniques, Diets & Metabolic Health

Nutritional health is achieved through the therapeutic use of whole foods, safe culinary preparation, and understanding the metabolic impacts of specific dietary frameworks and ingredients.

Homemade Milk Bubble Tea with Tapioca

How Many Calories Are in Tapioca Bubble Tea?

Not your standard cup of tea, tapioca bubble tea is a sweet concoction usually made from tea, milk, sugar and balls of tapioca called pearls. Tapioca bubble tea comes in an assortment of fruit flavors as well as chocolate, vanilla and more. These beverages are often high in added sugar and calories.

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Beautiful Multicolored Macarons in Gift Box

Calories in French Macaroons

French macaroons -- also called macarons -- are fluffy and delicate, with sweet creamy or fruity filling. While these sandwich cookies may be light enough to melt in your mouth, they can be heavy in calories, partially because they contain high-fat almond meal instead of wheat flour.

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Side Effects of Pure Virgin Olive Oil

While olive oil typically doesn't come with negative side-effects, it is pure fat -- which contains more than double the calories of carbohydrates or protein. Therefore, overconsumption can lead to weight gain, which may contribute to heart disease and some types of cancer, according to "

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Oatmeal with bananas

Oatmeal and Complex Carbohydrates

If you love to start the morning with a bowl of oatmeal, keep up the healthy habit. Oatmeal provides complex carbohydrates to help fuel your body and brain and houses a host of other important nutrients as well.

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Looking into the distance

Eyebrow Twitches & Magnesium

If your eyebrow is twitching and you aren't sure why, magnesium deficiency is one possible explanation. This deficiency is rare, however, even if your diet is low in this important nutrient, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. If the twitching persists, see your doctor for a diagnosis.

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Four bananas

What Happens If You Eat Too Many Bananas?

Although bananas make a healthy snack, you can have too much of a good thing. Binging on any food can lead to weight gain and poor nutrition, so moderation is important. Although no official consensus exists as to how many bananas are "too many,"

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Chef sifting flour over a ball of dough

Why Is Flour Fattening?

While eating foods made with flour won't necessarily make you fat, overindulging in this or any other food will lead to weight gain. The type of flour you eat also matters, so choose wisely to help you stay lean and slim.

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Cashew nuts

Can Cashews Make You Have High Cholesterol?

Cholesterol concerns are no reason to put down that bag of cashews. On the contrary, you should keep on snacking because cashews and other nuts have been shown to improve cholesterol levels. That's good news because high levels of low-density lipoprotein, the "bad"

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Buying Organic Food

What Does the Brain Need to Function Nutritionally?

Like the rest of your body, your brain depends on food to run at peak performance. That's why you may feel sharp as a tack after a healthy lunch and mentally sluggish on a junk-food diet. For peak mental function, include a wide variety of foods in your diet, as no one nutrient can provide everything your brain needs.

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herbal tea with chamomile on old wooden table

The Disadvantages of Tea

If you love waking up to a cup of hot tea, keep on sipping. This beverage is high in antioxidants, and research shows it may help prevent heart disease, build stronger bones and even improve your mood, according to Harvard Health Publications. Tea isn't perfect, however, and does sometimes come with side effects.

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Organic Ginger Ale Soda

What Is Ginger Ale Good For?

As the name implies, ginger ale contains the herb ginger, which may have medicinal properties. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, ginger helps relieve upset stomach from a number of causes.

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Organic raw cocoa nibs

Health Benefits of Raw Cacao Nibs

Chocolate lovers, rejoice: Cacao nibs -- bits of the same cacao beans that go into candy bars and hot chocolate -- contain healthy antioxidants that can boost your health and possibly even help you live longer. Also called cocoa beans, cacao beans are technically a seed that comes from the Theobroma cacao tree.

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Orange Tree, Orange, Fruit

How Fattening Are Oranges?

Although eating any food can be fattening if you eat a lot of it -- if you eat oranges, you're not likely to gain weight from eating them. Oranges have very low energy density, meaning that you can eat a large number of oranges without consuming a lot of calories.

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spinach

Dark Stool From Iron in Food

Too much iron can darken stools, which is common for people taking iron supplements. Although iron-rich foods don't typically cause the same effect as iron pills, some deeply hued fare can turn your stool a different color, making you look twice after using the restroom.

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Preparing barbecue for the guests

Can Eating Too Much Protein Affect Your Kidneys?

While no major studies link high protein intake to kidney disease in healthy people, excess protein does force your kidneys to work harder and can cause problems for people with existing medical conditions. Kidney disease aside, the healthiest diet is a varied one that contains a balance of nutrients.

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