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.

The Best Snacks for Reactive Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, can cause potentially life-threatening reactions in people with diabetes. But people who do not have diabetes can also have hypoglycemia, which cause shakiness, sweating, lightheadedness, difficulty concentrating and weakness.

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Roasted duck leg

Roast Duck Nutrition

With it's rich flavor and juicy meat, duck makes a decadent addition to your diet. Overall, duck is fattier than many other types of meat, so opt for skinless breast meat to help limit your fat intake. Consume duck as a source of nutrients, and enjoy the health benefits associated with its nutritional value.

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Does Cranberry Juice Treat Kidney Infection?

Kidney infections, which are an upper urinary tract infection medically referred to as pyelonephritis, are a common occurrence in women, people with spinal cord injuries and older adults, and is medically treated with an antibiotic (see reference 1 under background para 1, under II.

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Dangers of Raw Red Kidney Beans

While many foods are perfectly fine to eat right off the vine or out of the ground, red kidney beans are not one of them. Though many raw beans contain the toxin Phytohaemagglutinin, also called kidney bean lectin, kidney beans contain the highest toxin levels.

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Close-up of a bay leaf

The Effects of Eating a Fresh Bay Leaf

Bay leaves, which grow on the sweet bay or laurel tree, were used in ancient Rome to make laurel wreaths. Today, the bay leaf is more often found as a seasoning agent in stews or soups than on someone’s head.

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Close-up of a bowl of rice

How Is White Rice Healthy for Our Body?

White rice is a staple food for many Asian countries, serving as a main food source for over half the world’s population, according to Utah State University Extension Agent Jana Darrington. White rice, which has been refined, has the husk, bran and germ layers removed, so just the white inner kernel remains.

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french fries in deep fat fryer

Is It Healthy to Cook French Fries in Canola Oil?

If you have a craving for french fries, fries cooked in canola oil are a better choice than french fries cooked in partially hydrogenated oils, such as soybean, cottonseed or corn oils. If you make your own fries at home, using nothing but canola oil and potatoes.

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Egg and bacon sandwiches with béarnaise sauce

Can People Have a Reaction to Sodium Nitrite?

Sodium nitrite is a food preservative that also gives cured and processed meats, such as ham and hot dogs, their characteristic pinkish color. Many vegetables, including spinach, celery, beets and cabbage, naturally contain large amounts of nitrite.

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Vitamin and Iron Supplements for Pre-term Infants

Premature infants -- babies born before 37 weeks -- have unique nutritional needs. Babies born early may have lower vitamin and mineral stores than babies born after a full-term pregnancy. Preterm infants may also have higher nutritional needs for not only calories, but also for vitamins and minerals for some time.

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Corn Field

Risks & Side Effects of Genetically Modified Food

Inserting genes not normally found in a certain food or plant results in a genetically modified food. Farmers genetically modify crops for one of several reasons: to increase resistance to certain viruses or toxins, to increase pesticide resistance and to increase resistance to certain powerful herbicides.

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Close-up of a woman holding a cup of herbal tea

Herbal Teas That Cause Uterine Contractions

Herbal teas are often marketed for pregnant women or suggested by alternative medical practitioners as an alternative to coffee in pregnancy. Herbal teas, unlike non-herbal teas such as black or green tea, do not contain caffeine.

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Organic Dried Goji Berries

Goji Berries and Pregnancy

Goji berries, often used in traditional Chinese medicine, are small, red, edible fruit from a shrub native to China also known as Lycium barbarum. Goji berries are usually dried, eaten raw or cooked. They have recently been touted as a “superfood” for their exceptional health benefits.

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Rose hips bud. flower wild rose.

Is it Safe to Take Rose Hip Oil Internally?

Rose hips, also called haws, are the bright red, vase-shaped fruit of roses often used for medicinal purposes by alternative health practitioners. Rose hips are rarely allowed to develop on modern roses, although they’re abundant on wild rose species.

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What Are the Health Benefits of Kosher Dill Pickles?

Kosher dill pickles are made from small cucumbers known as gherkins. Made in the traditional Jewish manner using dill, garlic and salt brine to give the characteristic mouth-puckering, sour, pungent flavor, Kosher dills have few calories and few nutrients, unless you eat them by the barrel full.

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Can Eating Sugar-Free Candy Cause Diarrhea?

Sugar-free candy, nutrition bars, cookies, cakes and other sweets might be sugar-free, but they do contain sugar substitutes, many of which can cause diarrhea, especially sugar alcohols.

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Saw Palmetto Background

Is Saw Palmetto Good for PCOS?

As many as one out of 10 women of childbearing age have polycystic ovary syndrome, PCOS, a disorder characterized by high levels of male hormone levels such as testosterone, according to the National Women’s Health Information Center. Reducing androgens, or male hormones, may improve the symptoms of PCOS.

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olive oil

Does Overheating Olive Oil Turn it to Trans Fat?

Olive oil has taken on new importance for its antioxidant levels as well as for its heart- healthy unsaturated nature. Cooking with mostly monounsaturated olive oil rather than saturated fats such as lard can decrease your risk of heart disease.

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