The Junk Food Nutritionist

Every day it seems that there are new diet products on the market. Are the chemicals used in them safe? Artificial and natural no and low calorie sweeteners which are often added to these products are considered safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).   Similar agencies have also approved these sweeteners for use in other countries.  That said, there are still possible side effects, just like medications recognized as safe may result in side effects. Let’s explore these sweeteners and their potential health risks, starting with the oldest first.

                I was invited to a potluck party to watch the big football game…at the last minute.                 What!? I love preparing food to share with others. But, I’d rather have advance notice.                 My usual potluck favorites: fruit salad, quinoa salad, hummus with crackers or vegetable chips, or dessert with a dietitian twist.                 Well, I didn’t have enough fruit for fruit salad and I was missing the sauce I usually add to my quinoa salad. I’d already gone grocery shopping and didn’t want to go back out to find any special ingredients.                 So, I thought about ...

At work, we served Red, White, and Blue Cookies at our Memorial Day picnic. I was hoping they would be served again for Fourth of July. And, initially, that was the plan. I pointed out that some of our residents were unable to eat them due to dietary restrictions and we'd have to make an alternate dessert. Rather than making an alternate dessert, the idea was nixed entirely. So, I decided to make my own... Since my company didn't make them from scratch, I couldn't borrow the recipe to follow. (Not to mention, it wouldn't have been vegan or otherwise met my nutrition preferences...) I started with Minimalist Baker's 1 Bowl Vegan Sugar Cookies as a guide. You could also use your favorite sugar cookie recipe or even store bought sugar cookie dough and add dried blueberries and dried cranberries. Red, White, and Blue Vegan Cookies Makes 9 small cookies 4 Tbsp. margarine 2 Tbsp. brown sugar 2 Tbsp. powdered stevia (or another sugar substitute e...

It's National Nutrition Month! At work, I'm celebrating it with a series on MyPlate . However, I'm going to focus on junk food here because, of course, I am the Junk Food Nutritionist and love to eat. So, for the next few weeks, we'll be looking at items that might be healthy foods in some ways and might be junk foods in other ways. First up is Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt can be a healthy food. It has protein and calcium, which we need to be healthy. But there are many Greek yogurt products on the market. They're not all the same and they're not all equally healthy. One major difference is the ingredient list. Some Greek yogurts are thick due to straining or removing the liquid portion; others are thickened with added ingredients. Today, I will breakdown the ingredients of one flavored Greek yogurt product with raspberry chocolate and toasted coconut mix-ins.   In case you can't see the picture, here are the ingredients again...

      Lately, I've been seeing a lot of commercials for a reduced calorie orange "juice". So let's look more at fruit juice and fruit drinks. Fruit Juice Counts as a Serving of Fruit MyPlate  food guide recommends 1 ½ cup to 2 cups of fruit for most Americans.  Because fruit and fruit juice have the same vitamins, one cup of 100% fruit juice counts as one cup of fruit.      Health Benefits   Drinking fruit juice is an easy way to get vitamin C. Most fruit juices provide 100% of the recommended amount of vitamin C. Vitamin C is used by the entire body for growth and repair. It may reduce the risk of heart disease, gum disease, and cancer.      Some fruit juices  also  provide small amounts of the B vitamins. On a nutrition label, the B vitamins are often listed by a name other than “vitamin B”. The B vitamins include thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, and folic acid.  The...

Artificial and natural no and low calorie sweeteners can be found in a wide variety of foods. But are they safe? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a variety of sugar substitutes or artificial sweeteners. Similar agencies have also approved these sweeteners for use in other countries. However, this does not mean there are no potential health effects. Zevia soda is sweetened with erythritol, stevia, and monk fruit extract.

As you know, I am a fan of junk food, especially sweets. I believe that everything can be consumed in moderation. For me, that doesn't mean only having dessert once a month. For me, that means having dessert daily but in a small portion and, preferably, making that dessert myself so I can control the ingredients.  Today, I'll show you how to control the amount of sugar in your chocolate chip cookies using two different recipes and two different sugar substitutes. Recipe 1   First up is a cookie made with sucralose (commonly known by the brand name Splenda). I like that sucralose was made from real sugar (sucrose), unlike aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame potassium, and xylitol.  Before stevia became mainstream, sucralose was my sugar substitute of choice for this reason. I still find that sucralose products can be easier to work with because it is used in a one-to-one ratio, meaning 1 cup of sugar can be replaced with one cup of sucralose be...