Nutrispeak By Vesanto Melina, MS, Registered Dietitian As a dietitian, I learned a lot about which foods rated highest in folate or vitamin C, and what made beans, peas and lentils the nutritional superstars they are. Yet my training did not include a course about how to make food taste good. My mother enjoyed teaching …
Nutrispeak By Vesanto Melina and Julia Murray Breakfast! This can be an exciting reason to get up in the morning. (Then again, others prefer to wait until noon.) Whatever your preference, these ideas can inspire you to love breaking that fast. Some people prefer to go at least 12 hours overnight before breaking their fast. …
Nutrispeak By Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis Few foods have been at once maligned and acclaimed as much as coconut oil. Some view it as a notorious health villain, with an even greater concentration of saturated fat than butter or lard. It tops list of foods to avoid in many heart-health programs. At the other …
NutriSpeak by Vesanto Melina, MS, Registered Dietitian A new paper published by the American Society for Nutrition makes the case for modernizing the definition of protein quality. This is a welcome development. The current definition is outdated and fails to protect public health because it assesses how well various proteins meet human requirements based solely …
Redefining Protein Quality: What’s New About Protein? Read More »
Nutrispeak by Vesanto Melina and Gillian Meghan Walters Children tend to gravitate to animals and love them. Adults guide them to care for companion animals; to love, feed, and pamper dogs and cats and make sure they are not harmed. At the same time, we live in a society that teaches us that it is okay to …
Nutrispeak by Vesanto Melina, MS, Registered Dietitian Our annual subsidies to Canadian farmers have ranged from 6.9 billion dollars (in 2011) to more than 8 billion dollars. Primary beneficiaries from our tax dollars are beef, pork, poultry, egg, and dairy producers. We know that farming can be hard work, with challenging weather and trade agreements. Yet …
Nutrispeak Vesanto Melina, MS, RD “The diabetes time bomb has been ticking for 50 years, and it’s been getting louder. Martin Silink, President International Diabetes Federation Since 2000, the number of people in Canada with diabetes has doubled. Today, one in three Canadians lives with prediabetes or diabetes. Those 20 years old now have a 50-50 chance of developing …
Nutrispeak Vesanto Melina MS, RD, Alessia Vaz and Sophia Jhajj A common misconception is that those eating plant-based diets are more prone to develop iron deficiency. In fact, it has been found that they are no more likely to suffer from iron deficiency anemia than are their meat-eating counterparts. Continue reading for answers to some …
Nutrispeak Vesanto Melina, MS, Registered Dietitian Why do we age? Getting older, and showing it, and feeling it, involves a buildup of toxic metabolites including reactive oxygen species, a form of free radicals, and AGEs (Advanced Glycation Endproducts). AGEs are harmful substances that form when protein or fat combine with sugar in the bloodstream. AGEs …
NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina Some people from Winnipeg call our fair city “Vegcouver”. One good reason is that when we go to the helpful guide for plant-based eating, www.happycow.net , and search Vancouver BC, we find no less than 244 listings. (These include vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants, as well as other food outlets.) If we …
