Summary: With the holidays right around the corner and the school year getting busier and busier, my mind is all over the place! I decided to make a “hodgepodge” episode so I can talk about several nutrition issues that I’ve been thinking about recently. First, we will examine some foods that get a bad rap. Then we will look at new research on eggs and the implications that has for us. Finally, we will learn how to eat well during the holidays. Yum<br> [divider]<br> Hodgepodge – Podcast Transcript<br> Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking. I am your host, Michaela Ballmann. Today we have another 3-part episode. Today we will be talking about foods that get a bad rap, new research about eggs, and eating well during the holidays.<br> There are many foods that get a bad rap these days—among these include white potatoes, bananas, and bread. What is so bad about these foods that makes them the target of unfounded nutrition advice? Many believe that since russet and other popular potatoes have a white interior that they are equivalent to white bread, and are put on the black list. How has the color white become associated with all things bad related to nutrition? Is cauliflower to be avoided because it’s white? How about milk? Cottage cheese? Mushroooms? Sure, there are plenty of examples of white foods that we should limit our intake of, like sugar, refined carbohydrates, and butter; but does the white color automatically make the food less healthy? No! Though we usually recommend bright-colored foods, naturally white foods are good too. Cauliflower has a good amount of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, and phytochemicals; Mushrooms are a good source of vitamins and minerals such as riboflavin, niacin, copper, selenium, potassium, and phosphorous, and Baking potatoes contain good amounts of vitamin C, B6, potassium, manganese, and fiber. Don’t let the white color food you.<br> Bananas get a bad rap because they have less water content than other fruits and therefore are more calorie dense than, say, watermelon. How does this make a banana a bad food choice? It is an excellent source of fiber, potassium, Vitamin, C and other healthful nutrients. Forget the extra few calories, and since it fills you up it might make you eat less at that meal or later—it’s a great food!<br> Lastly, I’m only going to touch briefly on the notion that bread is bad for you. After the Atkins diet grew in popularity, people all over the world came to believe that carbohydrates are the enemy, the cause of weight gain, and therefore need to be banned. Grains make up the largest portion of the old and new food pyramid—they contain wonderful nutrients and should most definitely be part of a healthy diet. I’ll have another podcast on carbs and popular diets.<br> Eggs—such a controversial topic these days due to recent research that has changed the way we look at this multifunctional food. We have thought for many years that we should limit our intake of eggs to about 4(-5) per week due to the high cholesterol intake of the yolk. This created an industry for Egg beaters and other egg substitutes, with people replacing the whole egg with either just the egg white or these substitutes.<br> We have learned to limit our intake of eggs due to the cholesterol in the yolk (213 mg) because of the rise in cholesterol levels. The most recent research has changed our whole view on egg–it shows that blood cholesterol is not due primarily to dietary cholesterol like we once thought. It is due to saturated fat. Saturated fat is once again the culprit! So, since we need to limit our intake of saturated fat, and not necessarily cholesterol, we are once again recommending eggs as a healthy food, able to be eaten every day. Note: if you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or high LDL cholesterol, you should limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg a day.
