Nutrition Authority, PLLC

03/25/2026

MEDITERRANEAN DIET AND IBS
For people with IBS, guidelines recommend a "traditional" healthy diet that limits fatty, spicy, and processed foods, caffeine, fizzy drinks, and alcohol as an alternative to a more restrictive diet low-FODMAP diet.
Can a Mediterranean diet curb IBS symptoms as well as a 'traditional' healthy diet?
Scientists randomly assigned 139 people with IBS to eat either a Mediterranean or traditional healthy diet. After 6 weeks, 62% of the Mediterranean eaters - versus 42% of the 'traditional healthy diet' eaters had a substantial drop in IBS symptoms.
WHAT TO DO? If you have IBS consider a Mediterranean diet. If it works for you, you may not need a low-FODMAP diet, which can restrict beans, onions, milk, yogurt, apples, watermelon, peaches, wheat, and many other healthy foods.
Ann. Intern. Med. 2025/CSPI.

02/08/2026

05/14/2025

GUT HEALTH GIMMICK...
"Supports digestive health," shouts Arnold Whole Grains 100% Whole Wheat Bread. But what is so special about it? "Fiber in whole grains supports digestive wellness," says the smaller print. While this is true, it is no better for you than any other 100% whole wheat bread (generic is fine). Whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables all support your digestive wellness.
Any food can make an impressive sounding claim that it "supports" a structure or function of the body, with little oversight by the FDA. Marketers love this leeway!

Printed from Nutrition Action Health Letter (Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) March/April 2025

05/13/2025

SIX-INGREDIENT HUMMUS: Combine 1 cup no-salt-added canned or cooked (drained) chickpeas, 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil, 1 Tbs. tahini (sesame seed paste), 1 minced garlic clove, and 1/4 tsp. lite salt in a food processor and process until smooth.
Optional: for a nice bit of color and a subtle pepper taste, top with a sprinkle of paprika. Makes 1 cup.

04/25/2025

Gluten-free flaws. Unless you NEED to avoid gluten. DON'T! Mimicking gluten's texture is hard to do in the food science world, so most gluten-free breads mix in tapioca or arrowroot. Both of these starchy, fiber-poor ingredients are refined flour (bad).

What's more, any whole grain in gluten-free bread typically comes from brown rice, which is lower in fiber than the whole wheat or rye in other 100% whole grain breads.

WHAT TO DO: if you don't have to eat gluten-free DO NOT. It is not 'healthy'. GF products are formulated specifically for a population of people who have a disease called Celiac Sprue. GF foods are NOT diet foods and should be avoided if unwarranted.

04/25/2025

Do weight loss drugs help with alcohol use disorder (AUD)? Can Semaglutide (sold as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity) really help stop the craving for alcohol?

The answer is PERHAPS IT CAN! Researchers examined hospitalization records on 227,868 people with AUD over roughly nine years. Among the 4,321 semaglutide takers, the risk of being hospitalized for alcohol-related problems was 36% lower while they were taking the drug (for obesity or diabetes) than when they weren't.

WHAT TO DO: This one study can't definitively prove that semaglutide prevents AUD hospitalizations because something else about those who take the drug may explain their lower risk. But clinical trials testing semaglutide or terzepatide versus a placebo CAN determine whether the drugs help people with AUD. Stay tuned for more research on these emerging weight loss medications.

03/23/2025

EAT YOUR CARBS LAST? Eating carbs at the end of your meal may keep a lid on blood sugar if you have type 2 diabetes. Researchers provided three meals a day to 20 people taking metformin for their diabetes. For six days, they were told to eat high-fiber vegetables and protein FIRST and carbs last. And for six more days, they were told to reverse the order. Their peak post-meal blood sugar levels were 44% lower when they at the carbs last.

03/23/2025

Whole grain or not? Some breads' names or claims sound good...but they may or may not be 100% WHOLE grain:

1) MADE WITH WHOLE GRAIN - expect white flour mixed with whole grain. What the front label giveth, the back label taketh away!

2) WHEAT BREAD - most bread is made with 'wheat'. Wheat bread (wheat flour) is simply unbleached white bread (white flour). The word 'wheat' does not mean fiber rich and healthy.

3) MULTIGRAIN BREAD - multigrain means more than one grain. The bread you purchase could be mostly white bread with a few minimal whole grains thrown in. Tricky Labeling!

Eating healthy bread is simple: the first ingredient on the back label MUST be 'WHOLE' wheat, 'WHOLE' barley, 'WHOLE' sorghum, etc. So many breads on the shelves sport claims that are about marketing, not health.

02/16/2025

HEATED GLOVES FOR ARTHRITIS? Can heated gloves help with hand osteoarthritis (OA)?

Researchers randomly assigned 200 people with hand OA to wear battery-heated or non-heated gloves for at least 15 minutes a day.

After 6 weeks, the 2 groups reported no significant difference in function. However, the heated-glove wearers did report slightly less pain and stiffness, but they might have overestimated those benefits because they knew their gloves were heated.

WHAT TO DO: Got hand arthritis? You would be much better off skipping the heated gloves and instead taking high dose Omega 3 supplements (minimum of 3,000 of EPA and DHA combined. Read back of label) AND follow an anti-inflammatory diet. if you do both of these you WILL see a significant change in 6 weeks.

02/16/2025

SEEING GREEN! Leafy greens and fish help protect vision.
Researchers tracked 2,697 eyes (in 1,757 people) with early or intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

After 5 years, people who reported eating at least 2.7 servings of green leafy vegetables a week had a 25% lower risk of moving to a more severe level of AMD than those who reported eating no leafy greens.

And those who ate at least 2 servings of fish per week had a 21% lower risk than those who ate less.

WHAT TO DO: Salad and salmon, anyone?

This kind of study can't prove that greens and fish protect eyes because something else about people who eat those foods may explain their lower risk.

However, leafy greens ARE rich in Lutein and Zeaxanthin, which help slow AMD in people with intermediate or advanced - but not early - AMD in earlier studies.

02/16/2025

Meat and Satiety? Does meat keep you feeling full longer than vegetable protein?
Researchers randomly assigned 25 men to eat a 750-calorie pasta with bolognese sauce that was made with either beef or texturized pea and oat protein at noon.
At 2:30 pm, when the men were told to eat as much quiche with potatoes and carrots as they wanted, they ate more calories if they had eaten the meat sauce (230 more calories) than if they had eaten the pea-oat sauce (180 more calories) earlier.
Moral of this story: Don't assume that meat keeps you full the longest.
FAT is what provides the most satiety from meal to meal. It stays in your gut longer than both carbohydrates and protein.

01/17/2025

Food for thought on HEART DISEASE:

I wish providers would routinely order ‘advanced lipoprotein testing’. Many labs don’t even offer it. Standard lipid panels certainly do not tell the whole story. Unfortunately, most providers do not go outside the ‘standard of care medicine’ box because insurance will not allow it.

sdLDL-P. This is the “bad”, harmful kind of LDL.
o sd stand for small and dense.
o Easily invades arteries and gets into deep tissue.
o Carries oxidized cholesterol, which increases risk of HA by 4X.
o Comes from high carb diets.
o Often seen in high levels in patients with diabetes.
o Can be caused by high amounts of fructose.

IbLDL-P. This is the “good” kind of LDL cholesterol.
o lb stands for ‘large and buoyant.
o Large and fluffy and does not clog arteries
o Usually higher when patients are doing keto or intermittent fasting
o We need this kind of LDL to move cholesterol to where it is needed.
o Does not cause any damage in tissue.