Choose to Lose in 2012
In just a few days, the New Year will be here. Your favorite jeans or pants suddenly aren’t as easy to button as they were just a few weeks ago. Many of us will once again vow to achieve lasting weight loss in a healthy, safe way. But what does it take to succeed? As […]
Fresh Resolutions for 2012
In less than two weeks, a new year and a new beginning will be here. Whether you are going through cancer treatment, finished with treatment or simply looking to reduce your risk of cancer, a new year can be a significant milestone – the end of one cycle, and the beginning of another. How will […]
Be S.M.A.R.T. About New Year’s Resolutions
If you are currently undergoing cancer treatment, I realize you probably can’t think past this week, let alone think about next year. Setting goals is not a priority – getting through treatment is. If you are lucky enough to be done with treatment, or if you are simply looking to live a healthier lifestyle to […]
White is Wrong, Right?
Looking to eat more cancer-fighting foods ? A simple way to do this is to eat more colorful fruits and vegetables! Most orange, yellow, red and green fruits and vegetables are rich in phytochemicals, or nutrients that reduce the risk of cancer. But what about white foods? Many fad diets suggest cutting out white foods to lose […]
Fruit: Finding Flavor in the Fall
I always associate fruit with summer – serving watermelon and cantaloupe at picnics, picking fresh strawberries, and eating juicy Georgia peaches. Those hot summer days make fruit a natural choice – it’s cold, full of water and refreshing. Naturally, as cooler days move in, we gravitate towards warmer comfort foods like stews and soups. Despite […]
Thanksgiving Dinner: Including Foods to Fight Cancer
Growing up in the Midwest, we pretty much had the same traditional meal each Thanksgiving. Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, homemade egg noodles (to top the potatoes – from our German roots), candied yams, cranberry salad and yeast rolls. I experienced my first traditional Southern Thanksgiving with a friend’s family […]
Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain
It’s that time of year. Parties, celebrations, big family get togethers and meals. Unhealthy food is everywhere. How do you manage without gaining the dreaded holiday pounds? Studies have shown that most people gain only one or two pounds; however, the majority of Americans rarely lose the weight after the holidays. If you add one […]
Carbonated Beverages & Your Health
I don’t drink soda often. Knowing that most provide 150 calories for just 12 ounces, I decided many years ago that I’d rather eat and chew than drink my calories. It’s just more satisfying. However, there are rare occasions when I will drink soda, but it’s almost always calorie-free and usually because my options are […]
Reaching a Healthy Weight at Any Age: Is it Possible?
If any of you follow NBC’s hit show “The Biggest Loser,” you know that this season, the contestants started in three teams based on age – the 20-somethings, the 30-49 year olds and those 50 plus. Most of us would probably think the 20-somethings have an advantage, but is that really the case? From personal […]
Whole Foods vs. Pills: Which is Best?
As a cancer dietitian, I have had hundreds of conversations about dietary supplements, vitamins and herbals. Patients want to know if they are safe, if they will interfere with their chemo and/or radiation, and most importantly, if they will work or not. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to these questions. Dietary supplements, vitamins and herbals […]
Enjoying Winter Squash
If you’ve been to the produce section of your local grocery store lately, you’ve probably spotted the influx of winter squash. Until recently, I never knew what to do with these foods. When I was young, my grandmother made fresh pumpkin and butternut squash pies each fall, but I never paid much attention to how the squash got from point […]
Coffee: Dangerous Diuretic or Delicious Drink?
Do you enjoy your daily dose of coffee? Maybe a black espresso, or a latte? Or maybe an iced coffee from your favorite coffee house? No matter your preference, the big question remains: Is coffee safe during cancer treatment? Well, as with most nutrition questions, there is no black and white answer. It all depends […]
Enhancing Tube Feedings: What Can You Do Safely?
A few months ago, one of my patients who relies on a tube feeding to meet her nutritional needs asked me to blog on this subject. She wanted to know what she could add through the tube to enhance her nutritional health. When someone requires a tube into the stomach or intestines to feed, the […]
Seeking Smoothies
Are you struggling with a sore mouth? Does the thought of solid food make your stomach turn? Do you simply not have enough energy to pick up each bite with a fork and eat? If any of these issues are a problem for you, consider using smoothies. Whether purchased or homemade, smoothies or shakes can […]
Budget Cooking: Lentils
Do you enjoy dried beans but have limited time and energy to soak and cook them? Do you struggle with constipation? Are you watching your food budget? Lentils can be a great remedy for all of the above! If you’ve ever avoided dried beans because of the time involved in soaking and cooking, consider lentils. […]
Easing the Pain of Heartburn
Red wine, tomatoes and dark chocolate are three of my favorite things, but my stomach doesn’t always agree. Eating these foods too late at night never goes well, especially if I overindulge in all three at once. A year ago in Italy, I managed to do just that. At the end of a three hour […]
Holiday Weekends & Football Tailgates: Choosing Wisely
The approaching Labor Day holiday means many things – the end of summer, the arrival of football season, picnics, barbeques, boating and last chance beach trips. Unfortunately, if you are going through cancer treatment, Labor Day may just be another day on the calendar as fatigue can get the best of you. If you have […]
Vitamin D: Are you Getting Enough?
As I sat at the pool this weekend, I realized Labor Day is soon upon us. The poolside days are winding down, and summer is quickly coming to an end once again. Have you stored up enough Vitamin D for the winter? If you are currently undergoing cancer treatment, it’s likely that you have not, […]
Take 15 Minutes—Or 1/96th of Your Day—to Exercise
How active is your lifestyle? Do you sit at a desk or in a chair most of the day? If so, do you get up every hour to take a short walk? If you are going through cancer treatment right now, exercise may seem overwhelming. Even if you aren’t fighting an illness, adding one more […]
Colonics: To Cleanse or not to Cleanse? That is the Question…
Throughout my years of speaking with people during and after cancer treatment, questions about colon cleansers have come up more than I ever expected. But what exactly is a colon cleanser ? And is it helpful? Colonics, or colon cleansers, are often marketed as a way to “detox” the body to improve well-being and overall health. […]
When You Don’t Feel Like Eating…
Loss of appetite, or Anorexia, as it’s known in medical jargon (different from the eating disorder Anorexia Nervosa) is a common problem during cancer treatment. I can’t say I know firsthand what it feels like to undergo chemotherapy or radiation, but I have had the flu and mono on more than one occasion and couldn’t have cared […]
The Scoop on Ice Cream: Which is Best?
Ice cream and summer go hand in hand. For me, ice cream triggers memories of walking to the ice cream shop one block from my house each summer. I don’t think we went everyday, but I do know that me, my brother, and our friends were some of their best customers. As I child, I […]
Finding a Good Egg: Conventional, Free-Range, Cage-Free, Pasture-Raised or Organic?
This question frequently comes up during conversations with cancer survivors. Despite my many years of education, this one stumped even this dietitian. Which egg is best? Is one actually better than another, or are the names just marketing ploys with little meaning? The May 2011 issue of Prevention Magazine recently addressed this very topic. I don’t normally […]
High Risk Foods: Worth the Risk?
This week I’m doing something a little different – responding to a question I received regarding last week’s post! Hey Bethany, My mom always warns me about eating sandwiches w/mayo – like egg salad from Starbucks. Is she right? (in the summer?) David Thank you David for your thoughtful question! Mom has a reason to […]
Keep Foods Safe this Summer
According to the American Dietetic Association, roughly 40-50 million Americans get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from food borne diseases each year. Nearly one-half of these cases could be prevented by frequent hand washing when preparing or handling food. Hot summer temperatures like we are experiencing now here in the South are a perfect […]
Get Moving to Decrease Cancer Risk
It’s a sunny summer day. You’re sitting by the pool, eating a non-organic apple, drinking bottled water and talking on your cell phone. Which of these is most likely to increase your risk of cancer? Despite recent concerns about plastics, pesticides and cell phones, it turns out sitting may be the greatest risk factor, especially […]
Pesticides & Produce
If you watched the news in the past 24 hours, you probably have seen the story about our produce supply and pesticides. Is our produce supply safe? Should we buy organic? What can we do to reduce our exposure to pesticides? First of all, don’t stop eating fruits and vegetables! Although vegetables and fruits may […]
The Challenge of Eating on the Go
I just returned from an annual road trip to Mississippi to a friend’s family farm. It’s a get together we all look forward to each year with good friends, good food, and tennis. About halfway into our five-hour road trip, we stopped to fuel up and take a break. I walked into the convenience store […]
Beans, Beans, the Magical Food
Despite the childhood rhyme, I’m doubtful anyone ever believed beans qualified as a fruit. But are they magical? Perhaps… Growing up in a small Midwestern town, the only beans I remember devouring were either in chili, smothered in brown sugar and ketchup as baked beans, or covered in cream of mushroom soup and fried onions […]
Life’s A Peach
Finding a perfectly ripe peach while growing up in Ohio was like finding a needle in a haystack. In the Midwest in the 1980s, my family often canned peaches or turned them into jams as the few peaches we got often went bad before we could enjoy them. In the winter, I vividly remember racing […]
To Grill or Not to Grill: That is the Question
Memorial Day weekend will soon be upon us. Millions of Americans will hang their flags and clean up their grills for celebrations with family and friends. As long as you choose lean meats, grilling is a healthy choice, right? If you are concerned about fighting high cholesterol or heart disease, that may be true; however, […]
Strawberries: The Very Merry Berry
Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits, likely due to the happy memories they evoke of my mom and me heading to the strawberry patch each year after school was out to pick berries. I ate more than I picked in those days, but I loved the whole experience and the rewards of our endeavor, […]
Rethinking Mother’s Day: Give the Gift of Health
I’m not a mom (well, only to a dog), but like all of you, I have a mother and had two grandmothers. Both of my grandmothers died from cancer. Interestingly enough, I’m not sure either could have done much more to reduce her cancer risk intentionally. Neither of them used tobacco or drank alcohol. They […]
Probiotics & Cancer: Pro or Con?
By now you have probably heard of the term “probiotics.” You may even take probiotics daily – knowingly in the form of capsules, or unknowingly in foods like yogurt or kefir. But what exactly are they? And should you be taking them? Many diseases in our gut are the result of an imbalance of good […]
Easter Candy: Handy But Not So Healthy
Whether you celebrate Easter in the religious or secular sense, this Sunday you and your family may be bombarded with baskets of chocolates and marshmallow treats from the Easter Bunny. If you happen to avoid this temptation on Sunday, you may still come face to face with racks of Easter candy on sale next week. […]
Fighting Cancer Fatigue
Eating during cancer treatment can be challenging, to say the least. Nausea, taste changes, constipation, and loss of appetite can all make food rather unappealing. Aside from the loss of interest in food, sometimes it’s a struggle just to find the energy to prepare and chew food, even something as simple as a sandwich. I […]
Multivitamins & Cancer Treatment
The question of whether a patient should take vitamins comes up frequently in our clinics. Through this simple question, the patient is often truly asking two more important questions: 1) Can I or should I take vitamins with my cancer treatment? 2) Will taking multivitamins protect me from dying of cancer? At the end of […]
Soup Packed with a Punch
Rarely do I follow a recipe to make soup. It’s literally an experiment every time, and no two batches are ever the same. I guess that’s part of the fun of cooking! My goal when making any soup – whether it’s chili, bean soup, vegetable soup, or potato soup – is to find a clever […]
Serve Up a Colorful, Egg-Centric Breakfast
I was in college during the low-fat diet craze of the 1990’s and clearly remember eggs getting a bad rap. Friends would load up at breakfast on fat-free or low-fat pancakes, bagels, waffles, toast, cereals, and skim milk, but they would never eat eggs. The fat-free fad somehow became a free pass to overeat processed, […]
My Exploration with Colorful, Protein-Packed Quinoa
Pronounced “kee-NO-wah” or “KEEN-wah,” this food, somewhat new to the scene in the States, hails from South America. Although it is often served like a grain, the crop is technically not a member of the grass family like most grains. Given quinoa’s growing popularity, and the fact that I often talk with our patients during […]
Welcome to our blog at gacancer.com!
Professionally, I’m a Registered Dietitian with an expertise in helping people manage eating issues and weight changes during and after cancer treatments. After losing my father and three grandparents to cancer, I have a passion for not only helping those fighting cancer, but also learning everything I can about how to prevent cancer so I […]
Choose Color, Fight Cancer
I never thought much about it at the time, but as a child I was always turned off by Superman ice cream. “Who would want to eat blue ice cream?” I remember thinking. I suppose there was something about the color blue that appealed to most kids, but to me, it just didn’t seem natural […]
