I’ve been a Registered Dietitian for almost 30 years and have served in the US Army as a dietitian and worked in Public Health in South Carolina has a dietitian. In the last 10 years I’ve seen an increasing level of fear about food and the ingredients in food. I think much of this has to do with social media and click-bait (alarming) headlines. You could basically be convinced that anything you eat or drink and a variety of ingredients are harmful — if you look hard enough.

1. Shopping when hungry. When we’re hungry EVERYTHING looks good! We find ourselves putting things in our shopping cart because the packaging is appealing, and the descriptions sound tasty…and who can resist the smell of freshly baked breads or donuts when we’re hungry (or “hangry”). 

Many people are fond of throwing around fearmongering words like: “poisonous”, “toxic”, and “dangerous” when it comes to certain foods, beverages, or ingredients – especially if it is something they don’t like or approve of.

Question: I’ve recently moved to NC and just started shopping at a nearby Ingles Markets. Who is “Laura Lynn” and who makes these products?

There’s no easy answer to this one because there’s no hard definition of “local”.  For some, local may mean:

Erythritol is a classified as a polyol or sugar alcohol and is a type of carbohydrate. It is found naturally in some foods like pears, melons, and grapes and can be manufactured.

Different forms of “fasting” seem to be in the news a lot lately from “time-restricted eating” (TRE), to intermittent fasting (IF) and circadian rhythm eating (CRE).

How creative are you in the kitchen? What staples do you keep on hand to make quick meals? 

Often we may see or hear people proclaim that certain products, treatments, foods or ingredients in foods are “natural” and therefore better.

You may have seen ads on social media or articles about collagen powder (peptides) helping with everything from removing wrinkles to reducing knee and joint pain and even improving gut health.