Nutrition Archive

Lactose Intolerance

Questions to Discuss with Your Doctor:

• Do you have rumbling abdominal sounds after eating milk products?
• Do you get abdominal cramps, bloating, or diarrhea after eating milk products?
• Can you tolerate small amounts of milk?
• Do your symptoms improve when you eliminate milk products from your diet?

Your Doctor Might Examine the Following Body Structures or Functions:

• Careful abdominal exam
• Rectal exam

Your Doctor Might Order the Following Lab Tests or Studies:

• Trial of elimination of milk products from the diet
• Hydrogen breath test
• Lactose tolerance test

Higher intake of saturated fats is associated with a 24% greater risk of coronary artery disease. Replacing 1% of those fats with the same amount of calories from unsaturated fats, whole grains, or plant proteins appears to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease.

Cocoa flavanols, which are plant-based nutrients found in cocoa beans, seem to have beneficial effects on risk factors for heart disease. 

Lifestyle habits such as not smoking, avoiding obesity, exercising, and following a healthy diet may cut a person’s risk of heart disease in half, even if they have genes that put them at a high risk of cardiovascular disease. 

Ask the doctor

Image: bopa/Thinkstock

Q. I have read about diets that involve fasting for one day, followed by normal eating for the rest of the week. Are there any benefits to this kind of diet??

A. Most diets achieve weight loss through the same equation—a reduction in total daily calories consumed in relation to the calories needed to maintain your weight.

Here's what to do when certain foods disagree with you.

 Image: ChesiireCat/Thinkstock

You probably remember an occasion when you ate something that did not agree with you. But if your stomach issues have become severe and frequent, you might have a food intolerance.

"Food intolerances puzzle many older men, since foods they long enjoyed suddenly give them problems," says Evagelia Georgakilas, a registered dietitian and nutritionist with Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "They might tough it out and suffer in silence, but by identifying the problem foods, making adjustments in portion sizes, and switching out certain foods as needed, they can avoid painful and recurring digestive issues."

Some potential medicines appear capable, in animals, of producing the same changes in body chemistry that calorie restriction does. 

Trans fats are undeniably bad for health, and they're still in many foods.

 Image: GPointsStudio/Thinkstock

Lurking on supermarket shelves, within colorful, seemingly harmless packages, is something that can cause serious harm to your health: trans fat. "No amount of trans fat is acceptable, from a health standpoint," says registered dietitian Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

About trans fat

Become a detective

Dairy products don't seem to harm the heart. But plant-based fats are probably a better choice than cheese.

 Image: AlexPro9500/Thinkstock

Health-conscious consumers know to steer clear of diets that include lots of meat—especially fatty, salty processed meat. But what's the deal with dairy? Nutrition experts have long recommended low-fat milk and yogurt as good choices for getting the two to three daily servings of dairy recommended by federal dietary guidelines.

Over the past few decades, Americans have been spooning up more yogurt and drinking much less milk. But the biggest change by far has been in our cheese consumption, which has skyrocketed since the 1970s (see "Trends in dairy intake: Less milk, more cheese and yogurt").

People who drink at least one cup of tea daily may be less likely to have cardiovascular problems than those who never drink tea.