Wishing you all the best for a happy, healthy and productive 2011!

- Kate

I’ll be at FNCE this year; will you?  You can find me lurking around the Nutrition Entrepreneur’s events, particularly the PAY IT FORWARD! Speed Networking and Awards Ceremony where I will receiving the Nutrition Entrepreneur’s Professional Development Dietetic Student Award.  So excited.  Shoot me an email or Twitter to meet up: katedonelan@gmail.com and KateDonelanNYC.

Check out this great article on USA Today about decoding nutrition labels that features NYC dietitian Bonnie Taub-Dix.  I don’t think I understood the difference between a serving and a portion until my early 20s!  Definitely a great refresher for anyone.  Remember: good health begins in the grocery store.

One of my recent lifestyle changes has been to increase my amount of sleep each night.  For the past 5 years or so I have been getting somewhere between 6 to 8 hours each night.  However, after recent casual observation, I’ve found that I really perform better after 10 hrs. I have more energy, physically and mentally, which lets me perform better in class, in my business and in achieving my wellness goals.  So this recent study from the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine that found that a lack of sleep may be linked to childhood obesity really resonated with me.  I know just anecdotally from my own experience that when I sleep for a full 10 hours, I make smarter health choices, I have stronger willpower, and I have more energy to exercise, so I’m not surprised to see evidence of this link.

In a recent study from Great Britain, researchers found that regular exercise can reduce a person’s genetic tendency towards obesity up to 40%. How great is that?  My morning run isn’t just changing my physical state, it’s actually changing my CHEMICAL state.  Add in benefits to sleep, posture, mental alertness, mood….I mean the list goes on and on! If this isn’t motivation to get out there and get moving, I don’t know what is!

In a current study being conducted at Kansas State University, a professor is taking on a calorie-controlled junk food diet in an attempt to lose weight, suggesting that the poor nutritional quality of his diet will not impede weight loss.  I wonder what the value of this study is.  It has been pretty well documented that weight loss is simply calories in versus calories out.  And while choosing nutritionally dense calories is definitely  in your best interest for several reasons, weight loss can definitely be achieved on a calorie-controlled diet of Oreos.  But is this the best message to be sending out right now?   Read More.

I think that in this area of research, some discretion should be shown.  While the health industry desperately tries to battle the obesity epidemic, do we really need items out there telling people that they don’t need to change their junk food diets to lose weight?  Weight loss is hard, and anything saying otherwise is wrong.  Not to mention, for many weight loss is not the ultimate goal.  A junk food diet may allow for weight loss, but will still provide detrimental levels of sugar, salt fat.   What do you think?  What can we learn from this research?  And would you take on a junk food diet for weight loss?

Definitely called it.  Great end to my summer of Human Development and Food Microbiology.

Here’s a great collaboration between social media and a worthy cause.  The UN’s Food and Agriculture Administration has created an online petition for governments to deal with the problem of world hunger; when you sign the petition, you are given a username and unique link that forwards to your page of the petition.  From that page you can track everyone who signs the petition under your name.  Pretty neat, huh?  What an excellent way to use the connectivity of social media and really empower people to get involved.  How can you harness the power of social media to get your message out there?

Sign the petition on my page at One Billion Hungry.

I’ve always had a soft spot for vegans.  I love the creative dishes, the incredible deserts (when done right) and then eco-friendly message.  But, as one couple finds, eating a vegan diet can mean reliance on processed foods and meal replacements.  Check out this article in the LA Times: Pantry Raid: Vegan Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Healthy.