Entries by Chet Zelasko

Found: The Dietary Sweet Spot

Did you have any hot dogs this week after considering the minutes you might lose? How about eating some salmon for what you might gain? If it at least gave you pause, that’s good. The researchers did this study because “research shows that the overconsumption of food detrimental to health and underconsumption of food beneficial […]

In Search of the Sweet Spot for What You Eat

After studying nutrition and exercise for so many years, the one thing I’ve tried to find is the “sweet spot” when it comes to what we should eat. I don’t mean how much sugar or sugary foods can we eat; I mean what do we have to eat to be healthy, reduce our risk of […]

The Dog Will See You Now

The Memo title is from Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about canine screening of disease, and I would urge you to listen to it. While the focus is on prostate cancer, the logical question comes up: could dogs be used to screen people for COVID-19? The answer is yes. No one knows for certain whether they can […]

Diagnosing Disease: The Canine Frontier

Malcolm Gladwell, one of my favorite authors, recently did a show on his podcast “Revisionist History” concerning the use of dogs in screening for prostate cancer. You probably recognize his name from his many books including “The Tipping Point”; if you haven’t tried his podcast, I recommend it. If there’s one thing that keeps men […]

When in Doubt…

It may shock you to know that there are no U.S. Federal laws that mandate the use of dates on foods or supplements with a single exception: infant formula must carry dates. That makes sense—the nutrient content of formula is important for the growth and development of the baby. Other than that, as long as […]

Best If Used By

Here’s a question I’m often asked about dietary supplements as well as food: What should we do with a food or supplement once it’s past the expiration date? One of my health newsfeeds had a title that mentioned milk going bad, so my mind was off and running! What does “Best If Used By” actually […]

By Any Means Necessary, Part 2

About a year ago, I wrote about the reasons we buy food pouches for Riley. He’s six and a half, and we’re still using them, because my thinking is I’m going to get those fruits and veggies into him by any means necessary. And the battle continues. Some evenings we have a battle royal over […]

Why Errors in Food Intake Matter

What is the big deal about errors in food intake in studies most people never hear about? It’s a problem because decisions on gaps in the diet, impact of nutrient intake, and the potential benefit or hazards of food and supplement intake are based on studies that use these techniques. I’ll give you a couple […]

How to Assess Food Intake

If you’ve been reading the Memo for any length of time, you know that I’m not fond of the methods used for determining food intake in free-living individuals, especially the Food Frequency Questionnaire. When looking at the validity of the doubly-labelled water technique for last week’s Memos on metabolism, I happened upon a review article […]

Metabolism Across Our Lifespan

It might not surprise you to learn that adjusted for body weight, infants under one year have the highest metabolism of all age groups. It makes sense; they’re growing so fast at that point. From there it’s all downhill, metabolically speaking, at a rate of about 3% per year until about 20 when metabolism stabilizes. […]