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Are brown sugar and honey healthier than sugar?

This is one of the most common popular believes. First of all there is a misunderstanding concerning cane sugar and brown sugar. The colour depends only on the refining process, cane sugar is white when completely refined.

Can older people get food allergies?

It happens frequently that older people get suddenly food allergies. It is not clear the reason why this happens, it may be a cumulative effect or a particular vulnerability of the organism in that moment, because of stress or other things.

Can you substitute fruit and vegetables with vitamin and antioxidant supplements?

A high number of studies have demonstrated that a diet rich in vegetables helps protecting your health. The benefits of fruit and vegetables are due to antioxidants such as vitamin E and C, beta-carotene and phenolic compounds.

I suffer from celiac disease, why certain cheese brands are forbidden?

Actually cheese doesn’t contain wheat and therefore gluten that people who suffer from celiac have to avoid. This misunderstanding comes from the gluten-free checklist of foods provided by the Associazione Italiana Celiachi on its website. This checklist presents only those products for which industries guarantee the absence of any possible contamination.

Is drinking coffee on an empty stomach bad?

Coffee stimulates the production of gastric juices, which are very acid. This process can worsen the symptomatology of people who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease. For these people drinking coffee on an empty stomach is generally contraindicated, so is for people who suffer from ulcer.

Is it bad to mix alcoholic drinks?

It is quite popular that mixing different alcoholic drinks, especially wines (red and white), is particularly bad for your health. Well, at dinner it can happen to change many wines – from spumante to dessert wines, or even strong drinks – and you generally drink more compared to drinking only a kind of wine.

Is it true that carbs and proteins shouldn’t been mixed in the same meal?

There is no scientific proof that foods rich in proteins and foods rich in carbs must be separated. This theory of food combining, published at the end of the 18th century, goes back to the studies of Dr. William Hay, and it became popular in the last twenty years thanks to some books regarding food combining.

Is pasta al dente easier to digest?

According to experts, the best way to see if pasta is cooked properly is to cut a small piece and see if the centre is still white or not. The white part, called “animella” should have disappeared. Whereas personal taste influences the cooking, things change as digestion is concerned.

Should crustaceans be avoided when suffering from high cholesterol?

It’s not that effective to dramatically reduce cholesterol provided by food. It is recommended to consume less than 300g cholesterol per day. Pork meat contains 65-70g cholesterol per 100g, similarly to turkey, chicken and beef.

What does kj in nutrition facts label mean?

Kcal stands for kilocalories and has the same meaning as calories, which, for simplicity, is more used in spoken language to indicate the energy value of a food or diet.

What foods are allowed when following a “bland diet”?

Eating plain food is an old time indication, when nutrition studies had just begun and there was a little knowledge of food composition and digestive process. Then it has been substituted by a so-called bland diet, i.e. preferably eat simple food, avoiding fried food and braised meat, which need long cooking times. A bland diet eliminates also spices, acid foods and drinks, and products rich in fibre.

Which food contains bad and good cholesterol?

Food contains only a certain kind of cholesterol, namely a particular type of fat that belongs to the group of sterols, contained in food of animal origin. Cholesterol becomes “good” or “bad” once inside our organism.

Which foods can protect skin from the sun’s rays?

To get a healthy suntan applying a good sun lotion regularly is very important, but also the right diet can be a great help to protect your skin from aging and also from other more dangerous risks related to UV rays.

Why do so many people suffer from food intolerance?

It really seems that food intolerance has become an out-and-out epidemic. Intolerance has always existed, but only some are real: lactose intolerance, favism caused by broad beans, phenylketonuria which prevent the metabolize of phenylalanine, rarer than the intolerance of milk proteins.

Why is it so important to drink a lot of water?

Water is essential for the functions of an organism and is the major constituent of our body. It transports substances to your cells, where all the metabolic reactions take place, thanks to the hydrogen provided by water. Water eliminates metabolic wastes through urination.