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By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE Before starting to work with a new client, whether it is for weight loss, or to help manage a health condition such as high blood pressure or diabetes, I ask them to complete a fairly comprehensive medical and lifestyle (diet...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE This week’s column is devoted to the top two myths about alcohol. In upcoming weeks I’ll cover a few others. Alcohol turns to sugar in your body and that’s why it makes you fat. This is a common myth since over-consumption of...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE Weight is just a number on the scale, but for most people, it can indicate a risk for diseases associated with obesity. Most people have heard about that awkward equation that determines your Body Mass Index, or BMI. Some health...
By Susan March Burke #1: Does everyone really need eight glasses of water a day? This myth has been dismissed repeatedly over the years, most recently in the New York Times where Dr. Aaron E. Carroll (a pediatrician and a researcher) explained the origin. He noted...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE Last January, when this article first appeared, I reported that when I typed the words “detox diet” into my web browser search box I was astounded to see more than six million “hits” for all types of “detox” diet programs and...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE As evidence accumulates that sugary beverages are linked to obesity, soda consumption is headed down. In a a new Gallup poll, 60% of Americans say they are trying to avoid drinking soda. Mexico has enacted a sugary beverage tax,...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CD A low-functioning thyroid is often blamed for weight gain and/or the inability to lose or maintain a healthy weight. Take this quiz to see how much you know about your thyroid and health. Answer True or False, then check your...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE I love my work! I get to research and write about my passion – how food and health are intimately and deliciously entwined – how what you eat can keep you healthy and happy too. This week’s topic is especially fun – it’s about...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE CrossFit: What it is, and what it is not? Unless you’re totally out of the loop, you’ve heard of CrossFit training – after all, some of the most popular celebrities grace magazine covers, showing off their phenomenal abs. But,...
A new department of Ecuador’s Ministry of Health has been assigned the task of making sure the country’s health care system, both public and private, is providing high quality service. The Agency for Quality Assurance of Health Care, created by the National Assembly...
By Susan Burke March, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE Recent news reports have touted coconut oil as having a bunch of “surprising” health benefits. It seems that some “experts” are claiming that it can boost immunity, influence hormonal health, control blood sugar, help with...
Ecuador’s social security health care system has revised its procedures to lower costs and eliminate what it says have been abuses of its services. The major change, according to social security system director (IESS) Hugo Villacrés is the reduction in referrals to...
Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health has established steps to identify and treat international travelers arriving in the country who may be infected with the Ebola virus. It says that it has set protocols at the international airports in Guayaquil and Quito similar to...
Two Manta area doctors believe that the threat of chikungunya, a painful mosquito-borne illness, is being vastly understated in Ecuador. Ministry of Health officials said on Tuesday that the country's first case of chikungunya has been confirmed in Loja Province. The...
An excruciating mosquito-borne illness that arrived less than a year ago in the Americas is raging across the region, leaping from the Caribbean to the Central and South American mainland, and infecting more than 1 million people. Some cases have already emerged in...
Ecuador’s doctors are reacting with cautious optimism to an agreement reached Thursday between the government and the national medical association about new malpractice rules contained in the country’s new penal code. The new code was enacted Tuesday by the National...
Ecuador’s Medical Association is warning that a new medical malpractice laws could force hundreds of doctors out the profession. On Wednestay, 90 doctors from Pablo Arturo Suarez Hospital in Quito resigned in mass to protest the new law that, in some cases,...
Ecuador’s Social Security administration, Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social (IESS), is reviewing the terms of expanded voluntary membership in its health care program. A spokesman for the agency said, however, that any adjustments will not affect the...
A survey by Ecuador’s Ministry of Health shows that 5.5 million Ecuadorians are overweight. The National Health and Nutrition Survey, conducted during 2013, reported that the country consumes carbohydrates -- mostly in the form of sugar, potatoes and rice -- in...
