Local Registered Dietician Answers Your Health And Wellness Questions

On Six In The Morning, we're checking in on our health and wellness with Registered Dietician and ADD Nutrition Founder, April Dirteater.

We put out a call for viewers' health and nutrition questions to help folks get on track with a healthier lifestyle.

April discusses several topics such as eating before bed, sources for vitamin K, and diets like Keto.

How often should you eat red meat?

"So this is a more complex question. It's not like a black or white answer. So I think the biggest thing is looking at your current diet. If it's full of like highly processed meats, high saturated fats, sometimes replacing those types of meats with red meat would be more beneficial because it improves. But if you're someone who has like high cholesterol, or like, you know, any heart health risk, it's maybe limiting it to two to three times a week. But it really depends on the cut. And you know the quality as well, too.

So I would say for the general, a good guidance is, keep it simple, just a few times a week. But again, like if you're wanting to take steps in better health, most people, them eating too much like high quality red meat is not the issue. It's usually other things. So I would comb through your diet first. And then if it gets to the point where it's like, okay, like your labs aren't good, then maybe start weaning down the red meat a little bit," April said.

Is Keto a sustainable diet?

"So again, like it really depends on the person. I will say I've, you know, seen hundreds and hundreds of patients. I have not seen one client actually sustain (keto) yet. It was actually, you know, brought like to (fruition) because of epilepsy in children. And it's actually a really, really high fat diet. Most people who are doing keto are doing like a high protein, low carb diet. Because you can't actually have too much protein, or it'll kick you out of ketosis. But you also don't need to be ketosis to lose weight. And a lot of people get mixed up with it's burning fat with body fat, but it's actually the dietary fat you're consuming. So it's burning that for energy. It's not burning your body stores. You still have to be in a calorie deficit, like no matter what diet you're on," April said.

Where can we naturally get vitamin K? What are its benefit?

"So typically, it first of all, it plays a crucial role on like blood clotting, bone health and cardiovascular health. It's actually like, I'm sure some of the moms out there, they know that's like the shot their baby gets right when they're first born to help with the blood clotting. But typically, the easiest way to find it is anything green. So like leafy green vegetables, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and some oils as well," April explained.

Does eating before going to bed make you gain weight?

"So our bodies just don't magically like metabolize things differently because (of) the time clock. Our body's not like, 'oh, it's nine o'clock, like I'm done, you know, doing my job.' It still comes down to the calories you eat at the end of the day. However, one caveat, like if you cut your eating window down, like if you're not snacking till 10pm, the thing that's going to happen is you're probably eating less calories. It doesn't come down to, 'you're eating at 9pm. So now your body's going to use that as gaining.' You're not going to gain weight because of that. It's because you're more likely to eat more calories. But still, again, comes down to the amount of calories you're eating," April said.

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