We just got back from a few days camping at the lake. And it was great to not set an alarm, to go boating, kayaking, swimming with the kids and to end each day around the campfire. And when we're camping we relax our nutritional choices a little bit to include a cold beer, a smore around the camp fire and other snacks during the day. When you're camping with a group you tend to do things by committee. One group will look after making the meals. Another may handle cleaning up and doing the dishes. When it was my turn in the kitchen I prepared meals with a definite omnivore influence. We made sure to include lots of fruits, vegetables and salads at each meal. But this was to accompany bacon and eggs, steaks, chicken tacos and turkey sandwiches. For a while there the was a real push back against including meat in the diet. We saw a number of people wanting to become 'game changers' and drop meat from their diets. Restaurants were dropping meat or at least adding meatless alternatives to their menus. And overall it seemed as though you had to whisper when you talked about having a steak for dinner on the weekend. Well, with everything in life it seems like when we learn something new we go overboard and over-react in the short term, and maybe under react in the long term. Eating more fruits and vegetables would be an appropriate reaction. Eliminating all meat in favour of processed meatless alternatives would be an over-reaction. A new study helps bring the pendulum back into balance. In this one researchers looked at the difference plant versus animal protein had on grip strength and functional status. Almost 1900 subjects were involved in this study which ran for...

Do you eat healthily? If so, what is it that you do that makes your diet healthy?For some people this could mean eating more fruits and vegetables. For others it could mean limiting processed foods, sugar, liquid calories or alcohol. Sometimes we can think of healthy eating as limiting snacking and low nutrition foods. Or it could be an effort to eat more protein,or breakfast. Maybe it's an effort to eat more protein at breakfast.This conversation could take on a number of different angles. And because it has to do with nutrition this can almost become a theology, or a religion, for some.Consider the follow:'I believe in intermittent fasting'or'I believe in eating low-fat'These statements don't reference the science or evidence from research. Instead nutritional lifestyles are based on a belief system which may or may not have the support of science.Recently meatless products have appeared on the menus of fast food establishments. This will obviously appeal to the vegan and vegetarian crowds. Plus there will be some omnivores that will be curious to try a Beyond Meat burger.My question would be why?These burgers are marketed on the basis that it is important to reduce our consumption of red meat. And for those that are looking to be healthier but still satisfy their craving for a burger they can have the best of both worlds. Less red meat and a healthier alternative.But is this the case?Because there are, at minimum, two separate issues here.A. The first is that eating less red meat is healthier for you. There may  be some truth to this but we'd need more details. Who is the individual we're talking about? How old are they? How active are they? What are their goals? How much red meat do they already eat? What else do they eat? What is...