Entries by Chet Zelasko

Can Airline Travel Make You Sick?

Have you ever flown for a vacation and found you were beginning to get a cold or other respiratory infection? How about when you fly for business? Just when you want to be at your peak, you’re feeling congested and beginning to cough. You immediately want to blame the flight for making you sick; after […]

Rising CO2 and Nutrition: The Bottom Line

All of nature is a delicate balance; when any component changes, there will be some sort of effect—maybe good, maybe not. The mineral nutrient and trace element content composition of a plant, technically called the ionome, reflects a balance between carbon, obtained through CO2 in the air, and the remaining nutrients, obtained from the soil. […]

How Researchers Determined the Effect of CO2 on Nutrition

An international group of researchers wanted to know how higher CO2 levels would impact the nutrient content of a staple in the diet of over two billion people: rice. If the nutrient levels change substantially, that could have an impact on the nutritional status of many people who might already be undernourished. Over several years […]

Does Carbon Dioxide Affect Nutrition?

Carbon dioxide is a waste product of energy metabolism. When we burn the food we eat, the protein, carbohydrates, and fat will be eliminated as carbon dioxide and water. When we use the gasoline in our cars or lawnmowers, CO2 and water are also released during that form of metabolism (called combustion) as well. The […]

Celebrate Your Independence

Tomorrow we celebrate Independence Day in the U. S. with parades, picnics, and fireworks. We will eat our favorite grilled foods—burgers and dogs or smoked slow-cooked ribs and corn on the cob and on and on. The problem is that while we celebrate our nation’s Independence, we are giving up our own independence. Based on […]

Toddler Health Tip: No More

“No more!” Those are the words Riley says when he doesn’t want any more milk, food, or anything else we feed him. When he says “no more,” that’s really it—he’s done. At dinner last week, Paula said, “That pasta was great and I could eat more, but I think I’ll be like Riley: no more.” […]

Common-Sense Health: Pillow Talk

Sometimes the smallest mechanical changes can make a big difference. Here’s an example. When I lived in Indiana, a member of my running club had developed chronic hip pain. He spent over a year trying one thing after another with no real relief: new shoes, different types of shoes, orthotics, stretching the iliotibial band that […]

Common-Sense Health: Where Is Your Wallet?

Keeping things balanced is important, and I try to do that in the Memos I write. Usually I tackle issues that are serious with significant health implications, but life is to be enjoyed so this week, we’ll lighten up before a holiday by talking about a guy’s wallet. And this is also about balance. When […]

The Bottom Line on Essential Amino Acids

Essential amino acids are becoming more prevalent in the sport nutrition supplement offerings. Yet there are still questions that remain, and we don’t have a total picture of who will benefit from EAA use. Let’s take a look. Questions Even with this new research, there’s so much we still don’t know about EAAs. Is there […]

Essential Amino Acids for Older Adults

One of the issues we all face as we get older is the loss of muscle mass; the technical term is sarcopenia. While some of the loss can be attributed to declining hormone levels as well as the decline in physical activity, we tend to eat less protein as we get older. Less protein intake […]