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New Strength Training Guidelines Released

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN
Tennis shoes and weights

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has released their first new strength training guidelines in 17 years. The gold standard in all things strength, the ACSM reviewed over 130 systematic reviews with more than 30,000 participants to answer the questions we all have about how to get the most out of strength training. For those that want a very deep dive into the science, the report can be found at: https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/fulltext/2026/04000/american_college_of_sports_medicine_position.21.aspx. For those that want the highlights, here are some of my takeaways from the new guidelines.

  • Do 1-2 more reps. If you get to the end of a set, ask yourself, can I do a few more repetitions? Those last few reps are where you really begin to see strength gains as you stress that muscle to the max.
  • Consistency is KEY. Strength train at least twice per week. Aim to get 10 sets total per body part each week. Remember to skip a day in-between body parts. For example, if you do exercises for your legs on Monday, don’t train your legs again until Wednesday.
  • A variety of tools can build strength. As long as you are stressing the muscle, with stretch bands, kettle bells, dumbbells, or your own body weight, you can gain strength.
  • Use good form. It is important to stress the muscle with heavy weight – BUT – it should never be too heavy to sacrifice good form.

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How to Perfectly Sear Meat, Seafood, or Vegetables

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN
Pan seared chicken breast

There is nothing quite like a perfectly seared chicken breast or scallop. That golden brown color is the hallmark of restaurant quality dishes. Getting that perfect sear is not easy. You need several things working in your favor all at once.

On a recent trip to Gordon Ramsay’s Academy outside of London, I picked up one special trick that can make all the difference. More on that in a minute. First, let’s go over what is essential for a good sear.

You need a good pan. You can use nonstick but they are not designed to get as hot as needed for a great sear. If you are just getting started in your cooking journey, you can use a nonstick pan to give you more confidence. However, the gold standard for searing is a stainless steel or cast iron pan. Heat the pan over medium high heat. Heat the pan dry with no oil at this point.

Whatever you are searing needs to be bone dry. If the meat, fish or vegetable is wet or even moist, it will steam and not sear.

To test if the pan is hot enough, add one drop of water. If the water quickly evaporates and dances across the pan, you are good to go. If it sits there a second and just barely bubbles it is not hot enough. If the water explodes quickly, the pan is too hot.

Once the pan is the correct temperature, place the food you want to sear on a plate or in a bowl. Add your oil to the food, not the pan. Make sure all sides are coated. This is the tip I picked up from Chef Ramsay. Adding the oil to the food and not the pan keeps oil from burning in the places on the pan where there is no food.

Place your oiled food to the pan. Do not move it around or try to turn it too soon. It needs that contact with the pan to form the crust. For some delicate foods like scallops, this will only take a few minutes. For beef or chicken, it may take 5-7 minutes. The food should release easily once the sear or crust has formed.

Turn the food once a golden brown sear has been achieved and cook the other side. If you have a large piece of meat or chicken, you can finish it in the oven to get the internal temperature correct.

Now you can impress your friends and family with a perfect sear.

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Can You Build Resistant Starch by Chilling Carbs? Does it Matter?

by Kathy Kolasa, PhD, RDN, LDN

My younger patients spend a lot more time on social media than I do and seem to have become fascinated with cooling foods like rice or pasta or toasting or freezing bread to increase resistant starch. Why? Some are looking for ways to reduce blood sugar spikes or a strategy to manage their weight. Others are into feeding their gut to support healthy bacteria.

Trends in nutrition tend to cycle and reports suggest we are in a “carb cautious” trend.  People are worried that eating any bread or white potatoes will cause weight gain. Yet, they still want to eat foods that are affordable, easy to prepare and that they like.

Before becoming a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), I trained as a food scientist. While the concept of resistant starch was present in our food science and food chemistry books in the 1960s, the modern term of “resistant starch” did not yet exist. We were taught that starch resists digestion, cooking makes it digestible, and cooling makes it resistant again — which is exactly the modern definition of resistant starch.

 I don’t really recall any link to human nutrition, but rather we were interested in “raw starch digestibility”, “enzyme accessibility of starch granules”, “gelatinization and retrogradation”, “bread staling”, and “unavailable or indigestible” carbohydrate. For making a desirable bread product, the focus of the food scientist was on creating a bread with an appealing texture while delaying staling to extend shelf life. Today we know that resistant starch, which acts like soluble dietary fiber and escapes digestion in the small intestine and is fermented in the colon with clear physiologic effects, has modest clinical effects and strong variability between people.

There are reports that cooling rice lowers glycemic impact and freezing bread reduces carbs. These claims come from the process of retrogradation — cooling converts some digestible starch into resistant starch.  So, we are seeing “science-backed food hacks” and comments like leftover pasta is healthier than fresh. The effect of cooling is indeed real, but modest at best. It does not make carbs “free” foods.  Portion size as well as the other ingredients in the pasta dish matter.

As a side note, for many years I helped patients interested in using the glycemic index of food to plan their meals. There is evidence to suggest that resistant starch can blunt post-meal glucose some and possibly improve insulin sensitivity over time, but the variability is great. Few patients are willing to follow through with testing their blood sugar before and after eating their favorite foods to determine the glycemic index and load. Others find it tedious to use the charts to plan their meals as every combination of food changes the load.  You can find protocols on the web for figuring out your body’s glycemic response to a food, but it is not “simple”.

As for the gut-microbiome hype and claims like resistant starch is “fertilizer for your gut”, it is true that resistant starch is a prebiotic and feeds beneficial microbes that produce short-chain fatty acids and support metabolic health. You can find supplements of corn or potato starch and green banana flour, but like all dietary supplements it’s difficult to learn what’s in the bottle and its efficacy and safety. Rather than taking supplements or trying to create resistant starch in your favorite foods, make sure you are meeting the recommended intake of dietary fiber which is about 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men (most Americans do not consume enough fiber). Increase your fiber slowly and drink plenty of fluids to avoid gas and bloating.  Choose foods naturally high in resistant starch, including legumes like lentils, chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans and white beans. Beans are good for not only their resistant starch but plant proteins. Eat your bananas while still slightly green. Enjoy grains like steel-cut oats, barley, farro and wheat berries.  Eat your left-over grains, pasta and rice–rather than adding them to food waste. And if you really want, go ahead and freeze, thaw and toast your white, sourdough or whole grain bread.

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New Year’s Resolutions One Month Later

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN

Making New Year’s Resolutions in January is easy. Keeping them going is another story. More times than most, we make our resolutions too complicated and without flexibility. We need to give ourselves some grace and allow for our goals to be tweaked. Some progress is better than no progress. Don’t throw in the towel just because you are not perfect. Aim for progress not perfection. Below are some simple healthy eating goals and one TIP to help you make progress. Keep trying and know we are all on this health journey together.

  1. Stay Hydrated – This is not always easy in the winter months when the last thing you want is a cold beverage.
    TIP: Drink hot lemon water. A simple and satisfying drink is hot water and a slice of lemon. It will keep you warm and hydrated. Need a bit more flavor, try herb tea.
  2. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables – This goal is evergreen. Whenever anyone asks what is one thing they can do to improve their diet, I choose this one. Not only is eating the fruits and vegetables healthy, they will likely replace other foods that are not so healthy in the diet.
    TIP: Make twice as much as you need. If you are roasting or steaming vegetables, make twice as much so you have leftovers (plannedovers) for future meals.
  3. Keep or Get Moving – Winter is a hard time of year to keep moving. Too cold, too dangerous to be outside, and all of the other cold-weather excuses makes winter harder to be active.
    TIP: Join a gym (and go to the gym). There are so many low-cost options now to give you a daily indoor option for moving. If you don’t have a gym in your area or are not into a gym, try youtube videos of walking. I REALLY like Leslie Sansone, here is one of her videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enYITYwvPAQ.
  4. Sleep – This is something our programs highlight and emphasize over and over. Lack of sleep interferes with your hunger and satiety hormones making you hungrier when you don’t get enough sleep.
    TIP: Keep your phone out of the bedroom. If you cannot do this (I have an elderly mother so I have to have my phone nearby), silence alerts and pushouts, especially weather alerts.

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“I lost 10 pounds without dieting and my A1c ended up much lower”

by Christine Lavelle

“I took the course over a year ago as my A1c was creeping up. Our instructor was excellent and provided us with in-house and outside sources of support along the way, with recipes and exercise tips. I found out about many new resources, lost 10 pounds without “dieting”, and my A1c ended up much lower. It is down to 5.2 and is the best it has been in memory. Worth it!”

–Nancy, a successful Eat Smart, Move More, Prevent Diabetes Participant

Healthy(ISH) Valentine’s Day Dinner

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. A holiday known for large boxes of chocolates designed to SHOW your love FOR your love seems to be designed to sabotage your eat smart goals. However, with a little planning, you can prepare a special meal that will impress the ones you love in your life without throwing health out the window.

A few years ago I was challenged by the HomeGrown in the Kitchen team at NC State University to showcase a healthy Valentine’s Day meal. Check out the video below to see how you can make this simple and easy meal at home. Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Seed Oils: Good or Bad?

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 suggests cooking with olive oil, butter, or beef tallow. They also recommend limiting saturated fat to 10% of calories, consistent with past Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Our programs support the Mediterranean eating pattern as a diet that offers protection from several chronic illnesses including heart disease and diabetes. Thus, we also support using olive oil as your go-to fat for cooking. What do you do, however, if you need a more neutral oil for a salad dressing or cooking? The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 don’t mention other fats.

It is with some surprise that seed oils were not mentioned in the new guidelines as they have been maligned recently as something to completely avoid. Let’s take a closer look at seed oils and the controversy that surrounds them.

First, what are seed oils? Avocado, palm, and olive oil come from the plant (fruit). All other oils are seed oils. This includes canola (from rapeseed), sunflower, grapeseed, soybean, even almond and walnut since nuts are also seeds. Oil labeled vegetable oil is most often a blend of canola, soybean, and or corn oil.

Canola oil is often singled out as the most dangerous oil. Many include in their argument that Europe has banned this oil. This is not true. While you will not find canola oil in the list of ingredients in foods in Europe, it is not because it has been banned, it is because they use the name rapeseed oil instead. Canola is a trade name and is short for Canadian oil.

A concern about seed oils is the way they are processed. Oils are indeed processed, all oils are, seed and non-seed. There has to be a process to get the oil from the plant or seed. Further, they have to be refined to remove impurities and create a palatable oil that is less likely to spoil and can be used at high heat without the risk of burning. Some oils (olive included) use the chemical hexane to achieve the level of processing needed to purify the oil. Most of hexane is removed during the processing. Trace amounts may remain; however, they are dissipated as soon as the oil is heated. If you are concerned about the trace amount of hexane, choose organic, unrefined, or cold pressed oils. By law, they will not be processed using hexane. However, the amount of hexane in oil is so low or even undetected and has not been shown to cause harm.

Anti seed oil advocates often cite that seed oils increase inflammation. Study after study, including randomized trials, show time and time again this is not true. They are often looking at animal studies or studies that have been done in the lab in test tubes. Studies with humans do not show that seed oils have an inflammatory effect on the body. We know that the essential fatty acid linoleic acid, when converted to arachidonic acid, can be a precursor to inflammation. However, the conversion of linoleic acid to arachidonic acid is very low in humans. In fact, there is much evidence from the past 30 plus years that seed oils do not increase inflammation.

It is clear that when you dig a bit deeper past YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram the vilification of seed oils is not warranted. There is simply little to no evidence that consuming seed oils is harmful to human health. The recommendation to substitute polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat for saturated fat is supported by literally tens of thousands of studies that indicate their protective effect for heart disease and type 2 diabetes making olive oil AND seed oils a healthy choice.

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Best Soup for a Cold Winter Day

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN

Nothing is more satisfying as a bowl of warm soup on a raw winter day. Sure you can buy a can of soup, there are lots to choose from. However, making your own is not only easy, it turns out that homemade really is better, way better than canned. I am reminded of this when I, on the rare occasion, eat canned soup. It is just ok compared to a really great bowl of homemade soup.

Don’t be daunted by making your own soup. Even novice cooks can do it. I have a few go to recipes that I use over and over. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be Red Lentil with Lemon, although they are all delicious, easy, and so good for you. Give one or all a try.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

Super Tomato Soup

Black Bean Soup

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Does Intermittent Fasting Help You Lose Weight?

by Kathy Kolasa, PhD, RDN, LDN

Yet another report of a new study on Intermittent Fasting (IF) has crossed my desk. IF (or time restricted feeding) is a dieting trend that includes dedicated periods of time when an individual consumes little to no calories and other times they eat as usual. Unless you raid the fridge during your sleeping hours, we all IF.

There have been over 11,000 studies (fewer than 2,000 peer reviewed), an estimated 13,000 Tik Tok and 3.8 million Instagram posts, 20 million Google listings…and no, I have not read them all. There is consensus from the scientists that the studies show the results you might get from IF are no better nor worse than what you would get by using an old-fashioned calorie counting strategy to lose weight.  In either case, any weight loss comes from restricting calories. Dietitians have said for years, if you consume 500 calories less a day, in 7 days, you will lose a pound a week. Of course, results do vary by gender, physical activity and age.

For some people it may be more convenient and sustainable to restrict their eating to an 8 hour window, or eat as usual one day and fast the second day, or carefully control caloric intake for 5 days and eat as desired on 2 days of the week. I haven’t tried any of these strategies. I have never been able to fast. I am a person who gets very” hangry” if I don’t eat meals and snacks throughout the day. So, the only fasting I do is when I sleep.

Finding the right strategy for you to maintain a healthy weight may involve experimenting with IF. And there could be some additional benefits like a modest improvement in insulin sensitivity and/or a small decrease in LDL (bad) cholesterol and a reduction of inflammation. Most of the improvements seen in fasting studies, the science shows, is due to the weight loss. Again, this weight loss is due to calorie restriction and not something magical about IF. Most healthy adults can tolerate IF well. IF is NOT recommended for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or teens and adults with a history of eating disorders, or high risk of hypoglycemia, or are taking medications that should be taken with food.

A new study that crossed my desk adds a new insight that might be helpful for those who want to try all day fasting. Researchers followed a group of Muslims fasting from before sunrise to sunset from food and drink during their holy month of Ramadan. They reported that hedonic hunger (also known as eating for fun or pleasure) many experienced at the beginning of the month, was tamed with time, making adherence to fasting easier and more sustainable to follow for them. It would be important for those experimenting with IF to be committed to trying for at least a week before saying that strategy won’t work for them.

Source: Selen H. (2025) The Effect of Intermittent Fasting on Hedonic Hunger: A Pilot Prospective Cohort Study Based on Ramadan Intermittent Fasting. Frontiers in Nutrition.  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1718105/

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Holiday Weight Gain is No Big Deal… Really?

by Carolyn Dunn, PhD, RD, LDN

Holiday weight gain is no big deal…really?

There are some misleading reports about the relatively small average weight gain during the holidays. On average, holiday weight gain is between ½ to 2 pounds. This sounds innocent enough. Just a few pounds that can easily be reversed when the holiday celebrating stops. Well, that is the problem- most people don’t take the weight off. So that ½ to 2 pounds adds up over the years. In five years, this means 2 ½ to10 pounds.

The best solution is to be mindful during the holiday season to keep weight gain to a minimum or work to maintain your weight over the holidays. If a few pounds do creep in, be sure to be extra vigilant during the first few months of the new year to get back on track with your healthy eating and physical activity routine.

Enjoy friends, traditions, seeing the lights, cooking with family, and even your favorite holiday food in moderation. Mindfulness is key. If egg nog is your thing (mine is); consume it mindfully and enjoy each sip. Enjoy your favorites and skip the food that is just there and not really calorie worthy; iced sugar cookie left on the counter I am talking to you. Happy Holidays!

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