August 18 is National Ice Cream Pie Day. (It's also the third week of National Crayon Collection Month, but who's counting?) You know whose arteries ice cream pie is good for? No one. Plain and simple. But Habit, one of the latest disrupters in the food tech sector, suggests we rethink the very notion of foods that are good for everyone or bad for everyone. It's part of a movement toward what is called personalized nutrition.

Habit, based in the San Francisco Bay area, tests for biomarkers and genetic variants using samples you provide, then generates a personalized report about how your body responds to food. It's your unique "nutrition blueprint." Then the company pairs you with a nutrition coach and offers you custom-made meals, containing your ideal ratio of carbs, fats and protein, delivered to your home. All in the name of sending you on the path to a "new you."

I had to see for myself. So I endured the home test and shipped off my blood and DNA samples. (Gulp.) Then the company's chief executive walked me through the results of my newfound eater identity, and I observed how the diagnosis began to affect my relationship with food. Here's what happened and what it could mean for the future of eating in America.

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The Habit home kit is not for the faint of heart. After fasting for 10 hours, you answer lots of deeply personal questions, scrub DNA samples from your cheeks and puncture your fingertips with a self-pricking button (technical term: "lancet"). This sounds rough, but my lowest moment is actually chugging their special Habit Challenge Shake. It clocks in at 950 calories, 75 grams of sugar and 130 percent of daily saturated fat intake. It has a taste and smell I can only liken to Kahla. It makes me feel god-awful while drinking it nose pinched, pinkie out, face scrunched and even worse afterward. It was bad enough I had sacrificed my Saturday morning frittata ritual.

By the third blood sample, my dining table looks like a crime scene. I've got bandages on two fingers, mini disinfectant pads strewn around, and cherry red blood dripping down my forearm. I'm angling my elbow like a helicopter hovering over the little blood collection card, just trying to fill the darn box one last time so I can move on with my day. Finally, I pack it up and mail it all off in a rather alarming biohazard bag. The whole ordeal takes about three hours and costs $309.

I'm told I'll receive my results in a few weeks. While I wait, I wander back to the Habit website and take a closer look at those pages and pages of fine print. I start to have second thoughts at sentences like, "You may experience stress, anxiety, or emotional or physical discomfort when you learn about health problems or potential health problems."

Then there's this: "Recommendations regarding diet provided to you may or may not be beneficial to you and may cause or exacerbate certain medical problems."

Say what now?

Thankfully, when the results come in, I get labeled a "Range Seeker." In official Habit-speak, it means "you can be flexible with your macronutrient intake and thrive on a range of foods." Well, that's a relief.

There are seven Habit types, each with dozens of more specific sub-variations, varying from "Slow Seeker" (best suited for foods rich in fiber and carbs that are absorbed slowly) to "Fat Seeker" ("fat is a valuable fuel source for you"). Along with receiving your tribal designation, you're assigned a personalized eating plan, depicting your ideal plate, suggested nutrient goals and daily calorie target.

I'd be lying if I said the results haven't been affecting my food choices, or at least the way I feel about my food choices. For instance, since being told I have a genetic risk variant associated with slow production of omega-3s, I have been seeking salmon like a grizzly bear. Apparently, I'm also genetically predisposed to caffeine sensitivity. Many a morning, this news has me sitting at my desk thinking I must be tripping out on my cup of joe despite the fact that I have consumed the exact same amount of coffee every day of my adult life.

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On the face of it, personalized nutrition makes sense. Why wouldn't I want to understand the unique dietary yearnings and land mines of my own DNA? Many people seem to feel that the existing national dietary guidance of one-size-fits-all has failed them. They're sick, and they're confused about what to buy and what to order.

But in reducing food to individualized nutrient optimization equating food with fuel, really what are we sacrificing? What are the implications for our food culture and the future of dining? "Oh, gosh, I'd love to go out for sushi with you, but I have to scurry home to my prearranged 'Range Seeker' box in the fridge."

Neil Grimmer, Habit's founder and chief executive, recognizes that food is social. He tells me that it "knots us together culturally," so Habit is in the process of facilitating online communities for people with the same Habit type. Through a private Facebook page, they can share tips and the like. It's better than going it alone, I guess, but a far cry from actually sharing a meal.

Remember the $300 you put down for the home test? It includes a coaching session, so a nutritionist helps you put all your information into practice. During my session, Jae Berman, a registered dietitian nutritionist and head coach of Habit, is a great help. But things don't look so rosy when I ask her how I'm supposed to integrate Habit into regular life.

"The family conversation has been one of the most common questions we have gotten," she says. "It doesn't occur to me as a problem because I just want people to take ownership of their story ... have the empowerment to say, 'This is what my plate looks like; that's what your plate needs to look like,' and move on." Even, she says, if that means everyone at the table eating something different. Have you ever tried being the short-order cook in that scenario? It all but requires outsourcing the meal making.

Imagine, Berman says, a mom who's stressed out, with kids running around, "a husband who is a rail," all the while she has no time for herself, is struggling with her weight, and trying to figure out what on earth to cook for dinner. "Most people don't want to talk about uncomfortable things," Berman says. "But let your kids eat mac and cheese, let your husband do what he needs, and let you have this plate for your dinner. You don't need to do anything it's going to show up at your door."

This desire to customize our food experiences stems from the uniquely American trait of individualism. Often subconscious, it's a desire to be exceptional, distinct from those around us, as opposed to being part of a larger collective. By contrast, many other cultures around the world are characterized by interdependence. It turns out, individualism shapes our eating habits in stunning ways, from the epidemic of solo dining to customization as a firmly expected attribute of eating out.

Habit is the latest example of a new technology enabling that innate premium on personalization, and over time, these tools are pulling us further and further from the table. Think smartphones making us feel less alone while eating alone, and mobile ordering apps allowing us to tailor our meal delivery times and our restaurant orders with greater precision. With roughly half of all eating occasions now taking place when we're by ourselves, we're getting less and less practiced at eating with others.

This reality has major implications for our food culture, and for the rising rates of social isolation in the United States. You know what the single greatest predictor of happiness is? Social connectedness. And guess what: It's one of the greatest predictors of longevity, too.

Of course I want people to eat food that's right for them. But we also have to ask ourselves: Which is really going to make us live longer, and live better? The ability to pay more granular attention to our triglyceride levels, or the more holistic benefits of eating with family and friends?

My grandmother turned 100 this year. Between the birthday parties and the bridge club, her standing dinner dates and the three times a day she picks up her neighbors in their retirement home hallway to take their walkers down to the dining hall, a thriving social life has been Alma's secret to a long life. Whether I'm chomping on my salad, face glued to my iPhone, or waving off her breakfast offer by citing the low-glycemic Kind bar I just finished off, she tells me time after time: She'd take the cake and the friendships any day.

Egan is author of "Devoured: How What We Eat Defines Who We Are" (William Morrow/HarperCollins), recently released in paperback.

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I sent in my DNA to get a personalized diet plan. What I discovered disturbs me. - Chicago Tribune

By Carrie DennettSpecial to The Washington Post

The concept of eating a "plant-based" diet is tossed around frequently, but it's a label that can be confusing. Some people shy away from the notion because they assume that plant-based is code for vegan. On the other hand, it's easy to think that eating all plants and no animals guarantees that your diet is healthful and nutritious. But does it?

The research in support of plant-based diets is bountiful, which is likely because of what they include - vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fiber - as much as what they don't - excess saturated fat. But one limitation of much of that research is that it defines "plant-based" as vegetarian. Plant-based diets can take many forms, from vegan to vegetarian to flexitarian to omnivore. The common denominator is that they make plant foods the focal point of the plate. If you choose to eat animal foods like meat, poultry, fish, eggs or dairy, they play smaller, supporting roles.

The other limitation is that the research tends to treat all plant-based diets equally, without regard to food quality. The fact is that many people focus on avoiding certain foods but are blind to whether the rest of their diet is nutritionally adequate. This is one of the perils of demonizing specific foods - no one food makes or breaks a diet, and it's your overall eating pattern that matters most for health and well-being.

That's not the message you get from many of the recent plant-based diet "documentary" (in other words, propaganda) films. The latest, "What the Health," blames animal foods for every ill known to man and woman. While excessive amounts of animal protein and fat aren't good for us, that doesn't mean that moderate amounts in the context of a plant-rich diet are harmful. An excessive amount of anything isn't good - even water - and a cupcake is a cupcake, even if it's vegan.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology seems to agree. It found that when it comes to the plants you eat, quality does count - and omnivores have a place at the plant-based table, too.

The study, which came from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, included more than 200,000 women and men from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, aimed to get a clearer answer on both quantity and quality of plant foods needed to see a benefit for health. This included the role of animal foods. Researchers measured what proportion of each participant's diet was plant-based, and whether those plant foods were healthful - vegetables, fruits, whole grains - or unhealthful - sweetened beverages, refined grains, sweets.

They found that a diet rich in healthful plant foods is associated with a substantially lower risk of developing heart disease, while a plant-based diet that emphasizes less-healthful plant foods is associated with increased risk of heart disease. Those eating a nutritious plant-based diet while also being more physically active fare even better. In a 2016 study, the researchers found similar results for the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The study also supports the value of a plant-rich diet even for omnivores. Individuals who ate the least plant foods were eating about five or six servings of animal foods per day, while those with the most plant foods were eating three servings of animal foods. This means that reducing - not eliminating - animal foods even slightly while increasing healthy plant foods has benefits for preventing heart disease and diabetes. This allows a lot of flexibility with eating. The traditional Mediterranean diet follows this pattern, as do other healthful dietary patterns from around the globe.

While association does not prove cause and effect, there are various physiological mechanisms that may explain the health benefits of a plant-based diet. Whole and minimally processed plant foods are rich in vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants, along with heart-healthy unsaturated fats and dietary fiber. Together, this can promote healthy blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, while lowering inflammation and nourishing your gut microbiota. To reap these benefits, here's what to eat more of:

- Whole grains and foods made from whole grain flour.

- Fruits and vegetables.

- Nuts, beans and lentils.

- Vegetable oils (olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oil) in dressings and for cooking.

- Tea and coffee.

- Healthy animal foods like fish, dairy (other than ice cream) and eggs.

At the same time, here's what to eat less of:

- Fruit juices and sugar-sweetened beverages.

- Refined grains and foods made from white flour.

- French fries, potato or corn chips, and baked or mashed potatoes.

- Sweets (candy, pastries, desserts).

- Less-healthful animal foods (butter, lard, meat, ice cream).

In this era of "free-from" foods (lactose-free, gluten-free, GMO-free), this study is a reminder that for nutrition and health, what you do eat matters as much as, if not more than, what you don't eat.

Dennett is a registered dietitian-nutritionist and owner of Nutrition by Carrie.

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Plant-based diet? Sure, but first understand what it means - Foster's Daily Democrat

While plant-based diets and vegan lifestyles are becoming more popular, there are still benefits to including moderate amounts of red meat in a balanced diet. If you eat meat like beef or are thinking of adding it to your meal plan consider these three things to make the most of your choices.

Cut

The part of the cow from which the meat comes typically determines how much fat it will contain. For example, a 3-ounce portion of eye of round roast (from the hind quarters) has only 4 grams of fat, and a 3-ounce portion of a ribeye steak (from the middle of the cow) can have almost 20 grams.

The USDAs definition of lean meat includes consumption of less than 10 grams of total fat per 100 grams of meat which is about 3.5 ounces. The American Heart Association sets a limit of 6 ounces of meat, chicken, and/or poultry per day.

Try a 3-ounce portion of tenderloin for less than 7 grams. Want a bigger portion? A 5-ounce sirloin still fits into the definition of lean, at just under 10 grams of total fat.

How its raised

Grass versus grain is an interesting debate. Ive tasted both and looked at the nutritional profiles of both. It may come down to personal preference, and possibly concern for animal welfare. It can also depend on the farmer.

All cows graze on grass at some point in their lives. After they wean from the mother, cows go to graze, and eventually they are finished with either more grass, or grain-based feed. Switching cows to grain can allow faster weight gain, and also may change the flavor of the meat. A few years ago, I did a blind taste test of grass-fed versus grain-fed steaks with a group of dietitians. While completely unscientific, about three-fourths of us preferred the taste of the grain-fed meat.

Nutritionally, finishing cows with grass can allow a better overall fat content, with slightly less saturated fat and slightly more omega three fats. However, the differences in nutrition profiles between grass- and grain-fed cows are small, especially if a person is following the recommendation to limit red meat to two to three servings per week.

Nutrients

From my standpoint as a dietitian, the most beneficial nutrients in beef are the macronutrient protein, and minerals such as iron and zinc.

A 3-ounce portion of lean beef contains up to 25 grams of protein for about 150 calories. To get that amount of protein from a plant-based source like quinoa, you would have to eat 3 cups, or over 650 calories. Beef is a dense source of protein.

Iron and zinc are important in energy production, muscle recovery and healing, among other body processes. While you can also obtain these minerals from lentils and seeds, beef provides them in a small package. Eating 1 cups of baked beans would provide the same zinc as 3 ounces of lean beef but also an additional 200 calories or more, depending on your beans. If you like chicken, you would have to consume twice as much to obtain the same amount of iron in beef.

There are many reasons why people choose not to eat beef, but if you like it, beef can be a healthy addition to a balanced diet.

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A healthy diet can include red meat. 3 things to consider when buying beef - Omaha World-Herald

Houston Rockets guard James Harden took his game to the next level last season, finishing second in the MVP voting as he took on point guard duties under new head coach Mike DAntoni.

Harden put up numbers that had never been seen before in some respects as he nearly led the league in both scoring and assists.

Thats not going to happen this year with the Rockets acquiring former L.A. Clippers guard Chris Paul in the offseason. Harden will have to learn how to mesh with another ball-dominant guard and retreat to more possessions off the ball.

It will be an extremely interesting dynamic, one which will require quite a bit of change for Harden, who is also implementing some big changes in himself off the court.

Via USA Today:

Harden, who joined Oscar Robertson as the only other player to average at least 29 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds per game in the regular season but also had a career-high usage rate of 34.1, looked tired at the end. So he added yoga and pilates to his routine, focused on his rest and tweaked his diet. The goal, of course, is to make the most of this opportunity he has to create the leagues latest dynamic duo with Paul.

Its always fun to imagine NBA players pulling off stuff like yoga or pilates but thats apparently what Hardens been up to.

It will be interesting to see if the change is noticeable and if Harden looks like a different player next season because of this.

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Rockets news: James Harden added yoga, pilates to routine and tweaked diet - ClutchPoints

Losing weight is tough. It would be easier if a benevolent someone concerned about your health controlled exactly how much you ate and how often you exercised, right? Thats the situation for most dogs and cats in the United States, and yet the majority are overweight or obese.

As with our own dieting woes, the unpleasant prospect of the simple solution feeding our furry friends less makes us reach for alternative, quick-fix strategies. Many pet parents have turned to radically new menus. These grain-free, all-meat and raw-food diets are inspired by the meals eaten by wild relatives of our fidos and felixes.

But are these diets really better for our pets? Veterinarians and pet nutrition researchers say probably not.

According to clinical veterinary nutritionists at Tufts University, grain-free foods were one of the fastest-growing sectors of the pet food market in 2016. All I ever hear is, oh, on a good diet, its grain free, said Dena Lock, a veterinarian in Texas. The majority of her pet patients are overweight.

Why have these pet diets become so popular?

Its a marketing trend, Lock said.

Grain-free is marketing. Its only marketing, said Cailin Heinze, a small-animal nutritionist at Tufts Universitys Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. A lot of foods market themselves by what theyre not including, and the implication is that the excluded ingredient must be bad.

Grain-free is definitely a marketing technique that has been very successful, said Jennifer Larsen, a clinical nutritionist at the University of California Veterinary School in Davis. (Disclosure: I went to graduate school at the University of California at Davis, but studied plants, not pets.) People think that if they pay a lot for food and there are a lot of exclusions on the bag, that the food is healthier, but theyre buying an idea, she said, not necessarily a superior product.

There is absolutely no data to support the idea that grain-free diets are better for pets, Heinze and Larsen noted.

Some pet owners have a false impression that grains are more likely to cause an allergic reaction, but its much more common for dogs to have allergies to meat than to grain, Heinz said. Chicken, beef, eggs, dairy and wheat are the most common allergies in dogs. And its not that theres anything particularly allergenic about these foods, she said, theyre just the most frequently used ingredients.

Marketing campaigns such as Blue Buffalos Wilderness or Chewys Taste of Wild claim that their grain-free, meat-forward formulations better reflect the ancestral diets of our dogs and cats evolutionary predecessors, but the veterinarians I spoke with also questioned this logic.

For one, our pets wild cousins arent all that healthy. People believe that nature is best, Larsen said, but animals in the wild dont live that long and they dont lead very healthy lives.

For dogs, we know that they have diverged from wolves genetically in their ability to digest starches. Dogs arent wolves, said Robert Wayne, a canine geneticist at UCLA. They have adapted to a human diet. Research in Waynes lab showed that most wolves carry two copies of a gene involved in starch digestion, while dogs have between three and 29 copies. According to Heinze, the average dog can easily handle 50 percent of its diet as carbs.

For cats, this argument makes a little more sense. Cats are carnivores rather than omnivores, so they have higher protein requirements than dogs, but cats can digest and utilize carbohydrates quite well, said Andrea Fascetti, a veterinary nutritionist at the University of California Veterinary School in Davis.

Many grain-free pet foods are made with starch from potatoes or lentils and they may be higher in fat. If you cut grains but increase calories, your pet is going to gain weight, Heinze said.

Dogs and cats also have a drastically different lifestyle from wolves or tigers. Pets are almost always spayed and neutered which is in itself a risk factor for obesity. And most live inside or in pens, so their energy needs are reduced dramatically.

In the wild, wolves and feline predators eat the hair, bones and cartilage of their prey, not just meat. For pet owners who do choose to feed their animals an all-meat diet, its essential to add supplements to make sure their pet isnt missing out on key nutrients such as calcium, Fascetti said. And theres the environmental impact to consider: Pets consume a quarter of all animal-derived calories in the United States.

Experts especially caution against feeding pets raw meat. Its not uncommon to find things like salmonella and E. coli and listeria in raw meat, Larsen said. There are a lot of microbes present in our farming systems, and unlike when an animal is hunting in the wild, there are many opportunities for bacteria to contaminate meat between the time an animal is slaughtered and when it reaches our kitchens.

Even if eating contaminated meat doesnt make pets sick, it poses a health risk to pet owners and their children who handle the pet food and waste. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration both warn against feeding raw meat to your pets, and I really cant advocate it, because its not safe for the whole family, Heinze said.

But what about all those benefits you hear about from feeding a raw diet, like shiny coats and less frequent stools? I cant tell you how many clients send me pictures of poop, Larsen said. But changes to a pets bathroom habits dont have anything to do with their food being raw.

Raw diets tend to be lower in fiber, and high fiber probably results in larger stools. But we dont have a sense of whether stool quality and quantity correlate with health, Fascetti said. And that shiny coat probably is because of high fat, Heinze said.

If pet owners wish to formulate their own diets, they should work with their veterinarian and a board-certified nutritionist. If youre feeding your pet a balanced diet such as in a commercial chow, obesity is the biggest nutrition issue pet owners should worry about, Heinze said.

We want our pets to enjoy what theyre eating, so many foods and especially treats are formulated to be high in fat, Larsen said. Most people dont realize that a milk bone has about as many calories as a candy bar, Lock said.

I know the struggle. My own hefty husky mix stares at me with her big brown eyes and licks the window whenever she wants food. Ive taken to calling the dental chews I buy her guilt-a-bones, because I cant help but give her one every time I leave.

But studies have found that feeding dogs to maintain a lean body weight has very positive effects on their overall health and can even increase life span. This is also the case in mice and rats, and we believe that these findings apply to cats as well, Fascetti said.

Theres no one magic diet for every animal. These experts strongly recommend working with your veterinarian to find a diet that works for you and your pet. When it comes to navigating marketing claims in the pet food aisle, Lock suggests finding a company that employs a veterinary nutritionist and does feeding trials. Try not to get too hung up on the no list, Heinze said. Claims like no gluten, no grains, and no soy generally mean no science.

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Grain-Free Pet Foods Are No Healthier, Vets Say - Valley News