I’ve discussed the “one bite at a time concept” from my website tagline so now let’s turn our attention to the phrase “optimal health.” What is that, exactly?

In case you have questions (or were questioning my methods) after reading my latest On Nutrition column in The Seattle Times ("Why butter isn't back: not all saturated fat is created equal"), this post's for you. P.S. I also talk about my abiding love for butter. Are you shocked?

What you eat matters to both skin and health, but so does how you cook it. It’s summertime, which means few things are better than tossing dinner on the grill. Unfortunately, the process of grilling meats produces advanced glycation end products (AGEs), compounds which may contribute to premature aging in your skin. So what’s a grillmaster (or those who benefit from their efforts) to do?

I often talk about what I like to call the Omnivore's Responsibility. That is, if you choose to include animal foods in your diet, you have a responsibility to at least respect the contribution that those animals give to your nutrition. If possible, you should go further and educate yourself about animal care. The FARM Story website makes it easier to know about how dairy cows are cared for.

You probably saw the news earlier this year that organic dairy and meat are healthier for you because they have a more beneficial fatty acid profile. Are the fatty acid profiles of organic milk and meat really thats different from their conventional counterparts...and how much of that difference is due to grass-feeding? Here's what I found out.

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend the "At the Kitchen Counter with Beef" event with some local food bloggers and other culinary types at Pike Place Market. For no particular reason, I haven't been down to the Market in forever, and it was great to be back...and to sample some tasty beef dishes.

I'm a big believer in the power of accountability, whether it be accountability to yourself, or to others. I decided in January that I was going to write and self-publish a book this year. Well, the year is nearly half over and I haven't made more than preliminary progress on the book front, so I'm upping the accountability factor by announcing my intentions to you, right here, right now.

Today is Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day. You're forgiven if you didn't know that, as you won't find it on your calendar along with Memorial Day and Christmas. But it's a very important day, for a few reasons that I'll tell you all about. One being that I love being an RDN!

Nutrition confusion is something I write about from time to time, because if you are a consumer of nutrition information, you know that all too often you’ll read “Eat this” only two weeks later to read “No, whatever you do don’t eat this.” I’m not sure what’s worse, that sort of nutritional whiplash or this scenario: when you read something that is patently false but you don’t even know it’s false.

I was asked recently why I don't "preach" to people that they should eat organic food. My response is that I don't "preach," because nutrition is a science, not a religion. That said, there are some good reasons to buy organic, as well as good reasons why organic s not always better.

If you haven't yet read my recent On Nutrition column, "The new dietary guidelines: The good, the bad and the ugly," please check it out. I don't know how many individuals take it upon themselves to shape their eating habits based on what the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends, but they do shape food policy as well as decisions made by industries and organizations that may be feeding you at one point or another, so they do matter.

In Day 1 of Oldways Finding Common Ground, 20 nutrition science experts presented information about various dietary patterns (vegetarian/vegan, paleo, Mediterranean, and low-glycemic) as well as other nutrition issues like the microbiome, gluten, saturated fat, and marketing and the food environment.

Greetings from Boston! I'm here for Oldway's Finding Common Ground conference, and the timing is a bit ironic in light of some of the emails I've received commenting on my column in yesterday's Seattle Times, "Don't give up your steak just yet: How to have red meat and prevent cancer, too." I'll share a few highlights from my favorite email.

Next week, I'll be attending a very exciting conference in Boston. Finding Common Ground will bring together many of today's leading experts in nutrition science along with members of the media (I'm attending as media). The goal? To come to a consensus on what a healthy diet looks like--and no, this doesn't mean the "one perfect diet," because there is no such animal.

No sooner had my most recent On Nutrition column, "The rise, and potential fall, of Big Soda," hit the Seattle Times' website when I received an email from the American Beverage Association, asking me to consider updating my article to "include the industry’s perspective." My (mental) response to that? "Not bloody likely."

As I write this, I'm at the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) in Nashville. This is my fourth FNCE, and I look forward to it every year for the education and the networking.

In my article in Sunday's Seattle Times on The Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), I mentioned how significant it was that Bob and Cheree Moore of Bob's Red Mill pledged $25 million dollars to OHSU to further research and community outreach in the areas of epigenetics and nutrition for women and girls.