About Danielle McNaughton

I was born and raised in upstate New York on a horse farm. After high school I continued working in foodservice and attended a Community College where I explored topics related to health and wellness, and earned an Associates in Science. In 2008 I moved to Portland Oregon to see and do new things! My adventurous move to Oregon turned into much more than I would have imagined. My passion for working with food and people led me to OSU to earn a degree in Nutrition. I am now months away from becoming a Registered Dietitian! I am interested in many aspects of the dietetics field including maternal/fetal nutrition, public health, and food & nutrition policy to name a few. Fun to me is time spent with loved ones: hiking, going on trips, cooking, and dancing (or dancing while cooking). Most days you will find me making up recipes in the kitchen and working hard to learn more about nutrition and health. To me, it is the foundation for optimal living and I hope to share that with others.
sticks of butter yummm

Every good story has a villain, and when it comes to food and fad diets there’s no exception. One of the top nutrition demons for over 40 years has been saturated fat –found in high amounts in many baked and fried goods, meat, and full-fat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, butter, and cheese. The rationale? Saturated fat is associated with increased LDL, or “bad” cholesterol that clogs arteries. We’ll come back to this.

The US Dietary Guidelines tells us to limit saturated fat due to studies linking saturated fat to heart disease, the number one killer worldwide. However, more and more research has since led experts to question this link. Continue reading