Beth Reardon

Caring.com Senior Food & Nutrition Editor

About

Beth Reardon, Caring.com senior food and nutrition editor, is the director of integrative nutrition at Duke Integrative Medicine. She takes a holistic approach to wellness, recognizing that the foundation for optimal health and healing begins with a health-promoting diet. Reardon also serves on the advisory board of Natural Solutions magazine and the Council on Nutrition for Contemporary OB/GYN, a peer-reviewed journal.

Prior to her work at Duke Integrative Medicine, Reardon held an adjunct faculty position at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, teaching Food for Life: Cooking for Optimal Health. She was also an instructor for the Cancer Project, teaching Nutrition and Cooking for Cancer Prevention and Survival.

While serving as a clinical research coordinator at Duke, Reardon focused on the role of diet and exercise in managing outcomes for premenopausal breast cancers and prostate cancers. She has also served as the wellness coordinator for the Johns Hopkins Health Plan in Baltimore and the program consultant for the Fitness Research Center at the University of Michigan.

Reardon received her undergraduate training in nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University and her master's degree in kinesiology from the University of Michigan.

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Recently Published on Caring.com

  1. Monday January 30, 2012

    1. Best foods after surgery

      Answer - It does not matter what type of surgery you are recovering from – eating the right foods can impact the speed of healing and overall recovery. Following any invasive procedure - even those done laproscopically, you can expect there will be a certain amount of inflammation, swelling and pa...

  2. Friday November 18, 2011

    1. What foods can help me defend my body against illness?

      Answer - Your's is a very important question and while I don’t have the reference for the article you mention, I can say that there are a great many vegetables and fruits that have been shown to impact disease. It is important to remember that the foods we eat do much more than quiet a hungry belly or provivide building blocks for energy metabolism...

  3. Friday November 04, 2011

    1. Is it safe to substitue liquid foods for one or more meals a day?

      Answer - Chewing and swallowing issues are often referred to as “dysphagia” and whether they are due to poor dentition, weak muscles or neurological issues, they complicate caring for a loved one with dementia. We have to consider safety as well as basic nutritional n...

  4. Wednesday August 17, 2011

    1. How can I introduce more liquids into my husband's diet?

      Answer - Keeping adequately hydrated is a common concern for people of all ages, especially in these hot summer months. For caregivers of loved ones with Alzheimer’s, it presents even greater challenges. First congratulations on being very creative in offering your husband foods that have high water contenent...

  5. Thursday July 14, 2011

    1. What foods can I eat to improve my red and white blood cell counts?

      Answer - When undergoing chemotherapy many patients experience a reduction in both their immune fighting white cells and their oxygen carrying red cells. This may leave a person at risk for infection and feeling quite fatigued and short of breath. Eating a healthy diet overall, one high vegetables, fruits and...

    2. Where should I draw the line with my mother in law's nutrition?

      Answer - I can hear your frustration and your concern. What you don’t want to happen is a battle of wills. It is important that your mother not sacrifice the nutritional benefits of the soup and fill up on empty calories, however if her overall health is good and she has a healthy appetite the crackers mayay be harmless (though not my favorite...

    3. What foods have a high iron content?

      Answer - Your best, most absorbable form of dietary iron will come from animal products such as beef, poultry, and eggs. In general, the darker the meat the higher the iron content. We also get iron from plant foods such as dark leafy greens and certain dried fruits...

  6. Thursday June 16, 2011

    1. How safe is it for an Alzheimer's patient to drink Wine?

      Answer - When taking any kind of medication it is important to read the label and check to see not only if it should be taken with food or on an empty stomach, but if other medications or drugs, including alcohol, interfere with its action. Given the depressant effect on the brain and nervous system there is...

  7. Thursday April 28, 2011

    1. Do you need to take a magnesium tablet if there is magnesium citrate in my other vitamins?

      Answer - Magnesium is an essential mineral that plays a key role in over 300 enzymatic reactions throughout the body. It is involved in energy production and storage, the breakdown of fatty acids, protein synthesis, DNA metabolism, the relaxation of muscles, neuro-transmitter activity, and hormone regulation...

  8. Tuesday April 19, 2011

    1. Foods or vitamins that help with Parkinson's?

      Answer - In the early stages of Parkinson’s disease there is no special diet, per say, that is recommended or required. In the later stages it is often helpful to work with an RD, Nutritionist if the side effects of medication, such as constipation, loss of appetite, dry mouth or nausea, become an iss...

  9. Wednesday April 13, 2011

    1. What kind of grilled foods are not good for cancer patients?

      Answer - Yours is a very good question and one that I am sure could use some clarification for many people. The short answer is that grilling meats can increase the formation of two compounds that have been shown to cause cancer in lab animals. One group of compounds, known as HCAs (heterocyclic amines) are...

  10. Sunday April 03, 2011

    1. What foods will help my dad's sool become more solid?

      Answer - A person may experience soft or watery stools for any number of reasons or for what may seem like no reason at all. Antibiotics, an occasional bug, a new food, or a particularly stressful event are all occasions for which our gut may experience distress and let us know that something is not quite right...

  11. Friday January 28, 2011

    1. Is it true that anyone over 40 does not benefit from taking CO-Q10 capsules?

      Answer - Co Q 10 is a vital anti-oxidant that is made by our body and used by all cells, but preferentially by heart, immune and muscle cells for energy metabolism. Much of human metabolism is dependent upon the use of oxygen and the subsequent creation of free radicals...

    2. Are egg yolks not recommended for heart and high cholesterol patients?

      Answer - Rest assure that you can have your egg and eat it too. In all likelihood you can have up to 7 eggs per week without worry about its effect on serum cholesterol levels, because it is the diet as a whole in combination with our genetics that determines our overall risk for heart disease...

    3. will lettuce juice help cure lung cancer?

      Answer - I am sorry for your wife’s diagnosis and appreciate your wanting to do everything possible to support her treatment. B17, though not technically a vitamin, refers to a group of plant compounds known as nitrilosides. The most common of these is amygdalin – from which Laetrile is der...

  12. Tuesday November 23, 2010

    1. How can I eat more fish if I just don't like seafood?

      Answer - I appreciate your dilemma of, on the one hand, recognizing the health benefits of eating more cold water fish … and on the other hand not being particularly fond of your choices! What I like most about your question however, is that you bring it back to the challenge of balancing the diet. It i is truly about the balance of fats in the diet...

  13. Thursday November 04, 2010

    1. When is the best time of day to take vitamins?

      Answer - So the short answer to your question regarding the best time to take vitamins is "When it is convenient or when you will best remember them!" The long answer is not much more complicated than that, however there are some instances when it may make a difference...

  14. Friday October 22, 2010

    1. How can we help Mom eat more while she recovers from a broken hip?

      Answer - I am very sorry to hear about your mother in law. Recovering from a broken hip takes a good deal of time and patience, but you are correct to be concern about her intake. It sounds as though you all have been through quite a lot. A broken hip in this population can be serious and the body requires an...

    2. Is sea bass as nutritional as salmon?

      Answer - The criterion that is most often used to characterize a fish as “healthy” include a reference to the omega 3 fatty acid content, or the amount of EPA and DHA in the fish. Generally our best sources of these essential fats are the cold water fish including wild salmon, sardines, herring, black cod aod and anchovies...

    3. Is soy or almond milk okay to drive with an overactive bladder?

      Answer - As many as 90% of patients with an overactive bladder find that their symptoms worsen after eating certain foods and that diet modifications help. Determining what foods and beverages are problematic is a matter of trial and error, but for many people keeping a food journal for a few weeks helps to identify potential triggers...

    4. How can I get Mom to eat better quality food?

      Answer - I can appreciate your concern regarding your mother's eating habits. Encouraging seniors to eat healthy foods is a challenge, especially when unhealthy options are both accessible and inexpensive. Processed foods, high in refined flours and sugars are linked to increase levels of inflammation and many...

    5. I can't chew nuts or seeds, what else would give similar benefits?

      Answer - Nuts and seeds are an important part of our diet, providing a wide range of nutrients including health fats, vitamin E, selenium and soluble fibers. It would be very difficult to find a supplement to replace this important category of foods, this does not however mean that you can't enjoy them...

  15. Tuesday September 21, 2010

    1. How to balance meals when our needs are greatly different?

      Answer - Hello! I love a question such as yours because when attempting to solve eating dilemmas around a Mediterranean type diet - everyone wins. A Mediterranean diet can be an extremely healthful way to approach weight loss or weight gain. Believe it or not yours and your mother’s goals are really quitite similar...

  16. Wednesday September 01, 2010

    1. How do we deal with a fructose intolerance?

      Answer - Regardless of the source of your husbands fructose intolerance (either an enzyme deficiency or malabsorption issue), the treatment remains basically the same – limiting or avoiding dietary fructose. Fructose is found in varying amounts within all fruits, some vegetables, syrups, fruit alcohols and d honey...

  17. Wednesday August 11, 2010

    1. Are there best foods that help with an underactive thyroid?

      Answer - Diet plays a significant role in proper thyroid function. To perform optimally our thyroid, just like the rest of our body depends upon the availability of certain raw materials or building blocks. The production of thyroid hormone for example requires tyrosine, an amino acid found in protein foods...