Conditions and illnesses

Dr. Caroline Quach answers your questions

Who doesn’t love a chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven? Or an icy cold soft drink on a hot summer day? These are tempting for sure, but do you know how much sugar you or your kids are eating when you indulge in one of these sweet treats?

Your son is one of many teens who are making the decision to become a vegetarian. People who choose vegetarian diets do so for any number of reasons, whether it’s a desire to get more of their nutrition from plant-based foods or a concern for animal welfare. Following a vegetarian diet is easier than it used to be. And with the growing availability of foods from other cultures, vegetarian diets have become a lot more interesting too.

False. It’s a common misunderstanding that sugar causes diabetes. It doesn’t. The real cause has more to do with insulin—or more precisely, the lack of it.

When we hear the word arthritis, many of us think of adult or elderly patients with joint pain and stiffness. But did you know that arthritis is a condition that affects about one in 1,000 children and teenagers in Canada—a total of 10,000 young people?

A: There are many factors to think about when considering organ donation, both for the person receiving the graft and the person donating a kidney.