Results tagged “Healthy Diet” from Weight Loss & Nutrition News

(NAPSI)-Registered dietitians help educate and encourage consumers to make the most out of their food choices, especially during March's National Nutrition Month®. One way to improve your overall diet is to put more produce on your plate, such as Hass avocados.

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables are associated with a reduced risk for developing certain chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. Fruits and vegetables tend to provide essential vitamins and minerals, and contain phytonutrients, as well as fiber. In addition, they are relatively low in calories for the nutrients they provide.

The demand for organic foods — from fruits, pizza, breakfast cereals and cookies to pasta, ketchup, sirloin steaks and baby food — is growing stronger:

• Sales of organic food have grown about 20 percent during the last five years, with this year's tally expected to top $15 billion, the Organic Trade Association reports.
• More than one-fourth of Americans are eating more organic products than a year ago, according to a 2004 survey by Whole Foods Market. At the same time, more than half of Americans have tried organic products.

The food industry has responded at breakneck speed. Mainstream retailers led by Safeway, with more than 150 products under its line of organic foods, now carry respectable inventories of organic food. Most grocery stores in the mid-Hudson Valley, as well as specialty stores, carry organic produce, meat and other foods.

Organic grocers have multiplied. Meantime, the biggest food manufacturers have bought up some of the best-known organic brands and started their own lines: Coca-Cola owns Odwalla. General Mills owns Muir Glen and Cascadian Farm. Smuckers bought Knudsen and Santa Cruz Organic.

In this land of growing girth where 66 percent of adults are now overweight or obese, some people have managed to stay at a healthy weight. Are they depriving themselves by eating tiny portions and giving up their favorite foods? You’ll be pleased to hear that the answer is no.

How do they do it? One trick is to learn which foods will fill you up without a lot of calories.

We study this in my lab at Penn State. In one type of study, we bring people into our laboratory, offer them various types of foods and see which ones fill them up the most. We conduct long-term trials to find out whether different types of dietary advice can actually help people lose weight and maintain that loss. We also analyze information from large surveys of what Americans eat.

The nation's soaring obesity rates won't fall until Americans stop placing their faith in unproven and possibly fraudulent weight-loss products and treatments. That's the message from some of the nation's top obesity experts, commenting on new data about Americans' continued, naive hope for the quick fix.

Part of the problem, they say, is consumers' misconceptions about safety laws. A national survey released last month at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society found that 60 percent of Americans believe incorrectly that over-the-counter dietary supplements for weight loss must be tested and proven to be safe and effective.

More than half mistakenly believe that these products are reviewed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

 

Popular cereal bars have been found to have more sugar and fat than several sweet snacks, according to a new study.

While each of these f 20 well-known bars, mostly marketed to children, would be classified as "high in sugar" under the Food Standards Agency's traffic light labeling scheme, a nutritious-looking Kellogg's Fruit 'n Fibre Bar contained more sugar (10g) than a chocolate Penguin bar (9.7g). according to Which? researchers.

Cereals bars like Nesquik Cereal and Milk Bar and Nestle Golden Grahams Cereal and Milk Bar were found to have the highest content of saturated fat of 2.1g of saturate per bar which is more than popular snack Mr Kipling Almond slice contains.

HELSINKI, Finland, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A 30-percent decrease in salt intake over 30 years in Finland was associated with a decrease in both stroke and coronary heart disease mortality.

During the same period the life expectancy of both male and female Finns increased by 6 to 7 years, according to researchers Dr. Heikki Karppanen of the University of Helsinki and Dr. Eero Mervaala of the University of Kuopio.

The most powerful explaining factor for the favorable changes was the more than 10 mmHg "point" decrease in the average blood pressure of the population, says Karppanen. A marked decrease in the average cholesterol levels of the population also remarkably contributed to the decrease of heart diseases. The extensive use of drugs contributed less than 10 percent of the observed decreases in blood pressure, cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases, the researchers say.

NEW YORK - Would you like that burger with a side of guilt?

As part of its assault on obesity, New York City’s health department has a plan to require some restaurants to list the calorie content of their food on their menus.

If the rule is approved, the brightly lit menu boards that hang over the counter at McDonald’s might read something like this: Double cheeseburger, $1 ... 460 calories.

The rule would apply only to eateries that serve standardized portions and already disclose calorie information voluntarily — criteria that fit most fast-food chains, which frequently post nutritional charts on their Web sites or print them on fliers.

Worried about the amount of cholesterol in turkey? Here are ways to enjoy the holidays and your low-cholesterol diet.

Sticking to a special diet is especially challenging during holidays and special occasions. Tables laden with food prove tempting, and you may feel like disregarding your diet for the day (or for several days).

But your health depends on you sticking to your low-cholesterol diet. This doesn't mean that you can't enjoy your meal or eat delicious foods. It simply means that you make healthy choices and enjoy those foods in moderation.

Sawf News - In an interview with Us Weekly magazine, due to hit stands this Friday, Nicole Richie spoke for the first time about her weightloss and dispelled any rumors of having an eating disorder or even checking in a rehab.

"I'm not in rehab and I don't have an eating disorder," Nicole told Us Weekly. "I'm getting the help I need and taking care of my health."

Nicole did reveal that after appearing at a family gathering, her father Lionel Richie intervened into the matter of her shocking weight loss over the past recent months. The father and daughter discussed it as a family and decided that she needs treatment.

According to ET, that got the early scoop on the Us Weekly article, Ms. Richie's publicist said, "She is working with a team of doctors and specialists whose focus is nutrition."

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ISLAMABAD - Taking cod liver oil early in life appears to reduce the chances that children will develop insulin-dependent ("type 1") diabetes, researchers report. The protection may possibly come from the anti-inflammatory effects of long-chain n-3 fatty acids found in cod liver oil.

"In Norway, cod liver oil is an important source of dietary vitamin D and the long-chain n-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)," according to Dr. Lars C. Stene, of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in Oslo, and colleagues.

All these nutrients "have biological properties of potential relevance for the prevention of type 1 diabetes," they explain in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. adults who recently ate at a casual dining restaurant said in a survey that they are eating less fried food and less red meat.

The online survey, conducted by Maritz Research, of nearly 1,900 Americans who recently ate at a casual dining restaurant found when given a choice between food that is grilled or fried, 87 percent said they preferred their food grilled.

The survey also revealed that 36 percent said they were eating less red meat compared to five years ago, while 8 percent said they were eating more red meat.

but any salmon is better than junk food.

Here's interesting research about the high level of toxic metals found in farmed salmon compared to wild salmon. It's unfortunate that the headlines are ablaze with this news, since eating salmon is such a healthy way to get Omega-3 fatty acids into your diet, but it's also worth pointing out that salmon raised in captivity are not the same as salmon raised in wild.

Winter squash, with colors that range from orange and green to yellow and white, certainly look festive. Along with close relative the pumpkin, squash remains a quintessential fall vegetable. But beyond gathering the bright-colored beauties in a seasonal display, what can you do with them?

One thing you have to do — if you want them for more than their good looks — is cook them.

Unlike their thin-skinned, summer squash cousins — zucchini, pattypan or yellow crookneck — most winter squash has a thick, tough rind that protects a firm, sweet, often brightly colored interior, one that must be seeded and cooked.

NEW YORK - There are plenty of things in Kentucky Fried Chicken that are bad for your health — cholesterol, saturated fat and salt, to name a few. But only one has the potential to get the colonel’s recipe banned in New York City.

That ingredient is artificial trans fatty acids, which are so common that the average American eats 4.7 pounds a year, according to the Food and Drug Administration. City health officials say these so-called trans fats are so unhealthy they belong in the same category as food spoiled by rodent droppings.

On Monday, the Board of Health will hold its first public hearing on a proposal to make New York the first U.S. city to ban restaurants from serving food containing artificial trans fats.

(NewsTarget) The NPD Group's 21st annual Eating Patterns in America report has found that consumer-purchasing decisions in the United States are still primarily convenience-driven, despite an increased focus on health over the last year.

“The driving force in our eating habits has always been convenience," said report author and NPD Vice President Harry Balzer. "The only surprise is how that will manifest in our behavior."

BOSTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Studies presented at a meeting of the Obesity Society in Boston have suggested that water helps weight loss and low-fat foods may hinder it.

The first study, which analyzed data from 240 overweight women, aged 25 to 50 and using popular carbohydrate-limiting diet plans, found that dieters who replaced all the sugary drinks in their diets with water lost an average of 5 pounds more a year than dieters who continued to consume the beverages, USA Today reported Wednesday.

By Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., CNS

My column earlier this week on dieters who take prescription medications that aren’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for weight-loss purposes, “Quick-fix diet drugs: Effective or harmful?,” prompted many “Today” readers to ask if there are any diet aids that could make it easier for them to lose some extra pounds more manageable. Losing weight is really hard, and we’re all looking for ways to make it easier. Here are some of your thoughts and queries that I hope will help you add effective tools to what I called your “weight-loss toolbox.”

A new book makes the potentially controversial claim that Food is Better Medicine Than Drugs. Katie Baldwin met one of the authors

It's no secret that our diet can have a dramatic effect on our health. In recent years the trickle of health advice relating to food has become an inescapable flood.

We need to eat less fatty foods, more fruit and vegetables and less salt, more oily fish and less red meat. A new book goes one step further though. Food is Better Medicine Than Drugs by nutrition expert Patrick Holford and medical journalist Jerome Burne claims just that.

Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) is urging new mothers to eat healthily as they battle to lose their post-baby weight, after she successfully slimmed down following the birth of her son, Kingston.

The singer avoided drastic crash diets taken by many celebrity mothers and lost weight gradually after Kingston's birth in May.

PHOENIX, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- "A diet has gone too far when the restrictive calorie level or limited foods on the diet lead to episodes of binge eating; a diet has gone too far when a person purges calories by self-induced vomiting," said Juliet Zuercher, registered dietitian and the director of nutrition services at Remuda Ranch in Phoenix.

"If these binging and purging behaviors increase to multiple times per week, for three months or more, that's considered a full-blown eating disorder." Remuda Ranch Programs for Eating Disorders is an inpatient treatment center for women and girls with anorexia and bulimia.