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Category: Nutrition
Good to the last drop
New research suggests drinking coffee might actually be good for you Coffee drinkers, rejoice! The heavenly brew, once deemed harmful to health, is turning out to be, if not quite a health food, at least a low-risk drink, and in many ways a beneficial one. It could protect against diabetes, liver cancer, cirrhosis, and Parkinson’s…
Comparing apples to organic apples
We’d like to think pesticide-free food is better for us, but scientific proof remains elusive. With the recession breathing down our necks, you may be looking for ways to cut the household budget without seriously compromising family well-being. So here’s a suggestion: If you buy organic fruits and veggies, consider going for the less pricey…
Environmental cues affect how much you eat
Next time you sit down to dinner, dim the lights – but not too much. Both bright light and dim light may make you eat more. Watch the background music, too. If it’s too fast, you’ll eat fast, and therefore more; too slow and you’ll keep eating. And think small for plates – a portion…
Weight-loss surgery increasingly seen as treatment for diabetes
Elizabeth Soto used to say no when her husband suggested they go dancing. “I didn’t want to go,” she said. “I felt tired and ugly.” She also was carrying 314 pounds on her 5-foot-7-inch frame and had diabetes. She had gastric bypass surgery last June and now, at 235 pounds, the 38-year-old Chelsea resident said…
Book on fertility and diet stirs buzz, skepticism
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have created a buzz with their new – and controversial – book, “The Fertility Diet.” The book doesn’t actually come right out and claim that the new Harvard diet is a cure for infertility. But that’s the message desperate couples could be forgiven for getting, given its…
Let the post-diet era begin
Is permanent, significant weight loss really possible? If you’re talking merely10 to 20 pounds — and nobody knows the actual figure — you probably can diet and exercise your way to a svelter self and stay there, provided you stick with your weight control program rigorously. Forever. But if you’re among the two-thirds of Americans…
The fading allure of vitamins
My love affair with vitamins and supplements is over: With a few exceptions — stay tuned — I’m tossing them out. Things started going south for this romance 13 years ago when a Finnish study of 29,000 male smokers showed a higher rate of lung cancer in men who took beta-carotene and vitamin E and,…
For The Facts on ‘Natural’ Remedies, Go Online
We Americans now spend an estimated $20 billion a year on dietary supplements and so-called “natural” remedies, many of us blissfully — even willfully — ignorant of the actual medicinal value, or utter lack thereof, in of these products. It’s not entirely our fault that we buy this stuff so blindly. In 1994, Congress limited…
So, the Low-Fat Diet is Kaput, Now What?
Last week, researchers conducting a long-awaited study on the effectiveness of low-fat diets dropped a bombshell: Eating a low-fat diet does not appear to reduce the risk of getting breast cancer, colorectal cancer, or cardiovascular disease. The $415 million study, part of the Women’s Health Initiative, followed nearly 49,000 women aged 50 to 70 over…
Does Eating Soy Make you Healthier, or Not?
Health food advocates have long claimed that soy, he little legume found in everything from tofu burgers to smoothies, can protect against heart disease, ward off cancer and combat hot flashes. But those claims are coming under scrutiny, now that a soy food manufacturer, the Solae Co. of St. Louis, Mo., is seeking government approval…
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