March is the National Nutrition Month, a nutrition education and information campaign created by the American Dietetic Association.
During National Nutrition Month®, the American Dietetic Association urges consumers to look beyond the myths of nutrition, focus on the facts and remember the theme for the month, Nutrition: It’s a Matter of Fact.
“It may seem difficult to figure out the most healthful eating plan, and there are many nutrition myths that people follow as the truth,” says registered dietitian and ADA spokesperson Kerry Neville. “It’s important to focus on information that is based on scientific research.”
While we are no nutritionists/dietitians, we here …read more

How can peanut butter address the problem of starvation and malnutrition? Dr. Mark J. Manary (photo) use a locally produced enriched peanut-butter mixture, called Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), to combat malnutrition in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa. RUTF, which contains peanuts, powdered milk, oil, sugar, and added vitamins and minerals, is given to mothers to feed to their children at home.
The results: Compared to standard therapy of feeding milk-based porridge, higher recovery rates were obtained using RUTF.
Of the 2,131 severely malnourished children treated with the RUTF at home, 89 percent recovered. Of the 806 moderately malnourished children treated with the RUTF, …read more

In a previous entry, I’ve mentioned two heart-healthy reasons for eating pistachios. Aside from that, it has been found that pistachios may also reduce your body’s response to the stresses of everyday life.
“A 10-year follow-up study of young men showed that those who had larger cardiovascular responses to stress in the lab, were more likely to contract hypertension later in life,” says Dr. Sheila G. West, associate professor of biobehavioral health. “Elevated reactions to stressors are partly genetic, but can be changed by diet and exercise. Lifestyle changes can make the biological reactions to stress smaller.”
Isn’t it amazing how a …read more

I just came across MSNBC this article by nutritionist Joy Bauer, author of Food Cures: Easy 4-step Nutrition Programs for Improving Your Body, which discusses how eating the right foods can make you look and feel fabulous. In a nutshell:

For Fabulous SKIN, eat foods rich in Beta Carotene, Vitamin C, E and Omega 3 fats.
For Healthy HAIR eat foods high in Iron rich protein and B- vitamins.
For a Dynamite SMILE — healthy gums, sweet breath and strong teeth, get adequate calcium and vitamin D, drink plenty of water, chew sugarless gum, and drink green or black tea.
For a Lean, bloat-free …read more

Are you often sick? Or perhaps one of the first one to be knocked off during flu season? There’s a nice article on Women’s Health with tips on food items that help boost your immunity. Teas, oats, salad dressings, whey protein, tomatoes, bitterbur, sports drinks, wine, and capsaicin (the compound responsible for the zing in chili peppers) are some of the food items disscussed.
How do these food items work to help you fight disease? Go ahead and read up! You might also want to get hold of The Complete Guide to Nutritional Health: More Than 600 Foods and Recipes for …read more

Pardon the sporadic posts. I’ve been feeling dark, to say the least, as I recently received news that my father has taken ill. The last few days, I’ve been swinging from being optimistic and bright to being desolate and totally in the dump.
Times like these, I take comfort from a hot bath, a warm bed, a good book and a piece of chocolate.
The debate is still on as to whether chocolate really helps ease depression, or actually make it worse, particularly in people who are not merely sad, but diagnosed of clinical depression. To be honest, at this point, I …read more

I have written about resveratrol before, a compound found in the grape skin and seeds which have been demonstrated in mouse trials to protect against strokes.
This time, researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging report that resveratrol may help improve the health and possibly increase the lifespan by offsetting the effects of a high-calorie diet.
“The “healthspan” benefits we saw in the obese mice treated with resveratrol, such as increased insulin sensitivity, decreased glucose levels, healthier heart and liver tissues, are positive clinical indicators and may mean we can stave off in humans age-related diseases …read more

The UK Tea Council is running a poster advertising campaign on London Underground and Network South East trains this month to encourage people to drink more tea.
A minimum of four cups of tea a day will contribute to your daily fluid intake, the antioxidants tea contains can be beneficial for heart health, and the small amount of caffeine tea contains can help increase concentration, according to the latest research – all news that should have commuters heading straight for the kettle when they arrive in the office.
Aside from promoting heart health, tea has also been demonstrated to help cope with …read more

Although it has been suggested that the benefits of eating fish on cardiovascular health and mortality far outweighs the risks due to environmental pollutants, I suppose that is assuming one eats a variety of fish types. If you eat bluefin tuna this week and sardines next week, that’s better than always eating bluefin tuna, a type of fish you are advised to consume only one serving per month.
So how do you know which fish types to avoid, which ones are good for you, and how many servings can you safely eat of a certain type of fish or seafood?

Despite all the health benefits of eating fish, many people are worried about the dangers posed by environmental pollutants found in fish such as mercury, PCBs and dioxins.
In what they claim to be the “single most comprehensive analysis to date of fish and health”, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) reviewed the evidences of major health effects of omega-3 fatty acids, major health risks of mercury, and major health risks of PCBs and dioxins in both adults and infants/young children.