From Scratch

Yet another reason to eat your fruits and vegetables. A wide-ranging 12-year study by a team in Cambridge, England suggests a diet rich in Vitamin C might reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Fruits and veggies are the main source of Vitamin C in typical western diets.
More than 20,000 women and men, ages […]

The mere thought of “practicing” for a diet sounds crazy, but when I decided to try this diet I knew I’d need a practice day or two to try to sort it out. All we have to go by, until someone writes the inevitable book and gets rich, is the study methodology - 1,240 calories per […]

There’s an old saying: Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper at dinner. New research finds that can be a good way to lose weight and keep it off.
A small study divided 96 obese women into two groups. Those who had big breakfasts, with lots of carbs and proteins, […]

Photo removed because an ill-bred, cheap boor chose to hotlink and use my bandwidth. Internet no-no #1. Cheap isn’t even an issue! This pig is with blogspot, which is free, and so is his bandwidth and storage space.
You couldn’t pay me to eat a hot dog but if I ate them, there’s no way I’d pay […]

It was last November that the AMA and the Center for Science in the Public Interest urged the Food and Drug Administration to consider limiting our sodium intake by requiring food companies to use less salt. The FDA is now formally considering the proposal, although it could be at least one year before a decision […]

Everything has a price. Too often, the price of convenience is steep, both in dollars and good health, and it’s a steeper price than I’m willing to pay.
Take taco seasoning. Those handy envelopes of not quite three tablespoons sell for about a dollar and contain way more than a day’s worth of sodium. Depending on the brand, each […]

We all know childhood obesity is a major problem in America, but did you know that only 2% of those between the ages of two and 19 are fulfilling the dietary recommendations of the Food Pyramid? Two percent. I was staggered to read that in an article about Eat This, Not That. The authors also cite […]

Stores these days are full of snacks and candy packaged in little 100-calorie portions. But what about 100 calories of real food? How much of a potato or yogurt is that? It’s one thing to say ‘this much’ or ‘that much’, it’s another to see it and, having seen it, probably easier to remember.
So let’s look. The […]

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Those seven words open In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a 2006 best-seller.
A simple manifesto, those words, but how difficult for millions in this era of vitamin-laced soft drinks. While it would seem we Americans are obsessed with nutrition, despite the […]

I don’t even want to imagine how many millions of tubs of this chemical cocktail are sold each year, especially during the holidays. At some tipping point in our history of dubious foods, people began using it beyond its intended purpose as a topping and started adding it to cakes (from mixes), frostings (made with instant […]

The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the American Medical Association are urging the Food and Drug Administration to require food makers to reduce the salt in their products. A hearing is scheduled next week and they are expected to say intervention is needed to fight heart disease.
Nearly one-third of American adults — […]

Considering how many worthless foods I could ingest if I let myself, I’m always surprised by the number of superfoods I’ve liked all my life. The pomegranate is one of them, with its juicy gems of sweet-tart seeds called arils. Happily, it’s in season.
Pomegranates are rich in fiber and, according to California’s Pomegranate Council , the […]

Today’s Sunday Times of London reports the largest-ever study of organic food has concluded organics really are more nutritious, providing up to 40% more antioxidants and higher levels of zinc and iron. Milk from organic herds had antioxidant levels up to 90% higher than milk from conventional herds.
The study spanned four years and cost £12 million […]

We don’t try to hide what these are. When consumers go to other fast-food places they feel like they’ve got to buy two of their breakfast sandwiches or burritos to fill up. This is really designed to fill you up.”
I’ll say. The quote is from Brad Haley, marketing chief of the Hardee’s fast-food chain, which […]

How much caffeine is in your decaf? According to Consumer Reports, there might be more than just a trace and in a few cases, much more.
CR shoppers bought brewed decaf from six chain stores, all size small. When the lab analyzed the coffee it found caffeine amounts ranging from the expected 5 mg or less […]