Nutrition/Healthy Eating Articles

Food How to select and store produce to prolong its freshness. By Diane Lofshult All That Rot Does this sound familiar? You just got home from the grocery store and are about to put away a week's worth of carefully selected fresh fruits and vegetables. Sure, these perishable products cost more than your first car, but your family's health is worth the expense, right? The trouble is, before you c...

Food Prepare tantalizing and healthy meals in less time than it takes to teach your cycling class. Fast Foods Done Right When time is at a premium, food choices are often the first casualties. We munch snacks on the fly or graze on processed convenience foods when we get home late, because cooking a real dinner seems daunting. Finding the time and energy to prepare healthy, balanced meals can be ...

The Great Diet Debate Will you choose more bread or more fish? By Amy Paturel, MS, MPH For more than two decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has gone to great lengths to convince Americans of the benefits of consuming a diet that favors carbohydrates. Now the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid is under attack by physicians, researchers and consumers alike. In fact, recent scientific findings...

These days, it seems like everyone is starting to think “green.” Recycling cans and plastic, switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs and driving hybrid cars are some of the steps many people are taking to protect our environment. The growing green movement is altering attitudes about food as well. Consumers are starting to appreciate the impact that their collective food choices have on th...

Not long ago, low-carbohydrate diets were all the rage, despite little scientific evidence to back up their reputed health benefits or the much ballyhooed stories of weigh...

Walk through any grocery store today and, chances are, you will be bombarded by a plethora of food offerings billed as “low-carb.” And it’s no wonder, considering that anywhere from 10 to 24 million Americans have jumped on the low-carbohydrate bandwagon (Reuters 2004). But is this way of eating destined to fall by the wayside like the low-fat craze of the 1990s? Man...

At a time when everything from sport utility vehicles to hamburgers comes “supersized,” the notion that less is more may seem out-of-date to some Americans. But when it comes to calories, eating fewer just might be a prescription for a longer, healthier life. Learn about the theory and research behind calorie restriction from Jenna A. Bell-Wilson, PhD, RD, LD, and assistant professor of medical dietetics at Ohio State University.

In a 1984 snapshot taken as he crossed the finish line of a half marathon, 40-year-old Peter Larson looked “lean and mean” at 162 pounds. Now, 20 years later, Larson weighs in at 192 pounds. So what’s changed? For Larson, like millions of aging Baby Boomers who are losing the battle of the bulge, caloric intake no longer matches energy expenditure.

According to the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and the Dietitians of Canada, in the year 2000, 4 percent (%) of Canadian adults and 2.5% of the U.S. adult population consumed a vegetarian diet, defined as one that did not include meat, fish or fowl (ADA 2003). Slightly fewer than 1% said they followed an even stricter vegan diet, meaning they consumed no animal products at all (ADA 2003).