Nutrition/Healthy Eating Articles

A new study shows that the widespread use of artificial sweeteners in drinks and food may cause certain gut bacteria to induce glucose intolerance and metabolic disease, both significant markers for obesity and diabetes. newsletter_teaser: A new study shows that the widespread use of artificial sweeteners in drinks and food may cause certain gut bacteria to induce glucose intolerance and metabolic disease, both significant markers for obesity and diabetes.

If your answer to the question in the headline was “salt,” you are wrong, say authors of a published study in the online journal Open Heart [doi: 10.1136/openhrt-2014-000167]. Added sugars, particularly fructose, in processed foods are likely to have a greater role in high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke than added salt.newsletter_teaser: If your answer to the question in the headline was “salt,” you are wrong, say authors of a published study in the online journal Open Heart [doi: 10.1136/openhrt-2014-000167]. Added sugars, particularly fructose, in processed foods are likely to have a greater role in high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke than added salt.

Although not particularly glamorous, eating “bugs” is now considered essential for better gut health. And our increasing appetite for so-called “probiotics” is being played out in the proliferation of fermentation cookbooks and food products hitting store shelves.newsletter_teaser: Although not particularly glamorous, eating “bugs” is now considered essential for better gut health. And our increasing appetite for so-called “probiotics” is being played out in the proliferation of fermentation cookbooks and food products hitting store shelves.

Though people in the U.S. have done well to improve their diets by reducing trans fat intake, overall dietary quality remains poor and disparities continue to widen among socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health.newsletter_teaser: Though people in the U.S. have done well to improve their diets by reducing trans fat intake, overall dietary quality remains poor and disparities continue to widen among socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health.

Whether it was Rita Mae Brown or Albert Einstein who first said it, the quote “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” might just as well have been written to describe society’s past few hundred years of weight loss efforts.newsletter_teaser: The following is an excerpt from the new book The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work (Crown 2014) by renowned obesity expert and clinician Yoni Freedhoff, MD. It has been edited and reprinted with permission from the publisher. Whether it was Rita Mae Brown or Albert Einstein who first said it, the quote “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” might just as well have been written to describe society’s past few hundred years of weight loss efforts.

Italian cooking is simplicity defined. This soup makes the most of easily accessible winter vegetables and blends them into a delicious, hearty lunch or dinner that will warm and cheer you and your family on a cold winter night. Chef Gina Stipo is an Italian-American whose enthusiasm for the cuisine and wines of Tuscany inspired her to make Siena the base from which to pursue her culinary passions. Her cooking classes in Tuscany are taught in English and are accompanied by the history and anecdotes of the Siena area.

Most often associated with Italian cookery, fennel’s sweet-anise, licorice-like flavor adds a unique dimension to soups, salads, sautés, braises and desserts. The seeds, the leaves, the celery-like stalks and the bulb of this herb plant can all be used in cooking.

If we step back and take in the big picture on nutrition, food and our relationship to eating, the human body looks like a miniature version of the universe— everything happening in the external world is also happening within us.

My New Year’s resolution is to stop juicing. My juicer extracts the juice of fresh fruits and vegetables, leaving behind a woolly mess of skin, seeds and rinds that I carelessly toss out. As a chef and nutrition expert I should know better, but I do it anyway. However, this year I am committed to keeping foods as whole as possible and eating as many parts of a vegetable as I can.newsletter_teaser: My New Year’s resolution is to stop juicing. My juicer extracts the juice of fresh fruits and vegetables, leaving behind a woolly mess of skin, seeds and rinds that I carelessly toss out. As a chef and nutrition expert I should know better, but I do it anyway. However, this year I am committed to keeping foods as whole as possible and eating as many parts of a vegetable as I can.

If you sometimes push away from the table still feeling hungry or tend to get peckish soon after a meal, try adding a daily serving of beans, chickpeas or lentils to your diet.