Nutrition/Healthy Eating Articles

Persistence pays off when fostering a new generation of healthy eaters. A paper published by pediatric researchers from the University of Buffalo in the December 2017 edition of Obesity Reviews shows that repeatedly exposing infants and children to healthy foods, even when they snub their noses at them at first, is key to promoting healthy eating behaviors over the long term. This don’t-give-up attitude is particularly effective at getting little mouths to eat a greater variety of fruits and vegetables.

Previous studies have associated light to moderate alcohol consumption with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease and maybe even diabetes, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Nutrition Source, but teetotalers may have a leg up on avoiding cancer.

In America, 30%–40% of the food supply goes to waste, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. You probably know by now that most “use-by” and “best-by” dates are not toss-out dates, and you’re likely monitoring the contents of your fridge so you use as much of your food as possible before it goes bad. But you may be less aware of another important way to take a bite out of food waste.

Question: I bought tahini to make hummus, and now I have most of the jar left. Are tahini and sesame seeds nutritious, and what else can I use them for?

It’s true: Muscles do thrive on protein. In combing through 49 high-quality studies involving 1,863 men and women, a team of international researchers found a strong link between protein supplementation intake and increased muscle size and strength among those who regularly engaged in resistance training, according to a study in the January edition of the British Journal of Sports Nutrition.

We have more proof that no single diet reigns supreme. Slashing either carbs or fats can trim the waistline to the same degree, according to a major study from Stanford University School of Medicine in conjunction with the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The study was published in JAMA in February.

Mealtime is a good time to remember the saying “slow as molasses.” Research published in the journal BMJ Open in February found that Japanese adults with type 2 diabetes who reported a habit of wolfing down their meals were 29% more likely to be overweight than those who ate at a normal pace. Fast eaters were 42% more likely to exceed weight norms than people who lingered over their meals for an especially long time.

The correlation between obesity and chronic disease is well established (Bacon & Aphramor 2011; Bombak 2014; Penney & Kirk 2015). Causality, however, is not so clear (Bombak 2014). For decades, efforts to fight chronic disease have focused primarily on obesity—encouraging dieting as the best way to lose weight. But even as the U.S. weight loss industry has grown to $58.6 billion annually, we haven’t seen significant improvements in rates of chronic disease (Bacon & Aphramor 2011).

Education is the foundation of the IDEA World Convention, but this fitness event offers plenty more than stellar instruction. For Jonathan Bernath, publicist-turned-personal-trainer, it’s where he discovered the “fitness family” that would guide him in his new career.

If you want to lose weight, you know that calories matter. But in most cases, meticulously counting calories is not the solution. That approach is often tedious, inexact and unsustainable—and when eating becomes too complicated, people are more likely to give up and fall back on old habits. So what can you do? The key is to find ways to eat quality foods in appropriate amounts.