Nutrition News: Recipes Articles

Weight loss efforts often focus on what and how much food we eat. But it turns out we should also think about when calories go down our gullets. Based on dietary data from more than 50,000 adults, a recent study in The Journal of Nutrition reported that people who consumed their largest meal of the day at breakfast had a lower average body mass index than those who ate their most substantial meal at dinner, even when overall calorie count was similar.

Even health warriors can fall prey to the devious ways of sugar. In a 2017 study published in Clinical Science, nutrition scientists found that in otherwise healthy men (the control group in the study), eating a high-sugar diet for 3 months—650 calories a day from sugar—raised fat levels in the blood and liver, potentially heightening the risk for cardiovascular disease. It appears that, even in healthy populations, consuming excessive amounts of sugar can alter fat metabolism in ways that could increase the risk for health woes.

The past couple of decades have produced a raft of research suggesting that vitamin D has wide-ranging health benefits, and it seems that more people are catching on that they need to keep their stores topped up.newsletter_teaser: Higher amounts of vitamin D raises the risk of adverse effects, including blood vessel calcification, which can eventually damage the heart, liver and other organs.

The sheer number of calories in a plate heaped with pasta alfredo may not be the only reason you push away from the table feeling stuffed. A study presented at a 2017 meeting of the British Psychological Society suggests that sensations of hunger and satiety may be linked to how we perceive a meal, not just how many calories we consume.

Seafood can be a culinary Jekyll and Hyde. While most fish species boast a nutritional profile that outclasses meats like beef and chicken, industrial-scale fishing can carry a heavy environmental burden. And some fish are swimming with contaminants you don’t want in your diet. But there’s no need to spurn seafood entirely. Just get better informed so you can make the best choices for you and the planet. Following these rules can help: Eat More

For the first time ever, overeating is a larger problem than starvation among the world's overall population (Buchanan & Sheffield 2017). Losing weight—and, perhaps more importantly, not regaining it—is a challenge facing millions of people worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), global obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1975. Further, 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight in 2016. Of these people, more than 650 million were obese (WHO 2017).

If you’re anything like one of our editors, who has vivid memories of tomato sauce dripping from the kitchen ceiling after her mom’s 1970s pressure cooker exploded, you might be a little fearful of jumping on the pressure cooker bandwagon. But chances are good that, if you do, you won’t regret it (don’t worry—pressure cookers these days have safety valves to help prevent explosions). These kitchen contraptions are making a comeback due to their unmatched power to put a delicious dinner on the table in no time. Pressure cookers work by heating up food rapidly in a sealed pot.Node Features: Hide Open Image

Every 5 years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture update the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A scientific advisory committee is recruited and installed in the 2 years before the DGA are released. This committee reviews the nutrition literature and provides nonbinding recommendations to the federal government. The committee’s report is posted publicly and is open to public comment.

The gluten-free movement leaves researchers, clinicians and nutrition professionals with many unanswered questions, especially how to best help those who do not have celiac disease—an autoimmune ailment linking gluten to severe intestinal damage—but experience similar symptoms.

Latecomers to healthy eating experience a decreased risk of death compared to their peers who have persistently low diet quality, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In this study, researchers evaluated the association between 12-year changes in diet quality and the risk of mortality. Diet quality was rated based on how closely a person’s eating pattern resembled three of the healthiest eating plans: the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, the Alternate Mediterranean Diet and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).