General Nutrition

The term natural on food labels, already meaningless

Score another one for the Mediterranean-style diet, a pattern of eating characterized by high consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and olive oil, along with more fish and less meat

If you visited any of Americas national

With Americans vegetable con- sumption dropping over the past decade, drinking your vegetables could help reach dietary goals. Thats the conclusion of a randomized trial funded in part, not surprisingly, by the makers of V8 vegetable juice. Scientists at the University of California-Davis assigned 90 volunteers to follow the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hyperten- sion (DASH) diet regimen while also consuming 0, 8 or 16 fuid ounces of vegetable juice daily. Despite being told to follow the DASH plan and receiving nutrition education, participants fell short of the goal of four daily servings of vegetables if not counting the juice. Across all groups, non-juice vegetable intake averaged 2.6 servings daily after 6 weeks and 2.3 servings after 12 weeks. But the groups also getting juice were able to close the gap. Researchers also looked at heart-health measures, which generally didnt change; pre- hypertensive participants, however, showed a signifcant decrease in blood pressure with higher vegetable and veg- etable juice intake. While eating whole vegetables remains preferable, research- ers concluded that juice is an effective and acceptable way for healthy adults to close the dietary vegetable gap.

In a rare bit of good news for red-meat lovers, a study of nearly a half-million people from 10 European countries has found no link between eating red or processed meat and risk of bladder cancer

Conflicting findings confuse consumers. What should you do now? Consumers worried about dietary sodium and who are watching their salt intake might find their blood pressure rising

Saw palmetto has flunked again in a trial of claims that it can reduce symptoms of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH)-even at levels three times

Getting older doesnt have to mean sleeping poorly. Researchers who analyzed a survey of 155,877 Americans report that people

Oral zinc lozenges or syrup really could shorten your suffering from the common cold

Americans seem to have gotten the message about avoiding added sugars,