Fats

Last May, the FDA unveiled an updated Nutrition Facts label, which is required on packaged foods by July 2018 (small companies get an extra year). A big change to the label is listing the amount of "Added Sugars." Those are sugars added by manufacturers. Although you should consider several aspects of a food's nutritional value, checking added sugars can inform choices when comparing products within categories.

If you feel a meal isn't complete without meat, try substituting legumes (beans and peas). New research from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark found legumes satisfied hunger just as well as a meat-based meal.

Hoping past news headlines hinting it's OK to load up on butter were right? No such luck. Longstanding advice to eat unsaturated fat in place of saturated fat - also found in high amounts in foods such as fatty meats and mixed dishes like pizza - was recently reinforced by the findings of a large observational study published in The BMJ (British Medical Journal).

Think you're destined to get cardiovascular disease since it runs in your family? Take heart. A recent New England Journal of Medicine study suggests a healthy lifestyle may cut risk of heart disease events by about half. Events included heart attack, heart bypass surgery (restoring blood flow to heart muscle) and heart-related death. The drastic reduction was regardless of inherited risk.

After acute inflammation of the gallbladder and pancreas, I was advised a low-fat diet. Do these organs distinguish between good and bad fats?

Not only can substitution save the day when you lack an ingredient called for in a recipe, but it also enables you to make a recipe better for you. That's helpful whether you are trying to improve your overall eating pattern or are cooking for a specific health condition.

If you start exercise low on fuel, you could end up feeling weak and run out of steam. Or, you may simply feel hungry, making it hard to focus on your exercise. However, unnecessary snacking before a workout may make exercise uncomfortable and add calories you dont need, counteracting the calorie burn of your physical activity.

Should you buy the big 2-quart bottle of vegetable oil for $2.50 or spend $12 on a 1-quart bottle of extra-virgin olive oil? "Olive oil has been regarded by many as a unique oil for cardiovascular health, but the data dont really support it as being superior to common vegetable oils," says Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, director of Tufts' HNRCA Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory.

Fortunately for those who avoid meat and meat products, there are numerous other suitable protein sources to choose from. Protein is comprised of building blocks' called amino acids that our bodies need to function. Though meat is a notable protein source because it contains all nine of the essential amino acids (which we must get from food), it is not the only one - eggs, dairy and soy products (like soy milk and tofu) also provide all of the essential amino acids in the desired proportions.

Beetroot juice is currently a 'hot' nutritional supplement for its touted effects both on reducing cardiovascular disease risk and its potential to improve endurance exercise performance. Beetroot is naturally high in nitrate, which is converted to a signaling molecule called nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide has beneficial effects on vasodilation (relaxation and widening of blood vessels, increasing blood flow).