Healthy Eating

Onions are the third most commonly consumed fresh vegetables in the US, after potatoes and tomatoes. (Fourth if you combine head and leaf lettuces.) Per capita onion consumption has risen more than 70% in the last two decades, from 12.2 pounds in 1982 to 20 pounds in 2010.

Q. For years Ive daily eaten blueberries and a few walnuts with 1% milk. But recently I was told that milk neutralizes the antioxidant benefit of the blueberries. Is this true, and if so does milk similarly affect other berries and antioxidant-rich foods? Would yogurt do the same thing?

Q. Is it true that most tomatoes sold in the US are genetically modified (GMO)? And if so, does this have a bearing on the safety of the tomatoes we eat?

Q. I was wondering if a gluten-free diet results in any deficiencies in vitamins/minerals or other essential parts of ones diet? My diet is a medical not personal choice.

Hardly a day goes by, it seems, without the news media reporting some food thats been found to be bad for you. One day its processed meats; the next, its baked goods made with trans-fatty acids. Faced with this litany of donts, you can start to wonder whether any food is OK to eat.

Q. As a physician, Im wondering whether the evidence for coffees health benefits is such that I should start advising my patients who do not drink coffee to start drinking a cup a day?

Q. When the advice says, Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, does that mean five fruits plus five vegetables (10 total servings) or five total?

Squash are widely available from August through March, but are at their best in fall. Select squash that are unblemished, firm and heavy for their size. Look for rinds that are dull or matte, not glossy (a sign of squash picked too soon before it can sweeten), and hard; a soft rind signals a watery interior. If present, the stem should be firmly attached.

Despite recent CDC reports that nearly half of US states have obesity rates exceeding 30%, Americans are losing interest in diet plans and weight-loss products. A new survey by the Packaged Facts market-research firm says 28% of American adults are trying to lose weight and another 14% are trying to avoid extra pounds. But weight-conscious consumers are looking to foods like Greek yogurt and oatmeal to feel full, instead of buying diet foods. The report cites the increasing tendency of consumers to turn away from formal diet plans imposed by outside authority and to conflate dieting with healthy eating.… DIY dieters increasingly embrace their own private healthy eating and exercise regimens as the path to weight-loss success.Women continue to outnumber men among dieters, according to Packaged Facts, with the core of weight-loss dieters being non-Hispanic white women ages 55-plus. With the exception of significantly overweight people, however, weight-watchers are now more likely to be satisfied with not gaining pounds, rather than actually losing weight.

If youre worried about getting too much sodium from salt in your diet, a new globe-spanning study reports you should have company among 99% of the worlds population. Daily sodium consumption in the 66 countries studied averaged 3,950 milligrams-nearly twice the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). That excess sodium intake, researchers estimated, contributes to about 1.65 million deaths a year worldwide from cardiovascular causes.