Healthy Eating

Answer : Buffalo (bison) meat is indeed much naturally lower in fat than beef from cattle. Its proportion of saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat...

Answer : The good news for shrimp and other shellfish is that the major dietary factor that raises LDL (bad) cholesterol is saturated fat, not dietary cholesterol...

Answer : Molasses is a concentrated byproduct of refining sugar cane into table sugar. Black strap molasses comes from the third and final boiling...

While there are still plenty of reasons to watch your consumption of animal fats, a large European study concludes that meat, eggs and dairy products do not increase the risk of breast cancer. Results from the European Pros - pec tive Investigation into Cancer and Nutri - tion (EPIC) study of 319,826 women show no significant link between overall intake of these foods and breast-cancer risk.

The US Food and Drug Administra - tion (FDA) is going after misleading nutrition claims on the front of food packages-an effort that may ultimately lead to a single official symbol giving consumers an at-a-glance guide to healthy choices. As the agency sent a warning letter to food companies, Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the FDA will investigate whether any packaging claims violate its labeling rules and will take enforcement action against any egregious examples.

For the first time since 1994, the rate of cigarette smoking among US adults actually rose a little. Health officials hope the increase-from 19.8% to almost 21%-is just a blip, but expressed disappointment that weve hit a wall in reducing adult smoking, as one anti-smoking activist put it. The news was released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which conducted in-person interviews of nearly 22,000 US adults in 2008. In a separate state-by-state survey, the CDC said West Virginia and Indiana have the highest smoking rates, about 26%, while Utah is home to by far the fewest smokers, only 9%.

On the bright side, another CDC report has found that the prevalence of US adults with high levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol dropped by about one-third from 1999-2000 to 2005-2006. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on a sampling of 7,044 participants age 20 or older, CDC scientists calculated that the percentage of those with high LDL levels declined from 31.5% to 21.2%. The prevalence varied substantially by risk category, with those at highest risk due to cardiovascular conditions or diabetes declining from 69.4% with high LDL to 58.9%.

People on certain medications that interact with grapefruit juice may someday be able to enjoy the tart beverage again-thanks to a fungus. Studies by USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have shown that the fungus- Aspergillus niger-can either bind or break down the compounds in grapefruit, called furanocomarins (FCs), that affect medications. FCs inhibit the enzymatic activity responsible for metabolizing certain prescribed medications, allowing more of the medication to enter the bloodstream.

Slowing down your eating not only gives you a chance to actually taste your food, it may give your body time to signal, Enough! Greek researchers report that gobbling food appears to short-circuit the release of appetite-regulating hormones, promoting overeating. They conducted a crossover study with 17 healthy men,

Changes may be coming to the familiar Nutrition Facts panel on food packages. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just completed a public-comment period on a proposed study to test labeling changes with a randomly selected group of 3,600 consumers.