Healthy Eating

If you need more motivation to substitute an apple or a pear for that bag of chips or indulgent dessert, a new Chinese study might help you reach for the fruit bowl or bag of berries in the freezer. In the most comprehensive such research to date, following a half-million people for seven years, greater fruit consumption was associated with lower risk of heart attack and stroke.

Even just walking to the bus stop or train station might help commuters control their weight, according to a large British study.

Don't count on green-tea pills to help you lose weight or keep your bones strong. A new clinical trial testing year-long supplementation of green-tea extract reports no difference between the pills and placebo in changes in body mass index, total fat mass or percentage of body fat, or bone-mineral density.

If you're worried about high blood pressure, a new systematic review of scientific evidence has good news: Changing your diet really can make a difference. Not surprisingly, the most effective diet for reducing hypertension was one designed specifically for that purpose - the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) plan. But other interventions, including cutting salt and calories, also were associated with blood-pressure benefits.

Q. How do heating and freezing affect antioxidant levels in food?

Q. I've been reading in your newsletter about the downsides of consuming too many starchy foods. Since corn is a starchy food, does that apply to popcorn, which I've been eating thinking it's a healthy snack?

Q. I keep reading about the health benefits of spicy peppers, but I can't eat spicy foods. Is there any way I can get these benefits without eating hot peppers?

Here's another reason besides blood pressure to hold the salt: New Australian research says salt causes you to eat more food and consume more calories. Researchers tested four different combinations of macaroni and sauce on 48 volunteers, mixing high- and low-salt choices with high- and low-fat.

If you're dining alone, you're in great company. New consumer research by the Hartman Group says that eating alone is "the new normal," as American increasingly ditch sit-down family meals for continuous snacking and "ad hoc" eating behavior.

Does buying organic food really turn you into a jerk? That was the popular interpretation of a widely publicized 2013 study that linked exposure to organic food to "moral licensing" - making self-righteous consumers more judgmental and less inclined to help others. But a new attempt to replicate those findings concluded that "organic food exposure has little to no effect on moral judgments and prosocial behavior."