Healthy Heart

Losing weight can improve your cholesterol and triglyceride levels as well as your waistline, according to a major new intervention study. The study found similar weight loss amounts could be achieved by lower-fat or lower-carbohydrate diets, whether the lower-carb diet was rich in walnuts or in monounsaturated fat (as in canola or olive oils).

Two faculty at Tufts' Friedman School have been named to Thomson Reuters' list of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds. The listing identifies scientists in 21 fields who published the most papers between 2003 and 2014 cited highly by other scientists. Named to the list were Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, and Jeffrey B. Blumberg, PhD.

More evidence that Americans are getting the message about the negatives of added sugars in liquid form comes from a report showing a sharp drop in the percentage of adults drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day.

The latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans call for limiting sodium intake to no more than 2,300 milligrams daily. Although the 2015 revision put less emphasis on more restrictive limits for people 51 and older, African-Americans, and those with hypertension, diabetes or kidney disease, that shouldnt be interpreted as a green light to load up on salt.

If you've got your AARP card but you're still eating the way you did in your 20s, it's time for your diet to act your age. While most nutritional guidance is "ageless," you do need to make some adjustments to fit the changing needs of your aging body.

Switching to soy flour doesn't help improve cholesterol levels, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition. Researchers compared muffins made with soy protein, with a mixture of soy and wheat, and with a whey-protein control on 213 adults with elevated LDL cholesterol.

The popular notion - reflected in doctors' advice and clinical guidelines - that caffeine can cause your heart to "skip a beat" is probably wrong. A new study, the first of its kind to actually monitor participants' hearts over a 24-hour span, concludes that frequent caffeine consumption is not associated with premature heart contractions or disturbances of the hearts electrical rhythm.

Two new studies add to the evidence that led the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans to recommend restricting intake of added sugars, nearly half of which in US diets come from sugar-sweetened beverages.

Americans may be getting the message about cutting down on added sugars, a focus of the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,883 US adults reports that 58% say they tried to limit sugar in their diets in the past 30 days. While there's no previous such poll to compare to, that number does exceed those trying to cut down on calories, sodium, fats, cholesterol or carbohydrates. Another sign: Google Trends…

[IMGCAP(1)] Earlier this year, the federal government released the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs). (See our March Special Report.) As a cardiologist, public-health advocate and nutrition scientist, I see a lot of good in the DGAs. First, the DGAs emphasize healthful eating patterns and foods. This is an advance over past guidelines, which focused more on isolated nutrient targets. Modern nutrition science tells us that, for preventing major diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancers, its…