Healthy Heart

Every five years, your Uncle Sam rounds up the latest scientific evidence about nutrition and serves up advice about what to eat and drink for better health. The resulting Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) - whose eighth edition was released in January - provides basic guidance to the American public about healthy eating patterns and shapes nutrition education programs.

When it comes to planning your meals, it's hard to beat seafood as a nutritional powerhouse. Seafood is rich in protein and other important nutrients. Prepared right - without frying, breading, tubs of butter or caloric sauces - it delivers these nutritional benefits without a lot of calories. Many varieties also contain heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

At least part of the proven cardiovascular benefits of eating nuts can be explained by their effects on cholesterol and other blood lipids, according to new Tufts research.

Q. If a major carmaker can blatantly cheat on emissions equipment, how do we know that food producers are not resorting to similar deceptions? Who checks to make sure that products labeled "sugar-free," for example, really contain no sugar?

Mistaken perceptions that healthier foods are also "less filling" might cause consumers to overeat such foods, even when calorie counts are clearly displayed.

Science continues to prove Hippocrates right when he said, "Walking is man's best medicine." If youre beginning to lag on your New Year's resolutions, or that Fitbit you got for Christmas is gathering dust, a trio of recent studies provide incentive to get up off the couch and lace up those walking shoes.

Consuming a Mediterranean-style diet, already linked to benefits for your heart and brain, might also help protect against the leading cause of blindness in older Americans.

Eating eggs occasionally probably wont raise your risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure. That's the latest good news for egg lovers from a Swedish study following two large groups of men and women for 13 years.

An optimistic attitude may help you recover from a heart attack or angina. A feeling of gratitude, however? Not so much.

That extra cup of coffee is not only safe for most people, but might actually reduce your risk of dying prematurely from heart disease and several other causes.