Uncategorized

Americans eat some 20 pounds of pasta per person every year, but until recently it was almost all made from wheat with most of the nutritional value stripped away. Indeed, for people watching their carbohydrates- such as those with diabetes or at risk for it-a plate of pasta was a temptation to be avoided.

Sweet potatoes are a traditional fall food, often gracing the family Thanksgiving menu. Today, the average American eats about four pounds of sweet potatoes a year, down from an average of 30 pounds in 1920. Given the nutritional density of the affordable, easy-to-prepare sweet potato, our ancestors had the right idea: Sweet potatoes arent just for covering with marshmallows at the holidays.

The herbal treatment ginkgo biloba struck out in another major test, this time of its purported ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes. But researchers were surprised by a possible benefit of ginkgo in preventing peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Like a ray of sunshine in the winterweary produce aisle, oranges not only brighten your grocery cart but might even outshine apples for healthy eating. Despite that familiar keeps the doctor away adage, the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI, see the May 2009 Healthletter) rates oranges every bit as high as apples. Oranges are a tasty source of fiber and vitamin C, and science keeps finding new ways they benefit your body.

To get the most omega-3 heart-health benefits, Tufts expert advises, eat fish instead of relying on pills.

Youve heard over and over-including in the pages of this newsletter-about good HDL cholesterol

Blueberries have earned their reputation as a superfruit in part because of their high content of antioxidant polyphenols. (In fact, of course, theres no such thing as a superfruit-all fruits have some super qualities.) New research put those polyphe-nols to the test against metabolic syndrome, a complex of conditions, including central obesity (high waist-hip ratio), high blood pressure, high serum cholesterol and insulin resistance, that increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

One of the longer clinical trials to compare a low-carb diet with a low-fat, low-calorie weight-loss regimen reports that both were effective for losing weight-but the low-carb diet also delivered a heart-health bonus.

Could a serving or two of spinach or lettuce a day help keep diabetes away? Thats the suggestion of a new meta-analysis linking consump-tion of green leafy vegetables with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Par-ticipants who ate the most green leafy vegetables-an average of 1.35 servings daily-were 14% less likely to develop diabetes than those consuming the least (an average 0.2 servings daily).

Watching your waistline just got serious. A large new study links extra waist circumference to increased risk of death-even if youre not otherwise overweight.