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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.

Since carbohydrates can boost bloodsugar levels, it makes sense that a low-carb eating regimen like the Atkins diet should help ward off diabetes- right? Not so fast, according to a new analysis of two decades of data on 41,410 men. Lawrence de Koning, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues found that low-carb eating habits were actually associated with a greater risk of developing diabetes.

Previous studies in the US and Europe have reported that dietary fiber may help protect against heart disease. Now a new Japanese study has found a similar association, suggesting that the cardiovascular benefits of fiber may extend beyond the Western diet.

Two new studies presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society suggest a role for vitamin D in the prevention of diabetes and other chronic diseases. The so-called sunshine vitamin, proven to be important in bone health, has lately been linked to possible benefits against a wide range of diseases.

Previous studies have suggested that B vitamins might help protect against depression, but these were mostly snapshots at a single point in time. Now a new study connects B-vitamin intake among 3,503 seniors, initially free of depression, over a span of 12 years: For every 10-milligram increase in daily vitamin B6, risk of developing depression declined by 2%. The same was true for every additional 10 micrograms of vitamin B12.

If recent headlines have made you rethink your use of calcium supplements, Tufts Bess Dawson-Hughes, MD, has some words of wisdom for you: This is absolutely no reason to panic.

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.

Supplemental doses of B vitamins were found to slow the progress of dementia in a new British clinical trial, again raising hopes that they may prove to be a defense against Alzheimers disease.