51 healthy foods - search results

If youre worried about getting too much sodium from salt in your diet, a new globe-spanning study reports you should have company among 99% of the worlds population. Daily sodium consumption in the 66 countries studied averaged 3,950 milligrams-nearly twice the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). That excess sodium intake, researchers estimated, contributes to about 1.65 million deaths a year worldwide from cardiovascular causes.

Despite recent CDC reports that nearly half of US states have obesity rates exceeding 30%, Americans are losing interest in diet plans and weight-loss products. A new survey by the Packaged Facts market-research firm says 28% of American adults are trying to lose weight and another 14% are trying to avoid extra pounds. But weight-conscious consumers are looking to foods like Greek yogurt and oatmeal to feel full, instead of buying diet foods. The report cites the increasing tendency of consumers to turn away from formal diet plans imposed by outside authority and to conflate dieting with healthy eating.… DIY dieters increasingly embrace their own private healthy eating and exercise regimens as the path to weight-loss success.Women continue to outnumber men among dieters, according to Packaged Facts, with the core of weight-loss dieters being non-Hispanic white women ages 55-plus. With the exception of significantly overweight people, however, weight-watchers are now more likely to be satisfied with not gaining pounds, rather than actually losing weight.

Getting more magnesium might help you maintain mobility as you age. A new Italian randomized trial reports that daily supplementation with 300 milligrams of magnesium improved physical performance in older women. Among the benefits was a faster gait speed-a key factor in diagnosing sarcopenia, the frailty associated with loss of lean muscle mass in aging.

Americans are eating a slightly healthier diet than a decade ago, but low-income adults are falling behind in diet quality, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Using a Healthy Eating Index they devised, Harvard School of Public Health researchers compared eating habits from 1999-2000 and 2009-2010. Data came from national nutrition and health surveys, plus government estimates on trans fat intake.

This seasons culinary and cultural spotlight shines on the pumpkin, but the jack-o-lanterns less-celebrated cousins-winter squash-are also at their peak of flavor and nutrition. Like the pumpkin, butternut, acorn and other winter squash are technically fruits, but are consumed more like vegetables. Though they vary by species, winter squash are at least as nutritious as pumpkin and deliver more nutrients than summer varieties like zucchini. Its no wonder the pre-Colombian Native Americans who first cultivated winter squash buried them with their dead to provide nourishment for the journey to the afterlife.

It may be time to dig out that seldom-used steamer basket, or the bamboo steamer your cousin gave you as a birthday gift that you never opened. Your cousin was right when she said steaming is a healthy way to cook-no added fat required, zero potential carcinogens from charring, and minimal loss of nutrients.

Higher cereal fiber intakes are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and now a new study shows cereal fiber is also associated with decreased risk of dying after surviving a first heart attack. Researchers analyzed pre- and post-heart attack data on more than 4,000 people over nine years. Those who increased their cereal-fiber intake after a first heart attack were 35% less likely to die of cardiovascular causes.

Reporting on the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research earlier this year, the New York Times noted, The latest results about diet and cancer were relegated to a single poster session and a few scattered presentations. Previous high hopes that specific dietary changes might combat cancer risk have largely evaporated, the Times reported, in the wake of more thorough epidemiology. The report summed up: About all that can be said with any assurance is that controlling obesity is important, as it is for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and other threats to life. Avoiding an excess of alcohol has clear benefits. But unless a person is seriously malnourished, the influence of specific foods is so weak that the signal is easily swamped by noise.

Sugar is in the spotlight as a key contributor not only to the obesity epidemic but also to chronic diseases, with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first time proposing requiring food companies to list added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label. On average, US adults consume 14.6% of their calories from sugars not naturally occurring in food-in everything from sodas to snack foods, from cereals at breakfast to packaged entres at dinner.

Nutrition shakes, originally developed for hospital patients at risk of malnourishment because of difficulty eating conventional food, are now being marketed to healthy people of all ages as a convenient form of nutritional insurance-sort of like a multivitamin in a bottle. But the American Geriatrics Society recently advised against using the popular liquid supplements even for most older adults suffering unintentional weight loss. There is no evidence that they affect other important clinical outcomes, such as quality of life, mood, functional status or survival, according to the societys latest Choosing Wisely guidance for physicians and patients.