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A dietary pattern rich in foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains is associated with better overall health and lower risk of death from all causes. Since the micronutrients in these foods are one of the reasons for their positive health effects, many Americans try to improve their odds for a long, healthy life by taking vitamin and mineral supplements.

Practically all foods undergo some form of processing before they are ready to eat-from simple processes like cutting and cooking to more complex processes like homogenizing, pasteurizing, fermenting, fortifying, refining, hydrolyzing, and extruding.

Q. How should hamburgers be cooked for health?

We know that carrying excess weight increases risk of type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, certain cancers, back and joint pain, and more. Anyone who has tried knows that reaching or maintaining a healthy weight can be difficult.

The B vitamin folate (B9) is found naturally in a variety of foods including vegetables (especially dark leafy greens), fruits and fruit juices, nuts, beans, peas, seafood, eggs, dairy products, meat, poultry, and whole grains.

Q. Youve said that charred meats may raise cancer risk. Should I skip grilling?

A study from Tufts University researchers recently published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that Americans are not cutting back on processed meat intake, despite the suggested health dangers of consumption. The study characterized trends in consumption of processed meats, unprocessed red meat, poultry, and fish/shellfish in nearly 44,000 U.S. adults in the past 18 years. Red meat consumption declined over that period. Poultry consumption increased, and fish/shellfish intake remained constant.

Your blood pressure, blood sugar, or weight is high. Your doctor takes out a prescription pad and writes a prescription for…fruits and vegetables? It may sound far-fetched, but healthy-food prescription programs are already operating in some doctors offices, and emerging research suggests such programs have the potential to improve health-saving lives and money.

Since the 1980s there has been an explosion of sugar substitutes in the marketplace. These artificial or highly refined natural compounds are used frequently in beverages and processed foods to lower total calories (so-called diet foods and beverages) or decrease added sugar (as in sugar-free or low-sugar products). The number of products available for use at the table or in cooking and baking at home has also increased. While these compounds are touted as calorie-cutting weight loss aids and an option to people with diabetes looking for sweet choices while sticking to their diet, questions about efficacy and safety have dogged them from the start.

Since you are reading this newsletter, you clearly care about your health, and its likely you care about the health of the planet as well. It should come as welcome news that you can help the earth and the rest of its inhabitants while helping yourself-by making health-promoting dietary shifts that support sustainability. …