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Benefits or hazards of certain foods
So you can see that ingestion of certain foodstuffs, such as glucose-containing carbohydrates, trigger a number of responses that help to balance food seeking behaviors with whether an individual is fed or fasting. These complex processes interact to help us maintain weight over both the short and the long run. Fructose, unlike glucose, does not turn on these regulatory mechanisms, leaving individuals with high fructose ingestion vulnerable to overeating and weight gain.
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Food labels, Overweight/obesity, High fructose corn syrup, Food policy, Calorie counting, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Weight loss
Chris was outraged. But he is turning his outrage into action. He has founded a non-profit, “Parents Against Junk Food.” This is a good old-fashioned call-to-action website that aims to get parents riled up about this issue.
Chris writes in his editorial:
““One day, mothers and fathers across America are going to wake up, throw open the window, and yell, “We’re mad, and we’re not going to take it anymore!””
Way to go, Chris! Yes, parents need to be responsible for their kids’ health and well-being, but we need to ask for, no demand, that the public institutions that we pay for with our hard-earned tax dollars, support us in our efforts keep our kids healthy and safe.
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Inspiration/motivation, Children, Overweight/obesity, Food policy, Childhood obesity, Nutrition, Social commentary, Healthy eating
Have you noticed that you are ravenously hungry an hour or two after certain meals? Or that you stay fuller, longer after others? Many people have learned that adding protein to their breakfast meal is the best insurance against the mid-morning munchies. And a bit of chicken in your lunchtime salad may help you make it to dinner without a trip to the vending machines. Protein, it turns out, enhances satiety (the feeling of fullness) and helps you lose weight.
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Dietary Fat, Overweight/obesity, Research on obesity/overweight, Regulation of appetite, Hormones, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Protein, Carbohydrates, Weight loss
When it comes to absorbing nutrients, it makes a difference how you prepare a food (cooked or raw) and what foods you eat with it. The science of understanding nutrient absorption is an area called “bioavailability.”
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Research on obesity/overweight, Nutrition, Healthy eating
Every morning, he has the same cereal for breakfast. It is also a Kellogg’s All-Bran, but it is their “Bran Buds” product. He thought it was lower in calories than the Yogurt Bites version. But when he looked at the serving sizes of the two cereals, he was in for a surprise. Bran Buds lists a serving size of 1/3 cup. That barely covers the bottom of the cereal bowl. The serving size of Yogurt Bites is 1-1/4 cup—a decent amount.
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Food labels, Portion wise or portion lies?, Children, Overweight/obesity, Food policy, Calorie counting, Portion control, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Serving size
Well, I don’t know about you, but I would prefer not to have any benzene in the products (or the water) that I drink. I think we, the soda pop drinking public, should advocate zero tolerance for benzene, not just a standard that allows an amount below 5 ppb. There are plenty of other enjoyable ways to get vitamin C in from your diet, such as eating an orange, a grapefruit, or a tomato. Why, then, do we have to have vitamin C in soft drinks if there is any chance that it could react with another ingredient and form a cancer causing substance?
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Food policy, Social commentary
I have tried to like tofu. I am "almost" a vegetarian....I haven't eaten red meat since December of 2005. I love veggies. I love, love, love Indian dishes with paneer (I thought it was tofu...oh, well). I really want to love tofu, but, well, I don't like to eat it.
I can't tell you how much tofu I have bought at my local healthy grocery stores. I put it in the cheese section of my fridge and then I ignore it, day after day after day. Eventually, I realize it is really old or, it reminds me that it is really old by growing beautiful pastel fungi on its surface. Then I toss it into the garbage and I am so relieved that it is gone that I breathe a sigh of relief
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Calorie Wiki, Nutrition, Healthy eating
“Eat more, weigh less” sounds like a slogan for the type of weight loss products you find on the back pages of your favorite woman’s magazine. But, a study in the August 2006 issue of Journal of the American Dietetic Association has found that people who eat diets containing a lot of low energy density foods, such as fruits and vegetables, eat more than people who eat diets rich in energy-dense foods (such as chips and other snack foods with high fat contents). Despite eating a greater amount of food, by weight, people eating a low energy density diet consume fewer calories. So, they can indeed eat more and weigh less than people who eat high energy dense diets.
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Dietary Fat, Food labels, Overweight/obesity, Research on obesity/overweight, Calorie counting, Healthy eating, Serving size
In most of the Western world, salad is not a traditional breakfast food. Most of us wouldn’t touch the green stuff until lunchtime as least, preferring instead to start the day with cold cereal, an egg dish, or a pastry.
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Food labels, Calorie Wiki, Calorie counting, Healthy eating, Serving size, Vegetables
Next, “fresh” fruits and vegetables at most large chain grocery stores are not really fresh. According to Marion Nestle, author of What You Eat,” that California-grown broccoli you buy in New York was picked and stored in a local warehouse before being transported to a regional distribution center. It was then placed on a refrigerated truck and sent to another regional distribution center. Then, it’s onto yet another truck to be hauled to the local supermarket where it is placed in the stocking area and eventually put onto the shelf. This process can take a week to 10 days. Does that sound fresh to you?
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Food policy, Social commentary, Eat local, Fruits, Vegetables, Food industry, Food politics
Hey, calorie counters out there. Did you add it all up and think you did a pretty good job this week? But you still didn’t lose any weight. Must be your slow metabolism, right? Or maybe it’s your condiments.
Condiments are those little dabs of this and that we slather on food to make it taste better. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of different kinds of condiments, ranging from the more mundane (ketchup and mayo) to the exotic, such as raita (a South Asian treat made from yogurt, vegetables, herbs and spices), bagoong monamon (salted fish sauce), and ponzu (a Japanese dipping sauce).
Like all other foods, some are low fat and low calorie and others pack a diet-busting wallop of both. If you aren’t paying attention, you could be getting more calories and more fat from your condiment than you are from the food you put it on. Here are some examples from my own refrigerator:
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Dietary Fat, Food labels, Overweight/obesity, Cholesterol, Food policy, Nutrition, Healthy eating
Most of the oranges we consume in this country are consumed as orange juice. Most of the orange juice we drink is prepared (not fresh) orange juice. Some of the orange juice is orange drink, not real orange juice. A lot of us eat oranges in one form or another because we have been taught that it is naturally a good source of vitamin C, and, while that is true, some of the OJ preparations we consume actually have vitamin C added
There is a lot of confusion about what how much vitamin C we need to be healthy. But there are a lot of good scientific studies to help inform recommendations. One trusted source, the Harvard School of Public Health, recommends the following:
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Food labels, Food policy, Nutrition, Healthy eating
So, what exactly is in the yogurt we are buying? Let’s take a look, starting with “Yobaby,” the health food for babies and toddlers. The food label states that “Yobaby” is made from cultured pasteurized organic whole milk. Sound good? I guess. All real yogurts are made from milk, although not necessarily from organic milk nor from whole milk which is naturally rich in fat content. The package label also says that “Yobaby” is made without the use of antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones or toxic pesticides. All of that is indeed good.
However, the second ingredient listed on the “Yobaby” label is “naturally milled organic sugar – organic, yes, but sugar nonetheless. Ingredient order on labels is based on how much of the substance is in the food. There are 16 grams of sugars in a 4 ounce container of “Yobaby.” Although some of these sugars are the naturally occurring milk sugars, the label makes it clear that additional sugar has been added. In fact, there is twice as much sugar in “Yobaby” than there is in plain unsweetened yogurt. Is this a health food? Or is it a dessert? No wonder my granddaughters love this stuff!
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Lipids, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Dietary Fat, Food labels, Children, Weight loss (benefits), Overweight/obesity, High fructose corn syrup, Food policy, Calorie counting, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Weight loss
Multiple choice - What is the leading source of saturated fat in American diets?
a. Beef
b. Milk
c. Cheese
The answer is cheese according to Marion Nestle, a university based nutritionist, in her recently published book "What to Eat." She goes on to explain that a hard cheese, like cheddar, may be one-third fat by weight (oh my!). Close to two-thirds of the fat in cheddar is saturated (bad fat). A slice of cheddar cheese or a few small cubes can have 120 calories and about 10 grams of fat, 6 grams of which are saturated.
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Weight loss behaviors, Lipids, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Dietary Fat, Food labels, Overweight/obesity, Heart disease, Calorie counting, Nutrition, Healthy eating
So, is the new 7-Up “natural?” Should it be allowed to be advertise in a way that makes you think it is as good for you as eating freshly picked fruit (which, by the way, also have other beneficial nutrients, such as vitamins and fiber, missing from 7-Up and other sodas).
We applaud Cadbury on taking a baby step in the right direction, but consumers beware, 7-Up is still a high calorie, artificially sweetened, soda pop devoid of beneficial nutrients. No matter how much the company tries to convince us that 7-Up cans can be picked from fruit trees, this “natural” soft drink does not count as one of your recommended daily fruit and vegetable servings.
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Food labels, High fructose corn syrup, Food policy, Social commentary, Food industry, Food politics
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