Another five years have gone by and thus the new 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines have been released jointly by the Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). You may think that the guidelines don’t really have much to do with you; but by understanding them, your own diet can be improved. […]

Which is blacker, the pot or the kettle? They have figured it out between the two industries, and the blackest one probably got some money from the slightly less black one. But they won’t tell us which one it was. You have to wonder who was advising the sugar/high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) producers. Certainly it […]

This past week has provided some sobering news. Lamar Odom stopped breathing and went into a coma. And although the owner of the “Love Ranch” (brothel) wants to protect the reputation of his business, the doctors found more than the natural (????) product “Reload” implicated in his blood. So the crack cocaine probably was adding […]

If you don’t already subscribe to the Nutrition Action Health Letter (NAHL) from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, now might be a good time to begin. If you eat beef frequently, don’t delay; consider making your new subscription begin with the October 2015 issue. The cover story is called; Bye Bye Beef? […]

On September 14, 2015 the Wall Street Journal published an article called: Eye Candy? Scientists Debate the Value of Lutein Supplements: A role in limiting a chronic eye disease. The article and the studies, upon which the article was based, were to my mind, like opening the proverbial can of worms. At a quick glance […]

Last week when I wrote about the “Blue Zones” – the longevity zones of earth, I mentioned that I usually am writing something about the harvest this time of year. Yes, last week’s article did talk about produce. But this week, I couldn’t resist any longer. Technically today’s subject, pumpkin is a fruit (develops from […]

I’m guessing September 8th is a little late for suggesting a book for summer reading. “Good guess,” you say, since there’re only 14 days left before Wednesday, September 23, 2015 (Autumnal Equinox 2015). If you’ve been reading this blog for years, you know this is an exciting time of year for me and I’m usually […]

Some tricks are just plain simple. The trick that I’m thinking of here is shopping with a list you prepared in advance. In a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, researchers from RAND Health studied groups of low-income, primarily African American urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with limited access to […]

Government agencies and public health organizations have loosened the guidelines on eating “safe” fats. An important spinoff of their backing off from earlier recommendations is that value is being found in foods that have good fat. I’ve written recently about nuts (Beyond Snacks: Welcoming Nuts into Your Meals), one beneficiary of the new guidelines. Another […]

It seems as though we’re all grasping at straws as related to risk reduction for Alzheimer’s and even less alarming cognitive decline. So far there are really no magic bullets or even expensive tablets that can ward off cognitive decline. But a study published online ahead of print this past week, hints that there may […]