Why are so many people trying to detox from sugar? People are finally discovering that the average American consumes at least 19 teaspoons a day of added sugar. “Added sugars”, unlike the natural sugars in fruits, vegetables, milk, and meats are added to foods to increase the sweetness. Each teaspoon (4 grams) of sugar has [...]

In this land of plenty, the greater majority of us have access to more calories (energy) than we need. Those extra calories add up to excess stored energy – fat; many are diligently struggling to recover from succumbing to the enticing holiday indiscretions that led to un-needed and unwanted stored energy. In short: ‘Oh my [...]

My post last week covered research showing that dieting alters hormones so that after the dieting stops, a person is hungrier and has a slower metabolism than before dieting. The subjects in the research were on an extreme low-calorie diet, which consisted of Optifast shakes and two cups of low-starch vegetables, totaling just 500 to [...]

I was visiting my mother when she served steamed broccoli that was so salty, I could not eat it. I think this was a bad combination of my mother’s decreasing sensitivity to saltiness as she got older, causing her to use more, and my increasing salt sensitivity from being on a low-sodium diet. Or maybe [...]

Since I wrote Enjoying Chocolate – A Spoonful of Reality about a year a half ago, there have been two new reviews – two meta-analysis studies finding links between cocoa consumption and cholesterol profile improvements.

There no question that starting the day with a good breakfast is important; it’s especially important for children, for their health and for their school performance. Public programs have been designed to provide breakfast for ‘at risk’ children to insure the children start the day with the energy and nutrients to power their thinking for [...]

A handout from the Sugar Association entitled “Not Empty Calories” ends with the words “The old saw, ‘a little goes a long way’ holds true for foods made with sugar.” I obtained this handout at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE) in San Diego this past September 2011. I accepted the materials from [...]

“Sodium Wars” is a term used to describe the battle between food processors eager to keep profiting from the use of excess salt in their products, vs. regulators and educators trying to either get them to cut it back, or get people to stop eating excessive doses of sodium through these unhealthy products. Like other [...]

Mary Ireland discusses the results of a new study on multivitamins.

Why are the Dietary Guidelines for Americans so important?  The fact is that they are used for all federal nutrition programs, including school lunch, hospital care, military feeding and so on, and are used in educating the public in how to eat healthily. The point is that billions of dollars are at stake when the [...]