Yogurt is an old food; actually it’s one of the oldest known to mankind. I assume that since Greece was one of the early civilizations, that they’ve had plenty of time to practice making extraordinary yogurt. The makers of Greek yogurt use different bacterial cultures than our regular American-style yogurt. Those cultures and the straining […]

By now, most everyone knows that sleep deprivation interferes with hunger and satiety hormones crucial to regulating appetite.  Perhaps you know some night owls who are also plump owls. We envision them mindlessly snacking their way through fatigue to keep going. Research has gone deeper than the snacking, and revealed a chain of hormonal effects […]

I periodically talk to people and they tell me that they don’t like vegetables. It seems to me that more often the ‘people’ are men, but sometimes they’re women; and, of course, it’s almost classic that kids frequently don’t like veggies. If you’re one of those who don’t really like veggies, is the constant reminder […]

If you’re like millions of Americans, you’re starting off the New Year with some extra pounds. For some, they’re the same pounds as last year, only with some additional ones, perhaps, to keep company with last year’s pounds. Rather than getting tied up in a sad story of how it happened, I wonder if any […]

Here we are at the beginning of the school year again. For me it’s a time much like New Year’s Day; a time to assess how things are going. I ask myself, “Are there things that need improving upon? The answer to my question has never been, “No, there’s nothing to improve upon.” If a […]

Since the 1930s there has been a body of research telling us that if we would restrict our calories to less than we need, we could live longer lives. I used to be the director of a weight loss program for morbidly obese patients; one of the patients told me that you don’t really live […]

On August 21, 2012 I stumbled upon an article published in the Los Angeles Times titled: A ‘sustainable’ diet: Must it all be cereal and cabbage? Rosie Mestel, who wrote the LA Times article was referring to a study done in Scotland at the University of Aberdeen – a study essentially looking at whether people […]

Each year when the statistics of the obesity rates by state – the percentage of obese residents by state are published, I picture a collective sigh of relief by those in the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. Whew!!!  I’m sure glad I don’t live in Mississippi (even though it’s so much fun […]

I am amazed how little things can make a big difference. Research from Arizona State University is a great example of this. Researchers found that subjects who ate energy-dense food in smaller bites felt full faster and ate less food overall. The research was conducted both on lab rats and college students with similar results. […]

Mary Ireland discusses the effects of stress, including the disruption of goal-directed behavior.