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 15 [...]

It seems that women admit to ‘craving,’ but that men use a different vocabulary for the same concept. Men are also less likely to talk about needs, yearning, or desire for food. Certainly all of us have different comfort foods; maybe men more frequently yearn for steak, pizza and chips; and women may more frequently [...]

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 goodness, [...]

One day during the holidays, I was on my treadmill reading an article; when all of a sudden a sentence caught my attention. The sentence was in the article, Masters of Persuasion , by David Yeager, published in Today’s Dietitian. It is available online for free, if you decide you want to read the entire piece. Yeager begins his article [...]

My beautiful daughter, Heather, took her fire hazard (Christmas tree) to the backyard on Christmas Day. Resolutions are often like that; discarded faster than a dried out fire hazard. Otherwise, they are likely to kindle and burn you with guilt and self-doubt. Because many people have had failure experiences with resolutions, they increasingly decide not [...]

There are many not-so great things about getting older. But one thing is really great, the perspective gained from experiences with many holiday meals. Yesterday, was Christmas Day – About as perfect a Christmas Day as could be imagined. Today however, I had a few twinges of remorse – for over-eating. If you’ve spent as [...]

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. The meta-analysis reported in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition , found reduced blood pressure and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Because dark chocolate [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Every so often an article arrives at a new perspective that has the potential to influence us to reshape our thinking about a subject – maybe even influence our behavior. Today I’ve read and thought about just such an article; titled: Free will and the obesity epidemic , which was published in Public Health Nutrition on September 19, [...]

It is interesting that Kazimierz Funk , the Polish biochemist who is credited with formulating the concept of vitamins in 1912, made his observations and did his work just about 100 years ago. Funk got the idea to study nutrients in foods, after he read about a Dutchman, Christiaan Eijkman , a Nobel prize-winning professor of physiology, who had [...]