Good fats, bad fats, so-so fats. Do you know which is which? Here's a quiz to test how up-to-date you are about the fat in your diet.
A newlywed Sleuth was quite disconcerted to be greeted at the breakfast table by the racket of her spouse crunching through a bowl of Grape Nuts in the morning.
I'm a multitasker. While writing this column I'm reducing my risk of cancer by munching on a sweet, crisp Bosc pear. Who knew disease prevention could taste this good? The connection between food intake and a reduced risk of cancer has been in the news many times, but there's nothing wrong with a gentle reminder. I'm sharing the reminder I received at the recent Well Being/Being Well conference sponsored by the Sylvester Cancer Center.
Most of us know that eating fruit is a good boost for your health, but does that mean you should just plop an apple into your lunch sack every day and call it nutrition accomplished? Here's a quiz to find out if you are making the best choices when it comes to fruit.
There's some good stuff to be found in a pizza, like lycopene-rich tomatoes and calcium and protein from the cheese, but the sodium and saturated fat usually cancel out the benefits.
Osteoporosis, the gradual loss of bone mass, is one of the most common bone diseases. Your diet can make a big difference in your bone strength. Do you know what changes you need to make to have strong bones?
Time for a confession: The Sleuth's guilty pleasure is . . . butter. Sweet cream butter, no salt, slathered on crusty bread. But butter started getting a bad rap a few decades ago for its saturated fat, so diligent diners turned to margarine -- until it was discovered that margarine's trans fats are worse than butter's sat fats.
Rhonda Fine, a clinical sexologist and psychiatric nurse practitioner at Miami Institute for Age Management and Intervention, shares her thoughts on the topic:
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A few years ago, a northern friend became enamored with mangoes during a visit. After about three days of intensive mango munching she turned orange. This benign condition of carotenemia, most often seen in babies, develops after consuming large amounts of beta-carotene-containing foods. It is odd looking, not attractive. A reader's question about the color of salmon prompted me to wonder if fish also had this color-changing trait and whether it would have an influence on nutrition and shopping.
You hear a lot about medicines that help people who suffer with reflux disease. Can diet help? Here's a quiz to find out if you know about the effects of diet on this irritating problem.
NUTRITION
Nutritionist Judy Stone says most chronic conditions can be prevented, improved, or even reversed through the proper diet, without taking medication.
We all know the best way to eat your salad is un-dressed (the greens, that is, not necessarily you). The next best thing is probably a light coating of olive oil and vinegar -- the Sleuth's preferred method, with a little Dijon mustard whisked in.
1. All chickens labeled ''100 percent natural'' are just chicken, nothing added. True or false? 2. If you read the small print, about half of the chickens sold as ''100 percent natural'' have been injected with broth and salt.
LOSING WEIGHT IN 2008
So far, our six dieters are holding onto their New Year's resolution -- lose weight in 2008 -- despite a few speed bumps. Collectively, they've shed more than 100 pounds the old-fashioned way, by eating less and moving more.
Cooking Light magazine is a good source for common sense nutrition advice. Here's a quiz based on nutrition updates in the March issue.
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Confusion about healthy foods vs. healthy eating is everywhere. Over a recent dinner, my friend Suzanne proudly showed me a bag of what she thought were ''healthy'' plantain chips. Look, she said, ''they have fiber; they're healthy.'' I gently replied that they were OK, but not as wholesome a food as she thought. About 50 percent of the calories in each serving are from fat and 2 grams of the fat is saturated. Even with the fat, these chips could still fit into a healthy lifestyle as an occasional...
Chicken tikka masala may not be a true Indian recipe -- it likely was concocted in 20th century Britain to please Western tastes -- but there's no doubting that the bits of chicken in a spicy cream sauce are a crowd pleaser.
Energy drinks charged into the U.S. market in 1997 with Red Bull and its claim: "Improves performance . . . increased concentration . . . stimulates the metabolism.'' The drinks, with their high caffeine content, have caused concern among health professionals -- especially when kids consume them. Studies have linked excessive caffeine in children to elevated heart rates, hypertension, anxiety, headaches and interrupted sleep patterns.
We can thank the tiny country of Belgium for at least three contributions to civilization: fine chocolate, the literary detective Hercule Poirot and the Belgian waffle.
Contact with a counselor may help keep weight off. The question: To avoid regaining lost pounds, might it help to participate in an interactive weight-control program, either on the Web or with personal contact?
Here's a quiz from the American Dietetic Association about basic nutrition. 1. All the foods you eat should be low in fat. True or false?
CHILDREN'S HEALTH
Approximately 2.2 million school-age children have food allergies. Allergic reactions to food occur when the immune system mistakenly identifies a food as harmful and triggers antibodies to form to fight it. The next time the food or a component of it is ingested, the antibodies release histamines and other chemicals into the bloodstream.
Cheese is full of protein and calcium so it must be good for you, right? Think again. Here's a quiz to find out how much you know about the cheese in your diet.
According to some cultures, the tomato and not the apple was the fruit that tempted Eve in paradise. And if the warm, yielding, juicy flesh of a garden-ripe tomato isn't beckoning enough, scientists have discovered that the powerful antioxidant called lycopene is even more available for use by the body when tomatoes are cooked or processed.
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When I am giving lectures on making food changes for a healthier diet I often ask how many people in the audience have a family member with diabetes. When I first started this a number of years ago, few people raised their hands. Now a majority, myself included, have hands high in the air. With so many people affected by this disorder you would think knowledge and understanding had risen, but that's not the case. Help is on the way. A new book, 16 Myths of a Diabetic Diet by registered dietitians...
Brown rice is a lot more nutritious than white rice, but revealing that inner beauty takes time -- about twice as long as it takes to cook white rice, which is brown rice with the bran and germ removed.
For teens, eating breakfast regularly may make a difference. The question: Does skipping breakfast help teens control their weight?
When it comes to heart health, it's especially important to watch nutrition labels for trans fat. You will find it listed under saturated fat and the USDA says we should eat as little as possible. Here's a quiz to find out if you are up-to-date on trans fats.
Contestants from the hit NBC reality show share their secrets in The Biggest Loser Success Secrets: The Wisdom, Motivation, and Inspiration to Lose Weight -- and Keep It Off! (Rodale, $21.95). Some of their advice: Don't eat food out of the original container. Make time for exercise. Work out to your favorite music. If you put in half-hearted work, you'll get half-hearted results.
A new book about heart health covers lifestyle, medical tests and symptoms, among other things. Here's a quiz from the nutrition chapters of American Medical Association Guide to Preventing and Treating Heart Disease: Essential Information You and Your Family Need to Know About Having a Healthy Heart.
