Environmental Nutrition

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For Sensible Weight Loss, Simply Smartsize Your Portions

Subscribers Only What do you do if you’re carrying around extra pounds, but visions of calorie charts and carb calculators give you nightmares? Make how much you eat, not what you eat, your top priority.

In Brief

Subscribers Only • The Food and Drug Administration has finally banned use of the antibiotic Baytril in poultry, effective September 12. • The supplement Pycnogenol may reduce the leg swelling and fluid retention that sometimes occur during long flights.

Carageenan: Unsafe Rumors Unfounded for Natural Additive

Subscribers Only Q . I've seen carrageenan listed as an ingredient in several foods, but I've read that it might not be safe. What exactly is it and is it safe to eat? A . Relax, there's little to worry about. Carrageenan is a gum extracted from red seaweed or algae. It's used as a food thickener, and fat replacement in many products.

Mysteries of the Artichoke:
Fabulous Flavor, Surprising Nutrition

Subscribers Only Legend has it that the Greek god Zeus fell for a beautiful goddess who eventually displeased him. He transformed her into the first artichoke. Fast forward to 1949, when Marilyn Monroe was crowned the first California Artichoke Queen. Beauties aside, artichokes boast an array of nutrients—vitamin C, fiber, magnesium and the B vitamin folate.

Research Roundup

Subscribers Only • Women who eat a lot of fruits and vegetables have less risk of developing cataracts than women who consume little produce. • Women who eat whole grains may reduce their risk of narrowed arteries , suggests research from Tufts’ Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston. • Eating fish is protective, while meat raises the risk of colon cancer , say European researchers after tracking half a million people for an average of five years.

Mixed News for Vitamin E Leaves Questions

Subscribers Only Is vitamin E dead? As with Mark Twain, reports of its demise may be greatly exaggerated. But what’s clear right now is confusion over recent findings from the Women’s Health Study, the largest clinical trial to study the effect of vitamin E on the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Small Ways You Can Stave Off
Or Delay Alzheimer’s Disease

Subscribers Only Q . My mother had Alzheimer’s disease and now I’m worried about developing it. Is there anything I can do to reduce my risk? A . Yes. Genetic factors involved in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s can’t be altered. But researchers are beginning to believe that lifestyle factors within your control may have influence.

Squeezing More Nutrition Out of Your Morning Juice

Subscribers Only Getting more nutritional clout for your calories is a growing trend for many foods, and nowhere is it more apparent than in the juice aisle. While there are still plenty of unadorned juices on the market, there’s been an explosion of juice enhancements. EN examines the trends.

Spice Up Your Diet . . . . Improve Your Health

Subscribers Only Throughout history, spices have helped shape the world. As long as people have used spices to season and preserve foods, they have also sought their health-giving properties. The ancient Greeks incorporated spices into medicines, while people in India have touted spices as digestive aids for centuries. Now, science is backing up folklore.

Walk Yourself Well:
EN’s Step-by-Step Guide to Good Health

Subscribers Only With just one step you can make a giant leap toward improving your health and well-being. It sounds simple, but walking is one of the best ways to help stave off chronic diseases, improve self-confidence and mood plus keep you happy and independent—at any age.

Ride the D Train: Research Finds Even More Reasons to Get Vitamin D

Subscribers Only Vitamin D could easily be dubbed the latest darling of nutrients. New research is unveiling additional roles for D besides its well-known part in building better bones, and more experts are calling for higher intakes than ever before. EN examines the latest findings and evaluates how best to get enough of this needed nutrient.

Echinacea Ineffective
Against Colds Again

Subscribers Only In a recent study from the University of Virginia, researchers found that among 399 volunteers, none of three specially prepared echinacea extracts (all E. angustifolia ) had any effect on how often the participants caught colds or on the severity of their symptoms.