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March 2002
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Brain Candy: Focus On Foods That Fuel Your Mind And Memory
By Julie Walsh, M.S., R.D.
Everyone has "senior moments" from time to time, even people who aren’t so senior. You know, when you can’t remember where you left your keys—or worse, why you walked from one room to the next or the point of what you were just saying? Such short-lived memory lapses can occur at any age—declines in memory begin as early as the mid-20’s and continue throughout life—but are more common as the years pass.
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How Now, Mad Cow? Assessing The Disease Risk For Americans
By Densie Webb, Ph.D., R.D.
The U.S. is a country of beef lovers, consuming about 67 pounds of beef per person each year. The downsides to beef are well known: Fatty cuts promote heart disease, ground beef can harbor bacteria like Salmonella or E. coli and enthusiastic beef eaters may run a greater risk of certain cancers. However, if you choose lean cuts, eat small servings and cook ground beef thoroughly, you greatly reduce these risks. But what
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EN Presents 25 Tips for Getting Your Daily Fix of Fiber
By Diane Welland, M.S., R.D.
Supermarket shelves are lined with high-fiber foods, from brown rice and black beans to artichokes and pears. Yet most Americans get only about half the recommended intake of 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, not nearly enough to reap fiber’s health benefits. A fiber-rich diet may help protect against heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, diverticulitis and constipation—even help manage weight. Foods are preferable to supplements; experts believe fiber’s
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Contentious Counter to Calcium Conference
At press time, EN joined over 200 health professionals in Washington, D.C. for a Calcium Summit. As would be expected of an event sponsored in part by the National Dairy Council, the conference focused on ways to increase calcium intake via milk and other dairy foods, with a special focus on youth. Researchers from top institutions also discussed the high rate of undetected bone loss in postmenopausal women and debated research linking milk
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Get More Satisfaction for Fewer Calories
Here’s how to boost weight-loss efforts: Grab a piece of the chewiest bread you can find….munch on an apple or cook up some hot cereal. You might feel more satisfied and eat less afterwards than if you ate a food that wasn’t as hearty, say researchers, who developed a "satiety index" that ranks how filling foods are. The Challenge. In a recent Australian study reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association,
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Report Card on Bacteria in Domestic Produce
The next time you wash green onions (scallions), cantaloupe and cilantro, take extra care. They were tops in bacteria in a first-time government survey of bacteria levels on eight popular domestically grown fruits and vegetables typically eaten raw. The survey also analyzed celery, leaf lettuce, parsley, strawberries and tomatoes. But all in all, the news is good. Reassuring Numbers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture report analyzed 1,028 total samples, finding
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Research Roundup
High triglycerides are an independent risk factor for stroke, say Israeli researchers, who followed 11,177 men and women with heart disease for six to eight years. After adjusting for other risk factors, those with blood triglyceride levels above 200 had a 27% increased risk of stroke compared to those with lower levels. High triglyceride levels may directly contribute to blocked arteries and have also been linked to abnormalities in blood clotting.
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Say Cheese! The Lowdown on Lower-Fat Options
By Kitty Broihier, M.S., R.D.
Cheese lovers have learned to be wary of low-fat cheeses, because many of them proved to be tasteless, plastic-like and—in their first incarnation—resistant to melting. But EN’s latest foray into the world of low-fat cheeses has uncovered some improvement since our last report. The cheeses we tested all melted, and a few now actually look and taste like the real thing, though the best-tasting offer the least fat savings. Some is better than
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How Weight Loss May Protect Your Heart
Obese women may have a lot to gain by losing weight, including reduced inflammation of their arteries, which lowers the risk of heart attack, according to new research from the University of Vermont in Burlington. In the study, 25 obese, otherwise healthy, postmenopausal women followed a 1,200-calorie American Heart Association "Step 2" diet, a strict cholesterol-lowering plan. Participants lost an average of 33 pounds over 14 months, resulting in a 32% drop in
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Good Goobers, Great Nutrition
The Folklore: Though peanuts probably originated in South America, they made their way to Africa and back again, to be planted by slaves throughout the South. The word goober is said to come from an African word for peanuts—nguba. The Facts: Nuts rank third in snack food sales, with peanuts accounting for about two-thirds of that. As a legume and close cousin to black-eyed peas, goobers are a gold mine of nutrients. Just
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EN Squeezes the Raw Truth Out of Juice Plus Claims
Q. Ads for Juice Plus capsules say they are a healthful way to get fruits and vegetables. Are they really just as good? A. We don't think so. Despite the company’s claim that "Juice Plus is a convenient and inexpensive way to add more nutrition from fresh, raw fruits and vegetables to your diet," these capsules can't take the place of the real thing. Juice Plus, available only through a network of
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Use Them or Lose Them: Exercise to Keep Bones Strong
Q. I keep hearing that weight-bearing exercise is important for preventing bone loss. Does it really matter what type of exercise I do? A. Definitely. For bones to stay strong, you must not only move them, but place demands on them with both weight-bearing and resistance exercise. Bones are living tissues whose cells are constantly being replaced. Even though you can’t tell when your bones respond to exercise, they do. When you pound
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