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Nutrition
So you can see that ingestion of certain foodstuffs, such as glucose-containing carbohydrates, trigger a number of responses that help to balance food seeking behaviors with whether an individual is fed or fasting. These complex processes interact to help us maintain weight over both the short and the long run. Fructose, unlike glucose, does not turn on these regulatory mechanisms, leaving individuals with high fructose ingestion vulnerable to overeating and weight gain.
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Food labels, Overweight/obesity, High fructose corn syrup, Food policy, Calorie counting, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Weight loss
Chris was outraged. But he is turning his outrage into action. He has founded a non-profit, “Parents Against Junk Food.” This is a good old-fashioned call-to-action website that aims to get parents riled up about this issue.
Chris writes in his editorial:
““One day, mothers and fathers across America are going to wake up, throw open the window, and yell, “We’re mad, and we’re not going to take it anymore!””
Way to go, Chris! Yes, parents need to be responsible for their kids’ health and well-being, but we need to ask for, no demand, that the public institutions that we pay for with our hard-earned tax dollars, support us in our efforts keep our kids healthy and safe.
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Inspiration/motivation, Children, Overweight/obesity, Food policy, Childhood obesity, Nutrition, Social commentary, Healthy eating
You don't have to go hungry anymore; we can fill you with fats and carbs more cheaply than ever. You don't have to chase your food; we can bring it to you. You don't have to cook it; we can deliver it ready to eat. You don't have to eat it before it spoils; we can pump it full of preservatives so it lasts forever. You don't even have to stop when you're full. We've got so much food to sell, we want you to keep eating.
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Public health, Overweight/obesity, Food policy, Nutrition, Social commentary, Healthy eating, Food industry, Food politics
While I agree, parents need to be good role models and set limits, I also believe that there are so many influences in kids lives today, ranging from TV, to the internet, to peers in play groups and day care, that placing all of the responsibility and blame on parents seems naive to me.
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Filed Under:
Weight loss behaviors, Public health, Children, Overweight/obesity, Food policy, Research on obesity/overweight, Childhood obesity, Portion control, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Weight loss
Learn more about food and class, and educate others.
When you hear someone moralizing about healthy or responsible food choices, don’t be afraid to speak up: seek clarification by asking “healthy for whom?” or “environmentally or socially responsible?” This is an opportunity to help otherwise “aware” individuals learn about the socioeconomic dimension of food and environmental responsibility.
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Public health, Food policy, Nutrition, Guest blogs, Social commentary, Eat local, Healthy eating
Have you noticed that you are ravenously hungry an hour or two after certain meals? Or that you stay fuller, longer after others? Many people have learned that adding protein to their breakfast meal is the best insurance against the mid-morning munchies. And a bit of chicken in your lunchtime salad may help you make it to dinner without a trip to the vending machines. Protein, it turns out, enhances satiety (the feeling of fullness) and helps you lose weight.
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Dietary Fat, Overweight/obesity, Research on obesity/overweight, Regulation of appetite, Hormones, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Protein, Carbohydrates, Weight loss
When it comes to absorbing nutrients, it makes a difference how you prepare a food (cooked or raw) and what foods you eat with it. The science of understanding nutrient absorption is an area called “bioavailability.”
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Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Research on obesity/overweight, Nutrition, Healthy eating
Every morning, he has the same cereal for breakfast. It is also a Kellogg’s All-Bran, but it is their “Bran Buds” product. He thought it was lower in calories than the Yogurt Bites version. But when he looked at the serving sizes of the two cereals, he was in for a surprise. Bran Buds lists a serving size of 1/3 cup. That barely covers the bottom of the cereal bowl. The serving size of Yogurt Bites is 1-1/4 cup—a decent amount.
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Food labels, Portion wise or portion lies?, Children, Overweight/obesity, Food policy, Calorie counting, Portion control, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Serving size
It is fascinating to learn from this document that retailers are now selling significantly larger apples than those represented by serving sizes on the old nutrition labels. Apples are 57% bigger now than in 1975 when the serving size of 154 g rams was established. Large apples today have a serving size of 264 g of which 242 grams are edible.
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Public health, Food labels, Portion wise or portion lies?, Overweight/obesity, Food policy, Calorie counting, Portion control, Nutrition, Serving size, Fruits
I have tried to like tofu. I am "almost" a vegetarian....I haven't eaten red meat since December of 2005. I love veggies. I love, love, love Indian dishes with paneer (I thought it was tofu...oh, well). I really want to love tofu, but, well, I don't like to eat it.
I can't tell you how much tofu I have bought at my local healthy grocery stores. I put it in the cheese section of my fridge and then I ignore it, day after day after day. Eventually, I realize it is really old or, it reminds me that it is really old by growing beautiful pastel fungi on its surface. Then I toss it into the garbage and I am so relieved that it is gone that I breathe a sigh of relief
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Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Calorie Wiki, Nutrition, Healthy eating
Fructose is a dietary sugar that is found in a number of naturally occurring foods, most particularly, fruit. Eaten in moderation, especially when ingested as a complex foodstuff (e.g., an apple), it is not harmful. On the other hand,
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Food labels, Overweight/obesity, High fructose corn syrup, Childhood obesity, Calorie counting, Nutrition, Weight loss
I was stocking up on fruits and veggies in my local Whole Foods grocery store the other day. As I poked and prodded through the bins piled high with colorful produce, I found ripe apricots. Fifty years ago, I guess that wouldn’t have been a big deal. But today’s supermarket fruits are usually rock hard, free of scent, and tasteless – the result of being picked before they ripen and being transported long distances over days to weeks to reach your store.
These ripe apricots had a wonderful juicy squish to them (that’s right, I squeeze the fruit before I buy it). And, they smelled like apricots. Having just written about the benefits of “buying locally,” I looked to see where they had been grown. They were from a farm in San Pablo, California, less than 20 miles from the San Rafael store where I was shopping.
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Public health, Food policy, Nutrition, Social commentary, Eat local, Healthy eating
Hey, calorie counters out there. Did you add it all up and think you did a pretty good job this week? But you still didn’t lose any weight. Must be your slow metabolism, right? Or maybe it’s your condiments.
Condiments are those little dabs of this and that we slather on food to make it taste better. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of different kinds of condiments, ranging from the more mundane (ketchup and mayo) to the exotic, such as raita (a South Asian treat made from yogurt, vegetables, herbs and spices), bagoong monamon (salted fish sauce), and ponzu (a Japanese dipping sauce).
Like all other foods, some are low fat and low calorie and others pack a diet-busting wallop of both. If you aren’t paying attention, you could be getting more calories and more fat from your condiment than you are from the food you put it on. Here are some examples from my own refrigerator:
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Filed Under:
Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Dietary Fat, Food labels, Overweight/obesity, Cholesterol, Food policy, Nutrition, Healthy eating
Most of the oranges we consume in this country are consumed as orange juice. Most of the orange juice we drink is prepared (not fresh) orange juice. Some of the orange juice is orange drink, not real orange juice. A lot of us eat oranges in one form or another because we have been taught that it is naturally a good source of vitamin C, and, while that is true, some of the OJ preparations we consume actually have vitamin C added
There is a lot of confusion about what how much vitamin C we need to be healthy. But there are a lot of good scientific studies to help inform recommendations. One trusted source, the Harvard School of Public Health, recommends the following:
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Filed Under:
Weight loss behaviors, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Food labels, Food policy, Nutrition, Healthy eating
So, what exactly is in the yogurt we are buying? Let’s take a look, starting with “Yobaby,” the health food for babies and toddlers. The food label states that “Yobaby” is made from cultured pasteurized organic whole milk. Sound good? I guess. All real yogurts are made from milk, although not necessarily from organic milk nor from whole milk which is naturally rich in fat content. The package label also says that “Yobaby” is made without the use of antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones or toxic pesticides. All of that is indeed good.
However, the second ingredient listed on the “Yobaby” label is “naturally milled organic sugar – organic, yes, but sugar nonetheless. Ingredient order on labels is based on how much of the substance is in the food. There are 16 grams of sugars in a 4 ounce container of “Yobaby.” Although some of these sugars are the naturally occurring milk sugars, the label makes it clear that additional sugar has been added. In fact, there is twice as much sugar in “Yobaby” than there is in plain unsweetened yogurt. Is this a health food? Or is it a dessert? No wonder my granddaughters love this stuff!
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Filed Under:
Lipids, Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Dietary Fat, Food labels, Children, Weight loss (benefits), Overweight/obesity, High fructose corn syrup, Food policy, Calorie counting, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Weight loss
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