September 14th, 2010 by Shantanu Nundy, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
No Comments »
The science of nutrition is changing and not in the way you might expect. After years of “reductionist” thinking — where food has been viewed as the sum of its parts -– a call to treat food as food has been sounded. No more poring over nutrition labels to calculate grams of fat or chasing down the latest go-to chemical –- be it vitamin E, fish oil or omega-3. Instead we are being asked to call a potato a potato and a piece of steak — well, a piece of steak.
If you haven’t heard about this sea change yet, you are not alone. The food science industry that markets “food products” for our consumption has done a good job giving their laboratory creations a semblance of health with phrases like “low fat” and “high in vitamin C.” For our part, the medical community is also to blame. Despite evidence to the contrary, we have been slow to renounce the “fat is bad” mantra or break away from the nutrient-based approach to eating that first swept the country over 30 years ago. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at BeyondApples.Org*
May 2nd, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
No Comments »
Raise your hand if you want to eat healthy.
Healthy eating isn’t just good for cinching your waistline — it’s great for overall health.
From glowing skin, to heart health, to maintaining healthy teeth and bones; eating foods packed with certain nutrients can also protect your immune system and fight infections. It can boost your libido and decrease that lousy (LDL) cholesterol and boost your good (HDL) cholesterol.
Healthy eating shouldn’t be a struggle. It’s easy to get sucked into the marketing trap when you’re food shopping and you encounter all those in-store specials. Sometimes, those specials are just bad for your health. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
October 25th, 2009 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips
No Comments »
The next time you head down the food aisle, check out the front food labels.
The front of food labels or front-of-packages (FOP) are misleading and often confusing, leading the consumer to believe that the food they are about to buy is healthy, when in fact it is not.
In a recent post, Healthy Eating? Find Out What Could Be Hiding In Your Foods, I asked the question if we need to be detectives to find out what’s hiding in our foods.
Unless you turn the package over to read the list of ingredients, it’s impossible to tell. The front of the food label is constructed in such a creative way. Words and symbols highlight the product as healthy. It captures your attention and it gives you the impression that the food you are about to buy is good for you, but it is not. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
