The many medicinal gifts of garlic

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The many medicinal gifts of garlic

 

The old saying “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates (circa. 460-370 B.C.), also considered the “father of medicine,” seems to have really practiced what he preached.  He once prescribed a certain food substance for nearly everything from poor digestion, fatigue, respiratory issues, and parasites. This same food was even given to the first Olympic athletes in Ancient Greece to aid in their athletic performance.

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Seven no-nonsense strategies for successful weight loss

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Seven no-nonsense strategies for successful weight loss

Weight loss – it’s a constant battle for many and even when a person does lose some weight, the other struggle is keeping the weight off.  How do some people successfully lose significant amounts of weight and maintain the loss while others lose and then regain weight in repeating cycles?

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Exotic and ever enjoyable edamame

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Exotic and ever enjoyable edamame

Edamame – ever eaten it?  There was a time when very few people knew what edamame even was.  But ever since Americans took a strong liking to sushi back in the 1980’s when Japanese restaurants in California served them with Japanese beer, the popularity of eating edamame has steadily grown over the years. It was in 1994 when packaged ready-to-eat edamame appeared in a supermarket for the first time.  

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Egg Whites? Or the Whole Egg?

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Egg Whites? Or the Whole Egg?

Is there any advantage to making your omelet with only egg whites, and not the whole egg? It does seem like a popular enough option at most diners, so there must be something to it. But how much is legitimate nutrition science, and how much is just a marketer’s attempt to make you feel better about paying more for the same thing?

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Tumeric – the spice of a healthy life

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Tumeric – the spice of a healthy life

Tumeric – a spice spanning several cultures has a long history dating back about 4, 000 years ago.  Native to areas such as India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, turmeric has been used to treat a variety of conditions over the centuries and is still revered as a time-honored medicinal seasoning to this day.  Over 1 billion people worldwide regularly consume turmeric as part of their diet. 

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Is there a link between diet soda, dementia and stroke?

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Is there a link between diet soda, dementia and stroke?

For anyone who likes their diet soda, a new study may cause you to pause on slurping down your favorite drink.  An analysis of more than 4,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort, found that those who drank at least one artificially sweetened beverage a day were almost three times more likely to develop ischemic stroke and 2.9 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease over the course of 10 years than those who drank artificially sweetened beverages less than once a week. 

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Cancer’s connection with the food we eat

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Cancer’s connection with the food we eat

Not only do our daily food choices play a substantial role on the influence and specific type of cancer that may develop but our food choices may also provide a protective role in reducing our risk of this deadly disease. 

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Nature’s brain foods

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Nature’s brain foods

It’s the little things like forgetting someone’s name or needing to constantly write yourself reminder notes.  For the time being most of us just chalk it up to getting older but those common lapses of memory we all tend to share could also signal a future cognitive decline.  What most of us fear is dementia, a catch-all term for a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities.  We fear the cognitive decline could be a symptom of the worst of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease.

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Heart attacks, stroke reduced after banning trans fats

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Heart attacks, stroke reduced after banning trans fats

It appears the ban on trans fats that began in July 2007 in certain areas of the nation are doing what it was meant to do – reduce heart disease.  A new study led by a team at Yale University and published in the journal of JAMA Cardiology, has found since that ban, heart attacks and stroke have fallen by more than 6 percent three years after New York City and some counties within the state banned them.

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Anorexia and Celiac Disease: A Link?

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Anorexia and Celiac Disease: A Link?

Many young women struggle with anorexia nervosa for reasons that remain unclear. Biological, psychological and even environmental factors – Western culture's unhealthy obsession with being thin – all have their own camps and adherents. But new findings that link anorexia to celiac disease may finally shed some definitive light on the eating disorder which affects 1 in 200 American women.

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Be kind to your heart and stop ‘yo-yo’ dieting

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Be kind to your heart and stop ‘yo-yo’ dieting

If only weight loss was easy.  For some it can be but for most it can be a perplexing conundrum of lose weight, gain it back, repeat – lose weight, gain it back, repeat.  This rhythmic pattern of weight cycling is affectionately referred to as ‘yo-yo’ dieting.  We’ve all heard of the term and some of us may have experienced the up and down weight scale ride where we lose weight only to quickly and expectedly regain it back.

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7 best food eats for athletes

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7 best food eats for athletes

Athletes, whether weekend or pro, what to know what foods are best for enhancing athletic performance, help speed up recovery and build muscle mass.  There are certain foods that have scientifically been shown to appear to have that athletic enhancing ability helping a person reach their peak performance. 

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Mediterranean diet linked to less brain shrinkage with age

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Mediterranean diet linked to less brain shrinkage with age

One more reason to follow a Mediterranean diet – it could prevent the brain from shrinking in old age thus helping to slow down or prevent cognitive decline.    A new study published in the journal Neurology suggests there is an association between consuming foods typically consumed within a Mediterranean dietary pattern and a reduced amount of brain shrinkage.  Several studies have already demonstrated that following a Mediterranean diet can result in having better thinking skills, a reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.  

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The truth behind 5 common food myths

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The truth behind 5 common food myths

Discerning between food truths and food myths is really hard sometimes.  There is a multitude of some excellent nutrition advice to extremely bad to downright dangerous nutrition advice.  As a consumer and partaker of food (we all are), knowing the truth of how to follow a healthy, nutritious diet can get lost in the shuffle of nutrition myths that have grown exponentially over the years. 

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Walk on the wild side with funky fruits

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Walk on the wild side with funky fruits

The saying goes “variety is the spice of life” and boy, are they not kidding when it comes to fruits.  When we look beyond bananas, apples, and oranges, we’ll find there is a wide world of weird and wonderful fruit just waiting to be discovered.  These exotic and unique-looking produce may not be found in all grocery stores but they often are more widely available at Asian, Latin and gourmet supermarkets or from online specialty produce purveyors. 

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7 foods perfect for creating satiety

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7 foods perfect for creating satiety

It’s a commonality we all share – finding healthy foods that create a full but not a stuffed feeling.  What we are really looking for are foods giving us a feeling of satiety - the perception of fullness that lingers in the hours after a meal and keeps us from eating until the next mealtime.

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Get good gut health with prebiotics and probiotics

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Get good gut health with prebiotics and probiotics

We all want our gut to feel good.  No one wants a gut that is in constant turmoil possibly leading to serious conditions of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, obesity or rheumatoid arthritis.  What our gut is trying to tell us when these diseases arise is that the gut’s microbiome, partly inherited from your mother at birth and partly determined by your lifestyle, have a great deal of influence on our health. 

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6 foods that are belly bloating instigators

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6 foods that are belly bloating instigators

Nothing is more annoying than experiencing belly bloat.  Even though bloating is capable of making you feel puffy and uncomfortable plus making it just about impossible to zip up your skinny jeans, it usually is not serious.  It can be due to a variety of things – eating too fast or too much or drinking through a straw.  All of these actions can lead to gas buildup in the tummy and that can spell trouble.

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