Category: Food/Nutrition Columnist

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – AMES, IA – A multi-state study found kids with Mexican roots consumed fewer sugary beverages, french fries and fast food and ate more vegetables after participating in a six-week, culturally-tailored education program with their families.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – OK, you are already confused after reading the title. Who knew there were two types of vitamin D and why does it matter?

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Love them or hate them zero calorie sweeteners are found in many products in the supermarket. Some people avoid them diligently, others embrace them as a way to lower calories or reduce the amount of sugar they eat.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – We are constantly told to eat less salt because of its high sodium value. Though many studies have shown an association between sodium intake and high blood pressure and heart disease, other studies have shown no relationship.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Kids love fruit-flavored drinks. They are a staple for school lunch or on-the-go snacks. Your goal, as a parent, is to buy the best choices available.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – In a word – no. In 1995, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) a US-based environmental advocacy group developed an annual list of fruits and vegetables called the Dirty Dozen.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – And, you can’t count French fries. We are in a fruit and vegetable consumption crisis. Almost no one in the US meets the recommendation for 5 or more fruits and vegetable servings each day.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Eggs and Easter have always gone hand and hand. Eggs symbolize rebirth and fertility and most Christian religions include hard-cooked eggs in their Easter meals. Children love to dye and decorate eggs and many cultures produce elaborately painted eggs.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – You taste a food and declare it delicious, bitter, crunchy, sweet or awful. How do you come up with that assessment? Is it your taste buds, eyes or nose that helps you experience flavor? Is it all three working together?

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Scientific research, like a pendulum, swings back and forth before settling on the best answer. But the findings from one study can only stand until they are challenged by newer research which will either support the earlier finding or disprove the earlier results.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Every five years the federal government releases Dietary Guidelines for Americans to be used as a guidepost for healthy living. The current version was released in late December 2020.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Food is seductive. Since Eve enticed Adam with an apple, food and sex have been erotically entwined.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – We take sleep for granted but we should not. Would you go to work drunk? We need to think about sleep deprivation like alcohol intoxication. It, too, can cause car accidents and serious mistakes in judgement.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – January seemed normal, then by March the world turned upside down, schools were closing, people were required to work remotely, businesses closed, and the country got quiet.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – No question, Thanksgiving 2020 will be a holiday like never before.(HealthNewsDigest.com) – No question, Thanksgiving 2020 will be a holiday like never before.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, I would bet that most of you will enjoy a piece of pumpkin pie.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Yes, we should all be more concerned about probiotics. We have about 10 times as many bacteria in our intestinal tract as we have cells in the body.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Over 40% of adults and close to 18% of children under the age of 19 struggle with weighing too much every day.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – This year the opening of school is fraught with uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some schools will open, others will use a hybrid system of in person and virtual learning

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – If one positive thing has happened because of the COVID-19 pandemic, families are eating more meals together than in the recent past.