"LowFat" news and stories

We've all heard the that beef is bad for you. It raises cholesterol and increases risk of heart attack. You'd think, knowing those facts, that the safest thing to do would be to try to remove beef from your diet. However, it appears that not all beef is created equal (and so you may not have to give up hamburgers altogether). Switching to grass-fed beef (from the conventional grain-fed beef which is what it typically available in your grocery store) may be the only step you need to make.

According to Eat Wild, grass-fed beef can be lower in fat than commercially raised chicken and has far more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional beef, which is a powerful cancer fighter and aids in brain development. It is also much higher in vitamin E, which is an immune booster.

So don't feel bad about eating that burger, just know what kind of beef you're eating and enjoy.

[via Epi-Log]

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We want to believe that there is a magic pill that will melt the fat off our bodies. We even hope there's some secret formula that nobody else knows. In the end, however, in our heart of hearts, we always know that "the formula" for staying trim is no formula at all. Quite simply, we have to exercise more and eat less.

Right?

Well, not exactly. According to various bits of research done here and there and compiled by AOL Diet & Fitness, it seems that for one particular trouble spot for a lot us, abs, eating more might be key.

Hold your horses, Soon-to-be-Taut Tonto. You can't just go eating everything in sight, thinking that the more potato chips and bacon you cram down your throat, the tighter your abs will be. There are specific nutrients in foods that seem t help fight ab fat. Unfortunately, potato chips isn't one of them. What are they? There are five things, and the matrix above is just a few suggestions for ways you can incorporate these into your diet that will get you to flatter abs:

When you stop into a Starbucks, do you stick with the standard whole milk in your drink or do you order low fat or skim milk instead? In some markets, Starbucks customers so overwhelmingly opt for lower fat options that the coffee chain has decided to test 2% low fat milk as the drink default in about 300 of their stores to see how consumers respond. The stores are located in four key markets: Orange County, California; Jacksonville, Florida; Oregon; and London, Ontario. Milk options other than low fat will still have to be added as a customization to your drink, including skim, whole and soy.

If the program is a success, the switch could be applied to all stores, which would alleviate some of the criticism about Starbucks' high-fat drinks, although it is unclear as to whether the regular Frappuccino drinks will change their recipes, as well.

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It's the eternal battle amongst dieters - low carb/no carb? lowfat/reduced fat? Low cal? There is a strong argument for every one.

According to the early findings of research that has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that compared people on lowfat diets versus people who follow a Mediterranean diet -- not "The" Mediterranean Diet, but "A" Mediterranean diet, the general term for a diet that includes large amounts of fat in the form of olive oil and tree nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts.

Though the complete study is not yet through its entire four years, participants so far who have been following Mediterranean lifestyles have experienced increases in HDL, decreases in LDL, and decreases in inflammation.

This is, of course, not new information, but encouraging for those of us who don't seem to find that lowfat diets work for our body types. Healthy or not healthy, it sure works for me, since Mediterreanan is in my top five cuisines!

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When Alanna sent me a note to let me know about a Lifehacker post on making low-fat cupcakes, I knew I would have to give it a try out of sheer curiosity. After all, Lifehacker is not exactly a food oriented site and to take a break from their regularly scheduled content to mention cooking seemed to be a sign that their technique was worth trying. Notice that I said technique and not recipe.

These light cupcakes are sort of a food hack (or a diet hack) using two ingredients: cake mix and diet soda. If you're not curious, or are so put off by the ingredients that you don't want to hear how the cupcakes turned out, you may as well stop now. Otherwise, read on...