Nutritionists and eating disorder specialists say they're seeing an increasing number of children who are terrified of "bad" foods, whether that means non-organics, trans fats, or just regular old sugar, to such an extent that it disrupts their daily lives. "We're seeing a lot of anxiety in these kids," says Cynthia Bulik, director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "They go to birthday parties, and if it's not a granola cake they feel like they can't eat it"
Some say that "orthorexia," as one specialist has dubbed the extreme obsession with healthy eating, is a pathway to anorexia and other eating disorders. They say the problem is in rigidly categorizing foods as "good" or "bad" instead of talking about moderation - children often take moral categories very, very seriously. Of course kids shouldn't be downing liters of Coke, but nor should they be paralyzed by guilt over eating a "bad" Oreo or forced to binge on potato chips in private because eating fatty foods is "naughty."
I had two friends growing up whose parents wouldn't let them eat refined sugar and who never had anything in the pantry tastier than whole wheat crackers. When they'd come to play at my house they'd plunder our kitchen cabinets for chocolate and cookies, which they would sneak home in plastic bags to eat under the covers at night. I can't help but think that being allowed a small dish of ice cream after dinner at their own houses might have taught them better eating habits.
How did your parents teach you healthy eating habits (or not)? How do you try to encourage your own kids to eat right?
Half of all American adults take some kind of dietary supplement, but a number of new studies have failed to show any link between multivitamin pills and better health or longer life among people with already adequate nutrition, reports the New York Times. Researchers at an eight-year-long study from the Women's Health Initiative showed that multivitamins did not reduce risk for heart disease or any kinds of cancer; a decade-long study on men showed that taking vitamins C and E made no differences in cancer or heart disease rates. Selenium was also not shown to have any effect on prostate cancer rates, as was previously believed.
Some studies have even shown potential harmful effects from vitamins, such as an increased risk of lung cancer among those taking high-dose beta carotene supplements.
But no one denies the health benefits of a balanced diet. Many physicians and researchers believe that the protective effects of vitamins may not translate from whole foods to vitamin pills, for reasons not completely understood. "There may not be a single component of broccoli or green leafy vegetables that is responsible for the health benefits," says one researcher. "Why are we taking a reductionist approach and plucking out one or two chemicals given in isolation?"
Do you take vitamin supplements? Do you think they help?
I was always the kind of kid who put stuff in my mouth that didn't belong - wooden stacking blocks, my mom's car keys, the occasional earthworm. I loved the feel of a bit of sand in my sandwich, and I could never keep my teeth off my deliciously grimy fingernails. Now, as an adult, I rarely get sick, despite my predilection for taco trucks, Indian street food and pork products of dubious origin. Is there a connection?
In this week's New York Times health section, Jane Brody writes about what's known as the hygiene hypothesis - the theory that ingesting plenty of bacteria and viruses as a child can help develop a healthy immune system. Though no one disputes that public health measures like sewer systems and food production regulation have improved overall health immeasurably, studies have also shown higher rates of autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma in people raised in ultra-clean environments. Basically, their systems don't "learn" to deal with foreign bodies, and become ultra-sensitive, attacking even normal tissue. Some research even suggests that deliberately infecting patients with worms can help treat certain auto-immune issues.
While most of us aren't going to go out and deliberately swallow pig whipworms, I think the hygiene hypothesis lends support to the increasingly widespread idea that it's OK to eat foods that fall outside the (supposedly) sterile confines of corporate agriculture. So let's all eat some raw milk cheese, cook some antibiotic-free meat, buy some gnobbly farmers market carrots with clods of earth still clinging to the tops. And maybe a little mud pie for dessert.
Move over Outback Steakhouse bacon and ranch cheese fries - the Baskin Robbins large chocolate Oreo shake is the new Worst Food in America, according to Men's Health. This diabetes-bomb has 2,600 calories, 135 grams of fat (59 of them saturated), 263 grams of sugar and 1,700 mgs of sodium.
Check out the link to see a full list of "worst" sandwiches, "worst" Mexican foods, "worst" pizzas, etc. The "worst" burger, Chili's Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch, has more than 150 grams of fat, the equivalent of eight 6-ounce steaks. While anyone can probably guess that massive milkshakes and burgers with more than more than three adjectives in their names are probably not great for you, Men's Health also uncovers a few presumably healthy foods that are actually not much better than sucking down melted margarine with a straw. The "worst" salad is T.G.I. Friday's Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad, which has 1,370 calories (more than half most people's daily need) and an undetermined amount of fat - T.G.I. Friday's refuses to disclose full nutritional information for their foods.
You better think twice next time you bite into what appears to be a nutritious Luna bar. The Los Angeles Times recently had an article stating that Clif Bar and Co. announced a recall of Clif and Luna brand bars that contain peanut butter. The decision was based on the FDA's announcement that traces of Salmonella Typhimurium contamination have been found in a plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America. The plant which manufactures peanut butter and peanut paste supplies companies nationwide. To find out what other food products have been affected, you can view an online list put together by the FDA.
While food shopping yesterday, I noticed a shelf full of Luna bars. I can't help but to feel mildly skeptical of the FDA. Just how seriously should we take this Salmonella scare? After doing some online research yesterday, I found out that there are approximately 40,000 cases of Salmonella infection reported every year in the U.S. In the summer of 2008, there was a Salmonella outbreak that seemed to have been caused by fresh jalapeño and serrano peppers from Mexico, raw tomatoes, and fresh cilantro. The highest amount of cases occured in Texas and New Mexico.
Originally, I thought that Salmonella was only present in raw meat, in particular poultry. In turns out that any foods that have been in contact with raw meat could also contain the bacteria. I'm just perplexed as to how it could have ended up in this peanut butter plant. Does it say something about the sanitary conditions of the plant or could it have happened anywhere?
In Sunday's Pittsburgh Tribune Review, dietitian Betsy Klein states that fad diets, such as low-carb regimens, seem to be disappearing. She explains that they are declining because people are less obsessed with weight-loss and more concerned with what they're actually consuming. This change in eating can be traced as far back as the '70s culinary revolution in Berkeley initiated by chefs like Alice Waters. It looks like the trend is spreading to the rest of the country.
This past September, the New York Times printed an article about people starting to eat to enjoy food rather than solely to lose weight. Chefs are preparing healthful well-balanced meals that do not necessarily follow any extreme forms of dieting. I wonder whether people are eating to enjoy the culinary sensations on their palate or if they're eating to experience the food's medicinal properties. For example, some people consume honey because they believe it relieves a sore throat. In other words, some people eat with the objective to have food activate or shut down corporal pains and desires.
Even if we're eating for reasons both gastronomical and pharmaceutic, which culinary purpose dominates? How will our culinary perception evolve in 2009?
Ok, so wine has numerous health benefits. It cures everything from cold sores to cancer. (Note: the above is not intended as medical device.) I tout wine's health benefits as much as anyone, but deep down inside, the truth is that I kind of like my wine as a vice. It's the only vice I have, really (though I'm sure my husband would say otherwise). I don't drink it because of its health benefits, but for the sheer pleasure of the taste, the bouquet, the way it enhances the food I cook and relaxes me after a stressful day at work or with the kids. The fact that it won't kill me in small quantities is simply a bonus.
What I don't want is a wine that's turned into a drug. An Australian doctor has pumped up a wine with resveratrol, the antioxidant that makes wine so good for you, with 100 times the normal amount. Phillip Norie, the winemaker and an M.D. expert on the link between wine and health, calls it a preventative medicine and a vascular pipe-cleaner. Taste-testers say they can't taste the difference between this wine and normal wine.
Perhaps the discovery will launch a new generation of health-concious wine-drinkers, but I hope if that's the case, they'll move beyond imbibing strictly for health and begin to enjoy the wine for the beautiful drink it is.
The other shoe has dropped: it turns out wine doesn't solve every health problem from A to Z. Researchers in England have found that red and white wines from most European nations carry potentially dangerous levels of at least seven different heavy metals.
To put the danger in context, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a measure called THQ (Target Hazard Quotients) that establishes safe levels of frequent, long-term exposure to various chemicals. A THQ over 1 indicates a health risk, and in the recent news, seafood THQs between 1 and 5 have raised serious concerns. The wines studied from Europe, the Middle East, and South America, have THQs ranging from 50 to 200 per glass, with some going as high as 300.
The top offenders were Hungary, Slovakia, France, Austria, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and Greece. Safe wines came from Argentina, Brazil, and Italy. But don't lead the cry for "buy American" just yet: U.S. wines weren't studied because there's no source for data on heavy metals in U.S. wines.
Last week, ABC News revealed in an article that a baby formula from China was made illegal in the U.S. after the death of a Chinese infant was traced to its food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials believe there is reason to be concerned that some formula from China may have slipped into markets serving Chinese consumers in the United States even though its sales are prohibited.
This concern is based on an FDA probe in 2004 that found this Chinese formula on the shelf of Chinese grocery shops. Do you remember that, in 2007, deaths and illnesses of hundreds of cats and dogs were linked to pet food ingredients from China? FDA officials believe that the Chinese baby formula may be tainted with melamine, the same ingredient found in that pet food. The FDA relieves concerned parents by affirming that U.S.-approved baby formula is safe.
It makes sense that NYC would follow LA's desire to ban fast-food. Just this past March, a report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene revealed that in just two years obesity and diagnosed diabetes increased by 17 percent while the rest of the nation experienced just a six percent increase. An article from New York magazine reports that, according to the Sun, NYC Councilman Eric Gioia wants to impose a one-year ban on new fast-food restaurants. Considering the gravity of this health crisis, this desired measure hardly seems as puritanical as New York magazine describes.
The BBC explains that local policians in LA want to implement laws that would ban fast-food businesses from opening up in South LA where 32 percent of adults are overweight. In cities with high rates of obesity, these measures seem crucial. Personally, I think these bans would encourage businesses to offer affordable healthy food. At the same time, it would bring back the traditional ways of enjoying and cooking food.
When we learn about nutrition, we tend to focus on calories and vitamins. We're taught about which foods may prevent cancer and help our immune system. We normally concentrate on the physical effects of food on our body. It turns out however that foods have many more properties. According to a recent article from The Economist, foods also affect our cognition. They can enhance our mental health. Not only can certain foods improve our memory, but they can also prevent many of the negative effects of aging and even increase our lifespan.
Dr Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted research on the way antioxidants and vitamins work with synapses in the brain. Based on his study, below are certain foods that can lead to a healthy brain:
At last, tomatoes improve their reputation despite recent reports of them causing cases of salmonella. Just last week, Springer's journal "Biotechnology Letter" had a study on how transgenic plants, like tomatoes, are used to produce a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease.
Would we simply need to eat more tomatoes to ward off symptoms of Alzheimer's disease? According to the report, researchers believe that tomatoes may help create an edible cure for the disease. To prevent Alzheimer's disease, scientists are looking to stimulate the immune system to reduce beta-amyloid which is a toxic protein in the brain that destroys neurons. Apparently, the tomatoes had strong immune responses on mice which lead scientists to wonder the possibilities of a tomato-based cure for the disease.
So, just when you thought you should avoid tomatoes, it turns out they might be incredibly beneficial to your health. Finally, you could enjoy your cool refreshing mildly spicy gazpacho soup without wondering about the tomatoes causing salmonella.
The wonderful benefits of industrial food! According to a recent New York Times article, it turns out that vinegar and a mix of other ingredients make the majority of commercial brands of mayonnaise protect against food spoilage. So, this summer, when you make sandwiches for a picnic, you can use plenty of mayonnaise without wondering whether or not it will cause food to rotten and cause food poisoning.
During the summer, many of us get concerned that in the scorching heat food will turn on us. And so, considering the fact that one of the ingredients in mayonnaise is uncooked egg yolk, it makes perfect sense that we'd assume that mayonnaise can cause diseases, like salmonella. Of course, one needs to differentiate between the mayonnaise you make at home and the one you purchase in the grocery store. But, so long as the eggs are pasteurized and you make sure to use vinegar, another basic mayonnaise ingredient, you will be fine!
So, this summer, do not fret over mayonnaise! Make your own mayonnaise! Foods that cause food poisoning are often made up of low-acid ingredients and involve improper storage and handling.
And we're not talking about your mental health because you haven't looked at anything but spreadsheets for four days. We're talking about your physical health.
As you wind down your day in front of your computer sitting at your desk, take a moment and look down at your keyboard. You could be looking at something that is dirtier than the toilet seat in the bathroom down the hall. This means eating lunch in front of your computer might be a health hazard!
According to British microbiologist James Francis four of 33 keyboards he tested were potential health hazards and one had germs at a level five times higher than that found on the toilet seat.
Makes me want to dip my laptop in a bleach solution and never eat at my desk again.
Of course, that's not possible when your boss's demands are forcing you to wolf down a sandwich at your desk through lunch. Just make sure to wash your hands, don't let other co-workers touch your keyboard, and my best advice is to eat lunch with utensils, not your hands.
You've seen them before. Those fliers tacked onto telephone poles (wait, do such things still exist?!), duct taped to street light posts, or even stapled onto the bulletin board in your doctor's office: "Wanted: women for a [insert health condition here] study."
You've never thought about actually volunteering for one of those studies.
Half of all American adults take some kind of dietary supplement, but 
I was always the kind of kid who put stuff in my mouth that didn't belong - wooden stacking blocks, my mom's car keys, the occasional earthworm. I loved the feel of a bit of sand in my sandwich, and I could never keep my teeth off my deliciously grimy fingernails. Now, as an adult, I rarely get sick, despite my predilection for taco trucks, Indian street food and pork products of dubious origin. Is there a connection? 
Move over Outback Steakhouse bacon and ranch cheese fries - the Baskin Robbins large chocolate Oreo shake is the new Worst Food in America, according to 
And we're not talking about your mental health because you haven't looked at anything but spreadsheets for four days. We're talking about your physical health.
You've seen them before. Those fliers tacked onto telephone poles (wait, do such things still exist?!), duct taped to street light posts, or even stapled onto the bulletin board in your doctor's office: "Wanted: women for a [insert health condition here] study."
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