"nutrition" news and stories

Just off the re-marketing train, Chef Boyardee on Monday rolled out the second leg of its new campaign, "Obviously delicious. Secretly nutritious," which originally launched last year, Brandweek reports.

After market research, the company found that most parents have forgotten about the brand since it disappeared from the mainstream radar -- perhaps replaced by frozen, microwavable dinners -- but most kids, upon trying the canned meals, love them. Most parents, however, are skeptical about what's actually nutritious about the meals, so don't buy them.

It would seem First Lady Michelle Obama's strong call to action in her Washington Post op-ed Monday has been heard loud and clear. The Senate, yesterday, unanimously passed the Child Nutrition Act (which expires every five Septembers), calling it the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, The New York Times reported. The Act, which will provide $4.5 billion over the next ten years, now needs to be cleared by the House before September 30.

The breakdown after the jump...

Wine, fast food, beer, a heavy meal: all things that make you crash right to sleep, right? New research shows that though these foods may help you fall asleep, they don't actually make your sleep any more restful.

Washington Post columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget recently wondered if there were some magic food to solve sleep problems but found that it was more plausible to define which foods actually hinder sleep.

As it turns out, if you want to get a good night's rest, don't consume a ton of fat or alcohol before hitting the hay, as these both have the ability to disrupt the REM cycle, which is when your body actually rests.

Avoiding being left in the dust of the new health wave, as propelled by Mrs. Obama's meeting with major food markets in May, Kraft announced Monday that it will be pumping up its whole grain content in more than 100 of its products over the next three years.

This move comes after four years of development, the company says, in an effort to increase the use of whole grain without sacrificing the taste consumers have come to know. Despite industry skepticism, Kraft and other major food companies, including ConAgra and Del Monte, recently claimed they've made reductions in sodium; others, in sugar. Last June, Kellogg claimed it would increase fiber by the end of 2010 and last week introduced a line of FiberPlus cereals.

The term "whole grain" signifies an unadulterated product of wheat, something that became less common as major food companies realized that stripping the grain's kernel of its bran, endosperm and germ (all of its nutritional fiber, iron and vitamin content) would produce a finer texture and increase shelf life.

The newest food stuff to come under scrutiny isn't a member of the fast-food circuit but rather of Native American culture: fry bread. This doughy hole-less puff is best centered under a helping of chili, soaking in juices to be eaten by the finger-pluck-full.

But according to Health magazine's June 29 report, it's among the 50 fattiest foods in the country, reports Argus Leader, a local newspaper of Sioux Falls South Dakota, whose large Native American population named fry bread the state bread in 2005. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that one slice of fry bread the size of a large paper plate has about 25 grams of fat," the magazine's report notes. And a recent episode of fitness show "Losing it with Jillian" depicts the bread as "poisonous," the Leader reports.