Crave more crunch in your meals but want to avoid calories? Don’t overlook low-cal celery. With only 6 calories per cup, celery is a perfect warm weather refresher, helping you stay hydrated, thanks to its high water content. But there’s no reason to limit yourself to the same old sticks. Celery is a great addition to a summertime favorite, the lobster roll. Crunchy Lobster Roll 1 cup finely chopped celery 1/2 pound lobster meat, cut into chunks 1/2 apple, chopped 1 cup kale, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons mayonnaise 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt 1/2 teaspoon celery salt 4 whole-wheat hot dog buns Place celery, lobster, apple, kale, mayo, yogurt and celery salt in a large bowl and mix well. Toast the buns and top with equal amounts of the lobster salad and serve immediately. Yield: 2 servings Celery root, also called celeriac, is the tasty root of the celery plant, but with a less pronounced celery taste. Shop for it in the produce section alongside other root vegetables. Don’t be deterred by its rough, knobby appearance. It can be prepared in many delicious ways. Celery root makes a great alternative to cabbage for a no-cook slaw and is an ideal swap for starchier veggies like potatoes, since it’s lower in carbs and calories — only 65 calories per cup with 14 grams of carbs and…  read on >

Lots of kids are picky eaters. But when eating habits in young children are extreme, it could be a sign of autism, researchers say. A new study finds atypical eating behaviors — such as hypersensitivity to food textures or pocketing food without swallowing — in 70% of kids with autism. That’s 15 times the rate typically found in children. Unusual eating behaviors are common in many 1-year-olds with autism and could alert parents and doctors that a child may have the disorder, according to study author Susan Mayes. She’s a professor of psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine. “If a primary care provider hears about these behaviors from parents, they should consider referring the child for an autism screening,” she said in a university news release. For the study, the researchers analyzed parents’ descriptions of the eating behaviors of more than 2,000 children. The kids were in two studies that compared typical children and those with autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other developmental disorders. Atypical eating behaviors also include liking only an extremely small number of foods, and hypersensitivity to food temperatures. Atypical eating behaviors were seven times more common among children with autism than children with other types of developmental disorders, the Penn State researchers also found. Most of the children with autism who had atypical eating behaviors had two or more types,…  read on >

It seems as though every day brings yet another study on the effects of caffeine or coffee in particular. Researchers have looked at its effects on almost every aspect of health, from overall mortality to the heart, bones, kidneys, liver, fertility and more. Sometimes, separate studies on the same aspect of caffeine consumption have contradictory findings, creating confusion. So, what do you need to know before you take another sip? An exhaustive analysis of 1,277 existing studies published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety found that the potential benefits of drinking moderate amounts of coffee outweigh the risks. In fact, research on caffeine’s heart health benefits, published in the journal Circulation, reversed 20-year-old findings to the contrary. But just what is moderate coffee drinking? About four 8-ounce cups a day. At the other end of the spectrum, research done at the Australian Center for Precision Health has pinpointed the upper end of the safe range, finding that drinking six or more cups a day does pose a danger to heart health. This amount can lead to high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease. Caffeine isn’t the only active ingredient in coffee, but tracking caffeine milligrams is a good way to measure intake, with 400 milligrams a day being the limit suggested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One 8-ounce…  read on >

Experts have redefined the role of fat in healthy eating, but before you grab a chunk of cheese or another pat of butter, understand the differences between the various types of fat in your diet. For decades, guidelines recommended limiting total dietary fat to no more than 30% of daily calories, and then to a range of 20% to 35% of calories. The thinking was this would lower saturated fat and cholesterol intake, both of which were thought to increase heart disease risk. But many people restricted all types of fat, including healthy ones, like the unsaturated fats found in nuts, vegetable oils and fish. What’s more, packaged food manufacturers rushed to replace fat with unhealthy processed carbohydrates like sugar and refined grains. But research analyzing observational studies and clinical trials has found that replacing saturated fat with the refined carbohydrates found in so-called low-fat processed foods doesn’t lower heart disease risk. On the other hand, choosing polyunsaturated fats for either saturated fat or carbohydrates does. Polyunsaturated fats include both plant and marine sources of unsaturated fats, such as olive oil and fatty fish. This is true even when calories from these sources account for 35% or more of the daily diet. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee now suggests optimizing healthy fats and avoiding low-fat or even non-fat products that have high levels of refined…  read on >