Eats « Weekly Gravy

(HealthDay News) — Not all snacks are bad for you, so it’s a good idea to avoid foods that are loaded with sugar and have virtually no nutritional value. The U.S. National Institute on Aging offers these healthier snack suggestions: Have an ounce of cheese with some whole-grain crackers, a container of low-fat yogurt or some low-fat popcorn. Gather a bowl of fruit for the kitchen or your living room coffee table. Keep a container of raw vegetables in the fridge. If you want some chips or nuts, don’t eat from the bag. This will avoid portion control issues.

Weight loss from dieting can slow the progression of knee arthritis in overweight people, according to a new study. But losing pounds from exercise alone will not help preserve those aging knees, the researchers found. Obesity is a major risk factor for painful knee osteoarthritis — degeneration of cartilage caused by wear and tear. Weight loss can slow the disease, but it wasn’t clear until now if the method of weight loss made a difference. Apparently, it does. “These results add to the hypothesis that solely exercise as a regimen in order to lose weight in overweight and obese adults may not be as beneficial to the knee joint as weight loss regimens involving diet,” said lead author Dr. Alexandra Gersing. Gersing made her comments in a news release from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). She’s with the University of California, San Francisco’s department of radiology and biomedical imaging. The study included 760 overweight or obese adults who had mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis or were at risk for it. The participants were divided into a “control group” of patients who lost no weight, and a group who lost weight through either a combination of diet and exercise, diet alone, or exercise alone. After eight years, cartilage degeneration was much lower in the weight-loss group than in the control group. However, that was… read on >

Though foodborne illness can put a quick end to Thanksgiving festivities, that need not be the case, food safety experts say. That’s because ensuring that homemade holiday meals are not only delicious but germ-free is within the grasp of not just experienced chefs, but rookie cooks as well. Food safety starts while you’re grocery shopping for ingredients, said Brian Ulshafer, executive chef at Penn State Health’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. For instance, “keep any raw meat or seafood away from other foods in the cart,” Ulshafer said in a medical center news release. “You don’t want to put a raw turkey on top of your lunchmeat.” Keeping cold foods cold and hot foods hot is also essential when it comes to preventing foodborne illnesses such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria. Bacteria grow quickly at temperatures ranging from 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. “Bacteria can double in a 20-minute period, so that’s how fast it can grow,” Ulshafer said. He noted that people can get very sick or even die from foodborne illnesses. Roughly 1 in 6 Americans gets such infections each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms of a foodborne illness may include: Belly pain. Nausea or vomiting. Diarrhea. Fever. Chills. Fatigue. Headaches. Muscle pain. Bloody bowel movements. Sometimes, the warning signs of a foodborne illness are… read on >

Your heart will thank you if you stick to a mostly plant-based diet, a new preliminary study suggests. Researchers evaluated five dietary patterns. They found that people who ate a plant-based diet most of the time had a 42 percent lower risk of developing heart failure over four years than those who ate fewer plant-based foods. “Eating a diet mostly of dark green leafy plants, fruits, beans, whole grains and fish, while limiting processed meats, saturated fats, trans fats, refined carbohydrates and foods high in added sugars is a heart-healthy lifestyle and may specifically help prevent heart failure if you don’t already have it,” said study first author Dr. Kyla Lara. She’s an internal medicine resident at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Heart failure means the heart is unable to pump enough blood to maintain its workload. It affects about 6.5 million adults over the age of 20 in the United States. The study involved more than 15,500 American adults, aged 45 and older, without known heart disease or heart failure. The plant-based diet was weighed against diets of convenience (red meats, pastas, fried potatoes, fast foods); sweets-laden diets (desserts, breads, sweet breakfast foods, chocolate, candy); southern diets (eggs, fried food, organ meats, processed meats, sugary beverages); and eating habits heavy on alcohol and salads (salad dressings, green,… read on >

Holiday parties are fun social gatherings, but they can also be diet disasters. Here’s how to enjoy yourself while sparing yourself hundreds of extra calories. First, eat healthy in the hours leading up to the party. Focus on lean protein, whole grains and simply prepared fruits and vegetables to pack your day with nutrients, suggests the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Don’t attempt to starve yourself or create a calorie deficiency thinking this will give yourself leeway to splurge — that strategy often boomerangs. At the event, set a firm drink limit. Calories can quickly add up when the alcohol is flowing. Two 5-ounce glasses of white wine top 200 calories, so keep a running tally in your head or, even better, a calorie-counting app. Have a glass of plain or sparkling water between alcoholic drinks. This will help you stay hydrated (alcohol acts like a diuretic) and allow you to better pace the booze. Watch out for the hors d’oeuvres, especially if you’re at a cocktail party. It’s easy to mindlessly munch every time a tray passes by. Even bite-sized pastry treats like cheese puffs and mini hot dogs contain loads of calories. Choose high-protein shrimp cocktail instead — you can even enjoy a dollop of tomato-based sauce guilt-free. While nuts are healthy snacks, each handful is about 150 calories, so if you can’t… read on >

Is your shopping cart filled with heavily processed foods? Some might seem to be time-savers, yet cost more than fresh foods and offer few nutrients. Others might actually harm your health. The first foods to avoid are processed meats from hot dogs to deli cold cuts, including salami and bologna. Even those labeled “low calorie” are likely to have questionable preservatives, such as salts and nitrates. Studies show that these are the worst types of meats for your heart. Try freshly prepared turkey and chicken instead. In a hurry? A rotisserie chicken cooked at your favorite market is a good alternative. Next, pass on processed foods made with refined flour. These include typical breakfast cereals, white breads and similar baked goods. For the most nutrition, look for stone-ground whole-grain breads and steel-cut oats. Substitute a mashed slice of avocado for typical sandwich spreads. You’ll get great taste and great nutrition. Instead of bagged chips and other packaged snacks, crunch an ounce of nuts. For only a slight difference in calories, you get protein, healthy fats and fiber. Bottled salad dressings — even diet or low-fat versions — often have corn syrup along with many additives. Whisk up your own vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar, or try nonfat yogurt with lemon juice, herbs and garlic. If you’re short on time during the week… read on >

(HealthDay News) — If you have diabetes, it’s important to make every food decision count. The American Diabetes Association identifies these “superfoods” that offer plenty of potential health benefits: Beans Dark-green leafy vegetables Citrus fruit Sweet potatoes Berries Tomatoes Fish that is high in omega-3 fatty acids Nuts Low-fat milk and yogurt

Make sure your diet is age-appropriate read on >

If cookies, pizza and potato chips seem to pull you in, you’re not alone. A new study finds that images of junk food are, indeed, more distracting than those of healthy food. The researchers also found, though, that just a few tastes of junk food can significantly reduce its appeal. “We wanted to see if pictures of food, particularly high-fat, high-calorie food, would be a distraction for people engaged in a complicated task,” said co-author Howard Egeth, a professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The researchers showed the pictures to 18 participants, most of them undergraduate students. “We showed them carrots and apples, and it slowed them down,” Egeth said in a university news release. “We showed them bicycles and thumb tacks, and it slowed them down. But when we showed them chocolate cake and hot dogs, these things slowed them down about twice as much.” The researchers then repeated the experiment with 18 new participants, but first gave them two small candy bars before they began their task. This time, the study found that images of junk food were no more distracting than pictures of healthy food or nonfood items. The findings were published online Oct. 26 in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. The researchers believe the study findings highlight people’s built-in bias for… read on >

When you were growing up, Mom might have told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But when you’re an adult trying to lose weight, you may not need to eat breakfast if you’re just not hungry first thing in the morning. Dieters have long been told to start the day with breakfast to stave off mid-morning hunger pangs and a dash to the breakroom for donuts. But when researchers compared the weight-loss results of a group of dieters who ate breakfast to those who didn’t, they found no differences on the scale. The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, followed nearly 300 people over a 4-month period. Another study done in the United Kingdom and published in the same journal found similar results. While skipping breakfast in an attempt to starve yourself could backfire and find you gorging at lunchtime, it’s OK to simply wait until you’re really hungry to eat your first meal of the day. Postponing the calorie intake could give you more flexibility later on, should you have a snack craving at midday or want an extra protein portion at dinner. Another option is to eat a very small morning meal, like a half-cup of cereal with a splash of nonfat milk. If you’ll be on the run and unable to stop when hunger… read on >