Archive: Nutrition and Fitness
Are 'Energy' Drinks Threatening Our Kids?
Researchers are calling for warning labels and other steps to curb the abuse of those wildly popular high-caffeine "energy drinks." Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University and 98 other experts sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration this week saying they had become increasingly alarmed about Red Bull...
By Rob Stein | October 9, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
Will Restaurants' Posting Nutrition Info Help Fight Obesity?
From left to right: California Medical Association President Dr. Richard Frankenstein, California Department of Public Health Chief Deputy Director Dr. Bonnie Sorensen, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly member Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord). (Photo courtesy of Peter Grigsby, Office of the Governor) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was...
By Jennifer Huget | October 7, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (18)
Kids' Cereal Rated
There's some new information out today that will come in handy the next time you're walking down the grocery aisle trying to decide what kind of cereal to buy for your kids. Consumer Reports has conducted its first nutritional analysis of cereals marketed to children. In a report that will...
By Rob Stein | October 1, 2008; 06:05 PM ET | Comments (152)
Schools Sans Sodas
Substantial headway has been made lately in getting sugary (and high-fructose corn syrup-laden) sodas out of schools. But that might not make much difference in kids' overall soda consumption. Both pieces of news came across my desk as I was writing today's "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy" column about school...
By Jennifer Huget | September 30, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
Food for Toddlers
Yesterday the Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. launched a new line of toddler foods that promise to offer better nutrition than competing products and "No Junk" -- meaning no artificial flavors or colors, MSG, trans fats, added sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or excessive salt -- in their recipes. Photo courtesy of...
By Jennifer Huget | September 16, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (17)
Does Vitamin B12 Protect Your Brain?
A common vitamin found in meat, fish, dairy and other foods has been given a boost as a possible way to stave off the effects of aging. Vitamin B12 appears to protect people's brains as they age, according to a new British study. Anna Vogiatzoglou of the University of...
By Rob Stein | September 11, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Knee Surgery Useless, Study Shows
Bad news for creaky Baby Boomers: There's strong new evidence out that arthroscopic surgery is useless for arthritis of the knee. Researchers at the University of Western Ontario in Canada studied 178 men and women suffering from moderate to severe arthritis in their knees. The patients all got standard...
By Rob Stein | September 10, 2008; 05:00 PM ET | Comments (17)
Study: Moms' Stress Tied to Kids' Overweight
Yeah, that's what stressed-out moms needed: someone telling them that their stress may be helping make their kids fat. A study published in today's issue of the journal Pediatrics looked at the relationships in low-income families between kids' weight (as expressed via BMI, or body mass index), the availability of...
By Jennifer Huget | September 2, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (7)
Nuts About Nutella
Early this summer my daughter and I spent some time in France, where we were introduced to the joys of Nutella. Nutella is a delectable hazelnut/chocolate spread that we ate spread on crepes bought from sidewalk vendors, as an ingredient in Nutella gelato, and, yes, I'll admit, straight out of...
By Jennifer Huget | August 18, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (41)
Running For Your Life
There's an old joke that runners tend to live longer than the rest of us, but they spend all their extra time running. Regardless of whether or not that's true, there's some new research that indicates that the benefits of running continue late into life, and even runners in their...
By Rob Stein | August 14, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (8)
Runner's High? Yeah, Right
If you're like me, you hate those exercise fanatics who are always bragging about how much better they feel after a good work-out. Anxious or depressed? Go to the gym, they say. You'll feel better. Need a rush? Jog until you're ready to drop and get that "runner's high." Yeah,...
By Rob Stein | August 7, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (10)
Keeping Weight Off Takes More Exercise Than You Think
Let's face it: losing weight requires hard work, and keeping it off can be even harder. If you've lost weight and want to keep it off, that oft-recommended 30 minutes of physical activity mustered a few days a week just ain't going to do the trick. New research published in...
By Jennifer Huget | July 29, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (18)
Coffee As Health Food?
Your daily cappuccino may seem like a guilty pleasure. But guess what? This guilty pleasure may actually help you live longer. That's right: Coffee, apparently, is a health food. I know, you're probably thinking: Yeah, right. It seems like everything that's addictive--and pleasurable--is bad for you. Smoking: bad. Drinking: Bad,...
By Rob Stein | June 19, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
For Teen Girls, It's More Purge than Binge
We hear the term "binge and purge" used to describe bulimia nervosa so commonly that, to my mind, anyway, the two activities -- eating way too much food at one sitting and then getting rid of that food by inducing vomiting or using laxatives -- seem inextricably linked. But a...
By Jennifer Huget | June 4, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
