Happy Channukah!

An estimated 24 million filled donuts (sufganiyot in Hebrew) are sold in Israel each Hannukah season. That adds up to $13 million in sales and 10.8 billion calories, at an average 450 per fried treat - depending on the filling and topping.

EVERY day, millions of American workers do something dangerous to their health: they sit down

The New York Times

By ERIC V. COPAGE

Published: December 3, 2011

Sitting for long periods is hard on the body. It strains the back and causes the muscles to become slack. It slows the processes that metabolize calories, increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

People might think they are protecting themselves from such problems if they exercise outside of working hours. And employers may pat themselves on the back if they offer their workers subsidized gym memberships. But regular exercise doesn’t entirely make up for the shutdown of chemical processes that occurs during long periods of sitting, research has shown.

There is a solution to the evils of sitting: make it a point to get up and move throughout the workday. Workers can take this insight to heart by sitting on an exercise ball or standing while working, by using the stairs instead of the elevator, or even by walking over to a co-worker’s desk instead of sending an instant message. Every little bit helps.

Now some employers are going a step further, by aligning the “move while you work” mandate with the corporate culture. They hope to improve their employees’ health and to lower medical costs in the process.

Salo, a financial staffing firm in Minneapolis, for example, encourages walking meetings. In a conference room, Salo has set up four treadmill desks, where a height-adjustable working surface is placed above the treadmill track. The desks face one another, so that people can walk and take care of business at the same time.

“It took a bit of adjustment,” said Craig Dexheimer, Salo’s director of operations and administration. “It’s normal to walk and talk at the gym, but in an office setting it was a bit strange at first.” In a separate room, Salo has set up six treadmill desks, complete with computers. Employees are free to use them for a session of walking and working. They can also take Ping-Pong breaks on a table set up in the office.

In 2007, Mr. Dexheimer helped organize a study headed by Dr. James A. Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, on the effects of increased movement in the workplace.

For six months, the activities of 18 employees — including Mr. Dexheimer — were monitored by a device on their belts. With the help of equipment like the treadmill desks and wireless headsets that permit walking while talking on the phone, the employees collectively lost more than 150 pounds, most of it in body fat. Their cholesterol and triglyceride levels also showed a collective decline. Mr. Dexheimer said he lost 25 pounds, and has kept the weight off.

For some workers, taking short exercise breaks may be practical and still effective. Toni Yancey, a professor in the department of health services at the University of California, Los Angeles, has found that while some professionals prefer to exercise while working, other workers do best with “structured group activity breaks,” or what she called a “10-minute recess.”

That’s a strategy used at HealthBridge, a clinic in Great Neck, N.Y., where an employees’ area often resembles a mini-exercise room. During a break, one employee might do bicep curls using water bottles, while another might have her back to the counter where the office copier sits, with her hands placed shoulder-width apart on the countertop, doing triceps dips.

Two years ago, when Dr. David G. Edelson, the clinic’s founder, suggested incorporating light exercise breaks and movement into the workday, the general reaction was: “Are we really going to get up and do these things?” said Jennifer Alexatos, the clinic’s marketing manager. “There was a lot of giggling and laughing.”

But the program has since been embraced by most of the clinic’s 25 employees, said Ms. Alexatos, who takes two 10-minute exercise breaks a day.

AS HealthBridge’s experience has shown, a push from management can help more employees keep active during the workday. That’s why New Balance, the footwear company based in Boston, tried a 30-day pilot program that included the sending of daily e-mail messages to employees with ideas for staying active at work. One suggestion was to do stretches and use resistance bands, even during meetings. The company plans to adopt the program next spring in its Boston and Lawrence, Mass., offices.

“I swapped out my chair for a balance ball,” said Lisa Mahoney, an associate marketing manager at the company. Sitting on the ball, “you’re always moving a little bit when you’re on the phone or typing your e-mail,” she said.

She also gets up more often and takes the stairs rather than the elevator. “You have a burst of energy when you come back to your desk,” she said.

The Rise in Type 2 Diabetes Among Children

Food Insecurity

more

Eating More Raw Fruits and Vegetables May Modify A Gene for Heart Disease.

----From LA Times----

By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

October 12, 2011, 9:48 a.m.

Next time you're considering skipping the salad bar, think again: Eating more raw fruits and vegetables could alter the effects of a gene that's a marker for heart disease.

---

FOR THE RECORD: A headline on an earlier version of this post incorrectly said eating more fruits and vegetables altersgenes.

---

Researchers genotyped 27,243 people from two separate studies to see if they had a certain gene variant. The 9p21 gene has been shown in previous studies to be linked with a higher risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease, including a 2010 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. that found a statistically significant link between people who had the 9p21 gene variant and a greater chance of developing heart disease.

Despite the luck of the draw, people may be able to do something about it.

The participants in this study represented a number of ethnicities: South Asian, Latin American, Arab, Chinese and European. They were asked about their dietary habits, including how many raw fruits and vegetables they ate, and how often.

Among all the study subjects, those who had the high-risk genotype and ate a diet low in raw vegetables and fruits had a higher risk of heart attack or cardiovascular disease. However, eating a diet high in vegetables and fruits seemed to have a protective effect -- that group had a heart attack risk that was comparable to people with a low-risk genotype.

"Our research suggests there may be an important interplay between genes and diet in cardiovascular disease," said lead author Ron Do, in a news release. Do, who did the study while at McGill University (he's now at Massachusetts General Hospital) added, "Future research is necessary to understand the mechanism of this interaction, which will shed light on the underlying metabolic processes that the 9p21 gene is involved in."

The study was published this week in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

If you want kids to eat it, make it pretty.

Cheap Marketing Techniques Help Kids Choose More Fruit

iStockphoto.com

If you want kids to eat it, make it pretty.

Published: October 03, 2011

by Allison Aubrey

Kids will choose to take a step towards healthier eating by choosing fresh fruit — if you give them a little nudge.

Researchers at Cornell's Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs went into three school cafeterias that had been keeping their fruit in stainless-steel bins behind sneeze guards in the lunch line where kids could barely see it. And they did some strategic rearranging. They moved the fruit into colorful bowls or attractive baskets, and placed them near the cash register.

The result? A 103 percent increase in the purchase of fruit. "We were shocked by the sheer size of the effect," David Just of Cornell tells The Salt. He'd anticipated no more than a 30 percent increase, but it seems that moving the fruit to the bottleneck are at the end of the line was a big hit. "Kids spend more time looking at it" while they're waiting to check out, Just says.

Just's goal is to come up with low-cost or no cost lunchroom changes can help kids to make healthier choices. And the redesign efforts so far are encouraging.

Healthstyle by Darya Pino

By: Darya Pino
http://summertomato.com/
When I was 18 few things were further from my mind than health. Sure I enjoyed my status as a thin, relatively fit teenager, but there was virtually no connection in my brain between what I put in my body and how long or happily I would live.

At that time I saw healthy eating as a fringe activity, for granola crunching hippies or men over 60 with beer bellies. I had no reason to worry about heart disease at my age and organic food was way more expensive, so why bother?



But that wasn’t the only reason I avoided the issue. As a self-conscious girl from Southern California, I was very concerned with my weight. People considered me thin, and I had every intention of staying that way. I knew that my obsession with my body image and constant dieting was considered “unhealthy,” but I didn’t care.

From my perspective the message from the media was clear: healthy is the opposite of thin. And when you’re young and think you’re invincible, the choice is obvious. Getting kids to worry about something in the distant future is difficult enough, but when you set it up as the antithesis of their immediate goals you make it nearly impossible.



It wasn’t until years later that I started to appreciate the value of health as an objective. I now understand that healthy is beautiful, and that thin and healthy are not mutually exclusive. Your ideal size is determined largely by genetics, but if you eat well, exercise and take care of yourself not only will your body look the way you want, you’ll also have nicer hair, a clear complexion and brighter eyes. You’ll likely have more energy and feel happier as well.

Sadly, body size is still the focus when most people talk about health. When you’re “too thin,” healthy means eating more regardless of quality. When you’re overweight, healthy means losing weight no matter how you accomplish it. But in the long term health is a reflection of your daily habits and is determined by things like the quality and diversity of your diet, how often and vigorously you exercise, exposure to environmental toxins and other factors.

While body weight can certainly be an indicator of health problems and sometimes reflect improvements, it’s important to understand that the message we send about health can backfire if these two things are inextricably linked.

How do you define health?

Sleep is awesome!!!

What's your Intention?

KFC recently started a new (sorry to be so blunt) stupid campaign. "Buy a HALF-GALLON of soda – with 800 calories from 56 spoonfuls of sugar – for $2.99 and a buck goes to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation."

How could they do such a thing? I am absolutely appalled by their hypocritical marketing.
 

"The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation defends it thus: "JDRF supports research for type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that results when the immune system attacks the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, therefore requiring a child or adult with the disease to depend on insulin treatment for the rest of their lives. It is a common misconception that type 1 diabetes is caused by obesity or eating too much junk food or sweets."

FAIL

Now thats what I like to call, SELFISH GIVING.

-Farah

Lace your fatty meal with this fruit to prevent yourself from getting fat

Researchers at Hebrew University and Harvard University have teamed up together in finding the benefitsof  the extract  naringenin, a compound from grapefruit.  With the use of nanotechnology, food is absorbed 11 times better than normal. This may forever change the way our metabolisms deal with fatty and sugary food.


They have isolated the molecule that creates the bitter taste in grapefruits, and have strong clinical evidence that if developed as a dietary supplement. 

"Under regular conditions the absorption of the fat- and sugar-busting molecule naringenin is quite low. You'd have to ingest a lot of grapefruits for it to work -- probably more than you'd ever want to eat.

To improve absorption capabilities, the researchers applied new tools from nanotechnology, and engineered a form of naringenin that includes an extra ring of sugar attached to the molecule. It is this extra ring that improves the absorption of naringenin and turns its bitter taste to sweet."

Read more about this study here. 

Nutrients in Food

Eat Em UP

Vitamin A (RDA 5000 Int’l Units)
Kale (1 cup raw), 10,ooo IU
Mustard Greens (1 cup cooked), 9,000 IU
Carrots (1 large raw), 8,000 IU
Cantaloupe ( 1/8 of  a large melon), 3,000 IU

Kale

Folate (a B Vitamin) (RDA 400 milligrams)
Spinach (1 cup cooked), 194 mg
Lentils (1/2 cup cooked), 180 mg
Asparagus (4 spears), 90 mg
Avocado (1/2 avocado), 80 mg

Avovado

Vitamin C (RDA 90 milligrams)
Red Pepper (1 cup chopped), 190 mg
Orange (1 small), 83 mg
Kale (1 cup raw chopped), 80 mg
Cauliflower (1 cup chopped), 52 mg
Broccoli (2 med spears), 50 mg

Cauliflower

Vitamin D (RDA 600 Int’l Units)
Sunshine (Hard to say how much time you need since there are so many variables (time of year, time of day, color of skin). But unless you’re a lifeguard who’s sworn off sunscreen, you’re likely not getting enough from the sun.)
Tuna (1 tin), 300 IU
Salmon (coho, wild, 3 oz), 383 IU
Sardines (in a tin), 250 IU
Eggs (from the yolk), 44 IU
Yogurt (whole plain), 5 IU (Most milk has high levels of added Vitamin D, it is not naturally occurs in high levels.)
Cod liver oil (The one I take provides 425 IU/two capsules)

Salmon

Almonds

Vitamin E (RDA 15 milligrams)
Almonds, (1/4 cup), 10 mg
Peanut Butter (2 tbsp), 2 mg
Avocado (1/2 avocado), 10 mg

Calcium (RDA 1000 milligrams)
Yogurt (1 cup plain whole milk), 296 mg
Cottage cheese (1 cup, 2%), 206 mg
Mustard Greens (1 cup cooked), 104 mg
Almonds (1/4 cup), 100 mg
Broccoli (2 medium spears), 72 mg
Coconut water (1 cup), 58 mg

Lentils 

Iron (RDA 8 milligrams)
Lentils (1/2 cup cooked), 3.5 mg
Tuna (1 tin), 3 mg
Kidney Beans (or Adzuki) (1/2 cup), 2.5 mg
Spirulina (seaweed) (1 tbsp dry), 2 mg
Beef (4oz sirloin or one hamburger patty), 1.6 mg
Sardines (4), 1.5 mg
Almonds (1/4 cup), 1.25 mg
Walnuts (1/4 cup), 1 mg
Salmon (3 oz), .78 mg
Egg (1), 1 mg

New Study: Mistletoe extract can help stabilize colon and lung cancer...

New Israeli study at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa reveals that mistletoe extract is effective in stabilizing patients suffering from advanced stages of colon and lung cancer.


 Mistletoe has unique properties,” said Dr. Maurice Orange, a United Kingdom General Practitioner who has administered mistletoe extract treatments for the past ten years. “It has been shown in labs and with patients to both have anti-cancer properties and a powerful stimulating effect on the immune system.” According to Dr. Orange, mistletoe can counteract tumor growth, while in other instances stimulating the immune system.

The plant was also found to improve the quality of life of the cancer patients suffering from advanced stages of the disease and who were not benefiting from regular cancer treatment. Twenty-three patients who were previously regularly required to undergo an intrusive procedure draining fluid from their abdomen through a needle began to receive injections of mistletoe extract. After receiving the mistletoe treatment, the interval between requiring draining procedures significantly increased, therefore increasing the patients’ quality of life.


Quoted from this article by ShalomLife.



Shavoa Tov,
Farah

Eat for your Vitality

Healthier looking people who eat vegetables are more attractive, according to a research team from England and Scotland.


“Our study shows that not only do people use colour cues to judge how healthy other individuals are, but they are accurate when they make those judgements,” said Prof Perrett, who heads the Perception Lab. “This is important because evolution would favour individuals who choose to form alliances or mate with healthier individuals over unhealthy individuals.”



‘What we eat and not just how much we eat appears to be important for a healthy appearance. The only natural way in which we can make our skin lighter and more yellow is to eat a more healthy diet high in fruit and vegetables.’


What will you eat today?

http://pilladvised.com/2011/02/want-to-look-more-attractive-eat-carrots/

Tel Aviv Marathon this Friday- What would you run for?

Marathons and Runs have become a popular spotlight for people to come together to help bring about change or to show support for a cause. People all over Israel will come together this Friday in Tel Aviv to run for culture, life, and health. Tel Aviv is the central city in Israel that is booming with people who love sun bathing and enjoying the upbeat night life. This marathon is a great way for people to come together and enjoy shared interests.

Almost a third of those polled agreed that running is the most desirable form of exercise. Men are more likely to run than women, and the younger one is, men take more of a share in the sport. Compared to 41.4% of the men, only 19.8% of the women prefer running as physical activity.

Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz and Bar Refaeli will be among many who will attend this weeks race. They are considered by most Israelis as being the best role models for working out and the ideal people one would want to run a marathon with.

"300 sunny days a year



450 bars serving around a million residents


Over 1,300,000 tourists in 2010


World heritage architecture


Lively beaches and inspiring sea views


A culture and art capital


24/7 of non stop energy


This is Tel Aviv today, and this is the site of the


multi course international marathon." 

Bahava,
Farah

Hidden Eating Disorders in Orthodox Jewish Communities

Pressure mixed with cultural expectations has lead to a very serious Public Health issue among many young Orthodox Jewish girls. Israel has one of the highest rates of eating disorders in the world which contributes to staggerring rate of weight loss. Although this is such a prevalent problem, girls do not want to discuss this issue with friends or family members because having a 'mental health' problem is a stigma in the Jewish community.
Experts say the Orthodox community is sending mixed messages to young women. If a girl is associated with any type of irregularity then she is subject to a deffered marriage.


"Parents, matchmakers and potential mates want svelte brides, but may shun women who divulge an eating disorders because of the stigma of mental illness."

"As eating disorders have become less taboo in mainstream US culture, they remain widely ignored in Orthodox Jewish communities, as families worry the stigma of mental illness could ruin arranged marriages for the patient and even her siblings. Strict food rituals of fasting and remaining kosher can also exacerbate the problem."

Israeli vs. Mc Donalds

Israeli man sues Mc Donalds for false nutritional claims and not revealing the proper amount of nutritional information.

"The McDonald's Israel franchise owner has settled a class-action motion against it, including through a pledge to fund a study on children's eating habits." 


"Aloniel, the company that owns the McDonald's franchise in Israel, will pay compensation to the lead plaintiff, pay his lawyer - and pay NIS 450,000 for a study on eating habits of children up to age 18. The study will be conducted at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa."

Read more about this here. 

-Farah 

Live from Israel

Dearest Readers,

I am currently living in Israel and would like to start writing more about Israeli health. I will share experiences and articles that are relevant to life here in Israel. I hope to cover some of the main public health issues such as AIDS, Abortion, Nutrition, Tobacco Use, Terrorism, and many other similar topics. I am currently working at the Hebrew University's school of Public Health as a researcher. I hope to write about my experiences with that as well.



Most Israeli meals come with fresh, delicious, and healthy salads.



Many can vouch that coffee is the cornerstore of Israeli culture.

FACT:

• Israel's percentage of the total number of scientific articles published worldwide is almost 10 times higher than its percentage of the world's population.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Look OUT Israel, Farah's here!

Thrilled to hear someone is DOING something about Childhood Obesity

Students need guidance and need to be nurtured in an educational manner throughout all spheres of life. Nutrition education is not intrinsic, rather, it is an informative tool that can, with the right teachers and mentors, help children thrive. In the United States measures have been made for change but not on a grand scale. Surprisingly, officials in Mexico City seem to care more for the well being of their children.

The New York Times article explains that the nation’s health and education officials stepped in last year to limit what schools could sell at recess.

“We managed to do the most important things, which was to pull out the soft drinks and to get the composition of foods changed,” said Dr. José Angel Córdova, Mexico’s health minister. He estimates that one-third of Mexico’s health care spending goes to fight diseases related to obesity.

It seems to be working at her school. Verónica Cruz Hernández now sends her 6-year-old daughter, Fatima, to class with a packed lunch of a ham sandwich, sliced mango, cucumber sticks and water. No more soft drinks. “She doesn’t want to be fat like me,” Ms. Cruz said.
 

 
“Almost all of the girls eat fruit,” said Leticia García Gutíerrez, 11. Then she added: “Sometimes we eat candy. But that’s because we’re kids.”

Tumeric--- "the golden spice" "the spice of life"

Tumeric (Curcumin) is a dynamic spice that has been glorified for its amazing medicinal value. Doctors, herbalists, and health practitioners all over the world have done extensive research to show that it is in fact an herb that has a confounding impact on ones overall health. Not only is it used for medicinal purposes, but it is also used for topical skin care. In fact, it is so good for the skin that dermatologists want to start creating lotions that have high doses of tumeric in them.(Of course, they will get rid of the yellow pigments!)

Tumeric has proven to be a versatile spice that is beneficial inside and out.



Already intrigued about the many benefits of Tumeric? Follow your desires here & here.




Who ever said yellow needs to mellow?
Tumeric to the rescue!

Immerse yourself in a whole lot of goodness.

Want to find a way to feel rejuvenated, refreshed, and invigorated without breaking the bank?

My personal recommendation is to take a long warm bath. Bathing is a tradition that goes back thousands of years to Ancient Judaism. According to the Jewish Culture bathing(immersing in a Mikveh) is a ritual that not only cleanses ones body but their soul as well. Although this ritual contains many cultural limitations, its significance still holds true to many today.

My favorite part about baths is that you can get so creative! Feel like your getting sick? How about a Vitamin C Bath.

Want beautiful, soft, lush skin? How about a Matcha Green Tea Bath.

Eating fish may help fight Alzheimer’s

Israeli researcher Daniel Michaelson from Tel Aviv University finds that foods that contain high contents of Omega 3 and 6 contribute to a healthy brain. 
"In experiments performed on mice, researchers in Michaelson's neurobiology lab demonstrated that eating foods high in omega 3 oils (such as fatty fish) and low in cholesterol appears to significantly reduce the negative effects of the gene." 

EAT OMEGA

Fruity Frenzy- Do you think you've tried them all?

Fruit is an integral food group that our bodies thrive on. A diet that consists of fruit and vegetables contributes to ones overall health. Within the past couple of years, I have researched the beneficial aspects of fruits and the benefits are surely fruitful!  They supply us with the special vitamins, minerals and fiber that protect us from chronic diseases. Behind each fruit lies a special collection of nutrients which means that no two fruits are alike in nutrients. SO, that means each individual fruit is jam packed with beneficial biologically active substances just for you!  I thought I've tried them all... guavas, apples, berries, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, to say the least. Boy was I wrong! There are thousands upon thousands of fruits and vegetables around the world. My co worker introduced me to a new fruit called kava kava, which is said to have double the Vitamin C and antioxidants of an orange. Kava Kava among thousands of unrecognized fruits are ready to be tasted. I know I am going to go an adventure trying exotic fruits while learning about their hidden medicinal effects.

Kava Kava

go ahead, enjoy natures disguised "candy."

2010 Nutrition Research Overview

What a year. The journey of nutritional research has come a long way this year. Researchers all over the world have done groundbreaking research which revealed an array beneficial information. Dr. Tim Harlan describes five findings that can be easily implemented into your life to offer a beneficial diet and lifestyle.

1. Red meat:

A study(1) published in the journal Circulation took a look at the connection between red meat and processed meats and their relationship to heart disease and diabetes. They found that the issue is processed meat and not really eating red meat in general.

Funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institute of Health, researchers reviewed the data from 20 studies of red and processed meat consumption that included evaluation of a link to heart disease and diabetes. Their findings are particularly striking:

1. Those who ate 1 serving of red meat per day were at no greater risk of heart disease than those who ate less than 1 serving per week. The same was true of the risk of diabetes.

2. However, each serving of processed meat (bacon, salami, hot dogs, etc.) eaten per day led to a 42 percent increase in risk of heart disease and a 19 percent increase in risk of diabetes.

3. Each serving per day of meat, both processed and unprocessed, tended to show a higher risk of heart disease, but these findings were strongly skewed by two studies. If those two studies were excluded, the risk fell to near normal.

The message: Eat red meat in moderation but avoid processed meats.

http://www.drgourmet.com/bites/2010/051910.shtml

2. Portion Control:

I love Brian Wansink's work and his team look at the portion sizes of the Joy of Cooking over the last 79 years.(2) That's right, they got bigger!

The team analyzed the serving sizes for 18 recipes across seven editions to see if the portion sizes (and thus the number of calories in each portion) had changed over time. Unsurprisingly, they did increase for 14 of the 18 recipes. As it happens, simple portion size was not the only cause of higher calories in a recipe -- often the recipe's ingredients were changed from a lower-calorie ingredient to a higher-calorie ingredient.

Between the 1936 edition and the 2006 edition, the average number of servings in a recipe decreased by a little over 1 serving per recipe, and the average number of calories in a serving increased by over 60 percent.

What's especially interesting is Dr. Wansink's team notes that the average serving sizes increased by about 33 percent since 1996.

The message: Take some time this year to learn about and reduce your portion sizes. 

http://www.drgourmet.com/bites/2010/020310.shtml

3. Stocking Your Cupboards:

Researchers at Rutgers University wondered if there was a difference in what foods were actually in the home between those families with overweight members and those families who were all of normal weight.

One hundred mothers with at least one child 12 years of age or younger were recruited to participate in the study. While all homes tended to keep the same amounts of nutrients on hand, but the differences were in what forms of foods those nutrients were in.

For example, those homes with overweight parents tended to have their carbohydrates in the form of frozen potatoes (like tater tots or french fries) or frozen vegetables with an included sauce (like broccoli with cheese sauce or brussels sprouts with butter sauce). Fresh and frozen meats also supplied much of the protein, total fat and saturated fats than in normal-weight households.

The Message: This is the single most important thing that I believe you can do to eat healthier. If you have healthy ingredients on hand, that's what you will eat.

http://www.drgourmet.com/bites/2009/052009.shtml

4. Snack on Nuts:

We've known for a long that nuts are great for you but recently a team of researchers pooled the results of 25 different studies on nuts and cholesterol to see if the type of nut made a difference in the cholesterol-lowering effects of eating nuts.(3)

The studies reviewed came from seven countries and included over 580 men and women. Each study included information on Body Mass Index, cholesterol scores both before and at the close of the study, and excluded people who were taking cholesterol medication. The types of nuts studies varied and included walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts.

After analyzing the correlation between the amount of nuts each participant ate on a daily basis over the course of each study and their cholesterol scores, the researchers found that those diets that included nuts helped reduce total cholesterol, LDL (bad cholesterol), the ratio of LDL to HDL (good) cholesterol, and the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol (all improved scores).

The Message: Put down the potato chips and crackers and snack on nuts instead! 

http://www.drgourmet.com/bites/2010/051210.shtml

5. Don't Drink Soda:

It's pretty amazing how little soda it takes to cause diabetes and health problems.

Research reported in Diabetes Care5 grouped together 11 prospective studies that included over 310,000 people.

The researchers standardized the serving size of the sugar-sweetened beverage consumption measured in each of the eleven studies. Then they stratified the various levels of intake into groups: from none or less than 1 serving per month up to more than 1 serving per day. The amount of soft drinks drunk by individuals who developed type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome was then compared to the amount drunk by those who did not develop type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

The scientists found that even when they took into account other variables such as Body Mass Index or individual caloric intake, those who drank at least one 12-ounce serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage per day were 20 percent more likely to develop metabolic syndrome and 26 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who drank less than 1 serving per month.

1. Circulation 2010;121:2271-2283 
2. The Annals of Internal Medicine (2009;150(4):291)
3. Appetite 52 (2009) 479-484).
4. Arch Intern Med 2010;170(9):821-827).
5. Diabetes Care (2010; 33: 2477-2483)

 *these findings were taken from an article written in the Huffington Post.