The world would be a healthier place, or at least people would have the knowledge to eat healthier, if everyone could tour a grocery store at least once with a dietitian.

Registered dietitian Laura Stepp of Lexington Medical Center agreed to take us on just such a tour of a Lexington-area Publix. She starts with handouts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on making healthy choices, creating a comprehensive shopping list and adding more vegetables to a diet.

She also suggests picking up sales circulars from a kiosk near the store entrance and maybe even stopping by the customer desk to ask for any special store coupons. [Read more...]

People age 65 and older who eat fish may live an average of two years longer than people who do not consume the omega-3 fatty acids found mainly in seafood, a US study suggested on Monday.

People with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids also had an overall risk of dying that was 27 percent lower, and a risk of dying from heart disease that was 35 percent lower than counterparts who had lower blood levels, said the study.

The research was led by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health and was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. [Read more...]

A new study has suggested that older adults who have higher levels of blood omega-3 levels—fatty acids found almost exclusively in fatty fish and seafood—may be able to lower their overall mortality risk by as much as 27 per cent and their mortality risk from heart disease by about 35 per cent.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Washington found that older adults who had the highest blood levels of the fatty acids found in fish lived, on average, 2.2 years longer than those with lower levels.

“Although eating fish has long been considered part of a healthy diet, few studies have assessed blood omega-3 levels and total deaths in older adults,” said lead author Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at HSPH. [Read more...]

A lot of diet gurus would have you think so: Eliminate the white foods and watch the pounds melt away. White flour, sugar, salt, milk, white rice and potatoes are all on the avoid list. The Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet and the Zone are all based roughly on this premise. And every one of those foods are forbidden under the so-called Paleolithic Diet, the premise being that grains like wheat are such a recent addition to the human diet that we are not physiologically equipped to consume them. Pancakes and pasta simply were not on the menu for cavemen. [Read more...]