The Perspective

One third of women gorge on snacks when they find that no one is watching them, says a study done in Britain.

The researchers say that embarrassment about the types of food they are consuming as well as the amount they consume may be the reason for their secret habits.

“The odd snack here and there isn’t a bad thing,” Cathy Kapica, adjunct Professor of Nutrition at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and an adviser to the study has been has been quoted Daily Express as saying.

“In fact snacks can be an important part of a healthy eating style. [Read more...]

“Free-from” food products, whether they’re labeled sugar-free, fat-free or gluten-free, are fast becoming a trendy lifestyle choice, regardless of allergies or intolerance.

The popularity of these products, tastier and more widely available than ever, is driven by health-focused consumers, research firms say. These so-called avoiders are also swayed by the “health halo,” or the perception that the product is better for you because it’s lacking an ingredient or nutrient, said Andy Bellatti, a Seattle-based nutritionist and the author of the Small Bites blog.

Almost 3,000 new products with “suitable-for” or free-from claims were launched in 2010 across the U.S. and Western Europe according to Leatherhead, a market research firm. [Read more...]

A new Spanish study links eating fast food and commercial baked goods with depression.

For an average of six months, researchers at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Granada studied 8,964 people who had never been diagnosed with depression or been prescribed antidepressants.

During the study, 493 developed depression or started to take antidepressants.

The researchers said those who ate fast food, compared to those who did not, were 51% more likely to develop depression. [Read more...]