For many people, emotional eating is at the root of their inability to lose weight. Emotional eaters, or people who turn to food to deal with emotions, tend to take in far more calories than they need because they’re using their emotions, rather than their body’s natural hunger, as their guide.
A diet that is rich in fiber will promote digestive health, prevent heart disease, and boost weight loss. Men should be getting at least 30 grams of fiber per day, and women need at least 21 grams of fiber. How can you boost your fiber intake for optimal health?
Decades of aggressive advertising have convinced many Americans that they need to take a daily vitamin pill to remain in good health. Yet, few people can accurately describe the role vitamins play in a healthy diet.
Vitamins are essential biochemicals needed in very tiny quantities to catalyze metabolic reactions. For example, Vitamin K starts the process [...]
Fat is a very concentrated form of energy. Ounce-for-ounce or gram-for-gram, fat supplies 2.25 times as many calories as carbohydrates or protein. Learning ways to limit your fat intake from foods you purchase and in the foods you cook for yourself can significantly improve your ability to manage your weight.
Advances in cookware technology, food science, [...]
Fiber is an indigestible carbohydrate made by plants. Fiber provides structural support for plants the way bones do for the human body. Fiber can’t be digested and absorbed; thus, it is not classified as a nutrient. Nonetheless, accumulating evidence suggests that fiber plays important roles in nutrition and gastrointestinal health beyond its long-recognized role in [...]
Bread has often been called the “staff of life.” This term is a good description of the role carbohydrates have played in the human diet since the dawn of history. Almost every culture has relied on a particular native starch or grain as a major source of calories. For example:
Rice in Asia
Wheat in the Mediterranean, [...]
Every day, Americans are bombarded with health and nutrition advice, much of it conflicting. It is no wonder Americans have trouble figuring out how to plan and eat a healthy diet.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published jointly every 5 years since 1980 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of [...]
The rapidly escalating rates of obesity in the US have caused health experts, concerned consumers, and politicians to scrutinize the fast food industry’s typical offerings and conclude that fast food choices are contributing to the nation’s weight gain. Consequently, these groups have pressured the fast food industry to offer consumers healthier fare.
Healthy Fast Food?
The concept [...]
Protein is the body’s primary building material. It is used to construct and maintain bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, blood cells, hair, and nails. Protein is also used to make many of the biochemicals (enzymes, hormones, transport molecules, neurotransmitters, and vitamins) the body uses to perform essential metabolic functions. Protein is one of three nutrients that [...]
Digestion is the process that converts the foods we eat into the individual nutrients our bodies require. It involves breaking down food and nutrients into successively smaller pieces until the nutrients are in a chemical form that the body can absorb.
Water, minerals, and vitamins require minimal processing. Once they are released from foods and beverages [...]