Category: Features

The long-awaited new U.S. dietary guidelines are a step in the right direction, but they don’t go quite far enough to spell out what Americans need to do to stay healthy—not a surprise, some critics say, given the strong influence of the food industry on U.S. food policy. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released […] Continue reading

Walmart, the largest retailer in the U.S., has pledged to cut the trans fat, salt, and sugar from thousands of its grocery products by 2015 in the U.S.—and to cut prices on produce and other healthy foods. Continue reading

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has come under fire from politicians and potato lobbyists over its proposal to cut back on French fries and potatoes in school lunch and offer broccoli and other vegetables instead. Yet its plan is based on sound science—and could help turn around this country’s obesity and diabetes epidemics. Continue reading

One of the longest-running feuds in modern nutrition science revolves around a simple question: Will reducing salt intake save lives? Continue reading

If a baker’s dozen of nutrition experts has its way, Americans will soon be eating more foods that deliver healthful nutrients and fewer foods chock full of empty calories and salt, exercising more, and maintaining healthy weights. Even nutrition experts can dream, can’t they? The final report of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee was […] Continue reading

When rushing through the supermarket, who has time to pore over Nutrition Facts labels and compare ingredient lists? That’s why more than a dozen rating systems have been established to help shoppers identify healthful products. (1) Some, like the Guiding Stars program in Hannaford supermarkets, put rating information on food shelf tags below various products. […] Continue reading

Adding a penny per ounce tax to sugar-sweetened beverages could slow the growth of obesity in the U.S.—and could raise billions of dollars for obesity prevention and other health programs, according to a new analysis by seven public health experts in The New England Journal of Medicine.(1) Continue reading

A Closer Look at Obesity, Health Risks, and Mortality    Writing in the November 7, 2007, Journal of the American Medical Association, federal researchers concluded that being overweight isn’t associated with the chances of dying from heart disease or cancer. (1) Even more surprisingly, they found that overweight may be associated with lower risks of […] Continue reading

Clearing up confusion around the vitamin supplement findings from the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial Many people were surprised and confused by the report from the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial (WHI) that vitamin D supplements had no apparent benefit for hip fracture or colon cancer risks.(1) In this study, over 36,000 women […] Continue reading

Several of the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 (1) represented important steps in the right direction: The guidelines emphasized the importance of controlling weight, which was not adequately addressed in previous versions. And they continued to stress the importance of physical activity. The recommendation on dietary fats made a clear break from […] Continue reading