Nutrition Diet News

Myth: To lose weight, become a vegetarian As with most styles of eating, whether you eat meat or choose to exclude all animal products from your diet, the particular food choices you make determine whether the diet is high, low or well balanced as far as calories are concerned. Many vegetarian foods such as vegetarian cheeses and margarine, nuts, seeds and pastry made from flour and vegetarian spreads are relatively high in fat. If you concentrate on these without balancing them out with starchy carbohydrates such as bread, rice, pasta, other cereals, fruits and vegetables, you could find that your weight actually starts to creep up, not down. Simply becoming a vegetarian is not a guaranteed fast route to weight loss. Always read the label for nutritional information (on energy and fat per serving/100 grams). Myth: A fat free diet is good for you A completely fat free diet is virtually impossible to achieve and is certainly not good for you. Dietary fats are needed to carry fat s

For many women, running a home, bringing up children and taking care of elderly relatives, as well as working outside the home, can influence their physical and mental well-being. Ensuring good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle can contribute significantly to women's health throughout their lives. Rapid growth during adolescence, menstruation and the demands of pregnancy and lactation can result in an increased risk of low levels of nutrients such as iron, folic acid and calcium. Surveys of nutritional status frequently demonstrate chronic shortages of these nutrients, not only in a woman's earlier years but extending through into later life. Low-energy diets, slimming re-gimes, eating disorders and the increasing number of vegetarians make women even more vulnerable to nutritional inadequacies. The importance of iron Women of childbearing age have increased iron needs and hence are at risk of iron-deficiency anaemia. It is important for them to eat those foods that are n

Food Today looks at some common myths about acidic foods, fluids and sugar Myth: Eating acidic foods, like oranges, disturbs the acid/alkaline balance in the body. Fact: The body works to maintain an acid to alkaline balance at all times through specific buffering systems. Even the slightest alteration to blood alkalinity can adversely affect vital body functions needed to sustain life. Luckily we have many systems in place to ensure this is so, including the lungs and kidneys. In healthy individuals, what you eat is not likely to greatly affect the balance. Oranges and other "acidic" fruits and juices are a great source of vitamin C and plant nutrients, so keep eating them! Myth: You should "feed a cold and starve a fever". Fact: You do not need to do either. Instead it's better to follow your appetite, although if you are sweating a lot with a fever then it is really important to increase your fluid intake to avoid becoming dehydrated. If you feel like

Among the thousands of different foods our world provides, the majority contain at least several of the nutrients our bodies need but to be included as one of the World's Healthiest Foods they had to meet the criteria listed below. The criteria we used will also help you understand why some of your favorite (and also nutritious) foods may not be included on our list. For example, Readers have asked why mango, a very nutritious food, is not among the World's Healthiest Foods. While mangoes taste great and are rich in vitamins and minerals, they do not fit our criteria of familiarity and availability. 1. The World's Healthiest Foods are the Most Nutrient Dense The World's Healthiest Foods have been selected because they are among the richest sources of many of the essential nutrients needed for optimal health. We used a concept called nutrient density to determine which foods have the highest nutritional value. Nutrient density is a measure of the amount of nutrie

Almost all natural foods contain carbohydrates. The only food group which is free of carbohydrates is pure vegetable oil. Even milk products contain carbohydrates, it is a kind of sugar called lactose. Fish and meat have a real low carbohydrates content. Every food else like cereal, pulses, potatoes, fruit and vegetables contain starch, sugars or fibre, which all belong to the group of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are one of the three major macro-nutrients which supply the body with energy (fat and protein being the others). There is now good evidence that at least 55% of our daily calories should come from carbohydrates. Whereas it is important to maintain an appropriate balance between calorie intake and expenditure, scientific studies suggest that: -- A diet containing an optimum level of carbohydrates may help prevent body fat accumulation; -- Starch and sugars provide readily accessible fuel for physical performance; -- Dietary fibre, which is a carbohydrate, helps keep

Improved production of polyunsaturated fats in oilseed crops will benefit human health and the environment. In research reported this month in The Plant Cell, scientists succeeded in producing genetically modified linseed plants that accumulate significant levels of very long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in seed. This is the first report of the successful engineering of very long chain PUFA into an oilseed crop, and is an excellent example of how genetic engineering of agronomically important species can provide real benefits to human health and nutrition and the environment. In research reported this month in The Plant Cell, Ernst Heinz at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and colleagues succeeded in producing genetically modified linseed plants that accumulate significant levels of very long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in seed. The work is the result of an international collaboration between scientists at several research institutions in Germany (Un