Nutrition Frenzy

Bet you never knew that a pen could be your best weight loss tool.

It’s true. In one of the largest and longest weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, the more food records that dieters kept, the more weight they lost.

Scribble for Success
Simply jotting down what you eat seems like an easy price to pay for fewer pounds. The people in the study also followed the DASH diet, attended weekly group sessions, and exercised for at least 30 minutes a day. After 6 months, the people who had also kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who did not keep track — probably because the food journals encouraged people to reflect on what — and how much — they’d eaten. Here are some tips on what to include in your food journal.

Crushing Your Urge to Splurge
In addition to keeping a food journal, give these other resist-temptation tricks a try:
Balance your plate with lean protein, high-fiber carbs, and healthy fats.

Follow these four simple breakfast rules to curb late-day munchies.

4 Simple Breakfast Rules for Shedding Pounds

Four simple rules could turn your breakfast into a cravings crusher, pound shedder, and mood booster.

It’s all about timing and balance, according to Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, author of Potatoes, Not Prozac.

One, Two, Three, Four . . .
Here are DesMaisons’s four simple rules for using breakfast to counterbalance the biochemical mechanisms behind sugar cravings, obesity, and depression.

1-Do it daily. Your goal is to make it a daily, automatic habit. The reward? You can kiss late-day low blood sugar and sugary snack cravings goodbye — permanently.
2-Do it sooner rather than later. For the best results, eat breakfast within an hour or so of waking up — even if you’re not hungry. Morning-time low blood sugar produces a brain chemical designed to mask hunger pangs — but can cause sugar cravings later in the day.
3-Make it complex. We’re talking complex carbohydrates here (whole-grain cereals, steel-cut oats, high-fiber fruits, etc.) The fiber keeps blood sugar on an even keel and helps you feel full longer.
4-Power it with protein. Protein slows digestion, helps prevent spikes and dips in blood sugar, and can even give you a dose of depression-fighting tryptophan. DesMaisons recommends that you get a third of your daily protein at breakfast.

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Adding bounding, jumping, and skipping moves will pump the intensity

Alternate moderately paced walking with short, faster-paced intervals

Secret weapon: Plyometrics

Adding bounding, jumping, and skipping moves (called plyometrics) to your walk is a fun way to spike the intensity. You’ll burn up to twice as many calories –and significantly more belly fat — per minute than you would just walking at a moderate pace.

“These moves vary the walking pattern your body has grown accustomed to, so you engage different muscle fibers,” says Joy Prouty, veteran Florida-based trainer and American College of Sports Medicine-certified health-fitness director. “And that helps shape and define your body.

It worked for Claire Jefferson-Glipa, 31, of Riverside, California.

Adding one-minute bursts of plyo­metrics to the Stroller Strides classes she leads each week — along with making healthy changes in her eating habits –helped Jefferson-Glipa drop 36 pounds in just nine months. “It’s so exciting that my clothes are looser,” she says.

Make it work for you

Try this workout from Prouty, gradually adding more plyo­metrics as your fitness level improves. It can be done either outside or on the treadmill (just be sure to step off the machine to do the plyometrics moves).

• 1. Walk 15 minutes, building to a moderate pace.

• 2. Do 30 High-Knee Steps forward (alternating legs); skip for 30 seconds, then walk at a moderate pace for one minute.

• 3. Do 15 Traveling Lateral Squats (turn and move sideways as you squat) in slow motion, followed by five Squat Jumps (squat slightly, then swing arms up as you jump). Knee problems? Rise up on your toes instead of jumping.

• 4. Walk at a moderate pace for 10 minutes.

• 5. Repeat step 2.

• 6. Walk for five minutes at a moderate pace, then five minutes at a slow pace to cool down.

Secret weapon: Hills

To triple the number of calories you burn, go to where it’s hilly, Prouty says. Walking on hills can burn tons of calories and fat, so you’ll work that stomach pooch off faster than you would on flat terrain. Uphill walks are great for strengthening and shaping your lower half — plus, you’ll feel stronger and go faster on level ground.

Make it work for you

Start by changing your walking routine: Twice a week, replace 25 percent of your flat route with short or gradual hills. (New to walking? Start with 20-minute walks that include five minutes of hills.) After two weeks, seek out longer or steeper hills, and add 10 percent more climbing each week. Your goal is to do between one-half and two-thirds of your workout on hills.

Live in a flat area? Substitute this treadmill climb: After a 10-minute warm-up, gradually increase the incline from 0 to 2 percent for 5 to 10 minutes. Then, gradually decrease the incline in the same amount of time, finishing with 5 to 10 minutes of flat walking. Each week or two, increase the incline by 1 percent.

Secret weapon: Intervals

Alternating moderately paced walking with short, faster-paced intervals lets you amp up your walk without tiring yourself out. You’ll also dump stomach weight more quickly and torch more calories than you would on a steady-paced walk. By peppering in a 30-minute walk with 10 one-minute speed bursts, for example, you can nearly double your calorie burn.

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If you had to choose one fruit to keep your colon happy, which would it be?

If you said apples, that’s not a bad choice. The kind of fiber in apples — called pectin — appears to both bump up colon-protective compounds and clamp down on cancer-causing ones.

The Power of Pectin
In a lab study, apple pectin increased levels of butyrate, a fatty acid that not only keeps colon tissue healthy but also slows the production of a cancer-causing substance. Apple juice extracts amped up butyrate as well.

3 More Keys to Colon Health

To keep your colon in good shape, get screened for colon cancer on a schedule recommended by your doctor. And here are some specific diet do’s:

Load up on whole grains for fiber.

Drink milk instead of soda. Calcium and vitamin D protect your colon, but sugar seems to do the opposite.

Add sliced onions to a salad or sub. You may need to carry breath mints everywhere, but boosting your cancer defenses is worth it

The Real Colon-Cancer Deal

The debate about whether fiber helps reduce colon cancer risk has been almost as hotly contested as the presidential primaries.

The latest exit poll? Campaigning for more fiber-rich whole-grain breads, cereals, and pasta in your diet is good for your colon. But fiber can’t take all the credit for keeping your plumbing clear of cancer.

The Whole Whole Grain
When researchers studied the diets of a large group of older men and women over a 5-year period, only fiber from whole-grain foods brought down colon cancer risk (by 20 percent). Fiber from other sources? Not so much. All of which suggests it may not be the fiber per se, but rather the other good-for-you things found in whole grains — like vitamins, minerals, cell-protective phenols, and other plant substances — that make whole grains so good for your colon.

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Researchers from Surrey University in England have found that eating two eggs a day could help you lose weight and lower your cholesterol levels, London’s Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Medical experts have long thought that by eating large amounts of cholesterol-rich foods such as eggs, a person could easily increase their cholesterol levels.

However, an upcoming article in the European Journal of Nutrition will suggest otherwise.

Dr. Bruce Griffin, who led the study, fed 50 overweight volunteers two eggs a day for four months.

Besides eating the eggs, the volunteers followed a reduced calorie diet.

A second group of volunteers ate the same reduced-calorie diet, but did not eat eggs. Both groups lost weight and saw a decrease in their cholesterol levels.

“There is no convincing evidence to link increased intake of dietary cholesterol or eggs with coronary heart disease,” Griffin said.“Indeed, eggs make a nutritional contribution to a healthy, calorie-restricted diet.”

Griffin thought that by eating eggs for breakfast, the volunteers felt fuller longer, which aided them in their weight loss efforts.

It is thought that eating eggs for breakfast contributes to weight loss by making people-feel fuller for longer.

This research provides evidence to support the scientific consensus that saturated fat, found in pastry, processed meats, biscuits and cakes, is more responsible for raising blood cholesterol than cholesterol-rich foods, such as eggs, which are low in saturated fat.

Researchers from Louisiana State University in the U.S. looked at the eating habits of a group of overweight and obese women.

The women, who were following a low-fat diet, were asked to eat either two eggs a day for breakfast, or have a bagel.

The two meals contained the same number of calories and weighed roughly the same amount.

However, after eight weeks of breakfasting, the slimmers who had eaten eggs had lost the most weight.

As well as shedding 65 per cent more pounds than the bageleaters, they had lost almost twice as many inches from their waistline, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s annual conference heard yesterday.

The study, which was part-funded by the American Egg Board, also showed that those who had breakfasted on eggs felt as if they had more energy.

Previous work by the same researchers showed that those who ate eggs for breakfast felt fuller for longer than those who had a bagel and cheese.

As a result, they ate less during the rest of the day.

It is not completely clear why eggs are so good at making us feel full but it is thought their high protein content could play a large part.

Researcher Dr Nikhil Dhurandhar, an obesity expert, said:

“Despite equal energy content and weight, an egg breakfast had a greater satiating effect compared to a bagel breakfast, which translated into a lower energy intake at lunch.”

“The resulting decrease in energy consumption lasted for at least 24 hours after the egg breakfast.

“These results have potentially significant implications. Eggs are an integral part of breakfast in numerous cultures and the satiating effect of eggs may be useful in reducing energy intake thereby promoting weight management.”

In Britain, the Food Standards Agency says that while eggs are a good choice as part of a healthy, balanced diet, it is important to eat as great a variety of foods as possible.

It does not set a limit on the number of eggs we should eat a week for optimum health and says that while eggs do contain cholesterol, saturated fat found in cakes, biscuits and pies is more damaging.

Eggs gained in popularity thanks to the widespread adoption of the highprotein Atkins diet. But sales have also suffered from a series of food scares over the past two decades.

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Risks of gastric-bypass surgery are often underplayed, some experts say

Doing everything right after bariatric surgery is no guarantee of success.

That fact may come as a surprise: With glowing media reports of its health benefits and a roster of celebrity success stories, weight loss surgery is beginning to feel like the miracle cure of the moment. Last year, doctors performed 205,000 bariatric surgeries, marking an 800 percent increase from a decade ago. As of 2004, 82 percent of patients are women, according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in Rockville, Maryland. Weight loss surgeries are poised to become even more popular in the wake of findings that gastric bypass and banding can send type 2 diabetes into remission in many people. A 2007 report from the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City found that obese patients who had bypass surgery had a 40 percent reduced risk of dying in the seven years after the procedure, compared with obese people who didn’t have the surgery. Bariatric surgeons are using results like those to make the case for surgery as a preventive measure against cancer, heart disease and diabetes in patients who are severely obese.

But despite the growing popularity of obesity surgery — and the general perception that it’s a shortcut to thinness and good health — it’s no easy path. The American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) in Gainesville, Florida, puts gastric-bypass surgery’s death rate at between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 200. In one AHRQ study, 4 in 10 patients developed complications within the first six months, including vomiting, diarrhea, infections, hernias and respiratory failure. Up to 40 percent of gastric-bypass patients can suffer nutritional deficiency, potentially resulting in anemia and osteoporosis; seizures and paralysis have been reported in extreme cases.

Even if patients avoid the major pitfalls, they could be in for a world of intestinal discomfort. Not to mention how difficult it is to retrain yourself to subsist on 3-ounce meals and vitamin pills after surgery. “If you’re here for the quick fix, then this surgery is not for you,” affirms Kelvin Higa, M.D., immediate past president of ASMBS. “This is a serious lifelong commitment.” It’s an adjustment so profound that patients are screened to make sure they’re psychologically up to the task — a test that, according to a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, one-fifth of would-be patients fail.

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By now you should know the hidden dangers of ordering a smoothie at a fast food chain. (Some can contain more than 1100 calories and 150 grams of sugar. Talk about a liquid disaster!)

But the truth is these caloric abominations are giving the smoothie — originally a legit health food — a bad reputation. If you order wisely when eating out or collect a few of the right ingredients and then press the “on” button on your blender at home, you can make plenty of good — and good for you — concoctions, in 90 seconds or less!

And for those of you who aren’t exactly Top Chef candidates, they’re probably the easiest and fastest things you can whip up in the kitchen. They’re nutrient dense. And they’ll fill you up, energize you, and help you get (and stay) slim for good!

The great thing about smoothies is that they lend themselves to creative mixology. Want to cut a few more calories? Substitute skim milk for the recipe’s 1 percent milk. Want a dash more sweetness? Throw in more fruit. The smoothie is a forgiving and flexible recipe. When you know exactly what you’re putting into the blender, you don’t risk taking in 20 percent or more
of your calories from beverages, which can happen quickly if you suck down fast-food chain drinks.

So before you turn to Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts or the others for your next fruit-blended health horror, throw together one of these healthy and delicious smoothies to satisfy cravings without stretching your waistline.

THE INSTANT ENERGIZER
Turn on the juice!

(One serving)
1 cup skim milk
2 tablespoons frozen orange-juice concentrate
1 cup strawberries
1 kiwifruit
Calories per serving: 222; Protein: 11 g; Carbs: 44.5 g; Fat: 1.4 g; Fiber:
7 g

Caffeine-riddled coffee has become the standard elevator for dragging energy levels,
but it ultimately depletes the vitamin B stores that help keep your mind
sharp. This smoothie gets you going and boosts (or — if you’re a java junkie — replenishes) your vitamin B levels. On top of that, the protein helps trigger dopamine and norephinephrine, your brain’s wake-up chemicals.

MUSCLE MAXIMIZER
Pumpkin You Up!

(Serves one)
1 scoop low-fat butter pecan ice cream
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1 tablespoon vanilla whey protein powder
1 teaspoon ground flaxseed
3 ice cubes.
Calories per serving: 265; Protein: 17 g; Carbs: 41 g; Fat 5 g; Saturated
fat: 2 g; Sodium: 136 mg; Fiber: 7 g

This smoothie serves up plenty of protein, and adds flax seed’s mood-boosting
omega 3 fatty acids. Consider this smoothie your post-workout personal
trainer — encouraging your body to make the most of the routine you just finished.

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Lose a pound recently? Great! Then keep it off with this mighty nutrient: vitamin C.

Research shows that your body needs sufficient vitamin C to burn fat — and burning fat is key to keeping excess pounds away. So pop your C supplement, or snack on some C-rich orange sections before your next power walk.

A Critical Compound
People in a study who had low blood concentrations of vitamin C and walked on a treadmill for an hour burned 25 percent less fat than people with adequate C. But a dose of C brought fat-burning levels back up to par. Why? Seems C is essential for creating carnitine, a substance that turns fat into fuel

How Much Is Enough
To keep the pounds you dropped from coming right back, you could start your day with some grapefruit, have an orange after lunch, or fill your dinner plate with C-rich veggies like red bell peppers, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. Here are a few more reasons to C up!

For a stronger heart: Vitamin C makes bad cholesterol less dangerous.

A Good Reason to Add Berries to Your Oatmeal

A side of sliced strawberries with your steel-cut oatmeal may make for one heck of a smart breakfast combo.

That’s because oats are rich in heart-healthy compounds called phenols. And it seems that adding some vitamin C (from the berries) is like adding water to a Chia Pet: It causes the heart-helping powers of the oats to grow.

Working in Synergy
When oat phenols and vitamin C were combined in a study, they worked synergistically to reinforce LDL cholesterol and make it more stable — even better than the oat phenols alone could do.

And you want your LDL to be stable, because that means it?s less likely to break down and stick to the walls of your arteries. You know, that process that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and other nasty business.

Why Steel-Cut Oats?
They take a little longer to make, but they?re worth it. Steel-cut oats — also called coarse-cut oats — are lightly processed. And that means they probably still have most of their good stuff intact (fiber, nutrients, etc.).

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What’s the real key to losing weight, you ask? It’s all about the weekends.

Seems those Saturday afternoon naps and Sunday morning brunches throw a real wrench into weight loss efforts. In fact, weekend indulgences can add up to as much as a 9-pound gain in a year, research shows. Read on for weekend willpower . . .

A Real Diet Killer
In a study of weekend behavior, people on diet or exercise routines consistently stopped losing weight — or worse, gained it — over the weekends. They showed a net weekly gain of almost 9 pounds a year! Suddenly, that Saturday afternoon double-fudge sundae doesn’t seem like such a good idea.

The Solution
Fortunately, you don’t have to lose your weekends to drop the pounds. First step: Pass on the all-you-can-eat brunch buffet. Make your own breakfast at home — something that tastes decadent but is actually good for you.

Next, mow the lawn. Wash the car. Walk the dog. Just do something that gets you moving. The study participants not only ate more on weekends but exercised less — a double whammy for your waistline.

Pig-Out Weekends: How to Undo Overindulgence
It happens to the best of us — the overindulgent weekend. And if your coming-attractions calendar doesn’t already include at least one bachelorette bash, a big wedding, and a few summer cookouts, it soon will. So what’s a person to do when these parties pop up in the middle of swimsuit season?

Go. Have a blast. Forget the diet. Just implement a before-and-after contingency plan “to help you get back on track, so that your lapse doesn’t become a collapse,” says British diet and fitness guru Joanna Hall.

In her new book, The Weight Loss Bible, Hall serves up a buffet of ideas perfect for getting you through a 48-hour bridal extravaganza, Labor Day weekend, or no-guilt getaway with your girlfriends — and leaving you able to still fit into your jeans on Tuesday.

Eat less, sweat more the day before and after. “If you know you’re heading for a weekend of excess,” says Hall, “squeeze in a workout and eat 300 fewer calories the day before the partying begins.” Same goes for the day after. But don’t punish yourself by skipping a meal — it’ll just make you cranky and hungry. Limit portions or forgo a snack (a blueberry muffin or small bag of potato chips each have about 300 calories).

Curb carbs at lunch and dinner. Hall is known throughout the UK for her Carb Curfew diet, which means “no starchy carbs — bread, pasta, rice, potatoes or cereal — after 5 pm.” And for food-filled weekends, she suggests turning the carb cutoff back to noon. Why? “Chances are your fat intake will be higher on these days, pushing up your calorie intake, and with party food, it’s often easier to avoid carbs than fatty foods.”

Drink up! Lots of water, that is. A boozy weekend can leave you dehydrated and too hungover to stomach your usual workout. Hall’s advice: Drink plenty of water during and after endless cocktail hours or a wild weekend. As for postparty exercise, go for a walk instead of doing a full workout, “especially if you have a sore head!”

Eat a big bowl of veggie soup. “Foods with a high water content help stave off hunger and make you feel full. Studies show that dieters who follow this advice tend to stick to their plan without feeling unsatisfied or deprived.” So before you leave home, slurp up a big bowl of vegetable soup.

Shake your booty. “Sometimes you just have to go out and burn a little more energy,” says Hall. But here’s the good news: Dancing is one of the all-time best calorie burners. So get out there and cut yourself a big ol’ slice of rug. You’ll wind up boogying away a few hundred calories before the night is through.

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Salad is pretty healthful to start with, to be sure. But not all salads are created equal. (Case in point: iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing. Wimpy!)

So follow these four simple steps for making sure you up the antioxidant ante for all your garden greens:

1. Dress for Success
Dress your salad with an olive oil-based dressing. This good fat helps you absorb the nutrients in the salad. Mix the oil with apple or wine vinegars for extra antioxidants.

2. Herb It Up
Lemon balm and marjoram can increase a salad’s antioxidant capacity by 150–200 percent! You can sprinkle cumin, fresh ginger, and thyme on your salad, too.

3. Vary Your Veggies
Artichokes, beetroot, broccoli, garlic, leeks, radishes, spinach, and onions were the chart-topping antioxidant-rich veggies in a recent study — though they’re not everyone’s favorites.

4. Branch Out . . .
. . . with new leaves. Some colorful red chicory or purple cabbage, for example, will add crunch to your salad — as well as extra antioxidants.

Top 10 Veggies List

Make sure the vegetables you eat the most are the most nutritious veggies you can eat.

If you’re a broccoli lover, you’ve picked a winner. From a list of 10 of the most commonly consumed vegetables in the country, broccoli holds the top spot for having the most phytochemicals — compounds everyone’s urged to consume because they protect against chronic diseases. At the bottom of the list? Cucumbers, described by some people as “water you can eat.”

The 9 runners-up to broccoli were spinach, yellow onions, red peppers, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, lettuce, celery, and cucumbers. Red peppers actually beat out broccoli in terms of having the highest levels of antioxidants. The same researchers also have rated 10 of the most popular fruits. Cranberries — with the most phytochemicals and the most antioxidants — topped that list, followed by apples, red grapes, strawberries, peaches, lemons, pears, bananas, oranges, grapefruit, and pineapple.

Food scientists aren’t ranking veggies just to satisfy their curiosity, by the way. They’re contemplating a bioactivity index (BI) for dietary cancer prevention to help grocery shoppers quickly spot the fruits and veggies that have the biggest health benefits.

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Help your body incinerate that stubborn spare tire by drinking this metabolism booster before your workout.

We’re not talking Red Bull here. We’re talking green tea. In a recent small study, extracts from green tea helped men burn 17 percent more fat during a 30-minute cardio workout.

Burn, Baby, Burn
It’s not clear how green tea boosts metabolism. Researchers suspect that something in the healthy brew makes fat more available as fuel, so you oxidize more of it when you exercise. Proven bonus: Green tea remains an excellent source of heart-healthy antioxidants called catechins.

It Starts with a Workout
Bottom line: Sipping green tea won’t do much for your middle if you don’t work out, too. The only way to shrink a spare tire is by dropping some pounds.

1. Cut Your Cancer Risk
Several polyphenols — the potent antioxidants that green tea is famous for — seem to help keep cancer cells from gaining a foothold in the body by discouraging growth and then suppressing the creation of new blood vessels that tumors need to thrive. Study after study has found that regularly drinking green tea reduces the risk of breast, stomach, esophagus, colon, and prostate cancer.

2. Soothe Your Skin
Got a cut, scrape, or bite, and a little leftover green tea? Soak a cotton ball in it. The tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed blemishes, sunburns, or puffy eyelids. But that’s not all. Green tea has been shown to help block sun-triggered skin cancer, whether you drink it or apply it directly to the skin — which is why you’re seeing green tea in more and more sunscreens and moisturizers.

3. Steady Your Blood Pressure
Having healthy blood pressure — meaning below 120/80 — is one thing. Keeping it that way is quite another. But people who sip just half a cup of green tea a day are almost 50% less likely to wind up with hypertension than nondrinkers. Credit goes to the polyphenols again (especially one known as ECGC); they help keep blood vessels from contracting and raising blood pressure.

4. Protect Your — or Your Mom’s — Memory
Green tea may also keep the brain from turning fuzzy. Getting-up-there adults who drink at least two cups a day are half as likely to develop cognitive problems as those who drink less. Why? It appears that the tea’s big dose of antioxidants fights the free-radical damage to brain nerves seen in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

5. Stay Young
The younger and healthier your arteries are, the younger and healthier you are. So fight plaque buildup in your blood vessels; the sticky stuff increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, adds years to your RealAge, and saps your energy. How much green tea does this vital job take? About 10 ounces a day, which also deters your body from absorbing artery-clogging fat and cholesterol.

6. Lose Weight
Oh yeah, one more thing. Turns out that green tea speeds up your body’s calorie-burning process. In the every-little-bit-counts department, that’s good news!

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New rule aimed at blasting off E. coli and other dangerous germs

The government will allow food producers to start zapping fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce with just enough radiation to kill E. coli and other dangerous germs, a key safety move amid increasing outbreaks from raw produce.

Irradiated meat has been around for years, particularly ground beef. But food companies long worried that zapping leafy greens with X-rays or other means of radiation would leave them limp.

The Food and Drug Administration has determined that modern irradiation techniques kill food-poisoning germs without compromising the safety or nutrient value of raw spinach and lettuce. Its new rule takes effect Friday.

Food safety is a subject of growing importance to consumers. One reason is the emergence of new types of harmful bacteria or evolving forms of older ones that can cause serious illness. A relatively new strain of E. coli, for example, has caused severe, and in some cases life-threatening, outbreaks of food-borne illness through contaminated products such as ground beef and unpasteurized fruit juices.

Scientists, regulators and lawmakers, working to determine how best to combat food-borne illness, are encouraging the use of technologies that can enhance the safety of the nation’s food supply.

Many health experts agree that using a process called irradiation can be an effective way to help reduce food-borne hazards and ensure that harmful organisms are not in the foods we buy. During irradiation, foods are exposed briefly to a radiant energy source such as gamma rays or electron beams within a shielded facility. Irradiation is not a substitute for proper food manufacturing and handling procedures. But the process, especially when used to treat meat and poultry products, can kill harmful bacteria, greatly reducing potential hazards.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved irradiation of meat and poultry and allows its use for a variety of other foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables, and spices. The agency determined that the process is safe and effective in decreasing or eliminating harmful bacteria. Irradiation also reduces spoilage bacteria, insects and parasites, and in certain fruits and vegetables it inhibits sprouting and delays ripening. For example, irradiated strawberries stay unspoiled up to three weeks, versus three to five days for untreated berries.

Food irradiation is allowed in nearly 40 countries and is endorsed by the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and many other organizations.

Irradiation does not make foods radioactive, just as an airport luggage scanner does not make luggage radioactive. Nor does it cause harmful chemical changes. The process may cause a small loss of nutrients but no more so than with other processing methods such as cooking, canning, or heat pasteurization. Federal rules require irradiated foods to be labeled as such to distinguish them from non-irradiated foods.

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It’s time to give up the carb guilt. When we pack on the pounds, we often blame it on eating too many carbohydrates. But not all carbs are loaded with starchy calories. And if you severely limit how many carbs you eat — to the point where even a dry cracker seems like a splurge — you’ll be missing some of the tastiest, most nutritious, and, yes, most slimming foods around.

1. Calming comfort
When was the last time you had the flu and craved a steak?

When we don’t feel well, we usually reach for the comforting starches such as pasta and rice we were given as kids. Complex carbohydrates, such as whole grain breads and cereals with oats or other whole grains, stimulate the brain to produce a neurotransmitter called serotonin. Serotonin is the feel-good hormone that helps regulate our mood, sleep and appetite. It also helps fight pain. Other serotonin-inducing carbs include whole wheat pastas, brown rice, bulgur and sweet potatoes.

2. Satisfyingly slimming
Doughnuts may never be health food, but carbohydrates typically contain only four calories per gram. Most foods that are naturally high in complex carbohydrates (broccoli, red, green and yellow peppers, beans, corn and brown rice) are not calorie-dense, yet they are filling and satisfying. That’s why cutting carbs from your diet when you’re trying to lose weight can be counter-productive.

A recommended serving is either one slice of bread, 1/3 cup of rice or 1/2 cup of cooked cereal such as oatmeal.

3. Fiber-rific
Many carbs are low in sugar and rich in fiber. In addition to helping you feel full, fiber gives you lots of other important health benefits.

Insoluble fiber (known as roughage) aids in digestion and can help prevent constipation. Wheat bran and whole wheat products, which are complex carbohydrates, are sources of insoluble fiber.

Soluble fiber, found in oats, carrots, and apples, forms a viscous gel which helps to decrease the absorption of cholesterol, which can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. Soluble fiber may also help stabilize blood glucose levels and help control diabetes.

To get your daily fiber load, switch to whole grain burger buns and whole wheat pasta. Try experimenting with some new grains like quinoa, amaranth and wheat berries. It’s recommended that adult women consume 21 to 25 grams of dietary fiber per day; men should get 30 to 38 grams. Examples of some fiber-filled foods include one slice of whole grain bread (3 grams) and 1/2 cup serving size of lentils.

4. Beat hunger
If you want to fight hunger pangs, make room for resistant starch in your diet. Resistant starch is a kind of dietary fiber found in many carbohydrates like potatoes, barley and beans. Resistant starches are formed when these foods are cooked and cooled, such as cooked-and-chilled potatoes. This nutrient may play a significant role in promoting weight loss by helping stave off cravings.

Although it’s not clear how much resistant starch we need each day, it can improve blood sugar levels and may even protect against certain cancers.

5. Energy booster
Complex carbohydrates provide a powerhouse of easily-obtained energy. In fact, they are the body’s main source of fuel for your muscles. It’s not only your muscles that benefit — your brain, bones, glands, hormones, heart and all of your body’s systems depend on a regular flow of carb energy to function optimally.

Whether you’re a fitness fan or would simply like to be more active, the intake of the right carbohydrates can really give you a competitive edge.

Energizing snacks include whole grain crackers with nut butter; fruit slices dipped in low-fat yogurt; or hummus with baby carrots. After a workout, you can refuel with a slice of whole grain bread and a string cheese, or a smoothie with skim milk, your favorite fruit and a few ice cubes.

6. Natural healing
Many people don’t realize that “good” carbs — including brown rice, celery, whole grains and strawberries — supply a wealth of vitamins, such as B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), and C, in addition to minerals, such as chromium, manganese and zinc. Enriched grains are also a good source of folic acid and iron. Since carbs tend to be of plant origin, many provide a host of phytonutrients (chemicals in plants that boost health).

Examples of some of these super-charged foods and their disease-fighting chemicals include spinach (lutein targets eye-related ailments), tomatoes (lycopene fights prostate cancer) and sweet potatoes (carotenoids have been linked to longer life).

Check out Fiction Scribe.

Hello, my name is Brick ONeil, and I’m the new Nutrition Frenzy Blogger!

I’ve been with 451 Press since March, 2007, blogging on Encouraging Health, and am enjoying my time here immensly.

I’m excited about blogging for Nutrition Frenzy, bringing you information, news and updates about foods, nutrition and exercise and how they impact your life. There is a wealth of information in the world today, sometimes it can be overwhelming. This blog will bring you the information in a clear, logical and concise way for you to mentally ‘digest’ and take from it what you will. It is my hope that you will bring your experience, knowledge and expertise to the table as well. We can only learn if we continue to share information for everyone to learn from.

My experience is a medical/health background. I am a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, was a Workers’ Compensation Adjuster for six years and have been a Freelance Writer for the past seven years. My work has spanned many fields, such as Health, Fitness, Copywriting, Research, Real Estate, to name a few. I can bring this knowledge to you, so we can all learn the benefits of Nutrition and how it imapcts our lives.

Head on over to Urban Ecoist and say hello to new blogger over there, Lulu McGrew.