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Which risk factor is responsible for more deaths around the world than any other? Not smoking. Not even high blood pressure. It's a poor diet. "In many countries, poor diet now causes more deaths than tobacco smoking and high blood pressure," said Ashkan Afshin, an assistant professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Drinking two or more diet beverages a day linked to high risk of stroke, heart attacks Drinking two or more diet beverages a day linked to high risk of stroke, heart attacks And it's not just that people are choosing...

I skipped breakfast again this morning. I won't worry about it.Yes, I've heard the advice. "It's the most important meal of the day." It balances blood sugar levels, kick-starts your metabolism, stimulates the brain, etc.A Harvard University study said men who regularly skip breakfast have a 27 percent higher risk of suffering a heart attack. 27 percent!But I'm not worried, because I now know there's no proof that skipping breakfast causes heart attacks or any other problem.In my latest video, nutritionist Dr. Ruth Kava points out that just about all the claims about breakfast being especially important are unproven.Those Harvard...

Many FReepers have knowledge to share about improving and maintaining health and would like to share it and learn from others; and others may not know much yet but want to learn. Some of us don't have much money for good insurance or doctors, some want to try other methods besides prescription meds, and some have experience in treating and solving health problems. More and more "regular" doctors have accepted treatment methods such as the benefits of acupuncture, massage for many conditions, better diet, use of herbs and so on. There are limits, and often side effects, to some standard...

Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A nutrient once thought to be healthy if eaten in abundance may actually cut life short, a new study says. A low-protein, high-carbohydrate diet has been linked to living longer and maintaining brain health, according to a study published this month in Current Biology. Eating too much protein, Proud says, can speed up protein synthesis, which quickly causes a build-up of "faulty protein" -- leading to a likelihood of early death. The researchers tested this theory by feeding high protein diets to fruit flies and worms. "Since this link also operates in humans, our findings show...

More bad news for diet soda lovers: Drinking two or more of any kind of artificially sweetened drinks a day is linked to an increased risk of clot-based strokes, heart attacks and early death in women over 50, according to a new study by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. The risks were highest for women with no history of heart disease or diabetes and women who were obese or African-American. Previous research has shown a link between diet beverages and stroke, dementia , Type 2 diabetes , obesity and metabolic syndrome, which can lead to heart disease...

Eating more fibre, found in wholegrain cereals, pasta and bread as well as nuts and pulses, will cut people’s chances of heart disease and early death, according to a landmark review commissioned by the World Health Organization. The authors of the review, which will inform forthcoming WHO guidelines, say their findings are good news – but incompatible with fashionable low-carb diets. The research is led by Prof Jim Mann’s team at the University of Otago in New Zealand, who also carried out the major review that informed WHO guidance on curbing sugar in the diet, leading to sugar taxes around...

The health benefits of sardines include the prevention of heart diseases, certain types of cancers, and age-related macular degeneration. They also help strengthen bones, boost the immune system, improve insulin resistance, and rejuvenate the skin.

Many curries and stews around the world are made with turmeric, which gives them a yellowish hue and a peppery, ginger-like taste. Shutterstock Turmeric and the chemical compound derived from it, called curcumin, have some amazing health benefits. In addition to being an anti-inflammatory that helps boost circulation, turmeric may also be an anti-cancer, antioxidant therapy that can fight off brain plaques, possibly helping prevent diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and more. And unlike a lot of other vitamins and supplements, it's cheap. Doctors are increasingly embracing the idea that the food we eat may be as good as any disease-fighting,...

Eating a lot of hot dogs, beef jerky, salami and other processed meats could do more than just add a few extra pounds — it could cause a serious mental condition called mania. That’s according to a new study from scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine published July 18 (National Hot Dog Day) in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. The study found a link between consumption of nitrates, which are chemicals used to cure and process meat snacks, and episodes of mania, “a serious neuropsychiatric condition associated with significant morbidity and mortality.” Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article215089580.html#storylink=cpy

Time and again we hear politicians from different parts of the country profess the virtues of a soda tax. Their reasoning ranges from wanting to improve the public health, by cutting back consumption of unhealthy drinks, to talking about how much revenue it will bring in. This proclivity of nanny statists to push policies to change people’s behavior hues quite closely to Einstein’s definition of insanity: Trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Policy makers of all stripes need to abandon their affinity for soda taxes. Put simply, soda taxes just don’t work. Take Berkeley, California, as...

The findings are reported in the April 19, 2018 online issue of PLOS One. The scientists studied a cohort of 903 healthy adults (mean age: 74) with no indications of either pre-diabetes or diabetes during clinic visits from 1997 to 1999, and then followed the participants through 2009. Vitamin D levels in blood were measured during these visits, along with fasting plasma glucose and oral glucose tolerance. "We found that participants with blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D that were above 30 ng/ml had one-third of the risk of diabetes and those with levels above 50 ng/ml had one-fifth of the...

New research has shown for the first time that omega-3 in fish oil could "substantially and significantly" reduce the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis. According to the University of Bristol study, funded by Arthritis Research UK and published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, omega-3-rich diets fed to guinea pigs, which naturally develop osteoarthritis, reduced disease by 50 per cent compared to a standard diet. The research is a major step forward in showing that omega-3 fatty acids, either sourced from fish oil or flax oil, may help to slow down the progression of osteoarthritis, or even prevent it occurring,...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — How many cups of coffee do you drink each day? If it’s more than one, you may become a healthier you. German researchers say four cups of strong coffee a day could trigger a process that helps prevent heart attacks.

Are you literally FEEDING cancer cells by putting this one food on your dinner plate? This is important. You must stop eating this food today or you could be growing cancer cells. Now here's where it gets really interesting... As soon as you STOP eating it, the opposite happens: Cancer cells STARVE to death -- and die out by the thousands. Skeptical? See the proof here.

Golden Rice was declared safe for consumption by Canada recently. This has huge implications for the rest of the world, where Golden Rice can be vital resource in tackling vitamin A deficiency and malnutrition.Genetically modified (GM) crops are engineered to display traits that are otherwise absent or subdued in natural crops. For example, gene modification results in crops that are highly resistant to diseases and more accustomed to extreme weather conditions. Sometimes, these crops also contain increased nutritional value.Golden Rice, also known as Provitamin A Biofortified Rice Event GR2E, has strikingly higher levels of Provitamin A than other commercially available...

Thanks in large part to President Trump’s aggressive deregulation agenda—through which the president has demonstrated a commitment to cutting or restructuring unnecessary, burdensome rules that hamper innovation and growth—the economy is booming. Unfortunately, one poorly considered rule that seems to have escaped his notice will hurt the businesses that provide one of America’s favorite foods: pizza.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rule, a byproduct of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and slated to go into effect on May 7, will require businesses with 20 or more locations that sell highly customizable food items—such as pizza companies, convenience stores, supermarkets...

A client recently asked me, “How often can I get away with eating junk food?” She knows that my nutrition philosophy is the “80:20 rule”: Eat healthy foods as often as possible (at least 80 percent of the time), but also enjoy the occasional less healthy food (less than 20 percent of the time), if that’s what you really want. I’ve seen this approach work well with clients who were previously chronic dieters yet hadn’t been able to lose weight. Once I give them permission to have “forbidden foods,” those foods lose their power and they’re able to make healthier...

The words 'pork fat' and 'nutritious' don't quite go together, but that may soon change, given a surprising finding by scientists which was first published in 2015 but went viral only recently. According to a BBC report in January, researchers who analysed more than 1,000 raw foods found that lard is among the top 10 foods which provide the best balance of a person's daily nutritional requirements. Pork fat was ranked 8th in a list of 100 foods, with a nutritional score of 74 - the higher the number, the more likely it will meet your daily nutritional needs. It...

A drug-free approach might be the best treatment we have for America's most ubiquitous lifestyle disease.Type II diabetes is one of America's most ubiquitous—and expensive—chronic diseases. Patients often require a suite of pharmaceutical products to manage high blood glucose levels, and the complications that arise over the long term, ranging from loss of vision and limbs to kidney failure and coronary artery disease, strain the resources of patients, their families, and the health care system. The financial strain on insurance companies, employers, and Medicaid and Medicare is even more enormous. A 2013 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine...

The media love contrarian man-bites-dog stories that purport to debunk long-established beliefs and advice. Among the most popular on the health front are reports that saturated fats do not cause heart disease and that the vegetable oils we’ve been encouraged to use instead may actually promote it. But the best-established facts on dietary fats say otherwise. How well polyunsaturated vegetable oils hold up health-wise when matched against saturated fats like butter, beef fat, lard and even coconut oil depends on the quality, size and length of the studies and what foods are eaten when fewer saturated fats are consumed. So...