Eating and Nutrition + Original Articles

How to Detox From Sugar

Overconsumption of sugar can lead to serious health issues. Here are six tips for cutting back on the sweet stuff. Sugar makes so many foods taste good, but regularly indulging your sweet tooth could make you feel bad: Eating too many foods with added sugar can cause serious health issues, including obesity, elevated blood pressure, and a higher risk of diabetes. A sugar detox could be just what you need to jumpstart your health.

Processed Foods and Prostate Cancer Risk

Processed foods are terrible for your health. But are they linked to prostate cancer? We look at a study and give some tips on cutting back on junkfood. Processed foods—which include everything from soda to fast food to boxed mac and cheese—can boost your risk of obesity, digestive disorders, and heart disease. Now researchers have found another good reason to ditch convenience foods, especially those high in refined carbohydrates: Cancer cells appear to feed on sugar.

The Many Benefits of Vitamin D

Vitamin D may protect again cancer, heart disease, and more. Are you getting enough of this important nutrient? You probably know that vitamin D is necessary for strong bones. But did you know that it's also important for the proper functioning of your immune system, muscles, and nerves? And in the right amounts, vitamin D may even help prevent or delay some of the health conditions we fear most: cancer and heart failure.

Orthorexia: The Other Eating Disorder

If your passion for "pure" or "clean" eating has left you with a diet so restrictive that it interferes with other aspects of your life, your eating plan may not be so healthy after all. Maybe you gave up sugar. Then you stopped eating anything that contained ingredients you couldn't pronounce. Now you never eat anything that comes in a package, and you don't think you can attend a friend's upcoming birthday dinner because you won't be able to eat any of the food being served.

10 Foods That Give You Energy

Sure, sleep counts, but so does the food you eat. Here are the foods that will put a spring in your step. Tired of being tired all the time? Skip the second (or third) cup of coffee and start noshing on food. Real food. That’s your ticket to all-day energy: "A combination of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats provides the body with the nutrients and energy it needs," says QualityHealth’s Nutrition expert Alison Massey, RD, CDE, LDN, MS, Director of Diabetes Education at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.

5 Hardest Foods to Digest

Plus simple advice to better digest any food you eat. Indigestion by any other name—gas, bellyache, heartburn, upset stomach, bloating—is still indigestion, or the inability to digest food properly. Whatever you call it, a digestive problem can be inconvenient at best, and often downright painful. ...

Why We Crave Sugar

Wondering why that iced custard doughnut holds such irresistible appeal? We've got the answers. Humans are born with a preference for sweet foods; most of us will eat almost anything made with sugar. We especially like sweetened, fatty foods like cakes and ice cream because while sugar enhances the flavor of these foods, fat provides a pleasant texture or "mouth feel.

8 Nutrition Experts Dish on Their Favorite Books

For great eating advice, chew on these expert picks. We know we need to eat well. But knowing exactly how to eat well is where things get tricky. With that in mind, we asked eight nutrition professionals for their number one book recommendation. Add something healthy to your bookshelf with one of these picks.

Does Juice Fasting Actually Work?

Juicing is promoted for everything from weight management to internal cleansing or "detoxing," but are there any real health benefits? Juicing is promoted for everything from weight management to internal cleansing or "detoxing," but are there any real health benefits? Embarking on a juice fast means consuming nothing but freshly made fruit and vegetable juices for a given period of time, usually anywhere from one to three days, though websites promoting seven-day, ten-day and even longer fasts can be found online.

The Science of Hanger

Why do some of us get angry, grumpy, and irritable when we're hungry? Have you ever been so hungry that you felt cranky and irritable? If the need for a snack has brought out your inner toddler, you've experienced "hanger," hunger induced anger. We talked to registered dietician Alison Massey, Director of Diabetes Education at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore about what's prompting these episodes, why hanger only happens to some people, and how to avoid this unpleasant state.