Diet

It's undeniable: Americans are fat, and they keep on getting fatter. But why is America's waistline ballooning up--and what's to blame? Until recently, experts theorized that less access to healthier foods, such as vegetables and fruits, was to blame. But now new research published in the journal CA Cancer shows that simply isn't the case. According to their research, Americans are actually eating a more varied diet, including more fruits and vegetables--but unfortunately, their caloric intake is going up as…
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Ask most paleo experts and they're adamant about it: Not only is the Paleo Diet healthier, it also naturally suppresses your appetite. Or does it? As it turns out, new research examining the Paleo Diet says this all could be a lie. "Getting to the bottom of how our gut bacteria and diets interact to control appetites is vitally important for tackling the problem of obesity," says Glenn Gibson, co-author of a new study conducted at the University of Reading.…
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For type 2 diabetics, eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of exercise, and maintaining a normal weight could help reverse its symptoms. But for those with type 1 diabetes, simply doing this won't cure it--although it can make it easier to manage. "Currently, there is no cure for diabetes," says Gary Gilles, an About.com expert on Type 1 Diabetes. "The closest we come to a cure for type 1 diabetes is a pancreas transplant. But this is risky surgery and…
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For the short term, diets such as the Paleo diet or Raw Food diet has helped people lose a lot of weight. But for the long term, these diets simply don't work, according to recent evidence. Now, researchers say the solution to keeping weight off--and not just losing it--may lie in a new diet method called intuitive eating. In fact, some nutritionists call it a "non-diet" diet--a diet where you don't have to watch what you eat, count calories, or even…
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Want to reduce your type 2 diabetes risk? Eating a balanced diet helps, but researchers now say the type of diet you follow also matters--and it isn't what you think it is. Reporting in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a health journal, researchers from Sweden's Linkoping University say low-carb diets help reduce glucose levels better than low-fat diets, making it a more effective treatment for type 2 diabetes. "It has been proposed that dietary strategies can modulate inflammatory activity," says…
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Not getting enough calcium? Turns out it could raise your risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity, according to a new study presented at the Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego, CA. The research, which was led by researcher Laura Tosi, M.D., also reveals there's a racial component to this risk, as African Americans are more likely to develop diabetes if they don't get enough calcium in their diet. For Tosi, it's a critical but exciting finding. "Even though…
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Feeling stressed out? Here's something scary: It could actually make you fatter, according to a controversial new study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. Led by researcher Kirstin Aschbacher, Ph.D., she says her findings show that weight loss isn't just a simple matter of calories in, calories out--other factors can influence it as well. "Chronic stress can play an important role in influencing biology, and it’s critical to understand the exact pathways through which it works," says Aschbacher, Ph.D., who works…
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Want to live longer? Well here's one way to do it if you're a heart attack survivor: Eat more fiber. The new research was reported on April 29 in the online version of the British Medical Journal. "[The study] gives us another piece of information we can use to advise our heart patients on how to be as healthy as they can be," says Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of the Women and Heart Disease program at Lenox Hill Hospital in…
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Imagine it: A diet where you can anything you want, without having to count calories, cook special foods, or follow ridiculous rules. And you're guaranteed to lose 35 pounds in the process. To most, this sounds like a dream come true--but the late Seth Roberts, Ph.D., a University of California at Berkeley professor emeritus of psychology calls it the Shangri-La Diet. "My scientific work on this had two parts: I came up with a new theory of weight control; and…
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For many girls growing up, it's a rite of passage: Enduring taunts of looking "too ugly" or "too fat" from fellow classmates. Yet now research shows that calling people fat in their adolescence is more likely to make them obese later in life, according to research from the University of California. Now published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, lead author A. Janet Tomiyama says these results show that calling someone fat doesn't help motivate them to be skinny--instead, it seems…
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