Is there a link between diet soda, dementia and stroke?

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Is there a link between diet soda, dementia and stroke?

For anyone who likes their diet soda, a new study may cause you to pause on slurping down your favorite drink.  An analysis of more than 4,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort, found that those who drank at least one artificially sweetened beverage a day were almost three times more likely to develop ischemic stroke and 2.9 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease over the course of 10 years than those who drank artificially sweetened beverages less than once a week. 

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Cancer’s connection with the food we eat

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Cancer’s connection with the food we eat

Not only do our daily food choices play a substantial role on the influence and specific type of cancer that may develop but our food choices may also provide a protective role in reducing our risk of this deadly disease. 

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Nature’s brain foods

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Nature’s brain foods

It’s the little things like forgetting someone’s name or needing to constantly write yourself reminder notes.  For the time being most of us just chalk it up to getting older but those common lapses of memory we all tend to share could also signal a future cognitive decline.  What most of us fear is dementia, a catch-all term for a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities.  We fear the cognitive decline could be a symptom of the worst of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease.

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Be kind to your heart and stop ‘yo-yo’ dieting

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Be kind to your heart and stop ‘yo-yo’ dieting

If only weight loss was easy.  For some it can be but for most it can be a perplexing conundrum of lose weight, gain it back, repeat – lose weight, gain it back, repeat.  This rhythmic pattern of weight cycling is affectionately referred to as ‘yo-yo’ dieting.  We’ve all heard of the term and some of us may have experienced the up and down weight scale ride where we lose weight only to quickly and expectedly regain it back.

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The truth behind 5 common food myths

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The truth behind 5 common food myths

Discerning between food truths and food myths is really hard sometimes.  There is a multitude of some excellent nutrition advice to extremely bad to downright dangerous nutrition advice.  As a consumer and partaker of food (we all are), knowing the truth of how to follow a healthy, nutritious diet can get lost in the shuffle of nutrition myths that have grown exponentially over the years. 

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Walk on the wild side with funky fruits

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Walk on the wild side with funky fruits

The saying goes “variety is the spice of life” and boy, are they not kidding when it comes to fruits.  When we look beyond bananas, apples, and oranges, we’ll find there is a wide world of weird and wonderful fruit just waiting to be discovered.  These exotic and unique-looking produce may not be found in all grocery stores but they often are more widely available at Asian, Latin and gourmet supermarkets or from online specialty produce purveyors. 

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6 foods that are belly bloating instigators

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6 foods that are belly bloating instigators

Nothing is more annoying than experiencing belly bloat.  Even though bloating is capable of making you feel puffy and uncomfortable plus making it just about impossible to zip up your skinny jeans, it usually is not serious.  It can be due to a variety of things – eating too fast or too much or drinking through a straw.  All of these actions can lead to gas buildup in the tummy and that can spell trouble.

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How simple food swaps can make recipes healthier

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How simple food swaps can make recipes healthier

Have you ever tried mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes?  How about chocolate cake made with black beans?  Probably not your usual method of cooking but making healthy swaps with not-so-healthy ingredients is becoming more popular as people are becoming more aware and informed about what they eat. 

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Guilt-free guide to healthy grocery shopping

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Guilt-free guide to healthy grocery shopping

Grocery shopping – you either love it, hate it or maybe you are somewhere in between.  No matter how you feel about it, we have to eat in order to live so we might as well be good at it. 

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Quiz – what do you really know about protein?

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Quiz – what do you really know about protein?

High protein diets continue to ride high their reign as a super nutrient.  Yes, protein is an invaluable nutrient as it does a ton of various functions within our body.  But how much do you really know about protein and if you were to take a quiz on your knowledge about it, would you pass?  Let’s find out:

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Foods that may be triggering your migraine

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Foods that may be triggering your migraine

There is no mistaking if you are having a migraine. The excruciating, throbbing head pain usually occurring on one side, extreme sensitivity to light, touch, sounds or smells, blurred vision along with nausea or vomiting can go on for hours.  The draining experience of one can be so exhausting that after the migraine has passed, a person may suffer from a “migraine hangover.”

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25 ideas to fill your plate with more fruits and veggies

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25 ideas to fill your plate with more fruits and veggies

Next time you sit down to a meal notice how many fruits and veggies you have on your plate.  Is half of it filled with these disease fighting foods?  That’s what more of us need to do according to MyPlate.gov and they are right.  If you want to be a healthy person getting in the various vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals our bodies need for nourishment and protection against chronic illness, the answer is staring you right in the face every time you walk by the produce aisle at the grocery store. 

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10 foods determining your risk of heart disease

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10 foods determining your risk of heart disease

According to a new study, it looks like there are 10 influential foods that could make or break your risk of heart disease.  Ten foods that are attributed to almost half of all heart disease deaths in the United States. Research conducted at Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy came up with this list after reviewing 16,000 individual’s surveys from 1999-2012.  During that time span, the participants kept food diaries of what they ate and then were followed during that time to assess their health.

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8 healthy oils good to your heart

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8 healthy oils good to your heart

Choosing healthy oils at the supermarket is not what it used to.  Today, supermarket shelves have a surplus of various kinds of oils all claiming to be healthy for you.  Knowing which ones to choose and which to avoid can mean the difference between oils promoting heart health or oils possibly harming heart health. 

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Soy vs Breast Cancer

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Soy vs Breast Cancer

While men have been warned away from soy, there are new reasons to believe it can save women's lives. A recent study from Tufts University in Massachusetts investigated the link between dietary intake of the isoflavones found in soy products and breast cancer mortality, and unearthed some surprising data.

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