Food & Diet, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 31, 2013

What Is Molasses?

Thousands of fish have been reported dead in the waters around Honolulu after a massive spill of molasses. On Monday (Sept. 9), a pipeline from a molasses tank near Honolulu Harbor was loading the heavy, sweet liquid onto a ship when a leak in the pipeline dumped hundreds of thousands...

Jul 31, 2013

Why Are Industrial Chemicals in Food Not Safety Tested? (Op-Ed)

Jennifer Sass is a senior scientist with the NRDC. This article is adapted from her post to the NRDC blog Switchboard. Sass contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Processed foods, which so many Americans eat every day, typically contains industrial chemical additives to preserve, flavor, thicken...

Jun 30, 2013

Is Your Olive Oil As Healthy As You Think? (Op-Ed)

Katherine Tallmadge, M.A., R.D., is a registered dietitian; author of Diet Simple: 195 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations (LifeLine Press, 2011); and a frequent national commentator on nutrition topics. This article was adapted from one that first appeared in the Washington Post. Tallmadge contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert...

May 31, 2013

Go Gluten Free? Most People Shouldn't (Op-Ed)

Katherine Tallmadge, R.D.,is a registered dietitian, author of Diet Simple: 195 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations (Lifeline Press, 2011), and a frequent national commentator on nutrition topics. Tallmadge contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. It's all the rage right now; in fact, you may be...

Feb 28, 2013

'Fasting Diet' Fad Could Be Unhealthy, Nutritionists Say

The latest diet craze claims to help people lose weight through intermittent fasting, but some nutritionists say it's a bad idea. People on the so-called 5:2 diet can eat whatever they want for five days a week, but must then fast for two. On the fasting days, dieters must eat...

Jan 31, 2013

Simple Changes May Make Healthy Living Easier

BOSTON — Chances are you know what's good for you — daily exercise, avoiding tempting sweets and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. But chances are, you don't follow this advice. So why is it so difficult to make healthy choices? Partly, it's because humans have a natural bias for...

Jan 31, 2013

Organic Tomatoes Have More Vitamin C

Organically grown tomatoes are more nutritious in some ways than the conventionally grown variety, a new study from Brazil suggests. The results show that organically grown tomatoes, while smaller, have higher levels of vitamin C as well as more plant phenols, a class of compounds that act as antioxidants, than...

Oct 31, 2014

Is Farmed Salmon Good for You?

Eating salmon and other oily fish has been recommended as a way of boosting omega-3 fatty acids, and potentially lowering the risk of heart disease. But now, some farmed salmon have lower levels of this healthful oil because of their diet, and it's not clear whether these less- nutritious fish...

Oct 31, 2014

Juice Cleanses: Separating Fact from Fiction

With nutritious ingredients and good-for-you health claims, juice cleanses and liquid detox diets have received plenty of buzz. The craze has caught on among celebrities who see doing a cleanse as a way to lose weight quickly and eliminate toxins from their bodies, giving them a fresh start. But many...

Aug 31, 2014

Americans Are Eating Healthier, Study Finds

Americans are eating a modestly healthier diet now than they were a decade ago, but the gap in diet quality between the rich and the poor has widened, a new study finds. Researchers examined the quality of the U.S. diet between 1999 and 2010 using a measure called the Alternate...

Aug 31, 2014

'Better' Burgers Worse for Health, No Better for Climate (Op-Ed)

Elliott Negin is the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). This article is adapted from a piece that appeared on Huffington Post. Negin contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights . Like a lot of cities across the country, Washington...

Jul 31, 2014

Sodium Guidelines 'Need to Be Rethought,' Experts Say

People whose diets contain moderate levels of sodium may have healthier hearts and live longer than those who consume too much or too little of the mineral, new research suggests. In a large international study, researchers found that men and women who ate between 3,000 and 6,000 milligrams of sodium...

Jul 31, 2014

No Dietary Supplement Treats Concussions, FDA Warns

Consumers should beware of dietary supplements that claim to treat a concussion, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations said today. Exploiting the public's rising concern about concussions, some companies are offering untested, unproven and possibly dangerous products that claim to prevent, treat or cure concussions and other traumatic brain injuries,...

May 31, 2014

Why Eating Fruits and Veggies Won't Make You Thin

Eating more fruits and vegetables is a generally a good idea, but this alone isn't likely to help you lose weight, a new review of studies suggests. Researchers analyzed previous research on weight loss and increased fruit and vegetable intake, which included data on more than 1,200 people. The investigators...

May 31, 2014

Lose Weight and Boost Nutrition with This Common Grain

How often do you eat rice? It could be time to add some more of this grain to your diet. People who eat white or brown rice daily are more likely to have adequate levels of potassium, magnesium and other nutrients, according to a recent study in the journal Food...