creating nutrition-savvy consumers, one blog post at a time
Podcast: Play in new window | Download The word “fructose” sends some self-appointed nutritionistas into a frenzy. They read something on the internet, and they’re convinced fructose is poison, even though they understand little about human metabolism. It’s a great justification for high protein/high meat diets, without any of that annoying healthy fruit. Is it [...]
Nutrition gets hijacked to promote all kinds of silly products. Vitamin Water and “energy” bars come to mind. But it also gets mis-used to push foods that aren’t manufactured chemical concoctions, giving them a dubious health halo. The claims may be technically true, but they’re essentially meaningless. Here are some examples: “cholesterol-free” vegetable oil: Yes, [...]
Food marketers are leaving no nutrition belief untouched in their campaign to get you to buy stuff because you think it’s healthy. Here are some examples of how nutrition and health are twisted beyond recognition to sell stuff: 1. Kelloggs Mini Wheats with “touch of fruit” in the middle. Fruit! Healthy! Buy! FACT: “berry flavored filling” [...]
Year-end lists are fun, if opinionated and/or full of sneaky marketing messages. After Googling several versions of “best nutrition 2010″, I didn’t find much, so here’s my own random list in no particular order: Supplement of the Year: vitamin D. The story has reached critical mass this year, as more research revealed the rather sad [...]
Are you haunted by nutritional hobgoblins? Halloween ghosts and monsters may haunt us once a year, but food and nutrition spooks are scaring people everyday all year long. Are they really that scary? High Fructose Corn Syrup: Eek! It causes obesity and everything else that’s bad. No. Too many calories cause obesity. If you consume [...]
The recent attempt by corn producers to redefine high fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar” is under attack from the usual suspects: the Food Police, who see a conspiracy to force a uniquely evil substance on an unsuspecting public the cane and beet sugar producers, who see a conspiracy to undercut their sales. What do [...]
Nothing says summer quite like watermelon, even though it increasingly turns up in grocery stores in spring. It's one fruit that (mostly) hasn't … Read More
