‘Lentils will help you run faster:’ Communicating food benefits gets kids to eat healthier

Affirming statements like ‘eat your lentils if you want to grow bigger and run faster’ are more effective at getting kids to make healthy food choices than presenting the food repeatedly without conversation.

Peer pressure likely influences food choices at restaurants

If you want to eat healthier when dining out, research recommends surrounding yourself with friends who make healthy food choices. A University of Illinois study showed that when groups of people eat together at a restaurant at which they must state their food choice aloud, they tend to select items from the same menu categories…

Successful Weight Loss Program For Patients With Serious Mental Illness

Through a program that teaches simple nutrition messages and involves both counseling and regular exercise classes, people with serious mental illness can make healthy behavioral changes and achieve significant weight loss, according to new Johns Hopkins research…

Although Fast-Food Menu Calorie Counts Are Legally Compliant, They Are Not As Helpful To Consumers As They Should Be

Calorie listings on fast-food chain restaurant menus might meet federal labeling requirements but don’t do a good job of helping consumers trying to make healthy meal choices, a new Columbia University School of Nursing (CUSON) study reports…

The Balanced Diet: What It Means And Why It’s Important

Whether you have diabetes or are just trying to make healthy choices, you’ve probably heard that you should follow “a balanced diet.” But what is a balanced diet? Diabetes Forecast, the consumer magazine of the American Diabetes Association, seeks to answer that question and share helpful recipes in its June 2011 issue, which focuses on summer cooking and eating…

Healthy Eating Decisions Program Tackles Childhood Obesity Head-On

Dave Pittman is convinced you can teach schoolchildren to make healthy choices at lunchtime. And he’s got the research to prove it. Pittman, a psychology professor at Wofford College in Spartanburg, ran tests in two different elementary schools in his area