We all feel blue from time to time, but major depressive disorder (MDD) is a condition that lasts for a long period of time. It’s a disease that people can’t just “get over” or “snap out of.” While antidepressant medications have been helpful for many people with MDD, they come with side effects of their own,
Since I approach nutrition from a health standpoint, I’m always writing and talking about nutrients: fiber, protein, fats, etc. But most of us don’t think in these terms; we think about eating in terms of food. So when it comes to translating my recommendations for a Mediterranean type diet into actual meal planning,
There has been explosive interest in the last few years in eating like our ancient, pre-agricultural ancestors: following a hunter-gatherer pattern that would have been the norm in the Paleolithic Era (the “stone age”). The idea behind this is that agriculture has only been around for about 10,000 years, which is barely a blip on the evolutionary time scale.
If there’s one thing that’s consistent in the field of nutrition, it’s that information is always changing. With the barrage of latest headlines about the scientific research on nutrition, how can we cut through the confusion and make healthy choices? I usually spend a fair amount of time reading Nutrition Facts labels at the grocery store,
‘Tis the season for making New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps your resolutions include healthier eating and losing weight. There is certainly plenty of info in my past articles on how to construct a healthy diet that will help you live longer and prevent chronic diseases. One element that may have been overlooked in all the scrutiny over what to eat is when to eat.
Healthy lifestyle habits: we know we should do them, but sometimes, it just seems like work. Yes, Dr. Peters, I know that a Mediterranean diet and exercise will decrease my risk of dying, but it’s just one more thing to add to the daily to-do list. A phenomenon has popped up in recent years that makes it just a little less onerous to keep our minds and bodies fit:
One of the main impediments that many people cite in avoiding healthy foods is taste. When the average American is faced with the choice between a Frappuccino and a kale salad, it’s no mystery which one will be chosen. Our brains are hard-wired to seek out fats, sugar, and salt for survival — but with the modern food-industrial complex,
If you’re a patient or a regular reader of my articles, you know that one supplement that I often recommend is fish oil — a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. These fats are essential to our health, because our bodies cannot make them from any other type of fat. The many benefits of omega-3 fats include:
For years, the standard nutritional advice for cardiovascular disease prevention has been to follow a low-fat diet. This is still the official recommendation of the American Heart Association. However, more and more evidence is pointing to the fact that it may be the quality, not quantity, of the fats we consume that is good for our hearts.