I was asked recently about the relationship between diet and Alzheimer's disease. This is a great question since we tend to focus on more traditional health benefits of eating well, such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. This was in response to a recent study published in the journal Neurology.

Contrary to popular belief, all carbohydrates are not equal when it comes to how much a food elevates a person's blood sugar. The glycemic index (GI) was created in an effort to rank foods by the effect they have on an individual's blood sugar levels after they eat that food....

Back in 2007, the Institute of Medicine recommended specifically that each school district limit their students' opportunities to choose foods that are not nutritionally approved. To recap:

"The approved foods [available for purchase in schools] include those that derive less than 35 percent of their total calories from fat and...

I get a lot of questions during lectures from people wanting to know how they can eat better when eating healthy is so expensive. They base their questions on claims that unhealthy choices are cheaper. For instance, I saw a recent news story where the reporter walked around Walmart and...

For years, I've been telling my patients that planning is the key to successful weight loss. You wouldn't build a house or tackle some other large project without a plan, would you? Weight loss is no exception, and for my patients I recommend a two-pronged approach: keeping a daily food...

It's been over a month and you have probably already forgotten about the death of Blair River, the 575-pound spokesperson for the Heart Attack Grill. His death is disturbing, first and foremost because this young man was only 29 years old. He lived a scant 11 years as an adult...

Fad diets are clearly not all they are cracked up to be. Most are simply made up of theories that seldom get put to the test other than with the anecdotal evidence of users who swear by them. When put to the test of time, however, they fail those who...

This past year was an amazing one for the science of diet and nutrition. It's a little difficult for me to keep up with sometimes and I know that it's a challenge for people to know what the big picture is and how to apply it to your day to...

The holidays are upon us and that means food and often lots of it. While I do believe that the holidays can be a time to splurge, it's best to not overdo. One place to be cautious is at the holiday party. When someone else is doing the cooking you...

The research is more and more clear that sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) cause health problems. When researchers look at this issue they don't include just soft drinks, such as sodas or colas, but they also look at sweetened fruit drinks like punch (not those that are 100 percent juice) as well...

Children with Atopic Dermatitis have skin that becomes red, scaly or flaky and very itchy in response to irritants. These irritants can include foods as well as environmental factors, like certain fabrics or even cigarette smoke. It appears that food allergies can contribute to Atopic Dermatitis, although we know that...

A group of researchers recently showed that a month of unhealthy lifestyle and weight gain made it tougher to lose weight later.

While taking time off from being healthy by overeating and not exercising can make ongoing weight loss more challenging, I believe that taking time to enjoy yourself...

Reading the nutrition facts at many chain restaurants can be alarming. Oversize portions lead to meals that contain well over 1,000 calories per serving, and often there's enough saturated fat and sodium in these dishes for more than a full day's requirement for the average American. While the new health...

The recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is certainly alarming: It says that the number of Americans with diabetes will double or triple in the next 40 years. If they're right, we'll see up to one in three of all Americans affected. The vast majority...