How to give up sugar and still feel good

Love your sweets and just can’t get enough? Then you’ve probably been warned about the risks of too much sugar plenty of times (obesity, diabetes and heart disease, to name a few). But have you ever thought about the way your sugar habit affects your mood?

Is that dairy habit helping or harming your heart health?

Vegetable fats are better than dairy fats, and dairy fats are better than meat fats, a recent Harvard study suggests. What prompted the study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was the ongoing debate between the role of dairy fat and risk for cardiovascular diseases (like heart disease and stroke).

Sugar industry made fat the scapegoat for heart disease decades ago

In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded Harvard research that downplayed the risks of sugar and emphasized the dangers of fat, according to a new study from the University of California, San Francisco, published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Around this time, studies were coming out, linking sugar with risk factors for heart disease, like high cholesterol and triglycerides, the researchers said. So instead of letting sugar take the heat, they made dietary fat the patsy.

5 reasons you need the health benefits of omega 3s

We hear a lot about healthy fats and how good they are for our bodies. In fact, they’re a mainstay of the praised Mediterranean diet, with staples like olive oil, whole grains and avocado. One of the reasons the Mediterranean diet is often recommended is due to the healthy omega-3 and omega-6 ratio, with more omega-3s in the diet than omega-6s. The typical Western diet gets plenty of omega-6s, but not enough omega-3s, and this can cause inflammation and disease.

Omega-3s: What’s the difference between DHA and EPA?

Omega-3 fatty acids are known for their brain and heart health benefits, but then you see terms like DHA and EPA thrown around in the same sentence. These types of omega-3s each serve unique functions. So what is the difference between DHA and EPA?

What is oleic acid and how much do you need?

Most people are familiar with the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, but what is oleic acid, and why is it important? Oleic acid is a naturally occurring, odorless, colorless oil. Oleic acid is found in flaxseed oil, borage (a Mediterranean herb) oil, evening primrose oil, olive oil (less in virgin olive oil), pecan oil, canola oil, peanut oil, macadamia oil, sunflower oil, grape seed oil, sea buckthorn oil and sesame oil. You can also find it in animal fat. Oleic acid at appropriate levels has been implicated in cancer prevention in some (but not all studies), and reduces cholesterol levels.

Put trans fat on your naughty list

Trans fat – Your taste buds may love it, but your heart and blood vessels don’t. So what are trans fats? Trans fats form when ordinary vegetable oil is hardened by treatment with hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures. They give foods a desirable taste and texture, and oils with trans fats can be used many times in a commercial fryer. As a result, trans fats are often used because they are cheap and last a long time.