Sound Bites: Fruits With Benefits, What’s Up Butter Cow and More
By Megan O. Steintrager
Seriously, Eat An Apple Each Day
The evidence in favor of fruit just keeps mounting. The August issue of Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter reports on a large Chinese study linking eating more fruit with better heart health. “In the most comprehensive such research to date, following a half-million people for seven years, greater fruit consumption was associated with lower risk of heart attack and stroke,” according to the journal. The full Tufts article is available only to subscribers, but you can read the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Add more fruit today by swapping Grilled Peaches Kissed with Cinnamon and Chocolate for a heavier dessert.
Can You Spot the Added Sugar?
As you might already know, earlier this year the FDA announced various changes to the nutrition facts label, including the addition of a line for added sugar — the current label, confusingly, lumps added sugars such as cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup together with sugars that naturally occur in foods. Companies have until mid-2018 to comply (longer for small companies), but some are getting the info about added sugar out there early: Kind Healthy Snacks, the maker of KIND bars and other packaged foods, announced that it is publishing the added sugar content of its products on its website. While the company’s press release only mentions the information appearing on Kind’s website, Bloomberg reports that it’ll be on the bars themselves early next year.
And Speaking of Food Labels…
Chilean health officials have a bold new way to warn customers that a food is high in sugar, sodium, saturated fat or calories: It’s being printed on the front of packages in a large black stop sign-shaped symbol, NPR’s The Salt reports. Additionally, food with the black labels cannot be advertised to children under 14, cannot be sold with a toy, and cannot be sold in or near schools.
Timing Is Key for Healthier Eating
Decide what you’re going to eat well before it’s time to eat and you’re likely to make healthier choices, according to a New York Times article discussing new research from Carnegie Mellon University. To keep fighting fit, plan out your meals and shop for groceries a few days ahead, and look at menus online before going out to a restaurant.
Fairly Healthy Eats
The world famous Iowa State Fair, which continues through August 21, has a few healthy items on the menu this year, the Des Moines Register reports. Fresh fruit is one of the items, so you can get your daily dose in while you check out the butter cow.
Originally published at Clean Plates.
