Who Cares More About Family Food Choices? Mom … or Dad?

When you were a kid it may have been that your mom took on the primary role in the kitchen, including trips to the grocery store and planning out nutritious meals. But today times have changed according to a new survey of 1,000 Americans – both men and women – by PR firm Edelman, which shows that some commonly held stereotypes are no longer the norm.

 Chief among them? The notion that dads aren’t involved in family food choices.Read More...

Solve Your Sleep Problems by Addressing Three Common Nutrient Deficiencies

Does the idea of climbing into bed and falling into a deep slumber the second your head hits the pillow, then waking up feeling refreshed and rested, sound more like a dream than reality? For busy Americans trying to cram two-days’ worth of activities (and stress) into one 24-hour period, good sleep is, unfortunately, increasingly hard to come by.

 While stress is one of the most common culprits, dietary factors can also play a role, especially in terms of what you’re not getting enough of. If you have trouble sleeping, relief may be as simple as getting more of the following nutrients in your diet. Read More...

Swapping Water Fluoridation Chemicals Could Reduce Arsenic in Drinking Water by 99 Percent

About 150 million Americans drink tap water that is fluoridated, a now controversial practice meant to cut rates of tooth decay. This might not come as a surprise, but the fact that your water is likely fluoridated not with pharmaceutical-grade sodium fluoride (the kind used in toothpaste) but rather with fluorosilicic acid, might. Fluorosilicic acid, a byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer industry, is known to contain cancer-causing substances, including arsenic and lead (as well as to leach lead from water pipes). New research suggests that replacing fluorosilicic acid with the more expensive, and arguably less toxic, sodium fluoride could save billions in reduced cancer costs. Read More...

Magnesium May Trump Calcium for Kids’ Bone Health

When it comes to building healthy bones, calcium is the mineral that receives the most attention. But new research suggests that another mineral – magnesium – may deserve some of the limelight, and may actually be even more important for kids’ bone health than calcium.

The study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, measured magnesium intake and absorption in a group of children aged 4 to 8 years. Both magnesium intake and absorption were significantly associated with bone mineral content and density, whereas calcium intake and absorption were not. Read More....

Walnuts Ability to Protect Against Prostate Cancer Stuns Researchers

Sometimes the simplest things in life turn out to be the most powerful, and this appears to be the case with walnuts. Mice that consumed the human equivalent of about 2 ounces (or two small handfuls) of walnuts a day enjoyed significant protection against the development and growth of prostate cancer.

 For men, eating walnuts regularly may be a very simple, very effective way to lower prostate cancer risk (and for women, past research also shows walnuts may be protective against breast cancer, too). Read More...