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With many folks taking a long weekend with family — which, of course, can mean lots of eating! — three recent nutritional/health items from the terrific New York Times Well Blog to keep in mind:
Go nuts! Or, at least, eat nuts. The Times reports that while many historical studies on the benefits of nuts “were conducted almost entirely among relatively well-to-do, well educated, white individuals… strong links between nuts and peanuts and better health have also been found in a major study of people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and varied ethnic groups — blacks, whites and Asians — many of whom had serious risk factors for premature death, like smoking, obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.”
“The results were published in March in JAMA Internal Medicine by researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Their study, conducted among more than 200,000 men and women in the Southern United States and Shanghai, found that the more nuts people consumed, the lower their death rates from all causes and especially from heart disease and stroke.”
The Times also reports that “fish oil is now the third most widely used dietary supplement in the United States, after vitamins and minerals, according to a recent report from the National Institutes of Health. At least 10 percent of Americans take fish oil regularly, most believing that the omega-3 fatty acids in the supplements will protect their cardiovascular health.
“But there is one big problem: The vast majority of clinical trials involving fish oil have found no evidence that it lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke.”
Finally, if you are going to eat a lot this weekend, the Times reports that “Exercise Beats Vitamin D for Injury Prevention.” So, eat what you'd like… but there's no magic pill!