This week, read about nutrition strategies for health and athletic performance, chocolate cake, how to define science, and more.
Nutrition Strategies for Health and Athletic Performance
I’ve complied many of my sports nutrition articles under one page, with additional information to tie it all together. The page reviews Overall Healthy Eating, Sports Nutrition, Food and Recipe Ideas for Athletes, and Sports Nutrition Resources. It’s a great resource for athletes of all ages. I”ll be adding information and new links to the page, so be sure to check back.
Chocolate Cake: Guilt or Celebration?
Do you ever feel guilty about eating certain foods? A study conducted by researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand showed that associating a food like chocolate cake with celebration rather than guilt predicted healthier eating behaviors and better weight control. In the study, people who associated eating cake with guilt were more likely to have gained weight 18 months after the initial study (while cake celebraters were more successful at losing weight). (Appetite, March 2014).
Tim Crowe has a nice review of the study, and reminds us that “Eating food is far more than about nutrients and health. It is an incredibly pleasurable and social activity that is important to cultures the world over. Being overly worried and concerned about food or nutrient X may be doing more harm than good if it magnifies an unhealthy relationship with food.“
Strive to eat well, but don’t forget to celebrate food.
More links of interest this week:
- How do you define science? How our botched understanding of ‘science’ ruins everything. This is great reading (and if you define science as the pursuit of Truth – be sure to read the article!). (Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Theweek.com)
- Pepsi’s lame “hipster” makeover. Pepsi is introducing new beverages with terms like “natural” and “authentic” – does this sound healthier to you? It’s not – stick to the ultimate thirst quencher – water. (Salon)
- Are eggs good for you? 5 nutrition experts weight in. (Time)
- Fighting Epidemics with Food. Good nutrition=healthy immune system, early immune response & inflammation control. (Simin Meydani, director of Tufts Nutritional Immunology Laboratory)
- Scarier Than Ebola – thought provoking opinion piece about the many more threatening health issues that we can do something about. (Frank Bruni, New York Times)
- 50-year study shows that exercise helps fight depression. (JAMA Psychiatry)
- Blinded by Science! Study shows trivial scientific-looking information (graphs, formulas) increases sense of trust in products. Don’t let scientific-looking things fool you! (Cornell Food & Brand Lab, Public Understanding of Science Journal).
- Busting 4 myths about wheat. (Berkeley Wellness)
- What’s your fitness age? (Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times)
- I Have to Walk How Many Miles to Burn Off This Soda? Translating what calories mean in terms of behavior (exercise) might help fight the obesity epidemic. Study showed that simple signs linking exercise to calories in soda helped teens make healthier choices. (John’s Hopkins School of Public Health, American Journal of Public Health, October 16).
- Is Training By Heart Rate A Thing Of The Past? Good arguments for and against.
- Mediterranean Diet Helps Reverse Metabolic Syndrome (even without weight loss) (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
- The Glucola isn’t toxic but the FoodBabe’s advice is. The foodbabe is at her pseudoscientific fear-mongering again, claiming that doctors are poisoning pregnant women and babies. (Jen Gunther)
See More Issues of This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness
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