Diet

Essential Reads Chosen by the editors

World Cancer Day: An ounce of prevention

By Conner Middelmann Whitney on February 4, 2010 in Nourish

"Cancer can be prevented too," the slogan for today's World Cancer Day, debunks the popular myth that while other diseases can be averted, cancer hits people like a bolt from the blue. Read More

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The Best Valentine's Day Gift for a Mindful Eater

By Susan Albers, Psy.D. on February 9, 2010 in Comfort Cravings

If you are contemplating what to get your sweetie for Valentine's Day, you may want to reconsider chocolate if he or she has made healthy eating his or her number one goal this year. Too often, we use food to express love when there are so many other ways to do it.
Chocolate is a great treat. But for the mindful eater in-the-making, unwrapping an enormous box of chocolate or tower of cookies can be a recipe for sabotage and guilt rather than enjoyment. If you want to get your Valentine something that is meaningful and heartfelt, consider these ideas. Read More
A Family That Eats Together.....

By Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D. on February 5, 2010 in Birth, Babies, and Beyond

Could it be that Hollywood will help bring back the family dinner--that old fashioned notion that it may be a good thing to spend time as a family enjoying home--cooked cuisine. Read More
Fast Food Dieting

By Dr. Judith Beck on February 4, 2010 in Thinking Thin

A recent article in the New York Times asks, “Can fast food help you lose weight?” Read More
World Cancer Day: An ounce of prevention

By Conner Middelmann Whitney on February 4, 2010 in Nourish

"Cancer can be prevented too," the slogan for today's World Cancer Day, debunks the popular myth that while other diseases can be averted, cancer hits people like a bolt from the blue. Read More
French Paradox — Solved.

By Christopher Ryan on February 3, 2010 in Sex at Dawn

In Spain (and France), even if you’re just having a snack or an espresso, you go to a café, sit your ass down, and ENJOY IT. Read More
The end of feeling my hunger becoming nausea?

By Emily Troscianko on February 2, 2010 in A Hunger Artist

Everything in me rebelled against eating: I didn't want to be here with my boyfriend at all, could hardly speak to him or even look at him for my anger, and the sight of him eating repelled me as it never had before and never has since.
Read More
Peanuts and Mr. Ed’s Elephant Museum

By Dr. Judith Beck on February 2, 2010 in Thinking Thin

Carly was really proud of herself-and deservedly so. She, her husband, and kids went for a short road trip for a few days and she was able to stick to her plan, almost completely. On previous trips, she and her kids would have "perpetual snacks" in the car. On this trip, Carly ate only at her regularly scheduled snack and meal times. She occasionally reminded herself, "It's not time to eat now. I'll eat when I'm supposed to." Read More
Mindful Eating in Six Words

By Susan Albers, Psy.D. on February 2, 2010 in Comfort Cravings

These six words sum up as simply as possible my own philosophy about the concept of mindful eating. Sure, mindful eating is much more complex. But, hopefully, these six words give you a little inspiration. Read More
The Trouble With Donuts

By Anneli Rufus on January 28, 2010 in Stuck

Last week I interviewed Mireille Guiliano, author of the New York Times bestseller French Women Don't Get Fat, about our psychological and emotional relationships with sweets. Trying to eliminate sugar from our diets "is useless," she said, "but we can develop a system to eat less. What should we do when we want it?" Read More
Advising Food Pushers on Television

By Dr. Judith Beck on January 28, 2010 in Thinking Thin

Yesterday I went to New York to tape a segment for the Dr. Oz Show. He interviewed a family who likes to eat-a lot. The mother had not realized the extent to which she is a food pusher, constantly urging her children and husband to eat more and more. She also had not realized the potential health consequences of her family being overweight and potentially obese. Read More
Movie Therapy for Mindless Eaters

By Susan Albers, Psy.D. on January 28, 2010 in Comfort Cravings

If you are a mindless eater who is in need of motivation to change your ways, movie therapy might just be what you are looking for.
Movies aren't just entertaining. Every now and then a good flick can teach you something important and transform your feelings and actions. This is good news for people who want to eat healthier but need some help getting into the right frame of mind. Below is a list of movies to help you eat more mindfully. Read More
Why Do Dogs Love Bones? The Answer Involves Fat, Climate and Evolution

By Stanley Coren, Ph.D. on January 27, 2010 in Canine Corner

Why would a dog, or any other carnivore, seem to want such an apparently non-nutritious food source to such a degree that it is willing to spend hours working, crushing and grinding it so that it can be consumed?
Read More
Let's eat to beat cancer

By Conner Middelmann Whitney on January 26, 2010 in Nourish

Did you know that at least 30% of cancers in the West could be prevented if people ate an optimal diet, took regular exercise and had a healthy body weight, and a further 30% could be averted by not smoking? And yet, most of us still think there's nothing we can do to protect ourselves from cancer.
Read More
Serving Size Lies: A big bag of chips?

By Susan Harrow on January 22, 2010 in The Body Blog

I hate serving size lies. Food manufacturers may think that their suggestions are sensible. Perhaps they are... for people who nibble, taste or sample. But these guidelines don't make sense for people who actually eat. Read More
10 Tips to Stick to Your Diet

By Dr. Judith Beck on January 22, 2010 in Thinking Thin

I was recently asked for 10 tips for sticking to your diet. I quickly made the following list but I didn’t necessarily include the 10 most important tips, especially because each dieter is different. Which tips (on or off the list) have been most important to you? Read More
Putting an End to Comfort Eating

By Susan Albers, Psy.D. on January 22, 2010 in Comfort Cravings

If you are an emotional eater, you realize how much emotional eating can rapidly get out of control and dominate your life. Jennifer wants the basics--to be able to take her kids to the zoo and walk around comfortably without her weight getting in the way. Unfortunately, comfort eating can sabotage your health, relationship with your family and self-esteem. Dr. Susan Albers gave tips on how to break loose from this difficult habit. Here are suggestions on how to stop stress eating from Dr. Susan Albers
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/tips-stop-emotional-eating Read More
Was Seafood Brain Food in Human Evolution?

By John S. Allen, Ph.D. on January 21, 2010 in Lives of the Brain

Aquatic foods were probably not necessary to make a bigger brain, but our evolution was undoubtedly abetted by our ancestors' willingness to try new foods, including those found near and under water.
Read More
Top 10 Reasons to Put Your Scale in the Trash

By Susan Albers, Psy.D. on January 20, 2010 in Comfort Cravings

If you have a love-hate relationship with your scale, I highly recommend that you break up with your scale once and for all. Throw away your scale. Hide it. Tuck it in the back corner of your basement. Here are ten reasons to seriously consider it. Read More
The Irene Borger Phenomenon

By Joseph Juhász on January 20, 2010 in Place of Mind

Raspeberries.... Almost as good as Raspberry Jell-O A picture of raspberries... more authentic than a berry? Read More
For 50 cents: Eat to be a hundred

By Talya Miron-Shatz, Ph.D. on January 16, 2010 in Baffled by Numbers

This is the sad tale of the missing tomato - and an insight into helping Americans live to be a hundred. Read More

Diet Blogs

Comfort Cravings
How to soothe yourself without food--and how to eat healthfully and mindfully.
By Susan Albers, Psy.D.
Cravings
The many ways food fills our lives.
By Susan McQuillan
Food and Spirit
The connection between what we eat and how we feel.
By Dr. Deanna Minich
Intelligent Nutrition
Exploring nutrition therapy for medical conditions and for optimization of individual biochemistry and metabolism.
By Leyla Muedin
Let Them Eat Cake
A cardiologist challenges the conventional wisdom about diet, exercise, and heart health.
By Rob Siegel
Mindful Eating
Rediscovering a healthy and joyful relationship with food.
By Jan Chozen Bays, M.D.
Nourish
Fighting cancer dish by dish.
By Conner Middelmann Whitney
Shake Your Beauty
A wellness writer explores fresh and relevant topics in beauty and fitness.
By Marissa Kristal
The Instinct Diet
How to lose weight and keep it off.
By Susan B. Roberts, Ph.D.
The Nutrition Reporter
All about diet and health.
By Jack Challem
The Religion of Thinness
A religion scholar reflects on our culture's devotion to thinness and explores the unmet spiritual needs that eating and body image problems mask.
By Michelle Lelwica
Thinking Food
A blog about the cognitive implications of what we eat.
By Dan Marano
Thinking Thin
Training your brain to think like a thin person, and other psychological techniques for healthy weight loss.
By Dr. Judith Beck
What Fat Women Want
Wanting to be thin is only part of the story.
By Frances Kuffel

Diet Basics

Why do we wrestle with what we eat and how much we eat? Sometimes we eat the right foods in the right portions, and sometimes we eat the entire dinner table and all the wrong foods. Why is it so hard to eat healthfully? Whether you're trying to lose a few pounds or maintain a nutritious diet, you'll find answers to your questions here.

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