Why Politicians Get Fat

Never has there been a bucket of fried chicken, a slice of greasy pizza, or a juicy double cheeseburger that I wasn’t happy to have appear on my plate. I love to eat, and I’m not shy about indulging my enthusiasm for food.

As a first-time candidate for public office, I’ve quickly realized that…

Dieting? More Sleep Helps Burn Fat

If you’re trying to lose weight by cutting calories, make sure to get a good night’s sleep. According to a new study, too little sleep appears to hinder your body’s ability to burn fat.

In the study, 10 overweight but otherwise healthy volunteers on a low-cal diet spent four weeks confined to a research lab. Their diets…

Weight Loss Diets

With over 50 percent of the population of the United States and other industrialized countries being either overweight  or obese, a great number of people want to lose weight. However, weight loss is not easy—and not often successful.

Weight gain is a result of consumed energy in the form of high-calorie foods eaten in excess of the body’s…

Vitamins, Water-Soluble

Vitamins are essential organic substances that are needed in small amounts in the diet for the normal function, growth, and maintenance of body tissues. Water-soluble  vitamins consist of the B vitamins and vitamin C. With exception of vitamin B6 and B12, they are readily excreted in urine without appreciable storage, so frequent consumption becomes necessary. They are generally nontoxic…

Space Travel and Nutrition

Nutrition has played a critical role throughout the history of exploration, and space exploration is no exception. While a one- to two-week flight aboard the Space Shuttle might be analogous to a camping trip, adequate nutrition is absolutely critical when spending several months aboard the International Space Station or several years on a mission to another…

School-Aged Children, Diet of

The category of school-aged children includes children three to four years old who are preschoolers; elementary school children (kindergarten to fourth grade), who may be between four and ten years of age; middle school children between eleven and thirteen (grades five to eight); and high school children fourteen to eighteen (grades nine to twelve). Often, the…

Organic Foods

In response to a need to standardize the use of such terms as organic and natural, the U.S. Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established the U.S. National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). In 1995, the NOSB defined organic agriculture as “an ecological  production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil…

Native Americans, Diet of

When Christopher Columbus dropped anchor on the shores of San Salvador in the Caribbean Sea, he believed he reached India. Because he believed he was in India, Columbus named the inhabitants Indians, a term that was soon used to refer to all the native inhabitants of North America. Today, the term Native American is more commonly…

Marketing Strategies

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.” Marketers use an assortment of strategies to guide how, when, and where product information is presented to consumers. Their goal is to persuade consumers to…

Insulin

Insulin is a hormone produced by specialized cells in the pancreas. Secreted into the bloodstream at each meal, insulin helps the body use and store glucose (sugar) produced during the digestion of food. In people with diabetes, the pancreas either does not produce enough insulin or the body cannot use the insulin that is produced in an efficient manner.

Treatment…

Greeks and Middle Easterners, Diet of

The “Mediterranean diet” gained much recognition and worldwide interest in the 1990s as a model for healthful eating habits. The diet is based on the traditional dietary patterns of Crete, a Greek island, and other parts of Greece and southern Italy. The diet has become a popular area of study due to observations made…