Nutrition Archive

Trendy isn't necessarily healthy. Consider alternatives instead.

It's fun to try new foods once in a while. But when a flashy food fad gets your attention, be careful. Just because a particular food or drink is showing up everywhere doesn't mean it's healthy. Here are five trends you can probably skip.

1. Vitamin-enhanced water

Vitamin-enhanced waters have names like Propel Vitamin Boost and Vitaminwater, and they promise lots of vitamins (like B, C, and E) and minerals (like magnesium, calcium, and potassium) in every gulp. But don't start guzzling. "There aren't enough nutrients added to these waters to make a difference in your health. I saw one product with 10 milligrams of potassium. The recommendation for daily potassium is 4,700 milligrams per day," says registered dietitian Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "You'll get more far more nutrients from a healthy diet."

News briefs

Drinking lots of sugary drinks — like soda, fruit punch, lemonade, or sports drinks — is associated with many health problems, such as weight gain and an increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, or stroke. But a Harvard-led observational study published March 18, 2019, in Circulation finds an even graver tie, linking sugar-sweetened beverage consumption to an early death. Researchers analyzed the data from two large studies of more than 110,000 men and women who responded to questionnaires about their lifestyle and health for about three decades or longer. The more sugary drinks participants consumed, the higher their risk for death from any cause during the study period. For example, compared with people who rarely drank sugary beverages, those who drank two to six sugary drinks per week had a 6% increased risk for an early death; those who drank two or more sugary drinks per day had a 21% increased risk for an early death, especially from cardiovascular disease (and especially among women). Drinking four or more artificially sweetened drinks per day (but not lesser amounts) also was tied to a slightly higher risk for early death. Best advice: avoid sugary drinks of any kind, and avoid drinking more than one artificially sweetened beverage per day.

Image: © Eivaisla/Getty Images

So far, the evidence that foods and drinks rich in good bacteria can improve cardiovascular health is promising but limited.

A number of foods — yogurt, sauerkraut, as well as some less-familiar ones such as kimchi and tempeh — are made by fermentation, an age-old tradition for preserving food. These foods, as well as the fermented drinks kombucha and kefir, have been getting buzz in recent years, mostly focused on their potential to enhance gut health. Fermented products contain naturally occurring beneficial bacteria known as probiotics, which are thought to improve digestion.

Probiotics found in fermented foods may also provide modest heart-related benefits, according to a review article published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology last year. One study found that eating kimchi (see "What are fermented foods?") daily helped people lose weight and lowered their blood pressure. Another noted improvement in blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

Even though "nut" is in its name, a peanut is actually a legume. Like soybeans, lentils, and other legumes, peanuts are edible seeds that grow in pods. Still, most people think of them as nuts, along with tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. (Unlike other legumes, which grow on vines or shrubs, peanuts grow underground.)

Nutritionally speaking, peanuts and tree nuts are fairly similar: they're all rich in healthy unsaturated fats and fiber, as well as several vitamins and minerals. Numerous studies suggest that people who eat peanuts or tree nuts frequently have lower rates of heart disease compared with people who rarely eat them. One added bonus for peanuts: they're not as pricey as tree nuts, making them a more affordable addition to your daily menu.

Research we're watching

Frequently drinking sugary beverages such as sodas and sports drinks may raise a person's risk of dying from heart disease, new research finds.

For the study, published in the March 18 issue of Circulation, researchers analyzed data from more than 118,000 health professionals over a period of more than three decades. After adjusting for other diet, health, and lifestyle factors, they found that the more sugary drinks people consumed, the higher their risk of dying from any cause — but especially cardiovascular disease. Compared with people who rarely drank sugar-sweetened beverages, those who drank two or more per day were about one-third more likely to die of heart disease or a stroke.

In the journals

Eating a cup of blueberries every day may help your blood pressure, suggests a new study. The results, published online Feb. 16, 2019, by The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, found that consuming 200 grams of blueberries (about one cup) daily can improve blood vessel function and decrease systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading).

Researchers recruited 40 healthy men and randomly gave them either a drink containing 200 grams of whole wild blueberries or a control drink (which looked and tasted much the same) every day for a month. The team also monitored the men's blood pressure as well as the flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery in their upper arms. This measures how the artery widens when blood flow increases and is a marker of reduced cardiovascular disease risk.

Ask the doctors

Q. I don't need to lose weight, so I don't exercise very often, but I maintain a healthy diet. Could my lack of exercise lead to health problems?

A. Exercise is essential for good health — even if you're not overweight. This point is illustrated by a recent study, published March 1 in The American Journal of Cardiology. It found that 30% of normal-weight people who were sedentary had the same risk of heart attack and stroke as people who were overweight. In short, just being at a healthy weight didn't necessarily ensure that someone was in good health. In addition to having a higher risk of serious cardiovascular events, some inactive but normal weight people were also more likely to have labored breathing during exercise and a larger-than-recommended waist circumference, compared with normal-weight adults who exercised regularly.

Managing emotionally driven weight gain requires planning ahead.

How much and when you eat isn't driven just by hunger, which you likely already know if you've ever found yourself hunched over a bowl of ice cream after having a particularly stressful day. Stress can set off a cascade of physical reactions in your body that may not only drive you to eat more and make you crave less nutritious, fattening comfort foods, but also help you pack on extra pounds much more easily.

"Stress drives up levels of a hormone called cortisol in the blood," says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland that helps to regulate your metabolism. It also plays a role in blood sugar management and memory. When levels of cortisol rise, it can promote inflammation and may spur the body to start stockpiling fat around the midsection. "Stress might also disrupt sleep and drive people to seek out food when they wouldn't normally — such as in the middle of the night," says Dr. Stanford.

Even though "nut" is in its name, a peanut is actually a legume. Like soybeans, lentils, and other legumes, peanuts are edible seeds that grow in pods. Still, most people think of them as nuts, along with tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. (Unlike other legumes, which grow on vines or shrubs, peanuts grow underground.)

Nutritionally speaking, peanuts and tree nuts are fairly similar: they're all rich in healthy unsaturated fats and fiber, as well as several vitamins and minerals. Numerous studies suggest that people who eat peanuts or tree nuts frequently have lower rates of heart disease compared with people who rarely eat them. One added bonus for peanuts: they're not as pricey as tree nuts, making them a more affordable addition to your daily menu.

Q. My family has squabbled about oats for some time. Some members say that to get the biggest health benefit from oats you need to eat them raw, at room temperature, and moistened with water. Others say they should be cooked. Does cooking take something beneficial out of oats? Can you bring us some peace at breakfast time?

A. Eating a bowl of raw oats "moistened with water" doesn't sound all that appetizing. And I am not sure it makes sense from a nutrition perspective. Normal cooking takes little away from oats. In fact, cooking helps release some nutrients that your body can't extract from raw oats.