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Articles & Books From Carol Ann Rinzler
Updated with the latest available research and the new 2020-2025 Dietary GuidelinesIt's a scientific fact: You really are what you eat. Good nutrition is your meal-ticket to staying sleek, healthy, and strong—both physically and mentally. Nutrition For Dummies, 7th Edition is a complete guide that shows you how to maintain a healthy weight, promote health, and prevent chronic disease.
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
Genetically engineered foods, also known as GMOs or bioengineered foods, are foods with extra genes added artificially through special laboratory processes. Like preservatives, flavor enhancers, and other chemical boosters, the genes — which may come from plants, animals, or microorganisms such as bacteria — are used to make foods more resistant to disease and insects, more nutritious, and better tasting.
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
The safety of any chemical approved for use as a food additive is determined by evaluating its potential as a toxin, carcinogen, or allergen, each of which is defined here.
Defining toxins
A toxin is a poison. Some chemicals, such as cyanide, are toxic (poisonous) in very small doses. Others, such as sodium ascorbate (a form of vitamin C), are nontoxic even in very large doses.
Article / Updated 09-19-2022
Food additives may be natural or synthetic. For example, vitamin C is a natural preservative. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are synthetic preservatives. To ensure your safety, both the natural and synthetic food additives used in the United States come only from the group of substances known as the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) list.
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
A food allergy can provoke a response as your body releases antibodies to attack specific proteins in food. Your immune system is designed to protect your body from harmful invaders, such as bacteria. Sometimes, however, the system responds to substances normally considered harmless. The substance that provokes the attack is called an allergen; the substances that attack the allergen are called antibodies.
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
The same plant foods that yield carbohydrates are also the source of phytochemicals — natural compounds other than vitamins manufactured only in plants (phyto- is the Greek word for plant).Phytochemicals, such as coloring agents and antioxidants, are the substances that produce many of the beneficial effects associated with a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains.
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
There may be another weapon in the arsenal to help heal injured brains: food. Traditionally, to reduce the loss of brain cells and limit damage to an injured brain, doctors concentrate on ensuring an adequate supply of oxygen and controlling swelling that pushes the soft brain against the inside of the hard skull.
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
Allergic reactions aren't the only way your body registers a protest against certain foods. You might have experienced this when eating a food you like, but that doesn't like you. Other reactions to foods include the following:
A metabolic reaction: Food intolerance, also known as a non-allergic food hypersensitivity, is an inherited inability to metabolize (digest) certain foods, such as fat or lactose (the naturally occurring sugar in milk).
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
Tryptophan is an amino acid, one of those "building blocks of protein." Glucose, the end product of carbohydrate metabolism, is the sugar that circulates in your blood, the basic fuel on which your body runs. Milk and cookies, a classic calming combo, owe their power to the tryptophan/glucose team.Start with the fact that the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin are made from the amino acids tyrosine and tryptophan, which are found in protein foods (like milk).
Article / Updated 09-11-2016
Caffeine is a mild stimulant that raises your blood pressure, speeds up your heartbeat, makes you burn calories faster, makes you urinate more frequently, and causes your intestinal tract to move food more quickly through your body.Although it increases the level of serotonin, the calming neurotransmitter, caffeine also hooks up at specific receptors (sites on the surface of brain cells) normally reserved for another naturally occurring tranquilizer, adenosine (a-den-o-seen).