Atkins, Gluten-Free, The South Beach, The Zone, Paleo.

Do these sound familiar?

Its just a short list of fad diets youve probably heard at least someone talking about.

But what is it that about these food fads that keeps them coming back?

Registered dietician Lori Smart with Health BC says the reason why fad diets keep popping up is because people are always looking for a new way to better themselves.

A lot of the popularity around fad diets come from ones own personal beliefs that this is a diet that would be healthy for them, or this is a diet that would help them lose weight, she says.

Smart adds they seem to crop up more often this time of year, when people coming out of the winter are looking to make lifestyle changes or lose weight and are looking for a way to do it.

She says a big contributor is the internet.

With so much information on the web it can be very, very hard to figure out whats true, whats not true or whats beneficial, whats potentially harmful.

Smart says its important to remember that some of these diets are meant for people with clinical conditions, for example people with celiac disease must eat a gluten-free diet, or people suffering from cardiovascular disease might take special care about what they eat.

It may be turned into a fad diet because others believe its beneficial, but they could really have a benefit for that person with the food condition.

She says if youre interested in trying a new diet you read about online, or have heard from a friend has tried it, its still best to speak to a healthcare provider, physician, dietician, or by calling 8-1-1 the nurses line. She recommends asking questions such as:

And she says its important to have an honest conversation about it.

Certain diets are okay as long as youre aware of the things, or the nutrients that you might be missing out on if you follow that diet. Now some are just not healthy in general, but thats why its always good to talk to a health care provider, especially a dietitian who has been trained in this area to help you navigate that information and then to point you to some resources that if you choose to continue follow that diet, you can do so safely.

Smart adds this is important because its also a good way to prevent yourself from falling off your new routine.

Its usually that people start off really strong and then they end up falling back on old eating patterns, she says.

Id say some [diets] are easy to follow, most are not easy to follow because a lot of them end up eliminating a food group or they become overly restrictive or they require a lot of extra work and preparation, which is why we always recommend that when youre thinking about going on, or adopting a different way of eating, you look at something that would be more sustainable long term.

Smart says if you plan on giving up something you love like bread, maybe try phasing it out so you dont end up breaking down and give up entirely

Smart says that means if, say, youre trying to cut out carbohydrates that you do it in steps, set yourself small goals, and work out a pattern that you can stick to.

As for the future of fad diets? She says it doesnt look like they are going anywhere.

The food industry, the nutrition industry, all of these things keep coming up, so theres all these new and better ways of doing things, she says, but adds that is constantly being mixed with opinions and peoples personal beliefs.

What I would hope is that theres more information available so that consumers and individuals can make informed choices about what they want to do with their own diet and lifestyle and then seek out advice and help from a health care professional.

But Registered Holistic Nutritionist Bridgette Clare raises caution, warning theres a never ending supply of new fad diets, not all of them created equal.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. They promise weight loss in seven days, or thirty days, or its the new miracle, that sort of thing thats simply isnt the truth, she says.

Clare says rather than focusing on excluding things, we should be looking at ways to include healthy, whole foods into our diets

Clare says the key is a well-balanced diet that isnt restrictive to the point of being uncomfortable.

The reason being is that even if you were to stick with it for say thirty days or sixty days especially if youre cutting out entire food groups, its not sustainable, its not teaching you positive eating habits or teaching you about new and exciting foods, its far too restrictive to keep going long term.

Clare says she hopes to see a transition from restrictive fad diets to more people adopting more balanced diets built around whole foods.

It almost feels like it needs to be crazy for people to buy into it. Like it needs to be something way more complicated than just eating a balanced, varied diet with a focus on more plants and more veggies.

Clare says thats tough with the competition between fad diets, each trying to distinguish itself from the others with some special feature.

She recommends the Whole 30 diet, which she says could be seen as a fad diet but boils down to fit with her core principles.

[It] has such a great back bone, really just focusing on eating more whole foods. It does require some restrictions; eliminating dairy I believe and sugar and that sort of thing, so it might not be sustainable in the long term but of all the diets Ive seen, its the one that has the most holistic sustainable view to it.

Clare says if youre looking for a magic pill or magic diet, youre out of luck.

But she says if you do plan on trying a fad diet, do your reading, see if it really will help your body, and make sure you are still getting balance in what you eat.

Tune into your body and if it doesnt work for your body dont do it.

With fad diets having a start date, it can either set you up for a success or you will inevitably revert back to old habits.

Clare saysits often best just to create lifestyle changes by making one small difference at a time and build on positive eating habits, rather than straining your mental well-being by focusing on an end date.

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CKNW Health Series: Why are 'fad diets' so persistent? - CKNW News Talk 980

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) -- February is American Heart Month. Your heart health is dependent on your lifestyle habits. One of the most important behaviors is diet. One specific dietary habit in need of improvement in Americans eating patterns is increasing consumption of seafood.

Current advice from our government and national health organizations recommends eating two seafood meals each week. One serving of seafood is considered 3.5 ounces or cup of flaked fish. Thats about the size of a checkbook. This February, take a healthy heart pledge and eat seafood twice each week. If you are finding it difficult to eat seafood even once a month, start small. Make it a goal to eat seafood once a week and work your way up to our heart-health goal of twice weekly.

Needing ideas for how to make this possible? Your Hy-Vee dietitian can provide you with many family friendly seafood recipes. Here are a few dietitian tips to get your pledge started: START WITH A MILD-TASTING FISH - Develop a taste for fish. Tilapia is a good choice. It has a mild, somewhat sweet flavor and pleasant aroma. It flakes easily and can be prepared in numerous ways. Other mild fish to try include swai, crab chunks and shrimp. PREPARE FISH WITH A FAVORITE FLAVOR Swap out traditional protein sources in your favorite dishes with fish. Try tilapia fish tacos, shrimp stir-fry or pesto salmon with cheese tortellini. TRY SERVING WITH DIPS cocktail sauce, ranch dressing or tartar sauce may help ease you into liking the flavor of fish. Just watch your serving size because condiments in excess amounts can lead to hidden extra calories. ADD CRUNCHY COATINGS - Fish with a crunch may have more appeal. Try topping fish with crushed crackers, bread crumbs or cereals.

In addition to American Heart Month, try be eating more fish and shellfish year-round. Why?

* Eating seafood may reduce inflammation in your body, improve circulation and prevent you from getting heart disease. * Seafood contains healthy nutrients, such as omega-3 fatty acids, iron and B-vitamins. * A serving of seafood is lower in saturated fat than the same serving size of other animal protein foods.

Hy-Vee makes it easy for you to make healthy seafood choices. Our fresh seafood cases have recently introduced Fair Trade Certified yellowfin tuna as part of our Responsible Seafood Program. This fish is caught or farmed safely, providing for its long-term viability and minimizing damage to the environment or other sea life. Not only is this tuna environmentally friendly, it has one of the highest levels of heart healthy omega-3 fats than any other fish. Do something good for your heart and the environment and choose Fair Trade Certified yellowfin tuna.

Pistachio-Crusted Tuna Steaks Serves 4.

All you need: 1 tbsp thinly sliced shallot 1 bay leaf 1/2 cup white wine 3 tbsp reduced-fat sour cream 2 tsp lemon juice 2 tsp chopped fresh dill, divided 1 tsp whole-grain mustard 1/2 tsp salt, divided 1/4 cup coarse dry breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat (see note) 1/4 cup shelled pistachios 4 (4 oz each) tuna steaks, 1 to 1-inches thick 1 tsp Hy-Vee Select extra-virgin olive oil All you do:

1. Place shallot, bay leaf and wine in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce until the wine is almost evaporated, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, discard bay leaf and transfer to a small bowl. Add sour cream, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon dill, mustard and 1/4 teaspoon salt; stir to combine. 2. Put breadcrumbs, pistachios, the remaining 1 teaspoon dill and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process until finely ground. Transfer to a shallow bowl. Dredge both sides of the tuna in the pistachio mixture. 3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the tuna and cook until browned, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent burning, 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Serve with the lemon-dill sauce.

Nutrition Facts per serving: 239 calories, 7g fat, 2g saturated fat, 49mg cholesterol, 400mg sodium, 8g carbohydrates, 1g fiber, 1g sugars, 30g protein. Daily values: 3% vitamin A, 3% vitamin C, 3% calcium, 5% iron.

This information is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a medical professional for individual advice.

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Hy-Vee at Midday: One Fish, Two FishHeart Healthy Heroes - KCRG

Teens eating hamburgers Brooke Auchincloss / Getty Images stock

It doesn't mean that breast cancer is a woman's fault, but it does show that what you eat early in life could have repercussions decades later, said Dr. Karin Michels of the University of California Los Angeles, who helped lead the study.

"It is actually quite serious," Michels, who did the work while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, told NBC News.

"We should advise our girls and teenagers to eat healthy because breast cancer does seem to have a much earlier origin than we have appreciated in the past. Cancer in general takes years, potentially even decades, to develop."

Breast cancer is the No. 2 cancer killer of U.S. women, after lung cancer. Every year, it's diagnosed in 200,000 women and a few men, and kills around 40,000.

Related:

For the report, Michels and colleagues turned to the Nurses Health Study, a giant, ongoing look at the health of tens of thousands of women working in medicine.

"In 1997, participants were asked if they would be willing to complete a supplemental food frequency questionnaire about diet during high school." That's one weakness of the study - it required women to remember what they ate decades before.

The researchers threw out results from anyone whose memories seemed especially bad and were left with 45,000. Of them, 1,477 developed breast cancer over the next 22 years including 870 who developed premenopausal breast cancer.

They divided the women into quintiles - five groups based on how many "inflammatory" foods they ate and how often. These include sugar-sweetened and diet soft drinks, refined grains, red and processed meat, margarine, corn, other vegetables, and fish.

The opposite of an inflammatory diet includes green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and broccoli, and coffee.

"Among all women there was no significant association between a higher inflammatory dietary pattern score in adolescence and overall breast cancer incidence," they wrote in the journal Cancer Research.

"However, a significant association was observed between a higher adolescent inflammatory dietary pattern score and incidence of premenopausal breast cancer."

Women who remembered having eaten a very highly inflammatory diet as teens were 35 percent more likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than women who ate the least inflammatory diet, they found.

And the more inflammatory foods a woman ate, the higher her risk, Michels said.

They did not break down the diet by individual foods, Michels said, so they cannot tell women that, say, dropping red meat will help even if they continue to drink soda.

Related:

"Every step helps. It is just like with physical activity," Michaels said. "People ask, 'do I have to go to the gym three hours a day' and the answer is any activity is better than none."

It's the same with food, she said.

"Personally, I am a vegetarian, so I think giving up red meat is a good first step," she said. "Others may find it easier to give up refined carbohydrates."

Going healthy later in life does not seem to help as much as starting out eating well, Michels said. And women whose diet worsened as they entered middle age did not seem to raise their riskof later breast cancer.

Related:

"A healthy lifestyle early on is much, much more important than we appreciated," Michels said.

"Now we have to communicate to girls."

Many studies have linked diet to the risk of various cancers, and another study published Wednesday found obesity raises the risk of 11 cancers, including breast cancer.

This study can not definitively show eating poorly as a teen causes breast cancer. To show that, researchers would have to randomly assign large numbers of teenagers to eat different diets and then watch what happened for 20 years -- something that's clearly unworkable.

And it's possible that teens who ate better had other lifelong healthy habits. Either way, there are many benefits to eating less refined flour, sugar and red meat and more vegetables and the srtudy shows that doing so early in life can only help.

Separately, a team at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center found that obesity itself changes the genes in a way that raises the risk of breast cancer. They looked at fat tissue from women undergoing breast reduction surgery.

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Bad Diet in Teen Years Could Raise Later Breast Cancer Risk - NBCNews.com

Kevin Winter/Getty Images Kyle NewportFeatured ColumnistMarch 1, 2017

If you think WWE superstar Bill Goldberg can roll out of bed and look the way he looks, think again.

Just like everyone else, he has to put in the work to maintain his body. Given that he has been a wrestler (among other professions, like football player and actor) for much of the last two decades, he has to stay in shape.

In an interesting feature with GQ's Mick Rouse, the 50-year-old Goldberg details his daily regime that involves a strict diet. As with every meal plan, he has come up with some basic guidelines:

Those are tips that anyone looking for a healthy lifestyle can follow. Nothing dramaticjust sound advice.

Of course, there's more to a diet than general guidelines. There are the actual meals that are consumed throughout the day. Like any athlete, Goldberg has to put down quite a bit of food in order to stay in wrestling shape:

The amount of food I have to take inI had to take in a huge amount of food back in the day, but the amount that I have to take in now just to seemingly gain a couple of pounds is unfathomable. I am like a machineeven more so than I was beforejust trying to attain, physically, something that is passable, let alone Goldberg-esque.

Although he doesn't give an exact calorie count, the 6'4", 285-pound Goldberg dished on the details of his meal plan:

"Well, the first breakfast I had today, I had six servings of oatmeal, 20 blueberries, and a couple tablespoons of honey on it. Then I trained. Afterwards, I had twelve eggs with two yolks, six pieces of bacon, four pieces of gluten-free toast with avocado. Then a shake. After that I had two gluten-free pizzas with loads and loads of hamburger meat for protein on top of it. Then another shake. My son and I are about to go to Muay Thai, but on the way we're going to have some pho. Some soup and noodles, some shrimp. Then I'll do some training at Muay Thai and on the way home we'll get some pho again for dinner, because the wife hasn't eaten it yet today. Then I'll do the family thing, and then I'll eat again. I don't know what I'll have this evening."

It's a good thing he loves to cook.

Goldberg admitted he has a soft spot for popcorn, but overall he does his best to eat right. If you ever wondered what it takes to be a professional wrestler, one of the best just gave an inside look at the day-to-day life.

[GQ]

See the article here:
WWE Superstar Goldberg Details Daily Diet That Keeps Him in ... - Bleacher Report

"It is now the most popular diet in Hollywood," said Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has led world-renowned research on gluten.

Nonetheless, "this is a medical intervention," he said. "For those who just brush it off that this is a fad and a fashion lifestyle, be considerate of the people that survive on this diet. For people with celiac disease, the gluten-free diet is like insulin for diabetics."

So how did gluten-free eating shift from a rare treatment approach to a trendy way of living? Here's a look at the rise and fall of gluten and how the gluten-free diet has shaped public health over the years.

World War II wreaked havoc across most of Europe. Children became malnourished, with limited access to fruits, vegetables and especially wheat. While that lack weakened the health of most, it seemed to strengthen those with celiac disease.

"This gentleman during World War II noted that the mortality of celiac disease was zero, and he didn't realize immediately why until when the war was over and the mortality went back to the pre-war era," Fasano said.

"Something during the war that was missing was the culprit, and one of the commodities that was missing was wheat. As a matter of fact, flour during the war was made with potato starch and not with wheat," he said.

"There's nothing specifically bad about gluten or specifically good about a gluten-free diet, outside of for these specific -- not uncommon but relatively small -- populations of people with celiac disease, which is about 1% of people in the general population," said Dr. Daniel Leffler, director of research at the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Why exactly can gluten make those with celiac sick? Scientists originally viewed it as a food allergy, but that all changed in the decades to come.

Scientists uncovered the first signs that celiac disease could be an autoimmune disorder -- instead of an allergic one -- in the 1970s, Leffler said.

"This was sort of a surprise, because HLA-DQ2 was already known to be linked to type 1 diabetes, which is another classic autoimmune disease, but not to any of the allergic diseases. So the genetics that people with celiac disease have is much more similar to autoimmune diseases," Leffler said.

It was still thought that only people with celiac disease could have such reactions to gluten, but then the idea emerged that gluten could impact the health of some people without celiac disease, too.

"The new kid on the block is gluten sensitivity or the so-called non-celiac gluten sensitivity," said Dr. Anca Safta, assistant professor and pediatric GI section head at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina.

However, Safta said that since non-celiac gluten sensitivity is still new to the scientific literature, much confusion remains around it as a medical condition. For now, non-celiac gluten sensitivity is viewed as a condition that has the same symptoms of celiac disease but without the immune system damaging the intestines.

"The symptoms are there. Folks do get better once they remove the gluten-containing products, and the very important thing is to exclude celiac disease from the picture, as celiac disease implies that the intestinal mucosa has suffered damage," Safta said.

"As we're learning more, we don't even know if we have the correct nomenclature for non-celiac gluten sensitivity," she said. "It might not be gluten that is causing this non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and it might be a different protein found in wheat, but because of the exclusion of the gluten-containing products for symptoms to improve, that's why it's kind of gotten the name of non-celiac gluten sensitivity."

By this point, however, gluten sensitivity -- whether celiac or not -- had been mostly observed and studied in Europe. That would change in the next decade.

Fasano, director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital, saw many cases of celiac disease early in his career as a pediatric gastroenterologist in Naples, Italy.

"Celiac disease was considered extremely rare, almost nonexisting in the United States, and that was a quite interesting observation given at the same time in Europe, where I was coming from, there was a rampage of epidemics of celiac disease all over," Fasano said.

"Now you know, whenever you look for it, you find it, provided there are genes and environmental triggers," Fasano said of celiac disease.

"We have a major problem of celiac disease in India for example now, particularly in the northern region of the Punjab," he said. "We have problems of celiac disease in South America. We have a growing rampant problem of celiac disease in China, anywhere that you have the genetic background and the westernization of your diet."

Fasano then published more data, leading to a landmark paper that would change the scientific community's view of gluten in America.

There was a big study in the United States done by Alessio Fasano that found the prevalence of celiac disease in the United States at around 1%, which was 10 times higher than what people thought it was in the United States before that, said Leffler, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

"It really was a critical study," Leffler said.

Once Fasano turned a spotlight on celiac disease in the US, many more studies emerged about gluten sensitivity among Americans, some suggesting that a gluten-free diet may benefit a subgroup of patients with various health disorders.

"There is a possibility that some groups of individuals with other chronic inflammatory conditions, including autoimmune diseases like diabetes or multiple sclerosis, of course autism ... and schizophrenia ... there could be a subgroup of these individuals that could benefit from embracing a gluten-free diet," Fasano said.

"For schizophrenia, for example, we're talking about 20% or 25%. That's not a trivial number," he said. "The same applies with autism, which also the numbers seem to adjust a little bit less, roughly 20%."

As scientists explored curious connections between gluten-free diets and various disorders, celebrities started to weigh in.

"Gluten is crapppp anyway," she tweeted.

At the same time, companies also expanded the types of products they offer to cater to a growing gluten-free consumer base.

At the same time, more consumers who didn't have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity took on gluten-free diets by choice.

Yet experts warn that gluten-free eating might not offer benefits if you don't have gluten sensitivity -- and that the diet could do more harm than good.

"We definitely don't recommend a gluten-free diet for weight loss. My dietician will tell you that. The reason why is, when they remove gluten from a lot of these foods to make them taste more appealing, they add more calories or carbohydrates," said Dr. Runa Watkins, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who specializes in celiac disease.

"The second thing is, being on a gluten-free diet also puts you at risk for other nutritional deficiencies in the long run, such as like B-12 and zinc and folate," she added, "And cost-wise, it can be expensive. So we definitely don't recommend it just because."

All in all, for those who need to consume a gluten-free diet as a treatment for celiac disease, Watkins recommends to keep at it.

"This is a lifetime disorder that is treated with a gluten-free diet to allow healing of the gut. But when this is achieved, it doesn't mean you can go back to a gluten-containing diet," she said.

Fasano hopes the pendulum on gluten's reputation will swing in the opposite direction, from painting gluten as a monster back to depicting it as a simple protein that some can healthily digest and others cannot.

"The pendulum was all the way to left, where before, the pioneer patients with celiac disease really had a hard time to survive," Fasano said.

"Now. the pendulum is all the way to the right, where this is a fashionable diet," he said. "I think that in the future, we will see a readjustment of the pendulum. and hopefully we'll go back to where it belongs. I of course think everybody with celiac disease needs to be on a gluten-free diet. The people that will be affected by other gluten-free-related eating disorders, like wheat allergy or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, should go on a gluten-free diet, and then there is a question mark for others."

Originally posted here:
Gluten-free diets: Where do we stand? - CNN.com - CNN

Could a ketogenic diet alleviate gout? -- ScienceDaily Science Daily Recent work has shown that the ketone body ?-hydroxybutyrate can specifically inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome. They found that feeding rats a high-fat, ... and more »

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Could a ketogenic diet alleviate gout? -- ScienceDaily - Science Daily

The heart of a traditional Mediterranean diet is mainly vegetarianmuch lower in meat and dairy than a standard Western dietand uses fruit for dessert. So, its no surprise that those eating that way had very low heart disease rates compared to those eating standard Western diets. My video below gives the lowdown on the link between the fats we eat and the health of our arteries.

A landmark study has been cited to suggest that all types of fatwhether animal or vegetableare associated with the appearance of new atherosclerotic lesions in our coronary arteries, which feed our hearts. About 100 men were given angiograms at baseline and then again two years later, looking for the development of coronary lesions, all while monitoring their diets every year.

Only about 1 in 20 eating lower fat diets had new lesions, compared to about 8 in 20 on more typical American diets of around 33% or more fat. But, when the researchers drilled down, only three types of fat appeared to increase significantly the likelihood of the appearance of new lesions: lauric, oleic, and linoleic.

Lauric acid is a saturated fat found in coconut oil and palm kernel oil, which can be found in such junk foods as whipped cream and candy bars. Oleic comes from the Latin word oleum, for olive oil, but thats not where the subjects of this study were getting their oleic acid. The top sources for Americans are basically cake, chicken, and pork, and linoleic comes mostly from chicken. So, the study really just showed that people eating lots of junk, chicken, and pork tended to close off their coronary arteries.

To see if major sources of plant fats like olive oil or nuts help or hurt, ideally wed do a multi-year, randomized study where wed take thousands of people, have one-third eat more nuts, another third eat more olive oil, and the final third do essentially nothing, and then see who does better. And thats exactly what some researchers did. The PREDIMED study took thousands of people in Spain who were at high risk for heart disease and were already eating a Mediterranean-ish diet, and randomized them into three groups for a couple of yearsone group with added extra virgin olive oil, a second with added nuts, and a third group that was told to cut down on fat, but actually didnt, so basically ended up as a no-dietary-changes control group. What happened to the amount of plaque in their arteries over time?

Whereas there was significant worsening of carotid artery thickening and plaque in the no-dietary-changes control group, those in the added-nuts group showed a significant reversal in thickening and an arrest in plaque progression. There were no significant changes in the added olive oil group.

The richness of the plant-based MedDiet [Mediterranean diet] in potentially beneficial foods, such as fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, cereals, and olive oil, is believed to explain its cardioprotective effects. However, these results suggest nuts are a preferable source of fat compared to olive oil and may delay the progression of atherosclerosis, the harbinger of future cardiovascular events such as stroke. Adding nuts appeared to cut the risk of stroke in half.

Note, though, they were still having strokes, albeit half as many. So, the nuts appeared to be helping. However, they were still eating a diet conducive to strokes and heart attacks. All three groups had basically the same heart attack rates, the same overall death rates. Thats what Dr. Ornish, a proponent of a mostly whole foods, plant-based diet, noted when he commented on the study: There was no significant reduction in the rates of heart attack, death from cardiovascular causes, or death from any cause, only that stroke benefit.

But, hey, thats not nothing. A Mediterranean diet is certainly better than what most people are consuming, but a diet based on whole plant foods may be even better, since its shown to reverse heart disease, not contribute to it. The authors of the study replied that they didnt wish to detract from Ornishs work, noting that Mediterranean and plant-based diets actually share a great number of foods in common. Yes, Ornishs diet can reverse heart disease. The major problem with the Ornish diet, argued proponents of the Mediterranean diet, is that it doesnt taste good, so hardly anyone sticks to it.

In health,

Michael Greger, M.D.

PS: If you havent yet, you can subscribe to my free videoshereand watch my live, year-in-review presentations2015:Food as Medicine: Preventing and Treating the Most Dreaded Diseases with Diet, and my latest, 2016:How Not to Die: The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting, and Reversing Our Top 15 Killers

Related:

The Mediterranean Diet or a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet? Which Parts of the Mediterranean Diet Extended Life? Improving on the Mediterranean Diet

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Continued here:
Does a Mediterranean Diet Improve Atherosclerosis? - Care2.com

Construction on New Bern's First Street road diet, which originally was scheduled to begin in 10 years, could possibly begin this year.

Construction on New Berns First Street road diet, which originally was scheduled to begin in 10 years, could possibly begin this year. William Kincannon, a project development engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation, told New Bern aldermen Tuesday night the First Street road diet originally was scheduled for right of way acquisition in 2026 with construction beginning in 2027. But the 1-mile project was not that difficult and could begin this year. Jeff Cabaniss, district planning engineer for DOT, said the $800,000 road diet project will transform the current four-lane street into a two-lane street with a center turn lane. It is designed to make travel on First Street safer with fewer conflict points. The new configuration will start at First Streets intersection with Broad Street and transition back into a four-lane at the Lawson Creek Park entrance. Plans also call for bike paths and sidewalks. First Street has a traffic count of about 10,000 vehicles a day, Cabaniss said. DOT recently did a similar road diet project in Washington on a four-lane corridor with a traffic count of 16,000 vehicles a day and it is working well, he said. Some of the concerns aldermen had came from Dallas Blackiston, who asked if the bike lanes were wide enough. Kincannon said they would be 4 feet wide. He also asked if DOT ever had to take a road diet out of a corridor. Kincannon said that happened in Wilmington in a section of street that made it more difficult for motorists to drive off when traveling to the barrier islands. Alderman Bernard White said he was concerned with the drop-off beside the road on the Pembroke side of the overpass and asked if rails could be installed along that section when the sidewalks are installed. Kincannon said they could, adding DOT did that on a project in Greenville. Alderman Jeffrey Odham asked if the project would be sacrificing road width by putting in sidewalks. Kincannon said they would only gain space by taking out a lane. The plans call for three 12-foot lanes and 4-foot bike lanes, he said. Alderman Victor Taylor said the project area was the only area in New Bern with a lot of foot traffic that does not have sidewalks. We need to do something about it and quit talking about it, he said, adding it was really the only unsafe place in New Bern for pedestrians and bicyclists. Alderman E.T. Mitchell agreed saying she almost hit someone on a bike with her vehicle while traveling on the road. Mitchell made a motion to support DOTs plans, seconded by Taylor, and it passed unanimously.

Other projects outlined The other State Transportation Improvement Plans, or STIP, the board supported Tuesday included the southern leg of the N.C. 43 Connector and a roundabout on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and N.C. 55/Neuse Boulevard at Taco Bell. The roundabout concept is somewhat new to North Carolina, Cabaniss said. It is designed for high capacity and low delays. They are also safer than intersections, he said. The approximately $1.7 million roundabout planned for MLK and Neuse boulevards will be much bigger than the one at the end of Broad Street at the intersection with East Front Street. It will be able to accommodate tractor-trailers, Cabaniss said. Mayor Dana Outlaw said one positive point the roundabout provides is it will eliminate two traffic signals. But he was concerned about the ambulances traveling to and from the hospital that use that intersection all the time. Odham said he was concerned with Neuse Boulevard entering the MLK Boulevard at an angle. But Kincannon said there were many configurations that could be used and once the project gets to the design phase the plans will be brought back before the board to consider. Mitchell said she was concerned with ongoing construction work at CarolinaEast Medical Centner and how construction on the roundabout would affect that. Kincannon said traffic flow and access to businesses will be maintained during construction, and DOT would work with everyone who might be impacted by the work. DOT did its first roundabout project in Greenville on Fire Tower Road and it took about 15 months to complete, Kincannon said. Odham asked how the project came about. The New Bern Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, requested the projects, Cabaniss said. Maurizia Chapman, MPO administrator, said Wednesday morning the planning process started two years ago, information on the three projects was sent to the MPOs technical coordinating committee (professional staff) and transportation advisory committee (elected officials that included Alderman Johnnie Ray Kinsey). It was an open process with public meetings, she said. When it came to the roundabout, Chapman said there were three requests: the MLK and Neuse Boulevard location; the intersection at Broad and Queen streets in Five Points; and the intersection at Pollock and Queen streets, which did not qualify because Pollock Street was not a state-maintained road, Chapman said. Another project that might get moved up from its 2020 construction schedule is the N.C. 43 connector starting from Trent Creek Road at the intersection with U.S. 17 Business near Ben D. Quinn Elementary School. About 1 mile of the project to connect U.S. 17 Business with U.S. 70 was completed last year. The total 2.3-mile project will cost approximately $7.5 million. Our desire is to try to construct it as early as possible, Cabaniss said. But first, the projects will have to go before the state Board of Transportation in June for final approval. Everything is in the preliminary, draft stage, Cabaniss said. DOT is approaching the STIP in a new way by presenting plans to local government councils at the beginning of the planning process instead of waiting a year after consultants have work on them. In the past, projects have been administered out of Raleigh, Cabaniss said Wednesday. Now they are administered locally at the division office so its better we get to meet the councils early and introduce the project.

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Aldermen briefed on 'road diet' and other projects - New Bern Sun Journal