Nutrition

With the start of a  new year, when many people resolve to lose weight, Jenny Craig is tweaking its diet plan. 

Jenny Craig has announced the launch of Jenny Fresh – a meal delivery service that brings fresh meals right to consumers’ homes. Each meal is under 350 calories and includes fresh ingredients, like antibiotic- and hormone-free meat and organic vegetables. 

“Jenny Fresh offers elevated meals with exquisite nutrient-rich ingredients, like wheat berries, tricolor quinoa, Himalayan red rice, lime-roasted sweet potatoes, slow-cooked braised pork, and fresh guacamole,” said Kim Doyle, vice president of nutrition and product development at Jenny Craig. 

Making healthy choices

Jenny Craig will launch the Jenny Fresh delivery meal service by mid-January, and the rollout will include seven entree options: 

• Chicken Chile Verde Bake

• Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

• Zesty Black Bean Quinoa Bowl

• Deconstructed Chicken Sausage Pizza

• Braised Pork Burrito Bowl

• Chicken Penne Parmesan 

• Chicken and Red Rice Power Bowl 

One week of Jenny Fresh meals will run customers $99. Consumers can also choose to get special health or dietary preferences with their meals, such as protein-heavy options, fiber-heavy options, and gluten-free options. 

The rest of the Jenny Craig meal options will remain separate from the Jenny Fresh deliveries, but those following the weight loss/management program will be able to easily incorporate these new meals. 

For more information on Jenny Craig’s plan and the Jenny Fresh delivery service, click here.

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Bath explored some of the benefits of eating more plant-based food options. Rather than sticking to traditional meat, the team says consumers who adopt a plant-based diet are more likely to improve their health and the environment. 

“Increasingly we’re seeing how plant-based products are able to shift demand away from animal products by appealing to three essential elements consumers want: taste, price, and convenience,” said researcher Dr. Chris Bryant.

“This review demonstrates overwhelming evidence that, as well as being far more sustainable compared to animal products in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and land use, plant-based product alternatives also have a wide range of health benefits.” 

Benefits of plant-based foods

The researchers analyzed more than 40 earlier studies that looked at the ways plant-based alternatives affect consumers’ health and the environment and compared those results to outcomes from animal-based food products. Ultimately, plant-based foods outperformed animal-based products in every category.

Nutritionally, the researchers found that plant-based foods provide more benefits to consumers’ diets because producers of plant-based foods can actually incorporate more nutrients into their products. Plant-based options were also found to be more effective than animal products at improving muscle mass and losing weight.

The report highlighted that while 40% of animal-based foods were found to be generally unhealthy, just 14% of plant-based products were considered to be the same.

Plant-based options also showed better environmental results. When directly comparing plant-based burgers with beef burgers, the former produced 98% fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The production of plant-based foods is also more sustainable in terms of both land use and water use when compared to animal meat products. 

The researchers say it's important for plant-based products to be made more attractive to consumers in terms of taste, price, and nutrition.

“Despite the incredible advances that plant-based producers have made over recent years, there is still huge potential to improve their taste, texture, and how they cook,” Dr. Bryant said. “There’s also enormous potential to innovate with ingredients and processes to improve their nutritional properties – for example by boosting vitamin content.” 

Following a healthy diet is a large part of maintaining good physical health, but a recent study shows that it can also benefit your mental health. 

Researchers from Aston University recently found that eating more fruit was associated with greater overall mental well-being and reduced feelings of depression. 

"Overall, it's definitely worth trying to get into the habit of reaching for the fruit bowl," said lead author Dr. Nicola-Jayne Tuck. 

More fruit leads to better mental health

The researchers surveyed over 400 adults in the U.K. about their psychological health and their diets, including how often they ate fruits, vegetables, and sweet or savory food snacks. After adjusting for factors like age, general health, and exercise habits, they found that participants who ate fruit more often had lower scores for depression and higher scores for mental well-being. 

In contrast, participants who ate more nutrient-poor savory foods were more likely to experience "everyday mental lapses" and have lower mental well-being.

"Very little is known about how diet may affect mental health and wellbeing, and while we did not directly examine causality here, our findings could suggest that frequently snacking on nutrient-poor savoury foods may increase everyday mental lapses, which in turn reduces psychological health," said Tuck.

The researchers point out that fruits and vegetables contain many important vitamins and minerals. However, how consumers choose to eat them could make a big difference when it comes to getting mental health benefits.

"Both fruit and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, fibre and essential micronutrients which promote optimal brain function, but these nutrients can be lost during cooking. As we are more likely to eat fruit raw, this could potentially explain its stronger influence on our psychological health," Tuck stated.

The full study has been published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Parents of picky eaters often have to work around their kids' palates to get them the nutrition they need. But findings from a recent study show that catering to their emotional needs might also do the trick. 

Researchers have found that a child's emotions can influence their eating patterns and diets. Specifically, they say negative emotions can be linked to overeating and choosing unhealthy foods.

"We found fried food consumption to be higher on days with more variable emotional patterns than days with consistent low negative mood," said Christine Hotaru Naya from the University of Southern California. "These results align with other studies that have found the negative mood to positively predict children's fatty food intake."

Negative emotions linked to poor eating

The researchers surveyed nearly 200 young children in California through the use of a mobile app. The participants were asked several times a day how they felt emotionally and what foods they consumed.

By the end of the study period, the researchers identified several negative mood patterns that contributed to poor eating. They found that the children experienced at least one of those patterns -- stable low negative mood -- on 90% of the days of the study. 

Breaking it down by the time of day, the team said early in the morning and during the evening were two vulnerable times when negative emotions could influence kids' food choices. 

"Children are more likely to consume unhealthy foods on weekends when meals and snacks are less structured and supervised than on school days," added Naya. 

"More studies are needed for us to understand the relationship between a child's emotions and their food choices, but this is a good start on that path to recognizing how to approach food choices with a person's mood and emotions in mind."

Are you the kind of person who immediately reaches for the salt shaker after getting your meal at a restaurant? If so, you might be taking years off your life.

Findings from a recent study suggest that adding extra salt to your food increases your risk of dying prematurely. Luckily for consumers, the research team found that reducing the amount of salt you consume and eating more fruits and vegetables can benefit your health.

"Even a modest reduction in sodium intake, by adding less or no salt to food at the table, is likely to result in substantial health benefits, especially when it is achieved in the general population," said Lu Qi, a professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Salt intake and higher risk of premature death

The researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing data on salt use from over 500,000 people. The team adjusted their results for several factors, including age, sex, race, deprivation, body mass index, physical activity, diet, medical conditions, whether participants smoked, and how often they drank alcohol.

The team found that those who always added salt to their food increased their chances of dying prematurely by 28% when compared to people who never or rarely added salt to their food. 

The study showed that life expectancies for people who always added salt to their food could be reduced by several years by age 50, with women shortening their lives by 1.5 years and men lowering their life expectancies by 2.28 years when compared to those who rarely or never added salt to their food.

Fruits and vegetables help

While consuming more salt was linked to a higher chance of dying prematurely, the researchers found that incorporating more fruits and vegetables into a person's diet could help reduce some of that risk.

"We were not surprised by this finding as fruits and vegetables are major sources of potassium, which has protective effects and is associated with a lower risk of premature death," said Qi.

Going forward, the researchers plan to continue analyzing the link between salt intake and life expectancy. Their study has been published in the European Heart Journal. 

A new study conducted by researchers from Penn State explored the health benefits associated with eating avocados on a regular basis. According to their findings, avocados are can help lower bad cholesterol levels and improve diet quality. 

“Adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is generally poor in the U.S., and our findings suggest that eating an avocado per day can substantially increase overall diet quality,” said researcher Kristina Petersen. “This is important because we know a higher diet quality is associated with lower risk of several diseases including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.” 

Avocados can improve health long-term

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from over 1,000 participants who were either overweight or obese. One group of participants ate an avocado every day for six months; another group limited their avocado intake to two per month and continued eating as they normally would. The team measured their body weight, cholesterol, and fat in the abdomen at the start and end of the study. 

The researchers learned that eating avocados every day was linked with important health improvements. One benefit of eating more avocados was lower cholesterol; LDL cholesterol decreased by 2.5 mg/dL and total cholesterol decreased by 2.9 mg/DL. 

The team found that avocados didn’t play a significant role in the participants’ abdomen fat levels or other cardiometabolic risk factors. However, participants who ate avocados every day had better overall diet quality and didn’t gain weight. 

“While one avocado a day did not lead to clinically significant improvements in abdominal fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors, consuming one avocado a day did not result in body weight gain,” said researcher Joan Sabaté. “This is positive because eating extra calories from avocados doesn’t impact body weight or abdominal fat, and it slightly decreases total and LDL-cholesterol.”

Moving forward, the researchers hope consumers consider the health benefits of incorporating more avocados into their diets. 

“While the avocados did not affect belly fat or weight gain, the study still provides evidence that avocados can be a beneficial addition to a well-balanced diet,” said researcher Penny Kris-Etherton. “Incorporating an avocado a day per day in this study did not cause weight gain and also caused a slight decrease in LDL cholesterol, which are all important findings for better health.”