Dr. Ann

Over the past decade, there has been a flood of studies supporting the supreme importance of optimal sleep for weight control. It appears that inadequate sleep can lead to weight gain through a host of separate mechanisms that affect both the energy intake and the energy expenditure side of the body weight equation. In summery of […]

Because of the wholesome words commonly used to describe muffin offerings like “bran”, “carrot walnut”, or “cranberry”, these no icing, jumbo cupcakes have a healthier reputation than they deserve. Some come with upwards of 550 calories and ten teaspoons of sugar (which makes a donut seem benign.) Do not be taken by the low-fat options […]

If you want to burn more fat during your morning workout, do it before your breakfast. Exercise physiologists wanted to see how a morning workout affected food intake and fat burning. To evaluate, they had 12 fit males exercise on a treadmill at 10 AM either before or after eating breakfast. Following the exercise, all […]

We have known for a long time that regular aerobic exercise lowers the risk of breast cancer and now we have some wonderful science that shed some powerful light on how regular physical activity benefits breast health. For this study, researchers assigned 391 healthy, but sedentary pre-menopausal women to one of two groups. One group engaged in […]

Washed, bagged or boxed lettuce greens Fresh salsa (Jack’s brand or Garden Fresh Gourmet) Canned beans Frozen berries (especially large bags of wild organic blueberries – available from wholesale grocers like Costco) Plain low fat or non-fat Greek yogurt Canned pumpkin Canned red sockeye salmon Prepared hummus Canned tomato products Dried Apricots Here is one […]

Be sure these foods make their way into your grocery cart often! A variety of fruit – especially berries, apples, red grapes, cherries, oranges, and plums A variety of vegetables – especially dark leafy greens, red onions, tomatoes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and red/orange/yellow bell peppers Extra virgin olive oil Herbs and spices – especially ginger, […]

  Sitting down for family meals proves to be a powerful avenue to boost kids’ fruit and vegetable intake. In a study involving over 2000 school-age children, even those sitting down for family meals just once or twice a week consumed significantly more produce than those who never ate together. Relative to children who rarely […]

Olive oil has a well-deserved scientific reputation as a stellar food for chronic disease prevention and, thanks to a powerful study, its life-preserving credentials just are even bigger. The study followed the dietary habits of over 40,000 Spanish adults and found that those consuming the most olive oil were significantly less likely to die vs. those […]

Metabolism is the process by which your body uses fuel provided by foods you eat to produce energy at the cellular level. Of all the things you could do to ensure a healthy, robust metabolism – nothing is more effective than regular physical activity. The reason is simple – exercise can enhance metabolism through four […]

What we eat and how we sleep are linked. That was the conclusion from a study evaluating diet and insomnia status in a large group of post-menopausal women. For this study 53,069 women kept food diaries and reported their sleep status at baseline and at the end of three years. The results? Women who consumed […]

Science consistently shows that regular breakfast-skippers tend to weigh more and snack more often on unhealthy foods and a study sheds some fresh light on what may underlie these observations. Researchers took a group of teens who rarely ate breakfast and put them on one of three different breakfast regimens – no breakfast, a normal […]

It is now widely accepted that sugary beverages are the most fattening of all forms of calories and have subsequently played a leading role in the obesity epidemic. In fact, of all the things you could do to lose weight, dumping sugary beverages appears to provide the single greatest return for your efforts! The unique […]