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Traffic light colors have favorable effect on healthy food choices of consumers

Which products end up in your shopping basket? If the packaging information also features food traffic light colors, fewer products are chosen purely based on taste and more based on health aspects compared with nutritional information purely in percentages and grams.

13 Oct 2016

New 'value harnessing' approach could help reduce unhealthy eating habits among adolescents

It's no secret that the adolescent years can be challenging: young teens have a heightened sensitivity to perceived injustice and react against authority. And their newfound social conscience and desire for autonomy can motivate many of their decisions - even food choices.

13 Sep 2016

UF/IFAS assistant professor offers tips to help students live healthfully on college campus

When you get to college, and you're trying to eat well, there are so many temptations and challenges -- fast foods and late-night pizza, navigating the dining halls, limited transportation to grocery stores. For most college students, this is the first time living away from home.

9 Aug 2016

Noninvasive brain stimulation may curb cravings for appetitive foods

Available research suggests that noninvasive stimulation of a specific brain area can reduce food cravings—particularly for high-calorie, "appetitive" foods, according to a review in the Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

20 Jul 2016

Hungry parents may serve large portions of food for their young children, study shows

The hungrier parents are at mealtimes, a new study shows, the more they may feed their young children, which could have implications for childhood obesity.

13 Jul 2016

Social-based messages can increase healthy food choices

Researchers from the University of Birmingham have found that exposure to social-based messages promoting healthy eating can increase consumption of fruit and vegetables and reduce consumption of high-calorie snacks.

12 Jul 2016

Drexel researchers develop computer game and mobile app to help people lose weight

Can a computer game train your brain to resist sweets? That's the question Drexel University researchers hope to answer with one of two new studies launching this month. They have developed a computer game and smartphone app to help people control unhealthy eating habits and ultimately lose weight.

30 Jun 2016

Listeria contamination linked to frozen vegetables prompts latest ingredient-driven outbreaks

An ongoing incident of Listeria contamination linked to frozen vegetables is causing illnesses across state and national lines. At least 350 products use the vegetables, which are distributed to retailers in all 50 states and four Canadian provinces.

22 Jun 2016

Autonomic nervous system plays role in promoting memory consolidation during sleep

A team of sleep researchers at the University of California, Riverside, led by psychology professor Sara C. Mednick, has found that the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for control of bodily functions not consciously directed (such as breathing, heartbeat, and digestive processes) plays a role in promoting memory consolidation - the process of converting information from short-term to long-term memory - during sleep.

15 Jun 2016

Clinical study examines efficacy of new interactive software game to treat pediatric food allergies

Elizabeth McQuaid, Ph.D., a staff psychologist from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center, is leading the Phase II trial of an interactive software game developed to help children with food allergies better manage allergy symptoms, social situations and proper food avoidance.

23 May 2016

Increasing ghrelin levels during hunger can negatively affect decision making capabilities

Never make a decision when you are hungry. The hormone ghrelin - that is released before meals and known to increase appetite - has a negative effect on both decision making and impulse control. Such were the results of a recently conducted study at Sahlgrenska University.

10 May 2016

Transcranial direct current stimulation proves effective for binge-eating disorder

Transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, has proved effective for binge-eating disorder for the first time, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

10 May 2016

Blend of pulverized natural bone and man-made plastic can create 3D printed replacement bones

To make a good framework for filling in missing bone, mix at least 30 percent pulverized natural bone with some special man-made plastic and create the needed shape with a 3-D printer. That's the recipe for success reported by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University in a paper published April 18 online in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.

5 May 2016

Adolescents like to share high-calorie, low-nutrient food items in social media

A new study from the University of Gothenburg show that adolescents like to present foods that are high in calories but low in nutrients in social media

7 Apr 2016

Speech-controlled nutrition-logging system may help lose weight

For people struggling with obesity, logging calorie counts and other nutritional information at every meal is a proven way to lose weight. The technique does require consistency and accuracy, however, and when it fails, it's usually because people don't have the time to find and record all the information they need.

25 Mar 2016

Scientists discover brain mechanisms that separate food consumption from cravings

Researchers investigating eating disorders often study chemical and neurological functions in the brain to discover clues to overeating. Understanding non-homeostatic eating -- or eating that is driven more by palatability, habit and food cues -- and how it works in the brain may help neuroscientists determine how to control cravings, maintain healthier weights and promote healthier lifestyles. Scientists at the University of Missouri recently discovered the chemical circuits and mechanisms in the brain that separate food consumption from cravings. Knowing more about these mechanisms could help researchers develop drugs that reduce overeating.

9 Mar 2016

New study identifies food choices, nutritional profiles of people with fewer fresh food options

Pork, mayonnaise and cookies versus bagels, kale and hummus. That's the glaring difference in food choices by between two groups of people in the northeastern United States.

27 Feb 2016

Out-of-towners using marijuana in Colorado end up in emergency room

Out-of-towners using marijuana in Colorado -- which has legally allowed sales of the drug in retail dispensaries since 2014 -- are ending up in the emergency room at an increasing rate, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

26 Feb 2016

Growing up poor promotes eating in the absence of hunger in adulthood

How much you eat when you're not really hungry may depend on how well off your family was when you were a child, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

5 Feb 2016

People with higher BMI have greater ability to imagine food and non-food odors

Researchers at The John B. Pierce Laboratory and the Yale School of Medicine have revealed that the ability to vividly imagine the smell of popcorn, freshly baked cookies and even non-food odors is greater in obese adults.

19 Jan 2016