Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. You can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

This week, WebMD takes the prize for the most interesting article: Simple Fixes for a Healthier Diet begins by first describing the average American diet: highly deficient in key vitamins (A, C, E), minerals (potassium, magnesium) and fiber. Based on the periodic “What We Eat In America” Surveys conducted by the US Department of Agriculture, these results were derived after questioning nearly 9000 people on their daily eating habits.

Almost everyone surveyed (93%) was getting too little vitamin E from foods and beverages. Almost a third weren’t getting enough vitamin C, and about 44% were getting too little vitamin A. More than half of those surveyed weren’t getting enough magnesium, and better than 90% needed more potassium. Further, most weren’t meeting the daily fiber recommendations.

But the article author, Elaine Magee, does not stop at finding fault with our eating habits: she provides us with a priceless list of five foods that will more than make up for the shortfall we are facing.

Adding all the foods in the list to our diet will provide us with 363% of your Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of Vitamin A, 388% Vitamin C, 90% Vitamin E, 81% magnesium, 65% RDA potassium, 20 grams of fiber (almost 80% RDA) and 0.5g of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

So what are these wonder foods? Well I am not one to give away the ending to a good article but I can only tell you that it involves one-third cup of nuts. For the rest of the story you really must read the entire article - go ahead, your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Now, while you figure out how you plan to include all those great foods into your diet, go through the week’s other top health and fitness stories:

1. Harvesting a Healty Diet for Children: Kids tend to eat more fruits and vegetables — and actually like it — if their produce is homegrown, a new study shows.
2. Tea ‘could cut skin cancer risk’: Drinking just two cups of tea per day could cut the risk of developing skin cancer, a study suggests.
3. Alcohol ‘makes fruit healthier’: Strawberries are good for you but having them in a cocktail may make them even healthier, a study suggests.
4. Cut Heart Risk by Eating Less Salt: Even modest reductions in salt intake can dramatically lower heart disease risk, new research shows.
5. Simple Fixes for a Healthier Diet: What do you need to eat to have a healthier diet? If you’re like the typical American, you’re lacking six key dietary components: vitamins A, E, and C; the minerals potassium and magnesium, and fiber.
6. 8 Ways to Think Thin: If you want to succeed at weight loss, you need to “cut the mental fat, and that will lead to cutting the waistline fat,”
7. Whole-Grain Oats Cut Cholesterol: Eating a diet rich in whole-grain oats may help lower cholesterol in people at risk for heart disease.
8. That salad sounds healthful, but is it?: It turns out that what Californians “know” about the nutritional value of the food they order in chain restaurants may be the stuff of mythology.
9. I’m shaped liked SpongeBob!: What are the best exercises if you’re shaped like SpongeBob SquarePants?
10. Child Health Continues Troubling Slide: American children’s health continued to slide last year, part of a trend observers blame on worsening obesity rates.
11. Omega-3 Fatty Acid May Thwart Alzheimer’s Disease: A type of omega-3 fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may help slow the growth of two kinds of brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests.
12. Sally Squires - Eating and Exercise: How to Find the Right Mix: Figuring out what to eat and drink before, during and after exercise can give your brain a real workout.
13. Mauritania struggles with love of fat women - More Health News - MSNBC.com: Mey Mint struggles to carry her weight up the flight of stairs, her thighs shaking with each step. Her rippling flesh is not the result of careless overeating, though, but rather of a tradition.
14. Why broccoli, soy fight cancer: Eating foods like broccoli and soy has been linked to lower cancer rates, and California researchers said on Sunday that they may have discovered the biological mechanism behind the protective effect.
15. Can Too Much Weight Cause Ear Infections in Kids?: Scientists in South Korea have uncovered a possible connection between body fat in children and a certain kind of ear infection, but several specialists in the United States are expressing doubts about the research.
16. Sit to Be Fit — and Then Make Some Moves: Part of being fit is how you sit. A few simple adjustments can pay off.
17. Obese Children: More Ear Problems?: Obese children may be more likely to have fluid build-up in the middle part of their ears.
18. Study adds data that vegetables reduce cancer risk: A large study of 500,000 American retirees has found that just one extra serving of fruit or vegetables a day may reduce the risk of developing head and neck cancer.
19. Coca-Cola To Release Vitamin-Friendly Soda: Coca-Cola said it would soon be releasing a new drink — Diet Coke Plus. Company officials said the soda is very similar to regular Coca-Cola but with vitamins.

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Have a great weekend!

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Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

WebMD is reporting that only “1 in 7 Adults Eat Right and Exercise” and in a nation with increasing obesity in both adults and children, this is definitely not the direction this statistic should be heading.

“No matter what group, the American public isn’t eating enough fruits and vegetables,” says Mary Kay Solera, director of CDC’s fruit and vegetable program and one of the study’s authors.

Solera confirms that the study may overestimate actual healthy behaviors because it was based on subjects’ self-reports. Research participants are known to routinely overestimate good behaviors and underestimate bad ones.

“My gosh, we’ve got to do more,” Solera is reported to have told WebMD. She can say that again!

More top health and fitness stories for this week:

1. 1 in 7 Adults Eat Right and Exercise: As Americans spend billions each year on diet and exercise habits, it seems only a few are exercising at all, a new study shows.
2. Fat hormone ‘boosts colon cancer’: A chemical produced by fat cells makes colon cancers grow faster, a US study has suggested.
3. USDA Seeks More Healthful School Meals: As part of a sweeping effort to help improve nutrition for schoolchildren and fight childhood obesity, the Agriculture Department is proposing for the first time to require schools to bring their cafeteria menus into compliance with the latest U.S. dietar
4. Why raiding the fridge at night is a bad idea: it’s not so much when you eat as what and how much that really counts.
5. Vegetables, Milk May Help People Quit Smoking: A Duke University study shows that fruits, vegetables, and dairy foods make cigarettes taste terrible.
6. Body Image: Bigger Can Be Beautiful: Do you have to be thin to be gorgeous? Not at all. Just take a look at supermodel and TV talk show host Tyra Banks, who recently showed off a healthy body and a healthy body image.
7. Med diet ‘could prevent asthma’: Eating a Mediterranean diet could help protect children from respiratory allergies and asthma, a study suggests.
8. Get your belly beach ready: Instead of buying into a quick fix this year, why not follow some of the experts’ advice for kicking that spare tire for good?
9. Exercise can prevent arthritis in women: Exercise isn’t just about improving your heart and fighting flab that comes with aging. It may also be the answer to preventing stiff, achy joints that can lead to debilitating arthritis.
10. Japanese bingeing on Krispy Kremes: After years of staying slim on a humble diet of fish, vegetables and rice, Japanese are developing a sweet tooth.
11. Eggs raise cholesterol and other myths: Avoid eggs. Drink 8 glasses of water a day. Eating carbs will make you fat. Nutritional advice such as this has been touted for years — but is it accurate?
12. $500 Million Pledged to Fight Childhood Obesity: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation plans to spend more than $500 million over the next five years to reverse the increase in childhood obesity.
13. Red meat ‘ups breast cancer risk’: Eating red meat significantly increases a post-menopausal woman’s chance of breast cancer, research suggests.
14. Pregnancy weight can lead to fat toddlers: Women in the study who gained the recommended amount of weight ran four times the risk of having a child who was overweight at age 3, compared to women who gained less than the advised amount.
15. Junk food ad ban comes into force: Junk food adverts have been banned from television when programmes aimed at young children are being shown.
16. Fat heart patients ‘more prone to infection’: OBESE people are more likely to develop infected wounds and renal failure after heart surgery, research shows.
17. Obesity May Make Asthma More Likely: Being overweight or obese may make asthma more likely, a new study shows.
18. Nurses feel strain of obese patients: Obese patients could be causing thousands of nurses to seek treatment for back pain, according to experts.
19. The 300 Workout: Can You Handle It?: The training regimen that whipped actors of the movie 300 into fighting shape may be too much for most of us.
20. Eating healthy at the airport: Airport security procedures and airline budgets are leading to ripples of change in layover time, airport restaurant options and in-flight food service. All this adds up to major strategy adjustments for people trying to eat healthy while traveling.
21. Omega-3 Fatty Acid May Protect Heart: An omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil may help prevent nonfatal heart problems in some people with high cholesterol, a Japanese study shows.

Get the best health and fitness stories of the week in your RSS inbox.

Have a great weekend!

Technorati Tags: health, fitness, health news, fitness news, health links, fitness links, del.icio.us

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