Good Nutrition a Winning Strategy for Kids in Sports

A healthy meal plan includes foods from a variety of food groups and is high in complex carbohydrates (whole grains, cereals, legumes), with enough lean protein, vitamins and minerals, and not too much fat. For workouts you can get enough energy from carbohydrates, protein and fat in your diet by choosing more servings of nutrient- dense foods from the food groups. Visit mypyramid.gov to figure out your own meal plan.- Experiment! Training for fall sports is a great time to experiment with foods and fluids to see how your body tolerates them. Try different foods, food combinations, amounts and timing. Does your body perform better when you drink water, diluted fruit juice or a sports drink? How far in advance should you eat before you exercise? Our bodies are different, so it is good to try things to see how your body responds and how to read your body's signs.- Stay hydrated.

Government urged to introduce 'omni-standards' for food

He said the government should set up an independent body of experts to integrate information on all aspects of food's impact, including how healthy it is, its environmental effects and the social consequences of the way it is produced.

This could be translated into easily accessible information on food labels for consumers such as "food flowers" in which each petal indicates a food's impact in a different area.

He acknowledged that this would be an extremely complex task, but said that consumers wanted reliable information. "The classical approach to this is to let prices and the consumer decide. But health and environment, justice and equity are all surely reasonable and decent aspirations," Lang told the British Association Festival of Science in Liverpool, "We need a food system to improve standards across a variety of equally important fronts."

He hoped that his proposed "omni-standards" would help consumers to navigate contradictory information.

Will a ban on fast food work?

The moratorium, which was passed in July, was intended to fight obesity in low-income communities of America's second-largest city where healthy food is hard to find.

The move is trend-setting California's latest salvo in an expanding war on the fast-food industry, which is bracing for copycat maneuvers around the United States that could threaten growth.

But residents are skeptical that such laws will have much impact in Los Angeles' low-income and minority neighborhoods, which are already blanketed with cheap and easy-to-find meals at chains such as McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Domino's Pizza.

“It's stupid. It's our body, we choose what we put in it," Tonya Owens, a 45-year-old nurse assistant told Reuters.

Edwin Tsai, interviewed at a cluster of fast-food chains in the affected district, which includes the neighborhoods of South Los Angeles, West Adams, Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park, said there were reasons people eat at places like McDonald's.

Nature’s Whole Food Depot: The Last Stop for Health Food Shoppers

“Now the community will have a health food store of their own and they won't have to drive to Modesto all the time. We are hoping to develop more sustainability in our county…especially with gas prices the way they are. We really want to be a service to the community."

Dan and Carol Fox, proud owners of Nature's Whole Food Depot

This much-needed service is scheduled to open for business on August 8th from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“We are having what we call a “soft opening" on 8-8-08…but we are planning a grand opening in the fall where we will have a band and all that stuff," said Carol. “The first two days, Friday and Saturday, we will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Then we will be closed on Sunday and start back at our normal hours on Monday from 8 a.m.

Pistachios May Lower & quot; Bad & quot; Cholesterol

Apart from their cholesterol levels , participants were healthy. None was taking cholesterol-lowering drugs .

First, participants spent two weeks on a standard American diet rich in full-fat cheese, oil, and butter and lacking pistachios.

Next came a month on a low-fat diet without pistachios, another month on a healthy diet that included one daily serving of pistachios, and a third month eating a similar diet with two daily servings of pistachios, with two-week breaks between each type of diet.

Participants got all their food, packaged into appropriate serving sizes, from the researchers. And they stuck to their assigned diets pretty well, the study shows.

Lower LDL

Average LDL levels fell when participants ate pistachios -- not enough to get their LDL levels into the optimal range, but enough to get it out of the "borderline high" category.

Two Welsh restaurants make Good Food Guide’s Top 40

The Crown at Whitebrook, near Monmouth, joins Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo, Denbighshire, in The Good Food Guide 2009 Top 40, which is published today.

Regarded in the trade as the food bible, the guide's reviewer praises The Crown's kitchen, which it says: "avidly seeks out ingredients from far and wide, then allows the creative juices to flow."

The Welsh restaurant also garners praise for its "bold gestures and classically inclined ideas."

The Crown at Whitebrook's general manager, David Hennigan, said: "This is fantastic news. It is a true reflection of and tribute to the incredibly hard work put in by everyone here at The Crown.

"The team are extremely talented and dedicated to the delivery of excellence.

"What is especially pleasing is that listings in The Good Food Guide are not just based on findings of their own independent guide judges but also on the views of customers who take the time to send in their comments on their experiences of The Crown."

The Crown's 30-cover restaurant in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire, boasts a modern British menu with classical French disciplines and the executive chef is James Sommerin.