If you eat chocolate more than eight times a month, it might be a signal that you’re depressed. According to new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, there may be a link between the frequency of chocolate consumption and symptoms of depression.

Not surprising. Isn’t chocolate the universal feel-good food that we turn to when we’re feeling blue? It would make sense that anyone who is suffering from depression would seek more feel-good vices.

The study surveyed more than 900 people about their weekly chocolate consumption and used a standard questionnaire to screen for depression.

Subjects who reported eating about 8 servings of chocolate per month had significantly higher scores on the depression scale compared to the non-depressed patients, who consumed an average of a little more than 5 servings per month. Read the rest of this entry »

Vitamin D is the nutrient of the day, year, and even decade. Vitamin D plays a role in maintaining healthy bones, but the sunshine vitamin also helps prevent certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic pain, and neurological disorders.

In these dark, cold winter months, especially if you live in the northern half of the U.S., you’re probably lacking vitamin D. Research suggests that about half of all men and women lack vitamin D and up to 70% of our children are deficient.

Individuals at highest risk for vitamin D deficiencies include:

• Anyone who lives in a cold climate (north of 42° latitude)
• Children and older adults
• Those with dark skin
• Individuals who are overweight or obese

Increasing vitamin D to at least 400 IU per day is the best way to boost vitamin D in the absence of sunlight, and here’s how to do it. Read the rest of this entry »

Exposure to urban pollution may be a cause of high blood pressure, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Dusiburg-Essen in Germany and presented at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society.

“Our results show that living in areas with higher levels of particle air pollution is associated with higher blood pressure,” lead researcher Barbara Hoffman said.

“This finding points out that air pollution does not only trigger life-threatening events like heart attacks and strokes, but that it may also influence the underlying processes, which lead to chronic cardiovascular diseases,” she said. “It is therefore necessary to further our attempts to prevent chronic exposure to high air pollution as much as possible.” Read the rest of this entry »

Telling the truth in America is currently illegal… at least as far as food and supplements are concerned. You see, for decades the federal government has suppressed the free speech rights of food and supplement manufacturers, preventing them from telling the truth about how their products improve health and prevent disease — even when that information is based on peer-reviewed scientific studies published in scientific journals. But right now, three vital pieces of legislation hold the potential to end the era of censorship in America and once again restore freedom of speech to the health industry.

But your help is needed to make this a reality.

The U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act currently defines anything that cures, treats, mitigates, diagnoses or prevents disease as a drug. This means that making truthful claims about the cancer-preventing properties of green tea, for instance, is illegal because if such claims are true, then green tea is automatically considered an unapproved drug. So farmers, supplement manufacturers and vitamin formulators are forced to remain silent about the health benefits of their products while drug companies are free to run wild making all sorts of bizarre claims about the alleged health benefits of pharmaceuticals. Read the rest of this entry »