English teenager who eats only chicken nuggets collapses.

A Birmingham, England teenager who ate exclusively chicken nuggets for the past 15 years collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, a British newspaper reported. The young girl claims to have never tasted fresh fruit or vegetables. Now at 17 years old she is anemic and malnourished. While her diet provided ample calories, it left her severely deprived of most vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

PositiveTip: Variety in the foods we eat, even a relatively small daily variety of fruit, vegetables and grains supports good health.

Women of childbearing years need a healthy diet!

A prepregancy healthy dietary pattern in addition to folic acid supplementation could be a key to reducing neural tube and other birth defects. When Stanford University researchers controlled for supplement use they found a high quality diet that included fruits, vegetables and whole grains was associated with a 51% lower risk of anencephaly, 34% lower risk of cleft lip and 26% lower risk of cleft palate when compared with the poorest diets.

PositiveTip: Dads, encourage Mom to each a health diet before pregnancy if you want to minimize birth defect risks.

The strongest predictor of diabetes risk was body weight.

A prospective cohort study has confirmed once again the importance of the cumulative effects of wise lifetyle choices on the risk of developing diabetes. Men and women who had a good diet, were physically active, did not smoke, used minimal amounts of alcohol and were not overweight or obese experienced significantly lower risk.

PositiveTip: Self-discipline in many multiple areas of lifestyle pays rich dividends. Are you making good choices?

Sugar can negate the beneficial effects of omega 3 fats in mice.

Among the many benefits of the polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids (omega-3 fats) is that they protect against high-fat diet induced obesity and the inflammation of fat cells  Researchers have found that excess table sugar (sucrose) added to the diets of mice significantly reduced the anti-inflammatory properties of these beneficial fats, and increased obesity.

PositiveTip: How much sugar are you using? Too much may counteract the good fats found in nuts, plant oils and some fish.

Diverticular disease lower in vegetarians with high fiber diets.

A British study of vegetarians and non-vegetarians found that vegetarians have a 31% lower risk of developing diverticular disease and in those consuming greater than 25.5 grams of  dietary fiber had 41% less risk compared with those consuming less than 14 grams.  Death rates from diverticular disease was 4.4% in meat eaters versus 3% in the vegetarians.

PositiveTip: A plant-based diet lowers the risk of diverticular disease along with many others.

Not smoking and eating a good diet can slow even hereditary macular degeneration.

Tufts University researchers have found that hereditary macular degeneration in identical twins progresses faster with increased smoking and is slowed by a good healthy diet.  The lead author said, "Eat a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, and that can make a difference - even if you have a genetic susceptibility to macular degeneration...and, if course, don't smoke."

A low-fat weight loss diet increases arterial blood flow, reduces fat mass, and waist size.

A study of obese subjects on either a high-fat or low-fat weight loss diet found that although both groups lost weight, only the low-fat group showed a significant reduction in fat mass, waist circumference, increased brachial artery blood flow and improvement in hormone balance. The high-fat diet actually impaired brachial blood flow with no improvement in hormone balance.

PositiveTip: A low-fat weight loss diet significantly improves weight loss, vascular blood flow and hormone levels that aid in better control of appetite and weight.