Busy B's: Good for Your Heart?
One of the most interesting new clues to heart disease is homo-cysteine. It's a substance that we all produce from an amino acid (a building block of protein) in food. The link between this substance and heart disease was discovered in 1969 by Dr. Kilmer McCully, then of Harvard and now at the Department of Veterans' Affairs Medical Center in Providence. Studying people with a rare genetic disorder called homocystinuria, Dr. McCully found that in addition to the high levels of homocysteine, these people also had premature hardening of the arteries. They died early from heart attack or stroke. He thought homocysteine was the cause.

Filtering the News About Coffee
Tea is the most popular beverage worldwide (after water), but coffee is close behind it in industrialized countries. While caffeine is a natural component of both tea and coffee, coffee contains more of it: anywhere from 60 to 120 milligrams in six ounces, depending on brewing methods and other factors. Caffeine is a mild psychoactive substance—it stimulates the central nervous system and improves alertness. It also boosts the analgesic effect of aspirin and other pain relievers, which is why it's added to some of these drugs. In large enough amounts, it can cause heart palpitations, stomach upset, and insomnia.

Fishing For Answers
Fish has been seen as a cardiovascular hero ever since it was observed years ago that Eskimos and Japanese people who eat lots of fish have a low rate of heart disease. The theory is that fish oil lowers cholesterol and triglycerides, makes blood less sticky, and perhaps even decreases blood pressure. Beyond the heart benefits, it's claimed that fish can alleviate rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and other auto-immune disorders. Even more health claims are made for fish-oil capsules, which take up lots of shelf space in health-food stores and drugstores. Fish is good food, certainly, but let's not go overboard. Here are the fish facts.

Udder Confusion
Milk used to be considered a "perfect food"—indeed it is very nutritious. In recent years, however, "cow's milk is for calves" has become a rallying cry for several groups. There's even an Antidairy Coalition, which claims that milk is nothing less than a "deadly poison"—that's the title of a book it promotes. If you believe this group, milk is behind nearly all our major diseases. Here are some of the claims being made about milk and dairy products—and our responses.

Be Choosy About Carbs
Go to a dinner party these days and you'll probably meet both carbohydrate boosters and carbohydrate haters. For carbohydrates have once again become a battleground in debates about healthy eating. They're what you're supposed to fill up on when you cut down on fat, says one side of the table. Or they're what's making Americans fat, according to the other side. Yet most people don't really know what "carbs" are. Many of the boosters and haters talk as if all carbs were the same (not true). This refresher course on carbohydrates will help you out.

The Final (Maybe) Verdict on the Low-Fat Diet
Whoever said that nothing is simple must have been thinking about fats in the diet. You've been told often enough that "low-fat" is the key to a heart-healthy diet—meaning that fat should provide less than 30% of your total calories. But how can you make such a calculation? Unless you have a dietician in residence, it's impossible to figure out what your total calorie intake is, let alone what percentage of those calories comes from fat. It's just as hard to know which fats you eat: maybe you keep canola or olive oil in your pantry, but what's in all those restaurant meals you eat?

13 Keys to a Healthy Diet
Developing healthy eating habits isn't as confusing or as restrictive as many people imagine. The first principle of a healthy diet is simply to eat a wide variety of foods. This is important because different foods make different nutritional contributions.