San Antonio College Library

Investigative journalist Nina Teicholz argues here that everything we thought we knew about dietary fat is wrong. She documents how the low-fat nutrition advice of the past sixty years has amounted to a vast uncontrolled experiment on the entire population, with disastrous consequences for our health. For decades, we have been told that the best possible diet involves cutting back on fat, especially saturated fat, and that if we are not getting healthier...

"Have you taken your vitamins today?" That question echoes daily through American households. Thanks to intensive research in nutrition and medicine, the importance of vitamins to health is undisputed. But millions of Americans believe that the vitamins they get in their food are not enough. Vitamin supplements have become a multibillion-dollar industry. At the same time, many scientists, consumer advocacy groups, and the federal Food and Drug Administration...

Do we control our fat, or does it control us? Scientists are coming to understand fat as a fascinating and dynamic organ, one whose size has more to do with biological processes than personal choices. Through real-life stories of hunter-gatherers, sumo wrestlers, and supermodels, explore the complex functions of fat and the role it plays in controlling hunger, hormones, and even reproduction.

The author here offers a marvelous smorgasbord of stories taken from the history of nutrition, providing an engaging account of the struggle to find the ingredients of a healthy diet, and the fads and quackery that have waylaid the unwary. The book teems with colorful personalities, a veritable who's who of medical history, from Hippocrates to Pasteur, plus such intriguing figures such as Count Rumford, who argued that since plants got their food...

Dinner used to be a time to sit down to a wholesome, home-cooked meal-a rarity today! This video shows how a nutritious dinner can improve physical and mental performance and help control weight. After pointing out some alarming health trends, the program shows why it's important to not skip meals, and explains how to increase consumption of high-fiber, high-protein, low-fat, low-cholesterol foods through a range of strategies-including better communication...

Strong consumer demand for leaner-bred livestock and cuts that are smaller and less fatty has transformed the meat industry. Tasty meals featuring beef, lamb, and pork once again are staples all across America, and this video explains why in six well-illustrated segments. How Much Meat Do We Eat? offers a statistical overview of meat consumption. Nutritional Value of Meat addresses protein, vitamins and minerals, good and bad fats, cholesterol, and...

We're surrounded by processed snack foods-and they taste so good! It's a shame they're just not good for us. Filmed at a high school that has implemented a healthy food vending program, this video explains why "junk food" is fittingly named and shows students how to balance their diets with nutritious snack alternatives. Information on obesity and other serious health problems is presented, with thorough coverage of the evils of trans fats and bad...

If cholesterol levels are a measure of how long a person will live, why don't more people make an effort to lower them? This program illustrates how LDL and HDL cholesterol affect the heart and circulatory system-and how untreated LDL levels can kill without warning. It also features revealing case studies of three patients-a middle-aged man working to reduce his LDL levels through diet and exercise; a woman who suffered a heart attack during pregnancy,...

In this program, ABC News correspondent Arnold Diaz reports on the potential dangers of dietary supplements. Pharmacologist and radio host Joe Graedon; Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com; and David Seckman, executive director of the National Nutritional Foods Association, speak out about misleading labeling, the need for governmental regulation, and the popular misperception among consumers that supplements such as chondroitin, SAM-e, ginseng,...