Eat Well, Be Well

The WELL diet serves up weight loss with a side of blood pressure control.

Researchers who designed a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy -- the WELL diet -- discovered that people who followed the eating plan for 12 weeks experienced better blood pressure improvements compared to people who followed a low-fat diet. The WELL diet's secret to success: foods high in blood pressure-friendly nutrients.

No commercial information about the WELL diet exists yet. Generally, however, the diet calls for low-fat foods high in calcium, magnesium, and potassium -- all nutrients important to blood pressure control -- and moderate sodium. The diet encourages four or more servings per day of fruits and vegetables each, three or more servings of non-fat dairy, fish three times per week, legumes at least once a week, and unsalted nuts or seeds four times each week.

The diet also discourages red meat consumption. In a recent study, researchers compared weight loss and blood pressure effects of two diets in a group of middle-aged men. One group of men consumed a traditional low-fat diet while the other followed the WELL diet. Men in both groups were moderately active for half an hour on most days of the week. While men in both groups lost between 10 and 11 pounds, men in the WELL diet group experienced a greater decrease in blood pressure.

Don't Be So Salty

You know about salt and high blood pressure. But salt and cancer? Research suggests there may be a connection.

Diets high in super salty foods could spell trouble for people's colons, early research suggests. Women in a study who subsisted on a traditional Japanese diet, which tends to be very high in sodium, exhibited an increased risk of colon cancer. More research is needed to confirm the link, but in the meantime, kick up the flavor of your favorite foods with herbs and low-sodium spices instead.

In a recent study, researchers examined the effects of traditional Japanese diets, traditional Western diets, and healthful, balanced diets on colon cancer risk. Japanese diets tend to be high in salty foods, such as pickled fish or vegetables, and Western diets tend to be high in meat, cheese, and butter. The Japanese and Western diets were associated with increased colon cancer risk for women.

Researchers are not sure why their study produced an association only in women, but further research may reveal more information about dietary patterns and colon cancer risk in men. If you're trying to reduce your sodium intake, limit consumption of processed and convenience foods, which are often high in salt.

Salt also is used as a preservative in many canned soups, processed meats, cheeses, crackers, and chips. Be mindful of other hidden sources of salt, such as tomato juice, baking soda, baking powder, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and many condiments, such as soy sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, relish, and pickles. Certain over-the-counter medications also may be high in sodium, including antacids, cold medicines, and analgesics.

Balance Your Good Fats

Are you getting too much of one kind of healthy fat and not enough of other healthy fats? Strike the right balance for better health.

Healthy fats include monounsaturated fats -- such as olive oil -- and polyunsaturated fats -- such as corn oil and sunflower oil. A balanced mix of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats appeared best for helping control cholesterol in a recent study.

No more than 30 percent of your daily caloric intake should come from fat -- for some people, physicians may recommend even less. Of this 30 percent, no more than 7 percent to 10 percent should come from saturated fat. The rest should be a mix of unsaturated fats -- both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. In a recent study, researchers compared the cholesterol-lowering effects of three diets, two with 30 percent of calories from fat and one more like the average American diet, which typically has more than 30 percent of calories from fat.

Of the diets that limited fat intake to 30 percent of calories, one had all fat calories come from olive oil, which is high in monounsaturated fats and relatively low in polyunsaturated fats, while the other diet's fats came from special sunflower oil formulated to contain high amounts of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Although both test diets provided fewer fat calories than the typical American diet, only the diet that balanced mono- and polyunsaturated fats lowered both total and LDL cholesterol.