Staying Healthy : News, products and health information for you and your loved ones.

I saw an article that seems to confirm the old tale that eating fish is good for your brain. A lot of people throw around that statement as if it had already been proven, but here’s some research that actually seems to show that a diet rich in fish actually may lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and helps keep your mind sharp in general.

The studies were done in Chicago on over 3500 people. Although in the study it was shown that people who ate one meal of fish per week seemed to slow the onset of decline in thinking by about 10 percent, the researchers caution that it could be something else related to eating fish that is responsible for helping out with keeping fish eater’s minds sharp.

The benefits of fish that have a lot of Omega-3 Fatty Acids is an added plus of course for fish eaters. These fatty acids occur in abundance in fish like salmon.

Source: CNN / AP

I guess it’s common knowledge that a healthy diet along with lots of fruits and veggies is going to be better for you than eating a lot of fried processed foods. But I saw this article that said that some studies were done that show that eating foods that have a lot of phytoestrogens seem to reduce lung cancer risks. Foods that have these compounds include Soy as well as carrots and broccoli.

Though the study really wasn’t a conclusive one, it’s probably true that eating these healthier foods would be good for you anyhow. But of course, cutting down on smoking is still the best way to reduce lung cancer.

Source: Medpage Today

I had previously heard that dark chocolate could actually be beneficial to your health, but I never really paid attention to it. After all, it sounds too good to be true and never mind the negative effects it might have with your dental bill and waistline!

But I saw an article yesterday that explained a little bit more about why dark chocolate might be good for you. A study done by the AHA (American Heart Association) reinforced research that has shown that the “flavonoids” that occur in chocolate might aid blood vessel transport. They found that it seemed to lower blood pressure for people with hypertension. Interestingly, the study was done with dark chocolate which had a lot of flavonoids versus white chocolate which had none.

Another benefit seemed to be that dark chocolate seemed to reduce LDL cholesterol and impove body usage of insulin.

Well, they definitely don’t recommend going hog wild on dark chocolate bars as of yet, but still it’s a promising (and quite delicious) study…

Source: CNN/Reuters