The IINsider’s Digest gathers all the hottest nutrition topics around the web in one place for your reading pleasure. This week, one study exposes factory farming issues, another compares compulsive behavior between food and drugs, and doctors are learning to heal through healthy cooking.

Doctors Learn to Cook Healthy, ‘Crave-able’ Foods
NY Times

Dr. Eisenberg is the founder and chief officiant of “Healthy Kitchens/Healthy Lives,” an “‘interfaith marriage,” as he calls it, among physicians, public health researchers and distinguished chefs that seeks to tear down the firewall between “healthy” and “ crave-able” cuisine. Although physicians are on the front lines of the nation’s diabetes and obesity crises, many graduate from medical school with little knowledge of nutrition, let alone cooking.

Can Food Really Be Addictive? Yes, Says National Drug Expert
TIME Healthland

The IINsider’s Digest gathers all of the hottest nutrition headlines from around the web in one place. This week, two Integrative Nutrition graduates are making the headlines: Heng Ou’s food delivery service for new moms, MotherBees, is featured in the Los Angeles Times, while Elizabeth Stein’s Purely Elizabeth ancient grain products are in the Miami Herald. IIN visiting teacher Michael Jacobson speaks out about beetle coloring in Starbucks’ Frappuccinos, and IIN visiting teacher Dr. Walter Willett answers questions about the study that found red meat unhealthy

Five Questions: Dr. Walter Willett on red meat
Featuring IIN Visiting Teacher Dr. Walter Willett
The Los Angeles Times
Earlier this month, Willett and colleagues, who have studied the link between diet and health for decades, published a study that followed more than 100,000 people over more than 20 years — and found that the amount of red meat they ate was linked to a rise in risk of premature death. Read more.

Vegans bash Starbucks for beetle coloring in frappuccinos
Featuring IIN Visiting Teacher Michael Jacobson, PhD
USA Today
 Starbucks has the vegan community seeing red over what it recently began using to color its Strawberry Frappuccinos: beetles. That’s beetles as in ground up cochineal beetles – mostly found in Mexico and South America. Read more. 

The IINsider’s Digest gathers all the hottest nutrition topics around the web in one place for your reading pleasure. This week, Integrative Nutrition teacher Dr. Mark Hyman published his new book, The Blood Sugar Solution, while Michael Jacobson of the CSPI, also an IIN nutrition expert, was featured in a CBS News article about a chemical found in cola that raises the risk for cancer. The Wall Street Journal featured a piece highlighting the efforts of Health Coaches to help others improve their wellness, and it was reported that the government bought seven million pounds of ammonia-treated meat for school lunches.

Ending Obesity and Diabetes: What’s the Secret? [VIDEO]
CBS News
Featuring IIN Teacher Mark Hyman

Dr. Mark Hyman, credited with helping former President Bill Clinton turn his health around, speaks to the CBS This Morning co-hosts about his new book The Blood Sugar Solution and gives tips on how to eat healthier.

Chemical Found in Cola Causes Cancer, Watchdog Warns: What Does FDA Say?
CBS News
Featuring IIN teacher Michael Jacobson

The IINsider’s Digest gathers all the hottest nutrition topics around the web in one place for you to easily digest. This week, Integrative Nutrition teacher Dr. David Katz was featured in an MSNBC article on sugar intake among children, while Dr. Andrew Weil, also an IIN nutrition expert, published a piece on the health benefits of walking. It was reported that test-tube meat will be available in the near future, and a lawsuit brought on by thousands of organic farmers against Monsanto was dismissed. 

U.S. Kids Eat Too Much Sugar
MSN Health
Featuring IIN Teacher David Katz, MD

Added sugar in drinks and foods makes up almost 16 percent of the calories U.S. children and teens consume, federal health officials report. That's far more than the daily recommendation of no more than 15 percent of calories from both sugar and fat, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published online Feb. 29 in the National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief.

Walk Like An Australian, Lose 10 Pounds
Huffington Post
By IIN teacher Andrew Weil, MD

The most common objection that I hear to walking as exercise is that it's too easy, that only sweaty, strenuous activity offers real benefits. But there is abundant evidence that regular, brisk walking is associated with better health, including lower blood pressure, better moods and improved cholesterol ratios.

Test-tube Meat to be Available This Fall
Fox News

The world's first "test-tube" meat will be made entirely from a cow's stem cells and will be produced this fall, the AFP reported Monday. Lead researcher on the project, Dutch scientist Mark Post, told a major science conference Sunday that he aims to invent an efficient way to produce skeletal muscle in the lab that exactly mimics meat.

The IINsider’s Digest gathers all the hottest nutrition topics around the web in one place for you to easily digest. This week it was reported that trans fats are on the decline after years of warnings. Integrative Nutrition graduate and chocolatier extraordinaire Vanessa Barg touts the health benefits of chocolate, farmers markets are cropping up at hospitals, and a preschool makes a healthy food faux pas.

Trans fats on the decline
Featuring IIN speaker Michael Jacobson
USA Today
Years of warnings about the dangers of artery-clogging trans fats seem to be paying off: The amount of trans fats in the blood of white adults in the USA dropped a "dramatic" 58% from 2000 to 2009, a government study shows. Read more.

Got a Health Complaint? There May Be a Chocolate for That
Featuring IIN Grad Vanessa Barg
TIME
Most chocolate lovers are well aware that the dark stuff is naturally packed with antioxidants, the health-boosting compounds that are thought to protect against heart disease, cancer and stroke, but with the right ingredients, the benefits don’t have to stop there. Read more.

School Replaces Student’s Packed Lunch with Chicken Nuggets
Fox News
A North Carolina preschooler came to school with a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips – and her lunch was promptly replaced with chicken nuggets from the cafeteria. According to reports, a state agent who was inspecting lunch boxes that day decided the girl’s packed lunch did not have enough nutritional value. A regulation put into place by the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires that all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs meet federal nutritional guidelines. Read more.

A feed of real-time information from newspapers, celebrities, politicians, and sports teams makes Twitter a continuous newswire. Credible sources? Perhaps not always; but the popular social network is certainly a great place to get updates and articles from your favorite users.

If you have yet to give in to the Twitterverse, here’s how it works: after creating an account you can choose to follow other users based on your interests or your field of work, or just follow friends and family. You’ll then be able to see their tweets (140-character updates) all on one page. Many tweets include links to articles or other websites, or even photos or videos. Here at Integrative Nutrition, we use Twitter to stay in touch with our students and grads, read articles from our nutrition experts, plus follow major news outlets and organizations to stay in the know about current events related to health and wellness.

We previously shared our Twitter lists of doctors and health experts, as well as healthy recipe bloggers, and now we’re sharing our list for health news, so you can stay up to date on the latest nutrition news!

@nytimeshealth – Regular updates from The New York Times Health page, with a ton of content on the health industry, as well as links to the @nytimeswell blog and new recipes.

@NutritionBlogs – Tweets from the Nutrition Blog Network, a site run by dieticians and nutrition experts who share reliable nutrition information, recipes and health tips.

@health_news – A popular user that tweets health-related articles from a variety of sites. There are multiple tweets an hour so you’ll always find something good.

You’re a food blog fanatic and surfing the net for new recipes is high up on your list of favorite pastimes. You’re always on the lookout for mouth-watering photos, and you love sharing your new finds with friends. Does this sound like you? If so, it’s time to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. Follow the right users and voila! You’ve got yourself a virtual recipe book, complete with tips, videos and photos.

We’re going to make it easy for you by sharing Twitter users we think are of value to the Integrative Nutrition community. If you’re already on Twitter, check out this list and follow away! We previously shared a list of doctors and health experts, and now we’re bringing you bloggers and authors that post healthy recipes on Twitter, complete with several students and graduates of the Health Coach Training Program.

This was a hot week for nutrition news. IIN faculty members Deepak Chopra and David Katz offer their insights on health and wellness. Kale is a buzz word thanks to a Vermont t-shirt maker. EWG put out a report on sugar cereal that has Kellogg's scrambling to defend their products. And Monsanto's corn is for the bugs. Plus, more hot topics we collected here in one spot for you to easily digest. 

Can positive thinking make you well?
By IIN faculty Deepak Chopra
CNN
Observers may have noticed recently that mainstream medicine is taking a harder line against positive thinking. Surveys of the leading research in the field conclude that recovery rates from cancer, for example, are not higher among patients who take a positive attitude about fighting their disease. Studies that show the reverse have been small and, according to their critics, flawed in serious ways. Read more.

Reimbursement for Obesity Counseling: So What?
By IIN faculty member David Katz, MD

Last January the U.S.D.A. proposed changes to the nation’s school lunch program for the first time in 15 years. The rules would add more fruits and green vegetables to the daily lunch menu, cut the amount of potatoes served, and limit sodium levels. 

On Monday, Congress blocked those proposed rules.

At a time when one-third of American children are obese or overweight, tomato paste on pizza will continue to count as a vegetable.

An article from the New York Times discussed the blocked changes earlier this week, presenting both sides of the issue. For health-conscious parents and other critics, it’s easy to find the new update to the bill appalling. How can pizza and french fries replace leafy greens and whole grains? And if the government truly wants to reverse the health crisis, why would this not be the place to start?

But it’s not that simple. Many factors go into Congress’ decision to block the bill, all backed by supporting arguments. The American Frozen Food Institute said the restrictions would cause schools to serve food that’s not popular among students, resulting in thrown-out, wasted meals.  The National Potato Council argues that 90 percent of potatoes served in schools are baked, boiled or mashed, and not deep-fried.

Did you hear the latest nutrition news? If you missed it, don't worry! We collected the hottest topics right here in one place for you to easily digest! 

Bon Jovi in his own words,
bringing Soul to those in need
Today
On the eve of the opening of Jon Bon Jovi's new community restaurant, Soul Kitchen in Red Bank, N.J., the Today Show talks with the singer about his new project. Bon Jovi created a place where people can come and eat fresh, often organic and locally sourced food, regardless of whether they can pay. Read more.

Nutrition labels need Energy Star-like ratings;
panel urges 
CBS News
 Nutrition labels aren't doing enough to let consumers know what's healthy. So says the Institute of Medicine, which on Thursday issued a report urging the FDA to adopt a labeling system similar to the "Energy Star" system that helps consumers choose washing machines and other appliances. Read more.

Dairy's weight-loss claims removed from website 
Green Bay Press Gazette