Blog Posts by Dr. Ayala

Following last year's "Pouring on the Pounds" campaign, NYC's health Department debuted a new series of subway billboards that urge New Yorkers to consider what goes into a large serving of sweetened soda. The answer: A shocking 26 packets of sugar. Who knew? Apparently, many New-Yorkers are aware already. In fact many New Yorkers are starting to cut back on sugary drinks , and the Health Department is trying to encourage that trend.

The spoonful of sugar we started off with a few decades ago has exploded into dozens of spoonfuls a day, and sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are added to many processed foods, making food very palatable, but quite detrimental to our health .

Too much sugar contributes to obesity and its many consequences, and can undermine normal satiety levels, motivating us to eat more than we need and create food cravings. Too much sugar may also raise blood pressure and can elevate blood triglycerides levels (a risk factor for heart

This week (August 1st through 7th) is National Farmers Market Week , a great time to celebrate our farmers and great, healthy produce. This flavorful recipe uses some of summer's market's best: Lovely zucchini, new potatoes, complex fresh herbs, and makes for a nice presentation in no time.

As you'll see, this dish relies on fresh herbs for its explosion of flavor. The fresh herbs also pack lots of nutrition-they're a powerhouse of phytochemicals and antioxidants , and a great addition to your healthy diet.

Ingredients:

How do you eat your meals? Do you have dinner with your family or dine in company? Do you eat while watching TV, or at your desk? Does how we eat really matter?

A study in Public Health Nutrition , looking at American's food-related time use over 30 years reveals that besides the dramatic shift in how much and what Americans eat, there's also been a big shift in the amount of time we spend eating, and in the quality of that time.

The study looked at four nationally representative time-diary surveys from 1975, 1985, 1998 and 2006. A time-diary assesses the use of time through a form that's filled over 24 hours, in which participants list every minute activity. Sounds boring, but the results reveal some interesting trends:

Peer pressure is a pretty powerful force that can both help and impede kids' choices. No kid is totally immune to peer pressure and that's why I care a lot about who my kids hang out with-I'm sure most parents do.

Peer behavior influences a wide range of health related behaviors--from smoking to alcohol intake to bike-helmet wearing--and also influences kids' eating patterns. The need to belong and the effect of peers are most pronounced in adolescence.

A new study in the journal Appetite set out to see if friendship groups affect teens' unhealthy snacking behavior. The study looked at the snacking habits of about 750 Dutch teens while mapping out who's friends with who. It also collected data including the teens' weight, education level and personal characteristics as well as the availability of high-caloric-density snacks (chips, candy, soda etc.) in those kids' school canteens and vending machines.

Here are the study's main findings:

Kids watch TV about three and a half hours a day. They're exposed to it as background many hours more. Advertizing on TV therefore remains the central vehicle brands use to reach kids. Ads are clever and compelling, and their effect on kids-especially young ones-is very clear. The Institute of Medicine reviewed the scientific literature and concluded that ads influence food consumption and that the current food and beverage marketing practices put children's long-term health at risk.

In 2006, in response to criticism from many health organizations and children advocates, the Council of Better Business Bureaus launched the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative . There are a little more than a dozen major US food companies that joined the initiative, and these companies pledged to devote at least half of their child-targeted advertising to promote healthier or "better-for-you" products and encourage good nutrition and healthy lifestyles. "Better-for-you" is not

Kombucha tea is a popular complementary remedy, which after many decades of small-scale home brewing made a commercial debut in the marketplace and got off to a flying start. Kombucha drinks are a multimillion business, and these beverages are marketed as the elixir of health in both specialty and mainstream stores. Many people-including celebrities-swear by them.

But commercially brewed raw kombucha will be harder to find this summer. Last week Whole Foods Market pulled all raw (live) kombucha bottles off the shelf due to a concern that their alcohol levels may exceed the 0.5 percent ceiling allowed by law in non-alcoholic beverages. Other retailers are following suit. Products with alcohol levels exceeding 0.5 percents are subject to special regulations regarding permits, labeling, advertizing and taxation. Most importantly, alcoholic beverages must bear a health warning statement, as alcohol poses special risks for kids, pregnant women and people on certain medications. The

The advice on what to eat for optimal health is reevaluated and dispensed by the government every five years and we'll be seeing new guidelines published later on this year.

The foundation for the guidelines is an independent, evidence-based report, prepared by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which is comprised of independent experts-mostly academics in the fields of nutrition and health. The advisory committees have been giving, in essence, pretty much the same advice for the past thirty years: Eat less solid fats, salt, and added sugars and more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Move more. The devil's in the details-wording, upper and lower limits for nutrients, emphasis on food groups-and this document is usually not received without debate by the food industry and other players.

Yet not much happens. Guidelines aside, obesity rates have continued to climb, and the fast- and processed-food diet is still the most prevalent food pattern observed by

Despite the fact that girls don't mature mentally any earlier, they are reaching puberty at ever younger ages. An article in The Sunday Times last week announced that girls now begin puberty at age 9. The article cites a Danish study, which looked at a sample of 1000 girls, and showed that breast development started on average at age 9 years and 10 months, a full year earlier than it did in a similar group studied 15 years earlier.

Entering puberty is cause for celebration and a good sign of reproductive and overall health. Yet the novelty of getting your periods wears off all too soon and many a girl/woman/mom has wondered what possible advantage is menstruating from such early an age, when none of us wish parenthood on teens.

Is early puberty a new phenomenon and yet another sign of our unhealthy lifestyle?

There's been a dramatic fall in the age girls start puberty (the first sign of which is usually breast development, or in medical terms: thelarche) and start