Blog Posts by Dr. Ayala

Nutritional labels have been around for well over a decade, and the familiar panel - which provides some key nutrition information, an ingredient list and nutrition declarations - enables more informed food decisions.

Do people make good use of the information? The first step is for people to bother looking at it -- and they do. Women more than men, the health conscious and exercise enthusiasts more than the couch potatoes, but most people report they do consult with the label, at least when they're buying a product for the first time. A recent review of 120 studies of nutrition label usage in Public Health Nutrition finds that 75% of Americans check the label.

Eyeing the label is a good start, but do consumers get what they need from it?

A recent paper in Nutrition Reviews found that of the 60 percent of consumers who said they use the Nutrition Facts Panel, only a quarter found it easy to use. The calorie information on the Nutritional Facts Panel gets a glance from 75

I used to chuckle when I heard moms urge their daughters to eat tomatoes for rosy cheeks. Old wives' tale, so, I thought, and by that logic would I turn greener with kale? I was a little less sure of my dismissiveness when my own palms turned an orangey tint when I went heavy on my carrots, and was totally humbled when I met my first pink flamingoes.

Beauty from the garden's bounty

A new study in the scientific journal PLoS ONE followed 35 students for 6 weeks looking at how fruit and veggie intake affects skin tone, as measured by a spectrophotometer (an instrument that measures the spectrum and photometric intensity of each wavelength present, and in this case of visible light).

The researchers, led by Ross Whitehead, found that measured skin tone correlated with reported changes in the diet: eating more fruits and veggies increased skin redness and yellowness, and these skin color changes where achieved with a relatively modest increase of fruit and veggie intake -

A new chili pepper was recently crowned the hottest of the hot. It's called the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion and has a measured spiciness of 2,000,000 Scoville heat units, which brings it to the level of law enforcement grade pepper spray. Care for a bite?

Hot peppers and weight loss

Hot peppers have many culinary and nutritional benefits, and have also been used for topical pain relief. One of the interesting research areas of hot chili peppers is their alleged capacity to aid in weight loss.

A few studies showed that eating good amounts of hot peppers might increase energy production as heat temporarily in rats and in people. Increasing energy expenditure's a good thing - we'd love to burn extra calories without hard work.

The active ingredient in hot peppers is capsaicin. Capsaicin also gives peppers their pungency, which limits the amounts people can comfortably eat without hitting the ceiling.

Brown fat and spicy peppers

Hot pepper's capsaicin weight

We've developed a national sweet tooth problem. Enjoying sweet foods is the most natural, inborn tendency - it used to get us excited about mother's milk and ripe fruit -- but our level of added sugar consumption has reached such absurd heights that it's clear that these mountains of sugar are fueling the obesity epidemic.

To our alleged rescue came non-caloric sweeteners, offering the same intense sweetness without the caloric price tag.

Alas, diet drinks may not assist with weight loss. A few long-term studies surprisingly showed a dose-response correlation between consuming diet drinks and the development of obesity.

What was even more alarming was the emergence of studies showing a connection between the consumption of diet drinks and chronic disease: diet drinks were linked with the metabolic syndrome* and type 2 diabetes, and a recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine showed that people who drink diet soft drinks on a daily basis may be at

Sleep's a mysterious thing. We're not sure what sleep is and why we need it, but we do know sleep is critical to our health and wellbeing. Lack of sleep has been associated with pretty much all that ails humans, and recently it has been also blamed for rising obesity rates.

Parents loose sleep worrying about sleep. Most parents believe their kids don't get enough of it. We blame it on overscheduling, iPads, YouTube or our busy state of mind, but whatever it is, sleep's always insufficient.

Sleep concerns are nothing new

A new study in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics finds concerns over kids' sleep from the early 1900s were much similar to our concerns today. The researchers, led by Lisa Anne Matricciani, tracked more than a century's worth of advice in more than 200 articles regarding children's sleep, and compared it to data on how much kids actually slept over the years.

Kids always slept less that what health professionals thought they should -- about 37

Several city health departments are stepping up their anti-soda efforts in an attempt to curtail obesity and diabetes. Philly is now airing its own TV spot, which my kids had noticed and brought to my attention over the dinner table.

There's quite a wide range in the messaging tactics each city takes. NYC's campaign certainly caused a stir, especially the "Are You Pouring On The Pounds" video, which was deemed too disgusting by some. Take a look at these different approaces. Which works best in your opinion?

Philly: