By Heather Hurlock

Preserve Muscle With Potassium

Sarcopenia, the steady loss of muscle mass, threatens every one of us after we hit 40--but there might be a way to slow it down. Researchers at the Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, at Tufts University, found that foods rich in potassium help preserve lean muscle mass. After studying 384 volunteers for three years, they found that those whose diets were rich in potassium (getting more than 3,540 milligrams a day) preserved 3.6 more pounds of lean tissue than those with half the potassium intake. "That almost offsets the 4.4 pounds of lean tissue that is typically lost in a decade by healthy men," says study author Bess Dawson-Hughes, MD. While bananas are the easiest on-the-go source of potassium (each contains about 420 milligrams), there are better sources of the nutrient. Here are 15 of the best:

Food                                          Serving                    Potassium
Source                                       size                         (IN MG)

Swiss chard, boiled                             1 cup                              961

Lima beans, cooked                            1 cup                              955

Yams, cooked                                     1 cup                              911

Acorn squash, baked                           1 cup                             896

Spinach, boiled                                   1 cup                              839

Papaya                                            1 whole                              781

Pinto beans, boiled                             1 cup                              746

Crimini mushrooms, raw                     5 oz.                              636

Cod, baked or broiled                          4 oz.                              586

Beets, boiled                                      1 cup                              518

Broccoli, boiled                                  1 cup                              457

Brussels sprouts, boiled                    1 cup                              450

Cantaloupe                                        1 cup                              427

Tomato, raw                                      1 cup                              427

Banana                                            1 whole                            422

Lose Weight With Sparkling Water

When researchers from the University of Pennsylvania questioned the accepted wisdom that adults should drink eight eight-ounce glasses of H20 per day for optimum health, it sent ripples through the science community. They asserted that there's no evidence that water cleans out toxins, wards off weight gain, improves skin tone, or has any beneficial health effects. The latest salvo in the water wars, a new study in the British Journal of Nutrition, shifts the emphasis onto the kind of water you drink. Researchers found that drinking carbonated beverages increases satiety and decreases the amount of calories consumed. While the study authors aren't suggesting you drink soda to lose weight, their research suggests that sparkling water may decrease cravings more than still water.

To Snack or Not to Snack?

Contrary to popular nutritional advice that promotes regular snacking, a recent study presented to the Dietitians Association of Australia found that eating more than three times a day does not contribute to weight loss. The researchers found no difference between those who ate three meals a day and those who ate three smaller meals and three snacks a day. "This study actually isn't inconsistent with snacking advice," says registered dietitian Susan Bowerman, assistant director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California at Los Angeles. "It's the total calories a person consumes over the course of the day that matters." 

The Case for Juice

In recent years, nutritionists have warned that fruit juice is a sugary indulgence that costs more in calories than it's nutritionally worth. But recent studies on adolescents have found that high-calorie, 100 percent fruit juices don't contribute to weight gain the way other caloric beverages do. "While we didn't extrapolate these results out to adults, men can get one-third of their daily fruit servings from 100 percent juice as part of a healthy diet," says registered dietitian Carol O'Neil, PhD, the author of the study. Bottom line: One eight-ounce glass of 100 percent juice a day won't pad your gut.

Originally published on September 2008