Nutrition News: The Full-Fat Trend, Healthy Office Snacks, Coke Spending

Full-fat foods are finding favor, office snacks to keep on hand. Plus: Coca-Cola reveals scope of funding.
Is full-fat on trend?

For years, we’ve all been urged to curtail our consumption of saturated fat, advice that affected our appetite for butter, meat and whole milk — or at least the amount of those foods we ate. But, a new report published by the Credit Suisse Research Institute has determined, Americans are rebelling against the old guidance, which has grown murkier, and eating more full-fat foods. Butter sales rose 14 percent in 2014 and an additional 6 percent in the first three months of 2015, while sales of whole milk climbed 11 percent and skim milk purchases plummeted 14 percent in the first six months of 2015. The authors suggest the trend may be part of larger shift toward natural – organic, unprocessed – foods. “Full-fat milk sounds a lot more natural to people than 2 percent or skim milk,” lead author Stefano Natella told The New York Times. “Cows don’t produce skim milk. You have to process it to take out the fat.”

Healthier desk snacks

Do you find that stocking your desk with healthier snacks keeps you from heading to the vending machine to grab a candy bar or some chips at the office? And can you control your urge to snack all day long, without pausing for air? Then, by all means, keep some healthy munchies on hand. Health.com writer Cynthia Sass suggests stocking your desk — or better yet, somewhere in your office you have to get up and walk to — with dark chocolate squares (individually wrapped, presumably for better portion control), roasted chickpeas, and fruit-and-nut bars. But Sass urges you to skip the cereal and crackers as well as that big jar of peanut butter. “It’s just too tempting to keep dipping in your spoon,” she notes. “Stock whole nuts instead, in premeasured 1/4-cup portions.”

Coke’s big number

How much has Coca-Cola spent on health research and partnerships since 2010, including financing a group that sought to persuade the public that lack of exercise, rather than overeating and drinking sugary drinks, was primarily to blame for the obesity epidemic? “Over the last five years, we have provided $21.8 million to fund scientific research and $96.8 million to support health and well-being partnerships for a total of $118.6 million,” the company disclosed in a letter posted on its website last week. This week, the company announced that it would discontinue its financial sponsorship of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a nutritionist group that has recently been criticized for accepting money from major food and drink corporations.

Amy Reiter is a writer and editor based in New York. A regular contributor to The Los Angeles Times, she has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Daily Beast and Wine Spectator, among others, as well as for Salon, where she was a longtime editor and senior writer. In addition to contributing to Healthy Eats, she blogs for Food Network’s FN Dish .

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