Carol Ann Rinzler

Food additives may be natural or synthetic. For example, vitamin C is a natural preservative. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are synthetic preservatives. To ensure your safety, both the natural and synthetic food additives used in the United States come only from the group of substances known as the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) list.

Take a look at recommended guidelines for cholesterol, blood pressure, and body mass index (BMI) and get your numbers checked to see if you’re at risk for health problems. Adopt some healthy habits that will help you keep your cholesterol under control.Counting cholesterolThe National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) issued this data about adult guidelines for total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff), and HDL cholesterol (the good stuff).

Nutrition is the science of how your body uses the food and drink you consume to build new tissues and power every organ and part from your brain down to your toes. Get the most from your daily diet by making healthy choices. © ARTFULLY PHOTOGRAPHER / Shutterstock.comHow to Cut Calories the Easy WayYes, it’s hard to control your weight.

Digestion is the process of changing food into a form that the body can absorb and use as energy or as the raw materials to repair and build new tissue. Digesting food is a two-part process that's half mechanical, half chemical. Mechanical digestion begins in your mouth as your teeth tear and grind food into small bits and pieces you can swallow without choking.

Losing weight is simple math. If you cut 3,500 calories out of your diet in the course of a week without reducing your daily activity, you can say goodbye to a whole pound of fat.Yes, reading that sentence is easier than actually doing it, but two tricks make the job easier. First, cut calories in small increments — 50 here, 100 there — rather than in one big lump.

This is by no means the complete A+ list of foods with extra special attributes. For example, chicken soup is not included, because what more can anyone say about this universal panacea? How about this: These ten foods are super good enough.AlcoholModerate alcohol consumption relaxes muscles and mood, expands blood vessels to lower blood pressure temporarily, and lowers the risk of heart disease, either by reducing the stickiness of blood platelets (small particles that can clump together to form a blood clot), by relaxing blood vessels (making them temporarily larger), or by increasing the amount of HDLs (“good cholesterol”) in blood.

Sometimes the combinations of interacting foods and drugs are surprising. Astounding. Or breathtaking. Everyone knows that people with asthma may find it hard to take a deep breath around the barbecue. The culprit's the smoke, right? Yes. And no. Breathing in smoke does irritate air passages, but — the surprise — eating charcoal-broiled food speeds the body's elimination of theophylline, a widely used asthma drug, reducing the drug's ability to protect against wheezing.

Like some foods, individual nutrients — vitamins and minerals — may also interact with medicines. The table lists some common vitamin/mineral and drug interactions. Here are four common examples: Antacids containing aluminum compounds bind with the bone-building mineral phosphorous, carrying it right out of your body.