Nutrition Notes: The Newly Released Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030
This March we celebrate National Nutrition Month® to raise awareness of dietary and lifestyle choices that support health. The theme “Discover the Power of Nutrition” brings us an opportunity to review and discuss the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, released on January 7, 2026. Every 5 years, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health
Nutrition Notes: Artificial Sweeteners and Other Low-Calorie Sugar Substitutes
Is diet soda healthier than regular soda? Is it better to use artificial sweeteners in coffee than regular sugar? What about stevia or other naturally-derived sweeteners, are these better options?
With growing awareness that too much added sugar can contribute to tooth decay, diabetes, heart disease, unintentional weight gain, and other health issues, many people
Nutrition Notes: Continuous Glucose Monitoring for Achieving Nutrition and Health Goals
Glucose (sugar) is an important source of energy for your body that can come from the food you eat or be made by your body, traveling through the blood (blood glucose) to bring fuel to your cells. Maintaining optimal glucose levels is crucial for overall health and well-being. Consistently high or low blood sugar and
Nutrition Notes: Fortify Your Diet with Seeds
Seeds can be an important part of a healthy diet, providing essential nutrients that may be otherwise hard to get. Pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, flax, and chia seeds are a few of my favorites that I use all the time. I always top off a spring salad with a sprinkle of seeds like sunflower, pumpkin, and
Nutrition Notes: Welcoming Spring with the Sweetness of Maple Trees
The first drops of maple sap in late winter are magical. I feel alive with awe and excitement when I taste those drops of sweetness, my hands and face nestled on the bark of the maple tree while I reach my tongue out to catch the sweet drops from the small opening in the tree,
Nutrition Notes: Nuts for Your Health
Fall and winter are the seasons for nuts! As squirrels stash away nuts to eat for the winter, and black bears gorge on them to build fat stores in preparation for hibernation, we should also consider nuts as a healthful part of our diet.
Most nuts are the seeds of fruit from trees, with the exception
Nutrition Notes: Envisioning Food as Medicine
“Food as Medicine,” or “Food is Medicine,” has been gaining popularity in recent years. However, it is not a new concept—the understanding that food and adequate nourishment play a key role in optimizing our health and well-being, and that certain foods and ways of preparing food can support healing when ill, is as old as
Get $50 Worth of Farmer’s Market Coupons for Free!
Craving some fresh zucchini or ripe blueberries? LifePath will be distributing 650 free farmer’s market coupon booklets, worth $50 per person (up from $25 per person in previous years). One of these coupon booklets could be yours!
The coupons are part of a program from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, designed to help older adults
Nutrition Notes: Wild Food Foraging
Consider a spring dinner that starts with an appetizer of black locust flower fritters, followed by a dandelion and violet leaf salad sprinkled with violet flowers, pasta with garlic mustard pesto and boiled fiddleheads, wild leek and stinging nettle miso soup on the side, and a crisp of knotweed and wild blueberries for dessert. Creating
Nutrition Notes: A Call to Save Seeds
Seeds are the foundation of our food supply. Having enough seeds and a variety of seeds in the hands of people (not controlled by corporations) is a necessity for people to have consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food to optimize health and well-being. In observance of this year’s National Nutrition Month
Nutrition Notes: Nutrition Tips for Winter Months
As winter months approach and the temperatures drop, it becomes essential to pay close attention to your nutrition. The cold, icy conditions and longer hours of darkness can pose challenges to exercising and accessing food, healthcare, and social opportunities. These factors can magnify health issues, making it even more important to focus on a balanced
Nutrition Notes: The Growing Interest in Mushrooms
Interest in culinary and medicinal mushrooms has blossomed in recent years. Julia Coffey, founder and owner of Mycoterra Farm and Mass Food Delivery in South Deerfield, MA, has been keeping pace with expanded public interest through her mushroom growing and food delivery businesses. I met with Julia at her farm on a sunny, summer day