Health Benefits

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

Sprouted-grain bread offerings in the market have been slowly but steadily on the uptick of late, and a number of health claims have attached themselves to the spongy, nutty-tasting loaves: more digestible, richer in protein and higher in vitamins and minerals compared with other breads. But are the claims true? Yes -- and no. Sprouted-grain products have distinct nutritional advantages over white breads, but when compared to other whole-grain breads, they're usually nutritionally comparable -- although nutrient contents can vary, depending on the sprouts included.

In addition to his roles as TV host and author, Dr. Mehmet Oz is a highly respected heart surgeon and a professor of surgery at Columbia University in New York City. Much of the health advice he offers on his show - for example, his frequent reminders to get plenty of sleep and exercise - fall well within the medical mainstream. But other suggestions don't have nearly as much scientific footing. •Forskolin, an herbal compound that supposedly helps burn fat. A 2011 report in Obesity Review concluded that there's meager evidence that it works.

Legend has it that King Tut was fond of pomegranates, and so were the ancient Persians. They surely enjoyed the fruit in its natural form — not processed into pomegranate extract pills. These days, a number of companies sell pomegranate supplements and say the pills are a more convenient way to benefit from the fruit's potent antioxidants. The most aggressive of these manufacturers is POM Wonderful, the company that also makes pomegranate-based juices, teas and snack bars. Each of its Pomx Pills provides the same "antioxidant power" as 8 ounces of Pom Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice without the 160 calories or 34 grams of sugar, the company says.

Teas from across the globe are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. One relative newcomer, yerba mate, is attracting fans for its allegedly jitter-free caffeine boost and high antioxidant content. Lab research suggests some potential health benefits from drinking yerba mate, but studies of lifelong yerba mate drinkers in the tea's native South America suggest the brew increases the risk of some cancers -- a fact most marketing campaigns omit.

In addition to his roles as TV host and author, Dr. Mehmet Oz is a highly respected heart surgeon and a professor of surgery at Columbia University in New York City. Much of the health advice he offers on his show - for example, his frequent reminders to get plenty of sleep and exercise - fall well within the medical mainstream. But other suggestions don't have nearly as much scientific footing. •Forskolin, an herbal compound that supposedly helps burn fat. A 2011 report in Obesity Review concluded that there's meager evidence that it works.

A tangy, sour, fermented milk drink may not sound like a likely candidate to move from health food stores to mainstream supermarkets, but that's exactly what kefir has done. The beverage is steadily gaining fans convinced of the health benefits -- proponents tout its purported ability to help cure cancer, reduce high cholesterol and treat high blood pressure -- yet the scientific studies to support the claims are still few. Kefir's closest cousin is yogurt, also made by fermenting milk with bacteria.

Let no one state that Lynda Resnick shouldn't be proud of the marketing skills she mustered to turn her pomegranate juice into a household name. In her 2009 memoir, she describes in detail her campaign to "create a market" for a product that only a small fraction of Americans were even aware of. The Beverly Hills business owner, art collector and philanthropist even pays homage to the red baseball-shaped fruit in the title of her book, "Rubies in the Orchard. " Here's the money quote: "People needed pomegranate juice in their lives (even if they didn't know it yet)

Exercising 15 minutes a day provides health benefits, a study finds , good news to those who are always strapped for time. The study, which appeared in the journal the Lancet this week, found that doing 15 minutes of leisure time physical activity was linked with an average three added years of life expectancy, along with a 10% decrease in cancer mortality and a 20% drop in cardiovascular disease, compared with sedentary people. So now that we have the good news, just what can you do in 15 minutes?

News flash: Eggs are really good for you. This message was brought to you by the American Egg Board. That's right - the folks who sell eggs paid for a study that comes to the shocking conclusion that eggs are an ideal breakfast food. They could have just asked people if they liked eating eggs for breakfast. Instead, they recruited 20 volunteers who were overweight or obese and assigned them to a week of either egg breakfasts or ready-to-eat cereal breakfasts. After a two-week gap, the groups were switched.

Voters in North Carolina on Tuesday approved Amendment One, a fiercely debated and highly restrictive amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as the legal union of a man and a woman. The amendment not only outlaws same-sex marriage - already illegal in the state - but bans civil unions and domestic partnerships for gay or straight couples. Family law experts say it will threaten domestic partnership health benefits for local government workers and strip unmarried couples, both gay and straight, of their rights to make financial or emergency medical decisions for an incapacitated partner.

Drinkers the world over have been thrilled by the notion that resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine, might be some kind of anti-aging powerhouse. The supposed wonder substance can make perilously chubby lab rats live as long as their slim counterparts, protect them from cancers and reduce their risk of dying from a high-calorie diet. It can lengthen the life of certain fish while warding off brain decay and improving the creatures' swimming chops. Which may sound very alluring for those of us who'd like to think that sipping Pinot Noir while relaxing on a couch counts as doing something healthful.

Republican lawmakers have joined with the Los Angeles Board of Education and the mayor to seek the swifter firing of teachers accused of sexual misconduct. They also want to strip retiree health benefits and state pensions from school employees convicted of sex-related crimes against students. Those moves would require changes to state law that were included in proposals announced Tuesday by the Republican legislative leadership. The school board's resolution, approved Tuesday, matches closely, as do proposed laws sought by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat.

Jane Kaczmarek didn't see Frances McDormand's Tony-winning performance in David Lindsay-Abaire's 2011 play "Good People" on Broadway. But the actresses were classmates at Yale Drama School more than 30 years ago and are the best of friends. "I know her well enough, so I can kind of imagine how she could do it," said Kaczmarek, 56. Soon Kaczmarek will make the role her own. She will be playing the part in the West Coast premiere of "Good People," which opens April 11 at the Geffen Playhouse.

Moving to implement a much-anticipated consumer protection in the new healthcare law, the Obama administration issued regulations Thursday requiring health plans to describe what they cover in clear, standardized language that is understandable to consumers. Starting this fall, insurers and employers that offer health coverage will have to provide a six-page form that summarizes basic plan information, such as deductibles and co-pays, as well as costs for using in-network and out-of-network medical services.

Moderate drinking has been linked with various health benefits, and now a study finds that middle-age women who indulge in one drink a day or less on a regular basis may have a better chance of being healthier when they're older. The study, released today in the journal PLoS Medicine , looked at data on alcohol consumption among 121,700 female nurses who were part of the Nurses' Health Study. Of those participants, 13,894 lived to the age of 70 or older. Among them, 1,491 were considered to have aged successfully, defined as having no heart disease, diabetes or other chronic diseases, and no substantial cognitive declines, mental impairment or physical limitations at age 70 and older.

News flash: Eggs are really good for you. This message was brought to you by the American Egg Board. That's right - the folks who sell eggs paid for a study that comes to the shocking conclusion that eggs are an ideal breakfast food. They could have just asked people if they liked eating eggs for breakfast. Instead, they recruited 20 volunteers who were overweight or obese and assigned them to a week of either egg breakfasts or ready-to-eat cereal breakfasts. After a two-week gap, the groups were switched.

Gossiping is bad, right? Not so fast. Spreading information might have some positive effects, such as lowering stress -- if it's the right kind of gossip. A study published online recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that the way people gossiped in four experimental settings led to constructive outcomes. Researchers from UC Berkeley used the term "prosocial" gossip to describe people warning about deceitful behavior observed in others. It's different from the type of rumormongering we do when we talk about the bad behavior of celebrities, although let's not count that out as a good time.

The antioxidant-based O2 Diet is relatively simple. Instead of counting calories, dieters add up ORAC points, short for oxygen radical absorbance capacity. The ORAC number reflects the potential antioxidant activity of a food, as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In general, berries, nuts and teas have high ORAC values. But eating according to ORAC won't necessarily make you any healthier, experts warn. ORAC testing is not standardized across the industry, and it was never designed to compare two foods, such as cranberries versus blueberries.