Sweet tasting foods are rare in nature. Fruits and vegetables have some sweetness to them, but they’re also packed with lots of fiber, water, micronutrients and phytochemicals, and are nutritious and quite filling. Honey was hard to find for most of human history and even harder to harvest—it’s protected by an army of stinging warriors.

It’s a common story. Your doctor diagnoses you with type 2 diabetes, dashes off a prescription, and sends you home with the advice “take your meds, don’t eat sugar, and lose some weight!”

The quick fix of glucose-lowering drugs, of course, works. But of course they come with a cart-full of side effects ranging from weight gain to constipation.

Why not start with the simple first? There are proven all-natural “food cures” in your kitchen right now, that have been shown to have a lowering effect on glucose levels.

The two faces of the FDA strike again – and this time, millions of American children are at risk.

Dear Pharmacist,

I celebrate Hanukkah and my husband celebrates Christmas? Why am I telling you this? We both have big families and the food doesn’t stop for 2 weeks solid! I have worked hard all year to lose 24 pounds and I’m scared to gain back all the weight. Any ideas?

--P.D.  Hollywood, Florida

As 2009 winds down and the season for gratitude is upon us, this is a great time to reflect on our progress and contemplate the road ahead. This year especially, with the ongoing debate over public-policy directions for the U.S. health-care system, the collective state of our health deserves our attention.

It doesn't take cutting-edge science to realize that a sugar-filled high-carb diet of slop has turned us into a nation of porkers.

Just take a look around you.

But the latest science shows that our growing guts may be getting some unwanted help… from stomach bacteria that flourish on junk.

Not that they ever left, but calories are back in the news. New York City has recently passed an ordinance that requires restaurants with more than 15 outlets (i.e., chains) to post the caloric count in their dishes next to the prices. This is move is apparently causing a great deal of reshuffling of menu items.

The calorie counting habit has been around for about one hundred years, and while it took a back seat for a while to the counting of grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat, now it seems to be back on top of the public consciousness.

The promise of many popular diets often includes not just weight loss, but a happier outlook. Yet, a new study shows that the expected mood improvement—the added perk usually seen when losing weight—seems to be short-lived in successful dieters on a low-carb diet.

Or maybe you don’t. It turns out that sitting in a chair – that time honored tradition we commonly associate with rest, relaxation, and recuperation (don’t forget mind-numbing work, too!) – is actually bad for us. At least, the way we approach sitting is health harmful.

The occasional dalliance with a straight-backed office chair probably isn’t a problem, but when we spend most of our waking life sitting (or, even worse, slumping over) in a chair, we invite disaster.

In the early nineteenth century the average American consumed about 12 pounds of sugar a year. Today, some experts estimate that it’s more than 150 pounds, in the form of sugar and other sweeteners.   

By contrast, the human body needs only about two teaspoons of sugar in the bloodstream at any one time. Is it any wonder overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions in this country?