Healthy Eating: How Do We Define It and Measure It? What’s the Evidence?

A healthy diet can be defined in many ways, including defining one’s food intake by a dietary pattern. As described in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee report, there are several defined dietary patterns associated with lower rates of chronic diseases. These include the Healthy Eating Index, Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension, and those based on the Mediterranean diet. This review will focus on guiding health care professionals, including nurse practitioners, how a healthy diet pattern is defined, how it is measured, and a summary of recent evidence supporting the healthfulness of these dietary patterns

The Relationship Between Physical Activity and Cognition in Older Latinos

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between minutes spent participating in light and moderate/vigorous-intensity physical activity (PA) and cognition in older Latinos, controlling for demographics, chronic health problems, and acculturation. METHOD: A cross-sectional study design was used. Participants were self-identified Latinos, without disability, who had a score less than 14 on a 21-point Mini-Mental State Examination. Participants were recruited from predominantly Latino communities in Chicago at health fairs, senior centers, and community centers. PA was measured with an accelerometer, worn for 7 days. Episodic memory and executive function (inference control, inattention, and word fluency) were measured with validated cognitive tests. RESULTS: Participants were 174 Latino men (n = 46) and women (n = 128) aged 50-84 years (M = 66 years). After adjusting for control variables (demographics, chronic health problems) and other cognitive measures, regression analyses revealed that minutes per day of light-intensity PA (r = -.51), moderate/vigorous PA (r = -.56), and counts per minute (r=-.62) were negatively associated with lower word fluency. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that the cognitive benefits of both light-intensity PA and moderate/vigorous PA may be domain-specific