The dollar couple, Kerri Leonard and Christopher Greenslate.

What would you eat if you had just $1 a day for food?

This fall a couple in Encinitas, Calif., conducted their own experiment to find out what it was like to live for a month on just a dollar a day for food. Christopher Greenslate, 28, and Kerri Leonard, 29, both high school social studies teachers, quickly discovered what cash-strapped consumers have known all along. In the United States, the cheapest foods tend to be so-called junk foods — candies, chips and other processed fare that is packed with calories but devoid of nutrients. Meanwhile, fresh fruits and vegetables are priced out of reach. And living on a tight food budget adds lots of extra time and effort to meal preparation.

“We’re used to eating some type of vegetable with every meal and fruit every day,” Ms. Leonard said. “Finding out there was very little way to fit that into our budget, that was a huge struggle.”

The couple blogged about the diet project and also raised about $1,500 for a local community center. While the dollar-a-day diet was just a monthlong experiment for the couple, health researchers say their experiences reflect many of the real world conditions people on limited incomes face every day. To read more about the high price of healthful food, read this week’s Well column, “Money Is Tight, and Junk Food Beckons,” and then please join the discussion below.

What a mother eats during pregnancy may affect her offspring. (Filip Kwiatkowski for The New York Times)

What you eat during pregnancy and nursing may affect the age at which your daughter starts puberty, suggests a new animal study.

The findings, presented this week at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, are important because a girl’s age at first menstrual period may influence her lifelong health. An early first menstrual period, before the age of 12, is a risk factor for breast cancer, teenage depression, obesity and insulin resistance.

The investigators, from the University of Auckland, fed pregnant rats a high-fat diet throughout pregnancy and lactation. Another group of rats received a regular diet of rat chow. After the baby rats were weaned, they also ate either regular chow or a high-fat diet.

The onset of puberty was much earlier in all the rats whose mothers ate a high-fat diet, regardless of whether the baby rats ate high-fat or regular diets. Baby rats that ate a high-fat diet also had early puberty even if their mothers ate a healthful diet. Rats exposed to a combination of a high-fat diet inside the mother’s womb and a high-fat diet after birth also had early puberty, but it wasn’t any earlier than other rats eating a fatty diet.

“This might suggest that the fetal environment in high-fat fed mothers plays a greater role in determining pubertal onset than childhood nutrition,” said Deborah Sloboda, lead author of the study.

How much a mother eats at the time of conception may influence whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl, a new report shows.

The sex of a child may depend on a mother’s diet. (Paul Hilton for The New York Times)

The report, from researchers at Oxford and the University of Exeter in England, is said to be the first evidence that a child’s sex is associated with a mother’s diet. Although sex is genetically determined by whether sperm from the father supplies an X or Y chromosome, it appears that a mother’s body can favor the successful development of a male or female embryo. Read more…

The most healthful meal is the one you cook at home. But for those of us skilled at the art of takeout, the idea of cooking in our kitchens is daunting. Who has time after a busy day to shop, chop, prepare and cook?

Mark Bittman. (Suzy Allman for The New York Times)

The Times’s food writer Mark Bittman always makes cooking look easy as author of the weekly Minimalist column and his new blog Bitten. He’s also the author of several cookbooks, including “How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food.” I recently spoke with Mark about the how-to’s of home cooking, his favorite ingredients and a lot about beans. Read more…

What’s your favorite? (Larry Crowe/Associated Press)

Over at the Bitten blog, food writer Mark Bittman needs your advice. He’s putting together a list of the best cookbooks ever.

Ten years ago, he wrote his own list called “Fifty Cookbooks I’d Rather Not Live Without.” A lot has happened to food and cooking in a decade, and Mark wants to update the list.

Can you help? Post your suggestions below for your favorite cookbooks of all time. Depending on how insightful or clever your post, Mark may consider tapping you to help review cookbooks for his section.

We’ve all seen examples of fat-laden, high-calorie foods. But now a popular new nutrition book has picked the worst of the bunch.

The book, “Eat This, Not That!” by Men’s Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko, has become one of the hottest selling nutrition guides in book stores. The diminutive volume is filled with pictures of what not to eat and photos of better substitutes. It compares food choices at favorite restaurants, supermarkets and holiday items. The comparisons are always interesting and often surprising. Who knew a Starbucks Black Forest Ham, Egg and Cheddar Breakfast Sandwich is a better choice than the chain’s Bran Muffin with Nuts?

Chances are you won’t agree with every item. For instance, in a comparison of choices for a child’s Easter basket, I can’t figure out why Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, with 150 calories, are an “eat this,” while Marshmallow Peeps, with 140 calories, are a “not that.”

The book includes a clever ranking of the country’s 20 worst foods in various categories. Here are some of them:

• Worst Fast Food Meal: McDonald’s Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips with creamy ranch sauce. Chicken sounds healthy, but not at 870 calories.
• Worst Drink: Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie. With 166 grams of sugar, you could have had eight servings of Ben & Jerry’s.
• Worst Supermarket Meal: Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie. One pie packs 64 grams of fat.
• Worst “Healthy” Burger: Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. With 1,145 calories, not a very healthy choice.
• Worst Airport Snack: Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll. Packed with 813 hot gooey calories and 5 grams of trans fats.
• Worst Kids’ Meal: Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni ‘n Cheese. With 62 fat grams, it’s the equivalent of 1.5 full boxes of Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese.
• Worst Salad: On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef. A salad with 102 grams of fat and 2,410 mg of sodium.
• Worst Dessert: Chili’s Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. At 1,600 calories, it’s like eating the caloric equivalent of three Big Macs.

Dieters are more likely to lose weight and keep it off if they have contact with a weight-loss counselor, a new study shows.

The report, led by researchers at Duke University Medical Center and published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, shows just how difficult it is for dieters to maintain their weight loss. The study began with 1,685 overweight or obese adults who weighed on average 213 pounds. The group was successful at losing weight, with an average weight loss after six months of 18.7 pounds.

About 1,000 people who lost 9 pounds or more took part in the second phase of the study. Some used an Internet-based weight counseling tool, while others had regular personal contact with a weight-loss counselor. A third group received basic instruction on maintaining weight loss, and those dieters attempted to keep the weight off on their own.

Monthly personal contact meant the participants had telephone contact with a counselor for 5 to 15 minutes each month, except for every fourth month, when they had a 45- to 60-minute individual face-to-face session. The Web-based program gave participants unlimited access to a Web site designed to support weight loss maintenance, with interactive features allowing participants to set personal goals and action plans for the next week and to graph personal data over time.

More than two years later, most everyone had gained back some of their weight. The people who tried to maintain their weight on their own fared the worst, gaining back an average of 12.1 pounds. People who used the Web-based tool gained back 11.5 pounds. However, those people who took part in the personal contact group gained back the least — regaining 8.8 pounds.

Although personal contact only resulted in a 3.3 pound additional benefit, the study authors noted that even small losses can improve health. Every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of weight loss is associated with an average decrease in systolic blood pressure of 1.0 to 2.4 mm Hg and a 16 percent reduction in diabetes risk, the authors said. At the end of the study, more than 45 percent of those who had received counseling were still maintaining at least 9 pounds of weight loss, an amount with clear clinical benefits, they noted.

The diet book called “Skinny Bitch” has been flying off bookstore shelves, buoyed by the modeling pedigree of its authors and a frank “stop eating crap” message that distinguishes it from traditional diet books.

But this week, Salon magazine is taking “Skinny Bitch” to task, claiming it preys on the insecurities of dieters and people with eating disorders. “The only thing this weight-loss book will help you lose is self-esteem,” states the article.

As reported last fall in The Times, “Skinny Bitch” looks like a diet book for the chick-lit generation, but inside is a hardcore vegan message. Readers attracted by the book’s irreverent tone have been surprised to encounter chapters on meat and poultry farming practices.

Salon writer Julie Klausner says that in addition to the hidden vegan agenda, the book’s authors, Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, have filled the book with “punitive dieting tactics that prey on women’s insecurities about their bodies.” Ms. Barnouin is a former model, and Ms. Freedman is a former modeling agent. Read more…

Forget the flowers, reception hall and wedding dress. For many brides-to-be, losing weight is the most important part of the wedding plan.

The dress can be altered to fit, but is extreme dieting a healthy strategy? (Stephanie Keith for The New York Times)

More than 70 percent of brides-to-be want to lose weight before their wedding day, according to a new study from Cornell University. To reach the perfect wedding-day weight, more than one-third of them use extreme dieting tactics such as diet pills and fasting. And while most of us buy clothes that fit, about one in seven brides-to-be buys a bridal gown that is one or more dress sizes smaller than she normally wears.

“Most women engaged to be married idealize a wedding weight much lighter than their current weight,” wrote co-author Lori Neighbors, assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She conducted the study while a graduate student at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology. Read more…

One of the hottest food marketing trends these days involves adding live bacteria to dairy products as a way to boost health.

Dannon claims Activia can help regulate your digestive system.

Now lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against yogurt maker Dannon, one of the biggest sellers of “probiotic” yogurts, saying the claims of a health benefit dupe consumers. The company’s Activia and DanActive line of yogurt products contain live bacteria and claim to help regulate digestion and boost the immune system. The suit, filed in United States District Court in California, seeks redress for consumers who purchased the yogurt products based on what it says are “bogus claims.”

“Deceptive advertising has enabled Dannon to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ordinary yogurt at inflated prices to responsible, health- conscious consumers,” said Los Angeles attorney Timothy G. Blood, of the firm Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins.

In response, Dannon issued a statement saying it “stands by the claims of its products and the clinical studies which support them.”

“All of Dannon’s claims for Activia and DanActive are completely supported by peer-reviewed science and are in accordance with all laws and regulations,” said the statement. “Dannon’s advertising has always been and will continue to be absolutely truthful, and Dannon will vigorously challenge this lawsuit.”

Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that, in sufficient amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. A growing body of research links probiotics to relief of digestive tract complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome, yeast infections, and diarrhea that results from certain illnesses. The idea behind probiotics is to increase the amount of beneficial bacteria in people’s intestinal tracts as a way to aid digestion, boost the body’s natural defenses and fight off harmful bacteria that can cause health problems. Read more…

Lower cholesterol doesn’t have to come from a pill.

Although cholesterol drugs are in the news lately, what is getting lost in the discussion is the fact that it’s possible to lower your cholesterol without drugs. It’s just not as easy.

In fact, many doctors think dietary changes are too difficult for most of their patients. While they typically encourage better eating and a diet low in saturated fat, they also prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins as a faster way to lower bad cholesterol.

But many people can’t tolerate statins and their side effects. Others simply don’t want to take a pill every day or shoulder the cost of a prescription. For those patients, dietary changes may be a better option. Read more…

Last week I challenged readers to dispense wisdom in just seven words. More than 1,000 of you offered ideas, adding up to more than 7,000 words of sage advice.

The goal was to mimic the haiku-like catchphrase found in the best-selling new book “In Defense of Food.” On the cover, author Michael Pollan distills his message down to a seven-word edict:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Based on an idea by Times Book Review editor Dwight Garner, the Well blog asked readers to tweak the original and create their own 2-3-2 word sequences.

The readers did not disappoint. Read more…

As a health writer, I’ve read hundreds of nutrition studies and countless books on diet and eating. And none of these has contained such useful advice as the cover of Michael Pollan’s latest book, “In Defense of Food.”

Wrapped around a head of lettuce are seven words that tell you pretty much everything you need to know about healthful eating. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Author Michael Pollan (Alia Malley)

This seemingly-simple message is surprisingly complex, because there is food, and then there are what Mr. Pollan describes as “edible food-like substances.” Mr. Pollan, who writes for The New York Times Magazine, developed something of a cult following for his best-selling book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” which traced the food chain back to its original source. But while “Omnivore” left many scared to eat, “In Defense of Food” helps the reader bravely navigate the food landscape, explaining what food is, what it isn’t and how to tell the difference.

Mr. Pollan agreed to take some time this week to answer a few questions from the Well blog. Read more…

Should you drink the lingo? (Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)

My regular coffee order at Starbucks sounds ridiculous. “I’ll have a grande, no-fat, sugar-free Cinnamon Dolce Latte, no whip. Please.” Once, a customer behind me chirped, “Would you like coffee with that?”

Now Starbucks is making it easier on patrons like myself who like to order a little coffee with their adjectives. Coffee drinks made with nonfat milk and sugar-free syrups are now called “skinny.” So I can order a “skinny” Cinnamon Dolce and get the same no-fat, sugar-free, no-whip drink without so much effort. There are also “skinny” mochas, “skinny” caramel lattes and “skinny” hazelnut lattes.

But in giving my coffee order a new, easier-to-pronounce name, Starbucks has also given me food for thought. If I can’t pronounce it easily, should I really be drinking it?

I may not have come to this conclusion had I not been reading Michael Pollan’s excellent new book, “In Defense of Food.” I learned that my coffee order breaks at least three of his rules. Read more…

Tomatoes at a farmers’ market in Larchmont, N.Y. (Alan Zale for The New York Times.)

Vouchers that permit low-income women to shop at a local farmers’ market increase fruit and vegetable consumption in poor families, a new study shows.

The research, published this month in the American Journal of Public Health, comes just as states are making important changes to national nutrition programs. For years, the federally-funded Women, Infants and Children (W.I.C.) program, which subsidizes food purchases for low-income women and young children, hasn’t included fruits and vegetables, except for fruit juice and carrots for breastfeeding women. After a push by health groups and a recent report from the Institute of Medicine, the United States Department of Agriculture in December revised W.I.C. to include monthly subsidies for fruits and vegetables. States will begin implementing the new rules in February.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles tracked the eating habits of 602 area women taking part in the federal W.I.C. program. Some of the women were given $10 in weekly vouchers for vegetable and fruit purchases at a nearby farmers’ market or supermarket, while a control group received coupons for non-food products in exchange for sharing information about eating habits. Read more…