Working parents may have a harder time putting healthy food on the table than those who are part-time employed or stay at home, a recent study found. While parental employment provides many important benefits for families, work-related stress can negatively affect eating habits at home. Families with both parents working had also an overall lower intake of nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables.

Some diet regimens require participants to adopt radical changes in their existing eating patterns, including cutting out entire food groups such as fat or carbohydrates. While this can result in quick weight loss, it also makes it tempting to revert to old eating habits later on.

A growing preference for Western-style fast food in Asian and Southeast Asian countries already shows an impact on their populations' health, and not in a good way, according a newly released study. During the study's 16-year follow-up period, 2,252 participants developed diabetes and 1,397 died of heart attacks or heart-related diseases.

While regular physical activity has long been regarded as an important component of healthy aging, its impact on mental health has remained less explored -- until now. Several new studies on the role of exercise for the prevention of mental decline in older adults have been presented at this year's Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in Vancouver, Canada.