News wise - After teaching students about human nutrition all day, Marjorie Fitch-Hilgenberg, associate professor of dietetics at the University of Arkansas, goes home at night to put her lessons into practice. To make it easy to serve a nutritious meal after a long day at work, Fitch-Hilgenberg keeps her pantry and freezer stocked with some versatile staples.
"I don't worry about dinner when I know I can open my cupboard and freezer and find everything I need for a quick, healthy, home-cooked meal," Fitch-Hilgenberg said.

Fitch-Hilgenberg keeps on hand a variety of fruits and vegetables, grain products, sources of protein, dairy products, and seasonings and condiments.

Fruits and vegetables
A variety of fruits and vegetables - either canned or frozen - make it easy to get the daily veggie quota. Fitch-Hilgenberg also keeps canned tomatoes and a good pasta sauce on hand as a basis for hearty stove-top stews and casseroles. A good variety of canned beans can make a quick three-bean salad or baked beans.

Grains
Rice and pasta cook quickly and mix well with other staples. In a nod to her Southern farm roots, Fitch-Hilgenberg always has a quick cornbread mix on hand to complete a meal of beans and vegetables.

Protein
Canned tuna and salmon can make a quick sandwich or round out a salad. The choice of seasonings determines whether the meal is the traditional tuna salad sandwich or a more contemporary salmon with dill and yogurt over greens.

Dairy
Fitch-Hilgenberg always keeps a hunk of her favourite cheese in the refrigerator. It can make pasta into a main dish or just provide a quick snack to tide her over while she cooks. Low-fat cottage cheese and plain yogurt are versatile and healthy additions to many dishes, from salads to dessert. There is always a package of powdered milk on her shelf as a back-up when the refrigerator is empty or if a quick addition is needed for soups and casseroles.

Seasonings and Condiments
With a variety of seasonings on hand, left-over chicken can be chicken curry one night and chicken enchiladas the next. Different kinds of pickles, including pickled beets, hold well in the refrigerator and can complete a meal. Having a variety of mustards and sauces on hand allows Fitch-Hilgenberg to spruce up the plainest ingredients.

"Although most seasonings and condiments never appear on a food pyramid," Fitch-Hilgenberg said, "they can be crucial in transforming healthy food into a delicious meal."

While celebrating mainstream medicine’s increasing acceptance of nutritional supplements, one should be aware that testing an alternative scientific approach according to the standards of the mainstream will not necessarily generate the most informative guidance. Nutritional supplements and vitamins need to be seen in the light of both traditional western medicine, and traditional local beliefs and practices around the world.

Product safety and purity
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just announced that manufacturers of vitamins, herbal pills and other dietary supplements would have to test the ingredients of all their products for safety and purity. The new standards follow concerns that existing regulations are too weak in that they allow supplements on the market that were contaminated or whose ingredients didn't match claims made on the label. The aim is to prevent the wrong ingredients getting into supplements. The regulations also try to prevent contamination of supplements as well as the accidental inclusion of pesticides, glass or heavy metals like lead.

Quality products
Most people don't realize that dietary supplements can have side effects, just as there are potential side effects to prescribed medications. It is for this reason that in many countries, Germany, for example, nutritional supplements and vitamins are regulated like drugs. The U.S. has lagged behind in that area. Though most experts agree that the regulations will increase the likelihood that supplements will be of high quality, some raise the issue of whether these products, which claim to remedy everything from arthritis to asthma, actually work. Make sure that when you take vitamins and other nutritional supplements, you pay attention to the research behind it. If a doctor is testifying to the safety and efficacy of a nutritional supplement, there is a good chance it will do you a whole lot of good. If in doubt, check what you read with your own medical practitioner.

The background
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates dietary supplements as foods, and not as drugs. The FDA can take action only after a dietary supplement has been proven harmful. However, certain foods (such as infant formula and medical foods) are deemed special nutritional supplements because they are consumed by highly vulnerable populations and are thus regulated more strictly than the majority of dietary supplements. The FDA’s rationale for a lack of regulation is a; freedom to choose; by the consumer. They tend to believe that the supplement is beneficial until problems arise. Dietary supplements are permitted to make structure/function claims. These are broad claims that the product can support the structure or function of the body, but when made, they need to be backed up with evidence submitted to the FDA.