We have gifts, literature, apparel and fitness gear, all aimed at helping you and every member of your family enjoy the transformative benefits of a healthy diet and active lifestyle. How about a limited-edition Warhol "banana" T-shirt or a Superfoods banner that teaches what foods help which parts of the body?

If you want more than the free downloadable materials available from our resource center, Dole Depot lets you order hardcopies of our popular Food For Thought magazine or our eight Health & Wellness brochures--not to mention Superfood cookbooks, DVDs, children's cookbooks, and the Encyclopedia of Foods. For fitness on-the-go, we've got water bottles, yoga mats, jump ropes--and more!

You'll find a cornucopia of healthy gift ideas and tools to support your nutrition and weight management goals, all at the new Dole Depot.

Researchers set out to see what methods might help female college students avoid the dreaded "Freshman 15." Subjects emailed their daily, morning weight and then received a graph plotting fluctuations and trends--together with calorie-reduction tips. The control group that didn’t receive feedback gained about 7 pounds over a 12-week semester. Those in the "graph" group had NO weight gain during the same time period. The effectiveness of this technique is likely due to the combination of daily accountability and visual feedback.

The National Weight Registry--a database of dieters who've maintained a minimum 30-pound weight loss for more than a year--proves that most successful "losers" do indeed weigh themselves regularly, and also exercise an hour most days of the week. While aerobic exercise is the biggest calorie burner, lifting weights can increase your metabolic rate, and yoga can check middle age spread.

This is a syndrome where your stomach regurgitates acids into the esophageal area, causing painful symptoms ranging from heartburn to persistent dry cough and raising your risk of esophageal cancer. GERD symptoms doubled with only a 3.5-point increase in body mass index (BMI) according to one Boston University study that followed 10,000 women between 1984 and 1998. That's the equivalent of a 5'6" 125-pound woman or a 5'10" 160-pound man gaining roughly 20 pounds. To calculate your BMI and find out what kind of gain would put you at risk, click here.  

These findings demonstrate that weight gain within "normal" range can cause the kind of gastrointestinal problems that are commonly associated with obesity. On the brighter side, the study also found that women who lost 3.5 BMI points experienced a 40% drop in GERD symptoms. What's more, by eating high-fiber foods such as beans, berries, green peas, apples and whole grains you'll not only fill up faster while consuming fewer calories, you'll also help maintain a healthy balance of gut microflora in the gastrointestinal tract.

Bonus: See our "Bitter Herbs for Better Health" to learn how chicory can help fight harmful gastrointestinal bacteria.

In addition to a longevity recipe for Blueberry Gazpacho (to help maintain mental acuity), brochure #8 tells you which foods are scientifically linked with lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. While healthy eating is important at all ages, every stage in life comes with its own set of nutrition priorities. As we mature, it's important to understand how aging may affect the body's ability to absorb needed nutrients or metabolize certain foods. Our longevity brochure can help you maintain the right balance based on your body's evolving needs.

Regardless of where you find yourself on your life journey, our "10 Steps to Living Beyond 100" provides a checklist for small changes you can make today to lengthen your years beyond what you thought was possible.

Download our longevity brochure today and print it out as a reference for shopping. If you want to learn more about foods that help preserve memory and slow aging, visit dolesuperfoods.com to check out our Superfoods for the Brain and Antioxidant Superfoods.

With children, research suggests that parents need to be persistent in introducing new veggies before junior palates adjust. But it's also true that trying to force certain food choices, regardless of nutrient benefit, may be fruitless, or worse, counterproductive. Fortunately, Mother Nature yields alternatives that provide similar nutrition benefits, still allowing you to eat a wide variety of healthy fruit and vegetables.

If you don't like lima beans: Load up on bananas. Limas are the top bean source of potassium (1 cup cooked supplying 20% of your daily value) a mineral needed for blood pressure regulation. Given that 90% of men and nearly 100% of women don't get enough potassium, you may want to experiment sneaking limas into your diet by adding some to recipes that call for beans. Otherwise, you'll find the same amount of potassium (and fiber) in two bananas, which also provide more of vitamins C and B6.

If you don't like eggplant: Eat more potatoes. Both eggplant and potatoes contain similar levels of age-defying, disease-fighting phytochemicals, earning both an antioxidant score in the same range as figs, red grapes and beets. Russet, red and white potatoes are all fairly high in antioxidants--just don't drown out their health benefits by deep-frying or burying potatoes in saturated fat.

If you don't like Brussels sprouts: Try cabbage. Or broccoli, or cauliflower--all belong to the family of cruciferous vegetables that boast a particularly potent class of phytochemicals called glucosinolates. Unlike the direct antioxidants found, for example, in apples, cruciferous veggies are Antioxidant Superfoods because they contain compounds that activate the body's own antioxidant defense systems. If your distaste for Brussels sprouts dates back to the over-boiled, under-seasoned veggies of distant childhood, consider trying Marie Oser's "Curried Brussels Sprouts and Baby Carrots," which could make a fan of even the most dedicated Brussels sprouts foe. 

If you don't like mushrooms: Go fish. Most mushrooms are mineral marvels, supplying iron, selenium and copper in abundance--as well as a bevy of B vitamins. The only other food having such a profile is fish. Salmon, for example, provides plenty of minerals and B vitamins plus brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and lean protein to boot.  

If you don't like raw tomatoes: Slice up watermelon. Both are excellent sources of vitamins A and C--plus top sources of lycopene, a powerful carotenoid whose myriad benefits include heart health (prevents LDL "bad" cholesterol oxidation and reduces inflammation) and protection against various cancers, such as ovarian, cervical, colorectal, lung, and most famously, prostate cancer. If you don't have a taste for raw tomatoes, but like cooked tomatoes in sauces, soups, etc., you're in luck: Cooking concentrates the lycopene and makes it more available to the body by breaking down the plant cell walls to liberate the nutrient.  

If you don't like spinach: Toss Romaine and other green leafies. Fortunately, spinach is making a comeback to many produce sections, a cause for celebration among consumers who love this leafy green's taste--and enjoy its health benefits. In fact, spinach is quite likely the most nutrient-dense vegetable that exists, qualifying for six of our eight Superfood categories. Another tender salad green that comes somewhat close is Romaine lettuce, a Superfood for your Eyes, Skin and Immunity. Romaine contains 100% vitamin A (as beta-carotene), as well as two other eye-healthy carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin. Just like spinach, Romaine is also an excellent source of folic acid and vitamins C and K--making it as good a substitute as you can get. Otherwise, try arugula, a serving of which provides 15% of your daily calcium needs, making it a Superfood for your Bones.

If you don't like broccoli: Try broccoli sprouts. Similar in looks and taste to alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts are actually the baby shoots of the broccoli plant. Like the other cruciferous veggies enumerated above, broccoli sprouts are a concentrated source of glucosinolates, having some 30-50 times as much of these indirect antioxidants as does full-grown broccoli. In addition, you may want to experiment with broccoli hybrids, such as Broccoflower (a cross between broccoli and cauliflower), or broccolini (a cross between broccoli and Chinese Kale).

If you don't like sweet potatoes: Try carrots. As Superfoods for the Eyes, both are super sources of beta-carotene, while carrots also contain lutein and zeaxanthin, which may help protect against age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among seniors. What's more, carrots have similar levels of fiber and only a third of the calories contained in sweet potatoes making them an ideal substitute for dieters on a strict calorie budget.

Furthermore, scientists from University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth demonstrated similar effects for human lung, colon and leukemia cancer cells.

These chemo-protective effects are in addition to cranberries' bounty of other health benefits: Out of the 46 fruits and vegetables highlighted on our Superfoods web site, cranberries are among the four featured foods that do double duty as both an Antioxidant Superfood and Superfood for the Heart.

If we'd created a "Superfood for your Bladder" category, cranberries would be best in class. The proanthocyanidins in cranberries may help prevent (not treat) urinary tract infections by inhibiting bacteria from adhering to bladder walls. Lab analyses suggest these protective compounds might also help suppress herpes outbreaks--a finding which, if confirmed by clinical trials, would represent a significant advance against one of the most common viral infections.

One of the cranberry's anti-cancer antioxidants--quercetin--may help reduce Alzheimer's risk and alleviate prostatitis (inflammation or infection of the prostate gland). Finally, cranberries could even help promote dental health by hindering bacteria from adhering to tooth enamel (much in the same manner as how raisins' oleanic acid may block cavity-causing bacteria).

For mouth-watering, easy ways to incorporate more cranberries into your diet, try this issue's featured Superfood Recipe, “Cranberry-Orange Sweet Potatoes,” or sample some recipes previously showcased in past DNNs, such as “Cranberry Pineapple Mold.”

Specifically, foods covered by the guidelines may not derive over 35% of their calories from fat (and no more than 10% from saturated fat), nor can sugar make up for more than 35% of the snack by weight. Notably, the guidelines promote consumption of fruit, vegetables and whole grains--all high in nutrients and relatively lower in calories. The five participating companies plan to expand their healthy offerings and reformulate some existing products in order to meet the new caps on calories, sugar, sodium and fat.

By actually transforming the choices available to children within schools, Clinton's Alliance is one step closer to the goal of halting the rise of childhood obesity, which has doubled among children and tripled among adolescents in the last two decades. During the same time period, soda consumption has increased 70% for boys and 40% for girls, while half of all elementary school-age children, on any given day, consume no fruit at all. No wonder so many children are overfed and undernourished! As discussed in the DNN's "Teen Nutrient Needs Unmet," 97% of adolescents are deficient in terms of fiber, potassium and vitamin E. For more information about childhood obesity, and tips on how to improve your own child's nutrition, download our Health & Wellness brochure #4: Healthy Kids.