For Active Lifestyles On The Go!
October 14, 2009 at 6:00 am · Filed under Nutrition
Shopping ideas that’ll give you a healthy boost.
Build a better shopping list (and body) with these healthy foods recommended by Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD, a nutrition consultant and author of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to the New Food Pyramid.
FEED YOUR BRAIN
Tufts University researchers have found that the antioxidants in blueberries and salmon may help protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
EAT FOR YOUR EYES
Eggs contain two carotenoids (lutein and zeaxanthin) that protect vision and choline, a key ingredient of a neurotransmitter that gives memory a boost. And spinach, kale, and orange bell peppers have eye-protecting carotenoids, and many fruits contain protective vitamins A, C, and E.
SNACK FOR YOUR SKIN
Milk and other foods high in vitamin D — shrimp, sardines, eggs — may lower the risk of skin cancer. Plus, studies suggest that the ellagic acid in berries can prevent or slow skin cancer.
FEAST TO FIGHT DISEASE
An excellent source of protein, pork tenderloin has less heart-clogging fat than a boneless, skinless chicken breast. And extra-virgin olive oil is low in saturated fat and fights inflammation, implicated in heart disease and cancer.
BUILD BETTER BONES
The vitamin D in milk, OJ, and shrimp helps calcium absorption. Broccoli, spinach, and romaine are rich in bone-building vitamin K.
Take a stroll: Walk to the grocery store, and you’ll get exercise while you load upon healthy ingredients.
April 7, 2009 at 1:41 pm · Filed under Health
- READ FOOD LABELS. At the supermarket, instead of just throwing items into a basket, take a minute to read the labels. Look for high-fiber cereals, granola bars, popcorn, crackers, chips, and pasta. They will fill you up and digest more slowly than foods with less fiber.
- WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING YOU EAT. Nothing stops me from over-eating faster than looking at a list of everything I put in my mouth that day. It reminds me that things like drinks and peppermints count. Everyone thinks they don’t have time to keep a food log, but it’s pretty easy to throw a journal and pen into your bag. No matter where I am, I can just pull it out and take a couple of seconds to jot down what I’ve eaten.
- SET SMALL WEIGHT LOSS AND EXERCISE GOALS. When I first started jogging, I would aim to increase my time by just 10 minutes. At the start of my exersice program, I set a reasonable weight goal. Once I met my goal, I rewarded myself with things like new workout clothes. And then I was able to make a new goal. This allows me to continue to challenge myself long after I acheived what I never dreamed possible!
- DON’T CUT OUT ALL HIGH FAT, HIGH CALORIE FOODS. I know that if I deny myself too long, those cravings will just become stronger. Instead, I allow myself to eat the foods I love: muffins, cookies, and ice cream. But I decrease the portion sizes and make sacrifices in other areas of my diet to compensate for the calories. I mentally plan ahead if I know I’m going to be faced with my favorite cheesecake over the weekend. If I decide in advance how much I’ll eat, then I am able to enjoy every bite without feeling guilty afterward.
- EAT FRUITS AND VEGETABLES FIRST. I treat meats and starches like the side dishes. The end result is I consume fewer calories and still feel very satisfied. If possible, I buy fresh produce instead of canned or frozen. My body thanks me for the fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants – and I feel great!
April 1, 2009 at 11:39 am · Filed under Nutrition
Veg Out
Good news about the fifth most common cancer in women: Certain compounds in produce may lower the risk of pancreatic cancer, reports a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Scientists examined three flavonols – kaempferol (found in spinach and cabbage), quercetin (in apples and onions), and myricetin (in red onions and berries) – by 183,518 people over 8 years. They found that those who ate the most foods containing these flavonols were 23 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who ate the least. Scientists aren’t sure why, but flavonols have been found to prevent damaged cells from reproducing and to kill off cancerous cells, lead study author Ute Noethlings, Dr.P.H., explains. It’s unclear how many servings of flavonol-full foods reduce risk, but strive for at least five servings of produce per day.
March 5, 2009 at 3:54 pm · Filed under Nutrition
In today’s world of fast foods, packaged and processed snacks, and sugar laden soft drinks, teaching your children about healthy eating habits can be a real challenge. But while it’s true that temptation is all around, it’s still possible to instill a healthy nutritional foundation in your children. In fact, now more than ever parents need to take responsibility to help their children avoid the obesity trap. The key: the earlier you start, the better.
The foundation for teaching kids about good nutrition should be laid when they are babies. Medical editor Dr. Michael Breen in Chicago suggests that parents should expose young children to new foods regularly, but separately. For example, one week you might introduce your toddler to broccoli, and the next week black beans. Breen also recommends introducing a new food alongside a child’s favorite food.
Children Do As You Do, Not As You Say
Another finding, which may not be what some parents want to hear, is that if you want your kids to eat well, you need to practice what you preach. A March 2000 study presented by the American Heart Association found a strong connection between parents who exhibited impulsive eating and obesity in their children. It’s important for parents to realize that children are being influenced by their own eating habits even if the child is not participating directly in it.
Take for example, a mother who eats a pint of ice cream out of the container while watching television with her 5 year old. While the child did not eat the ice cream them self, and in fact may only be allowed moderate portions of ice cream on occasion, the behavior of their mother is still indirectly influencing their attitude, opinions, and eventually their own eating habits.
Another interesting point brought up by this study is that parents who scored highest on the dietary restraint scale (which is a scale that measures an individual’s effort to restrict food intake) had children whose body fat was consistently higher than parents who scored lower on the scale. This suggests that parents who attempt to exert too much control over their child’s eating (I.E. “Finish all your pasta before you play” or “No dessert until you clear your plate”, etc.) may cause the child to lose their ability to regulate and recognize their own hunger cues.
So besides starting early, practicing what you preach and introducing new foods regularly, what else can you do as a parent to help foster a healthy nutritional foundation in your child? Here are some other simple tips to get you on your way:
- Limit soda to special occasions only, and instead offer water and no sugar added juices to drink. One really healthy and fun snack for kids is real fruit smoothies. They pack in the nutritional punch as well as taste so good!
- Use milk containing no more than 2% milk fat, 1% or skim is preferred
- Don’t completely restrict foods (unless of course your child has an allergy to that food). Restricting and banning certain foods tends to backfire and cause the child to seek the forbidden food even more.
- When introducing new foods, don’t force your child to eat it. If they taste it and express dislike, don’t make them finish the food. Instead, put it aside and re-introduce it in a few months, perhaps prepared differently. For example, if they didn’t like cauliflower the first time around, in a few months make it with a tasty sauce.
- Breakfast is important! If you have a child that isn’t particularly fond of traditional “breakfast foods”, a small portion of leftover dinner will do the trick. The goal is to get the metabolism going and prevent overeating at lunch or snack time from excessive hunger..
February 18, 2009 at 3:44 pm · Filed under Health, Nutrition
It’s common knowledge that ideally, for optimum health, people should eat a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables. But the reality is that most people fall short of that ideal, leaving them with a diet that is severely lacking in essential vitamins and minerals. Luckily, there are ways to compensate for a less-than-perfect diet. Vitamin and mineral supplements are a great way to fill the gaps left by your diet, or to provide a potential boost in the vitality and health of anyone.
Most dieticians and doctors will agree that it’s best to consume most of your vitamins through the foods you eat rather than through a pill. One reason for this is that vitamins in healthy foods work in conjunction with other elements in the food that are not found in supplements alone. In other words, the combined effect of the vitamins with other nutrients hold a stronger punch than vitamin supplements alone. But that’s not to say that supplements hold no value, of course.
In certain groups, in fact, vitamin supplements are imperative. It is recommended that all pregnant women, for example, consume folic acid supplements regardless of their diet to help prevent debilitating birth defects like spina bifida. Doctors also suggest that dark skinned people and people lacking regular sunlight should take vitamin D supplements. Senior citizens should take B12 complexes, and the list goes on and on.
While their potential to improve health is great, too much of a good thing can be wasteful at best, dangerous at worst. Certain supplements, like vitamins E and A for example, can be toxic in high doses so care must be taken to keep track of your supplement regimen.
While there are still naysayers who dispute the benefit of taking vitamin supplements when the diet is balanced, the fact is that when taken in appropriate doses, vitamin supplements carry little true risks, yet offer great potential benefits, such as reduced risk of cancer and heart disease.
February 17, 2009 at 11:29 am · Filed under Health, Nutrition, Smoothies
Most physical activity requires a lot of time and physical demand on your body, so taking in the proper nutrients is of the utmost importance. Whether you are Mr. Universe or an MMA champion consuming the proper amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates will give your body the energy to get through those grueling workouts and, in addition, grant you a healthy lifestyle in the long run.
So what about the different nutrients that your body takes in? Why is it so important? How much and when should you be eating? When devising your daily meal plan always divide up all your nutrients that you should be taking in over the course of 5 meals. You want to feed your body every 3-4 hours. Giving it the nutrients that it needs throughout the course of the day will maximize energy levels and consumption of vitamins and minerals.
Let’s start with protein. Everyone knows the common cliché that protein is only meant for bodybuilders who want to gain muscle. This is totally untrue. The rule for protein intake can stretch across all athletes, particularly MMA fighters. Protein is the one type of calorie that your body does not store for energy. Lack of protein throughout the day will cause you to feel sluggish, weak and in the long run you will lose overall muscle on your body. General rule for protein is that it should be taken in with every meal. Great sources of protein are chicken and turkey breast, lean red meat, fish, eggs and protein shakes. All of these sources are very low in saturated fat and will help you complete your daily protein needs.
Consumption of fats in your daily meal plan is also important and essential. Fats are needed to sustain energy levels in the body and to help in muscle repair after a
grueling workout. Try and stay away from foods that are high in saturated fat such as fried or fast food, really fatty cuts of beef and corn oils. These are the fats that will make you fat and that can raise your cholesterol levels, potentially giving you heart problems. The fats that your body needs to sustain high levels of energy are low in saturated fats but higher in mono-saturated and poly-saturated fats. These fats help you get through your training and in addition will actually help your cholesterol levels. Great fats to eat are nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts or cashews), fish (salmon, tuna, tilapia and cod), eggs, lean cuts of beef (sirloin or fillet), peanut butter, and olive oil. These fats should be used moderately throughout the day with almost every meal to sustain your performance levels.
Carbohydrates are also very important to the body because it replenishes the body of the simple sugars and starches that it needs to function at optimal performance. The two best times to take in starches are in the morning and after you workout. In both cases your body is depleted: in the morning from sleeping from 6-8 hours and not eating and after a workout when your body’s blood sugar levels have been drained from intense exercise. In both instances, carbohydrates are needed to replenish the body and to get it out of a catabolic effect, when your body burns muscle. Great carbohydrates to eat during these times are oatmeal, sweet or baked potatoes and white/brown rice. All of these sources are slower to digest and your body will utilize them throughout the day.
Carbohydrates to stay away from are breads, fast foods, pasta and refined sugars such as cakes and other desserts. These sources will spike your sugar levels in the body, making you feel very lethargic and will be stored in the body as fat. Fruits and vegetables also play an important part in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Vegetables such as salad, broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus give your body lots of vitamins and nutrients. Fruits such as apples, oranges, berries and bananas also provide the body with antioxidants to fight off any sicknesses.
Two of the highlights of this article above are on protein and carbohydrates. Protein is mentioned as a necessity with every meal and carbohydrates are mentioned as a necessity after a work out. For those who are familiar with a smoothie, it is all fruit and juice which is primarily carbohydrates.
October 16, 2008 at 5:16 pm · Filed under Health, Nutrition
While the media focus on low-carb vs. low-fat diets, they tend to miss the point about high-protein diets. It’s well known in the fitness industry that higher protein intakes help with fat loss. For one thing, protein helps control appetite.
Most bodybuilding nutritionists recommend that 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is effective for building muscle and burning fat in normal-weight men and women. But overweight individuals should have more.
A study published in The Nutrition Journal tested the effect of supplemental protein intake on weight loss in 100 obese men and women. All of the subjects received two protein-enriched meal replacement shakes per day. But half received a total of 1 extra gram of protein per pound of lean body mass per day. And the other half received a total of 0.5 extra grams of protein per pound of lean body mass per day.
At the end of 12 weeks, both groups had lost approximately 8 to 9 pounds of weight, but the higher-protein group had lost more fat (3.6 pounds vs. 1.32 pounds).
You can get protein from nuts (a few grams per ounce), beans, tofu, peanut butter, lentils, peas, bananas, apples, oranges, sesame seeds, the list goes on.
If you want to lose fat, a little extra protein can go a long way.
August 8, 2008 at 10:22 pm · Filed under Nutrition
The two most weight gaining habits that are making your belly look like jelly are snacking on high-sugar, high-carb foods late at night and drinking alcohol. There are a few solutions that can improve your health and make you leaner.
You should first make sure you eat enough during the day and at 3-4 hour intervals. This enables your body to burn fat all day, keep your metabolism at a steady rate and provides your body with nutrients all day. This will also prevent you from binging or being hungry at night. You should stop eating at least 3 hours before you go to bed because your metabolism slows down at night, leaving your late-night snacks as unburned calories and stored as fat.
You should avoid eating foods with a high-glycemic carbohydrate index. High- glycemic carbs increase blood sugar and increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease. You should avoid eating high-glycemic snacks such as ice cream, potato chips, and cookies. You should replace them with low-glycemic index carbs such as fruits and vegetables. A great idea for a healthy snack that is full of protein is a smoothie. Smoothies are often made from real fruit juice and rarely have added sugar.
If you’re on the path of trying to lose weight, you should say no to alcohol. Alcohol is full of calories and slows down your metabolism. When alcohol is ingested, it passes through the stomach and intestines, into the bloodstream, then into the liver. In the liver, it is converted into acetaldehyde, which is then converted into acetate. Because acetate is readily bio-available, your body will burn it first, instead of carbs, protein, or fat. If you do choose to have a drink, you should have it with food to slow down its absorption rate and protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine.
The next time you’re having bad-for-you food craving, pass up the donuts and go for something like a healthy smoothie. You can improve your health and lose weight today by making these simple changes to your lifestyle.
July 8, 2008 at 5:16 pm · Filed under Nutrition
| Move over pomegranates, açaí might just be the perfect food! This wild-harvested, nutrient-packed palmberry from the Amazon Rainforest is the world’s healthiest fruit. In addition to giving you a whopping boost of 100% natural energy, this “superfood” can help improve cardiovascular health, promote a healthy digestive system, reduce cholesterol, increase brain function, decrease the risk of cancer and diminish the signs of aging. How? Look below to learn more.
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| Amazon Mania (AM) has established a reputation for producing the best tasting and healthiest açaí in Brazil. What makes us different? The most obvious answer is taste. Taste test after taste test, Brazilians and Americans prefer the flavor of AçaíTwistTM to that of any other brand. In addition to its delicious taste, similar to a blend of berries and chocolate, AçaiTwistTM contains the least amount of added sugar and preservatives. A hint of guaraná is added for taste, as well as to enhance mental awareness and stamina. Moreover, AM is the only brand of açaí in the U.S. that is unpasteurized, which means it retains the taste of all of the very nutrients for which it is famous. In fact, we guarantee it is the best tasting açaí you’ll ever try. But don’t trust us, taste it for yourself. Also look for AçaíRawTM, simply pure, raw Amazon Mania Açaí.
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| Amazon Mania (AM) has quickly become one of Brazil’s top açaí suppliers. Its success can be attributed to its products’ quality, as well as its social and environmental consciousness. AM’s brand is synonymous with the world’s healthiest and best tasting açaí. Additionally, AM is dedicated to saving the Amazon by contributing 15% of net profits to funds that support education for the local, indigenous people and create economic incentives to regenerate the Rainforest. Thus, your purchase of AM products directly supports initiatives that prevent further deforestation of the Amazon.
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| There are so many uses for AçaíTwistTM that you are only limited by your imagination. Blend it by itself or add any number of healthy (or not so healthy) ingredients to create a delicious and nutritious smoothie, cocktail or snack. Try it with fruit, juice, soy milk, yogurt, liquor or ice cream. Add champagne for a refreshing brunch libation or mix in Kahlua, Bailey’s and/or vodka for a soothing nightcap. Experiment with an açaí reduction sauce for your meat or poultry. Or just sprinkle it with granola to enjoy it the traditional Brazilian way. The tasty combinations are endless. |
July 3, 2008 at 10:18 pm · Filed under Health
Consumption of green tea has been associated with a number of positive effects on health. Several studies have shown regular use of green tea can aid fat loss. Green tea is believed to augment norepinephrine, a hormone that promotes fat breakdown. Other possible benefits of green tea include decreased food intake and decreased formation of fat.
Polyphenols, the bioactive compounds in green tea, account for a third of the dry weight of the leaves. The predominant polyphenols are the catechins including epicatechin, epicatechin-3-gallate, epigallocatechin and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Most research has focused on EGCG as the predominant polyphenol.
German researchers recently tested the effects of EGCG rates of carbohydrate and fat oxidation. Subjects consumed either 300 mg of EGCG or placebo, supplementation with EGCG caused a shift in energy utilization from carbohydrate to fat oxidation. The effect was more pronounced after eating a meal. In the placebo trial, only 30% of the total energy burned after the meal was attributed to fat, whereas 54% of the energy burned came from fat oxidation after EGCG supplementation.
These results show supplementation with 300 mg EGCG encourages use of fat over carbohydrate as fuel, which provides a plausible mechanism to explain the anti-obesity effects of green tea.
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