Monday, 29 July 2013
Health Benefits Of Broccoli
Broccoli contains high levels of both calcium and vitamin K, both of which are important for bone health and prevention of osteoporosis. Like many whole foods, broccoli is packed with soluble fiber that draws cholesterol out of your body. Broccoli contains glucoraphanin, which the body processes into the anti-cancer compound sulforaphane. Lightly blanche in boiling water to not destroy the nutrients. It's a great superfood for good health and healthy eating.
Sunday, 28 July 2013
My Top 10 Healthy Snacks
I often get asked what kinds of foods I eat in order to maintain my weight. A lot of those questions are about snacking – especially for those of us who have desk jobs and without-fail, get the “munchies” around 3 or 4pm! So I thought I’d put together a list of my top 10 healthy snacks – those that I eat on a regular basis that are filling, tasty but still healthy and low in calories. My general rule for snacking is I try to eat whole foods – so I stay away from most packaged goods if I can help it. But I am including a few of my favorite packaged goodies in the list below for those emergency situations! 
Hope this is helpful to all of you!
Hope this is helpful to all of you!
Top 10 Healthy Snacks
1) FRUIT! Fruit is an awesome snack – and it’s available year round! Most fruits are high in fiber, sweet, tasty, and filling. In the Fall, I go for Fuji Apples, Grapes and Bosc Pears (but any Pear will do!). In the Winter, I go for Oranges (I love blood oranges), Apples, Tangerines, Bananas (but be careful – one banana can have up to 130 calories). Spring and Summer are awesome, because there are so many options! My favorites for Spring/Summer are: Apricots, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Grapes, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, and Stone Fruits like Peaches, Plums, Nectarines, Pluots (which is a Plum/Apricot hybrid that is usually sweeter than a Plum).
2) Raw Veggies with Hummus (or other healthy ) Dip: Carrot sticks, celery sticks, Raw broccoli, etc are all good options. I like to eat them with 2-3 Tbsp Hummus. But you can also eat them with Laughing cow cheese, or fat free dressing (~25-35 calories per serving).
3) Non-Fat Yogurt with 1/4 cup Fiber One or All Bran Cereal: This is a great snack and very filling. The yogurt gives you lots of protein and the fiber one has (of course) fiber, and is only about 30 calories for 1/4 cup! I like Fage 0% Greek Yogurt – which is only 90 calories but packs over 10g protein! You can sweeten the yogurt with a bit of splenda or sugar free preserves, or honey (but don’t go overboard with the honey – 1 Tbsp has about 60 calories!). By the way – one trap a lot of people fall into is topping their yogurt with Granola. Granola (though it sounds healthy) is actually FULL of sugar and calories. 1/4 cup can have up to 100-150 calories!
4) Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds: Yeah, yeah, I know these are kind of a dessert. But dark chocolate (make sure you get the kind that’s like 70% cacao) is full of antioxidants, and almonds are full of fiber and protein! These also satisfy a sweet tooth really well Just make sure you read the label and don’t take more than 100-150 calories (which is probably about 4-7 almonds depending on their size)
5) Nuts and Dried Fruit: The key here, is to make sure the nuts you buy are just that – nuts. The package should have one ingredient (maybe two if they roast the nuts with salt). My favorites are Almonds, Walnuts and Cashews. The same rule applies for dried fruit – there shouldn’t be any added sugars or oils on the packaging. I like raisins, dried blueberries and dried cranberries. The one trap people fall into with nuts and dried fruit is they take too much – and end up eating like 500 calories. 1/4 cup of almonds is about 150-170 calories (applicable for most nuts). So I’d aim for about 2 Tbsp nuts and 2 Tbsp dried fruits. That should be filling enough to hold you over until your next meal! 
6) 100 Calorie Packs: So this is one of my packaged snacks on the list – 100 calorie packs! These are great because they are already portioned out – and it feels like you’re eating a lot when you get to finish the bag. The other great thing is – they come in like 1,000 different varieties now. They even have 100 calorie pack hostess cupcakes! So pick your favorite, and enjoy!
7) 1 Slice of Oroweat Double Fiber Bread (toasted) with 1 Garlic Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge: The great thing about this bread, is it has like 7g fiber and only 70 calories per slice! The Laughing cow cheese wedges are only 30 calories per wedge, and one is more than enough to spread over a slice of bread. I like to toast the bread so it’s crispy, and spread on the cheese while the bread is hot so the cheese gets nice and melty 100 calories and a great snack!
8 ) Pretzels, PopChips, All Bran Fiber Crackers (only take about 100 calories worth – for the Fiber Crackers, that’s about 10 of them): This is a good snack if you want something crispy, salty, but you don’t want to eat a bag of potato chips. By the way – PopChips taste a lot like potato chips but are much healthier! These are also all good packaged snack options when you’re on the run.
9) Tea and a 2/3 cup of Kashi Heart to Heart Cereal: When I’m sort of hungry, but not really hungry – I’ll usually make myself a nice cup of hot tea (black tea with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, splenda, and 1/4 cup of nonfat milk is my favorite). If I want something to munch on, I’ll take a handful of Kashi Heart to Heart Cereal – and depending on how big a handful I take – that’ll end up being ~50 calories.
10) Protein Bars: My favorites are CORE Bars, Odwalla Bars and Lara Bars. They all have > 4g fiber; about ~200-300 calories; and at least 5-6g protein. I love all the CORE Bar flavors, But Raw Cashew and Banana Nut are my favs. My favorite Lara Bar flavors are Cashew Cookie and Peanut Butter Cookie. My favorite Odwalla bar flavors are Chocolate Peanut and Dark Chocolate Walnut.Wednesday, 24 July 2013
A Cheesy Pizza Alternative
Most pizzas are not something you want to indulge in on a regular basis, especially if you usually down two slices or more. But if you have a weakness for cheesy pie, try this pizza alternative. It's a cinch to whip up, and since the dough is made from slices of packaged quinoa polenta, it's also gluten-free. The warm and juicy baked tomato melts in your mouth, and the basil adds the perfect hint of summer.
Quinoa Polenta Pizza
Serves: 3
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tube quinoa polenta, sliced into 15 1/4-inch slices
3 Roma tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tube quinoa polenta, sliced into 15 1/4-inch slices
3 Roma tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour oil into a medium-sized saucepan and heat over low heat. Place polenta in the pan and cook on each side for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from heat and place on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Top each piece with 1 slice of tomato, and sprinkle with cheese and fresh basil. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour oil into a medium-sized saucepan and heat over low heat. Place polenta in the pan and cook on each side for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from heat and place on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Top each piece with 1 slice of tomato, and sprinkle with cheese and fresh basil. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Nutrition score per serving (5 pieces): 253 calories, 9g fat (3g saturated), 32g carbs, 10g protein, 3g fiber, 3g sugars
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Losing 10 Pounds Could Save Your Life
We all want to lose a few pounds to look smashing in our swimsuits or squeeze into that adorable pair of skinny jeans. Most women – and many men for that matter – are perpetually self-conscious about our muffin top or bulging thighs. In the case of people who are truly overweight or obese, however, the concern over weight is about more than just vanity. If you’re one of these folks — and there are millions in the United States – losing as little as ten pounds can literally help save your life, or at least, extend it by a few years. So, instead of obsessing over how you look in the mirror, think about the health consequences of excess body fat and what you can do create a leaner, healthier you.
Shedding just 5 to 10 percent of your body weight goes a long way in battling chronic diseases – even if you’re still above your ideal weight. Your glucose levels will improve, helping to thwart diabetes, your blood pressure will drop and your cholesterol levels will reach a healthier range. Improvements in blood pressure and cholesterol are especially important because these factors help determine whether or not you have a heart attack or stroke – and heart disease is the number-one cause of death in the United States.
Smaller efforts, Big Impact
The fact that modest weight loss brings tangible health rewards is very good news, as it means that smaller efforts can make a big impact. The thought of losing large amounts of weight can seem daunting – and if you’ve ever watched an episode of “The Biggest Loser,” you may have the impression that starvation and torturous exercise are on the agenda if you want to slim down. But the truth is that some simple lifestyle changes are all you need to lose a small percentage of body fat.
For instance, if you remove two sweetened beverages or servings of potato chips a day from your diet, you’ll consume about 300 fewer calories per day. (A pound of fat is about 3,500 calories, so you’d lose 1 pound every 12 days.) Add a brisk 30-minute walk (which burns about 150 calories for a 155-pound person) five days a week and you’ll lose the weight even faster. That’s totally doable, and you’d lose 10 pounds in a couple of months’ time with these combined modifications.
For painless success, forget restrictive diets altogether and instead focus on eating whole, natural foods while upping your physical activity. Include fruits and vegetables in each meal to help you feel satisfied on fewer calories, as these foods have filling fiber and water. The same is true of whole grains – choose whole-wheat pasta over the white variety, and oatmeal over sugary cold cereals.
Portion control is also key, and serving sizes are probably smaller than you think. For example, 1/2 cup of cooked rice or cooked beans, 1/4 cup of nuts or 3 ounces of cooked fish equal a serving. By staying conscious of the amount of food on your plate, you can lose enough weight to make a major difference in your health – and yes, feel better about your reflection in the mirror.
http://www.undergroundhealth.com/losing-10-pounds-could-save-your-life/
Shedding just 5 to 10 percent of your body weight goes a long way in battling chronic diseases – even if you’re still above your ideal weight. Your glucose levels will improve, helping to thwart diabetes, your blood pressure will drop and your cholesterol levels will reach a healthier range. Improvements in blood pressure and cholesterol are especially important because these factors help determine whether or not you have a heart attack or stroke – and heart disease is the number-one cause of death in the United States.
Smaller efforts, Big Impact
The fact that modest weight loss brings tangible health rewards is very good news, as it means that smaller efforts can make a big impact. The thought of losing large amounts of weight can seem daunting – and if you’ve ever watched an episode of “The Biggest Loser,” you may have the impression that starvation and torturous exercise are on the agenda if you want to slim down. But the truth is that some simple lifestyle changes are all you need to lose a small percentage of body fat.
For instance, if you remove two sweetened beverages or servings of potato chips a day from your diet, you’ll consume about 300 fewer calories per day. (A pound of fat is about 3,500 calories, so you’d lose 1 pound every 12 days.) Add a brisk 30-minute walk (which burns about 150 calories for a 155-pound person) five days a week and you’ll lose the weight even faster. That’s totally doable, and you’d lose 10 pounds in a couple of months’ time with these combined modifications.
For painless success, forget restrictive diets altogether and instead focus on eating whole, natural foods while upping your physical activity. Include fruits and vegetables in each meal to help you feel satisfied on fewer calories, as these foods have filling fiber and water. The same is true of whole grains – choose whole-wheat pasta over the white variety, and oatmeal over sugary cold cereals.
Portion control is also key, and serving sizes are probably smaller than you think. For example, 1/2 cup of cooked rice or cooked beans, 1/4 cup of nuts or 3 ounces of cooked fish equal a serving. By staying conscious of the amount of food on your plate, you can lose enough weight to make a major difference in your health – and yes, feel better about your reflection in the mirror.
http://www.undergroundhealth.com/losing-10-pounds-could-save-your-life/
Saturday, 6 July 2013
The later you stay up, the more you eat, study shows
Ryan McVay / Getty Images stock
Dude, it's time to go to bed. A new study found people who got only four hours of sleep for five consecutive nights ate more fatty foods and gained 2.2. pounds on average.
New research published today in the journal Sleep confirms what scientists have been telling us for some time now: the later you stay up, the more sleep you lose, the more calories you’ll eat, and the more weight you’ll gain.
In a first-of-its-kind experiment, sleep researchers from the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, found that when test subjects went to bed at 4 a.m. and woke four hours later at 8 a.m., they consumed about 550 calories after 11 p.m., far more than their bodies needed. In addition, more of those 550 calories came from fat, resulting in a weight gain, on average, of about 1 kilo (2.2. pounds) after five consecutive nights of limited sleep.
Research over the years has produced similar findings, but the new Penn study is significant because it used 225 people. And because the research took place in a lab, scientists were able to control for a variety of factors.
Andrea Spaeth, a doctoral candidate and the study’s lead author, called the logistics “a nightmare” but worthwhile because it increased the power of the results.
Spaeth said participants in the study could eat almost whenever they wanted and as much as they wanted. Meal sizes did not differ between baseline days and the five experimental days, or between the sleep-deprived group and a small control group. “But [the deprived group] ate more times through the day and shifted their calorie intake toward late night,” she explained. “The next morning they’d actually eat less.”
African-Americans were especially vulnerable to the effects of sleep deprivation. African-American men gained the most weight (about 1.7 kilos or 3.7 pounds), followed by African-American females and white men (both just under 1 kilo or 2.2 pounds), and white women (almost one-third kilo or .7 pounds).
“This is the first racial difference in such a study,” explained Kenneth Wright, associate professor in the department of integrative biology and the director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “This provides experimental evidence for what we see in the epidemiological literature, that African-Americans seem to be more influenced by the effects of sleep loss.”
Why that is, and why exactly anybody gains weight with sleep loss is still somewhat mysterious, Wright explained. In an experiment released earlier this year, his lab found that key hormones regulating food intake, like ghrelin and leptin, were within normal levels in sleep deprived people, but they still ate more.
It could be, he speculated, that control centers of the brain – i.e., willpower – are weakened, causing us to seek rewarding, pleasurable food, which could explain why we tend to eat fattier food late at night. We’re seeking comfort. But there are other factors at work, too.
“We have biological mechanisms to prompt us to consume more energy” when we’re awake, Spaeth said. But such evolutionary adaptation does not account for the fact that modern man in western society no longer has to hunt down an antelope or dig up a tuber to get food. All we have to do is open the refrigerator. “What we’re doing is really overcompensating for small increases in energy requirements.”
This is partly why shift work can be so detrimental to health, Wright said. “Shift work goes against the fundamental biological clock in our brain. We evolved to be awake during the day when we are supposed to be physically active and consuming food. When we are awake at night, the circadian clock does not adapt. There are consequences to that…That’s why shift workers are at greater risk for many health problems we see in modern society.”
Shift work isn’t going away any time soon, though. Wright said finding ways to compensate for this circadian havoc is a key goal of chronobiological research.
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Omega3 Oils Are Important For Good Health
No matter what time of year it is, now is a good time to make new goals toward a healthier lifestyle. Part of this plan should involve some exercise every day, eating more nutritious foods including those rich in omega3 oils, and getting preventive wellness exams with your doctor. Don't be too idealistic, but create objectives that are truly reachable for you. It is better to take small, sure steps and reach a goal than to try to take huge leaps only to stumble and fail.
You don't have to go out and buy a lot of gym equipment to achieve adequate exercise. Just thirty minutes of aerobic type exercise like bicycling, swimming, stair climbing, or even brisk walking will do wonders for you if done regularly. An excellent goal would be to set a time to do this on a daily basis.
It is important to re-evaluate our eating habits often, at the least on an annual basis.
It is easy to fall into the fast food, grab and go lifestyle. We need to step back and take a closer look at what our body needs, and include more nutrient-rich foods and supplements in our diets, like omega3 oils.
You will be off to a great heart-healthy start if three quarters of the food on your plate are made up of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Then fill the final one-fourth with cold-water, fatty fish like salmon, albacore tuna, sardines, or herring which are rich in the essential fatty acids DHA and EPA from their omega3 oils that are crucial for proper heart and brain function. Although fish is the better choice, lean meat, poultry and eggs are also some good protein sources. Don't forget the importance of staying hydrated so drink plenty of water throughout the day as well.
It is wise to get an annual physical exam and have some routine tests done as a good preventive measure. Some of these tests include but are not limited to blood cholesterol, blood pressure, mammogram for women, and prostrate exam for men.
A proper cholesterol profile can decrease your risk of heart disease. Your numbers for total cholesterol should be below 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) to be at the lowest risk. Your HDL (high density lipoprotein), also known as the good cholesterol, needs to be at above forty mg/dL for men and above fifty mg/dL for women. Your LDL (low density lipoprotein), known as bad cholesterol, should be under 100 mg/dL.
It is one of the ingredients in artery-narrowing plaque. Triglycerides give your body energy, but cause problems when excessive amounts thicken artery walls, and these numbers should stay under 150 mg/dL.
There are times when it is still difficult to be sure we have taken in adequate amounts of much needed vitamins, minerals, and omega3s. It is a good idea to take a good natural multi-vitamin and omega3 oils dietary supplement to ensure that you are getting the sufficient nutrients needed for optimum health.
So get off that couch, take a brisk walk, and when you return prepare a delicious meal containing fruits, veggies, whole grains and fish rich in omega3 oils. Then you can relax in the fact that you are well on your way to achieving your goals for a healthier lifestyle.
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