Archive for the ‘Food’ Category:
Healthy Living In A Bad Economy
The unemployment rate is dropping and the stock market is well off its 2009 low, but there’s no question that the economy remains a stagnant one these days. For federal and state governments, such a stagnation translates into budget deficits, political criticisms, and long-term solvency concerns. For the average American, however, the fears often fall even closer to home. Whether you’ve been laid off, are making less money, or simply find yourself faced with ever-growing expenses, your personal finances are likely more pressing today than they were five years ago.
The situation has had led to numerous reverberations across private and public society. But there’s one key impact that few people discuss: the ramifications of a bad economy on healthcare and healthy living.
Over the past several years Americans have forgone doctor’s visits and switched to generic prescriptions. They have canceled gym members and stopped buying natural foods. In short, they have restrained their healthy lifestyles due to a belief that such a lifestyle is inherently more expensive to maintain.
While certainly valid in some cases, this perception is generally a false one. Healthy living and cost-conscious behaviors are actually mutually inclusive. The problem, however, is that most people overestimate the expenses associated with a healthy lifestyle. For example, although life insurance does nothing to improve the health of the individual, it is a vital policy for securing the long-term care of family members. Yet most Americans overestimate the cost of a policy by a factor of three, thus insuring lower coverage rates. If you’re one of these people, click here to compare quotes and see for yourself.
So how can one improve their health while reducing their costs? Here are a few suggestions:
-Run or bike to work. With gas prices expected to peak this summer, the cost of transportation is poised to take a hefty chunk out of the average middle-class budget. Fortunately, by embracing a healthy lifestyle, you can leave the car at home, save money, and get an excellent workout on your way to the office.
-Buy fresh produce. There’s a common misconception that healthier foods are generally more expensive one. While the belief may stem from the inflated prices at many upscale grocers, not every healthy option is as expensive as Whole Foods. Instead, by visiting farmer’s markets and buying basic produce whenever possible, you may come to realize that certain healthy items (ie vegetables, fruits, beans, and rice) are actually among the cheapest nutrients out there,
-Forgo restaurant meals. On a similar note, restaurants comprise a disproportionate share of our food budgets and of our unhealthy eating habits. By minimizing or reducing the frequency with which you dine out, then, you can kill both of these vices with one stone.
-Do exercises at work. A gym membership should not be a prerequisite for a healthy lifestyle. All you need to stay fit, after all, is a pair of shoes and a nearby sidewalk. But many people prefer the routine that a gym workout can provide. For these people, a short routine during the day can accomplish the same objective. Pushups, situps, plank hold, squats, wall sits, and stair runs can also be done at work, while on a time budget.
-Cancel those subscriptions. When assessing why our expenses have gone up over time, many of us can probably identify one factor that stands above the rest: technology. Thanks to smartphones, satellite television, and streaming video services, it is becoming more and more often acceptable to pay more for such perks than for basic utilities. Cutting back on your technology spend can thus save you money. At the same time, of course, it may encourage you to get outside and seek entertainment elsewhere.
These are just a few of the many ways that a person can cut costs and live a healthier life. While it often seems as though money can buy anything in today’s consumerist society, the reality is that our bodies don’t require any luxuries in order to enjoy wellness – a good lesson to keep in mind, especially these days.
Subscribe to the comments for this postWhite Rice Increases Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
An analysis released by the British Medical Journal collected a variety of studies from China, Japan, Australia and the United States to conclude that your risk of diabetes increases 10% with each serving of white rice a day. It’s better to stick with brown rice and other whole grains instead of processed white rice, which is full of refined carbohydrates.
Four articles were identified that included seven distinct prospective cohort analyses in Asian and Western populations for this study. A total of 13 284 incident cases of type 2 diabetes were ascertained among 352 384 participants with follow-up periods ranging from 4 to 22 years. Asian (Chinese and Japanese) populations had much higher white rice consumption levels than did Western populations (average intake levels were three to four servings/day versus one to two servings/week). The pooled relative risk was 1.55 (95% confidence interval 1.20 to 2.01) comparing the highest with the lowest category of white rice intake in Asian populations, whereas the corresponding relative risk was 1.12 (0.94 to 1.33) in Western populations (P for interaction=0.038). In the total population, the dose-response meta-analysis indicated that for each serving per day increment of white rice intake, the relative risk of type 2 diabetes was 1.11 (1.08 to 1.14) (P for linear trend<0.001).
The Holistic Health of Eating Organic
There are many reasons why someone would choose to adhere to an organic regiment in their diet and lifestyle. Organic foods and products are healthier, they support local farmers, and they protect the environment and the Earth’s natural ecosystems. These are all important and they affect everyone on Earth, from children to politicians to animals. But there’s an additional reason why eating and living organic is important and it has to do with holistic well being – a component that is often over-looked, yet in many ways it is the most important. It is precisely the lack of comprehensive oversight that has allowed our world to get so out of hand in the first place. Here some of the ways holistic health plays into eating organic:
Eliminating the synthetic chemicals, hormones and pesticides from your meals is cleansing. Your body is a temple and when you don’t eat organic you litter it with chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, artificial GMO products and synthetic animal hormones. Hook yourself up to a blood monitoring system and see where your levels are at. You may be shocked at the effects the substances you put in your body are having on your long term health.
Protecting the planet will allow future generations of humans to enjoy life on Earth longer. Living sustainably, which is a hallmark of organic farming and manufacturing processes, is crucial in ensuring that the bounty of our planet will be around for our children and their children. The natural pristine environments we’ve been fortunate enough to inherit are being poisoned and ruined by carbon emissions. Eating organic supports sustainability and healthy environmental practices.
Supporting local farmers can be viewed as social and ecological justice. Supporting local farmers and organic farming practices supports economic equality, stewardship of the land, and cleansed, natural ecosystems, all of which are in keeping with a holistic planetary health. Using the resources of the Earth in the most efficient, fair way possible is what organic farming is all about. Organic farms protect us from genetically enhanced, synthetic chemicals; the least we can do is to support their efforts.
We have a responsibility as children of the Earth to keep our bodies and environments clean and healthy. The ability of future generations of humans to enjoy our planet and the glory of life on it depends on supporting more sustainable practices. We must begin to view the interactions between our actions, our health and the health of the ecosystems around us as part of an all-important holistic health.
FDA: Antibiotics in Animals Pose Risk
This topic has been in the news quite a bit lately, along with genetically modified organisms and cloned animals, but I think the use of antibiotics in food production poses a much bigger risk. The FDA has announced that they believe giving animals antibiotics for the purposes of increasing food production poses a threat to public health (link). The practice is giving rise to drug-resistant bacteria because the antibiotics are being administered to animals before they get sick.
The FDA has issued draft guidance on the matter and the guidance is based on two principles:
- Antibiotics should only be given to food animals if it’s to protect their health,
- All antibiotic use by animals should be overseen by veterinarians.
“We are seeing the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens,” FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, MD, said at a news conference. “FDA believes overall weight of evidence supports the conclusion that using medically important antimicrobial drugs for production purposes is not appropriate.”
This is scary stuff.
Brands Dropping High Fructose Corn Syrup
After the Princeton study that showed High Fructose Corn Syrup promotes weight gain, a lot of companies have taken it out of their products. Con Agra, makers of Hunt’s ketchup, have taken it out of the popular tomato based product. Kraft is taking it out of Wheat Things. Look for it in bottles of Snapple and you’ll be disappointed, they are taking it out too. Whether or not it promotes weight gain, whether or not high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, the reality is that families don’t want it anymore. If consumers don’t want it, companies won’t put it in.
The Death of High Fructose Corn Syrup [BNet]
Pure Maple Syrup is Good For You!
A research at the University of Rhode Island has discovered that there are more than 20 compounds in maple syrup beneficial to human health. Thirteen of the compounds are newly discovered plus an additional eight in the maple family. The story cites maple syrup from Canada, which is a little dicey considering the study was paid for by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF) program and I find it difficult to believe that it wouldn’t be present in maple syrup made in the United States. 
So what are these goodies? It’s been known to have had several anti-oxidants before the study but they discovered phenolics, which is the class of anti-oxidants found in berries, were produced as a defense mechanism. When the sugar maple is tapped for sap, the tree produces a small amount of phenolics, which is magnified when the sap is boiled down into syrup. The heating process also creates other bioactive compounds.
That being said, you probably should chug maple syrup a la Super Troopers but splashing a bit on your pancakes in the morning does have benefits!
How To Eat Healthy At Fast Food Joints
Reader’s Digest offered up twenty three ways you can go through the drive thru and still eat healthy. I don’t frequent fast food places very often, partially for health reasons but mostly because I find them boring, but sometimes you really have no choice. You get to the airport and the food court consists of McDonald’s, Panda Express, a Starbucks, and a few other locally owned versions of other fast food chains. Even in those cases, keeping these tips in mind are helpful.
Some of the tips are obvious ones – go for the salad minus fried toppings, skip the cheese (the cheese at McDonalds has 50 calories and 2 grams of sat. fat!), ask for extra veggies. Some others are not as obvious such as:
7. Use hot sauce, not ketchup, on your french fries. Hot sauce is low in calories, has a big, adventurous flavor, and contains nutrients that are particularly good for your body. Plus, it gets you drinking lots of water, which reduces your appetite.
While they don’t quantify the difference, as I suspect it’s not much, but the idea that it gets you to drink lots of water is a clever one.
14. Get skinless chicken. This is particularly important when you’re hitting KFC, home of the finger-lickin’ good fried chicken. Ditch the skin — and much of the batter — and you’ll save 240 calories and 16 grams of fat on a typical serving.
I guess skin isn’t in anymore.
What are Probiotics?
No doubt you’ve heard of the latest health craze that’s been sweeping the food aisles of your grocery stores. There’s been a lot of talk about “probiotics” and how eating them can improve your digestive system and make you generally healthier. Like many of the other things you’ve read, you might be wondering if it’s true, bullshit, or something in between… right?
Well, probiotics are good. The FAO/WHO defines probiotics as: “Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host.”
Practically, probiotics are foods or dietary supplement that contain “good” bacteria, which are normally found in your body. If you’re familiar with Dannon’s Activia yogurt, then you’re familiar with a probiotic food (ignoring the Dannon lawsuit settlement). Yogurt, fermented and unfermented milk, juices, and other products are probiotics.
There’s research that probiotic supplements and foods can help with digestive issues like diarrhea after antibiotics, irritable bowel syndrome, and other problems of the digestive tract.
Are they a cureall? No and the research is still preliminary so time will tell how helpful probiotics are.
(Photo: mjecker)
New Pom Antioxidant Super Teas
This is a guest post from my wife. She’s a big fan of POM Wonderful so she was especially thrilled to try out their new line of super teas. A PR firm sent us a few bottles and here is what she thoughts of them.
I had the pleasure of trying the new Pom Antioxidant Super Teas this past week. I’m a big fan of Pom Wonderful with its super delicious, not too sweet, taste so I was really excited to try four of the Pom Tea flavors. I tried two of the regular Pomx Teas: Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea and two of the Pomx Light Teas: Pomegranate Hibiscus Green Tea and and Pomegranate Wildberry Light White Tea.
All four were really yummy however of the light teas the Pomegranate Hibiscus was my favorite and the Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea was my favorite of the regular teas. The flavors of the peach came through clearly and the tea was not as sweet as some other peach teas. Also, it only has 80 calories per serving so 160 for the whole bottle. The light teas, including the Hibiscus Green Tea only have 35 calories, or 70 for a whole bottle. I was surprised after opening the Hibiscus Green Tea that the flavors were delicate and subtle while still providing a yummy and refreshing drink. It also did not have a “light” drinks aftertaste, a big plus in my book!
My favorite thing about these teas is that they provide you with more antioxidant potency than “red wine, green tea, grape and acai extracts” but with all the taste of a refreshing tea drink. They are all sweet but not too sweet when drinking by themselves or accompanying a meal. Another plus is that all of the teas that I tried contain between 1mg – 3mg of caffeine per serving or 2mg – 6mg of caffeine for a whole bottle.
A few notes: they are perishable and need to be kept refrigerated.
(Photo: absolutely_loverly)
Coolest Fruit on Earth: Miracle Fruit Synsepalum dulcificum
I first read about this crazy berry, scientifically named the Synsepalum dulcificum, on Environmental Graffiti. It turns out that the small berry turns sour flavors into sweet flavors. There’s a protein in the Synsepalum dulcificum called miraculin (really???). Miraculin, when it comes into contact with acids, results in a sweet taste.
They learned about it in a New York Times article about the fantastic stuff. Turns out bartenders are playing with it, people are having flavor-tripping parties, and just having a grand old time.
How crazy?
CARRIE DASHOW dropped a large dollop of lemon sorbet into a glass of Guinness, stirred, drank and proclaimed that it tasted like a “chocolate shake.”
Nearby, Yuka Yoneda tilted her head back as her boyfriend, Albert Yuen, drizzled Tabasco sauce onto her tongue. She swallowed and considered the flavor: “Doughnut glaze, hot doughnut glaze!”
Someone should try Dave’s Insanity Sauce!
