Slash sugar in your diet without going into shock

by | Jan 22, 2014 | Diet, Sensible Eating, Sugars | 0 comments

Sugar From the sweetener you stir into your morning coffee to the after-dinner dessert you can’t resist, the amount of sugar you consume between breakfast and bedtime adds up quickly.

Americans down more than 22 teaspoons a day, according to the USDA, which is more than double what experts recommend. At the same time, research links diets high in added sugar to increased risk for diabetes, heart attack and stroke.

So what’s the best way to slash sugar without sending your relentless sweet tooth into shock?

“Save your sweet budget for things that taste great, like dessert,” suggested Jacob Teitelbaum, a physician and author of “Beat Sugar Addiction Now.”

Use the following strategies to cut sugar where it won’t be missed and ward off cravings without feeling deprived.

Commit to a sugar quota.

The first step to reducing your sugar intake: Figure out exactly how much of the sweet stuff you’re shoveling in. Find the grams of sugar on a nutrition label and divide that number by four. That’s how many teaspoons of sugar a food or drink contains. The American Heart Association recommends that women limit themselves to no more than six teaspoons or 24 grams of sugar per day and men no more than nine teaspoons or 36 grams. The good news: How you spend those spoonfuls is entirely up to you, said Teitelbaum.

Know what counts as sugar.

Natural sweeteners like evaporated cane juice, agave nectar, honey and fruit juice concentrates might have healthy advantages over refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup, but that doesn’t mean they should be excluded from your sugar budget. Also, don’t be fooled by words like “organic” or “raw” in front of a sweetener’s name – it’s still sugar.

Don’t fear all artificial sweeteners.

Sugar substitutes shouldn’t be feared, but some are healthier than others, said Teitelbaum. He recommends naturally derived, filtered zero-calorie sweeteners such as stevia and erythritol. “Keep in mind that brand matters in terms of taste,” he said. Unless stevia is properly filtered, it can leave a bitter, licorice-like aftertaste. Sweet Leaf is a good option, as are Truvia and PureVia, which are blends of stevia and erythritol. If there’s no stevia in sight and all you have to choose from are the traditional pink (saccharin), yellow (sucralose) and blue (aspertame) packets of chemical-based sweeteners, pick pink. “There’s a very long safety record with Sweet’n Low,” said Teitelbaum.

Don’t drink your fruit.

Sweetened fruit juices are one of the biggest sources of added sugar in our diets. Some varieties contain more than a teaspoon of sugar per ounce along with little real fruit. For example, a 15.2-ounce bottle of Tropicana grape juice drink packs 72 grams – 18 teaspoons’ worth – of sugar and contains only 30 percent juice.

Find good-tasting soda alternatives.

Like fruit juice, soft drinks do serious damage in the sugar department. A 20-ounce bottle of Cherry Coca-Cola is loaded with 70 grams of sugar, for example. Teitelbaum suggests switching to coconut water, which contains a fraction of the sweet stuff (a 14-ounce bottle of Zico Natural has 60 calories and 12 grams of sugar) plus at least 500 mg of potassium per serving. Or look for beverages sweetened with stevia or erythritol, like SoBe Lifewater, Vitamin Water Zero or Zevia zero-calorie soda.

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How The Corporate World Fuels Our Junk Food Addiction

by | Jan 21, 2014 | Cravings, Diet, Food Choices | 0 comments

Dinner “They don’t talk about addiction in the food industry even though they traffic in addiction. They talk about cravability,” explains writer and activist Michael Pollan in the latest RSA short.

And that cravability doesn’t come cheap — at least, not for the people eating the food.

When Pollan began learning about nutrition, he found that the single biggest factor in whether a person was eating healthily was where that person was getting their meals. Were they cooking food for themselves, or letting a corporation do the work for them?

Watch the video to learn about why outsourcing your dietary choices could be costly to your health.

10 fitness facts

by | Jan 20, 2014 | Exercise | 0 comments

Fitness Need help getting off the couch? These tips might inspire you.

1. Exercise boosts brainpower

Exercise improves your body, and your mental function, says certified trainer David Atkinson.

“Exercise increases energy levels and increases serotonin in the brain, which leads to improved mental clarity,” says Atkinson, director of program development for Cooper Ventures, a division of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas.

2. Movement melts away stress

As much as it might stress you out just to think about exercising, once you start working out, you’ll have less stress in life.

“Exercise produces a relaxation response that serves as a positive distraction,” says Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise. It also helps elevate your mood and keep depression at bay, he said.

3. Exercise gives you energy

You might be surprised at how working out for 30 minutes in the morning can change your day. When endorphins are released during exercise, “you feel much more energized the rest of the day,” says Todd A. Astorino, assistant professor of kinesiology at California State University-San Marcos.

When you improve your strength and stamina, it’s easier to accomplish everyday tasks like carrying groceries and climbing stairs.

4. It’s not that hard to find time for fitness

The key, Atkinson says, is to use your time wisely. Kill two birds with one stone.

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How to Do the Caveman Diet

by | Jan 17, 2014 | Low carb diet, Nutrition | 0 comments

The “Caveman Diet” (also referred to as the Paleo or Paleolithic diet) is based on the idea that our bodies are better adapted to what our human ancestors ate during the Paleolithic era. The premise of this diet is that you’ll regain lost fortitude and grow to be as strong and vital as our ancestors. While we don’t have the predators, caves, and short lifespans of the caveman to contend with, there is the reality that many of the foods we consume aren’t very healthy for us. And for some, a return to eating like cavemen of yore is a way of restoring a little balance. In case you’re interested in trying out this diet, here are some ways to get started.

Method 1: Get Ready

Decide what extent you’re prepared to take the diet. The elements of the caveman diet vary according to which source or practitioner of the diet you follow. However, it is possible to discern some basic elements that you can use to form your take on this diet:

  • Some followers of the caveman diet eat large quantities of meat and then fast for up to 36 hours at a time. This is supposed to emulate the times of lean in between meals that hunters and gatherers experienced. At this extreme, fruit and vegetables are appropriate but nothing baked, such as bread, or other foods that only came about with the introduction of agriculture. Be aware that some experts dispute the health benefits of fasting and the unsuitability of products created by agriculture for the human body.
  • Some caveman practitioners avoid eating items from the nightshade family. These would not have been available to paleolithic hunter gatherers. Others see this as taking things too far.
  • While some cavemen diet followers consume raw meat, others point out that paleolithic humans had fire and were able to cook.
  • Ultimately, the diet is viewed as very much “do-it-yourself”, to be tailored to suit your body’s own needs.

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Why Laughing Is Good for Your Health

by | Jan 16, 2014 | General Health | 0 comments

Old Woman An old Yiddish proverb says, “What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” Everyone knows that laughter makes you feel good and puts you in high spirits, but did you also know that laughter actually causes physiological responses that protect the body from disease and help your vital organs repair themselves? A good laugh can be compared to a mild workout, as it exercises the muscles, gets the blood flowing, decreases blood pressure and stress hormones, improves sleep patterns and boosts the immune system. Furthermore, a study by the John Hopkins University Medical School showed that humor and laughter can also improve memory and mental performance. Yet despite the fact that laughter has so many benefits, far too many of us forget to even crack a smile every once in a while, let alone laugh. The following are some ways to incorporate more laughter and joy in your life:

• Don’t take life too seriously. We all have obstacles in life and we all make mistakes. There is no reason to beat yourself up over it. In fact, if you can laugh light-heartedly at your own foibles, you’ll find that you give yourself that extra happiness and confidence boost that can get you over any hurdle. This also extends to other people. Try not to be too hard on others — a smile and a chuckle goes a lot further than criticism.

• Find the humor in a bad situation. Sure, there are some situations that are genuinely sad and certainly not laughing matters. However, most situations in life have an ironic or ludicrous side to them. The next time you feel the stress levels rising, take a minute to think about the irony of the situation and allow yourself to laugh over the things you cannot control. This will decrease the amount of cortisol that your body produces due to stress, lowering your blood pressure, blood sugar levels and heart rate.

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