How To Buy The Healthiest Yogurt

by | Dec 4, 2013 | Food Choices, Natural food, Nutrition | 0 comments

Yogurt Yogurt has earned itself a reputation as a true health-food superstar. But know this: “Yogurt can turn into junk food really quickly,” says Caroline Kaufman, RDN, a nutrition expert in San Francisco and an expert panelist for the Health Must-Eat List. Even if you skip the obvious offenders, like yogurts with crushed cookies or candy toppings, some pile on the sugar and excess calories. With so many choices out there — since 2010 alone, 671 new yogurt products have hit store shelves — how can you be sure you’re choosing wisely? These guidelines will lead you to the standouts.

Keep it simple.

To make yogurt, all that’s needed is milk and two live bacterial cultures, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, which turn the milk into yogurt via fermentation. “Beyond that, a few added extras for flavor, like a little sugar or some fruit, are fine,” Kaufman says. Steer clear of products that have long lists of ingredients with things you can’t pronounce or wouldn’t expect to see in yogurt, like hydrogenated oils and artificial sweeteners.

Look for good bugs.

Probiotics — good bacteria similar to the ones living in your digestive tract — are yogurt’s key ingredient. These beneficial bugs have been shown to help with digestion and gut health. But surprisingly, not all yogurt sold in stores actually contains “live and active cultures,” as the bacteria in yogurt are known. Some companies heat-treat yogurt after culturing, which kills off bacteria, both good and bad, to make it more shelf-stable and reduce tartness.

Make calcium count.

Yogurt is a stellar source of bone-building calcium, but the amount can vary from brand to brand. Aim for one that has at least 15 percent of the daily value for calcium; the yogurts on our list contain anywhere from 15 to 35 percent.

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Yoga Effective At Relieving Low Back Pain, Review Shows

by | Dec 3, 2013 | Exercise | 0 comments

Yoga The poses, breathing and meditation in a yoga class may do more than help you relax and feel centered. A review of evidence shows that it might relieve low Back Pain as well.

Researchers recently looked at past trials that tested how well yoga stacked up against other treatments for chronic low back pain.

The majority of the studies in this review reported significant improvements in the patients’ ability and pain levels.

In some of the trials, yoga was more effective than standard medical care and led to reduced use of pain medications.

The authors of this review suggested yoga as a viable treatment option for some patients experiencing pain in their lower backs.

William Hanney, PT, DPT, PhD, of the Program in Physical Therapy at the University of Central Florida, and colleagues conducted the review to see if yoga could help patients with lower back pain.

According to these researchers, 84 percent of people experience pain in their lower back at some point in their lifetime. For some, this pain can last for months or years and can significantly affect a patient’s quality of life.

Yoga, which is a form of exercise that focuses on postures, breathing and meditation, has been studied as a possible treatment for patients with chronic low back pain.

This review looked at 10 studies involving patients who had experienced low back pain for at least 12 weeks. Each of the studies identified yoga as a primary treatment focus.

Some of the studies compared yoga treatment to other forms of physical activity, education and other forms of medical care.

These studies also tested different types of yoga, some of which emphasized holding poses, repeating poses and correcting muscular imbalances. The researchers took note of the patients’ pain levels and levels of disability.

Dr. Hanney and colleagues found that yoga was a superior treatment for chronic low back pain compared to physical exercises, use of a self-care book and standard medical care, which often involves pain medication.

In three studies that compared yoga to stretching techniques, no treatment and usual care with advice, there was no statistical difference in lower back pain.

Several of the studies suggested that yoga reduced disability, improved quality of life and reduced the amount of pain medication that the patients used.

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Enjoy the holiday season without sacrificing fitness

by | Dec 2, 2013 | Exercise | 0 comments

Exercise The advice comes from Central Illinois health and fitness professionals, who would prefer that people start or maintain an exercise program amid the busyness of the holiday season. But they realize that’s unrealistic as even dedicated Central Illinois exercisers can’t always keep up their routines between Black Friday and New Year’s Day.

So, when you can’t do an entire workout, “go for the 15,” said Allison Wholf, wellness specialist at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, Normal. Advocating the same approach were Erin Kennedy, director of OSF St. Joseph Medical Center’s Center for Healthy Lifestyles, and Mike Trotter, lead fitness director at Gold’s Gym.

Here’s what they mean: Each day, find at least 15 minutes for dedicated exercise.

“Squeezing in 15 minutes of exercise a day is better than no exercise at all,” Kennedy said.

The goal is to get your heart rate up.

Here are examples from Kennedy, Trotter and Wholf of simple, 15-minute mini-workouts that can be done as breaks during even the busiest of days:

– Walk up and down the stairs at home, work or the store.

– Do squats (using a chair for support), jumping jacks, situps, crunches, lunges or other simple callisthenics.

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Fat Does Not Make You Fat

by | Nov 29, 2013 | Diet, High Fat Diet | 0 comments

Fat If you’re feeling completely confused about whether you should cut fat from your diet, you are not alone.  But here’s the bottom line: Fat does not make you fat or sick.

So, why do so many people believe that fat is bad for you and causes heart attacks?  This all started in the Dr. Key’s Seven Countries Study decades ago that examined heart risk based on lifestyle and dietary habits.  He found that in the countries where people ate more fat — especially saturated fat — there were more cases of heart disease, and he concluded that the fat caused the disease.  But here’s the problem with this study: Correlation is not causation.  Just because both fat intake and heart disease were higher among the same population doesn’t mean the heart disease was caused by the fat consumption.  Here’s another way to look at it: Every day, you wake up and the sun comes up, but although these events happen at the same time, you waking up doesn’t cause the sun to come up.  A study that observed this would show a 100 percent correlation between these two events, but it would be wrong to conclude that you caused the sun to rise.

Because of studies like this, we became sidetracked into believing that saturated fat causes heart disease.  But in fact, we are now learning that sugar is the true culprit, not fat.  A review of all the research on saturated fat published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found there was no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease.  And a recent editorial in the British Journal of Medicine hammers home the same point and shatters the myth that fat causes obesity and heart disease.  Researchers have found that, while it’s true that lowering saturated fat in the diet may lower total cholesterol, it’s actually lowering the good kind of cholesterol, the light, fluffy, buoyant HDL that’s not a problem.  When people eat less fat, they tend to eat more starch or sugar instead, and this actually increases their levels of dangerous cholesterol, the small, dense cholesterol that causes heart attacks.

In fact, studies show that 75 percent of people who end up in the emergency room with a heart attack have normal overall cholesterol levels.  What they do have is pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes.  So, what’s the conclusion here?  Eating a diet with good quality fat and protein prevents and even reverses diabetes and pre-diabetes (diabesity).  And eating sugar and refined carbs cause diabesity.

So, I encourage you to look at the issue of fat and sugar in a totally different way.  Don’t cut out the fat; enjoy it!

Thanksgiving For Special Diets: How To Make A Meal Everyone Can Eat

by | Nov 28, 2013 | Diet, Food Choices, Low carb diet, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

Thanksgiving What happens when a vegan, a person on the Paleo diet and a gluten-free eater sit down together to a Thanksgiving dinner?

It sounds like the intro to a joke, but it’s a real conundrum for the many people who have guests and loved ones with multiple dietary restrictions. Though it can be tough to plan a meal in which every guest can eat everything, there are several strategies that can make Turkey Day dining healthy and nutritious for everyone, experts say.

“The biggest thing is just keeping it simple,” said Cassie from DietitianCassie.com(whose last name is Bjork), a registered, licensed dietitian and health coach. “The shorter the ingredient list, the better.”

Creating a meal with lots of side dishes that emphasize fruits and veggies can also make the Thanksgiving menu a crowd-pleaser, Cassie said.

Simple meals

Those who follow the Paleo diet typically shun grains, sugars, dairy and processed foods, and instead try to eat foods that ancient hunter-gatherers would have eaten before the agricultural revolution. Those foods usually include fish, wild game and poultry, as well as fruits, vegetables and eggs. (Some on the diet also eat nuts.)

For those folks, simple staples such as green-bean casserole or mashed cauliflower work well. The green beans can be made with a healthy serving of coconut oil and homemade mushroom soup. Turkey is an easy staple that Paleo dieters can enjoy while getting adequate protein and fat, Cassie told LiveScience.

Other dishes can be modified to make them Paleo-friendly. For instance, sweet-potato casserole can be made without the marshmallows and cream.

Carb-conscious

Many people (including people on the Paleo diet) now follow a gluten-free diet, avoiding any foods that contain the protein gluten.

Still others are struggling with type 2 diabetes and must stick to a low-carb diet as a result.

For all these groups, it’s best to steer clear of white flour as a thickener, but either coconut or almond flour can be used as a substitute.

For dessert, make a coconut-milk, pumpkin custard instead of a pie, she said.

And for those who eat nuts, one option is to make the crust out of nuts, Franziska Spritzler, a registered dietitian and diabetes educator who runs lowcarbdietitian.com, wrote in an email. Having some unsweetened whipped cream on the side can provide a satisfying, low-carb treat, she said.

Even without the sweet treats, there are plenty of other options on the traditional Thanksgiving table for the carb-conscious.

“Turkey is virtually carb-free and an excellent source of protein,” Spritzler wrote. “Green beans, salad and other low-carb vegetables are important to consume because they provide fiber and phytonutrients (plant nutrients) that have beneficial health effects.”

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