Cell Damage - More on Diet Soda...

I love that the TV show Parks and Recreation just aired an episode on oversized soda drinks!  Here is another reason to stay away from the stuff...

Diet sodas contain something many regular sodas don't: mold inhibitors. They go by the names sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, and they're in nearly all diet sodas. But many regular sodas, such as Coke and Pepsi, don't contain this preservative.

That's bad news for diet drinkers. "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it - they knock it out altogether," Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told a British newspaper in 1999. The preservative has also been linked to hives, asthma, and other allergic conditions, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Since then, some companies have phased out sodium benzoate. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have replaced it with another preservative, potassium benzoate. Both sodium and potassium benzoate were classified by the Food Commission in the UK as mild irritants to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.

Until Monday - Keep thinking veggies and protein!

Black Pepper...

Black pepper, which comes from the Piper nigrum plant, has been linked with health benefits ranging from fighting bacteria, to helping the digestive system, WebMD reports.

Plus, a recent study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry shows that pipeline in black pepper—which is the compound responsible for its spicy taste—could impact the production of fat cells by affecting gene activity, HuffPost UK reported.

We almost always use more pepper then most people :)

Lawnmower Lunge...

OK - I had a rough summer this year!  Issues with my lower back, glutes and time.  I had to lay off crunches - even on my stability ball.  Effect - a slight muffin top :(.  I am going to give this a try! I LOVE Shape Magazine!

What happens when you combine a classic upper-body exercise with a super-effective lower-body toner? Major core activation! And you'll also work your back, legs, and glutes.

Reps: 15/side

How to do it: Grab a dumbbell in your left hand and stand in a split stance with your left foot forward, right heel lifted off the floor. Reach both arms toward the floor as you hinge forward from your hips, keeping your back naturally arched, and lower into a lunge position. Shift your weight into your front leg and rise up out of your lunge, lifting your back leg off the floor to hip height as you row the dumbbell to the left side of your body. Slowly lower back down into your lunge position, returning to start, and repeat.

Form tip: If it's too challenging to lift your back leg up, start by keeping your toes lightly touching the ground as you perform the row.

Water...

It Boosts Brainpower!

Your brain needs a lot of oxygen to function at optimum levels, so drinking plenty of water ensures that it’s getting all it needs. In fact, drinking eight to 10 cups of water per day can improve your levels of cognitive performance by as much as 30 percent.

The door swings both ways: Research shows that a dehydration level of just 1 percent of your body weight reduces thinking functions, so staying well-hydrated is super important for your mental performance.

McDonald’s Adds Calorie Counts to Menu... 

This is BIG news and I think this article from Shape Magazine sums it up very nicely!  I for one have never been a big fan of these "fast food" chains, but I am so glad to see these changes.  Some people might not care or even look at this information, but at least the information is getting out there and it could help!

McDonald’s announced that the chain will be posting calorie counts on menu boards in stores and at drive-thrus in order to help customers make better choices prior to the federal mandate to display this information. “We’re really listening to our customers, and they are telling us that they want more nutrition information before placing their order at McDonald’s,” says Cindy Goody, senior director of nutrition at McDonald’s. This is a great step in the right direction, but is it enough to really make better choices?

Menu boards will only post calorie counts; all other nutritional information such as fat, sodium, sugar, and cholesterol content will not be displayed. “Calories is the common denominator from which fat, saturated fat, and all the other nutrition that you find on a nutrition facts label comes from," Goody says. "It's kind of that unifying element.”

Unfortunately this isn’t entirely true. Sodium, for example, carries no calories but poses its own health risks such as high blood pressure and stomach cancer. “We have to remember that calories aren't everything," says Rania Batayneh, MPH. "Quality of calories is more important, as that relates directly to what your meal consists of. There is a big difference between a fried chicken sandwich that may come in at fewer calories than a piece of baked chicken with half a cup of wild rice and vegetables."

Here are a few McDonald’s orders that don't seem so bad on the menu, but should never be mistaken as "healthy":

Big Mac: 550 calories
The infamous burger packs 29 grams of fat, one gram more than an entire serving of cheese ravioli with meat sauce from Olive Garden—and that’s a huge portion!

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade: 200 calories
Sipping down this fruity beverage’s 51 grams of sugar is like eating two slices of chocolate cake with frosting.

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit: 480 calories
This breakfast will have you starting your day with 235 milligrams of cholesterol. You could save that for a 10-ounce rib-eye steak at dinner!

Premium Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich: 460 calories
It may be grilled, but this sandwich sets you back 1,030 milligrams of sodium. You’d have to eat two-thirds of a 10-ounce bag of potato chips to consume that much salt.

McRib: 500 calories
Would you ever lick up an entire cup of whipped cream? Because this classic has the same amount of saturated fat: 10 grams!

If the calorie counts aren’t enough for you, all McDonald’s stores provide brochures with expanded nutritional content, and this information can be found on the back of tray liners as well. There's also McDonald’s online nutrition calculator and their mobile app if you want to know more about your order.

And you can always customize your order, as Goody recommends. Holding just one serving of the spicy buffalo sauce can save you 540 milligrams of sodium, and cutting a slice of cheese nixes 15 milligrams of cholesterol. That can really add up (we're talking about you, Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese)!

Bottom line, if posting calorie counts makes customers look at the foods before ordering and raises awareness of what we are really consuming, than that’s a good thing. What do you think? Will the new calorie counts make you think twice about your favorite fast food order? Please share in the comments below.

Anatomy of a Candy Corn Oreo...

Halloween candy has been lining store shelves for at least a month now, and if it’s not hard enough to resist buying those gigundo-sized bags of chocolate bars, there’s now another October-31-inspired treat to tempt you: Last week Nabisco released Candy Corn Oreos in Target stores. As you may guess, this version is white vanilla wafers sandwiching yellow and orange cream. When you take a quick glance at the nutrition facts and compare them to regular Oreos things don’t appear that different:

• 160 calories vs. 150 calories
• Both have 7 grams of fat
• 24 grams of carbohydrates vs. 21 grams
• Regular Oreos even have a little less sugar: 14 grams vs. 12 grams

And both ingredients lists contain the usual suspects that you’d expect in a high-sugar, refined-carbohydrate, empty-calorie treat: sugar, enriched flour, high fructose corn syrup, and some fortified vitamins.

But this is a great example of why you need to read the nutrition facts carefully. A little closer look reveals that a serving of Oreos is three cookies while a serving of Candy Corn Oreos is two cookies. So while the food labels look almost identical, there is 28 percent more sugar, 40 percent more calories, and 31 percent more carbohydrates in Candy Corn Oreos than in regular Oreos.

The increase in sugar is evident as soon as you open the package—you’re hit with such an intense wave of sweetness, you’d think you just opened a bag of confectionary sugar. The cookies are so sweet you probably won’t eat more than one, and if you are looking to burn off those calories, here are some things that you can do:

• 9 minutes of Jumping jacks
• 9 minutes of mountain climbers
• 23 minutes of cleaning your house
• 16 minutes of weeding your flower bed

At 75 calories and almost 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar per cookie, you can probably find better ways to splurge away your discretionary calories, as in the end they don’t even taste like candy corn!

Once again - Thank You Shape Magazine :)

Until Monday - Keep thinking veggies and protein!

Eat More Veggies...

Be Preppy!   Make your life easier by setting aside one hour a week to chop up two cookie sheets’ worth of onions, peppers, zucchini, and sweet potatoes, or any other veggies that you prefer and cut to uniform size. Put them in the oven for 45 minutes at 500 degrees and you have enough cooked vegetables for a week that can be added as a side with any meal. The mix will store in your fridge for about three to four days in tightly sealed plastic containers.  This is the time of year for some of my favorite root vegetables!

Common Mistake...

Too Much Emphasis on Aerobic Activities and Not Enough on Strength Training!
Most women fail to realize the value of strength training. And when I say strength training, I don't mean 20-30 repetitions using 3-lb dumbbells. I’m talking about lifting challenging loads like 8-12 repetitions maximum (RM). What does that mean? Repetition maximum refers to the maximum number of repetitions that you can perform with a given load while still maintaining excellent form. In the above example of 8-12 RM, the last perfect repetition should fall within the 8-12 rep range. If you are not able to perform 8 reps with a given resistance, use a slightly lighter weight that allows you to do so. On the other hand, if you can perform more than 12 reps with the resistance, then I suggest increasing the load a little.

More on Diet Sodas...

Pop quiz! What's the single biggest source of calories for Americans? White bread? Big Macs? Actually, try soda. The average American drinks about two cans of the stuff every day. "But I drink diet soda," you say. "With no calories or sugar, it's the perfect alternative for weight watchers...Right?"

Not so fast. Before you pop the top off the caramel-colored bubbly, know this: guzzling diet soda comes with its own set of side effects that may harm your health--from kickstarting kidney problems to adding inches to your waistline.

Unfortunately, diet soda is more in vogue than ever. Kids consume the stuff at more than double the rate of last decade, according to research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Among adults, consumption has grown almost 25%.

Here's something you didn't know about your diet soda: It might be bad for your kidneys. In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline. Kidney function started declining when women drank more than two sodas a day. Even more interesting: Since kidney decline was not associated with sugar-sweetened sodas, researchers suspect that the diet sweeteners are responsible.

Eating Mistake 101...

You eat too much sodium: The recommended daily allowance for sodium is 2,300 mg. But if you're over 50 years old, have high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease or are African American, your sodium intake shouldn't go above 1,500 mg per day. Unfortunately, the average American consumes about 3,300 mg daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  Most of our daily sodium comes from restaurant meals and processed foods, not the salt shaker on your table.

The fix: Eat more fresh foods or prepare more foods at home, where you control how much salt goes in. Reduce your consumption of packaged foods. Watch for sodium in condiments too. Even low-sodium soy sauce has a whopping 533 mg per tablespoon. Dine at restaurants that cook to order, so you can ask chefs to prepare items without salt and serve sauces on the side. 

"Guilt-Free" Foods That Won't Do You Any Favors...

I found this fascinating!
Fat-Free Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate cravings are a fact o f dieting, and squirting a little chocolate syrup in a glass of nonfat milk might seem like a good way to quash the cocoa beast. But it's actually no different than "regular" chocolate syrup. How is that possible? Marketing.  Chocolate syrup is fat-free naturally.  It needs the addition of a fat like cocoa butter or heavy cream, in which case it becomes fudge sauce.

If you see this on store shelve, take a look around and see if you can find its "regular" counterpart, then compare the ingredients list. They are exactly the same, but companies slap a fat-free label on the same product to appeal to the dieting crowd. Go for some healthy and satiating dark chocolate instead, which studies show can actually dampen appetite.

Until Monday - Keep thinking veggies and protein!

The Sensible Route to Slim...

I thought this article was short and sweet and to the point!  

In the long run, repeated episodes of unhealthy weight-loss attempts are more likely to cause damage to our body and outweigh the health benefits of short-term weight loss. That doesn't mean it's better to stay at an unhealthy weight. We just have to make sure that we are losing weight in a healthy way and are able to maintain that weight loss.

It takes about a 500-calorie deficit per day to lose about 1 pound per week. If you incorporate exercise that burns an additional 500 calories per day, then you can lose 2 pounds per week. The recommendation would be to aim to lose no more than 2 pounds per week on average. "On average" takes into consideration that the initial weeks may result in greater weight loss because of the loss of retained fluids from exchanging fatty, salty foods for a healthier, more balanced diet. But overall, you should average out to about 2 pounds per week. If you are losing more than that, then you are more likely resorting to less-healthy methods of weight loss, which can hurt your metabolism and health in the long-term.

Believe it or not, people who lose weight at a slow, steady rate tend to keep the weight off longer because they are incorporating new, healthier habits instead of taking drastic measures to get the weight off. When we shift our focus from '"dieting" to "creating a healthier lifestyle," we are more likely to succeed in keeping the weight off for good.  Here are a few ways to do just that: Water:  Make it a daily priority to stay hydrated with water and to incorporate vegetables and water into every meal.  Portions do not need to be large, but by keeping these two ideas in mind, you will be most likely to become deficient in essential nutrients your body need to function.

Ultimately, it's more important that you cross the finish line and achieve a healthy, fit lifestyle you can maintain, rather than losing a lot of weight quickly, but being unable to maintain the healthy weight because you took extreme measures to lose it. We all know that extreme measures cannot be maintained long-term.

Your Yoga Class Could Be Stressing You Out...

I loved thos article!  I have never been a big fan of yoga because I don’t have much flexibility.  Therefore, striving for the “perfect” form could stress me out!

Comparing your standing split to that of the woman behind you can discourage you, especially if your body just doesn't work that way.  Some people don't realize that our skeletons aren't all configured the same way, and therefore you just may not be able to do some poses the same way others can. Plus, copying someone with incorrect form can lead to knee pain and injuries such as shin splints.

Stop the silent competition and make peace with your own personal and physical limitations. So-called ‘shopping’ on another person's mat is counterintuitive to your yoga practice. What comes easily to you may be a challenge to someone else, and what's a challenge to you may be more available to them. And don’t forget that once you perfect a pose, there’s often another, harder version to learn. Ultimately, just be present in the moment and focus on you.  I might have to dust off my yoga mat and give it another try!

Sugar-Free Candy...

The first rule of diet food: Don't assume sugar-free means calorie-free—when one nutrient is removed, it must be replaced with another. In this case, artificial sweeteners, which are known to cause gastrointestinal distress.

Sugar-free candies also contain carbohydrates—and that means calories. Plus, if you fill up on these, you're missing an opportunity to eat real food, the kind that fills you up and provides your body with energy and nutrients.

Salmon:  A Mood-Boosting Superfood...

More than half of the human brain is composed of fat, and two types seem to be crucial to mood: the omega-3 fats DHA and EPA, found in fish such as salmon and mackerel.  Last year, scientists analyze the blood of U.S. veterans who had committed suicide and found far lower levels of DHA than were found in veterans who reported no suicide feelings.  And in December 2011, a research review by the New York State Psychiatric Institute concluded that EPA can significantly reduce the symptoms of depression.  Sorry to be so depressing on Monday morning!

Happiness-boosting RX: At least two servings of seafood, especially fatty fish, each week!

CILANTRO...

Often called the Great Cilantro Divide in culinary circles, people generally either love cilantro or they hate it—as in, they describe the herb as "smelling like death," "eating hand sanitizer," and "gargling with Palmolive." I have a friend like this and I never understood why until I read this!

So why does cilantro taste superb to some but soap-like to others? While genetics may play a part—identical twins often rate cilantro the same way—the big difference is how sensitive your nose is, according to a scientist from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. People who love cilantro are apparently able to smell a compound in the fragrant herb that haters cannot. Plus, those repulsed by cilantro can keenly smell the unsaturated aldehydes that give it that soapy scent.  So glad I don't have that problem, I love adding fresh cilantro to some of my salads!

Until Monday - Keep thinking veggies and protein!

BEETS...

This might be TMI (too much information), but I have always wondered about this!  A trip to the ladies room after eating beets can send an uninformed diner into panic mode! But as shocking as a rosy red toilet bowl may be, it turns out that beeturia - the condition where eating beets turns your pee and/or poop red—can be quite useful. While 14 percent of the population has a gene that makes this happen every time they eat beets, for the remaining 86 percent, beeturia means your body is low on iron. In addition to the tie-dyed bowel movements, chronic fatigue, heart palpitations, or pale skin are all reasons to talk to your doctor about getting tested for anemia.  I am one of the 14 percent!

Planks...

Planks are probably the best all-around abs exercise! They are safe, effective, and efficient. But if you do them incorrectly, you can cheat yourself out of the benefits—and possibly hurt your shoulders or lower back.  They look easy enough, but try holding the form for more then 30 seconds!  

The Next Nut...

Who doesn't love pistachios? Pistachios are the new health nut. Why is that? New research from the University of Toronto shows that they may reduce the risk of diabetes by decreasing the effect of carbs on blood sugar levels. "Pistachios are high in protein, fiber, and healthy monounsaturated fat," explains study author Cyril Kendall, PhD, "all of which contribute to the slowing of carbohydrate absorption in the body."

Bonus benefits: Other recent research has shown that eating two to three ounces of pistachios a day can help significantly raise your level of good cholesterol (HDL). Pistachios are full of vitamin B6 and copper, too, which help increase energy.  But,  also remember that nuts are high in calories and moderation is the key!

Eat "Alive" Food, Not Dead Food...

Ha Ha- If it sits on your counter and it doesn't go bad, don't eat it!

You see, food that is "dead" will not go bad. As well, this type of "dead" food will offer you very little in the way of nutrition.  Dead food: think processed, packaged, artificially colored food "stuff" like cheese-flavored snacks, meal replacement bars or TV dinners. These types of foods are not foods. Rather they are a series of synthetically derived ingredients that are mixed together into something that tastes OK, has a long shelf life and actually does more harm than good to our health. As I am sure you are aware, in recent times these health depriving "foods" have become quite popular and often a staple in the Standard American Diet. As such, we have seen an incredible rise in modern diseases like diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases, infertility, cancer and more. 

You should be encourage to eat "alive" foods.  By alive food: think as close to its natural state as possible. Alive foods occur naturally in nature. These types of foods grow in the dirt, or on a tree or come from the sea or walk on legs. Think broccoli or sweet potatoes or eggs or wild salmon or even some packaged foods like nut butters (that only contain nuts and maybe some salt). These types of foods will provide your body with the nutrients it needs to function optimally.

Proper nourishment from "alive" foods and is one of the cornerstones to optimal health. This type of food contributes not just your overall state of health—but to your longevity. When you consume foods that deliver the nutrients your body needs in an easy to digest form that your body can efficiently utilize—your health will thrive and you will also feel amazing!