Healthful Bites

“There are still nearly three weeks left in the year, Karla,” you might be saying. True! But the last issues of the year’s magazines are hitting stands (and the first ones of 2011 will hit stands hot on their tails!), so let’s get to the last speed round of fascinating magazine facts of 2010.

• Feel better about indulging. You don’t want to eat a whole pie, tin of cookies or cheesy casserole yourself this holiday season, but taking a portion (or a few) won’t cause too much damage, and FITNESS tells you why! Some of the ingredients in seasonal foods are a boon to health:

1. Pecans. They have the most antioxidants of any nut and lower cholesterol, since they’re filled with plant sterols.
2. Pumpkin. Boost your immune system: just one half cup of this canned squash packs in 350 percent of your recommended daily value of vitamin A!
3. Gingerbread. Ginger can decrease muscle pain—such as exercise-related DOMS—and may promote digestion as well. (FITNESS, November/December 2010)

 (Image from MyShimmer)

• Take a stretch break before hitting the sheets. Muscles loosen up throughout the day, and are most flexible 10 to 12 hours after you wake up, says research from the University of Louisville. To stay in top stretching form, pop in a quick yoga DVD or simply hit your major muscle groups before you let your head hit the pillow. (SELF, November 2010)
• Turn down the volume. Your holiday dinner parties may be filled with blasting carols, but it may be wise to ask the host to turn down the volume (and for more reasons than to save your hearing)! Loud noise makes women eat about twice as much as they would in a more peaceful environment, Penn State researchers found. A soft background soundtrack is OK, however, if you still dig some tunes with dinner! (Shape, December 2010)
• Workout on weekdays to wisen up. Sweating twice each week (or more often) makes employees feel that they are more in control and feel that their work is less demanding, compared to their sedentary peers. And you don’t have to wait for the payoff: It comes immediately, according to an International Journal of Workplace Health Management survey. Among the most notable office improvements from exercising? Gains in motivation, time management, concentration and stress management. (Women’s Health, December 2010)

 (Image from Outdoor Urbanite)

Knock out your workout on a weekday by commuting actively!

• Brush up on portion sizes. You’ve likely heard of using visual cues of everyday items to estimate proper portions of food. But in case you forgot (or want to learn a few new ones), Health magazine has you covered, with helpful calorie approximations included!

1. Chocolate=business card (167 calories)
2. Muffin=rose in full bloom (260 calories, highly variable depending on recipe)
3. Cookie=makeup compact, 3 inches in diameter (125 calories)
4. Cheese=lipstick (72-114 calories)
5. Steak=iPhone, about as thick as your hand (238 calories)

What foods trip you up the most when it comes to portion size?

I know time’s at a premium for you too these days with the holidays (amazingly!) right around the corner, so let’s get right to it. Here are your three quick tips for a healthy week!

1. Drink a glass of H2O. Whether you’re looking to avoid a parched mouth or want to simply stay hydrated from the inside out, sipping on plenty of water is a great idea. And new research reported in The New York Times says that the old advice is true: Dieters lose more weight when they drink a glass of water before a meal.

2. Take a look at some meat?! If you’re feeling anxious or nervous, you may be wise to get yourself near some meat. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal found that simply the sight of a carnivorous dish is calming. Apparently, meat meals remind us of happy family meals and gatherings in the past. I wonder if the same holds true for vegetarians and vegans?

 (Image from Esquire)

Tastes like family!

3. Recover actively. After an endurance event or super-challenging workout, most athletes give themselves free reign to lounge around for a few days to rest and recover. It’s crucial not to pile on a hardcore workout right away, but the lactate (a chemical released during strenuous exercise that makes you “feel the burn”) will be released from your muscles more efficiently if you cool down with a walk and stretch a few hours later.

What does your post-workout routine entail?

Phew! Just made it in time to still post these before the month is up :) 

Here are the juiciest nuggets that you may have missed from this month’s health magazines!

• If you’ve attempted to change your diet but have had trouble sticking to your plan, it may be time to consider arranging your environment so that it’s easier to make more healthful choices. A few expert portion control tips from SELF magazine: 1. Divide “bulk” purchases into single servings right when you get home from the store, 2. Dish up dinner in the kitchen and leave the rest on the counter (making it more difficult to serve seconds) and 3. Turn down the brightest lights—dimmer lighting may encourage you to linger over a meal, allowing your body to sense when it’s full. (SELF, October 2010)

 (Image from Channel 4)

Set yourself up for health success!

• We’ve covered the concept of intervals in the past, but FITNESS reports that there is a new trend on the block, and it’s the shortest routine I’ve ever heard of. Tabata is a superinterval workout created in Japan, which involves eight circuits of 20 seconds high-intensity work followed by 10 seconds of rest. One four-minute circuit will burn about 53 calories, and athletes who trained with Tabata for six weeks increased their VO2 max by 14 percent! (FITNESS, October 2010)

• Remember the “nature vs. nurture” debate in biology and psychology class? New research, noted in Women’s Health, determined which parts of your workout and attitudes toward activity come from genetics and which do not. Scientists claim that, eventually, genetic tailoring may be used to make fitness programs that help individuals stick with them. For now, here’s a list of a few of the 62 percent of factors that are ruled by genetics:

1. How hard your workout feels
2. Body composition
3. How much you enjoy exercise
4. How your fitness routine improves your blood pressure and cholesterol

And here are some of the “nurture” items—determined by other factors than genetics (making up 38 percent of differences in exercise behavior):

1. Living in a geographic location is conducive to an active lifestyle 
2. Having active compatriots
3. Personal motivation and goals (Women’s Health, October 2010)

• In a Health Special Report, five schools from across America were named “America’s Healthiest Schools 2010.” The winners are from all across the map, but they all have one thing in common: A focus on wellness as an important part of their curriculum, just like math, science or reading. Here are a few of the more innovative ideas from the standout elementary schools:

1. Hold recess before lunch so that students don’t rush through the meal to go play.
2. Reward students for good behavior with activity-based field trips (skiing anyone?) rather than sugary treats.
3. Offer a virtual “food tray” online so that parents can sit down with their kids and plot nutritious meals together before the student hits the lunch line.
4. Host nutrition lessons for parents and students, including nutrition advice, wholesome snack ideas and recipes, so that the healthy eating action steps during school hours can spill over into the rest of the day.
5. Encourage students to be active away from school as well, by passing along ideas for how to exercise at home (jump or dance around during TV commercials). (Health, October 2010)

 (Image from Parents)

What a lunch from one of America’s Healthiest Schools might look like. 

• Another strike against perfectionism (which yours truly is, sadly, a bit prone to)…Setting unrealistically high expectations has been linked to higher risk of early death, says a Canadian study reported in Shape. The extra stress you place on yourself may lead to a shorter lifespan. So take it a bit easier on yourself and set reasonably challenging goals. Then allow yourself to celebrate when you reach them! (Shape, October 2010)

What goal have you reached that you are now patting yourself on the back for? Do share!

You all know that I adore my magazines, especially one certain one :) So today we’re gathering one fascinating fact from each of the five big health and fitness-minded magazines that hit my mailbox every month. Here are a few pointers to make your workout more effective and your diet better for your body…

• Bypass the gym or park water fountain, if you can, for a bottle of H2O with finely crushed ice when the weather is extra warm. The bodies of athletes who sip on ice water need to use heat to bring the ice to body temperature, thus lowering their core temperature. So ice drinkers were able to run 10 minutes longer than those who simply drank cold water during one study! (Women’s Health, September 2010)

 (Image from Opposing Views)

Put your muscles on ice!

• Another tip that will keep you sweating longer: Be charitable! Doing something for others, or even thinking about doing so, boosts endurance and willpower by about 20 percent. Want to start right now? Head over to FreeRice.com and play simple educational games to rack up grains of rice to feed the hungry through the United Nations World Food Programme. (SELF, September 2010)

• You’ll stick with a new fitness program for only about four weeks if you don’t begin to see results, says new research from the University of Kentucky. If the pounds or inches aren’t falling off, you’re likely to fall of the wagon. So what’s the key to staying on track? Accountability, says the lead study author. Set workout appointments or dates, tell your pals about your workouts on Facebook or Twitter or record your workouts and food intake on websites or a notebook to keep track of your progress. (FITNESS, September 2010)

 (Image from Wordpress Buddies)

Well you probably don’t need to be that intense about it!

• To keep you breathing well during all that activity, it’s crucial to do all that you can to decrease the power of your allergies, if you have them. Certain foods can send chemical messages through your body similar to specific allergens. This can cause all of the symptoms allergic individuals are used to when experiencing a reaction (runny nose, itchy and watery eyes, sneezing, irritated throat). For example, if you’re allergic to ragweed, which hits many noses hard this time of year, you may want to steer clear of bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon and zucchini. And not-so-good news for all you alcohol imbibers out there: Experts recommend skipping beer, liquor and wine if you want to ease seasonal allergies, since these drinks contain histamine, a compound that can cause itching and swelling. (Health, September 2010)

• And to finish things off, a quick hygiene tip for all the yogis out there. When getting your mat ready to head home after a studio class (or even after some practice on your own home floor) fold the mat in half, then roll it up sushi-style. This will keep germs, dust and dirt off the side that you sit and pose on. Simple yet genius! (Shape, September 2010)

Don’t forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway! The contest closes at noon on Tuesday. Some fantastic prizes (and surprises!) in the mix.

What inspiring or interesting healthy news have you heard lately?

This weekend, I decided to compile restaurant reviews from my last blog, Health and the City, for the latest good for you eats post. Last summer, I used Health and the City to chronicle my time in the concrete jungle interning at Fitness Magazine. So why am I aggregating these on Healthful Bites, you ask? I’m packing for a move back to NYC because I’m starting my new full-time job at Fitness on Wednesday!

Despite the stress of packing, finding a place to live and moving away from family, I’m very excited to start a new chapter in my life! I hope to keep blogging here on a regular basis. But please bear with me if I need to take a hiatus if things get hectic ;) 

In past posts, we’ve discussed eating well at restaurants. Now, here are my top ten picks for New York City dining establishments that I have been able to visit so far. I’m sure this list will change plenty in the coming months…but it’s a start and a good way to share my better-for-you picks that city visitors may want to hit up!

FYI: None of these restaurants have given me meals or paid me to say this (although now that I know that they’re all great, I wouldn’t say “no” to another meal ;) ). So you can believe that I am feeding you the straight scoop!

1. Quantum Leap: A go-to joint for vegetarians and vegans, Quantum Leap has killer brunch (my fave: whole wheat vegan apple cinnamon pancakes with fresh fruit)!

A delish veggie burger (Quantum Leap’s specialty!) and salad.

 2. Pump Energy Food: “Clean, healthy food” to fuel your healthy lifestyle. Plus, Pump serves scrumptious Only 8 frozen yogurt for dessert!

3. Better Burger NYC: Fast food flavor and dishes without the grease. Baked fries, vegetarian chili and a very environmentally-friendly store keep many returning!

 (Image from Grace Notes)

Bakes fries from Better Burger NYC.

4. Healthalicious: Nutritious options, with no additives or preservatives, for all meals of the day. The asparagus, mushroom and zucchini ravioli with marinara sure was tasty!

5.Eva’s Health Food: A huge menu, student discount, beautiful location and eclectic crowd (bodybuilders frequent Eva’s, since it has an attached supplement shop) make Eva’s the place to be for an affordable meal near Washington Square Park.

6. Cosi: Not a New York-only restaurant, but Cosi is an excellent choice for breakfast, lunch or dinner (mmm…wood oven baked bread). Most locations have Wi-Fi and are study-friendly and nutrition information is posted right on the menu boards! 

7. Viva Herbal Pizza: Vegetarian and vegan slices on inventive crusts (spelt, cornmeal, whole wheat, wheat free) at affordable prices. One slice and a salad surely makes a meal :)

8. The Lite Choice: All-natural, kosher, low calorie and low fat soft serve in a variety of flavors. If they offer a flavor, you can request that they make it for you at any time in one minute!

 (Image from Dori’s Shiny Blog)

TLC soft serve ready for your toppings of choice!

9. Chickpea: Focuses on high quality ingredients without unnecessary added fats, displayed well with the baked falafel. Warm whole wheat pitas and several varieties of flavored hummus will please those who love slightly “Americanized” Middle Eastern food.

10. Recharge: Many lean meat options for you carnivores out there—bison or ostrich anyone? Plus, a “cheat day” menu in case you dine with anti-health food diners.

If you’ve visited New York, what is your favorite restaurant there and why? If you haven’t would you like to visit any of these if you do venture to NYC in the future?

No Ad Smokes

We’ve talked about labeling debates with food products before here on Healthful Bites, and some health experts have said that fewer package health claims lead to less confused consumers. Australia may soon require that cigarette makers follow a similar idea, and Don Draper, for one, would not be happy about it!

An anti-smoking initiative by Australia’s Prime Minister would require all cigarette manufacturers to make their product boxes without any logos or designs.  (I say would, not will at this time, because the companies are actively researching their legal options to combat this). The new cartons would be blank, save graphic warnings against smoking.

Tobacco companies claim that this will cut into their profits in various ways. One: it would make their product look the same as their competitors, making the brand less distinguishable. Two: marketing would essentially become non-existent. The same anti-smoking crusade has also raised the taxes on a pack of cigarettes about 25 percent, effective at Midnight Australia time today.

In the past 12 years, the smoking rate Down Under has decreased by almost eight percent—which many attribute to increased taxes, educational campaigns and more strict marketing rules.

Do you feel it is right for the government to regulate the promotion of this dangerous habit? Or is this a “buyer beware” situation, meaning those who smoke already know they are harming their health?

 (Image from The Guardian)

Get Some Class for a Smaller…Backside (what did you think I was going to say? :) )

Rather than teaching college students about nutrition, it may be better for their dietary habits to school them about food growth, manufacturing and production. Think of it as better nutrition by way of a social movement rather than diet how-to. 

After students took a “Food and Society” course, that never told them to eat “better,” they ate more fruits and vegetables and fewer high-fat animal products and sweets. The class focused mainly on social and environmental issues related to food (a la “Food Inc.” or “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”), rather than nutritional content. Control peers who took a health psychology, obesity or community health class during the same time period reported no nutritional improvements. The population who took one of those three classes actually slanted toward eating fewer vegetables after the course.

The Stanford researchers who designed and performed the study (which involved pre-course and post-course nutritional questionnaires, so results may need to be taken with a grain of salt) said that they had likely reached deeper into the students’ needs, sparking new internal motivation to make healthier choices.

What would be the most effective way to persuade you to improve your diet?

Educate students about the food production system and make them more likely to ditch fast food. (Image from From the Vault Radio)
 

Water cooler conversation starter: Hospital sheets and gowns may make you feel even more nude in the future! Not less covered, but more skin-tone-colored. Medical offices should outfit patient beds—and patients—in apparel that is similar to the patient’s regular skin color, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute suggest. That way, doctors can tell more easily with a glance whether their patient has obvious medical issues. Yellow, blue or pale skin can commonly signal a serious ailment. 

Do you ever diagnose yourself or seek treatment based on your skin color? I guess that I focus more on how I feel internally than how I look. But maybe I should start thinking more superficially in this case?

Where can I get that? Turns out, at the gym! (Or any other place you exercise).

Move Your Body!

We’ve yet to have a post dedicated to the power of exercise and new findings about the benefits of movement. No better day than today, right? A couple of fascinating studies have just been released, expanding on the knowledge about physical activity’s benefits.

Pieces of DNA found in the white blood cells of individuals active in endurance sports were found to be better at dealing with the aging process, according to German researchers published in the journal Circulation. Findings relate these DNA parts—telomeres—to the plastic-coated tips on shoe laces. The longer telomere (plastic tip) found in active people protects the body (shoelace) from becoming damaged quite so quickly by the effects of aging.

Athletes were compared to healthy, non-smoking peers. Increased physical activity not only predicted longer telomeres, but also forecasted a lower body mass index, lower resting heart rate and lower cholesterol level.

Earlier research noted in the article found that exercise can make your body act nine years younger than it’s biological age. Talk about an incentive!

(Photo from Science Daily)

Additionally, good cardiovascular fitness can actually be related to a higher IQ, says a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. More than one million young adult, Swedish men were involved in this project, which related strong cardiovascular systems to higher intelligence (strength showed no correlation, but is still very important for other reasons). Logical thinking and verbal comprehension were the knowledge areas most affected by a healthy, active heart. Scientists believe that the cardiovascularly fit may have increased blood flow to the brain, lower anxiety, improved mood or less fatigue.

In the past, brain functioning, as it related to fitness, has generally focused on children and older adults (dementia prevention). With the addition of these findings, young adults now have one more reason to get their blood pumping.

Interestingly, since many sets of twins were included in the study, the researchers could analyze the role of genetics compared to environment in the brain/fitness phenomenon. It turns out that environment is key, not genetics, when talking about this healthy brain-healthy body link.

Bonus: This increased intelligence found in fit individuals can lead to a better (and often higher paying) job!

(Image from Art.com)

Another benefit: exercise can be free!

Water cooler conversation starter: Shin bone/tibial stress fractures, which are quite common in the running set, are likely fixable by increasing calf muscle strength! Waiting in line? Try rising up on your toes for a couple of beats, then lowering back to flat feet several times. (Shortening stride length just a bit may be helpful too, especially for male runners).

Along comes another new diet.
And of course I just have to try it.
So I part with my dough,
But the pounds never go;
“Oh waiter, more chicken—and fry it!” (Diet Jokes)

Dieting to lose weight may be seen as a New Year’s Resolution, but I’ve heard many people at the gym, in classes or on the street lately discussing how they want to trim down before they trim the turkey. So today, I decided to highlight two recent findings related to dieting.

Dieters Anonymous?

Off-and-on access to hyper-palatable foods (high in sugar and fat) can alter brain chemistry in ways comparable to those who are drug and alcohol addicts, researchers at the Boston University of Medicine have found. This finding has been related to how dieters and those with eating disorders struggle with relapse issues (for example, bingeing) after avoiding a “bad” food.

“Diet-cycle” subjects were fed the more tasty, less nutritious food, then re-introduced to their normal meals. When lacking their guilty-pleasure snacks, the subjects exhibited a brain reaction in the area that causes anxiety and stress. The only fix: noshing on their sugar- and fat-loaded feed. And when the “naughty” food became available again, the subjects overate (enter the diet cycle). While this study involved rats and their chow, the scientists believe that the findings are likely also true for humans.

(Image from ehow.com)

The Non-Diet Diet

Toss the diet mentality out the door, so says a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

A group of women were enrolled in a program called “Health at Every Size” and were instructed to aim for a healthy lifestyle, accept their size and avoid dieting. Compared to a control group and a group receiving social support regarding a healthier lifestyle, the Health at Every Size group were less likely to lose control around and overconsume food one year post-study. Both the social support and Health at Every Size populations exhibited significantly lower inclinations to “eat their feelings” (reach for food when stressed, bored, lonely…)

The moral of the story: aim to be your healthiest you, but it’s not necessary to focus so much on the numbers on the scale!

(Image from ehow.com)

Water cooler conversation starter: How amazing is this woman? At age 84, Lan Yin “Eiko” Tsai is raising money to fight Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by riding her bike 150 miles…for the 26th time—all while looking fabulous doing it! Can I be her when I grow up?

I am so excited to announce that I will be making my radio/podcast debut in just two short days on the Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy show! The show airs live in Atlanta every Thursday, but can be downloaded for your listening pleasure at any time on iTunes. (I believe it is also streamed live online. Updates about each interview’s stream can be found on Thursdays by following @FatGuy on Twitter.) My interview will be about 10 minutes, and if all goes well, I’ll be coming on the show again in the near future!

It’s an honor to be a guest on a program that has included interviews with countless health professionals, such as Denise Austin, Jack LaLanne, Jillian Michaels and Brian Wansink. With their humor and great tips, Dr. Adam Shafran and Lee Kantor really do, as their motto explains, “make healthy living fun for everyone.” You can check out their Facebook page here. It’s always updated nearly everyday with new polls, article links and videos.

After the interview, I’ll post a link so you can listen to it here, but I’d love it if you tuned in or subscribed to the podcast! (You can do so right on their homepage. Simply scroll down until you see the iTunes logo along the right side of the page. This will direct your computer to the iTunes store, then click “subscribe” to get great content continuously updated to your account—for free!)

We’ll be “doing it live” on Thursday and I hope you can join us!