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Apples for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Tweet Share on Facebook October 4, 2012 CommentIt's fall. What comes to your mind? Thin cashmere sweaters? Hot apple cider? Football? Halloween costumes? Apples! Whether you have cozied up with a warm mug of cider, been to an apple orchard, or brought one in for a teacher, apples have probably made an appearance in your life lately. It's no secret that apples are plenty healthy, and that stashing one in your desk drawer or in your bag makes for a good on-the-go snack. But what can you do with the rest of the lonely apples sitting in your fridge? This October, let's break away from Grandma's apple pie recipe and try out my apple-centric ideas for every part of the day.
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9 Ways to Knock Out Those Nighttime Munchies
Tweet Share on Facebook October 4, 2012 CommentAs a registered dietitian, "Step away from the kitchen" isn't something I like to say often. Actually, I prefer for people to be in their kitchens, preparing lots and lots of healthy meals and snacks. But the truth is, many people are eating way too much after dinner. Maybe it's because they're bored, stressed from work, lonely, or simply do it out of habit. Either way, too many calories are being consumed, and the result is weight gain.
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Is Obesity Cultural?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 4, 2012 CommentWhen salmon swim against the current of a river, running a gauntlet of grizzlies, we are impressed by the fortitude nature endows. When many of them die trying, it's no great surprise. I can't recall ever hearing anyone suggest that the many salmon who die along the way lack the personal responsibility of those who make it. All are striving; some succeed, but most fail. The species survives (so far), but less than 5 percent of the fish overcome the obstacles. Things play out predictably: Overall, the current and the gauntlet prevail.
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Is 'Smellvertising' Sabotaging Your Diet?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2012 CommentBacon frying. Buttery popcorn. Warm brownies fresh from the oven. Many a healthy eating pledge has flown out the window at first whiff of one of these mouthwatering aromas. Of course, we saw—or rather, smelled—it coming.
But what about other, sneakier ways our sniffers might be leading us to indulge?
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How Being a Quitter Might Help You Lose Weight
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2012 CommentIt's drilled into our brains: "Nobody likes a quitter"; "Quitters never win"; "Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever." But could those sentiments be holding you back?
The world these days is a rapid-fire, crazy place. Smartphones keep us tethered to our offices 24/7. Our kids' after-school activities might lead us to spend nearly two decades of our lives as unpaid chauffeurs. Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere provide us with a constant feed of distraction. Downtime is rare if not nonexistent.
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Reducing the Rice in Your Diet
Tweet Share on Facebook October 1, 2012 CommentThe recent Consumer Reports article on the high content of inorganic arsenic in rice created quite an understandable stir. Inorganic arsenic is a known carcinogen (cancer-causing substance), and the possibility that we may be inadvertently consuming more of it than we realize is concerning.
Arsenic is a metal that occurs naturally in soil in trace amounts, but its concentration can be increased significantly from a variety of environmental pollutants. The use of arsenic-containing fertilizer, for example, can cause soil to have higher concentrations of arsenic, and adjacent groundwater can be contaminated with runoff from these soils. Here in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency sets limits for arsenic content in public water, but no government agency monitors or regulates arsenic content in food.
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How to Plant a Juice Garden
Tweet Share on Facebook October 1, 2012 CommentIf your day has you on the run (and whose doesn't?), you may have discovered that liquid lunches are the way to go—and I'm not talking martinis here. I'm talking kale, carrots, apples, and a whole slew of other healthy goodies pressed through a juicer or perhaps just blended, poured into a travel cup, and taken here, there, and everywhere. "Delicious, nutritious, and makes you feel ambitious," as the mother of a friend of mine likes to say.
However, it probably didn't take long before you realized that daily juices require a whole lot of inputs. Bags of apples. Piles of carrots. Armfuls of greens. Not only does this require frequent trips to the market, but also a whole lot of money. There has to be a better way, doesn't there?
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Wrestling With Their Weight ... Literally
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2012 Comment"My friend just told me that he has to lose 10 pounds by next week … isn't that unhealthy?" asked my 17-year-old son. Perplexed and troubled, he went on to say that unless his friend "starved" himself, he wouldn't "make his weight" for his wrestling team.
Unfortunately, this is not atypical. Anywhere from one-quarter to two-thirds of high school wrestlers use fasting, excessive exercise, unbalanced diets, and voluntary dehydration as techniques to help them achieve a fighting weight, according to some estimates. Ironically, these behaviors only sap athletes of the strength and energy needed to compete in this sport—and they're particularly dangerous for still-growing teens, who demand calories to fuel both mind and body. Furthermore, an improper diet can have a profoundly negative impact on learning and focusing at a time when students can barely afford to divert their attention from college applications and SAT's to rigorous after-school workouts and weekend tournaments.
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Arsenic in Rice: of Baby and Bath Water
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2012 CommentPredictably, there was widespread media attention to a recent release by Consumer Reports highlighting contamination of rice by arsenic. In customary "consumer watchdog" fashion, Consumer Reports presented a long list of popular consumer products, from cooking rice, to rice cakes, to breakfast cereal, and most worrisome, baby food, with arsenic levels in each. The story was covered extensively by the major network news programs.
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Should Tuna Be Banned from School Lunches?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2012 CommentCanned tuna made news last week as the star in a scandalous debate: A coalition of consumer groups is reportedly urging schools to take tuna off the lunch menu. The reason? A recently published study that reported higher amounts of mercury than expected, as well as large variances in the levels of mercury, based on tests of several different brands and types of canned tuna.
