Diet and Nutrition

Sweet and Nutty Trail Mix Makes the Perfect Fall Snack

If ever I’ve had a true food addiction, besides ice cream and frozen yogurt, it’s trail mix. The sweet-salty combination is enough to have me eating an entire jar without realizing what happened!

While trail mixes can be a bit of a temptation especially for those few among us who only pick out the chocolate bits (guilty), they can also be an incredibly health snack to fuel our most rigorous of activities.

This trail mix is a simple one to throw together, as are most. You’ll simply need even parts pecans, walnuts, almonds, raisins, dried cranberries and dark chocolate.

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Posted on September 24, 2024 by Dana

How to Cook with Grapes

Grapes have always been one of my very favorite fruits. With each bite their crisp skin gives way to a sweet, soft center that I simply can’t resist. Once I start eating a bowl, I’m hard pressed not to finish. Though I enjoy grapes very much as is, I’ve also loved plucking them from the vine and freezing them for a light and delicious after-dinner snack.

Health benefits: Grapes are considered a low glycemic index food, meaning they won’t spike your blood sugar upon consumption. They’re also a great source of manganese, vitamin C, and potassium. Grapes also contain resveratrol, which is a polyphenol that helps improve brain health, and are also widely known for their ability to aid in digestion. In fact, they are considered a laxative food as they help relieve cramping and constipation.

In addition, purple grapes have even been found to help prevent breast cancer and even macular degeneration according to recent research studies. And among many other health benefits, grapes contain powerful antioxidant-containing flavonoids that fight free radicals in the body and even prevent cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer.

Nutritional statistics: One cup of red or green grapes contains approximately 104 calories, 0 grams fat, 3 mg sodium, 27 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 23 grams sugar, and 1 gram protein. (more…)

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Dana

HealthBuzz September 21: 7 Fall Family Activities, Jennifer Aniston’s Smartwater Commercial, and Banana Filled Recipes

Today marks the first day of fall! Before you clock out for the weekend take some time for a healthy dose of news. This week’s HealthBuzz consists of hot headlines from DIR and our partner sites, including Shape, IVillage, and Fitday, as well as some delicious banana recipes from Undressed Skeleton and Thinin10.

Don’t wait until the last day of the week to hear from us! Follow us on Twitter and Pinterest! Also, don’t forget to ‘Like Us’ on Facebook for the chance to win a year’s supply of guacamole from Wholly Guacamole!

Choose the Right Gym For You (So You’ll Actually Use the Membership)

With the fall and holiday season quickly approaching, gyms will be filling up with people wanting to maintain their health and figure for social gatherings and special events. Gyms can be uncomfortable and expensive and there is nothing like wasting money on a membership that you don’t use! Let us help you choose the right gym with this helpful guide.

Seven Fall Activities For the Whole Family

September 21 is the official day of fall! What better way to enjoy the weather then with your family? Stephanie Mansour from Step It Up With Steph shares seven fall activities for the whole family. There is even a healthy recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds! Fall has never been so healthy before. (more…)

Posted on September 21, 2024 by Samantha

How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds and 5 More Healthy Fall Snacks

Finding healthy snacks can be difficult, especially amidst a sea of more unhealthy than healthy options. Couple the issue of availability with the season’s change, which leaves people out of their bikinis and into layered clothes, and we’re all of the sudden far less aware of what we’re putting into our bodies.

But if healthy snacking is important to you like we think it is, take heart and fight developing that unwanted “winter layer.” Try these six healthy do-it-yourself fall snacks from fitness expert and CEO of Step It Up With Steph, Stephanie Mansour.

Pumpkin seeds – You can buy store bought pumpkin seeds or you can roast pumpkin seeds yourself! After carving pumpkins collect all of the seeds, give them a rinse, and spread them out onto a cookie sheet lined with foil. Then, sprinkle with salt and place in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 to 20 minutes. Making your own pumpkin seeds is a cheap and simple way to create your own nutritious fall snack. (more…)

Posted on September 20, 2024 by GuestBlogger

Concerning Levels of Arsenic Found in Rice: FDA Conducting Full Investigation

Consumer Reports released a study this week regarding an investigation into arsenic levels in rice. After testing more than 60 rice products, the organization found there were “worrisome” levels of arsenic in all products.

Rice is the number one food source of arsenic in human diets, reportedly containing five times more than oatmeal.

Arsenic is an element found in nature and in man-made products, including various types of pesticides, according to My Health News Daily.

Because it is in the soil, plants absorb arsenic when they grow, which explains how it gets into our food products.

Because Consumer Reports detected “worrisome” levels of arsenic have been detected in our foods, experts are warning consumers to take caution, especially warning parents not to give more than one serving per day of infant rice cereal to their children.

Following the Consumer Reports investigation, which rested 60 rice products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is conducting its own full study and has already tested more than 200 rice products. Various products have included rice cereals and beverages, and the FDA has already found traces of arsenic in all products. In total, more than 1,000 products will be tested over the course of a year. (more…)

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Dana

Best Dessert Ever: Chobani SoHo Really is Nothing But Good

I’m in New York City on business for a few days this week. Somehow all of my meetings worked out to be staggered perfectly around each meal time on a single day. It was positively gorgeous outside, so I walked about 60 blocks throughout lower Manhattan to get to each meeting. My second-to-last meeting was with the nice folks from Chobani and it timed out perfectly for a post-lunch dessert / mid-day snack.


“A first-of-its-kind Mediterranean yogurt bar in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood- this is @chobani like you’ve never had it before,” is how the @ChobaniSoHo Twitter page describes itself. It’s dead on. I was invited to meet the Chobani team at their six-week-old yogurt bar. I’m a total Chobani fanboy; a significant part of my grocery budget goes to their Greek yogurt. So of course I’ll meet you there!

The shop is nestled on the corner of a likable street in SoHo, just a few blocks from the brand’s NYC office. It’s got all the allure of most fro-yo shops, except this isn’t frozen. Barely. They say they keep the yogurt chilled to about 34 degrees, where grocery stores only manage about 41 degrees.

Since we eat with our eyes, the bright LED board displaying their ten menu options pulled me and my appetite in. Even with a simple menu, it was not simple to make a choice. Finally, I committed to the Pistachio + Chocolate. The brand’s tagline is not a lie… this was nothing but good. Frankly, nothing but amazing and truly indulgent. (more…)

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Natalie K

How Eating More of the Right Foods Helps Us Weigh Less

If you’ve ever tried to cut your calories, you’ve been met with the sad truth about food. A serving of most foods is pretty small. Even worse, that small portion can have a lot of calories. Research is backing up one of the best tricks most successful dieters tend to pick up on: the idea that eating big portions of the right foods will lead to more satisfaction and weight loss success.

It takes time, but once you start to see that one small granola bar contains the same amount of calories as a huge plate of fresh veggies, your snack time choices start to get easier. Most would choose to have more food versus a small portion, high-calorie option. It’s all about volume. If you eating large portions of low calorie foods, your success rates will go up immeasurably.

Celebrity chef Ellie Krieger reported for ABC News on the topic, relying on studies conducted by Barbara Rolls of Pennsylvania State University.

Rolls is the author of “The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet,” and suggests that regardless of calories, people tend to be satisfied by the same volume of food. If this is true, loading plates with high-volume, low-calorie options will fill you up without causing you to gain weight. (more…)

Posted on September 19, 2024 by Lacy

Sweet News about Sugar: It’s Not Harmful in Moderation

By Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., Best Life lead nutritionist

Have a sweet tooth? Then you’ll love to sink it into this bit of good news: Sugar, in moderation, doesn’t seem to be harmful. If you’re like me, you’re breathing a giant sigh of relief—after all, some of the joy would drain from my life if sugar left it!

How much can you get away with? Before I give you a number to shoot for, you need to learn two sugar lessons. The first is what “sugar” really is: sweet-tasting carbohydrates that contain calories (that excludes artificial sweeteners). Some common examples are sucrose, the white granules you stir into coffee; high fructose corn syrup, which has a similar chemical makeup as sucrose; fructose and glucose in foods like fruit and in honey; and lactose, the sugar in milk.

Next, you have to learn to determine if a sugar is added or naturally occurring. Naturally occurring sugars, like those found in fruit, milk and yogurt, are generally not a problem (unless you have diabetes or pre-diabetes). The vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients in these foods more than make up for any ill effects of the sugar.

Added sugar, on the other hand, is a big problem for most of us. That’s because added sugar is “empty calories,” meaning it contains plenty of calories but no nutrients. In excess, it can make you fat and increase your risk for metabolic syndrome, a condition that sets you up for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It might even make you stupid, as I recently reported. And for some people, cookies, candy and other sweets are addictive. (more…)

Posted on September 19, 2024 by BestLifeDiet

Binge Eating Expose on Dr. Oz

The September 19 episode of Dr. Oz will feature discussion about a dangerous eating pattern that more and more Americans are becoming prone to: binge eating.

Dr. Oz Show LogoBinge eating is a disorder in which you consume large amounts of food in one sitting as a regular occurrence. It is sometimes done in secret, and is different from overeating in that behavioral and emotional symptoms such as guilt and depression often create a vicious cycle of continual eating when you’re already full or not hungry.

Women featured on the show confess that they’re disgusted with themselves for binge eating, have taught the pattern to their children, and desperately want to stop.

One guest is 7 months pregnant but no one in her life has known about her regular binge eating that is potentially harming her unborn child as well as putting herself at risk. (more…)

Posted on September 18, 2024 by SarahS

Throw Away a Past of Crappy Eating with The Digest Diet

By Jill Sandberg

I can honestly say I can’t remember a time I’ve ever lost this much weight in a week. Sure, most of it is water weight, but still…eight and a half pounds in a week is kind of a big deal.

The first week on the Digest Diet was so easy. I read through the book and it seemed like any other diet – low carb, high protein. Things we all know to do, but so hard to do in real life. Being a bread addict doesn’t help.

The first four days consisted of eating pretty much the same things – which was so easy to do since I could make one batch and eat off of that for several meals. It was a liquid-based diet for the first four days so that was some getting used to. Day one was particularly difficult as I had to watch my daughter eat leftover pizza while I ate kale soup. I had to have great reserve with not slapping the pizza out of her hand and screaming like a petulant child “CAN’T YOU SEE I’M ON A DIET?!”

Day two went a little bit better. No screaming and no tantrums, but more surprisingly, no hunger pains. I was completely satisfied with the shakes and the soup. The kale soup was such a simple easy recipe to make and so tasty. By day three? I had already lost four pounds. I was more than happy to continue on with the diet once I stepped off the scale. Water weight? Most likely, but I’ll take it. (more…)

Posted on September 18, 2024 by GuestBlogger

Ohio Inmate May be Too Fat for Execution

An obese Ohio inmate is sentenced to die in January for crimes that took place decades ago. However, his lawyers have filed a complaint with the courts stating that this execution could result in a “tortuous and lingering death” because of his weight.

The Associated Press reported about convicted killer Ronald Post who is 480 pounds. He was convicted of shooting a killing a hotel clerk nearly 30 years ago and his execution date is set for January 16.

Post is claiming that his extreme weight, his limited vein access, scar tissue, and his other medical issues will lead to major issues during the execution process. It’s also questionable if the execution gurney will even hold Post during the procedure. The entire procedure is argued to be long and painful for Post.

Post has requested weight loss surgery while in prison after he’s failed to lose any weight during his years in jail. However, his request was denied. He’s had struggles exercising due to knee and back problems. Post has even broken exercise equipment from his large size as he’s tried to workout. Furthermore, It’s reported that Post’s depression affects his ability to limit his food intake. (more…)

Posted on September 18, 2024 by Lacy