Diet and Nutrition

Stress Less, Weigh Less: Talking Mood and Food with Holly Mosier

Author and Yoga Teacher Holly MosierWhen most people set out to lose weight, they start by thinking about what they eat, and then about how much they move. Holly Mosier provides a different approach: deal with your stress levels, and the rest will come more easily. Mosier says that stress creates real cravings by releasing hormones that trigger us to reach for fatty, salty and sugary things.

In her book Stress Less, Weigh Less, Mosier lays out a plan that will not only help you eat and workout out better, but also to calm the chaos of everyday life. Mosier’s book is rooted in her own experience of overcoming mid-life weight gain and chronic fatigue. Today, she exudes positive energy and is in incredible shape, not just for a woman who recently turned 50, but for anyone.

In the process of finding solutions that worked for her, Mosier researched diverse stress-relief techniques from different fields and cultures, to find the most useful tools that could be easily incorporated into our busy lifestyles. “I boiled it all down to the most essential nuggets,” Mosier says. Her program for stress reduction includes meditation, yoga, deep breathing and tools for adopting a positive outlook.

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Posted on October 11, 2023 by Margaret

National Grant Promotes Local Farms, Healthy Eating

October is National Farm to School Month, which was enacted by Congress last year. The concept centers around creating and promoting strong relationships between local farms and schools.

A national grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is meant to provide support for not just schools, but businesses and other institutions in promoting the use of locally-grown produce in their cafeterias. The latest school to take advantage of this healthy initiative is the University of Missouri. The state of Missouri has 78 school districts that use locally grown produce. (more…)

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Jason

Paula Deen Lightens Up her Recipes on The Dr. Oz Show

Tune in Tuesday, October 11, 2024 for Paula Deen on Dr. Oz.

Famous for never going light on butter and deep frying, the southern cooking extraordinaire will show viewers how to make her favorite meals for half the fat and calories. Most of Deen’s recipes are not exactly healthy, so be sure to learn how to enjoy the flavor without the guilt.

Deen also shares with Dr. Oz the health struggles she has battled and fought to overcome. Be sure to catch this fun and emotional episode.

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Lacy

Top 10 Superfoods for Fall

By Melissa Breyer for Care2.com

I, for one, love the idea that there are superfoods–certain edibles that go the extra mile in terms of nutritional chutzpah. They may not leap tall buildings, but superfoods are purported to fight the evil villains of heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer and a host of other diseases. Blueberries, for example, have become a superfood darling for their powerful punch of antoxidants–and I have to say, they do seem pretty mighty to me.

That said, I think some of the trendy superfoods are stealing the spotlight from the true heart of the matter–from the everyday heroes. It seems to me that almost any grain or produce that is grown organically, unprocessed and prepared gently has much to offer. Aside from just a listing of antioxidant values, I can’t see a list of ten superfoods that earn obvious rank. In fact, if you look at 10 “Top 10 Superfoods” lists, you will see that they vary widely.

The truth is, most good food from nature is pretty super. So with that in mind, I like taking a seasonal approach. Rather than debating the merits of acai berries over goji berries, I prefer to look at what’s in season, and work with the nutritional workhorses that I can get here and now. These are my favorites for fall, based primarily on nutritional variety and strength, but that also give me that primal, sensuous satisfaction that comes with eating what’s in season:

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Posted on October 9, 2023 by GuestBlogger

My Tricks to Surviving the Holidays

Maruchy Lachance is president of Running Ninja!, a lifestyle brand for runners by runners. Running Ninja! offers a wide variety of apparel and gifts for runners to keep you happy and inspired while you’re on the run.

One of my favorite benefits of having attended all those weight management meetings was all the tips I would get from my fellow weight watchers. While the team leader had lots of sensible and technical advice on weight loss, it was these everyday weight-loss warriors that really knew how to navigate temptation.

As the holiday season quickly approaches, here are some calorie and sanity saving tips!

Halloween: When you go off to purchase the candy for Halloween buy candy you don’t like. This will keep you from dipping into it and running out before your first costumed guests approach your door. (more…)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by GuestBlogger

The Four Rules of Food Safety

Food safety isn’t a very glamorous topic; however, amid the more recent food recalls, being food safe is incredibly important.

For most individuals, food safety means washing your hands – a lot! Yet there is much more to food safety than simple hand washing procedures. As the holidays rapidly approach, getting food safe can be a critical component in keeping your loved ones healthy and happy. Don’t let them be one of the hundreds of thousands of people who get sent to the hospital each year due to food poisoning.

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Posted on October 8, 2023 by Kati

Empty Calories Comic: Vegetarian Awareness Month

See more Empty Calories right here in the blog each week, or receive one each month when you subscribe to our free newsletter.

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Posted on October 7, 2023 by Health Buzz

We Love Smoothie King’s New Lean 1 Smoothie

There are many misconceptions when it comes to “health food” or “diet food.” One of the biggest falsehoods is in regards to the health claims of smoothies. Smoothies can be healthy, and they can also be loaded with sugar and higher in calories than ice cream sundaes.

Recently, Smoothie King released a smoothie designed to be healthy and lite. The LEAN 1 smoothie has made some tall claims and may be one of the few on the market that can live up to those assertions.

Knowing that most smoothies are just fancied up milkshakes, I was intrigued by the statement Smoothie King made about their new product.

“Lean 1 is the first-ever smoothie designed specifically to help you lose fat, curb hunger and tone muscle. It’s the perfect pre/post workout companion delivering 20-30 grams of premium protein. It boosts energy levels, fights hunger cravings, speeds muscle recovery and only 300 calories. Lean 1 is the healthy portable option to a meal or snack on the go.”

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Posted on October 7, 2023 by Lacy

New Research Finds Coffee May Help Women Fight Depression. How Depressing.

By Abra Pappa for NutritiousAmerica.com

Before you refill that coffee mug read this.

Last week a new research study from Harvard was released that stated drinking caffeinated coffee may help women fight depression. Women who drank four or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 20% decreased risk of developing depression over the 10 year period compared with those that consumed one cup or less a week, according to a study released in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A holistic nutritionist weighs in:

I am concerned that this research is giving the green light to an extreme coffee habit, which in my opinion, can be ultimately detrimental to your health. When this study was released last week Twitter was filled with “tweets” of joy like, “coffee brews to beat the blues,” and this tweet from Arianna Huffington, “Caffeine can cure depression in women. One more reason for coffee addicts like me to celebrate our addiction.”  Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy a cup of Joe from time to time, but it’s how people tend to misread research to reinforce an unhealthy habit that’s got me down. Researchers cautioned that more study is needed before they’d recommend adding several cups of coffee a day as therapy, but how many people skipped over that caution?

And what about the negative effects of 4-5 cups of coffee per day? (more…)

Posted on October 7, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Gluten-Free Baking Tips for Weight Loss

When you’re trying to lose weight, there are a lot of simple ingredient swaps and recipe modifications that you can make in order to remove some of the fat and calories from your favorite baked goods.

When you follow a gluten-free diet, it is even more difficult to make your favorite baked goods lower in fat and calories because you have to often substitute a variety of specialty flours in order to mimic the taste of traditional recipes.

“The main reason someone would go on a gluten-free diet is if they are diagnosed with celiac disease,” said EA Stewart, RD, nutritionist and author of The Spicy RD. “Some people may go on a gluten-free diet because they think it will help them lose weight or improve their athletic performance. It’s very important however, that celiac disease be ruled out before someone starts a gluten-free diet, as a person needs to be eating gluten for the test to be accurate.”

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Posted on October 7, 2023 by Maris

A Surprising Tip to Combat Snacking

By Melissa Breyer for Care2.com

In a new paper by USC researchers, bad eating habits were shown to persist even when the food didn’t taste very good; but the best nugget of the study, perhaps, is the revelation of a surprisingly easy way in which to counter bad eating habits.

Researchers gave people entering a movie theater a bucket of either just-popped popcorn or week-old popcorn. People who don’t generally eat popcorn during movies ate much less of the stale popcorn, but moviegoers who indicated that they typically had popcorn at the movies ate about the same amount of popcorn whether it was fresh or stale. The conclusion: for people accustomed to eating popcorn at the movies, it made no difference whether the popcorn tasted good or not.

“When we’ve repeatedly eaten a particular food in a particular environment, our brain comes to associate the food with that environment and make us keep eating as long as those environmental cues are present,” said lead author David Neal, who was a psychology professor at USC when the research was conducted.

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Posted on October 7, 2023 by GuestBlogger