Diet and Nutrition

How to Cut the Sugar and Sweets from Your Diet

bag of sugarThe American Heart Association recently released recommendations for added sugars – and they say “slash slash slash” it way down. According to their position paper, the usual intake of added sugars for Americans was 22.2 teaspoons per day (355 calories per day) in 2001-2004. American Heart Association would like to see American women consume no more than 100 calories per day and men no more than 150 calories per day from added sugars. Why? Excessive consumption of sugars has been linked with several metabolic abnormalities and adverse health conditions, as well as shortfalls of essential nutrients.

Translation: Basically, Americans are overdrawing the “calorie funds” in their “discretionary calories” bank account. Discretionary calories are what’s left over in the budget AFTER you have prioritized healthy, nourishing foods to meet nutrient needs (the ole fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans). While your bank would charge you an overdraft fee, unfortunately your body can’t do that. (more…)

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Rebecca

Sugar Consumption is Out of Control in the U.S.

red soda canSugar consumption is a major cause of premature health problems in the U.S. Americans ingest more than 22 teaspoons of added sugar (355 calories) every day, according to the 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. That’s two to three times what is recommended.

The American Heart Association has publicized their recommendations for men and women. The AHA says that most American women should not consume more than 100 calories of added sugar a day. Men should limit their intake to no more than 150 calories. One 12-ounce can of sugar-sweetened soda is 130 calories. That’s more than the entire daily recommendation for women, and nearly all that is recommended for men. (more…)

Posted on August 30, 2024 by Jason

Pamper Yourself to Good Health

spa treatmentWhat do you do for others that you do not do for yourself? Do you clean more deeply when visitors are coming? Even though most people enjoy the results of a put together home, many are a bit more lax when just the family will see the contents. Do you only use the soft towels when you have guests? Do you get something fast and less healthy when it is just you? Are you more likely to cook with the freshest ingredients when you have a dinner guest? How would your family dinner be different if Jillian Michaels was coming for a visit? Are you more likely to go to exercise every day when your high school reunion is approaching? (more…)

Posted on August 29, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

What to do When You’ve Lost Your Workout Mojo

dieterMaybe you had an injury. Maybe you couldn’t afford to pay the personal trainer. Maybe your DVD player broke, your walking partner quit, or you were exhausted and overwhelmed with work. No matter the reason for stopping your diet or exercise routine, you missed a workout or two. Once you’ve missed a few, it’s more than easy to miss a few more. Before you know it, you are no longer working out. And, the sad part is that while you sit on the sofa watching TV you might surf past a commercial for P90X and you think to yourself, I probably should stop eating these tortilla chips and get back to the gym. But you wonder how you will ever get back into it. Maybe you think you’ve gone too far. (more…)

Posted on August 28, 2024 by Carmen

Slash Your Grocery Bill and Avoid a Nutrition Recession

Grocery shopping can be such a pain. We have more choices than ever before. My friend told me she was “overwhelmed” by the eggs at a recent shopping trip – eggs! Evidently, there are too many varieties (whole grain, omega-3, cage-free, etc.).

We’d also like to keep food costs down, which is not always easy, but increasingly important in this economy. But I worry that the economic recession is going to drive well-meaning people into a nutrition recession, too. Don’t let this happen to you. It is possible to save money on your grocery bill without sacrificing nutrition and I’m going to tell you how in this video.

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Posted on August 27, 2024 by Rebecca

How to Make Your Own Granola Bars

homemade granola barsEvery night, when I pack lunches for the next day’s school and work, it becomes a chore to try to find something that’s tasty and healthy and won’t kill my budget. My kids love granola bars. I try to avoid the bars that are more like candy, with extra sugars and even M&Ms, and stick with brands such as Cascadian Farms and Kashi, but they can be pretty pricey over the course of a month.

I decided to try my hand at making my own, and scouting around I found a really great recipe original to Faith and Family magazine and reposted on several blogs. It appears to be fairly healthy, with whole wheat flour and oats and sweetened with honey, which doesn’t affect the blood sugar as badly as honey. A bonus when you make your own is the lack of high fructose corn syrup and trans fats, and you can literally whip up these bars in minutes. (more…)

Posted on August 27, 2024 by Carmen

Biggest Loser and Brita’s Filter For Good Partner for Season 8

brita filter for goodOnce again, you’ll see Biggest Loser contestants staying well-hydrated on campus, but not with disposable water bottles. For several seasons the contestants have relied on a partnership with Brita’s Filter For Good program to help them hydrate and save the planet.

All contestants, trainers, and other Biggest Loser staff receive Filter For Good Nalgene bottles (BPA-Free!) and keep those filled with refreshing water via Brita pitchers and faucet mounts found throughout the house and gym. This helps the campus save literally tens of thousands of bottles of waters each season, and prevent all that waste from hitting our landfills. (more…)

Posted on August 27, 2024 by Natalie K

Kids Mimic Their Friends’ Eating Habits

kid school lunchKids have to deal with tremendous peer pressure. Unfortunately, that also applies to their eating habits. Researchers just released a study that examines how kids eat in relation to who they are around at the time. Those involved in the study were 9 to 15 years old. And, researchers found that all of the kids, regardless of their weight, tended to eat more when they snacked with a friend than when they were with someone their age that they did not know.

But, the peer mimicking went further. Interestingly, the largest calorie intake was seen when overweight children snacked with an overweight friend. (more…)

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Jason

Intuitive Eating Puts the Dieter in Charge

male dieterHow much fun do you have when you eat? If it sounds like an “odd” question then the answer is obvious – very little. Most dieters eat what they think they “should” or what some diet plan tells them to eat because it’s the obvious solution to reaching their goal weight. But one thing all dieters have in common is the “dieter’s mentality” – restrict, skip, and avoid.

These negative words give dieting a negative connotation. And what is pleasurable about negativity? Absolutely nothing. So what’s a desperate dieter to do? I say “get over it” – the diet that is. Get over dieting and embrace the idea that you can lose weight, nourish yourself, and be healthier for a long time if you just let go.  Are ‘ya with me? (more…)

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Rebecca

We Love JamFrakas from Lara Bar

Jam-what? From the makers of the Lara Bar, comes JamFrakas. Even though these yummy little organic snacks were designed to be a kid-friendly, all-natural energy bar, we adults love them too! Here’s why:

These crispy, chewy-gooey food bars are packed with healthy ingredients like fruits, nuts, honey, and crisp rice. And they are whole-grain, contain nine vitamins and minerals and soy- and gluten-free, with no trans-fats or high fructose corn syrup. JamFrakas come in five flavors, each with its own funky name: Chocolate Chip Cosmocrisp, Banana Chocolate Blastocrisp, Strawberry Crispiscrumptious, Peanut Butter Blisscrisp and Apple Crispalicious. Each one has 90-120 calories, 4-5 grams of fat, 2 grams of fiber and contain all organic ingredients. (more…)

Posted on August 23, 2024 by heather

How to Prepare Healthy School Lunches

Guest Blogger Terra Wellington is an actress and the author of The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home (St. Martin’s Press). In her book, she outlines a Green School Action Blueprint for making greener and healthier changes at your child’s school. terra wellington

For many years I’ve been concerned about the quality of the school lunches fed to my children.

A charter school was my children’s home away from home for several years, and that school didn’t have a cafeteria, so all kids had to bring a lunch from home – one of the best options for most families if you want to improve your child’s lunch diet.

But now that my children are in the regular public school system, it has brought back lots of childhood cafeteria memories … praying my milk wasn’t sour in second grade, shamelessly wishing for tater tots seven days a week as a fourth grader, and watching friends mop up oil off the top of pizza slices with an extra napkin in high school. (more…)

Posted on August 23, 2024 by heather