Diet and Nutrition

1944 Girl Scouts Handbook Has 10 Really Terrible Vintage Diet and Nutrition Tips

I recently found a 1944 copy of a Girl Scout Handbook, and what an interesting journey it was to another time that seems worlds away from the one I live in. There’s a lot of focus on developing skills to be a happy homemaker; while my understanding of a modern Girl Scout Handbook invokes a woman who is independent and an equal partner in business, sport, and life.

Young Ethel of Elizabeth, New Jersey owned the near-perfect copy I found, its aged pages revealing she was a member of troop 39. The rest of the book revealed some health and nutrition advice that I found down-right comical. I was unable to get my hands on a current Handbook, but I have to believe the recommendations for fried food, butter, and thousands of calories a day have changed just a little.

Hey! Where are the Cookies?

Cookie sales first began in 1917 in Oklahoma and by 1936 they’d licensed their first commercial baker. But alas this book, printed in 1944, makes no mention of cookies – neither as a fundraiser or even a recipe. However, Wikipedia notes that around this time, 1943, the Girl Scouts sold fat in cans to support the war efforts.

Why You Should Never Buy Girl Scout Cookies

Girls Should be Eating ALL OF THE CALORIES!

“You probably need between 2,200 and 3,000 calories a day. A grown woman who does little active work needs only half of what you do, while a husky football player probably needs twice as much.” (more…)

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Natalie K

Work it Off: Burn Away the 250 Calories from 2 Glasses of Red Wine

This year my family skipped the holiday get-together, opting instead to gather for a mid-January weekend in Sonoma, California. Sonoma, which is about an hour and a half north of San Francisco, is in the heart of California wine country. My parents, sister, and I all agreed this was the perfect destination for a getaway because we’re all oenophiles. (Oenophile? I know. It’s a pretentious word that’s impossible to pronounce, but it sounds so much more dignified than, “we all really enjoy a good glass of Pinot”.)

It probably goes without say that there was a lot of wine on the menu this weekend. There were wine tastings at a few vineyards and then large dinners which were, of course, accompanied by more vino. The food was spectacular—that’s another given in NorCal—but it’s the wine I’m most worried about throwing off my resolutions.

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Posted on January 19, 2024 by Jessica Cassity

Freelance White House Photographer Carrie Devorah Dropped 8 Sizes After Knee Injury and Hip Replacement

Carrie Devorah was a vibrant woman with an enviable freelance career through the White House News Photographers Association. She was fit and led an active lifestyle. That was before an unfortunate accident took away her mobility, self-confidence and was ultimately the catalyst for a 50+ pound weight gain. After several surgeries, learning “how” to eat and what exercises she could do safely with a limited range of movement, Carrie has now gone from a size 18 to a size 10.

Her life-changing accident

Although Carrie admits she never had the perfect diet, she was always able to counter poor eating choices with hard work in the gym. Unfortunately, Carrie’s downward spiral occurred during a fluke accident when slipped in a rental apartment and hyperextended her knee. The knee never healed correctly and eventually, she had to undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus followed by a hip replacement, all in the same leg. During this time her mobility was greatly decreased and a deep depression settled over her. “I was a vibrant person dying inside an increasingly obese person,” she admitted. “I was struggling in pain while losing a career and my social identity.”

Dark days

Due to the extent of her injuries, Carrie’s recovery lasted years and it was a painful process. First she became a recluse and then made “getting to the coffee shop” her daily mission. While that was good for exercise, it was a hindrance to her diet. “Coffee meant a pastry which meant I could delay struggling to walk back to my apartment,” she said. Early on she met a physical therapist who “got her.” She credits the PT with giving her the information she needed about counting calories but admitted it was tough to stick to noting, the worse the pain got, the less she moved and the more she ate. (more…)

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Dani Stone

Where Should You Go for the Best Diet? Not the United States

If you wanted to find the most nutritious, most diverse diet, where should you go? According to a new ranking from advocacy group Oxfam, you should be traveling to the Netherlands.

Oxfam ranked 125 countries of the world on their citizens’ access to fresh produce, nutritious proteins, and clean water. The anti-poverty nonprofit also looked at whether or not those options were affordable when compared to less healthy options.

“Basically, if you arrive from Mars and design a food system, you couldn’t design a worse one than what we have today on Earth,” Max Lawson of Oxfam told The Salt in an interview. “There is enough food overall in the world to feed everyone. But 900 million people still don’t have enough to eat, and 1 billion people are obese. It’s a crazy situation.”

When compiling the rankings, Lawson and his team found that rich countries have the advantage, since a country’s score depends on food availability. For example, all of the top eight countries is European except for one – France, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Australia.

The countries that rank the worst are places that are often noted for poverty and hunger – Yemen, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Angola, and Chad.

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Posted on January 17, 2024 by Elizabeth

Gardening Provides a Bounty of Benefits to Prisons and Public Schools

Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade.
― Rudyard Kipling

The act of planting a garden – working the soil, tending to the plants and reaping the bounty is a time-honored tradition that has slowly morphed from necessity to hobby. Over the last 100 years, America’s industrialization and urban expansion have eliminated the need for gardens in most households. Unfortunately, some apartment dwellers are packed so close together that growing basil in a pot on the windowsill is the closest they’ll get to a harvest.

Today we’re highlighting two programs that teach gardening skills in the United States. Though the “participants” are very different, they all receive benefits that go far beyond the eventual food a garden yields.

Prison Garden

Last week, the National Public Radio (npr) website ran a story about several minimum security prisons that have developed their own vegetable gardens thanks in part to the Insight Garden Program. Inmates who qualify for the program are allowed to work outside where they tend to a small area of raised beds that grow everything from tomatoes to lettuce. Beth Waitkus, Director of the Insight Garden Program said she created this endeavour after the tragedies of 9/11 to, “restore her faith in humanity.”

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Posted on January 17, 2024 by Dani Stone

Supersize Your Salad: How Better Value May Lead to Better Health

Supersizing—though the official term, created by McDonald’s in the 1990s, has disappeared from fast food places, the concept never really left. Consumers will still purchase, and generally eat more food if they feel like they are getting a better deal.

“We know the health implications of a giant latte or supersized fries, so a little justification through feeling financially savvy and saving money makes us feel better about our decision and increases consumption,” said Kelly L. Haws, a marketing researcher Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt University.

Haws is part of a research team that recently found consumers aren’t just looking for deals on unhealthy fast food meals. In fact, Haws and co-author Karen Winterich found that the supersizing effect works just as well on healthier food choices.

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Posted on January 16, 2024 by Elizabeth

The Dark Side of Juicing: Why Too Much Juice Can Get in the Way of Your Health

I’ll be the first to admit that a glass or bottle of fresh juice is a delicious treat. I’ve been known to order a green juice after yoga class or a beetroot juice before bootcamp. In fact I’ve even followed 1-day juice fasts with both Blueprint Cleanse and Cooler Cleanse.

But I’ve long wondered just how healthy the juicing cleanse trend was. After all, once you strain away the healthy fiber of fruits and veggies you’re left with a lot of nutrients (pro) and also a lot of sugars (con). People claim to feel lighter and “detoxed” after drinking these fresh blends, but regular juicing never sat right with me. After all, nutritionists regularly steer clients away from juice because of its high concentration of sugars and calories, recommending whole foods like salads and pieces of fruit instead. Why would a diet of just juice be good when a glass of juice is often considered bad?

When I read a recent Opinion piece in the New York Times, about how Jennifer Berman’s health habits—including juicing—were having the opposite affect, I wasn’t all that surprised.

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Posted on January 16, 2024 by Jessica Cassity

Biggest Loser Contestants Get Olympic-Sized Encouragement and Cowboy Jay Gets Booted – Elimination Interview

Last night the Biggest Loser contestants took a field trip to the US Olympic training site in Park City, Utah. During their visit they worked out in the Olympic Village, received a pep talk from 8-time medalist, Apolo Ohno, played a high-stakes game of curling and ran a foot-race around the bobsled track that solidified to everyone, Rachel is in-it-to-friggin-win-it, so watch out.

In the end, even though he’s already lost an impressive 104 pounds on the show, the remaining contestants chose to oust Gentleman Jay and his signature black cowboy hat from the village.

Today we talked to Jay about his tremendous weight loss, his plans for the finale, and whether he thought Bobby’s cry for help was genuine, or a clever ploy to stay on the show.

DIR: You looked great when you left the Olympic Village last night. Since returning home, what have you done to maintain your weight loss?

JAY: You know, really it’s just been the fact that I’m back to the everyday grind. Life with work and the kids. Getting kids ready for school, then working and running them around to all their activities, it’s a time management thing because I don’t get to work out for 6-8 hours a day like I could on the ranch. Right now I exercise before work and then again in the evening.

DIR: Do you think Bobby’s speech was genuine or was there a little bit of manipulative game-play involved?

JAY: Oh, there was definitely a little bit of game-play involved but hey, that’s part of the game. I knew when I hit my goal weight that my time would be coming but I think it was kind of a dumb move for the contestants to vote me off. I didn’t have enough weight to lose to be the Biggest Loser winner. In that way, Bobby is the bigger threat.

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Posted on January 15, 2024 by Dani Stone

Stay Motivated With Weight Loss Advice from 5 Top Life Coaches

Can you believe we’re already halfway through January? It seems like just yesterday we were counting down the seconds to 2024! With the new-ness of the year beginning to wear off, it can be easy to fall into a mid-month slump where your weight loss resolutions begin to feel less important and less feasible.

Get back on track! To help you stay true to your weight loss goals we compiled advice from several leading life coaches. Read on for motivation, inspiration, and hopefully the extra “oomph” you need to keep on going!

Julia Stewart, MMC – President, SchoolofCoachingMastery.com

Cultivate mindfulness. This ancient Buddhist approach can be applied to any moment in your life that you want to enjoy more—or have more control over. Notice when you’re hungry; learn to distinguish between cravings and genuine hunger. Feed the latter, not the former.
Stop hating yourself. You can’t beat yourself into submission, but you can develop a healthy relationship with your body by appreciating all the ways it does its best to support you.

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Posted on January 15, 2024 by Elizabeth

6 of January’s Healthiest Produce Picks

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

While January can’t compete with the summer months when it comes to in-season fruits and vegetables, it boasts enough produce to keep things interesting (and nutritious). Here are 10 easy recipes that make good use of what’s freshest in the grocery store and farmer’s market.

Cabbage A good source of vitamins C (an antioxidant) and K (important for your bones and for ensuring that your blood clots properly), cabbage is also a good source of isothiocyanates, powerful cancer-fighters. This stuffed cabbage recipe uses a whole head!

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Posted on January 14, 2024 by BestLifeDiet

3 Steps to Perfect Pasta

Pasta is an incredibly versatile food. It’s an easy option on a busy night, or when funds are low. It’s a comforting option when you want something warm and filling. It’s also a heavy option when you’re trying to cut calories and watch your waistline.

It’s this last reason that can give pasta a bad rap, especially among dieters. So we want to share a secret with you: You can eat pasta and lose weight. Really. We promise.

The problem is, most people don’t focus on making good pasta. So, let’s start there. Let’s assume you’re already buying a whole grain option, therefore getting maximum nutrients from each and every calorie. But how are you preparing it? If you’re like most people, you’re probably just setting the pot to boil and dumping it in. If you take just a few extra steps, your pasta will taste much better.

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Posted on January 14, 2024 by Lacy

Diet and Nutrition

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