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07 September 2011 ~ 7 Comments

Dried Fruit, Cholesterol and Reaction to Women Working Out

As a change of pace I thought I would share and comment on some interesting items I read this week.

First a really positive topic – the value of dried apples.  If you are like most people, dried fruit in general is not part of your daily intake of fruit  –  we have been warned over the years about the high sugar content of dried fruit and of course fresh is always better.  Then there comes an interesting study on dried apples…….. who thinks of these things and more important did studies of dried peaches and apricots not “bear fruit” (so to speak)?   One has to wonder about all the studies on the other dried fruits that didn’t give these unexpected and positive results.

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14 August 2011 ~ 10 Comments

Healthy Tips from the Road #1

Background:   When I am on the road for business I tend not to eat in restaurants – just a current personal preference and no complex reason.  My go-to place is usually a local or national health food store, where I might pick up a soup and salad or a hot dish (the latter only if I can eat it on site and if it still looks ‘fresh’).  Keeping it “raw” means I am getting the most from the nutrients, but there are times when a salad just doesn’t seem sufficient.

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30 March 2011 ~ 0 Comments

Put Down that Geiger Counter —

—–   The Reality of the Radiation Threat and Ways of dealing with it. 

There are as many opinions about the radiation threat from the Japan Tsunami/Nuclear Disaster as there are Experts and Pseudo-experts vying for some airtime.   The official guideline is that the amount of radioactive material coming across from Japan is minute and not a threat.  

I have spent much of the last week reading and researching as much as possible on the topic.  And whilst I don’t advocate any remedies, I present you with the results of my research and leave you to make your own best decisions. 

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24 February 2011 ~ 0 Comments

More on Chia: the “Superfood” that may just Earn the Title

Doesn’t it seem that every year we are asked to believe that “researchers” have uncovered THE superfood? And this year really does seem to be the year of the Chia seed.

The Chia seed, as an excellent source of nutrition may well retain its reputation beyond that of many of its predecessors – is anyone still sprinkling oat bran on their cereal?

In the previous blog post on Chia, I summarized the main characteristics of Chia seeds and also detailed the nutritional components of the seed.    This time we look at claims associated with these characteristics.

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07 February 2011 ~ 0 Comments

Chia the “Superfood” – Executive Summary

Did you ever look at the cute Chia Pets and wonder of the sprouting vegetation was edible…. Me neither.  In fact I think the closest I came to a Chia Pet was the commercial on TV – and I never thought of them as food.  The seed on the other hand IS food.

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23 January 2011 ~ 0 Comments

Sustainable Farming or Cheap Food?

We are led to believe these two options are mutually exclusive – that good/organic/sustainably produced food cannot be inexpensive as well! 

However, reform advocates say it’s possible to make delicious, nutritious, safe food available to all people of all income levels.  I read that sentence twice  –  slowly, to make sure I had read it correctly!

And the article says “it is a false choice forced on consumers by government policies that favor big agriculture.  So are we really talking agribusiness vs. the sustainable food movement?  Or is organic farming really cost effective on a large scale?  Perhaps the suggested approach is outside-the-box thinking.

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30 December 2010 ~ 0 Comments

Are You (or Someone you Know) a Health Snob?

Do your workout friends (over) share their views on the “right way” to live/eat/workout?   Are they critical of your and others’ choices of food/exercise/lack of exercise etc?   Does this describe you? And the question is are they, and you, driven by real concern for the person being proselytized to, or is it something else?  It is worth taking a closer look.

  • “People often project onto others how they feel about themselves”, says clinical psychotherapist Leslie Seppinni, Psy.D.  “If they’ve struggled with something, they can be more likely to judge, be openly critical, or even become outraged, by the choices of others.”
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28 November 2010 ~ 3 Comments

Creative ways to use Green Tea

Creative ways to use Green Tea

We all know Green Tea is healthy, has antioxidants, helps melt body fat, and keeps teeth healthy.  Well if you didn’t know you do now.  Plus the amount of caffeine in Green Tea is much lower than in coffee – up to 2/3 lower.

In terms of antioxidants, Catechins are what make green tea special. They make up the bulk of the green tea antioxidants, and therefore the tea’s healing potential.

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27 June 2010 ~ 2 Comments

Vegan Diet versus Diabetic Diet

From and article on WebMD (Oct 2008) and a more recent article in the IDEA magazine it would seem that studies show that a vegan diet may do a better job of reducing cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients than a diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

In the 2008 study, participants followed either a low-fat, low-glycemic vegan diet or guidelines prescribed by the ADA – for 22 weeks. All 99 participants had Type 2 Diabetes . Both men and women participated.

The study focused on two primary measures:

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28 November 2009 ~ 0 Comments

How much Protein to include in your Diet?

Boy what an emotionally charged topic – with opinions all over the map.  The idea for this topic came to mind after I saw, in the space of a couple of days, radically opposing views on animal protein as a source of human nutrition.  On the one hand, an online body-building coach encourages high levels of animal protein along with lower levels of carbs and stated “don’t be afraid of the fat – butter, cheese, red meat etc.”   when one is keeping cards low.   This fits in with the many high protein diets that were all the rage for most of the last 6 or so years, and still are among many body-builders.  (And by the way the diets are not new just different; I recall early versions of them under the “high fat diets” of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, –  boy that seems like eons ago  –  and low to no carbs are standard diet procedure before a body-building contest.)   We know we need protein to feed our muscles, and the body-building approach is “more is better”.

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