February 3rd, 2021
All month we will be discussing heart healthy tips and trick as well as recipes and our favorite healthy foods.
Friday, February 5th is National Wear Red Day, in honor of this day, here are our favorite healthy red foods!
• Beets are full of vitamin and minerals, most notably inorganic nitrates. These have been associated with improved blood flow, increased physical performance and lower blood pressure
• Tomato’s: the most famous antioxidant found in these is lycopene. Lycopene has been linked to numerous health benefits including reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer. The redder the tomato, the higher lycopene content.
• Cherries are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, particularly polyphenols, which may help fight cell damage, and fight against chronic conditions including heart disease and diabetes.
• Pomegranates may help lower blood pressure; they are full of anti-inflammatory factors that may help reduce changes of breast and colon cancer!
Fun Fact: Pomegranates are technically a berry!
• Watermelon can help lower blood pressure and improve blood circulation. It can also help reduce muscle soreness after a great workout!
• Bell peppers: lemon isn’t the only source of Vitamin C! Bell peppers are a GREAT source of Vitamin C and they are rich in various antioxidants
What are your favorite red foods? Send us your favorite Red Food Recipe! Click here to tell us your favorite red food!
Looking for foods to promote heart health? Try beets!
February 17th, 2021
5 Ways to Improve Heart Health
1) Get Moving
a) Exercising for as little as 60 minutes a week can help improve heart function
2) Include a variety of plant-based foods
a) No need to completely switch to a vegetarian diet! But plenty of fruits and vegetables into your daily meals helps reduce cholesterol, improve blood pressure, and increase heart function.
3) Eat healthy foods
a) Include foods such as salmon, avocado, olive oil, nuts & seeds into your meals. These have all shown to help your heart muscles perform better.
4) Manage Stress
a) Try meditation, exercise or just reading a book. Most things that make you feel relaxed help with your body's response to stress.
5) Stop smoking
a) This is a give-in! Smoking harms every cell in your body, especially the muscles of your heart and lungs.
February 24th, 2021
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is February 22nd through the 28th. This years theme is: Every Body Has a Seat at the Table. From @NEDA: "In a field where marginalized communities continue to be underrepresented, we welcome conversations on raising awareness, challenging systemic biases and sharing stories from all backgrounds and experiences."
Eating disorders affect 20 million women and 10 million men in the United States. Eating disorders are not limited to age, gender or socio-economic status.
If you or a friend are struggling with an eating disorder know that you do not have to recover alone. Creating a team, a support system, with friends, family, a therapist, and a dietitian will help you learn, grow, and develop through recovery.
If you are looking for a resource please visit the National Eating Disorder Association at www.nedawareness.org.
#sdxcampurd
March 10th, 2021
- Add foods such as eggs, ham, cheese, yogurt, or beans to your breakfast! Protein helps you stay fuller for longer and help you feel satisfied after your meal.
- Add fiber full whole grains to your breakfast, this includes whole grain cereal, oatmeal, whole wheat bread. The fiber in these foods won’t lead to the crash that most sugar laden breakfasts do.
- Adding fruit and vegetables to breakfast helps add fiber and nutrients to your meal. These both aid in overall health and keep you fuller for longer!
- After a long night sleep (or a long study session) your body is dehydrated, make sure you include water at breakfast to help replenish your bodies hydration stores, and keep drinking water all day long!
March 30th, 2021
Coconut oil is a food that has received a lot of glory, but has also gotten somewhat of a bad reputation in the nutrition world in the past. This is because coconut oil contains a high amount of saturated fat, which is fat that when consumed in excess, can lead to plaque buildup in arteries, possibly increasing your risk of heart disease and stroke. However, the saturated fat that has been shown to increase the risk for heart disease, inflammation, and “bad” cholesterol levels (low density lipoproteins or LDL), is the saturated fat that comes from animal-based sources. Saturated fats are typically liquid when heated and solid at room temperature which is why coconut oil is solid when chilled and once heated, turns into a consistency similar to olive oil.
Some animal based sources of saturated fat include:
❖ Fatty beef
❖ Cheese
❖ Lamb
❖ Pork
❖ Butter and lard
❖ Poultry with skin
However, coconut oil has received some really great recognition in recent years for some of the good it can do in our body! Since it is a plant-based source of saturated fat, it acts differently in the body than an animal-based source of saturated fat like butter, for example. According to a study done in 2018, participants consumed either olive oil, coconut oil, or butter. Coconut oil was shown to have similar effects on cholesterol as olive oil, with butter having the most detrimental effects. Coconut oil showed to significantly increase “good” cholesterol levels (high density lipoproteins or HDL) in addition to not raising LDL levels at all. This was found to be because coconut oil is comprised mostly of lauric acid with little amounts of palmitic and stearic acids unlike butter. Palmitic acid raises LDL cholesterol but does not have any effect of HDL cholesterol, meaning it will most likely increase the risk for heart disease and not show any beneficial effects.
In another study done in 2018, researchers found that having patients with Alzheimer’s disease consume a Mediterranean style diet with high amounts of coconut oil showed improvements in episodic, temporal orientation, and semantic memory observation. These improvements proved that the way coconut oil is used by the body can decrease the severity of some of the side effects that come with Alzheimer’s Disease. This is because coconut oil produces ketone bodies which act a source of energy for brain cells that have likely been damaged from Alzheimer's Disease, when the preferred energy source--glucose--no longer can be used. The Mediterranean Diet is a diet that is characterized by high amounts of plant-based proteins as well as mono- and polyunsaturated fats, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains, with lower amounts of animal-based proteins, saturated fats, and highly processed/refined grain. If you are unsure of what monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are as well as some sources of them, check out our post on “Healthy Fats!”
May 19th, 2021
Some health tips have value; others are a waste of time.
Everywhere we turn these days, it seems there’s a social media feed, newspaper article, or friend touting a new supplement, diet plan, or exercise you should try. Some of these tips have merit, and some are just, dare we say, fake health news. Here are seven popular health trends, demystified:
- Include probiotics in your diet. Probiotics are microorganisms that help balance the ratio of good to bad bacteria in your microbiome (the trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi that live in your gut). Mahmoud Ghannoum, PhD, author of Total Gut Health, says consuming probiotics is a good idea, especially for people who take (or have taken) antibiotics. “Probiotics also appear to break the digestive plaque that can cause disease,” he says. To get probiotics, you can take a probiotic supplement. Or, you can get them from some fermented foods, including yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha, pickles, and sourdough bread.
- Take a multi-vitamin for maximum health and immunity. It’s best to get nutrition from food. But for the many people who don’t get the vitamins and minerals they need from their diets, a daily multivitamin supplement can help provide nutritional insurance. And for most people, they are safe. Ultimately, it’s best to talk to your health care provider about whether a multivitamin is a good idea for you.
- Always stretch before you exercise. “It depends on the type of exercise you are about to do, you, your goals, and the type of stretching you’re doing,” says manual therapist and movement coach Aaron Alexander. According to the American Council on Exercise, static stretching (the kind you did before gym in high school, like hamstring stretches and child’s pose), are best done after exercise, when your body is warm. Alexander also reminds people to stretch throughout the day. “Every time you squat down to pick something up or reach high to get something out of a cabinet, stretch,” he says.
- Weigh yourself every day. It depends. Some people avoid daily weigh-ins because they get discouraged when the number on the scale doesn’t change. Actions as simple as drinking (or skipping) a glass of water can cause day-to-day variation in your weight. But if you’re trying to drop pounds, research shows hopping on the scale once a day may be a good idea. In one study, researchers followed 1,042 adults for one year. They found those who weighed themselves once a week did not lose weight, and those who stepped on the scale six to seven times a week averaged a weight loss of 1.7 percent. The bottom line: If you’re trying to lose weight, weigh yourself daily. If you’re not, you can hop on the scale less frequently.
- The best time of day to work out is morning. Not only will you burn more stored fat when you work out in the a.m., you’ll also set yourself up for habitual exercise. A recent study published in the Journal of Physiology found that exercising at 7 a.m. shifts your body clock earlier, making you feel more alert in the morning and sleepier earlier in the evening, which sets you up for a good night’s sleep. With a full night of zzzs, you’ll be more apt to get up early and do it all over again. The same study also found it’s easier to stick to healthy habits when you do them in the morning hours.
- It’s better to eat egg whites than the whole egg. Not true, says Jackson-Hole-based functional and integrative medicine physician Mark Menolascino. “Eggs have been demonized,” he says. He notes there’s an important difference between the factory-farmed pale yellow eggs you get at a chain restaurant and the clean, bright orange, high omega-3 eggs you get at an organic grocery store. “Unless you have an egg sensitivity, high quality eggs—in their whole form—can be a valuable part of your nutrition plan,” he says.
- It’s important to include a ‘rest day’ in your exercise plan. Not so, says Alexander. Instead, he recommends an active, switch-it-up day. “If you usually lift weights, instead, go for a hike, play tennis, or take a yoga class—keep your body moving, but do it in a different way,” he says.