Sassy Sexy Shapely

MSNBC has published yet another list of ways to cut 100 calories from your daily diet.  Many of the tips are commonsense and well known.

1. Flavor your coffee with cinnamon and nutmeg instead of flavored syrup.
2. Enjoy your salad without the croutons.
3. Order pizza with grilled chicken instead of pepperoni.
4. Leave 3 or 4 bites on your plate.
5. Season steamed vegetables with fresh lemon and herbs instead of butter.
6. Choose your piece of sheet cake from the middle, where there’s less icing.
7. Add a splash of 100 percent fruit juice to sweeten fresh brewed iced tea in place of sugar.
8. Control your portions by pouring an individual serving of pretzels or chips into a bowl instead of eating from the bag.
9. Ask for the bread basket to be removed from the table.
10. Dip fruit into fat-free yogurt, and veggies into bean dip or salsa.

#1 is especially interesting.  My first thought after reading it was to suggest using sugar-free syrup instead of regular syrup.  That’s what I do when I go skinny at Starbucks.  I also season my latte with both cinnamon and nutmeg.

There’ve been a lot of reports lately about the newly discovered health benefits of cofee, but cinnamon is a nutritional star, too.  Cinnamon is celebrated for its ability to improve blood sugar control and soothing an upset tummy.  Nutmeg is no slouch either.  It ”…appears to have some beneficial effects on mood, possibly enhancing serotonin’s activity.”

Even if you don’t swap out your regular syrup, you may want to use cinnamon and nutmeg in your coffee anyway!

Turns out, reading a fitness magazine while exercising can demotivate, rather than inspire, according to a new study authored by Ann Wertz Garvin, a health and physical education professor at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater. 

“The results suggest that negative effects of reading ultra-fit magazines may cancel out the mood-boosting effects of exercise, says Garvin. Exactly why is unclear, though she speculates that women may become depressed because they feel they’ll never look as good as the magazine models or that the women already look fit but have low self-esteem and seeing the images doesn’t help.”

I can relate to these results although I don’t read while I’m exercising.  (The workouts I do now don’t allow for reading, but even when I went to the gym, I listened to music or watched TV instead of reading.)  I suscribe to several fitness magazines, including Oxygen, which was used in the study, and I can confirm that thumbing through them is sometimes depressing.

The mags periodically bum me out because they set standards that seem impossible to achieve, at least for me.  I occasionally come away from reading them with the feeling that I’m not working hard enough.  Unfortunately, that feeling doesn’t inspire me to work harder; it just makes it harder for me to keep working out.

Thankfully, this isn’t a huge issue for me.  I’ve been extremely consistent with my exercise since I started my lifestyle change nearly six years ago, and I suspect I always will be.  The mags are more disheartening from a body image standpoint than anything else.  Of course, that’s an issue I have struggled with for a long time, so I certainly don’t fault the publications for it.  I have learned, though, to stop reading them during times when I’m feeling particularly negative about my appearance.  No need to add fuel to the fire during a difficult spell.  The mags will always be there when I am feeling more optimistic and can really benefit from the great ideas and advice they offer.

I’ve known for a long time that I eat when I’m sad.  Of course, I eat when I’m anxious, when I’m happy, when I’m bored… pretty much whenever.  For me, the urge to eat is a constant, but it gets stronger depending on my mood.  And, I’m not alone.

According to a study reported on Yahoo!’s Shine website, moviegoers who were sad while watching a dramatic movie ate more popcorn than those who didn’t respond as negatively to the film.  

“Moods have a powerful influence on our eating habits; they can cause us to seek out specific foods, and unconsciously eat more, and we’re more likely to eat comfort foods when happy than sad or depressed. It’s important to be aware your eating IS affected by your mood, so if you’re trying to lose that last 5 lbs, go to a happy movie — you’ll eat less popcorn!”

So if you want to drop a few pounds, try to stay in that “happy place” as much as possible.  J

“If we grew thinner, exercised regularly, avoided diets rich in red meat (substituting poultry, fish or vegetable sources of protein) and ate diets rich in fruits and vegetables, and stopped using tobacco, we would prevent 70 percent of all cancers.”

Wow!  That’s one bold statement in the first paragraph of Newsweek’s Your Lifestyle, Your Genes and Cancer.  It’s the kind of statement that requires one to pause and absorb.  Seventy percent… think about that: preventing seventy percent of all cancers is a BIG deal.

Research just keeps confirming that the American lifestyle is harmful to our collective health - especially when you consider that healthy populations moving here and adopting our habits see their rates of illness increase to match ours.

The bottomline is that our dietary choices and lack of activity are killing us.  We’ve finally accepted that when it comes to tobacco, but we’re only just now recognizing it in relation to weight and exercise.

I’ve never quite understood how this works but apparently:

“Lifestyle influences a person’s risk for cancer by generating growth-promoting signals that affect cells primed to become cancerous, or that already are cancerous. What primes those cells to become cancerous in the first place are changes in their genes.”

“…most of us are born with good genes that succeed in flawlessly organizing our growth and development. After all, our genes have been optimized by more than 600 million years of evolution; they ought to work well. During the course of our lifetimes, though, genes are damaged in various cells throughout the body. It is these mutated genes that drive most cancers.”

The article explores the science of this thoroughly, beyond what I can comprehend, but much of it seems to come down to minimizing inflammation through a healthy diet and mitigating the by-products of inflammation by exercising.

I exercise regularly already (although I could always do more), so I feel pretty solid on that score.  But, my diet continues to need significant refinement.  I’ve been reasonably focused on clean eating, but I think it’s time to revist my Ultra Prevention and Ultrametabolism books.  These books focus intensively on inflammation and ways to avoid it.  The authors have also published a cookbook to help with recipe prep.  I was impressed when I first read Ultra Prevention, but I was also overwhelmed.  I’ve done much more cooking now and gone more in-depth into clean eating, so I think I might be better able to tackle it this time around.

“Synsepalum dulcificum” may be unpronounceable, but that hasn’t stopped it from being on the tongues of Manhattanites as they partake of “flavor tripping parties” around the city. Otherwise known as “miracle fruit”, the small red berry is teasing the palates of partygoers by making sour flavors taste sweet.

How does it work?

“The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids…”

“You pop it in your mouth and scrape the pulp off the seed, swirl it around and hold it in your mouth for about a minute…”

Voila! Hot sauce tastes like donuts… at least for an hour or so, which is when the effect wears off.

This tastebud twister is not new. Westerners have been familiar with miracle fruit since the 18th century.  There is no known risk associated with eating miracle friut, but it is highly perishable and expensive.  Apparently, a single berry goes for more than $2!  And, it seems to have defied any commercial usage.  For some reason, the FDA ruled it out in the 70s as a sugar substitute.

I’d love to go to a party just because it sounds like a kick, and I’m always up for anything fun and funky.  Don’t think I’ll join the cult following this berry has attracted, though.

Want to learn more?  Check out the Flavor Tripping blog at http://flavortripping.wordpress.com.

I recently read in a magazine article that Amy Grant uses Greens To Go when she’s on tour.  While I’m certainly not a traveling pop star, I’m “on the go” quite a bit myself, and I’m always trying to come up with ways to stay healthy on the road.  I decided to order some Greens To Go and see how I liked it.

My order arrived yesterday, along with Green Tea Energy and Acai energy packets.  I’ll give you a full review later this week.

In June, British researchers will conduct a yum-o-licious study with post-menopausal, Type 2 Diabetic women.  One hundred fifty participants will eat one chocolate bar a day to determine whether compounds called flavonoids found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease. The study will last a year. Half the women will receive a bar containing 30 grams of flavonoids found in soy, cocoa and other fruits and vegetables. The other fifty percent will get chocolate with no active compounds. The results of the study will be published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Now why can’t we have a study like that here? I’d sign up in a heartbeat. Of course, I couldn’t, really, because I haven’t hit menopause yet, and, thankfully, I don’t have Type 2 Diabetes. I’d certainly be more than willing, though, to offer my body for the benefit of science in a case like this. J

Oh well. Since I can’t join the study, I’ll instead keep a good thought that the findings are in chocolate’s favor. I’d love to have a healthy reason to eat a bar of cocoa-laden goodness every day!

Keeping your feet on the ground goes beyond being realistic about your life’s goals. It can also help you to significantly reduce your risk of heart disease… if you’re using those feet to walk across the ground. J

Wednesday, April 16th, is National Start! Walking Day, a day created by the American Heart Association to encourage Americans to get more activity.  Why walking?

Walking has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity, and is the simplest positive change individuals can make to effectively improve their heart health. Research has shown that the benefits of walking and moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes total on most or every day of the week can help you:

Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease

Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels

Improve blood lipid profile

Maintain body weight and lower the risk of obesity

Enhance mental well-being

Reduce the risk of osteoporosis

Reduce the risk of breast and colon cancer

Reduce the risk of non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes

According to the website, “…for every hour of regular, vigorous exercise we do … we can live two hours longer”. Wow! That’s impressive.

Personally, I won’t walk to work on the 16th; it’s just too far. I may go for a walk during the day, but it’s not a high priority for me since I already get regular brisk exercise by doing my stairs every day along with weight training twice a week.

I think it’s great, though, that the American Heart Association is promoting walking by developing such a comprehensive program that companies can use to motivate their staffs. Exercise is so important to our physical and mental health, and everyone should be encouraged and supported to do it regularly.

Despite bringing lots of healthy stuff to work like 1-cup servings of Kashi GOLEAN Original cereal and Just Veggies and Just Fruits, I still have cravings for vending-machine fare.  My current longing is for Chex Mix.  There’s nothing redeeming in it from a nutrient standpoint.  It’s all white flour, no multigrains in sight.  But, all things considered, it’s not a bad indulgence, right?  It’s only 210 calories and has a gram of fiber. 

Come to find out, refined carbs like Chex Mix aren’t just empty calories; they’ve been linked to throat cancer.  Yikes!

“The researchers, all associated with Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland, in Ohio, compared National Cancer Institute data for esophageal adenocarcinoma from 1973-2001 and food consumption information from the National Nutrient Data Bank from 1909-1997.”

“The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma increased over the review period and ’strongly correlated’ with carbohydrate consumption. This cancer is also known to be strongly associated with gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), which, in turn, is associated with obesity and a high carbohydrate intake, the investigators report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.”

Well, honestly.  How scary is that?!?!  I’m probably all right because I don’t eat a lot the white stuff, but I’m still not eating as clean as I’d like.  It’s spooky that these types of foods, which are daily staples for some people, can be so damaging.

I should probably take this study, like all the others, with a grain of salt.  But, hey… if it helps me to stop eating Chex Mix at work, maybe I’ll just take it face value.  Gotta get your motivation where you can.

Has Merck finally invented the magic weight loss pill? At the outset, it seems promising.

“Merck & Co. said on Monday that patients on its experimental obesity drug lost more than twice as much weight as those on a placebo in a late-stage clinical study.”

Over a 52-week period, patients taking the drug taranabant lost an average of 8.8 more than those taking a placebo: 14.5 pounds vs. 5.7. Sounds great, doesn’t it? I would be delighted to lose another 14 pounds over the next year. It’d put me exactly where I should be in terms of my weight and BMI, and it would mean I wouldn’t have to work any harder than I have been. Maybe I could even slack off a bit.

That is if I didn’t mind the possibility of increased rates of depression, anxiety, and irritability. Those psychiatric side effects occurred at the higher 4-milligram and 6-milligram doses; they supposedly weren’t an issue at the lower 2-milligram dose.

Regardless, I wouldn’t want to take the risk. Time and time again, we’ve seen that these purported miracle drugs harm us much more than they help us. It’s just not worth having my physical or mental health compromised to lose a few more pounds. I would rather be a bit heavier than become a down-at-the-mouth, nervous Nellie wearing a smaller pants size.

No drugs for me… no matter how revolutionary they claim to be. I’m sticking with the tried-and-true recipe for weight loss success: fewer calories and more exercise. There’s no downside with that plan!