The new proposed guidelines do attempt to reduce sodium, establish calorie limits by age (calorie limits have never been imposed in the past), switch from whole milk to 1% milk, add more fruits and vegetables and reduce starches/starchy vegetables (e.g. French Fries). According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, over 32 million children eat school lunch, so clearly these menu choices have a huge impact on our children’s lives and the future of our country.

But the question remains if cutting school lunches from 1600 mg of sodium to 740 mg and limiting high school students to an 850 calorie limit per lunch is really doing enough to insure the health of our kids. It’s actually a very complex question, and not one that has a straightforward answer. I guess the best answer when discussing healthy weight loss really is “everything’s relative.”

If you take a person like me or a household like mine where at least 50% of our products are organic, 95% are all natural, and 99% never contain high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils, then my answer would be that the new school lunch program guidelines are an atrocity. However, looking at the average American, these guidelines are definitely an improvement. Many Americans do not have the budget for all natural and organic foods, and the reality is that packaged foods are a lot less expensive. High Fructose Corn Syrup was originally invented because it provides longer shelf lives, and therefore cuts costs for manufacturers which get passed down to the consumer.

In my opinion, switching to reduced fat milk and the reducing starches to one cup per week are effective and realistic improvements that will allow kids to be healthier, but still indulge moderately. However, the calorie limits could definitely be lower as 850 calories in one meal is just too high. Even if a 16 year old eats a recommended diet of 2000-2500 calories per day, then less than one third of the should not come from lunch alone, when breakfast, dinner, drinks and snacks must be factored into the total.

In addition, while the sodium guidelines have been reduced by half, the previous guideline of 1600mg per lunch was so absurdly high, that 740mg is still way too much for one meal.  The USDA’s recommended daily intake of sodium is 2400 mg (approximately one teaspoon of table salt) per day, compared to the UK’s recommended daily intake of 1600mg per day. Sodium is a prime culprit of high blood pressure, which often leads to heart disease, which is a major killer in the US. I think the British are on to something here!

For a complete listing of the new proposed guidelines, visit http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/food/diet-nutrition/2011-01-12-schoollunch13_ST_N.htm?csp=34news

How do you feel about the new USDA guidelines for school lunch? Do you feel comfortable with these USDA dietary recommendations for your kids? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Get Fit And Sexy While Surfing The Internet

After our previous article on how to turn television time into a more stimulating exercise (either physically or mentally), I was inspired to write about how to make computer time more healthy and how to lose calories while sitting. Most people complain that they spent a lot of time chained to their desks and want to know how they can add some fitness to their workdays.

First of all, are you following the rules of healthy computer usage? For every hour you sit down in front of your computer or at your desk, you should spend five minutes stretching your legs, preferably walking outside while thinking calm, gentle thoughts. These exercises you can do at your desk may not seem like much, but that can already add up to 30 minutes of exercise a day or more, while making you more productive at work, since stretching and centering exercises reduce the number of careless mistakes made at work.

Secondly, rethink your work environment. I sometimes bring my work with me to a coffee shop or the library just so I can have the excuse to walk there, work on my laptop and walk back. If you’re using your computer at home or at the office, put it on a counter that is comfortable for you to use when standing up, and don’t put a chair near it. Forcing yourself to stand is a great way to burn energy, strengthen your legs and promote healthy weight loss. You might not do this all day, but doing this for at least three (or even one or two!) hours a day is already enabling you to burn 150 more calories than you would have burned sitting down…and with minimal effort.

How much time do you spend in front of the computer every day? Do you have other tips to get the most out of your computer time while staying fit? Do you have suggestions regarding on how to burn calories while sitting? Let me know by leaving a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

Yes You Can Turn TV Time Into Workout Time!

Sometimes my son gets furious with my husband and me when we strictly limit his daily TV time because it means he must find other ways of amusing himself, which can range from anything to reading to playing outside. But we are strict about this rule because it keeps him more active and it strengthens his brain!

However, even with our nationwide obesity epidemic, there seems to be no escape from television. How do you reason with a child who desperately wants to watch Hannah Montana or Spongebob? How do you reason with adults, who after a day of work, want to sit down to a brainless activity like television to relax? Unless they want to exercise while watching TV? According to csun.edu, the average American spends a whopping four hours per day in front of the TV. Television appears to be, for most, a necessary evil, but it is eroding away our ability for healthy weight loss both physically and mentally.

Since so many things are aimed to sabotage our diets and our workouts, why don’t we sabotage our television time? I do this by going for a daily therapeutic run as soon as my kids are off to school. And in the afternoons when I feel tired and want to sit around, instead I drink a glass of water and focused my renewed energy towards cooking a healthy meal for my family’s dinner.

At night, my husband and I generally allow ourselves about an hour of TV, which is moderate and balanced. But we always also take time to just talk, enjoy each other’s company and discuss our day so that we feel connected and stimulated before turning on the boob tube.

It’s just a matter of being more mindful of the way you spend your time rather than mindlessly turning on the television out of habit. Do you think turning TV time into workout time would work for you? Do you think you can lose weight while watching TV? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

There is really no straight answer to this question because it depends where you get the smoothie and what ingredients are used to make it. Smoothies in many retail shops are made with added sugars, pre-sweetened fruit, high-fat yogurt/ice cream and unhealthy toppings. However, if you love your smoothies and want some tips on making them healthier, I invite you to read on…

1)    Only use low-fat plain yogurt in your smoothies. The added sugars in flavored yogurts are unnecessary calories because the natural sweetness from the fruit is enough to make most smoothies sweet. But if it’s still not sweet enough for you, a teaspoon of honey should do the trick!

2)    Use only fresh or frozen fruit in your smoothies that has not been pre-sweetened. Read labels carefully because often berries and other frozen fruit have sugars added before they are frozen.

3)    Add crushed ice to your smoothies before blending. The crushed ice will make the yogurt have a thicker consistency, more like ice cream without adding any extra calories or diluting the taste. You get a better smoothie with fewer calories – a win win!

4)    Make your smoothies at home. Investing in a good blender will save you money over time since smoothies can cost upwards of $5 each. Plus, making them at home assures you of exactly what’s being put into your smoothie. Make a large amount at once and store in single-serve containers because they can stay in the refrigerator for up to three days for a quick grab-and-go snack.

So start your blenders and enjoy! I’d love to hear your smoothie secrets!

Delicious, Underutilized Oatmeal!

In my last post, we discussed how many eggs you should be eating and what your safe levels of cholesterol should be. Now what if I told you there was an actual breakfast food that could reduce cholesterol? Yes, it’s oatmeal! Oatmeal magically reduces the amount of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol in your body.

Oatmeal’s other fun factor is that it makes you feel full a lot longer, making it easy to reduce your calorie intake just by exchanging your normal greasy breakfast with this one-bowl wonder. Plus, it can be easily portable and a quick snap to prepare, making it a great option to bring to work.

But how do you jazz up something that may at times remind you of dismal force-feedings as a child? Lots of different toppings can make your oatmeal more fun, and they all allow you to change it up so you don’t get bored by monotony. A little goes a long way, so here’s a list of the ingredients you could use for your next bowl of oatmeal:

• Fruit: bananas, peaches, pears, strawberries and mangoes
• Dried fruit: apricots, dates, cherries, mangoes
• Fruit preserves
• Yogurt
• Honey, maple syrup, brown sugar
• Crushed nuts
• Melted dark chocolate bits
• Spices: cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, a drop of vanilla extract
• Coffee: French Vanilla, Almond Mocha

Mr. Breakfast, a wonderful site that lists all sorts of breakfasts (not all of them healthy bear in mind) put together a top-ten list of reasons to eat oatmeal. Visit their site [1] for the full list.

Sources:

[1] http://www.mrbreakfast.com/article.asp?articleid=27

Too much of a good thing?

One of the diets I skimmed through today is called “The Simple Pescatarian Diet” which adheres to some solid health principles, such as eating lots of fish, fresh fruit and dairy (mercury levels and lactose intolerance aside) but I feel its overuse of eggs is a tad questionable. The regimen advises the dieter to eat 6-7 scrambled eggs during the week, which led me to today’s blog question: how many eggs should you be eating?

Eggs sometimes get a bad rap because of their high cholesterol levels (which is only contained in the yolk, measuring at 215 mg, while the recommended daily limit is 300 mg), but in moderation, they are actually an amazing food.  They do contain B vitamins and are a healthy source of protein since they contain all 9 essential amino acids. They are also high in choline, which can help prevent breast cancer.  Eggs have been shown to also help prevent macular degeneration because of their high lutein content. The American Heart Association recommends eating 3-4 eggs a week. But eggs are a hidden ingredient in many foods, such as pastries, certain breads, muffins and other baked goods.  Our nation is one where high cholesterol, which contributes to heart disease, is a problem for many people. Every 34 seconds, somebody in America will die from heart disease [1] and I know my readers have no plans of becoming part of a statistic.

So what should you do about the conundrum to eat or not eat eggs? The answer, like most things when it comes to food, is moderation and balance. There are other ways to reduce your cholesterol too, such as cooking eggs in the smallest amount of olive and/or canola oils. Better yet, go poached or hard boiled, and get rid of the oil altogether. How many eggs do you normally eat a week? Leave a comment below.

Sources:

[1] http://www.mamashealth.com/Heart_stat.asp

Master Yourself, And You Master The World

Through mass media and self-help diatribes, we’ve been bombarded with such tired adages as “Give it 100%!” or “Go all the way!” Lately I’ve been hearing such ridiculous statements such as “Give it 110%!” or even larger figures. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we can give a hundred percent to everything in our lives without becoming overwhelmed. We often divide ourselves up between a variety of roles, and mindless pep talk like that doesn’t really grasp the reality of the human condition. Sometimes you need to give it less than a hundred percent, and today I’d like to encourage you to do just that when you are eating: eat only until you are eighty percent full, a technique known by Japanese as hari hachi bu [1].

Turning Off The Parent Voice

People normally have this natural point where they realize they have had enough. You start with this big plate of food, but then you figure out when you are ten bites from finishing that you’ve had enough. But you keep on eating. Now why do we all do that? Maybe you remember your parent or grandparent, who was a veteran of the Depression days, wagging his/her fork at you, intoning, “Finish your food! Don’t you know there are starving children in Africa?” It’s not wise to waste, but you can put aside food for later or have it put in a doggie bag. So shut your inner parent voice up and stop eating!

Big Results, Small Waistline

This technique is really hard to apply for another reason. Many people feel compelled to eat until they are bloated. Sometimes we just aren’t satisfied until we feel our growing stomachs burgeoning with heavy food. I can understand that. But that makes it harder and harder on your body to lose weight, because the more you continue to do that, the more food your body needs before it can give you the ‘full’ signal. This is the downward spiral of weight gain so many have fallen into. The best thing to do if you don’t feel happy with the amount you’ve eaten is to move the food out of sight for 15 minutes. When you come back to it, you may realize you were made out of stronger stuff than you thought, and that you actually don’t need to eat that much food to be happy with your meal.

Some other suggestions for learning to stop when you are full rather than stuffed include using smaller plates since they don’t have as much room for as much food, as well as putting your fork down between each bite and not picking it up again until you have chewed and swallowed your last bite. These simple tips force you to eat more slowly, which also help you realize when you feel full before hitting that “stuffed” stage.

Give it Eighty Percent!

Do you agree or disagree with hari hachi bu? Let me know by leaving your feedback below. Thanks!

Source:
[1] http://okinawa-diet.com/okinawa_diet/hara_hachi_bu.html

Eat Hot Stuff. Become Hot Stuff. Nice!

My husband turned me on to spicy foods after we got married, and now I love turning on the heat!

But I Don’t Like Spicy Food!

If you don’t like spicy food, it may be just because you haven’t tried the right kind. Perhaps the spicy food you tried was far too spicy, or you tried to wash it down with water, which swirls the spiciness around your mouth and makes spicy food even hotter. If you would like to neutralize the spiciness, Isuggest that you eat your spicy dish with a glass of non-fat milk to lessen the sensation. If you still can’t take the heat, you can skip this article. But I warn you – you’re missing out on something delicious, not to mention something very potent for weight loss!

Hand Me The Chili Flakes Now

As you may have already guessed, red pepper, also known as cayenne pepper, will increase your core metabolism through the naturally occurring substance known as capsaicin. In an article by the New York Daily News, men who drank coffee and ate red pepper snacks for one day burned about 955 calories more than those who didn’t. The men in the study were given free reign to pick what food they wanted to eat, so this information may help food ‘grazers’ who absent-mindedly pick at foods.. That means you should go for the hot stuff first, or opt to add chili flakes to your food. A lot of dishes can be spiced up, especially dishes which are already tomato based.

How Many Pecks of Pickled Peppers (Did Peter Piper Pick)?

But the question is: how much spicy red pepper should you eat? In order to replicate the study and hopefully achieve similar results, you need to consume a lot of red pepper, namely about 19 grams of red peppers and 200 mg of caffeine [1]. That means a cup of coffee at every meal, something I don’t advocate, as the recommended daily limit is 300 mg of caffeine (two cups of coffee per day). What I can recommend is that you exchange the caffeine for the much safer option of green tea, which also has fat-burning benefits.

In another study published by a Japanese scientist in the eminent British Journal of Nutrition [2], the subjects were fed four different kinds of soup. One of these soups had a strong dose of red pepper and the others had weaker amounts of red pepper or placebos. It was discovered that those who ingested the soup with the strong dose of red pepper significantly lowered their fat intake – not to mention decreased their appetite!

How Do I Start?

You might want to start the hot food nights at your house by hosting Spanish-style tapas nights, where you can serve a variety of small Spanish appetizers that taste great with a lot of heat. Or try cooking an Asian fusion meal for dinner, which often requires spicy ingredients. Take it slow, and try to build up your tolerance over time. Is your mouth watering yet?
Hot Feedback Wanted

So did we light your fire? Let us know by leaving a comment!

Sources:
[1] http://www.suite101.com/content/thermogenesis-and-calorie-burners-a183084
[2] http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/Red-pepper-for-fat-burning-further-evidence

Catechins In Green Tea Aids Weight Loss

The Japanese, particularly the ones who live on the island of Okinawa, are amongst the longest-lived people in the world. We’ve been quick to adapt to their cute portions of fresh food, but some of their other cultural quirks – such as sumo wrestlers and geishas – have not yet entered the American mainstream.

Today I’m going to discuss green tea…that hot, steamy drink that is commonly served as ‘house tea’ with your sushi and now shows up in markets and bodegas in glass bottles and cans. A lot of people are aware that drinking green tea can help you lose weight, but I’d like to dish out the details so you know exactly how to utilize this weight loss tool for your body.

Green Tea’s Combo Attack on Fat

Plain green tea without any sugar helps you lose weight for two main reasons. First, it replaces otherwise sugary drinks or other calorie-laden food you may have had, helping you feel full. But water can do that too, which brings us to the second, more important reason: thermogenesis. This describes the process of heat production in organisms, which helps speed up one’s core metabolism. A lot of people mistakenly believe that caffeine also contributes to thermogenesis, but a study done in the University of Geneva [1] showed that green tea improved fat oxidation beyond its caffeine content, due to green tea’s catechins, known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

But Wait…There’s Less?

However, don’t get too excited just yet.  For the average person, you need to lose 500 calories a day in order to lose a approximately half a pound per of fat per week. And the amount of catechins you need to consume in order to lose any weight is about 690 mg [2] or 4-5 cups of green tea. Drinking that much only equals about 70-80 calories lost a day [3], or about 3 pounds lost a year.
But green tea is still a worthy tool in your weight loss arsenal, because you are imbibing more fluids and avoiding otherwise high calorie-filled or artificially sweetened beverages. It might just be that little push you need in order to create a calorie deficit in your diet, and it tastes prettygood too. Don’t bother ordering supplements from dubious websites though, as store-bought green tea is just as good. Some varieties with high ECGC content are oolong tea, genmaicha and matcha green tea.

Green tea also has more to offer than weight loss – a lot more! It is especially helpful for preventing cancer, also because of its catechins. These catechins are a type of antioxidants that help eliminate the free radicals that can ultimately become carcinogens.

Did This Clear Your Mind?

Got something to share about your green tea experience? Leave a comment below.

Sources:
[1]   http://www.shapefit.com/benefits-green-tea-fat-loss.html
[2]   http://www.suite101.com/content/thermogenesis-and-calorie-burners-a183084
[3]   http://www.o-cha.com/green-tea-weight-loss.htm

Jogging is a good form of exercise, but there are others too!

Exercise is essential to weight loss, health, happiness, strong bones, heart health and preventing disease, so it’s time to find one that you enjoy. Don’t wait any longer – get started TODAY!

Excuses

It’s time to find the time to exercise. It may already feel like your day is too full with so many different things, but your body can’t afford to skip exercise. I suggest making a list of all of the things that fill your day, and then numbering them from highest to lowest by priority. Surely something can be cut or at least reduced so you can try and squeeze in some activity. Exercise doesn’t

have to mean breaking a 60 minute sweat at the gym each day.  Start out with just 20 minutes a day 3 times per week, and increase from there. It can be during your lunch hour at work or early in the morning before anyone else in your household wakes up. Anything you start with is better than the absence of it, so just get your body moving!

Exercise Choices

Start by identifying what you like to do because exercise should be something you look forward to – it can be 20-30 minutes of your own time to think, listen to music, organize your thoughts. Do you like to walk, swim, dance, jog, do yoga, bike, watch videos, roller blade, ice skate, or play any sports? It can also be incorporated into things you probably already do, such as clean the house, walk up stairs, lift groceries, or walk around the mall. These are all different ways you can integrate exercise into your daily routine.  Just be sure that you put good energy into these chores and do them long enough to get a cardiovascular workout, which is a minimum of 20 minutes.

Hope you liked today’s article! Tell me how you’ve started to get your body moving and your heart pumping!