Here is yet another reason to be sad about the SAD – Standard American Diet.
A new study by Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California researcher links increased dietary potassium with lower hypertension.
Consuming potassium-rich foods like sweet potatoes, avocados, spinach, beans, bananas — and even coffee — could be key to lowering blood pressure, according to a USC researcher.
“Decreasing sodium intake is a well-established way to lower blood pressure,” said Alicia McDonough, professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, “but evidence suggests that increasing dietary potassium may have an equally important effect on hypertension.” Continue reading
I am still convinced that portion control is a key concept in controlling your weight. If you stick with these you can’t go far wrong.
There are some good ideas here. I have always thought that major change is like turning an ocean liner at sea. It is best done in small increments. Just as she says here.
You can also check out my Page: How to Lose Weight – and Keep it Off for more guidelines that I have learned in my successful battle of the bulge.
Our Better Health
By Deanna Schober
Change is best made in baby steps. As you have probably already learned at some point in your life, change that involves a complete overhaul is really tough to stick to and a pretty sure recipe for failure.
Habits are best changed one at a time. Try mastering one new habit every 2-3 weeks, then when it becomes a routine, you can start on the next one. Here are ten suggestions on where to start:
1. Avoid Fast Food
I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know -”Fast food is bad for you”. But that’s an abstract concept, “bad for you” – do you know why it is? You may hear all about how high in calories fast food is, but what you may not know is how it is also full of MSG, horrible cancer-causing chemicals, and trans fats.
Many fast food places even use…
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“We all know that eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, but the size of the effect is staggering,” says Dr Oyinlola Oyebode of UCL’s Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, lead author of the study. “The clear message here is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age. Vegetables have a larger effect than fruit, but fruit still makes a real difference. If you’re happy to snack on carrots or other vegetables, then that is a great choice but if you fancy something sweeter, a banana or any fruit will also do you good.”
Cooking with Kathy Man
Researchers at University College London used the Health Survey for England to study the eating habits of 65,226 people representative of the English population between 2001 and 2013, and found that the more fruit and vegetables they ate, the less likely they were to die at any age. Eating seven or more portions reduces the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25% and 31% respectively. The research also showed that vegetables have significantly higher health benefits than fruit.
This is the first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all-cause, cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population, the first to quantify health benefits per-portion, and the first to identify the types of fruit and vegetable with the most benefit.
Compared to eating less than one portion of fruit and vegetables, the risk of death by any cause is reduced by 14% by eating…
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I’ve been writing about a recent trip to London where I went through training for a new job I’ve taken in the Chicago office of a British employer.
The office in London had many differences from the one here, some a bit quirky but at least one that I found very pleasant, and healthy.
Twice a week there, cartons of fresh fruit are delivered to the office and put out in bowls throughout the place. Apples, bananas, I think oranges as well.
And people flock to the free fruit. I grabbed the last apple the morning after a shipment from the previous day, it was the only piece of fruit left. I had a banana the second day they were delivered (I think deliveries were Tuesday and Thursday). Continue reading
I’m an admitted junk food junkie, can’t live without chocolate, so finding healthy things I like to eat is always a challenge for me. But summer does present some of my favorite non-junk snacks.
I’ve been thrilled lately, for example, that Costco is selling California figs. If you’ve never had a fig, you’ve missed a lot. And fresh ones are so much more flavorful than the dried ones you can buy in most supermarket produce aisles. Their sweetness is amazing and they’re a great source of fiber as well.