Expert: Black tea has many health benefits
March 13, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Tea has many health benefits including manganese, good for physical development, and potassium, good to maintain fluid balance, a U.S. food expert said.
Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst, trend watcher and creator of supermarketguru.com, said studies also show tea drinkers are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease than non-drinkers, and a recent study discovered black tea lowers systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Black tea is also packed with flavonoids, antioxidants that help combat free radicals that cause cellular damage and aging.
Flavonoids also help prevent the oxidation of “bad” cholesterol, protect blood vessels from inflammation and inhibit blood clotting. « Read the rest of this entry »
Tai Chi Benefits Patients With Parkinson’s (via New York Times)
February 14, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Tai chi, an ancient martial art characterized by slow, flowing movement and meditation, helps improve balance and movement control for people with Parkinson’s disease.
The finding, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the latest study to show the benefits of tai chi for people with chronic health problems. Past studies have shown that tai chi reduces falls and depression among the elderly, and lessens pain for patients with arthritis and fibromyalgia.
In Parkinson’s disease, nerve cells in the brain that produce the chemical dopamine begin to die. Lower dopamine production can lead to tremors, balance problems, stiff facial expressions and muffled speech, among other problems. « Read the rest of this entry »
Barefoot Workouts Gain Ground
December 13, 2011 § Leave a Comment
If you’ve ventured onto a running trail in the past year or so, you realize that barefoot running has become all the rage, and now the workout is gaining ground across the exercise spectrum.
Fitness experts from aerobics instructors to modern dancers are lauding the benefits of barefoot workouts.
Connecticut-based fitness instructor Ellen Barrett teaches a mixture of Pilates, yoga and dance and conducts all her low-impact classes barefoot.
“I’ve been teaching barefoot forever. Shoes give you a false sense of a platform. You don’t connect to ground,” explained Barrett, creator of the DVDs “Grace and Gusto” and “Power Fusion.”
“So goes the foot, so goes the body. If your foot is balanced and strong the rest of the body is too,” said Barrett. “That connectedness between foot and core and balance, that core connection, that’s ultimately what balance is.”
Read more about barefoot exercise and its benefits!
Eating Canned Soup ‘Poses a Chemical Risk’ (via BBC Health)
November 29, 2011 § 1 Comment
People who eat canned soup should be aware that a chemical used to line the tin can leach into the food and end up in the body, say scientists.
Tests on 75 volunteers revealed the compound bisphenol A (BPA) was readily ingested and detected in large amounts in the urine, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports. « Read the rest of this entry »
Sitting Without Breaks UPs Cancer Risk (Via UPI)
November 21, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Sitting for long periods of time is associated with health risks — even for people who are regularly physically active, an Australian researcher says.
Neville Owen of Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Australia said key indicators of cancer risk are lower when prolonged sitting is interrupted with brief breaks of 1 or 2 minutes.
“Sitting time is emerging as a strong candidate for being a cancer risk factor in its own right. It seems highly likely that the longer you sit, the higher your risk. This phenomenon isn’t dependent on body weight or how much exercise people do,” Owen said in a statement. “In our studies, we’ve measured waist circumference, insulin resistance and inflammation — indicators of cancer risk common to many physical activity-cancer studies. We found that even breaks as short as 1 minute can lower these biomarkers.” « Read the rest of this entry »
Study: Eat Slower, Stay Slimmer (Via Fox News Latino)
November 15, 2011 § 1 Comment
A woman who eats slow and prefers whole grains to refined grains is more than likely to be on the slimmer side, according to a new study from the University of Rhode Island.
Associate professor of nutrition at URI, Kathleen Melanson, headed up the study and presented her findings at The Obesity Society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. last month, according to a press release from URI.
Self-reported eating rates in a laboratory study found that fast eaters ate 3.1 ounces of food a minute, and slow eaters ate 2.0 ounces of food a minute. Men also ate faster than women, but the fastest eating woman ate as fast as a man, both eating 3.1 ounces per minute.
A second study was done to examine the correlation between the body mass index (BMI) of the individual and their eating habits.
Melanson found that those with a higher BMI were more likely to eat the fastest.
“One theory we are pursuing is that fast eating may be related to greater energy needs, since men and heavier people have higher energy needs,” Melanson explained. « Read the rest of this entry »
FDA Blames Dirty Equipment, Stagnant Water for Listeria Outbreak
October 21, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Via Fox News Latino
Pools of water on the floor and old, hard-to-clean equipment at a Colorado farm’s cantaloupe packing facility were probably to blame for the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
Government investigators found positive samples of listeria bacteria on equipment in the Jensen Farms packing facility and on fruit that had been held there.
In a six-page assessment of the conditions at the farm based on investigators’ visits in late September, the FDA said Jensen Farms had recently purchased used equipment that was corroded, dirty and hard to clean. The packing facility floors were also constructed so they were hard to clean, so pools of water potentially harboring the bacteria formed close to the packing equipment.
The equipment – purchased in July, the same month the outbreak started – was previously used for a different agricultural commodity, the agency said, and the listeria “could have been introduced as a result of past use of the equipment,” according to the report. « Read the rest of this entry »
Soy on the Side (Via Yoga Journal)
October 19, 2011 § 1 Comment
Certain foods such as millet, cassava, and cruciferous vegetables contain compounds thought capable of interfering with the body’s ability to produce thyroid hormones.
Soybeans, too, contain isoflavones which in vitro (test tube) studies have shown to interfere with thyroid hormone-synthesizing enzymes.
However, the polyphenolic compounds (different classes of phytochemicals) found in fruits and vegetables are even more potent than isoflavones when it comes to potentially interfering with thyroid function. And of course, no one would recommend consuming fewer fruits and vegetables.
Also, what goes on in vitro doesn’t necessarily occur in vivo (in organisms). Recently, in fact, several human studies have looked at the effect of soyfoods on thyroid function and have found no adverse reactions. (One of these studies was conducted for a full year.) « Read the rest of this entry »
Snacks That Give You Energy: Day 10
September 21, 2011 § 5 Comments
For the final day of great energy snack posts, I wanted to keep it pretty simple. Lemon water may not quite constitute a snack, but did you know that sipping water with lemon — whether cold or hot — is known to be an excellent source of energy? Dehydration is one of the major forms of fatigue, so sipping on hydrating lemon water does its job by diminishing that risk. Furthermore, it gives an added boost of vitamins and enzymes. Make sure to kickstart your day with a cup of hot water and lemon!
Source: Kimberly Snyder
Snacks That Give You Energy: Day 2
August 29, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Organic Dark Chocolate
Anyone with a sweet tooth (and isn’t that most of us?) will be overjoyed to hear this energy snack suggestion. Organic dark chocolate is sure to satisfy those cravings, and is better than having dessert snacks that contain refined starches, which will deplete B vitamins that we need for energy. Try going for non-dairy, organic dark chocolate because it contains the highest amount of powerful antioxidants. There is some sugar in it, so limit portion size to 1-2 oz a day.
Source: Kimberly Snyder
