Weekly Wellness
Issue 391
Featured Article
Fact Sheet: Caffeine and Health Caffeine is one of the most comprehensively studied ingredients in the food supply. There is considerable knowledge of this compound, with centuries of safe consumption in foods and beverages.
Fitness Tip
Caffeine and Physical Performance
Caffeine helps the body burn fat instead of carbohydrate, and it blunts the perception of pain. Both can boost endurance. For example, endurance runners who ran to exhaustion on a treadmill lasted an average of 32 minutes without caffeine, but made it to 42 minutes after drinking coffee with around 250mg of caffeine. And you don't have to be a trained athlete to benefit. There's no question that caffeine will improve aerobic physical endurance in non-athletes as well. People who run, jog, swim, or cycle can last longer if they've had 200mg to 600mg of caffeine beforehand. And new research suggests that caffeine can also improve anaerobic performance. That includes lifting heavy objects and sprinting short distances.
Nutrition Tip
Eat More Edamame
This tasty green soybean is one of the oldest snack foods, and one of the most beneficial, helping to lower "bad" cholesterol, hinder breast and prostate cancers, protect against colon cancer, and strengthen bones. You'll find edamame in natural foods markets. Just steam and pop the beans out of their pods.
Quip or Quote of the Week
Quote
To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing. --Mark Twain
Quick Recipe
Apple Sausage
1. Mix one large finely chopped apple with a pound of lean ground turkey or chicken.
2. Season with sage and rosemary and shape into breakfast sausage patties.
3. Cook in skillet over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes on each side until meat reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Tidbit(s)
Prevent Prescription Mix-Ups
Ask your doctor to write the purpose of a medication next to its name. That extra information should reduce the chance of your pharmacist mistaking your prescription for a "sound-alike" drug with a smiliar name -- a problem that accounts for some 15 percent of drug errors.
Food Facts
Since homegrown vegetables may still ripen after they're picked, use them right away or store them for a later date. The sugars of some vegetables, such as corn and peas, rapidly change to starch unless they're refrigerated quickly. Keep veggies such as celery, peppers and cucumbers in the crisper.
To anchor mixing bowls: Twist a damp dish towel and wrap it tightly around the base, or, place a dry dishtowel over the mouth of a saucepan, and place the mixing bowl securely on top --either way, you can whisk and pour simultaneously!
Tasty Tidbit...
Sprinkle shredded fresh basil on zucchini.
More Cooking Tips and Quick Cooking Tips on the Web site!