Weekly Wellness
Issue 399
Featured Article
Featured Article
Herbal Fat Busters - For some people, trying to lose just a few pounds can be as big an effort as losing a lot of weight. If you are looking to lose a little bit of weight before swimsuit season or the big reunion, or just to get back into your favorite pair of pants, these can help.
Fitness Tip
Lift Weights the Healthy Way
Lifting weights can raise blood pressure temporarily, but a Japanese study foud that a little post-pumping cardio will quickly lower it. Blood vessels of people who ran for 20 minutes after resistance training were more elastic, which keeps blood pressure low by allowing blood to move quickly to the heart. Why does that matter? Over time, repeated blood pressure spikes can contribute to hardening of the arteries. Experts say any aerobic exercise curbs the weights-induced spikes.
Nutrition Tip
Let Your Belly Tell You When You're Full
It's true that it can take 20 minutes for your stomach to signal to your brain that it is full. During digestion, food is converted into glucose (also known as blood sugar), the body's basic unit of energy. The body needs 20 minutes to begin digesting food and converting it to glucose. As that happens, hormones like ghrelin, leptin, and insulin communicate between the stomach and the brain, helping signal satiety. If you finish a large meal in less than 20 minutes, you will have impaired your body's ability to regulate food intake.
Quip or Quote of the Week
Quote
We rarely repent of having eaten too little. --Thomas Jefferson
Quick Recipe
Easy Salsa Snacks
Spread three Ritz reduced-fat crackers each with 1/2 teaspoon softened Neufchatel cream cheese and 1-teaspoon chunky salsa. Serve immediately. 60 calories in this single serving.
Tidbit(s)
Chocolate Brain Gains
It sounds almost too good to be true, but preliminary research at West Virginia's Wheeling Jesuit University suggests chocolate may boost your memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving skills by increasing blood flow to the brain. Chocolate companies found comparable gains in similar research on healthy young women and on elderly people.
Food Facts
Use instant nonfat dry milk not only for emergencies and "stretching" fluid milk, but to bump up the protein in smoothies, mashed potatoes, puddings and soups.
Brazil nuts raise blood selenium significantly. (Limit to two a day so you don't get too much of the mineral).
Tasty Tidbit...
Add a crunch to your salads. Sprinkle on some toasted almonds or sesame seeds. Or toss in a bit of chopped cucumber, bell pepper, raw corn kernels, jicama, carrot or apple.
More Cooking Tips and Quick Cooking Tips on the Web site!