What the Colonial Virginians Ate

From The Shiksa.com:


The first colonial settlers came to America for a variety of reasons… money, religious freedom, a new beginning. All undoubtedly had dreams of finding a better life in the New World. It was the birth of our nation, and also the birth of American cuisine.
In 1607 the first British colony—Virginia—was established, and 1776 was the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. This span of years is known as the Colonial Period. It was during this time that large numbers of European settlers began to arrive in the U.S., colonizing along the east coast of North America. There were many different cultural influences in America at the time, including settlers from Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Germany, slaves from Africa, and Native American tribes. This melding pot of humanity resulted in many diverse approaches to food. To find some perspective in what would otherwise be a massive subject, today I am focusing specifically on the Colony of Virginia, one of the thirteen original British colonies.
Why Virginia? I’m glad you asked!
You all know that I’ve been researching my ancestry. Well, it turns out there is yet another fascinating character in my family tree. In my What the Tudors Ate blog, I wrote about my ancestor Sir Thomas Wyatt, a poet in King Henry VIII’s court. It turns out that Wyatt’s offspring did some pretty interesting things, too. He had a son, known as Thomas Wyatt the younger, who led a rebellion against Queen Mary I (the daughter of Henry VIII and heir to his throne).
Thomas the younger, it is written, had a “wild disposition” and a deep hatred for Spain. When Queen Mary was betrothed to Philip of Spain, Thomas conspired against the marriage, believing that Mary’s younger sister Elizabeth should be on the throne instead. He led a rebellion of 4,000 men who marched on London, but his rebel army deserted him at the last minute, and he was forced to surrender. He was later tried, found guilty of treason, beheaded and quartered as ordered by Queen Mary, aka “Bloody Mary.”
Shivers.
This might well have been the end of the Wyatt family (which means I would have never been born!), but as luck would have it Thomas the younger gave birth to a son before he was executed. That son, George Wyatt, and his wife gave birth to two sons—Reverend Haute Wyatt (1594-1638) and Sir Francis Wyatt (1588-1644). Those two brothers, Francis and Haute, arrived in America on August 1, 1621 aboard a ship called the George. Shortly thereafter, Sir Francis became the first English crown governor of the Colony of Virginia in 1621. He also introduced the first written constitution for an English colony. This constitution became a model for all later forms of government in the American colonies.
Wow, right? Just, wow! My ancestor was the first royal governor of Virginia. I’m a direct descendent of Francis’ brother, Reverend Haute. It’s so cool to know that I have a colonial governor in my family tree! The state of Virginia has a special place in my heart… I’ve dreamed of having a farm in Virginia for as long as I can remember. I took my first trip there in 2008, and went back again in 2009 because I loved it so much. This was all before I knew about Sir Francis and Reverend Haute. Virginia must be in my genes. So cool!
Okay, back to food history. The Colony of Virginia was actually the first permanent English colony in North America, founded at the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. The first decade of colonial life was fraught with hardship as settlers learned to live in this strange New World. European crops would not grow, provisions were poor, and settlers did not know how to fend for themselves in this harsh, uncharted land. Over time, the new Americans learned from the Native Americans, adopting native crops like maize (corn), beans, squash, cranberries, sunflower seeds, and chestnuts. Wild-growing foods were also gathered and consumed, including berries, grapes, onions and plums. As decades passed, European crops were imported and successfully cultivated in America, including rye, wheat, oats, cabbage, peas, carrots and beets. Orchard fruits flourished in the New World, particularly apples. Apples were eaten fresh, baked into pies and tarts, dried, or fermented into alcohol (“apple jack”—aka apple brandy).
In the early colonial period, settlers relied on fish and wild game (deer, buffalo, wild fowl) to sustain them. Fish from rivers and shellfish from the coast provided an abundant source of protein. As farms were established, cattle were imported and poultry was domesticated. But the most widely consumed meat animal was the pig. Pigs thrived in the South, and were particularly useful to the settlers because their meat was easy to salt and preserve. Lard was often used as a cooking fat. As colonists grew their domesticated animal herds, dairy farming became more popular. Cheese, butter, and eggs became staples of the colonial diet.
Virginia, a plantation colony, has an unfortunate history of slave trade. African slaves made a major contribution to the Southern colonial diet. Slaves were often permitted to grow their own gardens to supplement their food rations. In these gardens they cultivated a variety of then unfamiliar foods, including yams, okra, peanuts, melons and sesame seeds. These foods were adopted by the mainstream, and quickly became popular throughout the American South.
In the colonies, three meals were served per day—breakfast in the morning, dinner mid-day (the most substantial meal), and a light supper in the evening. Of course, different income brackets enjoyed different types of food depending on what they could afford. The diet of Governor Francis Wyatt would have been quite different from the poorer colonial settlers and slaves. But even the wealthy and well-established had to plan their meals around what was readily available to the colonies. Very few food items were imported, particularly in the early colonial period.
The best descriptions I’ve found about colonial eating appear in a book published in 1975 called A Cooking Legacy by Virginia T. Elverson and Mary Ann McLanahan.

BREAKFAST

In frontier outposts and on farms, families drank cider or beer and gulped down a bowl of porridge that had been cooking slowly all night over the embers… The southern poor ate cold turkey washed down with ever-present cider. The size of breakfasts grew in direct proportion to growth of wealth… It was among the Southern planters that breakfast became a leisurely and delightful meal, though it was not served until early chores were attended to and orders for the day given… Breads were eaten at all times of the day, but particularly at breakfast.

DINNER

Early afternoon was the appointed hour for dinner in Colonial America. Throughout the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth century it was served in the “hall” or “common room.” While dinner among the affluent merchants in the North took place shortly after noon, the Southern planters enjoyed their dinner late as bubbling stews were carried into the fields to feed the slaves and laborers… In the early settlements, poor families ate from trenchers filled from a common stew pot, with a bowl of coarse salt the only table adornment… The stews often included pork, sweet corn and cabbage, or other vegetables and roots which were available…

SUPPER

…supper was a brief meal and, especially in the South, light and late. It generally consisted of leftovers from dinner… In the richer merchant society and in Southern plantation life, eggs and egg dishes were special delicacies and were prepared as side dishes at either dinner or supper.

Speaking of eggs and egg dishes, how about we take a taste of colonial life by preparing an Apple Tansey! This historical recipe appears in The Compleat Housewife: Or, Accomplished Gentelwoman’s Companion, a cookbook written by Eliza Smith, originally published in 1742. Though the book was published in London, it was later reprinted and published in Williamsburgh, Virginia by the printer William Parks. It is the first cookbook ever to be published in the United States.

Low carbs - my own experience

Carbohydrates are a four-letter word in many dieting circles.  I used to think that sugars gave grains a bad name, but am refining my belief after some recent reading (much of it documented in this blog), and my own personal experience.

True, sugars are to be limited severely.  Simple sugars (like sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup should be avoided as much as possible.  If you like a little sweetener in your tea or coffee, use honey (as your ancestors did). 

But what about grains?  When I was married, my wife was in remission from Hodgkin's disease, and I learned to cook macrobiotic for her.  The basis of the macrobiotic diet was grains (mostly brown rice) and beans.  Many grains are good for you, but if you're looking for a rule of thumb, consider the degree of processing they've undergone.  Oats in oatmeal are good.  Wheat in pasta or bread is bad.  Brown rice or barley, when eaten in their barely refined form are good.  White rice and most corn products are bad (much of today's corn is GM - or genetically modified, and the effects such modification has on your health is not well known; the modifications were designed to make the crops yield more and be resistant to pests; since pests have much the same biology as you do, I'm very suspicious of GM crops).

Many beans are high in carbohydrates, but they're also low in fat, high in protein and fiber.  I recommend beans as a substitute for meat if you're trying to eat less meat (to lower your cholesterol, save money, or reduce your carbon footprint - yes, a vegetarian diet is better for the planet too).

My experience?  Yes, I began to digress.  At the start of this year (nearly three months ago), because of an article I shared with you, I slashed my intake of bread and pasta.  The two used to be staples in my diet.  Instead of a sandwich for lunch, I wrap meat and cheese in romaine lettuce or layer it on green pepper slices.  It adds a little to my lunch budget, but is very tasty, and better for me.  For dinner, instead of pasta, I'm making mostly meat and veggies (broiled chicken and fish, eaten next to my veggies cut up and mixed in with them in a lettuce-free "salad" are the most common meals).  Immediately I saw a decline in my weight. 

Normally I gain weight in winter and lose weight in summer.  My goal each winter is to gain less than I lost the previous summer, whereas my goal in the summer is to lose more than I gained the previous winter.  Needless to say, as I've gotten older (just turned fifty at the end of last year), my metabolism slows and achieving those goals is more difficult.

So the fact that I lost weight in winter was very encouraging to me.  Coupled with my increased physical activity level in the summer, I expect this new diet (and I want to stress that this is diet with a lower case "d," in that I expect to remain on this forever, as opposed to Diet with an upper case "D" that is something people adopt for a short period of time to lose weight quickly) to yield great results.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure and honesty, I have to say that while I lost seven pounds the first month of my new eating discipline (much better than the word diet), my weight has remained at that level since then.  I attribute this to complacency (so happy with my new success, I allowed myself a few more snacks - mostly mixed nuts - than I ought to have been eating), and believe that it ought not to be hard to get serious again and see another weight drop.  The fact that I didn't gain weight this winter, and will even end winter at a lower weight than I began it, means that I'm well-positioned for a very fit summer.

Oh yeah, there's that word "fit."  Fitness is more than weight.  Far more.  In fact, I used to think I was both fit and fat.  My strength and endurance were more than up to the task of any activity in which I chose to engage (mostly hiking, biking, and snowshoeing), but I carried some extra weight, so I didn't look as good as I felt.  The new slimmer me ought to change all of that.  Also, if I have less weight to carry around, then I ought to be able to hike longer and farther this summer.  Heck, merely dropping twenty pounds is like the difference between hiking with a pack and without one!

Stay tuned to the Revolutionary Diet blog to see how my progress goes.

How the Paleolithic Diet Compares to What Modern Americans Eat

I'm no scientist, so I can't say whether or not our bodies have evolved as fast as our diet, but I suspect not.  I know that eating all the garbage (trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, etc.) that's in fake foods is bad for you.  While I certainly don't advocate eating like our cavemen ancestors, there's a lot to be said for a diet that is weighted more towards the real foods that could be hunted or scavenged, and less on processed (and overly processed) foods that dominate the supermarket shelves and the diets of many Americans.

From Good:

This chart presents another way of looking into the diet of our evolutionary ancestors by comparing one researcher's understanding of the Paleolithic diet with the diet of the diet of 20th century Americans. As I pointed out in this post, there's still considerable debate about the merits of a Paleolithic diet and its implications in the modern diseases of affluence.
Is the diet of our evolutionary ancestors a good place to start looking for a model diet and lifestyle? Weigh in on the discussion here.
Chart via Jew, "Evolution of the Human Diet," Journal of Medicinal Food, 2009, using data from Eaton and Cordain, "Paleolithic nutrition revisited," Nature, 1997, and Hiza and Bente "Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply. 1909-2004," USDA, 2007.

Dukan Diet: French Food Faddism Or Long Term Diet?

My Revolutionary Diet takes us back to the simpler time of 1776.  The French seem determined to one-up me with their Dukan Diet:

From Medical News Today:

There was the South Beach Diet, Atkins, Sonoma, Cabbage Soup and even the Buddah Diet. There is the Fennagold, Grapefruit Diet and Herbalife. Now there is a diet coming out of France, The Dukan Diet, that is all the newest rage.

The Dukan method proposes a healthy eating plan that returns to the foods which founded the human species, those eaten by primitive man, the hunter-gatherers, proteins and vegetables, 100 foods including 72 from the animal world and 28 from the plant world. This offer also features the magic words: As Much As You Like.

The Diet's website claims that the French medical establishment, in common with all Western countries, feels helpless faced with the steady rise in obesity that the WHO (World Health Organisation) describes as the first non-infectious epidemic. Medicines to treat it are rare and of limited use, sufferers try diet after diet demonstrating the absence of consensus on any effective method.

Given this context, many general practitioners, struck by the results obtained by their patients and especially by their long-term weight stabilization, have adopted the Dukan Diet, either by learning it and applying it to their patients, or by advising them to buy the Dukan Diet book.
Pierre Dukan remarked during a medical conference:

"This mobilisation of converted users, a word-of-mouth movement powerful enough to cross cultures and frontiers, aided by the support of the medical establishment leads me to think that perhaps I have touched on a universal dimension of weight loss. A method which uses natural eating to counteract poor cultural dietary habits linked to over-abundance which leads to the excess weight problems we are seeing today. "

So what are the facts? Is Dukan a fad or the way to go? You decide.

Food faddism and fad diet usually refer to idiosyncratic diets and eating patterns that promote short-term weight loss, usually with no concern for long-term weight maintenance, and enjoy temporary popularity.

Many forms of food faddism and fad diets are supported by pseudo-scientific claims. Fad diets claim to be scientific but do not follow the scientific method in establishing their validity. Some in the scientific community comment that food faddism is born of ignorance about basic scientific dietary facts. Some scientific studies suggest there is no evidence supporting the assertion that weight loss is enhanced by factors other than a reduction in caloric intake, or that fad diets help dieters achieve long term weight loss. Fad diets generally ignore or refute what is known about fundamental associations between dietary pattern and human health.

For many people weight loss is a chronic endeavor. All too often the shedding of pounds is a temporary event followed by a steady regain of lost weight. Most popular diets are unsuccessful in the long run because they fail to address the multi-faceted nature of what successful, permanent weight loss entails. Luckily, research has revealed many invaluable strategies which can help increase odds of permanent weight loss.

The Diet Channel website recommends the following ten strategies for long term weight loss:

1. Exercise is essential for weight loss
2. Weight loss and weight training
3. Keep a diary for triggers that hinder weight loss
4. Stay focused on being healthy, not on becoming thin
5. Find out why you overeat
6. Weight loss support: join a weight management group
7. Portion control
8. Lose weight slowly with small changes
9. Eating slowly can lead to weight loss
10. Weight loss through eating less fat while doing it wisely

Simply limiting high fat foods in the diet can be helpful with weight loss. That's because fats pack in nine calories per gram compared to only four calories per gram from proteins or carbohydrates. To many, the message to limit fats implied an endorsement to eat unlimited amounts of fat-free products; however in some cases fat-free foods have as many calories as their fat laden counterparts. If you eat more calories than your body uses, you will gain weight. Eating less fat will help you to lose weight. Eating less fat and replacing it with excessive amounts of fat-free products will not.

Alcohol and Weight Loss

Alcohol is considered by many to be "empty calories" in that it does little to make you full or provide nutritional value, but certainly helps pack on the pounds.  Personally, I believe a drink now and then is just fine (especially some red wine with dinner), but be careful with too much or too often.

From Cincinnati.com:

Alcohol and weight loss are enemies, but an occasional drink can have a place in a healthy lifestyle. In fact, many experts note the health benefits of consuming a single drink per day, including a reduced risk for high blood pressure.

If, however, you are exceeding one drink daily, you might be sabotaging your weight loss plans.
Alcohol is metabolized differently than other foods and beverages. Under normal conditions, your body gets its energy from the calories in carbohydrates, fats and proteins that need to be slowly digested in the stomach—but not when alcohol is present. When alcohol is consumed, it gets special privileges and needs no digestion. The alcohol molecules diffuse through the stomach wall as soon as they arrive and can reach the brain and liver in minutes. This reaction is slightly slowed when there is also food in your system, but as soon as the mixed contents enter the small intestine, the alcohol grabs first place and is absorbed quickly. The alcohol then arrives at the liver for processing. The liver places all of its attention on the alcohol. Therefore, the carbohydrates (glucose) and dietary fats are just changed into body fat, waiting to be carried away for permanent fat storage in the body.
Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning that it causes water loss and dehydration. Along with this water loss you lose important minerals, such as magnesium, potassium, calcium and zinc. These minerals are vital to the maintenance of fluid balance, chemical reactions, and muscle contraction and relaxation.
Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram and offers NO nutritional value. It only adds empty calories to your diet. Why not spend your calorie budget on something healthier?

Alcohol affects your body in other negative ways. Drinking might help induce sleep, but the sleep you get isn't very deep. Ultimately, as a result, you get less rest. Alcohol can also increase the amount of acid that your stomach produces, causing your stomach lining to become inflamed. Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to serious health problems, including stomach ulcers, liver disease, and heart troubles.

Alcohol lowers your inhibitions, which is detrimental to your diet plans. Alcohol actually stimulates your appetite. While you might be full from a comparable amount of calories from food, several drinks might not fill you up. On top of that, research shows that if you drink before or during a meal, both your inhibitions and willpower are reduced. In this state, you are more likely to overeat—especially greasy or fried foods—which can add to your waistline. To avoid this, wait to order that drink until you're done with your meal.

Many foods that accompany drinking (peanuts, pretzels, chips) are salty, which can make you thirsty, encouraging you to drink even more. To avoid overdrinking, sip on a glass of water in between each alcoholic beverage.

Skipping a meal to save your calories for drinks later is a bad idea. Many drinkers know they'll be having some alcohol later, whether going to a bar, party, or just kicking back at home. Knowing that drinking entails extra calories, it may be tempting to "bank" some calories by skipping a meal or two. This is a bad move. If you come to the bar hungry, you are even more likely to munch on the snacks, and drinking on an empty stomach enhances the negative effects of alcohol. If you're planning on drinking later, eat a healthy meal first. You'll feel fuller, which will stop you from overdrinking. If you are worried about a looming night out with friends, include an extra 30 minutes of exercise to balance your calories—instead of skipping a meal.

What are more important, calories or carbs? You might think that drinking liquor is more diet-friendly because it has no carbohydrates, while both wine and beer do contain carbs. But dieters need to watch calories, and liquor only has a few calories less than beer or wine. Plus, it is often mixed with other drinks, adding even more empty calories. Hard liquor contains around 100 calories per shot, so adding a mixer increases calories even more. If you are going to mix liquor with anything, opt for a diet or club soda, instead of fruit juice or regular soda. Sweeter drinks, whether liquor or wine, tend to have more sugar, and therefore more calories. In that respect, dry wines usually have fewer calories than sweet wines.

Healthy aging means taking care of body and mind

My dad likes to say how great he looks for his age.  I like to compare myself to people ten and twenty years younger than me.  I've been into exercise and good diet (on and off) for over thirty years, and am darn glad that I have.  It's one reason I feel good, and it just makes sense that it's one reason I look good. 

From News-Press:

Healthy aging starts with overall wellness and positive lifestyles choices. Eating a well-balanced diet, incorporating physical exercise into our daily routine and adopting positive wellness habits are all important steps to healthy aging.
The American Heart Association's campaign to educate women about heart health is in full swing this month as the focus is on the Go Red for Women initiative. The little red dress lapel pins have successfully branded this important campaign.
According to its website, the message is simple for women in later life. "The prevention prescription in your 60s is the same as it's always been - healthy diet and exercise."
An important first step is to know your numbers. Monitor your blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels and be aware of what is considered normal compared to numbers that should elicit attention.
The Go Red for Women website contains a helpful chart to refer to important numbers that affect heart health. Visit the website at goredforwomen.org.
It is never too late to adopt healthy lifestyle choices. If you smoke, now is a good time to stop. If you live with a smoker, take steps to help them eliminate the habit - their secondhand smoke is equally detrimental to your health. Recognize the effects that alcohol use has on heart health and consciously make an effort to consume alcohol only in moderation.
Pledge to focus on healthy eating and incorporate regular exercise into your schedule. This will help to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, which goes a long way toward the goal of heart health and overall wellness.
To get off to a good start, start your day with a nutritious breakfast including fruit such as cherries and blueberries. Follow this positive step with a 30-minute walk around your neighborhood. Within an hour, you will have incorporated two important steps to healthy aging in your daily routine. Before you know it, healthy lifestyle choices will become a natural part of your day.
Finally, focus energy on reducing stress. Surround yourself with people who make you laugh and elicit positive feelings. Slow down and take time to enjoy the moments you have to spend with friends and family. Take deep breaths. Accept the things you cannot change and try to eliminate whatever you can on your worry list. Get a good night's sleep. Give back by volunteering for a cause dear to your heart.

Maryjeanne Hunt: Ditch the diet, use common sense

Duh.  If you need to be told to use common sense, maybe you just don't have any.  Still, for those always seeking that magic pill or easy diet, here's some sound advice that you should read.

From The Utica Observer Dispatch:


Annual winter rumblings about failed diets and thwarted weight loss have become a cultural post-holiday ritual, so I suppose I ought to just wave the white flag now and call it a day.
Yes, it's upon us once again. Publishers have pumped out books about diets with real gusto this year –– "The Amen Solution," "The Carb Lover's Diet," "Cinch!" "The New Sonoma," "The New Atkins," "The Lean Belly Prescription" –– and guess what? They all work, and they all fail.
Why? Because they drench us with so many visions of our next meal that we forget life exists outside the imprisoning circle of this year's food rules.
I'd love to know why something as pure and uncorrupt as finding pleasure in life-sustaining nourishment had to become so complex or so evil. (Don't answer that; I know the answer and so do you.)
Naturally we're eager to hear the newest research about carbs or what the temperature of food has to do with burning body fat. If the information turns out to be true, it's pregnant with promise. Therein lies the caveat: IF it turns out to be true.
We're confused. And we're desperately hungry … for the truth.
While I must confess I haven't opened a single one of the 2011 diet books to learn what new earth-shattering secrets I might be missing, I'm confident that a little common sense will go a long way in managing our weight (not to mention our physical and psychological well-being).
So please allow me, once again, to help you wade through the plethora of diet confusion.

• Most important, be as vigorously active as your life will allow while doing what you love.
• Eat food that looks the way the earth gave it to us as often as possible. (Mother Earth did not create granola bars.)
• Eat an entire rainbow of colors each day (the deeper the color, the better).
• Eat often, but not to fullness.
• Drink water when you're thirsty (not strictly to satisfy some arbitrary number of ounces).
• Eat whole fruit instead of packaged juice whenever possible.
• Save the white stuff (flour) for making things like play dough for your kids. Use whole grain flour instead.
• Enjoy the food you choose. (If you hate celery sticks, don't promise yourself to eat them for lunch every day.)
• Fat is not a foe, but the kind you pour (like olive oil) is better than the kind you spoon (butter). And I encourage you to substitute the word "poison" for words like "hydrogenated" or "trans" fats.
• One final word about sugar (in any form): Our planet gives us all kinds of sweetness. You might be surprised at how sweet foods like veggies, whole grains and fruits taste once your taste buds get a break from sugar. Sugar is really just another pollutant to the body.

Vegetable Diet: The Best and Worst Vegetables to Eat

From HuffPo:


If the phrase "eat your vegetables" echoes from your childhood memories of suppers gone by, then rest assured your mother was right. One of the best ways to improve your health is to eat plenty of high quality vegetables -- ideally raw, locally grown and organic.
It sounds like a tall order. It takes time to get a bounty of fresh vegetables together and eat them every day.
The good news is, it's easier than you think. For example, one way to maximize your intake of veggies is to juice them -- something I highly recommend to patients in our health clinic who are working to restore or improve their health. I'll discuss juicing a little later in this article, but first, let's explore what makes vegetables "high quality," so you will be prepared to make the best choices possible in any situation.
The Importance Of Choosing Organic
The best quality produce means organic, because USDA Organic farmers (and many small, local organic farms working without certification) must use different standards than conventional commercial farmers. These standards include never using:
• Pesticides
• Synthetic Fertilizers
• Sewage sludge
• Genetically modified organisms
• Ionizing radiation
Making sure your vegetables are pesticide-free is especially important.
Did you know the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 60 percent of herbicides, 90 percent of fungicides and 30 percent of insecticides to be carcinogenic? Most pesticides can damage your nervous system and are associated with numerous health problems such as neurotoxicity, endocrine dysfunction, immunosuppression, impaired reproductive function, miscarriage, and even Parkinson's disease.
This information alone should be an impetus for buying local, organic produce. But there is another important factor to consider: Organic vegetables are more nutritious than conventionally farmed vegetables.
But what if you can't find everything you want organic? How do you tell which conventional veggies may be safe? An investigation of 43 different fruit and vegetable categories by the Environmental Working Group showed sweet bell peppers, celery, lettuce, spinach and potatoes had the highest residual pesticide loads, making them the most important to buy organic.
In contrast, broccoli, eggplant, cabbage, asparagus, sweet peas, sweet corn (frozen) and onions had the lowest residual pesticide load, making them the safest bet among conventionally grown vegetables.
The next step in ensuring your vegetables are high quality is to purchase locally grown produce whenever possible. This increases the chances they are fresh and not wilted.
Now, on to juicing -- another way to help your body absorb more nutrients from a wide variety of vegetables.
Juicing Your Way To Extraordinary Health
First of all, juice only vegetables you enjoy eating whole. That way, your juice will have a familiar flavor that appeals to you. Once you are used to that you can gradually incorporate healthy deep green vegetables like kale and collard greens and moderate their bitterness by juicing some fresh limes.
Also, juice foods you know your body can tolerate -- your stomach should feel good all morning long. If it is churning or growling or generally making its presence known, you probably juiced something you shouldn't be eating.
You can also add certain foods to make your juice more palatable, like fresh or unsweetened shredded coconut, cranberries, lemons and limes -- or even a little fresh ginger root, which has fantastic cardiovascular benefits.
But, whether you're munching them raw or juicing them, some vegetables contain more health building nutrients than others. The following tables detail some of the best and worst vegetables for your health.

 If you decide to go the juicing route, I highly recommend first reviewing my information about Nutritional Typing, where you'll learn there are different approaches to juicing depending on whether you are a "veggie type" or a "protein type," or "mixed."
Finally, I'd like to encourage you to obtain as much nutrition as possible from whole food sources, rather than relying on supplements, which can actually have negative health consequences.
A reasonable starter goal is to shoot for eating at least one-third of your foods raw. But I want to emphasize that eating any vegetable is better than eating none at all, so don't get discouraged if you're able to juice only a few times a week.
Even if you need to start slowly, soon you'll begin noticing increased feelings of well being and a new spring in your step! When you begin flooding your body with the nutrients it craves, you might just be amazed at how chronic ailments and aches and pains begin fading away.

New dietary guidelines, boiled down

From The Washingon Post:


Are you as excited as I am about the release yesterday of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010?
Probably no one is more excited, or perhaps relieved, than the folks who have been working for years to craft the new document. They've had to sort through lots of scientific evidence and consider the opinions of everyone from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to the pro-vegetarian Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and come to some consensus as to what the document should advise about how Americans should eat.
The 100-plus-page brochure (available here in PDF form) offers guidance on everything from fish consumption (everyone, including pregnant women, should eat more) to improving Americans' access to healthful foods. It all boils down to two key messages. Americans should:

• Maintain calorie balance over time to achieve and sustain a healthy weight.
• Focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods and beverages.

Still, there's a certain air of resignation to an accompanying document issued on the Dietary Guidelines Web site called "Selected Messages for Consumers." Here it is, in its entirety:

Dietary Guidelines 2010 

Selected Messages for Consumers 

Take action on the Dietary Guidelines by making changes in these three 

areas.  

Choose steps that work for you and start today. 

Balancing Calories  

• Enjoy your food, but eat less. 

• Avoid oversized portions. 

Foods to Increase 

• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.  

• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk. 

Foods to Reduce 

• Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals -- and 

choose the foods with lower numbers. 

• Drink water instead of sugary drinks. 

That, you can almost hear the authors conceding, may be about all the guidance many of us can absorb.
But just think: What if we all just took these basic baby steps? I will if you will.

Foods that Promote Happiness

From Yahoo!

If you’re feeling as blue as the skies above, you will be happy to know that a few spoonfuls of the right foods may turn that frown upside down! Whole foods contain vital nutrients that provide both physical and psychological benefits. Read on to discover which foods contain those mood-boosters to help you smile your way to longevity.
 
Fun with Folate
Eat folate-rich foods: Leafy greens like kale, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, turnip greens, bok choy, legumes, sunflower seeds, oranges, melons, beets, and fortified whole grains
Why? Folate, also know as folic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that is necessary for cell division, DNA synthesis, and healthy blood cell production. Research at the University of York and Hull York Medical School has found a link between depression and low levels of folate. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for men and women is 400 micrograms and 600 micrograms for pregnant women. To keep you smiling, increase your intake of folate-rich foods. A cup of cooked lentils provides 90% of the RDA of folic acid. Plus, the fiber and protein will satisfy you longer, stabilize blood sugar, and also promote a better mood. Additional bonuses: Folate can also decrease homocysteine, an amino acid that is linked to heart disease. Low levels of folate can cause anemia, while pregnant women must increase their folate levels to prevent fetal neural tube deficiencies. 

Boost Your B6
Eat B6 foods: bananas, chicken breast, garlic, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, sunflower seeds, broccoli, red bell peppers, watermelon, avocados, and potatoes
Why? Vitamin B6 plays a role in red blood cell metabolism, protein metabolism, and synthesis of neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. It also helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels, and increases the amount of oxygen carried to your tissues. Low levels can lead to an increase of homocysteine, anemia, headaches, and depression. The RDA for adults from age 19 to 50 is 1.3 mg/day and approximately 1.6 mg for individuals over 50. The next time you’re feeling down, grab a banana and munch your blues away! 

Go Fish!
Eat omega-3-rich foods: fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, and herring, flaxseeds, walnuts, and algae
Why? DHA omega-3 essential fatty acid maintains healthy brain function and is vital for fetal brain and eye development. Current research also demonstrates the association between intake of omega-3 fatty acids and depression. A meta-analysis study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that depression was significantly improved in patients with unipolar and bipolar disorders after taking three daily fish capsules for eight weeks. Eat the oily fish listed above -- a 3-ounce serving of salmon contains between 1.1 - 1.9 grams of omega-3 fatty acids. Supplementing with high quality fish oil capsules may be an alternative if you don’t consume fish on a regular basis. Vegetarian sources of omega-3 can be found in flaxseeds, walnuts, and algae. Toss a tablespoon of sunflower seeds or walnuts into a creamy cup of unsweetened low-fat yogurt for a mega mood boost! 

Good Carbs, Bad Carbs
Eat good carbs: whole grains, fruits, vegetables
Why? Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Whole grains, fruits, and veggies supply us with prolonged energy, fiber, and multiple nutrients that our bodies need for optimal health. Good quality carbohydrates can also trigger serotonin synthesis. Recognized as the “happy hormone,” serotonin is an important neurotransmitter that affects our mood and sleep. The next time you feel blue, instead of reaching for that bag of chips or sugary cookies, opt for unrefined, unprocessed carbohydrates that will provide you with sustained energy and an improved mood. Toss that muffin and enjoy a whole grain cracker with a tablespoon of natural nut butter for a delicious and uplifting snack!

The Skinny Carbs Diet: Resistant Starch is the Key

From Health News:


Just like calories, not all carbs are created equal; some are better for you than others, particularly if you are playing the weight-loss game. And unlike low-carbohydrate diets such as Atkins and South Beach, The Skinny Carbs Diet actually allows you to have daily carbs in a reasonable amount, but is very specific about which carbs you should be putting into your mouth.
The Skinny Carbs Diet is based on resistant starches, which are starches that resist breakdown in the digestive tract and do not get absorbed by the intestine. Resistant starches deliver fewer calories per gram than regular starches while increasing your post-meal satisfaction. It may also improve blood-sugar control, lower cancer risk, and foster healthy digestion. This means concentrating on potatoes (including sweet potatoes), bananas, beans/legumes, certain breads and grains.
By not breaking down as quickly, the starch stays in your system, making you feel fuller and avoiding those sugar-rush highs. Recent research at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center for Human Nutrition confirms that starch-resistant foods help people "eat less, burn more calories, feel more energized and less stressed, and lower cholesterol." Starch-resistant Starch foods also have backing from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO).
The University of Colorado research, based on the study of 4,451 participants, found that the slimmest ones ate the most carbs (from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables), while the heaviest ones ate the least carbs. The key to this, and the diet itself, is to “increase total carb intake and up the percentage of carbs from starch-resistant foods,” said Health magazine.

Eating Trans Fats Linked to Depression

From WebMD:

Eating too much trans fat, long known to raise heart disease risk, can also boost your risk of depression, new research suggests.
Eating a heart-healthy diet with olive oil can lower the risk of depression, says researcher Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, PhD, associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Las Palmas, Spain. The study included more than 12,000 people.
"The participants with an olive oil consumption higher than 20 grams a day (about 0.7 ounces) had a 30% lower risk of depression than those without consumption or with a very low consumption of olive oil," Sanchez-Villegas tells WebMD.
Those who took in the most trans fats, however, had up to a 48% increased risk of depression.
The unhealthy fats, says Sanchez-Villegas, are believed to lead to biological changes in the body linked with both heart disease and depression.
The researchers evaluated 12,059 men and women, with an average age of 37. All were free of depression at the start of the study.
The men and women completed a food frequency questionnaire, describing their intakes of various types of fat. After a median follow-up of 6.1 years (half were followed longer, half less) 657 new cases of depression had been diagnosed.
The researchers then looked at the type and amount of fat intake to see if it played a role. It did.
Those who ate a high amount of trans fat -- the fat type found in fast food, industrially produced pastries, and certain whole milk products -- had an increased depression risk, while those who ate the most olive oil had a lower risk than those with a low consumption of olive oil or no olive oil.
The trans-fat intake in the participants was fairly low, Sanchez-Villegas says. Those in the highest intake group took in about 1.5 grams daily, and it was in that group the researchers found the 48% increased risk of depression.
In the study, both good fats and bad showed what scientists call a ''dose-response'' relationship. "More consumption, more protection [for olive oil] and more intake, more risk [for trans fatty acids],'' Sanchez-Villegas says.
The biological changes that occur with high consumption of ''bad'' fats may explain both the heart disease and depression link, the researchers say.
The ill effects of bad fats on heart disease are believed to be due to increases in LDL “bad” cholesterol and reductions in HDL “good” cholesterol. There are also inflammatory changes, and these changes have also been linked with depression, the researchers say.
Inflammation may interfere with the brain's neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, Sanchez-Villegas says, and a lack of serotonin adversely affects mood.

New Front-of-the-Package Nutrition Labels

From Health News:


The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cracked down on the food industry and false labeling claims, and in an effort to take it a step further, are developing a proposal for front-of-the-package labeling system. However, food manufacturers have developed their own guidelines and are now debuting their front label “Nutrition Keys” to help consumers make informed decisions.
The new labels, called nutrition keys, were developed by Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and will be put into practice later this year. Appearing on the front of packages, these keys will display calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugars. Some manufacturers will take it one step further and display those ingredients which might be appealing to consumers, such as fiber, vitamins, or protein.  The full nutrition labeling will still appear on the back or side of packaging.
"The industry's unveiling today of its front-of-package labeling system is troubling and confirms that this effort should not circumvent or influence FDA's effort to develop strong guidelines," Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said in a statement. Despite the pre-emptive move by the industry, the FDA will continue with its plans to prescribe guidelines for front-of-the-package labeling, independent of what the industry has already announced.
Nutrition labels are an important factor in shopping and preparing for a healthy diet. While you might think that consumers don’t bother reading the grams and percentages of fat, cholesterol, fiber, protein, sugar, and vitamins, you would be wrong. An FDA Health and Diet Survey found that approximately 50 percent of shoppers take the time to check out food labels and the ingredient lists before buying a product. Understanding all the verbiage may be another matter, however.
The good news is that a study published last fall in the Journal of Consumer Affairs found that people who observe the labels and do not exercise display a slightly greater likelihood of weight loss than those who do exercise but do not pay attention to food labels. If label readers add in an exercise routine, the combination can mean success. They also found that women between the ages of 37-50 years are more likely to read food labels than men, and are therefore more likely to lose weight, and older individuals are less likely to lose weight by reading food labels.

Weight Loss As A Primary Goal Often Fails, Study Shows

From Daily Health Report:


In attempts to lose weight and eat a healthy diet, individuals may be actually gaining weight and decreasing overall health without knowing it, a new study explains.
Experts explain that to achieve the best results, individuals should focus on overall health instead of sheer weight loss for long-term success with a lifestyle change of this type.
With the growing number of individuals who are overweight or obese, many health officials suggest weight loss as the primary goal. However, researchers have found that fat has been extremely over-exaggerated in terms of the health risks that small amounts pose.
Instead of consistently encouraging weight loss, researchers suggest additional efforts be made to inform the public about nutritional food choices and ways to improve overall health instead of focusing mainly on weight loss. Not only does focusing on weight loss often lead to failure, but when the primary goal is to lose weight, a significant negative connotation is carried, also affecting self-esteem.
For this study, researchers analyzed data from more than 200 different studies. The findings are vastly different than most other health and weight loss studies.
Researchers found that weight loss may not prolong life, that diet and exercise may not work for everyone, and that weight loss should be the primary goal for overweight individuals, among other findings.
Additionally, the study found that focusing mainly on weight loss does not produce long-term results.
Experts suggest providing informational material to overweight individuals and to focus more on a long-term health approach instead of just weight loss.

Fad Diets: 150 Years And Still No Quick Fix

From HuffPo:

Before there was Dr. Atkins, there was William Banting. He invented the low-carb diet of 1863. Even then Americans were trying out advice that urged fish, mutton or "any meat except pork" for breakfast, lunch and dinner – hold the potatoes, please.
It turns out our obsession with weight and how to lose it dates back at least 150 years. And while now we say "overweight" instead of "corpulent" – and obesity has become epidemic – a look back at dieting history shows what hasn't changed is the quest for an easy fix.
"We grossly, grossly underestimate" the difficulty of changing behaviors that fuel obesity, says Clemson University sociologist Ellen Granberg, who examined archives at the Library of Congress. She believes it's important to show "we're not dealing with some brand new, scary phenomenon we've never dealt with before."
Indeed, the aging documents are eerily familiar.
Consider Englishman William Banting's account of losing almost 50 pounds in a year. He did it by shunning "bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer and potatoes, which had been the main (and I thought innocent) elements of my existence" in favor of loads of meat.
His pamphlet, "Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public," quickly crossed the Atlantic and become so popular here that "banting" became slang for dieting, Granberg says.
While obesity has rapidly surged in the last few decades, we first changed from a nation where being plump was desirable into a nation of on-again, off-again dieters around the end of the 19th century, Granberg says.
Before then, people figured a little extra weight might help withstand infectious diseases that vaccines and antibiotics later would tame. It also was a sign of prosperity. But just as doctors today bemoan a high-tech, immobile society, the emergence of trolleys, cars and other machinery in the late 19th century scaled back the sheer number of calories people once burned, Granberg explains. Increasing prosperity meant easier access to food.
"An excess of flesh is to be looked upon as one of the most objectionable forms of disease," the Philadelphia Cookbook declared in 1900. Low-cal cookbooks hadn't arrived yet; the calorie wasn't quite in vogue.
By 1903, La Parle obesity soap that "never fails to reduce flesh" was selling at a pricey $1 a bar. The Louisenbad Reduction Salt pledged to "wash away your fat." Soon came an exercise machine, the Graybar Stimulator to jiggle the pounds. Bile Beans promoted a laxative approach.
As the government prepares to update U.S. dietary guidelines next week, the Library of Congress culled its archives and, with Weight Watchers International, gathered experts recently to discuss this country's history of weight loss.
Granberg recounted how real nutrition science was born.
The government's first advice to balance proteins, carbohydrates and fat came in 1894. A few years later, life insurance companies reported that being overweight raised the risk of death. In 1916, the Department of Agriculture came up with the five food groups. Around World War II, charts showing ideal weight-for-height emerged, surprisingly close to what today is considered a healthy body mass index.
Diet foods quickly followed, as did weight loss support groups like Overeaters Anonymous and Weight Watchers – putting today's diet infrastructure in place by 1970, Granberg says.
Yet fast-forward and two-thirds of Americans today are either overweight or obese, and childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades. Weight-loss surgery is skyrocketing. Diet pills have been pulled from the market for deadly side effects, with only a few possible new ones in the pipeline.
More and more, specialists question how our society and culture fuel overeating.
"Should it be socially desirable to walk down the street with a 30-ounce Big Gulp?" asks Patrick O'Neill, president-elect of The Obesity Society and weight-management director at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Negotiating a weight-loss menu for a family with different food preferences is a minefield that affects how people feel about themselves and their relationships with loved ones, adds Clemson's Granberg, who began studying the sociology of obesity after losing 120 pounds herself.
"If what you need is a nutritionally sound, healthful weight-loss plan, you can get 100 of them," she says. "That, we have figured out in the last 100 years. It's how to do all this other stuff that I think is the real challenge."

Keep Cholesterol in Check

From Everyday Health:


Controlling your cholesterol is key to preventing heart disease. For some, this can be accomplished through the same healthy diet and exercise plan that keeps a whole host of illnesses at bay. You might not love the idea of cutting back on cheeseburgers and steak sandwiches, but for men who plan to live a long and healthy life, it could be a sacrifice worth making.
 
Cholesterol 101
Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found in all cells of the body and in the bloodstream. The body uses cholesterol to form cell membranes, make hormones, and produce vitamin D, among other functions. Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs, with your liver and other cells in the body creating about 75 percent of your blood cholesterol. The other 25 percent comes from food.
Cholesterol causes health problems when high levels exist in the bloodstream. Cholesterol starts to build up in the walls of your arteries, forming plaque deposits that narrow the arteries and force your heart to work harder to pump blood. This hardening of the arteries can lead to heart attack or stroke.
For a long time, high cholesterol has been a principal concern in maintaining a man's health. Statistics show that a slightly greater percentage of women have high total cholesterol than men. But because men have a statistically greater heart attack risk than women do, and suffer attacks earlier in life, controlling cholesterol levels can have a huge impact on preventing heart attacks in men. 
 
Cholesterol: A Numbers Game
Doctors measure your cholesterol by drawing blood after you've gone through a 9- to 12-hour fast without food, liquid, or medication. They look for three numbers:

• Total cholesterol levels
• Low density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad cholesterol" levels, which is the type of cholesterol that forms plaque in your arteries
• High density lipoprotein (HDL) or "good cholesterol" levels; HDL helps sweep the bloodstream of LDL and return the bad cholesterol to the liver — the higher your HDL levels, the better your chances of avoiding heart disease.

People are considered to be at high risk of heart disease if they have:

• Total cholesterol levels above 239
• LDL levels above 190
• HDL levels below 35

People are considered at borderline risk for heart disease if they have:

• Total cholesterol between 200 and 239
• LDL levels between 130 and 159
• HDL levels between 35 and 60

Some 98.6 million adults in the United States have total blood cholesterol levels that put them at risk of heart disease, and of those about 34.4 million American adults have cholesterol levels considered high risk. You should have your cholesterol levels checked every one to two years.
 
Cholesterol: How to Lower Your LDL
People normally have high cholesterol levels because they've been eating too much fatty food. However, health problems like diabetes, obesity, genetic disorders, or a dysfunctional thyroid gland also can increase a person's of cholesterol level.
Lifestyle and diet changes are the first actions doctors recommend when you're trying to lower your cholesterol levels. That mainly involves altering your diet to reduce your intake of saturated fats — fats that are usually solid at room temperature, like butter, lard, or the white fat contained in red meat. Research has found that eating saturated fat increases LDL levels. On the other hand, eating unsaturated fats — fats that are liquid at room temperature, like olive or vegetable oil — lowers bad cholesterol levels if they are used in place of saturated fats.
To limit cholesterol and promote heart health, the American Heart Association recommends these diet guidelines:

• No more than 25 to 35 percent of your total daily calories should be from fat.
• Up to 7 percent of your total daily calories should be from saturated fat and just 1 percent from trans fat.
• No more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol should be eaten daily. Since one egg has 300 mg of cholesterol, don't plan on eating any other cholesterol that day if you have an egg. If your cholesterol is already high, that daily max comes down to 200 mg.
• Reduce your sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg to avoid high blood pressure and for overall cardiovascular health.
• Eat lots of vegetables and fruits. Whole grains and high-fiber foods are also good, as are lean meats, poultry, and fish. Choose fat-free or 1 percent milk-fat dairy products for the calcium and vitamin D benefits without the saturated fat.

You should get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day or at least on more days than not each week. Some people find that regular exercise affects their blood cholesterol level by increasing their levels of the good HDL cholesterol. Exercise can also help control weight, diabetes, and high blood pressure, all known risk factors for heart disease. Aerobic exercise in particular can help train your heart to work more efficiently and condition your lungs.
If you still have trouble lowering your cholesterol levels, there are medications available that can slow down the rate at which LDL is made or improve the ability of the liver to destroy LDL. Talk with your doctor about when to consider these prescription drugs; your doctor can also help you tailor the right diet and exercise plan, lifestyle must-dos even if you are on medication to lower cholesterol.
 

5-a-Day ‘Not Enough’ Fruits and Vegetables - New Research Finds 8-a-Day May Be Needed to Cut the Risk of Dying From Heart Disease

From Web MD:

We’re all urged to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, but new research finds eight servings may be needed to cut the risk of dying from heart disease.
The diet and lifestyles of more than 300,000 people across eight countries in Europe found that people who ate at least eight portions of fruits and vegetables a day had a 22% lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who ate three portions a day.
Each additional portion in fruits and vegetables was linked to a 4% lower risk of death.
One portion counted as 80 grams, such as a small banana, a medium apple, or a small carrot.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and around the world, accounting for more than one in every four deaths in the United States, according to the CDC.

Average Intake of Fruits and Vegetables

The average intake of fruits and vegetables in the various countries was five servings a day.
Spain, Greece, and Italy were the leaders in fruit and vegetable eating. Italian men enjoyed 7.5 portions a day, and Spanish women 6.7 portions.
Healthy eating tailed off the further north the researchers looked in Europe.
U.K. men managed 4.1 portions a day, and women 4.8 portions.
Swedish men and women were the worst, with only 3.5 and 2.9 portions a day.
The researchers say factors like cost and availability of fruit and vegetables are likely to account for differences in intake.
Data came from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Heart study.

Every Portion Counts

Study researcher Francesca Crowe, MD, of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford in England, tells WebMD by email, “We do need to be cautious in our interpretation of these findings as participants with a higher intake of fruits and vegetables tended to be slightly healthier overall. So we are unable to say whether the association between fruits and vegetables and heart disease is causal.”
In other words, did the fruits and vegetables make people healthier, or are people who eat better also more likely to have healthier lifestyles?
Crowe says healthy eating also needs to be added to healthy lifestyle behaviors as well as other recommendations “such as not smoking, not having high blood pressure or high blood lipids [cholesterol] and being in a healthy weight range.”
Stepping up from five servings to eight servings a day might be hard, but Crowe says, “It may be a more manageable public health guideline to recommend that everyone increases their intake by one portion per day.
“This is a much more modest effect for an individual but if everyone could achieve this then at a population level the impact would be quite large.”

Eating greens 'best way to look good', research shows

From The BBC:

Dr Ian Stephen who led the research believes eating carrots and tomatoes made you look better than a tan would.
Dr Stephen explained: "Eating five more portions [of fruit and veg] ups your carotenoid levels giving your skin golden tones."
Carotenoids are antioxidants which soak up damaging compounds that the skin encounters in daily life.
Students at the University's Malaysian campus, where Dr Stephen is based, ate five extra portions of fruit and vegetables a day for two months.
Afterwards students examined a variety of pictures where their skin had different pigmentations and deemed themselves more attractive when they had increased their vegetable intake.
Dr Stephen explained: "In humans, the more red and yellow tones found in the skin, the more attractive the people were found to be."
The redder tones are caused when people are flush with blood, particularly if the blood has lots of oxygen in it.
The psychology associate professor began the study after reading Charles Darwin's 'Descent of Man'.
English naturalist Darwin, had explored in his 1871 book, the reason why people have different colourings.
Dr Stephen then began looking at skin colours and what biological factors made skin look its most healthy and attractive.
Under Darwin's 'survival of the fittest', where the healthiest reproduce, people with healthier skin tones appear more attractive.
Dr Stephen concluded that practically a healthy intake of fruit and vegetables making you look good is great news too.
He explained: "It's better for you than lying in the sun, as if you've got red hair and freckles you're going to burn which won't happen from eating fruit and veg!"

Good Calories, Bad Calories

From Tropical Traditions:

In this groundbreaking book, the result of seven years of research in every science connected with the impact of nutrition on health, award-winning science writer Gary Taubes shows us that almost everything we believe about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.

For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates better, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) and sugars–via their dramatic and longterm effects on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation–and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number. There are good calories, and bad ones.

Good Calories
These are from foods without easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. These foods can be eaten without restraint: meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, butter, and non-starchy vegetables.

Bad Calories
These are from foods that stimulate excessive insulin secretion and so make us fat and increase our risk of chronic disease—all refined and easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. The key is not how much vitamins and minerals they contain, but how quickly they are digested. (So apple juice or even green vegetable juices are not necessarily any healthier than soda.) Bread and other baked goods, potatoes, yams, rice, pasta, cereal grains, corn, sugar (sucrose and high fructose corn syrup), ice cream, candy, soft drinks, fruit juices, bananas and other tropical fruits, and beer.

Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then –wrongly–were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

With precise references to the most significant existing clinical studies, he convinces us that there is no compelling scientific evidence demonstrating that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. Based on the evidence that does exist, he leads us to conclude that the only healthy way to lose weight and remain lean is to eat fewer carbohydrates or to change the type of the carbohydrates we do eat, and, for some of us, perhaps to eat virtually none at all.

The 11 Critical Conclusions of Good Calories, Bad Calories:

1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.
2. Carbohydrates do, because of their effect on the hormone insulin. The more easily-digestible and refined the carbohydrates and the more fructose they contain, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars—sucrose (table sugar) and high fructose corn syrup specifically—are particularly harmful. The glucose in these sugars raises insulin levels; the fructose they contain overloads the liver.
4. Refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are also the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, and the other common chronic diseases of modern times.
5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating and not sedentary behavior.
6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter any more than it causes a child to grow taller.
7. Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry.
8. We get fat because of an imbalance—a disequilibrium—in the hormonal regulation of fat tissue and fat metabolism. More fat is stored in the fat tissue than is mobilized and used for fuel. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this imbalance.
9. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated, we stockpile calories as fat. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and burn it for fuel.
10. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.
11. The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be.

Good Calories, Bad Calories is a tour de force of scientific investigation–certain to redefine the ongoing debate about the foods we eat and their effects on our health.

Too Much TV, Computer Time May Hurt the Heart

From Web MD:

Hours spent lounging in front of a computer or television may hurt the heart, a new study shows.
The study shows that adults who averaged more than two hours sitting in front of a television or computer screen that was not related to their job or schoolwork had roughly twice the risk of having heart attacks, heart surgeries, strokes, or other cardiovascular events, compared to those who logged less than two hours of daily screen time.
What’s more, the risk did not drop appreciably when researchers factored in other variables, like a history of diabetes or high blood pressure, smoking, body weight, socioeconomic or marital status, or even a regular exercise routine.
Public health experts and cardiologists say the study offers more proof that people may need to shift their wellness goals slightly, beyond simply making sure they get a daily workout to also reducing the amount of time they are sedentary.
“It’s not even about the exercise. It’s about not sitting,” says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “I think that sort of points us in a little different direction. In order for you not to cause harm to yourself, you really need to focus on getting up and moving.”

Heart Health Goes Down the Tubes

For the study, which is due to be published in the Jan. 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers at University College London and the University of Queensland in Australia followed more than 4,500 adults who took part in the Scottish Health Survey.
Participants were over age 34 and were followed for an average of 4.3 years.
To figure out how much leisure time was spent sitting, researchers asked: “Thinking of weekdays, how much time, on average, do you spend watching TV or another type of screen such as a computer or video game? (Please do not include any time spent in front of a screen while at school, college or work.)”
Researchers also asked about physical activity both at work and outside of work, including any heavy housework like scrubbing floors, heavy gardening like digging, walking, and leisure time exercise, such as cycling, swimming, aerobics, dancing, and football.
They then linked the survey results to hospital data on admissions and deaths in Scotland from 1981 through December 2007.
Compared to people who spent less than two hours a day in front of a TV or computer, those who spent four hours a day on screen-based entertainment had a 48% risk of dying for any reason; those who spent more than two hours a day sitting in front of a screen had 125% greater risk of experiencing cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes.

Diet Season is Here!

Like the changing of the leaves or other harbingers of a seasonal change, one thing that happens every year is people start new diets in large numbers come January.  Most do it because of their New Year's resolutions, but others simply figure that a new year is time for "a new me."

Personally, my body is on a different cycle.  For most of my adult life, I'll gain weight in the winter and lose weight in the summer.  My goals, every year, are to gain less weight in the winter than I lost the previous summer, and to lose more weight in the summer than I gained the previous winter.  Like most middle-aged men, I've not been as successful as I like.

The reason you've not realized the results you wanted in the past, and the reason they're within your reach, all has to do with how you view the word "diet."  Instead of thinking of Diet (with a capital D) that you adopt in order to lose a specified amount of weight or engage in for a fixed period of time, think of diet (with a lower case d) that you can follow for the rest of your life.

To reach and maintain a healthy weight, you simply have to eat the way your body was meant to eat.  Our bodies did not evolve to consume trans fat and high-fructose corn syrup.  We're perfectly suited to eat reasonable quantities of vegetables, meat, fruit, grains, and legumes.  In other words, eat only real food. 

When you do your grocery shopping, think before reaching for a bag, bottle, box, or other item.  Ask yourself "did this food even exist two hundred years ago?"  If it didn't, or couldn't have (as it's the product of a laboratory instead of a farm), then pull your hand back, leaving that item on the shelf.  When you get to the checkout stand, your cart should have nothing but real food.

One great motivator is imagining everyone getting to see what you bought.  Pretend that your shopping cart will be exposed to everyone in the store to evaluate.  Are you proud of your purchases?  If you filled up with real food, you ought to be.  If your cart has chips, soda, frozen meals, and other pretend foods of modern technology, then you might be ashamed to let people see it - and you shouldn't be buying it.

So, that's the first step.  Buy real food.  What's next?  Preparing it in reasonable portions, and snacking only on healthy things.  The hardest part of changing your diet comes the first few weeks.  Your body will still crave the bad foods you're used to eating.  I find a couple of ways to help in this transition period.

The best motivator is to imagine your slimmer, fitter body, and how great you'll feel once you get it.  Knowing that you have a goal in mind will help you change your diet from one filled with fake food and large quantities to one made up of reasonable quantities of real food.  Every time you go into the kitchen, whether it's to prepare a meal or grab a snack, think about your goal.  This will help you make good decisions.

If you eat because you're bored, then you need to do something else.  Hobbies and activities will fill that time.  They also help you feel like a more complete person.  If you eat when you watch television, stop it!  That's one of the worst habits people can have.  Do all your eating while seated at your dining table.

Drink tea.  If you like it, green tea is good for you, and suppresses hunger.  Black tea has many of the same benefits.  Herbals teas, drank as a hot beverage, also help to suppress hunger.  Herbal teas come in many varieties, and it's almost unimaginable that you can't find several you like.

Limit your snacks to fruit.  If possible, eat seasonal fruit.  Berries and melons in the summer, apples in the winter.  The more colorful your fruit, the better for you it is.  I find that I like my fruit in the form of smoothies.  I'll put some berries, melon, banana, a couple of ice cubes and splash of juice into the blender, and voila!  If I'm not in the mood to eat fruit, I'm certain to be in the mood to drink a smoothie.

And finally, get more exercise!  The benefits of exercise are too numerous to mention, but I'll cover a few here.  In addition to burning calories, getting your muscles working and your blood flowing will help you sleep better, improve digestion, lift your mood, make you better able to do things, keep your brain fed with oxygen, etc.  Technology and the demands of modern life have diminished our physical activity, so we must find ways to fit exercise into our daily routine.  At the very least, go for a walk each day.  If you can do a brisk walk, hike, ride a bicycle, lift weights, row a boat or paddle a canoe, play a sport, or do more, you'll be much happier for it (for so many reasons).

So, with the onset of this year's Diet season, don't fall into the same trap that captures so many people every year.  This is the year you can change your life.  Adopt a lifelong diet and daily exercise regimen that will work for you!

Diet plan needs to be sensible

From News Observer:

Pull out your gym shoes and put away those holiday cookies. It's time for the annual diet-fest.
It's a good thing we're so motivated to lose weight this time of year. The big push to shape up helps compensate for holiday indiscretions and can give you the boost you need to enter the new year with dietary momentum.
Still, it's important for your diet strategy to be sound. No use wasting time - and emotional energy - on plans that are doomed to fail, and there are lots of those.

On the other hand, one of the best plans around is one you've probably heard about most of your life: Weight Watchers. It was your mother's - and maybe your grandmother's - diet plan, and it's one of the better approaches for losing weight.

A plan to live with

"It's the most livable plan to date," said Tonia Parrish, a Clayton schoolteacher, Weight Watchers leader and spokeswoman for the program. She lost 109 pounds on Weight Watchers over two years and has kept the weight off three years.

"Joining Weight Watchers was about my health," she said. "At the age of 33, I had borderline diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol."

Parrish lost the weight and brought those other health indicators under control.

The new PointsPlus program builds in incentives to choose more whole foods, fewer processed foods and more fruits and vegetables, changes designed to support health over the long run. Under the new system, fruits and low-calorie vegetables count as free foods or zero points, giving members more incentive than ever to fill up on these foods.

Mediterranean diet slows cognitive decline

From UPI:


The Mediterranean diet, which reduces the risk of heart disease, some cancers and diabetes, may also reduce cognitive decline, U.S. researchers say.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago say the Mediterranean diet -- lots of vegetables, fish, olive oil, legumes, non-refined cereals and moderate consumption of wine and other alcohol -- is associated with slower rates of cognitive decline in older adults.
Lead author Christy Tangney says the study involved 3,759 older residents of the south side of Chicago who are part of the Chicago Healthy Aging Project. The study subjects -- age 65 and older -- had a cognitive assessment that tested memory and basic math skills and they also completed questionnaires on the frequency with which they consumed 139 food items ranging from cereals and olive oil to red meat and alcohol.
Out of a maximum score of 55 -- indicating complete adherence to the Mediterranean diet -- the average study participant scored 28.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found those with higher scores for the Mediterranean diet had cognitive tests that showed a slower rate of decline, even after factoring for education.
"The more we can incorporate vegetables, olive oil and fish into our diets and moderate wine consumption, the better for our aging brains and bodies," Tangney says in a statement.