Diets | Health, Fitness And Diets

Skillet Eggplant Marinara

This post was created in partnership with Newman’s Own. All opinions are our own. “We’ve had two generations of college bred people now who have really been indoctrinated with the idea that every big problem has a big solution. And I just don’t believe it! The big problems we have now will be solved by hundreds of people accepting local responsibilities for small problems.” -Wendell Berry I grew up in the 90’s when being a “world changer” was the ultimate goal of the American suburban kid. Love the Earth and love all humans were messages that stuck with me. How to do it—well, that is quite another thing. We humans can be good-hearted and try to “help” solve big problems, but sometimes our egos get in the way. We think we know the right way to do things, so we don’t ask the people we’re trying to help what they need.... Read more »

Eating for Distance

Fuelling your body with the right food is a recipe for success, says Louise Pyne A good training regime is, of course, essential for distance running. But for real success on the endurance front, it is important to give your nutrition a long hard look. The longer you run, the more fuel your body needs. As a general rule, if you exercise at intensity beyond one-and-a-half hours, your body needs to replenish carbohydrates and electrolytes to maintain performance, says nutritionist Sarah OíNeill (sarahoneill.co.uk). And if you don’t consume the extra salt and sugar your body craves, you’re more susceptible to dehydration. Plus, without additional fuel, your body can start to break down lean tissue. Your body burns fat more efficiently as a fuel in the presence of glucose, but otherwise, when your glycogen stores become depleted, your body turns to muscle as its next choice, which is obviously counterproductive and not the... Read more »

Frying these foods is actually good for you

Now steady on there – this isn’t an endorsement of splashing out on that deep fat fryer you’ve been lusting after. Frying food by-and-large isn’t great for you. But frying some foods in a small amount of olive oil (around a tablespoon’s worth) can actually unlock some incredible nutritional value. Food expert Guy Crosby recently spoke to Business Insider about the little-known world of carotenoids: an organic pigment linked to reducing a range of chronic diseases. By exposing some food types to high temperatures of frying, you’re actually breaking down these carotenoids, making it easier for your body to absorb them. Take tomatoes. “In the fresh tomato most of these [carotenoid] pigments are all tied up with proteins,” explains Crosby. “If you cook the tomato you break down the bonds between the proteins and the pigments – the lycopene – and you absorb about four times more lycopene into your blood from cooked tomatoes than from fresh... Read more »

favorite lemon pepper baked tempeh cubes + tempeh and herbed rice bowl

I was chatting with a friend recently, and she mentioned that she likes the idea of tempeh, but every time she plans to make it and goes searching for recipes, she gets overwhelmed. “Do I really have to steam it first?” she asked. “Is it that bitter?” My answers were no, and no. For the most part, I think that tempeh can be really easy to prepare, so long as you use a good marinade. Today, I’m sharing my favorite lemon pepper baked tempeh cubes, which can be used to add flavor and a protein boost to any grain bowl or salad. The idea behind steaming tempeh prior to cooking is that tempeh has a naturally bitter taste. To me, it tastes more earthy than bitter, but in any case I understand that it’s a distinctive and unusual flavor if you’ve never encountered it before. I’ve never found that steaming tempeh improves it very... Read more »

Vegetarians Diets Cuts Risk of Heart Disease

Cut back on that steak! A recently released study from scientists at Oxford University in England suggests that vegetarians are 32% less likely to be hospitalized or die from heart disease than meat eaters — including those who eat mostly fish. Researchers followed a total of 44,561 men and women living in England and Scotland for 11.5 years on average; 34% of those persons were vegetarians. Throughout the study, the researchers assessed the participants’ diet, smoking habits, exercise habits, body-mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. After adjusting for potential compounding factors, like age, alcohol consumption and physical activity, they found that vegetarians had a 32% lower risk of being hospitalized or dying from heart disease. They even found that those who were vegetarians for at least 5 years during the study enjoyed similar heart-healthy benefits. The benefits of a vegetarian diet has long been championed by celebrities and physicians such... Read more »

How We Rated 35 Eating Plans

Diets come and go, teasing and tempting us with dreams of that elusive hot body. Eat what you want! Pounds melt away overnight! The reality, as frustrated dieters know well, is that dieting is hard, and frankly, most diets don’t work. Some can even threaten your health. And digging out the truth about dieting, let alone deciphering whether particular plans live up to the hype, is laborious enough to burn off a pound or two by itself. Best Diets 2015 cuts through the clutter of claims. Now in its fifth year, Best Diets delivers the facts about 41 eating plans and ranks 35 of them on a range of levels, from their heart healthiness to their likelihood to help you lose weight. Many of the diets, like Weight Watchers, are household names, while others, like the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, should be. To create the fifth annual rankings, U.S. News editors and... Read more »

RED MEAT MAKES A COMEBACK

We’ve spent years hearing about how vegetarians are thinner, healthier, and longer-lasting than the rest of us, but new research has found that it’s a little more complicated than that: A recent study published in the journal PLoS One examined the eating habits and health of 1,320 people and found that vegetarians had higher incidences of cancer and more need for healthcare than meat-eaters. Though the research is not exactly a free pass to double down at the nearest burger joint—it’s just one of many such comparison studies, the results of which swing both ways—it does demonstrate the difficulty of eliminating a single food group in the name of health. So, like the fat-free and carb-free diet phases of yesteryear, the strict meat-free way of eating is dwindling in popularity. It’s not just the muscle-obsessed body builders who are ordering steaks with gusto: Endurance athletes like runners, swimmers and triathletes are turning to red meat for... Read more »

A Twist Adds Complexity to a Pasta Dish

To me it’s the best pasta dish of fall: those late nightshades, eggplant and tomato, cooked until meltingly tender, sweet and bitter at the same time, with plenty of anise-y basil and salt in the form of grated or small-diced ricotta salata. For whatever reason, it’s called pasta alla Norma — created in Sicily, it’s said, as a tribute to an opera, it’s said — but it’s hard to believe anything more complicated than that eggplant and tomato have been cooked together since they were grown together, and that their sauciness made them a natural on pasta. Most recipes are not recipes at all, but reveal themselves naturally, in the course of things. Read more »

The Truth About Home Cooking

Just two generations ago, preparing meals was as much a part of life as eating. Now we’ve given up what is perhaps our best excuse to get together and spend time with the people we love—mealtime—and someone else stands at the stove. We’re either watching cooks on TV like we would a spectator sport or grabbing grub, bagged, and eating it alone and on the go. The fetishizing of food is everywhere. There are cutthroat competitions and celebrity chefs with TV shows, and both social and mainstream media are stuffed with an endless blur of blogs, demos and crowdsourced reviews. So why in Julia’s name do so many Americans still eat tons of hyperprocessed food, the stuff that is correctly called junk and should really carry warning labels? Read more »

10 Day Juice Fast: Is Juicing Good For You?

Yes, I was greatly inspired by the documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. Yes, I was inspired enough to ask my good friend and business partner Eric to watch it as well. Of course as a CrossFitter, I was also game to try his recommendation of a 10 day juice fast. What better way to derive fodder for articles and Facebook updates then through self experimentation, eh? The documentary, if you haven’t seen it (and you should see it immediately) is about an Australian fellow that finds himself in a midlife/poor health crisis of sorts and sets out on a 60-day, juice-fueled quest through the United States. His days are spent travelling around our great nation interviewing people on their thoughts on health, wellness and his sixty-day experiment. I should also add the main “character” of the film, for lack of a better term, is also roughly sixty pounds overweight and suffering from Urticaria,... Read more »