Healthy and Hale

Unsafe Food on Your Supermarket Shelves

If one of your goals is to eat healthier this year, (2012) you may want to turn your attention to the aptly titled article, 7 Foods So Unsafe Farmers Won’t Eat Them. Clicking here will take you to the full article.

In terms of being unsafe, here are a few of the worst food offenders, yet you can still find them on supermarket shelves.

The first culprit: canned tomatoes. There is a resin that lines all cans of tomatoes that contains the synthetic estrogen bisphenol-A, more commonly known as BPA. BPA’s have been known to cause a whole battery of health problems. To read more about this destructive man-made chemical, click here. Why worry about tomatoes over any other canned vegetables? The acid in tomatoes breaks down the BPA, thereby leaching it into the food. Stick with tomatoes in glass jars instead. Read more about Unsafe Food on Your Supermarket Shelves

Paula Deen's Diabetes Diagnosis

Is she just getting what she deserves?

The Internet is atwitter over Paula Deen’s Tuesday announcement that she has type-2 diabetes. Although she has had the disease for three years, she spoke of her disease to Al Roker only this morning. She said that she waited so long to come forward with her diagnosis because she wanted to bring something to the table in the discussion of diabetes, not because she worried the diagnosis would put her reputation in jeopardy. Deen doesn't sound like she will change her cooking style now; rather, she said that she always recommended moderation in cooking Paula's Best Dishes. Read more about Paula Deen's Diabetes Diagnosis

Tamara Adler's "An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace"

Reprogramming the way you think about cooking.

For those of us who want to eat more healthfully in 2012, changing our diets seems difficult. We have to follow more plans, buy more greens, eat out less often, cook more. Healthful eating seems like it requires many steps and a long-road to reprogramming on health-phobic minds. Read more about Tamara Adler's "An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace"

The Placebo Effect and Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

By "tricking" your mind, you can improve the likelihood of reaching your new year's resolution goals.

New year’s resolutions can be some of the most temporarily infuriating things in one’s life (until one completely gives up on them, that is). Often we resolve to do things that we know are good for us, but require us to commit to things that are unpleasant. Of course, if we were always able to do good things for ourselves, there would be no need for resolutions. Quitting smoking, eating better, exercising, losing weight, cutting out alcohol or certain foods; all of these things require sustained and focused effort. A new article in The Wall Street Journal encourages people to use “the Placebo Effect” to help them reach their new year’s resolution goals. Read more about The Placebo Effect and Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

Sleep Troubles

Going above and beyond the definition of insomniacs.

Most people have had nights—or weeks or months of nights—during which they have trouble sleeping. It may have been that you drank one too many coffees during the day or that you have too many worries to keep them at bay for the recommended six hours. Whatever the reason, there are people who have it worse than you do. Back in 2008, Stacy Conradt at mental_floss magazine compiled an article about "10 Sleep Snippets", detailing the horrific sleep lives of people all over the world. Let’s take a look at a few that will make your difficult nights look like nothing: Read more about Sleep Troubles

Walk to Stay Healthy in the New Year

The New Year has arrived! For most of us, this means making a concerted effort to eat better, eat less or exercise.

I remember talking to one of the trainers at the 24 hour fitness gym I used to frequent in Seattle. He said that their busiest time of the year for them is January when all of those fresh resolutions are within everyone’s mind.

When I asked him how long this busy season lasts, he smirked a bit and said that they see a decline in gym use again in February. Then that decline slips even further once we enter March.

What if I told you that you don’t need a gym membership to start exercising on a regular basis? In 1913, the famed British author, George Trevelyan, was quoted to say that his two doctors are his left leg and his right leg. What does he mean by this?

The easiest way to add exercise into your daily life is to walk. Bear this in mind: less than 5,000 steps per day are considered sedentary. 10,000 or more steps taken per day are the basis of an active lifestyle. The easiest way to track how many steps you take is to wear a pedometer. Read more about Walk to Stay Healthy in the New Year

Coffee Lovers, Rejoice!

For those of us who cannot live without a morning cup of coffee, and an afternoon one, not to mention brunch and somewhere in between, finding benefits to coffee is just another way to make us feel better about our addiction. According to the Huffington Post, there are some little known benefits to coffee that just might be enough to rid you of your guilt over your vice, and will at least give you a quick comeback for the coffee naysayer in your life. Read more about Coffee Lovers, Rejoice!

Ready to Lose Weight? Don't Buy Home Fitness Equipment

I have been trying to lose the same stubborn weight for several years now. During my first attempt, a Tony Little Gazelle sat idly in my living room for a couple years before I gave it up. Since then, other small fitness equipment has come and gone with hardly any use at all, despite my best intentions. Read more about Ready to Lose Weight? Don't Buy Home Fitness Equipment

The Health Benefits of Flaxseed

One of the most beneficial wonder foods ever discovered is often one of the most overlooked when it comes to a healthy diet. Flaxseed, a food that has been around for thousands of years, is probably one of the healthiest foods a person can eat. Read more about The Health Benefits of Flaxseed

The Flavorists

What’s the latest food craze?

60 minutes has done an interview titled: The Flavorists. During the interview, they visit a citrus farm in California. They walk along the orchards, the way they talk would make one think they are Perfumists. They nibble on a fresh slice of orange and delight in mentioning “Papaya notes and over intoxicating tropical notes.”

They carry around clipboards. They make comments such as “I could see it in a sports drink, or maybe water, flavored water.” Though the real magic happens when the camera zooms in on a crazy little contraption they use to extract the flavor molecules from the fruit on a tree. Then they’ll take those natural molecules back to the lab and replicate a taste that tastes like the fruit with man-made chemicals. Yup, you heard right, a taste that mimics nature, coming to a supermarket near you. Read more about The Flavorists