Archives

Say Good-Bye to the Food Pyramid

Jun1

The New York Times reports that this Thursday the USDA will throw out its famous food pyramid (also known as MyPyramid), which has gone through multiple makeovers over the years, and replace it with a plate.

The USDA’s food guide has had many looks throughout the years. In 1992, the Food Guide Pyramid was released (see right). This pyramid was met with anger from nutritionists, who said it encouraged eating too much grain, which, in turn, encouraged obesity.

In 2005, the USDA replaced it with the current symbol: MyPyramid (see below). This version did not favor any of the food groups and also noted the importance of physical activity. Everyone was happy. So why change it now?

In an interview with WebMD, Robert C. Post, PhD, deputy director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, said MyPyramid was failing to capture the public’s attention. The new symbol for the USDA’s food guide is meant to inspire the public and actively lead people to make the correct eating choices, particularly in supermarkets and restaurants. The New York Times reports that the pyramid’s replacement will be a

“plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for the basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables.” The wedges will be color coded for fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein. According to the Times , there will be a smaller plate next to the large plate that represents dairy. The new symbol is designed to be easily understood at a glance. In his WebMD interview, Mr. Post explained that the new guide will “give people the tools and the opportunities to take action.”

The announcement will be made by first lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday, June 2, at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Information will be posted at www.cnnp.usda.gov

New Video: Beyonce’s ‘Move Your Body’

Apr28

 

Beyonce partnered with First Lady Michelle Obama and her ‘Let’s Move!’ campaign in an effort to promote healthier living and better eating habits for children. In support of the campaign, she took her popular ‘Get Me Bodied’ joint, renamed it “Move Your Body” and made it danceable and exercise-worthy for the kids.

The official video to “Move Your Body” features an array of talented kids who were busting the dougie along with other dance moves alongside Beyonce. LOVED IT!

Check out the video below:

New Study: Optimism is Good for your Heart

Feb28

Heart patients are more likely to survive if they have a positive outlook, researchers are reporting.

More than 2,800 heart disease patients were given a psychological questionnaire and asked about their belief in their ability to recover from the illness and return to a regular routine.

After 15 years, 1,637 of the patients had died. Of those deaths, 885 (54 percent) were due to heart disease. Patients who had an optimistic outlook were 30 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period, said the researchers from Duke University Medical Center.

The increased risk of death among pessimistic patients persisted even after the researchers compensated for a number of factors, including heart disease severity, age, gender, income, depression, and social support.

“This study is unique because it shows that a patient’s attitude toward their disease not only impacts their ability to return to a normal lifestyle but also their health over the long term and ultimately their survival,” lead author John. C. Barefoot said in a Duke news release.

Optimists may more effectively deal with their condition, such as closely following their treatment plan, while pessimists may experience more tension and stress, which can have damaging effects on the body, the researchers speculated.

“The take-home message is that having positive expectations can not only make you feel better but also potentially live longer,” Barefoot said.

The study was published Feb. 28 in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Source:  MSN Health

I’ve always been a believer that positivity leads to success and happiness.

Carmelo Anthony’s Jordan Melo 7 Kicks

Dec13

Carmelo Anthony launched his Jordan Brand Melo M7 Performance Shoe in Harlem NYC at House of Hoops by Foot Locker on December 11, 2010 in New York City.

Jordan Melo M7 is priced at $130 and also received a grade A based off of Eastbay’s review,

“The shoe is a major achievement in the balance between the proprioception of a high-top, with very minimal sacrifice in mobility.”

Eastbay also mentioned that,

“The shape of the tongue is basically perfect. High, wrapping tongues are popular, but can get in way of a secure fit. When there is that much material competing with you, it can be detrimental to collar security. The way the pattern of the tongue, along with its thickness, and the thickness of the collar, work together, is flat out impressive.”

Study Finds that Smoking Thins the Brain

Dec7

ATTENTION: Current Smokers who want to quit for the New Year.

Smoking may thin the outer layer of the brain — the cerebral cortex — according to a new study.

The researchers scanned the brains of 22 smokers and 21 nonsmokers using magnetic resonance imaging. In the smokers, an area of the cortex known as the left medial orbitofrontal cortex was thinner. And the more a person smoked, the thinner this brain area was.

Changes to the orbitofrontal cortex have previously been linked to drug addictions and compulsive behavior.

“Since the brain region in which we found the smoking-associated thinning has been related to impulse control, reward processing and decision-making, this might explain how nicotine addiction comes about,” study researcher Simone Kühn said in a statement.

While previous work has linked tobacco smoking with brain abnormalities, including brain decay, the new study is the first to look specifically at the habit’s effect on cortical thickness, the researchers said. The cortex is involved in many of the brain’s so-called “higher order functions,” such as language and memory. A thinner cortex has previously been associated with normal aging and impaired cognition.

The researchers said they’re planning future studies to examine the effects of quitting smoking on the brain.

The study is published in the Dec. 1 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Source:  MSNBC

7 Reasons Why You’re Still Hungry

Dec6

I found a great article on MSN this morning that explains why most people can often feel hungry after eating a substantial meal. This piece of information is very important for dieters who are looking to control their portions and count calories.

Check out these simple tweaks that the authors of The New American Diet suggested to help quiet your cravings.

1.  Craving culprit: You drink too much soda.

Sodas, iced teas, and other sweetened beverages are our biggest source of high-fructose corn syrup. New research from the University of California at San Francisco indicates that fructose can trick our brains into craving more food, even when we’re full. It works by impeding the body’s ability to use leptin, the “satiation hormone” that tells us when we’ve had enough to eat.

2.  Craving culprit: Your dinner came out of a can

Many canned foods are high in the chemical bisphenol-A, or BPA, which the Food and Drug Administration recently stated was a chemical “of some concern.” Exposure to BPA can cause abnormal surges in leptin that, according to Harvard University researchers, leads to food cravings and obesity.

3.  Craving culprit: Your breakfast wasn’t big enough

After following 6,764 healthy people for almost four years, researchers found that those who ate just 300 calories for breakfast gained almost twice as much weight as those who ate 500 calories or more for breakfast. The reason: Eating a big breakfast makes for smaller rises in blood sugar and insulin throughout the day, meaning fewer sudden food cravings.

Continue reading →

Cigarette Warning Labels Will Now Have Graphics

Nov10

In the first major change to cigarette packaging in a quarter-century, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it will require graphic warning labels that cover half a package’s front and rear and the top 20% of all cigarette ads.

The labels will feature either drawings or photos illustrating graphically the dangers associated with smoking and will be accompanied by text stating that smoking is addictive or that it kills. The pictures are not quite as grim as some used in other countries, but regulators hope they will be sufficiently frightening to keep young people from beginning to smoke and to strengthen the will of those who are attempting to quit.

“We want to make sure every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes knows exactly what the risk is they are taking,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a news conference.

Current regulations require only a written warning on the edge of the cigarette pack and a similar, small warning at the bottom of ads.

You can view proposed warning labels in the gallery below, but read more details here.

The FDA will select nine of them by June 22, 2011, and cigarette manufacturers must begin putting them on packages and advertising by Sept. 22, 2011. By Oct. 22, 2011, manufacturers will no longer be able to distribute cigarettes that do not bear the new warnings.

An estimated 450,000 Americans die prematurely as a result of smoking-related disease every year and 8 million suffer chronic diseases at a cost to the economy of $100 billion annually. Most of those deaths are preventable. The goal of the new actions by the Department of Health and Human Services is to bring the smoking rate down to 12% by 2020.

New Study: Obesity is Socially Contagious

Nov5

Obesity rates in the United States, which some health experts have suggested may be stabilizing at about 34%, will continue to rise until at least 42% of American adults are obese, according to a new model that projects the increase based on “social contagion.”

The social contagion hypothesis garnered widespread attention in 2007 when researchers from UC San Diego, documented that obesity can spread through a social network – just like viruses spread — because people “infect” each other with their perceptions of weight. That study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and subsequent research has confirmed the validity of the social contagion theory.

Harvard scientists applied a mathematical model of social contagion to 40 years of data from the Framingham Heart Study, a study that has followed more than 5,000 adult residents of Framingham, Mass., since 1948 to assess their heart health. Among the participants of that study, obesity increased from 14% in the 1970s to 30% in 2000 and continues to increase. Based on that data, the rapid upswing in obesity rates is due largely to social-network influence, said the authors of the new study.

Non-social factors that lead to obesity — such as access to unhealthy food and sedentary lifestyles — are still much more important to the spread of obesity, the authors said. The social-contagion factor is a more recent factor.

Being surrounded by more obese people leads to increased social acceptability of obesity which leads to a higher rate of becoming obese, the authors wrote,

“. . .creating a positive feedback mechanism and a continuously increasing obese fraction of the population. It has been suggested that changing social norms that stigmatized smoking may have led to its decline, and just the opposite may be true for obesity.”

A non-obese American has a 2% chance of becoming obese in any given year, the study found. The number rises by 0.4% with each obese social contact. So, if you have five obese friends, that doubles your risk of becoming obese. The study found that the rate of recovery from obesity — about 4% per year — has not changed.

Source:  Chicago Tribune

New Study: Sufficient Sleep Contributes to the RIGHT Kind of Weight Loss

Oct5

Attention, dieters: You can cut all the calories you want to lose weight – but without enough sleep, you won’t be losing the right kind.

According to a study published online Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, cutting your time in bed from 8.5 hours to 5.5 hours causes you to lose proportionally less fat. Ten overweight dieters who cut their caloric intake by 10% lost a comparable amount of weight – 6.6 pounds – but the type of weight they lost was very different, depending on how long they slept.

For dieters who had a full night’s worth, more than half of the weight they lost was fat. But when the researchers cut three hours off their bedtime, only a quarter of the weight the study participants lost was fat. That means the other 75% being burned was nonfat mass – such as protein, valuable building blocks of muscle and other body tissues.

The researchers theorize that it’s because of the way sleep levels affect the levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger and promotes fat retention – two symptoms you don’t want when you’re trying to lose weight. Sleep loss, the authors write, “amplifies” these ghrelin-associated changes. 

“Thus, the increased loss of fat-free body mass during the short-sleep condition of our study may be due to increased conversion of body protein into glucose to support the more prolonged metabolic needs of the waking brain and other glucose-dependent tissues.”

Moral of the study? Put aside the work, or that late-night TV show, and get some shut-eye. Compared to exercise and diet, it’s the easiest part of healthy weight loss.

Source:  Chicago Tribune

Cardio Helps You Sleep Better

Sep28

A recent study at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois tracked 23 previously sedentary adults, primarily women 55 and older, who had difficulty falling or staying asleep.

After 16 weeks on an aerobics training program that included exercising on a treadmill or stationery bicycle, average sleep quality improved.

“Most of poor sleepers became good sleepers,” said Dr. Phyllis Zee, the lead researcher in the study, which was funded by the National Institute on Aging.

 

She added that she sees a lot of patients with insomnia, which afflicts 25 percent of the population and can reach as high as 40 percent in older people.

“We tell them to get regular exercise. But we really don’t emphasize how to exercise.”

The improved sleepers in Zee’s study also reported better moods, fewer depressive symptoms and enhanced vitality.

“Vitality is everything,” Zee said. “It’s how somebody feels, how alert. If you think about the complaints of poor health, people will always say, ‘I feel so tired.”‘

Source: Edmonton Sun

I don’t know if I’m just a deep sleeper, or if my daily cardio helps me sleep at night. I do cardio about 3-5 times a week and sleep like a baby every night. I feel as though exercisnig during the day causes you to fall asleep easier since your body is yearning to be in the rested state of mind.