Avoiding the Freshman Fifteen: How To Keep The Pounds Off
by Shereen Jegtvig
We’re still in the first weeks of fall semester at most colleges, which is an interesting, exciting and possibly bewildering time for a lot of college freshmen. For most, it’s their first home away from home, there’s classes, homework, new social groups – it’s really a stressful time of adjustment. And along that stress and excitement can be accompanied by the dreaded “freshman fifteen” which is the extra pounds that young people often gain when they go off to college for the first time.
Why does it happen? Maybe there are more choices and less supervision. Without Mom or Dad to provide the healthy snacks, college kids may succumb to the temptation of a junk food diet. Now it’s easy to keep junk foods in the dorm room as snacks. Or maybe some students use comfort foods to cope with the added stress of school and living away from home for the first time. Read more
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Are Organic Foods Worth the Cost?
by Shereen Jegtvig
There’s a lot to think about when you buy foods at the grocery store. Does the food offer good nutrition? What kind of additives and preservatives are present? How many calories are there? And so on…
So here’s another question to consider. Is your food organic, and does it really matter?
If your main concern about the food you buy is good nutrition, then whether food is organic or not doesn’t really enter into it. A recent study looked at the research and concluded that organic food really isn’t any more nutritious than regular commercially grown food. An organically grown orange has pretty much the same amount of vitamins, minerals, fiber and calories as a regular orange. Same thing goes for other fruits, berries, vegetables, meats, dairy and grains. Read more
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Cutting Fat and Calories by Using Cooking Sprays
by Shereen Jegtvig
With obesity becoming a major health problem, it’s good to look for ways to cut calories – every little bit counts. One way to reduce the calories and total fat in your diet is to use cooking sprays instead of oil or butter when you cook. These cooking sprays work great for coating pans and bakeware without adding extra calories because you’re able to use just a thin layer of the product on your cookware.
How Cooking Sprays Work
Cooking sprays combine a small amount of oil with an emulsifier (usually soy lecithin) and a propellant. You simply spray the product onto your cookware. Some brands contain small amounts of silicone-based materials that appear to be harmless when ingested in these small amounts; however I don’t think they have the greatest flavor. Many also contain preservatives and even some artificial flavorings. The best cooking sprays keep the ingredients list short – only an oil, lecithin and a propellant. Read more
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Warning Labels on Hot Dogs?
by Shereen Jegtvig
Just recently, a vegan group called the Cancer Project filed a lawsuit asking the state of New Jersey to require cancer-warning labels on hot dogs. I think most people would find this lawsuit to be frivolous and I doubt New Jersey residents will see warning labels on their hot dogs anytime soon, but it is worth thinking about.
There have been studies suggesting a link between processed meats, like hot dogs, and colon cancer. They’re usually high in saturated fat and loaded with artificial additives and preservatives, the worst probably being nitrites, which are added to prevent bacterial growth and adds that familiar pink color. When the nitrites combine with other substances also found in meat to form N-nitroso compounds that are associated with a higher risk of several cancers. As an aside, many green vegetables naturally contain nitrites, but they don’t convert to the N-nitroso compounds, perhaps due to vitamins or antioxidants also found in the vegetables.
Does this mean that hot dogs should carry warning labels or that you should shriek and run away in horror the next time you see hot dogs at a picnic? Read more
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Using FoodEssentials as Part of a Healthy Lifestyle
by Shereen Jegtvig
Studies show how following a healthy lifestyle reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease (the leading cause of death in the United States). The important lifestyle behaviors include getting exercise, not smoking, light consumption (or less) of alcohol, and of course, eating a healthy diet.
Changing your diet usually means you have to eat more fruits and vegetables and whole grains while reducing fat and sodium. Sounds easy enough, but some of those food manufacturers sneak extra fat and sodium (along with artificial colors, flavorings and preservatives) where you don’t expect them. You can spend hours at the grocery store sifting through the information on the food labels to be sure you’re buying healthy foods. Or you can use the FoodEssentials tool to do the work for you. Read more
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Cholesterol and Your Diet
by Shereen Jegtvig
Cholesterol is a waxy type of fat found in your body, and although many people think of cholesterol as a bad thing, it isn’t. In fact, your body needs cholesterol to produce hormones, vitamin D and bile, plus cholesterol protects your nerves and is a major component in the structure of cells. The problem occurs when your body has too much bad cholesterol (called low density lipoproteins) in your bloodstream and not enough good cholesterol (high density lipoproteins) (http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/tc/high-cholesterol-overview). The cholesterol can stick to blood vessel walls, so having increased levels of cholesterol (especially LDL) can directly increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, increasing the liklihood of heart attacks and/or stroke.
Most of the cholesterol your body needs is made by your liver, but some of the cholesterol comes from the animal based foods you eat (foods from plants don’t have cholesterol – they have sterols that can actually lower your cholesterol – more on that later). It would be nice if lowering the cholesterol levels in your body was as easy as just cutting out cholesterol, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Two other types of fats have a bigger impact on your cholesterol levels than the cholesterol you eat – saturated fats and trans fats. Read more
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What to Eat Instead of Greasy French Fries
by Shereen Jegtvig
French fried potatoes are popular because so many of us love the combination of starch, fat and salt. Unfortunately the fat adds extra calories you don’t need (and worse if they’re fried in oil high in trans-fats). But if you love French fries, there are a couple of ways to get that flavor without the fat.
You can make your own healthier version of baked fries by slicing a couple of potatoes into long thin strips, sprinkle with some olive oil or canola oil and top with a bit of seasonings, herbs or salt and bake in a 375 degree oven for about an hour. They taste great, but they’re a bit time consuming, so if you’re looking for French fry flavor with a bit more convenience, choose frozen potatoes that you can bake in the oven. Be sure to read the label to find potatoes that aren’t fried – look for zero or low-fat fries, wedges, or shreds. Read more
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Sour Cream and Dairy Toppings – Fat Vs. Additives
by Shereen Jegtvig
In my last post, I gave you some things to think about when you buy milk. It’s fairly easy — you need to think about the amount of fat in the milk and if you want organic milk (or at least milk that is free from bovine growth hormones). Now I’d like to talk about sour cream and dairy toppings because it isn’t quite a simple as choosing milk. You still need to think about the fat content, but you also have to factor in some of the additives that aren’t found in milk. Read more
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Cheese – good for you or bad for you? – What to look for:
It seems that even cheese can be quite a controversial food or possibly it may be that there is some kind of controversy with most food. Some people feel that cheese is an evil cholesterol spewing, article-clogging, fat accumulating pariah, responsible for heart disease throughout the US. Others claim that the benefits of this miracle food include reduced risk of diabetes and high blood pressure. Read more
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