Tea Totaler

Unlike most people, I don't drink coffee.  Just don't like the taste.  Never did and never will.

Tea, on the other hand, is a different story.  While I sometimes drink hot tea on a cold night, my drink of choice most of the time is iced tea.  I make my own from all sorts of different kinds of teas: flavored and unflavored, green and black and white and herbal, you name it. 

Now I never add any sugar to my iced tea--the somewhat bitter taste is what I like about it.  And I don't add milk or cream to hot tea either.

Turns out that adding milk to your tea could prevent you from taking advantage of the many health benefits that tea offers.

Different teas provide different benefits, but it's been well known that tea is loaded with antioxidants and other compounds that may increase the energy and calories you burn; regulate your blood pressure; help to prevent cancer, heart disease and clogged arteries; lower cholesterol; and reduce your risk of stroke, lung problems and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases.  The list goes on and on.

There are some recent studies (click here for an NPR article on one of them) that show that milk proteins may bind with the flavonoids in tea and make it harder for your body to absorb the good stuff and give you the benefits that you're looking for from tea.

There are some experts, as is the case with most studies, who dispute these findings.  They say that the amount of milk that most people put in tea is minimal, so it probably isn't an issue.

Still, you may want to enjoy your tea milk-less just to be sure you get the full effect of the benefits of tea.  As for me, I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing.

Chewing the Fat

OK.  I love food.  I appreciate food that tastes really good.  So why do I eat so fast?  Even when I am intentially trying to slow down, I eat much faster than Mary Beth and Jake (who, in my defense, both eat about as fast as tree sloths). 

Part of it is the fact that I just don't chew my food that much.  I chew a few times and...gulp...down the hatch it goes.  You'd think that I would want to savor the flavor and keep the food in my mouth as long as possible. 

Chewing on popcorn shrimp for Jake's birthday.

Well, a recent study shows that there might be a connection between the amount of times that you chew and losing weight.  It seems that the more you chew, the less calories are taken in by your body--up to 12% fewer calories than those in the study who didn't chew as much.  That could translate to significant weight loss over the course of a year.

Of course, as is usually the case, this study has some holes.  It was a small group of young men who were tested.  The results don't account for foods such as soup or ice cream that don't have to be chewed.  But still, it makes some sense.

For many years, experts have agreed that it takes time for the brain to register that the stomach is full.  So the more you chew, the slower you eat, the less food you eat before the brain says "Stop!".

Will the potential of losing weight make me chew more and eat slower?  It's worth a try, right? 

Hmmm...I could go for some ice cream...

Think About It

Hi.  I hope all of you who celebrated Christmas had a great one.  Now we turn out sights to the new year.

Many folks begin the new year with a desire to eat healthier and lose weight.  Most experts know that probably the best way to lose weight is by simply eating less.  But that's easier said than done, right?  Especially with holiday party tables filled with goodies and restaurant serving sizes enough to feed a family.  How do you eat less with these and other roadblocks?  One recent study shows that it could be as easy as using your imagination.


Does it work for ice cream?

 An article in Time discusses this study--that seems to show that imagining you are eating can help to reduce the amount that you actually eat.  The study used M&Ms and cheddar cheese for their test subjects.  Those who imagined eating a bunch of these items--not just imagining the smell and taste, but really thinking of the sensation of chewing and swallowing them--desired less of them when they were offered the real thing.  Those who imagined eating less than other (some were told to imagine eating just 3), were hungry for more of the real stuff than those who imagined eating more (others were told to imagine eating 33). 

Could it really be that easy?  Or is it just a bunch of psychological hooey?  Read the article and see what you think.  Hey, it couldn't hurt to try, right?

Holiday Food That's Good for You!

Candy, cookies, pies, gravy, stuffing, egg nog, cocktails.  So many tasty stuff that we enjoy at the holidays are not so great for us.  How about a traditional holiday food that people have been using as medicine for hundreds of years?

The cranberry.

Native Americans used cranberries as a way to fight infection--both eating them and by making a paste from them to cover a cut on the skin--using them as an antibiotic.  When settlers from the Old World hit the rock in New England, they found these little red berries all over the place.  Of course, they didn't taste so great--pretty sour. 

But that was good as far as they were concerned.  They believed that sour things counteracted too much salt in the body.  And they thought that too much salt (from the sea, mostly) caused scurvy.  So they ate limes and, eventually, cranberries, to avoid coming down with this terrible disease.  Today we know that sour fruits are high in Vitamin C, a deficiency of which causes scurvy.  Whatever the reason, the New World settlers ate up the cranberries.

These days, more studies are being done on compounds found in cranberries (and other fruits).  We know that these berries (as well as a number of other fruits, including blueberries) are full of antioxidants, which help to slow the effects of aging and memory loss. 

Read more in this NPR article.  Especially fascinating is the information about blueberries and their effect on memory.  There are some nice cocktail recipes in the article, too.

So enjoy your cranberry sauce with your holiday dinner.  It just might help you to keep some of those holiday memories longer!

Healthy Herbs and Spices

Tonight I'm part of a healthy eating program at Jake's school, so I've been thinking "healthy" as I've been getting ready for that. 

I just was reading a story from CBS News about nutritionist, author and TV chef Elie Krieger.  She was talking about how it's not only the foods that we eat that can have health benefits, but the herbs and spices that we use to prepare those foods that can make them even more healthy for us.  You can read the story for more details, but here are a few things that she highlighted.

• Rosemary: Either fresh or dried, rosemary is teeming with antioxidants that can help to prevent cancer and keep cholesterol numbers down.
• Cinnamon: This is one of the most health beneficial spices of all.  It has the highest antioxidant amounts of any spice.  It's been known to lower blood glucose in diabetics.  Cinnamon also contains manganese, iron and calcium, as well as being known to help alleviate nausea and stomach ulcers.
• Thyme: This herb contains some antibacterial properties as well as being a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Omega 3 fatty acids among other things.
• Curry Powder: As you probably know, curry powder is a mixture of different spices.  It differs from region to region and sometimes family to family.  But one of the spices that all curry powder contains is turmeric and that's what makes it healthy (and gives it that distinctive color).  Turmeric has been used to treat arthritis and rheumatism.  Studies also show that it can help to prevent heart problems, cancer and Alzheimer's Disease.  In fact, Alzheimer's is 4 times less prevalent in India (where curry powder is eaten in huge amounts) than in the US.
• Ginger: Ginger has been used for centuries as an anti-inflamatory and to treat circulation problems and stomach ailments.

So spice up your meals and reap the healthy benefits from all those great flavors!

Are You Eating Your Fruits & Veggies?

We're supposed to eat 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables to maintain a healthy diet.  Are you doing that?  Chances are, you're not.  And neither are most of the people you know.

According to a study noted in an NPR story, only 32.5% of adults are achieving that level of fruit intake and just 26.3% are eating that amount of veggies.  Yikes.

As you know, a diet with plenty of fruits and veggies helps to combat obesity, heart disease, stroke and maybe cancer.  Let's try to do better, huh?

Nuts!

A new study has shown that eating about a third of a cup of nuts each day can reduce "total cholesterol levels by 5.1 percent and 'bad' LDL cholesterol by 7.4 percent".  That same amount of nuts, according to the study, can improve the ratio of "bad" to "good" cholesterol and reduce triglyceride levels.  The study concludes that it doesn't really matter what kinds of nuts are eaten to get these results.

Of course, as is always the case, this potentially good news is tempered by the fact that nuts are high in calories and fat.  But since they're also a good source of protein, dietary fiber, some vitamins and antioxidants, moderation is recommended.  No sense in eating a bucket of nuts each day and becoming an obese person with good cholesterol levels, right?

If you'd like to read more of the article from HealthDay, click here.