Posts Tagged "health"

Wednesday Bubble: ‘ch ch ch Chia’

Posted by Liz on Jan 26, 2011 in weight | 3 comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY7qQFij_M]

I ran across a piece in yesterday’s New York Times that has ‘Wednesday Bubble’ written all over it: the connection between weight loss and chia seeds.  WHAT?!

If you are as old as me, you will remember when Chia Pets first hit market; they were all the craze. Water the terracotta figurine and grow ‘hair.’ Somehow, Chia has both made its way into the “stupid” hall of fame and just keeps on giving; in fact, I’ve lost track of its many iterations since it first appeared on the scene. And yet, it appears that the ‘pet that needs nothing but wet’ has transcended the doopid and entered the health arena.

After I saw the headline in the New York Times and delved into the post, I started to realize that this is no joke;  chia is actually being touted as a weight loss agent. In fact, a quick search on Google yielded pages and pages of results and health claims.

Chia or as it’s known in the plant world, Salvia hispanica, is a flowering plant that is native to Mexico and Guatemala. Its seeds are rich in omega-3s and dietary fiber, hence its nutritional value is not without merit. Nevertheless, claims that it can be used for weight loss or to promote health appear to be.

Before you run out to your local health food store, here’s what you need to know:

• Chia originally demonstrated promise in animal (rat) studies in terms of its effects on blood fats and blood sugars, leading to interest in its potential usefulness in humans and health.
• Thereafter, studies evaluating chia seed in humans did not show any specific benefit in terms of weight loss and questionable benefit on heart disease and diabetes. Other claims, such as use in allergies, to enhance athletic performance, prevent cancer, or boost the immune system are currently considered to be false.
• Chia has been safely consumed for decades and continues to be ingested regularly. But it is not without risk and both its high fiber content and omega-3 content can lead to digestive problems if chia seeds are ingested in huge amounts.

Like any quick fix, chia isn’t going to solve your weight issues. Battling weight gain in the face of aging and swinging hormones is tough!  However, it’s important to be sensible; there’s only two rules of thumb: move your body, frequently and watch your intake of calories, fats, sugar and alcohol.

The Chia? Water it, watch it grow and move on. Ain’t no weight loss panacea and chia ain’t nothing but a pet.

Wednesday Bubble: Don’t Pause!

Posted by Liz on Dec 8, 2010 in menopause, musings, new approaches | 0 comments

Hey, stop the presses! There’s a brand new, one-size-fits-all solution to menopause – Don’t – as in,  Don’t Pause. Billed as a breakthrough advancement in treating early menopause symptoms (according to the press release), Don’t Pause contains a proprietary mixture of pomegranate extract, green tea, chromium and selenium especially geared towards helping you ‘grow young responsibly.’

Um, okay. So what does that mean? It appears to mean that this wonder formulation will not only halt symptoms of menopause but also improve youthfulness and sexuality, reduce the risk of cancer, osteoarthritis, heart disease and epilepsy and enhance the effects of exercise on weight distribution. Wow! All that in a single pill. Have I mentioned that it’s also Hallal and Kosher?

There is one bit of messaging surrounding this wonder product that I believe is responsible and right on: the time to start addressing menopausal symptoms is before they start. That means you – 30 some year-olds and 40 some year-olds – there is no time like the present to build bone and preserve bone health, get into shape and start managing your weight, eat healthy, address stress and build those support networks. These are the type of steps that can go a long way to addressing menopause symptoms and also to take poetic license, truly help you grow older responsibly.

Don’t pause? What do you think?

Health Rx: The Buddy System. A guest post by Sheryl Kraft

Posted by Liz on Nov 1, 2010 in women's health | 4 comments

Last year, I was asked to sit on an Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Nutrition’s Life…Supplemented Campaign. What I found (or should I say “who”) were several like-minded souls who not only embraced their health and wellness, but also recognized that relationships and support are an integral part of both. If we lose our ‘sistahs,’ we lose a huge part of our hearts and our souls, not to mention our health. Research supports this contention, which is why I’ve written about relationships and support networks several times on Flashfree.

Sheryl Kraft is not only a fellow Board member but also writes about all matters of midlife. In the blogger world, she is the cheese to my macaroni, so to speak. I am grateful for her voice and her wisdom, and mostly for sharing this post on Flashfree. Thanks Sheryl!

Sporadically throughout my life, I’ve been without lots of things: sleep, money, the right dress, electricity, the perfect pair of shoes, an inspired idea. You get the picture.

But there’s one thing that’s been a consistent comfort; one thing I’ve never been without. And I am always so very grateful for that one thing.

That one thing? It’s FRIENDS.

Friends are essential for a happy life. For me, they keep me afloat when I feel myself going under; they’re my first line of defense when I’m down or troubled. There is something about the solidity of friendship that feels thrilling and comforting all at once. Some people might say: if you have a husband, a boyfriend, a partner that you enjoy a good relationship with, why do you still need friends?

To that, I say: it’s different. Friendships, at their best, are uncomplicated and sustaining; reasonable and free of emotional hurdles. They’re an invisible force that holds your hand securely and keeps you in a safe place.

The importance of friends and social networks is finally being acknowledged. Indeed, friendship has a profound effect on your physical and psychological health. Friends can be a powerful weapon in keeping your immune system functioning at its peak; study after study bears this out.

Need proof?

Strong social networks go a long way: During a 10-year study period, older people with a large network of friends were 22 percent less likely to die than those with fewer friends.

Friends are important for your head:  Harvard researchers found that having strong friendships is a champion of brain health as we age.

Close friends and cancer: A 2006 study of 3,000 nurses with breast cancer found that women without close friends were four times more likely to die of the disease than women with 10 or more friends.

Low social interaction was compared with other well-known health risk factors by scientists at Bringham Young University . Here’s what they found:

–       Equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day

–       Equivalent to being an alcoholic

–       More harmful than not exercising

–       Twice as harmful as obesity

Losing a friend can have a powerful impact on health, too. Whether it is through death or disagreement, the pain and mourning packs a punch on immunity. Stress, sadness, loneliness, grief – they all follow loss. And what follows such intense emotions is a downward dive in your overall health. Stress hormones are released, causing a spike in blood pressure, heart rate and blood sugar levels. And if stress hangs on for the long-term, other health problems crop up: depression, anxiety, obesity, and more.

Over the years, I’ve lost friends. I’m sure you have, too. It’s inevitable they will come and go. Lucky is the woman who is able to keep their childhood friends well into adulthood.

My two best friends both died within a year of one another; both of breast cancer. With each loss, a piece of myself was torn from me. With each loss, sadness and a huge empty space followed me wherever I went. I felt exposed and raw, yet strangely alone in my grief.

As with everything else, resiliency eventually surfaces and I moved on. I nurtured my other friendships, cherishing them even more than before.  But I can’t help but wonder what life would be like if those two friends were still here.

Keep your friends close. Take pleasure in the benefits you gain from one another.

Your health depends on it.

About the author… Sheryl Kraft is a health writer and essayist. Her work has appeared in JAMA, AARP the Magazine, Prevention Magazine, weightwatchers.com, and more. Her blog, MidlifeMatters appears on the website www.healthywomen.org, which was named the top women’s health website by Good Housekeeping magazine. In addition, Sheryl is the health & wellness editor at www.EndlessBeauty.com.

Stirring the pot: a conversation with author/chef Mollie Katzen on food, women and aging

Posted by Liz on Feb 8, 2010 in diet, menopause | 14 comments

Just about anyone who’s interested in cooking and whose formative years took place in the late 60s and 70s knows these names:  Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. Personally, both of these volumes occupied prominent places on my bookshelves for years. That is, until worn from overuse and stained with food and memories, I reluctantly let them go.

So, what do cooking and midlife and menopause have to do with each other? And what type of insights can chef and author Mollie Katzen lend to the conversation?

I originally approached Mollie in search of nutrition advice for women going through midlife and menopause. Although I realize that she isn’t a dietician or a nutritionist, as someone who’s immersed herself in food for decades, she seemed quite capable  to lend a perspective. But as our conversation took hold and we found our rhythm, I realized that the focus had shifted: what I ended up with was a mini-instruction manual, not only for eating healthy but also for forming and maintaining positive relationships with food and with ourselves.

A champion of “keep it healthy,” Mollie entered the scene when cookbooks were largely geared towards the typical American meat and potato diet.  When the Moosewood Cookbook first hit the shelves, “there was barely even a cookbook section in the bookstore, let alone, a ‘healthy eating’ or  ‘vegetarian’ section,” explains Mollie.  Yet, she is not what many of us classify as “vegetarian,” and  although she  primarily skews the dinner plate towards greens and veggies, she consistently includes small amounts of animal protein.  “My diet in my 30s and 40s could have been classified as practically vegan,” she says, “even if I wasn’t orthodox about it.” (At that time, she was also keen on a low-fat diet, which, coupled with the lack of ample amounts of protein, spelled trouble.) “It was almost ‘remorse cuisine;’ I’d eat this way and by mid-afternoon I’d almost be fainting, depleted, irritable. I had no focus. I found that I wasn’t functioning and would wonder what was wrong with me because I thought I was eating the purest diet on the planet. I felt like I was falling apart.”

If you are familiar with the earlier editions of Mollie’s books, they concentrate heavily on whole grains and legumes. However, age has paved a path for a significant alteration in what she eats.  Emphasizing that the amount of bulgar and beans she’d have to eat to obtain the amount of protein that she needs for her blood sugar to stay stable could easily translate into an extra 50 pounds, Mollie says that she has changed her diet to include grass-fed animal protein and raw milk cheese, milk and butter.

What about aging and diet? “I think that women get really frustrated,” she says, pointing out that as we age, even if we change nothing about our lifestyles, e.g., if our lifestyle is reasonable, we are of fairly normal weight, exercise moderately and eat pretty well, we still gain weight. “Our bodies become an inefficient machine and our metabolisms slow,” she says, adding that one of the most consistent things she’s observed amongst her friends is the “oh my god, what happened to my body” moment. The ‘I’m minding my business, doing the same things I’ve always done and all of a sudden, I’ve got this spare tire, I’ve got the fat” epiphany. Sound familiar?!

Although challenging, the answer to this common dilemma is fairly intuitive. And while we’d love to fool ourselves into believing that declining hormones are the primary culprits, they aren’t. Rather a decline in physical activity and lack of dietary restraint are the key players.  Mollie agrees that while women can’t do a whole lot about the fat redistribution, the “one thing [they] need in order to keep the [weight gain] at bay is to keep muscles toned as possible with resistance exercise and also, eat less.” New flash! This actually works; Mollie reports that she currently weighs the same as she did in her 20’s!

Of course, what works for one woman might not be exactly what works for another. We all need to forge our dietary paths and strategies that work for both our individual metabolism and our bodies.

“Health is trial and error,” Mollie explains. “So much of it shows up in how you feel a few hours later. For example, do you feel sleepy after you’ve eaten? Do you feel sluggish or irritable later in the day? Do you have trouble sleeping at night? For me, these were all symptoms of what was going on when I was eating almost no fat or protein.” Much in line with health and nutrition experts, Molllie’s strategy has been to reduce her daily caloric intake while at the same time increasing the percent of calories in her diet that are fat. “I get a good 30% of my calories from nuts, olive oil, avocado and fatty fish.” And when she snacks, its the good fats that she reaches for: “avocados and nuts, especially walnuts. When I am hungry, I have a handful of almonds. I just think that for people as they get older, they should lose the pretzels and eat almonds or guacamole or something with good fat in it.”

We also need to slow down. Bet you’ve heard that before! Mollie says that the most radical transformation we can make with food isn’t so much changing what we eat but how we eat it. Her advice? “Don’t even pick up the fork for the first minute that the food is served. Breathe deeply, look at it, admire it, thank the cook, be grateful. Then pick up your fork, take a few bites and put your fork down. Swallow your food. Women simply don’t have the metabolic ability to do a good job with all that food.”

Food heals. As women, our love-hate relationship with food is complex. We not only use food as fuel, but also to feed our emotions. Or on the flipside, we deprive ourselves in ways that are counterintuitive and sometimes, downright unhealthy.

“This sounds so obvious,” says Mollie, “but I really want people to turn towards cooking and not away from it. To me, the more hands-on and proactive we are about food and cooking, the more we heal whatever issues or concepts we have around food. I’ve actually seen people healing their relationship with food by diving into it.” Make food one of your favorite hobbies. She suggests that rather instead of shunning away from the grocery store run, step back and make it a trip to pick up something beautiful to be celebrated. “Diving into a more positive, deliberate relationship with food gives you something nice to do,” she adds.

What are the take-away messages?

• Tailor it uniquely: keep it healthy.. for you.
• Move towards healthier choices and use food in a healing, more positive manner.
• Embrace yourself with beautiful food, whether it’s a perfect tomato from the Farmer’s Market or some kick-ass, green-as-grass guacamole.
• Take it slow, and breathe.

Wise words, from a wise woman who knows her way around a kitchen or two.

p.s. Mollie has shared two of her favorite recipes. Check them out, try them out and please, comment and show some love!

About Mollie:

Mollie Katzen, with over 6 million books in print, is listed by the New York Times as one of the best-selling cookbook authors of all time. A 2007 inductee into the prestigious James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame, and largely credited with moving healthful vegetarian food from the “fringe” to the center of the American dinner plate, Ms. Katzen has been named by Health Magazine as one of “The Five Women Who Changed the Way We Eat.”

In addition she is a charter member of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable and an inaugural honoree of the Natural Health Hall of Fame. An award-winning illustrator and designer as well as best-selling cookbook author and popular public speaker, Mollie Katzen is best known as the creator of the groundbreaking classics Moosewood Cookbook, and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Her other books include the award-winning children’s cookbook trilogy, Pretend Soup,Honest Pretzels, and Salad People; Vegetable Heaven (winner of the International Cookbook Reveu Best in Category award); Sunlight Café; Eat, Drink, & Weigh Less (with Walter Willett, MD of Harvard), and the best-selling The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without.

The Top 100

Posted by Liz on Aug 12, 2008 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

News Flash!

Flashfree has been featured in the list of the Top 100 Women’s Health Blogs!

Check out the list; you may find some interesting and useful health tidbits in some of these sites!