Achieving Healthy Weight Gain

While most Americans struggle to lose weight, there are some who are underweight and unable to gain enough weight to stay in the healthy range.  While certain individuals may inherently have a high metabolism, others may have an illness or chronic condition that prevents them from maintaining a healthy weight.  Cancer treatments, for example, may cause nausea and food aversions.  People with gastrointestinal or liver problems may be unable to absorb nutrients adequately even if they are consuming what would normally be a sufficient amount for a healthy individual.  Mental well-being is an important aspect of weight maintenance as well.  People who suffer from depression, stress, or anxiety may have loss of appetite and subsequent weight loss.

Being underweight is associated with medical problems including osteoporosis, low muscle mass, weak immune systems, poor wound healing, and infertility.  Children who are underweight may have stunted growth and poor brain development.  In adults, underweight is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) less than 18.5.  In children, underweight is defined as having a BMI less than the 5th percentile for age and gender because the healthy range of BMI varies with gender and changes over time as children get older.

If you or someone you know is trying to gain weight, it does not mean that junk food or fast food meals are acceptable.  The goal is to increase caloric intake, but these calories should still be accompanied by nutrition.  The following suggestions are some simple ways to add tasty, healthy calories to the diet.

Mini-meals.  Sometimes the thought of having to eat more at any one meal can appear to be a daunting task, especially if nausea or reflux symptoms are a problem.  Rather than focusing on bigger meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, try having regular meals at those times but add three snacks throughout the course of the day. 

Beverages.  Drinking calories is just as good as eating calories.  Be wary of soft drinks and juice, though, since these beverages often just add sugar to the diet.  Juice should be limited to no more than one glass per day if at all.  Substituting a glass of water with a glass of milk will provide more calories, protein, and calcium.  Make high protein smoothies by adding yogurt or soft tofu to milk and fresh or frozen fruit.  You can add other things like wheat germ or dry milk powder to increase the nutritional content even more.  You can also try drinking beverages after eating so that you do not fill up on fluid before finishing your meal or snack.

Protein.  Sufficient amounts of protein are important for building muscle mass.  Healthy snacks with nuts or dairy products like cheese and yogurt are easy ways to increase protein.  Fruits can be dipped in yogurt, and crackers or vegetables can be paired with peanut butter, hummus, or bean dip.  Beans and legumes, eggs, or lean cuts of meat, fish, and poultry are also key ingredients for adding protein at mealtime.  Hard-boiled eggs can be a quick and easy snack or an addition to a salad.

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Posted in: Achieving,Healthy,Weight

Healthy Snacks to Go

School is back in session, and kids and parents are busy shuttling from class to sports practice and music lessons. Making sure that everyone has enough fuel to get the most out of school and extracurricular activities is an important responsibility as a parent. While chips and candy from a vending machine or French fries at a fast food restaurant are often tempting, they will not provide proper nutrition for young bodies and minds. Try these suggestions for healthy snacks that are portable and budget-friendly.

Water. Staying hydrated is crucial, particularly for budding athletes. Soda, sports drinks, and juice boxes may be popular and convenient, but they provide unnecessary sugar and calories. Water is actually the healthier and cheaper choice. Pack a bottle of water in your child's book bag or in the car. Reusable water bottles now come in a variety of designs. If you are worried about chemicals from plastic, your child can pick a water bottle made from stainless steel. You can put the bottle in the freezer overnight to have cold water the next day.

Nuts. Nuts and seeds are an excellent source of protein that is important for growing bodies. They also contain vegetable fat or oil which provide energy. While you may be concerned about the consuming too much fat, certain nuts like walnuts have actually been shown to decrease LDL cholesterol which is often known as the "bad cholesterol." Nuts are the perfect travel food since they do not spoil and can survive the rough and tumble of a child's backpack.

Dairy. Nonfat yogurt or a small piece of cheese contains protein as well as calcium which is needed for strong bones. Combined with whole grain foods like granola or whole wheat crackers, these foods are both filling and nutritious.

Whole grains. Whole grain breads and crackers have more fiber than bread, crackers, or cookies made from more refined white flour. The fiber will help satisfy hunger pangs. Whole grain foods also have more protein. A piece of whole wheat toast can be paired with peanut butter or a slice of low-fat cheese for a healthy snack.

Fruits and vegetables. Whole fruits or sliced fruits provide fiber that is greatly lacking in the typical American diet. Fruits contain antioxidants which are needed by the body to repair itself and prevent cancer and heart disease. Whole apples, nectarines, oranges and other fruits travel well in the car. Dried fruits like raisins or cranberries are good alternatives. Even vegetables can be an easy snack. Baby carrots are ready-to-eat. Many grocery stores also have celery sticks that are washed and pre-cut. Grape and cherry tomatoes are a tasty treat.

Healthy eating requires a little preparation. Adding these food items to your grocery list will ensure that your children have access to foods that will nourish the developing body and brain. Happy snacking!

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Posted in: Healthy,Snacks

Why a healthy marriage is good for the heart

But while men are more likely to live on regardless of the state of their marriage, women only enjoy the benefit if they and their husband are happy together.

Researchers from the University of Rochester in America found that 83 per cent of happily married women who had heart bypass operations lived on for another 15 years, compared with just 28 per cent in unhappy unions and 27 per cent of unmarried women.

For happy husbands the survival rate was also 83 per cent, but even those who were not content with their marriage stood a 60 per cent chance of survival, compared with just 36 per cent who were unmarried.

Prof Kathleen King, who led the research, said that having a supportive husband and wife encouraged people to live a healthier lifestyle, for example by taking more exercise or giving up smoking.

Being in a healthy marriage also motivates patients to take care of themselves after surgery because they have a reason to "stick around", she said.

Prof Harry Reis, who co-authored the study in the Health Psychology journal, said a happy marriage was "every bit as important to survival after bypass surgery as more traditional risk factors like tobacco use, obesity, and high blood pressure."

Earlier research has also shown that people with less hostility in their marriages had lower levels of a type of inflammation that is linked to heart disease.

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Posted in: Healthy,Heart,marriage

Is Vegetable Oil Healthy?

My clients look at me with a shocked expression every time I tell them to ask themselves, “is vegetable oil healthy or is that what I’m supposed to think?”

Growing up I along with most of the world automatically assumed vegetable oils were healthy and that was the bottom line.  Because it comes from vegetables, right?

The truth is that every kind of edible oil out there has been processed one way or another.  This is far from the definitive answer to is vegetable oil healthy because some are minimally processed while others have been through the ringer.

Of course, some of these vegetable oils are going to be more processed than others but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to be healthy for us and not healthy for us.  My goal is always to have you ask questions and reexamine what conventional thought has shown us about what is healthy and what isn’t.

Whenever you buy your food I always recommend finding the least processed kind available because it will most likely contain the most amount of nutrients and it hopefully hasn’t been processed through high heats or pressure.

I really don’t like fried foods because they’ve most likely have been cooked with some of these bad vegetable oils I’m about to tell you about and there’s also a good chance they contain hydrogenated oils that will not only make you fat but also unhealthy.

These are the vegetable oils that are NOT healthy for you:

All of the oils above make my “do not buy” list because they all contain high amounts of omega-6 fatty acids and they all have low smoking points.  The reason we don’t want any more omega-6?s in our bodies is because they have been linked to obesity as your body develops a resistance to insulin and inflammation begins to run amok in your body.

Both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are essential to our bodies meaning we can’t make them on our own and we need them to survive.  But as we have begun to consume more and more processed foods that contain a larger proportion of omega-6?s to omega-3?s our bodies have become unbalanced and this has become one of the driving reasons why this nation has become obese.

These unhealthy vegetable oils above are also mostly composed of processed polyunsaturated fats meaning it’ll be easy for them to become oxidized when exposed to light and heat.  And when your food gets oxidized the production of free radicals goes up and these bad boys can cause a huge amount of damage to your body.  This is why you hear everybody recommending that you eat more antioxidants.

These free radicals cause most of their damage by causing inflammation in our bodies which not only make us even more fatter but also cause a boatload of health problems such as cancer growth, diabetes and heart disease.

Here is my list of health vegetable oils I recommend:

CoconutMacadamiaExtra Virgin Olive Oil (low heat cooking only)

The reason I kept palm oil of my list of recommended vegetable oils is because most of the plantations in the world that produce it are dangerously encroaching on many of the natural habitats of native animals.  Overall palm oil is good for you but I don’t like to recommend it unless you’re able to find one that has been proven to be environmentally safe.

For more on which fats you should be eating also check out my 5 Good Fats To Eat to Lose Belly Fat blog post as well so you’ll have a full list to go along with this is vegetable oil healthy post.

Hopefully this has been an awakening on vegetable oils and made you think twice about their consumption.  I know I was like many of you out there quick to automatically assume that all vegetable oils were healthy for us but the hard truth is that they’re not.

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Posted in: Healthy,Vegetable