Could Expensive Junk Food Help You Lose Weight?

Posted on December 19, 2012 by admin

The next time you’re grocery shopping, ask yourself this: Would you still be tempted to buy that box of cookies if it cost ten bucks instead of just three? Scientists say probably not. The more expensive sugary sodas and junk foods are, the less likely people are to buy them, according to a new study in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Researchers from the University of Auckland and University of Otago analyzed data from 32 different studies examining pricing models and food consumption. They found that raising the price of sodas by 10 percent is associated with a 1 to 24 percent decrease in the consumption of soda. Likewise, a 1 percent price hike in foods with saturated fat is associated with a 0.02 percent decrease in consumption of those foods. And even more promising: Turns out, lowering the price of fruits and vegetables by 10 percent could result in a 2 to 8 percent increase in consumption of produce.

In short: If it’s affordable, people will buy it—regardless of whether it helps or hurts their health. That’s why food companies price large items at a discount—they know it’ll drive sales, says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University and author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. Unfortunately, healthy options tend to be much more expensive than junky items. “The Department of Commerce says the indexed price of fresh fruits and vegetables has gone up by about 40 percent since 1980 whereas the indexed price of sodas has declined by about 15 percent,” Nestle says. “That’s a big incentive to buy sodas.”

The good news is that you don’t need to be a member of the 1 percent to maintain a nutritious diet. These five meals are hearty, full of nutrients, and will cost you less than $ 28 altogether. See all the recipes, including chicken lettuce cups and curried chicken couscous.

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Could This Be the Worst Flu Season EVER?

Posted on December 7, 2012 by admin

It’s beginning to look a lot like flu season—about a month too soon. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 48 states and Puerto Rico have already reported cases of laboratory-confirmed influenza and, nationally, the percentage of people testing positive for influenza is rising fast.

This is the earliest start to the flu season in nearly a decade. Last year, it didn’t officially begin until mid February, which, although considerably late, is better than the early start we’re getting this year.

Some health officials worry that the flu’s early arrival may be an omen for a particularly rough flu season ahead. And, in some places, it’s already begun: Various Midwest schools have had to shut down because of the harsh impact of the virus. The Whitehaven News in Memphis, TN, reports that at least three schools in West Tennessee have confirmed they will not re-open until after the weekend, and that a school near Knoxville has also shut down with nearly 200 kids sick at home.

“Increasing flu activity should be a wake-up call,” says Melinda Wharton, M.D., acting director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “For anyone who has put off vaccination: It’s time to get your flu vaccine now.”

The good news is that the flu vaccine is widely available, according to Tom Skinner, senior public affairs officer for the CDC, who spoke at a press briefing last week. “There are already over 120 million doses out there to be had,” he said during the briefing.

While the vaccine is the best tool at preventing the flu, the CDC also recommends following these six steps so you can have a healthy and happy winter.

Avoid close contact
If your loved ones are sick, lay off the smooches until they’re better. It’s also best to avoid close physical contact with many strangers (like, say, in a New York City subway car). That might not be possible for many people, though, so if you must use mass transit, be sure to keep your hands away from your face until you get a chance to wash them well.

Stay home when you are sick
Chances are your coworkers did not ask Santa for a whopping dose of the flu for Christmas, so if you find yourself feeling ill, do everyone a favor and stay at home. Not sure where to draw the line? Check out the 5 times you should definitely call in sick – and the times you can tough it out.

Cover your mouth and nose
Your mom taught you to do this for a reason, and now is not the time to rebel against her advice. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. If you don’t have a tissue on hand, it’s best to cough or sneeze into the crook of your arm, rather than your hand. That prevents the transfer of germs to the next thing you touch.

Wash your hands religiously
Soap, water, and alcohol-based hand rubs are totally in season. Use them as much as possible to protect yourself from germs. To wash your hands the right way, use antibacterial soap, rub your hands together vigorously for 20 seconds, and be sure to scrub up to the wrist, including the back of your hands, between the fingers, and beneath the nails. Then use an elbow to turn off the faucet, and a paper towel or air dryer instead of a reusable cloth.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth
The flu doesn’t get into your body through your pores. It makes its way into your body through your eyes, nose, and/or mouth. The most-common way to get the flu: Touching something that is contaminated with germs and then touching your face.

Practice other good health habits
Bottom line: If you act healthy, you’ll be healthy. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.

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The Fruit That Could Kill You

Posted on November 29, 2012 by admin

Filling up on grapefruit might help you drop a few pounds, but proceed with caution: It could be hazardous to your health. Turns out, eating grapefruit can cause serious—even life-threatening—side effects if you mix it with any of 43 drugs, according to a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Many of the meds that have been found to be dangerous are completely necessary for treating important and common medical conditions, according to the study. For women, that could include birth control pills, some anti-anxiety drugs, and sleeping pills, according to Joe Graedon, MS, a pharmacologist and co-founder of the website PeoplesPharmacy.com.

The culprit behind all this trouble? Furanocoumarins. This ingredient in grapefruit deactivates an enzyme in the stomach that breaks down drugs, which can cause the amount of the drug in your blood to go up, says Graedon.

“Because the drug isn’t metabolized the way it normally would be, you end up with a greater potential for toxicity,” he says. So, for example, if you’re prescribed a specific dose of a blood pressure pill, that dose alone is meant to keep your blood pressure in check. But if you take it along with grapefruit or grapefruit juice, you might get the equivalent of three, four, or even 10 more pills, he says.

And this isn’t the first time grapefruit has been busted as a health hazard. More than 20 years ago, the same team of researchers that authored this current study discovered the dangerous interaction. But as new meds and new formulations make their way into your medicine cabinet, the number of drugs that you shouldn’t take with grapefruit has grown from 17 to 43—and this is in the past four years alone.

To find out whether you need to keep grapefruit out of your diet, all you have to do is ask your doctor or pharmacist if the drugs you’re taking would react badly with grapefruit, says Graedon. For a complete list of the 43 drugs that have bad side-effects when mixed with grapefruit, check here.

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How Sleeping Could Kill You

Posted on September 24, 2012 by admin

Worried about logging enough shut-eye? There may be more serious concerns when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep.

A recent Swedish study monitoring 400 sleeping women ages 20-70 suggests that up to 50% of women have sleep apnea: they stop breathing for more than 10 seconds at least 5 times an hour while they sleep.

The findings, which were published last month in the European Respiratory Journal, are both alarming and particularly significant considering that the sleep disorder tends to be associated with men. “More people know about sleep apnea than they used to, but it’s still often identified as a male disease,” says Nancy Collop, M.D., director of the Emory Sleep Center, who was not involved in the study. “But if you were to come to my clinic, you’d see that it’s not a male disease by any stretch of the imagination.”

When a person, male or female, suffers from obstructive sleep apnea—the type examined in the study—they breathe normally during the day, but when they fall asleep at night, their throat collapses, so they stop breathing adequately and don’t get enough oxygen. This disruption in breathing can last for 10-60 seconds, and it can happen as many as 80 times per hour! At best, the sleeping disorder can result in poor sleep quality, headaches, and daytime fatigue, but at worst, it can kill you by increasing your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. In fact, a 2008 study published in the journal Sleep found that people with severe sleep apnea were three times as likely to die of any cause compared to those without the disease.

So how do you know if you have it? Collop says that most people come to her clinic for a screening because their bed mate notices their abnormal nighttime breathing patterns. And while some sufferers also seek treatment because they feel tired and lethargic throughout the day, it can be tough to determine whether you have sleep apnea if you sleep alone. Here are some risk factors that can help clue you in:

Excess weight: In the Swedish study, sleep apnea occurred in 84 percent of obese participants, with 20 percent suffering from severe cases of the disease. The reason? Collop says that excess fatty tissue around your neck can block your airway, making obesity a clear risk factor for the disorder. (And to make matters worse, sleep apnea can also lead to further weight gain: it can contribute to daytime fatigue, which may make sufferers more likely to overeat and avoid exercise.)
Persistent High Blood Pressure: The researchers also found a strong relationship between high blood pressure and sleep apnea—a whopping 80 percent of participants with hypertension had the sleep disorder. Other studies have confirmed this correlation, and Collop says that inadequate breathing is to blame. “The drop in oxygen levels that occurs seems to cause some change in the regulation of the blood vessels,” she explains. If a person has high blood pressure that isn’t responding to traditional interventions like diet modification and medication, sleep apnea could be the culprit.
Age: The study found that sleep apnea also occurred more frequently in older participants—a finding that’s consistent with previous research. In women specifically, Collop says the disorder is more likely to show up after menopause, a correlation that experts believe is related to hormonal fluctuations.
Throat obstruction: Regardless of age and body weight, Collop says people who have a large neck, small throat, big tongue, nasal or sinus condition, or any other factor that contributes to an obstructed airway are biologically predisposed to develop sleep apnea.

3 Ways to Sleep Safer

1. Maintain a healthy body weight. Losing weight can improve—and sometimes even eliminate—sleep apnea, says Collop. In fact, research has shown than even a modest 10-percent drop in body weight may significantly reduce the severity of the disease.

2. Sleep on your side. Thanks to gravity, laying on your side can open up your throat while you sleep, improving the severity of sleep apnea. And if you have a sleeping partner who suffers from the disorder, Collop recommends what she calls “elbow therapy.” “If your bed mate is snoring, give them an elbow, and they’ll roll over,” she explains.

3. See a specialist. If you think you might have sleep apnea, you should make an appointment with a sleep doctor for a screening. Aside from lifestyle changes, a variety of medical interventions are available to help treat the disease, including specialty sleep masks and surgeries. Also, because of the strong correlation between heart health and sleep apnea, Collop says that anyone with high blood pressure, heart disease, or diabetes should automatically be tested for the sleeping disorder.

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Bleeding Money: Could PMS Leave You Penniless?

Posted on August 16, 2012 by admin

Do you blame your reoccurring shopping sprees on your weakness for shoes? Well, according to a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, your penchant for pumps may have more to do with biology than psychology.

When researchers asked 59 women to record their purchases, beauty routines, clothing choices, and diets, for 35 days, they found a correlation between the amount of time and money each woman spent on improving her appearance, and her most fertile time of month. Why? The study’s authors attribute this behavior to evolutionary times, when baby-hungry women would strut their stuff to attract mates during the time of month that their bodies were most likely to conceive.

The findings support a larger 2010 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, in which researchers analyzed the survey responses of 322 women and found that dysfunctional financial behaviors—like impulse buying and overspending—tend to increase throughout the menstrual cycle, with a peak in out-of-control spending during the days leading up to your period. The explanation: The same hormone fluctuations that lead to common PMS symptoms like mood swings, sugar cravings, and decreased concentration, may also contribute to impulsive financial decision-making, according to the study authors.

So what’s a premenstrual, shoe-loving gal to do? Make a plan! Follow these tips to ensure your monthly hormonal shifts don’t show up on your monthly bank statement:

Log your expenses.  For at least one month, track your expenses each day and take note of the day you start your period. This self-monitoring exercise will tell you whether you have a tendency to engage in reckless premenstrual spending. “Awareness is the first step,” says study author Karen Pine, Ph.D, psychology professor and co-author of Flex: Do Something Different. “It’s surprising how many women are simply unaware of how their spending patterns vary according to their phase of cycle.”

Institute a cash-only policy. Decide how much money you can afford to blow on extras like clothes and other treats each week, and carry only that amount with you. Pine even suggests leaving your credit cards at home, particularly on days when you know you’re more likely to shop. “With a cash-only regimen, your spending is less likely to go out of control,” she says.

Enlist a shopping buddy. Confess your spending struggles to a trusted friend or family member, and bring them with you on your shopping trips, suggests Ryan Howell, Ph.D, psychology professor and co-founder of BeyondThePurchase.org. A shopping supervisor can hold you accountable and help prevent you from dropping cash on stuff you don’t need… like a fifth pair of black ballet flats.

Think before you swipe. Pausing before you decide to make a purchase may spell the difference between frugal and frivolous. If you find yourself shopping solo, Howell recommends stopping and asking yourself, “Do I really need this?” before making a purchase. “We find that people make so many poor choices with their money when they spend without any conscientious thought,” he says.

Treat your body right. Your health should always be a top priority, but Pine says it’s especially important to take care of yourself during the premenstrual phase of your cycle. Besides eating nutritious foods and exercising regularly, she recommends logging enough shut-eye and cutting back on caffeine and alcohol, both of which may exacerbate PMS. “These steps should help to minimize premenstrual symptoms and boost your ability to cope with your shopping urges,” she says.

Out of sight, out of closet. Simply laying eyes on an object of desire can be enough to trigger indulgence (chocolate cake, anyone?), so avoiding your favorite stores and shopping sites on the days before your period may be your best defense against senseless splurges. Howell and Pine both recommend making a list of alternative activities—like dancing, going for a run, or hanging out with friends—that will boost your mood and minimize your compulsion to spend.

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The Tiny Home Movement: Could You Live In 50 Square Feet?

Posted on June 19, 2012 by admin

I live in a relatively small New York City apartment with my husband, three children, and our cat. As my …
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Tag Archives: Could

Could Expensive Junk Food Help You Lose Weight?

Could This Be the Worst Flu Season EVER?

The Fruit That Could Kill You

How Sleeping Could Kill You

Bleeding Money: Could PMS Leave You Penniless?

The Tiny Home Movement: Could You Live In 50 Square Feet?