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We all know we’re supposed to eat lots of fruits and veggies, right? But did you know that the color of the foods you eat has a big impact on your health? That’s because different colors of foods contain various phytochemicals and antioxidants - beneficial chemicals produced by plants that give us a huge health benefit.

Here’s a wonderful video that beautifully showcases the variety of colors of foods available to us. Caution:  do NOT watch this if you’re hungry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjHItEhvSGk

Is healthy food expensive? Is it possible to spend less money, and still choose healthy foods?

These questions are on everyone’s mind today as we figure out ways to save money. But who wants to sacrifice good health?

Check out these 9 often overlooked ways to save money at the grocery store - without scrimping on taste or health:  http://www.foodandhealth.com/cheapshop.pdf

What are your favorite ways to spend less on healthy food? Let’s share!

The More half-marathon didn’t end up to be the race we planned on.  

Temperatures in NYC were in the 70’s early on race morning, and climbed to almost 90 before noon. When the 43 women in my training group arrived in Central Park at 7am, the race directors had already cancelled the marathon portion of the races. The half-marathon was still on, but it wasn’t timed. The race director encouraged everyone walking, or who couldn’t finish the 13.1 miles in 3 hours, to do just one loop - about 7 miles - of the 2 loop course.

The weather is obviously beyond our control. We trained in below freezing weather when the roads were covered in snow and our eyelashes froze. We ran and walked in the rain. We wore face masks, 2 layers of gloves, Yak Trax, and long underwear to get in our miles. We never planned on one of the hottest days of the Spring - and we hadn’t trained in hot weather.

We were disappointed, but no one gave up. We started off at a slow pace, drank water and Gatorade at every rest stop, searched out the shady spots of the course, and encouraged each other to do our best. We can’t control the weather, but we CAN control our attitude.

I’m proud of the women in the Training for More group who stuck together through cold weather and steaming humidity. Each and every one put out her best effort that day, and while the day didn’t turn out as planned, we all met the challenge. 15 weeks of training came down to one hot morning in NYC’s Central Park. Just like every other training session, we laced up our shoes, stretched our legs, and started out for the day:  together.

About this time last year I spent a glorious week in Sicily, learning about the Mediterranean Diet by enjoying it first-hand. I’ve been a fan of the Mediterranean Diet principles:  whole grains, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, seafood, and of course - olive oil. It’s amazing how delicious fresh asparagus dressed with only pepper and fragrant olive oil can taste.

Oldways, a group dedicated to translating nutrition science into healthy and delicious foods, pioneered the concept of encouraging Americans to adopt the Mediterranean diet principles in order to improve our health. They recently published an updated Mediterranean Food Pyramid, available at http://www.oldwayspt.org/med_pyramid.html

Here are my top 5 recommendations for bringing the Mediterranean diet, and all of its health benefits, into your kitchen:

1.  Make plants - fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, seeds - the centerpiece of your meals. Start lunch with a tossed salad, adding in chickpeas and pumpkin seeds.
2.  Include olives or olive oil in as many foods as possible. Toss your salad with olive oil or add olives to your favorite recipes.
3.  Use nuts as part of your protein choices. Add a handful of nuts to your salad or sprinkle nuts over breakfast oatmeal.
4.  Choose fish or shellfish at least twice each week. Toss pasta with tuna and olive oil or coat salmon with crushed pistacchios.
5.  Flavor your foods with herbs and spices instead of salt.

You bet! A new study from the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University in California shows that moderate to vigorous exercise decreases risk of disability and death as we age.

The researchers followed a group of age 50+ runners in California for over two decades. After only 19 years, 15% of runners had died, compared to 34% of controls. It also took longer for runners to become disabled compared to controls.

Here’s the take-home message:  get off the couch and get moving, especially as you get older. Run, walk (vigorously, meaning that you’re working hard enough that you can’t sing, but you can still talk in phrases), play basketball or hockey, hike, snowboard or ski. You get the idea. Instead of thinking of middle age as the time when you kick back and watch TV or the grandkids running around, join those grandkids and get moving!

Arch Internal Med, 2008, Vol. 168, No. 15, pp. 1638-1646

New research is just that - something new. One of the latest reports describes evidence that a common human virus may lead to obesity. It appears that 11% of lean people have antibodies to Ad-36, but nearly 30% of obese people possess these antibodies. Apparently the Ad-36 virus causes some of our body’s cells to contain more fat, leading to obesity (Medical Hypotheses, January 10, 2009).

Does that mean we should throw healthy eating and regular exercise out the window? Not yet.

This is new reserach, remember? That means it needs to be repeated, investigated, and dug into to figure out exactly what’s going on.

Plus we also know that the vast majority of us simply don’t get enough activity and eat more than we need. Wouldn’t it be great to get an annual obesity vaccine, similar to a flu vaccine? High-fat food, here we come!

But we forget that healthy eating and regular physical activity have benefits beyond just our body weight. Eating well improves our immune system, decreases our risk of heart disease, and increases our energy levels. Getting regular physical activity strengthens our muscles, including our heart, and provides a welcome stress relief.

Frequent handwashing helps prevent catching a cold or the flu. I wonder if it works for obesity? Or should we just stick with eating more fruit and vegetables and heading outside for a 30 minute walk? Stay tuned.

It seems like whenever January rolls around we’re bombarded with a slew of products promising effortless weight loss. We may suspect that the worst thing that could happen is we don’t gain weight - but think again.

The FDA recently released a report on several weight loss products that are tainted with various chemicals that have the potential to cause harm such as seizures, depression, insomnia, increased blood pressure, and increased heart rate.

We all know that losing weight involves changing our eating habits and getting more activity, yet wouldn’t we dearly love to lose weight simply by taking a pill? That’s not only a fantasy, it’s also a potential health disaster.

Check out the FDA’s information and recommendations here:  http://www.fda.gov/cder/consumerinfo/weight_loss_products.htm

Yes, it’s true. Planning a healthy meal doesn’t have to take a lot of work, exotic ingredients, and consist of foods your family won’t eat.

I was recently reminded of two great websites that include tons of tips and resources to make healthy meal planning a snap. Plus they have cool tools and quizzes you can use while you’re waiting for the pot to boil.

Check out www.mealsmatter.org and www.eatbetteramerica.com and get started plannng - and enjoying - healthy meals for you and your entire family.

The sugar-substitute market keeps getting more crowded. Sweet n’ Low, NutraSweet, Splenda, and the latest addition:  stevia.

Stevia, which comes from a plant found in South America, has been available for the past few years as a dietary supplement in health food stores. Because it wasn’t approved by the FDA as a sweetener, it couldn’t be marketed as a sugar substitute or sweetener, and couldn’t be used in foods in this manner.

All that changed recently when the FDA approved the use of stevia as a sweetener. Look for Coke to introduce Sprite Green and some Odwalla juice drinks made with stevia in the next month or so. Pepsi won’t be left behind; they’re bringing out three zero-calorie flavors of SoBe Lifewater plus a lower calorie orange-juice drink called Trop50.

I’m not a huge fan of sugar substitutes, because no matter the hype, they’re all processed from something.  I much prefer we learn to enjoy the natural taste of foods and use sweeteners in moderation. That means drinking water instead of sweetened beverages, stirring one-half teaspoon of sugar in your tea (only 8 calories!), and sweetening cereal or yogurt with fruit. Don’t get me wrong:  I’m not totally against sweeteners. I simply encourage everyone to think about what we put into our mouths, and choose whole foods as often as possible.

You can already find stevia in the grocery store sweetener aisle under the trade names Truvia and PureVia.  www.truvia.com has recipes to try using this sweetener. Let me know your thoughts if you’ve used it by sending me an email at Lynn@LynnGrieger.com or posting a comment on this website.

I’m a sucker for online quizzes and fun tools. Here’s one of my latest favorites from the Oregon Dairy Council:  Rate Your Plate. It’s a tool to help you follow the principles of the DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).

Most people know that eating less sodium, found in table salt and many processed foods, helps lower blood pressure. But did you know that eating more fruit, vegetables, and fat-free dairy products can lower your blood pressure just as much? That’s where the DASH Diet comes in.

Check out the fun Rate Your Plate online quiz here: http://www.dashdietoregon.org/Rate-Your-Plate

Fill out the “One Step at a Time” goal form at the end of the quiz, print it out, and schedule an appointment with me to make these goals become a reality. Bring in the completed goal form to your appointment, and I’ll give you a free phone follow-up session!