H20 is the best beverage of summer

According to a European study published recently drinking just one can of sugar-laced soda drink a day increases the risk of developing diabetes by more than 20%.

Using data from 350,000 people in eight European countries, researchers found that drinking just a daily 12 fluid ounce serving of sugar-sweetened drink raises the risk of diabetes by 22 percent compared with drinking just one can a month or less.

"Given the increase in sweet beverage consumption, clear messages on the unhealthy effect of these drinks should be given to the population," said Dora Romaguera, who led the study with a team at Imperial College London.

The findings echo similar conclusions from research in the United States, where several studies have shown that intake of sugar-sweetened drinks is strongly linked with higher body weight and conditions like type 2 diabetes.

 Patrick Wolfe, a statistics expert from University College London, said the message from its results was clear."The bottom line is that sugary soft drinks are not good for you - they have no nutritional value and there is evidence that drinking them every day can increase your relative risk for type 2 diabetes."

But of course you don’t drink sugary sodas! You opt for diet soda instead, which is way better of course! Well, a 14-year study of 66,118 women (supported by many other previous studies) found that the opposite seems to be true. Diet drinks may be worse than sugar-sweetened drinks.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, discovered some frightening facts that should make us all swear off diet drinks and products.

.    Diet sodas raised the risk of diabetes more than sugar-sweetened sodas!

.    Women who drank one 12-ounce diet soda had a 33 percent increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, and women who drank one 20-ounce diet soda had a 66 percent increased risk.

.    Women who drank diet sodas drank twice as much as those who drank sugar-sweetened sodas because artificial sweeteners are more addictive and are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar.

.    The average diet soda drinker consumes three diet drinks a day.

You might say that people who are overweight and just about to get diabetes just happen to drink more diet soda, but they scientifically controlled for body weight. And they found the artificial sweeteners increased diabetes independent of body weight!

This and other research shows how diet sodas make people fat and sick. And that diet drinks may be even worse than regular sugar-sweetened sodas! How does that happen?

   1. Artificial sweeteners are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar, activating our genetically-programmed preference for sweet taste more than any other substance.

   2. They trick your metabolism into thinking sugar is on its way. This causes your body to pump out insulin, the fat storage hormone, which lays down more belly fat.

   3. It also confuses and slows your metabolism down, so you burn fewer calories every day.

   4. It makes you hungrier and crave even more sugar and starchy carbs like bread and pasta.

   5. In animal studies, the rats that consumed artificial sweeteners ate more, their metabolism slowed, and they put on 14 percent more body fat in just two weeks -- even eating fewer calories.

   6. In population studies, there was a 200 percent increased risk of obesity in diet soda drinkers.

Bottom line: There is no free ride. Diet drinks are not good substitutes for sugar-sweetened drinks. They increase cravings, weight gain, and Type 2 diabetes. And they are addictive.

I could go on and on with more info on the side affects of artificial sweeteners. And we could debate if any of them are better than the others but for this next week let’s just take a break!

For every day that you forgo regular soda, diet soda, Gatorade, lemonade, Crystal light, Mio, Zip etc. etc. and just drink your 48 ounces (MEASURED) of plain, clear, thirst quenching rejuvenating water you can claim the 5 bonus points. Ouch this one will be tough!

And here is a recipe shared by one of my girlfriend’s just for fun. (She substitutes lime slices for the cucumber and omits the ginger- so play around with this as you like)

Sassy Water

2 liters water (about 8 ½ cups)


1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger


1 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced


1 medium lemon thinly sliced


12 small spearmint leaves.

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and let flavors blend overnight.

Our next challenge is to eat some bugs!

Hmmmmmmm not sure if any of you ever try to guess what our next challenge will be, but if you do I bet I would have stumped you this week. Once again I am going to challenge you to eat some bugs. You’ll be relieved to know I’m not referring to the creepy crawly, and maybe even leggy and crunchy roaches, ants or crickets-- I’m talking about microscopic bugs—the beneficial bacteria that are naturally present in foods like yogurt or kefir. 

According to one of my favorite nutrition bloggers Monica Reinagel M.S.,L.D./N. from NutritionDiva.com  “Every traditional cuisine has developed some sort of naturally fermented or cultured food. There’s Japanese miso, Bulgarian yogurt, Polish sauerkraut, Indian lassi, and Korean kim-chee. And each of these plays a central role in that culture’s cuisine … and for good reason. All of these foods contain lactobacillus bacteria, which are extremely beneficial to your health. In the days before antibiotics and other drugs, cultured and fermented foods were critical to staying healthy.”

Monica goes on to explain that “The friendly bacteria found in these foods actually set up housekeeping in your gut, where they do all kinds of good things for you: They help digest your food and produce certain vitamins for you. They keep the lining of your intestines slick and shiny. Most of all, they make it harder for unfriendly bacteria to take hold and make you sick.”

In other words if we have a basic population of beneficial bacteria in our gut our digestive system will work better and our body will be healthier and better able to fight off disease.

Monica goes on to explain that “Unfortunately, the traditional methods of fermenting cabbage in stoneware crocks, or burying salted vegetables in pits in the back yard, or culturing warm goat’s milk on the hearth are just not as common as they used to be. Instead, we have ultra-pasteurized milk that keeps for six weeks. Let me assure you that no beneficial bacteria survive the ultra-pasteurization process.”

Personally I love kimchi (I had a Kimchi taco last week- yum)  and Kefir (Kefir is a fermented milk drink made with grains and is believed to have its origins in the Caucasus Mountains. It is available in health food and many grocery stores and it tastes like a yogurt drink but almost like it has a bit of carbonation. My sons love it) but probably the easiest way to get our daily lactobacillus fix is to eat yogurt regularly 

Which brand of yogurt should you buy? Look for brands that advertise “living cultures” (Recent studies show Stonyfield to be the brand with the most active and live cultures)  but it is not necessary to pay extra for fancy yogurts that promote digestive health. Regular yogurt contains all that you need.

It’s pretty easy to work some yogurt into your daily diet. Besides eating it as a breakfast or snack you can easily add it to smoothies or soups or use it in dips or spreads .

And I’m a step ahead of you ladies in your day dreaming. Does frozen yogurt (one of my all time favorite treats) contain live active yogurt bacteria and qualify as “eating yogurt’?  Maybe and maybe not. It seems that while the freezing process does NOT kill the yogurt bacteria some frozen yogurts use heat-treated yogurt, which does kill the live and active cultures. The best way to find out is to ask at your local frozen yogurt shop or look for the NYA Live & Active Cultures seal. What you want is live active yogurt bacteria. And remember if you find a frozen yogurt which contains live culture but also has sugar it DOES count as a sugar day! You might enjoy plain or unsweetened yogurt with some fresh fruit or non-caloric sweetener added. 

For every day that you eat at least 1/4 cup of a fermented food (sauerkraut, miso, yogurt, kefir, kim-chee etc.)  containing live and active cultures or take a probiotic supplement you earn the daily 5 bonus points. Happy yogurt eating ladies! 

Weekly Challenge More Variety in Veggies

I was reading a very interesting study this week that has inspired our next challenge. The first results of the largest study to have ever investigated the human microbiome are in. They have important implications for our dietary practices, resistance to antibiotics, and our mental health.

In 2012, Rob Knight, Ph.D., from the University of California, and Jeff Leach, Ph.D., the founder of the Human Food Project, and Jack Gilbert, Ph.D., who is the faculty director of the Microbiome Center at the University of Chicago in Illinois, set out to found the American Gut Project.

To this end, they used so-called citizen science — the practice in which the public contributes to research by offering their time and personal data up for analysis.

The first results of the project are now available, and they offer clues as to what keeps our guts healthy and bacterially diverse. The findings were published in the journal mSystems.

Citizen scientists help study the microbiome

As part of the project, participants paid $99 for a kit that collected fecal, oral, and skin samples of bacteria.

They also had to answer a survey inquiring about their overall health and any illnesses they might have had, their lifestyle, and dietary practices.

In 2015, the project counted 15,096 samples provided by 11,336 people across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and 42 other countries.

Among the findings of this widespread investigation are:

 1. The wider the range of plants that we eat, the more diverse our gut bacteria will be. 

2. There seems to be a strong correlation with mental health challenges (PTSD, depression, bipolar etc.) and poor microbiome health.

3. The greatest microbiome diversity was among those that consumed 30 different types of plant each week. 

4. The participants who reported eating more than 30 types of plant per week seemed to have a lower resistance to antibiotics.

I don’t know about you but I am pretty lazy about eating the same vegetables most of the time (onions, spinach, kale, chard, green beans, carrots) And so I hesitate to challenge you to eat 30 DIFFERENT vegetables this week. The thought of that is just mind boggling to me.

But I will challenge you to eat as many different vegetables this week as you can!  I would love you to let me know how many you are able to consume. And to earn the daily bonus points you must eat at least one new vegetable each day that is not on your list of your usual vegetables- so you need to eat at least 7 new ones this week.

Good luck ladies! 

Stretching it out!

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Stretch It Out

I know it's down right but often YOUR challenges come from what I need to work harder to make myself do. Recently I'm having a lot of knee pain walking and I'm pretty sure it's for 2 reasons 1. I need to lose some weight 2. I don't stretch enough before hand.

Something that we often overlook in our fitness efforts is simple stretching. And yet this is a crucial part of any physical fitness regime.

Age and inactivity can contribute to inflexibility, stiffness and even loss of range of motion. Yet constant daily practice can help us regain our flexibility and can even take us way beyond where we have gone before. The secret is in gentle, constant, DAILY effort.

How We Lose Flexibility
As we age, flexibility diminishes within the joints. We can also lose flexibility through lack of stretching and physical activity.

Benefits
Stretching is a physical activity that elongates connective tissues, muscles and other tissues. The benefits associated with stretching include:
Reducing muscle tension and relaxing the body
Improved coordination and freer movement of body and limbs
Increased range of motion in the associated joints
Prepare the body for physical activity
Preventing injuries from tight muscles during physical activity
Creating a mind body connection
Promoting circulation
Reduce the risk of back problems
Reduce muscle soreness after exercise

Ten tips on how to stretch

1. Do everything slowly.

2. Hold the stretch for at least 10 seconds prior to exercise (warm-up) and for at least 30 seconds post exercise (cool-down).

3. Breathe normally and relax while holding the stretch to the point of pain.

4. NEVER, EVER do any bouncy stretching, always hold and relax.

5. Focus on the muscle you are trying to stretch and then try to lengthen it.

6. If a particular muscle group is tight, then stretch it in stages. Stretch as far as you can, then relax it and stretch again. This is most important during cool-down.

7. Move slowly out of the stretch.

8. Remember to stretch both sides of the body.

9. Increasing the range of movement around a joint will help the blood flow to the muscles surrounding the joint and increase circulation that will carry away any lactic acids that may build up in the muscle.

10. Do more stretching in addition to just warming-up and cooling-down. As we get older our muscles shorten naturally, and it is vital for everyone that stretching becomes part of your normal everyday life. Gyms that offer stretch-classes or Yoga, where the aim is to permanently and progressively increase your flexibility are well worth considering if time and money allows.

There are many charts and tutorials available on google and youtube. Additionally you may want to take a gym class in yoga or stretching. But whatever you choose to do- do it daily and with gentle consistency.


Our challenge for our last week of competition is to stretch for at least 10 minutes per day. You can include this as part of your daily exercise minutes or do it in addition to your minutes but begin to include daily stretching in your physical routine. For every day that you stretch at least 10 minutes you can claim 5 bonus points. And yes you can stretch on Sunday too- for a total of 35 possible bonus points.

Happy stretching ladies!