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Cassidy Hall

All too often, consumers are searching for quick-fixes and miracle foods. The truth is, there are no miracle foods. I am sure many of you may have seen claims for specific herbs or vegetables that can solve your ailments, but no single food or herb is a cure-all. Healthy eating isnt black and white. I cant possibly count how many times a class participant has asked me if a certain food is good or bad.

Nine times out of 10, my answer to any of these questions is it depends. There are numerous factors that go into healthy eating. You have to consider what nutrients the food offers (if any), how the food is prepared, how often a person may be eating the food, the serving size of the food, etc. It sounds like healthy eating is difficult, but it doesnt have to be.

A healthy diet is one low in saturated fat, low in sodium, built around nutrient-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, and is low in added sugar.

Saturated fat contributes to plaque buildup in the arteries, thus raising your risk of developing heart disease, hypertension and having a stroke.

Sources of saturated fat include fatty meats, animal fats such as butter or lard, and tropical oils such as coconut and palm kernel oil. Now before I go any further, dont think that I am saying plant butters are worth all the money youd spend on them. Just because it is plant-based doesnt automatically categorize the product as healthy.

For example, plant butters are all the rage right now. The truth is, these are overpriced containers of margarine. Dont believe me? Read the label and compare ingredients to a container of margarine.

If you want to make a healthier fat choice, Id choose a liquid oil such as olive oil or canola oil for cooking.

Saturated fats are solid at room temperature, but healthy fats are generally liquid at room temperature.

The next component of a healthy diet is a diet low in sodium. Sodium contributes to higher blood pressure, which can lead to other health complications later down the road.

Sodium is found in highly processed foods such as frozen meals, restaurant foods, seasoning packets, canned goods, flavored instant rice and more. With this being said, there are ways to cut down on sodium while still enjoying similar foods.

When purchasing canned beans or vegetables, look for no salt added. When choosing broths or stocks, look for unsalted. Once you are preparing the food, you can add your own salt, herbs and spices. You will add less sodium than if it was pre-packaged for you.

Preparing more foods at home and flavoring with your own herbs and spices is a great way to reduce your sodium intake. Even if you do not have hypertension, sodium intake is important to your current and future health. Too much sodium in the diet now can increase your risk for future complications, and prevention is far cheaper than treatment.

Choose four or five spices or herb blends that you can incorporate in various meals. I enjoy garlic, cumin, chili powder and Italian seasoning.

These are my staples that add a variety of flavor to lots of different dishes. If seasoning salts are your usual additions to meats and vegetables, read the ingredients to figure out what spices are used and make your own reduced-sodium version.

Building meals around fruits and vegetables helps you to maximize your meals for the greatest nutritional value. Our bodies are like plants. You can give a plant water and sunlight, but without fertilizer, it will not grow to its full potential. Fruits and vegetables are like our bodys fertilizer.

Roasting vegetables is an excellent way to make them taste great without adding lots of ingredients.

Roast using a higher heat, typically 425 degrees, to lightly brown the vegetables and develop the flavors.

When you read recipes, feel free to add even more vegetables than what is called for. This only boosts the nutritional value of the food.

Finally, a diet low in added sugar is a component of an overall healthy diet.

Added sugars are in more than just soft drinks. Added sugars are in things like flavored yogurt, cereals, snack bars, condiments, fruit vinaigrette dressings and more.

Desserts and soft drinks arent the only sources of added sugars.

Whether we eat or drink the added sugar, it all counts as part of our nutrient budget. Women and children should limit themselves to only 24g of added sugar per day, while men are allowed up to 36g of added sugar per day.

Reducing sugar over time through simple swaps can help you to wean yourself off of the sugar.

Keep in mind that Rome wasnt built in a day.

Be a label-reader to make sure you are making healthy choices.

Cassidy Hall is area agent, family and consumer sciences with N.C. Cooperative Extension.

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How do you define a healthy diet? - The Wilson Times

Humberto Leon, probably thinking about rice rolls, in Chinatown. Photo: M. Cooper

Opening Ceremony is, at the end of day, kind of a sidekick to our personal wishes and desires, says Humberto Leon, who co-founded the company in 2002 with Carol Lim. Food, he adds, has always been almost more important. After helping turn Opening Ceremony into as our friends at the Cut put it a haven for stylish weirdos, Leon will try on another look: restaurateur. He, his mom Wendy, and their family will next open a Los Angeles restaurant, Chifa, where theyll serve both Chinese and Peruvian dishes. Its a reflection of what we grew up with at home, Leon explains. Over the last week, he spent a few days in the Cayman Islands before returning to New York, where he made Japanese curry and Chinese borscht soup, fed his rice roll obsession, and visited a couple Park Slope favorites. Read all about it in this weeks Grub Street Diet.

Friday, February 21I was in the Cayman Islands. We went because it was winter break for the kids and Id heard about our friend Gerardo Gonzalez cooking at this hotel, the Palm Heights Hotel. I thought it was super cute. It was also Carols birthday, and the night before Gerardo went off course from the menu and cooked this really special meal.

I started my day with a Now Foods Fiber with orange juice. Breakfast was at Tillies in the hotel. I had steak and eggs, local sweet potato, fried plantains, a kale salad, and coffee with soy milk. It was super cool to be able to go to the Cayman Islands and be able to experience top-notch New York food in a hotel. I love the local cuisine, there were lots of amazing spots that we found, but normally hotel food is, you know, hotel food. Where I want to travel, and where Carol and I have set a lot of travel places and wish lists and where weve discovered young people, a lot of it starts from where theres a food scene, where theres a restaurant scene thats opening that were super excited about.

Lunch was also at Tillies. I had the sprats escovitch and a romaine salad with an ice coffee with soy milk. Gerardos food there is super local, when it comes to the fish and produce, but with his touch. The flavoring is really him.

We were heading back home to New York, and at the airport I bought a Subway sandwich tuna, mayo, jalapeos, and mustard and Cool Ranch Doritos. I had those on the plane.

Im normally more of a Nacho Cheese person. Cool Ranch is one of those things where its a special occasion for me. But Im a big ranch fan, maybe because Im from California. Im definitely more for the ranch dressing with chicken nuggets than anything else. Except if Im at McDonalds, Ill eat the sweet and sour sauce. Otherwise, Im a ranch type of guy.

I hope this thing doesnt make it seem like Im a Subway eating guy. Ill also go to a nice restaurant and eat a somewhat fancy-ish meal. But I think its all about balance, and I couldve easily faked this out and wrote every top-notch restaurant known to man, but thats so not like us.

Back at home in New York, I made Japanese curry chicken with carrots, potatoes, onion, sweet potato, and rice. I discovered this amazing curry mix in Japan that Ive been using. Theres obviously Chinese curry, which is a lot more watery and I would say more of an Indian curry. The cool thing about Japanese curry is it has that really thick texture. I feel like growing up my mom always skimped a little bit on how much of the Japanese curry she put in, because she wanted it to be more Chinese. And Ive decided to really make it more Japanese in my home.

Breaking down the meat is one of the first things I try to do. Chicken is a bit quicker, but Ill do it with beef, too, where Ill almost kind of simmer the meat for a much longer time. Then I like to throw in the sweet potato, because I think it adds that nice sweetness to it thats different then what you normally get out. Sometimes, because Im a huge fan of peas, I like throwing in peas, too. I love pasta and peas I also do a really random dish that my mom taught me as an 8-year-old cooking for himself. Wed take a can of creamed corn, and have some minced beef and throw in peas and throw it over rice. Itd be a really kind of easy, quick cream of corn over rice dish.

I did cook for myself a lot as a kid. My sisters were teenagers by the time I was 8, and my mom always left out all the ingredients for me to cook. She was working at a cafeteria, she would call me and say do this, do this, do this now. Probably by eight, I was cooking by myself.

In the beginning, it wasnt novel, like how kids are like, oh I want to cook. It was more like cook for the family, cook for your sisters when they get home. It felt more like a chore. But I grew to really enjoy it because I learned to do it my own way. I oddly still use these recipes. I have kids now, so I use the recipes for them. In a more natural way.

Saturday, February 22I drank Peruvian coffee at home with oat milk.

For brunch, we went out to Bricolage. Its really close to my place. For my Park Slope neighborhood, you get good experimental food.

Bricolages brunch, I will say, theres something kind of magical about it. I had the pho bo, with beef brisket; the croissant French toast with condensed milk; and a Vietnamese iced coffee. Taking a Croissant and French Toasting it? And putting condensed milk on top? Its kind of a next level move for French toast.

Also, they dont do pho in the evenings. Brunch is the only time they make it. Im obsessed with noodle soups for breakfast. I think its kind of, number one if youre in an immigrant Chinese family maybe this is just my experience what you eat for breakfast is basically what you had for dinner.

My mom would do this thing where shed make soup, then bring it to a boil at night and leave it on the stove top with a lid on top. Itll sit for at least a day. In China, they didnt have fridges and thats how you naturally kept the soup from going bad. You can have it the next morning. Its kind of like a soup stock that just continues. Ive definitely followed this tradition. My kids love soup in the morning, and I found a place recently that serves pho at 7 in the morning in Sunset Park. Which, of course, for me and my nerdy Asian friends I had to give them this juicy gossip, they were like, give me the place now.

For dinner, we got Wangs Chicken. Which I think is the most hidden secret known to man, because it should be like Kentucky Fried Chickens rival. Its so good. Its kind of no-nonsense, its kind of for everybody. We got the Asian fried chicken with sweet sauce, the mac and cheese, coleslaw, and kimchi. The chicken is kind of Southern-style but with an Asian flair.Its not trying to be like what the Korean versions are. Its really just a KFC type of menu but with Asian flavors.

Sunday, February 23I met friends at Pings in Chinatown for dim sum. Its one of my local spots around there, where our offices are. I feel like with dim sum, youll go to a place down here in Chinatown and its a lot of staples. What you try to look for are places thatll do something a little bit more special. Like Jing Fong will have their station for the turnip stew and all that stuff on the side, which is nice. Its a bit chaotic in there so I dont really love to go in there.

At Pings, I think the staples are good. The har gow, the shui mai, the rice rolls. Then you can also get fresh fish congee that comes out in a sharing portion, thats amazing, and soy sauce noodle on the side.

We got a lot. The har gow, siu mai, steamed rice roll with cruller (my favorite kind of rice roll), pineapple bun with BBQ pork filling, sticky rice in lotus leaf, turnip cake, fried taro dumpling, shrimp and chives dumpling, peanut mochi filled with black sesame, mango pudding, and fresh tofu with ginger molasses soup. I think theyre willing to go the extra mile, and they have some special dim sum. Like the pineapple bun with barbecue pork on the inside isnt typical. Places normally either have a pineapple bun or a barbecue pork bun, this is a fusion of the two.

Back at home, I made Korean galbi ribs with rice, cucumber, sweet potato, and Chinese borscht soup. The soup comes from this Hong Kong caf type of cuisine. In that you can get a baked pork chop over fried rice and over the pork is cheese and theres the tomato sauce which is really rare I kind of call it Chinese lasagna even though theres no pasta and on the side you get the Chinese borscht. Which is not made out of beet. We make it with oxtail at home, then you have celery, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic. You boil it all down and it becomes what Hong Kong people call a Chinese borscht soup. Its definitely not classic Chinese. Its its own thing.

For the galbi, I called up my two Korean friends. Carol being one of them. She gave me her suggestion for what I should do, and then I asked my other friends husband, Dan, and he gave me his recipe. Cause I do know that Koreans like to say theres always a secret ingredient you put in your kalbi marinade. Carols was Asian pear, which isnt that secret, its kind of a known item. She told me that I could do my marinade in an hour, and Dan told me that my marinade needed to be overnight. So I was like I have to do something in between.

I think maybe the pear has some type of agent that makes it cure quicker or makes it soft quicker. So I kind of got recipes from them, and theyre like, you can put Coke in it, to really break down the meat. Thats one secret ingredient. Pineapple juice could be another secret ingredient because it has a lot of acidity, but almost too much so its good for a fast cure. I had eight or nine hours, so I had time. I skipped the Coke, I just went kind of classic, and I used honey instead of sugar.

At night, I went to Tang Hotpot with family and friends. I make hot pot at home, so if Im going to have normcore hotpot thats where Im going to eat it. If Im going to go out and eat it, I want something I cant make at home. Ill go to a couple of hot pot places in Flushing, sometimes I like the New World Mall weirdo hot pot where they kind of pre-mix it for you. It depends on my mood. Theres hot pot in every Asian culture.

At Tang, they do cuts of meat that are super special, they do multiple stocks that you can get, I like that they do the one pot for two people shared, which is not that common. Normally you have a big pot for everybody to share. But I feel like when youre eating out, especially in New York, you have friends who all have their own dietary restrictions. If youre with a group of people, its a good place to go. If youre a vegetarian or only eat seafood, you can do your own thing and not feel like you arent welcome.

Monday, February 24Im up at 7 a.m., so Ill do a coffee in the morning at my home. By the time Im at work Im on my second already, so Ill switch it up and have tea. For breakfast, I went to New Cameron Bakery. Its right up the street. Thats kind of a classic breakfast for me.

They have egg tarts, they have the classic buns that every bakery has but they also have this warm section with this little grandma. They have these rice rolls that are pre-rolled, almost like grab and go, that are amazing, amazing. Nothing like the ones with crullers, at dim sum, or roast pork. Its its own flavor, its super salty, it has minced meat and scallions. You can buy as many as you want. I will get two of those rolls, one if I want to eat lighter, then a milk tea with no sugar.

For lunch, I had more rice rolls. Im obviously a steamed rice roll fanatic. I went to Yin Ji Chang Fen. I was really curious about this place, because it had lines out the door. For a while, it was insane.

The rice rolls are a lot hardier than Joes Steam Rice Roll. The place is from Guangzhou, so its from a different region, and it has a lot more stuff in it so its like a proper meal. Its a perfect way of eating rice because youre not indulging in that much, theyre just mashing it up into powder form.

I also ordered congee. Its good here. Congee to me is the perfect late night, after youve gone out and partied, I love going to Great New York Noodle Town and having it there, too. Theirs is no fuss, just really good, hardy congee. At Yin Ji Chang Fen, there was a lady next to me eating toast with condensed milk youll realize Im obsessed with condensed milk. I think its because when youre given it as a kid you become addicted to it. Whats not to love about condensed milk?

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Opening Ceremonys Humberto Leon Is a Ranch Kind of Guy - Grub Street

Many of the important benefits of a plant-based diet particularly for climate health and animals are well known. Yet despite the science being very clear, there remains confusion about the impact on human health.

We have long known for example, that a diet centred around whole plant-foods fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, beans, nuts and seeds significantly reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and certain cancers. In fact, a low fat plant-based diet is the only diet to have been shown to actually reverse established coronary artery disease. It has also been seen to reverse type 2 diabetes, enable effective and sustained weight loss without portion control or exercise, and arrest the progression of early stage prostate cancer.

Here are five additional benefits of a plant-based diet that may surprise you.

Diet choices can have a major impact on mood and mental health, and there is a very good reason for this. Diet affects the health of our gut bacteria, which produce many of the hormones active in the brain. Gut bacteria thrive on fibre, which is only found in whole plant foods. So it is no surprise to find that a plant-based diet can benefit mental health.

In one US study conducted at a large insurance company, participants who were overweight or had a history of type 2 diabetes were either prescribed a low-fat vegan diet or asked to continue their usual diet for 18 weeks. The results showed a significant improvement in mental health, wellbeing and work productivity in those on the vegan diet, as well as lower levels of depression and anxiety.

Osteoarthritis, the painful breakdown of cartilage in the joints, appears to be an inevitable consequence of ageing. It is not reversible but it is manageable, usually with pain medication and sometimes surgery.

So what role could a plant-based diet play here? One small study looking at the diets impact showed a significant improvement in self-reported pain and functioning in people with osteoarthritis. One reason for this could be the anti-inflammatory properties of the micro-nutrients present in plant foods, as inflammation is the main cause of pain in arthritis. Meat-based diets have the opposite effect and, in general, increase the level of inflammation in the body.

So if a plant-based diet can improve arthritis pain, could it also perhaps improve other types of pain? Some research suggests it could help with period pain in women.

For this study, women swapped to a low-fat vegan diet for two menstrual cycles, and then back to their usual omnivorous diet for their next two. Pain duration and intensity and pre-mentrual symptoms were recorded and levels of a hormone affecting oestrogen levels were measured.

On the low-fat vegan diet, women reported less pain duration and intensity, shorter duration of premenstrual symptoms and tests showed a lower level of oestrogen. People are often surprised to hear that diet can impact hormone levels in the body. This study shows exactly that, and how lower oestrogen levels can benefit womens health in a number of ways.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common causes of infection in the general population with the bacteria Escherichia coli (E coli) often being the culprit. Infection can occur because E coli from the intestine finds its way into the urinary tract. But UTIs can also be caused by E coli strains commonly found in farm animals such as chickens and pigs, so eating contaminated sources of meat can lead to infection.

Given the link between E coli and UTIs, It might seem obvious that those on a plant-based diet who avoid meat might have a lower risk of infection, but whether this was the case was not known for sure until recent research came out.

The analysis of several studies shows that vegetarians have a 16% lower risk of UTIs compared to non-vegetarians. This confirms previous data suggesting that meat-bourne bacteria are a major contributor to the risk of UTIs. Increasingly these food borne bacteria are displaying antibiotic resistance.

So if those following a health plant-based diet have a lower risk of ill health then surely this will save on health costs.

In a large Taiwanese study, vegetarians were found to have a lower rate of outpatient visits, which translated into a 13% lower outpatient expenditure and a 15% lower total medical expenditure. So it is interesting to hypothesise the health economic impact of a plant-based diet on the UKs cash-strapped National Health Service.

In 2017, spending on healthcare in the UK totalled 197 billion approximately 2,989 per person. If everyone in the country shifted to a vegetarian diet, this could (using the 15% reduction as a guide) reduce healthcare expenditure by 30 billion.

Plant-based diets then, not only have the potential to dramatically improve human and planetary health, but could have significant benefits for the health of the economy too.

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Five surprising benefits of a plant-based diet - The Conversation UK

More than 795,000 people have a stroke every year in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The accidents can lead to limitations in communication, paralysis, and sometimes death. Common recommendations for avoiding strokes include regular exercise and a healthy diet, and thanks to new research, we can get even more specific about what type of diet could protect the brain.

A study published in the journal Neurology found vegetarian diets lowered the risk of stroke compared to people who ate meat and fish.

Researchers from Tzu Chi University in Hualien, Taiwan studied two different communities, both of which encouraged vegetarian diets. About 30% of participants in each group were vegetarian, meaning they ate dairy and eggs, but avoided meat and fish.

The first group consisted of more than 5,000 adults who were followed for six years, and the second group consisted of more than 8,000 adults who were followed for nine years. At the start of the study, participants were 50 years old on average and had not experienced a stroke.

After the six and nine years had passed, researchers analyzed the Taiwanese national database to decipher the number of participants who had at least one stroke in that time.

Of the smaller group, 32 people experienced ischemic strokes and only three of them were vegetarians. Within the larger group, only .88% of vegetarians experienced ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes, while 1.73% of non-vegetarians had at least one.

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This Diet May Reduce The Risk Of Stroke & Dementia - mindbodygreen.com

Kary Sytsma, wellness coach at Lake Region Healthcare, will lead the March Living Well Series session focused on fiber. The session will be held at the Fergus Falls Public Library community room beginning at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3.

Sytsma says that as a population we are only getting on average 15 grams of fiber, while the recommendation is for 25-35 grams of fiber per day to live our healthiest lives. Eating a diet low in fiber can greatly increase our risk of many different chronic diseases including colon cancer, she said. The problem is people tend to associate fiber with boring and tasteless foods like prunes or bran cereal, but in reality there are so many delicious foods that we can include in our day to reach our daily fiber goals, she added. Kary will lead a discussion about all the benefits of this nutrient and offer new ways to incorporate it into your diet. It will be informative for anyone interested in learning how to manage and prevent chronic disease through diet.

The 2019-20 Living Well educational forums are held the first Tuesday of each month at 5:45pm from September through April. The education series is designed to offer a broad range of information on health-related topics to address all seven components of wellness.

The March session will be held on Tuesday, March 3 from 5:45 to 7 p.m. in the Fergus Falls Public Library community room at 205 E. Hampden Ave. in Fergus Falls.

All Living Well sessions are free and open to the public, but registration is requested to plan for refreshments. Call 218-736-8699 or email livingwell@lrhc.org for information or to register. Attendees are welcome without registration as well.

Individual session topics and details for future Living Well sessions are available on the Health & Wellness => Calendar link at http://www.lrhc.org. The upcoming 2019-20 Living Well topics include:

April: Go Green this Spring: Cleaning, Decluttering, Gardening & More.

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Learn about the benefits of a High Fiber Diet on March 2 at Lake Region Healthcare Living Well session - Fergus Falls Daily Journal

The Mediterranean diet has recently voted to be the best diet for 2020 by a professional panel of 25 people from health and nutrition. This diet focuses on eating plant-based foods with less meat, unsaturated fat and dairy content. Mediterranean diet is not just food but it also requires skills and traditions that involve cultivating and harvesting crops, farming animals and planning meals. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added this diet in its list of cultural heritage of humanity. in 2013.

The name Mediterranean diet originated from the region that includes parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa that are located around the Mediterranean Sea. That is why people believe that geography and cultural elements play an important role in this diet.

Read more-Optimistic Partners May Lower the Risk of Cognitive Issues

The Mediterranean diet has a long history, numerous ingredients, and amazing food recipes, which make it different from all other popular diet plans. Although it looks simple in reality, it is extremely tricky. All the languages, regions and cultures have added their own distinctive touch in this diet.

Many experts in anthropology explain the cultural significance of diet and nutritional habits. These benefits include weight loss, immunity boost, diabetic control, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties.

There is not just one standard Mediterranean diet, in fact, every region has its own. Greeks follow it differently white, French, Italians, and Spanish follow different versions of this diet. But the common thing in all these regions is that the food principles are the same. Its more of an eating pattern and not exactly a well-structured diet.

What to eat and how many calories to eat is a personal choice and based on the target, a person can customize his own Mediterranean diet plan. The standard ingredients include veggies, beans, legumes, nuts, fruits, olive oil, yogurt, etc.

The most popular use of the Mediterranean diet is weight loss. However, some people feel that following a healthy diet like this would not cause weight loss rather weight gain. But there is no scientific proof of Mediterranean diet-based weight loss.

For losing weight, it is necessary to eat in a calorie deficit. Irrespective of which plan does a person follows, if he is eating more than the recommended dose, he would gain weight. So if someone wants to follow a Mediterranean diet, it is necessary to cut the calories.

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Last year, a study in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal re-published and updated the analysis of information received in a five-year-long trial. It investigated approximately 5,859 adults. Later on, 1,588 study participants were reduced from this number and the retracted results were re-published. These study participants had type 2 diabetes and were at a high risk of cardiovascular diseases. They were made to follow a Mediterranean diet in three groups; one of them was on a diet enriched with olive oil, the second group with nuts and third as a controlled group.

The first group, supplemented with olive oil didnt show much of a difference but people following the Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts saw experienced a noticeable difference in their waist in these five years.

It suggests that the medical benefits of the Mediterranean diet are real. however, it is necessary to determine the specified version of this Mediterranean diet as per purpose and usage.

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Mediterranean Diet Voted as The Best Diet of 2020 by Nutrition Experts - TheHealthMania

Chances are you or someone you know has tried to lose weight on a low-carb diet. Even more likely, you read tons of news headlines about the keto diet, an extremely low-carb diet, and have wondered whether it would work for you and if its even possible to go low-carb while on a plant-based diet.

Its normal to internally freak out at the thought of eating less carbs because many people who embark on a plant-based diet tend to pile on processed foods and whole-grain carbs like cereal and pasta to compensate for lack of animal products. People tend to go overboard on the carbs when they go vegetarian, plant-based, or flexitarian, says Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, author of Read It Before You Eat It.Its easy to fill up on our favorite food group. Heres why:

One of the reasons plant-based dieters are likely to overdo it on carbs is that theyre really easy to make, find, and eat, says Taub-Dix. Especially for people who are on the go oftenmuffins, crackers, bread or rollsthose are the kind of the foods that sometimes get overeaten because they're so easy, portable, and their prep is basically nonexistent.

In some cases, the economic ease of eating carbs comes into play. A carb-heavy snack like pretzels may be less expensive than buying another plant-based snack, like nuts or seeds and a piece of fruit.

One of the main reasons we all love carbs is that they are the king of comfort, says Taub-Dix. When you eat carbohydrates, especially carbohydrates that are kind of pure, like a piece of whole-grain toast, the carbohydrates get absorbed and stimulate the release of a brain chemical called serotonin, which provides comfort feelings. Thats why youre more likely to reach for a carb-based snack or treat when youre feeling stressed, rather than carrots and hummus. Your body is wired to crave carbs for that serotonin release that will improve your mood.

When you first decide to reduce carbs from your plant-based diet, assess how many grams youre eating daily so you know how much you need to dial it back. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans say that 45 to 65 percent of your diet should be carbohydrates (about 225 to 325 grams per day). Thats if youre following a 2,000-calorie diet, which is often used as an example.

Not everyone needs a 2,000-calorie diet, says Taub-Dix. And for some people, 325 grams is a lot of carbs each day and not necessary. If youre trying to lose weight, experiment within that range, suggests Taub-Dix. Download an app that will help you track carb counts to find a range you feel satisfied with while creating balanced meals. We like MyFitnessPal, Carb Manager, Senza, and Macros to name a few.

Remember that carbs arent just grains, potatoes, pasta, and rice. Sources of naturally occurring carbs include fruits, vegetables, dairy, nuts, seeds, and legumes.

Some meal delivery services allow you to choose meals that are lower in carbs, like Purple Carrots Spaghetti Bolognese with zucchini noodles and ground beef crumbles, Macro-Mediterraneans Roasted Tomato and Black Walnut burgers on their weight loss program, or one of Thrive Foods Directs meals.

Cut carbs without feeling like youre eliminating them by slicing your current carbohydrate consumption in half and doubling up on vegetables. Portion out a -cup of brown rice at dinner. Have an open-faced sandwich using one slice of bread. Cook 1/3-cup dry oats with low-carb fruits, like berries, to round out your breakfast.

Youre patting yourself on the back for following a plant-based diet, but if most of your veggie intake is potatoes, corn, and peas, you could be making smarter choices. Pile your plate with leafy greens, peppers, zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, and green beans. Swap starchy vegetables for cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Choose avocadoes and berries as low-carb fruits instead of oranges, bananas, and blueberries.

In order for you to feel satisfied while reducing carbs, you may want to increase the amount of fat and plant protein youre eating. A study published in The Lancet found that mortality increased among the study subjects when they exchanged carbohydrates for animal-derived fat or animal protein, but it decreased amongst people when the carb substitutions were plant-based choices. Round out your meals with low-carb sources like nuts, seeds, tofu, coconut oils, nut butter, chia seeds, and hemp seeds.

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Put Down the Pasta: How to Cut Carbs on a Plant-Based Diet - The Beet

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Want to serve up an authentic Stone Age meal for your paleo-dieting friends? First, take your fish or seal meat and marinate it for thousands of years in a briny mixture of cadmium and lead (available in all good stores and car batteries). Sprinkle on mercury to taste, and serve with nuts and berries. Any leftovers? Store them at the back of your shelter for the winter, or until the severe and perhaps lethal heavy metal poisoning takes hold.

As much as we might like to believe that ancient foods were pure and free of the taint of industrialization, a new study paints a very different picture of the way many of our early ancestors ate. Remains of meals eaten by people living in northern Norway about 8,000 years ago show they were tainted by massive amounts of toxic heavy metalswith concentrations up to 22 times higher than the levels allowed by modern food safety standards.

We were greatly surprised by the levels of contamination, says Hans Peter Blankholm, an archaeologist at the Arctic University of Norway, who led the new study. The findings indicate the Stone Age ocean was awash with huge quantities of toxins, and that food taken from it was unhealthy, and perhaps unsafe, to eat.

Blankholms team looked at fragments of bones from Atlantic cod and harp seals in food refuse collected from well-studied Stone Age settlements in the Varanger Peninsula, above the Arctic Circle. Using a dentists drill, they extracted samples and checked them for contaminants.

In the cod bones, they found levels of cadmium up to 22 times higher than todays recommended limits, while lead was three to four times higher. The lead levels in seal bones were similarly high, while cadmium levels were 15 times higher than todays guidelines. Mercury levels in both were below the recommended limit, but were still highalmost as high as the elevated levels found in Arctic fish today.

The scientists say the heavy metal levels in the marine foods are an example of how pollutants steadily build up in the tissues of sea creatures through the food chain: a process called bioaccumulation. In humans, significant exposure to cadmium is known to cause cancer and kidney, liver, and lung diseases, with children and pregnant women most at risk.

Where did the heavy metal pollution come from? The scientists suggest it was down to climate change. Rapid warming and sea level rise about 10,000 years ago may have eroded the land and washed stocks of minerals from the soil into the sea.

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Stone Age Diets Were Far From Healthy Even in the Neolithic, Norwegians were overloaded with heavy - Hakai Magazine

It's easy to criticize everyone else's use of social media: the unwanted photo flash for Instagram posts, the interruption of a deep conversation by the blink of Twitter. We admonish people to get off screens and put phones away while adding more features to our own online lives.

Perhaps that's because it's easier to tell others what to do than to curb our own behavior. Social media operates on our physiology in a way that's similar to other addictive behaviors. While there's a growing awareness of the danger of social media addiction, our understanding of what it takes for people to actually change their behavior is less well documented.

Supersize portions of screen time are becoming normalized, with dire results. We talk about binge-watching shows as if there is no harm in it, when in fact binge behavior of any sort is unhealthy.

Complicating any effort to curb an addiction to social media is that, unlike alcohol, drugs, smoking, sex and gambling, which we can live without, screens have so infused our society that total abstinence isn't an option for most of us. In fact, there is a growing subset of people who are required to have active presences online as part of their jobs.

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I am increasingly seeing people with this predicament in my psychotherapy practice. One such patient has a marketing job that requires her to be on social media. In order to be successful, she was spending most of her day (and much of her night) creating and responding to posts on various platforms. She couldn't afford to quit her job, but her deepening depression stemming from an addiction to technology meant she was very dissatisfied with her life.

We know from research that social media sites and apps increase the release of dopamine in our brains, which gives us a jolt of pleasure. When we connect a behavior to our sense of pleasure, we want to scratch the itch repeatedly, and withdrawal is painful. But we also know from research that addictive behavior exacerbates loneliness and sadness.

As I pondered my patient's dilemma, I realized what I was hearing from her was very similar to what I hear from my patients who suffer from eating disorders (be it bulimia or compulsive overeating). In fact, with PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay and Amazon, technology's omnipresence also means our access to food is 24/7. We are not going back to the way of the landline or pay phones, any more than we are going back to curtailing store hours or delivery services. So we can apply the research done on eating disorders to dealing with addiction to social media.

Because we need to continue to consume food and social media, these dependencies can't be handled by the most effective means of ending addictions going cold turkey. The feedback loop between our behavior and the part of our brain that responds to pleasure makes moderation very difficult to achieve. Few people can take one bite of a delicious chocolate cake and feel satisfied. Our hunger for more is powerful, and, as hard as it might seem, not taking the first bite can be easier than trying to stop after just one bite. I've had patients tell me that they recognize their helplessness in the face of food and wish they could totally give it up.

So. like patients who need to take control of their eating, could my patient use similar techniques to take control of her online life and start to feel better while keeping her job? Substituting the word "screen" for "food," I asked my client to assess her relationship to social media and screen use in general. For example: Is my relationship to social media healthy? Does it reflect my values? At the end of each day, how has my time on screens helped me improve myself? What is one modification I can commit to to bring about sustained change with screen time in my life? If I think of every megabyte as a bite of food, what percentage of what I consumed online today was empty calories?

As my client and I began to address these questions, she saw ways she could modify her behavior with screens and find mechanisms for setting limits. She needed to do that because, to change her emotional response to her online engagement, she first needed to go through withdrawal. We used cognitive behavioral techniques to address her irrational fear that being separated from her phone would mean she wouldn't know if there was an emergency. This mirrors patients' initial fears of going hungry if they don't have access to food at all times.

So she made her bedroom a screen-free environment. She bought an alarm clock to use instead of her phone. She no longer went to sleep with Netflix playing on her laptop. She stopped consuming Facebook posts as a way to stay connected with friends. She began to take a 24-hour break from all screens every month.

By making these changes, she started to feel in control of her life again, and her self-esteem improved. Delayed gratification entered her repertoire, which meant she was no longer a slave to instant gratification. And she had to create more fulfilling patterns of behavior to fill the social media void. She found her phone conversations with friends more satisfying than looking at their posts, and she was able to sleep better with no screens in her bedroom.

Once she regained control of screen time in her personal life, she was motivated to engage her employer in a conversation about setting limits on her online availability after hours. On the surface, her request was well received, but the jury is still out. She is waiting to see whether she continues to be promoted at work. There may be consequences for limiting her use of social media and her availability but there are consequences for her not changing, as well.

Supersize portions of screen time are becoming normalized, with dire results. We talk about binge-watching shows as if there is no harm in it, when in fact binge behavior of any sort is unhealthy. Addiction is a complex phenomenon, and unfortunately recidivism is very high. But if we tame the beast of social media by moderating our diet of screen time, hopefully we can realign our priorities and live healthier lives.

Maggie Mulqueen

Maggie Mulqueen, Ph.D., is a psychologist in private practice in Brookline, Massachusetts. She is the author of "On Our Own Terms: Redefining Competence and Femininity," as well as essays inThe Boston Globe,Psychotherapy Networker,Psychotherapy.netand other publications.

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A social media addiction is like binge eating. Here's how to find the right diet. - NBC News

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This week, Gwen and senior reporter Travis Cronin welcomed wellness expert Naomi Whittel to give Us the scoop on her new book High Fiber Keto. The tome dives deep into how anyone can maximize the benefits of the Keto Diet by focusing on fiber-rich foods to reset their metabolism, balance the hormones that can slow as you age and, yes, lose weight! In fact, Whittels plan is clinically proven to help you shed pounds and feel your best in just 22 days basically three weeks!

Whittel, who founded the supplement brand Researvage, is no stranger to feeling and looking your absolute best. Her first book, Glow 15, focused on adding good fats to your diet to reveal glowing skin, brighter eyes and improved sleep. She pioneered the use of edible collagen and has long encouraged women to add adoptogens like ashwagandha into their morning smoothie to help soothe the spirits. Watch her make a weight loss, skin-loving smoothie with Us here!

Author Naomi Whittels Secret for Making Keto Diets More Effective

While the Keto Diet gained fame thanks to celebrities who swear by it, including Halle Berry, Vanessa Hudgens, as well as Jenna Jameson, who has documented her keto journey in pics, and, of course, Jersey Shore star Vinny Guadagnino, Whittels plan uses fiber-heavy foods to hack the results, leading to visible weight-loss in just 22 days. Some of the foods Whittel swears by? Artichoke leaves, cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and loads of olive oil. And for glowing skin, she suggests eating avocado. Youll never believe how much of the super fruit she eats listen to the episode and get the scoop!

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Wellness Expert Naomi Whittel Tells Us How to Lose Weight and Get Glowing in 22 Days - Us Weekly

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