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The Bloomfield Township Police Department is investigating a reported larceny at Planet Fitness, located at 6650 Telegraph Road.

Police were called to the facility on Feb. 9 by the manager who said someone broke into the coin boxes on four massage chairs, damaging them. Surveillance video shows the suspect to be a dark-complexioned white male with a large build and dark, curly hair cut short, police said

According to the manager, the boxes had been emptied just before the break-in, police said.

Anyone with information on the incident is urged to contact the Bloomfield Township Police Department at 248-433-7755.

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Testimony will continue Wednesday afternoon in Oakland County Circuit Court where a Pontiac man is on trial for allegedly shooting two people

The Farmington Hills Police Department is investigating after a child reported being followed home by a stranger on Monday.

The South Lyon Police Department is working with other law enforcement agencies to identify and locate suspects responsible for a recent strin

Two men were killed early Tuesday morning after they exited their vehicles following a minor traffic crash on I-696 and were hit by other drivers.

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Cops investigating larceny at Planet Fitness | Cops and Courts - The Oakland Press

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Title:Global Fitness Consultation Market Latest Research Report 2026:

Los Angeles, United States, FEB 2020 Top Research Specialist Present Completer research studyhere is a brilliant compilation of different types of analysis of critical aspects of the global [Fitness Consultation Market ]. Its focuses on how the global Fitness Consultation market is expected to grow during the course of the forecast period, With SWOT analysis it gives a complete explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of the global Fitness Consultation Market and different players operating therein.

Global Fitness Consultation Market is estimated to reach xxx million USD in 2020 and projected to grow at the CAGR of xx% during 2020-2026. According to the latest report added to the online repository of QY Research the Fitness Consultation market has witnessed an unprecedented growth till 2019. The extrapolated future growth is expected to continue at higher rates by 2026.

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Competitive Analysis:

The report presents the market competitive landscape and a corresponding elaborate analysis of the most important merchandiser within the Market.

Top Competitors within the world Fitness Consultation Market:

Technogym, Precor, Elite, Tacx, Kinetic, Minoura, Schwinn, CycleOps, Sunlite, BKOOL, RAD Cycle Products, Conquer, Blackburn Design

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Additionally, organic growth of the global Fitness Consultation ,owing to increasing environmental awareness, government initiatives and technological innovation, is influencing the growth of the global Market positively. Thus, the conjoint effect of all these drivers is projected to strongly bolster the growth of the global Fitness Consultation Market in the coming years from 2020 2026.

Global Fitness Consultation Market Classifications: Health & Fitness CentersPersonal Gym

Global Fitness Consultation Market Applications: Health & Fitness CentersPersonal Gym

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Table of Contents.

Report Overview: It includes major players of the global Fitness Consultation market covered in the research study, research scope, market segments by type, market segments by application, years considered for the research study, and objectives of the report.

Global Growth Trends: This section focuses on industry trends where market drivers and top market trends are shed light upon. It also provides growth rates of key producers operating in the global Fitness Consultation market. Furthermore, it offers production and capacity analysis where marketing pricing trends, capacity, production, and production value of the global Fitness Consultation market are discussed.

Market Share by Manufacturers: Here, the report provides details about revenue by manufacturers, production and capacity by manufacturers, price by manufacturers, expansion plans, mergers and acquisitions, and products, market entry dates, distribution, and market areas of key manufacturers.

Market Forecast by Consumption: The consumption and consumption value forecasts included in this section are for the global Fitness Consultation market as well as for key regional markets.

Value Chain and Sales Analysis: It deeply analyzes customers, distributors, sales channels, and value chain of the global Fitness Consultation market.

Key Findings: This section gives a quick look at the important findings of the research study.

About Us:

QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from the huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become a brand of quality assurance in the consulting industry.

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Buiseness Thriving On Fitness Consultation Market Size,Share Metrics | Industry Report Forecast by 2026 | Technogym, Precor, Elite - Keep Reading

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Andy Robertson believes he and his Liverpool teammates can use the mid-season break for maximum benefit as they prepare to attack the final third of the season.

The Reds resume their Premier League title quest at Norwich City on Saturday having established a 22-point advantage at the summit before the pause in action.

It was a timely hiatus for Robertson, who was able to nurse a niggling foot injury, while Sadio Mane and James Milner recuperated sufficiently to return to training this week and further bolster Jrgen Klopps options.

Ahead of the trip to Carrow Road we caught up with the left-back to discuss the winter break, his fitness, Liverpools outstanding recent defensive solidity and the importance of competitiveness in the squad...

Firstly, how was your break?

It was nice. It was nice to spend some time with the family and switch off from a hectic schedule and football for a wee bit and come back refreshed. Hopefully people see that in the performances that the team put in because we look as if we have come back refreshed, like I said, and maybe cleared up any injuries we might have had.

Did you manage to properly switch off, because it has been such a busy couple of seasons since you broke into the team?

I managed to get away and try to switch off from football and spend some family time. It has been a hectic couple of seasons; obviously in the summer you can switch off but its nice during the season to get that week off where you just dont need to worry about anything. Of course, we still had to stay on top of ourselves and we had [individual training] programmes for ourselves. But I get itchy feet anyway just sitting about all day so I was quite happy to do it. For a week off, it was all worth it.

The proof will obviously come in the results that follow, but after your first experience of it, do you see this mid-season break as a positive?

Hopefully, yes. For a few of us, definitely people were maybe playing with knocks or injuries and it has given them a whole week to kind of clear them up. I know mine feels better, I feel closer to 100 per cent in terms of my body, which is always a positive. Being in training pain-free is always a nice thing, which maybe hasnt happened in a couple of weeks leading up to that. To clear up any of that is a positive, for a week to just let your body recover. Hopefully we now have a strong finish to the season and we can see that the week was beneficial, and hopefully the results follow. But even if the worst-case scenario [with results], in terms of injuries it has managed to get some lads back fit, which is so important for us.

Was it a good time for you to have a rest? Since the beginning of last season, youve started 60 of the 63 league games and 17 of the 19 Champions League games

To be honest, my body felt fine. I didnt feel tired and it wasnt tiredness. It was more the pain I was playing in at times; I pulled out of the Scotland squad in November with an injury and it probably continued on, then I took another knock on it and it probably got worse. A lot of us play through pain at times, thats part and parcel of being a footballer. You need to be out there on a Saturday if you can. Where theres a will theres a way. A lot of us have showed that at times.

Last time out in the league: Liverpool 4-0 Southampton

For me, it was on my left foot, which is never the best. If it was on my right foot it probably wouldnt even have been an injury. Being on your strong foot, its tough when youre passing the ball and its sending pain up your leg. Its hopefully a thing of the past, theres been time to clear that up. I dont feel I needed a rest physically, I felt as if I could still run for 90 minutes and do it at a good level. Those stats, Im happy with them. I like to play games, I get paid to play games and it probably shows Ive been doing a couple of things right if Ive played that many games! Im happy with the amount of games Ive played and hopefully that continues for the next two seasons and so on. But when you get a week off youve got to take it.

How much of a boost was it to see Sadio Mane and James Milner back in training this week?

Thats another positive. We knew if we could get there [to the winter break] the lads then effectively had two weeks until the next game to try to get back fit. Sadio and Millie managed to do that. They are both naturally quick healers and they have shown that once again. Both of them were a big loss, of course the team havent shown it in terms of the results and performances weve had but to have those two as options is incredible and just makes our squad stronger again. Its great to have everyone back fit near enough, I think theres only maybe a couple still out. To have near enough a full squad, hopefully that continues until the end of the season. It gives us so many options and gives the manager a slight headache but Im sure its a good headache to have.

We saw you watching the free-kick competition at the end of training on Monday. Was that a good example of the mentality in the squad? Theres a friendly-natured competitiveness

Inside Training: Free-kick competition as Reds return to Melwood

The table tennis competitions are where its going to get most heated! Its always been friendly [among the squad] but the lads want to compete against each other and that short clip showed it with Hendo, Virg and Trent. I think the lads have been giving Trent a wee bit [of stick] about his last couple of free-kicks so they wanted to show him differently. To be fair, both of them stepped up to the plate and Trent crumbled under the pressure! But thats pressure in training and when it comes into a high-pressure situation in a game all three of them will probably be better for it. Hopefully one of them can put one of them in soon and you can see that practice makes perfect.

Trent will want to put his next one in a game into the top corner now

Of course. And I guarantee hell be looking straight to Hendo and Virgil when he does it! I hope that happens. Hes got fantastic technique and hopefully it happens to prove those two wrong, as such. It helps him because its hard to create a game-like situation in training, in terms of the pressure, but to have your two mates in your ear, its the best way to show them. Hopefully we see that practice making perfect and at least one of them can put one in before the end of the season.

At the other end, youve only conceded once in the last 10 Premier League matches. Has anything changed? Conceding goals was something that was irritating the defenders earlier in the season

When you look back, some of the goals we conceded were lucky or individual errors and some of them were good goals sometimes you need to accept when a good goal goes in against you. But it was something pecking at us a bit; we were winning games but the lads wanted to get back to clean sheets. I dont think anything has changed. But when we have gone 1-0 up we have been so good at shutting the other team out and not giving them sniffs. The lads have been playing excellently, Virg and Joe have been different class over the last 10 games. And Alisson when called upon has made the saves we need him to save. Were all playing well defensively and were all trying to keep clean sheets. One goal in the last 10 games is an incredible stat and hopefully we continue that because if we keep clean sheets we dont get beat. Its as simple as that. Thats a good basis to go off. The lads have the confidence that when we do go 1-0 up we arent going to concede. But its all about showing that and hopefully that continues.

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Andy Robertson Q&A | Winter break, fitness latest, clean sheets and free-kicks - Liverpool FC

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The 31-year-old singer - who has largely remained out of the spotlight in southern California - has become increasingly health-conscious over recent months and a source close to the star has praised her disciplined approach to her own wellbeing.

The insider shared: "She goes to different gyms. She goes early in the morning and meets with her trainer.

"She gets her workout in first thing. She works out for about an hour and leaves drenched in sweat and looking like she worked very hard."

Adele reportedly attends a couple of private fitness classes every week.

The source told E! News: "She's also staying active going on walks and getting in a lot of steps. She is in a groove."She looks great and has totally transformed her body. She is barely recognisable and is continuing to lose weight."

Meanwhile, a source previously claimed Adele feels "alive" following her split from Simon Konecki.

The award-winning singer and Simon, 45, divorced in 2019, but Adele has seemingly overcome her heartbreak and she is now ready to release new music.

A source previously said: "She is definitely getting ready both mentally and physically to promote new music. It seems it will happen later this year.

"She talks about last year as a very difficult year, and she's said in the past that creating new music is almost like therapy. You can tell that she is ready to share with her fans. She is so busy, but her life is better-rounded than it was before.

"She is very fulfilled being an artist. New music is still a big deal for her, and she feels alive and happy."

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Adele is in a 'groove' with her new fitness regime - Music News

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I needed this yoga video. I mean, I really needed it. Before I gave this follow-along flow from Adriene Mishler a try, I had finished my workday with a stress headache, a sore throat, and a body full of aches. Naturally, I wanted to do some yoga to relieve tension and take time for myself (I'm also a huge fan of Yoga With Adriene on YouTube). After 40 minutes of "Yoga Kiss," I felt stretched out, cooled down, and, thanks to a series of core-focused moves at the end, energized in a good way.

Moral of the story? You deserve this. You deserve to tend to your body and your mind after a long day or even a short one and you deserve to make space for yourself. This flow is advertised as something that will "remind you of your worth" and will target "all parts of the body," as the YouTube description states, and the variety of poses and gentle affirmations from Adriene hold true to that promise.

You'll start in an upright posture, focusing on the breath and elongating the neck; then you'll move into Cat Cow and a period of holding Baby Cobra that might feel as wonderful for your upper-body as it did for mine. You'll pick up the pace with sequences that incorporate Forward Fold, planks, and high lunges (and, yes, holding those lunges brought heat to my legs big time).

One of the hardest poses for me in the flow was one where you had to balance in a squat position on the balls of your feet with your heels up, arms back, and palms facing down (in "airplane arms," as Adriene put it). The core work toward the end of the video also made me shake a bit (you should expect modified Boat Pose, among other movements).

Throughout, Adriene reminded us to lift our hearts to the sky to "kiss" the sky, if you will and to "move like you love yourself." While in Corpse Pose lying down, she talked about nurturing our bodies. "I love the idea that our yoga practice can kind of pick you up, give you a kiss, and really meet you wherever you are on any given day," she said. Show up on your mat and see what happens! We'll be right there with you.

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Give Yourself Some Love Today With This Follow-Along "Yoga Kiss" Video - POPSUGAR

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In recent years, the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram has resulted in a huge shift in the fitness is seen and the way we exercise. With the instant sharing of constant reminders to stay active, people understand the importance of leading an active and healthy lifestyle, which wasnt the case before. Eventually, the fitness industry is booming and there are endless opportunities in this sector.

Especially, there is a demand for low-cost membership options for people to stay fit. And, this has opened up new opportunities for fitness startups. While there has been over 400% growth in the past three decades, it was at its peak in 2015 with 60 gyms such as Lefit and Pivot having been founded in the year.

In a recent development, the sports business insurance provider Protectivity analysed data from hundreds of innovative gyms to reveal the countries with the highest number of gym businesses. It has also revealed the gyms with the highest funding and brands that are most protected by registered trademarks.

When it comes to the gym industry, funding is a great business and ClassPass, which is an online, mobile service offering health services and fitness classes at a subscription fee leads the race with $549 million (nearly 504 million) funding.

As per the report, the United States is home to the most gym companies in the world with 189 headquarters in the country. In Europe, Germany, Spain, and Ireland have the highest number of gym companies. This report highlights the strength of the European fitness market right now. A Deloitte report in the fitness industry suggests that Europe has 62.2 million fitness club members and over 61,000 clubs.

Main image picture credits: ClassPass

Stay tuned toSilicon Canalsfor more European technology news

See the article here:
ClassPass, the 'Netflix of fitness' leads the gym industry surpassing Gympass and others - Silicon Canals

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Nearly three decades ago, when I was an overweight teenager, I sometimes ate six pieces of sliced white toast in a row, each one slathered in butter or jam. I remember the spongy texture of the bread as I took it from its plastic bag. No matter how much of this supermarket toast I ate, I hardly felt sated. It was like eating without really eating. Other days, I would buy a box of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes or a tube of Pringles: sour cream and onion flavour stackable snack chips, which were an exciting novelty at the time, having only arrived in the UK in 1991. Although the carton was big enough to feed a crowd, I could demolish most of it by myself in a sitting. Each chip, with its salty and powdery sour cream coating, sent me back for another one. I loved the way the chips curved like roof tiles would dissolve slightly on my tongue.

After one of these binges because that is what they were I would speak to myself with self-loathing. What is wrong with you? I would say to the tear-stained face in the mirror. I blamed myself for my lack of self-control. But now, all these years later, having mostly lost my taste for sliced bread, sugary cereals and snack chips, I feel I was asking myself the wrong question. It shouldnt have been What is wrong with you? but What is wrong with this food?

Back in the 90s, there was no word to cover all the items I used to binge on. Some of the things I over-ate crisps or chocolate or fast-food burgers could be classified as junk food, but others, such as bread and cereal, were more like household staples. These various foods seemed to have nothing in common except for the fact that I found them very easy to eat a lot of, especially when sad. As I ate my Pringles and my white bread, I felt like a failure for not being able to stop. I had no idea that there would one day be a technical explanation for why I found them so hard to resist. The word is ultra-processed and it refers to foods that tend to be low in essential nutrients, high in sugar, oil and salt and liable to be overconsumed.

Which foods qualify as ultra-processed? Its almost easier to say which are not. I got a cup of coffee the other day at a train station cafe and the only snacks for sale that were not ultra-processed were a banana and a packet of nuts. The other options were: a panini made from ultra-processed bread, flavoured crisps, chocolate bars, long-life muffins and sweet wafer biscuits all ultra-processed.

What characterises ultra-processed foods is that they are so altered that it can be hard to recognise the underlying ingredients. These are concoctions of concoctions, engineered from ingredients that are already highly refined, such as cheap vegetable oils, flours, whey proteins and sugars, which are then whipped up into something more appetising with the help of industrial additives such as emulsifiers.

Ultra-processed foods (or UPF) now account for more than half of all the calories eaten in the UK and US, and other countries are fast catching up. UPFs are now simply part of the flavour of modern life. These foods are convenient, affordable, highly profitable, strongly flavoured, aggressively marketed and on sale in supermarkets everywhere. The foods themselves may be familiar, yet the term ultra-processed is less so. None of the friends I spoke with while writing this piece could recall ever having heard it in daily conversation. But everyone had a pretty good hunch what it meant. One recognised the concept as described by the US food writer Michael Pollan edible foodlike substances.

Some UPFs, such as sliced bread or mass-produced cakes, have been around for many decades, but the percentage of UPFs in the average persons diet has never been anything like as high as it is today. It would be unusual for most of us to get through the day without consuming at least a few ultra-processed items.

You might say that ultra-processed is just a pompous way to describe many of your normal, everyday pleasures. It could be your morning bowl of Cheerios or your evening pot of flavoured yoghurt. Its savoury snacks and sweet baked goods. Its chicken nuggets or vegan hotdogs, as the case may be. Its the doughnut you buy when you are being indulgent, and the premium protein bar you eat at the gym for a quick energy boost. Its the long-life almond milk in your coffee and the Diet Coke you drink in the afternoon. Consumed in isolation and moderation, each of these products may be perfectly wholesome. With their long shelf life, ultra-processed foods are designed to be microbiologically safe. The question is what happens to our bodies when UPFs become as prevalent as they are at the moment.

Evidence now suggests that diets heavy in UPFs can cause overeating and obesity. Consumers may blame themselves for overindulging in these foods, but what if it is in the nature of these products to be overeaten?

In 2014, the Brazilian government took the radical step of advising its citizens to avoid UPFs outright. The country was acting out of a sense of urgency, because the number of young Brazilian adults with obesity had risen so far and so fast, more than doubling between 2002 and 2013 (from 7.5% of the population to 17.5%). These radical new guidelines urged Brazilians to avoid snacking, and to make time for wholesome food in their lives, to eat regular meals in company when possible, to learn how to cook and to teach children to be wary of all forms of food advertising.

The biggest departure in the Brazilian guidelines was to treat food processing as the single most important issue in public health. This new set of rules framed unhealthy food less in terms of the nutrients it contains (fats, carbohydrates etc) and more by the degree to which it is processed (preserved, emulsified, sweetened etc). No government diet guidelines had ever categorised foods this way before. One of the first rules in the Brazilian guidelines was to avoid consumption of ultra-processed products. They condemned at a stroke not just fast foods or sugary snacks, but also many foods which have been reformulated to seem health-giving, from lite margarines to vitamin-fortified breakfast cereals.

From a British perspective where the official NHS Eatwell guide still classifies low-fat margarines and packaged cereals as healthier options it looks extreme to warn consumers off all ultra-processed foods (what, even Heinz tomato soup?). But there is evidence to back up the Brazilian position. Over the past decade, large-scale studies from France, Brazil, the US and Spain have suggested that high consumption of UPFs is associated with higher rates of obesity. When eaten in large amounts (and its hard to eat them any other way) they have also been linked to a whole host of conditions, from depression to asthma to heart disease to gastrointestinal disorders. In 2018, a study from France following more than 100,000 adults found that a 10% increase in the proportion of UPFs in someones diet led to a higher overall cancer risk. Ultra-processed has emerged as the most persuasive new metric for measuring what has gone wrong with modern food.

Why should food processing matter for our health? Processed food is a blurry term and for years, the food industry has exploited these blurred lines as a way to defend its additive-laden products. Unless you grow, forage or catch all your own food, almost everything you consume has been processed to some extent. A pint of milk is pasteurised, a pea may be frozen. Cooking is a process. Fermentation is a process. Artisanal, organic kimchi is a processed food, and so is the finest French goats cheese. No big deal.

But UPFs are different. They are processed in ways that go far beyond cooking or fermentation, and they may also come plastered with health claims. Even a sugary multi-coloured breakfast cereal may state that it is a good source of fibre and made with whole grains. Bettina Elias Siegel, the author of Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World, says that in the US, people tend to categorise food in a binary way. There is junk food and then there is everything else. For Siegel, ultra-processed is a helpful tool for showing new parents that theres a huge difference between a cooked carrot and a bag of industrially produced, carrot-flavoured veggie puffs aimed at toddlers, even if those veggie puffs are cynically marketed as natural.

The concept of UPFs was born in the early years of this millennium when a Brazilian scientist called Carlos Monteiro noticed a paradox. People appeared to be buying less sugar, yet obesity and type 2 diabetes were going up. A team of Brazilian nutrition researchers led by Monteiro, based at the university of Sao Paulo, had been tracking the nations diet since the 80s, asking households to record the foods they bought. One of the biggest trends to jump out of the data was that, while the amount of sugar and oil people were buying was going down, their sugar consumption was vastly increasing, because of all of the ready-to-eat sugary products that were now available, from packaged cakes to chocolate breakfast cereal, that were easy to eat in large quantities without thinking about it.

To Monteiro, the bag of sugar on the kitchen counter is a healthy sign, not because sugar itself has any goodness in it, but because it belongs to a person who cooks. Monteiros data suggested to him that the households who were still buying sugar were also the ones who were still making the old Brazilian dishes such as rice and beans.

Monteiro is a doctor by training, and when you talk to him, he still has the idealistic zeal of someone who wants to prevent human suffering. He had started off in the 70s treating poor people in rural villages, and was startled to see how quickly the problems of under-nutrition were replaced by those of tooth decay and obesity, particularly among children. When Monteiro looked at the foods that had increased the most in the Brazilian diet from cookies and sodas to crackers and savoury snacks what they had in common was that they were all highly processed. Yet he noticed that many of these commonly eaten foods did not even feature in the standard food pyramids of US nutrition guidelines, which show rows of different whole foods according to how much people consume, with rice and wheat at the bottom, then fruits and vegetables, then fish and dairy and so on. These pyramids are based on the assumption that people are still cooking from scratch, as they did in the 50s. It is time to demolish the pyramid, wrote Monteiro in 2011.

Once something has been classified, it can be studied. In the 10 years since Monteiro first announced the concept, numerous peer-reviewed studies on UPFs have been published confirming the links he suspected between these foods and higher rates of disease. By giving a collective name to ultra-processed foods for the first time, Monteiro has gone some way to transforming the entire field of public health nutrition.

As he sees it, there are four basic kinds of food, graded by the degree to which they are processed. Taken together, these four groups form what Monteiro calls the Nova system (meaning a new star). The first category group 1 are the least processed, and includes anything from a bunch of parsley to a carrot, from a steak to a raisin. A pedant will point out that none of these things are strictly unprocessed by the time they are sold: the carrot is washed, the steak is refrigerated, the raisin is dried. To answer these objections, Monteiro renamed this group unprocessed and minimally processed foods.

The second group is called processed culinary ingredients. These include butter and salt, sugar and lard, oil and flour all used in small quantities with group 1 foods to make them more delicious: a pat of butter melting on broccoli, a sprinkling of salt on a piece of fish, a spoonful of sugar in a bowl of strawberries.

Next in the Nova system comes group 3, or processed foods. This category consists of foods that have been preserved, pickled, fermented or salted. Examples would be canned tomatoes and pulses, pickles, traditionally made bread (such as sourdough), smoked fish and cured meats. Monteiro notes that when used sparingly, these processed foods can result in delicious dishes and nutritionally balanced meals.

The final category, group 4, is unlike any of the others. Group 4 foods tend to consist largely of the sugars, oils and starches from group 2, but instead of being used sparingly to make fresh food more delicious, these ingredients are now transformed through colours, emulsifiers, flavourings and other additives to become more palatable. They contain ingredients unfamiliar to domestic kitchens such as soy protein isolate (in cereal bars or shakes with added protein) and mechanically separated meat (turkey hotdogs, sausage rolls).

Group 4 foods differ from other foods not just in substance, but in use. Because they are aggressively promoted and ready-to-eat, these highly profitable items have vast market advantages over the minimally processed foods in group 1. Monteiro and his colleagues have observed from evidence around the world that these group 4 items are liable to replace freshly made regular meals and dishes, with snacking any time, anywhere. For Monteiro, there is no doubt that these ultra-processed foods are implicated in obesity as well as a range of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Not everyone in the world of nutrition is convinced by the Nova system of food classification. Some critics of Monteiro have complained that ultra-processed is just another way to describe foods that are sugary or fatty or salty or low in fibre, or all of these at once. If you look at the UPFs that are consumed in the largest quantities, the majority of them take the form of sweet treats or sugary drinks. The question is whether these foods would still be harmful if the levels of sugar and oil could be reduced.

The first time the nutrition researcher Kevin Hall heard anyone talk about ultra-processed food, he thought it was a nonsense definition. It was 2016 and Hall who studies how people put on weight at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at Bethesda, Maryland was at a conference chatting with a representative from PepsiCo who scornfully mentioned the new Brazilian set of food guidelines and specifically the directive to avoid ultra-processed foods. Hall agreed that this was a silly rule because, as far as he was concerned, obesity had nothing to do with food processing.

Anyone can see that some foods are processed to a higher degree than others an Oreo is not the same as an orange but Hall knew of no scientific proof that said the degree of processed food in a persons diet could cause them to gain weight. Hall is a physicist by training and he is a self-confessed reductionist. He likes to take things apart and see how they work. He is therefore attracted to the idea that food is nothing more than the sum of its nutrient parts: fats plus carbs plus protein and fibre, and so on. The whole notion of ultra-processed foods annoyed him because it seemed too fuzzy.

When Hall started to read through the scientific literature on ultra-processed foods, he noticed that all of the damning evidence against them took the form of correlation rather than absolute proof. Like most studies on the harmful effects of particular foods, these studies fell under the umbrella of epidemiology: the study of patterns of health across populations. Hall and he is not alone here finds such studies less than convincing. Correlation is not causation, as the saying goes.

Just because people who eat a lot of UPFs are more likely to be obese or suffer from cancer does not mean that obesity and cancer are caused by UPFs, per se. Typically, its people in lower economic brackets who eat a lot of these foods, Hall said. He thought UPFs were being wrongly blamed for the poor health outcomes of living in poverty.

At the end of 2018, Hall and his colleagues became the first scientists to test in randomised controlled conditions whether diets high in ultra-processed foods could actually cause overeating and weight gain.

For four weeks, 10 men and 10 women agreed to be confined to a clinic under Halls care and agreed to eat only what they were given, wearing loose clothes so that they would not notice so much if their weight changed. This might sound like a small study, but carefully controlled trials like this are considered the gold standard for science, and are especially rare in the field of nutrition because of the difficulty and expense of persuading humans to live and eat in laboratory conditions. Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, has praised Halls study published in Cell Metabolism for being as good a clinical trial as you can get.

For two weeks, Halls participants ate mostly ultra-processed meals such as turkey sandwiches with crisps, and for another two weeks they ate mostly unprocessed food such as spinach omelette with sweet potato hash. The researchers worked hard to design both sets of meals to be tasty and familiar to all participants. Day one on the ultra-processed diet included a breakfast of Cheerios with whole milk and a blueberry muffin, a lunch of canned beef ravioli followed by cookies and a pre-cooked TV dinner of steak and mashed potatoes with canned corn and low-fat chocolate milk. Day one on the unprocessed diet started with a breakfast of Greek yoghurt with walnuts, strawberries and bananas, a lunch of spinach, chicken and bulgur salad with grapes to follow, and dinner of roast beef, rice pilaf and vegetables, with peeled oranges to finish. The subjects were told to eat as much or as little as they liked.

Hall set up the study to match the two diets as closely as possible for calories, sugar, protein, fibre and fat. This wasnt easy, because most ultra-processed foods are low in fibre and protein and higher in sugar. To compensate for the lack of fibre, the participants were given diet lemonade laced with soluble fibre to go with their meals during the two weeks on the ultra-processed diet.

It turned out that, during the weeks of the ultra-processed diet, the volunteers ate an extra 500 calories a day, equivalent to a whole quarter pounder with cheese. Blood tests showed that the hormones in the body responsible for hunger remained elevated on the ultra-processed diet compared to the unprocessed diet, which confirms the feeling I used to have that however much I ate, these foods didnt sate my hunger.

Halls study provided evidence that an ultra-processed diet with its soft textures and strong flavours really does cause over-eating and weight gain, regardless of the sugar content. Over just two weeks, the subjects gained an average of 1kg. This is a far more dramatic result than you would expect to see over such a short space of time (especially since the volunteers rated both types of food as equally pleasant).

After Halls study was published in July 2019, it was impossible to dismiss Monteiros proposition that the rise of UPFs increases the risk of obesity. Monteiro told me that as a result of Halls study, he and his colleagues in Brazil found they were suddenly being taken seriously.

Now that we have evidence of a link between diets high in UPFs and obesity, it seems clear that a healthy diet should be based on fresh, home-cooked food. To help champion home cooking among Brazilians, Monteiro recruited the cookery writer Rita Lobo, whose website Panelinha (network) is the most popular food site in Brazil, with 3m hits a month. Lobo said that when she tells people about UPFs, the first reaction is panic and anger. They say: Oh my God! Im not going to be able to eat my yoghurt or my cereal bar! What am I going to eat? After a while, however, she says that the concept of ultra-processed foods is almost a relief to people, because it liberates them from the polarities and restriction created by fad diets or clean eating. People are thrilled, Lobo says, when they realise they can have desserts again, as long as they are freshly made.

But modern patterns of work do not make it easy to find the time to cook every day. For households who have learned to rely on ultra-processed convenience foods, returning to home cooking can seem daunting and expensive. Halls researchers in Maryland spent 40% more money purchasing the food for the unprocessed diet. (However, I noticed that the menu included large prime cuts of meat or fish every day; it would be interesting to see how the cost would have compared with a larger number of vegetarian meals or cheaper cuts of meat.)

In Brazil, cooking from scratch still tends to be cheaper than eating ultra-processed food, Lobo says. UPFs are a relative novelty in Brazil and memories of a firm tradition of home cooking have not died yet here. In Brazil, it doesnt matter if you are rich or poor, you grew up eating rice and beans. The problem for you [in the UK], Lobo remarks, is that you dont know what your rice and beans is.

In Britain and the US, our relationship with ultra-processed food is so extensive and goes back so many decades that these products have become our soul food, a beloved repertoire of dishes. Its what our mothers fed us. If you want to bond with someone who was a child in 1970s Britain, mention that you have childhood memories of being given Findus Crispy Pancakes and spaghetti hoops followed by Angel Delight for tea. I have noticed that Australian friends have similar conversations about the childhood joys of Tim Tams chocolate biscuits. In the curious coding of the British class system, a taste for industrial branded foods is a way to reassure others that you are OK. What kind of snob would disparage a Creme Egg or fail to recognise the joy of licking cheesy Wotsit dust from your fingers?

I am as much of a sucker for this branded food nostalgia as anyone. There is a part of my brain the part that is still an eight-year-old at a birthday party that will always feel that Iced Gems (ultra-processed cookies topped with ultra-processed frosting) are pure magic. But Ive started to feel a creeping unease that our ardent affection for these foods has been mostly manufactured by the food corporations who profit from selling them. For the thousands of people trapped in binge-eating disorder as I once was UPFs are false friends.

The multinational food industry has a vested interest in rubbishing Monteiros ideas about how UPFs are detrimental to our health. And much of the most vociferous criticism of his Nova system has come from sources close to the industry. A 2018 paper co-authored by Melissa Mialon, a French food engineer and public health researcher, identified 32 materials online criticising Nova, most of which were not peer-reviewed. The paper showed that, out of 38 writers critical of Nova, 33 had links to the ultra-processed food industry.

For many in the developing world, the prevalence of ultra-processed foods is making it hard for those on a limited budget to feed their children a wholesome diet. Victor Aguayo, chief of nutrition at Unicef, tells me over the phone that, as ultra-processed foods become cheaper and other foods, such as vegetables and fish, become more expensive, the UPFs are taking up a bigger volume of childrens diets. Whats more, the pleasurable textures and aggressive marketing of these foods makes them appealing and aspirational both to children and parents, says Aguayo.

Soon after the arrival in Nepal of brightly coloured packages that, as Aguayo describes them, look like food for children: the cookies, the savoury snacks, the cereals, aid workers started to see an epidemic of both overweight and micronutrient deficiency including anaemia among Nepalese children under the age of five.

Aguayo says there is an urgent need to change the food environment to make the healthy options the easy, affordable and available ones. Ecuador, Uruguay and Peru have followed Brazils example in urging their citizens to steer clear of ultra-processed foods. Uruguays dietary guidelines issued in 2016 tells Uruguayans to base your diet on natural foods, and avoid the regular consumption of ultra-processed products. How easy this will be to do is another matter.

In Australia, Canada or the UK, to be told to avoid ultra-processed food as the Brazilian guidelines do would mean rejecting half or more of what is for sale as food, including many basic staples that people depend on, such as bread. The vast majority of supermarket loaves count as ultra-processed, regardless of how much they boast of being multiseed, malted or glowing with ancient grains.

Earlier this year, Monteiro and his colleagues published a paper titled Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them, offering some rules of thumb. The paper explains that the practical way to identify if a product is ultra-processed is to check to see if its list of ingredients contains at least one food substance never or rarely used in kitchens, or classes of additives whose function is to make the final product palatable or more appealing (cosmetic additives). Tell-tale ingredients include invert sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose, lactose, soluble or insoluble fibre, hydrogenated or interesterified oil. Or it may contain additives such as flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents.

But not everyone has time to search every label for the presence of glazing agents. A website called Open Food Facts, run by mostly French volunteers, has started the herculean labour of creating an open database of packaged foods around the world and listing where they fit into on the Nova system. Froot Loops: Nova 4. Unsalted butter: Nova 2. Sardines in olive oil: Nova 3. Vanilla Alpro yoghurt: Nova 4. Stphane Gigandet, who runs the site, says that he started analysing food by Nova a year ago and it is not an easy task.

For most modern eaters, avoiding all ultra-processed foods is unsettling and unrealistic, particularly if you are on a low income or vegan or frail or disabled, or someone who really loves the occasional cheese-and-ham toastie made from sliced white bread. In his early papers, Monteiro wrote of reducing ultra-processed items as a proportion of the total diet rather than cutting them out altogether. Likewise, the French Ministry of Health has announced that it wants to reduce consumption of Nova 4 products by 20% over the next three years.

We still dont really know what it is about ultra-processed food that generates weight gain. The rate of chewing may be a factor. In Halls study, during the weeks on the ultra-processed diet people ate their meals faster, maybe because the foods tended to be softer and easier to chew. On the unprocessed diet, a hormone called PYY, which reduces appetite, was elevated, suggesting that homemade food keeps us fuller for longer. The effect of additives such as artificial sweeteners on the gut microbiome is another theory. Later this year, new research from physicist Albert-Lszl Barabsi will reveal more about the way that ultra-processing actually alters food at a molecular level.

In a two-part blog on ultra-processed foods in 2018 (Rise of the Ultra Foods) Anthony Warner, a former food industry development chef who tweets and campaigns as Angry Chef, argued that Nova was stoking fear and guilt about food and adding to the stress of already difficult lives by making people feel judged for their food choices. But having read Kevin Halls study, he wrote an article in May 2019 admitting: I was wrong about ultra-processed food it really is making you fat. Warner said the study convinced him that eating rate, texture and palatability of UPFs lead to overeating, and ended with a call for more research.

Hall tells me that he is in the process of constructing another study on ultra-processed food and obesity. This time, the people on the ultra-processed diet would also be eating larger amounts of unprocessed foods, such as crunchy vegetables with low energy density, while still getting more than 80% of their calories from ultra-processed food equivalent to adding a side salad or a portion of broccoli to your dinner of frozen pizza. This is much closer to how most families actually eat.

Even if scientists do succeed in pinning down the mechanism or mechanisms by which ultra-processed foods make us gain weight, its not clear what policy-makers should do about UPFs, except for giving people the support and resources they need to cook more fresh meals at home. To follow the Brazilian advice entails a total rethink of the food system.

For as long as we believed that single nutrients were the main cause of poor diets, industrial foods could be endlessly tweaked to fit with the theory of the day. When fat was seen as the devil, the food industry gave us a panoply of low-fat products. The result of the sugar taxes around the world has been a raft of new artificially sweetened drinks. But if you accept the argument that processing is itself part of the problem, all of this tweaking and reformulation becomes so much meaningless window-dressing.

An ultra-processed food can be reformulated in countless ways, but the one thing it cant be transformed into is an unprocessed food. Hall remains hopeful that there may turn out to be some way to adjust the manufacture of ultra-processed foods to make them less harmful to health. A huge number of people on low incomes, he notes, are relying on these relatively inexpensive tasty things for daily sustenance. But he is keenly aware that the problems of nutrition cannot be cured by ever more sophisticated processing. How do you take an Oreo and make it non-ultra-processed? he asks. You cant!

This article was amended on 13 February 2020. An earlier version referred to American friends reminiscing about Tim Tams; it should have said Australian. It also described Melissa Mialon as a Brazilian nutritionist; she is a French food engineer.

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The catalyst came when Corbett moved from her position as interim chief executive of Australia Post to consulting at PwC in 2018, when her coffee consumption skyrocketed to five or six skim cappuccinos a day.

Corbett says it was almost a year before she noticed the extra coffees were adding kilojoules and sugar to her diet. I just went,Im not doing anything different, whats happening?, she says.

Corbett no longer follows her meal plan to the letter, but she does observe three or four alcohol-free days each week, hits the gym with her personal trainer three times a week and avoids carbs after lunchtime.

Maintaining a healthy weight is a common challenge in the C-suite. In the face of long work days, frequent travel, lunch meetings and boozy evening events often on top of taking care of a family eating healthily can easily fall by the wayside. But some executives, like Corbett, say they have cracked the code.

Intermittent fasting and gym workouts proved the right combination for Cameron Holland.Supplied

Cameron Holland, chief executive of holiday package company Luxury Escapes, lost 14 kilograms over three months using a combination of the Fast 800 intermittent fasting regime and dawn gym sessions. In general, I find that the age-old rule of calories in and calories out is about as sophisticated a diet plan that anyone ever really needs, Holland says.

In the travel and hospitality industry, eating out is practically in the job description, he says. I love the old adage about the difference between a director and a shopping trolley you get more food in a director and get more direction from a shopping trolley, Holland quips.

When he cant avoid corporate dining, Holland observes three rules: portion control, always choose the fish, and avoid that second glass of wine. While not successful every time, it helps to at least know the boundaries, he says.

David Brewster, chief legal officer of Coles Supermarkets, says his companys no gifts policy is a blessing in disguise because it means he usually has to turn down lunch and dinner invitations. I think thats what really kills executives eating those meals that are high in salt and fat and you cant control the menu, he says.

Brewster has been an avid runner for the past decade and runs marathons to stay in shape.

If taking clients out for a meal is non-negotiable, Vanessa Bennett, chief executive of business coaching company Next Evolution Performance, suggests opting for lunch instead of dinner.

Its safer over lunch than dinner, eating-wise and drinking-wise, Bennett says, noting that the days of the long lunch have passed. People do still tend to go back to work these days.

Nicole Dynan, a dietitian and spokeswoman for the Dietitians Association of Australia, suggests looking at the restaurant menu online before arrival. Have a look so youre a little bit informed and dont have to make a rushed decision, she says.

In addition to dietary changes, all the executives who spoke to BOSS have incorporated exercise into their day, whether its a seven-minute workout app or running marathons.

Hugh Alsop, chief executive of biotechnology company Kinoxis Therapeutics, shed seven kilograms in four weeks by eating ready-made keto meals from BeFit and eliminating alcohol.

Keto is a fantastic option for people and it just really goes back to the way people used to eat. We never used to eat heaps of carbs, Alsop says. But its tough, so you need to be committed.

He no longer eats the BeFit meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but he finds them handy for lunch on the go.

Despite the popularity of the keto diet, Dynan warns that cutting all carbs can make it harder to concentrate at work, which would be an issue for executives.

Theyre doing a lot of mentally draining work and need to be firing on all cylinders, Dynan says. If theyre starving from lack of carbs, their brains going to be running on empty.

She recommends filling one quarter of your plate with healthy carbohydrates such as brown rice or sweet potato, one quarter protein such as lean meat or tofu and the remaining half plate with vegetables.

Alsop says he didnt find concentration an issue, but craving carbs was a challenge. He helped curb these cravings by having healthy snacks, such as protein balls, on hand.

Travel can be another stumbling block for executives watching their weight. Bennett and Dynan recommend eating plant-based foods, avoiding alcohol and drinking plenty of water. Dynan also recommends eating relatively little on flights to help the digestive system.

Corbett and Brewster both say they do what they can to avoid eating during flights."Oh no, I just avoid aeroplane food," Corbett says, laughing.

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They dont call high blood pressure a silent killer for nothing. Turns out, about half of Americans have this condition, which, left unaddressed, can cause hardening of the arteries, stroke, kidney damage, and even early cognitive decline and dementia. Yet most people with high blood pressure (also called hypertension) have no idea theyre affected.

High blood pressure, in most cases, is asymptomatic, says Lawrence Phillips, M.D., cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health. So people dont feel that they have it, which is why regular screening is so important. (If you havent had your numbers checked in two years, see a doc.)

In the simplest terms, blood pressure is the force of your blood against the walls of your blood vessels and arteries, and it is expressed as two numbers: The top number (systolic blood pressure) represents the pressure or force in the arteries when your heart beats, and the bottom number (diastolic blood pressure) is the pressure measured between heart beats, explains Amnon Beniaminovitz, M.D., a cardiologist at Manhattan Cardiology.

Anything over 130/80 mmHg is considered high blood pressure.

While normal blood pressure is necessary for survival, high blood pressure is dangerous because it means your heart is working much harder to pump blood throughout your body. You can sort of think of high blood pressure as your blood punching the walls of the heart and other organs over and over again, says Dr. Philips. If that punching is at a high force, youre going to develop thickening and damage over time.

According to the American Heart Association, anything above 120/80 mmHg is considered elevated blood pressure, while anything over 130/80 mmHg is considered high blood pressure. The good news: Elevated and high blood pressure can often (but not always) be addressed with diet and lifestyle modifications, says Dr. Philips.

Step one: Figure out whats causing your high blood pressure in the first place. For most people, its multifactorial, meaning a bunch of factors work in tandem to spike your levels into unsafe territory. Here, the most common causes of blood pressure and how to address them to bring your numbers back down.

Excessive sodium intake has a direct impact on blood pressure. More salt equals more sodium in the blood, which then pulls water from the surrounding tissues into your vessels and increases blood volume, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. More blood volume leads to higher blood pressure.

But if youre thinking, I dont even use that much salt, its probably still hiding elsewhere in your diet. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans are consuming an average of 3,400 mg of sodium per day, which is well beyond the recommended cap of 2,300 mg per day. And of that, more than 70% of a persons sodium intake is coming from processed and restaurant foods, including things like bread, breakfast cereal, chips, cookies, pizza, canned beans and veggies, canned soups, and pasta saucenot the salt shaker itself.

Additionally, a diet heavy in processed foods can cause weight gain, and when people are overweight, the body has to pump blood to more tissue, which can increase blood pressure, says Dr. Philips. We see an extremely large amount of high blood pressure in obese patients.

Instead, load up on whole foods rich in beneficial nutrients, like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, fish, nuts, seeds, and olive oil, suggests Dr. Beniaminovitz. Potassium and magnesium are both minerals that help blood vessels relax, which in turn can help lower blood pressure; and recent research links high-fiber diets to significant reductions in systolic blood pressure.

If you want to follow a specific dietary plan thats been proven to lower blood pressure, Dr. Beniaminovitz recommends either the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet or a well-formulated Mediterranean Diet.

For people who already drink, moderate alcohol consumption (one drink a day for women, two a day for men) is often not a problem, and some research suggests it may even help prevent heart disease. However, heavier alcohol consumptionespecially frequent binge drinking episodescan lead to chronically elevated blood pressure, says Dr. Philips. Research has also tied binge drinking to an increased risk of developing atherosclerosisbuildup of fatty plaque in the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke.

One drink equals 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of spirits. And if its really more about the ritual than the alcohol itself, consider periodically swapping out your glass of cabernet for a kombucha or one of those trendy new non-alcoholic cocktails from brands like Curious Elixirs, Seedlip, and Kin.

Sitting too much or leading a sedentary lifestyle can mess with just about every aspect of your health, and your cardiovascular health is no exception. Being sedentary leads to elevated blood pressure, both indirectly and directly, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. Sedentary people tend to be overweight or obese, and, as mentioned above, weight is one of the main driving causes of high blood pressure.

Additionally, getting regular aerobic activity helps you maintain a healthy blood pressure by making blood vessels more compliant (or flexible) and less sensitive to hormonal influences, he explainsso a lack of such activity may accelerate arterial hardening, forcing the heart and blood vessels to work that much harder.

A research analysis of nearly 400 studies suggests that regular exercise could be as effective as commonly prescribed blood pressure drugs. In the pantheon of physical activity, aerobic exercising is the best for blood pressure, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week (about 20 to 30 minutes a day) such as biking, brisk walking, swimming, a barre class, or even higher-speed varieties of yoga like vinyasa.

From an evolutionary standpoint, stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released into the blood to help us escape danger (to fight or flee)they increase heart rate, elevate blood pressure, constrict blood vessels, and enlarge our pupils to help us think and move fast, explains Dr. Beniaminovitz.

In the past, the stressful event was typically over pretty quicklybut today, relentless work demands, overbooked schedules, challenging relationships, and even social media have led to an epidemic of chronic stress, which triggers the same release of stress hormones. But unlike our ancestral past, theres often no reprieveits constantand thus, blood pressure may remain elevated. One study found that logging more than 41 hours a week at work raised the risk of hypertension by 17%.

Physical activity is one of the most effective ways to reduce levels of stress hormones and minimize their impact on blood pressure, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. Mindfulness practices like deep breathing, meditation, and yoga, or even reading a book or listening to your favorite music, can also keep stress hormones in check.

You may also need to cut out certain activities, like checking those work emails at all hours. People have to get to know themselves and their triggers, and how they may be able to remove themselves from situations that increase stress and anxiety, says Dr. Philips.

You may not necessarily feel stressed when you experience loneliness or social isolation, but these feelingswhen they persistcan trigger the same dangerous release of stress hormones that spike blood pressure, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. Not to mention, chronic loneliness is associated with depression, and research has shown a correlation between depression, subsequent weight gain, and increase in blood pressure.

We are social beings and we need a certain amount of social interaction to function optimally, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. But if the idea of putting yourself out there seems impossible, start small. Send a friend a quick DM to say youre thinking of them, and see where things go. Combine physical activity and social time by committing to a weekly Saturday morning yoga class with a pal. Want to make new friends? Try volunteering to meet like-minded people. (Here are eight actionable ways to deal with loneliness.)

In general, inadequate sleep may lead to high blood pressure by increasing stress hormones, or by increasing your cravings for junk food and thus contributing to weight gain, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. But the biggest sleep-related cause of hypertension is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)a disorder that causes someone to stop breathing for brief periods of time while sleeping due to an obstruction of their upper airway.

With higher obesity rates, more and more people are developing OSA, says Dr. Philips. This leads to broken sleep and decreased oxygen levels in the body, and part of the bodys response is to increase blood pressure. In fact, its estimated that half of people with hypertension also suffer from OSA. Some signs you may have sleep apnea? Your partner says you snore or gasp in your sleep and youre always tired despite going to bed at a reasonable hour.

If you suspect OSA, see your doctor ASAP so they can conduct a sleep study in which your oxygen levels will be measured throughout the night, says Dr. Philips. If you are diagnosed, you will likely be prescribed a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine to wear over your mouth and nose at night to help you breathe.

If you do have high blood pressure, your doctor will likely take into consideration the range of other diseases and disorders that, when poorly managed, cause your blood pressure to become elevated. These include thyroid problems, renovascular disease, Cushings syndrome, and a number of others. The key to all these conditions is the correct diagnosis, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. When the proper diagnosis is made, working with your doctor to reverse and or treat these conditions often cures high blood pressure.

Additionally, a number of common medications can increase blood pressure such as antidepressants, decongestants, St. Johns Wort, oral contraceptives, NSAIDs, and prednisone.

If your doc says your BP is high, bring up any strange symptoms that could indicate an underlying cause (for example, if youre experiencing weight gain, exhaustion, and hair loss, it could be hypothyroidism), and always provide them with a list of your current medications and supplements.

If your meds are the issue, ideally they would be discontinued or changed to ones that have no or less effect on blood pressure, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. If a change in medication is not possible, often your doctor will prescribe optimal lifestyle and blood pressure medication to combat the effects.

Genes do play some role in high blood pressure, which is why younger people in seemingly great health can still be diagnosed with hypertension, says Dr. Philips. However, more often than not, its also likely that people with a family history of high blood pressure share common environments (similar diets, similar sedentary lifestyles, etc) that increase their riskand these are very much modifiable.

Our genes also interact with the environment and we can influence them by the choices we make, says Dr. Beniaminovitz. While lifestyle changes may not help you in never developing high blood pressure if you have a strong family history, optimal lifestyle will aid in delaying the onset of blood pressure and the need for early medications. Instead of developing high blood pressure in your 30s or 40s, with optimal diet and lifestyle you may delay the onset of high blood pressure to your late 60s or 70s.

Theres no magic bullet, but if you have a strong family history, thats even more reason to implement all of the dietary and lifestyle recommendations aboveeat whole foods, move your body more, manage stressand get your blood pressure checked regularly.

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If you or your child has ever had a stomach virus, you may have heard of and implemented the BRAT diet. BRAT stands for bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast, which are supposed to be easy on the stomach and help relieve symptoms like nausea and diarrhea.

However, the diet has fallen out of favor since it was first introduced and it may not be the best option anymore. Here's what you need to know.

The BRAT diet "has been around for about a century, and it was originally developed for pediatricians to give to kids to minimize the amount of diarrhea they have when they get acute intestinal illnesses," says Dr. David Cutler, MD, a family medicine physician at Providence Saint John's Health Center.

Though the diet was primarily invented for sick children, adults suffering from acute stomach problems can also use it to reduce their symptoms. But before starting yourself or your child on the BRAT diet, it's crucial that you know what's causing the symptoms in the first place.

"[There are] many different causes of diarrhea and for some, a BRAT diet definitely would not be a good idea [like] if they have some infection going on, if they have some inflammatory condition in their intestines, or if they're having a dietary reaction," says Cutler.

He warns something more serious could be going on if you're experiencing bloody stool, high fever, or severe abdominal pain. In this case, you should head to your doctor instead of starting the BRAT diet.

Let's say you've ruled out the other possible problems, and you're simply dealing with an acute viral intestinal illness like your run of the mill gastroenteritis like a stomach bug that'll resolve in a couple of days.

To really recover from a stomach bug, experts believe that you need a full range of vitamins, nutrients, proteins, and healthy fats. The BRAT diet provides a small amount of nutrients like vitamin C in applesauce and the fiber and vitamin B-6 in bananas. But you'll be lacking other key nutrients including protein and healthy fats.

In fact, the BRAT diet isn't as popular or as endorsed by doctors as it once was. "It's been discovered over the years that it nutritionally is very deficient in a lot of things that kids need. So generally, it's fallen greatly out of favor to use," says Cutler.

Therefore, to get the full range of nutrition you'll want to re-introduce a normal balanced diet after one or two days of the BRAT diet to regain your health.

Since prolonged diarrhea and vomiting can be very dehydrating, the most important thing is staying hydrated by consuming lots of fluids.

"The best way to treat diarrhea is simply to replace the fluid that you're losing in the diarrhea," says Cutler.

Drink lots of water and consider rehydration solutions such as low-sugar options like G2 or Pedialyte that contain fluids and electrolytes. Avoid high-sugar drinks like regular Gatorade or Powerade because the sugar may actually worsen diarrhea. Soup or plain broths are also good options that are soothing and rehydrating.

"Most experts would now recommend that people just avoid foods that might be aggravating diarrhea, and to stay on a good healthy diet with fiber and protein and mono or polyunsaturated fats," says Cutler.

In addition to sugary drinks, other foods that may upset your stomach and exacerbate your symptoms may include dairy, greasy foods, and foods high in insoluble fiber like beans, nuts, and leafy greens.

The bottom line is the BRAT diet might be helpful short-term, but it's even more important to stay hydrated and avoid aggravating foods when trying to get better. The BRAT diet shouldn't be used for more than a couple of days, for either children or adults.

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