Stringr
What’s the secret behind why foods such as pizza, burgers, and potato chips are so irresistible? Watch the video to find out.
Article image: iStock
NEXT ON HEALTH24X
It’s not necessary to deprive yourself of all those yummy foods if you want to stick to your health goals this festive season. We asked three registered dietitians from ADSA (Association for Dietetics in South Africa) for their top four healthy eating hacks to help us make the most of the festive season without overindulging.
Mpho Tshukudu:
1. Don’t let exercise fall by the wayside
Keep to your exercise routine as far as possible. If you are going away and can’t get to your regular gym or fitness class, find alternative physical activities. Being on holiday with more free time means you can actually increase the frequency and duration of your bouts of exercise.
2. Be conscious about what you drink
All kilojoules count. Spritz your wine with sparkling water, and drink water between glasses of alcoholic beverages. Also be mindful of your non-alcoholic drinks as they may contain a lot of sugar. Make your own home-brewed ice-tea flavoured with herbs such as mint and lemongrass, as well as fresh fruit like watermelon, peaches and berries.
3. Be wise at the buffet table
Extravagant spreads of foods at the buffet or party tables make our mouths water. First walk around the buffet table to check out all the options, and then decide what you’ll put on your plate. Make sure you fill up half your plate with vegetables, especially the low carbohydrate kinds like lettuce, cucumber, peppers, onions, green beans, tomato, broccoli and cauliflower.
4. Wait 20 minutes
Don’t automatically go back for seconds just because it’s there. Wait 10 to 20 minutes before going for a second helping to give your brain time to register whether you are really still hungry. Strike up a conversation, drink a glass of water, or dance. You may find that you’ve forgotten all about that second helping.
Julie Perks:
1. Don’t party on an empty stomach
Eat a healthy snack before heading out to a social function. This will help you to avoid overeating on arrival or be tempted to fill up on what may well be unhealthy treats and snacks. This is a hack that can be of great help to those who are trying to stick to a healthy nutritional plan.
2. Bring along your favourite dish
One of the problems of social occasions is that you don’t know whether healthy options will be available. If you’re going to a party or a family gathering, bring along a shareable favourite dish to ensure you have something suitable to enjoy in case there are no other healthy options.
3. Get outdoors more
Make the most of the summer and get some fun outdoors exercise as a family. Regular swimming, walking, running, cycling, and family games and sports will help balance out the season of indulgence.
4. Try alcohol-free
Alcoholic drinks can be very high in energy and added sugar, especially if you’re having cocktails or G&Ts. You can limit your alcohol intake or try the new zero alcohol options that are becoming part of a healthy lifestyle.
Alex Royal:
1. Portion alert!
Keep your portions small and make only one visit to the table. Choose the smallest plate possible. Pile greens and other tasty veggies on your plate first, leaving just a little room for those high-calorie treats like fatty meats and cheeses. Eat small, lower-calorie meals during the day so you can enjoy a special treat in the evening. However, make sure that starving yourself doesn’t lead to overeating.
2. Step away from the table
If you don’t put your food choices on a plate, you have no idea how much you’re actually consuming. The worst you can do is to stand at the table picking from the bowls.
3. Zen yourself
Holidays can be stressful. Keep expectations manageable. Organise your time, make a list of things you need to do, and prioritise the most important activities. Be realistic about what you can and cannot manage. And don’t forget to schedule some time for relaxing.
4. Slip, don’t slide
If you eat three helpings of mashed potatoes and half a pie, all is not lost. Rather than polishing off the rest, learn from your slip-up. Next time, eat a salad first, start a conversation, and park yourself far from the ‘danger zone’. The next time starts now.
For some holiday season recipes that are both delicious and healthy, have a look at NutritionConfidence’s Sustainably Farmed Kob Stuffed with Fennel and Orange and Alex Royal’s Christmas Themed Cranberry and Baby Spinach Salad.
To find a dietitian in your area, visit www.adsa.org.za
Image credit: iStock
NEXT ON HEALTH24X
Sudden cardiac death is terrifying because it’s exactly that – one minute you’re fine and the next you’re facing death, with no warning and no prior symptoms.
Now, new research shows the secret to who’s at risk for cardiac arrest and who isn’t could lie in people’s genes. And a gene test might someday help predict who’s most endangered, according to a study presented this weekend at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Important mutations
Researchers said they have identified a group of 14 gene variants that appear to be linked to sudden cardiac death.
People carrying any of these variants had a more than triple the risk of dying from cardiac arrest, said lead researcher Dr Amit Khera. He’s associate director of the Precision Medicine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Genomic Medicine.
“This really lays the groundwork to say these are important mutations, and what’s exciting is if we can identify them, we have treatments for the conditions to which they are tied,” Khera explained. “My goal now is to use genetic variation as a tool to empower people to overcome whatever risk they might have been born with.”
Sudden cardiac arrest is responsible for 325 000 adult deaths in the United States each year – about half of all heart disease deaths, the Cleveland Clinic says. It strikes most often in adults in their mid-30s to mid-40s, and affects men twice as often as women.
There are four major reasons a person might fall prey to sudden cardiac death, Khera said: a weakened heart muscle, a heart attack, an abnormal heart rhythm, or a dilation or tear in the aorta (the main artery leading out from the heart).
“We know each of these diseases tends to run in families and there are genetic variants that cause each of these conditions,” Khera said.
Genetic sequencing
To find out more, his team pulled together data on 600 people who’d been felled by sudden cardiac death and matched them against 600 “controls” who hadn’t.
They then performed genetic sequencing on the entire pool of 1 200 people to look for genes previously linked to heart or blood vessel disease, with no knowledge of which were victims of sudden cardiac death.
The researchers found 15 people who carried at least one of 14 different genetic mutations tied to heart health. After that, they took a step back to see which of the people had died of sudden cardiac death and which were controls.
“All 15 of these people had actually dropped dead [of cardiac arrest],” Khera said. “Zero of them were in the controls.”
As a next step, the researchers tracked a group of more than 4 500 healthy people for a median 14 years, to see whether those who carried one of these genetic variants would fall from sudden cardiac death.
The team identified 41 people – about 1% – as carrying one of these disease-causing genetic variants.
“We were able to show that from 2002 to 2017, they were at more than triple the risk for dying from sudden cardiac arrest,” Khera said.
Genetic screening in doctor’s office
Khera’s hope is that one day doctors will use these genes to screen for folks with hidden heart risk, and then treat them to lower the risk using therapies and drugs.
He’s already started this work, digging through Massachusetts General Hospital’s biobank of 100 000 patients to look for people carrying one of the 14 variants.
“We’ve already started calling them back, saying you have these variants, do you want to learn about it?” Khera said.
Still, Khera thinks it’s five to 10 years from the point where people could receive such genetic screening in their doctors office.
Dr Kim Eagle, a cardiologist with the University of Michigan Medicine, said such a test could be even further off.
“I think you have to view this as preliminary,” he said of the new study. “Clearly, we’re still grappling with the challenge of taking the human genome and what we know about it and applying it to day-to-day practice in a cost-effective method.”
Danger of false positives
There’s still so much unknown about genetic variants that they are easy to find but hard to judge, Eagle said.
“If you talk about screening the general population for rare but potentially important genetic defects, you’re going to find a lot of people that have a variant but you don’t know how important it is,” he said.
A test could result in a lot of false-positive results that scare patients to no good purpose, Eagle believes.
He shared the story of a male patient who’d frequently asked him for a genetic screen to find his potential risk factors. When Eagle demurred, the patient took the initiative to get a genetic screening from one of the new companies that have sprung up to provide this service.
He came back to Eagle very upset, pointing out that they found a couple of genes with important variants that could really affect his health.
“I said, ‘You know what’s really interesting? Both of these genes identify diseases that only happen in women,'” Eagle said. “Here’s an example of the result of a false-positive – a guy who doesn’t understand, who’s scared to death that he’s got a rare genetic disorder, and it only happens in women.”
The study was also published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Image credit: iStock
Picture this yogi: You’re in your flow, moving through asanas with ease, and having an om-azing time on your mat. Then, just as the Zen starts to really kick in, you pull your hips up into your umpteenth downward-facing dog, and suddenly you feel one of the telltale symptoms of (dramatic sound effect): yoga butt. “This is most likely a burning, discomfort, cramping, or pinching high up in the hamstrings, close to the pelvis,” says Ariele Foster, a physical therapist and yoga teacher based in Washington, DC.
Fear not peaceful warrior. You’re about to learn exactly what yoga butt is, what causes it, plus how to fix it because even if the name sounds a little silly, a yoga butt injury is actually no laughing matter.
On the contrary, it can be a real pain in the you know what, especially if left untreated, which is why it’s important to understand how to recognize and recover from a yoga butt injury if you have a regular yoga practice — or dance or martial arts, for that matter — as there’s a good chance you could experience it yourself at some point.
Glad you asked. Yoga butt is, of course, just a casual name for what in most cases is medically referred to as a high-hamstring tendinopathy. “The tendon at the proximal portion of hamstring muscles is irritated,” explains Dr Foster. That’s the area near the smile line of your bum where the top of your leg meets your glutes.
Tendinopathy is a general term that encompasses anything from tendinitis (or inflammation/irritation of the tendon) to a pull, or a tear of the tendon, and it typically occurs when your body isn’t warmed up properly or more often, from overstretching, Dr Foster says.
Those are the two most common causes of yoga butt injuries, but there are other reasons you might be in this predicament.
READ MORE: 12 Things Your Yoga Instructor Wants You To Know
Another source of yoga butt is a stress injury created by relying too heavily on your hamstrings to hold poses rather than other muscles. This can happen even in very simple postures like going from standing to forward fold without rounding your back. “In yoga, there’s been a lot of emphasis on forward folds happening from the hips rather than flexion of the spine,” Dr Foster says. That could cause a stress injury if you do it enough times.
One easy modification is bending the knees slightly in asanas that require you to rely heavily on your hamstrings like the aforementioned forward folds, plus downward-facing dogs, or standing splits, Dr Foster says. This will put slightly less pressure on them, particularly early on in class before they’ve had a chance to fully loosen up.
Only working your hamstring muscles one way, over and over again (in this case stretching them), can lead to injury, similarly to how only learning to tighten your pelvic floor muscles makes them weaker than if you also learned to relax them properly.
This is a common issue in yoga due to the repetitive nature of certain yoga practices like Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Bikram, which use a specific sequence of poses (or very similar sequences) every class. “What everybody needs is a variety of movement, and even though the yoga lexicon has a huge library of movement within it, we’re not really taking advantage of that,” says Dr Foster.
Something else that’s missing? An adequate amount of strength-building exercises, specifically for your hamstrings and glutes (rather than those that simply stretch these muscle groups), and that’s one thing that could be contributing to injury, says Dr Foster.
The solution here is to be mindful of how much time you’re spending stretching your hamstrings to ensure you’re not overdoing it — plus, make sure you’re adding a few hamstring strength-training exercises into your fitness routine regularly outside of your yoga practice.
Fewer yoga butt injuries are caused by this but it’s still worth noting that too much tension placed on the tendons that attach to the sit bones (the bones at the bottom part of your pelvis that you feel when you’re seated) can result in high-hamstring tendinopathy. It’s the result of overloading a tendon that isn’t strong enough, Dr Foster explains. If you meditate often in a cross-legged position or sit in an externally rotated pose like fire log, or lotus for a long time without enough strength in your glutes, it could cause hamstring pulls and even tears. All the more reason to strengthen your butt muscles.
If you’re recovering from a surgery or another hamstring injury, your body might not be fully prepared, and pushing yourself too much, too quickly could result in a yoga butt injury.
In that case, it’s best to take your practice slow (don’t go right back into a power yoga class) and to work on some strengthening exercises — both of which play parts in Dr Foster’s prescription for healing a yoga butt injury.
If you’re already dealing with a yoga butt injury, the first thing Dr Foster recommends is seeing a physical therapist or doctor so that they can assess the extent of the injury and ensure that it doesn’t get worse. Until you see a professional, it’s ideal that you don’t stretch, since most of these injuries are caused by overstretching.
The best thing you can do is rest if you can. But if you’re itching to get back to yoga, especially for its mental health benefits, and your Doc or PT says it’s okay, try restorative yoga, which will be less intense, says Dr Foster.
Once you’re ready to get back to your regularly scheduled yoga programming, don’t push yourself too hard, as pain may manifest itself after class rather than during your practice. Dr Foster also suggests you skip any poses that you think might have contributed to your yoga butt injury, like lotus pose, until you’re feeling 100 and have had a chance to strengthen your hamstrings and properly. Here are some yoga-based exercises Dr Foster suggests doing prior to your yoga practice in order to engage and activate your hamstrings and glutes to help them get stronger.
This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za
Image credit: iStock
NEXT ON HEALTH24X
Nikki Moreno had spent nearly a year struggling for breath, and nothing seemed to help.
Not the inhalers, not the antibiotics and other drugs. Nothing seemed to help her breathe, and nothing got rid of her constant cough.
Stage four lung cancer
It finally got so bad that she landed in the emergency room at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica.
Moreno was not prepared for the series of shocks that followed.
First, doctors told her that her left lung had completely collapsed. Then Moreno underwent a bronchoscopy that revealed the reason for her lung collapse – a two-centimetre tumour had blocked the airway.
Doctors diagnosed her with stage four lung cancer, and told her the cancer had spread to her brain, spine, kidney and pancreas.
Moreno had never smoked. She’d never lived with anyone who smoked. The most exposure to second-hand smoke she’d ever experienced was at outdoor concerts.
“I was completely shocked,” said Moreno, 43, a bookkeeper living in Los Angeles. “That was not at all what I expected it to be. I’d been researching my condition for months and on all of the search engines, nothing popped up that it might be lung cancer. So it hadn’t even crossed my mind.”
Not just a smoker’s disease
Lung cancer is thought of as a smoker’s disease, but as many as 20% of cases occur in people who’ve never smoked tobacco, said Dr Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer of the American Cancer Society.
There are so many cases of non-smoker lung cancer that “if you look at it from just a pure numeric standpoint, lung cancer in non-smokers is as frequent as other cancers, like ovarian cancer,” Wender said.
If it were placed in its own category, non-smoker lung cancer “would still be the seventh most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States,” said Dr Nathan Pennell, director of the lung cancer programme at the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center.
Unfortunately, because lung cancer is so heavily associated with smoking, many non-smokers who develop the deadly disease aren’t diagnosed until the cancer has started to ravage other parts of their bodies, the experts said.
“Both the patients themselves, the family members and even the clinicians aren’t as quick to think about lung cancer as a cause of symptoms,” Wender said. “We have so many stories of patients who develop lung cancer where their diagnosis was delayed for many months because they were being treated with inhalers and antibiotics for symptoms that in fact turned out to be lung cancer.”
Overall, about 13% of all new cancers are lung cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. Nearly 230 000 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed in 2019, and more than 142 000 people died from the disease.
It started with shortness of breath
Moreno’s journey started about 10 months before her 2018 diagnosis, when she found herself short of breath for no good reason.
“I was walking my dog one day and got to the end of the block and realised I couldn’t breathe,” Moreno said. “I thought that was weird, but I didn’t think much of it until it was constant for two weeks.”
She saw a doctor and a series of pulmonologists, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with her even though her breathing was getting worse and she’d developed a daily cough.
They gave her inhalers that helped a little, but her breathing problems persisted, Moreno said. Chest X-rays revealed nothing.
By early November, Moreno says she was in terrible shape.
“I had cold sweats in the morning and at night,” Moreno recalls. “I was dizzy. I was almost passing out.”
Things finally got so bad that she went to the ER, where she learned that she had lung cancer.
Her family – husband Tony and daughters Sofia and Vanessa – were as shocked as she was at the news.
“They were just devastated,” Moreno said.
But there was one glimmer of hope.
Genetic testing shows new drug might work
Genetic testing revealed that her cancer was related to a mutation in a gene called ALK, and a very effective drug called alectinib (Alecensa) had been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2017 to treat that specific form of genetically driven lung cancer.
The drug works so well that doctors held off on surgery and other therapies to give the pill a chance to work, Moreno said.
“When they found out what type of mutation I had, they said we’re going to wait because these pills have been shown to work very effectively everywhere, even in the brain,” Moreno said.
Lo and behold, the pill worked as advertised.
“When I went back for my first scan two or three months after I started the pills, all of the tumours in the brain were completely gone and everything else was shrinking,” Moreno said.
Moreno is feeling much better now, even though doctors are still keeping a close eye on her. She’s back to working part-time, and is going to school to get her master’s degree in accounting.
Causes not limited to smoking
Genetics are just one reason a non-smoker might develop lung cancer. Another is exposure to radon, a colourless and odourless radioactive gas that wafts up from under homes.
Pennell said, “We know exposure to radon is probably the second biggest attributable risk for lung cancer, besides tobacco smoke.”
Anyone, smoker or not, should talk with their doctor if they experience lung-related symptoms that don’t seem to clear up over time, Wender and Pennell said.
These might include:
“Patients know themselves pretty darned well. The big challenge for patients is to not be in denial,” Wender said. “They think, ‘I’m going to get better. This is going to get better. I don’t need to go to the doctor.'”
Be on the lookout for a cold that doesn’t behave typically – for example, one in which you develop a cough but no runny nose, and that doesn’t seem to be getting better over time.
“If it’s not ‘normal’, that means there’s a cause. You owe it to yourself to find the cause,” Wender continued.
Research needs more funding
Lung cancer doesn’t get as much research funding as other cancers, even though it’s the second-leading killer of men and women in the United States, Pennell noted.
“More Americans die of lung cancer than the next four most common cancers combined, and it gets just a fraction of the research funding,” Pennell said. “There just isn’t the same public awareness and advocacy campaigns out there as there are with the more ‘blameless’ cancers.”
Wender doesn’t think that lung cancer is underfunded because of its association with smoking, however.
He suspects it’s more to do with the fact that, until recently, most people who got lung cancer didn’t survive for long.
A ‘loud voice’
“It’s more related to the number of survivors. If there’s not a big cohort of survivors, then there’s less advocacy, there’s less lobbying for research dollars,” Wender said.
“I sure hope it’s not less funding because the tobacco industry addicted young people and it resulted in their deaths,” Wender continued. “Nobody should be blamed for developing lung cancer. I don’t care if you’re a smoker or a non-smoker. It’s not your fault. We know it’s the tobacco industry that got you hooked, and nicotine is highly addicting.”
With the development of new therapies like alectinib, there’s hope that more people will survive lung cancer and go on to be powerful advocates for funding research, he added.
“We’re going to have more lung cancer survivors for a longer and longer time, and they’re going to be a loud voice,” Wender said.
Image credit: iStock
Living with diabetes – especially if you need insulin to survive – is a never-ending job that can be life-threatening if done wrong. That constant daily stress can lead to “diabetes burnout”, a new study says.
Diabetics experiencing burnout are mentally and physically exhausted, feeling detached from their condition and apathetic about their need for self-care. Diabetes burnout can last hours or days, and sometimes weeks, months or even years, the researchers said.
Nothing left to give
“Diabetes is unique as a disease because the self-management requires constant activity, mental energy and physical energy,” explained Felicia Hill-Briggs, immediate past president for health care and education for the American Diabetes Association.
“You have to take medication, check your blood sugar, cook healthy, eat healthy, make sure you’re getting enough physical activity, and be sure to balance all those things,” said Hill-Briggs, who was not involved with the study.
She likened living with diabetes to running in a marathon: Even the best-trained and most elite athletes sometimes collapse at the end of a long race, with nothing left to give.
“You reach a point where you can’t do any more until you step back, and rest and rejuvenate,” Hill-Briggs said.
The new study, led by researcher Samereh Abdoli from the University of Tennessee, included interviews with 11 women and seven men (average age: 38) with type 1 diabetes. Seven people said they were currently experiencing diabetes burnout. All said they had gone through it during the past year.
Tired all the time
One 36-year-old woman said: “It’s exhausting, it is exhausting. It really is, to constantly take care of yourself and have to worry about everything you eat, everything you do, every move you make.”
A 22-year-old woman echoed that sentiment: “You’re tired all the time, I mean physically, you’re just feeling old, feeling worn out.”
Besides exhaustion, the study identified other themes:
Becky Lois is a child and adolescent psychologist at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone in New York City. She also wasn’t part of the research.
“Burnout is almost unavoidable,” Lois said. “You didn’t ask for diabetes. Sometimes it’s out of your control. And it’s really hard when it feels like everyone is telling you what to do.”
It’s great, she said, if people can recognize the distress that precedes burnout and work with their health care provider before burnout occurs. A simpler regimen might help. Maybe a loved one could remind you to check your blood sugar (or stop repeatedly reminding you). Having conversations with the people in your support system can really help, Lois said.
Ease up on the guilt
Hill-Briggs agreed it’s better to be proactive.
“Try to plan ahead of time how you might deal with burnout,” she said. “Do you want to go off your insulin pump for a week and do shots instead? Do you want to eat that food you never allow yourself? Or have a few days where your blood sugar won’t be as tightly managed?”
Hill-Briggs urged patients to ease up on the guilt trips. “Relax the sense of guilt,” she said. “Give yourself permission to lift your foot off the pedal for a little bit. It’s impossible to be perfect all the time.”
The study was published in the American Journal of Nursing.
Image credit: iStock
Love spicy food? (Yes!) Want a healthier gut? (Uh, sure? Why not!)
Well, if you’ve given the jars of kimchi popping up at the grocery store the side-eye, know this: The traditional Korean dish offers numerous health benefits, for your stomach and beyond.
Not sure what kimchi actually is? Made by fermenting cabbage, kimchi is sort of like the Asian version of sauerkraut, a longtime staple of German diets. However, while sauerkraut is typically made with white cabbage and spiced with caraway seeds, kimchi, on the other hand, uses Chinese cabbage and is spiced with garlic and chilli paste, says dietician Jessica Cording, author of The Little Book of Game-Changers: 50 Healthy Habits For Managing Stress & Anxiety.
Despite their ingredient and flavour differences, both sauerkraut and kimchi have long been incorporated in traditional cooking — and for good reason. These fermented dishes are an easy, low-calorie way to up your vegetable intake and load up on health-boosting bacteria (a.k.a. probiotics).
Though kimchi has often been treated as a mere condiment, increased interest in all-things gut health is finally putting the spicy stuff front and centre.
Whether you already add kimchi to all of your salads or have never purchased a jar in your life, the stuff is darn good for you. Along with its spicy kick come a number of impressive health perks. Seriously, you might want to pick yourself up a jar (or two).
“Like other fermented veggies and foods, kimchi is rich in beneficial probiotics,” explains New York City-based dietitian Samantha Cassetty. These healthy-for-you bacteria have been linked with many health benefits, all of which start in the digestive tract.
Eating kimchi can help improve the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut, ultimately benefiting your gut health, adds Alissa Rumsey, a nutrition therapist and owner of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness.
No shocker here: Kimchi’s digestive benefits carry over to your immune system, too. The probiotics in kimchi are “beneficial for immune function because the majority of immune function takes place in the gut,” says Cording. When your gut is in good shape, your immune system is better able to function optimally, she says.
Though the exact link between kimchi and cholesterol isn’t totally clear, several studies have founds that people who eat kimchi regularly tend to have lower levels of “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. “Scientists aren’t sure which ingredients in kimchi, exactly, are responsible,” says Rumsey. (Cabbage, hot red peppers, garlic, leeks, ginger, and lactic acid bacteria — some of the common ingredients used in kimchi—all offer potential health benefits in their own rights.)
In addition to supporting healthy cholesterol, kimchi can also do your heart good by upping the levels of antioxidants in your body, says Cassetty. “Antioxidants help stabilize damaged cells that can accelerate the disease process, so having a high antioxidant status can protect you from chronic conditions, like heart disease,” she explains.
Excess or chronic inflammation takes a serious toll on your health over time, and probiotics (like you’ll find in kimchi) “can have an anti-inflammatory effect on the gut,” Cassetty says. In fact, one animal study published in the Journal of Microbiology found that a specific strain of probiotic found in kimchi reduced several markers for inflammation in the gut.
Another indirect result of a healthy gut: a better-working brain. “Keeping the digestive system healthy is also important for the brain, because the enteric nervous system in the gut communicates with your brain,” Cording says. This gut-brain connection requires a healthy gut to function properly.
Okay, obviously eating kimchi won’t magically make you drop pounds. However, it can be a really helpful tool in your healthy lifestyle. “Kimchi is a flavourful, low-calorie option,” Cassetty says. People tend to overeat when their food is boring or bland but, “when you add flavourful elements like kimchi to meals, it’s easier to feel satisfied with a healthier portion size,” she explains.
Unlike sauerkraut, traditional kimchi has some serious kick to it — and that can be an issue for some people. “If you’re sensitive to spice, either use just a little bit or look for versions with less heat,” Rumsey says.
Also worth noting: According to Cassetty, that spiciness can also trigger acid reflux in people who are prone to it.
Plus, some people may experience bloating after eating fermented foods — and considering kimchi is made with cabbage (another known bloat-inducer), it can spell trouble for people who get gassy easily, Cassetty points out.
Finally, just keep in mind that many kimchi products contain plenty of sodium, so keep your portions in check to keep from going overboard on the salt.
You can find kimchi in lots of local grocery stores these days (check the refrigerated section), but you can also make it at home if you prefer to DIY. Though every recipe is slightly different, kimchi is generally made with Chinese cabbage, salt, water, garlic, ginger, sugar, fish sauce, red pepper flakes, daikon radish, and scallions.
Basically, you chop up the cabbage, combine it with the other ingredients, seal it in a jar, and let it ferment at room temperature for a few days. From there, store it in the fridge.
Lucky for your gut, kimchi is pretty versatile and can add a little heat to all sorts of savoury dishes.
Cording recommends using kimchi as a topper on salads and vegetable dishes, and adding it into stir-fries. It also adds delicious flavour to soups, grain bowls, and eggs, Rumsey adds. Heck, you can even use it to punch up a burger.
Of course, you have full permission to also just eat it straight out of the jar when you’re craving a little spiciness…
This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za
Image credit: iStock
NEXT ON HEALTH24X
As the year comes to an end and the holiday indulgences just keep on coming (d*mn you, office cookie parties!), you may already be considering a weight-loss plan to try out for the New Year. One that’s been around for years and likely isn’t going anywhere? Cutting carbs.
And then there’s keto, the über-popular, high-fat extension of that. But if you’re considering slashing those delicious carbohydrates at all, you might be wondering: What exactly makes keto different from low-carb diets in general? And really, who would win in a low-carb vs. keto face-off?
Let’s start with some background. The ketogenic diet was created in the 1920s to treat children with seizure disorders for whom medication was no longer working. Research had shown that being in the state of ketosis – meaning the body is using fat for fuel instead of its natural and preferred source, glucose – reduced the frequency of seizures. The fat-burning benefit obviously gave this diet its now mass appeal.
Low-carb diets, on the other hand, have also been around for decades, but in various forms. Remember the Atkins and South Beach diets, which gained popularity in the early 2000s? Both prime examples of diet based on minimizing carb intake, especially simple and refined carbs (white bread, pasta, cake… you know, the good stuff).
Even though people often confuse keto with the more generic term “low-carb,” according to Brigitte Zeitlin, a registered dietitian and owner of BZ Nutrition in New York City, they’re actually quite different.
First and foremost, keto is a much more restrictive diet, says Zeitlin. While keto is indeed a low-carb diet, not all low-carb diets are keto.
The keto diet has a pretty strict structure, where the person is to consume 70 percent of their daily calories from fat, 20 percent from protein, and 10 percent from carbohydrates. Ten percent of anything, especially carbs, is really not a lot. And some people even take it further, to a 70-percent fat, 25-percent protein, 5-percent carbs breakdown.
Going low-carb, on the other hand, is a bit up to interpretation: What you consider low-carb might mean cutting out every kind of grain or sugar, while to others, it may include eating a piece of fruit or a serving of quinoa. It’s all very relative.
With a general low-carb diet, you’re probably (and hopefully) not eating nearly as much fat as you would if you were trying to force your body into ketosis. Instead, you’re loading up on more lean proteins and veggies to stay full and energized.
READ MORE: Keto Vs. Whole30: These Are The Key Differences Between The Diets, According To RDs
Great Q. While the answer isn’t totally black and white, Zeitlin says that for most healthy people, if you’re trying to lose weight, a low-carb diet would be the better fit because it doesn’t aim to put your body into an unnatural state (ahem, ketosis). Instead, by cutting back on foods that are high in sugar and starches, you’re able to drop weight and still maintain a healthy form of energy for your brain and body to run on.
“Typically, a low-carb diet focuses on protein and non-starchy vegetables, and limits grains, fruits, breads, sweets, and starchy veggies like legumes, potatoes and peas,” Zeitlin explains. Protein and veggies are extremely helpful in aiding – and maintaining weight loss – she continues. Plus, a general low-carb diet can be more sustainable in the long run, since it requires way less macro counting (read: obsessing over hitting that 70/20/10 ratio).
READ MORE: Do You Really Need To Give Up Carbs To Lose Weight?
To each their own! But if you’re interested in trying out the keto diet, just keep in mind that it generally comes with more side effects than a normal low-carb eating plan.
Short-term effects of the keto diet can include “keto breath,” “keto flu,” (flu-like symptoms brought on by the body adapting to this very low-carb diet), or fatigue.
Long-term effects can include constipation, diarrhoea, lack of energy, iron deficiency, vomiting, and kidney stones. Not to mention, eating such a high-fat diet like keto can also contribute to high triglyceride levels, which increase your risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as high cholesterol. Lastly, going keto can also contribute to a weakened immune system (since carbs help boost immunity) and chronic inflammation, says Zeitlin.
It’s also worth noting that keto’s strict carb limits often means drastically cutting your vegetable intake, since many veggies have at least some amount of carbs. That could mean you miss out on important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that help your body function at its best. You’ll also likely consume less fibre, which has been shown to prevent heart disease, diabetes, and promote and sustain weight loss.
“When evaluating restrictive diets, you want to really look at the food groups they are removing and research the downsides of eliminating those vitamins, minerals, and nutrients,” says Zeitlin. “Any diet that is restricting your plant-based food intake should give you pause to do more research.”
All that said, if you try the keto diet and it works for you, do you, Zeitlin says. “But if you are someone who is debating which fad diet to try for weight loss, I recommend trying a lower-carb diet that’s not as restrictive.”
Definitely! To successfully maintain weight loss from either (or any) diet, Zeitlin advises focusing on doubling your veggies, eating lean proteins (fish, eggs, chicken, turkey, shellfish, lentils, tofu), healthy fats (nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil), fresh fruit, and whole grains. “That is what is going to help the weight come off and stay off,” she says.
At the end of the day, “you want to create a diet for yourself that feels comfortable for you to commit to for the long-term, so you don’t gain and lose, gain and lose—called weight cycling—and feel like you are constantly dieting.” The first can invite health problems (like insulin resistance); the latter is, well, not fun (or all that healthy, mentally speaking).
Remember, your ultimate goal beyond the weight loss is to become healthier. So don’t fall into a diet trap that sabotages the real purpose for your journey. You’re better than that, my friend.
This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za
Image credit: iStock
NEXT ON HEALTH24X
If you’re the kind of person who sleeps nine or more hours a night or takes long afternoon naps, you may want to worry about your stroke risk, a new Chinese study suggests.
According to the research, people who sleep and nap too long may increase their risk for stroke by 85%. Regular 90-minute midday naps can raise the risk 25%, compared with not napping or napping for only 30 minutes.
Only an association
“People, especially middle-aged and older adults, should pay more attention to their time spent in bed attempting to sleep and midday napping, and sleep quality, because appropriate duration of sleep and nap, and maintaining good sleep quality may complement other behavioural interventions for preventing stroke,” said researcher Dr Xiaomin Zhang. He is a professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China.
Zhang cautioned that these findings don’t prove long napping and sleeping cause stroke, only that there is an association.
It’s not clear how sleep and the risk for stroke are connected. Other studies, however, have found that excess sleep and poor sleep quality are linked to high cholesterol and obesity, both of which are risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Zhang said.
For the study, Zhang’s team collected data on nearly 32 000 people in China whose average age was 62. During an average of six years of follow-up, more than 1 500 participants suffered a stroke.
The researchers took into account factors that can increase the risk for stroke, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.
Increased risk for stroke
Even so, they found that those who slept nine or more hours per night were 23% more likely to have a stroke, compared with people who slept seven hours or less per night.
People who slept long hours at night and took long naps during the day were most at risk for stroke, the researchers found.
Disturbed sleep was also tied to a 29% increase in the risk for stroke, compared with people whose sleep quality was good.
The study had a couple of limitations. First, the findings were based on self-reported sleep habits, and second, these findings may only apply to older people.
Neurologist Dr Salman Azhar, director of stroke at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, thinks that improving the quality of your sleep is more important than sleeping more.
“Number one, addressing sleep apnoea, which is underdiagnosed and undertreated,” he said. “This study confirms what other studies have shown – that insomnia and sleep apnoea are bad for you and increase your risk of stroke.”
Limited activity
Secondly, there’ s clearly some relationship between extended sleep hours or extended midday naps and increasing stroke risk, Azhar said.
“If you sleep so much, you’re actually decreasing your activity and a reduction in activity leads to a number of things that increase your risk of obesity, poor sugar control and blood pressure being out of whack,” he said.
The bottom line, Azhar believes, is that too much sleep or poor sleep limits your activity, which in turn increases your risk for stroke.
The report was published online in the journal Neurology.
Image credit: iStock
Whether you’re a fitness beginner or an advanced gym-goer, bodyweight moves are always a great choices. If you’re new to fitness, bodyweight exercises help you learn how to work with your own body.
And if you’re more advanced, they’re great for an active recovery day from lifting at the gym. Not to mention, if you need a convenient workout while travelling – these moves have you covered.
Now, if you’re looking for some bodyweight moves to build up strength or crank out in your hotel room, I’ve got you covered. Check out 13 great bodyweight leg exercises below, plus how to turn these moves into a full bodyweight leg workout.
Keep in mind, as you become more experienced with bodyweight exercises, you can make them more challenging by adding explosiveness and power – such as adding jumps into exercises or changing the stability by going for single-leg movements.
Time: 15-30 minutes
Equipment: None
Good for: Legs and butt
Instructions: Choose six moves below. Complete 8-10 reps for beginners (2-3 rounds), 10-12 for intermediate (3-4 rounds), and 15-30 reps for advanced (3-5 rounds). Continue from one exercise to the next without pausing.
How to: Stand about two feet in front of a step; extend your left leg back and place your foot on the step. (Optional: Hold a dumbbell in each hand.) That’s your starting position. Bend your knees to lower your body as far as you can (or until your knee hovers right above the ground), keeping your shoulders back and chest up. Pause, then press through your right heel to return to start. That’s one rep.
How to: Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor 30 to 40 centimetres from your butt. Brace your core, then press into your heels and squeeze your glutes to raise your hips toward the ceiling. Hold the position for two seconds before lowering to start. That’s one rep.
READ MORE: The 15 Inner Thigh Exercises Your Workout Needs
How to: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, toes forward, with your hands in front of your chest. Bend your knees, then explosively jump as high as you can. Land softly on the balls of your feet and immediately lower into your next squat.
How to: Stand with your feet spread out wider than your hips. Then push your hips back, bend your right knee, and lower your body until your right knee is bent 90 degrees. This should take about two seconds. Push back to start. That’s one rep.
How to: Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Rest your arms on the floor, palms up, at shoulder level. Raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Brace your abs and lift your right foot so it extends away from your body, while staying in line with your thigh. Pause, then lower your right foot. Repeat with the other leg. That’s one rep.
How to: Get on all fours on top of your mat. Keep your right knee bent at 90 degrees as you lift your leg into the air until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knee, your right foot flexed. From here, pulse your thigh up a couple of inches, then back down. That’s one rep.
How to: Start standing on your right foot, with left knee bent and foot elevated off the ground. Bend your right knee, and extend your left leg down until your knee is a few inches off the ground (you can use a bench or block for a marker), stretching your arms out in front of you for balance. Slowly return to start. That’s one rep.
How to: Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Step back with your right leg and bend both knees as you lower until your left knee is bent 90 degrees. Push through your left foot to stand, then repeat on the other side. That’s one rep.
How to: Stand on your right leg with your right palm facing towards your thighs. Lean forward, extending left leg straight behind you, until your torso is parallel to the floor. Drive into your left heel to return to the standing position. That’s one rep.
How to: Lie on your back with your arms out to the side, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Bend your left knee, and keeping your leg at a 90 degree angle, bring it toward your chest. Squeeze your glutes to lift your hips evenly off the floor, then lower. That’s one rep.
How to: From a standing position, jump a few feet to your right side. Land on your right leg with your left knee bent in front of you, left arm at your side, and right arm raised, elbow bent at 90 degrees. Reverse the movement by hopping onto your left foot and repeating the same thing on the opposite side. That’s one rep.
How to: Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Push through your right foot and bring your left knee toward your chest. Immediately repeat on the other side. That’s one rep. Continue hopping from one side to the other.
How to: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hands at your sides. Sit your hips back, and lower down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Bring your hands out in front of you for counter-balance. Return back to start. That’s one rep.
This article was originally published on www.womenshealthsa.co.za
Image credit: iStock
NEXT ON HEALTH24X