Eating For Health

Harvard School of Public Health recently tweeted, “How man y hours are you going to spend sitting down today?" Turns out this is an important health question as studies are finding the more you sit the higher your risk for diseases.   A recent study has indicated that sitting less can add to your life.  So how do you add years to your life?  This study found that people, who sat for less than 3 hours a day, could add 2 years to their life span.  Those that limited their TV viewing to less than 2 hours a day, added about 1.4 years to their life.  It seems sitting is a health risk factor just like obesity is a health risk factor.   So if you sit more, you die earlier?  Not exactly but sitting more increases your risk of dying earlier.  One of the authors for this study was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal ( Wall Street Journal blog ).  The author, I-Min Lee noted how she is trying to be more active by jumping up and down in her office when the lights go off as the

Many of us stop at Fast Food restaurants for a quick bite to eat. Are there healthier options like salads that would be a good choice to eat? What can you do to make your salad choice a healthier choice? WebMD recently ran an article written by a Registered Dietitian, Elaine Magee, about the Best and Worst Fast-Food Salads So which salads should you avoid and which are better choices? Surprisingly, she noted that some Fast-Food salads have as many calories and fat as a double Quarter Pounder with cheese which provides 740 calories and 42 grams of fat. Not really a low cal option. Some suggestions for healthier choices:  Choose grilled chicken on your salad and not “crispy” chicken  Choose your salad dressing wisely and limit the amount of salad dressing you use.    What makes a salad a good choice? Less calories, more fiber, less saturated fat   What makes a salad a “worst” choice? High saturated fat, high fat, high calories  Ms. Magee’s Best and Worst Fast Foo

Is Coffee Healthy? Do you drink coffee? Does coffee have any health benefits? Yes, it does according to a report by the Harvard School of Public Health. Two recent studies have noted the health benefits of drinking your morning cup of coffee.  One study led by a research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health (Elizabeth Mostofsky) found that one to two cups of coffee a day can lower our risk of heart failure by 11%. Of course, overindulging in coffee has harmful heart effects but one to two cups can be beneficial or our heart health.  A second study conducted by Jiali Han a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, noted that reported by Harvard looked at people who drank 3 or more cups of coffee a day. They found that this amount of coffee protected one from basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) and lowered one’s risk of getting basal cell carcinoma by 20%. Unfortunately for those who like decaf, there was no benefit as it seems the protective ingredient in coffee is th