Eating For Health

Everyone knows exercise is good for you, but exercise can be walking every day.   Recent research has good news about how healthy walking is.    Walk After Eating For those with Type 2 diabetes this is especially important but walking after eating is a healthy practice many of us may want to consider.   Walking at any time during the day is a healthy habit.   But walking after eating a meal, seem to have special health benefits. o    Lower blood sugar levels – every time you eat, your blood sugar goes up as your body digests the food.   Taking a walk after you eat, helps lower your blood sugar level. Those who walked after eating had 12% lower blood sugar levels than those who walked at other times a day.   Those who walked after dinner, lowered their blood sugar by a whopping 22%.    So walking anytime is good, but walking after the evening meal is an especially healthy habit. o    Helps prevent heart disease – Higher blood sugar levels is a risk for heart disease so

Now that the leaves are turning and summer crops are gone, purchase some healthy fall produce.    Some farmers’ markets are still open and if not, head to your local supermarket.   Here are some healthy choices for fall produce: (Adapted from:   9 Fall Produce Picks to Add to Your Plate ) Pumpkins – not just for carving but for eating.    Pumpkins are loaded with vitamin A, full of fiber, basically fat free, offers lots of potassium.   Make some pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins.   Pumpkin pie does have some added sugar but also offers a lot of healthy nutrients. Sweet Potatoes – so many people avoid potatoes because they think they are fattening.   It is the add-ons like sour cream, that add the calories.   Sweet potatoes are low in fat but loaded with nutrients including vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, and fiber.    When eating out, choose the baked sweet potato over the baked white potato for a nutrition boost.   Enjoy some mashed sweet potatoes, or cut some up, top with cinnamo

What fun to go hiking in the fall.    We just got back from hiking in the Shenandoah National Park.   Cooler weather, wonderful views, trees starting to turn colors and a great and fun way to exercise.    If you are hiking or going on a picnic this fall, bring some homemade trail mix.   If you make it yourself, or “make” it from bins in your local grocery store you can pick the options and the quality of the mix.   Sports Nutritionists and other recommend trail mix as a healthy way to refuel.   The fruit in trail mix offers many health benefits such as being good for your heart.   A 2016 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found those who ate one-half cup of fruit a day lowered their risk of heart disease.   And for those who forgo nuts because nuts are high in fat, a lot of research shows a handful of nuts a day can help you maintain, not gain weight.   Other studies show that eating nuts can help you lose weight.   And the fat in nuts is a heart healthy fat.   So what are

Eating out, what fun!    Last week we talked about how you can enjoy eating out with family and friends but making healthier choices when you do eat out.   As discussed, Consumer Reports has two excellent articles on how one can eat out and make choices that provide less total fat, fewer calories and less sodium.   You can read more about healthier menu options at Dining Out:   Where America Eats and How to Eat Healthier at Restaurant Chains .     This week we will look at menu options that are over the top in calories and fat and healthier choices at two popular restaurants.    A relative was recently eating out at Olive Garden with some friends.   Her friend ordered, The Tour of Italy, a dinner classic recipe.   This relative calls the Tour of Italy, “heart attack on a plate”.   Why?   Maybe because it has 1520 calories just for this entre and 860 of those are calories from fat.   So even before one orders and eats the bread sticks, the salad and a dessert, they are over on ca