Eating For Health

Who hasn’t experienced the afternoon energy slump?   You did fine all morning, ate lunch and then about 2 or 3 pm, you have no energy, you are in an afternoon slump.   Some people then head to the snack machine for a candy bar in hopes that it will boost your energy.   It will, but then after the sugar rush your blood sugar may plummet and you are back to being tired.     Well rather than hit the snack machine for some high sugar, high salt food or grab a left-over donut in the break room, what are some ways and foods that can give you an afternoon pick me up?    What are some quick ways to deal with an afternoon slump?         Move around – so many people sit at their desk all day and even send an email to the co-worker next door.   Get up and ask the co-worker what you wanted instead of sending the email.   Get up and go the stairwell and go up and down a couple of flights of stairs. Drink some water . ...

Who doesn’t love sweets?   Always fun to enjoy some desserts like cookies, cake, candy.   But Americans eat way too much sugar, not just in desserts but in so many foods.   And it is the added sugar in foods that we need to cut back on, not the natural sugar found in fruits or even real cow’s milk.   What are some ways that we can cut back on all that added sugar and those cravings for sweets? Psychologists have studied how sugar affects our brains and body weight as noted in the Frontiers in Psychiatry .   The article notes that “studies have linked sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) to an increase in body weight in children and adults”.   What are sugar-sweetened beverages ?   Think sugar-sweetened sodas like Coke, Mountain Dew, Sprite, sports drinks like Gatorade, Powerade, sweet tea, sweetened coffee drinks like Frappuccino, energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster and fruit drinks like lemonade or fruit punch.   These beverages not only contain...