Whole Grains to Curb High Blood Pressure

WebMD had an interesting article recently about how the regular consumption of whole grains may help lowering the risk of developing high blood pressure. I always being up and going first when it comes to finding healthier alternatives to the foods I already eat, whole grains are something I’ve integrated within my diet for years, even though I admit still consuming refined grains at times (now you can’t shun that kind of things all the time when having dinner at friends’, can you?).

The study followed 29,000 women 45-years old or more, of which 8,722 were newly diagnosed with hypertension, for ten years, and reported that eating four portions of whole grain a day would lower their risks of developing high blood pressure during the study by about 23%. Eating refined grains brought no particular benefit in that area. The study also tried to keep all the involved factors consistent, although it isn’t known (like in many studies, I suppose) if the involved women accurately reported their grains intake, or if other dietary changes played a role as well.

Are those fantastic findings? I don’t know, but still, it does make sense to me that whole grains containing more nutrients (after all, they are less refined–is it possible to have entirely non-refined food, anyway?–than their white counterparts), they must wield more benefits, whatever those may be, for our bodies. If it can help lowering blood pressure, it’s all the best.

As for introducing more whole grains in your diet, lots of these, I’ve found out, can easily replace your former white grains habits: brown rice can be used and eaten just like white rice, whole-wheat pasta like egg-pasta, etc. And there are plenty of other grains, such as oatmeal, buckwheat or quinoa, that can be involved in delicious recipes, whether for breakfast or for the other meals. As usual, make sure to carefully read the list of ingredients, to make sure those are indeed whole grains, and not just “multigrain” or “made with 100% wheat”, which doesn’t mean the same thing. (I’ve also noticed that in our stores here in France, real whole grains often don’t even need to be advertised with such words: they’re self-sufficient, so to say. But I don’t know how it goes in other countries.)

Exercising Outdoors In Winter

Yes, yes, I know we’re still in summer–although if you’ve been living in France these past three months, you may find it hard to believe. But one might as well write about it while the idea is fresh, and while we still have enough time to figure it out, and prepare for the cold season, right?

Constant exercise is a key in keeping in good health: you can’t just go jogging for four months, then give up your physical activity just because it’s a little too cold. However, if you’re remotely like me, exercising outdoors in winter (mainly in the case of cardio-like exercise) may really be a problem: while I’m not afraid of the weather, I tend to very easily catch colds, and every time I haven’t been extra careful in that regard, I’ve always caught something and been down for the following weeks. That’s neither pleasant nor convenient for me, and I’m not expecting it’d be for you. So here are a few things to keep in mind, especially if you’re new at exercising regularly and hasn’t had to do it during the cold months yet:

• Finding indoors alternatives: If you can go to a gym, a closed swimming pool, use fitness DVDs in your living room, or get a stationary exercise machine, then by all means, do it.
• Dress appropriately: Dressing in layers is the answer. Even outdoors in winter, you’ll be sweaty in no time, but if all you can remove is one huge layer of clothing that will then leave you with close to nothing, you’ll very likely become sick. A thin layer of synthetic material close to your skin, followed by insulating material, then waterproof clothes will help. A scarf or mask to warm the air you breathe is also useful–although, if you’re wearing glasses, you may want to switch to contacts, otherwise you won’t see anything (speaking of experience much, anyone?). And don’t forget gloves and a cap.
• Water! Because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean your body will need much less water than in summer. As said, you’ll sweat all the same (unless you’re not doing things properly), and you will risk dehydration, which cold air may even help to accelerate.
• Sunscreen (and potentially sunglasses too): If it’s been snowing, don’t forget that snow reverberates the light of the sun, so be careful, and don’t think it’ll be less aggressive for your skin and eyes just because it’s winter.
• End your workout with the wind in your back if possible. You’ll feel less cold.
• Be on the look-out for frostbite and other symptoms. If you notice hard, white patches on your skin, or worse, are starting to feel numb, stop running/skiing or whatever other activity you were doing, and go back to a warm place to seek assistance.
• Finally, learn to recognize your limits as well as that of the weather. If it’s really very cold and/or windy, swap to an indoors activity no matter what. There’s no use overdoing it and acting the brave guy or girl if it means straining your body too much (and fighting a real cold weather and chilly wind will strain your body with or without exercise anyway).

Walking and Aging

I’ve been thinking about all of this for quite some time. I can’t deny that I am trying to lose weight, but I am also focused on living a healthier life as a whole, whether in terms of foods or of exercising, and more and more, I’ve tried to research how all of this could influence not only my present self, but my future, older self as well.

We cannot know how we’ll be twenty, thirty, fourty years from now on. However, one thing I know is that I don’t want to be 60 and already needing a walking stick if I can avoid it. I can’t control the potential broken bones and other accidents I might get into in years to come; I can control my general level of fitness, and the kind of exercise and eating that are mine to prepare my old age, and preserve my ‘health capital’ as much as possible. And that’s why I’ve been paying more attention to an activity that everyone, save in the case of very heavy health problems, can probably perform from the moment they’re able to stand up all by themselves until they get really old: walking.

Walking is the most basic physical activity for a human being. We learn to walk at about 1.5 years old, and even earlier for some babies. Our feet and legs can carry us almost everywhere. We have actually been designed by evolution to walk all day long if needed. If for a reason we find ourselves unable to walk, we suddenly realize how painful it is, how frustrating. And the benefits of walking can be felt at every age, in every period of our life.

It helps strengthening your muscles and improving your balance and flexibility. It will make your blood circulation better. And if you walk often enough, and at fast enough a pace, more muscle mass in your lower body will also mean less strain on your bones and joints, as well as less lower-back problems (myself, I’ve never had as little problems in that area as since I’ve started to use my legs more). Not to mention that a better balance and more lean mass will prevent you from easily falling and fracturing a limb.

Of course, other types of exercise–swimming, biking, and more generally, an active lifestyle–will be just as good. But think about it. Walking is the very basics, it’s cheap, it’s convenient, and you don’t need much material to do it, except a pair of decent enough shoes. So please don’t keep it out of your mind, and think about the benefits it will bring you now and in the future. You may very well be suffering from arthritis, for instance, like many people in your old age; but keeping on moving (which is what every doctor will tell you to do in that case anyway!) will help you delay more important sufferings. And it is always good, for your morale and your quality of life, to be able to move (almost) freely as long as possible.

Foods Gone Bad

I’m a regular reader of the Mark’s Daily Apple blog, and even though lots of its articles catch my interest, this time I paid even more attention to one of its most recent posts: When do foods really go bad?

See, I am the kind of person who tends to not pay enough attention to those things. Unless the milk in its carton starts to turn yellowish, or my meat smells more like fish than anything else, I can let something become a little less healthy than recommended, simply because I’m a total airhead who has no clue about those things. But healthy living goes through the fridge as well, and having plenty of fruits and vegetables under the hand isn’t everything there is to it: produce also need to remain edible, after all.

So, first of all, this article will define the difference between “Sell by” and “Use by/Best if used by” (I learned something today, for sure). It then proceeds to let the reader know about dairy, eggs and produce, and for how long/under which conditions they may be kept in the fridge. Leftovers can be land mines in their own way (what’s that brownish stuff in the Tupperware box, there, at the back? Hasn’t it been there for the past two months?). As for meat and fish, these you really need to keep a close eye on, especially fish–when I get it fresh, I know I’d better eat it on the very day I’ve bought it, else (nasty) surprises start to appear. The article ends on a few more tips, and on a general rule that everyone should make sure of keeping in mind: “When in doubt, throw it out!” Sure, that’s money thrown out of the window, but it’s better than being sick. Or maybe it means it’s time we start to properly recognize our needs, and not buy too much food at once?

In any case, this is an article worth reading, and I hope you’ll find it as useful as I did.

Eco-running

Eco-running is something I had never thought of, and now I really wonder why, because it is good for the health, and good for the environment as well.

So what is eco-running? That’s simple! Put on your running shoes, take a couple of empty trash bags with you, start running, and whenever you see some trash lying on the road, the pavement or wherever you are, pick it up and put it in your bag. At the end of your run, not only will you have done some more exercise (picking up stuff while running IS a stride-breaking challenge when you’re not used to it), but you will also have helped keeping your area cleaner–or less dirty, depending on whether we want to see that glass half-full or half-empty.

Eco-running is nothing new in itself, but this movement doesn’t seem to be very well-known yet, and I think it’s a shame (Wikipedia didn’t even have an article about it until recently!). Of course, it also implies that you have to throw your trash bags in an appropriate place once you’re done, but that is sort of an evidence, isn’t it?

In any case, it is something I definitely want to try out. I’m already adding a little bit of my share to the spheres of ‘daily exercise’ and ‘keeping my planet clean’ by using a bike rather than the bus or a car, so why not push it just a little further? After all, a healthy living doesn’t have to include only ourselves–we can help in other areas by paying attention to what we do.

Cereals for breakfast? Yes, but…

We’ve all heard or read it by now: having breakfast is part of a healthy lifestylen whether we’re looking to lose weight or not, and will contribute to jumpstarting your metabolism after 8 or 9 long hours of fasting–certainly not the contrary! And for lots of people, myself included, cereals are an easy, convenient, yummy way of having a proper breakfast: good, whole grains will fill you up until late in the morning, provide you with much needed fiber, and prevent you from experiencing the nasty insuline-crash that makes so many people tired and cranky come 10 or 11 am.

But there is cereal and cereal, and what looks, sounds and tastes healthy may not always be so, no matter how many times the words “Whole Grain”, “Improved mix” or “Reduced Sugar” are stamped on the packaging. Let’s take what we often call ‘cereals for kids’. It’s for kids, right, so it must be full of nutrients and of positive little things? Well, not so much. In fact, both from studies and from personal experience, I now know that this kind of cereals is probably the worst we can feed ourselves (and our poor kids, come to think of it). Even the so-called ‘reduced sugar’ variety brings just as many calories as its high-sugar equivalent. Simply enough, sugars in it are replaced with… other refined carbs, nothing else. One just has to check the nutrition labels more closely to see that oh so small, but also so annoying change. Sugar or other refined carbs, isn’t that refined anyway in the end?

No need to say that it’s not worth it. Fortunately, there are truly healthier alternatives out there. Oatmeal, for instance–in spite of its reputation of bland food, a few blueberries or other fruits will already liven it up a lot. Or simple All Bran’s (290 kcal for 100g and plenty of fiber, according to what my box says, and in any case better than some cereal made of more sugar and chocolate than real wheat). And although I haven’t found this brand where I live, which means I couldn’t test it by myself, Kashi cereals are a good pick too. Basically, anything that is whole will be ten times better than what isn’t, even if you may feel that the difference in caloric intake is not that much perceptible to start with.

Also, make sure that your cereals contain enough fiber (5 grams or more per serving) and protein, and not too much sugar. Be on the look-out for whole wheat or wheat bran, to make sure it is as unprocessed as possible. Again, if you have the slightest doubt, read the label to make sure. And avoid hydrogenated oils like the plague (trans fats ahoy!).

No matter what your choices will be, I hope you’ll enjoy your really improved breakfasts as much as I enjoy mine.

All the benefits of vitamin K

Vitamin K: a matter of slight argument at times when I eat at my parents’, because I happen to love quite an amount of vegetables that contain it, while most of my family just isn’t too keen about veggies as a whole. Their loss, I say! Because the vitamin K in them is something that is really worth getting.

• It allows your blood to clot normally (both by making it happen and by regulating its whole process–we want clotting to stop at some point, too).
• It helps protect against osteoporosis (vitamin K1 helps maintain bone mass, and shouldn’t we women especially love this?).
• It prevent oxidative cell damage (let’s give one more kick to those free radicals: we need antioxydants!).

You might want to check whether your vitamin K intake is high enough if you notice you happen to bruise or bleed easily, experience malabsorption, or suffer from liver/gallbladder problems.

Vitamin K isn’t that hard to get. Actually, it is present in vegetables that could probably be considered as very common, such as green beans and spinach, or broccoli and green peas. The benefits listed above also aren’t all there is to it: it seems that research about vitamin K is progressing regularly, and is currently bent on analyzing, among other things, the way it can help our bodies to bind calcium. Besides, there’s another good thing with that vitamin: contrary to others, it is more resilient when cooked, which contributes to a lower loss of it than could be expected at first.

WHfoods.org has a very good, recent article about the benefits and effects of vitamin K, and I will encourage you to read it. (But beware if you need to take anticoagulant medications, though.)

The Raw Food Kitchen

I stumbled recently upon these videos, and not only do the recipes look interesting and delicious, they also feature whole foods, which are something I tend to advocate a lot when it comes to healthy eating and cooking. The show I’m talking about here is called Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Kitchen, and its installments can be watched online here (or on YouTube directly).

Ani Phyo is a vegan raw and living foods chef, which has to be mentioned, because it also conditions the kind of recipes you will be able to find in her videos. But for anyone wishing to try such a lifestyle, or simply in search of new, interesting recipes involving whole, raw foods (I’m not a vegan, but that doesn’t prevent me from liking to try new tastes and dishes to help my own cooking become livelier), I think these can be a fairly interesting source of ideas.

Finally, if you wish to know more about Ani Phyo and are generally interested about her website (and the recipes listed there as well!), you will find it here at http://www.aniphyo.com. Really, who wouldn’t want to give a shoot at some donut holes naturally sweetened with whole dates? Let’s admit it looks both yummy and devoid of any kind of processed foods constraints (and odd components).

Healthy lifestyle: Finding a gym easily

I’ve been thinking about mentioning this here for some time, but was a little hesitant because I was afraid it would seem like raw advertisement. However, the more I think of it, the more I realize it can be useful nonetheless, and shouldn’t fall victim to the fear of seeing it being lumped in the same basket as unwanted advertisement.

A few weeks ago, I was put in contact with this website called GymTicket. While it is geared at people living in the USA ‘only’, there is no doubt that there are way enough US people hanging around here for them to be indeed concerned and interested with such a webpage. Simply put, GymTicket helps you easily find a gym near where you live, thanks to its database of over 15,000 gym clubs all over the USA. The only thing you need to input is your address, city and state. Virtual tours of the available gyms are even proposed, so that you can check them more closely from home before actually deciding to give them a visit ‘in the flesh’.

Why is this interesting in and of itself? Well, I bet we all know that starting out an activity program isn’t always the easiest thing in the world, and that not being aware of what the nearby gyms are can also be a deterrent–or a good, convenient excuse, depending on how one wants to consider it (aren’t we human beings sometimes quick to rule out a solution just because it hasn’t been put directly under our nose?). So, if getting a nearby address plus a short tour to start with can help a person take his/her decision, to me it is a good thing.

I hope this may be useful to you. Personally, I sure wish I knew a similar website for gyms in my own country.

Exercise and Metabolic Syndrome

One of the Yahoo! health experts blog deal with diabetes, and today’s article on it deals with the relationship between the metabolic syndrome and exercise (or, rather, the lack thereof). “Metabolic syndrome” is a term I met for the first time at the beginning of this year, when I decided to make efforts regarding my weight, and naturally came to growing some knowledge about causes, effects and various matters related to health and weight loss.

So what’s metabolic syndrome? The post explains it in a few words:

The metabolic syndrome, identified by the presence of blood glucose levels between 100 and 125 mg/dL, high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, and increased abdominal girth, is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease.

While I cannot give any link to the report itself (I’d sure like to!), the entry goes on with describing some of its findings:

The report looked at estimates of physical activity in 1626 men and women 20 years of age or older. The likelihood of having the metabolic syndrome was almost twice as great among those who did not engage in moderate or vigorous physical activity (36 percent of participants) during leisure time, compared with those who reported 150 minutes or more of such activity weekly (only 20 percent of participants). Please note that this amount of weekly physical activity, two and a half hours, can be achieved by investing as little as 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

Television, videos, and computer use are major contributors to a sedentary lifestyle. In this study both men and women who watched television or videos or used a computer outside of work for 4 hours or more a day (22 percent of participants) were twice as likely to have the metabolic syndrome than those who engaged in such activity less than one hour per day (only 11 percent of participants).

I must admit that it’s not encouraging to see how little most people exercise nowadays; on the other hand, if, by taking half a hour every day to “make the effort”, I can minimize the risks, I honestly think it’s not paying much for staying in good health.

Recently, I’ve heard of a 20-years old girl with pre-diabetes (I don’t know to what it’s linked), and it’s simply frightening. I don’t know more, and perhaps her case is really specific and not linked to exercising or being overweight, but no matter what, it made me realize that as long as we have the chance to prevent such illnesses from declaring, we should take it.

Half a hour a day, five days a week, to minimize the diabetes risk I already have due to heredity and overweight? Nope, really not too high a price to pay, and I’ll pay it gladly.

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