Chicken Tikka Masala

Heart Healthy Ingredient: Tumeric

Tumeric is found in most Indian curries and is what gives American mustard that yellow hue. It has also been shown to be a powerful anti-inflammatory and a great addition to your heart healthy lifestyle. Moreover, tumeric’s absorption is greatly increased when paired with black pepper. Try the recipe below that contains both!

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/quick_chicken_tikka_masala.html

Grilled Salmon with Soy & Brown Sugar Glaze

Heart Healthy Ingredient: Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 Fatty Acids, found in salmon, have been show to lower blood triglycerides, reduce inflammation and decrease cardiac arrest. They can also help repair heart damage and strengthen heart muscles. Check out the recipe below where you can get all the benefits of salmon AND the sweet taste of brown sugar!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-salmon-i/

Zesty Wheat Berry Black Bean Chili

Heart Healthy Ingredient: Fiber

The reason that high cholesterol is such a big deal is because it decreases the size of your arteries and puts more burden on your heart to push blood through your body. Increasing your fiber intake is the single best way to reduce cholesterol and make it so your heart doesn’t have to work as hard. Now, if you feel that the old adage “Beans, beans they’re good for your heart…” is a little less than romantic, feel free to try this recipe out on Super Bowl Sunday instead!

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/zesty_wheat_berry_black_bean_chili.html

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist and Salada Tea Spokesperson living in San Diego, CA. She blogs twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly at tara@taracoleman.com.

Here are the facts so you can determine if juicing is right for you:

The concept behind juicing is that you can quickly and easily get the vitamins and minerals from a ton of fruits and vegetables in one nutrient-dense package! You also remove the fiber so, in theory, the nutrients are absorbed more quickly. Not to mention the juices can taste amazing and you can sneak in some veggies that you would normally turn up your nose at!

The downside to juicing is it’s fairly time consuming to both juice and clean up, and it can create a lot of waste with the leftover skins and pulp. Some people do a great job of turning this “waste” into compost or using it for baking. But I find that, for the average person, these two factors are usually the reason that their juicer ends up in the cabinet collecting dust.

The removal of fiber can speed up the nutrient absorbance but it can also speed up the absorbance of sugar. What you may feel is a rush of energy and then a crash, similar to having a sugary drink but with a lot more vitamins & minerals. This can be dangerous if you are diabetic or have any blood sugar sensitivity. For this reason, I prefer blending my fruits & vegetables in a high-power blender like a Vita-mix. Although they can be much more pricy than a juicer, you will get all of the nutrients as well as the fiber. Alternatively, you can add psyllium husk or another fiber supplement to your juice to lessen the impact of the sugar.

My recommendation is if you want to try juicing is to ask around and see if anyone has a juicer you can borrow. You’d be surprised how many people will have one hiding in their basement. Try it out for a few weeks and see how it goes! Pay attention to how you feel and again, consider adding fiber to your juices to slow the sugar absorption and keep you full a bit longer. As with everything, you are the best judge of how things impact you so if you love it and feel great go out and buy your own.

Happy juicing!

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist and Salada Tea Spokesperson living in San Diego, CA. She blogs twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly at tara@taracoleman.com. 

Canned Tomatoes – I’m actually going to expand this to all canned vegetables. The main danger of canned vegetables (specifically the acidic ones like tomatoes) is that the cans contain a synthetic estrogen called BPA, which can leach into the food. BPA has been linked to all sorts of major diseases but specifically those related to your reproductive system. In addition to BPA, as the vegetables sit in the can, most of the important vitamins and minerals are leached out into the surrounding water. So unless you are drinking the juice (gross), you’re missing a lot of the essential nutrients.

Instead: Try vegetables packaged in glass or even frozen vegetables. A vegetable is most nutritious the second it is harvested. Frozen vegetables are flash frozen immediately after harvesting so in some cases they can contain more nutrients than their fresh alternatives.

Nonorganic Apples – This year the apple skyrocketed to the top of the “Dirty Dozen” list, an honor that no produce wants. This means that nonorganic apples have the highest amount of pesticides.

Instead: Buy organic. If you can’t afford organic, make sure to wash, wash, wash your apples before eating.

Corn/Soy-Fed Beef – Close your eyes and picture a cow in a meadow. What’s he doing? Eating grass, right? That’s what they were designed to do, however, factory farmed cows are fed corn and soy because it’s cheaper and fattens them up faster. Unfortunately, it also decreases their nutrient profile making them lower in O-3’s and vitamins and minerals and higher in saturated fat. 

Instead: Opt for grass-fed beef. As the damage of corn-fed beef becomes more apparent grass-fed options have been popping up at more and more grocery stores. It tends to be more expensive, but if you are going to spend your money on one thing, this will have the greatest impact. You can also visit www.EatWild.com and find a local farmer to buy from directly.

Microwave Popcorn – This one actually makes me the saddest because popcorn is one of my favorite treats! However, microwave popcorn bags contain chemicals that have been linked to infertility and cancer. They will actually be phasing out these chemicals by 2015, but I suggest you phase them out by 2012!

Instead:  Pop your own! It is way cheaper and actually tastes better. Don’t have an air-popper? What a perfect time to ask Santa…or Amazon!

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist and Salada Tea Spokesperson living in San Diego, CA. She blogs twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly at tara@taracoleman.com. 

Q:  I just saw my doctor and my blood pressure was found to be “borderline high.” What does that mean and can exercise help get my blood pressure down?

A:  High blood pressure is very common, especially as we age. If left untreated, high blood pressure could lead to strokes and kidney disease and can contribute to cardiovascular disease, which can lead to heart attacks.

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure,  is defined as blood pressure that is consistently found to be higher than 140/90. Recent research has determined that the best range for blood pressure is actually 110-120/70-80. If your blood pressure is higher than the range mentioned above, you should meet with your doctor as soon as possible to discuss your options and to determine whether or not it is safe to exercise.

Lifestyle management is key to lowering blood pressure, such as achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, limiting sodium in your diet to less than 2000 mg in a day, limiting alcohol to less than 2 ounces per week and doing regular cardiovascular training. Studies have shown that individuals, who spent a total of 150 minutes exercising per week in equally divided increments, were 14% less likely to develop coronary heart disease. In fact, just 15 minutes a day of low intensity activity can decrease mortality and lengthen your life!

The best plan is shoot for a minimum of 30 minutes of aerobic activity on most days of the week. Stay away from heavy weight training until your blood pressure is better controlled as it can actually aggravate hypertension by raising the resistance of blood flow through your muscles. Total Gym users with high blood pressure – stay at a lower incline level to continue to strengthen and stretch muscles at a lower intensity. If your blood pressure remains elevated beyond the ideal ranges after being consistent with lifestyle changes for 4-6 weeks, you should meet with your doctor to discuss what other options are available to you in order to maximize your health.

Exercise will temporarily raise your blood pressure, so exercising when your blood pressure is high and not controlled is not safe. Always talk to your doctor if you are not sure if exercise is safe for you.

So, until next time, stay healthy, KEEP MOVING and enjoy your Total Gym!

Elizabeth Salada, MD

Dr. Salada is board certified in Internal Medicine and has been in practice in San Diego since 1996. She attended medical school at Wake Forest University where she received high honors in Family Practice and Internal Medicine. Her final training was obtained from Pennsylvania State University where she completed her residency in Internal Medicine.

Visit Dr. Salada’s website for more information: http://elizabethsaladamd.com/.

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Power bars can be a convenient way to eat on the go or fuel your workouts. However, if you look closely, you will find that many of these “healthy” options are nothing more than glorified candy bars!

The first thing you need to identify is what you are going to use the bar for? Is it a snack, a pre-workout meal or a full meal replacement? Once you have that determined you can follow these quick tips to help select the healthiest option:

Snack Bar – If you are using a power bar as an afternoon snack to keep you fueled during the day, shoot for something between 150-200 calories. Protein and fiber should be your main focus for this option because they will keep you full and energized much longer than the high sugar alternative. Try to find a bar with 8-15g of protein and make sure the grams of sugars and fiber are about equal.

Pre-/Post-workout Bars – These bars are designed to fuel you pre-workout or help start the recovery post-workout. Again, I recommend around the 200 calorie range for the average 45 min-1hr workout.  Carbohydrates are going to be the most important thing to look for, however, that doesn’t mean you should go sugar crazy! Choose a bar that has a majority of the carbohydrates in the “other carbohydrate” category rather than sugar.

Meal Replacement – The biggest mistake that I see people make is using a snack bar as a replacement for a full meal. If you only eat 200 calories as a meal, I promise that you will be pulling over at 7-11 or raiding the vending machine within the hour! Choose a bar that has between 350-450 calories. As with the snack bars, protein is going to be important so make sure it has between 10-20g of protein.

Finally, remember that these bars are meant to SUPPLEMENT a healthy diet, not replace one.  There are some great options out there but make sure that the majority of the food that you eat every day comes from a farm not a factory!

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist in San Diego, CA. She blogs twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave us your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly at tara@taracoleman.com.

Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.

OK, let’s get serious. After all, it’s your life I’m talking about here. How much weight do you say you need to lose, and how much weight do you really need to lose? Often these two are a good ten pounds, or more, apart.

Not sure? Click here to calculate your body mass index. It’s one of a number of reliable indicators to screen for weight categories related to life threatening illnesses.

America is getting heavier and heavier. One conservative estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points to one-third of us being obese—not overweight—but obese. More troubling, they tell us that nearly 20% of children and teens are also more than just overweight—they are obese.

We are eating ourselves to death.

So if you are more than 20% over your “ideal weight,” or a man carrying more than 25% body fat or a women carrying more than 32% body fat, you are obese. OK we got past that. Now let’s do something about it.

Remember, healthy nutrition is king and exercise is queen. Want a healthy kingdom? You need both. That’s where full-body, functional workouts come in. You see, literally ANY diet will help you lose weight. That’s not the hard part. The hard part is keeping it off with genuine, healthy, lifestyle changes. Socrates had it correct when he said, “The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live.”

Diet propaganda screaming about losing weight always reminds me of the magician who gets you to watch one hand when the other is hiding the card. Sure you can lose weight with any diet. The trouble is, at least as I have taught it to my patients over the years, diet=gaining weight, unless you have a post-diet plan. Even 20% of those who have bariatric bypass surgery regain their weight!

A Total Gym exercise plan can be an essential centerpiece of your post-diet healthy living plan, along with healthy nutrition and changing the way you think about yourself, your health and food intake. It’s important to manage your expectations and have a total-body game plan to increase a sense of being “able” to exercise, to avoid the feeling of “having to” exercise, and to erase the feeling of “learned helplessness” that comes from previous failed attempts at exercising.  The setting is all-important for comfort and self-esteem among those who may also face body-image issues.

A word about your readiness to get beyond just dieting. Mark Twain wasn’t necessarily attempting to motivate people to adopt a healthy life plan when he said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started,” though he may well have been. If you are reading this, you’ve identified yourself as contemplating, preparing or at the place where you are acting on establishing exercise as a habit.

You were designed for movement and activity and therefore it is essential in a post-diet healthy living plan to incorporate physical activity into your daily life. Still, half of those who begin exercise programming drop out within one year, and that means serious weight gain. Cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and mobility are all valuable for weight loss and maintaining health and wellbeing.  Working on stability and mobility before you move to more dynamic forms of functional exercise, which the Total Gym allows, helps prevent injuries.

When it comes to a Total Gym workout, keep in mind that the more muscles you recruit in any given exercise, the more calories you will burn during that workout session. A properly designed and followed Total Gym workout regimen will maximize your calorie expenditure in less time when compared to those machines that isolate only a single body part. You are able to fluidly move multiple body parts in different directions (side to side, rotating, front and back) on the Total Gym and therefore increase your calorie expenditure. Add to the fact that this type of workout involves your entire body, and you see why you burn calories at an even higher intensity.

Get moving on your Total Gym and get healthy. After all, as someone once said, “Your body is the baggage you must carry through life. The more excess the baggage, the shorter the trip.”

Here’s to a long trip!

Michael R. Mantell earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania after completing his M.S. degree in clinical psychology at the Hahnemann Medical College, where he wrote his thesis on the psychology of obesity. He has served as Chief Psychologist of Children’s Hospital and Health Center of San Diego, and created and led the nationally recognized Psychological Services and Employee Assistance/Wellness program for the San Diego Police Department. He is a member of the Sports Medicine Team at The Sporting Club in La Jolla, California, maintains a private clinical practice in La Mesa, California, and writes and speaks for the American Council on Exercise.

Here’s a look at what you would be eating on the Paleo Diet:

This diet may seem quite restricting to some, and to others it’s the cleanest way to eat. Let’s explore the Pros and Cons:

Pros:  When followed correctly, the Paleo Diet can be extremely healthy. Although you are cutting out many food groups that have become mainstream in our culture, you can still get all of the important nutrients from what is found in the “Can Eat” food groups. By removing the grains and processed food from your diet, you are almost guaranteed to lose body fat as well as reduce the risk and symptoms associated with diabetes and high blood pressure.This diet may seem quite restricting to some, and to others it’s the cleanest way to eat. Let’s explore the Pros and Cons:

Cons:  The majority of the cons revolve around logistics. Let’s face it, we are very much a starchy carbohydrate-based culture (which isn’t necessarily a good thing), so the burden is going to be on you to prepare and think ahead. People also tend to focus more on the protein portion of this diet than the vegetables, which can lower their fiber intake. Remember, our ancestors spent much more of their time gathering than hunting!

Recommendations:  As I said earlier, the Paleo Diet can be an extremely healthy way of eating, so if you are interested, give it a try! Here are a few suggestions to make your experiment easier:

Make sure you are eating enough! When we eliminate any food group from our diet, we usually don’t replace it and tend to eat less. This may seem like a good thing, but if you go too low in calories you are going to start to have cravings and end up falling off the wagon. Make sure to set yourself up for success by eating enough!

Plan ahead. Always make sure to have a snack that fits your Paleo plan on you. This way if you find yourself in a situation where there isn’t anything on your diet available to eat or you’re just plain hungry, you can get something into you before your hunger takes control!

A special note for endurance athletes and fitness enthusiasts:

Although there are some elite athletes who have excelled on this type of a plan, many have a tough time ensuring their bodies are properly fueled for endurance activity. If you are training for an event, I suggest adding in whole grains, beans or potatoes ONLY to your post-workout meal. This will refuel your short-term energy stores and increase your recovery time.

I also suggest if you are sweating a lot that you add a little sodium to your diet. The typical Paleo Diet is around 700mg of sodium, which may be too low if you are losing a lot of sodium during your workouts. As long as you don’t have high blood pressure, don’t be afraid to add a little salt to your meals on intense training days!

Have questions about the Paelo Diet and if it’s right for you? Leave a Reply below and Tara will answer your question.

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist in San Diego, CA. She blogs twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave us your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly attara@taracoleman.com.

Here’s Total Gym user and former “Biggest Loser” contestant Tracey Yukich with her tips for stay trim with a realistic healthy eating plan. Catch her Biggest Loser nutrition tips straight from the Ranch!

We are designed to sustain life and reproduce. Pain is associated with death and pleasure is associated with life. That’s why fire hurts and sleep feels good. From a dietary standpoint, we enjoy food highest in nutrients and calories – i.e. fat, sugar, starches, etc. When we get enough of these nutrients, we have hormones to turn off our hunger and cravings, which leaves us feeling satisfied.

Enter the world of artificial sweeteners. The main idea behind the “sweetener” is so you can get the sweet fix without the calories. Genius idea … but unfortunately it has not worked.

• The American Cancer Society found that out of 78,000 women, 7.1% of those who used artificial sweeteners gained weight compared to non-users.
• A San Antonio Heart Study followed 3,700 adults over 8 years and found that those who consumed more artificial sweeteners had higher BMIs (Body Mass Index), and the more they consumed the higher their BMI.

How could something that has zero calories cause weight gain? There are 3 schools of thought:

1. Artificial sugars increase sugar cravings. Your body associates calories with sweetness. When your body doesn’t get these calories, it becomes “starved” and causes you to eat more calories.
2. They damage the food-reward pathway that drives our desire to eat. The sweetness without calories approach of artificial sweeteners can ultimately cause an increase in sweet cravings.
3. Artificial sweeteners are thousands of times sweeter than sugar. With regular artificial sweetener use, our body gets used to the flavor and isn’t satisfied until it finds this level of sweetness. Unfortunately, this can’t be found in regular food, leaving us unsatisfied and prone to overeating.

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to everything from headaches to depression to cancer. Now, I could find just as many well-funded studies that say artificial sweeteners have absolutely no negative repercussions and encourage weight loss. The point of this article is not to scare you or bash an industry, but rather increase your awareness of what you are putting in your body.

The first step is to know when you are ingesting artificial sweeteners. First, if a product says zero sugars or calories and is not water, it most likely contains an artificial sweetener. Second, check the label. Look for the following artificial sweeteners: Saccharin, Aspartame, Sucralose, Acesulfame K or Neotame.

If you have any concerns, try taking artificial sweeteners out of your diet for a month and see what happens. Do you still have sugar cravings? Did you lose weight? Do you still have headaches? You are the best judge of the way something impacts your body. You may find that nothing changes, or you may be surprised that what you turned to for a calorie-free sweet fix may in fact be the very thing that was sabotaging your diet.

Stay tuned for Tara’s next column with advice about natural sweetener alternatives …

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist in San Diego, CA. She blogs twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave us your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly attara@taracoleman.com.

• Improves Your Skin – Your skin will be the first to show dehydration. You will either look dried out and fatigued, or puffy and bloated. Water flushes out the toxins and keeps your skin looking young and healthy.
• Helps Your Heart – When you are properly hydrated, your blood is thinner making it easier for your heart to pump blood through the body. This means less work for your heart so it can keep ticking for much longer.
• Flushes Toxins – Even though you are reading this blog, there’s still a lot of action going on in your body. You are thinking, breathing, digesting, etc. All of those actions create waste. A build up of that waste causes headaches, fatigue and cloudy thinking. It’s water’s job to flush that waste out of your body and keep you feeling healthy and energized.
• Increases Your Metabolism – Last but certainly not least, dehydration causes you to burn less calories. Your body can confuse thirst with hunger so you may end up eating more throughout the day.

As a rule of thumb, you should be drinking half your bodyweight in ounces of water each day. So if you are 150 lbs, you should drink 75 oz of water, or about 9 glasses. If you aren’t drinking anywhere near this amount of water, don’t start all at once or you will be running to the bathroom every 15 minutes! Ease into it by adding an extra 8 oz every 2-3 days to allow your body to actually absorb the water rather then it just going through you!

I know this is easier said than done. Sometimes I’m so busy that I’m surprised I even remember to breathe, let alone drink 8 oz of water every hour. Seriously, who has time to think about that? So I take the thought out of it and keep a reusable water bottle with me at all times. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to remember to take a refreshing swig when you simply keep it in your line of sight.

If you find water gets boring to drink throughout the day try jazzing it up a bit. You can add some fresh fruit to flavor the water or brew a pitcher of cool iced tea for added antioxidants. With each delicious sip, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a clear skinned, heart healthy, toxin-free, calorie burning machine!

Tara Coleman www.taracoleman.com

Tara Coleman is a Clinical Nutritionist in San Diego, CA. She’ll be guest blogging twice a month with “Tara’s Friday Bite.” Leave us your comments with ideas for future topics or email Tara directly attara@taracoleman.com.