Photo: ellajphillips
By: Allana Mortell
A typical American spends about 15% of his or her lifetime working in an office. How exactly all those hours are spent completely vary by individual but food, diets and consumption certainly come into play at some point or another. In a work environment, food is often used as camaraderie. Whether it’s a new promotion, celebrating a birthday or just enjoying casual cupcake Friday- the amount of food, especially unhealthy, brought into the workplace to be enjoyed amongst co-workers can significantly affect health and diets of all parties involved. Furthermore, a recent study by Survey Sampling International found out just how much co-workers are affecting and even sabotaging workplace diets of their colleagues.
A January 2012 survey of 325 individuals who have dieted or are dieting found that 29% of workers believed their colleagues was consistently damaging their healthy eating regimes. Fifty-three percent said co-workers pressure them to eat foods not on their diet, 40% said colleagues cook and serve them food not on their diet, 35% encountered jokes made about their diet and 31% said co-workers order them restaurant food not on their diet. [click to continue…]
Photo: André Mellagi
By: Dylan Rodgers
Cries of impending doom rose from the soil… These are the cries of the carrots.
-Maynard James Keenan
Vegetarianism and veganism are drastically different with plenty of sub-sects of varying intensity. Many vegetarians outwardly concerned with the harm caused in animal slaughter argue that fish may or may not be excluded from their concern (probably the lack of eyelids) and the fact that plants don’t have a face. With so many schools of thought, where exactly would you draw the line—that is if you find yourself considering such a life changing pursuit?
Consider this: scientifically plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and viruses are all legitimate forms of life. One key element to the definition of life is its response to external stimuli; it reacts when poked. So this suggests that plants and all other life feel in one way or another. The question arises: if compassion is the driving force behind your choice, then how deep does this rabbit hole of passivism go?
Jainism, or the Jain Religion, is an order of nonviolent individuals bent on causing the least amount of harm possible, and their motto is not taken lightly. Jains believe in the equality of souls and that all forms of life contain them. [click to continue…]
Photo: Meredith_Farmer
By: Michele Wolfson
Do you dream about eating luscious treats like cupcakes and cookies, or even main staples like pasta and bread without doubling over from abdominal pains? Its often very frustrating dealing with food allergies related to gluten-intolerances, especially for young children.
Trying to figure out what exactly makes you uncomfortable can be a real challenge. “One way to determine if gluten (or any other food) is causing problems is to do an elimination diet for at least 2 weeks whereby you eliminate all gluten from your diet, which means not even a breadcrumb. After two weeks, reintroduce gluten, and see how you feel,” says Mona Solar, creator of Solar Wellness, an organization that is dedicated to helping improve the lives of those following a gluten-free diet as well as other food sensitivities.
If you are feeling constantly bloated, or experience fatigue and foggy thinking and feel worse after eating wheat and other products that contain gluten, experts say that you should be avoiding them. [click to continue…]
Photo: Rakesh Rocky
By: Saira Malhotra
We have seen the paintings that create an optical illusion over and over, and each time we are dumbfounded. The mind enjoys playing momentary tricks on us and if we could see its face, we know its smile would be wry. When the mind games are obvious, we are able to call them out, but what about when they aren’t so obvious?
This week, NPR looked at the Delboeuf illusion, understanding how two dots of the same size, appear different when outlined by different-sized circles and the relationship this has with food consumption. Based on this understanding, Professor of Marketing at Georgia Tech, Koert Van Ittersum and Director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell, Brian Wansink, conducted a study to understand the impact of illusions and serving size.
When participants were asked to estimate volumes of soup in smaller bowls versus the same volume in larger bowls, their estimates confirmed the Delboeuf illusion. [click to continue…]
Photo: Erik Jaeger
By: Cyndi Amaya
We all know that alcohol can be your greatest downfall when it comes to staying on that diet. While we can survive a whole day by just eating salad and oatmeal, something just stops us from having that same good sense to say no to the two, ok maybe three, margaritas during Friday’s happy hour. What we should be doing is juicing instead of boozing, sometimes you do need something to help keep the edge off and it’s OK to indulge a little on a rest day.
While all alcohol is basically fermented sugar water and can ruin your weight-loss goals, there are some alcoholic beverages that are more dangerous than others for your waistline. So if you’re going to drink but still want to keep on your fitness goals, it’s important to know which booze in particular to avoid. [click to continue…]
Photo: roboppy
By: Michele Wolfson
Anyone who peruses products down the grocery aisle will vouch that items are labeled as “gluten-free” now more than ever before. Celiac disease and gluten allergies are more commonly discussed presently than even a few years ago. We have come a long way in bringing awareness to Celiac, which is an autoimmune disease that affects 1 out of 133 Americans. There are good reasons for a gluten-free diet, but is the bandwagon appropriate for everyone?
The craze for cutting wheat out of the American diet truly began in 2002 when the Atkins Diet deemed bread as evil and carbophobia was rampant in a nation where grain was considered to be a main stable at the dinner table for centuries. [click to continue…]
Photo: Michael Summers
By: Michele Wolfson
With cold weather upon us, it’s easy to suffer from the winter blues. Depression is becoming increasingly common, but often goes away with natural therapies. Even though how we feel has a lot to do with external issues, it can also be dramatically affected by our biochemistry. Changing up your dietary habits may drastically help to change your mood from sad to glad.
When it comes to depression, your choice of diet can wreak havoc on your health. Scientists recently declared that vegetarians are much less likely to develop cancer and depression. [click to continue…]
Photo: deHaines
By: Michele Wolfson
It would probably be pretty hard for our ancestors from hundreds, let alone thousands of years ago, to imagine the world which we live in today. Our prehistoric predecessors were hunters and gatherers because they had to be in order to eat and survive. In many ways, they lived almost the opposite as we do now. Food is easily accessible and different varieties are at our fingertips. It just takes a few clicks of scouring the Internet in order to choose from a plethora of different food options.
Paleolithic-dieters believe the main components of our modern diet should focus on eating mainly lean meats and plenty of vegetables, just like our ancestors. Their notion is pretty basic: if a caveman didn’t eat it, neither should you. The diet is deemed controversial since people from the Paleolithic era lived short lives than we do today, so one may wonder, how is it possible that these people cared about nutrition? [click to continue…]
Photo: Mark Howard
Novak Djokovic, the tennis super-star, discovered last year he was allergic to gluten, and thus changed his diet immediately. Novak’s new gluten-free diet not only has improved his health, but most astonishingly his tennis game as well.
Which got us thinking, how much does a diet actually play into improving an athlete’s performance? [click to continue…]
Recent Commented Posts
Recipe: Health Benefits of Lemon Water
Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwiches with Fig and Honey Recipe
Sinfully Good for Your Waistline: Healthy Chocolate Smoothie Recipe
Join Me At The Chopped All Stars Finale Viewing Party
Mushroom and Asparagus Quiche Recipe