KTK-Nutrition

Many people have jobs requiring them to sit for a long time, up to 8 hours or more a day.   The latest research indicates that you can help reverse the damage sitting does to your health by going on an hour-long walk.    This week, WTOP reported on:   To reverse damage of sitting, take a brisk, hour-long walk . What are the health risks of sitting for long periods? Norwegian scientists studied over   1 million people who sat for at least 8 hours a day.    According to the researchers, this much sitting is as harmful to your health as obesity or even smoking.   A number of studies have shown that prolonged sitting can increase your risk of heart disease, various types of cancer and even an earlier death. But it isn’t just sitting at the job.   A new trend is binge TV watching, such as watching an entire Season of a show on Netflix.    Sitting for 5 hours or more watching TV is also bad for your health.   Add the sitting at work to coming home and sitting in front of the TV for h

Hot weather is upon us.   How can one stay cooler in these hot temperatures?   How do you get in your outdoor exercise and stay hydrated?   A few weeks ago we went on a morning bike ride in Sonoma County, California.   Morning temps are cooler but by noon the temperature was in the 90’s.    The bicycle shop gave us a frozen water bottle and a thermal pouch to put it in.    Why was this ice water such a great idea for the hot temperatures?   What are other ways to try to stay cool when the outside temp is sizzling? The Berkeley Wellness Letter has a great article on Exercising Safely in the Heat .    A summary of their tips are noted below. Cooling your body from the inside: Ice water:   This morning when I bicycled, I filled up my water bottle with ice and water.   Cold or icy beverages have been proven to cool you down internally.   Cold beverages are helpful, but what works best is an icy drink as it has more cooling power.   But drinking too much, too fast can lead to abdo

How can you get your kids to eat more vegetables and fruit?   It is easy to get kids to eat junk food but when it comes to vegetables, it can be quite a struggle. So what can a parent or child care provider do?   Apparently, the same marketing techniques fast food and junk food advertiser’s use, can be used to get kids to eat more vegetables and more fruit.    A recent study in Pediatrics, Marketing Vegetables in Elementary School Cafeterias to Increase Uptake , looked at 10 elementary schools and tried different approaches to get kids to eat more veggies. A banner with vegetable characters displayed on the salad bar TV spots of vegetable characters talking about health education Both the vegetable characters displayed on the salad bar and the TV spots of vegetable characters The researchers studied the number of elementary students taking vegetables from the salad bar over a 6 week period.   So what worked the best?   The banner pictures of vegetable characters increased veg

Can you eat to delay aging and have a healthier brain?   You can.   There are many foods that protect brain health.   In fact, there is a diet plan called the MIND diet. Besides eating healthy, exercising regularly also promotes a healthier brain. What is the MIND diet?   It is a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet.   The Mediterranean Diet is a good diet for overall health and the D ietary A pproaches to S top H ypertension (DASH) diet was designed to lower blood pressure.   What is your MIND score?    To score your MIND Diet, assign one point for each of the following components (adapted from the MIND Diet and Keep Active to Protect Your Brain ).   Those with the highest MIND score are 53% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s and have been shown to have a slower rate of decline in cognitive health.   Foods to Eat More of:   How often? Score one point for each item Whole grains at least 3 servings/day Gre