Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Sports Drinks: Fab or Fable?

There is a huge market for sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade. Every NFL and collegiate football team has giant coolers, bottles, and towels advertising them. I've often wondered if those coolers actually even contain the stuff. My teams have often filled them with good ol' fashioned ice water. Regardless, we have, as a society, been convinced that we will be healthier, faster, and stronger if we drink as much as possible of these highly marketed concoctions.

Assuming marketing doesn't equal reality (which is usually a safe bet), what IS the truth regarding the need for, and usefulness of, sports drinks? Generally, sports drinks are a combination of water for hydration, carbohydrates for quick energy, and sodium and potassium for electrolyte replacement. Some specialty drinks include protein for muscle recovery after exercise. A meal usually suffices.

The water and carbs seem pretty self-explanatory, but let's consider the electrolytes for a minute. Without getting boringly technical, electrolytes are chemicals needed in the body for proper cell function. You need them in your blood and body tissues to survive. On the minor end, electrolyte shortages can cause muscle cramping. This is no fun, especially in the middle of a soccer or football game. On the severe end, have you ever heard of water intoxication? If you drink too much water without electrolyte balance you develop what's called hyponatremia. Your cells and tissues swell, you get very sick, and if not treated quickly, you die. Bananas are a great source of electrolytes. The BYU football team swears by pickle juice.

Now that you've had your little physiology lesson for the day, back to sports drinks. Yes, they serve a purpose. They are very helpful for high intensity, long duration exercise like football two-a-days in 90 degree weather or marathon running/training. They taste better than plain water, so athletes are more likely to drink enough to keep properly hydrated, and they add a few carbs to keep energy up and electrolytes to replace those lost in sweat. The nutrient balance is also such that the drink is absorbed from the stomach quicker than plain water, so they can also be very useful in the case of severe vomiting and/or diarrhea, when proper hydration is very difficult but extremely important.

No, it's not important to have sports drinks for every practice, run, or when sitting around the house watching TV. They become just another drink option, at that point, and a rather expensive one at that. They are certainly a healthier choice than soda or most other sugary drinks, since they have significantly less sugar, but they are not necessary.

With all that said, if you are a hard-core athlete or just simply like to drink sports drinks, there is a way to get the benefits without having to fork out all that cash. The nutritional make-up can be relatively closely mimicked with some easy-to-make recipes. There are a million of them. They are all slight variations of the same idea. I've included a couple here that are simple and stick closely to the proper nutrient balance. Also, if you're really interested in more detail about fluid and nutritional replacement during exercise, the Gatorade website can actually be very informative. Just don't get sucked into all the advertising!

Juice Drink
1/2 cup orange juice or 2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 liters water

Kool-Aid Drink
1 pkg. unsweetened drink mix
10 tbsp sugar (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp lite salt
2 liters water

In either case, just combine and stir the ingredients until dissolved. Refill empty Gatorade or Powerade bottles, or buy a reusable bottle and get sweating!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Black Bean Quinoa

I just tried quinoa for the first time. I was a little nervous, I admit, but it was really good! Quinoa is usually considered a whole grain, but it's actually a seed. It can be sprouted, ground, or boiled to make slightly crunchy grain-like balls that usually take the place of pasta or rice in a meal or salad. Like other whole grains, quinoa is packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. It's best known, though, for it's high protein content and gluten-free status, making it a great choice for vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free meals, like this one. You can find quinoa in the health food or gluten-free section of your grocery store or at your local health food store. Buying in bulk will probably save money.

This recipe is a variation/combination of several Mexican quinoa recipes I found online. It's simple, made from start to finish in under 30 min. It's also super heart-healthy, as it's low in fat, cholesterol-free, and very high fiber.

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups broth (Veggie or Chicken)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt/pepper to taste
1 cup corn
2 tbsp lime juice
2 cans black beans
5-6 green onions, chopped
1 med. tomato, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

Rinse the uncooked quinoa well, as it naturally has a bitter-tasting chemical, called saponin, on its surface. The grains are very small, so use a sprouter with grates on the bottom, if you have one. If not, set paper towels or a light kitchen towel in a strainer. Transfer the rinsed grains to a medium saucepan and add the broth, garlic, and spices. Simmer, covered, for 20 min. Add the remaining ingredients and simply cook through. It makes a great Mexican side dish but has everything it needs to be the main course!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Write A Better Love Story

You might wonder why emotional intimacy would be a health and wellness topic. There are numerous academic studies and statistics linking marriage, especially happy marriage, to a longer and more fulfilling life, but if you've ever had an intimate relationship, you don't need those. You, like I, have undoubtedly experienced the realities of how the condition of your relationship affects your energy levels, eating habits, stress and anxiety levels, your sleep, and the basic desire to get out of bed in the morning.

I have been married for 7 years and 2 1/2 children, which makes me a wise old sage to some and a novice to others. My marriage has taken me on the typical roller coaster from "This is the best day of my life!" to "What the hell was I thinking?!" and everywhere in between. I have never been one to be content with just getting by, and I've been blessed with a husband willing to struggle with me through the nearly hopeless times to a place of love, peace, and intimacy. I'm a reader and a writer even more than I am a talker, and maybe that's helped, since men aren't generally known for their verbal expressiveness or enjoyment of a good heart-to-heart. Pardon my obvious generalization. My experience certainly isn't all-inclusive for the options of developing emotional intimacy in marriage, but maybe we can find an idea for everyone if we all share.

I've discovered that it doesn't work for my marriage to sit my husband down and ask him for emotional intimacy. I've done that. It got me nowhere but disappointed. For years, I blamed him as uncaring and selfish for not granting my request until I finally realized it wasn't that he didn't care. He had no idea what I was asking for or how to achieve it. I'm not even sure I knew what I was asking for. I had to define it and break it down into meaningful pieces, and since I think in bullet points, my brain jumped at the chance for this little project.

I started by thinking, which turned into writing, which turned into letters that, at the time, I wasn't sure I was even going to share. I wrote about how I was experiencing our marriage. I wrote about the ways I felt hurt and the ways I hated myself for my weaknesses. I wrote about what got me to the alter and what's kept me from running since. I wrote about how and why I loved him. I wrote about my occasional hopelessness and my dream for what I wanted our marriage to become. It all gave me a chance to dig down into my deepest, most personal emotional places and feel and process things I hadn't been accessing very well for a long time. For me, my numbness began to give way, first to pain but then to hope and love. The stress and anxiety of feeling distant from my husband started to melt. After deciding to share them with my husband, I even got some responses to my letters that I never would've gotten had I sat down throwing that all at him in person. I suspect I would've gotten more wide-eyed silence than anything that way. My letters gave him time to process, feel, and respond honestly. It was beautiful, really, to experience that opening up. Hope is a real healer.

When I felt sufficiently processed for the time being, I decided to introduce a series of questions to our written liaisons. They are relatively simple questions, though I'm not sure he agrees with that, meant to help us decide and articulate what we want and envision in and for our relationship. They give us straight-forward views of what we can do to understand and serve each other better. I suggest keeping answers mostly to lists instead of paragraphs. It makes them concise and easier to remember and review. You can research relevant questions, write them yourself, or you could take turns. An interesting date night might be deciding on relevant questions together. There are a couple ground rules, of course. 1) No negativity. It's meant to be direction, not venting or nagging. It's a chance to say what you DO want, instead of what you DON'T want. 2) The questions should be unbiased and open to both spouses, not loaded or unidirectional. I suggest not trying to sit down together to answer an entire page of questions in one evening. I like offering one question at a time, giving each spouse a day or several days to think about their responses. Then talk about them or exchange them. Keep a record of the responses so you each can look back when things get a little foggy. Maybe even re-answer the questions periodically to keep them fresh and accurate.

I've felt both of these simple activities do wonders to take the scariness out of connecting emotionally. They certainly don't replace face-to-face interaction and bonding, but they have been a meaningful supplement for us. In a couple months' time, I've gone from long-term anxiety about the direction of my marriage and the distance between us to a peace, understanding, and newly rekindled love for the man I'm more anxious now to spend the rest of my life with.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes


Pancakes are one of the great American breakfast foods, and for good reason. They're delicious! Combine them with oatmeal and you can't go wrong. Oatmeal is heart-healthy, cholesterol-free, increases satiety (helps you feel full), low in fat and sodium, and high in fiber and minerals. This is a really hearty, inexpensive, and healthy recipe that my family loves!

1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sugar
2 eggs
2 cups milk, preferably skim
2 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice

Add the vinegar or lemon juice to the milk separately, and let them sit for 3-5 minutes. This creates a healthy buttermilk substitute. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and then add the milk mixture and eggs. Mix with a stand or hand mixer. Adjust the thickness of the batter with flour or milk, if desired.

I use an electric griddle set just over 250 degrees to keep them golden brown without ever burning. This recipe makes about 10 large pancakes, which usually turns out to be 3-4 servings.

Serve with syrup (preferably light syrup or sparing amounts), or try serving with fruit and/or yogurt or light margarine and cinnamon sugar. You'll feel full all the way to lunch, and you'll feel great having had a healthy start to your day!

You can even serve these as a quick, healthy dinner with fruit and lean ham steaks.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Skip the Soda, Spare Yourself!

I ran into an article recently that quantified what we all know about avoiding sugary drinks. Have we really considered the long-term effects of our current day-to-day choices, though?

"In a new study, researchers at Harvard followed more than 40,000 men over 22 years and found those consuming just one 12-ounce sugar-sweetened drink a day increased their chance of having a heart attack by 20 percent. Two sugary drinks: a 42 percent increase. Three a day: 69 percent." (Robert Bazell, NBC News)

Not only do the constant insulin spikes in order to battle those sugar highs do apparent long-term harm, but think about the calories you could easily cut by making better choices in the short-term.

A 12 oz. can of regular soda (or pop, for you wonderful western weirdos) has an average of about 150 calories. Given that a pound of fat is 3,500 calories, you could lose at least a pound a month simply by skipping one can of soda a day. If you're used to a Big Gulp (32 oz.), you could lose a pound in just over a week. Drinking a soda or lemonade at a restaurant could quite easily cost you 400-700 calories in one sitting with zero nutritional value. That's an entire meal's worth of calories just in your drink, not even counting the normally high-calorie restaurant meal!

I, like most people, enjoy the occasional sugar-laden beverage, but the operative word should be OCCASIONAL. There are diet drinks, which are, calorically speaking, an improvement when you need something sweet. Diet sodas and juices like Crystal Light contain aspartame (or occasionally Splenda), which is somewhat controversial but generally considered safe by the medical community. They are both man-made chemicals, though, and wisdom might favor their moderate use. I enjoy Crystal Light (or the generic of it), but I also like to water it down quite a bit and don't drink it all the time.

Real fruit juices, though calorie dense, at least offer some nutritional value. Again, moderation is the key here. Even better, try ice water! You're tastes adjust in a short period of time to it's sugarlessness, and it's actually quite refreshing when it's ice cold. Add fresh lemon or lime for flavor. If that's a little tart for you, add a teaspoon or two of sugar (15 calories per tsp.) or sugar substitute to that for a slightly sweet low-calorie option.

It's the little things that help us make real improvements in our current and long-term health. Switching out soda is slimming, saves much needed cash, and is super heart-healthy!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Homemade Cream of Wheat

This is your chance to add an old favorite that is packed with nutrition to your diet for only pennies. Homemade Cream of Wheat, or ground wheat cereal without the brand name, is packed with whole grains and fiber, and can be a great source of vitamins and minerals if done right. If you're a food storage buff (or learning to be one), this is a great way to make use of those buckets of wheat.

The trick to making the best, most nutritious ground wheat cereal is grinding it yourself. You'll probably have a hard time buying ground wheat that is coarse enough for this anyway. A wheat grinder is one of the best purchases for healthy cooking you'll ever make, if you haven't already. A hand grinder can be used, but a good electric grain mill is worth the $150-$300 investment. I have the Nutrimill and love it.

Grind your wheat on the coarsest setting possible. Depending on your mill, it will be coarse flour or cornmeal consistency. It grinds much faster than fine flour and will only take a few seconds with an electric mill. The best time to make your cereal is right after you grind it, as the vitamins quickly deplete from wheat after it's ground. Let's be realistic, though. You won't make this very often if you have to grind it every morning before breakfast. Keeping it in a closed container in the fridge or freezer will help it last longer and make it easily accessible for a quick breakfast.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup cereal to 4 cups water. I find that this serves 3-4 people, so adjust accordingly. Cook on high, stirring almost constantly until it thickens, which will only be 2-3 minutes or so. Simply serve with milk, fruit, brown or white sugar (or substitute), cinnamon sugar, or honey. You can feel good that you're spending next to nothing to eat a high fiber whole grain with no additives, preservatives, sodium, or cholesterol. It's low fat, and you can control the sugar (calorie) content, which is sure not to exceed what you'd get in most store-bought cereals.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

For Your Heart's Sake

We all want to be healthy. We all want to live long, disease-free lives. Unfortunately, we don't always make the day-to-day lifestyle choices that get us there. We can do better! Heart disease is one of those devastating killers we all know about. We all know someone that suffers from or has suffered from it. In fact, it is responsible for nearly 25% of deaths in the United States each year and is the leading cause of death for both men and women. The great news about heart disease is that it is largely preventable. There are certain risk factors that we have no control over. In most cases, though, we have a lot of say as to how much risk we carry around with us. Even uncontrollable risk factors can be mitigated by improving our odds in other areas. Information is power, so here are some risk factors for heart disease to consider as we make lifestyle decisions every day.

Age: We all know that as we get older we are more likely to develop heart disease. It happens, but very few young people die from heart-related issues, and most of those have other risk factors. The kicker with the age issue is that, while it would be easy to toss this one aside as unpreventable, lifestyle choices make up the bulk of increased risk as we age. If we remain aware that some poor lifestyle choices that may not seem to effect us immediately build up over time, we are better poised to make better choices to increase our quality, as well as quantity, of life over time.

Heredity: This one really is unpreventable unless, unlike most of us, you managed to pick your own pedigree. If you're like me, though, you've had no say in whether your parents or grandparents have or will develop heart disease. Knowing this risk factor is important, as with age, because if you know you are at increased risk you can make choices that decrease your risk in other areas.

Tobacco: Smoking has long been known to be a risk factor for many diseases, including heart disease. It promotes atherosclerosis, a hardening of the artery walls due to plaque build up, and increases risk of clotting in the blood vessels. It increases blood pressure and decreases blood's ability to carry much needed oxygen throughout the body. Exposure to secondhand smoke can have a similar effect. Smoking is a difficult thing to quit and requires patience and support from loved ones, but it's one of the best things you could ever do to improve your health. There are lots of resources to help, including smokefree.gov.

Activity: Another well-known fact is that, generally speaking, the more we move the healthier we are. Avoiding heart disease is no exception. Being active can improve health in many ways, including improving cholesterol and blood pressure and decreasing risk of developing diabetes. Obesity is a huge risk, and staying active is one of the best ways to avoid that. For those of you who are marathon runners, way to go! For the rest of us that struggle with this one, you don't have to be a top-tier athlete to lower your risk of heart disease. It's important to find something you enjoy so you can stick with it. Walk with a friend in your neighborhood, kick a soccer ball with your kids, join a zumba or kickboxing class at a gym, or get a workout video or two you enjoy.

Diet: While a diet straight off the McDonald's menu might sound appealing to some at first, have you ever actually checked out the nutritional information on their website? Yuck! Diet is a risk factor that is entirely within our capacity to control, no matter our circumstances. Obesity, as mentioned before, increases our risk of developing heart disease exponentially. A diet low in fat, sodium, red meat, and refined sugars and high in whole grains, fresh foods, and fiber help to significantly reduce our risk of heart disease, as well as many other health-related issues. Excessive alcohol consumption can also lead to atherosclerosis and other health problems, so if you enjoy a good drink keeping it in moderation will help to protect your health. There's so much that goes in to diet, as well as exercise. They are so important to a healthy life that we'll absolutely dig deeper in subsequent posts, and the recipes I'll offer all have overall health in mind. Also, choosemyplate.gov is a great place to start.

This is not an all-inclusive list, but it gives us all a ruler to measure ourselves by. If you'd like more information on heart disease, cdc.gov/heartdisease/ is a good resource. Taking control of your health can be overwhelming, but it can also be incredibly empowering! If you just take a deep breath and attack problem issues in your lifestyle one at a time, the results can be increased energy and alertness, better self-esteem, less sickness and chronic disease, longer life, a body that's healthier and more fit, and let's not forget heart disease free.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Sprout for Joy

I recently discovered sprouting. I've always liked sprouts. I remember always searching them out at salad bars as a kid. They add texture and crunch to a salad or sandwich, and they are nearly devoid of calories (8 calories in an entire cup serving). They are also a great way to get some extra vitamins, minerals, and fiber in your diet. I mostly add them to cold dishes, but they can also be a great addition to dishes like meatloaf or sloppy joes to add a little extra nutrition. The most common sprouts are alfalfa, which are my personal favorite. Bean and wheat sprouts are also easy and common. There are tons of possibilities, though, so don't be afraid to try something new once you've gotten comfortable with the basics.

I've been wanting to try sprouting for a long time, but I guess I was afraid of it. I tend to be a bit afraid of new projects. Maybe it will fail miserably. Maybe it will be too hard to keep up. Maybe it will cost too much to be worth it. This ended up being super easy. There are several ways to do it, the most basic of which is with a mason jar with mesh (or old pantyhose) over the top, but I admit I was too chicken to try that one.

A friend of mine introduced me to the Sprout Master Mini. I don't say this to advertise for any particular brand of sprouter. There are lots of sprouters out there, but this is the one I use. It was about $17 at the local health food store and came with one pretty big container each of alfalfa sprouts and bean sprouts. You can also get them at amazon.com or elsewhere online in packs of three or bigger sprouters. It has a divider that can be used to sprout two different types, as shown, or you can remove it and do one bigger sprouting. All you do is put a few teaspoons of seeds in the sprouter and rinse with warm water. The exact amount depends on the type of sprout and the size of your tray. For alfalfa sprouts in the Mini, I use 2 tsp. for a half tray and 4 tsp. for a whole. After rinsing, drain the tray over the sink, put the drip tray on the bottom and the cover on the top, and put in a warm dark place. I use a cabinet. The directions say to rinse and drain the tray twice a day, but I only do it once and it works just fine. After 2-4 days, depending on the conditions and type of sprout, they're ready to eat. Just stick them in the fridge in the covered tray, and they last at least a week. 2 minutes to start them, and 30 seconds a day for a few days. It's so easy, and it's a step in the direction of healthy living with fresh foods!