For months, Juna Gjata, the co-host of WBUR's new podcast, "Food, We Need To Talk," asked every eating expert she interviewed the same question: "If you could tell people to change only one thing that would have the biggest impact on their health for the rest of their lives, what would it be?"

Their expertise ranged from nutrition to metabolism to how super-tasty foods affect the brain. She expected them to answer with pointers like "eat more vegetables," or "increase your protein," or "cut down on the cheesecake."

But, limited to just one recommendation for lifelong health, none of them focused on food. All had the same answer: just exercise.

And several focused on one particular type: resistance exercise also known as strength training as the best benefit for the least amount of time.

So, with 2020 just around the corner, here's an edited preview of an upcoming episode of "Food, We Need To Talk," with the hope it might help inform your New Year's resolution thinking. Juna is joined by her co-host, Dr. Eddie Phillips, founder of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine.

They begin by looking back at Juna's old misconception about exercise as simply a way to burn off calories on the treadmill. Eddie notes that actually, the most important thing about exercise is that it increases and maintains muscle mass.

Juna: I asked Dr. Wayne Westcott, director of the Exercise Science Program and Fitness Research Program at Quincy College, why is having high muscle mass so important?

Westcott: Great question. Muscle not only burns calories and uses energy when you're active; when you're at rest, muscle also burns lots of energy so much energy that it makes up about 30% of your resting metabolic rate. When you're sound asleep at night, your muscles burn 30% of your calories.

Juna: Your resting metabolic rate that's basically all the calories your body burns when you're doing nothing lying down, sleeping, breathing.

Eddie: Right, just keeping the lights on. And it becomes even more important as we get older, because the natural course of events is to actually lose muscle mass. Our metabolism just slows down. And the way that we raise our metabolism is not green tea supplements or apple cider vinegar shots there's no science backing them. There's lots of science, though, for good, old-fashioned exercise.

Juna: So we should hit the treadmill?

Eddie: Well, not so fast. Not all exercise is created equal. Cardiovascular exercise like on the treadmill is really great for your heart, your lungs, your brain and your stress levels. But if you actually want to build your muscles, you've got to do what we call resistance training. That's the scientific term for lifting weights, using bands, your body weight, anything that stresses your muscles. It's also called strength training.

Juna: Honestly, the reason that I never got into it was because it really doesn't look like it burns that many calories. Lifting weights just looked so chill. I didn't think it would do anything.

Eddie: If you're just counting calories, Juna, you're absolutely right. You're not burning a lot of calories to lift those weights. But your body actually has to remodel itself after you've stressed it, and that takes even more calories.

Juna: That was the coolest thing that I ever learned about exercise: Basically, a human being is an adaptation machine. We're meant to adapt to the stresses we put our body through. So if you go out in the sun, your skin gets tan to prepare for the next time you're in the sun. Or if you're doing really laborious work with your hands, they grow calluses. That's how fitness podcaster Sal Di Stefano talks about exercise, and it's what finally got through to me.

Di Stefano: When you do lots of cardio, where you just get on a treadmill and jog, jog, jog, or you get on an elliptical and go forever, the body is getting a couple of different messages. It's getting the message, "We need stamina and endurance." And it burns a significant amount of calories, so we probably want to become more efficient. We don't need much strength. So, a great way to become more efficient at calories is to pare down muscle.

Eddie: So if you're picturing who's going to win the next marathon, you know what they look like. They're going to be slim. They're going to have near zero fat on them. Small and just fast. They're not carrying a lot of extra muscle mass around.

Juna: Exactly. On the other hand, resistance training sends a pretty different message.

Di Stefano: Resistance training doesn't burn a ton of calories when you do it, but it is sending the signal to your body that's saying, "We'd better build more muscle and more strength to be able to handle this stress." Because when you lift weights, that's what you're doing: stressing the body. It's why you get sore. So your body's OK with becoming less efficient with calories. It's OK with speeding up its metabolism because you're constantly telling your body, "We just need to be stronger."

Eddie: And when you're doing that resistance training, it's not just building up the muscles. It's actually that the muscles that you have become even more metabolically active. Here's how Wayne Westcott describes it.

Westcott: People who don't strength train, if they run or walk or swim or bike, their muscles burn about six calories per pound per day, which is great. That's a lot. People who do strength training, their muscles burn, at rest, nine calories per pound per day, 50 percent more. Resting metabolic rate increases when people strength train by between 5% and 9%, the average being seven in almost all the studies. That's huge in terms of maintaining a better body weight, and sustaining your body weight, which is the biggest issue in the United States.

Eddie: Seven percent doesn't sound like a lot. But it adds up to about 250 calories a day. That still doesn't sound like a lot, but over the course of a year, it's 20 pounds' worth of calories.

Juna: And Wayne Westcott found in his studies that when people diet down and they're not doing any exercise, they're just dieting they'll lose muscle and fat. So you're not just losing fat. You're losing muscle, too. Now, if you're anything like me, your natural inclination when you diet is to also run your little butt off on the treadmill.

Westcott: It increases the fat loss. But guess what? It also increases the muscle loss significantly. It exacerbates the aging process of losing muscle. When they do strength training plus diet, they lose the least muscle and they lose the most fat.

Eddie: So resistance training is perhaps the best exercise to use if you're trying to lose fat.

Westcott: In our studies, the average person loses about one pound of fat per month when they strength train, and they add about one pound of muscle per month. So the body weight tends to stay the same. And people say, kind of surprised, "Well, I haven't lost weight, but I'm wearing different pant sizes, or dress sizes. You know, and my waist is smaller, my hips are smaller." Well, that's because muscle is more compact, more dense than fat. If we didn't have scales, just had full length mirrors, people would do a much better job of deciding what kind of exercise they should do or not do.

Eddie: But we're not just talking about resistance training. We still want everyone to be doing their 150 minutes a week of exercise that raises your heart rate. It's going to take care of other problems your risk of diabetes, of osteoporosis, of cancer are all going to plummet the more active you are. You're going to live longer and live better. And in the meantime, psychologically, there's no medicine like exercise.

Juna: That is what I find to be the best part about going to the gym, for sure. The stronger I feel in the gym, the stronger I feel outside the gym, too.

Eddie: Also, the physiologic effects of starting to lift weights actually come much quicker than just going on the treadmill. For patients who have obesity, we start with resistance exercise. And the psychological benefit comes very quickly when you realize that you can and will get better from a little bit of hard work. And you really don't have to do that much exercise to get the most results. Which is good news for a lot of us, because the time intrusion of exercise is still what gets most people not to start and not to continue. And remember, what we're trying to do is get people to change in small ways, and to commit to changes that they're going to enjoy and do for the rest of their lives. It's not a 12-week beach body challenge. And the research shows that with the resistance training that we've talked about, two or maybe three times a week is all you need. And a half hour at a time, you're going to see those dramatic results. It's almost like an inoculation. It's just enough to get your muscles moving.

Juna: So what's best to do at the gym?

Eddie: If you want a simple answer? Shameless plug: Listen to The Magic Pill [the previous season of this podcast.] But if you only had one exercise to do, I would say squatting. Get the proper form. Up and down off of your chair, just to strengthen your legs, get into your core. You're also going to work your arms, by doing a little bit of pushups. If you can't do them on the floor, do them against the the edge of a table. And you're going to work your core. If you do that, your life has already changed. If you're overweight, the best thing you can do to carry that weight until hopefully you lose it is to make your muscles stronger. That then is going to take the stress off of your joints. Get some guidance. This is not something that everyone knows how to do. So if you can, find a trainer or use YouTube videos.

Juna: And if you feel self-conscious about the gym, here's what Sal Di Stefano says:

Di Stefano: I'll tell you something right now: One of the most empowering things you could do is overcome a fear like that. Nobody knows what they're doing at first. Nobody cares. People who work out couldn't care less that there's other people working out at the gym. Just go to the gym, put your headphones on and go take care yourself and don't let anything stop you, especially fear. Start small. Go easy. Once you start to get used to going to the gym, you start to find yourself getting stronger. You're going to be a more empowered individual.

You can subscribe to "Food, We Need To Talk" here. The American College of Sports Medicine has a new infographic on resistance training here.

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A Funny Thing Happened When We Asked Nutrition Experts For One Piece Of Advice - WBUR

LOMA LINDA, Calif. Six mornings a week, youll find Heinz Lindsor in the gym.

I do aerobics. I exercise with a ball, he says.

Whats more impressive than his workout routine is his age.

I am 80 plus, he says.

And hes not the only octogenarian in this gym located inside Loma Linda Universitys Drayson Center.

My diet is an all plant-based diet, Dr. Benjamin Lau says.

Benjamin Lau and his wife Esther walk a mile to the gym every day for their half-hour workout. They are both in their 80s.

I put a lot of emphasis on food, Esther Lau says. That's probably the most crucial, what we eat and also how active we are.

In Loma Linda, California, being able to do a one-hour aerobics class later in life isn't uncommon. Much of the fuel to stay active and healthy for the people in this city is religion.

Started to work out I got really excited, oh this is great because I feel really vibrant, I feel 40 again. Is this possible, God? Marijke Sawyer says.

Loma Linda is home to one of the largest concentrations of Seventh-day Adventists. The Christian denomination puts an emphasis on a healthy diet and exercise.

Most Adventists, like 72-year old Sawyer, dont smoke or drink alcohol.

"My body is actually the temple of God, she says. So, therefore, whatever I put in I want to keep it whole. Clearer minds, better body, better performing in my life.

Many also follow a vegetarian diet.

Lots of fruits and lots of vegetables, and we grow a lot of our vegetables, so mostly unprocessed, Esther Lau says. "I cook very simply. Basically, I dont use any oil to cook but I do eat food that's naturally high in oils, like avocados, nuts and seeds.

Jackie Tucker, 71, is a lifelong vegetarian.

My grandfather died at 60 of a heart attack, Tucker says. My father died at 73 with blood-related heart disease so I know that the exercise and a diet have made a difference.

National Geographics Dan Buettner named this community one of his five original Blue Zones," places across the globe where people are living longer and healthier lives.

Loma Linda was the only Blue Zone listed in North America.

"It becomes normal, it becomes a way of life, Sawyer says. For me not to come out and not exercise, I would be frazzled because I just feel so much better. And my age I dont feel like Im 72. I love it.

But in Loma Linda, there is no fountain of youth or magic spell to be able to work out like Lindsor later in life.

A person who is motivated, he says, he or she can do a lot of good things to maintain a good level of health.

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A senior community in Loma Linda, California is thriving when it comes to health. These are their secrets - KATC Lafayette News

Youve definitely heard of the ketogenic diet starving your body of carbs to force it to burn fat and produce the mind-clarifying, brain-healing compounds known as ketones. You may have even heard of people and athletes ingesting ketone salts or drinks to propel them into or keep them in a state of ketosis. And if you were paying close attention during the Tour de France this year, you may have spied Team Jumbo-Visma openly drinking ketones mid-race.

The funny thing is, these athletes are not on a ketogenic diet. They are not fat adapted.

For the last three years or so, weve seen Tour athletes fueling with carbs and then supplementing with exogenous ketones to score a two to three percent boost in performance from dual-fueling, says Matt Johnson, a former competitive cyclist and co-founder of The Feed, an online sports nutrition shop and leading supplier of exogenous ketones in the U.S. June was insane with teams placing $10,000 to $20,000 orders for ketone esters and rush shipping them to France. We could barely keep up with it.

Elite athletes biohacking to score a tiny edge? Nothing new.

But this is: a study in the Journal of Physiology says everyday athletes who arent on a keto diet, who arent fat-adapted, may improve their recovery by a whopping 15 percent just from drinking exogenous ketones after intense training days. And the news is spreading.

We have also had a huge spike in individual athletes ordering the product that seems to be only growing, Johnson adds.

Now, will this approach work for you? Heres everything you need to know.

First, a quick biology lesson slash crash course in the trendiest diet of the twenty-teens: in an ideal world, your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which is then transported and used or stored as energy for your muscles, organs and, most importantly, your brain.

Your brain is at the top of the pecking order it gobbles about 20 percent of your total energy expenditure, a lot for a single organ and if its not fueled, everything else stops functioning. When you deprive your body of carbohydrates, your muscles can use fat for fuel, but your brain cant. Instead, your body has a fail-safe to prevent total shutdown: the liver starts converting fat into a superfood designed to save your starving brain: ketones.

Even if your body can adapt to burning fat quickly to fuel long runs and rides, it would still prefer to burn carbs. Which is why the notion of pro athletes downing exogenous ketone drinks without having to give up carbs is completely bonkers.

Ketones are essentially a fourth macronutrient your blood sugar is stable, your body is burning fat and your brain has entered an almost elevated state of functionality. In ketosis the state you reach when adhering to a keto diet your brain starts producing more mitochondria (the little powerhouses of energy in your body) and better regulating neurons. Staying in a state of ketosis has been shown to help clear the brain of proteins that can lead to and worsen Alzheimers disease, reduce seizures in about half of people with epilepsy and even extend the lifespan of mice.

In athletes, staying in ketosis via a ketogenic diet can increase fat utilization during exercise (great, considering your body can store way more fat for fuel than carbs), help reduce body fat and sometimes improve endurance time trials and sprint peak power.

The catch: it all rides on you steering clear of carbs with no slip-ups. If you eat more than your allotted count typically 50 grams, which is one cup of pasta or just two bananas your body falls out of ketosis and you dont get any of these benefits. And pretty much all nutritionists agree that even if your body can adapt to burning fat quickly to fuel long runs and rides, it would still prefer to burn carbs.

Which is why the notion of professional athletes downing exogenous ketone drinks without having to give up carbs is completely bonkers.

In the early 2000s, as part of a DARPA program to enhance U.S. soldier performance, Oxford professors Kieran Clarke and Richard Veech set out to distill the exact molecular structure of one of the ketones our body produces. The resulting ketone ester is a specific molecule, butanedial, that converts directly to beta hydroxybutyrate, the ketone our liver naturally produces in the ketogenic state, when you digest it, explains Geoffrey Woo, co-founder and CEO of HVMN.

HVMN is currently the only company to produce ketone esters, as they lease the patent to Clarke and Veechs molecular structure.

Now, keto followers are probably familiar with other brands of keto drinks (usually based on MCT oil) and ketone salts. But esters are different than these aids. MCT oils dont produce ketones; they help put your body in a state of ketosis so it can start producing its own but since that requires carbohydrate starvation, thats not an option for dual-fueling athletes, Johnson explains.

Ketone salts, meanwhile, use beta hydroxybutyrate as well, but by their nature, theyre bound to a mineral. Because you have to take so much ketone to raise your blood levels enough to see an effect, youre also gaining a lot of mineral load. This leads to a lot of GI issues in athletes, explains Woo. That, plus the fact that the salts dont raise your ketone levels that much, leaves a lot of room for a superior product. There has been minimal testing on the aids but the HVMN esters have been tested and verified, Johnson says.

Ketone esters are a way to eat ketones directly thats going to convert 100 percent to ketones in your body, Woo adds.

Woo says professional athletes drinking exogenous ketones during a race report about a two to three percent increase in performance. That matters in an event like the Tour but the real benefit for athletes, especially everyone other than Egan Bernal or Geraint Thomas, seems to be in downing a bottle once the race is over.

The aforementioned Journal of Physiology study, conducted by seemingly impartial Belgian researchers, simulated a Tour with everyday athletes: 20 fit men trained twice a day (HIIT or intermittent endurance training in the morning, then 1.5- to 3-hour endurance sessions at night), six days a week for three weeks. Half drank a ketone ester after each workout while half drank a placebo.

After three weeks, the guys were shredded everyone showed signs of cardiovascular, hormonal and perceptual overreaching. But those who had taken ketone esters regularly had significantly less damage in all these areas, and on a two-hour endurance test, they were able to ride at a higher sustainable pace and produce more power in the final 30 minutes compared to guys who recovered regularly. All in all, researchers estimated the ketone esters helped improve recovery by 15 percent.

Mainly, its providing your body with another option for fuel, says Jonathan Scott, Ph.D., R.D., an assistant professor at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland who researches performance nutrition and dietary supplements.

You can still have your cake and eat it too. Athletes dont need to consume a diet thats extremely restrictive, and they can then consume exogenous ketones to introduce yet another fuel source the body can use.

Your brain is either going to use glycogen or ketones for power. If ketones are available, glycogen is spared and your muscles can instead use that energy to fuel fiber repair and metabolic cleanup. Whats more, now your body isnt going to break down other structures like muscle fiber to get your brain the fuel, saving your body extra damage.

And, because ketones keep your blood glucose stable, your body is steadily producing insulin, which sweeps glucose into your cells, continuously topping off the pool of energy as its being used and at a much faster rate than youre able to with food, Scott explains.

In addition to faster post-exercise glycogen replenishment, a 2018 Italian study in Current Sports Medicine Report foundthat exogenous ketones decrease proteolysis (the breakdown of proteins into amino acids) and act as metabolic modulators and signaling metabolites.

Theres also some chemistry research to suggest exogenous ketones may help realign your hormone production, adds Krista Austin, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., a sports scientist, exercise physiologist and nutritionist. The anterior pituitary produces hormones that become dysregulated if youre overtraining, dont sleep well at night, have a poor heat tolerance, or experience something like a traumatic brain injury, she explains. Exogenous ketones seem to help realign the production of susceptible hormones like prolactin, which can otherwise prevent proper sleep and recovery.

To top it off, it takes very minimal effort for athletes to earn all these gains: You can still have your cake and eat it too literally and figuratively, Scott explains. Athletes dont need to be consuming a diet thats extremely restrictive on food choices or energy sources during exercise, and they can then consume exogenous ketones to introduce yet another fuel source the body can use.

Johnson says its only a matter of time before major American sports stars pick up the training aid and that well definitely see it in the Olympics. Basketball and hockey especially have some grueling schedules. Imagine the benefit in-season for back-to-back games on the road?

Johnson estimates that roughly 80 percent of the interest in exogenous ketones on The Feed comes from Europe and about 60 percent of that is from non-elites.

For most amateur athletes, that 15 percent improvement in recovery means youll simply feel better after a grueling workout youll have less muscle soreness and stiffness, more energy, better range of motion and sleep better, says Austin.

But thats not necessarily the score it sounds like. If you dont feel terrible after a series of tough training days or a hard race, youre much more likely to get back out, sooner, Austin says. But you might do more harm than good. Until we understand better how exogenous ketones affect the body and recovery, numbing the alarm doesnt change the need for rest.

And will they even work for you like they do for the pros? Jurys still out. Everyday athletes are likely going to respond differently to exogenous ketones, considering just the impact of genetics and training on energy substrate metabolism (how well your body burns other fuel sources) alone, Scott says. And, as with all supplements or performance aids, there are very clearly responders and non-responders. It simply doesnt work for everyone, he adds.

But most importantly, there are so many other aspects of performance that everyday athletes would be better served to focus on, Scott points out, including but not limited to sleep, diet composition, diet quality, nutrient timing, hydration, training program, rest days, stress management, meditation, visualization and even social relationship quality. For elites, all these things are taken into consideration and already optimized, he says. But I would hate for an amateur athlete to start taking ketones to improve sleep for better recovery when its really their stress management that needs to be tweaked.

The upside: as long as you monitor everything above, all our experts agree, theres close to no risk in trying.

Pretty much everyone agrees you shouldnt be using exogenous ketones to enhance recovery after every hard workout or race. This isnt meant for a long weekend ride, Johnson cautions. Even if it was really hard and I came home completely bonked and exhausted, I dont need a ketone ester to feel better at work the next few days.

Not only will drinking it post-ride regularly lead to overtraining, but, at $37 a bottle, a few bottles a week doesnt make economic sense for most of us. The effects of exogenous ketones last roughly an hour after ingestion and youre intended to drink a whole bottle immediately after moving for recovery.

If a client is having trouble sleeping, Ill have them drink ketones before bed so their body can catch up on repairs. But its important to address the underlying issues of why theyre not sleeping in the bigger picture.

But when marathon training gets serious and youre logging 15K, 18K and 12K all within a few days? Thats when you want to take it. Harder training weeks, multi-day endurance competitions, multi-stage races I would absolutely be using it after every stage. That level of benefit is enormous, Johnson adds.

Austin agrees, but adds shell also use it sparingly to disrupt recovery inhibitors. If a client is having trouble sleeping, Ill have them drink ketones before bed for just a few nights so their body can catch up on repairs, she says. But its important to address the underlying issues of why theyre not sleeping in the bigger picture.

And while we have no studies on microdosing (which would be more approachable and more wallet-friendly), Austin says shes seen some results. If someone is new to training, that mid-morning fatigue can be debilitating in terms of getting work done, but taking 10 milliliters of ketones can give them an energy boost, she explains.

Everyone agrees, given the current state of research, exogenous ketones are generally safe. And the one high-quality product we have on the market now (HVMN) is good to go.

But its worth noting that exogenous ketones are currently sold as dietary supplements, which means theres no oversight by the FDA. As ketones become more popular and more formulas come to market, well inevitably see products packed with both other enhancements and other cost-cutting, potentially dangerous ingredients, Scott says. (The upside: the hefty price of formulas like HVMN will likely come down, too.)

We also dont know the effects or risks of using it long term is there a threshold after which exogenous ketones stop being as effective? If your body gets used to the aid in recovery, could it eventually stop being as efficient at rebuilding without it? Do you get any of the neuroprotective benefits of naturally going into ketosis? And, perhaps most importantly, if youre an ultra-runner or frequent multi-day racer using exogenous ketones for recovery, what nuanced alarm bells are you overlooking?

There are definitely a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to exogenous ketones. But with minimal risk and serious potential gains, we wouldnt knock anyone for giving a sip.

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How Athletes Are Reaping the Benefits of Keto Without Actually Giving Up Carbs - Gear Patrol

Weight loss diets have become more sustainable in the past decade

When asked nutritionists and health experts about trends of the past decade, they feel that diet is increasingly being used as a tool for achieving weight loss, good health and overall well-being. The past decade has also been one in which diseases like obesity, diabetes and even high blood pressure became a public health problem. And, weight loss is the one effective tool to prevent these conditions and treat them effectively. The need to lose weight to become fitter and be disease-free has given birth to a number of diets like keto diet, paleo diet, atkins diet and low-carb diet.

While these diets have been found to be effective for offering quick weight loss benefits, they also come with side effects like nutritional deficiencies, increased cravings, irritation, mood swings, etc. Health experts and nutritionists like Luke Coutinho and Rujuta Diwekar have addressed these concerns and side effects of weight loss diets.

This New Year, say no to restrictive diets and follow a balanced dietPhoto Credit: iStock

If you have been following the likes of Luke and Rujuta, you would know that they promote of a more holistic way of eating and living. Lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho believes in consumption of a healthy, balanced diet along with regular exercise, yoga and meditation-for treatment and prevention of cancer, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, etc. Mumbai-based nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, on the other hand, believes in eating according to local, seasonal and cultural traditions.

Also read:Decade-End Special: Top Diet Trends That Gained Momentum In The Past Decade

Both Rujuta and Luke have massive following on social media. In 2018, Rujuta ran a 12-week fitness project. This program helped over 1 lakh people transform themselves to be thinner and healthier, she mentioned in her social media posts.

Luke has been promoting fasting, not just as part of diet, but as part of lifestyle as well. Dry fasting, intermittent fasting and social media fasting have helped thousands of people feel better mentally and physically, as he has shared on Instagram and Facebook.

The past decade also saw a shift to Ayurvedic style of eating. According to nutritionist Rupali Datta, Ayurvedic diet had all the answers we're looking for. The diet suits availability of seasons, foods and regions of the country.

Rujuta Diwekar is of the belief that as far as you are eating food that is grown in your area (local), is in season and is in sync with your culture and traditions, then both your health and weight can be optimum. Eating local offers the benefit of fresh produce; eating seasonal is environment-friendly and farmer-friendly, and reduces consumption of harmful pesticides; eating according to your culture and traditions is a reassurance that eating what your parents, grandparents and great grandparents grew up eating is most likely to work in your favour.

Eat local and seasonal foods like aloo parantha for good health and strong immunityPhoto Credit: iStock

Rising incidence of mental health issues in the past decade has made it imperative to talk about stress. If you are chronically stressed, then your diet and exercise will not work as effectively as they should. Even losing weight becomes downright difficult if you are stressed. "Not every stressful situations needs to be reacted to," says Luke, who believes that there is a need to change your attitude towards stress. Yoga, meditation, listening to music, reconnecting with nature and other stress-management strategies can help you get relief from chronic stress.

Also read:They Many Ways Stress Harms You And 7 Tips That Will Actually Help In Beating It

If you love having your daily cup(s) of masala chai with two biscuits, then this one is especially for you. A common practice among people with diabetes is to have tea with two biscuits, but no sugar and this is exactly what you should not be doing. "According to World Health Organisation and other global organisations for diabetes, 6-9 tsp of sugar in a day is fine. Instead of avoiding sugar, people should avoid invisible sugar sources in the form of breakfast cereals, fruit juices, biscuits, etc," says Rujuta.

Avoid having biscuits with tea or coffeePhoto Credit: iStock

In her videos and posts, Rujuta has categorically mentioned that anything that comes in a packet must be off the table if you want a healthy weight and good health. Snack healthy with makhanas, peanuts, roasted chanas, nuts and seeds. Chips, biscuits, instant noodles and frozen foods (amongst others) are your worst enemies if you are trying to lose weight. Similar is the case with beverages. Opt for plain water, lemon water, sugarcane juice, bel sherbet, etc over aerated drinks and energy drinks. Processed and packaged foods are prepared with added flavours, sugar and preservatives. While they offer you convenience in a busy and packed life, they can wreak havoc on your health and worsen blood pressure, heart health and diabetes.

If lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho is to be believed, then the coming years are going to be all about fasting and detox. Whether it is social media fasting, or the doing the traditional fast which involves refraining from eating, you need to include fasting in your routine. Speaking of intermittent fasting, this kind of eating plan can help you get in sync with circadian rhythm, as Luke explains. Other benefits of this fasting including promoting better sleep, aiding weight loss and even reversing type 2 diabetes. Social media fasting, on the other hand, can give your mind a break and help in reducing the stress you feel from constantly seeing other people's lives and accomplishments.

Intermittent fasting can aid sustainable weight loss and give your body the much-needed detoxPhoto Credit: iStock

Also read:Intermittent Fasting And Circadian Rhythm: 10 Tips To Make Intermittent Fasting Work For You

The importance of meal prepping cannot be stressed enough. In her 12-week fitness project, Rujuta mentions that before leaving from home every day, you should plan at least 3 meals of the day. Meal prepping is referred to meal planning. This is one lifestyle trend that has gained popularity in the past decade and will continue to be popular and change people's lives in 2020 and the coming years. Take out one day in the week where you create a chart of all your meals in the coming week. Buy vegetables, masalas and other groceries accordingly. And every day before leaving home, put in place 3 meals (breakfast, lunch and snacks) that you are going to have the whole day. The ideal thing to do is include lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, nuts, seeds, fatty fish, etc in your diet. Intake of protein, carbs, fats and fibre must be done in a balanced and holistic way. Meal prepping can prevent overeating and eating from outside. It is only one way to ensure a good intake of nutrients on a daily basis.

Nutritionists and health experts are now moving from restrictive diets to diets that are more inclusive and holistic in nature. You don't need to avoid fats or carbs to get fitter and thinner. You can eat good fats and healthy carbs, and even homemade sweets. The key is to practice portion control. Even when you're indulging, take care of the portion size. Eat everything that is in season, from aloo paranthas to aloo puri, laddoos and ghee. Just don't go overboard with the portion size.

Here's an interesting way to calculate how much you need to eat, as per Rujuta's mental meal map:

This 2020 and the new decade that is beginning with it, let's pledge towards getting fitter, healthier and disease-free with the help of most natural and sustainable ways. Here's wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2020!

Also read:Cheat Meals: Our Expert Decodes Do's And Don'ts To Follow When Having A Cheat Meal

(Luke Coutinho, Holistic Lifestyle Coach - Integrative Medicine)

(Rujuta Diwekar is a nutritionist based in Mumbai)

(Rupali Datta is a Clinical Nutritionist based in Delhi)

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.

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Lifestyle Trends That Caught Attention Of Weight Watchers This Decade - NDTV News

"People dont change because of facts. They change because of stories," says Dr. George Guthrie, author of Eat Plants, Feel Whole, a new book that guides readers through the transition to a plant-based diet. Dr. Guthrie, who has been treating patients with diabetes, heart disease and other lifestyle diseases with whole-foods plant-based diet recommendation, tells the story that sent him along this path, some 40 years ago. He has seen the impact on a person's health thatswitching from an animal-based diet to a vegan or plant-based diet can dofor someone, and has been eating this way himself for the past 40 years.

Dr. Guthrie was a self-described "fat kid" in high school, "I have always been interested in healthy eating because in high school, I had a weight problem. I was the short, fat kid. My mother worked in a hospital and since he worked closely with the doctors, she knew the importance of learning how to eat." So he switched his diet, learned to eat healthy foods and also to becomean "intermittent faster" for most of his adulthood (though it was not yet called that back then.)

The story that made him switch to become plant-based? "When I became a physician I had a patient who presented with metabolic syndrome and it was before we knew the whole concept of what was going on. Hehaddiabetes and hypertension and obesity. His sugars were over 200. And I said I will help you with your lifestyle but you have to change how you eat. And a year later he had normal sugar and lipids and blood pressure. I had never seen it happen before. It changed the trajectory of my career. I went back for my degree in public health. that was 35 years ago.

"I was not the first one. John McDougal was doing that, and when I was in medical school I also knew Hans Diehl a young doctor in health science and he took me to Nathan Pritikins program out in California in 1981.Now I tell people: Eat more plants and I try to move people into that direction. Obviously people are now paying attention because of the planet, but the majorbenefit is to you. I tell people: Eat more plants, you should try it."

"We created a graphic that is a matrix chart. The axis goes from left to right, from animal products on the left to plants on the right, and from the bottom-- which shows refined foods on the bottom and unrefined on the top. Our goal is to push people to the right upper quadrant -- unrefined plant foods. They dont have to be vegetarians or vegans but they have to eat more plants.

"That upper right is the healthy space, where they should exist. There is a space in the way upper right and we say this is therapeutic."

"Some people can move slowly but others need to move quickly. Moving to a plant-based diet can be therapeutic in treating diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension and obesity. It can reverse the whole metabolic syndrome. We recognize this is a problem when people live with too many calories in, and not enough calories out.

"If you eat foods that have too many calories in them, and not enough fiber in the food, and water in the food, you will gain weight. The more you add foods that contain the most fiber and water, the better, That is the whole food plant-basedapproach. And you get all the benefits on the body and the microbiome.

"Motivating people is what I do all day. When I was a young person I thought about: What am I going to be when I grow up? And one thing I knew I would never wanted to be was a salesman. So I went into medicine, and low and behold all I am doing now all day long is selling. Selling the diagnosis and selling the treatment and selling prevention.

"When they are ready to change its exciting. When they are motivated, its very exciting.

"When people are not ready to change getting them ready to change is a trickier business. Is this person ready? They will give you clues. Instead of spending time telling them what they should do, 'You gotta stop eating this and doing this and doing that,' I start telling stories.

"I say: Do you know this condition is reversible? There are studies that say it can go away. And I ask them if they are interested in hearing stories. Then I hand them Dr. Caldwell Esselstyns book on Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease, and say if you are ready, I will do it with you. And so its not me saying i

t to them. It's stories.

"The benefit is that I dont see so many resistant people as I used to. Perhaps the word is getting around, and then the joy of my practice increases. Because people want to change.

"I like to tell them to try The Full Plate Diet -- by Diana Fleming, who has a PhD out of Tufts. I tell them til fill up of their plate with high fiber and high-water foods and then use the remaining for other foods.

"When I talk about high-water foods, it's usually also high-fiber foods. Water doesnt have any calories, of course, so if we can fill our stomachs with high-water foods like fruits and vegetables, we can feel fuller on fewer calories.

"Generally working in a group is the most effective. Youdon'teven need a doctor to do it. Group process is extremely powerful. I started out with one patient who was able to make some changes. That whetted my appetite and my wife is a nurse practitioner and we moved up to the mountains of California near Yosemite, and she had nothing to do there, soshe got started on the CHIP project -- Coronary Health Improvement Project.

"Now it's called the Complete Health Improvement Project. The idea is you get a group of people together, and do this as an intense program, four days a week, for four weeks. Every day they get a video presentation, food presentations,sit at a table and talking together, communicating together. We watched this make a big impact in the community,It took people who were not interested in Plant-Based eating and made them think: Hey maybe I can do this. There is still a CHIP club up there in Groveland,

"But the powerful thing is the change that happens in peoples lives. People share their stories.Stories change behavior, facts don't. And those stories from early adapters change lives. Those people tell their stories and it changes lives.I've seen people get off their insulin pumps, and people who were very sick get well. Then they share their stories and it's powerful.

"Usually, people just don't know how to cook that way. The logical concern is: "How do I get enough protein?' For those of us in the business of helping people eat this way, we know its a non-issue. But the beef and dairy industryhas brainwashed us into thinking we need our protein and calcium from those animal sources. It's just not true.

Q. Whats a typical day of eating?

"Breakfast is a whole-grain cereal with fruit, and I try to have berries with it and nuts.

"My favorite bread is heavy German rye with more fiber than most bread has, and have almond butter on it or fruit on it. Today I had it with toast and almond butter with pineapple slices that I had cut up yesterday!

"Lunch in the doctor's lounge is not always easy. We try to focus on the plants and less of the refined things. Whatever plant-based food is around: Usually salads and soups

"Dinner is not much, for me.I don't know how much youre aware of this, but from the scientific literature, research tells us that when you eat is as important as what you eat.

"You've heard of Intermittent fasting? I have adopted this since I was young, but it wasn't called that then. But there is no supper prepared in my house -- no evening meal. If I am really hungry, Ill have a piece of fruit.

"People worry about going to sleep on an empty stomach. That it might keep them up. But when you are in a fasting state your gut makes beaucoup melatonin. You sleep better in the fasting state. If I eat too much (or drink too much), it really suppresses sleep. I tell patients the goal is to go to bed with an empty stomach. Its better for you.

Q. Timing of food matters? So what time do you eat?

"Breakfast at 7:30 or 8 in the morning, the second meal at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and that will be it for the day.

"Dinner is often about being social. But if you eat a lot of fiber and water in your food, that hangs around a long time. Not hypo-glycemic. I dont get hungry. Fiber and water work to keep you full. AndI dont really do any snacking. Always have nuts for breakfast. But no snacking after that.

"I never worry about calories. I don't really count. Instead of telling patients about that I tell them to lose weight: What one does is move to a whole food plant-based diet and then you dont need to count calories.Eat more, weigh less is one of the key marketing phrases of this kind of diet. Or as I like to say:Eat Plants, Feel Whole.

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How to Use a Plant-Based Diet and Intermittent Fasting to Lose Weight - 92moose.fm

Another day, another round of stock market records?

That may be a Friday stretch.

The big names that weve run a little hot and cold on this year, such as Amazon.com AMZN, +0.06%, were out in front, pulling the Santa-rally sleigh to fresh records on Thursday. (Remember, that traditional year-end rally for stocks that starts in the last 5 trading days in December and the first 2 in January).

Apple AAPL, -0.04% logged its best one-day gain in weeks, and has gained 84% with just three trading days left in 2019, the iPhone maker is looking at its best annual return in 10 years.

Heres a tweet that shows just how much weight some of these popular companies are swinging around:

Onto our call of the day, which warns individual investors against getting sucked into this Santa Rally, lest they want to pay the piper come January.

This is the time to be taking profits, not adding new money. Without a doubt, most of the people buying today will come to regret that decision over the next few weeks as prices dip back under these levels, writes popular financial blogger Jani Ziedins of Cracked Market. While he says that a pullback may not occur until February.

That bit of gloom flies in the face of optimism thats been swirling around that stocks are due for some first-quarter lift off. However, as Ziedins reminds us, institutional money managers are on vacation and not participating in this price action.

Opinion: What would happen if Santa fails to call on Wall Street this year?

That means whatever happens over the next few days is meaningless and has no bearing on what comes next, said Ziedins. In fact, it could have the opposite effect. A good few days now could be stealing profits from January and the higher we go now, the less room we have left next month, he says.

To be sure, someone has to be trading all those Amazon shares. See the stat below.

Read: The usual suspects arent driving those record closes for the Nasdaq

After Thursdays record session, the Dow DJIA, +0.08% , S&P 500 SPX, +0.00% are up, but the Nasdaq COMP, -0.17% is slipping. The dollar DXY, -0.53% is down. Europe stocks SXXP, +0.21% are mixed, while Asia markets ADOW, +0.83% gained, thanks to Wall Streets rally.

Our chart comes from The Market Ear blog, which shows the rising and falling fortunes of two exchange-traded funds this year. On the upside, weve got the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, -0.02%, which is a popular play on that index, while the cannabis-company focused ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF MJ, -0.18% shows just how tough 2019 has been for that nascent sector.

Shares of Amazon logged their highest close since July on Thursday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Preliminary data showed 6 million shares changed hands, which was the highest since 9.6 million on Oct. 25.

Starbucks SBUX, +0.06% will be giving away coffee at surprise parties to be announced each day between now and New Years Eve.

Disneys DIS, +0.03% Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker logged the second-best Christmas Day ever at the domestic box office.

And China reported industrial profits improving in November.

At least 12 people died after a plane crash near the Kazakhstan airport

Your diet, that electric car, arent helping save the planet

Reddit roasting 22-year old who complained about paltry Christmas gifts

The life of a retail worker at the end of 2019 isnt to be envied

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Heres a warning for investors who are tempted by this year-end rally for stocks - MarketWatch