You don't need supplements to live a healthy life. If you exercise regularly, eat a balanced diet, get sleep, and avoid stress, you will prevent health problems while gaining muscle and losing fat. But the right supplements can absolutely take your health and fitness to the next level. Life happenssometimes you travel, sometimes you get sick, and sometimes you eat two pounds of french fries in one sittingand it's nice to have a little help.

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If you want a boost, read on for a list of health and fitness supplements you might want to consider taking. And if you want to avoid a wrongful death lawsuit, check out the supplements to avoid.

Most supplements that people "swear by" have as much scientific backing as the flat earth theory. Fortunately, fish oil has plenty of positive evidence behind it.

First, it helps your heart. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and reduce the risk of death for people who have had a heart attack. Second, it can help cancer patients improve their quality of life. Third, fish oil offers anti-inflammatory benefits that reduce arthritis pain (and are safer than anti-inflammatory drugs).

If these health benefits aren't appealing enough, consider this: Research shows fish oil boosts how much fat you burn while exercising. One study even found that three weeks of fish oil supplementation slashed body fat by two pounds.

Inside your gastrointestinal tract, you have more bacteria than you have cells in your entire body. And while there are (obviously) bad bacteria, there are also plenty of good bacteria essential for health, digestion, and fighting off sicknesses.

Many of us, however, don't have enough good bacteria in our gut due to poor diets, stress, and even past illnesses. For those who don't eat fermented foods all the time, try supplementing with probioticsthose that contain plenty of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacteria bifidumand prebiotics, which feed the good bacteria.

Most supplements that people "swear by" have as much scientific backing as the flat earth theory.

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According to a recent study in the Journal of Nutrition, less than 3 percent of Americans get enough fiber. (Actually, most of us aren't even close.) But good levels of dietary fiber are associated with all kinds of health benefits like reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, several cancers, andof courseconstipation.

The best way to get fiber is to eat plenty of whole grains, fruits, and veggies every day. But for the moments you can't, keep a fiber supplement close at hand.

A lot of what we think we're deficient in is exaggeratedexcept for magnesium. Western diets tend to be low in magnesium despite the critical role it plays in the brain, heart, and muscles.

As for health benefits, magnesium supplementation can lower blood pressure (if you're at risk), reduce depression, enhance exercise performance, improve sleep quality, and protect against Type 2 diabetes. And if you have a deficiency, adding magnesium to your diet can increase testosterone too.

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If you lift weights and want to add more muscle, I strongly recommend some kind of protein powder. Everyone knows protein is needed for muscle growth; plenty of studies show that protein supplementation accelerates your muscle growth more than working out without it.

Granted, a chicken breast is probably better for you than a shake. But is a protein drink a simple and easy way to get everything you need for muscle recovery after a workout? Hell yeah.

Preworkouts are safe, just as long as you don't take too much. As researchers from UNC cautioned, "Adverse effects include gastrointestinal symptoms, cardiac arrhythmia, blood pressure increases, and potential effects on lipids and blood glucose." (Death is also a side effect.)

But are they worth it? The evidence still is inconclusive. If you're looking for a pre-workout boost, stick with the old fashioned cup of coffee or teait will give you gentle surge of energy without the heart attack.

Fat burners don't actually burn fat: They suppress hunger, elevate your metabolism, and raise your body temperature so you burn more calories. They also commonly include ingredients like caffeine, carnitine, green tea, conjugated linoleic acid, and capsicum. (There's decent evidence that capsicum, or pepper, is a life-extender when eaten alone.)

The evidence with fat burners, however, is dicey. Some research found a slight reduction in body fat while others cite dangerous side effects and urge caution. (Fat burning supplements are regulated as "foods" by the FDA, not "drugs," and can contain hidden ingredients.)

My advice? Ditch fat supps and use the ultimate fat burner: diet and exercise.

Anthony J. Yeung, CSCS, is a fitness expert and founder of groombuilder.com.

6 Fitness Myths That Do More Harm Than Good

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5 Supplements You Might Actually Want to Take - Esquire.com

This article originally appeared on Time.

Want to keep your heart and cardiovascular system healthy for years to come? Keep these meals and snack items away from your cart and out of your regular diet. Save them for occasional indulgencesat mostand replace them with heart-healthy swaps whenever possible.

Fast-food burgers The science on whether saturated fats are truly linked to heart diseaseisnt entirely clear. When consumed in moderation, high-quality, grass-fed beef may even have some heart-health benefits, says Dr. Regina Druz, associate professor of cardiology at Hofstra University and chief of cardiology at St. John Episcopal Hospital in New York City.

But in general, Druz says, saturated fats from animals, especially when combined with carbohydrates, appear to have a deleterious effect on heart health." Avoiding fast-food restaurants, which tend to use lower quality ingredients and unhealthy cooking methods, is always a smart way to cut back, she says.

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Processed and cured meats Cold cuts and cured meats (likebaconand sausage) can be high in saturated fat. But even low-fat options tend to be very high in salt. Just six thin slices ofdeli meatcan contain half the daily recommended level of sodium, according to the American Heart Association.

The majority of people should be on a salt-restricted diet because of sodiums link to high blood pressure, says Dr. Laxmi Mehta, director of the Womans Cardiovascular Health Program at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Not everyone needs medication to make big strides, she says. Sometimes my patients with elevated blood pressure are able to make significant improvements just by adjusting their diet."

Deep-fried foods Several studies have linked the consumption offried foods,like French fries, fried chicken and fried snacks, to an increased risk of heart disease. Conventional frying methods create trans fats, a type of fat shown to raise the bad type of cholesterol and lower the good kind.

If youre making a veggie stir-fry at home and youre preparing it with olive oil and coconut oil, theres certainly nothing wrong with that, says Druz. But what most people understand as typical fried food, the kinds you dont prepare at home, should certainly be avoided.

Candy For many years, fat was branded as the biggest dietary cause of heart disease. But a report published last year inJAMA Internal Medicinerevealed that studies funded by the sugar industry were largely responsible for pushing that belief. Now, experts say that diets high inadded sugarmay be just as big a threat by contributing to obesity, inflammation, high cholesterol and diabetes, all of which are risk factors for heart disease.

The debate in cardiology has pivoted from saturated fat and cholesterol to sugar, says Druz. If there is one ingredient I would say anyone with heart disease or risk for heart disease must avoid, its added sugar in any form.

Soft drinks and sugar-sweetened juices For many Americans, the largest source of added sugar in their diets isnt from food, but from beverages. Recent government reports found that more than 60% of children, 54% of adult men, and 45% of adult women hadat least one sodaor sugar-sweetened drink a day between 2011 and 2014.

Sugary cereals Even foods that seem like part of a balanced diet, like breakfast cereals, can be loaded with sugar. Eating refined carbohydrates and sugars in the morning is going to produce inflammation and make blood sugar go up and down, so youll crave more sugar throughout the day, Druz says. Instead, she recommends having fruit along with an egg or avocado on whole-wheat toast.

Cookies and pastries Most baked goodsespecially those that are commercially producedare full of sugar and are likely made with saturated fats (like butter or palm oil) or trans fats (like partially hydrogenated vegetable oil). You have two ingredients that work with each other to give somebody the worst possible nutritional profile," Druz says.

Margarine There may be room for debate about the cardiovascular risks associated with saturated fats, like butter. Whats more certain is that diets high in trans fats appear to definitely raise a persons risk of heart disease.

Trans fats are common in sticks of margarine that are solid at room temperature, which are often marketed as a healthier alternative to butter. To be safe, choose asoft, spreadable margarinethat contains no partially hydrogenated oils, or stick with olive oil instead.

Meat-lovers pizza After cold cuts and cured meats, pizza ranks second on the American Heart Associations list of salty six foods. (Other salt bombs to watch for include soups, condiments, and salad dressings.) Pizzas sodium contentas well as its saturated fatgoes way up as you pile on extra cheese and meat-based toppings. When eating out or getting delivery, limit yourself to one or two slices, and opt for veggie toppings instead.

Diet soda It may be fat-free and zero-calorie, but diet soda has a dark side. People are under the impression that theyre healthy, and theyre really not, says Druz. Research continues to mount linking the cola to the development of heart-disease risk factors like obesity and diabetes.

Some studies show that people who drink diet sodas tend to overcompensate andconsume more caloriesthan they otherwise would, while other research suggests that chemicals in diet soda may actuallyalter gastrointestinal bacteriaand make people more prone to gaining weight. While it may have no sugar, its not a heart-healthy choice, says Druz.

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The 10 Worst Foods For Your Heart - Essence.com

February 15, 2017 Gentoo penguin chicks at Bird Island. Credit: British Antarctic Survey

The longest and most comprehensive study to date of what penguins eat is published this month. The study, published in the journal Marine Biology, examines the diets of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) at Bird Island, South Georgia over a 22 year period and is part of a project investigating the Southern Ocean ecosystem and its response to change.

Penguin parents forage at sea returning to feed their chicks every day. The team, based at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), found that between 1989 and 2010 gentoo penguins ate approximately equal amounts of crustaceans, (mainly Antarctic krill, a small shrimp-like creature) and fish.

Twenty-six different prey species were found in the diet, including squid, octopus and 17 species of fish. The composition of gentoo penguin diets was variable from year to year, with krill the dominant food in 10 years of the study and fish in 12 years. Successful breeding (the number of chicks fledged per nest per year) was strongly related to the amount of krill in the diet, with few chicks fledging in years where krill was particularly scarce.

The team then compared the diets of gentoo penguins with those of macaroni penguins (Eudyptes chrysolphus) also resident at Bird Island. Both species are able to switch to other prey when krill availability is low. However, where gentoo penguins have a broad and variable diet, macaroni penguins are specialist predators on krill. Their differing diets and foraging ranges allow the two penguin species to successfully coexist at Bird Island, South Georgia.

Lead author, Dr Claire Waluda, penguin ecologist at BAS says:

"Gentoo and macaroni penguins are important indicator species and monitoring changes in their diets can help us understand changes in the Southern Ocean ecosystem."

"This work highlights the importance of long-term data collection and supports the work of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which is responsible for setting catch limits for commercial krill and fish in the Southern Ocean. Their aim is to protect marine ecosystems and maintain sustainable levels of fishing in this region."

The paper summarises one of the longest time series of penguin diet currently available globally. Long-term variability in the diet and reproductive performance of penguins at Bird Island, South Georgia by Claire M. Waluda, Simeon L. Hill, Helen J. Peat and Philip N. Trathan is published this month in the journal Marine Biology.

Explore further: Study shows mixed fortunes for Signy penguins

More information: Claire M. Waluda et al. Long-term variability in the diet and reproductive performance of penguins at Bird Island, South Georgia, Marine Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s00227-016-3067-8

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New study reveals what penguins eat - Phys.Org

For the first time ever, Spruce Avenue has bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic!

I dont mean for five minutes while waiting at a light; I am talking hours and hours of idling, barely moving cars. Each in a rush to get nowhere (home), each not really interested in the safety of our neighborhood.

Theres an accident on the QEW, yet Spruce is backed up? That never happened before. Why now? New Street road diet.

Great planning!

Not only can I not use the arterial New Street today, I also cannot get around safely and can enjoy the streets where I live.

Not a bike in sight anywhere but hundreds and hundreds of cars passing by us on Spruce Avenue. Just a joke.

But wait.. when you report the results of the citys study, you bet I already anticipate that Burlington shows it as a resounding success.

Sickened lifelong City of Burlington resident.

Ron Levesque Burlington

See the article here:
New Street diet's spillover felt on Spruce Avenue - InsideHalton.com

A bone density test can tell you if you have osteopenia, low bone density, or osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become weak and brittle.

The lower your bone density, the higher risk you are at for breaking a bone.

Both conditions can be prevented through a well-balanced diet that includes adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D and regular exercise but the type of exercise is key.

Weight-bearing exercises are exercises that make your bones work against gravity through the use of your own body weight or actual weights. Examples of weight-bearing exercises are climbing stairs, lifting weights, walking and running.

They actually build bone and it is never too late to start doing them, even if you have already been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis.

This was recently proven by a local Plattsburgh resident who, to protect her privacy, will be referred to as Jenny for the remainder of this article.

Jennys bone density results classified her as having osteopenia in both legs as well as her lower spine in 2010, which eventually led to osteoporosis in her right leg by 2012. This came as a surprise to her since her diet included calcium and vitamin D.

Furthermore, she regularly engaged in yoga, pilates and walking, adding up to the recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week, sometimes more, when kayaking and biking were added to her routine in the summer.

Jenny was determined to find a way to improve her bone density scores without relying on bone density drug therapy. She decided to enlist the help of personal trainers at the UVM Health Network, CVPH Wellness and Fitness Center to evaluate her current exercise routine.

With their help, she learned what weight bearing exercises were and was taught how to perform them properly and safely. Before long, her usual exercise routine included boot camps weight-bearing body weight exercises, jumping jacks, jump roping and more.

Jenny felt stronger, vitalized, and overall healthier just what she needed.

But that was not all that changed. Her recent 2016 bone density results showed an overall positive 3.4 percent change in her spine, 2.8 percent change in her left leg, and a 6.7 percent change in her right leg since 2014, changing her classification from osteopenia to normal and osteoporosis to osteopenia respectively.

So how does it really work?Without getting scientific, let me try to give you a visual to help explain how weight bearing activities actually build bone.

When you consume calcium, vitamin D, and other nutrients, they are converted to bone building cells and added to your bone cell bank, similar to when you add money to your savings account.

Your supply of bone cells will sit there until they are called to action, similar to how your money will sit in the bank until you have a reason to go and withdraw it.

If you ever broke a bone, you have already experienced how your bone cells were called to action they were withdrawn from your bone cell bank and used to rebuild the bone. You may even have a bump at the site of the break as your receipt of the withdrawal and repair.

But dont worry, you dont need to go around breaking bones to get to your bone cell savings like breaking your ceramic piggy bank to get to your money.Weight bearing exercises adds stress to your bones.

This signals your body to withdraw from the bone cell bank and build more bone around the impacted area in order to uphold the weight it is bearing. Without this signal, there is no need for withdrawal; there is no need to build more bone. Similar to your savings account, your bones will become dormant with no activity.

Pulling it all together, prevention through diet and the right exercise, is key but being diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis is not your failed at prevention notice with no point of return.

As Jenny learned, it is never too late to start and you can beat osteoporosis.

Rebecca Boire-West is a Personal Trainer at the University of Vermont Health Network, CVPH Wellness and Fitness Center. She is also a licensed Massage Therapist, Health Coach and owner of Body in Balance Therapy. She can be reached at 518-578-2369

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Beating osteoporosis - Plattsburgh Press Republican

Going hungry for 5 days a month may improve your health.

AnaBGD/iStock

By Mitch LeslieFeb. 15, 2017 , 2:00 PM

Fasting is all the rage. Self-help books promise it will incinerate excess fat, spruce up your DNA, and prolong your life. A new scientific study has backed up some health claims about eating less. The clinical trial reveals that cutting back on food for just 5 days a month could help prevent or treat age-related illnesses like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Its not trivial to do this kind of study, says circadian biologist Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, who wasnt connected to the research. What they have done is commendable.

Previous studies in rodents and humans have suggested that periodic fasting can reduce body fat, cut insulin levels, and provide other benefits. But there are many ways to fast. One of the best known programs, the 5:2 diet, allows you to eat normally for 5 days a week. On each of the other 2 days, you restrict yourself to 500 to 600 calories, about one-fourth of what the average American consumes.

An alternative is the so-called fasting-mimicking diet, devised by biochemist Valter Longo of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and colleagues. For most of the month, participants eat as much of whatever they want. Then for five consecutive days they stick to a menu that includes chips, energy bars, and soups, consuming about 700 to 1100 calories a day.

The food, produced by a company that Longo helped found (but from which he receives no financial benefit), is high in unsaturated fats but low in carbohydrates and proteins, a combination that may spur the body to restore itself and burn stored fat. Two years ago, Longos team reported that mice on the rodent version of the diet lived longer and exhibited other positive effects, such as lowered blood sugar and fewer tumors. They also presented preliminary data suggesting health benefits in humans.

Now, the researchers have completed a randomized clinical trial in which 71 people followed the fasting-mimicking diet for 3 months, while volunteers in the control group didnt change their eating habits. Overall, the dieters lost an average of 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds), whereas the control group remained at the same weight, the scientists report online today in Science Translational Medicine. The calorie cutters also saw reductions in blood pressure, body fat, and waist size.

A 3-month trial cant determine whether the diet increases longevity in people like it did in mice, which rarely survive beyond a couple years. But Longo notes that levels of insulin-like growth factor 1, a hormone that promotes aging in rodents and other lab animals, plunged in the low-cal group. And subjects who were at the highest risk for age-related illnesses also saw other indicators of malfunctioning metabolism go down, such as blood glucose levels and total cholesterol.

Longo says that this diet treats aging, the most important risk factor for killers like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It looks like you can go at the underlying problem rather than just putting a Band-Aid on it, he says. In a follow-up trial, the team hopes to determine whether the diet helps people who already have an age-related diseaseprobably diabetesor are susceptible to one.

Dieting is often hard, but 75% of the low-cal participants managed to complete thetrial, notes gerontologist Rafael de Cabo of the U.S. National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland, who wasnt involved with the work. The next step, saysphysiologist Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, is todetermine whether the dietalsoworks in people who are not as healthy as they used in this study.

Research dietitian Michelle Harvie of the University Hospital of South Manchester in the United Kingdom adds that she wants to see longer studies confirm that the benefits persist and that people remain on the regimen. We need to help a lot of people, but what if only 2% of them are willing to do this?

Please note that, in an effort to combat spam, comments with hyperlinks will not be published.

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Five-day fasting diet could fight disease, slow aging - Science Magazine

Forget Whole 30 theres a new fad nutrition plan in town.

Its called The Sirtfood Diet, due to its emphasis on eating foods rich in sirtuin protein, which some researchers saymay activate genetic pathways to burn more caloriesand alsohelp slow down the aging process in animals. The diet became popular in the United Kingdom after nutritionists Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten published The Sirtfood Dietbook in 2016.

There are reports that singer and all-around angel Adele, may have jumped on the diets bandwagonat the influence of her personal trainer, Pete Geracimo, who is a big fanof the program as well.

Dark chocolate and red wine are allegedly sirtfood-approved. This is due to the fact that they contain resveratrol, an antioxidant that may activate sirtuin enzymes. (However, theres some debate in the scientific community as to whether or not thats actually true.)

So, should you be Googling Sirtfood Diet shopping list, immediately?Not so fast.

According to the book, the diet has two phases.Phase one is seven days long. For the first three, the authors encourage you to max out your food intake at 1,000 calories a day, consuming only three green juices and one meal composed of foods rich in sirtuins. This is significantly below the calories recommended even for weight loss, which hover between 1,500-1,600 calories per day for women and 2,000 calories for men, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Phase two is 14 days long. Those following the plan are encouraged to eat three sirtuin-rich meals a day and have one green juice.

According to David Levitsky, professor of nutrition and psychology in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, the research about sirtuin protein shows that it might be possible to burn more calories at a cellular level.

However, heres the catch: Nothing has been proven this effect could occur throughout the body. The cellular level is the very beginning of a process and there is no science that suggests it will change how your body operates. So, in a nutshell, this nutrition plan is nothing more than a low-calorie diet sold with the veneer that a drastic change to your metabolism is happening.

There is no evidence this works at the whole-body level, Levitsky told The Huffington Post. I guarantee you would lose weight. In the end of every diet, it is always about calories. But does that mean its the healthiest choice for you? Probably not.

That being said, some of the Sirtfood Diet-approved meals looked downright delicious. Well take a smoked salmon omelet or a buckwheat pasta saladfor brunch any day of the week. But losing weight and keeping it off can be done on several hundred more calories a day, juice cleansing excluded.

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Should You Try The Adele-Approved Diet Everyone Is Talking About? - Huffington Post

A new study suggests that a gluten-free diet may pose serious health risks, after finding that the eating pattern may raise the risk of exposure to arsenic and mercury.

Study co-author Maria Argos, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and colleagues recently reported their findings in the journal Epidemiology.

A gluten-free diet excludes foods that contain gluten - a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, as well as the byproducts of these grains.

For people with celiac disease - an autoimmune condition whereby gluten intake leads to intestinal damage - a gluten-free diet is the only treatment for the condition.

However, according to a 2012 survey, around 28-30 percent of us restrict our gluten intake or avoid consuming the protein completely, even in the absence of gluten sensitivities.

Rice flour is a common substitute for gluten in many gluten-free products. Argos and colleagues point out that rice can bioaccumulate arsenic, mercury, and other potentially harmful toxic metals from water, soil, or fertilizers.

Exposure to these metals has been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other diseases.

"Despite such a dramatic shift in the diet of many Americans, little is known about how gluten-free diets might affect exposure to toxic metals found in certain foods," note the authors.

With the aim of investigating the link between gluten-free diets and toxic metal exposure, Argos and team analyzed the data of 7,471 individuals who were a part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2009 and 2014.

The researchers identified 73 participants aged between 6 and 80 who reported following a gluten-free diet.

Blood and urine samples were taken from all participants and assessed for levels of arsenic and mercury.

The researchers found that levels of each toxic metal were much higher among subjects who followed a gluten-free diet than those who did not eat gluten-free products; mercury levels were 70 percent higher in the blood of gluten-free subjects, while arsenic levels in urine were almost twice as high.

According to Argos, these findings suggest that there may be "unintended consequences of eating a gluten-free diet," though further studies are needed to confirm whether this is the case.

The researchers add that:

"With the increasing popularity of gluten-free diets, these findings may have important health implications since the health effects of low-level arsenic and mercury exposure from food sources are uncertain but may increase the risk for cancer and other chronic diseases.

Although we can only speculate, rice may be contributing to the observed higher concentrations of metal biomarkers among those on a gluten-free diet as the primary substitute grain in gluten-free products."

Argos points out that there are regulations in Europe that limit arsenic levels in food products, and he suggests that the United States might benefit from similar regulations.

"We regulate levels of arsenic in water, but if rice flour consumption increases the risk for exposure to arsenic, it would make sense to regulate the metal in foods as well," he adds.

Learn how a gluten-free diet has gained popularity in the U.S.

Originally posted here:
Gluten-free diet may have 'unintended consequences' for health - Medical News Today

Jake Edmiston, For the Sun-News, LCPS Health 2:04 p.m. MT Feb. 15, 2017

Jake Edmiston(Photo: Darren Phillips)

With a multitude of diets on the market how is one supposed to know which diets are legit?

Today, popular diets are all around us: Paleo (restricts dairy, legumes, grains and oils), vegan (no animal products), vegetarian (allows eggs and dairy, no animal meat), Zone (counts calories and macronutrient percentages), South Beach (carbohydrates initially restricted then gradually added back in, focus on lean meat and vegetables), Weight Watchers (group setting where food is tracked by points), and Atkins (high fat, low carbohydrate diet). If your goal is to lose weight any diet can help in the short term. However, the problem is that people do not often make permanent lifestyle changes with these diets. Instead, people lose a little weight then quit the diet and typically put on more weight than they originally lost.

What is a person to do? What is the secret to picking a diet that will help you lose weight and be healthy? Fortunately, everyone already knows the secret. The secret is eat more fruits and vegetables, choose whole grains (brown rice instead of white), eats nuts and legumes (walnuts, almonds/beans, lentils), avoid processed sugary foods and beverages (candy bars, sodas, snack cakes), and consume less animal products.

Following these steps leads to successful weight loss. When whole foods, vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains are the star of your plate there is not a lot of room left for unhealthier options.

If youre the type of person who needs a plan to follow, then it is okay to follow a diet. However, there is one key question to ask yourself, Can I implement this change for the rest of my life? Because in truth diets do not work, rather, healthy lifestyle changes will literally change your life. Changes need to be sustainable and easy to incorporate into your everyday routine.

A major barrier people face when looking to make positive lifestyle changes in their diet is the idea certain foods are off limits. For example, I could never give up macaroni and cheese. Thats my favorite. Or, I love my moms homemade apple pie. I cant go on a diet because I know I cant give up eating that. This does not have to be the case, however. Lifestyle changes dont have to mean giving up your favorite comfort foods or treats. Dont give up eating the foods you love because that is not sustainable. Instead, focus on eating whole, less processed foods, vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains most of the time and allow yourself to enjoy the foods you love periodically so you never feel deprived. Just be sure treats do not become a daily occurrence. Above all, dont let perfection stand in the way of positive lifestyle changes.

Some suggestions for lifestyle changes can be:

1. Drink water instead of sodas/sugary beverages.

2. Eat a piece of fruit like an apple for an afternoon snack daily.

3. Incorporate more salads into your meals, but limit creamy dressings.

4. Try one new vegetable a week.

5. Look up recipes and cook at home using whole foods a few nights a week.

6. Check ingredient lists, looking for fewer listed ingredients and for ingredient names you are familiar with.

Talking to a dietitian can help you come up with some personalized lifestyle changes meeting your individual needs.

Making sustainable changes is hard. Some people do better with making several changes at once, and some do better slowly implementing changes. Think about what strategy works for you. Make goals today to add more whole foods, including vegetables and fruits, to your meals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that a person who increases his or her fruit and vegetable intake has lower risks for chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke and others.

So, the next time you are hungry, remember: dont let perfection be the enemy of the good. Make sustainable lifestyle diet choices by adding more whole foods to your meals.

Jake Edmiston is an NMSU dietetic intern working with LCPS Nutrition Services. He can be reached at hwedmist@nmsu.edu

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The secret diet - Las Cruces Sun-News