Entries tagged with 'health'
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From Gitwithit on Flickr Low in fat, high in protein, and filled with omega-3 fatty acids (which protects against heart disease and stimulates brain activity), canned tuna is a wonder food on paper. Until it starts making your hair fall out. As Mother Jones reports, Deborah Landvik-Fellner ate canned albacore tuna daily for 12 years until her hair started falling out and her speech started slurring. When she got her blood tested, frightening results came back: it had 48 parts per billion of mercury, nearly ten times the Environmental Protection Agency's notion of "safe." Shouldn't tuna be labeled if it's so dangerous? The Tuna Foundation sure hopes not. They know mercury scares will cause sales to plummet. In 2005,...
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I don't know why, but I'm feeling kind of optimistic about controlling my weight. Tonight, for example, I set out to eat half a burger, a salad, and a few fries for dinner. And I did it. And then, my wife came to my rescue when she came home and ate the other half of the burger. She saved me from myself and my worst impulses. I managed to do the same thing for lunch. I avoided the bread basket, ate half my sandwich and a couple of pickles. The other serious eaters were thrilled, of course, when I brought back the other half of the sandwich—a magnificent chorizo, cole slaw, and cheddar combo—to SE HQ. Anyway, two successful attempts...
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Many people know they don't want high-fructose corn syrup (or HFCS) even if they don't know why. The fuzzy grey area—like how HFCS affects your body, what it's made from, and how it differs from cane-based sugar—is exactly what the Corn Refiners Association is tapping into when promoting the ingredient in new commercials and print ads, now visible nationally and on the site SweetSurprise.com. The ads ask what's so wrong with a little HFCS? The complexities are hardly known or explained—people just know to avoid it. In one commercial, a girl picnics with her boy and offers him a popsicle. He declines. It's not you, it's the high fructose corn syrup, babe. Instead of taking offense, she merrily explains that...
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I write this from Cape Cod, where I drove yesterday to meet my wife and mother-in-law, who just turned ninety. I've decided to take the week off from my Friday weigh-in. Don't worry, I am still profoundly aware of what I eat. My mid-week weigh-in had me up two pounds, to 247, so it has not been a good week so far. But I hope just 'fessing up to all of you will help me stay on track here, where in the land of my mother-in-law I can sometimes fall prey to bouts of mindless overeating. I'll be back next Friday with a more complete accounting. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, everyone....
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The week didn't get off to a very good start. Saturday we went to visit friends in Block Island, off the coast of New London, Connecticut. Beautiful place, and our friends Arietta and Sam really showed us a good time, food and otherwise. Arietta loves to bake, so upon our arrival, she presented us with a platter of amazing chocolate chip cookies. The next day we had scones and a cobbler from a pretty good farmer's market baker for breakfast, excellent burgers for lunch, and lobsters and corn for dinner. Anyway, you get the picture. A fine relaxing weekend with good friends filled with good food. We got back Sunday night. I got on the scale Monday morning and discovered...
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I've been posting about my diet for more than half a year now, and I think it's time to take stock in the bigger picture. As I write this I weigh 246 pounds, which is 19 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest (265), which was well before I started posting about my diet travails. Looking Back, Looking Forward I have lost 8 pounds in the 29 weeks I have been posting specifically about the diet. Using various metrics I have encountered in recent years, and knowing my own body, I would feel great and look good weighing 225 pounds. That is my ultimate goal, and I think it's attainable. The Revised Plan At this point, you're all probably...
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Photograph from Kanko* on Flickr Although David Lebovitz will fearlessly eat steak tartare and raw milk cheeses, he confesses that he has been washing melons in soap and water for a few years in light of past large-scale melon recalls. Do you also wash melons before you eat them?...
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The New York Times has a slideshow profiling six Olympians and their physical stats, most including daily calorie consumptions. Weightlifter Cheryl Haworth is at the low end with 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day, while rower Brett Newlin shoots for 6,000 calories a day. Related: What Does Michael Phelps Eat for Breakfast? More Stuff Than You Eat All Day...
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I just came back from an overnight business trip to Chicago, a city I'm crazy about. How do I love the Windy City? Let me count the ways. It's a city of distinct and diverse neighborhoods; it's full of cool, architecturally interesting buildings; listening to Chicago blues helped get me through college; and yes, Chicago is a great food town. So what's a serious eater to do when he knows he's headed to Chicago on business? Normally, I would just obsessively research the eating options and plot my days bite by bite. But knowing I had to post this morning and get on the scale to do so, I realized that was a recipe for disaster (pun intended). So I...
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Upon my return from the nonstop eating extravaganza that was our West Coast excursion to Portland and San Francisco, I immediately got back on the horse (not the scale), dieting and living-wise. Last Friday and Saturday I truly, truly ate lightly, so when I did summon up courage to get on the scale Sunday, imagine my surprise when Mr. Scale said I had actually lost a pound since my last weigh-in. In a way, getting that favorable digital read on Sunday was counterproductive, as it probably gave me a false sense of accomplishment. Even more problematic was that I still had five days before the next weigh-in, which, as you all know, is about to happen. I had a few...
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