How Having a Pet Benefits Your Health

When returning home from work or any stressful activity, what a wonderful feeling it is to be greeted with love and happiness. Any pet owner knows how calming a feeling you get from hugging and petting your pet. There are many healthful benefits from owning a pet. There are no questions nor explanations to react to as your pet accepts you unconditionally. You can be rich or poor, ugly or beautiful, obese or skinny and you are accepted the way you are. How wonderful to feel accepted the way you are. There are several proven health benefits for people as mental,physical and emotional improvement to helping with social skills and even in decreasing a possibility of a heart attack.

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Does BMI Really Matter? What the Science Says

You know your weight, your height, and your blood pressure—but you may or may not know your body mass index (BMI) off the top of your head, although medical professionals have recommended that you do. What is BMI exactly? It’s a value based on your height and weight that falls into four possible weight categories, ranging from underweight to obese. (To measure your BMI, divide your weight in pounds by your height in inches, squared, or use an online BMI calculator.) The National Health Institute considers a healthy BMI to be between 18.5 and 24.9; a number between 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and any number over 30 is considered obese. But how important is this number really?

UCLA researcher A. Janet Tomiyama has found that when used alone to measure health, BMI may be a somewhat arbitrary calculation. In her study comparing individuals’ BMI with other measures of health, such as blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol, and insulin resistance, she found that almost half of those considered overweight based on their BMI were actually metabolically healthy, as were 29 percent of those whose BMI classified them as obese. Tomiyama, an assistant professor of psychology in the UCLA College, told the UCLA Newsroom, “Many people see obesity as a death sentence, but the data show that there are tens of millions of people who are overweight and obese and are perfectly healthy.”

Indeed, doctors are continuing to explore how to measure the true impact of BMI on overall health. Most medical professionals now think it should be one of many measurements used to assess health. For example, some doctors are concerned less with your BMI number than with the distribution of the fat that is used to calculate it. Michael Roizen, MD, author of You: On a Diet, told webmd.com, “Fat around your waist is more biologically active and can do more damage to your body than the weight around your hips. The data shows that waist circumference is more reliable and more closely correlated with diseases associated with obesity.”

The bottom line is that a health measurement that once was considered to be a black-and-white indicator of health now resides in the gray area. To get a well-rounded assessment of your health, talk to your doctor about requesting lab tests such as a full metabolic panel, and consider discussing your BMI as it fits into the bigger picture of your health.

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How I Lost 100 Pounds at Age 51 (and Am Keeping It Off)

The massive, wrinkled fat rolls pictured on the Facebook post repulsed me. I blinked hard before I noticed the middle-aged women who had flashed their abdomens for the camera were smiling. And then I saw it—the “fat happens” mantra beneath the photo.

My immediate thought was to delete the post. As I kept studying the picture, though, I decided I had to respond. I couldn’t post anything—not even an “LOL”—that might signal agreement with the sentiment, even though a dear friend had shared it. As a former chair-busting 40-something, I knew karma would punish me if I didn’t speak out.

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” I typed, noticing my left hand tremble just a bit as I pecked out the letters. Candidly, it was difficult to write even that. But those words had changed my life, prompting me to start a journey that led to losing 100 pounds. I hoped at least they’d give others pause.

After I lost the weight, I promised myself I’d never again support the belief that middle-aged women—and men—are destined to grow fat, lose muscle tone, and develop heart disease. I just couldn’t propagate that falsehood once I knew differently.

I was never a fat kid. I ate right, I was active, and I just had fun. But that all stopped after college as I walked the tightrope of my stressful career. Food was my escape. Sure, I tried to lose weight through the years. After dozens of half-hearted, failed efforts—name a diet and I tried it—I gave up. I told everyone I would always be fat. I couldn’t change.

I believed that until my husband and I, joined by two of our closest friends, took a cruise to the Caribbean to celebrate my 50^th birthday. I was having incredible knee pain—that tends to happen when you weigh almost 250 pounds—and could hardly hobble around our cabin. Still I agreed to go on a shore excursion around one of the islands.

My knee threatened to give out several times as I slowly walked out of the cabin, around the stairways, and down the gangplank to the van. After hoisting myself into the van and taking a seat, I watched as a massively obese woman (even compared to me!), slowly climbed aboard. Everyone pretended not to notice the woman’s face, scrunched in pain, as she slowly shuffled to her seat.

“Ah, a glimpse into my future,” I jokingly whispered to my friend Sherry.

“No, it’s not,” my friend said in a dead-serious whisper. “It doesn’t have to be that way. You can diet. You can exercise. You can change.”

That simple statement triggered something in me. I started to think about my life and how I’d gone from semi-athletic kid to queen-size pantyhose wearer who could hardly walk a few hundred feet. And how my mom—who didn’t have the internet or DVD workout programs or any of the other more modern conveniences we have now—kept weight gain at bay.

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Modern weight-loss systems weren’t working. Why not give the tried-and-true method a chance?

These are the lessons I learned in my mission to lose 100 pounds:

• You can’t buy weight loss. Yes, there are plenty of high-priced diets and workouts available. Unless you are committed to losing weight, though, no pricey systems will do a shred of good.
• Calories count. Count them. When I began my serious weight-loss journey, I used (and still use) the free tracking system SparkPeople. Yes, it takes time to track food, but the accountability you gain is well worth the time and money.
• Think ahead. If I knew I was going to dine out, which I rarely did, I would pre-plan my meal. Then I could put the calories into my tracker ahead of time. Pre-planning let me know exactly how much I could eat the rest of the day so as not to exceed my calorie limit.
• Network. SparkPeople has a recipe database and forums where members share ideas. I credit those forums with introducing me to healthier versions of recipes I enjoyed (chicken fingers, tuna casserole). The quality of your food calories count, and this program helped me eat healthy, appealing foods. Another bonus: The other members gave me words of encouragement when I didn’t lose weight or, sadly, gained weight. Their words meant a lot, because they understood.
• Set aside time to exercise. You don’t need to join a gym or buy expensive equipment. You do need to set aside the time to move and commit to moving during that time. Yes, you’re busy. We all are. But how much is your health worth? I started moving by thinking about what I liked to do as a kid—swimming. So I joined a community gym and began swimming. I branched out to other exercises from there. One of my favorites is “walking workouts” by fitness guru Leslie Sansone. There are plenty of other at-home exercises that work well too.
• Choose to move. Remember: All movement counts toward fitness and weight loss, even housework and laundry. Set a timer to remind yourself to move at least once an hour—no, you won’t remember. A timer can help build the habit.

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13 White Foods that Are Way Healthier Than You Thought

"Eating the rainbow" is a good reminder to eat colorful, nutrient-packed fruits and veggies, but some white foods can also be just as good for you.

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What Nutritionists Wish You Knew About Agave Nectar

The science is pretty clear that too much sugar is bad, so many of us have been seeking out healthier substitutes to add to tea, smoothies, or brownie batter. For a while, agave nectar was considered the best alternative, but it turns out that the liquid sweetener, made from the sap of a succulent Mexican plant, is not as innocent as previously thought. Besides that it has more calories—20 per teaspoon—than table sugar and actually ranks lower in disease-fighting antioxidants than many other natural sweeteners, including honey and maple syrup, recent research has found that the high amount of fructose found in agave nectar can cause a lot of harm in the body.

“Agave may be preferred by some for its taste, but it shouldn’t be sought as a natural, ‘better for you’ alternative to sugar,” says Allison Stowell, MS, RD. “People who consume it regularly should be aware that it’s composed mostly of fructose, a type of sugar we should seek to consume in moderation.”

Agave nectar became popular initially because it has a low glycemic index, which means it doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar the way regular sugar does. But the problem with agave nectar lies in its high fructose content. While regular sugar contains about 50 percent fructose, agave has 70 to 90 percent fructose—more than even high fructose corn syrup, a well-known dietary demon. Consuming a high amount of fructose can eventually lead to insulin resistance, according to research in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, which causes chronically high blood sugar and insulin levels, a problem much worse for you than a temporary hike in blood sugar. The researchers, from the University of Toronto, go so far as to suggest that dietary fructose consumption is a substantial and under-recognized contributor to the epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Too much fructose, from agave nectar or high fructose corn syrup, can also cause problems with the liver. “Unlike glucose, which can be used by a number of cells once it’s in our bloodstream, fructose has to be metabolized in our liver before it is readily available to us,” says Stowell. This can damage liver function and even lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to research in the Journal of Hepatology. Pay attention to these signs of fatty liver disease.

As a result of agave’s impact on insulin and the liver, using this sweetener can up your risk of not only obesity, but other health issues such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. “It’s easy to see how a diet in excessive fructose can lead to an increase in triglycerides, which can be associated with an increased risk in cardiovascular disease and sometimes insulin resistance,” says Stowell.

If you’re not ready to toss that giant bottle of agave nectar in your pantry, consider using it in small amounts at a time. Otherwise, you’re better off switching to a healthier alternative such as raw honey, pure maple syrup, or stevia. “Save your fructose intake for high fiber, antioxidant-rich fruit instead,” says Stowell.

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18 Food Combinations that Can Dramatically Boost Your Health

Out of all the numerous topping options at the salad bar, throw on a hard boiled egg. The fat in the egg yolk helps your body best absorb carotenoids from the...

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Type 2 Diabetes - You Can Eat An Occasional Cheat Meal and Beat High Blood Sugar Levels

It is indeed possible to reverse Type 2 diabetes but you are bound to face your share of struggles in controlling your blood sugar. There is no easy way to overcome a disease that developed over the course of many years. Even though it should not take you as long to treat it, it can still take time. Truthfully, the amount of time it takes to reverse Type 2 diabetes depends on you - if you are disciplined and committed to the task, you can significantly reduce your blood sugar levels in a few weeks. And if you can make healthy eating and physical activity regular habits in your life, it is just a matter of time until your blood sugar returns to within a normal range once more.

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