What’s So Great About Water?

Most people know that you are supposed to drink a lot of water and that it is good for you. We’ve been told to drink 8 glasses a day. But why do we really need it? What does it do for our bodies?

The 8 glasses a day is more of a guideline, rather than a rule for everyone. Some people may need more; some people may need less. Once you are hydrated, over hydrating doesn’t really do you any good. On the other hand, by the time your thirst mechanism kicks in, your body is already starting to become dehydrated. This is why it is important to continually drink something throughout the day. Your body needs fluid. It is constantly losing it through evaporation from your skin, breathing, and loss of water in your urine or stool. And our body uses water for other things as well.

Our body is about two thirds water. Maintaining the correct amount of fluids in our body keeps it in balance. Bodily fluids help in the functions of digestion, absorption, circulation, production of saliva, transport of nutrients, and maintaining a stable body temperature. All of these things are important for our bodies, obviously. For these reasons alone, we should do our best to stay hydrated. While all fluids that you drink (except alcohol) keep our body hydrated, drinking water helps cut unnecessary calories from our diet. If you are trying to lose weight, drinking water rather than a sugary drink like soda or juice can definitely help. Another weight loss strategy is to drink a glass of water before each meal. This causes you to feel full and eat less.

Another benefit of drinking water is that it helps our skin to look its best. If we become dehydrated, our skin can become dry and wrinkled.  Water also helps keep your muscles from getting fatigued. That is why it is so important to stay hydrated during and before exercise. If your cells in your muscle don’t have enough water, they shrink up and cause the fatigue in your muscle.

Water also helps maintain kidney and bowel function. Our kidneys rid our body of toxins and waste, as long as we have an adequate fluid intake. This is very important, so that we don’t get a buildup of toxins in our body. If we don’t drink enough, we can also be more at risk for kidney stones. Fluid keeps things moving through our gastrointestinal (GI) tract. If we don’t stay hydrated, we can become constipated.

Now that you know why it is important to drink enough, here are some ways to get the fluid you need. Make sure you drink something with every meal or snack. Eat more fruits and vegetables. These have a high water content and can contribute to about 20% of our fluids. Drink beverages you enjoy. A cup of tea or coffee or fruit juice all count towards our daily intake of fluid.  Keep a bottle of water with you wherever you go- at your desk, in your purse, or in your car. If it is with you, you are more likely to drink it.

Antioxidants vs. Free Radicals

There is a constant battle going on in our body between antioxidants and free radicals. This may mean nothing to you, except you might have heard about antioxidants in a magazine article or somewhere else. But what are they? Why do we need them?

First, let’s talk about free radicals and what they do. When we are exposed to oxygen, this also causes oxidation. Oxidation can cause your body to produce free radicals. Free radicals are molecules that can damage cells and may play a role in many diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and some eye diseases. This is why we need ANTI-oxidants.

Antioxidants can be either man-made or natural substances that prevent or at least delay some types of cell damage. They have been shown to help prevent and sometimes reverse damage done by free radicals. Some examples of antioxidants are vitamins A, C and E, beta-carotene, and other carotenoids. The best sources of antioxidants are in fruits and vegetables. I wouldn’t suggest taking an antioxidant supplement unless you talk to your doctor first. A lot of these have not been shown to help your body, and some cases have been more harmful than helpful. This doesn’t mean that you’re in danger if you take a vitamin C tablet or something like that. But if something is labeled as an antioxidant supplement, I would be cautious.

So what should you eat to get antioxidants? Red, orange, dark yellow and dark green vegetables and fruits are very high in carotenoids. This is one reason that nutrition professionals always emphasize making your plate colorful! Not only do these foods have a lot of antioxidants, but they are good sources of other essential nutrients as well. Some foods that are good sources of carotenoids are tomatoes, carrots, spinach, sweet potatoes, mangos, and broccoli. Good sources of vitamin A include colorful fruits and vegetables, whole milk, salmon, and fortified cereals. Vitamin E is found in vegetable oils, salad dressings, margarine, whole-grain products, seeds, nuts and peanut butter. It is important to get enough vitamin E, but you should be careful about what sources you get it from because a lot of them tend to be high in fat also. Vitamin C has a wide variety of health benefits and can be found in citrus fruits, strawberries, sweet peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, and potatoes.

There are many different foods to choose from, so everyone should be able to find enough foods they like to eat! It is recommended to eat at least 2 cups of fruit and 2 ½ cups of vegetables every day. This may seem like a lot, but it can be done! I would suggest snacking on an orange or some strawberries instead of eating chips between meals. Try to eat a fruit with breakfast and more than one vegetable with your dinner. These are simple ways to get antioxidants and other nutrients into your diet. And they are usually low in calories!

Caffeine: It’s What’s Keeping You up at Night

So Finals Week is coming soon, and that means stocking up on the Red Bull, coffee, and 5 hour energies, right? Caffeine seems to be what runs the campus for most students this week. Pulling all nighters, studying at crazy hours of the day, and getting barely any sleep are all pretty common. So is all this caffeine we’re “surviving” on okay for us to consume?

There are many myths with regards to caffeine that have been studied in depth. Some of these are caffeine reduces fertility, causes Fibrocystic Breast Disease, causes osteoporosis, causes cardiovascular disease or stroke, causes cancer, and that it dehydrates you. All of these have been proven wrong in studies done with moderate intakes of caffeine. Overall, there is nothing wrong with having a moderate intake of caffeine and it even has some benefits.

Caffeine can be consumed safely. It has even been shown to improve both physical and mental performance. But it is recommended that people only get up to 300 mg per day. Each person is different, so this number may vary, but most experts agree that 600 mg a day is too much. One cup of coffee has about 100 mg, depending on the type, and soft drinks usually have about 40 mg. Energy drinks usually range from 50-160 mg. Some products contain more than one serving though, so always check the label for serving size. If you are taking caffeine pills, be careful not to overdose, because the effects can be very dangerous.

Excessive intakes of caffeine can lead to calcium and magnesium loss, which can affect bone health. Another sign of too much caffeine is if you are restless, anxious, and irritable. It may also cause headaches, abnormal heart rhythms, or other problems. Some people are more affected than others by caffeine. You will learn how much caffeine will affect your own body as you experiment with it.

Watch out for added sugar and fats in drinks that contain caffeine. Most caffeinated drinks come loaded with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial food colorings and preservatives, or other substances that you should be careful of. For example, Red Bull has 11 grams of sugar for every 100 ml you consume. Even coffee and tea can become not so good for you when you add sugar and creamer. But there are also sugar free options and low fat products that can help you stay healthy as you enjoy your drinks.

Like most foods, moderation is the key for caffeine. So go ahead and enjoy your coffee!

Cholesterol: Good or Bad?

Cholesterol is a substance created by our body to keep us healthy. We also get some cholesterol from food. There are two types of cholesterol, “good” and “bad.” The correct amount of both of these is very important. If you have too much of LDL (bad) cholesterol, it can clog your arteries. This can lead to heart disease, heart attack or stroke. HDL (good) cholesterol is what keeps the LDL from clogging your arteries. So you can see how you need the right amounts of both.

Most of the time you only hear about clogged arteries in old people or obese people. So why worry about it now? There are studies and much evidence that actually shows that buildup in arteries starts in childhood and slowly builds into adulthood. This is why, even as college students, we need to make sure that our cholesterol levels are good.

Cholesterol is affected by your diet. You can avoid foods that raise your bad cholesterol and you can also eat foods to raise your good cholesterol. LDL is raised when you eat saturated fats, trans fats, and dietary cholesterol. Not only do monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats NOT raise LDL, but they have also been shown to help lower LDL when eaten with a healthy diet.

So how do we keep our cholesterol under control? Here are a few suggestions regarding fat:

• Limit total fat intake to less than 25–35% of your total calories each day.
• Limit saturated fat intake to less than 7% of total daily calories.
• Limit trans fat intake to less than 1 percent of total daily calories.
• The remaining fat should come from sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats such as nuts, seeds, fish and vegetable oils.
• Limit cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg per day.

Some examples of foods to aviod or have small amounts of are animal fats, butter, cream, whole-fat milk or other dairy products, coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter. Some foods that have better fats are salmon, trout, herring, avocados, olives, walnuts and liquid vegetable oils like soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower, canola, and olive. Even though these are better for you, you still need to eat them in moderation. Try to only get 25-35% of your calories from fat. How do you figure this out? Each gram of fat is equivalent to 9 calories. So you need to multiply however many grams of fat you eat by 9. Then divide by total calories and this will give you the percent of calories from fat.

Some other suggestions to help your cholesterol are:

• Reduce the amount of meat you eat in each meal.
• Eat only egg whites, as the egg yolk has a lot of cholesterol in it.
• Use liquid oils instead of solid fats.
• When eating dairy, always choose the low-fat option.
• Increase your intake of fiber and whole grains.
• Reduce your intake of sodium.

Eat This, Not That

So I’ve been talking about “eating healthy” in a lot of my blogs and encouraging you all to make healthful choice everyday. But starting a habit of healthy eating can be hard, especially if you aren’t used to making these choices. Maybe you’ve never thought about sodium, carbs, fat, or calories. Where do you even start? What about when you’re craving junk food? Well I’ve decided to dedicate this blog to suggestions for substituting healthy food into your diet. You may have heard some of these suggestions, but hopefully I can give you some new ones, too.

Eat Greek Yogurt, Not Sour Cream or Mayonnaise 

 Eat Fruit on Yogurt, Not Flavored Yogurt

Eat Honey, Not Regular Sugar

Eat Stevia (Truvia, Purevia), Not Artificial Sweetener

Eat Bagels, Not Donuts

 Eat Dark Chocolate, Not Milk Chocolate

Eat Marshmallow Fluff, Not Regular Frosting

 Eat Fig Newtons, Not Regular Cookies

 Eat Baked Sweet Potato Fries, Not French Fries

 Eat Light Popcorn, Not Potato Chips

 Eat Sorbet or Sherbet, Not Ice Cream

 Eat Angel Food Cake, Not Regular Cake

 

Sodium: To Salt or Not to Salt?

First, let’s start with what is sodium? Sodium is a mineral that helps the body to function properly. It helps regulate water in the body and keep fluids balanced. Sodium also helps your muscles and brain to work by aiding in nerve transmission and muscle contraction.

 Although this is an important mineral to have, you can also get too much of it. Usually your kidneys regulate the sodium amount in your body. If you don’t have enough, they retain it, and if you have too much, your kidneys excrete it. Sometimes people get entirely too much sodium, and their kidneys can’t keep up. This causes sodium to accumulate in your blood, which also attracts more fluid in the blood. If your blood volume gets too high, your heart has to work a lot harder to pump your blood. This increases pressure in your arteries (high blood pressure). We all know that we don’t want high blood pressure. So how much sodium should we consume to stay healthy? The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day – or 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older, or if you are African American, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.

 Americans as a whole consume way too much sodium. On average, we get about 3,400 mg per day. For some people, this is double what they should be getting. Where does all this sodium come from? One of the most common sources is processed and prepared food. These foods are typically high in salt, which is a combination of sodium and chloride, and also high in additives that contain sodium. Some foods naturally contain sodium and a lot of people are unaware of them. A lot of recipes call for salt and a lot of people add salt at the dinner table as well.

 Some people tend to think that salt is the best way to add flavor to food, but there are many different things you can add instead. There are also ways to avoid sodium. Here are some tips to help control sodium intake: 

• Use fresh ingredients with no salt added.
• For recipes, use other ingredients so you can decrease or eliminate salt.
• Use orange juice or pineapple juice for meat marinades. (Instead of soy sauce or other sauce with high sodium)
• Avoid convenience foods such as canned foods, pasta and rice mixes, frozen dinners, instant cereal and puddings, and gravy sauce mixes.
• Check Nutrition Facts labels on packaged foods for sodium content.
• Avoid seasonings that include salt.
• Use herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, fennel, dill, bay leaves, cilantro, coriander, or cloves for flavor in recipes.
• Use spices like white or black pepper, cumin, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder, curry, ground mustard powder, powdered lemon rind, or paprika to add flavor to food.

 Hopefully these are helpful tips that help you cut down on unnecessary sodium!

Stress Relief

 We’re almost halfway through the semester. That means fall break is coming… but also midterms, more homework, and more studying. If you’re like me, more projects are starting to be due and you’re starting to regret procrastinating about homework. And let’s be honest, no one wants to do homework over break. However, this means some stress and cramming before you go on break. But all this stress can get us into bad eating habits that actually make the stress worse. What can we do to help the stress instead of making it worse?

First, let’s talk about what NOT to do. There are certain foods that we can avoid that will help our stress levels. Now, we all have those late nights in the library when we stay until closing time and grab a coffee and some candy to help us stay awake. We have to at least have some caffeine so we can stay up, right? The problem with this is that too much caffeine can actually increase our stress levels, which is what we don’t want. What about all those late night snacks we end up eating because we stay up so late? Most of the time, we want to eat the foods that have a lot of sugar, salt, and saturated fat in them, like chips or candy. These are also proven to increase our stress levels.

So what can we eat to help our stress? Sadly, there isn’t really a miracle food that will solve our stress problems. But we can make sure that we eat a good diet filled with nutrients that will help our stress levels. Nutrients like calcium, potassium, fiber, and the B vitamins are all shown to be very important in lowering stress. You can get these nutrients from a variety of foods like whole grains, low fat dairy products, bananas, orange juice, beans, nuts, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, limes, apricots, avocados and peaches. These are just some of the foods that provide good sources of the nutrients shown to lower stress. The main thing is to have a balanced and healthy diet.

Lastly, don’t forget to exercise! I know, I just got through saying you are all busy, but this is something that you need to make time for. Not only is it a healthy habit to have, it is also one of the most important factors in lowering stress. You are helping your blood pressure and your heart when you exercise and if these are healthy they help you deal with stressful situations. Meditation and deep breathing exercises have also been shown to help reduce stress.

I hope you all have a great fall break and try not to stress too much!