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Posts filed under Health. Show all blog posts.
A recent study in the US looked at what it takes to influence ordering habits. Was knowing calorie counts helpful? Was knowing how much exercise was required to burn it off helpful? The studiers took a group of similarly hungry people and gave them one of three menus. One had no info, the second had calories and the third had the amount of time walking it would take to burn off the food.
Those who knew the walking effort ordered 100 fewer calories. So, what’s at play here? Is it that our general human laziness is a powerful driver? Or are we aware that our time constraints may prevent us from being able to make the physical effort.
It doesn’t really matter. What is necessarily true here is that the preventative elements of nebulous calorie counts aren’t clear enough. We have known for some time that calories aren’t well understood and that each person’s intake and output will be different. We also know that there are other factors that affect metabolism.
Number of minutes walked is an easily understood marker that helps guide the right choice. So, I’m going to bully my top 10 list of foods that offer up too many useless calories. And publicly expose them for the time and effort suck that they are. Keep in mind that these numbers are in addition to the exercise you already get in your day.
1. Starbucks Venti Mocha Frappacino With Whipped Cream
510 calories or 94 minutes of brisk walking
2. Big Mac
563 calories or 99 minutes of brisk walking
3. Burger King Medium Fries
387 calories or 71 minutes of brisk walking
4. 7 oz Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips
1051 calories or 192 minutes of brisk walking
5. Large Shake 32 oz
1104 calories or 202 minutes of brisk walking
6. Nachos With Beef, Cheese and Beans (18 chips)
1707 calories or 212 minutes of brisk walking
7. Onion Rings (16)
552 calories or 101 minutes of brisk walking
8. Pizza Hut Meat Lover’s Stuffed Crust Pizza (1 slice)
470 calories or 86 minutes per slice of brisk walking
9. Cinnabon Caramel Pecan (1 bun)
1080 calories or 197 minutes of brisk walking
10. Chocolate Muffin
450 calories or 82 minutes of brisk walking
Want to have a drink with that? Here’s a list of your best bets in booze…
How to Look and Feel Younger
There are a few things that you are probably doing that are making you look older than you are. Some of them affect the outside, some of them affect the inside, and all of them are easy to change.
Here are the four steps you need to take to look and feel younger:
1. Alcohol
Alcohol dilates the capillaries in the face and can cause a permanent mottled look.
What to Do: Drink as little alcohol as possible and give your body some rest once in a while. Remove it altogether for at least a few days in a row each month.
2. Sugar
Sugar/high fructose corn sugar is by far the single most overused ‘food’ in our roster. For starters, it is the number one contributor to obesity and nothing makes you look older than being overweight.
What to Do: Simply removing sugar (especially liquid calories) will remove a few pounds from your belly. The secondary benefit is the reduced oxidative damage and inflammation that sugar imposes on your cells.
3. Bad Fats
Saturated and trans fats are inflammatory and therefore contribute to a sallow look of the skin and dull hair.
What to Do: Skin needs the healthy fats of nuts, seeds, avocados and whole grains to repair and glow. Avoid all deep fried foods, reduce saturated fat from meat and increase the good fats.
4. Dehydration
Without water, every cell in the body is less plump. This appears on the skin first, contributing to the saggy and sallow look of age.
What to Do: Drink water, at least one litre each day, on top of your usual routine of consuming lots of high water foods, such as watermelon, cucumber, berries and lettuce. (That is your usual routine, right?)
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