Lack of ZZZs May Fuel Appetite

From Health­Day News

Get­ting too lit­tle sleep can make you hun­grier than nor­mal and may lead to weight gain, a small study suggests.

The team at Upp­sala Uni­ver­sity in Swe­den used func­tional MRI to observe the brains of 12 nor­mal weight males while they looked at images of food. This was done on two occa­sions — after a night of nor­mal sleep and after a night with­out sleep.

The results showed that a spe­cific brain region that plays a role in appetite shows more acti­va­tion in response to food images after a night with­out sleep than after a night of nor­mal sleep.

This sug­gests that poor sleep habits can affect a person’s risk of becom­ing over­weight in the long run, accord­ing to the study pub­lished online Jan. 18 in the Jour­nal of Clin­i­cal Endocrinol­ogy and Metabolism.

“After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of acti­va­tion in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat,” researcher Chris­t­ian Bene­dict said in a uni­ver­sity news release.

“Bear­ing in mind that insuf­fi­cient sleep is a grow­ing prob­lem in mod­ern soci­ety, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people’s risk to gain weight in the long run. It may there­fore be impor­tant to sleep about eight hours every night to main­tain a sta­ble and healthy body weight,” Bene­dict added.

A Guide to Tracking Health & Fitness Online

Greatist​.com — which itself entered the health and fit­ness mar­ket this past year — has put together a best-of list of web­sites, iOS apps, Android apps and gad­gets to keep you fit and healthy.

The info­graphic also pro­vides some pow­er­ful incen­tives for track­ing your health and fit­ness using these new tools. Use one not listed in the info­graphic? Tell us about it comments!

First lady targets world record for jumping jacks

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama wants to jump into the Guin­ness World Records book next week by help­ing break the title for the most peo­ple doing jump­ing jacks in a 24-hour period.

The first lady will lead hun­dreds of local chil­dren in doing one minute of jump­ing jacks on the South Lawn on Tuesday.

The event will be reviewed by an offi­cial from Guin­ness World Records and will sig­nal the begin­ning of a 24-hour challenge.

To break the record, more than 20,000 peo­ple around the world will need to do jump­ing jacks for a minute.

National Geo­graphic Kids is lead­ing the effort to break the record.

Let’s do a minute of jump­ing jacks dur­ing boot camp on Tues­day in honor of this goal!

Source: MSNBC

7 Healing Herbs Available in Your Kitchen

From Alter­na­tive Med­i­cine Zone

1. Gar­lic

Whether you like Asian, Ital­ian, or Latin Amer­i­can cui­sine, your love of gar­lic likely has some­thing to do with it.

And per­haps your wise pal­let likes it for its ben­e­fi­cial effects on your cho­les­terol, among other things. It is high in phy­to­chem­i­cals, which have been known to lower blood pres­sure, and may also help to reduce the risk of stroke.

Eat­ing a lot of gar­lic can lower rates of some can­cers as well (ovar­ian, col­orec­tal, etc) and colon polyps, too.

2. Turmeric

Long held as a cure for pain, this com­mon heal­ing herb con­tains a chem­i­cal known as cur­cumin has pow­er­ful anti-inflammatory effects on the body, mak­ing it a great choice for those suf­fer­ing from arthri­tis, ten­donitis, and other auto-immune conditions.

Also con­nected as a poten­tial healer of ail­ments such as Alzheimer’s dis­ease and colon can­cer, turmeric is often pre­scribed by nat­ural health prac­ti­tion­ers in doses of 400 mg there time daily (as an extract).

It is rec­om­mended that you get sup­ple­ments with at least 95 per­cent cur­cum­i­noids in order to receive the most benefit.

3. Basil

This heal­ing herb is just now begin­ning to get the recog­ni­tion it deserves as ben­e­fi­cial for things like stress.

Holy basil in par­tic­u­lar (the kind you use in pesto) con­tains com­pounds that stim­u­late adren­a­line and nora­dren­a­line pro­duc­tion, while decreas­ing serotonin—all effec­tive ways to reduce feel­ings of stress.

Oth­ers have stud­ied basil for its pos­si­ble ben­e­fits in inhibit­ing breast can­cer. And some even rec­om­mend basil essen­tial oil (in a water mix­ture) as a for­mu­la­tion for ster­il­iz­ing pro­duce nat­u­rally. It can also be used to alle­vi­ate nausea.

4. Gin­ger

Used in all kinds of cook­ing for cen­turies, gin­ger comes in many forms—powdered, fresh, can­died, minced, and more.

A clas­sic home rem­edy for nau­sea (whether you’re preg­nant or expe­ri­enc­ing motion sick­ness), gin­ger has also been impli­cated as a pow­er­ful antiox­i­dant capa­ble of ban­ish­ing free radicals.

It may also be able to help lower blood pres­sure, reduce can­cer risks, reg­u­late blood flow, relieve pain, and even ease arthritis.

5. Cin­na­mon

One of the pow­er­ful heal­ing herbs, cin­na­mon has been used for hun­dreds of years in cook­ing and home remedies.

Today, sci­en­tists are explor­ing its role in help­ing reg­u­late blood sugar in dia­bet­ics and low­er­ing cho­les­terol in heart patients.

6. Fen­nel

Get rid of per­sis­tent gas with this heal­ing herb.

Fen­nel is a great rem­edy reduc­ing diges­tive air move­ment and can be taken in many forms (extracts, cap­sules, oils) of sup­ple­ments as well as cooked into tasty dishes.

7. Rose­mary

One of the poten­tial can­cer fight­ing herbs, rose­mary is a fra­grant, savory choice for all kinds of deli­cious dishes. Cook­ing red meats at high heat can cre­ate het­e­ro­cyclic amines (HCAs) which are carcinogenic.

But pair rose­mary which has two big-name antiox­i­dants, and you could help to fight off can­cer. Rose­mary has also be sus­pected as a breast cancer-fighter.

Boost Your ‘Good Fats’

Excerpted From Pre­ven­tion Mag­a­zine, on MSNBC

Incor­po­rat­ing “good” unsat­u­rated fats into a fruit-veggie-lean-protein-whole-grain diet helped peo­ple with pre­di­a­betes reduce their risk of devel­op­ing full-blown type 2 by almost 60 per­cent, accord­ing to a land­mark gov­ern­ment study. And now, emerg­ing research points to monoun­sat­u­rated fatty acids (MUFAs) in par­tic­u­lar as poten­tial super­heroes for con­trol­ling blood sugar, reduc­ing insulin resis­tance, and fight­ing belly fat specif­i­cally vis­ceral belly fat, the dan­ger­ous kind found deep in your abdomen and strongly asso­ci­ated with pre­di­a­betes and diabetes.

Of course, you can’t sim­ply add lots of choco­late or hand­fuls of nuts to an unhealthy diet and expect great results. The key is to work right-size por­tions of oil, olives, nuts and seeds, avo­ca­dos, and dark choco­late into the mix of healthy foods you’ll eat at every meal.

Read the full arti­cle for a closer look at how these five fab foods help fight dia­betes and boost your health, plus some deli­cious recipes you can try today.

Good fats include:

1. Oils — Canola oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil, peanut oil, pesto sauce, saf­flower oil, sesame oil, soy­bean oil, sun­flower oil, wal­nut oil
2. Olives — Black olives, black olive tape­nade, green olives, green olive tapenade
3. Nuts and Seeds — Almonds, Brazil nuts, nat­ural peanut but­ter, dry-roasted cashews, dry-roasted peanuts, dry-roasted sun­flower seeds, hazel­nuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pis­ta­chios, roasted pump­kin seeds, sun­flower seeds, walnuts
4. Avo­ca­dos — Florida avo­cado, Hass avocado
5. Dark Choco­late — Dark or semi­sweet choco­late chips, shav­ings, or chunks—aim for cacao con­tent of 70 per­cent or higher