Social Workout

Practical Eating

The Newly Discovered Antioxidant Powers Of Black Rice

Blueberry season, sadly, is on its way out. So where are you going to get your antioxidants? Black rice! New research shows that black rice bran is packed with more antioxidant than blueberries, plus black rice has less sugar and more fiber. Eat up! Four tasty black rice recipes — from breakfast to dessert — after the jump.

Practical Eating

Salsa and Guacamole Are Out To Get You

The Center for Disease Control just gave salsa and guacamole their own acronym: SGA, which stands for salsa-and-guacamole associated, and the acronym was necessary because there were so many salsa-and-guacamole cases of food poisoning that it got tiresome to write the whole thing out over and over. So SGA. FYI, one reason SGA cases are so common is because salsa and gauc get whipped up in big batches, and your little bowl of salsa comes from the big bowl, which has been sitting around for a while. Solution, give up salsa a guacamole. Just kidding! Make your own! A few of your favorite recipes, after the jump.

Practical Eating

Should You Switch To A Low-Acid Diet?

Low-acid diets are gaining a following. The theory goes like this: Meat and cheese form acid in the body, higher acid levels lead to bone loss, so cut out high-acid foods and you prevent osteoporosis and stay healthy longer. Marion Nestle, a professor in the nutrition, food studies and public health department at NYU takes a look at the theory in her weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle. Her verdict on the low-acid theory: Dubious.

Practical Eating

The Five Big Salt Offenders

Ninety percent of Americans eat too much salt, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which puts 90% of us at increased risk for heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke. But it's not because we're OD-ing on salt with a sprinkle here and there from the salt shaker or some sort of collective over-the-top- anchovy addiction. In fact, it turns out there's a short list of five foods that carry the greatest blame: 

1. Yeast breads 
2. Chicken and mixed chicken dinners 

Practical Eating

Brown Rice Good, Barley Even Better

Swapping brown rice for white rice decreases your odds of developing diabetes, shows new research conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health. The study, which examined the diets of about 40,000 men and about 160,000 women showed that replacing 50 grams of white rice daily with the same amount of brown rice lowered the risk of type 2 diabetes by 16%. But before you stock up on brown rice, check this: Replacing the same amount of white rice with other whole grains, like barley and wheat, dropped the risk even more, by 36%. So bulgur, barley, and bran to the rescue. Five of our favorite scientifically-proven-to-be-awesome-for-you whole grain recipes after the jump.

Practical Eating

Pistachios Fight Plaque

Pistachios are good for your heart — research shows they help lower lipids and lipoproteins, which reduces your risk of heart disease. But a new study shows that they're even more powerful than we thought. Turns out they also increase the antioxidants in your blood, which helps reduce low-density lipoproteins, which, it turns out, are a particular culprit in plaque buildup in your blood vessels. Plaque: Friend to no man. So pistachios, totally worth eating. Five delicious recipes for optimal pistachio-to-stomach delivery after the jump.

Practical Eating

What Does a Vegan Ultramarathoner Eat for Dinner?

Scott Jurek runs like thirty miles a day, on an easy day. Cause that's what you do when you're a world-class ultramarathoner training for 150+mile races. To keep up with that kind of training regimen, he needs to eat between 5,000 and 8,000 calories a day. But here's the catch: He's a dedicated vegan who has to get all those calories without any meat or dairy. How exactly do you eat that many vegan calories without resorting to dozens of donuts? The New York Times gives the rundown on his daily diet:

Practical Eating

Eat Bran, Live Forever

Bran is more than the trump card in the So I Married an Axe Murderer "What's Worse" game (two cups of coffee, three bran muffins, stuck in traffic on the Bay Bridge...) Researchers at Harvard tracked a group of women for over three decades and found that the women who ate the most bran had a 35% lower risk of death from heart disease and a 28% lower risk of death from all causes than women who ate the least. Caveat: The women in the study were diabetics, and as such, have greater risk of heart disease and early death than the population at large. But still, you gotta figure if it's that overwhelmingly good for them, it wouldn't hurt you to up your intake a little. Five tasty ideas bran ideas, beyond the calorie bomb of bran muffins, after the jump.

Practical Eating

Twelve Foods You Should Be Scared Of

The Environmental Working Group is out with a new list of the twelve dirtiest foods available at your local grocer. Btw, that's dirty as in covered with pesticides, not dirty as in, say, explicitly decorated cakes. These produce items are coated with chemicals like captan and iprodione, which are known carcinogens, or simazine, which is a "known reproductive disruptor." Curious? Salivating? Here's the list:

Practical Eating

Flaxseed Lowers Your Cholesterol and Tastes Much Better than Lipitor

Subtle, nutty, and packed with fiber and omega-3s that help your heart and reduce inflammation, there are plenty of reasons to eat flaxseed. But here's another one: Lowering your cholesterol without drugs. In a new study, men diagnosed with high cholesterol who subsequently consumed 3 tablespoons of flaxseeds a day saw their cholesterol decrease by close to 10 percent in three months. Puzzlingly, women didn't see similar drops, but that doesn't mean flaxseed muffins don't still taste delicious! Here, a handful of delicious ideas for working a little more flaxseed into your diet.