April 01, 2019 at 10:30AM by CWC Let’s face it—healthy eating is confusing. Studies are all over the place (one day eggs are bad, next day they’re good, next day they’re bad again), there’s never been more eating plans to choose from (paleo, keto, Mediterranean, oh my!) and basically every food company has tried to come up with some wellness “spin” for their products, whether or not they’re actually healthy. The information (and choices!) can be paralyzing. To help clear up at least some of this confusion, we talked to seven dietitians and nutritionists about the most frequently asked food questions they’ve encountered—because if they hear them all the time, chances are you and I are asking those same questions, too. 1. “Is coconut oil healthy?” The answer? Sort of. “Coconut oil wears a ‘health halo,’ leading people to believe it’s better for them than other oils,” says Lauren Harris-Pincus, RD, author of The Protein-Packed Breakfast Club. She says the hype has gotten so intense that many of her clients have adopted coconut oil in favor of olive or avocado oils. Here’s the thing: Coconut oil is really high in saturated fat (one tablespoon has 12 grams). While some saturated fat is important, too much has been associated with higher cholesterol levels and other negative health outcomes. “The American Heart Association recommends limiting intake of saturated fats,” Harris-Pincus says, and compared to other oils, coconut oil has a greater proportion of saturated fats while delivering a similar calorie and overall fat
Category: 2019 Health
Gmail is finally launching the mother of all productivity functions: scheduled sending
April 02, 2019 at 10:15AM by CWC If your finger is currently hovering over the “send” button while you frantically proofread your latest work correspondence, get ready for an announcement you didn’t know you’ve been waiting for. Gmail is rolling out a new feature that’ll allow you to (wait for it) schedule emails for a later date and time without needing to use a third-party app, like Boomerang. And as someone who struggles with email anxiety, this feels like the first time the service is finally doing me a solid. (The platform turns 15 years old this month, and it spent 10 of those years low-key ruining my life.) In 2009, I was informed that MGAnimePrincess, my AOL screen name, was maybe an unprofessional moniker to appear on college applications. But once I traded it in for a more poised (and more lackluster) address, email was never the same. No longer would I delight in the chime of “You’ve got mail,” promising kind correspondence from some long-distance friend or chain mail appealing to true love or death (no middle ground), because with Gmail, things were all business, all the time. Enter my email anxiety: After college applications gave way to job applications, Gmail became increasingly overwhelming. Composing the a message to, say, a prospective employer is scary in its own right, but hitting send? Forget about it. It’s straight-up terrifying because there’s no going back. So I often engaged in a procrastination-bolstering tango with the send button, which usually went
Here’s how to know if you need to listen to the “dry clean only” command
April 02, 2019 at 08:27AM by CWC Buying anything with a “dry clean only” label on it is basically my worst nightmare. As someone who’s pretty low-maintenance (and—don’t @ me—rarely separates whites and colors in the wash), you can probably imagine the last thing I want to do is take something to the dry cleaners. No thank you. But lucky for me and anyone else who likes to keep their laundry day simple, that rule doesn’t necessarily have to be followed 100 percent of the time. While you’ll probably always get the best results following your garment’s label to a T, there are exceptions. Brian Sansoni of The American Cleaning Institute told Real Simple that while velvet, silk, and leather always require a trip to the dry cleaner because they don’t hold up in the rough washing machine cycle—or water in general—there are some items you can hand-wash instead. “Nylon, polyester, and spandex hold up well to delicate cycles or hand-washing, in water slightly above room temperature,” he says. “Nylon, polyester, and spandex hold up well to delicate cycles or hand-washing, in water slightly above room temperature.” —Brian Sansoni of The American Cleaning Institute And if you want to cut down on hand-washing as much as possible, there’s another hack you can use to keep your dry-clean-only items looking good as new. “You can also find in-dryer kits, like Dryel, that help freshen a wide variety of dry-clean-only garments,” Sansoni says. “They eliminate odors, including perspiration and stale tobacco smells, and
Is Whole Foods trying to move in on Trader Joe’s (budget-friendly) territory?
April 02, 2019 at 08:19AM by CWC The battle of the grocery stores is on. When it comes to low prices on all your refrigerator and pantry staples, Trader Joe’s is usually the best place to find them. You can fill your cart with fresh produce, freezer essentials, and even beauty products and still easily stick to your budget. While Whole Foods hasn’t exactly been able to compete in the past, a major drop in prices is showing a rivalry could be just beginning. Starting tomorrow, you can expect to see the grocer drop prices on hundreds of its products. According to a press release, it’s Amazon’s and Whole Foods’ biggest investment in lowering prices yet since the online giant bought the organic grocery in June 2017. Not only will there be lower prices on fresh produce, but there will also be double the number of Prime member deals available, like an additional 10 percent off hundreds of sale items throughout the store. “When Whole Foods Market joined the Amazon family, we set out to make healthy and organic food more accessible,” Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, said in the release. The grocer says prices will be cut by an average of 20 percent on select items—mostly the “high-quality, peak-of-season produce,” including large yellow mangoes for $1 each, organic bunched rainbow chard for $1.99 each, and mixed-medley cherry tomatoes at $3.49 for 12 ounces. And throughout the next few months, you’ll see 300 Prime member deals available on
I masturbated my way to better skin, because the orgasm glow is real
April 02, 2019 at 07:00AM by CWC I’m willing to do pretty much anything for the sake of better skin. I’ve given up sugar and dairy, slathered my face in every “gross” ingredient you can imagine—including, but not limited to, snail mucin, human foreskin cells, and snake venom—and I’ve let someone stick straight-up needles into my cheeks on more than one occasion. But when I read that the real secret to the dewy skin I’d been lusting after was lots and lots (and lots) of orgasms (how great is the Internet, huh?), I immediately volunteered myself to conduct an experiment. To the ex-boyfriends, coworkers, and family members who are reading this now, #sorrynotsorry. First things first: There is (at least a little bit of) actual science out there to support the fact that Os will make you glow. In a study published in Secrets of the Superyoung, author David Weeks found that participants who reported having sex four times a week looked approximately 10 years younger than their actual age. Super scientific? Nahhh. The best we have. Well, kind of. TBH, there aren’t any academic journal publications that specifically link sex to skin health, however, sex therapists confirm that the “sex flush,” which increases circulation to certain areas, and can give you a temporary all-over glow, is a thing. Why the lack of research but the influx of anecdotal evidence? Well, as dermatologist Jaimie Glick, MD, of Marmur Medical: “These studies are not so easy to do.” But, she confirms this:
Dear trainers: Today, I was the worst person in my workout class—halp!
April 02, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC At SLT this morning, I was the worst person in my class. Hands down: I was the least skilled, I did everything wrong, and I took the most breaks, while literally everyone else made the workout look like a breeze (and let me reassure you, it’s not). Feeling like you’re dragging along in a fitness class is a pretty lousy feeling, especially when you’re an avid fitness devotee. It’s a blow to your ego, and you can’t help but wonder if everyone—including the class’s instructor—is judging you. To coddle my sacrificed fitness confidence, I thought I’d go directly to the source and ask trainers what to do if you feel like you’re falling flat in a workout. “When you work out, you’re doing it for you,” says Amanda Jenny, a master instructor at SLT. “That’s the number one thing to remember. You have full permission to be your number one priority for a whole 50 minutes—and the beautiful thing is that this is the case for everyone in the room.” Well, that’s a fair point. “When you work out, you’re doing it for you. That’s the number one thing to remember.” —Amanda Jenny But if you’re genuinely like me and feel like you’re steps behind the rest of the class, note this: “I would never categorize someone as the worst person in the class,” says Barry’s Bootcamp instructor Kelly Bennett. “There are many levels of experience in fitness, and Barry’s welcomes all levels.” So
3 actually compelling reasons to resist the urge to Google your date before meeting IRL
April 02, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC While in the deep end of New York City’s dating pool, there were two things I did before every single rendezvous: shave my legs and internet-stalk my date ahead of time. I couldn’t help myself, and even though I’m now in a committed relationship, I still can’t (I Google everyone else’s dates before they meet). It’s just too tempting not to scope out these people pre-date given the tools we have at our fingertips—social media profiles, employment info, and, hell, even their “reputation score” (don’t ask) can come up in a flash if you so desire. And, it seems, everyone does. But, just as Googling certain things can just make matters worse—ever have the Internet diagnose you with a fatal illness when you simply have a cold?—stalking a potential romantic interest rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt and simply judging them when you meet in person can pose some downsides. People can’t resist doing it for a variety of reasons, one of them being control. “Stalking, in whatever form it takes, ultimately reflects an attempt at controlling the outcome of the date,” says Clara Artschwager, modern dating and lifestyle coach. “We stalk in hopes to glean information about a person in advance of actually meting them to—ideally—avoid some sort of discomfort.” That discomfort can mean a slew of things, like an awkward date (the worst) and getting hurt. And so, says Artschwager, the reason so many daters task themselves with
Move over cauliflower, there’s a new (sweet potato) gnocchi in town
April 02, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMK08mb4NjE] Whether you’re planning your BFF’s birthday dinner or whipping up something tasty to complement your solo Saturday night plans on the couch, or trying to woo someone on date night, Italian comfort food is *always* a super-tasty move. Available for preorder now, The Well+Good Cookbook features 100 recipes from 100 wellness experts—comfort food included. Take this recipe for Sweet Potato Gnocchi from Dan Churchill, the healthy chef-athlete-podcaster behind New York City’s crazy popular Australian cafe Charley St. “I wanted to create a nostalgic Italian dish that would accompany my [healthy] food philosophy and be filled with color and flavor,” the always super-energized Churchill says. “It’s very hands on,” meaning you roll the baked sweet potatoes into a dough. “And you can make it by yourself or with someone you want to enjoy an afternoon with,” he adds. Weekend activity, done! “I wanted to create a nostalgic Italian dish that would accompany my healthy food philosophy.” The six-ingredient, fiber-filled dish is a healthier take on traditional gnocchi, with a tasty balance of salty and sweet. Whip up a bowl to enjoy solo or with a meal-mate, and then get more where that comes from on April 16 when The Well+Good Cookbook officially lands in your kitchen. Watch the video above for step-by-step instructions on how to whip up Sweet Potato Gnocchi, and preorder The Well+Good Cookbook now. Sweet Potato Gnocchi Makes 4 servings Ingredients Kosher salt 2 large sweet potatoes 1 large egg,
Pineapple skin care is the vitamin C-packed way to exfoliate and brighten all at once
April 02, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC Lately, the beauty world has become about as fruit friendly as Trader Joe’s produce aisle. Vitamin C-packed ingredients like strawberry, banana, and yuzu—plus ultra-hydrating watermelon, of course—have made skin-care cabinets look (and smell) good enough to eat. And recently, I’ve discovered yet another active-packed ingredient worth adding to the veritable fruit salad happening inside of your bathroom cabinets. Pineapple, it turns out, isn’t just great for making a mean piña colada or skewering on summer shrimp kebabs. In addition to being pretty damn delicious, it also apparently has some noteworthy skin benefits. “Because of its rich concentration of AHAs, pineapple juice is an amazing exfoliant,” explains dermatologist Adarsh Vijay Mudgil of Mudgil Dermatology. “It’s great for acne-prone skin and those with pigment issues or dark spots.” Also worth noting is that it’s packed with bromelain enzymes, which also help with exfoliation—and why you’ll often see the words “enzyme peel” plastered across the labels of many pineapple products. In addition to being a rockstar for brightening and getting rid of dead skin, pineapple also happens to be chock-full of antioxidants. Dr. Mudgil notes that while it’s rich in vitamin C, it isn’t quite as packed with the stuff as orange juice, which he says takes the cake. Another random use for the pineapple? “To apply to your feet!” he says. Well, ok then! Brands have started to take notice of the powerhouse ingredient, which has been popping up more and more frequently on beauty
Could this body part explain how acupuncture works?
April 02, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC How does energy move through the body? Can it be scientifically measured? And how might energy healing be the future of medicine? These questions and more are at the heart of Energy Medicine, the new book by acupuncturist Well+Good Council member Jill Blakeway, DACM, LAc. Here, in an exclusive excerpt, she explores why fascia—the connective tissue underneath the skin—are so fascinating. Thousands of years ago, the Chinese identified energy channels (sometimes referred to as meridians), a kind of highway that can be mapped within the body along which the acupuncture points exist. The concept of energy channels and the points that access them sounds esoteric and has often been dismissed as myth or metaphor. But recent research suggests that not only do they exist, but they’ve been right in front of our eyes all along. Helene M. Langevin, a clinical endocrinologist who was curious enough about her patients’ interest in acupuncture that she took a course in Chinese medicine and then carried her newfound skills into the lab with her at the department of neurology at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, led a study that found a measurable “pull out force” after every needle grab. And the strength of this grab was, on average, 18 percent higher when measured at acupuncture points as opposed to non-acupuncture points. The needle grab is more vigorous at these points because they are more conductive of electrical energy. Recent research suggests that not only do