July 24, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC It’s safe to say that when it comes to low-carb eating plans, the ketogenic diet is king. It was one of the most popular eating plans of 2018, it’s spurred the popularity of MCT oil and other fat-friendly foods, and inspires loyalty (and backlash) so intense that it’s sparked intense public celebrity feuds. But for those of us old enough to remember the early 2000s with any clarity (sorry, Gen Z!) the keto diet is reminiscent of another low-carb eating plan: the Atkins diet. Once wildly popular, the diet somewhat faded in the background in favor of other eating plans like Paleo and Whole30. But now that low-carb eating is back in the zeitgeist, it’s worth giving both keto and Atkins a look. Given that they’re both low-carb, high-fat diets, they can’t be that different, right? Not quite, say experts. ad_intervals[‘410410_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘410410_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); Remind me, what is keto again? In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years: “The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein way of eating,” says Sam Presicci, RD, CPT, lead registered dietitian at Snap Kitchen. The keto macros are very strict, she says, with adherents typically getting only 5 to 10 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrates, 15 to 20 percent from protein, and a whopping 75 to 80 percent from fat. The diet was originally created in the ’20s to help
Category: Keto
2019 has been the year of the wellness scam, and it’s forcing us to turn our B.S. meters way up
July 24, 2019 at 01:31PM by CWC When your to-do list starts to rival a CVS receipt in length, you start looking for ways to streamline, streamline, streamline. Late last year, we anticipated that one-stop wellness spaces—spots like New York City’s The Well, Lily Kunin’s Clean Market, and WeWork’s Rise by We that are designed to make it easier and more convenient for busy-AF consumers to access a breadth of feel-better services in one fell swoop—would proliferate to meet this need. Since then, our prediction has more than manifested; in addition to the above, 2019 saw the opening of sanity-saving spaces like New York City’s Tia Clinic (where you can meet with both your gyno and acupuncturist), Los Angeles’ The Things We Do beauty and skin-care bar, and Lululemon’s new experiential hub in Chicago. What we didn’t foresee, however, is that the same sense of overwhelm that birthed this movement would also make wellness enthusiasts susceptible to “quick fix” therapies and products that aren’t supported by science and research and are instead, more often than not, just advertising (read: scams). ad_intervals[‘408816_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘408816_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); “The biggest contributor to [the rise of quick-fix wellness hoaxes] is demand, and demand is on the rise because of millennials,” says Jenna Mons, CEO of AccessElite Health, a health and wellness membership program. “Millennials value wellness and well-being second only to family, so they are the generation that wants a more holistic option, the generation that
7 brain foods a neuroscientist wants you to eat every day
July 23, 2019 at 08:55AM by CWC When I reach for my fork and chow down, rarely (um, never) do I consider which parts of my body I’m about to nourish. My tastebuds take the wheel and I barely acknowledge that all my organs—from my skin to my liver—are reacting to the macronutrients I’ve put on my plate. Lisa Mosconi, PhD, neuroscientist and author of Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power, argues that when it comes to eating well, the organ you use to think should be top priority. “As a society, we are comfortable with the idea that we feed our bodies, and much less aware that we’re feeding our brains too,” she says. “Parts of the foods we eat will end up being the very fabric of our brains.” Brain-focused nourishment writ large has been on the rise in the wide world of wellness. Nutritional psychiatry has invited the foods we eat to be part of the larger conversation around mental health. And research, including Dr. Mosconi’s, reveals why: What we eat directly affects our cognition. ad_intervals[‘409909_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘409909_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); “Put simply: Everything in the brain that isn’t made by the brain itself is ‘imported’ from the food we eat.” —neuroscientist Lisa Mosconi, PhD “To function best, the brain requires around 45 nutrients that are as distinct as the molecules, cells, and tissues they shape. The brain, being radically efficient, makes many of these nutrients itself,
Following a vegan Mediterranean diet is totally possible if you remember these 3 guidelines
July 23, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Hot take: The Mediterranean diet is basically Taylor Swift circa “You Belong With Me.” Trendy eating plans like keto are the short skirt-wearing cheer captains in this scenario, while the Med diet is definitely wearing t-shirts and sitting in the bleachers. It’s been here all along, and (this is where my Swift analogy ends) it comes with a laundry list of science-backed benefits. So even if it’s not always at the top of mind, the Mediterranean diet will, to quoth Swift again from a different song, never go out of style. When I think of a typical meal on the Med diet, I imagine just like, a ton of salmon. So following a Mediterranean-style ethos when you’re also vegan may not seem particularly intuitive. But lo! It actually makes a ton of sense. “The Mediterranean diet is a great plan to follow if you’re vegan since the diet focuses mostly on plants, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables anyway,” says Rachel Berman, RD, general manager at Verywell. That’s because the popular eating plan is “more of a lifestyle than a diet, just like being vegan is,” she says. “It’s all about enjoying your food, paying attention to your hunger and fullness cues, and eating a variety of locally sourced wholesome foods.” ad_intervals[‘409544_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘409544_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); That said, there are some things you should keep in mind when trying to combine the two eating plans. Here,
There’s never been a better time to go plant-based
July 22, 2019 at 08:14AM by CWC At the end of last year, Well+Good predicted that 2019 would be the year of cauliflower mania. Boy were we right. Between Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi to cauli-bread, the veggie has gone from taking over the frozen food aisles to expanding into the middle of the grocery store. But it’s certainly not the only plant-based food that’s become, well, cool. Consider this sampling of statistics: The demand for plant-based beverages (like oat milk) is predicted to have a compound annual growth rate of six percent through 2028, people are so hungry for vegan burgers that Beyond Meat’s worth has skyrocketed to $21 billion, and Burger King is now selling the Impossible Burger. Oh, and the plant-forward Mediterranean diet was deemed the best eating plan of the year (sorry, keto). The evidence is even clearer than when we called the trend at the end of last year: Plants are here to stay. ad_intervals[‘408516_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘408516_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); Why now? “There are a few reasons why I think so many people are interested in a more plant-based diet right now,” says Mark Hyman, MD, author of Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?. “Number one: people are stepping up to the realities of climate change, and factory-farmed meat and the way we grow most of the food in this country is damaging our land, our air, our water, our communities, and our bodies,” he says. He has
If Instant Pot and sous vide had a baby, this would be it
July 19, 2019 at 09:09AM by CWC The list of cooking functions possessed by the Instant Pot is nothing short of impressive: it’s a pressure cooker, rice maker, egg boiler, yogurt maker, and steamer all in one. But one of the few features most IPs don’t have is a built-in sous vide, a process used to cook vacuum-sealed foods to perfection by maintaining a precisely controlled temperature. Sous vide ensures meat, fish, and veggies are cooked evenly while retaining their flavor and nutrient-density. Well, what a time to be alive: now there’s a new pressure cooker-sous vide hybrid. Presenting the Fissler Souspreme Multi Pot ($130). With a whopping 18 cooking programs, it does everything other pressure cookers do, but it has an integrated sous vide function, which makes sure that whatever you throw in there cooks perfectly every time. Say, for example, you want to make a soup full of veggies and chicken. Using the sous vide feature makes sure every single ingredient comes out super tender—without losing any of the health benefits. It’s also a pressure cooker, which means that all this happens in a fraction of the time it would on the stove or in a slow cooker. ad_intervals[‘409390_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘409390_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); Really any meal you’re making where you make sure you don’t lose a drop of flavor, the sous vide feature will come in handy for. You can even use it to make your own version of the cult-classic
Feeding a crowd? Here’s how to create a ‘Venn diagram menu’ and make everyone happy
July 19, 2019 at 08:05AM by CWC Every time I make a trip down south to my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, what to eat for dinner is a contentious subject. I’m a long-time vegetarian, my sister has been flirting with keto, and my mother is—how do I phrase this politely?—extremely picky. Dad is our resident chef, but negotiating all of our preferences often sends him into a tizzy. Normally, preparing food for a crowd—even if said “crowd” is just four people— presents a Sudoku-esque mind challenge. But not once you’ve mastered the “Venn diagram menu.” While the dinner-designing strategy, as featured by LifeHacker, was created for satisfying the needs of your children, this problem is ageless. As my family epitomizes, the diversity of eating plans have never been so bountiful. The Venn diagram menu solves this problem by modeling every dinner party after the interlocking circles. It’s a godsend. ad_intervals[‘409421_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘409421_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); The basic idea is this: First, find a base that everyone will eat. (This is the overlapping part of the Venn diagram. Duh.) After that, prep all of the sides, which will be served choose-your-own-adventure-style. The most iconic example is taco night, where the taco shells appear on everyone’s plates. But while Suzie (who’s vegan) might smash her shell into a salad and add avocado, black beans, lettuce and tomatoes, Peter (who loves meat with fervor) may opt for shells filled with ground beef, bacon bits, cheese,
5 recipes that prove panini presses aren’t just for smooshed sandwiches
July 18, 2019 at 10:26AM by CWC Here’s a (semi-)objective fact for you: paninis will always be better than sandwiches. The cheese melts to gooey perfection, the toast becomes buttery-yet-crunchy, and all the veggies taste fresh out of the oven. There’s no better glow-up for two pieces of bread and all the fixin’s, but if you’re only using your panini press to make rainbow sammies, I’m here to tell you that you’re missing out in the kitchen. Peruse YouTube for panini press recipes and you’re in for a real treat. Besides every combination of hot, pressed lunch you can think of, you’ll also find some, shall we say, “out-of-the-box” uses for the kitchen gadget. In general, people tend to get creative with their air fryers and Instant Pots, but the panini possibilities have launched innovative cooking into the stratosphere. 5 panini press recipes that aren’t sandwiches [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQyaQftXpz0?start=82] ad_intervals[‘409143_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘409143_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); Grilled Chicken After spicing your bird with the desired combination of salt, pepper, garlic powder, et cetera, you simply place the chicken on the panini press and leave it be for 15 to 20 minutes. To up your meal prep game, you could totally whip up five at a time on Sunday and top your salads with protein all week long. (Vegans and vegetarians can substitute tofu for equally delicious results.) [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgKYDOpQW5w?start=82] Quesadillas Okay, so in a way—quesadillas are sandwiches. However, if you normally have Mexican night by sweating
What a healthy plate looks like on the ketogenic diet
July 18, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC Meal planning is hard enough—researching recipes, planning what to make, shopping for ingredients, and cooking the damn food are all time consuming on their own. But for people on the keto diet, the menu choices get even more limited. That’s because the low-carb, high-fat eating plan has very particular macros that can limit one’s food options (sorry, but pasta and rice are totally out the window). The typical keto diet macros are: 75 to 80 percent of calories from fat, 15 to 20 percent from protein, and only 5 to 10 percent from carbs, says Sam Presicci, MCN, RD, LD, CPT, lead registered dietitian at Snap Kitchen. People might play with those macros depending on their particular health goals and needs, or on their particular interpretation of keto; the “Ketotarian” diet, which advocates for a more plant-based approach, allows for up to 15 percent of calories from carbohydrates. ad_intervals[‘408931_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘408931_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); Why the intense focus on macros, you ask? Basically, this is the ratio of fats to carbs that allows a person to achieve ketosis—when the body switches from burning carbohydrates to fats as its primary source of energy. Ketosis “unlocks” keto’s main potential health benefits, from effective weight management to balanced blood sugar, reduced inflammation, and increased mental clarity. Thus, how you build your plate at mealtime is key to ensuring you stay in ketosis and maintain adequate nutrition. “Done correctly, a
How to eat healthy at the Whole Foods hot bar, according to a registered dietitian
July 17, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC The siren call of the Whole Foods hot bar can be strong. (Specifically, the smell of the jalapeno mac-and-cheese.) Maybe it lures you in on days when you want to treat yourself to a lunch you didn’t have to meal prep. Or maybe it calls to you on nights when you’re getting home late and don’t have the mental energy to figure out what to make for dinner. What’s certain about the hot bar—and the adjoining salad bar for that matter—is that it’s reliable, fast, and at least somewhat satisfying. However, hot food bars (even the healthy Whole Foods kind) can be tricky to navigate. There’s no menu, so it’s up to you to create your own meal that’s somewhat balanced, delicious, and not so physically heavy that you end up shelling out $25 dollars by accident for dinner. An impossible feat? Hardly. “My advice to anyone building a meal at a hot foods bar is to keep it simple,” says Isabel Smith, RD. “Choose one option that looks decadent and maybe a little more saucy. Otherwise, keep it simple and stick to plainer veggies—and also keep it mostly veggies.” ad_intervals[‘405597_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘405597_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); The Whole Foods hot bar and salad bar varies by location and day of the week, but representatives from the brand did me a list of their most popular items to share with Smith for the purpose of this article,