Thursday, October 31, 2019
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Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Jennifer Aniston Says She's on the 16:8 Intermittent Fasting Diet—But What Is That?
Let’s face it, we all want the Jennifer Aniston glow. Does this woman ever not look like she’s just walked out of a wellness retreat? Clearly, she knows a thing or two about health and well-being, and she’s finally sharing some of her secrets.
In an interview with UK magazine Radio Times during the promo trail for her new Apple TV+ show The Morning Show, Aniston revealed that she’s a big fan of intermittent fasting, particularly a version called the 16:8 diet.
“I do intermittent fasting, so no food in the morning. I noticed a big difference in going without solid food for 16 hours,” she said, per CNBC.
RELATED: Is Celery Juice Healthy? Here's What a Nutritionist Thinks
Aniston’s preferred way of intermittent fasting limits her eating time window to eight hours per day, while fasting for the other 16 hours, Tanya B. Freirich, MS, RD, New York-based nutritionist and registered dietitian for Sweet Nova, tells Health. Other types of intermittent fasting diets include the 5:2 diet, which involves fasting for two nonconsecutive days each week and eating without restrictions on the other five days. There's also the OMAD—or one meal a day—diet.
Intermittent fasting has become increasingly popular, and it's easy to see why. For starters, there's no prescribed calorie limit, which means no crunching numbers and relying on calorie counting guides before eating. But what else is involved in the 16:8 eating plan and similar fasts, and are they actually safe? Here's what nutrition experts have to say.
Does the 16:8 intermittent fast diet actually work?
As far as the benefits of intermittent fasting go, one study found that it helped people lose a “modest” amount of weight and also lowered their blood pressure. “It’s suspected that the reason it helps people lose weight is that eating within an eight-hour window simply limits the total amount of calories consumed in a day,” New York-based nutritionist Lauren Harris-Pincus, RD, tells Health. “But ultimately, the only way to lose weight is to create a caloric deficit where you consume fewer calories than you expend.”
RELATED: What to Know About the Snake Diet, an Extreme Fasting Plan for Weight Loss
Is the 16:8 diet good for you?
Some advocates of the 16:8 diet claim it helps control blood sugar levels and boost brain function, but there’s little scientific evidence to back these up. And if you don’t stick to nutritious food during the eight-hour window, any positive effects are quickly negated. In other words, 16 hours of fasting doesn’t compensate for eight hours of stuffing your face with junk food.
For the best results, you should be careful about your choice of eating window. According to Freirich, it should start early in the day, preferably no later than about 10 a.m., and finish early in the evening. “This allows for the energy you consume during your eating window to serve your activities throughout the day, plus it’s in line with our natural circadian rhythms, presuming you wake up around 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.,” she explains. If you choose a much later eating window, say 4 p.m. to 12 a.m, you could actually see weight gain, she warns.
Wait... is celery allowed during fasting? Doesn’t it have some calories?
Aniston also told Radio Times that she likes to start her day with a celery juice around 9 a.m., which some fasting purists might not agree with. (Typically, intermittent fasting permits nothing but water, tea, or coffee for the entire 16-hour fasting period). “There are no super specific rules to intermittent fasting, however, having anything with calories like celery juice is technically not fasting,” confirms Harris-Pincus.
But hey, it’s not as if Aniston’s having soda for breakfast. And she’s not the only one to extol the virtues of celery juice—it seems like every social media influencer is celebrating the green stuff right now.
Any magical health benefits of celery juice are exaggerated “beyond the fact [that] it’s a vegetable,” says Harris-Pincus. Yet if it works for you, go for it. “I always tell clients that if they like celery juice, then have some,” she adds. “Make half of your food volume fruits and veggies, and you’re good to go.”
RELATED: What Is Alternate-Day Fasting, and Is It Even Safe? Here's What Nutritionists Have to Say
Is there anyone who shouldn’t do intermittent fasting?
The 16:8 diet isn’t suitable for everyone. Freirich doesn't advise it for people with diabetes or problems with low blood pressure or low blood sugar, as well as children, athletes, and pregnant women. “These groups of people need food more consistently throughout the day or have high energy needs that are difficult to meet with time constraints,” she explains.
Are there any side effects to be aware of?
Intermittent fasting shouldn’t come with any nasty side effects, but—like all restrictive eating plans—it’s important to not let it take over your life. “Sometimes people shy away from social events because they interfere with the timing of the fast,” Harris-Pincus says. “I never recommend letting an eating behavior determine your interaction with friends, family, or coworkers.”
It’s also important to pay attention to exercise in relation to fasting. Harris-Pincus warns against exercising while fasting or waiting several hours after exercising to eat your first meal. “You want to feed those muscles and replenish carbohydrate stores after an intense workout,” she says.
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Tuesday, October 22, 2019
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Friday, October 18, 2019
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Your Walking Speed Can Tell You How Fast You're Aging
If your stride has slowed down in your forties, you may be aging faster than you realize. That's the result of a new study, which found that your walking speed at age 45 can be an indicator of your physical and neurological aging.
While previous research has already found a link between an older person's gait and their health, the new study, published this week in JAMA Network Open, specifically looked at hundreds of 45-year-olds to get a much deeper sense of what walking speed reveals about aging.
“How fast people are walking in midlife tells us a lot about how much their bodies and brains have aged over time," lead author Line Jee Hartmann Rasmussen, a postdoctoral fellow who researches aging at Duke University, tells Health. Gait speed seems to be not only an indicator of aging, but also an indicator of lifelong brain health, adds Rasmussen.
RELATED: These Are the Best Walking Workouts, According to Fitness Experts
In the study, researchers examined more than 40 years of data collected from over 1,000 New Zealanders born between 1972 and 1973.
Starting at the age of three, each study participant was assessed by a pediatric neurologist, who measured everything from intelligence and language/motor skills to emotional and behavioral regulation. After that, each had their health regularly assessed and examined and underwent interviews every few years.
At the age of 45, researchers measure the gait speed of 904 participants using a simple test. The researchers also looked at how quickly they were aging, based on 19 health markers including body mass index, blood pressure, and cholesterol level. Additionally, they conducted the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV test, did a brain MRI, and rated facial aging.
After analyzing the data, they compared those participants with the slowest average gait—around 3.9 feet per second—to people with the highest, averaging at about 5.7 feet per second. The results led researchers to three important conclusions.
First, slow gait was associated with “poor physical function at midlife,” according to the study. Despite the fact that most of the midlife subjects walked faster than older adults who were part of the earlier study, researchers made the same associations between walking speed and physical performance that were previously found.
RELATED: The Longevity Diet: What to Eat So You Live Longer and Healthier
Second, researchers determined that slow walking was associated with accelerated aging—which was not only represented through rapid deterioration of organ systems but by facial aging and structural brain changes as well. Basically, those who walked slower physically aged faster than their speedier peers, and it showed.
Third, the research team made a connection between slow gait and worsened neurocognitive functioning. Those who walked faster, had a higher IQ, and a reduced risk of dementia.
The link between intelligence and gait proved even stronger: Participants whose neurocognitive functioning was lower at the age of three subsequently had slower gait in their forties. Researchers were able to determine how fast a person would walk at 45 by their intelligence at the age of three. “Gait speed at midlife may be a summary index of lifelong aging with possible origins in childhood central nervous system deficits,” Rasmussen pointed out in the study.
RELATED: 10 Secrets of People Who Age Gracefully
So how should people be using this new information?
“Walking seems like such a simple thing, but walking actually requires the function and interplay of many different organ systems at the same time, including your bones, heart, lungs, muscles, vision, nervous systems, and so on,” says Rasmussen. Reduced walking speed can be a sign of advanced aging and deteriorating organ function.
“Keeping healthy and exercising your lungs, brain, heart etc., may improve your physical and cognitive health and thus your gait speed,” she says.
While measuring gait is a common practice with older adults, researchers suggest that incorporating such tests earlier in life may be beneficial. “Because gait speed shows meaningful aging-related variation already in midlife, it may prove to be a useful measure in aging trials aimed at preventing the onset of age-related disease,” Rasmussen pointed out in the study.
RELATED: This Is the Best Anti-Aging Workout, According to Science
She also points to the study’s supplementary invited commentary, provided by Stephanie Studenski, MD, a geriatrician at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Gait speed is a simple, inexpensive indicator of well-being across adulthood. Let’s pay attention and use it,” suggests Dr. Studenski in his commentary.
Carolyn Fredericks, MD, Yale Medicine neurologist and expert in Alzheimer’s disease and research (who was not involved in the study), also endorses the significance of the findings.
“We knew that these kinds of relationships existed in older people, but to show that they are already present—and very strong—in individuals in their 40s is surprising, and very exciting,” Dr. Fredericks tells Health.
RELATED: FaceApp Is Cool and All, but Can It Really Predict How You'll Age?
She adds that while the study doesn’t say for certain that improving physical fitness can reverse these changes, “it certainly adds to the overall picture in the literature suggesting that the time to start getting on a healthier track—in terms of our cardiovascular fitness, our diet, our blood pressure—is not when we are older and worried about our memory, but right now.”
How to measure your own gait
You don’t need an expert to calculate how many feet per second you can walk. There's a simple equation to figure it out:
Choose how many feet you are going to walk. This study opted for six meters, equivalent to about 20 feet. Get a measuring tape and mark the distance with tape or a piece of chalk.
Using a stopwatch, determine how many seconds it takes you to walk the distance without exerting yourself. Make sure to walk with your regular pace.
Divide the total distance walked by the amount of time (in seconds) on your stopwatch. For example, if it took you five seconds to walk 20 feet your equation would be: 20 feet divided by 5 seconds equals 4 feet per second. To get a totally accurate read, you might want to try repeating the process a few times.
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019
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Health and Shape Are Hosting a Women's Half-Marathon! Here’s How to Register
Health is proud to announce that we've joined our sister publication, Shape, as a sponsor of their annual women's half-marathon: the Shape + Health Half-Marathon. Next year's race will be held on Sunday, April 19 in New York City's Central Park, and registration opens today!
In addition to our new partnership as co-sponsors, the event will feature a new 5.8 mile race. This race is a great option for runners who are looking for something shorter than the traditional 13.1 mile half-marathon. Both courses promise beautiful views of Central Park and a team of supporters cheering you on.
Next year marks the 17th anniversary of the annual race, which attracts thousands of marathoners who cross the finish line and prove that #WomenRunTheWorld. Past years have even included appearances from runners like three-time Olympian Deena Kastor, who set new course records in 2014. NBC and MSNBC anchors Natalie Morales, Hoda Kotb, and Mika Brzezinski also hosted and participated in the race.
When it comes down to it, the Shape + Health Half-Marathon is really about bringing women of all ages and backgrounds together for a day of fun, fitness, and camaraderie. Whether you're coming from across the country or from around the corner, join us in Central Park for an unforgettable event.
Follow the event on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for updates and news—and also follow Health and Shape for content about how to get your body ready for race day!
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019
5 Dumbbell Workouts From Autumn Calabrese that Will Tone Your Entire Body
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5 Swiss Ball Exercises for a Stronger Core
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Tuesday, October 8, 2019
All Nuts Are Good for You, But These 8 Are the Healthiest
We cut through the fat so you don't have to.
If you ask us, we’d say all nuts deserve love. They’re the perfect snack: nuts are crunchy, easy to pack and take on the go, and super tasty. Pairing well with chocolate never hurts, either.
But when it comes to nutrition, not all nuts are created equal. We spoke with Malena Perdomo, MS, RDN, CDE, about the health benefits of nuts and which ones we should be reaching for first.
RELATED: The 9 Best Healthy Nut Butters We've Ever Tasted
The good news? All nuts are healthy. “They’re packed with good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats), and they provide plenty of vitamins and minerals: folic acid, vitamin E, vitamin B6 and minerals like magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc, selenium and phosphorous,” Malena says. They also contain fiber and protein.
“As a dietitian, I recommend snacking on a variety of nuts to get the full benefits of all their nutrients.” You don’t have to ask us twice. Here are the healthiest types of nuts and the science behind why.
RELATED: We Taste-Tested Hundreds of Healthy Snacks—and These Are the Best Ones
Almonds
A superb snack to munch on. Almonds contain lots of healthy monounsaturated fat, and have a higher amount of dietary fiber than other nuts at 4 grams per one-ounce serving (about 23 almonds). Almonds also have the most vitamin E and protein of all tree nuts, providing 6 grams of protein per serving. That combination of fiber, good fats, and protein has proven to be able to keep you fuller, longer. Finally, almonds have been shown to reduce inflammation in people with type 2 diabetes.
RELATED: The 5 Best High-Protein Breakfast Ideas on Pinterest—That Aren’t Eggs
Pistachios
The highest in potassium (291 milligrams) per ounce compared to other nuts, and the highest amount of vitamin B6. Pistachios are also one of the highest fiber nuts. Pistachios may also help improve other heart disease risk factors, including blood pressure, weight, and oxidative status. Even better: A one-ounce serving of pistachios is 49 kernels.
RELATED: 5 Delicious Pistachio Recipes
Walnuts
Walnuts are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. They've also been shown to improve cardiovascular health by lowering your body's cholesterol and blood pressure. In addition, walnuts may fight inflammation. A one-ounce serving of walnuts is 12 - 14 halves.
Cashews
A one-ounce serving of cashews is approximately 18 nuts, which provides 5 grams of protein. Cashews have the highest amount of iron per ounce and the highest in zinc per ounce of all nuts—both of which are important for maintaining our body’s immune system. (And if you’re a vegetarian looking for foods rich in iron, you’ll want to start snacking on cashews, stat.) They also serve as an excellent source of copper and magnesium.
RELATED: What Can you Make With Peanut Butter?
Hazelnuts
Hazelnuts have 4 grams of protein per ounce (about 20 nuts) and are an excellent source of vitamin E. In comparison to other tree nuts, they’re the highest in folate—a very important nutrient for pregnancy—and one of the highest of monounsaturated fats.
Macadamia Nuts
The highest in calories and fat but who's counting, right? So delicious. The calories of nuts vary from 160 to 200 calories per ounce. One ounce of macadamia nuts provides 200 calories, which is about 10 to 12 nuts. It's the nut with the highest monounsaturated fat of all nuts. (If you’re on the ketogenic diet, look no further.) Macadamia nuts may also reduce risk factors for heart disease, including oxidative stress and inflammation.
RELATED: Macadamia Nuts and Cashews Recalled for Possible Listeria Contamination
Pecans
One ounce of pecans is about 20 halves, which contains 196 calories and a good amount of dietary fiber (2.7 grams). They're also high in monounsaturated fat. A few studies have shown that pecans can lower “bad” LDL cholesterol in people with normal cholesterol levels.
Pine Nuts
A good source of vitamin E and phosphorous, plus they’re high in vitamin K. An ounce of pine nuts is about 167 nuts.
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