Best Sunscreen is also one of the Cheapest
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
sunscreen needed!
Consumer Reports just came out with their review of sunscreen and it turns out that the best product tested was also one of the cheapest. Sunscreen is extremely important if you are going to be out in the sun for any continuous amount of time. While we do need 15-20 minutes of sun per day for our bodies to make vitamin D (Vitamin D is made in the skin when exposed to sunlight) anything more than that can be risky. With skin cancer rate climbing every year, it is very important to protect yourself. Using sunscreen when you are at the beach, ball game or working in the yard will protect you not only from skin cancer, but also slow the aging of your skin.From MSNBC-
…
Up & Up Sport Continuous, which sells at Target for less than $10 for two 6-ounce containers, won top honors for being the “Best Buy” sunscreen.
The magazine tested 12 leading sunscreens to see how effective they were at blocking both ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B radiation. The products were then reevaluated after volunteers wore the screens in water for 80 minutes. In addition to the Target brand, many of the other leading sunscreens ranked by Consumer Reports offered very good protection against UVA and excellent protection against UVB at a reasonable price, the agency said.
…
One of the things to remember is that name and price have very little to do with effectiveness- the 2 top rated products were both house brands, one from Target and the other from Walgreens. Some of the lowest rated products were very expensive name brands like Avon and Burt’s Bees. Here are the top 4 and worst 4.
…
The top 4 sunscreens rated by Consumer Reports, based on how well they protected against UVA and UVB rays while worn on volunteers who soaked in water for 40 or 80 minutes.
— Up & Up Sport Continuous (Target) spray SPF 30
— Walgreens Sport Continous spray SPF 50
— Banana Boat Sport Performance Continuous spray SPF 30
— Aveeno Continuous Protection spray SPF 50
And the lowest scoring sunscreens:
— La Roche-Posay Anthelios 40 with Mexoryl SX crea SPF 40 ($18.82 per ounce)
— Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus IR3535 Expedition pump spray SPF 30 (Doesn’t block UVA rays)
— Burt’s Bees Chemical-Free with Hemp Seed Oil lotion SPF 30 (Doesn’t block entire UVA spectrum)
Source: Consumer Reports
Got Milk? You are probably not lactose intolerant…
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Got Milk?
A new study has shown that many people who think they are lactose intolerant really aren’t. There isn’t any definitive answer as to why people seem to have symptoms when they can absorb lactose normally, but some researchers think that it is mostly psychological or perhaps irritable bowl syndrome.
For years I thought I was lactose intolerant- then I started drinking small portions of milk, cheese and yogurt with no problems. So one thing that I recommend is that you not drink large amounts of milk at one time, but instead drink less than 1/2 cup a couple of times a day. I think you will find that in smaller amounts, you are fine.
This is important since milk is a great source of nutrition and nutrients such as protein and calcium. So try adding dairy products back into your diet in small amount and you will probably find that you can handle it without problems.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
If you live in the southern US right now, you are in one of the worst allergy seasons in many years. Soon, as spring moves north, the allergy problem will attack up there too. Back when I was growing up, my father used to call allergies “hay fever” because they had the effect of making you feel like you are really sick- and many people do have pretty severe allergic reactions to the pollen from plants. So what do you do? Well, taking some common precautions will make a big difference. Prevention has a list of 9 things that make allergies worse and one of them is simply ignoring them until you are miserable. Taking your allergy medicine before you head out into the pollen will help a lot. Generic Zyrtec and Claritin are available everywhere pretty cheaply.
Some things you eat and drink can also make your allergies worse since they trigger histamine release in the body- wine has this effect on many people. The opposite of this is the effect that natural, local honey has. Eating natural, locally produced honey tends to help with allergies since it contains pollen from local plants that your body adapts to over time- sort of like a vaccine.
The other thing you can do that helps is to exercise. even when you feel tired and sluggish because of your allergies, going to the gym and exercising will definitely make you feel better and help clear your head.
“Superfoods” for Disease Fighting and Anti-aging
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Blueberries
Here is a good quick list of some of the foods that appear to have the best disease fighting and anti-aging properties. The thing I like about this list is that there is nothing really crazy on it and all the foods are readily available at the grocery store. From Prevention-
PROTECT YOUR HEART
•   Fill up on barley
•   Fill up on pinto beans
•   Fill up on grapes
•   Fill up on macadamia nuts
•   Fill up on mineral water
•   Avoid energy drinks
STRENGTHEN YOUR BONES
•   Fill up on lean top sirloin
•   Fill up on broccoli
•   Avoid salt
PROMOTE DIGESTION
•   Fill up on blueberries
•   Fill up on popcorn
•   Fill up on bananas
•   Avoid dried plums
SHARPEN YOUR VISION
•   Fill up on collard greens
•   Fill up on low-fat or nonfat milk
•   Fill up on nuts
•   Avoid refined foods
PROTECT YOUR BREASTS
•   Fill up on cauliflower
•   Fill up on sweet potatoes
•   Fill up on tomato sauce
•   Avoid grapefruit
CLEAR YOUR LUNGS
•   Fill up on pears
•   Fill up on edamame
•   Fill up on brown rice
•   Avoid soft drinks
PAIN PROOF YOUR JOINTS
•   Fill up on olive oil
•   Fill up on oranges
•   Avoid beer or hard liquor
BOOST YOUR MEMORY
•   Fill up on apples
•   Fill up on chicken breast
•   Fill up on coffee
•   Avoid liver
SMOOTH YOUR SKIN
•   Fill up on canned light tuna
•   Fill up on dark chocolate
•   Fill up on black tea with citrus peel
•   Fill up on carrot juice
•   Avoid alcohol
10 Strange Long term Health Clues
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Supplements, Travel/fit | Add Comment
Some of these are pretty weird, but there is science behind them. MSNBC has the whole list, but here are a couple-
…
Older adults who couldn’t identify the scent of bananas, lemons, cinnamon, or other items were five times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease within 4 years, according to a 2008 study in the Annals of Neurology. The researchers believe that the area of the brain responsible for olfactory function may be one of the first impacted by Parkinson’s disease — somewhere between 2 and 7 years prior to diagnosis.
Prevent it: Take fish oil supplements. Omega-3 fatty acids can boost your brain’s resistance to MPTP, a toxic compound responsible for Parkinson’s.
Multiple studies show that linear wrinkles in one or both lobes may predict future cardiovascular events (heart attack, bypass surgery, or cardiac death.) A crease on one lobe raises the risk by 33%; a crease on both lobes increases it by 77%, even after adjusting for other known risk factors, found a study in The American Journal of Medicine. Though experts aren’t exactly sure, they suspect a loss of elastic fibers may cause both the crease and the hardening of arteries.
Prevent it: Keep your heart healthy in other ways: Slim down, and lower your cholesterol and blood pressure.
Coffee and Tea may reduce diabetes case
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements | Add Comment
Coffee
This is good news and bad news- the good news is that there is pretty convincing evidence that coffee and tea consumption reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The bad news is that millions of people who do get diabetes consume lots of coffee and tea. So the reasons behind the evidence are unclear. Like with most things, there is probably more than one factor at work. It’s possible that coffee and tea drinkers have different life-style traits that influence the effects of caffeine or the other ingredients in coffee and tea. It’s also possible that coffee and tea drinkers burn more calories from the effects of the caffeine. But all in all, at the very least, we can put aside the warnings of years gone by that they are bad for you. In general, unless you are very sensitive to caffeine, there is no problem with drinking coffee and tea. So, if you like coffee and tea, enjoy. But please don’t use this as an excuse to over eat and not exercise. There is no doubt at all that the best way for most people to avoid developing diabetes is with a good diet and exercise.
…
People who drink the most coffee and tea, even decaffeinated versions, can dramatically lower their risk of diabetes, researchers reported on Monday.
Their study does not answer why this might be but strengthens the findings of earlier studies showing the beverages may prevent type-2 diabetes.
“Every additional cup of coffee consumed in a day was associated with a 7 percent reduction in the excess risk of diabetes,” Rachel Huxley of The University of Sydney in Australia and an international team of colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Sports, Supplements, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Or big and ripped, or as Andrew over at MPF calls it “the holy grail of fitness”. The basic idea that has been floating around for years is that you can’t gain size and strength while at the same time lose fat and get lean- at least not without pharmaceutical help. That is sort of true, but not completely. Years ago, in my bodybuilding days we used to do the bulk up, diet down plan for getting ready for shows. One thing I noticed over the years is that each successive competition got easier to diet for and after the show, I stayed just a little bit leaner. So while there are some basics to gaining strength and and/or dieting, our bodies are extremely good at adapting. You aren’t going to make your best gains in size and strength while dieting, but you can still make gains. One time, about 10 years ago, I was getting ready for the Mr. Georgia and dieting fairly strictly. I was also still squatting and deadlifting at my max levels even while losing weight. So there is a balance and it isn’t easy to find, but when you do find it, it is great.
So to my mind the Holy Grail of Fitness IS a system that effects a good amount of fat loss–or perhaps, more accurately, control of fat–and, simultaneously, good gains in strength and muscle mass. Compromise. True, you’re not going to get HUGE and, depending on how you eat, you’re probably not going to get SHREDDED, but you’re going to look and feel good.
A Guide for Healthy Food and Eating
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Spiritual/Emotional, Sports, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
Grilled Fish
WebMD has an article about an address Michael Pollan gave to a gathering of scientists and doctors at the CDC back in March. In the talk he gives 7 words and 7 rules for food and eating. He also notes that there are some ironies about American eating habits that we should pay attention to. Although he makes little mention of the importance of exercise, I feel the need to remind you that exercise has huge benefits that diet alone cannot make up for. But, all in all, he has some really good advice. When guys in the gym asks me about supplements and protein powder, I always tell them to simply save their money and buy good real food.
…
As part of an effort to bring new ideas to the national debate on food issues, the CDC invited Pollan — a harsh critic of U.S. food policies — to address CDC researchers and to meet with leaders of the federal agency.
“The French paradox is that they have better heart health than we do despite being a cheese-eating, wine-swilling, fois-gras-gobbling people,” Pollan said. “The American paradox is we are a people who worry unreasonably about dietary health yet have the worst diet in the world.”
In various parts of the world, Pollan noted, necessity has forced human beings to adapt to all kinds of diets.
“The Masai subsist on cattle blood and meat and milk and little else. Native Americans subsist on beans and maize. And the Inuit in Greenland subsist on whale blubber and a little bit of lichen,” he said. “The irony is, the one diet we have invented for ourselves — the Western diet — is the one that makes us sick.”
Snowballing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in the U.S. can be traced to our unhealthy diet. So how do we change? Read on here!
FRS energy drinks and Quercetin
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
You might have noticed the FRS energy drinks that Lance Armstrong is pimping on pretty much every website from weather.com to MSNBC. While I am pretty skeptical about the latest and greatest new, all natural, fix everything supplement that hits the market, the active ingredient in FRS is an anti-oxidant called Quercetin. It is found in the skins of many dark fruits like red grapes, blueberries, apples and citrus fruits. So I did a little research and found a good article about it on the University of Maryland Medical Center website. While there are not a lot of studies done using it in pill form as a supplement, there is good evidence that it does in fact have tangible benefits for many common ailments including allergies, prostatitis, certain types of heart disease and possibly cancer. One of the main benefits seems to be its natural anti-inflammatory properties. But, what about the FRS claims of increased energy? Well, the UMMC article does not mention that at all but FRS’s website claims this:
Scientists believe that taking Quercetin supplements increases the amount of mitochondria in cells, and since mitochondria create energy, if you have more mitochondria you’re able to produce more energy. So the energy you feel is more of your natural energy rather than artificial feeling stimulant energy. Quercetin is chemically similar to Resveritrol and is naturally occurring in grapes, apples, and blueberries.
So, since it is available in tablet form pretty inexpensively, I think I will give it a 1 month trial and report back weekly on if I notice any difference in either energy levels or less pain in my back and joints from the anti-inflammatory properties. Stay tuned and we will see what happens.
Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | Add Comment
For the rest of this week, I will be posting the 6 meal/day plan that I recommend for most people. 6 small meals is really a far better way to eat than 3 large meals. With 6 small meals, you don’t get as hungry and so you don’t eat too much at each meal. I know that it is hard to fit this into a lot of people’s schedules, but with a little planning, most folks can do. The benefits are really impressive, so give it a try.
Meal 1- Breakfast- Yes, you do have time!
You’ve probably heard it all your life and ignored it most of the time, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Unfortunately, most people skip breakfast and either get something unhealthy from a drive-through or just wait until lunch to eat. The solution is really easy and simple- instant oatmeal, yogurt and fruit. You can get the instant oatmeal in a whole variety of flavors and it even comes in low sugar form. Quaker has a whole line of oatmeal and most supermarket chains have their own house brands which are just as good and a lot cheaper. Make it with lowfat milk and then have some fruit with it and you have an excellent 90 second breakfast. Really, no excuses! this is a 90 second solution and it even has the added benefit of lowering cholesterol in most people.
Stay away from the giant muffins and other “fast†breakfast alternatives since they have virtually no nutritional value and are loaded with fat and sugar. Also, stay away from the high sugar and fat coffee drinks at places like Starbucks since they can easily have 400-500 calories and no real nutritional value (In other word, they make you fat). Drinking stuff like that wreaks havoc on your blood sugar levels and gives you a bad start to the day.
