A vegan or vegetarian diet is widely believed to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, unlike a meat-heavy diet, i.e. consuming too much saturated fat, which raises cholesterol and leads to heart disease.

But the researchers contend a vegan diet lacks sufficient iron, zinc, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fatty acids; causing vegans to have elevated blood levels of homocysteine and low levels of HDL (or “good”) cholesterol. Both are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

It would appear that eating too much meat, or eating a vegan diet, are both diet extremes that could prove harmful to your health. While eating a vegetarian diet – one that includes milk, eggs, and fish – is probably the healthiest way to eat. Especially if you’re going to forego supplements. And if you still crave meat, simply consume it sparingly.

Vegan diets may be harmful to your health is a post from: Personal Health Resource

After installing the Weight Watchers iOS app update, the error message is gone, and is replaced with a new message that reads, “Your app has been updated for the PointsPlus Program. Please note, in order to make your app compatible with the PointsPlus program, we’ve cleared anything in your untracked items from before the new plan was introduced.”

The biggest change to the app can be seen with the Weight Watchers Calculator. Calories are gone and Carbohydrates and Protein are in.

Weight Watchers Updates iOS App to Support PointsPlus is a post from: Personal Health Resource

The PointsPlus program is compulsory. Meaning, you have to start using it over the old program. Once converted, people using the current program will be prompted to update their saved food items. Their are two things that will need to be updated, the number of carbohydrates and protein.

At the time of launch, their Web application worked in Firefox, but wasn’t working on Chrome. It’s important to note that they haven’t officially supported Chrome for some time, and still don’t. Their iOS application was also not working. Attempting to launch the Weight Watchers Mobile app would present the user with the message, “Weight Watchers Mobile has been temporarily disabled while we update our site. Check back soon.” It will be interesting to see if they can get the existing app to work with the new program, or if they’re actually waiting for Apple to approve their updated app.

Switching to a new weight management program – even if the change is ever so slight – can be difficult for many people. That’s especially true when it’s forced upon them. To help alleviate those concerns, it looks like Weight Watchers approached the change psychologically. To buffer the impact of the change, they made the overall points someone could have higher. While that may not be intentional – it could simply be a result of the new calculations – one can’t help but assume it played a key role.

Key Features of the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus Program

1. PointsPlus values use a new calculation, based on fat, carbohydrates, protein and fiber. Don’t estimate; look up food or use the PointsPlus Calculator. Remember your daily Target and weekly Allowance are different too.
2. All fruit and most vegetables are 0 PointsPlus values! Now’s a good time to find new fruits and vegetables to enjoy.
3. Weight Watchers Power Foods can help keep you satisfied. Be sure to refer often to the Power Foods list, because it’s not exactly the same as the Filling Foods list.

Weight Watchers Launches New PointsPlus Program is a post from: Personal Health Resource

Making a Healthier PB&J Sandwich

Adjusting the three main ingredients in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can greatly decrease the amount of sugar intake, while also increasing the amount of fiber in the sandwich.

• Look for high fiber whole grain bread that comes with 3-4 grams of fiber per slice.
• When choosing peanut butter, get natural peanut butter. You’ll know it’s natural, because it will have oil that’s floated to the top of the container.
• When choosing jellies, get jellies that are made with all fruit, and don’t have any added sweeteners.

Try Almond Butter & Agave Nectar

The healthiest version of a PB&J sandwich doesn’t actually use peanut butter or jelly. Instead, it uses Almond Butter and Agave Nectar. Almond butter has significantly more fiber and nutrients than peanut butter, and still maintains a creamy, rich flavor. Agave nectar, which is similar to honey, is sweet like honey or jelly, but has less calories and actually has fiber in it.

If you couple high fiber wheat bread (3-4 grams of fiber per slice) with almond butter (4 grams of fiber per serving) and agave nectar (1 gram of fiber per serving), one sandwich can yield up to 18 grams of fiber. That’s a lot more fiber than a typical peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which usually only yields about 2-3 grams of fiber.

How to Make a Healthier Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich is a post from: Personal Health Resource

So far, week one of eating healthy at work is going well. Although it’s only been a few days, I already have a lunch favorite. It’s a hummus spinach wrap.

Hummus Spinach Wrap

The main ingredients for the hummus spinach wrap are:

• Large whole grain tortilla (high in fiber)
• Hummus (flavored is best!)
• Baby spinach
• Tofurkey slices or tempeh
• Grape tomatoes

As you can see, the ingredients are simple, and it’s easy to make – which is a major goal of this initiative. I’m also using reusable sandwich bags, instead of plastic.

Week 1 of Eating Healthy at Work is a post from: Personal Health Resource

The problem with eating out everyday is that you end up spending a lot more money than you need to, and it can take a toll on your health. In most cases, you end up eating too many calories, and the food usually isn’t that healthy.

Over the next several weeks (and hopefully months), I’m going to try to transition from eating out, to making and bringing my own lunch. Since I’ll be making my own lunch, I’ll have control over the types of food I eat. Since my goal is to not only save money, but to also lose weight, be more energetic, and eat healthier, I’m going to focus on only making vegetarian meals.

Vegetarian Lunch Ingredients

After mulling through several vegetarian cookbooks – Vegan Lunch Box, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, and Vegetarian Meals for People-on-the-Go – I was able to extrapolate the main ingredients that I’ll need to make simple pastas, salads, wraps, and sandwiches. Those ingredients include:

Grains

• Sandwich Bread (Whole Grain)
• Wheat Tortillas (for Wraps)
• Couscous
• Flax Seed

Pastas

• Spiral (Wheat if Possible)
• Tortellini

Spreads & Cheeses

• Hummus
• Pimiento Cheese
• Cream Cheese (Low Fat, Flavored)
• Goat Cheese
• Parmesan Cheese
• Nut Butter (Peanut or Almond)

Fruits & Vegetables

• Beets
• Bell Peppers (Raw and Roasted)
• Blood Oranges
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Cucumbers
• Garlic
• Olives (Black)
• Onions
• Peas (Frozen)
• Romaine Lettuce
• Spinach
• Sweet Potato
• Tempeh
• Tofu
• Tomatoes

Meat Substitute

• Tempeh
• Turkey, Chicken, and Meat Flavored Tofu Slices (Tofurky)

Beans, Legumes, and Nuts

• Refried Beans
• Pistachios
• Almonds
• Walnuts (for Salad)

These ingredients provide a multitude of sandwich, wrap, salad, and pasta combinations. I’ll highlight some or many of them as I make them throughout each week.

A key factor that will enable this to be successful, and something that was crucial in picking the recipes and ingredients, is the necessity for these meals to be quick and simple to make.

Simple Vegetarian Cookbooks

These are the three main books I used to compile my list of foods and lunch recipes. Click on any of the books to learn more about them.

Eating Healthy at Work is a post from: Personal Health Resource

Pistachio Nutritional Information

Pistachios are naturally cholesterol-free, and heart-healthy. They have many health benefits, including the ability to reduce your risk of heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood sugar. Key nutrition facts for pistachios include:

• Good Fat: Pistachios contain 13 grams of fat, but out of that 11 grams are “good” fat grams which include 7g monounsaturated and 4g polyunsaturated, which may lower LDL (bad cholesterol). There are 0g trans fat in pistachios.
• No Cholesterol: Pistachios naturally contain no cholesterol!
• Carbohydrates: Pistachios contain only 8g (3% Daily Value) of carbohydrates.
• Fiber: One serving of pistachios contains 3g of fiber.
• Protein: There are 6g of protein in one serving of pistachios — the same amount as in a one-ounce serving of soybeans.
• Vitamins & Minerals: You can receive many necessary vitamins and minerals from pistachios:
  • Vitamin A 2%
  • Vitamin C 0%
  • Calcium 4%
  • Iron 6%
  • Vitamin E 4%
  • Thiamin 15%
  • Vitamin B6 20%
  • Folate 4%
  • Phosporus 15%
  • Magnesium 8%
  • Copper 20%

Pistachio Resources

Here are some helpful resources about pistachios:

• Pistachio Health
• Pistachio Product Recalls
• The Green Nut
• Wikipedia: Pistachio

Image Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielle_scott/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Pistachio Nutrition and Health Facts is a post from: Personal Health Resource

The uproar came when I was testing out wp-o-matic plugin last night, which published 70 blog entries from 7 different RSS feeds as my own content. I was testing out the plugin to see what it could do, and also didn’t know that anyone would notice, because this site gets very little traffic. However, it didn’t take long until the content police were all over me

Anyways, I’ve cleaned it up, deleted all of the entries, etc, etc… But the point of this post is to state that there weren’t any bad intentions on my part. I was simply experimenting with some different RSS retrieval plugins, and I had no idea anyone would notice or pay attention to anything I was doing with this site. Apparently I was wrong I’ll need to be more careful with my software testing.

There’s No Swiping, Relax is a post from: Personal Health Resource

If you were to ask anyone why they like soda or any drink that’s been carbonated, their answer would probably be that they like the fizziness. Up until now, it was thought that the only thing carbonation did in your mouth was provide texture, but a new study says carbonation also provides taste.

Scientists say that there’s a protein receptor that’s responsible for our ability to taste carbonated drinks.

They found that the taste of carbonation is initiated by an enzyme tethered like a small flag from the surface of sour-sensing cells in taste buds. The enzyme, called carbonic anhydrase 4, interacts with the carbon dioxide in the soda, activating the sour cells in the taste bud and prompting it to send a sensory message to the brain, where carbonation is perceived as a familiar sensation.

This may explain why I like carbonated water, like San Pellegrino or Perrier, better than regular tap water. I’ve always had the sinking suspicion that it provided a different taste than regular water, but also thought it was just in my mind. Now I know for a fact that it’s not all in my mind, it’s also in (on) my tongue!

To learn more about this story, be sure to check out NPR’s coverage. They did a very interesting segment about it on All Things Considered.

You Can Actually “Taste” the Carbonation in Drinks is a post from: Personal Health Resource