Best Time to Eat for Lasting Weight Loss and Better Health
Does it matter when you eat your food? A growing body of evidence suggests that an overnight fast, aligned with darkness and your body's nighttime response, may be a critical piece of the weight loss puzzle.
To eat eggs or not to eat eggs? That is the question!
Did you get wind of the latest egg health headlines saying that eggs were associated with heart disease? Before you consider eliminating egg yolks all together once again, let’s consider the study design. When we examine better-designed egg health studies, you’ll be putting egg yolks back on the menu.
Best Way to Ripen, Cut, & Preserve an Avocado
Either in guacamole, as a replacement for mayo on a sandwich, or just plain with a little bit of salt, avocados are delicious and nutritious! Full of fiber, potassium, folate, vitamins K, C, B6, E, and monounsaturated fat, avocados are great for blood pressure and blood sugar control, as well as for keeping belly fat down. Do you need any more reasons to indulge?
What You Don't Know About Omega-3 Fats
If you really understood how critical omega-3 fatty acids are to keeping your brain sharp, your heart healthy, and your mental health intact, you would make sure you and your family were eating more of them! Omega-3 fats have an important role in reducing inflammation, blood clots, and blood pressure, and are critical for learning, vision, and brain function; especially for the brain development of babies and children. Even childhood food allergies and postpartum depression are linked to a low intake of omega-3 fatty acids! We usually talk about omega-3s in conjunction with seafood, but I have a couple of non-fish suggestions that will help you get more of this incredible fatty acid in your diet. Furthermore, so you don’t get confused by tricky labels, I will clue you in on the omega-3 label language and the different kinds of omega-3s.
Brain's Fountain of Youth
It turns out that vegetables contain a range of nutrients and bioactive compounds like vitamin E and K, lutein, beta-carotene, and folate that help protect the brain. So not only are vegetables essential to keep us slim and disease free but also to keep our minds and memory sharp! Find out how many leafy greens you need to eat to possibly have thinking skills and memory 11 years younger as you age!
Oyster October
"Les Poisson, les poisson, 'ow I looove les poisson!" That Little Mermaid song is dang funny even if it is somewhat macabre... October is National Seafood Month! If you're new to Foods with Judes, you will soon find out I have a great love for our underwater friends, both to protect and to eat! Seafood has extremely positive effects on our health and brain function. You can learn more about why this is true, in addition to other clarifying mercury tidbits in a previous article, "Seafood Newsflash." I could go on for days about health benefits of different kinds of seafood, but this month's healthy challenge will focus particularly on oysters. Don't worry - you don't have to eat them raw.
Sunflower Seeds: Brain Boost
Sunflower seeds do more than give a satisfying crunch; they improve our health! They are totally delicious AND loaded with some heavy-hitting nutrients that are especially good for our brain power.
Arugula: A Rock Star Green
Arugula isn't just delicious. It’s also brimming with health-protecting nutrients. In fact, arugula strengthens your bones and may make exercising easier. These rock star rockets may even help keep your brain sharp and smelling better.
The Healthiest Bread
Is there bread that is actually healthy? Obviously white bread, rolls, buns, and crackers are problematic, but even among the healthier bread varieties, there is a significant variance. Which one should you choose? Below are the healthiest bread options to eat.
Amazing Vegetable Avocado Soup
If you're busy and enjoy high-quality delicious food, you'll want to try this month's meal hack. You'll be surprised at how well a little salsa and avocado can enhance the flavor of purchased vegetable soup from the refrigerator section at Costco or your grocery store. A delicious, hearty soup that is quick and fun!
Blood Oranges: Winter Detox
Eat half of your meals and snacks in fruits and vegetables for your daily “detox cleanse” and don’t forget to eat a variety of colors, including bright and dark colors. Blood oranges are a perfect winter fruit full of these powerful phytonutrients and lots of vitamin C to boot. Take February’s Healthy Challenge and eat blood oranges while they’re still in season.
Seafood News Flash!
Contrary to previous recommendations, new government guidelines recommend that everyone, especially pregnant and breastfeeding women and children, consume seafood two to three times per week! Seafood contains nutrients that are difficult to find in other foods that most people aren't getting enough of.
Fabulous Flax
It’s surprising that before now, I haven’t chosen flax seed as one of my monthly Healthy Challenge foods since I started my blog more than six years ago. It’s oozing with valuable nutrients that we have a difficult time getting in our diet, but that truly make a difference to our health.
Southern Okra Fun
Okra is full of valuable phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals, and you don't need to fry it to make it delicious! Instead, try roasting it to create an appealing texture so you can enjoy this delicious southern vegetable.
Peanut Health Punch
Peanuts aren’t actually nuts, but they do have the heart benefits that nuts have, with some bonus value. Peanuts are most closely related to beans and lentils. They may even make you healthier, leaner, and smarter over a lifetime. Interestingly enough, it may be the peanut itself that prevents peanut allergies from developing.
Powerful Papaya
I’m so glad that I’ve given papaya another chance. Not only can I enjoy its delicious taste, but now I can take full advantage of the wonderful health benefits. With 144% of daily value of vitamin C in one cup of papaya, along with a good dose of folate, vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, copper, vitamin E, and choline, papaya can boost our immune system to help us fight sickness.
Build a Bowl: Easy Grain Bowl Formula
Are you in a rice, pasta, or potato rut, and searching for delicious, simple ways to eat more whole grains? Grain bowls, the west coast's healthy obsession, are a perfect solution! These aren’t too unfamiliar, given that Chipotle’s best-selling item, their burrito bowl, is just a Mexican version of a grain bowl. These bowls are the ideal way to make a fast, tasty DIY meal using leftovers and ancient whole grains, any time of the day. Cooked whole grains like farro, barley, brown or black rice, or quinoa keep for about five days in the refrigerator, so you can prepare them in advance in a rice cooker or on the stove top and use them throughout the week as the base ingredient of this tasty new trend, in various combinations.It's so easy for quick, causal restaurants to put together a burrito bowl or a rice bowl right in front of you – you tell them what you like, and they throw it in a bowl. It's not much harder to do this at home, and it may just become your go-to weeknight staple. Make variations using one or a mixture of whole grains as a base, and then top it with ingredients that combine different textures and a balance of flavors between salty, sweet, and acidic. In other words, use my simple Grain Bowl Formula below to build the best bowl ever!