Week Ending June 28, 2021

Are Canned Beans Healthy? Nutrition, Benefits, and Downsides
“Beans are members of the legume family — plants that produce pods with seeds inside. They’re a staple food in some cultures and an important source of plant-based protein and other essential nutrients, such as iron and folate.”

Feeling nutty? Here’s why you should add nuts to your diet

What Seniors Should Know About Herbal Medicines
“A lifelong commitment to healthy living can improve life expectancy and quality of life while reducing a person’s risk for various conditions and diseases, including cancer and heart disease.”

10 Realistic Ways to Eat Less Processed Food
“Processed food is any food item that has been canned, cooked, frozen, pasteurized, or packaged. You can enjoy many processed foods, including canned vegetables, frozen fruits, and pasteurized dairy products, as part of a healthy diet. However, some highly processed items are loaded with salt, sugar, additives, and preservatives, which can harm your health.”

What Does Eating a Balanced Diet Actually Mean? Breaking Down the ‘Good’ to ‘Bad’ Diet Ratio
“Maintaining a healthy diet shouldn’t mean depriving yourself of all the foods you love. Achieving that feel-good, eat-well balance is really a numbers game.”

Why exercise may help ease depression
“Now neuroscientists from the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research into Mental Illness have found out how exercise does that oh-so-welcome magic trick. They discovered that, in mice, exercise stimulates the production of a molecule called lactate. It then acts as an antidepressant by helping cool excess brain oxidation and inflammation, nourishing neurons and even stimulating the growth of new nerve connections.”

Your Guide To Adaptogens
“Adaptogens (edible plant extracts) are far from an American health fad. They have been used to treat a variety of ailments over several millennia, particularly in parts of Asia and India.”

The Definitive Guide to Healthy Eating in Real Life

The 12 Best Natural Remedies for an Upset Stomach
“Just about everyone gets an upset stomach from time to time, and while it’s usually nothing to be concerned about, it can be a real pain. Fortunately, there are a number of natural remedies for an upset stomach that may help.”

Prohibited, unlisted, even dangerous ingredients turn up in dietary supplements
“When buying a dietary supplement, you probably assume that what’s on the label is what’s in the pill. But this assumption doesn’t always hold up, says Pieter Cohen, a physician at Cambridge Health Alliance.”

Trying Acupuncture for the First Time Helped Pull Me Out of My Quarantine Fog
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but acupuncture has always freaked me out. I’m all for woo-woo adventures – I’m the only person I know who can say they’ve experienced an “organ massage” – but paying somebody to give my body the voodoo-doll treatment? I wasn’t so sure.”

What do they measure in an HDL blood test?
“Some people refer to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol as “good” cholesterol. A doctor can measure its levels with a blood test. Having unhealthy levels of HDL cholesterol can increase the risk of certain conditions, such as heart disease.”