Eating once a day

[brightcove:5127035868001 default] You've heard the line "Abs are made in the kitchen." But what does that mean? “You can’t exercise away the effects of a poor diet, particularly for an area that hangs on to fat and gets bloated,” says Kasey Brixius, RDN, a nutritionist at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Read on for tips on how to keep belly fat at bay and make your abs stand out. Stave Off Fat   Blood sugar and hormone imbalances can play a role in the concentration of fat in the belly area, says Brixius. This advice can help you control both. Stay Balanced: Make sure meals have three blood sugar–stabilizing macronutrients: a lean protein, a quality carb, and a healthy fat. Eat Regularly: Blood sugar tends to dip every four to five hours, says Brixius. “So don’t go more than four hours without a meal or snack.” Manage Stress: Studies have shown a correlation between high levels of the stress hormone cortisol and abdominal fat. Banish Bloat   Gas and puffiness...

[brightcove:5672527937001 default] You've probably heard plenty of nutrition talk about eating "whole" or "clean," while avoiding highly processed foods. But what exactly is a processed food? "Any food that has been altered in some way during preparation is technically processed," says Mara Weber, RD, a clinical inpatient dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "Most of the time when we talk about processed foods, we're referring to those packaged items found in the freezer aisle, at the deli, or those junk foods that sit on the shelves for months at a time." A diet is typically healthiest when foods are consumed in their most natural, recognizable state, Weber explains, and processing sometimes removes nutritious ingredients.   Take refined grains like white bread or rice, for example: "refined" means the bran and germ have been removed, which also "removes fiber, iron, and other nutrients," s...

Restock your fridge and pantry after the holidays with these nutritionist-approved foods.

[brightcove:5528009511001 default] Committing to a complete diet overhaul in the new year can be overwhelming, exhausting, time consuming, and frankly unsustainable. So my advice to anyone who wants to make a food-related resolution? Zero in on one dietary change that’s likely to stick. And in my opinion, the resolution that offers the biggest bang for your buck is simple: Eat five servings of vegetables a day, every single day. In addition to being packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, veggies are low in calories and high in belly-filling fiber. When they displace other foods, you can drastically lower your intake of calories and carbs without sacrificing fullness. For example, trading one cup of cooked rice with a cup of riced cauliflower saves about 175 calories and 40 grams of carbs. But even if your overall calorie intake stays the same, more veggies in your diet could still help you slim down: When researchers compared people that...

[brightcove:5528009511001 default] Many people refer to the days between Christmas and New Year’s as a "twilight week." The bulk of the holiday season is behind us, but the fresh start of the new year still lies ahead. It's tempting to consider this cozy in-between time as your last hurrah before January 1st. But indulging freely in wine and snacking on leftover sugar cookies likely won't leave you feeling your best! Instead, why not use this week to ease into a healthier routine? By the time 2018 rolls around, you'll be off to a running start with your goals—whether you're aiming to slim down or simply eat more mindfully. Here are five completely doable strategies to focus on, to get your wellness back on track. Re-think that drink For most of my clients,  alcohol is the number one factor that impacts their eating choices and energy levels. In addition to being caloric, alcohol can act as an appetite stimulant and lower your inhibitions. This...

[brightcove:5648860857001 default] A bunch of companies are popping up that let you curate your own personalized vitamin regimen ( Care/of and Vitamin Packs , for example). Do I think they’re necessary? Probably not, if you already eat a balanced diet with a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes. You absorb vitamins better through food anyway. That said, many of these services appear to be backed by credible medical organizations and provide smart nutrients, like vitamin D and probiotics . On the other hand, some of them may also recommend certain supplements that may not have the kind of clinical research backing them that others do. Bottom line: If you’re concerned about nutritional deficiencies, a vitamin pack delivered to your door could be useful and convenient. But for a truly personalized vitamin regimen, it’s wise to get tested by your doctor to see which nutrients you’re lacking. And, of course, check in with your doc before taking any supplement,...

[brightcove:5191656555001 default] Most people think that if you overate and over-drank on New Year’s Eve, you did the night right. And to some extent, that’s fair. NYE is all about celebrating, and you’re entitled to enjoy yourself. But what kind of damage are you doing when you order that late-night takeout or polish off your fifth flute of champagne? Good news: “One big meal isn’t what causes people to be overweight,” says Holly Wyatt, MD, who runs the metabolism and obesity clinic at the University of Colorado's Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. That said, eating and drinking more than you’re used to can throw your body off. There's a ripple effect...but they shouldn’t last through the rest of 2018. Here, experts explain what an indulgent New Year's will and won’t do to your body. RELATED: 8 Alcoholic Drinks Ranked From Most Calories to Least Excess food and booze will cause you to store more fat... When you drink alcohol, your body’s furnace switches gears ...

[brightcove:5556684195001 default] This article originally appeared on Time.com. A cup of white rice has about 200 calories—not insignificant, considering it’s most often used as a small part of a larger dish. But there’s an easy, natural way to make rice less caloric: add a little fat, then let it cool. According to research presented at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting, using coconut oil and a refrigerator can slash calories by as much as 60%. MORE 20 Filling Foods That Help You Lose Weight Rice is made up of digestible starch and a special type of carbohydrate called resistant starch , which recent research suggests may be key for weight control. Humans don’t have the enzymes to digest resistant starch, so it isn’t transformed into sugar and absorbed quickly in the bloodstream like digestible starch. Instead, it bypasses the small intestine and is metabolized in the colon, where it’s fermented into short-chain fatty acids that feed healthy colonies of gut bacte...

What you eat now can make all the difference in how you feel later.

[brightcove:5468268555001 default] This article originally appeared on Time.com Cheese is typically considered more of an indulgence than a health food, but a new review of research suggests that it may not be as bad for you as once thought. In fact, people in the analysis who ate a little bit of cheese every day were less likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke, compared to those who rarely or never ate cheese. Cheese, like other dairy products, contains high levels of saturated fat—which has been linked to high cholesterol, atherosclerosis and an increased risk of heart disease. (Recently, however, some nutrition experts believe that saturated fat is more benign .) But cheese also contains potentially beneficial ingredients like calcium, protein and probiotics, wrote the authors of the new paper, published in the European Journal of Nutrition . To learn more about how long-term cheese consumption affects a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers from Chin...

[brightcove:5476832773001 default] So last night a glass of wine turned into, well, a lot more than that—and now your stomach is churning and your head feels like it's splitting into a million tiny little pieces (oy). Before you swear off alcohol forever, check out these go-to hangover cures from health experts, influencers, and a few of our editors. These are the remedies they swear by to calm the nausea, replenish electrolytes, and get back on their feet after having one (or a few!) too many. Tea with ginger + a banana "I'll have tea with organic honey and fresh grated ginger root, and a banana. 
 Ginger is a natural nausea fighter, and this trio also provides antioxidants, which can guard against some of the inflammation and damage caused by drinking (especially to your aching brain!). As for the banana, when you get dehydrated from drinking you lose not only water, but also electrolytes , including potassium . And too little potassium can ...

[brightcove:4874680279001 default] This article originally appeared on Time.com. A recent New York Times feature about a day in the life of President Donald Trump revealed that the commander in chief guzzles 12 Diet Cokes every day. Few health experts recommend drinking any diet soda —so how bad is a dozen-a-day habit? While it’s likely better than drinking 12 sugar-filled sodas per day, it’s largely too soon to say what Trump’s soda swilling is doing to his health, says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “The long-term health effects of low-calorie or artificial sweeteners are not really well-known,” Mozaffarian says. “We’re kind of conducting a national public health experiment on the entire population.” What we do know, Mozaffarian says, is that “there’s very little reason to drink diet soda” over beverages like water and seltzer, and the amount of caffeine in 12 servings exceeds medical guidelines for...

Wine? Beer? Mixed drink? Here’s our guide to choosing the healthiest sips at holiday parties.