6 Make-Ahead Meals That Are Ready When You Are
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: produce season! Literally everything is ripe for the picking, which means that this is the optimal time to up your fruit and vegetable game. This perfectly coincides with our tendency to crave lighter and more refreshing fare during warmer weather without spending...
From the Coffee Shop
Coffee and Green Tea Reduce Stroke Risk
A recent study in the American Heart Association journal Stroke found that drinking both coffee and green tea can help cut the risk of suffering a stroke. The study followed over 82,000 men and women in Japan, and found that those who drank just one cup of coffee per day or four cups of green tea per day had a 20% lower risk of stroke during a 13-year follow up period. Coffee contains compounds known as quinides which affect blood glucose levels, and green tea contains catechins which help regulate blood pressure, both of which are thought to be contributors. ...
Caffeine: When it Helps, Hurts, and Doesn’t Matter!
You might not be surprised to hear that more than 80% of American adults consume caffeine regularly, through coffee, energy drinks, sodas, and even pills. Caffeine is often harmless and in most cases can even provide significant benefits. Here is a rundown of when caffeine helps, hurts, and doesn’t matter, from the Nutrition Action newsletter: When it May Help: - Sleep Deprivation: Caffeine works by temporarily binding to adenosine (a natural sedative) receptors in the brain, which prevents it from making us feel drowsy. Adenosine levels build during waking hours and drop as we sleep. If you stay up late...
American Heart Month
February is American Heart Month! Did you know that drinking coffee is healthy for your heart? Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reviewed five studies that analyzed the relationship between coffee consumption and heart failure risk. Of the 140,000 participants in the studies, those who regularly drank two 8-ounce cups of coffee had an 11% lower risk of heart failure than those who didn’t drink it. Researchers think the preventative aspect comes from coffee’s healthy compounds like antioxidants, which can reduce the risk of Type II Diabetes (a known risk factor for heart failure). Heart Disease is...
Easy New Year’s Resolution: Drink Coffee!
Many people start the year off with resolutions about how to become healthier: watch their diet, exercise more, lose weight, etc. While these may be difficult to keep at times, drinking coffee is an easy way to become healthier in 2013. Coffee protects against many diseases (Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, many cancers), increases concentration and provides energy, and is the leading source of antioxidants in the US diet. Oh, and it tastes great too! Also, the roasting process HealthWise uses allows it to retain more vitamins and minerals than other coffees, like calcium, potassium, iron, and zinc. Of course,...
Coffee Reduces Oral Cancer Risk
Another study on why coffee is healthy: A study conducted by US universities and funded by the American Cancer society showed that drinking coffee halves the risk of oral cancer, even in smokers and drinkers. Adults who drank more than 4 cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 49% lower risk of dying from mouth and throat cancer than those who drank none or drank it occasionally. The study was independent of risk factors like smoking and alcohol intake, and the same reduction in risk was not found for tea drinkers. The study examined around 900,000 people from the...
