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Celebrity Post-Baby Weight Loss Is Setting Dangerous Standards

Celebrity Post-Baby Weight Loss Is Setting Dangerous Standards

Occasionally, celebrities like Amy Adams refuse to jump on the mommyrexia bandwagon, but increasingly, celebs like Miranda Kerr and Victoria Beckham are setting a scary standard of speedy post-baby weight loss. (Underscored yesterday by Jessica Simpson‘s $3 million deal with Weight Watchers). These women are lauded for returning to work and looking great within weeks of giving birth, but what they (and the media) are failing to address are the health risks that their drastic body alternations impose on them and their babies. Drastic post-baby weight loss is unhealthy for the mother and for her baby—especially if she’s breast feeding. More »

Can We Please Just Stop With The Word “Skinny”?

Can We Please Just Stop With The Word "Skinny"?

The single word “Skinny” attracts a load of consumers. Slap the word “skinny” on a package and the product blows up like the Fourth of July. This marketing ploy is geared to make you feel like you can enjoy the indulgence without adding the calories. But, personally I feel it’s just another distorted body image promotion that boosts the unacceptable “nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels” campaign. More »

Healthy Holidays: A Workout For When You’re Too Busy, Tired And Stressed For The Gym

Healthy Holidays: A Workout For When You're Too Busy, Tired And Stressed For The Gym

Between holiday shopping, parties and dinners, it’s easy to feel sluggish and skip exercise this time of year. But even if you’re too busy for the gym or a yoga class, you can squeeze in a heart-pumping, total-body workout from the comfort of your own home. Move your couches around, slide your coffee table out of the way, pump up the jams on Spotify and get to work. This circuit training workout will help you maintain strength and cardiovascular fitness during the holidays–so you don’t have to start over again in the new year. More »

Drink To Your Health: 8 Herbal Tea Varieties To Give You A Boost

Drink To Your Health: 8 Herbal Tea Varieties To Give You A Boost

Black and green teas are well-known and well-studied (there are countless studies affirming the metabolism- and brain-boosting effects of coffee’s lesser-caffeinated rivals). But herbal teas on the other hand are still somewhat of a mystery. The truth is, they’re not even technically considered tea, they’re infusions of plants comprised of various nutritional characteristics. Popular herbal brews include chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, rooibos – but are they good for health? More »

Swiss Chard: It Isn’t Just For Food Snobs; It’s A Nutritional Powerhouse, Too

Swiss Chard: It Isn't Just For Food Snobs; It's A Nutritional Powerhouse, Too

Swiss Chard, what looks like an exotic farmer’s market find for food snobs is actually one of the most nutritious vegetables you can find. Its vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (particularly carotenoids) make it a powerhouse. It’s full of beta carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A that boosts immunity and protects vision. And there’s more: swiss chard also packs one third of your daily Vitamin C requirements and a dose of Vitamin E to boost immunity and prevent oxidative tissue damage. More »

Movember: Increasing Prostate Cancer Awareness With Mo’ Mustaches

Movember: Increasing Prostate Cancer Awareness With Mo' Mustaches

A full bearded friend of mine recently shaved his face baby bottom bare to start his quest of raising Prostate Cancer Awareness…by growing a mustache. This November—otherwise known as “MOvember”–you too might notice some ridiculously mustachioed men roaming around or showing off their progress on Facebook. MOvember is a worldwide mustache-growing movement designed to bring awareness to prostate cancer and other male cancer initiatives. Participants are encouraged to create donation pages and help raise money for programs such as The Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG, The Lance Armstrong Foundation by urging friends and family to pay as they grow. More »

Sex (Re)Ed: What’s Stopping You From Closing “The Orgasm Gap”

Sex (Re)Ed: What's Stopping You From Closing "The Orgasm Gap"

Only 25% of women always climax during sex with a partner, while 90% of males reach orgasm during sex. And for both men and women, closing that gap has become almost a mythical quest. In the bedroom, men are the sprinters – they can fly off the blocks and finish a 400 meter no problem. Women, on the other hand, are the marathon runners – they start at a steady pace, maintain endurance and stamina, and then when they see the finish line in the horizon – kick it into high gear. So what’s stopping you from closing the orgasm gap? Well, it seems that lack of arousal, specifically clitoral stimulation, and a problem known as “spectatoring” are the biggest hurdles. More »

To Juice Or Not To Juice? Our Answer To The Question

To Juice Or Not To Juice? Our Answer To The Question

There’s a lot of hype around juicing and its health benefits, and nearly as much skepticism about the expensive nutrition trend. “Don’t drink fruit juice and absolutely avoid a high-fructose diet,” says Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Body and advocate of a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. But many swear by the health benefits of drinking juiced fruits and vegetables regularly. More »

Folic Acid: How Too Much Of A Good Thing Could Fuel Cancer

Folic Acid: How Too Much Of A Good Thing Could Fuel Cancer

What do common breakfast foods like cereal, granola, and toast all have in common? They’re all fortified with folic acid. Which would be great, except that on top of a healthy, balanced diet (and multivitamin, which typically contain 100% daily value on their own), all those fortified foods may lead to excess folic acid intake, something that could fuel pre-cancerous cell growth. More »

Dr. Pepper Ten’s “Manly Calories” — Not For Women

Dr. Pepper Ten's "Manly Calories" — Not For Women

Real men don’t drink diet. That’s the idea behind the new campaign for Dr. Pepper Ten—the 10-calorie soft drink that launches next week boasting a strict ‘no women’ policy. Clearly, if you don’t have hair on your chest and your biceps don’t look like the Appalachians, you should stay away; this beverage is just too masculine for us delicate women. I mean we might just chip a nail opening the can or—gasp!—gain weight from all those big, beefy calories, and we just can’t take that risk. Right? Wrong. One word describes this campaign in a nutshell and that is: Ridiculous. More »

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