Topic: dietary supplements

The Diet Is Dead and Multivitamins Will Kill You Sooner

The Diet Is Dead and Multivitamins Will Kill You Sooner

It’s spring, which quickly leads to summer, so naturally many of us are thinking more and more about losing that winter weight and shaping up for the season, as is our annual custom. But this year, let’s try to implement our strategy differently and more effectively. Here’s help. Personal trainer and fitness expert Daniel Reynen is the author of the controversial new book The Diet Is Dead: Why Traditional Diets Fail and How You Can Succeed. This guy is seriously down on diets and dieting, and all for healthy and lasting lifestyle changes. And he’s a firm believer that there are four pillars to any weight-loss program that guarantee success. End of story. They are: behavior shifts, assessment, monitoring, and ongoing support. Reynen really tells it like it is (which we appreciate), so I asked him five pointed questions about dieting and weight-loss myths, strategies, and techniques that he brings up in his book:
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Q&A: The Hormone Diet‘s Natasha Turner on How Your Sleep Patterns Are Making You Fat

Q&A: The Hormone Diet's Natasha Turner on How Your Sleep Patterns Are Making You Fat

Meet Dr. Natasha Turner, a Naturopathic Doctor and founder of Clear Medicine, an integrated medicine wellness boutique in Toronto, who recently authored a ground-breaking wellness tome called The Hormone Diet: Lose Fat, Gain Strength, Live Younger Longer. Trust me: This is no diet book — it’s a clinical series of revelatory lifestyle changes based on the hormones that your body naturally produces (or doesn’t produce enough of, as the case may be), many of which will likely be very new to you, no matter how healthy you think you are. Soon, Dr. Turner will begin contributing weekly posts to Blisstree about health, wellness, Naturopathic Medicine, and how our hormones can help us (and we in turn can help our hormones). But in the meantime, I asked her a few questions about her very intriguing “non-diet” diet book. More »

Win a Gift Basket of Adora Calcium Supplements In Premium Chocolate

Win a Gift Basket of Adora Calcium Supplements In Premium Chocolate

Need a lift? Today’s new 40 Days of Giveaways prize will give you that much-needed health boost, particularly if you’re a chocolate-lover. (If you’re late to this spring fling: Blisstree is using the season of Lent to reward you for giving up your vices in favor of healthier habits. Each weekday from now until May 3, we’ll give away a different prize to one reader just for becoming our Facebook fan.) And today’s prize is all about strength-building for spring and summer. We’re giving away one (1) gift basket of Adora Calcium Supplements in premium chocolate to one reader who simply “Likes” Blisstree on Facebook. Delish. More »

Morning Links: 6 Healthy Natural Foods That Replace Multivitamins

Morning Links: 6 Healthy Natural Foods That Replace Multivitamins

Downward Doctor – Why you should hope your primary care physician knows about yoga. (Well + Good NYC)

Pass on the Pill-Popping – 6 nutrient-dense natural foods that can replace expensive multivitamins. (The Daily Green)

Barefoot Contessa’s Boo-Boo – Food Network queen Ina Garten has twice refused the dying Make-a-Wish Foundation request of a six-year-old boy with cancer, who just wants to cook with Her Highness. (Shine) More »

Morning Links: 17 St. Patrick’s Day Hangover Remedies

Morning Links: 17 St. Patrick's Day Hangover Remedies

Not So Happy Hour – The age at which you had your first drink may influence if and how you respond to stress with alcohol later on in life. (Vitamin G)

Drug Story – Before you start popping those prescription statins, ask your doc about these six cholesterol-lowering supplements. (Natural Health)

Green In the Face? – 17 hangover remedies for the morning after St. Patrick’s Day (or any other holiday) – though a few of these are about as healthy as getting drunk in the first place. (Shine) More »

Morning Links: 4 Surprising Facts About Fish Oil Supplements

Morning Links: 4 Surprising Facts About Fish Oil Supplements

Not the Nachos! – How well do you really know the calorie counts of movie concession stand candy, popcorn, and other faux-foods you like? (FitSugar)

Be a Quitter – 5 million people die every year from smoking tobacco. Here’s why it’s so difficult to quit the filthy habit. (GOOD)

Mysteries of the Sea – 4 surprising facts about fish oil supplements. (EcoSalon) More »

FDA Pulls 500 Prescription Cough, Cold, and Allergy Medicines From Pharmacies

FDA Pulls 500 Prescription Cough, Cold, and Allergy Medicines From Pharmacies

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered more than 500 prescription cough, cold and allergy products off the market Wednesday, saying its office had not evaluated the medication for safety, effectiveness and quality.

“Removing these unapproved products from the market will reduce potential risks to consumers,” said Deborah Autor, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a news release from the agency.

The FDA said removing the products from the market poses no harm to consumers, but taking the unapproved drugs may put the health of people at risk. More »

Multivitamin Scams: Do Your Research

Multivitamin Scams: Do Your Research

There’s this disturbing story about a woman who took her multivitamin and it came out the other end looking exactly as it did when it was in the bottle. (No, this not a personal story about me wrapped up in a fake urban legend.)

However, I admit that for years, whenever I stopped in a GNC or took a stroll down vitamin row at my local drugstore, I’d become so paralyzed with confusion and anxiety, I worried that I might be using up vital nutrients.

I’d stare at the calcium chews and think: “there’s osteoarthritis in my family.” During flu season I wondered if I should geek myself up with vitamin C and zinc. I invested hope in the purported wonders of B-12 when I felt run down and lethargic.

Then I’d usually leave the pharmacy empty-handed. Well, except for that candy bar and can of Coke Zero. More »

Lying to Your Doctor Could Be Fatal

Lying to Your Doctor Could Be Fatal

I am, admittedly, terrified of doctors. I avoid them at all costs and rush through my annual exams like I’m on a self-timer. Even throughout both of my pregnancies, I was hesitant to tell my docs everything I was feeling or experiencing for self-conscious fear of overreacting. And it looks like I’m not the only one. A new GE study on the disconnect between patients and doctors shows that 28% of patients say they “lie or omit facts” when visiting their health care providers. And doctors believe that numbers to be even higher. The study found that 77% of providers felt that one-fourth of their patients knowingly leave out facts or flat-out lie to them. More »

10 Healthy-ish Foods That Get a Bad Nutrition Rap

10 Healthy-ish Foods That Get a Bad Nutrition Rap

Aside from pure, deep-fried animal lard covered in powdered sugar – an early death that you’ll find in the form of a funnel cake at your local fairgrounds – no food is all bad. And unless you’ve been lobotomized to the point where grilled chicken, brown rice, and broccoli consumed four times a day doesn’t get on your nerves, it’s likely that you’ll be tempted to confuse your palate with healthy and not-so-healthy foods on a regular basis. So here’s our gallery of ten blacklisted foods with a bad rap that you may want to reconsider enjoying in moderation, because consumed that way, they’re not entirely unhealthy. More »

“On the Go Women” Helps Fight Osteoporosis

"On the Go Women" Helps Fight Osteoporosis

No matter what your age, are you worried that osteoporosis could get in the way of the active things you want — and need — to do in life?

Osteoporosis is a real disease with life-threatening consequences. In fact, one in four Canadian women over the age of 50 has osteoporosis. And, while this disease can strike at any age, it most commonly occurs after menopause.

But the news isn’t all bad: The good news is that you may be able to take action now to strengthen your bones. And if you’re already on an osteoporosis treatment plan, you may have other options you didn’t know about. More »