Well, probiotics are good. The FAO/WHO defines probiotics as: “Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host.”

Practically, probiotics are foods or dietary supplement that contain “good” bacteria, which are normally found in your body. If you’re familiar with Dannon’s Activia yogurt, then you’re familiar with a probiotic food (ignoring the Dannon lawsuit settlement). Yogurt, fermented and unfermented milk, juices, and other products are probiotics.

There’s research that probiotic supplements and foods can help with digestive issues like diarrhea after antibiotics, irritable bowel syndrome, and other problems of the digestive tract.

Are they a cureall? No and the research is still preliminary so time will tell how helpful probiotics are.

(Photo: mjecker)

Exercise Prevents Colds [Outside]

This is a guest post from my wife. She’s a big fan of POM Wonderful so she was especially thrilled to try out their new line of super teas. A PR firm sent us a few bottles and here is what she thoughts of them.

I had the pleasure of trying the new Pom Antioxidant Super Teas this past week. I’m a big fan of Pom Wonderful with its super delicious, not too sweet, taste so I was really excited to try four of the Pom Tea flavors. I tried two of the regular Pomx Teas: Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea and two of the Pomx Light Teas: Pomegranate Hibiscus Green Tea and and Pomegranate Wildberry Light White Tea.

All four were really yummy however of the light teas the Pomegranate Hibiscus was my favorite and the Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea was my favorite of the regular teas. The flavors of the peach came through clearly and the tea was not as sweet as some other peach teas. Also, it only has 80 calories per serving so 160 for the whole bottle. The light teas, including the Hibiscus Green Tea only have 35 calories, or 70 for a whole bottle. I was surprised after opening the Hibiscus Green Tea that the flavors were delicate and subtle while still providing a yummy and refreshing drink. It also did not have a “light” drinks aftertaste, a big plus in my book!

My favorite thing about these teas is that they provide you with more antioxidant potency than “red wine, green tea, grape and acai extracts” but with all the taste of a refreshing tea drink. They are all sweet but not too sweet when drinking by themselves or accompanying a meal. Another plus is that all of the teas that I tried contain between 1mg – 3mg of caffeine per serving or 2mg – 6mg of caffeine for a whole bottle.

A few notes: they are perishable and need to be kept refrigerated.

(Photo: absolutely_loverly)

According to a Time article, exercise, while good for you for other reasons, won’t make you thin because exercise stimulates the appetite. When your appetite is stimulated, you eat more calories. When you work out, you benefit because you burn calories, improve cardiovascular health, and do other great things for your body but you also make yourself hungrier!

It’s an interesting article and while it won’t stop me from exercising, it’s still good to read these types of articles so you’re well informed.

If you’re a smoker, quitting cold turkey is very hard. It’s much easier to make small changes, like cutting back how many cigarettes you smoke, than it is to stop smoking entirely.

If you’re finding it difficult to find the time to exercise, try walking for 15 minutes a day. Nothing fancy or strenuous, just take a stroll around the office or the neighborhood, and add 15 minutes of extra exercise into your day. Walking and running burn the same number of calories, so you’re burning as many calories as a 15 minute jog (the difference is in the cardiovascular benefits, running strengthens your heart, lungs, etc.).

If a 15 minute walk isn’t in the cards, do something even simpler. Skip the elevator and use the stairs!

They learned about it in a New York Times article about the fantastic stuff. Turns out bartenders are playing with it, people are having flavor-tripping parties, and just having a grand old time.

How crazy?

CARRIE DASHOW dropped a large dollop of lemon sorbet into a glass of Guinness, stirred, drank and proclaimed that it tasted like a “chocolate shake.”

Nearby, Yuka Yoneda tilted her head back as her boyfriend, Albert Yuen, drizzled Tabasco sauce onto her tongue. She swallowed and considered the flavor: “Doughnut glaze, hot doughnut glaze!”

Someone should try Dave’s Insanity Sauce!

Ruby Tuesdays scored a D+ and you’ll be surprised to learn that their burgers average seventy-five grams of fat a piece, which exceed the limit set out by the USDA! Baja Fresh scored a D- because a third of their menu choices had more than a thousand calories and too much sodium… the only safe option are the tacos.

Applebee’s, IHOP, Outback, and TGI Fridays alls cored an F because they don’t offer caloric information on their menu items.

It wasn’t until the last year or two did I really stop fearing going to the dentist. The reason is because I started to take better care of my teeth. It sounds silly but regular and routine maintenance really did take what was a dreadful experience and turn it to a moderately uncomfortable experience. I don’t like lying backwards and having someone mess around in my mouth, but at least it was quicker and less painful.

What steps did I take?

• Brush properly – There are a million places you can go to read about brushing your teeth but the biggest lesson I learned was that you should brush and rinse until every tooth feels slick. If it feels slick and you’ve brushed it, you’re good to go.
• Floss regularly – This was the number one reason why my dentist trips are now less horrible. Floss removes the junk between your teeth and reduces the plaque buildup, which in turn reduces how many times the assistant needs to scrape away at it (and poke you!) to clean it out.
• Visit every six months – This is the number two reason. My insurance covers two visits a year, yours probably does too, and that means the amount of pain is lessened each time. It also means how much time you spend there is cut down too. I started going twice a year two years ago and in the last three trips, they’ve never had to use the water pick (that’s the water drill that has the ridiculously high whine when they use it, I hated it!).

The steps sounds so simple it’s stupid but they work. It takes only a minute to floss and a few minutes to brush properly, but it’ll save you years off your life in the pain it saves you from when you visit the dentist.

(Photo: Ammar Abd Rabbo)

However, if you’re one of the many thousands who pay $40 a bottle of acai berry products, consider buying something you can get at your local grocery store instead.

One of the biggest reasons why your metabolism slows down has to do with your muscle mass. Muscle burns a tremendous amount of energy and as you age, the amount of muscle you have begins to fall. When you’re 60, you have far less muscle mass than when you were 20. Naturally, your metabolism is going to slow down because you won’t need as much fuel to keep your muscles running because your muscles are smaller!

So, why do you get fatter? Our body is trained to turn energy into fat, our body’s natural storage system. When you eat more than your body needs in terms of energy, the extra is stored as fat. Your body does this as a way to protect you because there may come a time when there is no food to eat and your body will need that fat.

There you have it! That’s in essence what your metabolism is and why it seems that it’s conspiring against you to make you fat.