According to Sue Taylor, M.S., R.D., with the Juice Products Association, Washington, D.C., new research shows fruit juices to be even more beneficial than they were previously thought to be.

“The benefits have always been there, however more research is now showing exactly how beneficial certain fruit juices are,” Taylor says.

Steven Chen, M.D., at Valens Medical, Irvine, Calif., says not only are fruit juices a good way for everyone to consume the recommended daily allowance of fruits, the juices are also a good way to obtain important phytonutrients.

For example, flavonoids found in purple grape juice help prevent heart disease, says Lanah J. Brennan, R.D., Los Angeles. Orange juice may decrease the risk of kidney stone formation, and cranberry juice can decrease the risk of urinary tract infections by inhibiting bacteria from sticking to walls of the bladder.

Perhaps one of the more popular fruit juices currently on the market, pomegranate juice, may aid in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. There is some evidence the new Noni juice may improve energy levels and physical performance.

Other emerging fruit juices include muscadine grape juice that has shown anti-inflammatory properties and can help lower blood glucose levels. Cherry juice is starting to show benefits as well, says Bonnie Glick, M.S., R.D., New York Methodist Hospital, New York.

“The key is to select 100 percent of any type of fruit juice,” Glick says. “A juice drink may only be 5 or 10 percent juice with added sugar and other things. You want to look for 100 percent.”

Brennan adds to look at the label. “You may want to purchase juices with added calcium, omega 3 fats and/or probiotics that have been added to the fruit juice,” she says.

Also, keep in mind that certain juices might interact with specific medications. She says grapefruit juice may interact with several medications including those used to lower cholesterol levels. There is a possible interaction between Coumadin (blood thinning medication) and cranberry juice as well. Always ask your doctor or pharmacist before you buy fruit juices.

As tasty and convenient as juices can be, don’t go overboard. Balance and variety is important so don’t limit yourself to just one type of juice.

Eat whole fruit as well, especially for the fiber benefits, Taylor says. Remember that fruit juice is an exchange, not a replacement.

Sessions begin with a focus on hand weights to isolate your arms, and go on to define abdominal muscles and your butt through elements of orthopedic stretching derived from yoga and Pilates. Core Fusion also fulfills the dreams of wannabe ballerinas, using pliés as a means to define leg muscles.

Fred DeVito, who co-founded Core Fusion, which has outposts in Boston, Chicago, Santa Monica, New York and Dallas, says it’s the secret weapon behind keeping women in their 60s looking like they are 40.

“Core Fusion is one of those classes that helps redefine the aging process, because we focus on flexibility, range of motion and creating bone density, all things that dissipate with age.”

DeVito, who has been teaching for over 20 years, says the results are visible and numerous.

“We see the thighs get longer and leaner, your butt lifts higher up, the abdominal wall gets flat and lifted, and you start to stand up straighter.”

The dynamic approach behind Core Fusion is interval training coupled with strength-building exercises followed by periods of stretching.

So instead of walking out with a lot of bulky muscle, followers of this method get long, lean muscles. The class also is run in a series of intervals, where you sprint and then take a period to stretch, an approach that has been touted as a very effective way to increase the heart rate and burn calories.

Most importantly, however, DeVito stresses that this is an exercise system based on correct alignment. “When you work your muscles in correct alignment, you can work harder and get better results.”

Bottom line, DeVito says, “It’s such an efficient use of an hour.”

Health Benefits:

Cranberries probably are best known for their role in urinary tract health. Many fruits contain condensed tannins, but only those in cranberries (and its relative the blueberry) have shown the ability to inhibit infection-causing E. coli bacteria in the urinary tract. New research shows that they may have the same effect on bacteria that can lead to ulcers and gum disease. Their antioxidant phenols also may play a role in staving off heart disease and cancer.

How to Pick:

You can buy dried or frozen cranberries, or juice or a sauce. But if you’re buying fresh, look for plump, firm, bright berries – the bright color shows that the fruit is ripe and of good quality.

nEat Ideas:

To make cranberries one of your daily fruit servings, follow these guidelines:
Whole – 1/2 cup
Dried – 1/3 cup
Juice (100 percent) – 3/4 cup (6 oz.)

Cranberries don’t half to be the Thanksgiving fruit. A sauce always makes a good side dish, and dried cranberries make the perfect topping for cereal or oatmeal, and are a tasty baking ingredient. The National Kidney Institute also recommends a 10 oz. glass of cranberry juice cocktail each day to prevent UTIs.

Beyond Food:

Ran out of cran? Keeping a supply of cranberry concentrate supplements will give you a quick way to get the bacteria-fighting antioxidant power of cranberries if you can’t make it to the market. Check your local health food or drug stores.

Cooking with Cranberries
Can the can, and try out this cranberry sauce recipe this holiday season:

Whole Cranberry Sauce
Servings: 2 cups

Ingredients:
3 cups cranberries
1 1/2 C. sugar
3/4 C. water

Method:
Simmer cranberries and water together. While simmering, mash with potato masher. Add sugar; simmer for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Put into container and refrigerate.

Source: Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association

As it turns out, a stalled weight loss isn’t a result of not working hard enough – it’s a hormone thing.

“It’s about your body, your brain and your hormones,” says Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “And if you don’t first re-sensitize your weight-regulation mechanisms, typical approaches to weight loss, such as portion control and calorie counting, just won’t work.”

According to Aronne, our bodies naturally begin to resist weight loss once a person loses in excess of 7 percent of total body weight. The body’s metabolism and weight-regulating hormones, such as insulin and leptin, decrease faster than you can shed fat. This decrease tells your body you are near ideal weight even when you’ve got more work to do.

Aronne says that in order to fight the misinformation your hormones send to your body, it’s more important to teach your body to feel full. He suggests dieters:

•Eat a Protein Breakfast. High-protein, low-starch foods like a vegetable frittata are best. Avoid juices that pass through the body too quickly. Eat grapefruit or melon instead.

• Exercise in the morning. Putting off your gym visit until later in the day increases the chances that something will come up to derail your plans.
• Eat your salad and vegetables first. This will curb your appetite by making you feel full. Other foods to keep you feeling sated include soups and spicy foods.
• Watch less television. By turning off the boob tube you will automatically be more active.

If you want to lose or maintain your current weight, improve your heart health and reduce your stress levels, your success may be as easy as taking a brisk turn around a park or even your neighborhood.

Unfortunately, few people are taking even these modest steps toward fitness, say health experts.

Americans are adopting inactive lifestyles, according to the American College of Sports Medicine, Indianapolis, Ind., which co-sponsored an international conference of health professionals to encourage more walking.

Here are tips to help you hit your stride.

Don’t worry about whether you’re fit for walking.

You don’t even need to warm up, says Julia Valentour, program coordinator for the American Council on Exercise (ACE), San Diego.

“Walking is a great warm up itself,” Valentour says .”Walk at a pace that’s comfortable to sustain, working up to 30 to 60 minutes.”

Don’t worry if you’re not moving at top speed.

Any walking you do is better than getting in the car, according to Catrine Tudor-Locke, a researcher on walking behavior at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, La.

However, a brisk walk will provide more of a cardiovascular benefit, according to Tudor-Locke.

Make the activity more interesting by alternating a couple of minutes of slow walking with the same amount of speed walking.

Build walking into your routine, especially when you can’t get outdoors.

“Take a walk to talk to your colleagues instead of e-mailing them,” Tudor-Locke says.

Use your shopping mall for a walking circuit.

“A lot of malls open early for walkers to come in,” Valentour says.

Break up your walking time if necessary.

Experts recommend walking at least 10 minutes at a time, but you can do that in a few intervals during the day.

Aim for a total of at least 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week. If you’re trying to lose weight, make it your goal to walk 45 to 60 minutes a day, Valentour says.

[sidebar][heading]Enhancing the Stroll[heading]

Although you don’t need special equipment these items will boost your enthusiasm and your the satisfaction you’ll get from walking:

A pedometer: “In a way it’s a very powerful tool to become aware of [your] steps per day,” says Catrine Tudor-Locke, who logs more than 20,000 steps per day using a desk with a treadmill.

If you wear a pedometer and notice that you’re not racking up steps you’re motivated to get moving, she says.

Shoes:  Expensive footwear isn’t essential, but look for shoes that bend at the ball of the foot so you can push off with your toes, says Julia Valentour.

Hiking poles: Again, not necessary, but the poles can help you increase speed. Walking with poles can also provide support if you have balance problems, according to Valentour.

Shoe grips: Don’t let winter snow prevent you from walking. Attachments that fit on the bottoms of your shoes provide traction through slippery terrain. Yaktrax and STABILicers are two brands you’ll find in sports stores.[sidebar]

“Scientists have been interested in happiness for a long time,” says James Fowler, associate professor in political science at the University of California, San Diego. “They’ve studied the effect of everything from winning the lottery to losing your job to getting sick, but they never before considered the full effect of other people. We show that happiness can spread from person to person to person in a chain reaction through social networks.”

Fowler and his research partner, Nicholas Christakis, M.D., used data from the Framingham Heart Study to recreate a social network of 4,739 people whose happiness was measured from 1983 to 2003. To assess the participants’ emotional wellbeing, they relied on answers to four items from the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale: “I felt hopeful about the future”; “I was happy”; “I enjoyed life”; and “I felt that I was just as good as other people.”Their research shows that happiness loves company. Happy people tend to cluster together. However, Fowler and Christakis observed that what matters is not just the total number of connections but the number of happy ones.

According to Fowler and Christakis, happiness spreads in a social network up to three degrees of separation. You are 15 percent more likely to be happy if directly connected to a happy person; 10 percent if it’s the friend of a friend who is happy; and 6 percent if it’s the friend of a friend of a friend.To be happier, Fowler suggests taking greater responsibility for your own happiness because it affects dozens of others.

“The pursuit of happiness is not a solitary goal. We are connected, and so is our joy,” Fowler says.

“We found that women view men in red as higher in status, more likely to make money and more likely to climb the social ladder,” says Andrew Elliot, the study’s lead author and professor of psychology at the University of Rochester in New York. “It’s this high-status judgment that leads to the attraction.”

Researchers analyzed responses from 288 female and 25 male undergraduates recorded in seven different experiments. Participants, who were all self-identified as heterosexual or bi-sexual, were asked series of questions about males in photographs. The shirt of the man in the photographs was digitally colored red or another color in several experiments. Participants rated the pictured man’s status and attractiveness, sociability and reported on their willingness to date or engage in sexual activity with the person.

Women rated men in red as more powerful, attractive and sexually desirable, but not more likable or sociable. The effect was observed only in women but across cultures in the United States, England, Germany and China.

Women are unaware of these social associations and the arousal that accompanies men in red. “We typically think of color in terms of beauty and aesthetics,” Elliot says. “But color carries meaning as well and affects our perception and behavior in important ways without our awareness.”

People in societies all over the world have been conditioned with the color red’s association with power, the study’s authors note. Historical societies of Ancient China, Japan and sub-Saharan Africa used the vibrant hue to convey prosperity and high status. The most powerful citizens of Ancient Rome were literally called “the ones who wear red.” Today, celebrities parade down red carpets.

Apart from ingrained societal norms, women may have a biological predisposition to the color red, Elliot explains. Females of non-human primates, like mandrills and gelada baboons mate more often with alpha males who express red most intensely.

“We say in our culture that men act like animals in the sexual realm,” Elliot says. “It looks like women may be acting like animals as well in the same sort of way.”

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and an Excellence Guest Professorship at the University of Munich funded the research.

This meat-of-wheat alternative isn’t available at every store, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some gluten-based “Mock Duck” tonight. Here’s how.

Seitan for Satays

1 cup wheat gluten flour (vital wheat gluten)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or tapioca flour

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon ketchup

3/4 cup water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine the flours, nutritional yeast, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the peanut butter, soy sauce and ketchup. Slowly stir in the water until well blended. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until thoroughly mixed, and then knead for approximately two minutes.

4. Stretch the mixture until it is about 1/2-inch thick and place in the prepared baking pan. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool, then refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into thin slices for satays.

Seitan for Satays

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Robin Robertson, of GlobalVeganKitchen.com and author of  “1000 Vegan Recipes” (John Wiley & Sons, 2009)

1 cup wheat gluten flour (vital wheat gluten)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or tapioca flour

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon ketchup

3/4 cup water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine the flours, nutritional yeast, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the peanut butter, soy sauce and ketchup. Slowly stir in the water until well blended. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until thoroughly mixed, and then knead for approximately two minutes.

4. Stretch the mixture until it is about 1/2-inch thick and place in the prepared baking pan. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool, then refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into thin slices for satays.

© CTW Features

In fact, in this study there was a 63 percent decrease in proven influenza illness among infants born to vaccinated mothers. In addition, the number of serious respiratory illnesses to both mothers and infants dropped by 36 percent.

These findings are particularly important because this age group is the most vulnerable to influenza. “Infants under six months have the highest rates of hospitalization from influenza among children in the U.S. These admission rates are higher than those for the elderly and other high-risk adult groups,” says Mark Steinhoff, MD, the study’s senior author and professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health.

Despite these recent findings, and the fact that the flu shot has been recommended for pregnant women in the U.S. since 1997, only 15 percent of pregnant women are vaccinated each year.

The study, conducted in Bangladesh, observed 340 mothers and their infants as part of the Mother’s Gift vaccine evaluation study.

With the findings, health officials will continue to urge expecting mothers to get the vaccination.

“Pregnant woman should be encouraged to be vaccinated for the flu to protect their infants and themselves,” Steinhoff says.

If you think about it, it’s two for the price of one.

Diets high in red meat, including beef, pork, lamb and processed meats such as hot dogs, bacon and ham, are linked to colon cancer, says a recent report from the American Institute for Cancer Research, Washington, D.C. This doesn’t mean you have to give up grilling if you “think outside the beef,” says David Joachim, a nutrition writer and cookbook author in the Philadelphia area.

Instead of a meat-centric menu, put the emphasis on vegetables, fruits and whole-grain breads. You’ll be delighted to discover those “healthful” ingredients you shunned for steak have robust tempting flavors when grilled.

“A pizza on the grill with a higher proportion of vegetables and less meat is fabulous,”says Joachim, co-author with Andrew Schloss, of “Mastering the Grill” (Chronicle Books, 2007).

Vegetables, which are often relegated to second-class status, become a first-rate dish when grilled. Grilling browns vegetables and brings out the sugars. “It’s a revelation; it’s delicious,” Joachim says.

His favorites include cauliflower and potatoes, which he prepares as grilled potato chips. It’s as simple as slicing a Russet potato paper thin, brushing with a little canola oil and grilling on a grill screen until golden.

Grilled sandwiches are more than an afterthought as well. Provide tortillas, Italian bread and focaccia along with grilled vegetables, condiments and cheeses and let everyone assemble a sandwich.

If meat is still on the menu there are steps you can take to lessen the risks. For red meats, select leaner cuts. Shorten grilling time by partially pre-cooking meat in a microwave oven (immediately move the food to the grill to finish cooking). You can also marinate meat, which limits the formation of harmful substances.