by SARA on February 23, 2010
File under feats I could never achieve: The Women's Biathalon
For the past week, I’ve been excited about putting together a kind of “what I learned on my summer vacation” round-up of the best health and food tips I picked up at the Olympics. I thought an awful lot about it and managed to do very little (I think I built it up too much). Today, I finally got my act together.
First up is Q&A from two members of the snowboarding team who really impressed me with their insightful approach to their careers, as well as their skill: Gretchen Bleiler (whom you might recognize from this AT&T commercial, and who somehow finds the time to design activewear) and Elena Hight (who’s been setting records since she was 13 years old). I’m following that up with one of the most popular recipes from the Oakley Safe House, an interesting spot I’ve covered in a little more depth over at Aol.com’s fitness site. And with this, I’ll just jump in. Read more…
by Camille on February 22, 2010
I was in a supremely rotten mood on Saturday. I went for a run, took a nap, and when neither really pulled me out of my funk, I had a little chocolate. (Okay … maybe more than a little). And instead of feeling guilty afterwards, I actually felt better.
Turns out my appetite was on to something: recent research shows that chocolate thwarts bad mood brain chemicals. Swiss researchers asked stressed out people Read more…
by SARA on February 19, 2010
Happy Friday, all! Being back home–and not in-between trips–has me a little giddy. (Bad joke of the day: I’m, er, worked up about down time.) I’m especially looking forward to all the habitual, creature-comfort stuff: For example, Camille and I are brunching with some incredible girlfriends at Blue Water Grill, a place we’ve been going to together for nine years now.
In the spirit of all that, I thought I’d post two recipes that managed to straddle both my “fun” and “nesting” boxes. Earlier this week, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales (whom I–oddly, but keeping with the theme of things–first met at an international airport) challenged me to game of recipe roulette. The idea is to rally a buddy or two and all log onto Wiki Recipes early in the day. You’ll each randomly be assigned a vegan dish to make that evening. We weren’t in the same city, but I bet it would be fun to do this for a dinner party (and not tell each other what you had, other than “sweet” or “savory”). Read more…
by Camille on February 18, 2010
I admit, even though I’ve been writing about health and nutrition for, oh, a decade now, magnesium has mostly been off my radar. In fact, if you’d asked me about this mineral a week ago, I’d probably mention that it helps the body absorb calcium. That’s true–but it’s also just a fraction of the picture.
“Magnesium is helpful in over 300 different functions in the body,” Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., medical director of the national Fibromyalgia & Fatigue Centers, informed me. In fact, several studies have shown that it can decrease migraine frequency by more than 60%–a rate better than that of several of the popular prescription migraine meds on the market. The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study found that women who consumed the most magnesium had the lowest rates of colon cancer, and other studies have tied it to a reduced risk of diabetes and stroke. If that wasn’t enough, heart attacks are lower in areas of the U.S. where the water is “hard” and contains more minerals, including magnesium. Read more…
by SARA on February 17, 2010
So I’m finally back and settled from Vancouver! While I’m polishing off some longer athlete-sourced tips, Q&As, and (of course) delicious recipes to post, I wanted to write about a phenomenon I can’t get out of my mind. Background: One of my favorite people I met at the Olympics was a publicist for Oakley sports gear. Total feet-on-the-ground individual. Don’t ask me how we started talking about this, but at some point she told me–very matter-of-factly–that she and her husband take collagen supplements. (Jell-o is made of collagen, so imagine a colorless, not-sweet version of that kind of substance.) I found myself both weirded out and liking her even more.
Here’s why: A few years ago I wrote a short piece for Gourmet about “Collagen Cuisine.” Since collagen is what keeps our skin looking young (it’s what facial injectables are made of), the idea here is to eat it. Kind of like that obscure rock band, it’s something that’s, well, really big in Japan. Read more…
by Camille on February 15, 2010
I love butter (who doesn’t?). So I was totally thrilled to learn that it isn’t the health saboteur it was once believed to be. In fact, it actually has an advantage over the much-touted olive oil: in a new study, researchers from Lund University in Sweden discovered that people who ate butter had lower blood fat levels afterwards than they had after consuming the same amount (35 g) of olive oil. Read more…
by Camille on February 12, 2010
Do you avoid cooking because you’re no good at it? I used to. But as I explained to my friend Sarah Jio at Glamour, getting over my cooking phobia made a big difference in my health, helping my husband and me both shed a few pounds without Read more…
by SARA on February 11, 2010
I'll eat almost anything from Saxelby Cheesemongers.
Greetings, all, from the Seattle-Tacoma Radisson! Yesterday’s original plan had been to make it all the way to Vancouver, where I’m supposed to be blogging Olympics stories for Aol’s health/fitness site. The hurricane, of course, had other designs, and after a rollicking adventure at the airport, here I am. The funny thing is, I kind of don’t mind. Not only do I feel pretty proud of myself for getting (read: “lucking”) onto any flight at all, but I’m also from out here (I was born in Seattle, and grew up in Eastern Washington), so even being at the airport hotel makes me feel weirdly cozy.
That said, I also feel completely sedentary and slightly disgusting, probably connected to the many, many airline pretzels and sour patch kids I had for dinner. From that perspective, this post turned out to be timely. From what to eat to when, these metabolism boosters are things I’ll be working on today… Read more…
by Camille on February 10, 2010
I don’t know about you, but we’re in the middle of a minor blizzard here in NYC, which makes me want to spend the day sipping coffee and baking. I may not have all day to lounge around–bad weather or not, deadlines loom–but I am going to make a batch of some of my favorite salty oat cookies.
My sister-in-law first introduced me to these wonderful concoctions, which, with their perfect ratio of sweet-to-salty, are sheer joy for the palate. Read more…
by SARA on February 9, 2010
About two weeks ago, I had a great dinner with Dave, one of my best friends since college (as well as an incredibly talented music producer who can actually say he’s “big in Japan” and mean it–a recent album of his topped the charts there). Something I love about having known a person for so long is getting to see and be part of all the gradual–and often funny–changes life brings. For example, a few years ago I don’t think I could have paid Dave enough to go somewhere, say, vegan. But since reading Michael Pollan and others (and, I’m proud to say, our blog!), Dave’s gotten quite interested in eating more healthfully. So much so that not only did he insist we we meet somewhere “local and organic,” but when we sat down for dinner at Northern Spy Food Co. (a new neighborhood favorite of mine), he also said something like, “I might just go vegetarian tonight.” He then suggested we order the quinoa. Hilarious. And also delicious.
Since that night, I’ve started to suspect I’m actually a little late to this quinoa train. Not even a week later, a second card-carrying guy’s guy I know got positively poetic about a quinoa soft taco. And in the print world, I’ve seen it popping up everywhere from Mark Bittman’s stir frys to a must-eat food roundup in The Huffington Post (one reason for this surge: it’s gluten-free). If you’re out to maximize everything from nutrient intake to satiety to metabolism, this, my friends, is your grain. Read more…
