Name that Ingredient!! Part 4

As promised, I'm back to talking about food additives. The ingredient I'll be discussing today is one I have always heard my mother, an ARNP, warn me about consuming too often.

When I was a kid, I loved hot dogs, sausage, baloney, bacon, and a host of other salty, highly processed meats. The only time I really got to eat them, however, was when I was staying at a friend or family member's home because my mother was worried about a harmful ingredient common to all of these foods: sodium nitrate.

According to a CNN.com report, the sodium nitrate used in hotdogs, sausage, baloney, bacon, smoked or cured fish, including salmon, and in other meat-curing preparations, has huge cancer-causing potential.  Sodium nitrate is usually included in foods because, in addition to being a dye, it acts as a preservative that can prevent botulism (a kind of food poisoning). The problem is that once sodium nitrate is ingested and mixes with chemicals in the stomach, it allows nitrosamine to form. According to the CNN.com report mentioned above, nitrosamine is highly carcinogenic.

So there we have it: avoid meats cured with sodium nitrate and your mother is usually right.

Happy Eating!

Shalencia

Information found at: http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/indepth.food/additives/table.html

What to eat before and after workout

Workout is a beneficial way to keep fit.  Some people think it is too difficult to keep a diet to lose weight!  So they prefer to do workout. So at the same time, questions are raised!  What should I eat before the exercise? What should I have after workout to avoid gaining weight? Drink fruit juice or sports drinks? How long I can eat after the exercise?

Before exercise

You can eat high-fiber biscuit, yogurt, raisins or fresh fruit 1-2 hours before workout. This will help you have a more effective exercise!

After exercise

Give yourself at least half of an hour to one hour before eating.

Don’t drink caffeinated beverages after the workout, such as coffee and tea.  They will complement the shortage of your body’s water.

Drinking water is better than sport-drinks. Although sport-drinks replenish electrolytes, it is not helpful for losing weight.

Choose high protein food as lunch/ dinner.

Happy Holiday!

Danlu

Watch out your weight during the holiday!!!

Thanksgiving is around the corner!!! Christmas will be here soon!!!  I love all the holidays!! It is a great time to get together with your family and relax!!  No school & No work!!  Just have fun!! But it is also the time that we all need to watch out our weight!!  It is so easy to eat too much during the holiday. At the same time, we get a lazy schedule.  We are more like to go out late and get up super late.  Do not really get a lot of time to work out.  Also, we usually get big dinner: a huge turkey, all different types of side dishes, and a lot of dessert.  So how can we have fun, but avoid gaining too much weight during the holiday season?  Here are some suggestions!
1. Don't go to a party with hunger
During the holiday season, there are a lot of parties.  It is great to go to parties to have fun. But when you have so many parties to go, it becomes dangerous to gain weight.  One thing you definitely can do is never being hungry when you go to a party. You can have some healthy snack before you go, such as your favorite fruit, healthy bars and some low-fat/non-fat yogurt.

2. Be careful about the choices of food & drinks
Pick healthy food rather than junk food
Small plate & small bits

3. Try to keep moving!  
If you cannot go to workout everyday, or you cannot go to workout long hours a day, try to move around in your place rather than just lay on the bed.

Danlu

Name That Ingredient: Hair Care Edition! Part 3

Hi there!
Today I'll be adding the final ingredient of the Name That Ingredient's Hair Care series. On the back of many cosmetics and hair care products, you're sure to find either methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, or butylparaben. Parabens are additives that act as a preservative.

Recently, they've become a topic of medical controversy because several studies have linked them to hormone disruptions, early puberty and breast cancer.

The following article from Livestrong.com can tell you a little more about this preservative and why many choose to stay away from all parabens.

Wishing You Happy, Healthy Hair!

Shalencia


http://www.livestrong.com/article/150690-what-are-the-dangers-of-parabens-in-skin-care/

Name That Ingredient: Hair Care Edition! Part 2

Hi all!

Yesterday we learned about the sudsy joys of sulfates. Today I want to introduce you to another group of lovely hair-care ingredients: Silicones. One of the curly-haired gurus that I've recently started looking into had this to day about silicones:

"The purpose of silicone hair products are to coat the hair with a micro-fine layer of conditioners creating sheen, reducing friction for easier combing and to prevent tangles and breakage. Silicones also help other ingredients in conditioners and lotions to spread easily."

To me, that sounded pretty awesome, until I read on:

"Silicones are not water-soluble unless they are modified to be, so they also form a water-sealing barrier to prevent loss of water from hair and help retain dye by making hair more hydrophobic (water-repellent)."

Although many find it beneficial because they prevent the hair from losing water and make styling easier, the water-repellant properties of silicones make it a nightmare for many with chronically dry hair. Additionally, because they are not water-soluble, they are one of the key reasons we need sulfate shampoos: to get rid of silicones buildup on the hair and scalp. So, most likely, if you want to stop using sulfate shampoos, you will probably have to eliminate, or at least minimize your use of silicone containing products.

However, some silicones are water-soluble and are safe to use if you want to avoid sulfate shampoos. Another one of my favorite curly-haired gurus has put together the following information on silicones, both water soluble and not:


"A silicone ingredient with end with -cone, -conol, or -xane. Examples include: dimethicone, dimethiconol, amodimethicone, cyclomethicone, cyclopentasiloxane, and trimethicone. None of these are water soluble...

Make sure you don't confuse silicones with preservatives, which frequently end in -one (rather than -cone). Methylchloroisothiazolinone, while a mouthful, is a water soluble preservative...

Another little complexity about silicones is that scientists can modify their structure to make them water soluble. These cones are...friendly, but some people choose to avoid them for the sake of being totally silicone free...If a silicone ingredient (-cone, -conol, or -xane) is prefaced with PEG or PPG, it is water soluble. So PEG-12 Dimethicone is water soluble..."

Wishing you Happy, Healthy Hair!


Shalencia


Information found at:
http://dormroomcurly.blogspot.com/2008/12/style-definitions-table.html
http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curly-hair-care-methods/no-poo/silicones-no-poo/silicone-hair-products-not-so-bad-after-all

Name That Ingredient! Hair Care Edition

I've recently started product-jumping for shampoos and conditioners because every shampoo I've used seems to dry my hair out and no conditioner seems to be able to get it moisturized. So, now I'm taking my label-reading habits to a new level by exploring what's in the hair products I use. Through lurking on several hair sites for curly-haired women, I've found that a few ingredients seem to be common causes for dry, frizzy curls. The ones I'll be exploring today are the sulfates sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, ammonium laryl sulfate, and all of their sulfate-y cousins.

Sulfates are basically the ingredient in things like liquid detergent and shampoo that help them to lather. They break up all of the grease and oil so that it can be washed away, thus providing us with a clean, fresh scalp and head of hair. Although many can use shampoos containing sulfates with no ill-effects, many users suffer scalp irritation and dry hair from using these shampoos. They can prove to be very harsh on both hair and scalp and remove natural oils that are essential to curly hair because of its texture.

However, fear not! There are plenty of organic shampoos that contain no sulfates at all and can still give your hair and scalp the nice thorough cleaning it needs.

Wishing You Happy, Healthy Hair,

Shalencia

Energy Drink - healthy or not!

Time just flew by.  It is almost the end of the semester.  Everything is coming together: exams, homework and tons of projects.  I have been experiencing the craziest week of this semester.  I did three projects and one exam this week.  I cannot even remember how did I really go through this week.  I have not stayed up so late in the library since my freshmen year.  But I did not leave the library until 2 am for two days this week.  And this Tuesday was the first time that I drank 5-hour energy.  To be honest to you, I was nervous before I drank it because I think drinking this type of energy drink is not healthy at all.  I was reading the details on the bottle.  Under Caution, it states that 5-hour energy contains caffeine comparable to a cup of the leading premium coffee.  After you drink it, you may experience a Niacin Rush (hot feeling, skin redness) that lasts a few minutes.  This is caused by increased blood flow near the skin.  This caution sounds scary to me, but I still drank it because I had to stay up to work on all the mess.  I drank half of the whole bottle.  I was awake for the first one hour, then I literally fell asleep.  I even did not recognize how that happened.  I guess that I was just so tired.  Then I did search the feedback and comments on 5-hour energy online.  I found all different comments.  Someone thinks it is really useful and it helps to stay awake. (At least, it did not work for me.  :(   )  Someone was complaining about the side effects after drinking the 5- hour energy.  After reviewing all different comments, it seems that we do understand that it could be some possible danger after you drink the 5-hour energy.  But no one officially states that we should not drink it.  Please let me know how do you guys think about this kind of energy drink!!