The foods you eat are meant to keep you healthy and energized for your workouts and day-to-day activities. But for some people, certain foods trigger inflammation, allergies or sensitivities. If youre not feeling your best, trying an elimination diet is one of the way to uncover which foods are causing you trouble.

Food sensitivities are becoming more common. More than 10% of U.S. adults report having a food allergy, and about 20% believe they have food allergies, according to a report published in JAMA Network Open last year.

Elimination diets may be better than many allergy tests at revealing how your body reacts to specific foods, says family physician and functional medicine practitioner Scott Noorda, who owns Resolve Medical in St. George, Utah.

Weve had patients overcome issues that theyve been trying to resolve for years simply by cutting out the food that was triggering their chronic symptoms and conditions, he says. The food we put in our bodies is one of the largest factors in how we feel.

Parade.com has tackled this topic in the latest episode of The TMI Show. Check out the video and then read on to learn more about elimination diets and what they can and cant do.

Despite being referred to as a diet, the elimination diet is not a weight loss toolinstead, it identifies food triggers, says Kristen Carli, registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Camelback Nutrition and Wellness in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Some people may lose weight while on an elimination diet, Noorda explains, but whats more important is understanding the bodys reaction to certain foods.

Elimination diets require cutting out certain foods that commonly trigger allergies, sensitivities or intolerances for a period of time until they are cleared from the body, usually three to four weeks, Noorda explains. Then, you systematically reintroduce the foods and track any symptoms you experience.

This gives us a map going forward for how to heal intolerances and improve function, symptoms and general well-being, he says.

Elimination diets also reduce inflammation in the body, especially the gut. Removing foods causing inflammation helps heal the intestinal lining, also known as leaky gut.

Related: What Is GOLO Diet? Everything You Need to Know About GOLO for Beginners

A true elimination diet starts with eliminating all the foods that commonly cause issuesgluten, corn, dairy, chemical additives and preservatives, refined sugar, peanuts and soyfor a few weeks, says New York-based chiropractor and functional health practitioner Kelly Bay.

This is to give the body time to calm down inflammation and immune responses that may be causing symptoms and gives the patient a clean slate to assess foods and symptoms upon reintroduction, she says.

After a few weeks, reintroduce foods one at a time. Bay suggests consuming reintroduced foods two to three times in one day, and then waiting 24 hours before testing a new food.

An example of this is eating wheat berries (gluten) three times on Monday, eating no wheat berries on Tuesday and then start testing dairy on Wednesday, she says.

If you have a reaction to a food, Noorda says to wait until symptoms clear up before reintroducing the next food. The foods causing a reaction could possibly be reintroduced after three additional months of elimination.

Related: What Is the Best Diet for PCOS?

Problematic foods may trigger health conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, migraines or autoimmune disorders, Bay says, and symptoms such as gas, bloating, heartburn, abdominal pain, bowel changes, cough, congestion, fatigue, joint pain, feeling swollen, acne, rashes, eczema, sleep disturbances and headaches.

Ive seen the use of an elimination diet be incredibly helpful when it comes to improving acid reflux, arthritis, various skin issues and autoimmune problems, such as Hashimotos (disease), psoriasis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, Bay explains.

Look for meats with an American Grassfed Association label. Beef from cows raised in open-grass pastures is less likely to be contaminated with antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

After an elimination diet, Noorda says patients report more clarity and energy, less brain fog and fatigue, and better digestion. Others see improved skin, less sinus congestion, better sleep and reduced muscle and joint pain.

I have had multiple patients who have decided that they dont want to reintroduce the restricted foods at allbecause they feel so much better, he says. Of course, there are important benefits with many of the foods that have been restricted so we are careful about making sure that each patient is getting appropriate nutrition whatever their preferred nutritional plan is.

Sugar, dairy and gluten commonly trigger adverse food reactions. Other common offenders include corn, peanuts, soy and certain additives and preservatives. But, your health care practitioner could add more foods to the list, like shellfish, nightshades or meats, depending on your symptoms, Bay says.

To treat irritable bowel syndrome, a low-FODMAP diet can ease gastrointestinal symptoms, Carli says. FODMAP stands for fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, forms of short-chain carbohydrates, found in dairy, fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

An elimination diet is meant to be a short-term treatment. Even if foods cause problems, you may not necessarily have to give them up forever, Noorda explains.

Eliminating foods can heal the intestinal lining. You may regain the ability to eat the right types of dairy or gluten at the right timesfor example, consuming only raw milk dairy or restricting consumption in the eveningwith no effects.

Food journaling in some form is the best way to log foods your eliminating and reintroducing, and symptoms while on an elimination diet, Carli suggests.

This is very important in order to determine patterns, she says.

Elimination diets aim to get to the heart of the symptoms, unlike medications designed to treat symptoms alone, Bay says.

By finding the root cause of your problem, you can prevent the symptoms from occurring by avoiding the food, rather than putting a Band-Aid on the symptom, she says.

You may realize, for example, that eating gluten triggers acid reflux and other gastrointestinal problems, which could be eliminated by going gluten-free, preventing the need for long-term medications and the financial burden of continued medical care, Bay says.

Sometimes, people feel worse for the first few days of an elimination diet because the body is detoxing, Noorda says. For example, you may get headaches from caffeine withdrawal.

After the detox, he says an elimination diet is one of the most effective ways to improve and resolve many chronic conditions.

It allows us to determine a personalized nutrition plan going forward that will maintain good health, free of the symptoms caused by poor food choices, Noorda says.

Elimination diets can be tedious and time consuming, Bay says, but it works and is really a small amount of time to commit to in the long run.

Not strictly adhering to the process and timeframes will deliver skewed results, she explains.

And, just because youre cutting out foods doesnt mean meals will be less enjoyable, Noorda says. Youll likely be replacing foods full of preservatives and artificial sweeteners, colors and flavoring with fresh, whole foods with herbs, healthy fats and high-mineral salt content.

When you upgrade your meals to using the same ingredients a five-star restaurant would, its going to taste a lot better than the microwave dinner you grabbed out of the freezer section, he says.

Learn more about a popular elimination diet, Whole30.

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Elimination Diet: What It Is, How to Do It and Why It Can Be Good for Your Gut - Parade

Theres a lot that scientists know about the benefits of zinc. The essential nutrient boosts the immune system, heals wounds and supports brain development in children. We even need zinc to smell and taste. Dive a little deeper, however, and the real mysteries of zinc emerge.

One of them how zinc is distributed to tissues and cells is the root of Prof. Shannon Kellehers research, which aims to reveal the role that zinc plays in the development of inflammatory bowel disease and food allergies.

Zinc is critical for intestinal health, but we have little information on what it actually does in the intestine, says Kelleher, who is based in UMass Lowells Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences Departmentin the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. Our goal is to understand how zinc affects intestinal function, the gut microbiome and the risk for intestinal disease.

We asked her to explain.

Q. What do we know about zinc and its effect on intestinal health?

A. We know that the right amount of zinc is critical to intestinal health. If we consume too much or too little zinc, the intestinal barrier falls apart. An over- or underabundance of zinc can cause shifts in the gut microbiome, and cause diarrhea and inflammation.

The only way that people can consume too much zinc is through supplements. If you get zinc only through foods in your diet, then you really cant consume toxic amounts. However, if you only rely on your diet, then you may not be consuming enough. So finding the right balance is important.

Q. Is zinc deficiency a big problem?

A. One study from the National Institutes of Health shows that 35 to 45 percent of adults over 60 years old had lower-than-average zinc intakes. Scientists believe that about 7 to 10 percent of the U.S. population is severely lacking in the nutrient. Women of reproductive age are most likely moderately zinc-deficient due to menstruation and not eating the right foods. Symptoms of too little zinc include dry and itchy skin, loss of hair, reduced ability to taste food and a compromised immune system that leads to more colds.

Q. How much zinc should we be consuming?

A. The recommended daily allowances for zinc are 11 mg for men and 9 mg for women. Foods high in zinc include red meat, oysters, poultry, fish and some fortified breakfast cereals. But since excess zinc is also not healthy, dont overdo it with supplements.

Q. Why is it important to find out how zinc travels through our bodies and cells?

A. If we knew how zinc gets into our cells, where it goes in our cells and what it does, then we could use this information to develop new therapies to fight a variety of diseases. These could include new drugs, delivery systems or personalized dietary recommendations.

Q. What else could your research results be used for?

A. Our research could also inform personalized nutrition. I teach an undergraduate course about an emerging field called nutrigenetics. We are now able to sequence your DNA and, based on your genetic blueprint, assess your risk for nutritional disorders and develop personalized diets that match your genetics. It helps to understand why individuals who eat similar diets can have different health outcomes. Your genetics play a crucial role in how you respond to what you eat.

Q. How does your work differ from nutritional science?

A. Nutritional science is often thought of as studies that look at how diet and foods affect human health and the risk for disease. The type of research we do is referred to as molecular nutrition. My research dives a little deeper to understand how specific nutrients in this case, zinc affect cellular and molecular processes that then cause the positive or negative effects we see in the body.

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The Role of Zinc: It's More Important than You Think - UMass Lowell

Preservatives, artificial food colorings, gluten, and more the grocery store aisle can be a scary place these days. It seems like there are new stories from social media influencers every day about potent food additives or ingredients that will either kill you or make you live forever. Despite what we hear in the media and find in our Facebook feed about the dangers that lurk behind the label, the fact is that our food has never been safer than it is today. Why is it then that consumers have never been more worried about the foods they eat? And heres another paradox: At a time when consumers have never known more about nutrition, why is it that obesity is at an all-time high? In November 2018, I took to the TEDx stage in Tysons Corner, Virginia to explore these important topics in my talk, Why we fear the food we eat.

The rise of clean eating and the marketing of natural foods has not made us feel safer. Instead, these trends leave us less certain and less confident in the food choices we make. The proliferation of new diets isnt making us healthier; its just making us more confused.

According to a survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), consumers consider making healthy food choices harder than doing their taxes. In an environment like this, what is a consumer to do? How can we sort through all this alarming noise, reduce food anxiety, and make good diet choices that will give us the healthy lifestyle we all want to enjoy?

Information Overload in the Grocery Aisles

It turns out that there are clear psychological principles behind the confusion and fear so many of us are feeling about our food. The way our brains process information has a lot to do with how we respond to food marketing, from the labels on the packages and products on the shelves to the recommendations of social media influencers. We are bombarded with messages and information as we walk the aisles of the local grocery store. Gluten-free, GMO-free, cage-free, pesticide-free it seems the less a product contains, the more a company can charge for it. Today the average grocery store carries about 40,000 items, presenting a daunting list of choices for every shopper. There are thousands more new products coming to the shelves soon, and a similar number of failed products departing each year.

The dizzying array of food information in the modern world is too much for one person to handle. We already have overly complex lives just keeping up with installing the latest new operating systems. Having to sort out complicated choices about food can easily feel like too much to manage, and our overworked brains want a way out. Just as students look for shortcuts between classes, our minds look for shortcuts in making decisions. Psychologists refer to the mental shortcuts our brains use asheuristicsandcognitivebiases, and these are important concepts in understanding how we make decisions or form opinions.

Mental Shortcuts: Heuristics and Biases

Heuristics are rules of thumb that help us efficiently solve complex problems by ignoring some of the information. Heuristics keep us from going crazy by reducing the load on our mental processors, but they also have their limitations. Mental shortcuts can leave us susceptible to influences that we may not recognize.And sometimes these simplistic rules lead us to bad decisions.Aheuristicthat results in consistently incorrect decisions (systematic errors) is called acognitivebias.

Our beliefs and behavior are shaped by these invisible influences. When we are making judgments and decisions about the world around us, we like to think that we are being objective and logical. Unfortunately, biases can trip us up, leading to poor decisions and bad judgments. These powerful forces can even lead us to choices that are at odds with our actual goals, such as nutritional health. We can become our own adversaries when we are guided by influences we dont understand.

Confirmation Bias as An Example

Lets take the example ofconfirmation bias, which is familiar to many people. Confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of our existing beliefs. We seek out information that confirms our beliefs, and we ignore or discount information inconsistent with our beliefs, because its easier to entrench more deeply than it is to change our minds. Its easy to see this bias in others, but nearly impossible to convince them of it. It is also remarkably difficult to recognize it in ourselves. Thats the nature of heuristics and biases, but by learning about them and facing them head-on, we can learn to perceive them and their effects, escape their control, and make our choices rationally and logically like we wanted to in the first place.

Confirmation bias influences many of our food decisions. From the products we buy to the brands we follow, our perceptions, likes, and dislikes are shaped by our existing biases. This make it difficult for new facts to filter through to our conscious mind and inform our decisions.

With each new fad diet, confirmation bias keeps us believing in the potential of the diet long after the evidence is in that it doesnt work. With every pound we lose, we credit the diet. With each two pounds we gain, we blame ourselves for a lack of willpower. We forget that in order for a diet to work, people need to be able stick to it. We make excuses for the failures of the products or companies we like, but we question the successes of those we dont like.

A Path Back to Rational ControlFrom Fear to Enjoyment

In a series of articles over the next few weeks I am going to explore how our brains try to make sense of the complex world around us and how it sometimes leads us astray. Confirmation bias is just one example of a misleading heuristic; there are many more. Predispositions can influence the way we perceive brands (such as thehalo effect), the way we make choices (decision fatigue), and the characteristics of a product we choose to pay attention to (availability bias). Biases like these prevent us from thinking clearly and making accurate decisions, whether the matter at hand is our finances, our health, or the food we choose to eat.

Theres no way to avoid all of these potential biasestaking automatic shortcuts is just the way our minds work, after all. But being aware of the biases and shortcomings that are typical of human mental functioning can make a big difference in giving us more rational control over our decision-making processes. My goal is that you will fear less, and enjoy more, the food you eat. And this is an achievable goal. We will get there by learning some curious facts about how our minds work, and Ill illustrate them with some interesting stories along the way.

About the Author:Jack Bobo is the CEO of Futurity, a food foresight company that helps brands get ahead of trends. Among other roles, he previously served as the Senior Adviser for Global Food Policy at the U.S. State Dept. This article is the first in a 10-part series on consumer behavior by Jack bobo. Followthis link to the Futuritysite to find out more.

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Opinion: Why we fear the food we eat | 2020-03-10 - Agri-Pulse

A promising new study has just been published, showing the potential benefits of weekly refeeds on maintaining lean mass for resistance-trained men and women.

The study, conducted by Bill Campbell, a physique scientist from the University of South Florida, came out on Sunday, in the latest edition of the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology.

As Bill took to Instagram, where he has 36.6k followers, to explain, the research could be significant for lifters looking to optimise their mass retention.

Though he admits every scientist gets excited about their research and probably thinks that their work will change the [dieting] world he says I think this new study about Diet Breaks/Diet Refeeds is going to change the way a lot of people approach their diets in the future.

If you resistance train and want to lose fat, keep your muscle, and not damage your metabolism, this study is for you!

Howd it go down? Bill and his team took two groups of resistance trained people (males/females) and put them on a diet for 7 weeks.

Both groups were asked to reduce their calorie intake by 25% below normal maintenance calories, and to eat 1.8 grams of protein/kg body mass (0.8 grams per pound) per day.

One group (dubbed CONTINUOUS) maintained this restrictive diet continuously for 7 straight weeks, with no break.

The other group (REFEED) also dieted for 7-weeks, but every weekend they took a break and increased their calories (all in the form of carbohydrates) back to maintenance calories.

The REFEED group decreased calories by 35% Monday-Friday but did not diet on the weekends (ingested 100% of their pre-diet food intake) which resulted in a weekly average caloric deficit of 25% the same as the CONTINUOUS group, Bill explains.

We also supervised everyones workouts in our Physique Lab every exercise, every set, every rep.

Every subject also had a personalized nutrition coach to assist them with their diet, Bill reveals. We implemented a Flexible Diet approach, and each subject tracked their macros every day and were required to submit their macro tracking sheets every week.

The main finding? Both groups lost a similar amount of fat about 5.5 pounds but only the REFEED Group was able to maintain muscle mass during the seven weeks of dieting, losing less than a pound of muscle while the group that did not take a break from their diet every weekend lost nearly 3 pounds.

While this is a significant finding, further research is, as always, required, to better understand it. As Bills colleague, Brad Schoenfeld, points out, not everyone in the REFEED group maintained mass.

What I find most interesting is that the individual data seems to show that several subjects were responders to the refeed and actually gained lean mass, while others were non-responders and lost as much FFM as the continuous diet subjects.

The take-home, according to Brad, a PhD holder, fitness scientists and researcher in his own right, is to remember that studies generally report the means, but practical application is specific to the individual. It would seem that refeeds are beneficial for some, but not others. Thus, experimentation is needed to determine what works best for you.

Continued here:
Study Reveals Eating Technique That Could Help Lifters Get Greater Gains - D'Marge

This article by Peter McCaffery is republished here with permission from The Conversation. This content is shared here because the topic may interest Snopes readers; it does not, however, represent the work of Snopes fact-checkers or editors.

Vitamin C is a common remedy that some people believe will cure the common cold and flu. Although it helps us maintain good immune function, theres little evidence that it can prevent or substantially reduce either of these diseases. But in the midst of the novel coronavirus outbreak, some influencers are claiming that taking mega-doses of vitamin C can cure COVID-19 (the disease caused by novel coronavirus).

So lets cut to the chase. Can vitamin C cure the coronavirus? Considering that novel coronavirus belongs to the same family of viruses coronaviruses as the common cold and flu, its unlikely that taking vitamin C will prevent or cure you of a COVID-19 infection.

I have written before that using vitamin C to treat the common cold was an idea popularised by double Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Linus Pauling, and further promoted by the dietary supplements industry. Unfortunately, ever since Paulings claim in the 1970s, there has been little evidence to back it up.

Vitamins or vital-amines were first discovered at the beginning of the 20th century as elements present in low amounts in our diets that were vital for health. Certainly, people lacking certain vitamins will develop deficiency diseases. For example, people deficient in vitamin C will develop scurvy. However, it wasnt until the early 1930s that it was discovered that scurvy was caused by lack of vitamin C, and that taking the vitamin could cure the disease.

The science of nutrition was born with the discovery of vitamins, and has since become a competitive, unregulated industry, often with scientific fact competing against those spreading misinformation and looking to profit: the novel coronavirus outbreak is just the latest example.

These misleading articles have spread quickly, and are likely to be behind the shortage of vitamin C in Asia and a five-fold spike in demand for vitamin C and multivitamins in Singapore.

Vitamin C is important to maintain redox balance in the bodys tissues these are types of reactions in cells that add or remove oxygen, and are essential for many processes such as generating energy in cells. These same reactions, though, can create products harmful to human cells such as reactive oxygen species, which react with lipids (fat), proteins and nucleic acids. Vitamin C can lessen these harmful reactions. It also help enzymes build collagen, which is necessary for supporting our bodys tissues.

Although vitamin C doesnt have miraculous disease-curing properties, some research has also shown it can help the immune system fight off bacteria and viruses. Its role in protecting against viral infections was shown in a recent review which found that immune cells need vitamin C to produce proteins that activate the immune system throughout the body against virus attacks.

Having said that, we can easily obtain sufficient levels of vitamin C in our diet that will keep our immune system fully functional. Vitamin C is plentiful in many fruits and vegetables, including oranges, broccoli and potatoes. And while it is relatively non-toxic, since its high water solubility makes it easy to excrete from the body, excessive doses can result in unpleasant symptoms such as diarrhoea, nausea and cramps.

Though I have said vitamin C is unlikely to be a dramatic cure for COVID-19, the fact that it can promote good immune function means it would be going too far to say there will be no effect. And although a review found that vitamin C has no effect on reducing the frequency of colds, it did find that for the average person, there was a small decrease in the duration of common cold symptoms. But for people that participate in brief periods of severe physical exercise (such as marathon runners and skiers), vitamin C halved the duration and severity of their common cold risk.

These slight effects of vitamin C on the coronavirus that causes the common cold have spurred a new clinical trial looking to cure COVID-19 infections using very high intravenous doses of vitamin C. These trials have just started and no results are yet posted. Intravenous application of vitamin C will result in much higher and faster levels of the vitamin in the blood than any amount found in vitamin C supplements taken orally. Though this approach could increase vitamin Cs mild protective effect, this is yet hypothetical and intravenous injection comes with its own risks, such as infection, blood vessel damage, air embolism or blood clots.

So alhough vitamin C does have some small effect on the common cold, its unlikely that taking large amounts of vitamin C supplements will cure a COVID-19 infection or have a large effect at all. Even if intravenous vitamin C works to shorten or cure COVID-19, it will likely only be a stop-gap before therapies directed at the virus, such as vaccinations, take over. The most effective way to avoid the virus still remains washing hands, not touching the eyes, nose or mouth, and keeping your distance from anyone exhibiting symptoms.

Peter McCaffery, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Aberdeen

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Coronavirus: Its Time to Debunk Claims That Vitamin C Could Cure It - Snopes.com

Todd Eastham, of Greenup, coaches both high school and college athletes in Greenup County. Easthams focus is primarily with the throwing team, but he said that the training these young athletes go through, and their other regimens such as diet, can apply to anyone even if they arent an athlete.

Commitment is the main thing, Eastham said. At least the No. 1 thing, especially with younger athletes. That, and they need to work on strength and flexibility, then technique.

You have to develop good habits, Eastham said. And that applies to everything, especially if you want to be successful. And you have to maintain those good habits, like a proper diet, moving forward. Especially here in Appalachia, because we really like our food here.

Younger individuals, he said, typically dont realize the damaging side effects of a poor diet, and how those effects build up over time. Eastham pointed out that to a younger individual, anything that curbs hunger is acceptable; and the hardest part, sometimes, is convincing them that a bag of chips and a soda doesnt qualify as a meal.

For an athlete, or anyone that wants to prevent that first heart attack, it really starts at the age of 18. Even if you have a genetic predisposition to that health issue, proper diet and exercise can help stave that off. You should really begin a healthy lifestyle in your teens. And those health benefits will follow you into later years,Eastham said.

But you will find in a lot of cases with people who were athletes, he added, or who worked hard, manual labor jobs or on the farm when they were younger, tend to stay healthier longer. Or if they do get out of shape, they find it easier to get back into shape quicker than an individual who grew up with a sedentary lifestyle.

Athletes burn more calories than those individuals who dont engage in a regimented athletic lifestyle, but Eastham said it isnt necessary to be athletic in order to enjoy health benefits.

There are a lot of anaerobic exercises a person can do, he said. You can lift weights, get out and walk, or just about anything. But the main thing is just to get out and get moving. Do something, because its for your benefit to do it.

We can still get our Netflix time in, Eastham said. We all like to binge, but we dont want to sit there slamming down cheeseburgers while we are doing it, either. Thats another part of it. Its a trap because we all like snacks and other goodies, and can easily overindulge while watching TV, because we are focused on the show and not paying attention to how much we are consuming.

Eastham said a poor diet can derail any sort of training program, professional or otherwise. The actual exercises, whether they are for strength, endurance or a combination of both, help get the body in a habit of moving and performing certain functions properly without damaging the person doing them. But a diet that is heavy on unhealthy foods such as one based heavily on processed sugars and preservatives can make it harder for the body to reap the benefits of even a good training routine.

Exercise is like tearing the body down to rebuild it, only better, Eastham said. But you have to give your body something to work with. If you follow a good training plan, and at least a moderately healthy diet, then I guarantee you will start to see good results in just a couple of weeks.

Eastham said not everyone has the need or the desire to be an athlete; but everyone has both the need and desire to be healthy. And Eastham should know what he is talking about, because he has lived it. He was a high school athlete, but after graduation he spent decades not living the athletic lifestyle. But over the course of the last several years he has reclaimed his health and went on to win numerous medals in the Masters Olympic Games.

(606)326-2655 |

cromans@dailyindependent.com

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Training within the training: Eastham preaches commitment | News - The Independent

Billie Eilish has given the music industry everything it could possibly want. An authentic new voice that appeals to teenagers and their parents. A debut album that has sold more than 2m copies in the US alone. A decisive stylistic evolution from the preceding decades dominant pop mode. A clean sweep of the four key categories at the Grammys. A copper-bottomed streaming success model. A James Bond theme that rejuvenates a tired franchise and extends her commercial and creative clout.

Until she offers up her prime commodity as a young female pop star, it will never be enough.

While 18-year-old Eilish is a beguilingly physical performer, she has never shown her body in service of her art. She prefers loose clothing because she feels comfortable in it, and has denounced the use of her image to shame female pop stars who dress differently. Not that its stopped anyone. Denying spectators the traditional metric by which female stars are judged sexiness, slimness; the body as weathervane that reveals how tormented or contented they must be when they lurch between the extremes of those states has created an obsession with her body and what it must stand for.

Eilishs world tour which opened last night in Miami underscores these contradictions: While I feel your stares, your disapproval or your sighs of relief, if I lived by them, Id never be able to move, she says in a video shown between songs, as she removes her top and sinks into a pool of black water. Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Would you like me to be quiet? Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest? Am I my stomach? My hips?

As if to prove her point, the Sun reported on Eilish stripping to her bra with zero mention of her speech or its message, and titled their story Thrilly Eilish. Again: Eilish is 18 years old.

Its hard to think of any previous generation of young female pop star getting away with making such a public admonishment at the height of their stardom. Motowns girls were taught comportment by an in-house employee. The anorexia that killed Karen Carpenter was framed as an effective diet. To have her art taken seriously, Kate Bush had to endure the objectification of male journalists who typed with one hand. The Spice Girls had to wait until after the bands demise to discuss their respective eating disorders, lest they disrupt the image of supportive female friendship. Britney, Christina and Beyoncs millennium-era abs were testament to their drilled work ethic; Katy Perry and Ariana Grandes burgeoning images were dependent on marketing their sexuality, while Taylor Swifts taut middle stoked her image as an American ideal. To acknowledge Amy Winehouses bulimia would have complicated a convenient media narrative of debauchery.

In that context, Eilishs freedom to speak out represents a kind of progress. Its symptomatic of the control that she has retained over her career, and its impact on her fans is potentially profound. But being anointed a liberating force in the body-image stakes is its own kind of prison, one that preserves physicality as the ultimate measure of a female stars worth and the standard by which they can be undermined. The music industry and the media like to pat themselves on the back for making stars of Eilish and Lizzo, who often joins her in headlines about body positivity, though if these women one day wish to change their physical presentation, they will be accused of betraying fans and squandering their authenticity.

It is a minority of female musicians who are permitted this limiting form of freedom in the first place. Beyond Eilish and Lizzos presence at this years Brit awards, the photos from the red carpet looked like scenes from 2002: female musicians and influencers bearing aggressively toned abs, low-slung sparkly pants, dresses with gaping cutaways to highlight those effects. The media may praise Taylor Swift for speaking out about the disordered eating that she experienced until a few years ago, but it still perpetuates the standards that mean record labels will subject young, female pop stars to the punishing diets and exercise routines that Swift has described from her past. Female musicians who gain weight rarely return to the prime of their careers. Dua Lipas new video features an exercise routine. The narrative around Adeles fourth album, due later this year, is already centred on her recent weight loss.

Ever since the pianist Clara Schumann proved herself a concert virtuoso, female artists have had their creative worth tied to their physicality. The standards are so punishing and contradictory that it is hard not to suspect that they are purposefully engineered that way, to guarantee obsolescence as they succumb to human fallibility, thus clearing the decks to wave in a new phalanx of young bodies to ogle. As long as the industries that depend on its exploitation continue to exist, and new generations of onlookers are trained in envy and contempt for those bodies, this wont change.

As the industry races to replicate Eilishs success and the media hungers for more young girls to compel views, youd hope they would heed how this treatment has evidently affected her and ensure that no young female star is ever again subject to these vicious standards. As if.

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Body of work: why Billie Eilish is right to stand her ground against shaming - The Guardian

On busy mornings,its not uncommon to skimp on the fruit and veggies and reach for simple carbs for breakfast -- which may be vegan but they are not necessarily healthy. (Hello, bagel we are looking at you.) Thats exactly why adding so-called superfoods can be a fix: They get their super status by packing inmore nutrients per ounce than regular foods.

When you reach for the blender to make your next smoothie, add these nutrients to kick up your energy, speed metabolism and feel fuller from the fiber and density they provide.Whoaside from Popeyehas ever had time or inclination to throwback multiple handfuls of raw spinach every day? If youre still working on upping your intake of leafy greens, the easiest way to add more into your diet is by sneaking them in your smoothies.

Adding these five superfoods to your smoothies is a simple way to boost your intake of nutrient-dense foods when following a vegan diet, says Karla Moreno-Bryce, RD, owner of Nutritious Vida. It saves time and effort in having to meal plan a well-balanced meal.

The best nutrients come from the most fibrous of greens -- kale and spinach, with their vitamin-loaded package of Vitamins A, K, C, and B6, along with Calcium, Copper, and Potassium. There is a myth that blending these greens will destroy their fiber quotient. In fact, it does not. Blending does break down the fibers, but you still get the same amount, and keep all the nutrients intact, but blended in a smoothie your body can absorb these nutrients much quicker.

Chia seeds arent just for pudding. When you toss the tiny-yet-mighty energy boosters into your smoothie, youllupthe amount of crucial nutrients youre getting every dayand you wont even be able to tell theyre there. Chia seeds provide calcium, protein, and omega-3s, which are key nutrients when following a vegan diet, Moreno-Bryce says. Their high fiber content (two tablespoons have nearly 10 grams of fiber) will also help keep you full, which is why they're a great choice in the morning.

It only takes a small amount of hemp seeds toraisethe nutrition of your smoothie. No, seriouslywere talking a tablespoon. Hemp seeds are a great option to incorporate in smoothies, as they provide protein, iron, omega-3s, and manganese, she explains. A little can go a long way, as it can sometimes overpower the overall taste of your smoothie.

When it comes to protecting your cells from damage-causing free radicals and fighting off disease, its hard to find a fruit thats more powerful than blueberries.

Blueberries are a powerhouse in providing antioxidants, Moreno-Bryce says. I recommend choosing wild blueberries when possible, as these contain more antioxidants per serving than cultivated blueberries. Both frozen and fresh work well in smoothies.

Okay, okayadding quinoa to a smoothie sounds kind of odd. But hear me out: Its basically the secret weapon youve been missing out on when it comes to creating a morning beverage that fuels and satisfies.

Many dont consider quinoa as a smoothie-friendly ingredient, but it can be, Bryce-Moreno says. Use leftover quinoa from a previous meal to boost plant protein, fiber, folate, and iron to your morning or post-workout smoothie. This willensure you're fulland satisfied all throughout the morning up until lunch, keeping any snack cravings at bay.

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Add These 5 Superfoods to Your Smoothie to Boost Nutrients and Stay Full - The Beet

At age 69, Jane Seymour is feeling more confident than ever.

The British actress, who enjoys showcasing her sizzling swimsuit snaps on Instagram, insisted she doesnt edit them for her followers.

I dont retouch any of those pictures, its just me out there, the former Bond girl told People magazine on Tuesday. You can tell in the one in the waterfall, I certainly didnt put hair and makeup and do anything for that. I was getting splashed by a serious, serious waterfall there.

Seymour told the outlet theres really no secret behind her glowing confidence. Instead, she would tell other women to maintain balance in their lives.

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I felt that there are a lot of people I know who just give up, she explained. They have the babies and they say, OK, Im done caring about how I look and staying in shape. And then I think they think that people like me go to exotic spas and do all kinds of special treatments and I dont do any of that.

I think I wanted to show people what would happen if you just did a very simple regimen like I do, where youre not on any specialty diet, you eat as sensible as you can, everything in moderation.

When it comes to staying in shape, Seymour told the outlet she prefers a Mediterranean diet full of fish, nuts and vegetables. Seymour is also a big supporter of a no-nonsense skincare regimen.

I exfoliate really, really well, she said. Then I use Crepe Erase and I tend to use a lot of it. I love it and I put it in the regular places on my chest, my arms, my legs and even my face. Its all about plumping this skin up and enabling it to reset itself, too.

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When Seymour turned the big 6-9 on Feb. 15, she dished on her youthful secrets to Fox News.

I know nobody believes it, but its true Im eating sensibly, but not on some crazy diet, the former Dr. Quinn star said at the time. I work out, but I dont do anything insane, because Ive had injuries over the years and I know what my body can and cant do. Thats basically it.

I recently just dropped 14 pounds, she continued. I kind of got used to being bigger. Not that I was really huge or anything, but in my family there is type 2 diabetes. And my blood work was bordering on pre-diabetic. I told my doctor, You must be kidding. Im smaller than anyone I know!And he said, Well, its not your fault, but if you lose at least six pounds, you will reverse it.So, that was the first moment. And then one of my best friends he completely reversed his through a different way of eating.

Im not doing anything terribly clever. Im just doing intermittent fasting, but nothing huge. And I happen to like healthy food. We grow all our own food organically in the back garden. A lot of it in pots, which is, again, things that anyone can do. Even if you dont have a garden, you can grow things in containers and eat everything in moderation. And because Im not thinking about myself all the time Im thinking about other things and Ive got the kids or the grandchildren and Im working that gives me the energy that I need.

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Seymour also told Fox News that her fitness routine is very sporadic these days.

I try to get my heartbeat up with fast walking at least three times a week, she said. I also work out with a trainer and Ill do about 20 minutes on a stationary bicycle, the spin bicycle, but not spinning like crazy. I do my own form of it, usually with weights, as well. So I try to do the upper body at the same time as the lower body. And then I do Pilates and Gyrotonics, which I swear by.

So, things that are really good for my particular body, like the bridge and plank, I can do anywhere in any hotel room or anywhere at any time, Seymour shared. I dont need to go to the gym to do the things that are actually really good for my body. And having been a dancer, you have an understanding of form. So when you work out, I think you are very careful about having good form. Whereas some people just throw themselves in the gym. If you dont have proper form, you can injure yourself.

The rest is here:
Jane Seymour, 69, says she doesn't retouch her swimsuit photos on Instagram: 'It's just me out there' - foxwilmington.com

Reports from Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group, and from the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, reveal that the increase in concern reported by Pew correlates closely with media coverage of climate change. The three public opinion, economic well being or malaise, and general media coverage are closely intertwined.

The rise in coverage from 2016 through the end of 2017 can be attributed in large part to Trump's bellicose opposition to action on climate change, the singularly most highly visible environmental issue since well before he took office.

According to Media Matters, in 2017, "71 percent of [broadcast news] segments on climate change featured actions or statements by the Trump administration, most frequently the president's announcement that he intended to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement." By 2018, however, the initial outrage over Trump's contrarian stance on climate change had dissipated; again according to Media Matters, broadcast TV coverage of climate change dropped 45 percent.

Media Matters and MeCCO both report subsequent and significant increases in media coverage of climate change in 2019. Television coverage was up 138 percent; print coverage, by the five national newspapers tracked by MeCCO, was up 46 percent. (It should be noted that while the percentage increases are substantial, the total amount focusing on climate change as part of the full news coverage strikes many as woefully low.)

Media Matters attributes this increase in part to Covering Climate Now, the collaborative media effort spearheaded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation that was timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City in September 2019. That unprecedented initiative led to publication or broadcast of at least 3,640 stories, project managers indicate. (The Covering Climate Now project team is planning a similar media collaboration in concert with the 150th anniversary of the first Earth Day on April 22.) Media Matters also points to coverage decisions made independently by various cable, print, and broadcast news organizations.

But how were these 2019 developments experienced within news organizations?

By happenstance, on the same day that Pew Research Center released its February findings, Planet Forward, the environmental reporting platform created by George Washington University, hosted a panel discussion that featured representatives from broadcast, cable, and public television. Co-sponsored by Climate Nexus, "The Climate Is Changing. Is TV News Adapting?" provided individual and personal observations on the trends reported by MeCCO and Media Matters.

An Increase in Coverage

Two of the guests CBS News Meteorologist and Climate Specialist Jeff Berardelli (a contributor to Yale Climate Connections) and Eugenia Harvey, executive producer of WNET's Peril and Promise: The Challenge of Climate Change noted and complimented the spur provided by the Covering Climate Now initiative.

When CBS corporate officially signed on to the initiative, Berardelli said, journalists from nearly every news beat across the network came forward with story ideas.

At WNET, Harvey added, the initiative prompted new partnerships and allowed producers and reporters to share their stories with wider audiences. The longer-term increase in climate coverage at WNET, however, was prompted also by special funding provided by a donor who had recently realized how climate change could affect the lives of his grandchildren.

For Jen Christensen, health and climate unit producer for CNN, it was the economics of climate-related disasters that persuaded CNN decision-makers to increase coverage of climate change. Economic issues were one of the reasons CNN chose to produce the seven-hour "Climate Crisis Town Hall" with 10 of the 14 Democratic candidates vying for their party's nomination for president.

Changes in the Style and Mode of Coverage

Prompted by questions from Frank Sesno, a former CNN journalist and anchor who now directs GW's School of Media and Public Affairs, panelists also explained how the tenor of their organizations' climate coverage is changing.

In the Peril and Promise series at WNET, Harvey noted, the stories highlight issues of social justice. As Christensen's job title indicates, the health angle is critical to the stories she produces for CNN.

Berardelli added that colleagues at CBS had become more conscious of the timeframes they use in their climate stories: To be relevant to the lives of viewers, stories have to connect with problems they might encounter in human-scale time spans, like mortgage cycles. In California, "people are losing their insurance because of increasing fire risks," he noted. That's something every homeowner can understand.

Sesno also asked panelists about challenges they face in producing and placing stories about climate change. All noted that the almost limitless space afforded by digital media meant that stories that could not be fit into televised programs could still be posted online.

And rarely are they asked by their managers to "balance" their climate science stories: The scientific consensus on climate change is broadly accepted within their news organizations. Nevertheless, all three panelists acknowledged that climate change is still a divisive topic for some viewers. But by including alternative frames that appeal to conservatives (e.g. economy, personal autonomy, national security), they agreed, journalists could connect with these viewers.

Addressing climate change, Berardelli said, could result in "millions of high-paying jobs" and "could revive forgotten places in America."

And regardless of their political views, for Americans living in coastal communities that still rely on septic tanks, Christensen noted, rising sea levels could mean "you won't be able to flush your toilet."

Even religious objections to action on climate change "God would not permit such wholesale destruction" can be countered with context-appropriate framing. "Have you ever read the Old Testament?" Harvey exclaimed in response to questions about dealing with religious viewpoints.

Finding Hope

As important to the evolving climate beat as surmounting skepticism, however, is countering the doom and gloom created by misleading warnings that "we have just 12 years to act on climate change."

In his classes on sustainability reporting, Sesno said, roughly one-quarter of the women say they have decided not to have children.

Harvey acknowledged that stories of "peril" typically attract the most viewers, but emphasized the importance of "promise" for WNET's coverage of climate change.

One challenge for communicators was succinctly posed by a politically conservative member of the audience: "How do we shift from 'climate Armageddon' to solutions?"

Berardelli stressed that action on climate change could not only avoid disaster, it could improve matters.

Sesno followed up on this point by highlighting the significant progress humanity had made in solving other environmental problems.

Reducing carbon emissions may well be more difficult. Nevertheless, it is still a matter of regulating pollutants and polluters. The list of 100 companies responsible for 71 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted since 1988 includes companies that were also responsible, in decades past, for polluting Earth's air and water. Solving climate change, like cleaning the air and water, could become a positive story about human ingenuity and cooperation.

"We will need everyone's help," Berardelli concluded, "and we could make everyone's life better."

Telling that story will be one of numerous challenges in covering climate change in 2020.

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