Cherry Picking

Cherries may help fight the battle of the bulge and diabetes, a study from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor reveals.  Rats fed tart cherries for 90 days metabolized fat and sugar better and gained less weight compared to those who didn’t eat the fruit.  Stir dried cherries into your yogurt or add to a serving of almonds for a great snack!

Iced Chocolate Cake

Low-Fat Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Cream Frosting

Chocolate Cake
1-¾ cups flour
½ cup cocoa
¼ cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon light salt
1-¼ cup sugar substitute
1 cup water
½ cup applesauce
3 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13×9″ baking pan. Combine flour, cocoa, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Use a wire whisk to combine water and sugar in bowl. Stir in syrup, fold in egg whites. Gradually sift dry ingredients into syrup mixture; mix until smooth. Spoon into baking pan, bake for 35 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Vanilla Cream Frosting:
¾ cup fat-free cottage cheese
3 tablespoons low-fat buttermilk
3 tablespoons fat-free plain yogurt
3 tablespoons superfine sugar substitute
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped from pod

Combine all ingredients except vanilla seeds in blender. Process until smooth. Add seeds and refrigerate.

Serves:  12                                                      Fat grams: less than 1
Phase:  4                                                         Protein:  6.0

This recipe can be found in our Thin&Healthy Forever Cookbook. Pick up your copy from your local Thin&Healthy Center or order it now by clicking here

Oh Nuts!

They are good for you! After years of being labeled “bad” foods, nuts are garnering national attention as a tool in maintaining overall health. Nuts are being credited with helping to lower the risk of heart attacks, maintaining young, elastic skin and reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s.

Tree nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans and walnuts, have no cholesterol and are high in unsaturated (“good”) fats; they help reduce LDL and total cholesterol levels. One healthy fat, linolenic acid, is an example of an unsaturated fat that helps maintain good heart health.

Nuts are high in calories but are also cholesterol-free and they provide good sources of protein, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, vitamin E and selenium. In small portions, nuts can be a healthful food choice.

Try these tips for incorporating nuts into your diet:

• Instead of simply adding nuts to your diet, eat them in place of other snacks; that way you won’t add extra calories.
• Weigh the nuts before you eat them. Find a convenient sized container to store a single serving in (like a small mint tin). To measure out an ounce of nuts use a regular ½ ounce shot glass-2 shot glasses = 1 ounce.
• Choose raw nuts. If you opt for dry-roasted or oil- roasted nuts, be aware that the calorie and fat content will usually be higher. If nuts are roasted with hydrogenated oil the quality of the fat will be compromised. Also remember that added salt may not be good for those with high blood pressure.
• Avoid sugar-coated, chocolate-dipped and other candied nuts, as these add unnecessary fat calories.
• Buy nuts in the shell; having to crack them open will slow your eating down!
• Coconut and palm nuts are exceptions to the healthy nut rule as they contain high levels of saturated fats.

Want to Shorten Your Life? I didn’t think so….

How Lack of Exercise Shortens Lives by Dr. Gabe Mirkin

Many studies show that people die from inactivity, not just from aging. We know that as people age, they lose muscle, their immunities weaken and because of their weakened immunity, they are more likely to die of cancer and infectious diseases. As you age, you lose your ability to kill germs because of lack of muscle. When germs get into your body, you must make white blood cells and proteins called antibodies to kill them.

Antibodies and cells are made from protein and the only place that you can store extra protein is in your muscles. When you have large muscles, you have a ready source of protein to make antibodies and cells. When you have small muscles, you have a very limited source of amino acids to make protein, so your immunity may be inadequate to kill germs.

You need antibodies to control cancer cells also. Each day, every healthy body makes millions of cancer cells. Your white blood cells and protein antibodies are necessary to ferret out and kill these cancer cells. You develop cancer when these cancer cells survive and start growing. Having large muscles gives you the source of protein to make antibodies that kill cancer cells as well as germs. Furthermore, when your skeletal muscles are small, so is your heart muscle. A strong heart can withstand arteriosclerosis and infections that can kill a weak heart.

Lack of exercise causes muscles to get smaller. With aging, it takes increasingly longer to recover from exercise. When older people get injured or get tired too soon or feel sore too early, they do less and less or they stop exercising altogether. Instead, they should be exercising more intelligently so they can retain their muscles.

A major advantage of competing in sports at any age is that you can learn good training techniques and how to avoid injuries. If you can exercise into your nineties and beyond without quitting or getting injured, you can retain muscle mass, keep up your immunity and live longer and healthier.

20 Minute Meals

Stretch your meals to at least 20 minutes or longer. Your stomach, mouth and brain are all connected and it takes 20 minutes of chewing before your stomach signals your brain that you are full. To feel full and successfully lose weight on any program, you need to eat slowly for 20 minutes or longer.

Taco Twist Soup

1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons olive or canola oil
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1-½ cups picante sauce
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups reduced-sodium beef broth or vegetable broth
1 can (14-½ ounces) diced tomatoes
1 cup uncooked spiral pasta
2 teaspoons chili powder
½ cup shredded fat-free cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan, sauté onion, and garlic in oil until tender. Add the broth, beans, tomatoes, picante sauce, pasta, green pepper and seasonings. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally. Serve with cheese and sour cream.

Serves:  6                                                        Fat grams: 3.3
Phase:  3, 4                                                     Protein:  12.7

This recipe can be found in our Thin&Healthy Forever Cookbook. Pick up your copy from your local Thin&Healthy Center or order it now by clicking here

Fight Fat with Dairy

Research shows that dieters who ate three yogurt servings a day (1,100 milligrams of calcium) for 12 weeks lost 22 percent more weight and 61 percent more fat than those who got 500 milligrams of the mineral. “Compounds in dairy foods work with calcium to increase enzymes that stimulate fat breakdown and decrease enzymes that cause fat production,” explains Michael Zemel, PhD, author of The Calcium Key (John Wiley & Sons, 2003). Snacks such as low-fat yogurt, skim milk, and string cheese will help you meet the daily requirement of 1,000 milligrams.

How To Achieve 2 1/2 Billion Beats

Physical exercise strengthens your cardio vascular system and helps support your skeletal muscular system. The two major systems that keep you in shape physically are put into action and driven to health when you work out and exercise physically. A good workout gets the blood pumping, moving throughout your body, taking those nutrients where they need to go. A good workout gets your lungs working hard and expanding their ability to take in and effectively use the oxygen meant to funnel through your body. Working out gets your heart pumping hard and strengthening itself so it can continue to beat strong and hard for many years to come. (Just do the math: Have you ever considered that a heart that beats an average of 70 beats per minute will beat 2,575,440,000 times in a 70-year life!? That is over two and a half billion times! You need to keep it in working order to go that long!).  A good workout develops and maintains strong muscles so they can carry your body around and remains a good support for the rest of your life! Can you see how important it is, if you want to succeed and achieve a well-balanced life of health, to give a priority to physical exercise? It is imperative we take good care of our body because that is the only place we have to live.

Belly fat got you down? Just click here to learn how you can get rid of your unwanted belly fat!

Eat These…Weigh Less

Bean eaters weigh as much as 6.6 pounds less than non-bean eaters according to John La Puma, MD.  Beans are full of fiber and protein but low in fat which means a serving will keep you fuller longer and prevent you from running for a snack as often.

See recipe below for Taco Twist Soup (which includes your beans!).

PS The darker the bean, the bigger the benefit.

Devil’s Food Cookies

Devil’s Food Cookies

¼ cup fat-free margarine, softened
½ cup fat-free buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 egg whites, whipped
1-½ cups unbleached flour
½ cup cocoa powder, sifted
2/3 cup sugar substitute
1 teaspoon soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons powdered sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets with cooking spray, set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine margarine, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and egg whites. In another mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients just until moistened. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls, 2″ apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Serves:  48                                                      Fat grams: less than 1
Phase:  4                                                  Protein:  less than 1

This recipe can be found in our Thin&Healthy Forever Cookbook. Pick up your copy from your local Thin&Healthy Center or order it now by clicking here.