The New Dietary Guidelines

The Choose My Plate guidelines take a more simple approuch to nutrition and weight management. They emphasize being at a healthy weight through maintaining energy balance by consuming nutrient-rich foods, drinking water instead of calorie-dense beverages, and being physically active.

I like the positive spin of first recommending a list of foods to eat more of:

fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, leans meats, beans and peas, low-fat dairy. Nothing has really changed with that list.
 
Then the guidelines reveal foods and ingredients to eat less of:

salt, saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, solid fats, added sugars, refined grains, and alcohol.

What I like about these guidelines this time around
 

A simple message about fruits and vegetables: 

they should fill half your plate 

•  Emphasizing fish and oils, as opposed to solid fats
•  Acknowledged that our social environment plays a significant role in our food choice
• A Focus on calcium, vitamin D, fiber, and potassium
• Continued emphasis on the importance of regular exercise

 What I don't like about the guidelines
 
Why are they still recommending only half the grains we eat to come from whole sources? We should aim for ALL of them to be whole grains, and then settle a little lower

Read more online at:

 choosemyplate  

Yoga and Flexibility

When some people think of yoga, they imagine having to stretch like a gymnast. That makes them worry that they're too old, unfit, or "tight" to do yoga. The truth is you're never too old to improve flexibility.

The series of yoga poses called asanas work by safely stretching your muscles. This releases the lactic acid that builds up with muscle use and causes stiffness, tension, pain, and fatigue. In addition, yoga increases the range of motion in joints. It may also increase lubrication in the joints. The outcome is a sense of ease and fluidity throughout your body.

Yoga stretches not only your muscles but all of the soft tissues of your body. That includes ligaments, tendons, and the fascia sheath that surrounds your muscles. And no matter your level of yoga, you most likely will see benefits in a very short period of time. In one study, participants had up to 35% improvement in flexibility after only eight weeks of yoga.