On Sunday, the New England Patriots pulled off an incredible come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Falcons.  Much has been made of quarterback Tom Brady and his amazing performance as an athlete at what, for most athletes, would be the twilight of their careers.  Love him or hate him at 39, Brady’s performance does not seem to be waning. Tom Brady has great genes.  He is not yet showing signs of decreased muscle mass and other natural signs of aging. The Boston Globe recently did a story about Tom Brady’s remarkable  biology, citing “maniacal workouts to maintain his VO2 max (the... Read More

Hippocrates said “All disease begins in the gut.”  He might have been even wiser than we ever knew.  With Valentine’s Day coming soon,  it makes sense to talk about the importance of keeping your heart healthy.  Did you know that heart health can be predicted by looking at the bacteria in your gut? A molecule, called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), is produced by gut bacteria when you eat red meat, eggs, and dairy.  Based on the level of TMAO in your gut, scientists can determine how healthy your heart is, according to a study in  the European Heart Journal.  The higher... Read More

Sugar is everywhere, almost impossible to avoid.  It’s in foods like bread, pasta sauce, salad dressing, and ketchup. It can be challenging to find sugar in your food because nutrition labels are not required to list all sugar.  In 2018, nutrition labels will be required to call out all added sugar but, in the meantime, you’ll have to do some sugar sleuthing to manage your sugar intake. The Institute of Medicine has made recommendations for sugar intake.  Since sugar isn’t a required nutrient in the diet, the institute has not issued a recommended dietary allowance, but does suggest... Read More

If you haven’t heard about the current Congress’ plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, you may have been hiding under a rock.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a federal agency of the US government that provides budget and economic information to Congress, recently released a report outlining the anticipated consequences of repealing the law. If you think that repeal will not affect you, think again. Those who have purchased individual insurance coverage on the exchange could see an increase in their premiums of 20% or more.  Because the current strategy is... Read More

The way we read, write, and talk helps to determine the way we see the world. Recently, economist Keith Chen published a paper that asked the question, are languages with less decisive future tenses more thoughtful about the future because they consider it grammatically equivalent to the present. For example, in English, we say “I will go to the play tomorrow,” which is a strong future tense. In Mandarin or Finnish, which have weaker future tenses, it might be more appropriate to say, “I go to the play tomorrow.”   Chen discovered that speakers of German, Finnish... Read More

People don’t  make resolutions and then spring into lasting action. Behavior change researcher James Prochaska and others (link is external) have written about how people actually change — in stages. The actual behavior change, like starting to exercise, or going on a diet, is not the first stage of change, but rather comes after contemplating a change and then preparing to make the change. Research says that almost all of us who make resolutions will fail. One reason we fail is our resolutions are too vague. Typically we say things like I’m going to “lose weight”... Read More

This year was a crazy one, with a tumultuous election cycle, protests, shootings, issues of sexual assault on college campuses — it was a year to remember. Some important things happened that informed our health habits.  These events will have impact on our lives and our health now and in the future.  Here are some of the 2016 news stories that have and will shape how we think about well-being. The Good News Panera Bread goes clean.  Panera Bread vowed last year to serve only “clean ingredients” by the end of 2016. that vow involves removing artificial preservatives, sweetener,... Read More

Earlier this fall a news story revealed a plot in the 60s by the sugar industry.  The Sugar Research Foundation, now called the Sugar Association, paid scientists to downplay  the link between sugar and heart disease and instead blame saturated fat. Other revelations about how the food industry has influenced nutrition science have come to light as well, most notably Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, provided millions of dollars in funding to researchers who sought to play down the link between sugary drinks and obesity. What does all this mean?  It means you have... Read More

There is a plethora of information about super foods and what you should be eating to be healthy, live longer, have good brain health and more.  You probably already know that avocado is a nutrient superstar, full of healthy monounsaturated fat and linked to successful weight loss.  Dark chocolate is another food celebrity loaded with antioxidants and a protective agent against heart disease.  Let’s talk about some of the unexpected foods that have health benefits that you might not be eating. Embrace egg yolks! Eggs are a misunderstood fat-rich food that’s an incredible source of vitamin... Read More

  My yoga instructor always says, “Do you think you are enlightened?  Spend some time with your family.”  The point is, even the most zen of us can get caught up in relationship patterns and history that can harsh our mellow.  You may have started the holiday season already stressed.  The 2016 election was unprecedented in its divisiveness and the levels of anger and frustration that played out before and after.  Some of that divisiveness may have been within your own family and, now that the holidays are here, it may seem like the level of frenzy is higher than usual.  The... Read More