Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

The holidays are over and many of us have made our resolutions to eat healthier, get fit, stick to a program. The hard part is not only starting but knowing where to start! I have a lot of people ask me what I eat, they think eating healthy consists of eating sprouts and bland boring foods. They also think they can't afford to eat healthy. Well it's not boring, bland or too expensive! Here is a helpful blog post I did. I hope it helps jumpstart your fitness and healthy lifestyle!!

http://www.robynbuzzi.com/2014/01/clean-eating-shopping-bjs-club.html

The following list of foods are what I feel are the most unhealthy and should be avoided. This isn't just for those looking to lose weight, but for everyone that would like to avoid diseases as well. I've researched many of these foods and they should be limited, if not eliminated from your diet altogether.

1. Aspertame. I know aspartame has been in the news recently, with some experts saying it's not dangerous in small amounts. I question this as I've read many different views on the subject. At the very least, it causes headaches and some severe cases have been reported about links to MS. This is a chemical discovered in a scientific lab. It doesn't sound very safe to me, and I would rather avoid disease than listen to the occasional reports that say it's okay to consume. I recommend trying stevia, a natural sweetener instead.

Weight, that is. Researchers studying US football fans (and French soccer fanatics) found that many sports addicts turn to junk food to help take the sting out of a loss. Fans of a losing team seem to consume extra fat and sugar, using comfort food as a way to deal with their emotions.

The Christmas holiday is a tough time to keep in shape. I applaud Ryan's recent post about how to maintain your waist size over Christmas. It is something so many of us go through… Christmas parties at work, family get togethers, cookies everywhere. Everyone expects you to partake in all the eating and drinking, so if you're not prepared ahead of time, you can really overdo it.

There's pressure for those that have already lost weight too. Certain people may watch closely to see what food you will take. Maybe they'll make comments like "go ahead, eat some dessert", or "you're skinny enough, you can eat this"! It can get very uncomfortable when all the people there know that you lost weight.

Last week, Dr. Oz had a show about preventing pancreatic cancer. One of the things he mentioned is to avoid foods with nitrites in them. Other possible risk factors include obesity and family history.

Luckily, I don't seem to like the foods with nitrites in them. Many of you probably do though, as they are very common in the American diet. They include lunch meat, hot dogs, sausage and… bacon. Yes, the popular breakfast choice of many has nitrites in it.