Tag: fuel

During the fall, you can’t miss the abundance of pumpkin based foods and drinks available in grocery stores and restaurants. Higher end coffee shops like Starbucks and fast food joints like McDonald’s offer some type of pumpkin confection during the cool fall months. If you are interested in losing weight, you know to avoid high-calorie pumpkin desserts, but is pumpkin a food you should think about including in your diet plan? Here are five good reasons to eat pumpkin whenever you can.

Pumpkin Gives You Fiber

Pumpkin lattes don’t have much fiber, but both raw and cooked pumpkin do. The USDA Nutrient Database indicates that 1 cup of raw pumpkin has 1 g of fiber and a cup of cooked pumpkin has 2.7 g. Fiber not only helps you stay regular (if you know what I mean) but also plays a role in keeping you full. So indulge in real pumpkin but skip the lattes.

In case you were wondering why the difference in the raw versus cooked numbers, when you cook a food like pumpkin it becomes compressed or denser. So a cup of cooked pumpkin takes up less space than a cup of raw pumpkin. Now you know.

Pumpkin is Low, Low, Low in Calories

Pumpkin is very low in calories, making it an ideal weight loss food. A whole cup of raw pumpkin has just 30 calories and a cup of cooked pumpkin has 49 calories. That’s less than an apple or half a banana. You can eat a lot of pumpkin and not have it negatively affect your weight loss efforts at all.

Pumpkin Fits into Low Carb Diets

Pumpkin is not a zero carb food, but it is relatively low in carbohydrates. A cooked cup of pumpkin has 12 g of carbs and raw pumpkin has just 7 g of carbs. If you want to include pumpkin into your low carb diet, just be sure to pair it with other low carb foods. For example, have a pumpkin soup alongside a grilled pork chop or lean steak.

Pumpkin Has More Potassium Than a Banana

A small banana has 362 mg of potassium and a cup of raw or cooked pumpkin has 394 and 564 mg, respectively. Potassium is important to your body because it moves glucose to your muscles and helps control your electrolyte balance. Adequate potassium intake helps your body maintain or replenish its electrolyte balance after sweating during exercise.

An easy way to use pumpkin as an after exercise pick-me-up is to blend 1/4 cup of pureed pumpkin with half a scoop of protein powder, 1/2 cup almond milk, and a dash of stevia.

Pumpkin is Versatile

Pumpkin is a versatile vegetable you can use in your weight loss plan all year long. In fact, I tend to buy a few extra cans of pumpkin during November to use throughout the year. If you are ambitious, you can buy raw pumpkins, cook them yourself, and store the cooked pumpkin in the freezer for six to eight months.

I like to use pumpkin in whole wheat muffins, smoothies, pancakes, casseroles, and soups. When including pumpkin in foods, make sure not to ruin the low-calorie pumpkin by adding a bunch of calories from sugar, unhealthy carbohydrates, or unnecessary fats. I’m looking at you – sweet potato casserole.

Five years ago, I stopped eating non-grass-fed beef products, and my family questioned my sanity. Back then (said like it was ancient history), grass-fed beef was really hard to find where I live; now, it is only pretty hard to find. You could forget about seeing it on most restaurant menus. You basically had to hunt it down and sometimes special order it to cook yourself.

It also cost way more than my family had ever spent on meat.

A lot of people ask me now if it’s worth it. Given that I still stand by my decision, my obvious answer is yes…for me. But why, and does that mean it’s unequivocally better for everyone? What does the other side say?

THE PROS

– Many articles claim that grass-fed beef is leaner than grain-fed. It has less marbling, which is an important measure of internal fat that doesn’t get trimmed before cooking or eating.

– The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is more favorable in grass-fed beef, with a higher omega-3 content and lower omega-6. This ratio is a big deal.

– Cows evolved to eat grass. Feeding them grains can lead to more cattle sickness, which can promote more antibiotic use, which in turn sets the stage for stronger, antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect us. It also raises some ethical red flags, since the grains slowly cause liver abscesses and acidosis (both treated with more antibiotics, naturally), the latter of which can lead to sudden death syndrome.

– Most non-grass-fed cattle finish their lives in feedlots: essentially, expansive pens full of cattle as far as the eye can see. Not quite the image you normally conjure when you think of how your food was raised, right?

THE CONS

– It costs more upfront.

– Less marbling may mean less fat, but it also means a tougher, chewier product if care is not taken during preparation.

– If grass-fed is leaner, that means that it contains minimal amounts of fat. If it contains minimal amounts of fat, then how can it possibly be a significant source of omega-3 fats specifically? (It’s not.)

– Some authorities suggest that cows raised 100% on pasture result in huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and land use, resulting in a larger carbon footprint. Feedlots, they argue, are far more efficient.

– Farmers like to remind us that all beef is grass-fed, but some is “grain-finished.” (In a feedlot. For “only” six months.)

– Grass-finishing can take up to a year longer than grain-finishing, which puts a strain on the beef supply.

I’ve actually had a farmer argue that their cows would rather never roam free, and in fact, prefer their indoor stalls with grain-filled food bins. My colleague’s response was spot on: “Well sure, I’d like to spend all day lying on my couch eating Cheetos too, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for me!”

Which leads me to…

THE BOTTOM LINE

You know what I’m going to say: FIT!

First of all, arguing that it’s not a big deal to finish a cow on grain if it spends “most of its life” on pasture is like saying it’s not a big deal if a human were to subsist entirely on corn muffins from age 50 onwards, as long as they ate salads every day before that. It’s ridiculous.

But look, here’s the thing: critics are right. We can’t convert all of our feedlots to grazing pastures and continue to pump out the tremendous quantities of beef to meet our nation’s current demand. Grass-fed or not, we eat too much red meat in this country, and it has a lot of hidden costs too few people are talking about. That statement is wildly unpopular, I know, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you.

Eat less meat.

One benefit of eating less? You might find that you can afford to buy grass-fed and finished, saving up for one, pricey purchase each month rather than lots of cheap ones. You can also save money by purchasing straight from the farm, usually in large-quantity cow shares that can be split with other families.

If, in the end, your family really cannot afford grass-fed meat, don’t panic. The worst thing would be to succumb to analysis paralysis, where the overwhelming idea of perfection prevents you from making any change at all. If you have to buy conventional beef, you can still impact the health of your family and your planet by focusing on portion size and frequency.

There is no one, right answer. My response has been to eat very small quantities of 100% grass-fed beef. For some, that may seem too extreme; for others, not extreme enough. But it’s my choice based on my evaluation of the facts. What will yours be?

For years, butter and oils were either off-limits or to be consumed in small quantities if you were trying to lose weight. With the shift away from low-fat dieting and toward dieting using real foods, some diets now encourage the use of butter and healthy oils. Along those lines, there are people who advocate adding butter and coconut oil to black coffee as a way to improve your health and enhance your weight loss efforts. But does it make sense?

There are several versions of the coffee and butter recipes. Dave Asprey, who is generally credited for the Bulletproof Coffee trend, indicates you should use their branded coffee, organic grass-fed butter, and organic coconut oil. Other proponents of the butter and oil in coffee are more relaxed about the ingredients and say that choosing a particular brand of coffee, butter, and oil is not necessary.

How’s It Done?

One common recipe for making the coffee is to begin by brewing 8 ounces of strong black coffee. Put the coffee in a blender with 1 tablespoon of organic butter and a tablespoon of coconut oil. Blend until the oils and coffee are mixed and drink promptly. If you don’t have a traditional blender you can use an immersion blender or a hand mixer.

Hint: If you don’t use a blender or mixer you can end up with a pretty gross looking concoction. The oils float in the coffee and look very unappetizing.

Why Is It Recommended?

Proponents of the coffee say the combination of the coffee, butter, and oil give your brain a boost of needed fats, your body sustainable energy, and leave you feeling full for longer.

In case you are skeptical, there could be some scientific backing for such a claim.

Researchers found that an adequate consumption of saturated fats might have a protective effect on heart disease. The study, published in a 2013 issue of the “BMJ” discovered that participants who consumed the least saturated fats, like those found in the coffee recipe, weighed more than participants who consumed more saturated fats.

When your fat intake is appropriate, you will likely feel less hungry. If that doesn’t make sense, think about this. If you eat a plain salad with nothing on it, you are not as full when you are finished as you are when you add some dressing, nuts, avocado, seeds, or other foods relatively high in fats.

How to Use the Coffee for Weight Loss

I’m an advocate of being very careful with the number of calories you get from beverages and this is no exception. Let’s take a look at the caloric impact of this type of coffee on your diet. source: 

Calorie Breakdown of Coffee with Butter and Oil

Coffee, Brewed: 2 calories

1 Tablespoon Butter: 102 Calories

1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil: 121 Calories

Total: 225 Calories

Now, 225 calories is not a lot over the course of a day, but it a lot of calories to drink. If you are keeping your calories at the 1,400 level, that’s 16 percent of your total caloric intake. Sure you are getting some healthy fats but you are also taking in a lot of calories.

If you want to try the coffee, consider half a cup instead of a full cup. You will cut the calories in half and still receive the potential benefits.

Even better, find those healthy fats in organic grass-fed beef, sauté vegetables in the coconut oil, or put a little butter on a slice of 100 percent whole wheat toast.

Drink your coffee black and save calories for foods you eat.

Babies and little kids have snacks. They need them. But do adults really need snacks? And do you need snacks if you are losing weight? It’s a hot topic and one that often elicits heated discussion when I bring it up during a weight loss clinic or even when discussing weight loss one-on-one with friends. Here are some things to consider when deciding whether to add snacks to your weight loss meal plan.

In days past, adults did not snack as much as they do now. If you are old enough to remember back to the 1950s and 1960s, your parents and grandparents probably had few snacks and rarely had regularly scheduled snack times. Back then, fewer adults were overweight or obese. A study in a 2015 issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that over the last 40 years, the percentage of calories from snacks for adults increased.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as snacking increased, so did obesity rates–especially considering that the most popular snack foods are chips, cookies, candy, crackers, and frozen desserts: all snacks that pack a tremendous calorie punch, especially for the dieter.

The Case For Snacks

If you are trying to lose weight, obviously you have to eat fewer calories than you usually do. After all, you can’t just wish for weight loss but not take steps to make it happen. When you reduce your calorie intake, you are going to feel hungrier. A snack in between meals can help stave off the hunger and cravings.

If eating a 100-calorie snack (such as a banana with a teaspoon of peanut butter on it) helps you skip the vending machine candy bar, then that snack served its purpose. It kept you full enough to wait until your next meal, gave you some excellent nutrients, and didn’t add a lot of calories.

That’s the right way to snack.

The Case Against Snacks

Snacks can be the downfall of a dieter. I’ve seen it more times than I can count. A well thought-out daily meal plan can fall by the wayside when too many snacks enter the picture.

The reasons for this are threefold:

1) Snack calories are hard to control

Snacks for babies tend to be small bits of food. Snacks for adults tend to be large servings of food. You have to make certain you are not burning through half your calories during your 2:00 p.m. snack. Snacks need to be small, low in calories, and planned.

2) Poor snack choices

A piece of fruit or some vegetables are good snack choices. However, many dieters use snack time as an opportunity to have a few cookies, a nibble of candy, or a sliver of cake. To make snacking work, you have to look at snacks as a time to enhance your nutrient intake instead of a way to indulge a sweet craving.

3) Timing of snacks

There is little need for a healthy adult to have a mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and after-dinner snack. Snacking all day long tends to increase the number of calories you consume. In fact, a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that people who ate a morning snack tended to lose less weight than people who skipped a morning snack.

Snacking is not necessary for a successful weight loss plan. You don’t have to have two planned snacks in your day if you don’t want to. I challenge you to rethink your snack habits and decide for yourself whether snacks are helping or hurting your weight loss plan.

If they are helping, keep doing what works for you. If they are hurting, eliminate, change, or tweak how you handle snacks.

Are you sick of hearing about red and processed meats causing cancer yet?
I understand. Stay with me.
I have read a lot of responses to the WHO’s categorization of processed meat as a Class 1 carcinogen, with red meat, in general, falling not far behind in Class 2A. At first, there was an uproar (from the meat industry). Then, there was fear (from the general public).
And now, it seems, there is placation. Don’t worry, health organizations all over assure us; you won’t get cancer from eating one hot dog.
It’s not that they’re wrong. You won’t get cancer from eating a hot dog, but this sugarcoated, tell-them-what-they-want-to-hear response makes me cringe all over. It encourages people to shrug off science and go right back to what they were doing before the report made headlines.
This is not a green light to go back to your Sausage Egg McMuffin every morning.
(I mean, you can. It’s a free country, but don’t expect me to say it’s what the dietitian ordered.)
Here is what you need to know about red and processed meats and your health.

1. Processed meats and cigarettes are both Class 1 carcinogens, but that does not mean that eating bacon every day is equally as carcinogenic as smoking cigarettes every day.

We have to get this out of the way first, because as biased as I am against processed meats, they are not worse than smoking. Quitting smoking is the single most positive change you can make for your health, period.

2. That being said, this recent “announcement” is not breaking news.

We have known for years that there is a notable relationship between red and processed meat consumption and disease, including heart disease and, yes, certain forms of cancer. Eat lots of red and processed meat, and you have a substantially higher risk of getting one or more of those diseases.
Does that mean everyone who downs a double bacon cheeseburger for lunch every day will definitely wind up with cancer? Of course not. There are also people who smoke twenty cigarettes a day and live to be 100. It’s called genes, and some people get the good ones. Feelin’ lucky?

3. If you’re not as lucky, here’s how these meats and meat products could impact your life:

• For every 50 grams of processed meat or 100 grams of red meat you eat every day, your risk of colorectal cancer goes up 18%. That’s three slices of bacon or about one plain quarter-pounder.
• Daily consumption of that same 50 grams of processed meats (but not unprocessed red meats) has been associated with a 42% increased risk of heart disease and a 19% increased risk of diabetes.
• People eating over 100 grams of red meat per day may be over three times as likely to get pancreatic by age 39, and the highest red meat consumers have a 40-50% increased risk.
• High meat intake has been associated with a 17 percent increased risk of breast cancer among women, though more research is certainly needed.

4. Despite what the commercials from the 1990s wanted us to believe, pork is not “the other white meat.”

It is, in fact, red meat; and if you cure it or stuff it into a sausage casing, then it’s also a processed meat. Oh, and if you swap out the pork for turkey but still call it bacon, that counts, too. It’s important to understand how the report defined all of these terms.

5. Stop looking for loopholes.

We can’t cheat our way out of this one. Turkey bacon is still bacon. Uncured bacon is (probably) still bacon. One slice of bacon is still bacon.
You don’t eat cake every day and call it healthy, do you? Desserts aren’t the only edible treats; other foods are meant to be consumed more sparingly as well.
Eat a hot dog on the 4th of July, but not on a random November afternoon. Have a few slices of Christmas ham, but don’t stock up on it for weekday lunches. The answer doesn’t have to be veganism (unless you’re into that), but why is it so controversial to say that eating bacon every day is less than ideal?
And last but not least, know this:

6. You can change a lot of your risk by eating more fruits and vegetables.

It always comes back to this, doesn’t it? Forget about the meat for a second. Ignore the lobbyists for the beef council, the PETA members and life-long vegans, the physicians and mommy bloggers and your Great Uncle Joe.
Nutrition is complex, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. When the messages get too messy and you feel overwhelmed, focus on just one thing:
Eat more fruits and vegetables.
(Especially the vegetables.)

America loves coffee. In fact, 54 percent of American adults drink coffee every single day. But even if you choose coffee that’s organic, fair trade, and shade-grown, coffee production can still be extremely wasteful. No matter how much farmers streamline the process, coffee production creates a byproduct called coffee pulp. And while some of the byproduct is useful as fertilizer, far too much of it ends up taking its toll on the surrounding environment. But one former Starbucks executive thinks he’s finally come up with a solution that makes use of the pulp and provides small, indigenous communities with a new revenue stream. By turning pulp into flour, Dan Belliveau is solving a number of problems with one thoughtful innovation.

The Problem with Pulp

The process of separating the coffee cherry from the beans produces loads of pulp, a byproduct that can be used to make tea as well as fertilizer. In all, about25 percent of leftover coffee pulp is transitioned into the rich fertilizer that’s used to grow coffee trees. Still,17 billion pounds of coffee cherry pulp is thrown away annually. This coffee waste can end up in ground water, lakes, and streams, stripping our waterways of oxygen and harming wildlife.

Putting Coffee Pulp To Work

As a result, coffee producers have been looking for a way to put coffee pulp to work. EnterCoffee Flour, a new product that’s the brainchild of former Starbucks executive Dan Belliveau. In his plight to come up with some use for coffee pulp, he realized that the used coffee cherries could be dried and milled into a nutrient dense flour. Belliveau thinks that Coffee Flour could divert billions of pounds of coffee waste from waterways.

Nutrient Dense and Delicious

Coffee Flour doesn’t taste like coffee. While it has a dark, rich flavor, it’s also bright and fruity. This brown-hued flour can be baked into cookies, energy bars, coffee cake, brownies, and hot cereals. In fact, Coffee Flour can be used for baking in many of the same foods as regular flour, but it’s much healthier. The pulp-derived flour isgluten-free, plus it contains five times more fiber than whole grain wheat flour, 3 times the iron of fresh spinach, and 3 times more protein than kale. It’s nutrient dense, full of flavor, and it gives you a little boost. With around12 to 15 percent of the caffeine found in a regular cup of coffee. If you want to amp up the caffeine content, you can combine it with chocolate, which adds up to the caffeine in a single cup of coffee.

Boosting Coffee Flour Communities

Another main reason why Coffee Flour is winning praise is the positive impact it can have on communities. Belliveau wants the flour’s production to stay in local communities where the coffee pulp is produced in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and Vietnam. Creating a new product from the pulp waste means new jobs in areas that may be the first to feel thepains of global warming.

Specifically, global warming makes it easier for damaging pests to thrive, like the berry borer, a grazing predator, and coffee rust, a fungus that destroys coffee plants. Traditionally, these pests couldn’t survive the cool mountain air, but warming temperatures have meant drastically reduced yields in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, and India.

The bottom line is Coffee Flour provides another industry to help these communities make the most out of the coffee crop that survives without doing much more work. One small community in Nicaragua created 70 new jobs, 90 percent of which went to women. What’s more, indigenous communities can learn to use the local flour in their own foods like tortillas and masa bread so they can survive with the crops that they have on hand. And if communities don’t want to use their leftover pulp to produce flour, they can opt out because producing the superfood flour is up the individual community.

Coffee Flour is a means of solving more than one problem with one product, boosting up communities through production and creating a healthy and versatile new flour.

Saturated fat is bad! No, only certain kinds! Wait, they’re all fine; vegetable oils are bad! Forget fats; it’s the carbohydrates that are killing us!
It’s no wonder nutrition confuses so many people. Sometimes even I feel lost in all those news stories about the “latest research.”
Coconut oil has been, for me, one of those challenging topics to wrap my head around. All of my years of schooling taught me that saturated fat increases heart disease risk, and coconut oil is about as saturated as fats get. Now, everyone and their mother is using coconut oil because it’s full of “heart healthy” fats. Where is all of this coming from? Who is correct?
Has my entire education been a sham?
Let’s start with the facts…
All fats contain a mixture of fatty acids, which can be saturated, monounsaturated, omega-6 polyunsaturated, or omega-3 polyunsaturated. Humans like neat categories, though, so we divide up food sources of fat according to the predominant fatty acid found inside of it. For example, coconut oil is considered a saturated fat because 92 percent of its fatty acids are saturated. As a comparison, butter is only 66 percent saturated, and we consider that to be a saturated fat, too. Clearly, not all saturated fats are identical.
In fact, saturated fats can be further subdivided by length. Some saturated fatty acids are considered long, some are medium, and some are short. Anywhere from 55-70 percent of coconut oil’s fatty acids are medium chain saturated (referred to as “MCT” from here out) and 22-33 percent are long chain saturated, compared with 8 percent and 39 percent, respectively, for butter. More on this in a minute.
For a long time, we thought saturated fat was the be-all and end-all of heart health, so a diet high in saturated fat was a big deal. (Shameless self-promotion: You can read more about that whole controversy in my butter-versus-margarine article.) Now many people say that’s not quite right. They’re generally the people who endorse eating coconut oil.
So what do these folks have to say?

THE PROS

– Saturated fat, in general, is no longer thought to be the demon it once was in promoting heart disease.
– MCTs are unique because they aren’t treated the same as longer saturated fats in the body. Evidence suggests they are excellent sources of energy, and some claim they do not pose adverse health risks. They may even have health benefits. Remember, about two-thirds of coconut oil’s fats are MCTs.
– Certain native islander cultures have used coconut oil as a dietary staple for a long, long time, and their rates of disease are distinctly lower than ours.
BEFORE YOU BUY THAT COCONUT OIL, THOUGH…
A lot of those studies I linked to above are just a smidge flawed. Some are old. Others are small or not representative of the general population’s demographics, and they gloss over some key points.

THE CONS

– Just because certain cultures consume coconut oil healthfully does not mean that people of all descents respond to it the same way. More and more, we’re learning that different diets may be optimal for different people, and it has a lot to do with genetics.
– Many studies look at MCTs in isolation, not in the context of actual food. If, perhaps, a food existed that was 100 percent MCT, then we might be onto something. However, we’ve already established that foods are complex and made up of many different types of fats. We need to do more studies on food, not isolated nutrients.
– Other studies claim there is insufficient evidence to promote MCT and coconut oil at this time, and for now we should treat coconut oil like any other saturated fat.
– Speaking of saturated fat, it might not be as detrimental as we once thought, but that’s assuming that we maintain a moderate total fat intake. Even the studies that support the use of coconut oil tend to say that their findings are not meant to be extrapolated to diets in which more than about 35 percent of calories come from fat.

THE BOTTOM LINE: FIT OR FLOP?

If we’re talking about putting coconut oil on everything, then it’s a FLOP in my book. But if you want to start replacing some of the other saturated fats in your diet with coconut oil, I’d call it FIT.
It comes down to the individual. Did your ancestors eat a lot of coconut oil? Is it your primary source of saturated fat, or do you also consume red and processed meats, high-fat dairy, and baked goods? What does the rest of your diet look like? How active are you?
These things matter.
When it comes to coconut oil (and life!), remember the three Cs: context, caution, and common sense. They rarely steer you wrong.

Beer and finish lines go hand in hand.

Ask any runner, and most will assure you that nothing is as immediately satisfying at the end of a race as a finishers medal placed around your neck, and a glass of frosty, cold beer in your hand. This, of course, is exactly why races often go out of their way to advertise unique finishers medals AND beer sponsorships. Because beer just tastes better after running a ridiculous number of miles.

Well, that or we want to numb the memory of the pain we just inflicted on our feet and legs.

Whatever the reason, many runners are happy to participate in that post run brew. And research shows we are even more likely to reach for an ale or a lager after a workout compared to non workout days.

But is post run beer drinking a good idea? Well, it turns out that no one can really agree.

In recent years, a number of articles and research studies have touted beer as the “perfect” recovery drink. An equal number of articles and research studies have said the complete opposite, that alcohol after a workout can be detrimental.

The argument for post recovery beer includes relaxation, better sleep, and even pain management. Nothing like a tall pint to make you forget about your sore quads! And in theory, the more rest we get immediately after a workout, the better and faster we will recover. According to beer enthusiasts, such as CraftBeer.com, beer contains antioxidants similar to those that promote heart health. The polyphenols that help muscles recover also reduce cholesterol and ward off cancer. Beer lowers blood pressure and, because it contains calcium and silicon, promotes bone growth. And beer has been demonstrated to improve cognitive function and memory disorders. Since beer is brewed with all natural ingredients, it’s got to be healthier than an artificially manufactured sports drink, right?

Well, before you reach for that six pack, know that a lot of scientific research studies will tell you to hold off on that post run beer. Despite the supposed benefits, it appears that post exercise recovery is actually impaired by alcohol consumption. The problem mainly lies in the fact that alcohol is a diuretic, which can cause dehydration; the complete opposite effect of what we are trying to achieve with a post run recovery drink.

Other studies have shown that by tampering with both the alcohol and sodium content in beer, we can potentially lessen the negative effects of alcohol on post run recovery. If you tamper enough with it, you can actually help

Which leads us to the next up and coming product…recovery beer.

Yes, it is a real thing, well almost. Lean Machine, an ale produced by a team of scientists and nutritionists in Canada, supposedly has the ideal proportions of carbohydrates, proteins, nutrients, and electrolytes to help facilitate recovery, all while allowing you to enjoy a tasty adult beverage. It’s currently undergoing consumer testing, but will hopefully hit the shelves for your post run rehydration in the near future.

In the meantime, however, it seems safe to say that a post race celebratory beer, on occasion and in moderation, isn’t going to completely ruin your running career. The key word here being “moderation”.

When you decide to buckle down and eat healthy, you’re probably full of motivating thoughts and good intentions. You think, I am finally going to do this! Let’s go. (By “this,” I mean, drop the last 10 pounds, get your body in tip-top shape, cut out your sugar addiction, etc.)

And the first few days, you’re totally good. You start getting into a routine of taking healthy lunches to work with apples and lean turkey, instead of your typical bagel with cream cheese and leftover candy from the Halloween party. You’re choosing the salad at dinner instead of the creamy, cheesy soup. Basically: you’re slaying it (go you!).

Until the big, bad weekend rolls around. Maybe you have one too many drinks, and wind up indulging in an extra large plate of fries while out with your friends. Or perhaps you throw a birthday party for five-year-old son, and end up having a slice (okay, two) of that delicious chocolate cake. Or maybe you accidentally plan brunch with your BFF, late lunch with your parents and date night with your S.O. — all in the same day.

And then, you’re freaking out. Three restaurant meals in one day feels sets off the mental fire alarms. The double-dose of chocolate cake causes internal panic. The french fries (not to mention the alcohol) feel like you’ve just wrecked your healthy regimen in one fell swoop.

Before you contemplate falling off the wagon, I’d like to direct your attention to the science of the calorie splurge.

How We Think About Calories and Weight

Since we became aware of the “calorie,” way back when we were kids or teens, we’ve been taught that our bodies run on a “calories in, calories out” kind of formula.

You consume a certain amount of calories in a day. But your body expends a certain amount of energy at rest, just through normal internal processes, which is your “base metabolic rate” or BMR. From there, subtract the amount burned through exercise and movement, and you’ve got a positive or negative number.

So the logic goes, if you’ve created a calorie deficit, you lose weight. If you have a surplus of calories, you gain. If you break even, you maintain your weight. Fairly simple. But not exactly how the body works, likely, according to science

The Research on Calorie Splurges

Let’s take you back to the weekend dietary madness. (Simply choose whichever incarnation looks like something you might encounter.) What do you feel? A creeping sense of panic? A lurking sense of guilt? Here’s why you shouldn’t worry, nix the hopelessness and stay on that wagon.

In a study of 80 participants out of the University of Cornell, scientists discovered that those who splurged on weekends were more likely to lose weight over the course of about a year. Through daily morning weigh-ins, the researchers discovered that the group that lost weight generally saw their highest weights of the week on Sundays and Mondays and their lowest weights on Fridays and Saturdays. This means that the weekend splurges actually helped the participants drop pounds — as long as they hopped back on the healthy train for weekdays. The group that gained weight didn’t seem to have a noticeable high or low weight throughout the week.

This is supported by research from the National Institutes of Health. A couple awesome physiologists created a model to simulate how the body’s feedback system responds to calorie fluctuations. To summarize, they basically forced the model to consume calories like a normal person might, with fluctuations of 30 percent, and found that body weight remained relatively constant.

Over a period of roughly 10 years, the NIH researchers found that body weight only changed by about 2 percent. So in a 140-pounds woman, for instance, that might mean a fluctuation from 137 to 143 pounds max. The theory? If you try to eat generally healthy, and you occasionally splurge, your body will compensate. If you want to stick to 2,000 calories a day, and one day you see a 500-calorie boom, you’ll likely consume 500 calories less on another day. In the long-term sense, it all cancels out.

Bottom Line

There are a couple takeaways here. First of all, cheat days actually help your diet. If you continually deprive yourself of the foods you enjoy, avoiding them and mentally demonizing them, then you will not be able to sustain a long-term healthy regimen. You will begin to feel as though you’re cheating all the time, every single time you break down and take a bite of something remotely questionable, and your diet goals are just wishful thinking. This is the sort of approach that causes one to fall off that almighty wagon.

So indulge every once in a while. For instance, the WHO recommends keeping calorie intake from added sugars to under 10 percent (5 percent for optimum benefits). This totally allows for a mini splurge a day, within the context of your normal diet and regular caloric intake — so break out the post-dinner dark chocolate!

The other major point? When you truly “splurge,” break the bank and create a calorie surplus, it’s no longer acceptable if it’s frequent. Think about the research on weekend splurges. If you have the monster cookie or a serving of fries on Friday and Saturday, you might consume 2,200 calories on those days. But if you go back to greens and lean protein from Sunday through Thursday, then you might consume just 1,500 calories per day. Now, you’re looking at an average of 1,700 calories a day — which is still enough for weight maintenance, even steady weight loss with the right workout regimen.

So, “cheat days” aren’t cheat days if they are happening four or five days a week (then it’s probably just an unhealthy regimen) — but as long as you counter a day or two of higher calorie totals with otherwise healthy eating and exercise, you can still have your cake and eat it, too. Don’t sweat the small daily splurges or the occasional indulgent day. Science says it’s totally cool.

Foods can contain a wide variety of dating, from sell-by to best If used by to expiration dates. Many Americans end up using these dates as concrete indications of when foods should be thrown out. But chucking foods while they’re still eatable is a waste of resources and in fact leads Americans to throw out40 percent of the food they buy. Let’s take a closer look at how you can cut back on food waste while at the same time, staying safe.

The Purpose Of Food Dating

Food dating has a variety of purposes. It helps stores decide how long they can sell a product and it helps consumers choose the best quality foods. When foods are handled correctly, they can often go well past the product’s date and still be safe to eat. With the exception of baby formula,food dating is in fact voluntary at the federal level, though many states do require it.

Food dating comes in a wide spectrum of forms:

– Sell-by means you should buy the product by a particular date

– Best if used by is the date that’s recommended for the best taste and quality

– Use-by is the last date of peak quality

– Expiration date is the last date a food should be eaten or used

If food develops an off-odor or the appearance of spoilage, it should be thrown out, no matter the expiration date. Additionally, make sure your refrigerator is set to40 degrees F so that food can safely be stored.

Product coding is usually found on shelf stable foods. Its purpose is less for food spoilage and more for tracking purposes when foods are recalled. These codes are also a requirement for interstate commerce, or selling products across state lines.

The Real Expiration Dates

Many foods can be eaten wellafter their expiration or sell-by dates, though the sniff test is still important. Eggs, for example, can be eaten 3 to 5 weeks after the day they were packed, which is usually beyond the expiration date. Poultry, ground meat, and ground poultry can be stored for 1 to 2 days and beef, veal, pork, and lamb can be stored for 3 to 5 days. Milk is usually fine a week after the sell-by date. Bacon and hot dogs are good for two weeks, 7 days if opened and luncheon meats are fine for 2 weeks or 3 to 5 days if opened.

Canned foods can last an eternity, especially if they’re stored in a cold, dark place. Make sure that the area isn’t damp, which can erode cans and cause them to spoil faster than usual. Your Depression era grandmother was right to store a year’s worth of food in the cellar. While you might not want to live on canned pears and Spaghetti O’s, you could for a long time if you had to. Acidic canned foods like tomato sauce keep for 18 months while low acid foods like green beans can last up to five years. Cans that are bulging from spoilage should be discarded immediately. If you’ve canned foods yourself, even though they don’t have an expiration date, they don’t last as long as manufactured canned foods.Home canned foods can be stored for one year.

Stop Wasting Food

Food waste is a big problem in the U.S. As I said above, Americans waste 40 percent of the food they buy. We throw away$165 billion worth of food annually. I said billion, not million. Reducing this food waste by just 15 percent would feed some 25 million Americans. Knowing what you now know, reducing food waste is easier than ever.

Perishable foods can last months longer if they’re frozen before the expiration date. For the most part, if foods look and smell fresh, they are likely still fresh. Furthermore, resist the urge to overbuy, especially when it comes to foods like dairy, bread, produce, seafood, and meat. These foods are not only expensive, they don’t last as long so when they go bad you end up wasting tons of cash.

Food dating is meant to help manufacturers, store owners, and consumers, but it’s not set in stone. You’re the best judge of your food’s freshness.