Health & Wellness

Food and Mood

admin — Tue, 01 May 2007 07:54:00 -0500

It's true what you learned in grade school: You are what you eat. More and more nutritional research is revealing that the foods you consume affect the chemicals in your brain, which in turn affect everything from your emotional state to your level of alertness to your ability to react to change and stay calm.

Worth the Weight

jbloustein — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:00:35 -0600

I took a deep breath and pushed the dumbbells up from my chest. My arms shook uncontrollably and I felt like I’d break in two.

I signed up for this, I reminded myself, when I became a contestant on The Biggest Loser—four months away from my family, suffering through the most intense workouts and dieting I’d ever done, competing with 17 others to lose the most weight.

Dealing with…and Defeating Emotional Eating

mcherkezian — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:44:07 -0500

Question: I’m an emotional eater and stray at times. I then beat myself up...get back on track...and all the while worrying about my health. I had a heart attack in 2005 and made a lot of changes since then. Lately, however, I’m not as strict with my diet as I was right after the attack.

How can I get back to eating healthy?

Rolanda P.

A Dish for Dad

admin — Tue, 01 May 2007 07:38:00 -0500

I hope Shannon likes it, I fretted, giving a last stir to the pureed carrot soup. Why was I so nervous about cooking for one person?

I graduated from a prominent culinary institute and was managing chef of one of northern California's premier organic restaurants. It's not like Shannon was a restaurant critic. She was a cancer patient.

Biggest Loser Love

mcherkezian — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:14:14 -0500

What’s more inspiring than losing a total of 259 pounds in front of the world? Falling in love along the way.

That’s what happened to Damien Gurganious and Nicole Brewer of New York. The engaged couple applied for Season 7 of the NBC weight-loss reality show The Biggest Loser after Damien proposed.

On the Road Again?

jbloustein — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:26:44 -0500

Can the candy, skip the chips. What is it about stopping for gas that demands a sugar fuel-up?

Does your beach routine involve a trashy novel in one hand and trashy food in the other? Do your kids think ice cream is a food group?

Put down the pretzels! It’s just one of the snacks we think of as healthy, but is really a bag of empty calories.

Our healthy cooking expert, Rebecca Katz, takes the guess-work out of healthy snacking with a list of tasty and nutritional ideas sure to be favorites for the whole family.

Dancing Her Way Thin

admin — Mon, 01 May 2006 13:53:00 -0500

When April Nicoll takes to the dance floor—and that's often these days because she's an instructor at a local studio—it's with all-out enthusiasm. For dance, for motivating her students and most importantly, for being the best mom she can be.

Ask the Chef MD

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:42:00 -0500

I'm a doctor and I love my job. I always knew it was what I wanted to do with my life—keep people healthy. I made sure my patients had the right medications, the best referrals, the latest tests.

But though I was a passionate cook at home, I never asked my patients about their own eating habits. What did my practice and my kitchen have to do with each other?

Then one day the latest issue of Chicago Medicine arrived at the office—featuring me on the cover. I didn't turn to the interview about how I became an internist and medical ethicist.

Soup à la Bella

jbloustein — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:38:37 -0500

Here’s a recipe where a little culinary ad-libbing met the needs of a caregiver.

My husband, Gregg, was under the weather, but he was hungry. So I went to the kitchen to see what I could rustle up. Bella, our Portuguese water dog, trotted after me.

There wasn’t much in the fridge. A few carrots and some fennel. That’s good for the belly. Gregg liked my carrot ginger soup. Would carrot fennel soup work?

150 Pounds Later

admin — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:24:00 -0500

"I’ve got pictures!” my sister Kim sang out, waving a plump packet as she breezed in the front door.