Fitness & Wellness

The Best Foods For Mental Health

Published by superadmin on August 25, 2024 | Leave a response

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” In many ways that’s true. The food you consume can affect your cognitive functioning and mental health. The food you eat not only feeds your body and brain, but it also feeds the microbes in your gut that affect your mental health. There’s a branch of psychiatric medicine that deals with it called nutritional psychiatry. When you consider that medicine can change the biochemical structure of the brain, it makes sense that dietary changes can also affect it. It can create a positive or negative difference.

What’s the brain-gut connection?

It all starts with the gut microbiome. The microbiome consists of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. They help break down food and create enzymes that aid the body in other functions by sending messages to the brain. New studies using fecal transplants found it helped several mental disorders by changing the microbiome. Anxiety, bipolar disorders, and depression are three of those. Your diet determines the number of each. Some foods, such as those high in fiber, encourage beneficial microbes, while others encourage harmful ones. Your diet determines which species will survive and thrive. Those species affect your mental health.

Studies show that the balance of omega-3 and omega-6 affects your mental health.

Omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids are essential for good health. However, there needs to be a balance between them. The balance of the two should be somewhere between 1 to 4 and 4 to 1. Today, for every one unit of omega-3, the average person eats 16 units of omega-6. One study found that switching the diet in a violent prison to a diet closer to 2 omega-6 to 1 omega-3, reduced the violence dramatically. Other stories show increasing omega-3 helped relieve postpartum depression and may help improve bipolar disorder, depression, and other psychiatric conditions like personality disorder, schizophrenia, OCD, and ADD. Foods high in omega-3 include walnuts and salmon.

Sugar increases energy that drops as suddenly as it rises.

That swing of energy can also cause mood swings. Sugar also increases the population of harmful microbes and reduces the population of healthy ones. That can cause a lack of serotonin primarily created in the gut. Serotonin can affect mood swings and pain sensitivity. It can cause overeating and sleep deprivation. Sugar also causes inflammation that affects the brain and affects your mood.

Eating food and drink with antioxidants can protect the brain. Green tea contains L-theanine, which can cross the blood-brain barrier. It increases the neurotransmitter GABA, which helps you relax.
Eating blueberries, broccoli, or oranges can protect you from mental decline. It contains vitamin C. It prevents oxidative stress and inflammation that affects cognitive functioning and memory.
Having a hard-boiled egg for a snack can protect the brain. Eggs contain choline, B6, and B12—folate. B6 helps make neurotransmitters. B12 aids in preventing dementia. Choline improves memory.
Indulge yourself with a strawberry dipped in dark chocolate. Dark chocolate with 70% or more cacao has antioxidants to protect the brain. It contains caffeine that can improve your mood and reduce the risk of brain disease that affects cognitive functioning.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Health Benefits Of Dark Chocolate

Published by superadmin on August 15, 2024 | Leave a response

At Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, we focus on helping you get healthier so you get more out of life. One way is to eat healthier. You can do that with delicious food you might eat in a fine restaurant or at a party. For example, dark chocolate could be part of a nutritious diet. It offers health benefits you might not realize.

Why dark chocolate and not milk chocolate?

The higher the chocolate is in cacao—cocoa, the better. Chocolate containing 70-80% cacao is best for flavor and health. Higher than 80% cacao makes the chocolate taste bitter. The higher the percentage of cacao, the more polyphenols and flavonoids there are, and the less sugar. Polyphenols and flavonoids are natural antioxidants that protect the cells from damage that causes disease or aging. Milk chocolate contains higher amounts of sugar and milk. Milk blocks the absorption of the flavonoids and polyphenols. Dark chocolate reduces inflammation and slows the growth of cancer cells.

Protect your heart with dark chocolate.

It’s quite appropriate to give a heart made of dark chocolate on Valentine’s Day. You’re not only giving delicious candy, you’re boosting the other person’s heart health. The benefits are from the antioxidants but also come from the healthy fat. Eating a small amount of chocolate daily can significantly improve your cholesterol profile, reduce inflammation, and help prevent unwanted platelet activity. One study with 20,000 participants that lasted 11 years found that people with a higher intake of dark chocolate had a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Mental aging can be slowed by eating dark chocolate.

Issues like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and mental aging may be slowed by eating dark chocolate. Oxidative stress occurring in the brain can contribute to these conditions. One animal study found that dark chocolate reduced neuroinflammation—inflammation affecting the nervous system and brain—and lowered oxidative stress. Other studies didn’t have the same conclusion but considering that dark chocolate is a pleasant treat and heart-healthy, it won’t hurt you and may help protect your brain.

Dark chocolate between 70-85% cacao contains magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, fiber, phosphorus selenium, and potassium. It also contains fiber.
Eating dark chocolate helps increase nitric oxide. Nitric oxide relaxes the walls of the blood vessels, allowing them to widen and lower blood pressure. That increased circulation also increases the nutrients and oxygen carried to each cell.
You don’t need a lot of dark chocolate to reap the benefits. Just 6 grams (0.2 ounces)will do it. That’s about half a square of an average 100-gram (3.5-ounce) chocolate bar. Eating that much each day lowered the risk of stroke and heart disease by 39%.
One smaller study found eating dark chocolate helped with contrast sensitivity and visual acuity. Because of its limited size, more study is necessary to see if the correlation holds.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Alcohol And Weight Gain

Published by superadmin on August 5, 2024 | Leave a response

If you’re gaining weight and it is causing so much frustration that you consider drinking more alcohol, think again. That alcohol may be exactly what’s causing your weight gain. A glass of wine at dinner may slow weight loss and increase the struggle to shed weight. The calories in it affect your body differently than the calories from carbohydrates, fats, and protein. How it affects you depends on what you drink, how much you drink, and your metabolism. Frequent and excess alcohol consumption can also increase your risk of type 2 diabetes and liver disease.

You may be patting yourself on the back for drinking only red wine.

Yes, it’s true. A glass of red wine contains resveratrol, but grape juice and grapes contain it, too, and you get the same heart-healthy benefits without the alcohol. However, moderate consumption, such as a drink a day or less for a woman or two drinks a day or less for a man, reduces the potential for Alzheimer’s or dementia. What the study didn’t tell you is that it also added calories that affected your body differently from other types of calories. It can increase the potential for weight gain.

It’s about how the body burns fat.

Your body burns the calories from alcohol first, ignoring the energy from other food until it’s gone. That can interfere with how the body uses glucagon. Glucagon is the counterpart to insulin. Instead of opening the cells to uptake blood glucose and reduce blood sugar, it works to keep blood sugar higher. The more glucagon in the bloodstream, the more tired and hungry you become. Instead of burning stored calories and breaking down fat, your body focuses on burning off the alcohol.

Alcoholic beverages have few nutrients compared to calories.

Even though some drinks have nutrients, you’ll get more from eating the ingredients fermented to make the alcohol, and you’ll get fiber that makes you feel full, unlike alcohol, which increases hunger. Alcohol also affects post-menopausal women and women with low estrogen levels by packing on the pounds around their middle, causing belly fat. The enzyme called Aldhlal—Aldehyde Dehydrogenase lA. It directs excess pounds to the mid-section.

One study found that people who drank soft drinks or water before a meal ate less than people who drank alcohol. The spike and drop in sugar leave you starved even though you just drank several hundred calories.
Some alcoholic drinks are higher in calories, so check the calorie count for your favorite. There is wide variance within each category. Light beers are the lowest in calories, and ale is the highest. Sweet wines are higher in calories than dry wine.
Comparing calories in a gram of fat, protein, or carbohydrates to a gram of alcohol, only fat beats alcohol with nine calories per gram compared to seven for alcohol.
If you drink alcohol, it increases cortisol, which contributes to belly fat. It also lowers testosterone levels. Testosterone helps build muscle tissue. The more muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolism is.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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You Are What You Eat

Published by superadmin on July 25, 2024 | Leave a response

It’s easy to eat unhealthy in Louisville, KY. There are many restaurants, bakeries, and delicious temptations everywhere. Clients at Body Sculptures understand that you are what you eat. That doesn’t mean the food is poor quality. It might be expensive. It means it doesn’t contain nutrients but may contain many things that cause harm, like sugar or lard. Filling your body with empty calories that contain little fiber, nutrients, or protein packs on the pounds without providing any benefits.

You eat what your food eats.

If you’re consuming animal products, you’re eating what they eat. If they’re pastured and feed on grass, plants, or insects, they are healthier, and their products, like milk and eggs, are more nutritious. Just look at the yellow yolk of an egg from a pastured hen compared to an egg from a caged hen. Its yolk is a deep, rich color. It also tastes different and is more nutritious. That’s because the animals are living their best life. They are living closer to the way they are supposed to live. The same is true when YOU eat whole foods and avoid food with chemicals, processing, or sugar. You’re living your best life and eating your healthiest.

Your food doesn’t have to be right out of the garden.

Shopping only in the produce department can be expensive. The produce can go bad before you use it. If you’ve ever gotten home and found hidden mold in your container of strawberries, you understand that many of the fresh alternatives have been picked a while back. Frozen fruits and vegetables may be fresher. The processing plant is close to the fields, so they’re picked at prime ripeness. They’re immediately frozen and contain maximum nutrition. Canned foods have slightly fewer nutrients than fresh or frozen. You’ll save money and save time using these two options.

It’s the type of processing that makes a difference.

Manufacturers remove all the good stuff from highly processed flour. The good stuff is the nutrients. Highly processed flour, like white flour, is made from the endosperm. Manufacturers remove the bran and the germ. The endosperm is the starchy part. The germ is the part that contains all the nutrients. It improves heart health, immunity, cellular metabolism, and muscle health. The bran provides fiber that’s necessary for good health. Whole grain flour provides both bran and germ.

If you want energy, the quick energy of sugar may sound enticing. However, even though it increases rapidly, it drops just as dramatically.
If you want to maximize nutrition, choose colorful vegetables and fruit. Each color is from a phytonutrient that provides specific benefits to the body.
If you put sugar in your gas tank, it ruins your car. The same is true of your body when you eat food with added sugar. Sugar negatively affects all parts of the body.
What you drink also makes a difference. Some drinks, like unsweetened coffee and green tea, contain added benefits. Water is also a good choice. Soft drinks negatively affect the body and add empty calories to your diet.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Don’t Forget Your Water Bottle

Published by superadmin on July 15, 2024 | Leave a response

Keeping a bottle of water with you is good advice, especially during the summer. Even mild dehydration can cause your energy to slip away. Your body is mostly fluid. Your brain is 73% fluid, lungs are 83%, and kidneys 70%, Water is necessary for the body to function correctly. It’s easy to dehydrate, especially on windy days when sweat evaporates quickly. You may feel cool, but your fluid reserve will drop rapidly. You may end up with heat exhaustion from dehydration. Even mild dehydration can make you exhausted, confused, or dizzy. It may present itself as dementia in seniors.

You might not think you need a bottle of water if you work at a desk.

You may work in an air-conditioned room and think that since it’s cool, you don’t have to worry about dehydration. After all, you’re not sweating. That’s not correct. Because you’re comfortable, dehydration is easier to miss. Air conditioners cool the air by removing the moisture. When it’s removing the moisture from the air, it’s also taking it from your body. Instead of grabbing a snack to reenergize, drink a bottle of water. You’ll be surprised at how much more alert you’ll feel. Even in winter months, heating any building dries the air and you.

Drink water to boost weight loss.

About a half hour before you eat, drink a bottle of water. To burn the most calories, make the water icy cold. It takes extra calories to offset the cold and warm your body. The water will fill you so you’ll eat less. It also is a good substitute for sugary soft drinks like colas. You’ll be surprised at how some of your food cravings are the body’s response to dehydration. If you drink a glass of water and your craving disappears, you have the answer and save hundreds of calories.

Do your joints ache or muscles hurt?

It may be that you’re slightly dehydrated. Sore joints can come from dehydration. Synovial fluid lubricates the joints. If you’re dehydrated, there is less fluid. The synovial fluid helps reduce the friction. The body struggles to get adequate fluid for the joints when it’s focusing on the heart, lungs, and brain. Your body also needs water to make cartilage to make joints move easier. About 65 to 80% of cartilage is water. Water keeps joints lubricated and helps create more cartilage to reduce pain in the future.

Lack of adequate fluid from dehydration can lead to low or high blood pressure. It can cause a sudden drop due to low blood volume or an increase in an attempt to move thicker blood.
If you want to look your best, stay hydrated. The older you are, the easier it is for your body to lose fluid that dries your skin and can cause wrinkling.
Water can help reduce bloating and water weight. Drinking water ends water-hoarding by the body when your intake is low. Extra water also flushes out excess sodium, which causes water retention.
The very old and the very young are more susceptible to dehydration. The very young are because of their size and the amount of bodily fluid. The very old lose fluid faster.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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What Are Your Summer Goals

Published by superadmin on July 5, 2024 | Leave a response

Spring and summer are the times for growth and renewal. If you haven’t made goals this spring, it’s time to start on summer goals. It’s the best time to create weight loss and healthy eating goals since fresh vegetables and fruit are plentiful. You can make it fun by hunting out the vegetable stands of local farmers. The sun is shining, and for the most part, the weather is inviting, so outside sports and activities are plentiful.

Focus on hydration.

Even mild dehydration can cause health issues. At best, it can cause muscle and joint aches and pains. In seniors, it can cause mental confusion that may resemble dementia. It’s hot, you sweat and it’s more apparent that you need water to replace the amount you lost in sweating. When you’re inside, air conditioning dries out the air as part of the cooling process. That can also dry out your skin and ultimately cause mild dehydration. Some of the signs are lethargy and total lack of energy. Focus on drinking more water or drink water when you need a pick-me-up.

Maybe you want to look better in summer clothing.

Summer clothing is far more revealing than its winter counterparts. It can cause you to feel self-conscious. Instead of hiding under a beach umbrella or wearing loose-fitting clothing, it’s a great time to get into shape. Exercising should be one of your summer goals if that description rings true to you. There are many activities you can do in the summer that also burn tons of calories. Swimming is one of them. It’s easy on the joints due to the body’s buoyancy, yet the viscosity of the water makes it harder to move, burning extra calories.

There’s no better time to start eating healthier.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are abundant. They aren’t picked early, so they taste better. The hot weather also makes juicy produce taste better than heavier fried foods. You might combine a more active lifestyle by growing produce. It always tastes better when you grow it yourself. If you don’t have space for a garden, create a container garden. Bush beans and determinate tomatoes are easy to grow in a container.

Your goal may be to spend more time in Mother Nature. If you do safe sunning, you’ll boost your vitamin D intake. If you’re spending a long time in the sun, don’t forget to use sunscreen.
Make your goal learning to relax. Sitting outside in nature, gardening, and learning breathing exercises helps. Walking barefoot on the grass or earth is called earthing. It draws energy from the earth to help you relax.
Improve your social life in the summer. Join an active group that does biking, swimming, hiking, or other sports. People who socialize more live longer.
Make summer your time for renewal and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t stick with it for a day. Just start anew the next day. Even if you have to lose weight, get fit, quit smoking, or whatever your goal is, treat yourself with kindness and forgive slip-ups when they happen.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Natural Pain Relief That Works

Published by superadmin on June 25, 2024 | Leave a response

There are many reasons not to take OTC pain relievers like NSAIDs such as ibuprofen or anti-inflammatories like aspirin. If you take them frequently, they can affect your health. Aspirin can cause Reyes syndrome, liver and kidney problems, and issues digestive issues. Chronic long-term use of NSAIDs can lead to heart and digestive problems. You can opt for natural pain relief that doesn’t involve drugs.

Quick relief can come from heat or cold therapy.

Heat or cold therapy can reduce arthritis pain. Dipping your hands in hot wax is a well-known measure people often take to reduce arthritis and muscle pain. Originally it was in the form of ice baths and ice packs. Recently, whole-body cryotherapy has been used by athletes or in spas to relieve pain after an intense workout. It’s proven to be effective for other types of pain, including arthritic pain.

Exercise is a natural pain reliever.

If you’re in pain, exercise is the last thing you think about doing. However, it can help. One of my clients had a horrible toothache and couldn’t see a dentist until the next day. He spent all night pacing and moving about because it seemed to relieve the pain. It triggered endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. Exercise also stimulates circulation and can help heal muscle injuries. It causes the joints to lubricate to bring relief.

Drink herbal tea, eat anti-inflammatories foods, or get a massage with essential oils.

Herbs are natural, just as aspirin is, but like aspirin, ingesting them too frequently may cause other health issues. Herbs and other foods with anti-inflammatory properties like ginger, turmeric, berries, avocados, broccoli, and dark chocolate help reduce chronic pain. Cutting out inflammatory foods, like those with added sugar, also helps. A massage with essential oils like peppermint, clove, or lavender can help you relax and reduce pain.

Create a massage cream with hot pepper seeds, body cream, and aspirin. The capsaicin in hot peppers combined with the aspirin and a massage offers natural pain relief. Soaking your feet in Epsom’s salts can also relax muscles to bring relief.
One of the first natural pain relievers used by Native Americans was white willow bark. It contains a substance called salicin that changes to salicylate acid in the stomach. It’s the original aspirin.
Reduce stress in your life and learn relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation. Stress exacerbates pain. A cup of chamomile tea can also help you relax.
Go outdoors and walk. If possible, take off your shoes and walk in the grass. Walking barefoot on the ground, not on concrete, can help reduce stress and bring pain relief.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Natural Ways To Fight Aging

Published by superadmin on June 5, 2024 | Leave a response

Most people in Louisville, KY, understand that getting older is natural and desirable. It means you lived another year, month, or day. Aging is quite different. Aging affects the cells, causing physical changes that range from wrinkling to conditions like heart disease or dementia. The harder you fight aging, the higher the probability you’ll live longer and get older. Genetics plays a vital role in how you age, but you can control many forces that promote aging. Here are some ideas to help control both mental and physical aging.

It starts with a healthy diet.

Some people are lucky. No matter what they eat, they don’t gain weight and stay healthy and youthful. You may only see the unhealthy part of their diet. Most of it may be nutritious. Another possibility is they have superior genetics. Choosing whole foods over highly processed food is one way to make a difference. It helps control weight, reduces inflammation, and reduces artery-clogging trans fats. A healthy diet can reduce cognitive aging and help prevent atherosclerosis which can clog the blood flow to the brain.

Stay active.

While a program of regular exercise is desirable, just staying active can help. If you walk frequently, keep your walk as brisk as possible. It increases your heart rate and improves circulation. Walking briskly for an hour three times a week helps lower blood pressure. It boosts cognitive skills. One study followed four groups of people. Two of the groups had the e4 gene associated with the development of Alzheimer’s. Two groups did not have the gene. One group with and one without the gene exercised regularly for 18 months. The other two groups did not change their lifestyle. The group with the e4 gene that didn’t exercise had significant changes in the hippocampus that signaled early onset Alzheimer’s.

Get adequate sound sleep.

Not only do you need to get enough sleep, but your sleep cycle should also be uninterrupted and go through every sleep stage. Lack of sleep can cause heart issues and affect all body parts. Your sleep position also has an effect. If you’re right-handed you’re programmed to sleep on your left side. It leaves your right hand free to protect yourself. Sleeping on your side also helps the brain clear itself of waste and reduces the risk of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. When you sleep on your side, you’ll lower the risk of sleep apnea or snoring.

Get out in the sun. Studies indicate that a large portion of society has a vitamin D deficiency. Studies showed that people who are obese, had severe cases of Covid, or have dementia have vitamin D deficiencies.
Develop a social life and smile more. People who smile and laugh more frequently are healthier. Those with a healthy social life live longer.
Find your life’s purpose. If you’re at retirement age, don’t retire if you love your job if that’s possible. Develop a new hobby that makes you feel useful and create goals. Having a purpose in life prevents aging.
Learn ways to lower stress. Meditation, mindfulness, earthing, and breathing techniques can all reduce stress. Learn a technique you can use anywhere.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Is It Better To Eat Veggies Raw Or Cooked?

Published by superadmin on May 25, 2024 | Leave a response

When people think of increasing the veggies in their diet they picture adding more raw vegetables to their salad or smoothie and often ignore cooked ones. Most people feel that cooked vegetables just aren’t as healthy. Is that true? There are a lot of misconceptions about eating healthy but in this case, the answer is both true and false. Cooking may enhance the nutrients you absorb, destroy the nutrients, or make no difference at all. It also depends on the nutrients and vegetables.

Vitamin C is hard to protect.

When you cook vegetables containing vitamin C, like tomatoes, broccoli, and sweet peppers, it destroys it. Vitamin C is water-soluble, so the vitamin C leaks into the water when boiled. Cooking food in a cast iron pan or exposure to oxygen destroys it. If you cut the fruit or vegetables ahead of time cover them tightly and store them in the refrigerator. Steaming food, stir-frying it, or serving it in a casserole can help preserve some of the vitamin C in the vegetables.

Cooking may increase the content of some vitamins.

Even though cooking tomatoes destroys nutrients, most notably vitamin C, it also enhances others. Lycopene, the phytonutrient that gives tomatoes its red color, is one of those nutrients. Lycopene is an antioxidant that protects the body from aging, disease, and death at a cellular level. It offers heart-healthy benefits, can slow skin aging, and promotes eye and brain health. Lycopene supports strong bones, reduces the risk of cancer, and can reduce pain. It is similar to ibuprofen for pain reduction. While you lose the vitamin C in tomatoes, you gain a different potent antioxidant.

Even though the vegetables may contain nutrients, does your body absorb them?

No matter how many nutrients you eat, you won’t get any benefit if you don’t absorb the nutrients. Studies show that cooking vegetables may make nutrients more easily absorbed. One study followed three groups of women. The first group was a control group that ate an average diet. The second group ate a raw food diet, and the third group ate both cooked and raw vegetables based on dietary recommendations. The group eating the raw food consumed more nutrients, but the group eating both cooked and raw vegetables absorbed more nutrients. Cooking made the nutrients more bioavailable.

Some vegetables are better when cooked. Eating raw sweet corn, eggplant, asparagus, or potatoes isn’t as pleasant as eating them cooked, so you eat more.
Heating not only helps release lycopene, but it also helps release the nutrients in carrots. They’re healthier when they’re heated. Cooking destroys the oxalate in spinach. Oxalate binds to calcium and makes it unavailable.
You can eat crucifers like Brussels sprouts or broccoli, cooked and raw. However, the raw version can give you gas or digestive issues if you introduce it too fast into your diet.
Experiment with ways to increase the variety of vegetables in your diet. If you’ve never included Brussels sprouts in a salad, try it or add leftover roasted vegetables. Include vegetables at breakfast by adding them to scrambled eggs.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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