Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/21/463858189/hillary-clintons-elixir-can-a-hot-pepper-a-day-boost-immunity?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Listen to the Story

All Things Considered

3:35

Playlist
Download
Embed
Embed<input class="embed-url embed-url-no-touch" readonly value="” />
Close embed overlay <iframe src=”http://www.npr.org/player/embed/463858189/463877200″ width=”100%” height=”290″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” title=”NPR embedded audio player”>

Transcript

If you’re a chili head, you may have more in common with Hillary Clinton than you knew.

The presidential hopeful has a serious jalapeño habit. She told All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro it started back in 1992, when it was her husband, Bill Clinton, who was running for the White House.

“I read an article about the special immune-boosting characteristics of hot peppers, and I thought, well, that’s interesting because, you know, campaigning is pretty demanding,” Clinton told NPR.

Now Clinton says she eats a fresh hot pepper every day, and it’s “maybe … one of the reasons I’m so healthy, and I have so much stamina and endurance.”

So, hot peppers as a healt…

Source: http://greatist.com/live/feel-great-gained-weight?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

I am currently struggling with something that I’m sure more than a few of you can relate to: I gained a bunch of weight over the holidays and am trying my darnedest to get rid of it.

I don’t even really know how it happened. It was like I woke up one day and all of a sudden the jeans I used to be able to wear so comfortably became suffocating torture devices. I found myself going head-to-head with the stubborn zippers on my favorite dresses, the ones that used to glide right up so easily. I’m taking all the right steps—eating less, exercising more—but it’s been an agonizingly unfruitful process and the pounds aren’t melting away as quickly as they implanted themselves.

This isn’t going to be an article about how I lost the weight or about my valiant efforts to get back to where I was. I was inspired to write this because I realized that this slight change on the outside caused some major changes on the inside. In the past month, I’ve barely been able to recognize myself—and not just in the mirror.

All of a sudden I was insecure, introverted, and riddled with self-doubt. I also became someone who constantly berated herself, which was disappointing because that is something I always speak out against. I was traveling down a very detrimental path, one that would have caused the Sabrina who started A New Mode a year ago to smack me right across the head, and justly so: I let myself get caught up in the idea that my weight meant everything.

…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/22/463954416/a-cooking-class-where-new-immigrants-learn-the-recipe-for-english?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Teela Magar and Cing Neam prepare the roti dough as part of Edible Alphabet, a program in Philadelphia that folds English lessons for new immigrants to the U.S. into a cooking class. Students also learn about seasonality and healthful eating on a budget.

Bastiaan Slabbers

For many immigrants, coming to America is full of the unfamiliar — from the language to the food. In Philadelphia, a program aims to help these arrivals settle into their new country by folding English lessons into a cooking class.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, 20 recent immigrants and refugees to the United States streamed into a shiny commercial-size kitchen on the fourth floor of the Free Library of Phila…

Source: http://greatist.com/eat/why-people-love-spicy-food?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

If you’re the kind of person who douses everything with Sriracha, you might just be a little masochistic. Let us explain: Capsaicin, the chemical in peppers, tricks your body’s heat receptors into thinking your throat is on fire (it’s the same reason alcohol burns going down). As this video from Vox shows, endorphins are released at the same time, so spicy food lovers turn the pain into a “burns so good” feeling.

And the idea that you’ll get less sensitive to heat over time is a myth. It’s just about teaching your body to associate the pain with the pleasure. Another myth: reaching for water to help stop the mouth-on-fire sensation. Milk, yogurt, rice, liquor, and even peanut butter help break down the oils in capsaicin, while water just spreads ’em around—making things even worse.

…

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/01/weekend-reading-ingredients/

Dwight Eschliman, Text by Steve Ettlinger.  Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products.  Regan Arts, 2015.

The photographer and writer went through the grocery store and jotted down every food ingredient they could find—from Acesulfame potassium to xanthan gum.  Dwight Eschliman acquired samples of each ingredient in its pure form, arranged them in piles, and took photographs.  Steve Ettlinger provided their Code of Federal Regulations numbers, chemical structures, and brief descriptions of how they are used. The photographs are gorgeous.  Even though all the ingredients look like piles of salt, their textures and colors are sufficiently different to make this book weirdly fascinating.

…

Source: http://www.fannetasticfood.com/2016/01/22/hunkered-down/

Hi friends! First things first – the Winter Shape Up week 1 meal plan is now live! Head on over to the main Winter Shape Up page for more info and for a link to the first meal plan, which includes regular, vegan, and gluten free options as well as shopping lists. The Winter Shape Up is a totally free and fun 4 week healthy living challenge that encourages getting healthy in a mindful and positive way, without the restriction or rigidity that challenges like this often entail. I hope you’ll join me and my friend Gina, who I am co-hosting the challenge with! She’s a trainer and will be sharing fun workouts for you guys to try; I’ll be sharing all the nutrition content.

In other news, the snow has officially started to fall here in the DC area! Matt and I are both hunkered down working from home today, and have stocked up on the essentials like food, toilet paper… and beer, Prosecco, and kombucha. Priorities. <img src="http://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72×72/1f6…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/videos/study-buddhism/

Watch video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNjN7ZUEa3g

In this video, Sonia Jones, Sonima’s founder, sits down with David Germano, Ph.D., a professor of religious studies and the director of the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia, to discuss the school’s newest online course on Buddhist meditation in the modern world. The six-week program—led by Germano and fellow UVA professor Kurtis Schaeffer, Ph.D., author of nine books and co-editor of Sources of Tibetan Tradition, the largest anthology of Tibetan literature in English—is open to all, not just UVA students, and will be completely free.

The course will focus on how Buddhist meditation is currently being studied in scientific circles and adapted in secular settings, such as law, businesses and the performance arts. Students will learn how to become more mindful of their internal life and cultivate their own feelings as well as pay closer attention to their empathy and compassion for others. All 12 units of the course will be available for your instant learning starting in June.

To find out more or sign up, visit Coursera.org.

Related: A Basic Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism

The post A New Online Course Teaches Buddhist Meditation for Free appeared first on Sonima.

…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/22/463074965/why-poverty-may-be-more-relevant-than-race-for-childhood-obesity?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Studies show that kids’ household income seems to be a more important predictor of their risk of becoming overweight and obese than their race or ethnicity.

Raleigh News & Observer/MCT via Getty Images

As researchers have searched for ways to explain the childhood obesity epidemic in the U.S., many have posited that a child’s race or ethnicity alone can put them at greater risk of becoming overweight or obese.

Kim Eagle, a professor of internal medicine and health management and policy at the University of Michigan, was skeptical of this thinking. His hunch was that poverty was a much more important part of the equation.

<img src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/01/20/schoolsaladbar_sq-3f28c37a5c1ee42a43734bfab5acae971db73ba5-s100.jpg" class="img100" title="Students at Doherty Middle School in Andover, Mass., choose items from the salad bar…

Source: http://greatist.com/live/tinder-std-testing-locator?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Tinder was pretty ticked off after the AIDS Health Foundation put up billboards that not so subtly associated the dating app with STDs (see below). Tinder responded by adding a health safety section to its website and app, which includes a link to software that locates the nearest STD testing clinic and info on other common sex-ed topics.

Photo: AIDShealth.org

“Tinder empowers our users to create relationships,” the new page reads. “An important aspect of any relationship—whether formed on Tinder or otherwise—is ensuring proper sexual health and safety.”

This is definetly a step in the right direction, but good luck finding the info. Tinder users have to click the settings button on the top left of the app, navigate to “help and support,” then click “health safety,” and scroll to the bottom. Not as easy as swiping right.

…

Source: http://summertomato.com/for-the-love-of-food-the-critical-role-of-hunger-western-diets-devastate-your-gut-and-why-kale-isnt-healthy/

For the Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup. 

This week the critical role of hunger, Western diets devastate your gut, and why kale isn’t healthy.

Too busy to read them all? Try this awesome free speed reading app I just discovered to read at 300+ wpm. So neat!

Want to see all my favorite links? (There’s lots more). Be sure to follow me on Delicious. I also share links on Twitter @summertomato and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

The Hunger Mood <<The most important article I’ve read about weight loss since, well, this one. Finally someone else is talking about why psychology is the most important factor for getting healthy. (Aeon)
Western diets damage gut microbiota over generations, in ways hard to reverse <<I can’t tell you the number of people I know with gut problems at the moment. Blame your parents. And yourselves. (LA Times)
Weekend binges just as bad for the gut as a regular junk food diet, study suggests <<And speaking of your diet’s impact on your gut health, be careful with t…