Health Tips 14

Fishing Around for a Trimmer You

No doubt you’ve started thinking about all the salads you’re going to eat when you start trimming down next year. But those salads might work better if you add a little salmon.

Here’s why: It seems that fish oil, besides boosting your heart health, may also help you burn fat. And if you add fish oil to your diet and you exercise, you could really boost your calorie burning!

Omega-3s, Please
Fish oil is full of anti-inflammatory and artery-clearing omega-3 fatty acids that help protect your ticker. (Read this article to learn how much fish you need to eat to help keep your brain young, too.) But these fatty acids may also help fuel your metabolism.

In a study, overweight people who took fish oil supplements daily and walked 3 days a week for 12 weeks lost a significant amount of weight and body fat. To find out which vitamins and supplements you need to stay young, and how much you should take, visit the YOU: Staying Young Center.

Everything Green Is Gold for Knees

You've heard of a green thumb. But how about green knees?

Could be a good way to describe the youthful knees of a green-tea devotee. Potent compounds in green tea -- EGCG and ECG -- may help battle cartilage and collagen destruction in arthritic joints.

Catechin Delight
The EGCG and ECG found in green tea are powerful flavonoids known as catechins. Seems these particular catechins may help fight inflammation, as well as some of the underlying mechanisms at work in both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Better Plan?
Of course, drinking a few cupfuls of green tea each day is no guarantee against knee pain, so here are a few of the more tried-and-true methods for keeping knees healthy:

• Lose weight if you are overweight. Excess pounds raise your risk of knee arthritis. Check your BMI here.
• Play it safe. A knee injury will triple your risk of knee osteoarthritis. When you exercise, take proper precautions to avoid getting hurt.
• Strengthen your quads. Weak quadriceps muscles are associated with knee arthritis, so work them out regularly, along with your hamstrings and all of your other leg muscles. Try this workout program for exercises that use your own body as resistance.

Feel something crunching and creaking in your knees? Early intervention can slow arthritis progression. Answer these questions to see if you could have osteoarthritis.

Blood Pressure Aid

When your blood pressure (BP) creeps up, help knock it down with this simple change in diet.

Get 20 percent of your daily calories from whole-grain, high-fiber foods instead of refined "white" carbs. It could drop your systolic BP 4 to 8 points and your diastolic BP another 6 to 8 points. Start with these fiber-rich recipes below.

Double Trouble
High blood pressure and high cholesterol are double trouble. Both put you at risk for cardiovascular disease, and they frequently occur together. If you have borderline high cholesterol (200-239 mg/dL) and prehypertension (120-139/80-89 mm Hg), it's time to take action.

Here's How Fiber Helps
Both soluble and insoluble fiber (what are those, you say ?) were shown to lower blood pressure in middle-aged people with the unfortunate combo of borderline high cholesterol and prehypertension. Soluble fiber does double duty by lowering cholesterol, too.

Help yourself to both kinds of fiber with these tasty recipes from EatingWell.com.

Recipe Corner

• Southwestern Corn and Black Bean Salad (13 grams of fiber per serving)
• Butternut and Barley Pilaf (8 grams of fiber per serving)
• White Beans, Spinach, and Tomatoes Over Parmesan Toasts (15 grams of fiber per serving)
• Trio of Peas (5 grams of fiber per serving)

Give Your Workout a Break

Want to burn more fat and calories when you walk, swim, or run? Then take a break.

The rate at which your body burns fuel may be boosted even higher if you break up a long cardio session into two back-to-back 30-minute sessions with a 20-minute break in between. Breather, anyone?

Start. Stop. Repeat.
How can scientists tell that a 20-minute rest helps rev up your fat burning? Men in a study who did just that (in between 30-minute sessions on a stationary bike) showed elevated blood levels of free fatty acids -- higher blood levels than those produced during a single 60-minute cycling session. And that bump in free fatty acids is a sign of increased fat burning: Circulating blood levels of free fatty acids go up when your body starts to break down fat.

More Ways to Burn Fat
Here are a few more ways to boost the fat- and calorie-burning powers of your power workouts:

• Do cardio before strength training. Here's why . . .
• Eat more of this.
• Build some muscle. The more muscle you have, the more readily your body burns calories.