Health Tips for Your Busy Finals Month

Time has come to the end of the semester again, and you are getting more and more busy. Group meetings for projects, reviews for exams, as well as endless paper dues all start to take up more and more of your time. Sometimes you may feel like you have to sacrifice your sleep, your exercise, you regular meal time, and thus, your health to make a final boost of your GPA. In fact, however, health and GPA should not be in a relationship of one or the other.

The following tips for finals month will not only help you find a balance between working hard and being healthy, but remind you that often times they go hand in hand as well.

Relax and Release Your Stress

First thing you feel at the end of every semester besides the longing for summer vacation would probably be stress. Both physical and psychological stress can cause chronic inflammation in your body, with an immediate effect of dampen your brain and body function, as well as a long term effect of increasing your risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Your overall performance and wellness could be determined by how well you manage your stress. Getting adequate sleep, eating a balanced diet, and participating in regular physical activity are all effective ways of reducing stress, and have all been shown to reduce inflammation.

Keep a Regular Schedule

Irregular daily schedule also creates metabolic stress in your body and dampen both your health and your academic performance. The "regular schedule" here does not mean getting up at 7am and going to bed at 11pm everyday. No matter you are a "morning person" or a "night person", as long as you eat, sleep, and do similar things at similar time from day to day, you are minimizing the stress you put on your body.

Stop Skipping Meals

Regular meal time is also a part of regular schedule, and an important one. We all know that it's bad to skip breakfast, and it's actually bad to skip lunch and dinner too. Always have an apple, a banana, a cup of yogurt, or a granola bar in your bag so that you have at least something healthy to snack on when it's lunch time and you are still in the middle of your work.

Keep Yourself Hydrated

During periods of intensive brain activity, water serves as the primary media and reactant in the massive metabolic reactions going on in your body and your brain. To maintain health and high level of functionality, you need to watch out for dehydration. You also want to try hydrating yourself with healthier choices. Instead of grabbing a sugary drink, hydrate with plain or sparkling water, unsweetened iced tea, or just simply carry a water bottle with a tea bag with you.

The Best Dim Sum Place in Boston: Hei La Moon

Chinese restaurants are everywhere in the U.S.. For most of us, however, most of them taste like the U.S. rather than taste like home. People always say that I'm lucky to study in the building right across the street of Chinatown because of the instant availability of authentic Chinese foods. Yet, first, not all the restaurants there are Chinese restaurants; second, not every restaurants have authentic foods.

Hei La Moon

Luckily, I found the best place for dim sum in town. On 88 Beach St(between I-93 & Kingston St), right across the street of China Town's memorial gateway, Hei La Moon is my absolute favorite dim sum place in Boston. You know it is undisputed best dim sum place because it is always very busy inside and outside. If arrive around noon during weekends to get sitted, you often have to wait in line. (So the trick is to get there before 10 on weekends for brunch!)

Hei La Moon is a pretty spacious two-floor restaurant with a classic sim sum place setting: round tables with dim sum serving carts cruising around. The variety of dim sum there just can't be beat, and you can always find all of your favorites just like I found mine there.

Sesame Balls

Chicken Feet (Fung Zao)

Stewed Tripe

  Shrimp Dumplings (Har gow)



  Shrimp Rice Noodle
Nice and giggly, lots of shrimp. The flavor is absolutely authentic!



Baked BBQ Pork Bun Fluffy and chewy bun with juicy BBQ pork baked inside. The fragrant of the filling and the bun is enhanced by the thin glaze of honey on top.

Fried Pork Dumplings (Ham Soi Gok)
Fresh and hot out of the fryer. Crunchy. Delicious pork filling with perfect texture, not too dry but still chewy.

 Crispy Durian Cake
The filling is made of durian fruit. Classic Cantonese pastry, and my all-time favorite. Some people love it while somebody find it extremely disgusting. If you like to try new things and not afraid of the possibility of getting burned by the adventure, you should definitely try it!

The list can go on and on and on but nothing is more convincing than going to the place and try yourself. The dim sum there is decently priced, and is much more affordable than comparable restaurants like China Pearl.

The restaurant opens Monday through Sunday from 8:30 am to 11 pm, and unlike most Chinese restaurants, it accept credit cards! Call (617) 338-8813 to make a reservation now, and you'll love it!

Red Bean Veggie Porridge: The Perfect Breakfast for Both Child & Adult

I've been having cereals for breakfast for such a long time that I finally reached the point where I just can't continue to let it be on my table anymore. Ever since I'm tired of my former beloved breakfast choice, I switched from peanut butter to scrambled egg, from pancake to pineapple bun, and never settled down with any of them. I suddenly realized, for the first time, how hard it is to come up with a healthy breakfast idea that will fully satisfy a compulsive nutrition student like me, without the long list of vitamin and mineral fortification on the side of a cereal box. 

However, it is even harder to stop a compulsive nutrition student from continuous searching for a healthy breakfast idea until she gets one. Therefore, I finally came up with the red been veggie porridge idea that is making me feeling even better than cereals loaded with all kinds of fortified nutrients. 



For people who needs a refresher on the rich nutrient content and health benefits of red bean, here you go:

1. Protein 
Like most beans, red bean is a good source of high quality protein, and is naturally low in fat and cholesterol-free. 

2. Iron

In the theory of Chinese Medicine, red bean can "supplement the blood". This actually makes good sense after I got to know how much iron it contains. One cup of cooked red bean contains over 15 mg of iron, close to 30 percent of your daily requirement!

3. Fiber

Like other beans, red bean is also famous for it's fiber content, and a cup of cooked red bean contains almost half of your daily fiber needs. The soluble fiber found in red beans also helps lower your blood cholesterol levels by pushing cholesterol through your digestive track before your body can absorb it.

4. Folate

In China, there's a tradition for pregnant /postpartum women to consume red bean soup, for it is believed to not only "supplement the blood" but also be "good for the baby". This also makes sense because red bean carries such a high content of folate, which is famous for its preventative effect of neural tube birth defects.

5. Antioxidants 

Small red bean also has higher content of antioxidants even compared with cultivated blueberries, cranberries and cherries. 

Red bean is one of the best ingredients to make veggie porridge, because it's natural sweetness and aromatic flavor can improve the taste of veggies for people who are no big fan of veggies. The strong color of the porridge can also hide some of the veggies children commonly hates, such as carrots and celeries, when they are finely minced. 

For those who decided to give my new generation of healthy breakfast a try, here are some tips:

1. Soaking

Soaking is an essential step in bean preparation. The purpose of soaking is to begin rehydration before cooking, thereby reducing cooking time. Unsoaked beans take longer to cook and require more attention so they won’t cook dry. During soaking, beans make up their lost water, increasing up to twice their dried size. Add 3 cups of water for one cup of beans and soak overnight is desirable. Once rehydrated, beans cook in 1 to 3 hours, and small red beans takes less time.

As you may remember, red bean is a good source of folate, a water-soluble B vitamin. Long time of soaking will leach folate out of the beans into the water. Therefore, a desirable method is to rinse the beans, soak them overnight and do not discard the water but cook the beans with it. 

2. Adding ingredients

Remember to finely mince the veggies using a food processor especially preparing porridge for children. You can also add brown rice to the porridge to make it even healthier and more tasty as well. The "coarse" texture of brown rice is desirable in this porridge because it makes the soup more "chewy". 

3. Improve tastes

To improve tastes or make the porridge more flavorful, you can add rock sugar or coconut milk to taste. Although there's barely any researches done on it, rock sugar is believed in many culture to be healthier than white sugar. In the theory of Chinese medicine, rock sugar is characterized as "yin", therefore "calms your organs down"; while white sugar is characterized as "yang", hence "irritates your organs". 

Red Bean Cake

 

         Other than porridge, you can also play with red beans and create a variety of fun snacks for yourself or your kids. For example you may want to add green tea powder, fruits/veggie juice, and jello powder to make a healthy red bean veggie jello to snack on; or you may want to add veggie minces, eggs, and flour or sticky rice to cooked red bean paste to make small cupcakes, which serve as a perfect dessert on Valentines Day if made heart shaped.

The Warm Season Is Coming: Shape Up with a Few Modifications!

You are what you eat. It doesn't mean that you are going to be skinny if you eat a skinny person, of course. However, getting your plate in shape is definitely going to help with your own shape. That, leads to our topic today: March, the national nutrition month is coming! The theme this year is "Get Your Plate in Shape."

        Boston is always like this: before you realize that spring is coming, summer would be around the corner waiting for you to put on your shorts and dresses. I know that most of us have piled up a few pounds during the cold winter to keep us warm, nothing to be shame about, but it's time to let them go. So why not take national nutrition month as an opportunity to shape us up before the show time comes?

The following tips might help you get back on track with just a few modification of what you might have been doing:

More fruits and veggies

• Try adding a variety of fruits and vegetables as pizza topping (broccoli, spinach, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, and pineapples, just to name a few).
• Try crunchy vegetables instead of chips with your favorite lowfat salad dressing for dipping.
• Instead of having two cups of icecream which makes you feel guilty, have one cup of frozen fruits mixed with one cup of icecream to make it as satisfied but a lot healthier.

More whole grains!

• Try replacing your white rice with brown rice or even black, purple, red rice.
• Try whole wheat bread instead of white bread.
• Choose cereals with a whole wheat stamp on it, and a lot of them are tasty.

Switch to fat-free or low-fat dairy products

• Fatfree milk is more desirable, but 1% is still better than 2%.
• Lowfat version of frozen desserts could be as enjoyable as icecream, don't say no before you try it.

Be physically active your own way

• You know how precious a bright sunny day is in Boston, grasp every opportunity to walk, jog, hike, or just simply play under the sun!
• Clean your house, apartment, or your dorm room often. House work burns calories as well.
• If you gotta do something during your favorite drama, stretch rather than eat.

Finally, remember to give yourself a break once in a while if you ever get tired about "behaving well". Treat yourself with foods you really wanted without feeling guilty for a day and then you will find yourself ready to go again!

We Are Right About Moderation, Again!

Recently, researchers from the Oregon Research Institute published their new finding on the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and they found that frequent intake of ice-cream may reduce the rewarding feeling from intake of similar food products.

There were 151 healthy-weight adolescents with various ethnic backgrounds participating in this survey study. An fMRI test was used during visual stimuli and upon receipt of an ice-cream based milkshake (270 kcal, 13.5 g fat, and 28 g sugar per 150 mL) and a calorie-free tasteless solution to compare striatal responsivity. Percentage body fat was assessed and used as a dependent variable and covariate in fMRI analyses. Resting metabolic rate was measured. A food frequency questionnaire was filled out by the participants, inquires about the frequency of consumption of 60 specific food types in the past two-week period, including ice-cream. Also, the craving and liking of a variety of foods, including ice cream was assessed

The study shows that frequent ice-cream consumption was associated with reduced striatal response to receipt of an ice-cream based milkshake, which indicates the possibility that regular intake of an energy-dense food like ice-cream may reduce reward-region responsivity to that food or other similar foods. Another interesting finding from the study is that reduced striatal activation was correlated with frequency of ice cream consumption, but not with frequency of chocolate candy, cakes/cookies, hamburger, or French fry consumption or general fat-and-sugar-dense diets. Given the fact that both a chocolate milkshake and chocolate candy are palatable, fat-and-sugar-dense foods with similar flavors, while the fat and sugar content, food form, texture, and temperature of ice cream are most similar to the milkshake delivered in the scanner, the researchers suggests that it is the texture, not flavor, affects the expected satiation of foods.

Although it is not a randomized control study, part of the data is collected on site to provide more accuracy. In contrast of to what past research suggested, result of this study is independent of total energy intake and excess adipose tissue, which might be due to the limitation of subjects’ BMI range. Thus, further study with overweight and obese population is needed to confirm or reject the current result. Moreover, other than frequency, quantity of past ice-cream intake should also be assessed and compared in terms of its effect on striatal responsivity. To further confirm the result, more than one food that shares the same characteristic with ice-cream (high-fat, high-sugar, cold) should be introduced to obtain the same effect in future studies.

Despite of the few limitations of this study, I am grateful that we are probably right again about the idea of consuming everything in moderation. Now, we would even be able to feel better when asking our clients or patients to cut back on their ice-cream consumption, since you would be able to say: “Instead of making you feel worse as you believed, it may actually help you feel better and more rewarding when you do eat them.”

The Truth about Salt that may Shock You: Go Asian for Your Heart

February is American’s National Heart Month, which attracts nation-wide attention to heart health once again. For the occasion, CDC just published its 61 volume of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on February 7^th, in which they investigated on American’s consumption of salt. As you may know, excessive consumption of salt raises blood pressure especially in sodium sensitive population: a threat for a healthy heart.

CDC’s report analyzed data from the 2007–2008 What We Eat in America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), in which approximately 7100 people within various ethnic groups had participated. These data were collected from across the country by administering 24-hour recalls, and then are analyzed using USDA’s Food and Nutrition Database. Although the result of 24-hour diet recall is not as accurate, it gave us a decent grasp of our average salt intake level. Also, since salts added at table were excluded in the survey, the total intake is subjected to underestimation.

Following are the key findings and recommendations from the CDC report. Be prepared for one or more “wow moments”:

1. Many Americans eat too much salt, and you are very likely to be one of them. Recommended daily sodium consumption is <2,300 mg, and is 1,500 mg for groups that are more sodium sensitive. However, American’s average dietary sodium intake is 3,266 mg/day, and about 90% of us consume way more sodium than recommended.
2. 44% of the sodium consumed is coming from 10 main categories of foods, and surprisingly, bread is at the top of the list.                                                                                  The 10 main categories are: bread and rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, pizza, poultry, soups, sandwiches, cheese, pasta mixed dishes, meat mixed dishes, and savory snacks.
3. More than 85% of dietary sodium from foods and drinks comes from stores or restaurants rather than home cooked foods.
4. Reducing the sodium content of the 10 leading sources by one fourth would reduce total dietary sodium by more than 10%.

How come breads and rolls contribute the most toward our sodium intake? You may ask. In fact, there is quite high but not extremely high amount of sodium (about 150mg per serving) in most commercial breads, however, since we eat so much of them on a daily basis, small quantities added up.

To cut back on your sodium intake from breads, you can certainly make your own bread with less salt added, which is nevertheless quite time consuming. In comparison to bread, however, rice contains way less sodium (about 1mg per serving) and is way easier to prepare!

So why not go Asian for your heart?

Here are the tricks:

• Pick up a rice cooker in Wal-Mart or Chinatown for as cheap as $12.
• Put rice in the cooking pot.
• Rinse rice with water to get rid of any bad pieces or empty bran that’s floating on the surface.
• Add water to the pot to cover the rice.
• Plug in your rice cooker and hit start!

Get To Know What You Eat

With the advance in technology, development of society, and improvement of living standards, people have never cared or been able to care about their health as they are now. In such an era of information explosion, people are not only willing but also able to know everything that is going on around them.

When you go to a restaurant, have you ever had doubts like this: Where do the ingredients for my dishes come from? Are they of high quality? Have they been produced under certain standards? Are they good for my health? Apparently, our concerns are largely due to the lack of information on the sources of our foods. No worries! United States RealTimeFarms.com is now trying to bring more transparency to our food sources. RealTimeFarms.com came into being in the spring of 2010, which is a crowd-sourced online food guide. Its vision seems to be nothing less than magnificent: "powered by the people”, “to collectively document the whole food system” It sounds like that they are building up a Wikipedia in the food world.

When you open their homepage, you can enter a zip code, and view a map showing farms, farmers markets and restaurants in the corresponding region. With the help of the “pins”, you can see the links between those facilities. For example, you can easily find the specific farm that supplies bread, produce, and meat for a restaurant. By clicking on the restaurant names, you will be able to find a special menu, on which, every single ingredients listed leads you to their supplier. Therefore, the origin of your foods will be crystal clear.

RealTimeFarms.com describes itself as a “for-profit social enterprise”, which does not charge a penny from farmers, food manufacturers, or diners, but the restaurants will have to pay a fee to be on their list.

As a fairly new born enterprise, RealTimeFarms.com’s database is far from complete. To get a grasp of its power, you may want to take a look at their database in its birthplace: Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition, the database for Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Baltimore and New York City is also fairly well developed.

All in all, it is a good attempt to increase the transparency in our food system.

Below is a TED speech by Cara Rosaen, one of the co-founder of the website, “Why Food Transparency Matters and How RealTimeFarms.com Can Help”. Hope you will enjoy it and think deeper about food transparency.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XZUidbcwuc