Stress equals a family bar of Dairy Milk right? The sugar and fat in chocolate releases feel-good hormones that send instant relief to our brain and make us feel better. But the truth is, the relief doesn’t last long because once the sugar crash comes we’re in a whirlwind of ups and downs until things level out and we find ourselves back where we started, still stressed but feeling a bit sick after all the milk chocolate.

So with this in mind we got in touch with Frieda Arjuna, nutritionist at Life Sum

to find out what we should be eating during times of stress.

Here’s the top picks:

Dark leafy greens

Green leafy vegetables such kale and spinach will provide you with a healthy dose of calcium, helping to turn the amino acid in your brain into melatonin, and will help you to relax so perfect before going to bed or relive stress before an important meeting. Leafy greens are also low in fat and contain folate, magnesium and vitamin K. Folate produces dopamine which helps your brain stay relaxed and calm.

Complex-carbohydrates

Opt for complex carbs rather than simple carbs, this will not only make you feel fuller for longer but it will also provide the brain with serotonin and help to lower blood sugar. When you are stressed your blood sugar is high, so anything that helps to lower it is good. Complex carbohydrates like quinoa, brown rice or wholegrains are good options. Quinoa is especially beneficial for sleep because it will help relax the muscles due to its high magnesium and protein content. 

Probiotics

Keep your gut balanced; often when you’re stressed you feel it in your stomach. Foods that help you to keep it calm are for example natural yogurt and Kefir, which has a lot of healthy bacteria and probiotics.

Omega-3 fatty acids

Foods like avocado, salmon and flaxseeds increase the levels of serotonin in the body due to their high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and tryptophan. The omega-3 fatty acids have been known to relieve stress related symptoms that prevent sleep.

Magnesium

Almonds are rich in magnesium and tryptophan, helping to promote muscle relaxation and sleep. They also supply the body with protein, helping to stabilise blood sugar levels. Try replacing an unhealthy sugary dessert with natural yoghurt, honey and almonds.

Vitamin D

A glass of warm milk is one of the best natural remedies for sleep deprivation and helps you to feel more relaxed. Products rich in vitamin D such as dairy products improve the feeling of happiness and less panic feeling.

Glucose

It may seem strange to eat honey, a food packed with glucose, but studies have shown that the consumption of honey helps the liver to store glycogen. When the liver’s supply of glycogen runs out, the body starts to convert protein to muscle by producing stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin.

8:45 AM

He also manages to work out every day, and find time to play with his puppy.

It’s a full-on schedule, so Tetchily caught up with Luke to find out he finds the hours in the day, and how he stays on focussed and motivated.

Tetchily: Tell us a bit about a typical work day for you.

Luke Hines: What I love about my work is that no day is ever the same – whether it is a day at home powering through emails, or jumping on a plane to head to a cooking demonstration, cooking class or book food shoot! There is never a dull moment with all the incredible things I get to do each day.

Regardless of what I may have on, for me, it is all about embracing early mornings and packing in as many productive hours as possible.

How do you get the creative and energetic juices flowing first thing in the morning?

Clean, nutritious food and exercise is the best way to get my creative juices flowing. I usually get up around 4:45am, fuel up with a good quality fat and protein source, a strong coffee, and hit the gym when it opens at 5:30. I find once I have done this, I have time to really focus and get my priorities straight for the day. Plus, by having had my workout done, the day is free to focus on everything else in my life.

Are there regular sources of inspiration you tap into through the course of a day?

Of course! And sometimes it comes in unexpected or unplanned forms. For example, the accounts I follow on Instagram always give me motivation to cook great-looking food, look after myself, and get outdoors. So simply scrolling through the app I am likely to get inspired by the #fitspo (can’t believe I said that) and it helps me stay on track.

When it comes to fitness, my Fitbit definitely helps me stay inspired throughout the day with its encouraging vibration every 10,000 steps.

What are some of the things you do to re-stimulate and re-energies when you take a break from work?

I have an amazing little puppy named China. She is a 10-month-old golden Labrador, and whenever I have a break from work, I play with her in the yard, take her for a walk or even a jog on the beach. This ‘playtime’ for both of us really resets my energy and pumps me up for whatever else has to be done.

Time spent doing things like this is so important for feeling happier and healthier.

What regular exercise do you recommend as part of your daily routine?

I certainly believe variety is the spice of life. Sometimes I go through periods where I really love my weights program, but I equally get into my running, riding, ocean swimming and surfing. The key is moving your body in a way that you enjoy each day, even if it is as simple as walking to work to ensure you reach 10,000 steps.

Being active has profound results on our overall health and wellbeing, so I always look for new ways to push myself.

Any tips you can pass on to our readers for staying inspired, productive and creative throughout 2016?

The biggest tip I can give is to never forget why you’re doing something in the first place. Whether it’s cleaning up your food intake, increasing your daily exercise, getting better quality sleep, there is always a reason we started something. So being sure to remember the ‘why’ is vital to sticking to our goals.

Another great way to stick to your goals is to make them measurable. Make them something you can track and really focus on each day so that you reach them sooner.

8:42 AM

You’ve probably heard of juicing, the liquid diet trend that has exploded in recent years. But what about souping?

That’s right, souping.

Sipping soup or broth to improve health or lose weight is the elixir du jour on the healthy eating scene.

At both the 2015 winter and summer Fancy Food shows held in San Francisco and New York, bottled drinkable soups were big. And three new souping cookbooks came out in December (just in time for the holidays and New Year’s resolutions).

But let’s be clear. We’re not talking about the sodium-laden canned soups we grew up with, but rather freshly made broths or stocks sipped as is or used as a base for soup or fruit-based soups blended with herbs and vegetables.

So is it the new juicing?

That’s the goal of Angela Ablates and Vivienne Valle, authors of the “Soup Cleanse” (Grand Central Life & Style, $22) and founders of Sou pure, the Los Angeles-based bottled soup company. Founded in 2014, Sou pure makes 21 varieties of soups and waters and is set to sell them nationwide next month.

Ablates and Vella believe so much in making souping part of a daily regime they’ve trademarked the phrase “souping is the new juicing.”

But unlike juicing, fiber isn’t loss during the souping process — something the authors say spurred their soup business.

“The fiber is the important part of fruits and vegetables and we were baffled by how we as well as the

 Roasted Chicken Broth and Beef Bone Broth. More people are making their own for health reasons. (Photo: Sal wan Georges, Detroit Free Press)

Keep the good stuff

While souping touts some of the same benefits as juicing — feeling better, less brain fog and weight loss — its one big advantage, health experts and chefs say, is the fiber it retains.

“Typically, you are leaving the pulp and fiber behind, so with soup you are getting all that good fiber and the nutrients that come along with it,” says Bethany Thayer, director for the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at Henry Ford Health System. Just this week, Thayer named souping as one of the next new diet trends at 

Thayer says she’s seeing soup consumed for breakfast (in the form of a smoothie bowl), lunch and dinner.

With the right ingredients, that bowl of soup can be a healthful meal, and by consuming it mindfully, she adds, you can limit your caloric intake.

“Soups, because of the liquid, with the vegetables and lean meat, they lead to feeling fuller longer,” she says, adding that she prefers to eat soup with a spoon, rather than drink it. She suggests adding whole grains or ancient grains like Rebekah to it and pairing it with a glass of low-fat milk.

“Because it’s warm, and you’re using a spoon, you’re sitting down and you are more mindful of what you’re are eating,” she says.

Skua Wool bright, director of Whole Cities Foundation for Whole Foods Market in Detroit, says some of these soup detox programs are designed to specifically support and cleanse the liver and kidneys.

“The beauty of the soup is that you can take as many healthy ingredients as you prefer and put them in one big pot,” Wool bright says. “For a lot of people, they need something more hearty and flavorful and that’s the best part of souping: You get all the micro nutrients in your system without sacrificing taste or satiety.”

Broths for bone health

Stocks and broths have been around for tens of thousands of years, but healthy eating trends like the Paley diet (eat like a caveman) have brought them back into the spotlight.

The basis for any soup is a liquid, mainly broth or stock (also now called bone broth, thanks to Paley).

Taking meat and poultry bones, prostrated or not, and simmering them for hours unleashes proteins, collagen, biotin and gelatin. The gelatin helps the broth congeal, a sign that you’ve made it properly. Many of the other primary nutrients found in bones help with joint health.

“Bone broth can add an important vitamin and mineral infusion to a Paley lifestyle since the boiling of a substance helps with predigest ion,” Nate Furlong of New Hudson, a clinical exercise physiologist, told the Free Press in an e-mail.

Bone broth is made by taking meat bones, roasting, boiling, then simmering meaty bones for a long time, anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. During the long simmering process, key nutrients stored in those bones seep out, cook down and become concentrated.

Bob Sparrow, owner of Sparrow Market in Ann Arbor, says he’s definitely seen a rise in the popularity of broths, especially among millennials.

Sparrow sells beef knuckles, oxtails, beef neck bones and split marrow bones raw or pre-roasted for making sipping broths or using as base for soup.

Sparrow store manager Miriam Maksutova says lots of people are making broths because “they realize how easy it is.”

“They are also getting back to the basics of eating, not eating processed foods and knowing what goes into their food.”

8:39 AM

When you pick up a large pizza to go, why doesn’t the grease immediately soak through the cardboard box and all over your car? The answer is chemicals, and there’s evidence that some of them are harmful to human health.

Pizza boxes, popcorn bags and many other paper food storage containers are coated with chemicals that repel oil and water. From a not-covering-your-counters-in-grease perspective, this is a good thing. It’s not so good, though, when those chemicals are endocrine disruptions and carcinogens.

The NRC has been pushing the FDA to ban some of these harmful chemicals, called PFC, used in paper packaging since the early 2000s. In 2011 several of the companies that produce PFC agreed to stop selling some types of them. This month’s ban formalizes that voluntary action.

In October of 2014, NRC teamed up with other advocacy groups to petition the FDA for an immediate ban. Over a year later isn’t exactly immediate, but the good news is that earlier this month FDA did ban three types of the nastiest PFC used in paper food packaging. The ban went into effect on January 4th.

Advocacy groups, like the NRC and EWE, say that this ban is a great first step, but the FDA needs to take further action to keep harmful chemicals out of our food packaging. The coalition is now turning its focus to other dangerous food packaging chemicals.

In a press release, EWG President Ken Cook said, “Industrial chemicals that pollute people’s blood clearly have no place in food packaging, but it’s taken the FDA more than 10 years to figure that out, and it’s banning only three chemicals that aren’t even made any more.” He describes the January ban as “too little too late,” and is calling for further action to protect consumer health.
The same coalition that pushed for this ban is petitioning the FDA to take action on seven other harmful food packaging chemicals:

1. Benzophenone (also known as diphenyl ketone)
2. Ethyl acrylate
3. Eugenyl methyl ether (also known as 4-allylveratrole or
   methyl eugenol)
4. Myrcene (also known as 7-methyl-3-methylene-1,6-
   octadiene)
5. Pulegone
6. Pyridine
7. Styrene

The new petition is open for comments until March 4, 2016. If you want to let the FDA know that you want these harmful chemicals out of your food packaging, leave a comment here.
Even if you don’t order pizza delivery or use microwave popcorn, this issue impacts you. When we dispose of these products, the chemicals contaminate water, which means you can avoid direct contact with PFCs and other harmful chemicals and still end up being indirectly exposed.

8:35 AM

The tale of Left Coast Food & Juice (2878 N. Lincoln Ave., Lake View) is one of love, friendship, and food allergies.

Chicago native Michael Madden met his wife, Jamie, when both were living in Scottsdale, Arizona. During their courtship, Jamie was diagnosed with a laundry list of food allergies. Love trumped Michael’s distaste for stereotypical health foods—“Eating well felt more like a procedure than an enjoyable event,” he admits—and together the two discovered dining options they both deemed tasty, with allergy friendly fare and approachable pricing to boot.

Upon moving to Chicago, where Michael became food and beverage director for hotel restaurants including Nico Osteria and Jamie now works as a graphic artist and designer, the pair discovered that similar dining options were impossible to find.

Fast-forward to March, and the couple will introduce their new fast-casual restaurant in the quirky space that housed longstanding fast food joint Muskie’s until 2014. The compact menu consists of wraps, salads, bowls, smoothies, and cold-pressed juices created with the aid of Michael’s friend—one Paul Kahan. The two got to know each other through Michael’s work at Nico Osteria, and when Michael shared his idea for the new concept with Kahan, the healthy-eating chef was so passionate about the idea that he agreed to develop the menu. “I caught him on a good day,” Michael jokes.

Though customers with food allergies will have a heyday, there will be plenty of gluten, meat, and dairy to be consumed. Each dish will come customizable with add-ons such as organic chicken, GMO-free steak, sustainable salmon, or a seven-minute egg. Michael highlights the “unreal” Cadillac Curry bowl with brown rice, curried garnet yams, green beans, green onion, basil, mint, and shaved coconut, as a must-order. “To call these dishes ‘salads, wraps, and bowls’ is a significant understatement,” says Michael. “We plan to change the perception that eating healthy is synonymous with boring and bland,” he adds.

8:30 AM

 

1. Focus on fueling your body, not weight loss. Your number one focus should be your health. Weight loss will follow naturally. When your aim is to fuel your body, you will notice the benefits almost instantly as you, for example, sleep better, feel more energized, and suffer from less stress and mood swings.

2. Keep a food diary. This is your key tool. You should start keeping it before you change your diet as it will really highlight where you need to make changes.

3. Understand that changing your eating habits is a good thing. See it as a positive thing you want to do because you respect yourself enough, not a punishment you must suffer because you hate your body and must improve it. There’s no greater show of self-love than honoring your body with healthy, nutritious food that’s going to keep it strong and healthy. See processed junk food as it really is–pure rubbish that is going to make you lethargic, sick and overweight and understand that you deserve so much better.

4. Educate yourself. Learn a little bit about basic nutrition and understand the damaging effects of processed foods. Healthy eating is very simple, eat unprocessed wholefoods, the closer to their natural form the better, and avoid processed foods. 

5. Learn to read food labels. Never trust food packaging. Read the small print at the back, particularly the list of ingredients and avoid anything that contains added sugar or other additives.

6. Make small changes, one at a time.  Depending on your current diet, take two or three issues you want to address each week. For example, start with making sure you have a healthy breakfast every day. When you’re in a good routine with that, change your snacks, then work on adding more green veg into your diet and so on. Don’t try to make all changes at once. You’ll only be setting yourself up for failure. Think long term, if you’re patient now and take it slow, think how different your life will be in a year?

7. Change your attitude and get excited. A positive attitude is a key to success in anything so get excited about the new journey ahead of you. Spend some time researching new recipes and ingredients. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring or bland, you can still enjoy food. The internet is full of inspiration for delicious healthy recipes. Instagram and Interest are great places for finding these. Try new things like some raw food or vegan desserts that can be delicious and nutritious.

8. Allow yourself some treats. It is important to allow yourself some treats every now and then. A little piece of cake is not going to do any damage if the rest of the time your diet is healthy. Never call treats a ‘cheat meal’ and always enjoy them, guilt free.

9. Fix your relationship with food. This is the key. Once you have healthy relationship with food, you won’t need much willpower to eat healthily and you’ll be able to enjoy some treats without it leading to a huge binge. Signs of unhealthy relationship with food include; you often eat for emotional reasons (boredom, anger, depression, stress), you always view food in terms of weight and see some foods as good and others as bad, you feel you need to use a lot of willpower to control yourself around food and you often feel guilty for eating something wrong. 

10. Change your self-talk. Be nicer to yourself. Stop focusing on the things you should and could do better and focus on the things you’re doing well. Every day, list five things you did well today. Observe your self-talk and always ask yourself, ‘Would I say this to a friend?’ If the answer is no, then you sure shouldn’t say it to yourself. You will notice that as you start being nice to yourself, as you start focusing on the things you do well, however small and start respecting yourself more, you’ll naturally start eating better too, whereas constantly criticizing yourself leads to more emotional eating

8:26 AM

Sports drinks and 'fat' water

Sports drinks contain both sugar and salt and Joel Ferne reckons they are best left to elite athletes who need to replace electrolytes. Moderate exercisers should simply dehydrate with water. Available in bottles in the US, "Fat water" hasn't yet hit our shores, but it's only a matter of time. As the name suggests, Fat water is flavored water with added fat, usually in the form of coconut oil that is high in saturated fat, Ferne says. 

Gluten-free products

A strong and often ill-informed anti-gluten sentiment means there are now hundreds of everyday products in the supermarket boasting their gluten-free status and many shoppers select them under the belief that they're a better option. Unless you're a Cordelia, though, Ferne says there is no reason to eat gluten-free products. "They are no healthier. In fact, gluten-free products are often high in salt and kilo-joules and there's also often added fat to give springiness to baked products." 

Doughnuts, croutons, bro nuts and freak shakes

It will surprise few that deep-fried Cronus or choc-dripped milkshakes garnished with Tim Tams and doughnuts get a red card from health professionals, even if they do send our Instagram followers into a liking frenzy. "An aberration," Selby calls freak shakes and hybrid pastries. "They're laden with fat and kilo joules and seem to exist more for their shock value than anything else. If you have to have one, take a photo and share or just eat half."

Pork belly
It's often a restaurant menu fixture and our love affair with this soft, fatty cut still rages fierce, but Selby is not a fan. "Pork belly has about two centimeters of fat and it's not fat within the muscle fibre, which is OK, but the outer fat which is mainly saturated fat with a bit of monounsaturated fat. There are still studies being done, but there is still plenty of credible research that shows that eating saturated fats puts you at risk of heart disease," she says.
Veggie chips
They may be found in the health aisle of the supermarket, but if you presume they're "good for you" because they are made with vegetables other than potatoes, think again. "Most potato chips have around 20 per cent fat – I've seen vegetable chips with 30 per cent fat," Ferne says. In the US, there are even some ranges of veggie chips fried in "healthier" coconut oil, resulting in a saturated fat content of about 35 per cent, no doubt a trend headed this way.
Fruit juice
It may make you feel virtuous, but did you know that there's likely to be as much sugar and as many kilo joules in your fruit juice as in soft drink? A 2014 article in British medical journal The Lancet cites research that has found that, while eating whole fruit appears linked to reduced or neutral risk for diabetes, high fruit juice intake is a risk factor. "And unless you have a Retribution or similar [blender], you miss out on the benefits of the fiber," Ferne says.

Kale
It's not that there's anything wrong with kale per SE but, at up to $5 a bunch, Selby says it's both over hyped and overpriced. The good news for those of us who have a tendency to buy this expensive leafy green (only to leave it wilting in the vegetable crisper), is that there are alternatives. A member of the brassiness family, this so-called "super food" counts Brussels sprouts and cabbage among its relatives; Selby says these options (along with spinach) are just as nutritious and far cheaper than kale.
Alcohol
The bad news is that even the antioxidant benefits of a glass of wine are outweighed by the kilo joules, Ferne says. "All alcohol is pure empty kilo joules and can be a gut irritant," he says. "Beer is high in carbs and kilo joules and cider contains a lot of sugar – a double whammy from the fruit and the alcohol." If you're watching your waistline, Ferne says, "lite" beer is a better choice

Coconut oil
Coconut oil's alleged health benefits include satisfying sweet cravings, easing digestion and helping with weight control but Selby points out that coconut oil is very calorific with 90 per cent saturated fat. "It was previously thought that coconut oil influenced the good type of cholesterol," Ferne says. "However, recent research seems to suggest that it has no bearing on HAL [good] cholesterol after all. If anything, it likely increases one's bad cholesterol, so it's best used sparingly or not at all."
Rice malt syrup
The anti-sugar brigade reckons rice malt syrup is better than cane sugar and use it extensively in cooking, but Selby says that, while it may indeed be low in fructose, it has a high hypoglycemic index (GI) that results in a rapid rise in blood glucose levels. "Often the [sugar-free] desserts are very calorific too, with the addition of coconut fat, chocolate etc, so they're no healthier

"Oodles"
Get out the vegetable spiritualist. Selby says "oodles" – zucchini noodles made from spirals of raw zucchini – are "the best thing to come out of the raw food movement".  Zucchini is low in kilo joules and contains vitamin C and potassium. The noodles can be eaten raw as the base of a salad, or very lightly sauteed and used in place of pasta with meatballs or a vegetarian sauce.
Oats
Whether cooked as porridge or per-softened and eaten raw, oats are high in beta-Anglicans and can help decrease the absorption of cholesterol, Ferne says. "Oats are low GI, so their carbohydrate is slowly absorbed into your system, giving you energy for hours after eating and they contain thiamine and niacin, as well as minerals like phosphorus, potassium and magnesium."

While it may not push quinoa out of pole position, Selby predicts we'll see more of this tiny ancient African grain this year. T eff is high in iron and calcium as well as B vitamins and manganese and contains resistant starch that helps regulate blood sugar. Selby recommends substituting about one-fifth of your regular flour in muffins or cakes with eff or adding it to muesli.
Berries
Don't give up your acacia bowl. Berries are relatively low in sugar and high in disease-fighting antioxidants. Ferne says there's also evidence to show that people who eat berries regularly have lower rates of correctional cancer and heart disease.
Eggs
Eggs fell out of favor for a while due to concerns about cholesterol, but Ferne says that anyone who follows a healthy balanced diet low in saturated fat can eat up to six eggs a week without increasing their risk of heart disease. Eggs contain 11 vitamins and minerals and they are high in protein, which means they'll keep you full for longer, so are perfect for dieters.
Cow's milk
Nut milks such as almond, macadamia or rice milk are convenient if you can't tolerate dairy and they can add a nice flavor to food, Selby says, but they don't have the same nutritional profile as cow's milk. "Cow's milk is superior in calcium, phosphorous and protein."

8:24 AM