January 2014 | Issue 1
EALTHY
s
Deliciou
ABITS
Belly g Buesctipiines R
Fitness fashion
The latest training trends
Jennifer Aniston! On love, work, and working out
ORGANIC SKIN DETOX Look radient with our exclusive formula
GET SLIM WITHOUT THE GYM An easy plan for fast results
Healthy Habits
1
8 21094
7
$4.50
“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.� - John F. Kennedy
2
Healthy Habits
January 2014 | Issue 1
HEALTH HEADLINES 12
Reduce Your Risk of Dementia
4
By Elise Sole
FASHION Psychology of
4
By Sarah Ivory How safe are ove the counter pills for runners? From energy drinks to painkillers, we reveal the truth about shopping for performance power
Here’s motivation to live a healthier lifestyle: Following a nutritious diet, exercising regularly, maintaining a low body weight, avoiding smoking, and limiting alcohol consumption can help reduce the odds of dementia.
40 Lululemon
What Supp?
17
22
Women Need Healthy Eating Support By Honor Whiteman According to the journal Nature, researchers say that current efforts to prevent the increase of chronic illness worldwide are not effective and that more needs to be done for future generations.
17
Welcome to the Jungle
Gym Clothes
25 Are Fashionable
By Jamie Wiebe
By Mackenzie Wiler
By Mae Anderson
Does expensive athletic wear incline us to work out? “Enclothes cognition” suggets that the clothes you wear affect how we think and what we do.
Take a walk on the wild side with this season’s predatory prints.
Workout clothes for women, once regulated to the back of the closet, are moving to the front of the fashion scene.
FITNESS Get Slim Without
24 the Gym
Walk On
By Felicity Rockhome
NUTRITION Healthy Eating
7
Your 43 Protect Pores From Sweat
Here’s prood that walking after dinner is more than a healthy way to aid
When temperatures drop below zero, it may be easy to skip the gym and let your workout routine slid.e But with simple at home exercises, you can keep your routine intact without setting foot in the snow.
14 Phone App
32
32 By Elizabeth Hardy
By Wilson Thompson Healthy Habits skin experts have formulated an easy to make organic skin detox to throw on your face after sweating it out at the gym.
The Jennifer Aniston Lifestyle
By Charlyn Fargo
By Melissa Thompson
More and more restaurants are offering healthy options, but sometimes it’s tough to figure out just what is the best one. Your smartphone can help. There’s an app, “Healthy Dining,” making it easier.
Jennifer Aniston has one of the most amazing natural toned body’s in Hollywood. We reveal how she’s managed to keep the aging process at bay and look so great!
“
I eat really well and I work out, but I also indulge when I want to. You’re not taking away my coffee or my glass of wine because I’d be devastated. - Jennifer Aniston
” 7
Delicious Belly
30 Busting Recipies By Sian Lewis Seasonal sweets become delightful dishes with small changes to traditional recipies. This year, enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the season - the smart and sensible way.
Healthy Habits
3
What
Healthy Habits
4
Words: SARAH IVORY Photography: MACKENZIE WILER
’s
? p p u S
unners are simple creatures. Most want little more than to run further or faster – ideally, both at the same time. The key to speedy success is to train wisely but some say there’s a loophole: performanceenhancing pills and potions that promise to do everything from provide a hit of energy, to blunt pain. Everyone talks about them – sports supplement brands, running buddies, people on forums, the press – but recent headlines have brought the risks of some of these substances to the fore. Earlier this year, London marathoner Claire Squires’ death was linked to DMAA (1,3-dimethylamylamine), a now-banned supplement still found illegally in some energy drinks. And new research in the BMJ Open Journal shows that runners who use painkillers have a 13 per cent increased risk of problems such as pain and cramps. So are supplements really a smart shortcut to improved performance? We quizzed the experts to reveal the ingredients that work and those that carry a heavy price.
the coun ter p il s for runners?
R
a e f a s How
r e v er o
ENERGY ENHANCERS Popping a pill for extra pep is popular. The UK vitamin and health supplement industry is valued at £385 million – and sales of sports nutrition products recently grew by 14 per cent to reach £200 million. Runners fuel with energy drinks, recover with super shakes and take herbal helpers, from coffee to Siberian ginseng, to gain an edge over competitors. But how can you tell if a supplement is safe? Food supplements are regulated under general food laws by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Department of Health. The Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) regulates other supplements, such as herbal remedies, and logs safety updates on mhra.gov.uk. But experts warn against trusting overseas providers. ‘The US supplement industry isn’t regulated by the Food and
Healthy Habits
5
SHOP SMART
To make sure the pills you pop aid performance
LOOK AT THE LABEL
Read and re-read the product label. Do you recognize all of the ingredients on the list? Are you taking the recommended dose? If you can’t be certain about what you’re looking at, ask an expert before buying.
BACK TO THE BASICS
Don’t underestimate the power of good nutrition. To keep fatigue at bay, calories are key. Seek advice from a registered dietician about how to eat the right foods, in the right quantities, at the right time.
SEEK THE SOURCE
Take care when buying sports nutrition from the web. If you’re unsure about what you’re about to purchase, log on to informed-sport.com to find out where the product has come from and check its credibility..
START FROM SCRATCH
Products effect people differently. No one person has the same reaction to even common supplements. Start with a low dose to test your tolerance level and if you experience adverse symptoms stop taking the product right away.
6
Healthy Habits
Drug Administration (FDA),’ says Kit Kaalund Hansen, a metabolic dietitian. “This means that there’s no guarantee all supplements on the market are pure or formulated with safe ingredients. Words such as ‘natural’, ‘organic’ and ‘fresh’ don’t make a product safe, so check you know all of the ingredients on the label.” Among the most common performance helpers are the numerous energy drinks that claim to provide an energy boost. These drinks often contain substances such as glucose, dextrose and fructose (all carbohydrates) plus stimulants such as ginkgo (a traditional Chinese medicine); ginseng (an adaptogenic herb); guarana (a tropical berry), and caffeine. Exercisers can’t get enough of bottled energy – it’s in supermarkets, health stores, sports centres and e-shops – but not all energy enhancers are created equal. Decades of research confirms that carbohydrate products can boost brain and muscle function by sending sugars into the bloodstream. One such piece of research from Loughborough University has shown that carbohydrate-fuelled runners improved their 30K time by an impressive 2.6 minutes. So it’s clear carbohydrate is a great source of short burst energy. However, the jury is out on the effectiveness of alternative stimulants. ‘Caffeine, green tea extract, ginseng and cranberry ketones are found in many performance-enhancing products and they essentially do the same thing, which is act on the brain to make exercisers think they have more energy when, in reality, they have less,’ explains Hansen. Many exercisers report positive responses to such herbs, and sales of these supplements are soaring. However, warns Hansen, ‘These substances create an adrenaline rush that increases alertness. In high doses, this can lead to dizziness, nausea, headaches and shortness of breath.’ So should you be wary of every snazzysounding supplement? Not necessarily.
Medical research has endorsed a number of alternative products and experts say key herbal remedies can be safely self-administered in low doses. ‘Caffeine, guarana, green tea, ginsengs and yerba mate can be beneficial in small-tomoderate doses,’ explains Cassandra Barns, nutritionist at The Nutri Centre. ‘It’s a high dose of one substance, or a combination of two smaller doses, that can cause a racing heartbeat, palpitations or anxiety.’ Barns recommends being cautious of any supplement with an over-emphasis on energising ingredients.’ Luke Heeney, new product director at Science in Sport (SiS), agrees. ‘If a product makes any wild claims it’s worth double checking it’s safe. Sports nutrition should be about fuelling your body for sustained energy and helping it adapt to exercise only.’
QUALITY CONTROL Problems are more likely with products bought online. DMAA, a substance that increases heart rate, was being sold online and in the UK in some sports supplements until the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency ruled it as an unlicensed medicinal product in August last year.‘The London marathon incident has highlighted the dangers of performance-boosting supplements bought over the internet,’ says Hansen. ‘DMAA ultimately caused Squires to experience cardiac failure due to extreme physical exertion, and she found it in an energy drink called Jack3d that could be bought online.’ Mintel research shows six per cent of supplements sold each year are bought online, so can we ensure web products are safe? ‘There really is a huge difference in the products at your local sports shop or supermarket and supplements on the internet,’ claims Heeney. ‘The first place to look for safe products is on the Informed-Sport website (informed-sport.com). Here you will find
[trustworthy] products and brands such as SiS that routinely undertake banned substance testing.’ Credible brands have rigorous procedures in place to minimise the risk of product contamination from substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list.
PAIN
BLOCKERS
Still, it’s not just energy we’re after. Researchers recently quizzed nearly 4,000 half- and full-marathon runners and discovered that almost half of them took painkillers before racing. This isn’t uncommon. Runners take nonprescription pain relievers, such as ibuprofen, aspirin and diclofenac, to help reduce pain after intense training and this can be beneficial to aid recovery. But experts warn that painkillers may do more harm than good. ‘Painkillers shield the pain but do not cure it,’ explains Hansen. ‘They work by blocking enzymes called cyclooxygenases, which regulate the production of prostaglandins, hormonelike substances that aid the contraction and relaxation of muscle tissue.’ The problem with blunting the effects of pain is that it’s a brain signal warning that your body has had enough and it’s time to stop exercising or risk injury. Research in the BMJ backs this. Results show that the rate of adverse symptoms rose in parallel with an increasing dose of painkiller. The authors argue that using painkillers before running can be damaging because the tissue protection that is usually provided by prostaglandins is compromised, potentially triggering gastrointestinal and cardiovascular problems, not to mention renal AE (adverse events). So it seems a heavy dose of anything is not the best training strategy. ‘It’s possible to have too much of any supplement or food,’ says Barns. ‘I certainly wouldn’t advise unlimited quantities of anything. The best method is to exercise and take supplements in moderation.’
Healthy Habits
7