HEALTH & BEAUTY HEALTH
PLANTS AREN’T FREE OF SATURATED FAT: While saturated fat is most commonly found in animal products, it’s still found in some plants, most notably in tropical foods. In fact, coconut oil has more saturated fat than butter! And saturated fat from plant foods isn’t any healthier than saturated fat from animal products. That’s okay though—you can still have saturated fat in your diet as long as you are moderate and balance it with sources of unsaturated fat. THE BAN ON TRANS-FAT: You might have heard about trans-fat, a type of fat resulting from vegetable oils that are pumped full of hydrogen to be solid instead of liquid at room temperature. Once commonly found in processed foods, trans fats were a source of controversy because they lower your HDL levels and raise your LDL levels—a double whammy when it comes to your heart health! But trans fats were banned in the United States in 2015 and food manufacturers had until 2018 to phase them out of production. WATCH YOUR CHOLESTEROL LEVELS: The U.S. National Library of Medicine recommends people start getting their cholesterol tested early and often, depending on risk factors such as weight and family history. If a child has a family history of high blood cholesterol, heart attack, or stroke, it’s wise to start testing as young as 2 and get tested every 5 years. By age 20, healthy individuals should be tested every five years up until after 45, when they should be tested every one to two years.
Healthy Routines for Mind & Body By Dylan Roche
Remember the movie Groundhog Day? Bill Murray plays a cantankerous weatherman who gets stuck in a loop reliving February 2nd over and over and over again. While some degree of spontaneity is necessary to keep life interesting, the idea of doing the same thing every day isn’t necessarily a bad one when it comes to your health. That’s because routines tend to help people stick to habits that are good for them and avoid too much mental strife.
Good for your mind… According to the national nonprofit Mental Health America, the average person faces a lot of stress when
they’re trying to get done everything they need to on a daily basis. It can be even worse for those who struggle with depression or anxiety. Having a structured routine changes that. This is because making decisions, whether big or small, can be stressful. If you are going through the same motions you do every day or every week, there are fewer choices you have to make: Do you go to the gym in the morning or in the evening? When are you going to walk the dog? Are you going to get a chance to eat lunch today? When you don’t have to figure these things out in the heat of the moment, you reduce your stress levels and you’re able to save your mental
INCREASE YOUR INTAKE OF UNSATURATED FAT: If you’re trying to reduce your intake of saturated fat and increase your intake of good fat, try cooking with olive oil or canola oil instead of butter and varying your sources of protein to replace some of your red meat with plant-based sources like beans and tofu. Remember, however, that all fat has the same number of calories per ounce, so people who are watching their weight will still need to be moderate in their consumption. whatsupmag.com | February 2021 | What’s Up? Annapolis
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