How to Tell if Health Foods Are Really Healthy

A lot of what we consider “health foods” aren’t really that healthy. That’s because in recent years health foods have become big business — and wherever there’s money to be made, you’re going to find plenty of marketers willing to fudge, and even fib, to make a sale.

Is yogurt healthy?

Topping the list of foods that are widely believed to be healthy, but generally are not healthy: Yogurt.

I know. I know. Our family loves this stuff too. But the reality is that even as the yogurt section of most markets has expanded significantly in the past few years, the number of truly healthy yogurt choices is still quite low.

You probably already know why: sugar. One small Yoplait original strawberry yogurt cup has 26 grams of the stuff. (To put this into perspective, a Twinkie only has 18 grams.)

And don’t be fooled by labels that promise yogurts with fewer calories. Fewer calories do not make something healthy — fewer unhealthy ingredients do.

Yogurt is far from the only example of a food that we’ve been tricked into believing is healthy, just because of what it’s called. Other foods in this category include granola, fruit juice, smoothies, veggie burgers, protein bars, and drinks made from almond, soy and coconut milk. These foods are often packed with added sugar, industrially processed vegetable oils, salt, chemical preservatives and other highly processed ingredients, rendering them of little use to you if you truly want to eat healthy.

Tip: Don’t make assumptions — read ingredients.

OK, so I’ve just told you that yogurt’s not a health food, right? Here’s the caveat: It can be an amazingly healthy part of your regular food choices if you simply read the ingredients and avoid any product with added sugar.

Don’t be fooled: Food companies have worked very, very hard to disguise sugar with other names. These include honey, maple syrup, barley malt, beet sugar, buttered syrup, cane juice, caramel, corn syrup…

… deep breath …

… carob syrup, castor sugar, date sugar, demerara, dextran, dextrose, diastatic malt, diatase, ethyl maltol, fructose, fruit juice, galactose, glucose, grape sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, lactose…

… almost there …

maltodextrin, maltose, molasses, muscovado, organic evaporated cane juice, panocha, rice syrup, sorbitol, sorghum syrup, sucrose, treacle and turbinado sugar.

Oh, and there are actually quite a few more where that came from, but you get the idea. According to some reports, added sugar is hidden in three-quarters of the foods that can be purchased at the average grocery store.

Are some sugars healthier?

Now, there’s a debate to be had that some of these forms of sugar are better than others. That’s a fool’s argument, though, unless you’re talking about the sugars that are already in the foods we eat. (Milk, for instance, is chock full of the sugar known as lactose — and milk in moderation isn’t a problem for most people.) Anything added to a product to make it sweeter, though — no matter what it’s called — is a problem.

So, back to that yogurt: If you look long and hard, you’ll probably be able to find a cup of plain yogurt, and it should have just two ingredients: milk and active cultures. Want to sweeten it up? Add some fresh fruit.  Want to be a little more adventurous? Play around with mint, cinnamon and even sriracha.

The same rules apply for anything else. You can’t simply assume that something is healthy simply because it’s commonly thought of as a “health food.” Read the ingredients. Avoid anything with added sugar — no matter what it’s called. And if you’re not sure what the ingredients are, pull out your smart phone and find out — and don’t put it in your cart until you know what it is you’re going to be eating.

How do you tell if something is healthy or not?  Please leave your comments and questions below.

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How to Tell if You're Addicted to Clutter

Are you addicted to clutter?

A while back, I came upon a blog by an economist named Joshua Gans who had been trying to introduce basic math to his three-year-old daughter — starting, as we almost all do, with addition.

“Now, the way to do this is to make liberal use of fingers,” he wrote. “This is all very well when the numbers you are adding are less than 10 but is a problem after that.”

But what if, Gans thought, we start with subtraction first?

“The idea there was that you could take any number up to ten and subtract any smaller number and still not exhaust your finger options. That dramatically opened up the possibilities,” he wrote.

Almost everyone I know says “addition and subtraction,” but since reading Gans’ blog, I’ve often wondered what effect it might have on our collective psyche if we thought about “subtraction and addition.” Would we always feel so compelled to add things to our lives in a never-ending effort to satisfy a desire for more?

Can you have it all?

But I digress. Because here’s what I know for certain: No one in the history of humanity has ever been able to “have it all” — and those who try are some of the most miserable human beings in the world.

You might not think you’re on the path to being Citizen Kane, but if you regularly engage in shopping just for the sake of shopping (what some deviously clever marketer has convinced many of us to think of as “retail therapy,”) then you’re living an addition-centric life. And while that might feel satisfying in the short term, it’s absolutely not helping you develop happiness in the long term, because there is no upward limit to “more.”

Does consumption impact your health?

OK, so consumption isn’t always pretty, but is it really impacting your health? Absolutely — and especially if you’re taking on debt to do it.

It probably wouldn’t be surprising to most people to learn that debt, even short-term debt in relatively small amounts, can be psychologically draining. What many people don’t realize is that research has shown there are also significant physiological consequences, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

And even if you’re not taking on debt when you add to your ever-growing collection of “stuff,” you are almost certainly adding to your clutter, which has also been demonstrated to have profound health consequences. Researchers in Los Angeles, for instance, have demonstrated that cluttered homes are linked to elevated levels of cortisol — a steroid hormone released in our bodies in response to stress — and too much cortisol over a long period of time can be devastating to our metabolism, brain activity and immune systems.

Tip: Cut the clutter, one thing at a time

Maybe we can’t completely reverse the polarity of thought processes that have always told us that addition is positive and subtraction is negative. Most of my patients, though, have been quite able to adopt a more balanced perspective, one that lends itself to a one-for-one policy for stuff. The key is simply to ask, any time you consider the purchase of something that is not a perishable product, what you’re willing to donate to someone less fortunate to make room in your house and life for something new.

That question alone, I’ve found, often stops people from making purchases that they really don’t need — a particularly good step when it comes to reducing debt. If it is something that I really need then I am also blessing the life of someone else. What it doesn’t do, of course, is subtract clutter. Once you’ve gotten used to the one-for-one tradeoff, though, it gets a lot easier to take the next step, which is a one-for-two tradeoff – and you’d be amazed how quickly this practice can simplify your life.

How to Tell if You're Addicted to Clutter

The following step after that is a true reckoning — one guided by one  question: “Does this add value to my life?” If the answer is “no,” then it goes.

How to Eat Your Favorite Foods and Lose Weight

Can you really eat your favorite foods and still lose weight?

Maybe it’s the meatloaf that your grandmother used to make. Maybe it’s the apple pie á la mode you shared with your spouse on your first date.  Regardless of what it might be, in this article I'll show you how you can eat your favorite foods and lose weight.

We All Have Favorite Foods

We’ve all had favorite foods. And sometimes, it’s true, those things aren’t the healthiest of choices.

But the psychological impact of these foods cannot be ignored or dismissed. And when you deprive yourself of these foods, the impact feels greater than it actually is — which means the counteractions you’ll take as a result are likely to be greater, too.

Sally's Experience

Let’s say, for instance, your favorite food of choice is the same as it is for Sally, a patient who has been working with me for the past year. Her comfort food is a warm, gooey, chocolate chip cookie and so-cold-it-hurts glass of milk.

Normally, Sally went to the grocery store with a shopping list and a full stomach.  This way her willpower muscle was not fatigued and the chocolate chips stayed out of the shopping cart.  One recent instance, though, was different.  It was her daughter’s birthday party and she wanted chocolate chip cookies for the party.

At first, Sally didn’t think about it.  The chocolate chips and other ingredients went into the cart without much thought.  However, later in the day when she got hungry she remembered the grocery store purchase.

“All day long today, for some reason, I’d been thinking about having a cookie,” she wrote to me in an email. “I thought about going home, making the cookies, and sharing a few with my family before the birthday party, but I kept battling back that thought.”

That night, after Sally’s three children went to bed, something completely predictable happened. She went ahead and made the cookies, then ate them all before she went to bed.

“Ugh!” she wrote. “I felt like a total failure. Worst of all, the house smelled like cookies, and my daughter woke up and came down to the kitchen as I was polishing off the last one. It was humiliating.”

Tip: Eat Your Favorite Foods

When it comes to the way we eat, perfection simply isn’t possible. In fact, studies even show that your food choices don’t have to be perfect to be healthy.  The recommendation to eat your favorite foods doesn’t mean, of course, that you shouldn’t strive to get better and better about the way you eat.

Time and again, my patients have demonstrated that people who take small but consistent steps toward big health goals are almost always more effective in their pursuits than people who try to do everything at once. What it does mean, though, is that we should acknowledge that our connection to food is far deeper than what’s on the nutrition label.

3 Ways to Eat Your Favorite Foods

When it comes to favorite foods, I ask my patients to do three things.

1. Be mindful about when you eat your favorite foods.

2. Discover new favorite foods.

3. Upgrade old favorite foods.

This takes time. We simply cannot do this overnight. It took a long time to develop the psychological connections that make these foods meaningful to us, and it will take a long time to untangle those connections and build new ones.

Identify Your Favorite Foods

So, first things first: You need to know what these favorite foods are — and that can start by building a simple list of the sorts of foods that you understand aren’t particularly healthy but you reckon might be harder to give up than other things. For Sally (and me too, by the way) that list would have included chocolate chip cookies.

After that, it’s time to find some new comfort foods — and that means it’s time to do some epicurean exploration. Sift through cookbooks. Consult friends and family members. Spend plenty of time perusing social media sites dedicated to healthy recipes.

6 Ways to Get Kids to Eat More Vegetables

Fully 9 in 10 U.S. children need to eat more vegetables.  For adults it is no better.  As a cardiologist, I have observed that a person's health is directly tied to how many vegetables they eat.  In this article, I share six proven ways to effortlessly get children and adults to eat more vegetables.

1. Set an Example

Your children watch what you eat.  Indeed, studies show that, to a large extent, how you eat is how they will eat for the rest of their lives.  Any bad eating habits you have may be magnified with your children.

Basically, the message of this and countless other studies is that you have to "walk the talk."  If you don't eat vegetables, then you can't expect your children to eat vegetables either.  As studies show that vegetables eaten during childhood prevent future heart disease and cancer, it is a parent's responsibility to model healthy eating.

2. Serve Vegetables First

In a fascinating study, researchers from Texas A&M University studied the school lunch plates of 8,430 students to better understand why children choose to eat or avoid vegetables.  Not surprisingly, they found that if vegetables had to compete on the plate with highly processed main entrees, like chicken nuggets, broccoli didn't stand a chance.  For broccoli to even have a fighting chance, it had to be paired with something healthier than the hyper palatable chicken nuggets.

The lessons from this study are clear.  If you pair pizza with cauliflower on your kids' plate, they likely will never touch the cauliflower.

The solution is to offer vegetables first.  Before you bring out the main entree, serve everyone the salad or sautéed vegetables first.  If there is no competition, children and adults alike will be much more likely to eat vegetables.

3. Make it a Game

In an interesting new study, researchers from Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor University, wanted to see if they could effortlessly boost vegetable intake of 400 children.  To do so, they created a video game that had the main character ask the children to eat and record their vegetables.  Indeed, this video game was so effective that 79% of the children were meeting the target number of vegetables and fruits every day within six months.

While you probably cannot create your own video game for your children to eat more vegetables, there is still much that you can do.  Depending on the age of your children, you could make faces or their favorite superhero out of the vegetables on their plates.  You could also use vegetable charts or let them use the camera on your phone to photograph the vegetables they eat.

The key is to be creative and find out what works for your kids.  Turning vegetables into a game works for adults as well.  For example, many nutrition tracking apps give you medals for eating vegetables.

4. Make it Convenient

Studies show that if vegetables are readily available, people naturally eat more.  The key is to eliminate all barriers.

This is something that has worked well in our home.  My wife, Jane, often makes a vegetable and fruit smoothie for our children in the morning.  For ideas on what to include in a smoothie, here is a link.

Also, she typically puts out a vegetable and fruit tray several times a day for our children.  We have found that if fresh veggies and fruits are readily available, our kids will eat them.

The same works for adults as well.  Pack veggie snacks for work. Pack veggies for car rides.  Basically, always have a readily available vegetable.

5. Offer a Variety of Vegetables

In an interesting study, researchers invited study participants to a meal.  At this meal, half the people were offered only one vegetable choice with their pasta and the other group of people was offered three vegetable choices.  Without even trying, the group that was offered three vegetable choices with their pasta ate nearly one more total serving of vegetables.

Should I Avoid Carbs?

Should I avoid carbs is something I am asked all the time.  Indeed, the low-carb craze today differs little from the fat-free craze a generation ago and, for that matter, the low-protein craze a hundred years ago.

Diets are like fads, they go in and out of style because they aren’t based on science. That’s why I hate the word “diet.” It turns something that couldn’t be more natural, food, into something harsh and rigid.

Not All Carbs Are Created Equal

Here’s the thing: Not all carbs are created equal. While it is true that carbs from sugar and processed foods cause weight gain — and lots of it — carbs from vegetables, legumes and fruit have the exact opposite effect.

In general, what determines whether a carb causes weight gain or weight loss is determined by how fast it is converted to sugar in our bodies. The flour in even a slice of whole wheat bread, for example, is converted to sugar faster than a Snickers bar. In contrast, broccoli carbs — yes, there are carbs in broccoli — take hours to digest. Those are good carbs.

The Science on Weight Gain and Carbs

In a study that looked at more than 130,000 people over nearly a quarter century of food consumption, researchers from Harvard and Tufts University found that the more carbs you get from vegetables, fruits and legumes the less you will weigh. Meanwhile, another Harvard study — this one including 120,000 people — showed that the more carbs you get from sugars, sweets and processed foods the more you will pack on the pounds.

Want more proof?  The longest lived people in the world, the people of Okinawa, Japan, who also happen to probably be the healthiest and leanest people as well, eat mostly carbs - the good ones.

Avoiding all carbohydrates because things like processed bread can contribute to weight gain is like avoiding all liquids because soda pop is a scourge to public health. In my experience, the number one factor of weight gain or weight loss is the type of carb you pick.

Tip: Get to know your carbs.

There’s a tremendous difference between filling carbs and hunger carbs. And once you understand the difference, it makes it a lot easier to decide which is which.

The Filling Carbs

Filling carbohydrates are a part of “real food,” which is how I think about food that isn’t highly processed (or processed at all, for that matter.) Sweet potatoes have good carbs. So do vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, and unprocessed grains. These carbs fill you up and keep you satiated for a long time.

The Hunger Carbs

Hunger carbohydrates are a very big part of “fake food,” which includes just about anything that doesn’t look like the ingredients from which it is made. This includes processed breakfast cereals, potato chips and most breads — especially those that are made from pulverized, very fine flour.

Take Home Message on Carbs

The best way to get to know your carbs is to memorize a very simple mantra from food guru Michael Pollan: “If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.”

Do you limit carbs?  If so, which carbs?

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5 Proven Secrets to Younger Looking Skin

Studies show that you can have 10 years younger looking skin.  While we all want healthy and younger looking skin, do you really have to use all of the lotions and potions promoted in advertisements?

In this article, I share the five proven secrets to younger looking skin.

1. Daily Skin Care

Studies show that proper skin care can make you look two years younger.  Proper skin care doesn't mean scrubbing your face until it is squeaky clean.  It also doesn't mean lots of expensive skin care products.

According to my dermatology colleagues, for most people, a gentle face clean before bed may be enough.  You don't need to scrub hard or use harsh soaps.  This goal of this gentle face cleaning before bed is to remove dirt, bacteria, oil, pollutants, and makeup.

A daily moisturizer can also help your skin to look young.  Moisturizers protect your skin from weather and from drying up.

2. Get the Healthy Vegetable and Fruit Tan

Most of my patients have no idea they can get a healthy looking skin tan just from eating more vegetables and fruits.  This is because the carotenoids from vegetables and fruits are absorbed into the skin.  Indeed, medical studies show that the carotenoids from vegetables and fruits not only give you a nice looking skin tan but make your skin appear younger and more attractive as well.

How many servings of vegetables and fruits do you need to get this healthy skin tan?  According to studies, the more you eat the better your tan.  For best results, focus on the vegetables and fruits highest in the carotenoids like carrots, green leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, or tomatoes.

Interestingly, this vegetable and fruit skin tan doesn't give you any lines.  It is a nice tan even to those areas that never see the light of the sun.

3. Avoid Sunburns, Sunbathing, and Tanning Salons

The two fastest ways to age your skin, get wrinkles, and appear old are to get excessive UV light and smoke.  Indeed, studies show that people who get excessive UV light from the sun or tanning salons appear about three years older than their actual age.  Skin wrinkles the most in sun exposed areas, like your face.

Even just using a tanning bed once a year has been associated with looking two years older than you really are according to studies.  Likewise, if you ever sunbathe or let your skin turn pink or red from the sun you also appear two to three years older.

For those of you who follow my TV news segments, blog, or podcast, you know that I am a big fan of being active outside.  The key is to do it in a sun smart way.

For most people, 15 minutes of direct sun is all you need.  If it is not the summer, or if it is earlier or later in the day, you may need more than 15 minutes to get the vitamin D your body needs.  The most important thing to remember is to never let your skin turn red or pink from the sun.

4. Stop Smoking

Right up there with excessive UV light exposure, smoking is the fastest way to make yourself look old.  I'm sure everyone has seen that 60 year old smoker who really looks like they may be in their 80s.

Smoking is toxic to the skin.  It causes the skin to lose its elasticity.  It also starves the skin of oxygen and causes the loss of collagen.  All of these changes makes the skin look old.

The skin damage from smoking is dose dependent.  In other words, the more people smoke the older their skin looks.  The key is to stop smoking as soon as possible so that the skin can start to repair itself before these changes become permanent.

5. Get a Daily Workout

Not only do people who exercise have less wrinkles and younger looking skin, but exercise, according to medical studies, reverses skin aging.  Indeed, one study showed that regular exercise could make the skin of a 65 year old appear like that of someone in their 20s to 40s.

Based on studies, any exercise helps.  The best exercise is the one you will do.

Why haven’t I lost weight after exercising?

Why haven’t I lost weight after exercising is a question I get all the time from patients.  In fact, the idea that exercise alone causes weight loss is probably the biggest weight loss myth I hear.  In this article, I'll share the science behind exercise and weight loss.

A Typical Cardiology Clinic Visit

“Now then,” I said, looking down at a recent patient’s chart, which showed she was carrying at least 50 pounds more than even a fuller-bodied healthy person should be, “let’s talk about some ways to get back down to a healthier weight.”

“Oh doctor,” she immediately protested. “My back is in too much pain to exercise!”

I hear this all the time. If it's not the back then it is a knee.  And it is something I used to believe as well. As soon as I start to talk with my patients about getting back to a healthy weight, they tell me why they can’t exercise.

“That’s fine,” I always say, “because we don’t need to talk about exercise yet. Let’s put first things first.”

Exercise Doesn't Cause Weight Loss

Truth be told, medical studies show that exercise alone doesn’t cause weight loss. This is the answer to why haven’t I lost weight after exercising?

That’s because, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the more we exercise, the more we eat. The Gatorade, the latte, or the muffin you consume after your workout erases the calories you happened to burn in your gym class.

For most people, weight loss doesn’t come from exercise.  Rather, it comes from food choices. If you really could lose weight by exercising, I suspect you would see a lot of thin people. While studies show that exercise is critically important to maintaining a healthy weight, it really isn’t very good at getting you there.

Tip: Exercise for the right reasons

Exercising to lose weight is like driving your car more to save on gas.  True, your car may become a bit more efficient if you are driving it frequently, however, the more you drive the more gas you need to put in your car. The same is true with us. The more you exercise, the hungrier you get and the more food you need to put in your body.

That doesn’t mean exercise isn’t healthy, of course. It is — particularly when it comes to heart health, but also when it comes to brain, muscle and bone health. But for losing weight? Not so much. And once you know this, it can be exceptionally freeing.

That’s because a lot of people do exercises they don’t particularly enjoy on the notion that they need to be doing those things to lose weight. And because they don’t see weight-loss results, their only reward is frustration.

When you exercise for the right reasons, though, it’s easy to see results. If you exercise for fun — and low and behold you actually have fun — that’s a great result.

If you exercise daily to improve your cardiovascular health, you’re likely to start seeing results in your heart rate, breathing rate and endurance in just a few short weeks. And if you use exercise as an excuse to spend time with family members and friends, you’ll start reaping the benefits right away.

Do you agree with the studies showing that exercise alone causes little to no weight loss?

Please leave your comments and questions below.  As always, I'll do my best to quickly answer every question.

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Why is my willpower so weak?

Why is my willpower so weak but yet everyone knows you can do anything you set your mind to.

I’ll bet that’s what people have been telling you all your life. I’ll bet it’s something you’ve told yourself, too. And you know what? It’s simply not true.

What is willpower?

Willpower isn’t something you can simply conjure up when you need it. Studies have repeatedly shown that the ability to control one’s impulses, or to sustain a difficult task over time, works like a muscle. If fact, researchers have demonstrated that using our willpower actually zaps us of physical strength, just like using a muscle.

Secrets of People Who Enjoy Great Health

Surprisingly, I have found that my patients who have been the most successful at transforming their lives haven’t relied on willpower at all. Rather, they have engineered their lives so that for most of the day willpower isn’t needed at all.

For example, if your home is free of junk food then you never need your willpower muscle at home to eat right.  Likewise, studies show that just wearing a pedometer boosts your exercise by 27% with absolutely no willpower required.

When willpower is needed, like when your coworker brings in donuts or leftover Halloween candy, the willpower muscle is strong and ready to spring into action.

The Dangers of Exhausting Your Willpower Muscle

How is this ruining your life? When you rely on willpower to help you achieve one specific health goal you’re robbing your body of the strength it needs for all sorts of other things. So even if you are able to accomplish the thing upon which you’ve focused your willpower (staying away from the pastries when you pick up your morning coffee, for instance,) you’ve made it less likely that you’ll have the strength you need to do something else later on, like using the stairs at work instead of the elevator or focusing on that big work project instead of Facebook.

Tip: Use an Accountability Device

We can’t turn willpower on and off. It’s not innate in any of us. Just like a muscle, it must be exercised to get stronger and needs time to rest and recover. And just as we have many different muscles in our body that do many different things, we have a lot of different kinds of willpower — and need to identify different ways to work out each kind.

We can start with food. Not all food. Not even a type of food, like those high in unhealthy fats or sugars. Just one specific food that you know you probably shouldn’t eat, but do anyway.

Which one? That’s completely up to you, but before you decide, I strongly recommend that you start using a food journal or app to keep track of what you eat over the span of a week or two. Studies show that the mere act of recording what you eat increases your chances of maintaining a healthy weight by up to 500 percent.

This journal or app will also help you better understand what your food choices actually look like. Your food journal or app then becomes your accountability device.  The same thing can be done for exercise or anything else that is a struggle for you.

An accountability device is like putting your willpower muscles on steroids. This accountability device doesn't even have to be a journal or app but could even be a person like a personal trainer.  Basically it could be anything or anyone that keeps you accountable with yourself.

As long as you use an accountability device, you won't fatigue your willpower muscle trying to eat right and exercise every day.  Rather, you'll be able to keep your willpower muscle strong for the other challenges in your life.

How do you keep your willpower muscle strong?  Please leave your thoughts and questions below.

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4 Best Superfoods for Weight Loss

What are the best superfoods for weight loss?  In this article, I share the four best superfoods for weight loss and disease prevention according to the latest scientific studies.

My Slow Adoption of Superfoods

I didn't use to eat superfoods.  I guess that deep down I didn't really believe that these foods had the ability to heal.  I thought superfoods were really just a marketing gimmick to sell grocery store checkout magazines.

However, by the time my mid-40s rolled around, I was overweight, had a long list of medical conditions, and was taking a number of prescription medications.

Clearly, something had to change.  At that time, I definitely needed the best superfoods for weight loss and to reverse medical conditions.

4 Best Superfoods for Weight Loss

After countless hours of research, and many life experiences later, I landed on these four superfoods that I eat regularly to stay healthy and maintain a weight that works for me.

1. Berries

Want to drop your heart attack risk by 34%?  According to a recent Harvard study of 93,600 people, all it takes is three servings of berries each week.

When it comes to vitamin C, and other antioxidants, berries top the list for fruits.  Antioxidants block the day-to-day free radical damage which causes aging, heart disease, and dementia.  To maximize the antioxidants in your produce, studies show that buying organic and as fresh as possible is best

Berries are also very low glycemic.  This means that even though they taste sweet, they don't spike your blood sugar.  As a low glycemic fruit, it can help to prevent diabetes.

Lastly, when it comes to weight loss, berries are your very best fruit.  They are low in calories and high in fiber.  Indeed, another Harvard study of 133,468 Americans showed that for every daily serving of berries participants averaged during the study, they lost 1.11 pounds.

I am often asked which berries are best.  The best berry is the one you will eat.  So whether it is a blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, etc., enjoy your berries as they are all good for you.  Berries are definitely one of the best superfoods for weight loss.

2. Nuts

It wasn't long ago that people avoided nuts because of the fat.  Yes, nuts are high in fat, but it is exactly the fat your body needs.  In fact, this fat appears to protect you from a heart attack.

Indeed, based on many studies, nuts decrease your risk of dying from heart disease by 37%.  These studies also show that the more nuts you eat, the lower your risk of heart disease.  Likewise, as I discussed in a previous article, studies show that nuts also prevent autoimmune disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

But won't all of this fat cause weight gain?  Not according to a large Harvard study.  In this study, nut eaters, regardless of how many nuts they ate, still lost a pound of fat even though they weren't even trying to lose weight.

As with berries, it really doesn't matter which nut you eat.  While there are some differences between nuts, as I described in a popular previous article I wrote on Almonds vs. Walnuts, they are all good for you.

3. Cruciferous Vegetables (Cauliflower/Broccoli/Kale)

Nutritionally, you can't beat the cruciferous family of vegetables.  This family includes cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bok chop, and arugula.  Indeed, you simply can't find another food group that is so packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, omega 3 fats, and protein.

While you likely would never consider cauliflower, broccoli, or kale as great sources of omega 3 fat and protein, they actually are.  Calorie for calorie, the cruciferous vegetables have as much omega 3 as salmon and almost as much protein as chicken.

When it comes to disease prevention, cruciferous vegetables top the list.  For example, regularly eating cruciferous vegetables may decrease your heart attack risk by 34%.  Also,

Can Over Working Hurt Your Heart?

The average salaried American now works 49 hours a week.  When you add in the average four hours of commuting time, that number increases to 53 hours weekly.  Can over working hurt your heart?

In this article, I discuss the risks of overworking to your cardiovascular system and offer tips for a better work life balance.

John D. Rockefeller's Experience

While still in his 40s, the richest man in the world was dying.  John D. Rockefeller had developed an autoimmune disease that caused him to lose every hair on his body as well as other medical conditions.  He was so close to a nervous breakdown, that he even slept with a gun next to his bed.

His doctors told him that if he didn’t stop working so hard he was going to die from a heart attack. Heading the advice of his doctors, he gave the reins of his company to another man and stepped back to more of a consultant role.

His health immediately improved.  He then lived by three simple rules:

1. Avoid worry.

2. Exercise outside daily.

3. Get up from the dinner table a little hungry.

By achieving a healthy work life balance, he was able to faithfully follow these three rules and went on to live a healthy life until the age of 97.

Working Hours and Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

To answer the question, can overworking hurt your heart, let me share with you a recent study.  In this, the largest study ever done on the subject, researchers looked at the risk of a heart attack or stroke in 603,838 workers.

To make sense of the data, researchers divided the people into two groups.  The first group worked the standard 35 to 40 hour work week.  The second group put in more than 55 hours a week on the job.

Researchers then followed these two groups of people for 7.2 years to see what would happen.  After more than seven years, the results were obvious.  Those working more than 55 hours a week were 13% more likely to get heart disease and 33% more likely to suffer a stroke.

Karashi: The Ultimate in No Work Life Balance

The Japanese are known for working long hours.  They have long recognized that working long hours or multiple jobs can cause an early death from a heart attack or a stroke.

The Japanese even have a word for death by over working--karoshi.  The first reported case of karoshi was in 1969 with a fatal stroke in a 29 year-old man suffering from work exhaustion.

Karoshi is a national health problem in Japan.  To help decrease karoshi deaths, the Japanese government now regulates work overtime hours.

Karoshi, World Leaders, and No Work Life Balance

Even if you don’t die a karoshi death, unhealthy stress from a job can take years off your life.  In a fascinating study, researchers looked at the effect of the most stressful job—leading a country.

In this study of 540 heads of state over the last 300 years, researchers found that the person who won the election lived 4.4 years shorter than the losing candidate.  As world political leaders are not known for having a healthy work life balance, could these shorter life spans be a Western manifestation of karoshi?

Main Cause of Work Life Balance Challenges

I have seen many patients at risk for karoshi.  In talking with these patients, over working generally comes down to one of three things.

1. Money concerns.

2. Bad boss, too many emails/meetings, or other non-essential work activities.

3. Personal drive.

Of these, money concerns is clearly the number one cause of work life imbalance.  Generally, the solution is simple.  Want less and spend less.  If you can lower your overhead, downsize your life, and eliminate all the stuff you really don't need, most of my patients find they can reclaim their work life balance and do what they have always dreamed of doing.

Work life imbalances from a bad boss, too many emails/meetings, or other non-essential work activities generally means that you need to set clear boundaries and priorities in your work li...