Health

Exercise can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, and depression, and it can increase your energy levels, help you think clearer, and even slow down the aging process. However, there are pitfalls that can hamper your workout progress.

I was guilty of mistake #3 and #4 below. For thirty years, my only form of exercise was long distance running with little to no strength or interval training.

Kale is an unassuming leafy green that many people bypass due to its slightly bitter flavor. But if you learn to use it creatively, kale can be quite tasty, which is only one reason to eat this vegetable. In the realm of superfoods, and certainly of green leafy vegetables, kale is king (or close to it!).

One cup of kale contains just around 30 calories but will provide you with seven times the daily recommended…

Aging

If you live in North America, the unusually long cold winter may have had you cooped up indoors for far too long. Now that the weather is finally feeling like spring and summer, you’re probably thrilled to spend more time outdoors… and hopefully your kids are too.

One of the most beneficial activities for children is simply…

Potassium is a mineral and an electrolyte that conducts electricity in your body. It plays an important role in heart function, skeletal health, digestion, and muscular function, and is essential for the proper function of all cells, tissues, and organs in your body.

Despite the fact that potassium is available in many foods, especially fruits and vegetables, only 2 percent of US adults get the recommended daily amount of 4,700 milligrams (mg).

According to a survey by Gardeners’ World magazine, 80 percent of gardeners reported being happy and satisfied with their lives, compared to 67 percent of non-gardeners. This feeling of well being can have other more-far reaching implications for your physical health as well. According to research from Johns Hopkins, having a cheerful temperament can significantly reduce your odds of suffering a heart attack or sudden cardiac death.

Water is essential for life, and we typically assume that water is “clean” or “good” provided you’re not getting your water from a contaminated source. But can water ever “go bad”?

If you have a water filtration system in your home, it may not occur to you that your water could become contaminated after a while—until you go to clean out the holding tank, that is…

Aging

I personally don’t drink coffee as I don’t like the taste and have only used a few cups in my life to treat jet lag. However, there are ways to include coffee in a healthy lifestyle, provided you’re not using it as a crutch to mask symptoms of a poor diet, like low energy levels—and provided you’re not pregnant.

The coffee plant and its seeds (coffee beans) contain a natural blend of polyphenol antioxidants (including chlorogenic acids), bioflavonoids, vitamins, and minerals that all work together to offer some…

The pesticide and junk food industries continue to cause harm, even deaths, while destroying our rights and indemnifying themselves from liability.

That’s the take-home message from the September 8 article in The Progressive,1 which recounts the travails of residents in Cedar Valley, Oregon. It’s also the take-home message of other related news. And yet there’s hope…

From a regulatory perspective, GM crops are considered to be “substantially equivalent” to their non-GM counterparts. This means, that they are essentially the same, with no meaningful differences for your health or the environment.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has (so far) not required labeling of GM foods because they are deemed to be “substantially equivalent” to non-GM foods. It is also due to substantial equivalence that no oversight or long-term safety testing has been required of GM crops.

If you have planted tomatoes in your garden this year, you may have realized, too late, that you planted more than you need. Late summer is also a perfect time to snag great deals on tomatoes at farmer’s markets, where you may be able to pick up a half-bushel of freshly grown tomatoes for a fraction of the cost at your supermarket.

The question then is, what should you do with all of these tomatoes? If you’ve grown tired of eating them in salads or whole, like an apple, as a snack, making homemade tomato sauce is one of the best uses of large amounts of tomatoes…