The healthiest way to dry your hair

By Nina Elias for Prevention.com

Pop quiz: What’s the healthiest way to dry your hair? If you said, “air-drying, obviously,” you’d be mistaken. With the right technique, using a blow-dryer is actually better for your mane’s health than letting it air-dry, according to a recent study from Korea.

How can that be? First, a little hair anatomy: Each strand of your hair is essentially a tube with an inner cortex and a protective outer layer (called a cuticle) held together by delicate proteins.

“When the cuticle layer is perfectly intact, then hair is very shiny and doesn’t tend to break,” says Jeff Donovan, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and hair restoration physician with Hair Club Medical Group in Toronto. Too much heat can damage the cuticle by trapping water inside the cortex and actually causing the water to boil (yikes).

Sounds like a case for air-drying, but get this: The study found that while the heat of a dryer can cause more damage than not using one, using a hair-dryer at the right distance and temperature can actually cause less damage than letting hair air-dry.

Keep reading to find out why…

3 healthy homemade summer popsicle recipes

By Briana Rognlin for Blisstree.com

People’s Pops started as a group of friends selling a delicious alternative to chemical-and preservative-laced frozen treats in New York City’s markets.

But their pops became so popular that now, owners Joel Horowitz, David Carrell, and Nathali Jordi sell their pops in multiple shops and locations in the city, and are publishing their first book, People’s Pops: 55 Recipes for Ice Pops, Shave Ice, and Boozy Pops from Brooklyn’s Coolest Pop Shop, on June 5.

They were generous enough to share three pop recipes from their new book, so you can make your own watermelon-parsley, raspberries-and-cream, or cantaloupe-and-campari pops for Memorial Day–and beyond. Check out the recipes, then go get their book for more!

Why you can’t choose foods based on antioxidants alone

Bright colors = antioxidant-rich. But that’s not enough.

By Well+GoodNYC

Last week, we talked to Dana James about ANDI, a popular nutrition rating system used at Whole Foods.

Now, the triple board certified nutritionist helps us get a grip on ORAC, another unit of measurement used to evaluate the quality of antioxidants in food—and justify a few glasses of wine.

Here’s what you need to know about ORAC.

What it stands for: Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity

What it is: The ORAC system was developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health to measure a food’s antioxidant capacity. Foods with higher scores are said to have higher free-radical-fighting abilities. (It’s why red wine is touted as healthy.) Skin-care companies also use ORAC scores to sell anti-aging products that contain antioxidant ingredients like resveratrol.

Pros: “Antioxidants are crucial for healthy living,” says James. Naturally, choosing foods rich in them is a good thing. Except, of course, it’s not that simple. Which brings us to…

Cons: “Using ORAC to assess the full antioxidant capacity of a food is like asking for a full body massage and the therapist only massaging the left side of the body,” says James. Why?

ORAC scores only measure water-soluble (not fat-soluble) antioxidant activity, so important nutrients like vitamin D, vitamin E, and carotenoids are left out, she explains.

Kale, for instance, has a high concentration of fat-soluble antioxidants that are ignored, so an ORAC devotee may choose grape juice (which scores higher) over the leafy powerhouse vegetable. “I don’t think any health conscious person would argue that grape juice is superior to kale,” says James.

Keep reading…

When food makes you feel bad about yourself

By Well+GoodNYC

It’s one thing when you’re 12 and experience “Mom’s-gonna-kill-me” guilt for sneaking cookies. It’s another when you have food guilt as a grown-up.

From refilling your wine glass to digging into a pint of Ben and Jerry’s after a stressful day, post-dining guilt can be seriously damaging to your psyche, and it’s rampant among health-conscious women.

“It happens when I’ve been very good and diligent, and I eat something I know I shouldn’t be, “ says Kristy A., a 30-year-old New Yorker. “Afterwards, I’m really upset with myself, and I feel like I’ve ruined everything.”

So, why can’t we give ourselves a break?

Media messaging doesn’t help. Women’s magazine headlines are full of “guilt-free” burgers, snacks, and desserts. The underlying message is clear: If the foods in this article are guilt-free, then those others you’re eating are guilt-y.

But it’s deeper than that. “It comes from the perspective that we’re not good enough and always need to be perfect, which is inherent in our culture,” says Jeanette Bronee, the founder of the Path for Life self-nourishment center. “Making food choices becomes a performance of being good.”

So just like we want to be the best employee in the office and get that promotion, we want to prove that we’re capable of not only succeeding, but excelling, at healthy eating.

But that’s tricky, says Bronee. Many of us deny our bodies food that it really needs based on what we think is right. This can make us choose the wrong “pleasure foods,” which in turn makes us feel awful, instead of satisfied.

For example, bodies needs complex carbs, and if you live by Dr. Atkins’ recommendations, you’ll start to crave sugar. Then you’ll be more likely to reach for a junky office cupcake, which won’t satisfy and can come with an ingredient not on the label: guilt.

So, how do we stop going on food-induced guilt trips? Bronee offers three tips:

1. Don’t be so hard on yourself. First, she says, “We have to work on some of those aspects that make us so hard on ourselves.” This means accepting that we make mistakes and are not always in control of everything. And giving ourselves credit for our accomplishments—and efforts.” She’s not just talking about food; she’s talking about life.

Keep reading for 2 more here…

How to design your perfect summer

By Well+GoodNYC

Summer starts off with waves of opportunity—mind-clearing vacations, stress-reducing outdoor yoga—but often the season fades before we’ve even had time to take advantage of its promises.

Beachy bliss won’t always just present itself on your Hamptons doorstep, says Laurie Gerber, life coach extraordinaire and president of Handel Group Life Coaching. You need a blueprint to achieve your summer goals.

Just how are you going relax your mind and body, for starters?

“Pretend like you are going to have to write that essay when you get back to school in the fall, ‘What I Did on My Summer Vacation,’” she advises. And work backward to put the plan into action.

Laurie Gerber (Photo: Experience Life)

Here are Gerber’s 6 tips for designing your best (and healthiest) summer yet:

1. Write it down. The most important thing is to actually create a detailed plan, says Gerber, and put it in writing. Start with the tips below. “Extra credit if you read what you wrote, post it somewhere, and/or tell people!”

2. Plan your downtime. Schedule those summer Fridays for group fitness classes with friends—they’re not just going to happen. Ditto plans for learning to paddleboard or trapeze, as well as booking a healthy summer retreat or a trip to a fitness spa.

3. Get ahead at work. Is boosting your career on your to-do list? Take advantage of summer hours and slower email traffic to wow your boss. “Because other people are off, you have a chance to shine by going the extra mile or pulling off a new idea.”

Keep reading for 3 more tips here…

Get a leg up: How to dry brush your body for the beach or the pool

By Well+GoodNYC

Some women love anything in a tube or jar that hints at the promise of fighting cellulite. Ann Marie Cilmi, a top New York City spa therapist and educator who used to head up the city’s Bliss Spas, loves dry brushing.

The domain of this soft-bristle brush isn’t your hair but your dermis. The health obsession started with the Ayurvedics and became a staple of the French slimming-treatment set. Now dry brushing is typically used in a body treatment at a spa to stimulate circulation and exfoliate. “Brushing the skin without water is linked to the detox process,” says Cilmi, “because it helps stimulate the lymphatic drainage process.” Lymph being our cellular-waste system that doesn’t have a heart to pump its bloat-causing sludge up and out.

You’re not going to see an American Medical Association peer-reviewed study on this topic any time soon. But one thing we’ve been hearing about—and personally testing—is the beach-ready results you get from brushing your pre- or post-shower silhouette—particularly on the legs and thighs, and even wobbly triceps. Let me just say that it beats the results of most cellulite products, which are typically useless and expensive. This is neither. The brush is about $15 (and displaying it gives my bathroom that Finnish sauna look.)

Body brushes are meant to be used dry on legs, butt, and anywhere there’s a tad of flab

One therapist I know dry brushes her legs and behind when heading to the beach or wearing a short skirt, and swears her deepest cellulite dimple is less concave for it. Another skin-brushing afficionado says it’s the first spa service she books when she gets to a resort. And Cilmi loves to include dry brushing in spa treatments that she helps create for spas—including the butt-firming Mama Mio treatment, which worked wonders on my tush.

Dry brushing your body (or booty) a few times a week can improve your circulation, and help give skin a glow, tone your legs, give your behind a little lift, and may even lessen the severity of cellulite, Cilmi says. “It’s an under-rated over-looked natural remedy for gorgeous gams.” Here’s how to get them:

How to dry brush your body

1. Buy a firm, natural-bristle brush. No need to get one for $45 at Anthropologie. You can buy one for less at C.O. Bigelow, Whole Foods, and health-food stores like Life Thyme on Sixth Avenue.

Keep reading for 4 more here…

Is cucumber the latest cure-all?

By Well+GoodNYC

A friend just sent me this hilarious ode to the cucumber posing as a list of cucumber’s many (unsubstantiated) holistic uses. It extols the veggie’s virtues not just as a puffy eye remedy, but a puffy thigh remedy. As an ink-stain remover, a garden slug eliminator, a Lara Bar of fur traders, and a source of every vitamin known to exist. Hey, it can even do your dishes and balance your checkbook.

Truth is, I’m slightly addicted to cucumbers. I eat them in place of crackers, and I drop slices into my water glass. And cukes are my unsung hot-weather hero because of their giant water content (that’s a fact). So those are the two tips I recommend.

Here are a few others that Cucumber Farmers of America (I can only guess) want you to know about:

1. Cucumbers are a multivitamin. They contain vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2. A quick pick-me-up. Put down the coffee or caffeinated soda and reach for a cucumber. The B vitamins and carbohydrates provide energy.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your window boxes? Place a few slices in a small pie tin. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but that drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5. Cellulite remedy: Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes. Its phytochemicals cause collagen in your skin to tighten, reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works on wrinkles, too!

6. Want to avoid a hangover? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins, and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients.

Keep reading for 7 more here…

Are you polishing your skin with plastic?

By Well+GoodNYC

Are you polishing your skin with plastic? You are if your favorite facial scrub contains particles made from polyethelene. It’s a common exfoliating ingredient in such popular products as Olay Regenerist Advanced Anti-Aging Regeneration Cream Cleanser, the new Neutrogena Rapid Clear Foaming Scrub, and even Bliss Lemon + Sage Body Scrub. Polyethelene beads are made from polymers of ethylene oxide (say that three times fast)—the same synthetic stuff used to make plastic grocery bags.

What is it doing in your skin care? The beads are supposed to be a boon for skin because they’re perfectly spherical—unlike walnut shells and apricot pits which can be coarse, some say, and tear at tender facial skin, or worse, irritate, infect, or spread a case of the pimples, particularly the red bumpy kind. (They’re better off used in body scrubs.)

At best, polyethelene beads probably create a bit of friction as they roll over your face. New York City dermatologist Dennis Gross, M.D., who’s not a fan of most scrubs, says that of all possible materials, at least these have a smooth surface.

Does your face polish pollute the oceans? It likely does if it contains polyethelene beads.

Does your face polish pollute the oceans? It likely does if it contains polyethelene beads.

At worst, these teeny plastic pellets roll down your drain and wind up in rivers and seas. Microplastics—particles of less than 1 milimeter—are on ecologist’s Most Wanted list of environmental pollutants right now. They’re tiny enough to squeeze out of a beauty product tube—and to escape sewage filtering systems. That’s not good for something that doesn’t exactly biodegrade and may carry toxic fossil fuel byproducts. Studies of the effects of microplastics on marine wildlife suggest equally scary things, namely that fish, not known for their eyesight, can’t distinguish a polyethelene bead from a grain of sand or a microorganism that it might consume for dinner.

Keep reading…

Whey protein for women: It’s not just for bodybuilders anymore

By Well+GoodNYC

It used to be that whey protein (isolated proteins from cow’s milk) was a staple of bodybuilders who liked how the supplement’s super fast absorption helped them quickly bulk up.

These days, though, you’re just as likely to see women blending the powder into their breakfast shakes or adding it to their post-barre-class smoothie.

But is the muscle-builder of meatheads good for women who just want some protein on the fly? We talked to three New York City wellness experts to get their take:

Frank Lipman, MD, founder and director of Eleven-Eleven Wellness Center

Whey protein is a perfect protein: It contains all the essential amino acids for a daily diet. It also boosts the immune system by increasing your body’s production of glutathione, a powerful antioxidant essential for helping detoxification. For women, a whey protein shake for breakfast with greens and an avocado or some other fat is a perfect way to start the day. But make sure you get whey protein from grass-fed cows, not corn-fed cows, which can cause allergies.

Keep reading…

Study Hall: Vegans take pills made with animal products without knowing it

By Well+GoodNYC

Attention vegans and vegetarians: A new study published online in the Postgraduate Medical Journalfound that many people who avoid eating animal products unknowingly take pills that contain gelatin, derived from collagen in animal skin, bones, and connective tissue.

The study: Researchers from the U.K. surveyed 500 urology patients about their dietary preferences and whether they would take medications that contained animal products. (Previous studies have shown that urology drugs often contain gelatin.) They also asked the patients if they would question their doctor about animal ingredients in pills.

Keep reading…