Baby spinach and baby lettuce are de rigeur in every grocery store, but a new study says that even younger greens might give us more nutritional benefits.
Enter microgreens. These tiny leaves that are less than 14 days old can provide people with lots and lots of nutrients, possibly even more than baby or full-size varieties of leafy greens.
The study, conducted by USDA researcher Gene Lester at the University of Maryland College Park, looked at 25 different varieties of very young greens, aka microgreens. The results, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, are pretty amazing. Researchers found that microgreens generally had four to six times the amounts of vitamins as fully mature greens of the same plant. That means tiny little baby leaves, which have barely been exposed to sunlight, can potentially provide people with large amounts of vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene.
And people are already growing microgreens. Brendan Davison grows microgreens in East Hampton, N.Y., and sells them to restaurants in the area. He says:
“I deliver the greens in the tray that they’re grown in, so I’m bringing the farm to the kitchen. The chefs can cut what they want with scissors right onto the plate, so they’re live and fresh.”
Women everywhere flipped over their moisturizers to read the list of ingredients.
“That first paper shocked people because it was the first time intact parabens had ever been measured in the human body,” says Dr. Darbre. And while the study did not show that the chemicals cause cancer, it sounded a serious alarm.
Why? Parabens, which prevent bacteria from growing in beauty and personal-care products, are able to mimic or interfere with estrogen in the body, and exposure to estrogen is one of the primary influences on the development of breast cancer.
Since then, several studies have detected and reported parabens in human urine and tissue. In response, many beauty companies have eliminated them from ingredient lists, though they’re still used in many mainstream products.
Now, Dr. Darbre has published two new studies that shed even more light on the ways parabens enter our bodies and how they affect our health.
Here’s what you need to know about the latest research (and before refilling your beauty bag):
1. Parabens are getting into your body. In March, Dr. Darbre and her team published the results of a study that replicated the original study done in 2004, with a much larger sample size. They looked at the concentration of five parabens in breast tumor tissue. One or more types were found in 99 percent of the tissue samples, and all five were measurable in 60 percent of the samples. “The take-home message was that we validated the earlier study with a much more substantial study. Parabens are getting into the breast, and they’re getting in in significant amounts,” she explains.
2. Yup, your skin is letting them in. The parabens identified in the study were primarily intact, meaning they’ve bypassed the liver. What does this mean? You’re not getting them from your food, they’re being absorbed through your skin.
Jill Satterfield, founder of Vajra Yoga, the brand-new School for Compassionate Action, and a fixture at the Tibet House, gives Well+Good three tips for holding onto what summer sanity and sense of relaxation we’ve acquired. So come fall craziness, we’ll all have a few of the tricks that accomplished yogis and meditators and the Dalai Lama have at the ready. Be them, now.
1. Savor, don’t gulp, a piece of summer fruit.
Take a bite of summer fruit, like a peach or a melon, and chew it slowly, allowing it to almost dissolve in your mouth. Normally, we eat so quickly. But if we take our time, we can really be transported into an awareness of taste, the sense of taste. Plus it’s way of pausing to enjoy last bits of what summer’s given us.
We’re going to guess you don’t need another excuse to get a massage. But if you can’t afford a weekly spa trip (and frankly, who can?), you’re going to have to get really good at sweet-talking your husband into helping you out now and then. Not easy, we know. But we have some new ammo—and we have a new study from Emory University to back us up.
Over a period of five weeks, study participants received a Swedish massage—characterized by long, flowing strokes—once or twice a week. Compared to those who didn’t get the lucky task of getting massaged in the name of science, those who received massage therapy had lower levels of stress hormones, including cortisol. They also experienced big changes in immunity, including increased counts of white blood cells, which play a key role in fending off illness and infection.
And it gets better: The benefits of massage lasted for several days, and each subsequent massage offered a cumulative benefit. In other words, a routine massage ritual is superior to an occasional rub.
“The act of massage itself has amazing biological effects,” says lead study author Mark Hyman Rapaport, MD, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. “Of course, a single session will do great things for the body, but regular sessions seem to be even more profound.”
Anyone who enjoys massage should consider indulging regularly, says Dr. Rapaport, who adds that self-massage (for those of you with a reticent beau) has the potential to be a beneficial—and cost-effective—option.
Got olive oil? A study published online this month in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that people who ate a Mediterranean diet enhanced with lots of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) may be protected against bone loss.
The study: Studies have shown that the the incidence of osteoporosis in Europe is lower in regions where individuals follow a traditional Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruits and vegetables and includes a high intake of olives and olive oil. So, researchers in Spain set out to determine if olive oil consumption, in conjunction with eating a Mediterranean diet, prevented bone loss.
They selected 127 men, aged 55–80 and at risk for heart disease, who were already part of a larger, longitudinal study. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups. One group ate a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil, another ate a Mediterranean diet supplement with mixed nuts, and the third ate a low fat diet. The participants followed the dietary plans for two years.
Dr.’s REMEDY is a line of doctor-inspired cosmetics that is dedicated to using clean, hypo-allergenic ingredients. The birth-child of two New York-based podiatrists, Dr. Adam Cirlincione and Dr. William Spielfogel, Dr.’s REMEDY proves quintessentially-perfect for any person looking to better the condition of her skin and nails; their Enriched Nail Polish is the first-ever nail polish on the market approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association and are free from toxins found in most commercial nail polish (DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde). Dr.’s Remedy nail polishes dry much quicker than normal polishes. The lasting power is also pretty good.
I got the Glee Gold color, it is a lovely sheer glitter polish that can be built up into a dark gold or layered over other colors.
When canning made a comeback, foodies were salivating at the abundance of artisanal jams and pickles so ubiquitous that they were worthy of a “Portlandia” sketch. Little did they know, the trend would also help rediscover one of the healthiest foods around — fermented vegetables.
Sauerkraut and kimchi (a traditional Korean mixture of fermented cabbage and radishes), may not sound like the stuff of health-food legend, but they’re some of the best sources of probiotics and nutrients, especially when made with the traditional methods that are gaining ground with today’s artisanal food makers.
Thanks to smart marketing, yogurt is the food that’s synonymous with probiotics (the healthy bacteria that has been shown to help boost immunity and address digestive issues), but that doesn’t mean it has a monopoly on the beneficial-bacteria market. Fermented vegetables contain the same cultures, and are perfect options for the dairy-averse, vegans, or people who just want an extra dose of probiotics without the extra sugar that often comes with yogurt. (A cup of ‘kraut has 27 calories and 2.5 grams of sugar. Compare that to the same amount of plain, low-fat yogurt, which contains 154 calories and 17 grams of sugar.)
As promised here is the second half of my interview with the wise and wonderful Claudia Welch—along with a great video interview I found online. Loved reading everyone’s comments in Part 1, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you guys think of the book!
Since reading it I’ve been practicing many of the recommendations, and I honestly see a difference in how I feel. I don’t expect overnight miracles, but I’m hopeful that these practices are going to help regulate my periods and hormonal fluctuations. If anyone is interested in going deeper Dr. Welch is offering a live phone and online course in this stuff (that’s a link to sign up for a free call)—I’m going to try to sit in on a few if I can.
We’re curious: For those of you who have experienced imbalances, what—if anything—have you noticed affects this most? Is it stress, or food choices, or have you not made the connection? It’s so great to hear all your stories, and as Dr. Welch pointed out, we have such an intelligent and thoughtful community of readers here. The best!
Onto the interview…
Your prescriptions for rebalancing seem so simple, but they’re also quite specific. Tell us about a few that you’ve found very effective.
It is true that some of the prescriptions are simple. But simple can still be hard. If the prescription, for example, is: slow down, and we have been driving ourselves forward for too long, we may not know what “slow down” looks like, or how to get there from here. Sometimes “slow down” is the main prescription and it is often the most effective. But there are other, easier short term remedies that can be very effective.
When we have excess stress in our lives, our nervous systems become hyper sensitive. When they become hypersensitive, we are more likely to translate benign events as threatening ones. When we do that, more stress hormones are secreted, making our nervous systems even more hypersensitive. It is a downward cycle. If we could but calm down the nervous system, we could help break that cycle. And lo, there are ways and means to accomplish that very thing. And, behold, they are simple. Or can be.
One simple remedy is warm oil self-massage–called “Abhyanga” in Ayurveda. There are loads of nerve endings that enervate our skin–the largest organ of our bodies. In essence, we can calm the nervous system through the skin. It works. It is a bit too much to explain here, but it is described in an Appendix in Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life.
I also love 15 minutes of gentle Alternate Nostril Breathing practice, daily. I find it to be one of the most powerful remedies for hot flashes and hormonal imbalance in general.
High-intensity workouts are all the rage right now, but you warn that this type of exercise can be detrimental to some women—when do you recommend against it?
Eastern medicine recognizes that different constitutions require different amounts and types of exercise to maintain optimal health. Stronger, sturdier constitutions do well to engage in longer, harder workouts, while women with slight or delicate frames, do better with slower, er, less sweaty workouts.
There can be many signs that a woman is over exercising. When a woman, for example, is underweight or her periods are scanty, absent or irregular, these are some signs she is either under-nourished, over-exercising or simply outspending her resources in other arenas. In other words, even if she is consuming a healthy diet and getting regular and good sleep–both activities that serve to nourish yin in her body–her output may be exceeding her input. The energy she commits to exercise, work, run errands, etc. may be greater than energy she receives from food, sleep, sweet relationships and down time. In these situations, it would be much better for a woman to engage in gentle yoga, walking, tai qi or qi gong, than weight lifting, running, vigorous yoga or rigorous workouts.
Our bodies prioritize survival over reproduction so they will–100% of the time–allocate whatever nourishment we are receiving, first to our survival and to the organs and tissues that are crucial to survival. If there are resources left over, then they can go to nourish a healthy reproductive system.
Many of us in our forties and older, will remember Jane Fonda’s “make it burn” video workouts and feel like we are being lazy if we do anything less, but there are entire exercise forms in the East that focus more on moving qi or prana–our life force–internally, with gentle, minimal or even no physical movement. When we look at masters of those forms, they may barely move and never break a sweat, but are in incredible shape. These masters understand the value of irrigating our internal organs with energy, rather than simply our muscles, and we can see the results.
Last week the New York Times reported that Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to remove a host of questionable ingredients and contaminants from their products—notably formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane—by 2015.
According to the article they also intend to phase out parabens, phthlates, triclosan and other chemicals we’ve long had on our X list, though it was a little bit unclear from the piece whether this was all going to be on the same timeline.
This is notable progress, and even Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, told the Times as much:
“We’ve never really seen a major personal care product company take the kind of move that they’re taking with this,” said Kenneth A. Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, one of the organizations that has been negotiating with company officials to change their practices. “Not really even anything in the ballpark.”
Here’s why: Hormones act upon every single cell in our bodies. For women, their impact is incredibly real. They affect our skin and our moods, whether we fit into our skinny jeans at certain times of the month, and when we need to have a good cry. They are wonderful and awful and mysterious all at the same time, but when they’re out of whack, we suffer in ways that can feel completely maddening.
Has anyone here ever stopped getting their period for seemingly no reason? Suffered from chronic cystic acne, or had the kind of PMS where you just want to cry all the time and can’t get out of bed? Have you been told to go on the pill by a doctor for something other than contraception?
Yes to all for me. Not at once, sure, but I’ve experienced these symptoms to varying degrees at different times of my life. This is why, when I came across Dr. Claudia Welch’s book Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life, I felt like—excuse the drama—the clouds had parted. Dr. Welch is an Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner, and she’s one of the few people (Dr. Christiane Northrup, we’re looking at you) who speaks about women’s hormones in a way that really hits home. So it’s with great joy that I share some of her wisdom here on the site. Onto the interview!
In western medicine, hormone imbalances are often said to be unexplainable—or at least that’s been my personal experience. You shift this perception by bucketing hormones into two categories: yin and yang. Can you briefly expand on this for readers?
Eastern medicine is not reductionist medicine. We don’t usually look for the individual substances or things going on or going wrong. We tend to look more at patterns. Even though the ancient Eastern medical classics never name or discuss hormones per se, they do give us—both in the Chinese and Ayurvedic systems—fundamental ways of looking at phenomena and explaining them. One of these fundamental views is that of duality: how opposite forces tend to relate to each other. In TCM, they call these forces “yin” and “yang.” In Ayurveda the names are more complicated, but they are there and describe these forces in the same way.
