Favorite Breakfast #1

Breakfast: The most important meal of the day? What are you going to choose for this all-important meal? There are many quick/easy standbys that many people choose (bagel, cold cereal, etc.) but many of these convenience foods are highly-processed and not exactly healthy. Not that they are outright bad for you, but there are better choices.

My favorite quick/easy breakfast is a smoothie. This works equally well for a recovery drink if you are at home. The ingredients are healthy:

• 2 cups: Trader Joes Berry Medly (frozen). Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. Any frozen berries will do, change it up. When berries are in season, pick your own or freeze your own. Note: this recipe uses 2 cups of frozen berries, you can cut that down to 1 cup and use a banana instead if you prefer.
  
• 1 cup: Living Harvest Hemp Milk. Same idea as soy milk or rice milk, this stuff is made from hemp seeds. Don't worry, there is no THC in the product. Hemp milk contains lots of essential fatty acids and protein. Read the FAQs for this product and you'll be surprised at the benefits of this product. I get mine at the Peoples Food Co-Op. You can substitute cows milk or whatever you'd like, but I think that the hemp milk has a better nutrition profile and is better for the environment.
  
• 1 scoop: Whey Protein Powder. I like the Hammer Nutrition Whey protein powder because it is 100% whey protein isolate. Other products out there use whey protein concentrate as well, which is a lower quality protein. Hammer Whey has more useable protein then most other protein powders out there. You get what you pay for. I usually use unflavored for a smoothie, but if you are going to drink the stuff on its own, go with either vanilla or chai. Full disclosure: HPC is a Hammer Nutrition dealer and the HPC racing team is sponsored by Hammer. We have been using hammer products for over 10 years though, because they are the best, and this was long before we were sponsored or a dealer.
  

• Lecithin Granules 1-2 T (choline)
  
• Nutritional Yeast 1 T (B-vitamins, protein)
• Psyllium Husk 1/4 to 1 T (fiber)

Labels: nutrition, recipes, weight loss

posted by Seth at Sunday, May 24, 2009 | 0 Comments

Ten Best and Worst Foods

No real surprises here, but this is a great article put out by the Center for Science in the Public Interest about the 10 best and 10 worst foods. They also have a nutrition newsletter for $10/year.

If free is more your style, check out their article archive.

Your health is largely determined by your lifestyle choices: genetics load the gun, but your lifestyle pulls the trigger. Nutrition and exercise choices have a large impact on health and wellness...many of the chronic diseases of today (diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, osteoarthritis, the list goes on) have their roots in poor lifestyle choices.

For most of us, we already know these things in the back of our mind, but aren't sure how they apply to individual circumstances and needs. At Health & Performance Chiropractic we are here to help! Whether you are interested in taking your sports performance to the next level, overcoming an injury, or simply improving your health, we can help you get there.

posted by Seth at Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | 0 Comments

Vitamin D and athletes

This citation was recently forwarded to me by a friend - yet another study that suggests that many individuals, athletes now specifically included, are frequently deficient in Vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with everything from chronic musculoskeletal pain to decreased immune function.

The article recommends maintaining serum Vitamin D levels at 70-80 nmol/L. If you have questions about optimizing Vitamin D levels or need help in getting your levels measured, HPC is here to help.

posted by Seth at Sunday, May 03, 2009 | 0 Comments