Have you ever bought fresh beets? Beets are back ’in-style’ and add much more to your plate than vivid color. If you have not heard about the health benefits of beets, keep reading…not a fan? Well, maybe that’s because you’ve never tried this hearty root vegetable FRESH. Try ‘em the grown-up way (uncanned) and get ready to love a food you never thought you’d like. It’s easy to love fresh beets, and not just for their nutritional advantages. While we often think of beets having a reddish-purple hue, some varieties are white, golden-yellow or even rainbow colored. The sweet, buttery taste of beets reflects their high sugar content making them an important raw material for the production of refined sugar. In fact, they have the highest sugar content of all vegetables, yet are very low in calories.
Peak season for beets is June – October (when they are most tender) and are easy to prepare at home. Pass by blemished bulbs with wilted greens and look for healthier bulbs. You’ll find the prettiest beets at your local farmer’s market. By the way, don’t throw out those greens so fast! They are chock full of nutrients such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, iron and calcium. Greens can be sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Beets are rich in folate, potassium, magnesium and dietary fiber and contain powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.
Beets can be peeled, steamed, and eaten warm with butter as a delicacy; cooked, pickled, and eaten cold as a condiment; or peeled, shredded raw, and eaten as a salad. Pickled beets are a traditional food of the American South. It is also common in Australia for pickled beetroot to be consumed on a burger.
An increasingly popular preparation method is roasting beets. To roast beets, trim the greens away from the beets (leave about 1/4″), thoroughly clean beets with a veggie scrubber and place in a baking dish. Add 1/4″ of water to the dish. Cover. Place medium beets (4-6 oz) in the oven and roast for 40-45 minutes (a little less or more time for smaller and larger beets, respectively). They’re done when a knife easily penetrates the beet. Allow to cool in the baking dish. Cut away the ends and slip off the skins. Roasted beets are wonderful on their own or dressed with a vinaigrette, and they’ll keep, refrigerated, for 5 days in a covered bowl.
Approx Nutritional Information: 1 roasted beet: 44 calories; Total fat: < 0.5 g; cholesterol 0 mg; sodium 77 mg; Total carbohydrates 10.0 g; Dietary Fiber 2.0 g; Sugars 8.0 g; Protein 1.7 g.
The avocado is a very unique fruit. Yes, it is a fruit. Though an avocado is a high-calorie, high-fat fruit, its nutrition and health benefits are beyond compare. This is definitely a food you should incorporate into your diet. This abundant cash crop was introduced to the United States, by Mexico, in the 19th century and today, roughly 95% of U.S. avocado production is located in southern California. Avocados are cultivated in Florida as well.
There are two flowering types of avocados (categorized as “A” or “B”) and they are differentiated according to the timing of the male and female flowering phases. There are a whopping 500 avocado varieties! However, seven varieties are (commercially) grown in California and include the Bacon, Hass (year-round), Fuerte, Gwen, Pinkerton, Reed and Zutano. The Lamb Hass is a relatively newly cultivated summer variety of the Hass avocado. The Hass varieties accounts for nearly 95% of the total California crop.
“A” cultivars: Hass, Gwen, Lamb Hass, Pinkerton, Reed
“B” cultivars: Fuerte, Sharwil, Zutano, Bacon, Ettinger, Sir Prize, Walter Hole
All varieties are creamy and delicious with similar nutrition profiles, though certain varieties are ‘summer,’ others are ‘year-round’, etc. They also differ slightly in flavor, shape and color. You are probably most familiar with Hass and Fuerte avocados.
The Hass avocado is also the most cultivated variety worldwide, accounting for 80% of the all cultivated avocados. The Hass avocado has a rich, nutty flavor. The flesh is a light green color and the fruit oval in shape with black, pebbly skin. It ripens to a purplish-black color.
Top producers of the Fuerte avocado (also abundant in the U.S.) are (in order) Mexico, Indonesia and the Unites States. This type of avocado is medium-sized and pear-shaped fruit. The skin is leathery, green and easy to peel (ripens green). The creamy flesh is a yellow-green color, rich and mild-tasting.
Avocados are nutrient-rich. This fruit contains roughly a dozen different essential nutrients. Avocadoes have some carbohydrate, protein and lots of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. They are also high in dietary fiber and offer vitamin K, folate, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, pantothenic acid (B5), potassium, riboflavin (B2) and niacin (B3). A 1-oz. portion (about 1/5th of the fruit) meets 4% to 8% of the Recommended Daily Value (DV) for each of the vitamins and minerals mentioned. The nutrition facts vary slightly according to the variety and origin. Just 1-oz. provides about 45 calories, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 1 g protein, 2 g carbohydrates, 2 g dietary fiber, no cholesterol and no sodium.
Obviously, the larger your portion the more nutrients you consume. One cup of cubed avocado, or about 150 grams (unspecified variety) provides 240 calories, 22 g fat (only 3 g saturated fat), 3 g protein, 13 g carbohydrate, 10 g dietary fiber, no cholesterol and only 11 mg sodium. Though that is probably more calories and fat than you wish to consume in a 1-cup serving of fruit, the amount of dietary fiber and vitamin C (meets 25% of the DV) alone is astounding. In addition, most of the fat is very heart-healthy (monounsaturated) and yes, you do need fat in your diet!
Not only is this heart-healthy and tasty, but it is colorful and festive. Roughly mash one large ripe avocado and add 2 Tbsp diced sweet onion, 1/4 of a large, ripe tomato (seeded) or a handful of diced cherry tomatoes, 1 minced serrano chilis (stems and seeds removed) or jalapeno pepper, the juice of 1/2 lime or lemon and a pinch of coarse salt and pepper to taste.
Dedicated athletes looking for an edge in their field of competition need an exercise regimen based on four critical areas of training. These four areas are needed to increase speed, size, and power in any athlete and include (1) flexibility (2) core strength (3) explosive movements, and (4) the strengthening of the posterior kinetic chain. When combined with an upper body strength routine one can almost guarantee improvement on the court, the field or the ice. In this piece, we’ll focus on the flexibility component of athletic training and conditioning.
Studies have shown that increasing an athlete’s flexibility not only decreases the chance of injury but greatly helps improve overall strength. If you lack flexibility, you limit muscular development through lack of range of motion AND risk injury. The problem with flexibility in athletics is incorporating it into your routine properly. Performing a ‘dynamic’ warm up before a workout, event or game instead of static stretching is the best option. A dynamic warm-up may include movements such as walking lunges, knee raises, butt kicks, arm circles and squats (using your own body-weight only).
Passive stretching is not recommended for enhancing flexibility in athletic conditioning. It involves using an external force to push a joint beyond its active range of motion. Performing a standing calf stretch against a wall or using a partner to push you into a deeper stretch are two examples of passive stretching.
Instead of passive stretches, engage in ‘active’ stretching exercises. Active stretching involves using your own muscular strength and effort to hold a position. Active (isolated) stretching is safe and effective as you eliminate external forces. You must use your own muscle strength to achieve the desired range of motion. As the one muscle contracts the target muscle (opposite the contracting muscle – the one you want to stretch) relaxes and lengthens.
An ‘active’ stretch for the chest would be extending your arms out to the sides and pulling back or retracting your shoulder blades. To actively stretch the hamstrings, extend your leg straight in front of you and relax it by contracting the quadriceps. When you contract your quadriceps, your brain sends a signal to your hamstrings to ‘relax.’ This allows you to achieve a deeper stretch without force.
Now that we’ve covered flexibility, we’ll move on to the second major component in athletic training and conditioning: core strength.
Interval training is a popular method for increasing workout intensity to burn more calories and lose weight (body fat) faster. By definition, interval training is physical exercise routine that intersperses bursts of high-intensity (vigorous cardiovascular or aerobic) work with periods of lower-intensity work. The high-intensity periods should match your fitness level (longer high-intensity intervals for advanced exercisers). Strive to workout for at least 20 minutes (including warm-up and cool-down).
You can engage in an interval training workout using a variety of exercise machines (stationary bicycle, treadmill, elliptical trainer and/or rowing machine) as well as outdoors. Interval training is used in many sports’ training. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) recommends performing at least one (if not two) circuit or interval training workouts weekly to overcome weight loss plateaus and challenge your body. Interval training takes your exercise routine to a new level. The recommended methods for making the high-intensity intervals ‘tough’ include increasing resistance, speed or incline. A simple interval training cycle might involve cycling at a higher resistance level/faster pace for one minute and then reducing the resistance level/slowing your pace for two minutes. You’ll repeat this cycle several times depending upon the length of your workout.
Use perceived rate of exertion (RPE) to gauge how hard you are working (1 = easiest, 10 = most strenuous). Begin your interval workout with a 5-minute warm up on your cardiovascular machine. Begin your interval training workout with a 5-minute warm up (RPE of 3 to 4) followed by 20 to 30 minutes of cycles alternating high-intensity periods with shorter, less intense or ‘recovery’ periods. During the high-intensity periods, work at a RPE of 7 to 8 and during the less-intense periods, work at a RPE of 5 to 6. End your workout with a 5-minute cool-down at a RPE of 3 to 4.
Have you ever participated in a boot camp-style workout? These high-energy group workouts often more sophisticated interval training. During a boot-camp style workout (in a gym) you might engage in cardiovascular intervals (jump roping intervals followed by recovery jogs). Another method is to combine interval training with circuit training. You can do this yourself or in a small group. Circuit training basically involves going from one exercise to the next, doing different exercises on using various exercise equipment.
Combine both styles of training by performing one set (in fairly rapid sequence) of three to five challenging strength training exercises (after a 5 minute warm-up). Sample exercises might include squats to overhead presses (with dumbbells); straight-leg push-ups with alternating dumbbell rows (one row after each push-up) and alternating lunges with bicep curls.
Next, jump on a piece of cardiovascular equipment, such as an elliptical trainer for about six or seven minutes, alternating high intensity 30 second ‘intervals’ (faster speed and higher tension) with lower-intensity recovery periods for 45 seconds to one minute. Immediately complete another set of your three to five strength training exercises (do the same exercises, choose different exercises that target the same muscles or alternate upper and lower body focused exercises). Keep in mind that compound exercises (such as squat to overhead press) are time-savers as they work multiple muscle groups simultaneously. All the while, your heart-rate remains elevated since you are never really ‘resting.’
After the second set of strength training exercises, jump on another piece of cardiovascular exercise equipment, such as a rowing machine, for another six to seven minutes for interval training. Again, alternate 30 seconds of faster rowing periods (and/or increasing tension) 45 second to one minute periods of ‘recovery’ rowing.
Do this one more time with another set of three to five strength training exercises and another six to seven minutes of interval training on another cardiovascular exercise machine, such as a treadmill. Finish this workout with a 5-minute cool down. At the end, you’ve completed a 45-minute to 1 hour workout that blasts calories and fat. Interval training, with or without circuits, keeps the intensity and pace high throughout your workout.
Two of the most significant and rewarding benefits of interval training are that it beats boredom and torches more calories in less time, aiding in weight loss. Scientific studies indicate that interval training workouts build muscle endurance more quickly than traditional (static) workouts.
If you have a calculator, then you can figure out how many calories you need. Sure, there are dozens of online calculators, but either of the following expert-recommended mathematical equations are super accurate for calculating your calorie needs. One (the Harris-Benedict equation) uses the metric system. Both formulas yield a similar result.
The first step for either formula is to calculate your BMR. This is, quite simply, the minimum amount of energy (in calories) you need daily to sustain life. BMR factors in not only your height and weight, but your age. BMR declines every decade beyond age 30, some say up to 10%. This impacts your calorie needs – you need fewer calories daily to maintain your weight as you age. Calculating BMR is only the first step. You need to multiply that number by a physical activity level (PAL), also known as an activity factor. Choose this number based upon your exercise level and lifestyle (active or sedentary job).
Harris-Benedict Equation:
Men = 66 + (6.3 x weight in lbs) + (12.9 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years) = BMR
Women = 655 + (4.35 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years) = BMR
Mifflin-St. Jeor Equation:
Men = 10 x (weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in centimeters) – (5 x age in years) + 5 = BMR
Women = 10 x (weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in centimeters) – (5 x age in years) – 161 = BMR
The next step is to multiply your BMR by the most suitable physical activity factor (keep in mind that most individuals overestimate their level of physical activity):
Sedentary = BMR x 1.2
Light activity = BMR x 1.375
Moderately active = BMR x 1.55
Very active = BMR x 1.725
Extremely active/Athletic = BMR x 1.9 or more
Using the Harris-Benedict Equation, the BMR for a 40 year-old man, 5’10” and 164 lbs = 1,730 calories
Using the Mifflin St-Jeor formula, the BMR for the same man = 1,661 calories
Now, if you want to gain or lose weight, you need to go a step farther. To lose 1 lb in one week, you need to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories. The best way to do this is to decrease your daily caloric intake by 500 calories. You can do this by cutting down on the calories you consume and/or increasing the amount of calories you burn by increasing your exercise intensity, frequency and/or duration. The reverse is true for gaining weight.
