NEW PRODUCT

When my kids were little, I always braced myself for the ‘back-to-school cold’ that swept through the house during their first week back in the classroom.  With the new school year upon us, kids are going to be bringing home more than just homework and new friends – they’re sure to bring home plenty of germs, too.  And even if you don’t have kids at home, you’re still more likely to get sick as the weather turns colder – so now is a good time to look at all you can do nutritionally to help keep your immune system running in tip-top shape.

Despite what your parents or grandparents might have told you, you don’t catch cold from being out in the cold air (or, as my mother always insisted, from going outdoors with wet hair).  But when the weather turns chilly, we spend more time indoors – which means we’re in closer contact with more people, and there’s less air circulating – so we’ve got more exposure to the germs that can make us sick. 

Your body has a built-in defense, of course – your immune system.  It’s your own personal army of ‘soldiers’ that protects your body by identifying anything foreign – from a virus to a bacteria to a parasite – and then seeking it out and destroying it.  And your body does rely on a good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle to keep your defenses up.  For one thing, if you eat a healthy diet and take care of yourself, you’re more likely to maintain your good health.

Fruits and vegetables are key players because they provide an abundance of phytonutrients – natural compounds found in all plant foods that help to promote health by serving as antioxidants.  You need antioxidants to balance out the processes in your body that cause oxidation.  Oxidative processes are a normal part of metabolism, but oxidation can run rampant in cells if it’s not kept in check – and that can weaken the body’s ability to fight illness.  So your body relies on a steady source of antioxidants from fruits and veggies to reduce this oxidant stress and, in turn, help to support immune function.

Your immune system also has some ‘special forces’ in the form of white blood cells.  These cells produce specialized proteins – called antibodies – that seek out and destroy invading viruses and bacteria.  Since antibodies are proteins, you need adequate protein in the diet to ensure you’ll be able to manufacture the antibodies your body needs.   Healthy protein foods – like fish, poultry, lean meats, soy foods and lowfat dairy products – provide the building blocks that your body needs to make these specialized proteins. 

Keeping your digestive system healthy is also important in supporting immune function.  Your digestive tract is home trillions of bacteria that have numerous functions in promoting health.  Some strains of bacteria help you digest the fiber in your foods, others consume intestinal gas, while others produce vitamins, like vitamin K and vitamin B12.  When your system is populated with these “good” bacteria, they also serve to ‘crowd out’ the potentially harmful bacteria that might enter your digestive tract.  Some of the best sources of these friendly bacteria are cultured dairy products – like yogurt and kefir.

Eating well really does pave the road to good health.  And to help your body in the fight against foreign invaders, your internal ‘army’ needs the best nutrition possible.  So call in the troops – and dry your hair.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD. Susan is a paid consultant for Herbalife.

People often ask me, “is dieting good, or bad?” It’s such a general question that I often don’t quite know how to answer – partly because we toss around the words “diet” and “dieting” so much that they’ve almost lost their meaning.

 In truth, we’re all on a diet every day. We each have our own dietary habits and patterns that make up our usual “diet”. Sometimes we make changes to that diet – often to cut down on our calories – in which case you might say you’re “dieting” or “on my diet” (that is, until a few weeks later… when you’re “off my diet”).

What Makes a Diet Good or Bad?

There are certainly “good” diets and “bad” diets – we all know people who choose foods carefully and eat well, just as we know others who seem to eat nothing but fast foods and soda. And, if you need to lose weight, then “dieting” – in the most general sense – is probably a good thing. But it really depends on how you approach your weight loss.

If your weight loss diet is one you can stick with, is well-balanced and leads to a healthy rate of weight loss, then yes, in that case dieting is definitely “good”. But, if the weight loss diet you’re attempting to follow is unbalanced, if it’s so strict that you can’t stick with it, or if it’s so low in calories that you have no energy or you lose weight too quickly, I’d say that’s “bad”.

The Best Diet is the One that Works for You

The most successful “diet” is the one that works for you day in and day out. It’s the diet that provides your body with the nutrients it needs. It’s the diet that includes foods that you enjoy eating. It’s a diet that works with your lifestyle. It’s the diet that you can follow for the rest of your life. And it’s yours and yours alone.

With so many different “diets” out there, how do you put together the diet that works for you? I think the best way to start is to follow some basic principles, and then refine your diet and eating pattern until you find a way of eating every day that works for you.

Building a Healthy Diet from the Ground Up

I like to think of building your diet in much the same way you would if you were building a house. You start with the basic foundation, you build up your supporting structures, and then you add the finishing touches to personalize it, and make it uniquely yours.

If you were building a house from the ground up, you’d have a budget – you’d know how much money you have to work with and, therefore, how large your finished house could be. Similarly, if you’re building your diet, the first thing you need to know is how many calories you have to work with. Just as houses come in all different sizes, so do people and their calorie requirements. Calorie needs are individual to you, and are determined, in large part, by your body composition and the amount of activity you get. You can’t plan out what you’re going to eat until you have an idea of your daily calorie needs to help you achieve your dietary goals (whether it’s to lose weight, gain or stay the same).

Now – just like your house – your diet needs a strong foundation. Ideally, the core of your diet will be made up of lean proteins, healthy carbohydrates (in the form of vegetables, fruits and whole grains), and modest amounts of healthy fats. Most healthy people will have the same dietary foundation, and they’ll use these ‘raw materials’ to build the structure of the actual diet.

The next step in construction is dividing up the space and putting in the supporting structures – and in building your diet, you’re going to do the same thing. Your goal is to divide up your calories from protein, carbohydrates and fats in a way that suits your needs – just as you’d divide up the square footage of your house into different rooms in a way that works best for you.

In most cases, about half your calories (or about half the square footage of your “house”) – is going to come from carbohydrates. The other half will be – more or less – roughly divided between protein and fat. The proteins, carbohydrates and fats you eat, along with the vitamins and minerals that your body needs, provide the supporting structure to your diet, much like the supporting walls in your house.

Personalize Your Diet for Long Term Success

Now comes the fun part. Once the basic structure is finished, you get to decorate and personalize your house. The same holds true for your diet. Just as some people like carpeting and others like tile floors, you get to personalize your diet, too – by picking and choosing the foods you’ll eat that work with your likes and dislikes, your lifestyle, your budget – while still meeting your nutrition goals.

Personalization is really key to your success. For instance, kale is really popular right now. But if you just can’t choke it down, then find another leafy green that you like instead. There’s nothing magical about kale – there are plenty of other greens that offer up a similar nutritional profile. What really matters is the overall quality of your diet. And with so many healthy foods out there, there’s no shortage of items to pick and choose from. Just find the ones you like, and build these foods into your daily diet.

It wouldn’t be “good” if you felt uncomfortable every time you walked into your own home – if it didn’t feel like “you”. Similarly, a diet is only “good” when it’s good for you – because it nourishes you, and because it just feels right. And once you feel natural and comfortable with the diet that you can “call your own”, your weight should take care of itself.

Susan Bowerman is Director of Nutrition Training at Herbalife. Susan is a Registered Dietitian and a Board-Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics.

Iron is a vitally important mineral, but many people – especially women – don’t meet their iron needs.

Iron is the most abundant mineral on earth – and one that nourishes nearly all life on the planet. Plants need iron to make chlorophyll, which allows the plant to convert energy from the sun into energy for the plant and, in humans, iron is found in every cell of the body. Yet for all its abundance, many of us don’t get enough iron in the diet. In fact, lack of iron is among the most common nutritional deficiencies worldwide, including in the United States.

Related Article: Building Your Own Balanced Diet from the Ground Up

Iron’s number one job in the body is to transport oxygen from the lungs to all the cells and tissues of the body – iron makes up part of the hemoglobin molecule in the blood (and the myoglobin protein in muscle) that performs this function. But equally important is iron’s role in helping to extract energy from your food. So, when you consider these two key functions of iron, it makes sense that if you don’t get enough iron in your diet, you might feel your energy flagging.

In general, women are more likely to experience a lack of iron than men, and this is due partly to differences in diet, and also the fact that women of childbearing age experience iron losses through their monthly menstrual cycles, and also experience increased needs during pregnancy. And, since the mineral is necessary for growth and development, shortages may occur among growing children and teenagers (especially girls).

With careful attention to diet, however, most people can meet their body’s needs for this important mineral. Here are four things you should know about iron.

1. If you associate dietary iron with foods like red meat, you’d be right. Animal proteins – like meat and poultry – are the primary sources of iron in a typical diet. This form of iron is called “heme” iron, and it is generally better absorbed than the iron found in plant foods.

2. But, that doesn’t mean vegetarians can’t get enough iron. A different form of iron, called “non-heme” iron is found in plant sources, such as beans, lentils, oatmeal, nuts and leafy greens, as well as some fortified grain products (like cereals) and eggs.

3. Vitamin C greatly enhances the body’s ability to absorb non-heme iron from plant sources. Vegetarians generally eat plenty of fruits and vegetables rich in Vitamin C, which helps explain how some vegetarians are able to meet their iron needs with a well-balanced diet. For instance, a vegetarian chili with beans and tomatoes, the Vitamin C in the tomatoes would help the body absorb the iron from the beans.

4. Your body is able to adjust how much iron you take up, depending on your needs. When iron stores are waning, your body becomes more efficient at absorbing it. On the other hand, if you’ve got plenty of iron on hand, you’ll take up less.

Susan Bowerman is Director of Nutrition Training at Herbalife. Susan is a Registered Dietitian and a Board-Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics.