How to Choose the Healthiest Salad Greens

Headed to a hoppin’ salad bar for lunch? Chances are there will be handfuls of fresh greens up for grabs, from romaine and iceberg to spinach and red leaf lettuce. But when it comes to choosing the healthiest salad base, which types of lettuce pack the biggest nutritional punch?

Seeing green: The need-to-know
Sorry sandwich lovers, but a few shreds of lettuce on a bun won’t add up to the USDA’s daily recommended intake (2-3 cups for most adults). Instead, a big, healthy salad is one of the smartest ways to go green. Coming in at under 10 calories per cup, a big bowl of leaves can be a stellar source of vitamins A, C, K, and folate, among other essential nutrients.

But not all leafy greens will build a super-nutritious salad. In fact, America’s favorite lettuce, iceberg, ranks the lowest in nutritional value across the board (96 percent water content will do that!). Turbo-charged spinach, on the other hand, boasts nearly twice the recommended daily value of vitamin K, half the recommended value of vitamin A, and ample amounts of calcium and iron. Clearly, Popeye was on to something.

Prefer a crunchier base? A cup of romaine is a tasty alternative, with a huge dose of vitamin A and a variety of other nutrients. Or, for a mild but textured bed, red leaf lettuce clocks in at just 4 calories per cup, with nearly half of the daily recommended dose of vitamins A and K. Arugula (technically a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, kale, and cabbage) also packs a healthy dose of nutrients and phytochemicals, which may inhibit the development of certain cancers. And for the non-committal types, mixed greens (typically a mix of romaine, oak leaf lettuce, arugula, frisée, and radicchio) offer, well, a mixed bag of nutritional benefits, depending on the batch.

Salad for salad: Your guide to greens
Which greens are the best bet? Check out the infographic below for the nutritional low-down.

Winning the toss: Your action plan
Consider visiting the salad bar a free pass to join the dark side. Research shows that darker “loose” or “open leaf” lettuces (such as romaine, red leaf, and butterhead) contain more antioxidants and nutrients than the typically lighter-colored, more tightly-packed heads (such as iceberg). The reason? The darker leaves are able to absorb more light and, in turn, synthesize more vitamins. And while there’s no good way to pick and choose a store-bought salad leaf for leaf, at home, opting for the tops and outer leaves can guarantee a more nutritious base.

Ready to go darker (and healthier) still? While they’re not stocked at most salad bars, check the produce aisle for tougher roughage like Swiss chard and kale, which beat out even spinach in the antioxidant game. Be sure to give the leaves a good cold rinse before serving raw, boiled, or steamed, as the folds in these greens tend to accumulate dirt more easily than other veggies. Also keep in mind that high heat can strip veggies of their natural vitamin content. The final key to becoming a lean, green fighting machine? Dress for success. Hold off on the creamy dressings, croutons, bacon bits, and layers of shredded cheese. Instead, opt for a lighter vinaigrette and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds for added crunch and protein.

11 Best Exercises to Get Strong, Toned Arms

Amazing arms exercises

How is getting a stronger, sleeker upper body like math? It's something otherwise smart women think they just can't accomplish. Or they use the excuse of getting too "bulked up." The moves here definitely won't turn you into the Incredible Hulk, but they will get your arms longer, leaner, and ready to bare when the weather warms up. Best of all, most can be done at home using your own body weight—no need to invest in pricey gadgets or gear! Trainer tip: To boost your calorie burn and see results faster, march or jump in place for 2 minutes after completing each move.

Roll-the-Ball with Uneven Push-Up

Best for: Those who need an upper-body-strength challenge. (Tip: you can use a soccer ball, stack of books, or a medicine ball to create the uneven surface.)

How to do it: Get into plank and put right hand on the ball, left hand on the floor. Squeeze your abs and shoulders as you lower towards the floor, keeping elbows in. Push back up and pass the ball to the other side. Do at least 5 on each side.

Pilates Boxing

Best for: Pilates and yoga fans who want to burn fat.

How to do it: Standing with feet a hips-width apart, bend your knees and hinge forward from your waist, maintaining a neutral spine. Raise fists to your shoulders and, keeping elbows up, box your right hand forward, clenching your abs. Bring hands to center and switch. Box on each side 20 times.

Clean and Press Windmill

How to do it: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, a free weight between them. Push hips back to lower into squat and grab weight with left hand. Push through feet and rise to standing, lifting weight toward left shoulder and up overhead. Bend at waist to right, allowing right foot to turn out; right hand is on inside of right leg. Continue to bend sideways, sliding right hand down to foot, keeping left hand overhead. Reverse movement to return to squat. Switch sides and repeat.

Hip Heist Push-Up

How to do it: Get into "up" part of a push-up; lower chest and bend elbows to 90 degrees. Lift right hand and left foot, rotating upper body to the right while bringing left knee across body toward right armpit. Pivot on right foot and continue rotating torso until you're face up. Lift hips until torso is in tabletop position. Lift left hand and right foot, rotating upper body to right, pivoting on left foot until you are back in the "up" part of a push-up.

Biceps and Arm Circles

How to do it: Stand with legs slightly wider than hip-width, a 5- to 8-pound dumbbell in each hand, elbows bent and palms up. Keeping spine straight, squat and circle left hand up and in toward your shoulder in a circular motion (as if beckoning someone toward you); reverse to lower hand. Do 16 reps, then switch sides and repeat.

Triceps Swing



How to do it: Lie faceup with feet on floor, knees bent, a 5-lb dumbbell in each hand. Keep them a few inches off floor. Keeping arms straight, raise left arm over chest while right arm stays over head. Lower to start and repeat. Do 15 reps with left arm, then switch sides. Do 2-3 sets.

Kickback with a Twist

How to do it: Holding a 5- to 8-pound dumbbell in each hand, arms by your sides, stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keeping your back straight, bend your legs slightly and lean forward from the waist until your torso is nearly parallel to the ground. Raise your elbows until your upper arms are even with your back. Your elbows should be bent to 45-degree angles with your palms facing each other. Keeping your upper arms still, extend both hands behind you, then rotate your wrists so that your palms are up. Turn your palms back to face each other and bend your elbows to bring weights back toward your body to complete the rep. Do 3 sets of 15 reps.

Get-Up Plank

How to do it: Begin in a modified side-plank position with legs stacked and knees bent. Hold a kettlebell (or a water bottle) in your right hand, with your right elbow bent and weight resting against your forearm. Lift your hips so your body is straight from knees to shoulders, pressing kettlebell up to the ceiling. Do 3 sets on each side.

10 Superfoods for Spring

Power up your diet

There's a food movement afoot: Eating well to look, feel, and perform our very best is hot. And as Jamie Oliver and Michelle Obama alike are showing us, this isn't a matter of choking down foods because they're good for you. It's about filling your plate with delicious fare.

"Food, if it's chosen well, can reshape our medical destinies for the better," says David Katz, MD, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center. It can also improve our mood, focus, energy, skin, and metabolism. Here's how to graze your way to a supercharged you.

Walnuts

Good for: Mood

Walnuts are packed with tryptophan, an amino acid your body needs to create the feel-great chemical serotonin. (In fact, Spanish researchers found that walnut eaters have higher levels of this natural mood-regulator.) Another perk: "They're digested slowly," Dr. Katz says. "This contributes to mood stability and can help you tolerate stress."

Asparagus

These spears are one of the best veggie sources of folate, a B vitamin that could help keep you out of a slump. "Folate is important for the synthesis of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine," says David Mischoulon, MD, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. All of these are crucial for mood.

A cup of cooked asparagus has 268 micrograms (mcg)—two-thirds of the 400 mcg RDA for women. Add a cup of enriched pasta—which is fortified with folic acid, the synthetic form of folate—and you'll have a feel-good meal indeed.

Spring garlic

The slim-you benefit of this seasonal treat lies in a compound called allicin, which gives garlic its pungent smell. "Allicin may keep you from overeating by stimulating satiety in the brain," says Tara Gidus, RD, a dietitian in Orlando, Florida.

Spring garlic has a milder, sweeter taste than the dried white bulbs you buy later in the season. Enjoy it diced on salad for a fat-fighting side or lunch.

Legumes

Beans are one of your best bets if you're trying to drop pounds, says Joseph Colella, MD, a bariatric surgeon at Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh. "Your body has to work to break down the bean to get through the fiber," he explains, "so you're actually expending energy to digest it."

Even better, Dr. Colella says, the protein in legumes activates an "I'm satisfied" message in the hunger center of your brain

Spinach

These tasty leaves are a great source of iron (especially if you don't eat meat), which is a key component in red blood cells that fuel our muscles with oxygen for energy.

Researchers in Sweden recently identified another way in which these greens might keep you charged: Compounds found in spinach actually increase the efficiency of our mitochondria, the energy-producing factories inside our cells. That means eating a cup of cooked spinach a day may give you more lasting power on the elliptical machine (or in your daily sprint to catch the bus).

Artichokes

If you've been huffing and puffing up the stairs, try these spiky-leafed vegetables. They're loaded with magnesium, a mineral vital for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body—including generating energy, says Forrest Nielsen, PhD, a U.S. Department of Agriculture research nutritionist. "If you're not getting enough magnesium, your muscles have to work harder to react and you tire more quickly."

About 68% of us aren't getting enough of this mineral. For women, the goal is 320 milligrams (mg) per day. One medium artichoke provides 77 mg of magnesium (and just 60 calories!). Other top sources include nuts, legumes, and whole grains.

Salmon

There's wrinkle prevention on your plate: "Salmon is rich in a fatty acid called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), a type of omega-3 that naturally helps block the release of UV-induced enzymes that diminish collagen, causing lines and sagging skin," says Ariel Ostad, MD, a dermatologist in New York City.

Bonus: Omega-3s also regulate oil production in the skin and boost hydration, which helps keep your complexion dewy and acne-free.

Strawberries

They may not have the smoothest complexion themselves, but strawberries can get you one. They're loaded with antioxidants that help your skin repair damage caused by environmental factors like pollution and UV rays. Plus, they're packed with vitamin C (less than a cup gets you your entire 75 mg RDA)—the vitamin associated with fewer wrinkles and less dryness, per research in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Try them in a homemade facial, too. "Direct application of the antioxidants in strawberries—as well as the natural exfoliant they contain, alpha-hydroxy acid—will give you great results," Dr. Ostad says.

They may not have the smoothest complexion themselves, but strawberries can get you one. They're loaded with antioxidants that help your skin repair damage caused by environmental factors like pollution and UV rays. Plus, they're packed with vitamin C (less than a cup gets you your entire 75 mg RDA)—the vitamin associated with fewer wrinkles and less dryness, per research in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Try them in a homemade facial, too. "Direct application of the antioxidants in strawberries—as well as the natural exfoliant they contain, alpha-hydroxy acid—will give you great results," Dr. Ostad says.

Eggs

Have your over-easies before you hit the Easter egg hunt. The yolks are chock-full of choline, a key nutrient for recall. "Your body needs choline to make a brain chemical called acetylcholine, crucial for storing memories," says Steven Zeisel, MD, director of the Nutrition Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for choline is 425 mg. There are 147 mg in a large egg; other good options are nuts and red meat.

America’s Fittest City? The Answer Isn’t a Shocker

WEDNESDAY, May 29 (HealthDay News) — It’s a three-peat. For the third year in a row, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area is the fittest in America, according to the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual rankings released Wednesday.

“Minneapolis may be under snow for three months, but they capitalize on the resources that they have,” said Walter Thompson, chair of the advisory board that compiles the report, called the American Fitness Index, or AFI.

“We’re very pleased,” said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak in an interview with HealthDay. “We get up off the couch, in every season.”

To compile the annual rankings, the AFI takes into account city policies, community resources, health care access, the local prevalence of chronic diseases and preventive health behaviors in 50 metro areas across the United States.

Minneapolis topped the list with 78.2 points. It was closely followed by Washington, D.C. with 77.7 points. Portland, Ore., San Francisco and Denver rounded out the top five.

Near the bottom were Memphis, Tenn., Louisville, Ky., San Antonio and Detroit. Once again, Oklahoma City ranked last in the nation for measures of health. It’s fallen to the bottom of the list each year since 2008, the first year of the AFI rankings.

Despite its dead-last position, Oklahoma City is making positive changes. Thompson pointed out that the city debuted on the list with a score of 24 points. This year, the metro area scored 31.2 on measures of health, wellness and fitness. The American College of Sports Medicine met with city leaders in 2011 to work on a plan to improve the city’s fitness.

The biggest movers on the list were Portland and Denver. Portland jumped from number seven in 2012 to take the number-three slot this year. Denver leapt from number nine to number five.

Thompson said that most cities that make big moves on the list do so because of significant policy changes. They spend more money on parks, for example, or they enact citywide smoking bans.

What sets the top-tier cities apart? Thompson noted that they each have an infrastructure that supports physical activity. And they value their city parks. Minneapolis-St. Paul, for example, spends about $227 per person, per year on its city parks. Oklahoma City, by contrast, spends far less, about $60 per person, per year, according to a 2012 Trust for Public Land report.

More than half of the residents in the Twin Cities say they’re at least moderately physically active. That may be because they have more playgrounds, swimming pools, tennis courts, golf courses, baseball diamonds and dog parks, per capita, than other cities. They’re also more likely to take public transportation or to bike or walk to work, according to the report.

Mayor Rybak credits the city’s founding fathers for its wealth of public spaces. “The founders made sure every inch of parkland was open to everyone. Unlike a lot of places where there’s a beautiful lake and homes are built right onto the water, we have bike and walking trails in public realm dedicated along all of them,” he said.

And they’ve got a mayor who is constantly looking for new ways to use all that public space. Rybak started a cross-country ski festival called the City of Lakes Loppet that takes over the city streets every winter.

Residents who observed the mayor’s “Ski-to-Work Day” — they had to ski at least three miles to work — got a free entry to the city’s new Tri-Loppet, a summertime event that will have residents canoeing, mountain biking and running around the city.

And they’re planning a new two-block park called The Yard, which will connect the city’s new football stadium to its downtown.

“And this is going to be a place we envision skate parks. And maybe taking all the snow we plow in the winter and creating huge hills to snowboard. The idea isn’t just to have a passive park, but an active place,” Rybak said.

Poppy infusion to relieve nighttime cough

The cough is very bad bed partner. If you wink prevents, prepares a herbal infusion helps relieve cough and promote sleep.

Formerly used poppy flowers as a sedative in children and the elderly. Were also used and are still used as an expectorant, to relieve anxiety, promote sleep, and relieve chest pains and throat. Flowers contain an alkaloid rhoeadina have sedative properties.

Well, the infusion is to mix equal parts poppy, mallow and coltsfoot. Mallow also has sedative properties and coltsfoot is antitussive and expectorant, also protects mucous membranes.

Boil one tablespoon of this cocktail in the contents of a glass of water for a couple minutes and filtered. You can sweeten the tea with a little honey.

World No Snuff: Behind 16 cancers

World No Snuff: Behind 16 cancers. And it is the only data that we remember, in this Day, that quitting smoking is the best decision we can take for our health, as the snuff is the cause of 20% of tumors are diagnosed annually. This is stipulated in a study by the Catalan Institute of Oncology, ICO, which also includes what are the most common tumors associated with smoking (lung, larynx, gastrointestinal tumors, tumors of the urinary tract and respiratory tract).



Smoking is harmful to health. We know, but to what extent? The results of the study of the Catalan Institute of Oncology, and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, reveal that the snuff is responsible not only lung cancer, but up to 16 different tumors. Exposure to smoke and other harmful substances in a cigarette there is behind more than 80% of lung and laryngeal tumors (84% and 82% respectively) that are diagnosed annually in our country, but also 50% Tumors of the urinary tract, of 25% of liver cancer, more than 21 stomach tumors and 14% of colon and rectal cancers.

Over a decade of research support these findings, with the analysis of over 440,000 patients in a dozen European countries (within the EPIC project), and allow authors to encrypt in about 40,000 of the 200,000 cases diagnosed in our country that are associated with the habit of snuff. And the smoke of snuff, as recorded in this study, not only affects the mouth, larynx or lungs, and not forget that also enters the bloodstream and, from there, to any other body organ.

Inform and educate particularly the goal of World No Snuff, promoted by the World Health Organization this year focuses his message on the need to be more restrictive with advertising, promotion and sponsorship snuff. As noted, quitting is investing in health, not just ours, but the health of those around (secondhand smoke). The main risk factor, smoking cessation aid 50% lower risk of developing a lung tumor at five years.

The snuff is one of the risk factors in our power to prevent. The figures are eloquent enough. Smoking is behind one in ten adult deaths worldwide, resulting in six million a year. Reducing these figures is the main goal, and to do prevention, especially among young people, is essential to avoid starting on consumption.

As for smokers, according to a survey by the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine, semFYC, the average age of onset is 17 years. Spanish smokers smoke an average of 13 cigarettes a day (just over half a pack of snuff). Six out of ten, as stated in the same survey, have raised quit, and four out of ten have tried in the last year. Only 2.8% said they had no intention of quitting. What you might not know smokers, is that the effects are more harmful to women's health. In fact, women need to consume less snuff for any damage to the body.

A vegetarian diet could help you live longer

Nutrition experts often insist that you have to eat all that a healthy diet is one that, from equilibrium, consists of vegetables, legumes, fruits, dairy products, eggs, fish and meat. However, vegetarianism is gaining popularity. A recently published study gives arguments.

According to research from Loma Linda University (USA), vegetarian diets are associated with reduced mortality rates. The study, published in the online edition of JAMA Internal Medicine, has found more favorable outcomes for men than women.

The background of the analysis shows that vegetarian diets have been associated with reductions in the risk of several chronic diseases, such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus and ischemic heart disease (IHD).

Michael J. Orlich and colleagues examined all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a group of 73,308 men and women of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, people who maintain a vegetarian diet.

Evaluated the diet of patients using a questionnaire that classified into five groups: non-vegetarian, semivegetarian, I fish-vegetarian (includes seafood), lacto-ovo-vegetarian (includes dairy and eggs) and vegan (excludes all animal products) .

A very specific profile of a man ...

The study indicated that individuals vegetarian groups tend to be older, more educated and more likely to be married, drink less alcohol, smoke less, exercise more and be more slender. "Some evidence suggests that vegetarian dietary patterns may be associated with lower mortality, but the relationship is not well established," says the study.

There were 2,570 deaths among study participants during a mean follow-up time of almost six years. The overall mortality rate was six deaths per thousand person-years. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for mortality from all causes in all vegetarians vs. non-vegetarians was 0.88, or 12% less, according to the study results.

The association also seems to be better for men with a significant reduction in mortality from cardiovascular disease and death from IHD in vegetarians compared with nonvegetarians. In women, there were no significant reductions in these categories of mortality.

"These results demonstrate a global association of vegetarian diet patterns with lower mortality compared with non-vegetarian diet pattern. Also detect some associations with lower mortality I fish-vegetarians, vegans and lacto-ovo-vegetarian compared specifically with non-vegetarian diet, "the authors conclude.