The daylight in the evenings and the cool/warm Spring weather has me a very happy camper this week. A couple of neat news articles also have me pretty excited. Check them out!
1. Chocolate and exercise may go hand-in-hand: A new study with cyclists shows that replacing a snack with 1.5 squares of dark chocolate improved anaerobic ability. Cyclists who were supplemented with the dark chocolate used less oxygen while riding and were able to cover more distance when compared to the control group. We need more research to know the exact amount that causes this performance enhancement, but this could be good news for our endurance athletes...and those who want an excuse to eat chocolate.
2. Aware of fish intake when pregnant: The general recommendation for pregnant women of no more than 2-3 servings of fish intake per week, is being backed by new research. This new research found that eating fish more than three times per week was linked to obesity in the child for the first 2 years of life. It's important to remember not to avoid fish entirely while pregnant because it does have fantastic nutrients.
3. The New-wave of nutrition trackers: A team of nutritionists have been looking into voice-controlled calorie trackers. You would be able to speak what you're eating and how much and the tracker would search the database and determine the best fit for your intake. The hope is that this type of logging could make tracking easier and more accurate. Many bugs still need to be worked out, but this could be the future for calorie tracking.
4. Rainbow Bread: A food scientist in Singapore has invented purple bread. He took anthocyanins from black rice and added them to bread, which turns the bread purple. These anthocyanins are thought to not only provide good antioxidants, but also slow the digestion rate by 20%. The thought is that the nutritional content of the bread would be the same as our typical bread, but it would be digested at a slower rate, thus allowing the body to utilize the calories more efficiently. It will be interesting to see where this new bread takes our food science research, but we're headed in the right direction!
1. Chocolate and exercise may go hand-in-hand: A new study with cyclists shows that replacing a snack with 1.5 squares of dark chocolate improved anaerobic ability. Cyclists who were supplemented with the dark chocolate used less oxygen while riding and were able to cover more distance when compared to the control group. We need more research to know the exact amount that causes this performance enhancement, but this could be good news for our endurance athletes...and those who want an excuse to eat chocolate.
2. Aware of fish intake when pregnant: The general recommendation for pregnant women of no more than 2-3 servings of fish intake per week, is being backed by new research. This new research found that eating fish more than three times per week was linked to obesity in the child for the first 2 years of life. It's important to remember not to avoid fish entirely while pregnant because it does have fantastic nutrients.
3. The New-wave of nutrition trackers: A team of nutritionists have been looking into voice-controlled calorie trackers. You would be able to speak what you're eating and how much and the tracker would search the database and determine the best fit for your intake. The hope is that this type of logging could make tracking easier and more accurate. Many bugs still need to be worked out, but this could be the future for calorie tracking.
4. Rainbow Bread: A food scientist in Singapore has invented purple bread. He took anthocyanins from black rice and added them to bread, which turns the bread purple. These anthocyanins are thought to not only provide good antioxidants, but also slow the digestion rate by 20%. The thought is that the nutritional content of the bread would be the same as our typical bread, but it would be digested at a slower rate, thus allowing the body to utilize the calories more efficiently. It will be interesting to see where this new bread takes our food science research, but we're headed in the right direction!
Enjoy your weekend full of chocolate and purple bread, but read through all the research first!