Archive for the ‘Fitness/Health’ Category

June 12th, 2024 Blog, Fitness Food, Fitness/Health, Fruit Comments Off on Bananas Are Good Food!

Bananas Are Good Food!

I’m sure you’ve seen pop-up ads like this…
 Weeping Banana

…that appear when you pull up a recipe or just about any resource regarding health, diet, or nutrition online. For some reason – and I haven’t yet found a single one that makes any sense – bananas have been given an unfairly deserved bad rap. On the flip-side, bananas are one of the most consumed foods in the world and the number one consumed fruit in the U.S. That alone is a good sign that common sense does sometimes – very appropriately – rule the day.

Here’s a simplified nutrition diagram and…

Banana nutrition graphic

…USDA nutrition table both from Very Well Fit: Banana Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits.

USDA banana nutrition facts

Bananas are considered a carbohydrate because of their ~14 grams of sugar per serving, but that sugar is counterbalanced, just as it is similarly in other fruits, by 3 grams of fiber per banana serving. That fiber helps delay sugar absorption in your body and thereby reduces the need for high insulin production in the pancreas to transport that sugar to cells for energy or send a message to the liver to convert any excess sugar to fat.  

Bananas are probably best know for their potassium content, though they are not among the 17 or so foods highest in potassium content. I saw a terrifically concise piece on potassium in a Medical News Today article online (link below) that read: “Potassium’s primary functions in the body include building muscle, synthesizing proteins, controlling the electrical activity of the heart and maintaining acid-base balance. Potassium is needed for maintenance of total body fluid volume, keeping electrolytes in balance and ensuring normal cell function.” That last line is pretty important regarding potassium’s ability to reduce muscle cramping during and after exercise.

Bottom line, bananas are good food, and I’m a big fan. Next couple posts will show some of my favorite ways to enjoy bananas: 3-ingredient banana ice cream and as part of a summer fruit salad.

Images of banana ice cream ingredients and banana added to summer fruit salad

In the meantime, here are some more banana nutrition links:

Healthline: Bananas 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits

Medical News Today – 2 articles: one about health benefits of potassium that includes a list of other potassium-rich foods and another about health benefits, risks, and banana nutritional facts.

About Health – informative article titled “Do Bananas Cause Weight Gain?”

January 10th, 2023 Blog, Fitness/Health, How To & Tips Comments Off on 3 Ingredients That Make You YOU: Food, Body, Mind

3 Ingredients That Make You YOU: Food, Body, Mind

You’ve heard it many times, “You are what you eat”. That’s only 1/3 true.

Sure, what you eat – plus what you drink and breathe – are the building blocks of every cell in your body. But you are just as much the product of how you move your body and use your mind – and regarding the mind, how you manage stress. As shown in the diagram below, YOU = Food + Body + Mind.

That simple 3 part equation has held true since man evolved as a distinctly separate species from primates four (or so) million years ago. And, despite our transition from millions of years as nomadic hunter gatherers to predominantly agriculturally-based community members only ten thousand years ago, our bodies, and what our bodies need to survive and thrive, have not changed. We still have the same bodies that were built through evolution to survive on foods close to the earth and that still need the same level of daily physical activity and stress management to function properly that we had to rely on to hunt and gather everyday.

That’s just how it is.

And that’s exactly what prompted me to learn for myself, put to practice and then promote how we can best take sensible, life-promoting measures, one step at a time, to help us (me included) make the most of our food, body and mind equation – and do it without making ourselves crazy.

To help provide you with the kitchen skills needed to empower you to make life-promoting foods, I’ll continue putting out fully flavorful picture book recipes to make food preparation as easy as possible no matter how little cooking experience you have.

At the same time, I’ll mix it up with pieces about physical activity and mental/spiritual well being, like, for example the mindfulness/consciousness “Waking Up” practice I’ve been doing daily for over 2 years. Though I’m not pushing any particular program, you get an idea about what I do by checking out the 9-minute video you can see by clicking the image below.

Please contact me directly if you have any questions about any of the above: bruce@gotta-eat.com.

All the best always!

June 14th, 2022 Blog, Fitness/Health Comments Off on My COVID Recovery: No Problem

My COVID Recovery: No Problem

I’d just come home from seeing the very fun Top Gun Maverick movie with a good group of fellow Hickory Velo Cycling Club buds when I felt flu or bad cold symptoms come on fast. Later that night, I woke with the telltale signs of COVID: mild fever, full body ache, big headache and on-fire sore throat.

Some quick personal health facts. I did not get any COVID shots and am fine with that decision. I’m almost 64 years old, 6′ 3″ and under 160 pounds. I eat and drink exactly what you see on this site with an emphasis on eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. I usually only supplement my diet with Vitamins D3 and B12 and a light dose of zinc. And I’m on the bike every day.

I’ve mentioned here many times that the keys to good life quality and both disease prevention and disease recovery are what you eat and how you move your body.

When I came down with COVID last week, I checked in with a good, reliable friend who runs a health food store here in Hickory. She recommended supplementing my diet with the immunity support kit and flu symptom reducing tablets you see here.

I’ve followed her advice to a “T”. I’ve stuck to my diet (regular eating). And I haven’t missed a day on the bike – though I did cut back from “normal” last week, which, even on days I felt worst, always made me feel better both on the road and when I got back home. I mean, how bad can you feel when you’re bathed in North Carolina glory like this?

Bottom line: yes, COVID, the virus, is real. But just like a bad cold or the flu, your outcome is heavily influenced by your health state when you get infected. My good buds here keep an eye out and ask how I’m doing. My answer: considering how severely others have been affected, I got off lightly and am doing great. Thanks, good friends. I sure wish the same for you!

May 30th, 2022 Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Fitness/Health, Salads & Salad Dressings Comments Off on Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad Picture Book Recipe

Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad Picture Book Recipe

Last post showed how to make the (almost) instant 5-ingredient salad dressing below, which is just as fully flavorful and richly versatile as it is simple to make.

Here’s just one of the many salads, that is just as equally full-on flavorful and easy to make as the dressing: Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad.

Regarding the spinach, there’s nothing better than the farm-fresh spinach I used to get from my good bud, Michael Berberian, and his family Berberian’s Farm Stand in Northborough, MA.

Fresh spinach from Berberian’s Farm, Northborough, MA

Now that I’m in North Carolina (which I love!), I usually get my fresh spinach in a bag at Aldi – I’m a big Aldi fan for both their quality and prices, especially in these days with grocery prices skyrocketing.

Here’s what you need to make this Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad:

Just click this link or any picture on this page for a complete picture book recipe.

July 8th, 2019 Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Breakfast, Cycling, Cycling Food, Fitness/Health, One Bowl Meals Comments Off on Rip Fast Tour de France 2019, Stage 2, and Crepes with Nut Butter, Fruit and More

Rip Fast Tour de France 2019, Stage 2, and Crepes with Nut Butter, Fruit and More


The stage 2 of the 2019 Tour de France was a rip fast 27.6 kilometer (17,15  miles) time trial in Brussels, Belgium, won by Mike Teunissen, Saturday’s stage 1 winner, and his Jumbo Visma team with a 28:57 time (average 57, 20 kilometers/hour or 35.5 mph), That time was an incredible 20 seconds faster than Team Ineos, (formerly, last year’s Tour winner, Geraint Thomas, and 4-time Tour winner, Chris Froome, Team Sky) and 21 seconds faster than Team Deceuninck-QuickStep. Jumbo-Visma’s time, to say the least, was scary fast!

Now, for us mortal’s, having something good to eat to fuel us before a good hop in the saddle, run, or anything active, is most important. Here’s a favorite breakfast of mine, especially when the Tour’s on: fresh crepes topped with nut butter, cooked fruit topping, mixed grains,… Read more »

March 17th, 2019 Blog, Breakfast, Cycling, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Fitness/Health, Food & Health, Grains, How To & Tips, Nutrition Comments Off on How to Cook Quinoa on the Stove Picture Book Directions

How to Cook Quinoa on the Stove Picture Book Directions

Stove Cooked QuinoaQuinoa (pronounced “keen-wah”) is one of my favorite…seeds. Yah, right away, that’s one of the things that makes it stand out. Quinoa is not a member of the true grain family, like wheat, barley, rye and other “grass grains”. Instead, quinoa, which comes in white, red, and black color variations, is really a seed, and, specifically, it’s the seed of the goosefoot plant shown below.

Goosefoot PlantGoosefoot gets its name from the shape of its leaves and is related to spinach and Swiss chard. Quinoa grows in the South American Andes Mountains, mostly in Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, where it’s been cultivated for over 5000 years. Historical legend has it that Incan armies sustained themselves during long marches on “war balls” made of quinoa mixed with fat. Yes indeed, EMMMMM… Actually, after what I’ve recently learned about fat and how good a lot of it is for us, the idea behind those “war balls” makes good sense.

As you’d probably expect from a relative of spinach and Swiss chard, both exceptionally nutritious leafy greens, quinoa also packs a potent nutritional punch. It has about twice the protein content of barley, corn, and rice. Quinoa is gluten free and easily absorbed by the body. It’s a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron, copper & phosphorous making it particularly noteworthy for people affected by migraine headaches, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. It’s also exceptionally high in dietary fiber and is rich in “good” unsaturated fats like Omega-3. Here are the numbers I got regarding quinoa’s nutrition from a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) table.

My favorite way to prepare quinoa is to make a batch with what you see below that yields about 2 ½ – 3 cups cooked quinoa. I then put the lion’s share of what’s left over in a sealed container either in the fridge for at least a week, or in the freezer where it lasts like any other frozen food.
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Needed to Make Stove Cooked QuinoaClick any picture on this page for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book “How to Cook Quinoa” recipe.

April 2nd, 2018 Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Fitness/Health, Salads & Salad Dressings Comments Off on How Learning and Adapting Applies to Cycling and Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing

How Learning and Adapting Applies to Cycling and Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing

 

It’s all about applied learning and adapting.

First, regarding cycling. Since becoming the Ops Officer at VOmax (performance sportswear) and driving to and from Northampton everyday, I’ve had to adapt to splitting time between rippin’ it on the real road, which I love, and crankin’ it on the “living room bike” (trainer), which no matter how hard I pedal never gets me to the kitchen.

Read more »

May 31st, 2016 Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blog, Fitness/Health Comments Off on Why Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods?

Why Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods?

AID Foods

Inflammation: it’s a double-edged sword.

Acute inflammation, meaning inflammation, or swelling, that lasts for a short period of time, is usually very good for you. Think of a cut you get on your finger, hand, or anywhere. Everyone’s had a cut. But what happens when you get cut? First, your body works to restrict blood flow by tightening blood vessels, your blood itself uses clotting agents to stop bleeding, your white blood cells and other antibodies work to fight infection, and all of that leads to swelling, or inflammation, which, over days or maybe weeks, depending on the severity of the cut, is actually responsible for healing the cut. That kind of inflammation is entirely healthy.

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February 8th, 2016 Blog, Fitness/Health Comments Off on Listening to the “Get a New Bed!” Scream From My Back

Listening to the “Get a New Bed!” Scream From My Back

Back & Bed Title Shot Chronic lower muscular back pain has been a part of me since I took a knee-buckling zap in my back raking leaves in the backyard almost 20 years ago. Since then, I think I’ve managed the pain pretty well despite quite a few intense flare-ups every year that, for a few days at least, require me to throw clothing for my lower body on the floor first to have them snagged with my feet and then maneuvered where they belong by rolling gingerly on my back and using a combination of gravity and some ridiculous looking anti-gymnastics. If you’ve had or have back pain, you know the deal.

Two days ago, after many months of steadily ramped up “regular” pain and a good dose of “get a new bed” personal advice, I woke up with a painful lower back stab and knew I had to make a change –  now!

First thing I did – after a tortured session of less intense stretching than I normally do – was to go online to research “best beds for bad backs”. The first article I read from WebMD described my situation dead-on perfectly. Read more »

November 3rd, 2015 Beans, Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness/Health Comments Off on Microwave Cooked Pistachio Pesto and Hummus Quesadilla – All in Pictures

Microwave Cooked Pistachio Pesto and Hummus Quesadilla – All in Pictures

Microwave Cooked Pistachio Pesto & Hummus QuesadillaFood usually comes to mind while I’m out on the bike. After a spectacularly colorful October ride, I came home to put together this recipe that combines the nutty flavors of pistachio pesto and hummus along with the fresh crunch of red bell pepper and creamy texture of avocado. Great stuff for a post-ride/workout meal or any lunch or dinner.

Read more »

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