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The Olive Oil Hunter News #129

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Pasta e Fagioli Salad Recipe, Spotlight on Tomatoes, How to Quick Soak Beans and Guard Against Forever Chemicals (PFAS), Plus Exercise and Inflammation

Looking for a satisfying dish that requires a minimum of cooking? You’ll love this adaptation of the classic pasta e fagioli soup, a unique way to savor ripe tomatoes (turning large tomatoes into chunks will work as well as the cherry tomatoes). Canned beans offer convenience, but you can try my quick hack for soaking dried beans if you’d like to make your own. You’ll also find strategies to limit exposure to dangerous PFAS (dubbed “forever chemicals”) and insights into how exercise delivers health benefits. 

Pasta e Fagioli Salad

  • Pasta e Fagioli Salad Pasta e Fagioli Salad

    You know pasta e fagioli as a hearty soup that stars the tiny pasta tubes called ditalini and creamy white beans, perfect for chilly nights. But there’s no reason to “table” this great combination when you can give it a summery twist: a salad composed of all its delicious ingredients, plus a sweet-tart vinaigrette great for all kinds of salads. If you can’t find ditalini, you can use any small-sized pasta—the idea is to get a variety close to the size of the beans. For another layer of flavor, top with shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

    Ingredients

    • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
    • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar of Modena 
    • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
    • 1 tablespoon honey
    • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste
    • 1/2 garlic clove, minced 
    • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
    • 3 cups cooked cannellini beans or one 29-ounce can, rinsed and drained
    • 3 cups cooked pasta, such as ditalini
    • 3 cups cherry tomatoes 
    • 1 medium red onion, slivered
    • 2 tablespoons each chopped fresh parsley and basil, plus more for garnish

    Directions

    Step 1

    Make the vinaigrette: In a medium bowl, whisk together the two vinegars, mustard, honey, salt, and garlic. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

    Step 2

    Place the beans, pasta, tomatoes, red onion, and herbs in a large glass bowl and pour on the vinaigrette. Toss gently to coat. Serve at room temperature or chilled, garnished with more herbs.

    Yields 6 generous servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

There’s no better time to enjoy tomatoes than summer. For the sweetest cherry tomatoes, look for Sungolds and other bright-yellow varieties—wonderful in the pasta e fagioli salad. I love to stuff huge beefsteak tomatoes with tuna flakes from a just-grilled filet and then drizzle them with a vinaigrette. Don’t forget to sample heirloom tomatoes in fanciful colors and shapes. 

When shopping your local farmers’ markets, look for tomatoes with smooth, mostly unblemished skin, but remember that organic tomatoes may not look picture-perfect, and that’s OK. More important is that the tomatoes feel ripe all around—firm, but not hard, and definitely not squishy. Then give them the sniff test—they should smell like…tomatoes!

Quick Kitchen Nugget: A Fast Way to Soak Dried Beans

Quick Kitchen Nugget

A Fast Way to Soak Dried Beans

One reason to buy dried beans rather than canned is the greater variety available, plus you control the salt. But, of course, that involves remembering to first soak the beans and then cooking them until tender. Here’s a hack to speed up the process—it’s especially handy if you forget to soak the beans the night before you want to use them.

Step 1: “Hot soak” the dried beans. In a large pot, add 1 pound of dried beans and 6 cups of cold water (multiply as needed). Bring to a boil, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let soak for 1 hour.

Step 2: Cook the soaked beans. Drain and rinse the beans in cool water, and wash out the pot. Return the beans to the cleaned pot and cover them with cold water. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover, and cook until tender, but not mushy, about 1 hour for cannellini beans (larger beans may take up to an hour more). 

For Your Best Health: Guarding Against “Forever Chemicals”

For Your Best Health

Guarding Against “Forever Chemicals”

News of chemical manufacturer 3M agreeing to pay over $10 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of many US public drinking water systems by its harmful compounds has brought national attention to the problem of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. They’re called forever chemicals because they don’t degrade naturally in the environment. And they’re dangerous—exposure over time has been linked to health problems, including liver and immune-system damage, heart disease, some cancers, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and decreased fertility, according to experts at Hartford Healthcare.

Here’s advice from the watchdog group NRDC you can use to protect yourself:

  • Replace nonstick pans with stainless steel, cast-iron, glass, or ceramic alternatives.
  • Consider transferring store-bought foods to glass containers when you get home. Don’t heat food wrapped in grease-resistant packaging or reheat leftovers in takeout containers. Make popcorn on the stovetop instead of in PFAS-treated microwave bags. Look for BPI-certified compostable packaging, which doesn’t contain PFAS.
  • Choose clothing brands that have removed PFAS from their lines, such as American Eagle and L.L.Bean.
  • Avoid buying any home furnishings labeled water- or stain-repellent, which likely involve treatments that use PFAS.
  • Install reverse osmosis filters on your water faucets to get PFAS out of your drinking water.
Fitness Flash: How Exercise Helps with Inflammation

Fitness Flash

How Exercise Helps with Inflammation

Researchers have long known that moderate exercise has a beneficial impact on the body’s response to inflammation, but what’s been less understood is why. New research done on a mouse model at York University in Toronto, Canada, suggests that the answers may lie within the body’s macrophages, white blood cells responsible for killing off infections, healing injury, and otherwise acting as your internal first responders.

“Much like you train your muscles through exercise, we showed that exercise of moderate intensity ended up training the precursors of those macrophages in the bone marrow,” says Ali Abdul-Sater, PhD, associate professor in the University’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science and York Research Chair. “The way that exercise is doing this is by changing the way those cells breathe—essentially, how they use oxygen to generate energy and then changing the way they access their DNA.”

While many studies have looked at temporary boosts to the immune system immediately after exercise, this study, published in the American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, found these changes occurred even a week later, suggesting that they are long term. 

“Inflammation is amazing—it’s a very important part of our normal immune response,” says Dr. Abdul-Sater. Inflammation is the body’s response to infection and other stressors, and some level of inflammation is necessary and desirable. “What we’re concerned about is excessive inflammation,” he explains. “Heart disease, diabetes, many cancers, and autoimmune diseases all essentially begin because there was an inappropriate inflammatory response.”

The study found that, for active mice, it was around the six-to-eight-week mark into the exercise regimen when changes really became apparent. “There’s a lot of rewiring that’s taking place in the circuitry of how the cells breathe, how the cells metabolize glucose, how the cells then access DNA. So all that just takes time.”

Dr. Abdul-Sater says that because the inflammatory response is a very ancient one, this aspect of the immune system is generally very similar across mammals, and he expects the research will translate well to people. In the next phase, the team will collect immune cells from human volunteers who will do exercises of various intensities to see which workout routines are most beneficial to balance the inflammatory response. 

“The thing with humans is there’s no intervention that will work on everyone. We know that, but what this study suggests is that moderate and persistent exercise not only improves metabolic health, but also will improve immune health in the long run.”

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #128

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Roasted Ratatouille Recipe, For Your Best Heart Health: The Mediterranean Diet Fights Heart Attacks and Stroke

There’s no shortage of “best diet” lists for losing weight, but they don’t always have scientific backing or address the bigger picture that includes taking care of your overall health.

When I share the benefits of olive oil, it’s often in the context of the Mediterranean diet. After all, no matter how delicious the freshest extra virgin olive oil is, you need other foods to enjoy it fully! The Mediterranean diet has scores of studies that support its adoption.

Now a new research review goes a step further: the authors did a deep dive to compare it to six other diets that claim to lower heart attacks and death rates in people with heart disease. These included the Pritikin diet, the Ornish diet, and a very, very low-fat diet, all known to be extremely restrictive. The Mediterranean diet bested them all, with the bonus benefit of stroke prevention (details below), plus it tastes great.

A case in point is the following recipe. For those who only know “Ratatouille” as the lead character from the Disney classic, let me introduce you to the dish that inspired his name…with my own personal twist, of course!

Roasted Ratatouille

  • Roasted Ratatouille Roasted Ratatouille

    All the flavors of seasonal bounty meld together in this dish. Rather than cooking it on the stovetop, it’s roasted in the oven, with minimal attention. This technique helps preserve the taste and texture of the individual vegetables, even as they cook in each other’s juices, and creates more of a caramelized medley than a stew. Ratatouille makes a delicious side dish, a topping for grilled bread or pasta, and a hearty sauce for roasted chicken or fish.

    Ingredients

    • 1 small eggplant, about 1 pound 
    • 1-1/2 pounds tomatoes, any variety
    • 1 pound zucchini or summer squash, green and/or yellow
    • 3 yellow, orange, or red bell peppers
    • 1 large onion, about 1 pound
    • 8 cloves garlic, sliced
    • 7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for the pans
    • 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
    • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
    • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar from Modena, plus more to taste
    • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 350°F. Cut all the vegetables into roughly 1-inch diced pieces and mix together along with the garlic in a large bowl. Add 6 tablespoons of olive oil and the salt, and toss to coat. Lightly oil two rimmed sheet pans (or line them with parchment paper) and divide the vegetables between them. Roast the veggies for a total of 3 hours.

    Step 2

    After the first hour, as the vegetables give up their moisture and shrink in volume, combine them in one of the sheet pans; after the second hour, flip the veggies with a large spatula.

    Step 3

    When done, transfer the vegetables back to the large bowl, taking care to get all the juices. Season with pepper, drizzle on the last tablespoon of olive oil and the vinegar, and sprinkle with the parsley.

    Serves 8

Best Health: The Mediterranean diet fights heart attacks and stroke

For Your Best Heart Health

The Mediterranean diet fights heart attacks and stroke

The study: “Comparison of seven popular structured dietary programmes and risk of mortality and major cardiovascular events in patients at increased cardiovascular risk: systematic review and network meta-analysis,” BMJ, March 2023.

The analysis: In the first study of its kind, an international group of researchers from the US, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, and China analyzed the effects of seven different popular diet plans designed to reduce “the likelihood of death and heart attack in people at heightened risk of cardiovascular disease.” They compared the plans to each other and to “minimal intervention efforts” such as being handed a brochure on healthy diets. 

After searching through research databases, they identified 40 eligible trials involving a total of 35,548 participants who had heart disease—or at least two known risk factors for it—and who were followed for an average of three years on these popular diets: low fat (18 trials), Mediterranean (12 trials), very low fat (six trials), modified fat (four trials), combined low fat and low sodium (three trials), Ornish (three trials), and Pritikin (one trial). Some trials compared two different diets to each other.

The researchers pointed out that, although many of these diets have the aura of heart health and are often recommended to people at risk of heart problems, such recommendations have relied on “low certainty evidence from non-randomized studies.” Translation: there’s a lack of gold-standard studies supporting their benefits.

The researchers found that of the seven programs, based on “moderate certainty evidence,” Mediterranean dietary programs were better than minimal intervention at preventing all-cause mortality (17 fewer deaths per 1,000 over five years), nonfatal heart attack (17 fewer deaths per 1,000), and stroke (seven fewer deaths per 1,000) for patients at intermediate risk of cardiovascular disease. Low-fat programs were superior to minimal intervention, with moderate certainty for prevention of all-cause mortality (nine fewer deaths per 1,000) and nonfatal heart attack (seven fewer deaths per 1,000) but did not impact stroke risk.

“The absolute effects for both dietary programmes were more pronounced for patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease (36 fewer all-cause deaths per 1,000 and 39 fewer cardiovascular deaths per 1,000 among those that followed the Mediterranean dietary programme over 5 years),” the review concluded. “The five remaining dietary programmes generally had little or no benefit compared with minimal intervention typically based on low to moderate certainty evidence.”

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #127

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Six Bean Salad Recipe, Spotlight on Gigantes and Green Beans, Guilt-Free Chocolate, plus Exercise and Your Appetite

Getting ready for a BBQ but at a loss for an exciting side? My take on the perennial fan-favorite three bean salad takes it to the next level—and it can all be done ahead of time. With over 400 varieties of beans to choose from, you can change up the ingredients every time you make it. Just for fun, I’m also including new research on the possible health benefits of enjoying chocolate (yes, moderation is still key!) and, on a more serious note, how your exercise routine is a great strategy to rein in your appetite.

Six Bean Salad

  • 6 Bean Salad Six Bean Salad

    This twist on a traditional three bean salad really moves the needle for flavor—double the beans, double the taste. For color, texture, and nutrients, I love adding green (string) beans to the mix—from long beans to slim French haricots verts, there are many fresh options available now. For the legumes in this recipe, canned beans are great for convenience—just rinse and drain them before adding them to your mixing bowl. If you want to prepare your own ingredients by using dried beans, you can soak and cook most of the varieties together. The exceptions to this strategy are the chickpeas (because they have a much shorter cooking time) and the black beans (because they could tint the white beans).

    Ingredients

    For the vinaigrette:

    • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 
    • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
    • 1 tablespoon honey
    • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste
    • 1/2 garlic clove, peeled and minced 
    • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
    • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

    For the salad:

    • 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and steamed
    • 1 cup cooked gigante or cannellini beans
    • 1 cup cooked red kidney beans
    • 1 cup cooked black beans
    • 1 cup cooked chickpeas
    • 1 cup cooked lima beans

    Directions

    Step 1

    In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, honey, salt, garlic, and pepper flakes. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is emulsified. Season to taste with black pepper and more salt if desired. Set aside.

    Step 2

    In a very large bowl, gently toss all the beans together and then pour on the vinaigrette. Toss again and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to help the flavors meld before refrigerating. 

    Yields 12 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Get to Know Gigantes

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Get to Know Gigantes

Gigante beans are huge white beans, up to an inch long, with great toothy appeal. They serve up a bounty of nutrients, including fiber and 8 grams of protein per cup. Popular in Greek cooking, they’re great on their own when marinated in vinaigrette or puréed with garlic, rosemary, and lemon zest for a delicious dip. Find them online at Amazon and Rancho Gordo (ranchogordo.com), where they’re called royal corona beans.

Quick Kitchen Nugget: Steaming Green Beans

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Steaming Green Beans

An inexpensive metal steamer basket makes quick work of prepping green beans (and many other veggies). Simply fill a pot with a couple of inches of water (the water should not come over the basket bottom), bring it to a boil, and place the basket in the pot. Add your green beans, cover, and let steam over medium heat for 5-7 minutes.

For Your Best Health: Chocolate without Guilt

For Your Best Health

Chocolate without Guilt

We’ve long known that the antioxidants in cocoa powder are what give chocolate their nutrient-rich appeal…and that the sugar in chocolate candy can often outweigh the benefits. That’s why dark chocolate, since it has less sugar, is considered the better bar option. We also know that no one food equates to better health and longer life. All that being said, it was good to read about research findings on chocolate from the long-term Women’s Health Initiative study. 

The study, “Chocolate Consumption in Relation to All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in Women,” published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, followed 84,709 postmenopausal women who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer when they enrolled (between 1993 and 1998). They were followed through March 2018. During this time, 25,388 passed away, including 7,069 deaths from CVD; 7,030 deaths from cancer; and 3,279 deaths from dementia. When the researchers compared women who ate varying amounts of chocolate weekly with those who ate no chocolate or less than one serving per week, they found a modest inverse association of chocolate consumption with mortality from all causes, CVD, or dementia, specifically for moderate chocolate consumption of one to three servings a week (eating chocolate had no effect on cancer rates). Both from a taste and a health point of view, enjoying a few ounces of chocolate over the course of a week is a guilt-free pleasure.

Fitness Flash: Exercise and Your Appetite

Fitness Flash

Exercise and Your Appetite

Scientists say that how much we eat is influenced by systems in the brain that are sensitive to changes in our body and the food environment we are in. Studies have shown that single bouts of exercise, such as running, can temporarily suppress appetite. However, the extent to which exercise impacts how likely we are to eat is not fully understood.

Researchers from the UK’s Loughborough University, University of Bristol, University of Nottingham, and the University of Leicester, and Waseda University in Japan recently investigated the impact that running had on blood flow in the brain and how this influenced brain activity in relation to appetite. Exercise-induced blood flow changes in the brain captured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); these scans help scientists evaluate what is happening in the brain by detecting small changes in blood flow.

For this study, published in the journal Human Brain Mapping, 23 men underwent fMRI scans before and after 60 minutes of running or rest. During the scan, they were asked to look at three types of images ranging from low-energy dense foods such as fruits and vegetables to high-energy dense foods such as chocolate, as well as nonfood items such as furniture.

Researchers found that the bout of exercise suppressed how hungry participants said they felt although it increased the reactivity of multiple parts of their brain to food cues. Using a different type of fMRI, the study team also detected changes in blood flow in the brain after exercise, although these changes did not appear to influence the food cue reactivity signals. (Food cue reactivity is the way our body responds to food both physically and psychologically—to the sight or smell of food, for example. Food cue reactivity can have an impact on our appetite and how much we end up eating.)

Alice Thackray, PhD, a senior research associate in exercise metabolism from Loughborough’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences and lead author for the study, said, “Our findings confirm individuals feel less hungry during and immediately after an exercise session and provide some insights into the short-term influence of exercise on brain appetite responses. Although additional research is needed to determine the implications of these findings, we know the brain plays an important role in the control of appetite and food intake…This study is part of an exciting collaboration that we plan to develop further as we continue to explore how exercise and appetite interact, including the influence on central (brain) responses.”

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #126

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Walnut-Crusted Fish Recipe, Spotlight on Walnuts, The Kitchen Essential Cast Iron, The Benefits of a Good Work-Life Balance, and Beyond Diet and Exercise to Protect Heart Health

Heart disease is our greatest health threat, and the important topic of protecting the heart weaves its way throughout this issue of the newsletter. While a total lifestyle refresh can seem overwhelming, taking smaller steps, including enjoying more extra virgin olive oil and walnuts and finding a better balance between work and your personal life, add up to better health. The more positive choices you make, the more you can reduce your risk from health issues that can really impact the way you want to live.

Walnut-Crusted Fish

  • Walnut-crusted fish Walnut-Crusted Fish

    This delicious and heart-healthy topping is the perfect upgrade from breadcrumbs, and a cast iron pan makes quick work of cooking the fish.

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup shelled walnut halves or pieces
    • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
    • 1 tablespoon creamy Dijon mustard
    • 1 tablespoon fresh, chopped flat-leaf parsley 
    • 1 clove garlic, minced
    • 1-1/2 pounds thick white fish fillet, like cod, halibut, or bass, wild caught if available
    • Optional garnishes: lemon slices, fresh dill

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 375°F. Put the walnuts in a food processor or coffee bean grinder and pulse until they take on the texture of meal—go slowly because you don’t want the contents to turn to nut butter. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the mustard, parsley, and minced garlic, and pulse just until blended.

    Step 2

    Heat a 10″ cast iron skillet until hot. While you’re waiting for it to heat up, pat both sides of the fish dry with paper towels and then press the walnut mixture evenly across the top surfaces. 

    Step 3

    When the skillet is hot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. As soon as it shimmers, use a long spatula to transfer the fish to the skillet. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the bottom browns.

    Step 4

    Transfer the skillet to the top third of your oven and cook for 8-12 minutes, until the fish feels firm (you can test on the side); this will depend on the thickness of your fish. 

    Step 5

    Turn your oven to broil to quickly toast the crust. Don’t walk away—this should only take 2 or 3 minutes. 

    Step 6

    Turn off the oven and, using high-heat-resistant oven mitts, carefully transfer the skillet to a heat-resistant pad on your counter. Drizzle the fish with more olive oil and garnish as desired.

    Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Walnuts’ Wallop of Nutrients

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Walnuts’ Wallop of Nutrients

There’s good reason—many good reasons, in fact—that walnuts consistently make the list of the healthiest foods. A great source of anti-inflammatory omega-3 alpha-linolenic acids, walnuts also deliver protein, fiber, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and numerous vitamins and minerals. Their unique nutrient profile is likely what makes them so good for heart health. Now, using a newly developed technology that can quantify gene expression levels in the gut and monitor how these levels shift in response to various dietary changes, a team of scientists may have found out more specifically how walnuts help the heart. 

“Research has shown that walnuts may have heart-healthy benefits like lowering cholesterol levels and blood pressure,” said Mansi Chandra, a researcher at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. “This motivated us to look at how walnuts benefited the gut microbiome and whether those effects led to the potential beneficial effects. Our findings represent a new mechanism through which walnuts may lower cardiovascular disease risk.”

Chandra and her colleagues discovered that introducing walnuts into a person’s diet led to higher levels of Gordonibacter bacteria. This bacterium converts the plant polyphenols ellagitannins and ellagic acid into metabolites that allow them to be absorbed by the body. Study participants who ate a walnut-rich diet also showed higher levels of expression for several genes that are involved in important metabolic and biosynthetic pathways, including ones that increase the body’s production of the amino acid L-homoarginine—a deficiency has been linked to higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

Quick Kitchen Nugget: Get Cookin’ with Cast Iron

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Get Cookin’ with Cast Iron

Many chefs swear by their cast iron skillet because the metal holds heat so well and so uniformly that cooking is a breeze, especially when you need high heat. It’s also the ultimate stovetop-to-oven pan—just be sure you have excellent oven mitts to protect your hands from a hot handle. 

Either a 10″ or 12″ size is very versatile. Most cast iron skillets from companies like Field, Lodge, and Victoria come pre-seasoned and ready to go, so prepping them doesn’t present the issue it once did.

As I always suggest with any pan, heat your cast iron skillet before adding any food, including olive oil. In a hot pan, it will take mere moments for your EVOO to take on the distinctive shimmer of readiness, and then just a few minutes to cook your food. 

One fear home cooks have is about cast iron is caring for it. It’s not complicated, but it is necessary to wash and dry it well before storing in order to avoid a rusty surprise the next time you reach for it. Wash it in hot water and use a stiff brush—not a scouring pad—if there’s any stuck-on food that needs to be removed. You can also use coarse salt as a safe abrasive. Rinse and dry it completely with a soft towel. Then rub in a few drops of olive oil and use a clean paper towel to buff it dry. 

While I love skillet brownies, avoid using the same cast iron skillet for sweet and savory dishes, especially fish—have one dedicated for each.

For Your Best Health: The Benefits of a Good Work-Life Balance 

For Your Best Health

The Benefits of a Good Work-Life Balance 

Work-life balance may not guarantee success, but without it, failure is almost inevitable, according to J. Gerald Suarez, PhD, and other experts from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Finding the right balance between work demands and a satisfying personal life may seem overwhelming, but it helps to think of balance as those elements that contribute to your stability and steadiness. “It’s in the process of mindful reflection and discovery that we find inspiration to execute our decisions and bring our priorities to life,” says Dr. Suarez, professor of practice in systems thinking and design. 

Successful work-life balance is about moving forward steadily, he suggests. Think of the tightrope walkers who set the goal of making it to the other end, focusing on their next steps and compartmentalizing all other potential distractions—they recognize that there are no shortcuts. You can work to identify the small and achievable steps that will bring consistency of action each day, week, and month, he explains, adding that unexpected events, conflicts, crises, requests, and scheduling shifts will challenge that consistency and require mindful choices to maintain your course. “Is it possible to balance a conflict between an important work presentation that can contribute to a promotion or attending the first recital of our kids? By the time we find ourselves in this predicament, we can only justify our decision,” said Dr. Suarez. “But no matter the choice we make, there will be a residual emotional effect and an impact on ourselves and others.”

Here are Dr. Suarez’s tips for achieving a better work-life balance:

Be honest with yourself. Be genuine and articulate what truly matters most to you. Share your intent with your loved ones and heighten their awareness regarding your priorities and the context behind them.

Keep a calendar. Schedule and honor personal activities and time with friends and family much like you do with important work-related events. It’s easy to embrace the “always on” attitude at work and neglect the relationships and experiences that bring stability to our lives.

Set the right tone. For supervisors, be an example to others in the workplace by modeling adequate behaviors for work-life balance. Sending emails in the middle of the night or during weekends may signal there are no demarcations or boundaries.

Create safeguards. Empower and develop team members at work to become an extension of your leadership. If they feel trusted, empowered, and capable, they will amplify your presence and create pockets of freedom in your schedule. Developing your team will allow you to mitigate the discomfort of taking time off, booking your next vacation, or having a moment to unplug.

Fitness Flash: Beyond Diet and Exercise to Protect Heart Health

Fitness Flash

Beyond Diet and Exercise to Protect Heart Health

A new study from researchers at The Ohio State University analyzed data from over 20,000 U.S. adults and linked a healthier diet and increased exercise to weight loss that reduces heart disease risk. But even people who lost weight still fell short on the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8,” the 8-part checklist promoting heart disease risk reduction by meeting goals for body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, smoking, physical activity, diet, and sleep. This means that weight loss alone isn’t enough for optimal heart health. The researchers found that, overall, Americans have an average score of 60 out of 100 on the eight measures, suggesting there is plenty of room for improvement even among those whose diet and exercise behaviors helped move the needle on some metrics. 

 “Clinically significant weight loss results in improvements in some health indices,” says senior study author Colleen Spees, PhD, MEd, RDN, associate professor of medical dietetics in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Ohio State. “People should feel hopeful in knowing that losing just 5% of their body weight is meaningful in terms of clinical improvements.” Adults with weight loss reported higher diet quality, more moderate and vigorous physical activity, and lower LDL cholesterol than the group without clinically significant weight loss. Yet as a group, they also had a higher average BMI and HbA1c blood sugar measure and fewer hours of sleep, things that bring down their composite Life’s Essential 8 score.

Among adults who did not have success at weight loss, many reported skipping meals or using prescription diet pills, following low-carb and liquid diets, taking laxatives or vomiting, and smoking—all of which are not winning weight-loss strategies. “We saw that people are still gravitating to non-evidence-based approaches for weight loss, which are not sustainable. What is sustainable is changing behaviors and eating patterns,” Dr. Spees says.

“We have a lot of work to do as a country,” she adds. “Even though there were significant differences on several parameters between the groups, the fact remains that, as a whole, adults in this country are not adopting the Life’s Essential 8 behaviors that are directly correlated with heart health…We absolutely need to be moving toward prevention of disease versus waiting until people are diagnosed with a disease. This becomes quite overwhelming, and individuals may feel it’s too late at that point,” she said.

One idea to consider, she suggests, would be prescriptions for regular visits with registered dietitians trained in behavior change, complete with insurance reimbursement, similar to physical therapy. “We have fantastic research, we have incredible educators,” she says. “What we don’t have is policy that promotes optimal health across the lifespan, from pregnancy through older adulthood.”

The study, “Differences in Adherence to American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, Diet Quality, and Weight Loss Strategies Between Those With and Without Recent Clinically Significant Weight Loss in a Nationally Representative Sample of US Adults,” was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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