Moving Forward

There's a lot of information circulating about exercise. Why is it important? Numerous observational studies have found that exercising has tremendous health benefits. It is associated with reducing the risk of Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, Stroke, and certain Mood Disorders and Cancers. Further, some illnesses can be improved with exercise, such as high blood pressure.

The ACSM and the AHA have created some very simple guidelines on exercising for health benefit:

Moderately intense cardio for 30 minutes 5 days per week

OR

Intense cardio 20 minutes for 3 days per week + strength training 2 times per week

This is pulled directly from their recommendations. You can also find a more comprehensive report with citations of studies supporting this here.

Sugar

Carbohydrates (in food terms) are long chains of sugar that are one of nature's most abundant forms of stored energy. Perhaps this is why all major civilizations emerged under the provision of their farming (wheat, rice, corn). Sugar is in almost all foods even if they don't taste sweet. White foods such as bread, potatoes, rice, and pasta (and of course fries, chips, crackers, and cookies) are considered "bad" because they are refined and take little energy to digest. Eating these foods in moderation is recommended, especially if you spend most of your day in a chair. Also, whole forms of these foods such as brown rice, whole wheat bread, and whole wheat pasta will release their sugars slowly and keep you full, longer.

Click here to learn more!

Do an experiment! Place a piece of white bread in one cup of water and a piece of whole wheat bread in another and see what happens after a couple of hours... This will give you a visual understanding of what happens in your stomach.