San Diego Personal Trainers

When is the best time of day to do your aerobic exercise? The answer is any time! The most important thing is that you just do it. Continuous cardiovascular exercise, such as powerwalking, jogging, stairclimbing, or outdoor bicycling, If you keep it up for at least 30 minutes,this will burn body fat no matter what time of the day you do decide to do it. However, if you want to get the biggest bang for you buck, from every minute you put in your workouts, then getting out of bed early and doing your cardio before you eat your first meal is preferred - even if you're not a "morning person." Early morning aerobic exercise on an empty stomach has three major advantages over exercising later in the day: Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are very low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that's 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning muscle glycogen levels are super low resulting in a lower blood sugar - the best scenario for burning stored fat instead of precious carbohydrate. How much more fat you'll burn nobody really knows, but research has shown that up to 300% more fat is used during exercise when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state.

So how exactly does this work? It's quite simple, really. Carbohydrate (glycogen) is your body's primary and preferred energy source. When your primary fuel source is in short supply, this forces your body to tap into its secondary or reserve energy source; body fat. If you do cardio immediately after eating a meal, you'll still burn fat, but you'll burn less of it because you'll be burning off the carbohydrates you ate first. You always burn a combination of fat and carbohydrate for fuel, but depending on when you exercise, you can burn a greater proportion of fat relative to carbohydrate. If doing cardio first thing in the morning is not an option for you, then the second best time to do it would be immediately after weight training. Lifting weights is anaerobic (carbohydrate-burning) by nature, and therefore depletes muscle glycogen. That's why a post lifting cardio session has a similar effect as morning cardio on an empty stomach.

The second benefit you'll get from early morning cardio sessions is what I call the "afterburn" effect. When you do a cardio session in the morning, you not only burn fat during the session, but you also continue to burn fat at an accelerated rate after the workout. Why? Because an intense session of cardiovascular exercise can keep your metabolism elevated for hours after the session is over. If you do cardio at night, you will still burn fat during the session, so you definitely benefit from it. However, nighttime cardio fails to take advantage of the "afterburn" effect because your metabolism drops like a ton of bricks as soon as you go to sleep. While you sleep, your metabolic rate is slower than any other time of the day.

Burning more fat isn't the only reason you should do your cardio early. The third benefit of morning workouts is the "rush" and feeling of accomplishment that stays with you all day long after an invigorating workout. Exercise can become a pleasant and enjoyable experience, but the more difficult or challenging it is for you, the more important it is to get it out of the way early. When you put off any task you consider unpleasant, it hangs over you all day long, leaving you with a feeling of guilt, stress and incompleteness (not to mention that you are more likely to "blow off" an evening workout if you are tired from a long day at work or if your pals try to persuade you to join them at the pub for happy hour.)

You might find it hard to wake up early in the morning and get motivated to workout. But think back for a moment to a time in your life when you tackled a difficult task and you finished it. Didn't you feel great afterwards? Completing any task, especially a physically challenging one, gives you a "buzz." When the task is exercise, the buzz is physiological and psychological. Physiologically, exercise releases endorphins in your body. Endorphins are opiate-like hormones hundreds of times more powerful than the strongest morphine. Endorphins create a natural "high" that makes you feel positively euphoric! Endorphins reduce stress, improve your mood, increase circulation and relieve pain. The "high" is partly psychological too. Getting up early and successfully achieving a small goal kick starts your day and gives you feelings of completion, satisfaction and accomplishment. For the rest of the day you feel happy and you feel less stress knowing that the most difficult part of the day is behind you.

So, you say you're not a morning person? Take heart; neither am I. I can sleep in like you wouldn't believe! But I get up anyway because I know the effort is worth the results. When I have a bodybuilding goal that I am clearly focused on, such as reaching 4% or 5% body fat for a competition, I'm on my Stairmaster for 45 minutes every morning at the crack of dawn without fail. Sure it's a challenge at first, but you know what? After a few short weeks, It's no longer a chore and I'm "in the groove" - and you will be too. Just try it. Make a commitment to yourself to do it for just 21 days. Once those 21 days have gone by, you'll already be leaner and you'll be on your way to making morning workouts a habit that's as natural as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Once you start getting used to feeling that buzz, you'll become "positively addicted" to it. The more you do it, the more you'll want to do it. Before you know it, early morning cardio will your new habit; you'll be leaner, your metabolism will be faster and you'll feel fantastic all day long.

"Research has consistently shown that muscle strengthening exercises are both safe and beneficial for women and men of all ages, including those who are not in the best of health. In fact, people who have health concerns—including cardiovascular disease or osteoarthritis—often benefit the most from an exercise program that includes resistance training with weights only a few times each week" Strength training, done particularly in concert with regular doses of aerobic exercise, can also have a huge impact on a person's psychloogical and emotional state.

Benefits of Strength Training:
There are many benefits to regulae resistance training with weights, particularly as you age. It can be very powerful in reducing the negative side effects of many diseases and chronic health conditions, among them:

• rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
• diabetes mellitus
• osteoporosis
• obesity
• Lumbar and cervical spine pain
• depression

Arthritis Relief
Tufts University recently completed a strength-training program with older men and women with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. The results of this sixteen-week program showed that strength training decreased pain by 43%, increased muscle strength and general physical performance, improved the clinical signs and symptoms of the disease, and decreased disability. The effectiveness of strength training to ease the pain of osteoarthritis was just as potent, if not more potent, as medications. Similar effects of strength training have been seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Restoration of Balance and Reduction of Falls
As people age, poor balance and flexibility contribute to falls and broken bones. These fractures can result in significant disability and, in some cases, fatal complications. Strengthening exercises, when done properly and through the full range of motion, increase a person's flexibility and balance, which decrease the likelihood and severity of falls. One study in New Zealand in women 80 years of age and older showed a 40% reduction in falls with simple strength and balance training.

Strengthening of Bone
Post-menopausal women can lose 1-2% of their bone mass annually. Results from a study conducted at Tufts University, which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1994, showed that strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk for fractures among women aged 50-70.

Proper Weight Maintenance
Strength training is crucial to weight control, because individuals who have more muscle mass have a higher metabolic rate. Muscle is active tissue that consumes calories while stored fat uses very little energy. Strength training can provide up to a 15% increase in metabolic rate, which is enormously helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control.

Improved Glucose Control
More than 14 million Americans have type II diabetes—a staggering three-hundred percent increase over the past forty years—and the numbers are steadily climbing. In addition to being at greater risk for heart and renal disease, diabetes is also the leading cause of blindness in older adults. Fortunately, studies now show that lifestyle changes such as strength training have a profound impact on helping older adults manage their diabetes. In a recent study of Hispanic men and women, 16 weeks of strength training produced dramatic improvements in glucose control that are comparable to taking diabetes medication. Additionally, the study volunteers were stronger, gained muscle, lost body fat, had less depression, and felt much more self-confident.

Healthy State of Mind
Strength training provides similar improvements in depression as anti-depressant medications. Currently, it is not known if this is because people feel better when they are stronger or if strength training produces a helpful biochemical change in the brain. It is most likely a combination of the two. When older adults participate in strength training programs, their self-confidence and self-esteem improve, which has a strong impact on their overall quality of life.

Sleep Improvement
People who exercise regularly enjoy improved sleep quality. They fall asleep more quickly, sleep more deeply, awaken less often, and sleep longer. As with depression, the sleep benefits obtained as a result of strength training are comparable to treatment with medication but without the side effects or the expense.

Healthy Heart Tissue
Strength training is important for cardiac health because heart disease risk is lower when the body is leaner. One study found that cardiac patients gained not only strength and flexibility but also aerobic capacity when they did strength training three times a week as part of their rehabilitation program. This and other studies have prompted the American Heart Association to recommend strength training as a way to reduce risk of heart disease and as a therapy for patients in cardiac rehabilitation programs.

We all want to stay young and look good, but how can we do it? Here are my anti-aging tips:

1. Do Cardio for 30 minutes a day. Ride your bike, run, swim, or hike. It will make your heart stronger and keep your blood pressure under control. Cardio improves the blood circulation.
   
2. Reduce calories. Eat low fat foods, veggies, fruits, and fish.
   
3. Supplement with multivitamins. Vitamin C, E, Coenzym Q 10. Zinc for the immune system, copper for the metabolism, calcium for the bones, and magnesium for muscles and nerves make the prefect "Anti Aging-Cocktail"
   
4. If you cannot sleep supplement with melatonin. At night, melatonin is produced to help our bodies regulate our sleep-wake cycles. The amount of it produced by our body seems to decrease as we get older. Scientists believe this may be why young people have less problem sleeping than older people.
   
5. Check your DHEA levels with your MD. DHEA increases drive and Libido, fights stress, and promotes the brain functions.
   
6. Sleep. During sleep your body regenerates yourself. So make sure you have a good night’s sleep.
   
7. Get into shape and stay slim. Slim people live longer.
   
8. Avoid animal fats. I do not need to explain this one.
   
9. Stop smoking!
   
10. Train your brain. Always learn something NEW! Learn new languages, dance, try some new sport that you never played in your life, learn how to cook...
    
11. Have friends. Be social. That will keep your spirit young.
    
12. Be in love. Love will keep you young and fresh.
    
13. Drink green tea.
    
14. Exercise with weights. The first way of stimulating growth hormone release naturally is training. Growth hormone is released by the pituitary gland in the brain. GH is responsible for enhancing muscle growth, burning fat, and maintaining the immune system. Many scientists have linked the changes seen with aging - loss of lean body mass, thinning of the skin and an increase in adipose (fat) tissue - to the decline in growth hormone that begins in the human body by the age of 30.

As you begin your program for weight loss and fitness, it is critical that you look at your body composition and ensure that the weight you lose is from fat, not muscle. Body composition refers to what your body is made of - how much of your body is fat (essential and non-essential) and how much is lean body mass (muscle, bone, organs)?

To determine body composition, you need to look at more than just a person's height and weight. Stepping on a scale doesn't tell you anything more than the amount of mass you have in the earth's gravitational pull. You could travel to the moon today and cut your weight in half (less gravitational pull), but you still won't be able to zip up those jeans that are too small. The important question is this: what is your ratio of lean body mass (muscle, bone, organs) to fat (essential and non-essential). This ratio refers to your body composition and is usually referred to as percent fat.

There are several different methods to measure body fat including: skin fold calipers, hydrostatic weighing, the Bod Pod, bioelectrical impedance, or a DEXA scan. Talk to your doctor, nutritionist, personal trainer or other health professional about having your body composition measured. A healthy range of body fat for women is 18 to 25 percent fat. A healthy range for men it is 10 to 16 percent.

To help you understand the concept of body composition, and not just weight, imagine for a moment two identical 16-ounce jars filled with liquid. Now imagine that one jar contains half water and half oil and the other jar contains three-quarters water and one-quarter oil. Are the jars the same? Well, yes and no. They are still identical 16-ounce jars, but what's inside them is completely different. One is 50 percent fat and the other is 25 percent fat.

Let's take another example. Imagine two 125-pound females who are both 5 feet 5 inches tall. Are they the same size? One might be 30 percent fat, the other 18 percent fat, but they are the same height and weight. The woman with 30 percent fat is at greater risk for many chronic diseases, but the woman with 18 percent fat has a healthy body composition and probably has more energy and vitality than the one with 30 percent fat. The woman with the 18 percent body fat will also fit in a smaller dress size and probably doesn't have arms that jiggle when she waves.

The reason the woman with 18 percent fat can wear a smaller size even though they're the same weight is that muscle weighs more than fat, but takes up less space than fat. If you're having a hard time visualizing this, visit your butcher. Ask the butcher to weigh out one pound of fat and one pound of meat. You'll see that you need a bigger bag for the pound of fat than the pound of meat.

Because the woman with the 18 percent fat has more lean mass, she will also have a higher metabolism. Lean muscle is what helps maintain metabolism at a high rate. It also gives your body the shape you want and allows you to move and enjoy life.

As you lose weight this year, be sure you are losing the stubborn fat and not your precious lean muscle mass. Pay attention to how your clothes are fitting and not just what the scale says. If you dropped a dress or pant size, but the scale says you're weight is the same, it means you lost fat and increased your lean mass. Losing fat and gaining muscle is something to be excited about. You want to keep your lean mass because your lean muscle is what helps maintain your metabolism. When you lose your lean muscle you reduce your metabolism, have less energy, and routine activities become more difficult because you don't have the strength to do the things you want. Increasing your lean mass means you increase your metabolism, energy, vitality, and strength.

In what resembles the opening set of a David Letterman comedy routine, the International Journal of Obesity recently published a list of 10 novel factors for Americans’ expanding waistlines. After conducting an in-depth review of the literature, the team of 20 international researchers identified several potential contributors to the obesity epidemic beyond what they call the “Big Two” (think diet and exercise).

What are the other big 10?

1. Sleep deprivation:
   There’s no doubt that Americans are getting less than the recommended eight hours each night. Now researchers claim that too few hours of slumber cause hormonal changes that lead to weight gain.
   
2. Endocrine disruptors:
   These synthetic chemicals in the environment disrupt the action of weight-related hormones in the body (think estrogen). And more of these harmful chemicals lurk in the air today compared with a few decades back.
   
3. Comfortable temperatures:
   When you’re too hot or cold, your body uses energy to warm you up or chill you out. Make the temperature controlled and comfortable and you lose the calorie-burning bonus. (Since 1978, the number of homes with central air conditioning has increased more than 30 percent.)
   
4. Fewer smokers:
   It’s no secret that smoking increases metabolism. The question is: What can you do that also revs up your metabolism that doesn’t kill you?
   
5. More medications:
   “Many medications, including antidepressants, anticonvulsants and steroid hormones cause weight gain, either by water retention or increased appetite,” explains Ruth DeBusk, Ph.D., R.D., geneticist and registered dietitian in Tallahassee, Fla., and author of 'It’s Not Just Your Genes.'
   
6. Population changes:
   America is growing older and becoming more ethnically diverse, particularly among the Hispanic-American population. Both of these groups, people over the age of 35 and those of Hispanic descent, have above average rates of obesity.
   
7. Older birth moms:
   Women are waiting longer to have children. Studies show that an adolescent girl’s risk of becoming obese increases by 14 percent for every five-year increment in maternal age.
   
8. Prenatal influences:
   Overweight moms, and those with gestational diabetes, have been linked with bigger babies. In fact, one study found that over-fed pups produced heavier pups than a control group, and the heft persisted for two subsequent generations.
   
9. Natural selection:
   According to scientific theory, overweight people out survive their leaner counterparts because they can draw more energy from fat stores. “This might have been true in earlier times, when feast-or-famine was the norm and our hunter-gatherer ancestors physically worked hard to get food,” says DeBusk, “but not today in a time of plenty.”
   
10. Overweight people procreating:
    No rocket science here. When two overweight people have kids, their children are more likely to experience weight challenges than a child conceived by skinny people.

Amy Paturel is a freelance writer for several publications, including Cooking Light and Health, and holds a Master of Science in Nutrition and a Master of Public Health.

You are what you eat! I have achieved great results with this diet with some of my celebrity clients. Although, I have to say that I did a carb rotation a lot with this diet and customization for weight training. I am a European guy, born and raised in Mediterranean Europe. Our diet is different from the diet of the USA and northern Europe. In many European countries, few people are overweight. Europeans have access to a variety of healthy foods. In the Mediterranean, we eat an abundance of fruits, vegetables, fresh fish, lean meats, and olive oil. Studies have shown this diet can result in a long, healthy life.

Here are some tips on how to eat healthy – the Mediterranean way:

Take some time for breakfast. Do not eat breakfast while you are running to get to your job. Relax and enjoy a 30 min breakfast. You deserve it. Eat cereal, fruit salad, and yogurt for breakfast. Stay away from fast food and foods high in fat (example: breakfast bagels with cream cheese). The perfect breakfast would be a blend of mixed fruits (strawberries, apples, banana etc.) with yogurt or kefir. Drink it like a shake. Please, please, people, stay away from breakfast bars and protein bars that you can buy in every shop. Those bars are processed foods or in other words, the biggest BS that you can get for breakfast. Do you want processed foods already? For breakfast? Read the ingredients on those bars and you will be amazed with what you will find.

Lunch should be your biggest meal of the day, not dinner. Americans make a big mistake by having a big dinner when they come home (usually around 7 PM). No my friend, your metabolism is slow at 7pm. Your dinner should be very light in calories and low in carbs. The perfect dinner would be a grilled chicken salad with Italian dressing and 1 glass of red wine.

Researchers are honing in on how a glass of red wine can offer more than just holiday cheer, but also protection against heart disease. Scientists have always wondered why the French have had a relatively low rate of heart disease, despite a diet that often includes rich foods laden with artery-clogging fat. Other studies have shown that drinking red wine may boost the blood levels of HDL cholesterol, the good cholesterol. Try Italian red wines; not French. They are best out there. I will confirm that :)

Do not to eat dinner after 7 PM. If you get hungry before you go to the bed, snack on fruits and nuts.

Avoid fast food restaurants. We, Europeans celebrate summer. Dear God gave us many fruits and vegetables. Take advantage of it! Summer is here! Enjoy the many fruits and vegetables that are available in the summer. Avoid vegetables from labs and glass houses! Go to your local farmer’s market and buy fresh, organic vegetables. If you live in NYC, go to Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, where many Italian-Americans are living. There you can find great shops with fresh, organic vegetables imported from Europe. Stay away from potatoes, yams, and starchy vegetables. Europeans eat starchy vegetables mainly in winter. Why should we eat them in summer again? We had starchy vegetables all winter long, right? Boring!

Grill your vegetables. Peppers, Mushrooms, Eggplant, Tomato, Onion, Zucchini, Cauliflower.

Eat tons of salad. Avoid heavy dressings. Use virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar as your dressing.

Cook all foods with virgin olive oil. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, first mentioned the health and therapeutic benefits of olive oil. Never fry food. NEVER! The traditional Mediterranean diet delivers as much as 40% of total daily calories from fat, yet the associated incidence of cardiovascular diseases is significantly decreased. As a monosaturated fatty acid, olive oil does not have the same cholesterol-raising effect of saturated fats. Olive oil is also a good source of antioxidants. Read more about olive oil benefits.

Grill your meats. Always buy organic meats. You do not want to buy beef injected with steroids! It is forbidden in Europe to inject animals with steroids. Unfortunately many farmers make a quick buck with it! About half the beef in the U.S. have received a small implant at the base of the ear. This implant simulates the natural endocrine system allowing the animal to grow more muscle (protein) and less fat. The process only increases the estrogen content of steer beef from 1.3 nanograms to 1.9 nanograms. Compare this to a vegetable such as a potato that has 245 nanograms of estrogen per 3.5 oz. serving. This is insignificant when we consider a pregnant woman produces 20,000,000 nanograms of estrogen per day. An adult male produces 68,000 nanograms of estrogen daily.

Eat fish. Mediterraneans love fish. Oh my God, there’s nothing better than grilled fish with a good Italian wine. My favorite food is grilled calamari. You have to try it! Follow my advice and try to have grilled fish at least 3 times per week. Fish oil will assist you with weight loss, depression, arthritis, fibromyalgia, heart disease, and neurological problems including poor concentration and memory loss. The memory will benefit from increased blood flow and decreased inflammation.

Do not snack on sweets while you are watching TV. Instead snack on nuts, fruits and vegetables.

Chew your food. Take your time while you eat. Nobody is going to kill you if you are 5 minutes late - except your boss :) Take some time for yourself. Chew your food really well.

Avoid stress. Stress will slow down your metabolism and will make you eat more! More stress=more stored fat on your body.

Drink yogurt and kefir daily. Researchers suggest that the live bacterial cultures of yogurt may have contributed to the regions good health.

The benefits of consuming kefir regularly in the diet are numerous. Easily digested, it cleanses the intestines, provides beneficial bacteria and yeast, vitamins and minerals, and complete proteins. Because kefir is such a balanced and nourishing food, it contributes to a healthy immune system and has been used to help patients suffering from AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, herpes, and cancer. Its tranquilizing effect on the nervous system has benefited many who suffer from sleep disorders, depression, and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

The regular use of kefir can help relieve all intestinal disorders, promote bowel movement, reduce flatulence, and create a healthier digestive system. In addition, its cleansing effect on the whole body helps to establish a balanced inner ecosystem for optimum health and longevity. Kefir can also help eliminate unhealthy food cravings by nourishing and balancing the body. Its excellent nutritional content offers healing and health-maintenance benefits to people in every type of condition. Read more about Kefir benefits.

Eat low or moderate amount of cheese daily.

Exercise. The people of the Mediterranean incorporate physical activity into their everyday lifestyle - walking, swimming, soccer, basketball, exercising. Remember to exercise.

Eat processed foods minimally.

The Mediterranean diet is high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and olive oil. Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fat, which may, in part, explain why countries that consume olive oil have lower rates of disease. Olive oil (especially extra virgin olive oil) contains substances called polyphenols, which may have beneficial effects on health as well.

In a recent study in France, heart attack patients given a Med-diet had 70% fewer recurrent heart attacks than those following a low fat, low cholesterol diet. This research has stimulated a great deal of interest in the benefits of olive oil in the diet, particularly for heart attack patients.

The Mediterranean diet, with its emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables, crusty breads, whole grains, and reliance on olive oil, is really a composite of the cuisines of several countries - including Spain, southern France, Italy, Greece, Crete, and parts of the Middle East. Now you know why people in this part of world have a lower incidence of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer than we see in other parts of Europe and the Americas.
It's not just the olive oil my friend.

By Karen Collins, R.D. Special to MSNBC

Two new studies bring positive attention back to the Mediterranean Diet. One study tracked more than 2,300 healthy elderly men and women from eleven different European countries for ten years. Those people with eating habits that met at least half the criteria of a Mediterranean diet suffered at least 25 percent fewer deaths during that period.

In fact, people who ate a mostly Mediterranean diet, exercised moderately, drank little to moderate amounts of alcohol, and didn’t smoke had 65 percent fewer deaths than those who followed none or only one of these healthy habits. Avoidance of these healthy habits was strongly linked to death from cancer or heart disease. The other new study involved people with metabolic syndrome, a disorder linked with heart risk. The warning signs for this disorder are waistline obesity, low HDL (good) cholesterol, high blood triglycerides and insulin resistance. Half of the participants in this study were told to follow a Mediterranean-style diet and the other half a traditional low-fat diet. Both groups were asked to increase their exercise. In time, the Mediterranean group showed reduced markers for inflammation, which is linked to a risk of heart disease and cancer. Markers for blood vessel health also improved for this group. After two years, less than half of the group on the Mediterranean diet still had metabolic syndrome, while almost everyone on the traditional low-fat diet still had it.

Studies back earlier findings.
The associations seen in these two studies between a Mediterranean-style of eating with a lower risk of heart disease repeat the findings of past studies. A recent review of many studies on the Mediterranean diet found that the risk of heart disease can drop from 8 percent to 45 percent if people follow this diet. More surprisingly, a recent study found that those who met most of the criteria for a Mediterranean diet lowered their risk of heart attack by more than 80 percent compared to those who met only one or two criteria.

In addition to heart disease and cancer, the Mediterranean diet may help control weight as well. In the new study with people afflicted by metabolic syndrome, those on a Mediterranean diet lost more weight than those on a low-fat diet — a total difference of nine pounds in two years. In an earlier study, a group with a Mediterranean-style diet of moderate fat content lost the same amount of weight at first as another group on a low-fat diet, but the Mediterranean group kept the weight off better. In fact, only one-fifth of the low-fat group could stick to their diet.

Not all foods get a green light.
Not all so-called Mediterranean foods should form a frequent part of a health-oriented Mediterranean diet, however. Many high-fat dishes and rich desserts, like lasagna and tiramisu, have become even less healthy in America. Originally, these dishes were special occasion treats. And although this diet does feature olive oil as the main source of fat, the large amounts traditionally used were appropriate for extremely active farming people. Olive oil can still be the primary source of fat for us, but it should be used in moderation to suit our lower calorie needs.

Furthermore, alcohol in a Mediterranean diet means one or two glasses of wine daily. For example, in the recent study of older Europeans, the healthy women averaged about three glasses per week.

To create a healthy Mediterranean-style diet for yourself, focus primarily on eating vegetables, fruits, and whole grains with daily servings of dried beans, nuts, or seeds. If you eat red meat, consume only small amounts. Serve fish regularly. Olive oil should be your main source of fat, instead of butter or margarine. And instead of high-fat, high-sugar desserts and bakery products, choose fruits, except for special occasions.

Burger joints are making healthy profits by catering to Americans' appetite for beefed-up menus at bargain prices. (Burp!) Two years ago, just as all sorts of fast-food restaurants were adding salads and healthier items to their menus, Andrew F. Puzder went in the opposite direction. The chief executive of CKE Restaurants (CKR), which owns the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurant chains, bet that what his customers really wanted were even bigger, juicier, and better-tasting burgers. Super size? Try monster size. He introduced a 1,400-calorie burger called the 1-lb Double Six Dollar Burger for $5.49 and followed that up with a series of artery-clogging sandwiches.

Customers have been gobbling them up. On June 27, CKE announced that same-store sales for the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. chains were up an average of 4.7% for the four weeks that ended June 19. The company's sales are expected to rise about 5%, to $1.6 billion, for the fiscal year ending this January. Puzder boasted at the company's annual shareholder meeting on June 27: “Our premium, innovative products are second to none and copied by most.” Investors love the attitude, sending CKE's shares up more than 20% so far this year.

Hardee's gift to consumers fed up with “healthier” and “low-fat” menu items is a line of sandwiches called Thickburgers, introduced in 2004. The Monster Thickburger, which debuted in November, 2004, is made of two one-third-pound slabs of Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese, and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun and is trumpeted as “a monument to decadence.” Even today, the tribute to indulgence at Hardee's marches on. Its latest addition? A burger with “meat as a condiment.” The Philly Cheesesteak Thickburger features a one-third-pound Thickburger patty topped with sliced steak, cheese, green peppers, and onions.

U.S. BARGAIN SHOPPERS. Stomach churning? Perhaps. But the Hardee's experience is a reflection of America today. Americans thrive on value and bargains. Good health be damned, if there's a good bargain to be found. If people can drive the extra 30 miles in their quest for everyday values to shop at discounter Wal-Mart (WMT) or hunt for treasures at warehouse club Costco (COST) or at the dollar store, why should they settle for less when they stop at a restaurant? “Value is a big lure,” says Brian Wansink, professor of food marketing at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. “Compared to a basic burger, if you get something really huge for just 45 cents, more is worth trading up to, especially for young men who like to leave a restaurant feeling really full.”

Even McDonald's (MCD), which has been at the forefront of adding healthy items to its menu, like premium salads and sliced apples for children, recently launched the World Cup Burger during the six weeks of the World Cup soccer games. The burger, 40% larger than a Big Mac, is a whopping 1,227 calories, or more than half of the 2,000 daily recommended calorie intake.

As research already shows, Americans are eating more hamburgers, french fries, and fried chicken than before (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/9/05, “Fat Times for Fast Food”). And fast-food restaurants are giving it to customers in ever-more appealing forms. This year, in a nod to the increasing influence of new immigrants and globalization, almost all the nation's fast-food restaurants adopted new, spicy foods. McDonald's launched its spicy chicken sandwich, and Hardee's introduced a jalapeño sandwich, which became a permanent item after its limited-time introduction. Sonic (SONC) also introduced its own jalapeño cheeseburger. “Burgers are the No. 1 entrée ordered in America,” says Harry Balzer, vice-president at researcher NPD Food World. “It's good to experiment with different ways of consuming such a popular food and give people reasons to come back one more time.”

CHEESECAKE, TOO. The advertising isn't shy either. For instance, Hardee's has thrived on luring young men into its restaurants by using suggestive ads, the most famous of which showed the socialite Paris Hilton in a swimsuit soaping down a Bentley and taking a bite out of a hamburger. “You can see young men say, that's the brand for me,” says Jeffrey Davis, president of restaurant researcher Sandelman & Associates. “These young men have big appetites and are certainly not dieters.”

Puzder may infuriate health advocates who bemoan the fact that obesity levels in the U.S. are at record highs and who feel that chains like McDonald's and Hardee's are contributing to the problem. But the chief executive says the issue is simply about choice, the long-held American value of letting people make their own decisions. Hardee's, he says, is giving people what they want, not what some Washington bureaucrat says they should want. “People know they can go to a fast-food restaurant and get burgers of quality that they could get at a sit-down restaurant, for a better price and faster,” says Brad Haley, executive vice-president for marketing at Hardee's and Carl's Jr.

Break out the jumbo mug! Turns out that caffeine may actually be good for us. Anything this good must be bad.

That's the prevailing attitude when it comes to caffeine, isn't it? We crave it. We guzzle it. It makes us feel good — better able to handle an overbearing boss or an unruly pack of toddlers. But then... we feel guilty about it, suspecting that sooner or later, it's going to do us in.

In reality, it's not the guilty pleasure everyone makes it out to be — in fact, a little caffeine can do you good. So feel free to grab a tall breakfast blend while we set the record straight.

Long-term caffeine consumption is just plain bad for me.
False. That myth exists in part because smokers, who metabolize caffeine twice as fast as nonsmokers, drink more coffee. And smokers have more health problems. But nicotine, not caffeine, is the culprit. As long as you don't have high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, or anxiety, drinking caffeinated beverages for years is no problem, says Harris Lieberman, Ph.D., a research psychologist for the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.

Caffeine alters my body chemistry.
True. Caffeine is a natural stimulant, and 250 milligrams of it — about the amount in two cups of strong coffee — will triple the amount of adrenaline in your bloodstream, increasing your respiratory rate. In your brain, caffeine intercepts adenosine, the chemical that slows down our nerves and signals the need to sleep. It also increases dopamine levels, stimulating pleasure centers. Caffeine, therefore, has the magical ability to make you feel both alert and relaxed, says Ernesto Illy, Ph.D., an Italian biochemist and founder of high-end coffee producer Illy Caffe.

Caffeine makes me smarter.
True. A cup of coffee before you write your performance review isn't a bad idea. "It improves cognitive functions" by blocking that brain-slowing adenosine, says Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a food chemist at the University of Scranton. When given caffeine equal to two cups of coffee, severely sleep-deprived Navy Seal trainees improved their alertness, vigilance, learning, and memory by as much as 60 percent, according to Dr. Lieberman, who administered the test.

Caffeine improves my game.
True. In terms of athletic performance, caffeine "might be the difference between first place and last," Dr. Vinson says. Without caffeine, not only are you a little slower mentally, you're lagging physically. "Caffeine stimulates you to exercise 10 to 15 percent longer" because it keeps you from getting as tired, explains Terry Graham, Ph.D., a nutritionist who specializes in caffeine at Ontario's University of Guelph. It's also a mild analgesic, so you can work out longer before you start to feel sore. However, a troubling new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that caffeine may decrease blood flow to the heart during exercise. More research is needed.

Caffeine causes high blood pressure.
False. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that caffeine doesn't put you at risk for hypertension, although something else, unknown to scientists, in sugared and diet colas does. In people with normal blood pressure, any change in heart rate is not only "too small to measure," Dr. Graham says, but it disappears within minutes of your first cup. If you already have high blood pressure, however, avoid excessive intake, says Lynne Shuster, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic's Women's Health Clinic, because caffeine can exacerbate a pre-existing condition. The same goes for those who suffer from heart arrhythmia or anxiety — caffeine can trigger arrhythmia in those who are prone to it and can worsen anxiety.

Caffeine leads to bone loss.
False. There's evidence that calcium is lost through urine, and by increasing the amount of urine you produce, you decrease your body's calcium stores. The effect, however, is negligible. "A coffee drinker may lose a few milligrams of calcium, but put one drop of milk in your coffee and you've made up for the loss," says Jim Coughlin, Ph.D., a California-based food toxicologist.

I can overdose on caffeine.
True. But most of the documented cases are of people who have intentionally overdosed on high-powered caffeine pills (the lethal dose of pills is about 50). To OD on caffeinated beverages, you would have to down dozens of cups of coffee, hundreds of six-packs of soda, and thousands of mugs of tea at the same time. The excess water would kill you before the caffeine would, Dr. Illy says.

Caffeine is addictive.
True. You develop a tolerance to caffeine over time, and when you no longer take any in, your body, expecting that daily dose, reacts with headaches and irritability. The more caffeine you consume, the more severe the withdrawal symptoms, but some people can get hooked on just a cup a day. (Others can quit cold turkey, those lucky gals.)

If I have tea after dinner, I'll never fall asleep.
False. Tea has so little caffeine (25 milligrams per cup of weakly brewed tea) that for most, it soothes rather than agitates. But beware of more highly caffeinated drinks, especially if you're pregnant or on the Pill: It takes 4 to 6 hours for an average adult to metabolize caffeine, no matter how much you drink, and almost twice that long for a woman taking oral contraceptives. (For a pregnant woman, this half-life shoots up to 18 hours.) If you have trouble sleeping, stop drinking caffeinated beverages at least 6 hours before bedtime.

So, I can drink all the caffeine I want, with no consequences.
False. A Greek study suggested that moderate to heavy coffee intake is associated with a higher level of inflammation. An immune system response, inflammation can be harmful because too much of it can produce chemicals in the body that have been linked to heart disease and diabetes. But just because coffee was associated with inflammation doesn't necessarily mean it caused it.

Another recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Toronto finds that certain people, referred to as "slow metabolizers," are genetically programmed to break down caffeine at a slower rate. In the study, caffeine placed these people at increased risk for heart attacks, while "rapid metabolizers" were protected against heart attacks. Scientists believe that excess caffeine may lead to heart disease but that other heart-healthy benefits from coffee, such as antioxidants, outweigh the risk — as long as the caffeine doesn't linger in your system. However, without a genetic test, it's impossible for the average Diet Cokedrinking girl to determine which camp she falls into.

These researchers don't discourage caffeine consumption, but do warn against caffeine in excess. A safe limit, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is around 400 milligrams — or four cups of coffee — a day.

Food Labels Purchasing food for you and your family seems simple enough. The packaging for the product should tell you everything you need to know - right? For example, the packaging for a popular breakfast cereal states, "cereal made with the goodness of corn" right on the front of the box. Most people assume that because corn is healthy and the box says 'made with the goodness of corn' that this cereal must be healthy. Unfortunately, although corn may very well be one of the ingredients in the cereal (Corn Pops), the 'goodness of corn' in this particular cereal has been combined with a lot of sugar that may not be so good for you.

Many people don't really know what they're eating or how much they're eating, because they don't know how to read a food label and are fooled by the claims on the front of the package. The majority of people are surprised once they learn how to read the food label and realize that they are consuming more calories, fat, and added sugar than originally thought.

The biggest mistake people make is not looking at the serving size. You might say, "Oh wow, this only has 100 calories!" and eat the whole thing. But be careful, the package may serve four, which means you'd be eating 400 calories, not 100.

You can find the serving size listed directly under the "Nutrition Facts" on the food label. When reading your food labels, this is the first place to look because it lists all of the nutrient amounts. The serving size is supposed to be based on the amount of food people typically eat, but this is not always the case. Breakfast cereals are a great example. A serving size is typically listed as one half cup to one cup, but most cereal bowls hold two cups. In the case of Corn Pops, as used in the beginning of the article, a typical cereal bowl would actually provide 2 servings.

Another place consumers get confused is the fat content. Less than 30 percent of your total calories should come from fat. Unfortunately, we can't always rely on the advertised percentages to paint a true picture. Labels that boast "98% fat free" or "50 percent less fat" are misleading. The fat percentages on these labels are based on volume only. For example, if you were to take a bottle of water and put one drop of oil in it, you could say that by volume, that water is 99 percent fat free. Yet 100% of the calories come from fat.

The next time you're at the store look at the milk labels. One serving of 1% milk typically contains 100 calories and 25 of those calories are from fat. That's 25% fat, not 1%. To determine whether the food you buy is less than 30% fat, follow this simple procedure: Look at the label on a particular food. It will show the number of calories per serving and the number of calories from fat. Next, divide the calories from fat by the total calories to see if it is less than 30%.

Even if you find a food that has less than 30% of calories from fat or one that has no fat, be careful not to fall into the fat-free trap. It's a proven fact that people eat more than they should if it's labeled fat-free. Just because it's fat free, doesn't mean it's calorie free.

Another potential problem with fat-free and low-fat foods is the sugar content. A lot of fat-free foods have a lot of added sugar. Read the ingredient list. The ingredient section of the label provides a list of all ingredients in descending order by weight. If sugar is one of the first things on the list, then that is what is used to replace fat, and if you're concerned about your health you don't want added sugar in your diet either.

Where sugar is concerned, you'll also want to watch for the 'hidden' sugars in your foods and avoid food products that contain several sugary ingredients. Occasionally, food manufacturers will use several different sugar sources so that they don't have to list sugar as the number one ingredient.

For example, if a product contains 9 grams of whole wheat, 8 grams of sugar, 7 grams of safflower oil, 6 grams of high fructose corn syrup and 5 grams of honey, the ingredient list would read: "Whole wheat, sugar, safflower oil, high fructose corn syrup, honey".

Listing whole wheat as the first ingredient may make you think that this is a healthy product. However, 3 of the five ingredients are basically sugar and the reality is that there are 19 grams of sugar sources (8+6+5) - more than double the amount of whole wheat! Make sure you look at both the ingredient list and at the amount of sugar per serving. And don't forget to account for the serving size by multiplying the sugar content per serving by the number of servings you'll be eating.

Watch for the following 'hidden' sugars in your foods.

• High fructose corn syrup
• Corn Syrup (derived from maize (corn) starch)
• Molasses
• Honey
• Dextrose (derived from sucrose)
• Fructose (found in fruits, but can also be made industrially from corn starch)
• Glucose
• Lactose
• Maltose (derived from barley)
• Galactose
• Levulose
• Sucrose (the chemical term for sugar)
• Beet Sugar
• Brown sugar
• Cane Sugar
• Confectioner's Sugar
• Corn Sugar
• Corn Sweetener
• Corn Syrup
• Granulated Sugar
•  Invert Sugar
•  Isomalt
• Maltodextrins
• Maple Sugar
• Maple Syrup
• Molasses
• Raw Sugar
• Sorghum
• Turbinado Sugar
• Fruit syrups/concentrates
• Glucose derived syrup
• Golden syrup
• Treacle

It is important to note that fructose is NOT the same as high fructose corn syrup. The former (fructose) is pure fructose with a low glycemic index, whereas high fructose corn syrup is a mixture of 50% fructose and 50% glucose. The glycemic response of high fructose corn syrup is high - about the same as sucrose (table sugar).

Let's go back to our Corn Pops example. One serving of Corn Pops is 1 cup and provides 120 calories per serving, 0 grams of fat, just 1 gram of protein and 28 grams of carbohydrates (of which 14 grams come from sugar, 0 from fiber and the rest from refined starches). The first four items on the ingredient list are: "Milled corn, sugar, corn syrup, molasses". Knowing that there are 14 grams of sugar and that 3 of the top 4 ingredients are sugar tells you that this cereal is almost 50% sugar. If you fill an entire cereal bowl (2 cups), you are consuming 240 calories and 28 grams of sugar. Even if you don't sprinkle any additional sugar on your cereal, you are still getting about 7 or 8 teaspoons of sugar in your bowl.

You may be one of the consumers who realize that Corn Pops is a sweetened cereal and therefore high in sugar, but were you aware that many cereals marketed as a healthy choice, like Kellogg's Smart Start contain as much sugar as Corn Pops? Although Kellogg's Smart Start will give you more complex carbohydrates and a few grams of fiber that you don't get in Corn Pops, that fiber is packaged with a whopping 30 grams of sug