Regardless of whether or not you're trying to lose weight, tea deserves a spot in your diet. Why? It's completely free of calories, sugar, and fat yet super flavorful—making it a viable replacement for less healthy beverages. Unfortunately, there are no real magic shortcuts when it comes to achieving a toned mid-section—it takes a combination of smart food choices, portion control, as well as consistent exercise. However, there are a number of ways to make tea for a flat...

What if we told you just one change a day could help you cut back on or eliminate sugar in your diet? Well, it’s not too good to be true, and this seven-day sugar challenge from the new Hearst Home book Sugar Shock by Carol Prager and Samantha Cassetty, M.S., R.D., will teach you how. Day 1: Nix the sugary snacks. Get rid of easy-to-grab sweets in your pantry or drawer—cookies, energy bars, muffins, candy—and you’re already slashing a bunch of unnecessary calories. A good rule o...

A couple years ago, everyone from your neighbor to your mom was talking about the ketogenic diet. These days, everyone seems to be going plant-based, and it's an eating style that's proving to be more than a passing trend. If you're a parent, the next natural question after going plant-based yourself is if this eating style works for the whole fam. Toddlers, school-age kids, and high schoolers all have different dietary needs from each other as well as from adults. Stanford professor and pedi...

Deciphering and understanding the different types of yoga offered at your yoga studio can be like learning a different language. Vinyasa, Kundalini, Katonah? Isn't yoga just yoga? Just like there are different styles of dance—ballet, tap, and merengue, to name a few—there are are also a variety of types of yoga. That's because everyone has distinct needs and yoga isn't "one size fits all." “One yoga teacher and one yoga style can’t be everything for everyone, says Steph Creaturo, a cer...

The body is amazing. Millions of chemical signals are sent throughout the body each day to keep you functioning normally. The body also does a great job providing you, the host, messages about your health as well. Specifically, it tells you when you might be missing something essential from your diet. As a nutritionist, I help people create diets to optimize their health. It's easy to overlook certain vitamins or nutrients, but if your body is in need of something it may let you know. Keep read...

Gluten - the protein found in grains like rye, wheat, and barley - gets a bad rap. But the truth is, gluten can be a healthy part of most diets.   While there isn't enough research to suggest that gluten-free diets offer meaningful health benefits, there are certain groups of people, like those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, that should avoid gluten.  To help you figure out if you really need to cut gluten out of your diet, we spoke to two dietitians about the s...

Getting enough sleep each night is vital for your health, but there are several factors that can interrupt quality sleep. For example, you might involuntarily follow an inconsistent sleep schedule (maybe you work the night shift several nights a week) or drink caffeinated beverages or alcohol too late in the day or well into the evening. Or maybe you routinely go to bed on an empty stomach. All of these circumstances can interfere with your sleep cycle. But the foods you eat during the...

We’ve all been there: The clock strikes midnight, and our thoughts race on as if we’d just walked into the office with our first cup of coffee. Sleep? Never heard of her, minus a few quick minutes of shut-eye in between the tossing and turning. This scenario is all too common for many. It’s incredibly challenging to calm down a racing mind after a full day of working, parenting, and taking care of other responsibilities, not to mention trying to survive a pandemic. The good news is you c...

The godfather of fitness Jack LaLanne himself once told me that his secret to avoiding plateaus was religiously changing his workout routine every three to four weeks. He was pushing 90 at the time, and though certainly past his physical prime, he was still remarkably fit and strong, thanks to heeding his own advice. LaLanne understood that the human body is incredibly adaptable. That’s why we train: When you push the limits of what your body is comfortable with and capable of,...

Frozen foods have gotten a pretty bad rap over the years thanks to the rise of T.V. dinners and microwaveable mac and cheese. Traditionally, freezer meals are loaded with sodium, preservatives, synthetic flavors, and other sketchy ingredients to help prolong shelf life as well as enhance flavor that's seriously lacking. So to say that most frozen meals are unhealthy is pretty accurate. But stepping into the freezer section isn't all that bad. Along with all the bad of prepared froze...