Archive for April 2016

There is a very high probability that many of you are reading this article on your smartphone, tablet or computer, which also makes it likely that you’re already using technology in your personal training business. That’s hardly surprising, given that more than 92% of American adults own a mobile phone, and most of those devices (68%) are smartphones (Anderson 2015).

Dominique Adair, MS, RD, is a private-practice nutrition and fitness
adviser, an educator, a public speaker and media consultant, and a
freelance health and nutrition writer. Since 1990, she has helped to
guide hundreds of clients through in-person and digital counseling, and
she has established herself as an internationally recognized speaker on
nutrition, metabolism and fitness.

Here’s more proof that you don’t need to dish out your hard-earned cash for energy bars designed in factories when making your own inspiring version is easy, even for the culinary challenged. Not just for the birds, millet is an inexpensive gluten-free grain that gives these bars great texture and nutritional firepower. This recipe is excerpted from the new book, Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports and Adventure (VeloPress 2016), by James Beard Award-winning author and regular IDEA contributor Matthew Kadey, MS, RD.

Clients and fitness pros alike must often feel they are chasing unicorns in the tricky quest to gain muscle and lose fat. Indeed, researchers at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, showed in a recent study just how difficult it can be to manage weight, control calories and balance protein during the process.

With lack of sleep already such a problem among North Americans, taking some simple dietary steps to promote better slumber may be something to consider.

Chocolate lovers the world over could subsist on great memories of eating their favorite treat. While the creamy deliciousness is hard to forget, it’s possible the recollection remains sharp in part because chocolate itself helps with recall.

New research in the May 1 edition of Appetite (2016; 100, 126–32) revealed that subjects who ate chocolate at least once per week performed better on multiple cognitive tasks, compared with those who ate chocolate less frequently.

Question: Are some nuts more nutritious than others? Should I be eating more of some and less of others?

Here’s a taste of what’s cooking in the nutrition world:

Regularly consuming the catch of the day might be just the thing to keep your brain sharp, shows research published in the Journal of American Medical Association (2016; 315 [5], 489–97).

Culturally we pretty much inhale our food. We eat at our desks; we gobble standing up; we down food mindlessly in the car and while multitasking. Such practices are not only unhealthy for adults; they also send kids an unhealthy message that negates the importance of appreciating food and enjoying its social aspects. Eating fast literally drowns out the critical satiety signal that would tell kids when to stop eating.