Most of us don’t need to hear it or read it … we have felt it in our wallets every time we’ve gone to the grocery store. But just because food prices are rising doesn’t mean you can’t make healthy food choices. The good news is that many foods that are good for you are also cheap. Here is our list of the top healthy foods you can find in your grocery store for under a dollar.

Prices may vary based on the store, location, and time of year.
1. Apples. Great for: Snacks, green salads, main dish salads, and fruit salads.
2. Bananas. Great for: Snacks and fruit salads, yogurt parfaits, and smoothies.
3. Baby Carrots (in bags). Great for: Snacks, casseroles, stews, veggie platters, and side dishes.
4. Canned Beans. Great for: Green salads, casseroles, stews, and chili. Types of beans range from 50% less sodium kidney beans and black beans to white beans and garbanzo beans.
5. Canned Tomatoes. Great for: Italian and Mexican recipes, chili, stew, and casseroles. Flavor options range from no-salt-added sliced stewed tomatoes to diced tomatoes with garlic and olive oil.
6. Oranges (extra large navel oranges). Great for: Snacks, green salads, and fruit salads.
7. Pears. Great for: Snacks, as an appetizer with cheese, green salads, and fruit salads.
8. Lentils (dry). Great for: Soups and stews, cold bean salads, and casseroles.
9. Pearl Barley (dry). Great for: Soups and stews, cold salads, and casseroles.
10. Yogurt (plain, lowfat, or fat-free). Great for: Smoothies, yogurt parfait, dips, and dressings.

via webmd

You don’t need to starve yourself on a wacky fad diet if you want to look look better in your shorts or swimsuit this summer. The secret to weight loss is to choose healthy foods and take in fewer calories than you burn. And it’s just easier to make better food choices in summertime, when heavy, high-calorie dishes seem less appealing. The best foods for weight loss in summer are light, refreshing and, most important, keep you out of the hot kitchen.

The single easiest way to trim calories from your summer diet, experts say, is to load up on nature’s bounty. Produce is at its peak in summer. Delicious fruits and vegetables abound at farmers’ markets and in your local grocery. Besides being low in calories, produce is loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. Read more

Smoking marijuana increases the body’s production of a protein that raises levels of blood fats associated with heart attack and stroke, government researchers report. The finding helps explain the increased risk of such cardiovascular problems found in previous studies of marijuana, said Dr. Jean Lud Cadet, chief of the Molecular Neuropsychiatry Research Branch of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. He is lead author of the report, published in the May 13 issue of Molecular Psychiatry.

“We’ve done a number of clinical papers reporting on marijuana users,” Cadet said. “In the past, we have reported cognitive abnormalities, and a paper in 2005 reported vascular [blood vessel] abnormalities.” The latest paper looked at blood levels of a variety of proteins in 18 long-term heavy users of marijuana and 24 volunteers who had never used the drug. It used a new electronic technology that made such protein measurements possible, Cadet said.

The analysis showed significantly higher blood levels of apolipoprotein C-III in the marijuana users than in the nonusers. APOC-III is one of a large family of proteins that interact with fats. It delays the breakdown of triglycerides, fats that can accumulate in blood vessels and promote formation of plaques, leading to blockages that can cause heart attacks, strokes and other problems.

“It is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” Cadet said. “The study suggests that APOC-III might be one of the risk factors contributing to the medical problems that marijuana users suffer from.” In terms of heart disease and stroke, is smoking marijuana more dangerous than smoking tobacco? “It is very difficult on the basis of our study to say,” Cadet said, since there was no comparison between marijuana and tobacco smokers.

“It is an interesting study, but I don’t think it is particularly profound,” said Dr. Christopher Granger, a professor of medicine at Duke University who has done studies of risk factors in cardiovascular disease. “It looks at a relatively small number of people and the relationship between marijuana and this particular protein in the blood stream. There is a relationship, but there is far from proof that it is cause-and-effect, and if it is cause-and-effect that it would have an effect on the people using marijuana.”

“I consider this study exploratory, by definition, because of the technique they used, sort of a shotgun approach,” said Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who has studied the effects of marijuana use on cardiovascular disease. “They chose this protein out of a range of thousands of possibilities, so there is a chance you find something just by luck.”

The effects of marijuana on the cardiovascular system are still uncertain, Mukamal said. “It has negative effects on heart rate and may even trigger heart attacks,” he said. “But in mice, it apparently prevents atherosclerosis. Whether it is good or bad remains a question.”

via medicinenet

Memorial Day marks the start of the summer holiday season, so it’s a good time to remind you not to take a vacation from your diet, cautions Elizabeth Schaub, a dietitian at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, Texas. Dining out is common when people are on holidays, so it’s important to make healthy eating choices.

Schaub offers the following tips:

* Order your meal from the appetizer menu, which offers healthier portion sizes.
* Limit the amount of bread and chips you eat before a meal.
* Examine the menu before you go out and decide ahead of time what you want. You’re more likely to make healthier choices if you make a decision before you’re hungry.
* Monitor your portions to keep track of how much you’re eating. One ounce is about the size of four dice and three ounces of meat is about the size of a deck of cards.
* Select baked, broiled or grilled foods instead of fried or breaded.
* Have your dressings, toppings and sauces served on the side. On your salad, choose vinaigrette-based salad dressing instead of creamy dressings.
* Instead of the high-carbohydrate continental breakfast, have nuts, fruits and yogurt.
* Drink regular or low-calorie water, iced tea or black coffee rather than soft drinks, which are high in calories.
* Don’t plan on losing weight while on vacation. Maintaining your weight is a more realistic goal.
* If you have a treat, try to share it with other people. What you eat is often less of a problem than how much you eat.

via medicinenet

A compound found in celery and green peppers may help protect against inflammatory brain conditions. The compound, called luteolin, is a potent antioxidant known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Luteolin belongs to a family of plant molecules called flavonoids, which are found in various vegetables, fruits, and beverages, including chamomile tea.

Researchers have rigorously studied the potential health effects of flavonoids for more than a decade. Previous studies have shown that flavonoids can help counter dementia caused by brain inflammation.

For the current study, Saebyeol Jang of the division of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and colleagues investigated how luteolin acts on cells called microglia taken from mice. Microglia are scattered throughout the central nervous system and are principally responsible for the brain’s immunological defense. Excessive production of inflammatory molecules produced by microglia in the brain can worsen neurodegenerative changes seen in animal studies on Alzheimer’s disease and an inflammatory brain condition called Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.

Jang’s team exposed mice microglia cells to bacteria and then treated them with the luteolin. Their experiment showed that luteolin reduced the inflammation triggered by the bacteria. The researchers also learned that the celery compound blocked a “promoter” to the gene that coded for an inflammatory signaling molecule.

In a second experiment, the researchers gave mice drinking water containing luteolin for three weeks, and then injected the animals with bacteria. Blood tests showed that the luteolin-spiked water reduced measures of inflammation in the blood and brain four hours after the injection. Specifically, researchers noted a reduction in inflammation in the brain’s hippocampus, the area related to memory and learning.

via webmd