Have you ever considered that being healthier could be as simple as a 30-minute daily walk? Renowned integrative medicine pioneer, Dr. Andrew Weil, believes this whole heartedly, which is why he and Australian podiatrist Phillip Vasyli have devoted an entire shoe line and month-long event to the cause.

The event is called ‘Walkabout: a 28-Day Quest for Good Health,’ and it kicked off March 27th via a virtual press conference. At the media event, Weil and Vasyli shared about the campaign and their ultimate hope for the Walkabout.

The pair’s goal is to get people out there and moving. “The [concept] is very simple, doesn’t cost a lot of money or require a lot of time, and yields great results,” said Weil.

Anyone can participate. You simply get out and walk 30 minutes everyday during the 28-day event. The campaign has also brought on 50 brand ambassadors from across the U.S.  to promote the event and encourage participants toward their goals by sharing their daily activity via their personal blogs and social media accounts.
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Pepsi just officially released its newest beverage: Pepsi Next.

Pepsi says the new beverage has 60 percent less sugar and 60 percent fewer calories than regular Pepsi. But, in order to keep the sweetness but reduce the amount of sugar and calories, Pepsi Next features all of the sugar substitutes it has into one beverage. It combined high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, Sucralose and acesulfame potassium.

This is quite the sweetener combo and if you are like most, seeing this list may make you wonder what you’re going to be chugging. Even though Pepsi Next does contain a lot of artificial sweeteners, the fact that it is only half the calories of regular Pepsi could be a plus for those who want to reduce their sugar intake and cut calories to lose weight or maintain their weight.

Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN, and author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips said in an email, ”If someone were to replace one full calorie soda for a Pepsi Next each day, he or she would save 60 calories—that’s 420 calories a week. They may not lose weight, but they’ll certainly save nutrient-poor sugar calories and perhaps leave more room in the diet for more healthful foods like a small piece of fruit.”

Here is some quick info on these artificial sweeteners included in the Pepsi Next that you may want to know about:

Aspartame, also found in Diet Pepsi, is one of the more controversial artificial sweeteners out there. The FDA has claimed its research has not shown any adverse health complications from aspartame. But according to MedicineNet.com, there is some evidence suggesting headaches, depression, increased hunger, and even cancer can be related to consuming aspartame.

Sucralose, also found in Pepsi One, is most well known for its claim to be made from sugar. It is usually  found in Splenda and is 600 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). It is claimed to have no calories by itself. According to Sucralose.org, it is not a natural product. The website claims it is made from a chemically modified sugar molecule. The FDA reviewed studies in human beings and animals. It determined there was no evidence of it causing cancer and posed no risk to human health. According to MedicineNet, the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for sucralose is set at 5 mg per kilogram of body weight per day. So if you weighed 200 pounds, your ADI would be 455 mg. According to Pepsi’s product information for every 12 ounces, there is approximately 14 mg of sucralose.
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Spring is finally here, which means warmer weather, pretty flowers and ugh, more sneezing. Do you feel like where you live must have the worst allergies ever? No more wondering, the Allergy Capitals Research Project from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has identified the top 100 cities they consider challenging places to live with allergies for this spring. No matter where you are in America, there will be allergies, but there are definitely certain places that are more problematic than the rest. AAFA comes up with a list twice a year, one for the fall and one for the spring. They use scientific analysis of three factors to measure the data.

It includes:

• Pollen scores (airborne grass/tree/weed pollen and mold spores)
• Number of allergy medications used per patient
• Number of allergy specialists per patients.

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Compared to my 96-year-old great grandmother, Betty White is more reminiscent of some 50-year-olds I know than most of her contemporaries. She turned 90 in January, and along with all the wisdom that can come from a woman of her stature, she also holds seven Emmy Awards. Her popularity has had a bit of a revival in recent years, but she’s never faded from being one of the most talented comedians of our time.

You’d expect someone at her age to be retired, maybe knitting, and getting some much deserved R&R from a lengthy career, and life. But not Betty. No, she’s too busy working still. With a few TV projects going on seemingly concurrently, the one she’s getting the most buzz for is Off Their Rockers, returning to NBC on April 4. She told us she was presented with the idea for the senior citizen prank show after seeing a popular version in Europe. She said, “I don’t have the power to say no, I like what I do too much.”

And in that sentence you understand the secret to her ability to seemingly not age. “I’m 90 years old and I just don’t go away,” she quipped, and we’re glad she won’t. She told us that she’s “blessed with good health” and that she inherited good genes. It’s her love of this industry and her work that keeps her going, and that makes her “happy as a lark.”
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New research from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ has found that elderly patients who eat higher levels of calories are more likely to suffer from memory loss. Researchers found that patients who overeat the most were twice as likely to suffer from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as patients who ate less than 1,526 per day. MCI is a form of memory loss that is more severe than normal age-related memory loss and less severe than Alzheimer’s. The study was led by Yonas Geda and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s conference in April.

The survey analyzed the eating habits of 1,233 dementia-free participants between the ages of 70 and 89. The participants self-reported their daily eating habits, and were divided into three groups depending on their caloric intake. The lowest group consumed less than 1,526 calories per day, the middle group ate 1,526 to 2,143 calories, and the highest group ate between 2,143 and 6,000.

The results were adjusted to account for other factors that have been shown to affect memory, including level of education, diabetes and a history of strokes. Although researchers do not understand the biomechanics that link higher levels of calories to brain function, they theorized that unnecessary calories stimulate stress hormones in the brain that may contribute to memory loss.

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