Tag Archives: alcohol

SkinnyGirl Cocktails Eliminated from Whole Foods’ Shelves

Natural grocer Whole Foods recently decided to pull the popular SkinnyGirl cocktail line from their shelves.

Whole Foods claims that the low calorie alcohol beverages contain unnatural ingredients. Lisa DeFazio, MS, RD, and Hollywood Nutrition Expert, said that Whole Foods allegedly removed the popular beverages because they contained caramel coloring, which was not within their definition of “natural.”

According to the Whole Foods blog, natural can be quite a complicated definition.

“‘Natural,’ on the other hand, doesn’t have a strong governmental definition when it comes to food, so my team (the Quality Standards Team) spends quite a lot of time defining which ingredients make up the natural foods we sell in our stores. The basic tenets of our standard require that our products are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners and hydrogenated fats,” Joe Dickson, Global Quality Standards Coordinator for Whole Foods wrote.

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Posted on August 31, 2025 by Jamie

5 Low-Calorie Drinks for Labor Day

By Jenn Walters for FitBottomedGirls.com

Summer may be winding down with Labor Day weekend, but there’s still time to squeeze in some summer fun, whether it’s throwing a barbecue or swimming in the pool. If, along with your final summer hurrah, you’re looking for something to drink that won’t derail your diet, read on for the five low-calorie beverages we’re sipping on—in moderation and with a designated driver, of course!

5 Low-Calorie Alcoholic Summer Drinks

1. Michelob Ultra Lime Cactus. While lime in a beer seems a tad weird in, like, January, in June it’s pretty much perfect for summertime drinkin’—light with a little refreshing citrus. Plus, a 12-ounce serving contains just 95 calories.

2. Bella Bella Bellini. This bellini recipe is a peach—in a good way! Only 94 calories and with enough fruity flavor to make you feel like you’re vacationing in the tropics even if you’re just in your backyard, it’s easy to make, too!

3. Skinnygirl Margarita. After getting hooked on Bethenny Frankel’s reality TV shows, we just had to try her Skinnygirl Margarita. You won’t be fooled into thinking this is the margarita from your favorite Mexican restaurant, but it is just sweet enough to please, and it definitely satisfied our margarita tooth (like a sweet tooth for margaritas, obviously). At 100 cals for a 4-ounce serving, it’s perfect treat for a summer day. Don’t want to spend the dough on the pre-made stuff? Make this skinny margarita recipe yourself!

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Posted on August 31, 2025 by GuestBlogger

5 Foods That Will Help You Snooze

By Lise Turner for Care2.com

It has been a sleepless several nights for me, mainly because of troubling events. But it made me start thinking about food, and how it’s intimately connected to our patterns of sleep. If you can’t sleep, and life is calm and happy, maybe it’s something you ate–or didn’t. The foods we eat can dramatically affect how much, and how well, we snooze. Some foods calm and relax, some wake up the nervous system, and some just downright wire you for the night.

What you should eat for deeper sleep depends partly on your patterns. If you toss and turn before drifting off but then doze soundly for the rest of the night, you might benefit from adding slow-burning carbs (beans, sweet potatoes, berries) to your evening meal to prompt the production of serotonin, a brain chemical that promotes calm. If you zonk out quickly but wake up a few hours later, you might be suffering from blood sugar fluctuations. I’ve tried a high-protein snack before bed–a handful of walnuts, a spoonful of almond butter, a small cube of cheese–and these tend to keep blood sugar levels steady throughout the night.

Focus on foods with soothing nutrients, like magnesium, which help relax muscles and calm the body, and B vitamins, key in the production of serotonin and other brain chemicals necessary to sleep. Trytophan, an amino acid that’s needed to make sleep-inducing serotonin, is especially effective when it’s paired with complex, slow-burning carbs.

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Posted on August 27, 2025 by GuestBlogger

Healthy Happy Hour on The Today Show

today showTune into The Today Show on Thursday, September 15 for a great discussion on how to have a healthy happy hour. Not only is drinking in excess hard on your body (and liver), but it’s also a contributing factor to weight gain. One the other hand, having an occasional alcoholic drink may actually benefit your health.

Women’s Health magazine contributor Keri Glassman will appear on the show as a guest. She will weight in on how to make after-work drinks a healthy treat and not a calorie-fest. Glassman is a dietician who writes about food, drinks, diets and weight loss.

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Posted on August 22, 2025 by Health Buzz

Conservatives and Liberals Make Different Food Choices

There are many ways that we identify ourselves, and one of our deepest set chosen identities tends to be political beliefs. Self-identified liberals and conservatives (rather than those that identify as “middle of the road”) tend to disagree strongly on a variety of subjects, from the size of government to taxation to gay marriage. A survey of 347, 949 Hunch.com users has identified that those who tend to support liberal or conservative politicians also disagree on what to eat.

Those who identified as liberal seem to be more likely to agree with what they read at DietsInReview. While conservatives were 65 percent more likely to eat fast food a few times per week, liberals were 92 percent more likely to eat fast food rarely or never. When it comes to french fries, conservatives consider McDonald’s the best of the best, while liberals are 64 percent more likely to prefer bistro-type fries.

Similar to their fast food choices, those who identify as conservative were 50 percent more likely to believe there is no significant difference between organic and processed food, while identifying yourself as a liberal makes you 28 percent more likely to disagree. Liberals are 29 percent more likely than conservatives to avoid soda and 27 percent as likely to drink only diet soda when they do. Those who identify as liberal are 28 percent more likely to eat fresh fruit daily, while those who identify as conservative are 35 percent more likely to eat fresh fruit less than once per week.

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Posted on July 11, 2025 by Brooke Randolph

Fast Food Chains Adding Alcohol to Their Menus

“I’d like a double cheeseburger, the jumbo fries, and a DIET soda.” Does this fast food order sound familiar? The patron stressing the diet soda to lighten some part of the gut busting meal is a pretty common occurrence. Now, we might start hearing something like, “…and a LIGHT beer” tacked on to a fast food order. Alcohol is now being served at fast food chains around the U.S.

Very popular chains like Burger King, Sonic, and even Starbucks have begun introducing alcoholic menu concepts at select locations. The controversial change could be a result of the economy, as many say alcohol will allow them to compete with the casual dinning restaurants in the evening. While that fact may be true as adults may want to eat somewhere that has an alcohol option on the menu, that addition to fast food menus could cause more harm than reward.

Thankfully none of these restaurants allow for alcohol to be ordered from a drive-thru or car stall, but there are still some possible hazards. The risk of getting a quick meal and a quick beer and then driving off pose obvious dangers. However, assuming that adults are responsible enough to gauge what’s appropriate consumption, what about the health factor?

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Posted on July 7, 2025 by Lacy

Kristin Cavallari Loses Weight the Healthy Way for her Wedding Day

Kristin Cavallari is widely known by fans of her former show, The Hills. Cavallari has also recently become engaged to NFL Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. The upcoming wedding along with not being satisfied with how she looked on television motivated Cavallari to do something about her weight. In order to tone up and slim down for her special day, Cavallari started intense workouts and kickboxing sessions to get her body back into shape.

Cavallari admitted that she had gained around eight pounds since she started seeing Cutler and would “eat like a 6’4” guy” at the beginning of their relationship. One of the main things Cavallari cut from her diet was alcohol. She stated that cutting alcohol was important to her weight loss because, “when I’m hung over, I eat whatever I want.” In addition to cutting out alcohol, she also worked out with a trainer three times per week and then did cardio exercise for 40 minutes. By sticking with her plan, Cavallari has whittled her weight to 109 pounds for her 5’3” frame.

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Posted on July 1, 2025 by Descygna

Avoid Packing on the New Relationship Pounds

Dating – either as a single person or half of a committed couple – can make for a very exciting time. When you think of going on a date, most often you might envision dinner, maybe a movie, or coffee and dessert.

New relationships always seem to pack on the pounds. Many experts say it is because once you are comfortable, happy and secure in a relationship, you are not as diligent about your physical appearance. While in the beginning it is a nice feeling to be able to relax in a new and exciting relationship, a few months in, you may look in the mirror and wonder where all your hard work went.

Especially in the summer, dating can often involve activities and foods to keep your temperature down, but summer time dating doesn’t have to be a body buster. Instead of curling up with your cutie in a dark room, some ice cream and watching TV, here are some terrific summer date activities that will help you keep your cool, but won’t leave you running for a mu-mu to cover up your not quite ready for close up body.

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Posted on June 16, 2025 by Carmen

How to Handle the Moments That Make You Fat

When you are trying to lose weight it can be easy fall off the diet wagon and slip back into patterns of unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. Recently, CNN identified “The Moments That Make us Fat” which included your friends suggesting a buffet restaurant for dinner or finding tempting dessert options at a cocktail party.

According to James Hill, executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, it can be dangerous to rely on your willpower to carry you through difficult diet situations.

“Willpower is not inexhaustible,” Hill told CNN.com. “You only have a certain amount of it, and it’s gone.”

Instead of relying on willpower, Hill recommends planning ahead. Identify the situations that tempt you to veer away from your healthy habits and plan strategies to keep yourself on track.

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Posted on June 2, 2026 by Maris

Relieve Gout Attacks Fast Without Prescription Drugs

This guest post comes from Gale Tern, author, alternative health proponent, and blogger at Arthritis Pain Central.

Gout is usually thought of as the big toe disease since one of its most common symptoms is acute pain in the big toe. Gout is actually a type of arthritis. Here is how the National Institutes of Health defines gout: “Gout is a painful condition that occurs when the bodily waste product uric acid is deposited as needle-like crystals in the joints and/or soft tissues. In the joints, these uric acid crystals cause inflammatory arthritis, which in turn leads to intermittent swelling, redness, heat, pain, and stiffness in the joints.”

What Causes Gout?

The major risk factors for gout are:

  • Family history. Genetics seems to play a role. If your parents or grandparents suffered from this disease there is a high likelihood that you will as well.
  • Weight. Being overweight also increases the risk of developing gout. Some researchers suggest that due to having more tissue mass that can breakdown inherently leads to even greater production of uric acid.

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Posted on May 22, 2026 by GuestBlogger

Help Control Rosacea Symptoms with a Healthy Diet

We know that a healthy diet can help prevent a number of diseases and conditions, including Type II diabetes and some heart diseases. While we might discuss our diet and lifestyle choices with our general physicians, we sometimes forget to ask our dermatologist how what we eat is affecting our skin.

Approximately 14 million people in the United States have rosacea, a skin disorder that causes inflammation of the cheeks, nose, chin, forehead, or eyelids. For some people, it may appear as redness – think severe blushing – or swelling, sometimes accompanied by acne flare-ups.

While you can’t necessarily prevent or control the symptoms of rosacea with diet alone, there are certain foods that may be associated with rosacea flare-ups.  According to Chicago Dermatologist and Skin Care Authority, Amy Forman Taub, MD, the Medical Director of Advanced Dermatology and Assistant Clinical Professor, Northwestern University Medical School, Department of Dermatology, some foods and beverages may cause dilatation of the blood vessels in the face, or may be associated with inflammation.

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Posted on May 12, 2026 by Maris