HealthHacks

I’m not a vegetarian, and I’m not crazy about eating soy; so you would expect that I would have no use for these Morningstar Farms’ Chik Patties. You would be wrong — very wrong.

The first time I tried them I was skeptical, but curious. Could it taste like chicken — or barring that — could it make soy a palatable food? The answers it turns out are kinda and yes.

On the outside, the breading is crispy, while on the inside the ‘meat’ is tender, moist, and flavorful. The texture is very different from chicken in appearance — it looks almost stringy when cut up, but strangely does not feel any different than chicken in the mouth.

The patties would probably never be mistaken for real chicken patties, but that, it turns out, is a positive, since they are decidedly better than any chicken patty I’ve ever had.

And if you don’t believe me, believe my picky 2 year old. They are one of the few things he will consistently eat.

Nutrition Info:

Calories: 150

Total Fat: 6g

Saturated Fat: 1g

Transfat: 0g

Protein: 9g

Carbs: 16g

Fiber: 2g

[tags]food, soy, reviews [/tags]

Bodybuilders often tell you it’s important to focus on each muscle you want to train during a repetition. Turns out this advice is even better than they knew.

In a new study, 30 volunteers were instructed to perform bicep curls. They were divided into 3 groups: one focused on the weight they were lifting, a second focused on their muscles, and a third focused whatever they wished. In the group that focused on their muscles there was significantly more muscle activity than in the other groups.

“If they are thinking about their muscles while they are lifting weights they will get a different effect than if they think about just lifting the weight.”

Dr Marchant [the lead researcher] explained that when the brain thinks about what each muscle is doing it makes them work less efficiently because the brain has more than one thing to think about.

And this is what makes the muscles work harder and become stronger rather than the movement being more of a reflex action.

The research will be presented today at British Psychological Society’s annual conference.

More here.

[tags]exercise, bodybuilding, muscles [/tags]

Researchers examining a link between sleep and children’s obesity have found some startling news:

Children who slept less than 10 hours a night were 3.5 times more at risk of being overweight than those who slept 12 or more hours. No other factor analyzed in the study–parental obesity, parents’ level of education, family income, time spent in front of the TV or computer, regular physical activity–had as much of an impact on obesity than time spent sleeping.

Researchers point to the role of two hormones in explaining the results. With inadequate sleep, ghrelin, known as the “hunger hormone,” rises, while leptin, a hormone that signals satiety, falls.

Interestingly, since 1960 obesity levels have doubled while the number of young adults getting fewer than 7 hours of sleep nightly doubled from 16% to 37%.

More here.

[tags] children, obesity, sleep, studies[/tags]

Psychology Today reports on why you might want to make turmeric part of your diet.

[tags]turmeric, spices, brain [/tags]

A chemical compound in soy, genistein, has been demonstrated to affect the DNA of mice offspring when ingested early in the pregnancy of the mother. The mice whose mothers were fed the soy weighed half as much in adulthood as the mice whose mothers were not given the soy.

The exposure to the genistein in soy altered the expression of a singe gene in the mice through a process called methylation. Methylation occurs when exposure to certain environmental cues causes a group of atoms to attach to the regulatory portion of a gene. This alters the expression of the gene, either by increasing or decreasing the expression.

The methylation occurred at the equivalent of the eight day of gestation in humans.
Though not confirmed in humans, researchers speculate this could help explain why Asians, who consume large amounts of soy, have lower rates of obesity.

More here.

[tags]soy, obesity, studies, genistein, genetics, pregnancy [/tags]