You are what you eat.

A Bushel Of Apples - iStock

When To Go Organic & When Not To Bother

 The experts at Licious Living share their list of the “cleanest” and “dirtiest” fruits and veggies in your supermarket.

A Bushel Of Apples - iStock

 

GOOD TO KNOW | “Should I buy organic or is it just a waste of my money? I get this question a lot,” says Deanna Embury, who, with co-founder Katie Rodgers, operates Licious Living, a healthy eating company that supplies Vancouverites and Torontonians with super-tasty home-delivered meals plus operates wallet-friendly cafés in British Columbia and Alberta. Read more

Citrus Zinger

Infused & Enthused: Zing Water Bottles!

Zing Anything beverage infusers make the freshest fruit waters to go.

Citrus Zinger

GOTTA GET THIS | While it has finally been proven once and for all that drinking multiple glasses of water daily truly does a body good (CLICK HERE and HERE for the evidence), staying sufficiently hydrated can be challenging. If, like me, you struggle to down even a few glassfuls every day, fruit-infused liquids are a godsend, particularly when they can be made in an instant and transported handily the way they can be with Zing Anything beverage infusers. Read more

The Nutribullet: An All-Time Favourite Kitchen Product

Why the Nutribullet is our current favourite kitchen product.

Green Drink- Shutterstock

 

PRODUCTS WE LOVE | In 2010 it was the Sodastream; in 2011 it was the pizza stone; in 2012 it was the TopChip microwave potato chip maker—and, in 2014, the Nutribullet was the kitchen product of our dreams.  Read more

Generic Drugs - iStock

Generic Over-The-Counter Drugs Are The Better Buy

If you’re buying brand name over-the-counter meds instead of generic ones, nine times out of 10 you’re wasting money.

 

BEST BUY | When it comes to fashion and décor, I can be as big a brand snob as anyone, but it makes absolutely no sense to be a label slave where over-the-counter medications are concerned. Why chain yourself to a brand name “OTC” med when the no name equivalent is available at a seriously lower price? Read more

Walnuts In The Shell-iStock

A Very Good Reason To Buy Unshelled Nuts

Notoriously addictive nuts are one superfood that should be consumed daily. Here’s how to avoid over indulging.

Walnuts-In-The-Shell-iStock-300x300EATING RIGHT | Jeffrey Steingarten, a leading food writer in the U.S., once compared ingesting a single pecan to swallowing a pat of butter. That didn’t stop the sometime judge on Iron Chef America from indulging in pecans, but this fact stopped me cold when I read it in Vogue—and it put me off pecans forever. After all who would knowingly shove multiple slabs of pure butterfat into their mouth? Read more

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Chew On These Three Sugarless Gum Brands

Some sugarless chewing gum is not like the others: these three brands are actually good for your teeth.

Bubblegum Girl-iStock

 

BUY RIGHT | A chewer from way back, I could tell you I gobble gum because it stimulates the production of saliva which has been scientifically proven to help neutralize acid erosion on tooth enamel—but really it’s because I’m a fresh breath fanatic and mints and sprays leave me with a dry mouth. Read more

Breast Or Thigh: Which Chicken Part Is Best?

Chicken breasts have long been considered the healthiest part of the bird, but top chefs favour the flavour of dark meat. (RECIPES)

 

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | Why it took so long, I’ll never know, but North Americans are beginning to wean themselves from the breast—the chicken breast, that is. “The dark, tender meat of the chicken thigh is the most flavorful part of the bird,” writes Nate Appleman in his cookbook A16 Food + Wine, the International Association of Culinary Professionals cookbook of the year in 2008. To prove it, he includes THIS AWESOME RECIPE for Chicken Meatballs with Peperonata.

International superstar chef Daniel Boulud (who once set up shop in Vancouver) gave chicken thighs two thumbs up this past winter when he used them in THIS GREAT RECIPE for Chicken Lasagna, which appeared in Elle Décor.

Neither of these chefs would ever stint on ingredients or sacrifice quality because of cost. Both cook with chicken thighs not because they are always cheaper than breasts but because they taste better than breasts. Simple as that.

But here a small voice interjects, “But what about health? Aren’t chicken breasts a whole lot better for you?” Read more

Shirataki noodle soup - iStock

A Tasty Gluten-Free Sub For Wheat Pasta

Yes, there is a guilt-free, gluten-free substitute for high-cal, high-carb wheat-based pasta.

Shirataki noodle soup - iStock

 

EASY & DELISH | For anyone on a low-cal, low-carb or gluten-free diet, pasta can be a problem—at least the traditional wheat-based kind. But there is an alternative: shirataki noodles, used in Asian cuisine. Read more

kombucha-Kathy Patalsky- Happy Healthy Life

Need A Quick Energy Boost? Try Kombucha

This newly mainstream fizzy health drink can make you sparkle.

kombucha-Kathy Patalsky- Happy Healthy Life

 

CULT PRODUCT ALERT | Kombucha is a centuries-old fermented-tea beverage consumed for its presumed health benefits. While there’s no hard scientific evidence that kombucha stimulates the immune system, improves digestion and liver function or boosts physical and mental energy in humans, growing legions of kombucha devotees will tell you otherwise, including such celebrities as Gwyneth Paltrow, who pitches GT’s Raw Organic Kombucha as part of her dietary regimen. Read more

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Lose Extra Pounds With Help From Fitday.com

Fitday.com is a fab, free website that can help you lose weight, get fitter and more.

Feet On Scale - iStock

 

FREE & FABULOUS | I’ve been trying on a quasi-casual level to lose “those last five pounds” for the last five years, but haven’t been able to. Now I know why and what to do about it, thanks to Fitday.com. Fitday, for the uninitiated—and there are still one or two of us out there—is a free, superbly organized weight loss website that allows its five million members to easily set a weight loss goal that will trigger an action plan that includes daily food consumption and physical activity requirements.

All of this is great, of course, but the best thing about Fitday in my view, and in the view of Innovative Fitness trainer Josh Allen who introduced me to the program, is the way it tracks the nutrient values in the foods you consume—and nutrient values, as I’m coming to learn, are at the root of my problem.

Carbs and Fat and Protein, Oh My! Read more