Healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, improving your health, and stabilizing your mood. If you feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone. It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. But by using these simple tips, you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create a tasty, varied, and nutritious diet that is as good for your mind as it is for your body.
How can healthy eating improve your mood?We all know that eating right can help you maintain a healthy weight and avoid certain health problems, but your diet can also have a profound effect on your mood and sense of wellbeing. Studies have linked eating a typical Western diet—filled with processed meats, packaged meals, takeout food, and sugary snacks—with higher rates of depression, stress, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. Eating an unhealthy diet may even play a role in the development of mental health disorders such as ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, and schizophrenia, or in the increased risk of suicide in young people.

Football is a dangerous sport and can take its toll on nearly every bone, muscle, and organ in the body. But recently, scientists have become particularly concerned about the brain. They’ve found that high impact sports, particularly football, have the potential to cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease. Now, scientists have published one of the most definitive studies on CTE’s connection to football thus far: Of 202 brains of deceased former football players examined, 87 percent showed signs of CTE. Of the 111 study subjects who'd played for the NFL, all but one had CTE. The results, which were published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), represent the most convincing evidence linking CTE to football to date.
What is CTE and why is it so controversial?CTE is a degenerative disease, meaning that its effects accumulate over time. Unlike a concussion, which is just one single trauma to the head, CTE happens from repeated blows—each one not necessarily strong enough to be considered a concussion, but intense all the same. These blows cause a protein called tau to build up in the noggin. As tau spreads, it kills brain cells.

Learn to form healthy habits by replacing the bad ones. Substituting healthy habits for unhealthy ones rewards you with more stamina, better quality of life – and a healthier you.

That is easier said than done, of course, but some simple tips can help you tackle even the most indulgent and hardest-to-kick habits. Rani Whitfield, M.D., a Baton Rouge, La., family practitioner and American Heart Association volunteer, is on a mission to help people change their unhealthy habits. 

“An unhealthy habit is easy to develop and hard to live with; a healthy habit is harder to develop but easier to live with,” said Whitfield, who has earned the nickname “The Hip Hop Doc” through his work getting young people to make healthier choices.

Do you get a moderate amount of exercise, eat right, keep from piling on fat and avoid smoking? Congratulations, you're among the 2.7 percent of Americans who do so, according to a new study.
Researchers say that, unfortunately, the other 97.3 percent of American adults get a failing grade on healthy lifestyle habits.
The study looked at data on more than 4,700 people who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey. The researchers assessed how many people followed four general "principles of healthy living" -- a good diet, moderate exercise, not smoking and keeping body fat under control.

From Harambe to the rapid decline in bee populations, listen in as I "fan girl" my way through the forest that is Ron Magill's vast knowledge of the animal world. ​


Send me questions or comments on Twitter @Younicooo or Instagram @younico. If you prefer email, send it to nicolasommati@hotmail.com. ​

What do you do for a living (school/job)?
I'm currently a student in Physical Therapy school. 
 
Do you think about your health? 
Yes, quite often. We're constantly discussing how we can improve the health of our patients in school and naturally I think about my own health too. 

How do you feel about the way that you eat?
I would say I eat fairly healthy most of the time. I do allow myself to splurge and have a few cheat meals at the end of the week. 

How active were you when you were younger and what activities did you do for exercise? Did you have P.E.?
I was always involved in sports when I was younger. I played softball, basketball, soccer, and ran cross-country. Some days I had 3 different sport practices in the same day so I was pretty active. We had P.E. in elementary school and middle school where I grew up. 

What is your dream in life? Are you working towards that dream?
My dream is to be a physical therapist and own my own practice. I'm currently in school working towards my doctorate in physical therapy. 

How stressful is your life right now?
It can be stressful throughout school when exams and assignments pile up, but I think I do a good job managing my stress. 

How do you cope with your stress?
I make sure to stay organize and prioritize things in my life. I also exercise regularly and that seems to help decrease my stress significantly. 

Do you know how to exercise properly?
Yes. I played sports my entire life so I learned how to exercise properly during that time. I'm also learning to teach people how to exercise properly in school. 

Do you know how to eat healthy?
Yes. I don't always practice it 100% of the time but I do know how to eat properly. 

What changes do you want to see in the health industry?
I want people to focus more on prevention than treatment. I think this is the next big step for healthcare in America. We could save people a lot of time and money if we prevented injury and disease in the first place. 

Do you think being healthy will ever be at the forefront in society?
I hope so. I think there are a good number of people who focus on maintaining healthy lifestyles, but we could definitely increase this number.