Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

I hope you all take some time out of your day to help out in some small way, whether turning off your lights when you're not in the room or unplugging your electronics at night when you're done with them. This morning I signed the Earth Day 2010 Climate Declaration. It took me a whopping 30 seconds and made me feel happy for the rest of the day!

For some extra green boosting power, check out this Comedy Central Insider blog post with some more really super duper easy things you can do to help out today and beyond!

I would make an addendum to their "Go Vegetarian" suggestion because if you're like me, you love meat, and you would not want to give it up forever. But try eating meat only once or twice a week instead of every day. It's a great way to cut down on your carbon count and it'll make you healthier overall (especially if your cholesterol count is just as important as your carbon one)!

UPDATE: Another series of great, though more drastic tips over at HowStuffWorks. I particularly like the one about giving up seafood, since I gave it up when I was 8!

Science and Health Tidbit

I just read this article in the NY Times today. As if there wasn't enough proof already, it looks like eating a diet heavy in red meat and light on the fruits and veggies is pretty detrimental to the old bod.

Fortunately, due to my general lack of income during my college years, I realized I couldn't really afford meat, especially red meat (and I haven't been a fan of fast food since I was 7 and would always ask my dad to take me to Burger King when everyone would go to the French bistro La Madeleine, which we later found out was really secret-fast-food, but probably was still more nutritious than my cheeseburger-hold-the-cheese and ketchup only), so I really haven't eaten much in the past four years.

What I have noticed, though, is that the longer you go without eating red meat, the less you enjoy it. I remember freshman year when I had my first steak after about four or five months without any red meat except hamburgers, I really did not enjoy it that much. Now, I generally avoid steak on a menu. Sometimes I will get it, though, so long as it's cooked medium, because I really, really, do not enjoy a bloody steak. I know, it's strange, but it's true. That's what time will do to your taste buds.

That being said, since I've been trying to both up the protein and down the meat/dairy consumption, I will admit it's been rather difficult, especially since I don't eat fish, which everyone loves to rave about. Lately, I've been eating more lean meats and have slid a little backwards on my cheese consumption (I love cheese too much! I can't let it go!), but I like to blame this more on the pressure of finishing up college than any significant upward trend. When I'm all settled in my new apt, I'll start pumping myself full of delicious protein shakes (which I have not been able to have since I was in Dallas due to my current lack of a blender) so I can avoid meats and cheeses more readily.

And fortunately, when I do need a burger, I love me some turkey burgers.

Correlation or Causation?

So after spending a weekend in Pittsburgh (vacationing from work and posting) gorging on delicious desserts, I went into the doctor's on Monday expecting my cholesterol to have skyrocketed.* To my surprise, it fell by nearly 30 points.

Now, I'm not saying definitively that eating delectable delights in the form of mini banana cream pies, cake-like cookies that are filled with scrumptious vanilla icing, or just plain thumbprint cookies will lower your cholesterol or even had an effect on mine, but it's a pretty convenient coincidence.

Ok, and maybe it also had something to do with the influx of vegetables I ate or the fact that I was fairly active all week, but I still find it hilarious that I discovered this high-dessert-low-cholesterol correlation immediately after posting a "Stew of the Week" that entirely focuses on eating healthier desserts. Just goes to show you that sometimes you can cheat and pay the opposite of the price.

*I'm on a few different medications that cause an increase in cholesterol, so I have to be on the lookout for any dramatic increases.