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This 'Raw' Paleo Chocolate Pie Has a Secret Ingredient for Its Crust

Love chocolate treats but want a more nutrient-dense dessert? Then this decadent chocolate pie recipe is for you! The filling is creamy and full of chocolate-banana deliciousness. The crust is really easy to make and holds together perfectly, despite the fact that there are no grains, gluten, or eggs in it.

The crust for this pie is made with plantains. Plantains are very similar to bananas, except they are much bigger. Unlike bananas, they are cooked with and eaten in all of their stages of ripeness, from totally green to completely ripe and sugary. They’re great as a flour substitute in grain-free baking because of their starch content. Plantains can be found in the produce section of most grocery stores.  

This pie recipe calls for yellow-peeled plantains, which means the plantains are of medium ripeness. They are still fairly starchy with just a bit of sweetness. Because of this, the crust does not require any added sugars, and it bakes up perfectly.  It’s also quite easy to make because it’s a press-in crust; no rolling of the dough is needed.

Related: 8 Surprising Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

The chocolate filling for this pie is full of healthful fats from coconut cream and coconut butter. The cocoa powder adds a hefty dose of antioxidants. The banana adds some potassium and some yummy fruit sweetness. Maple syrup, a nutritious natural sweetener, sweetens the pie. It sets up in the fridge; you don’t need to bake this pie once it’s filled.  

But the best thing about this recipe is that there’s no mashing or stirring required; all the mixing is done in a food processor! As a result, the crust dough is perfectly mixed, the filling is ultra-creamy, and as a bonus, you didn’t dirty any of your mixing bowls.  

Serve this delicious pie at your next dinner party or luncheon; everyone is sure to want seconds.  

Paleo Chocolate Pie

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes + chilling

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 medium yellow plantain, sliced (to yield 1 cup slices)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 cup unsweetened coconut chips

⅓ cup coconut flour

Filling:

1 cup coconut cream

⅓ c maple syrup

½ c coconut butter, softened

1 banana, peeled and chopped

⅓ cup cocoa powder

Pinch salt

Directions:

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a food processor, combine all crust ingredients and process until a smooth dough forms.  

Press the dough into a 9” pie plate.  

Bake the crust for 10-13 minutes.  

Cool completely.  

Filling:

In a food processor, combine all filling ingredients and process until very smooth.  

Spread in crust and chill for a few hours or overnight.  

Slice and enjoy. 

More from PaleoHacks:

26 Ways to Make Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 Chocoholic-Approved Paleo Chocolate Recipes

Dark Chocolate Bacon Bark

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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Joy Bauer’s 5 Easy Swaps to Healthify Comfort Foods (Plus 2 Recipes!)

Joy Bauer, MS, RDN, is the health and nutrition expert for NBC’s TODAY show, the founder of Nourish Snacks, and the author of the new book From Junk Food to Joy Food, in which she lays out the secrets to transforming everyone’s favorite comfort foods into healthier versions. Here, she shares with Yahoo Health five smart swaps to health-ify your favorite comfort foods, as well as two recipes from her new book.

1. Swap fatty ground beef for (at least 90 percent) lean ground poultry in dishes like chili, burgers, and tacos. You’ll cut calories and saturated fat but still maintain the same delicious flavor of these hearty dishes.

2. Swap full-fat cheese for 2-percent reduced-fat and part-skim varieties. The reduced-fat versions melt beautifully and deliver the same creamy, velvety texture.

3. Swap sour cream for non-fat Greek yogurt in dips and dressings. Creamy Greek yogurt is flavor-neutral, loaded with protein (which can help rev metabolism and keep a lid on appetite), and low in calories. Trust me, you’ll never miss the sour cream!

 4. Swap bottled oil for nonstick oil spray when sautéing. You'll use far less in your cooking and save 120 calories for every tablespoon you trim. 

5. Swap fine table salt for coarse kosher salt when following recipes. Replacing regular table salt with coarse kosher salt in recipes that call for a certain amount allows you to get the same flavor for a bit less sodium. A teaspoon of table salt has about 2,300 milligrams sodium, while the same amount of coarse kosher salt has about 1,120 milligrams thanks to the large crystals. (Just make sure you read the labels as amounts can vary.) Keep in mind that this trick works only when you’re swapping the same volume of table salt for coarse kosher salt — it doesn’t work when you are salting to taste.

Related: Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

(All photos courtesy of ‘From Junk Food to Joy Food,’ Hay House, Inc.)

Buffalo Chicken Chili

This chili lets you enjoy the rich, spicy flavors of Buffalo wings without the calorific overload. Rather than chicken wings, with their high ratio of skin to meat, I’ve turned this favorite into a slimming flavorful stew your gang will love! You also have the option of making this dish in a slow cooker — simply toss all of the ingredients into a slow cooker (cutting tomato/vegetable juice by about 3/4 cup), mix everything up, and cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4 hours). 

Junk Food Version: 1,270 calories Joy Food Version: 365 calories

This recipe makes 4 servings (serving size: 2¼ cups, without toppings)

INGREDIENTS:

6 carrots, peeled and sliced into half-moons

6 stalks celery, sliced

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 pounds ground chicken (99% lean)

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cups low-sodium vegetable or tomato juice

¼ cup hot sauce (see note below)

Plain nonfat Greek yogurt or light sour cream (optional)

Chopped scallions (optional)

Bleu cheese dip (optional; recipe below) 

PREPARATION:

Stovetop Version: Liberally coat a large pot or Dutch oven with nonstick oil spray, and warm over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and celery and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes; add water, a tablespoon at a time, as necessary to prevent scorching.

Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the ground chicken, reapplying nonstick oil spray if necessary. Sauté, stirring continuously and breaking the chicken into small pieces, for 5 minutes or until cooked through. As the chicken cooks, continue scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge any large bits

Sprinkle in the chili powder and flour, and stir quickly to distribute them evenly. Immediately add the vegetable juice and hot sauce, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.

Ladle the chili into serving bowls and serve with desired toppings.

Slow Cooker Version: To prepare, simply add all ingredients to slow cooker, stir, and cook on low for eight hours (or high for four hours). If you like a thicker chili, reduce the tomato/vegetable juice by about ¾ cup. That’s because the slow cooker generates more liquid than the skillet. Prepare the whipped blue cheese topping (below) prior to serving, if desired.

Note: The amount of hot sauce you use will depend on the brand you select, as well as your (and your family’s) own personal tolerance for spicy foods. I advise adding ¼ cup hot sauce to start with, then tasting the chili and adding more if you find it too mild.

For Bleu Cheese Topping: In a small bowl, mash together ¼ cup bleu cheese crumbles (at room temperature) and ¼ cup light or nonfat sour cream or nonfat plain Greek yogurt. Stir in ¼ teaspoon each garlic and onion powder and mix until combined. Add a dollop to each bowl of chili before serving.

Related: 8 Easy, Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes to Try Tonight

Banana Split on a Stick

Ever order a classic banana split — three scoops of ice cream drizzled with a medley of sauces and topped with whipped cream and a cherry — with the intention of splitting it (pun intended) with a friend ... only to devour the whole thing by yourself? It can cost you more than 1,000 calories. No joke! And that’s for a small-sized version. Instead, make this totally satisfying spin (single serving to cut temptation) for just 180 calories.

Junk Food Version: 1,000 calories Joy Food Version: 180 calories

This recipe makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

4 large bananas, ripe but firm

8 wooden popsicle sticks

1/4 cup granola cereal OR finely chopped salted peanuts

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Whipped cream and cherries for garnish (optional)

PREPARATION:

Peel, then cut each banana in half horizontally and insert the wooden stick into each half. Place in zip-top bag or cover in plastic wrap and place in freezer until frozen, about 3 hours. 

Spread out granola (or peanuts) on a flat surface, such as a shallow dish, cutting board, or baking sheet.

Melt the chocolate chips using a double boiler or by placing them in a glass bowl and microwaving for 30 seconds, stirring, and continuing this same routine for 15-second increments until chocolate is velvety smooth. Pour the melted chocolate into a tall glass and carefully dip each of the frozen bananas into the glass, twirling to coat at least the top half. Then immediately roll in the granola or chopped peanuts.

Serve or place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and stash in the freezer for future treats. 

For a fun serving presentation, I like to lay the pops on an individual banana split tray and top each with a squirt of whipped cream and cherry. 

Read This Next: Ground Turkey Enchilada Stir-Fry with Couscous

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WHO Issues $56 Million Plan to Combat Zika Virus

(Photo: AP Images)

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that $56 million were needed to combat the Zika virus until June, including for the fast-tracking of vaccines, diagnostics and research studies into how it spreads.

The funds, including $25 million for the WHO and its regional office, would also be used to control the mosquito-borne virus that has spread to 39 countries, including 34 in the Americas, and has been linked to birth defects in Brazil.

"Possible links with neurological complications and birth malformations have rapidly changed the risk profile for Zika from a mild threat to one of very serious proportions," WHO director-general Margaret Chan said in the WHO Strategic Response Framework and Joint Operations Plan issued in Geneva.

The WHO expects the funds to come from member states and other donors and said that in the meantime it has tapped a new   emergency contingency fund for $2 million to finance its initial operations.

Chan will travel to Brazil from Feb 22-24 to review Zika-related measures supported by WHO and will meet the health minister, a WHO spokeswoman said.

Related: Is the Zika Virus Contagious?

The United Nations health agency declared the Zika outbreak a global public health emergency on Feb 1, noting its association with two neurological disorders, microcephaly in babies and Guillain-Barre syndrome that can cause paralysis.

Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,300 suspected cases of microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems.

Researchers have confirmed more than 460 of these cases as microcephaly and identified evidence of Zika infection in 41 of these cases, but have not proven that Zika can cause microcephaly.

The WHO noted that "existing scarce evidence indicates that there may be a risk of sexual transmission" of Zika virus, as well as a risk of it persisting in semen and urine.

"There is currently very little evidence of mother-to-child transmission; however, intra-uterine infections seem to be associated with subsequent neurological conditions in the child."

Research studies are needed to assess the presence of the Zika virus in semen and other body fluids, including pregnancy-related fluids, and potential sexual transmission, and mother-to-child transmission, the WHO said.

More on the Zika virus on Yahoo Health:

Is the Zika Virus Contagious?

Zika Virus Symptoms: What Are They?

Do Pregnant Women in the U.S. Need to Worry About Zika Virus?

What to Know About the Zika Virus If You’re Trying to Get Pregnant

U.S. Issues Treatment Guidelines for Infants Exposed to Zika

10 Essential Facts About the Zika Virus

What Happens When Countries Without Abortion Advise Against Pregnancy?

Can Brazil ‘Zika-Proof’ in Time for the Olympics?

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The Fastest Move to Lift Your Butt

Need a butt-lifting move that takes minimal time and no fancy equipment? Look no further than this video from Health. 

Watch This Next: Boost Your Energy Level and Mood In Just Minutes

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5 Easy Swaps For a Healthier Diet

Getting healthier doesn’t mean you have to overhaul your diet. Instead, try making a few small swaps — think avocado for butter, or brown rice for white. Find more swaps in this video from Health. 

Watch This Next: 7 Foods That Boost Your Mood

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What Family Taught Me About Embracing My Blackness and Loving My Body

Photo: Getty Images/Yahoo Health

Caroline Randall Williams is a poet, author, and assistant professor in the English department at West Virginia University. She is the author of the 2015 cookbook Soul Food Love, which won the NAACP Image Award in Literature in 2016. She was named one of the “50 People Changing the South in 2015” by Southern Living magazine.

The days that I feel fat, the days that I feel fly, the days that I feel fine, the days that I feel fit? Those days, these days, have so little do with my size.

I have been a size 4 and wished to be a size 2. Wished I had thigh gap and hipbones. Wished I had ribs to see and a jaw fit for cutting glass. I have been thick thick, bigger than I am now, and had a man I loved tell me he couldn’t wait to be near me, couldn’t wait to put his hands on my body, and I believed him.

Growing up, the majority of my peers and playmates where white. When you are little, I think the desire to do and be like your friends is a natural one. For me, with my raging tumble of curls and my brown, solid legs, that was always going to be a project of diminishing returns.

But the women in my family told me a different story about my body. I come from big, beautiful black women. On both sides. From Georgia. From Alabama. From Detroit and Louisiana. From Tennessee and Harlem. I have geographies in my body that refuse to let me feel small just because my body’s not. That is a tremendous gift, the gift of knowing the richness of thickness from my first days on earth.

The author, Caroline Randall Williams: “I have geographies in my body that refuse to let me feel small just because my body’s not.” (Photo courtesy of Caroline Williams)

So many of my friends did not, and do not, have this luxury. As I get older, that becomes more and more clear. The conversations around the beauty in and of blackness are exploding around us. Kerry Washington getting so real with Olivia’s curls in the shower. Viola Davis drawing back the curtain on the Annalise behind the lashes and the wig. Taraji P. Henson giving us all life in Cookie’s trench coat and garters. Gabourey Sidibe’s Becky absolutely owning her love scene with Derek Luke. Serena — well, Serena just being. Every one of these a firework. Every one of these a bright spray of color in the dark, a game-changing call to Formation.

I have never felt more welcomed to celebrate my body. I have never felt more excited to challenge my own self when I hear any little voice noting something it thinks is “out of order.” “Time to lose weight.” Why? “Arms too thick.” Says who? “Tummy used to be flat.” Yes. And?

Related: Alyssa Milano: ‘The Female Body Is the Perfect Machine’

My mother and I did not write our healthy soul food cookbook, Soul Food Love, to help us get thin. We wrote it to tell the story of the women who have come before us, and we wrote it to reclaim, proclaim, and acclaim our commitment to our health. My great grandmother Alberta lived large and she lived long. I want to be like her. I want adventures and babies and, God knows, I’m wishing for all kinds of success, and I want a body that can get me there and a body that can last as long as all that good joy does.

I’m living in the real cold again for the first time in a long time — since college, actually. And I am not the same size that I was when I bought all my lovely winter things, my wool coats and long pants, my sweaters and warm leggings. At first, pulling these items out, I despaired. I couldn’t believe the work I had ahead of me, to get back into these things that used to fit. And then I took a long, hard beat. I said, Wait a minute. I said, Look at yourself. I said, You are healthy, and you are good at what you do. Buy some new damn clothes.

Related: How Beauty Standards Have Changed Over the Years

Some days I fail myself. I work out wishing wishes that belie self-love. I think about (and sometimes do) eat things that defeat me, whether that means something unhealthy because I feel like giving up, or something that is not enough because I think my body is too much. But more often, lately, I am winning this fight. My baked sweet potatoes and roasted peanuts, my steamed chicken and broccoli, my visits to the gym — they are acts of celebrating what I’m working with now, and they are acts of hope for my future. They are not wishes for something else, for some other body I am hoping will emerge from the one I’ve got. Inhabiting the truth of this is an act of will. Choose not to blame yourself or shame yourself.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t set goals. I’m saying set them in the right spirit. Start from a place of love for the body you’re in. Start from a place of admiration for the will you wield in power. I am working hard on loving my body and feeding it well. My body, black like it is, and thick like it is, curly-headed and strong like it is. I am excited about the things it will be and places it will take me. It is honest, tough work. It is also good, and right, and I invite you to do it with me.

Read This Next: Model Iskra Lawrence’s Guide to Loving Your Body

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Have a personal health story to share? We want to hear it. Tell us at YHTrueStories@yahoo.com.

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Yoga Teacher Kathryn Budig on How to Love Your Body

Kathryn’s strong arms hold her steady during yoga poses. (Photo: kathrynbudig.com)

International yoga teacher Kathryn Budig is known for her ability to make yoga accessible and playful through her teaching and writings. Below are excerpts from her new book Aim True: Love Your Body, Eat Without Fear, Nourish Your Spirit, Discover True Balance, out in March 2016 but available to preorder now. (Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.)

A strong body comes in all different shapes, forms, colors, and sizes. I know this, as I teach and see thousands of different body types, all capable of amazing and strong postures and transitions. Most people struggle with some aspect of their body image — whether they openly admit it or not. I’ve struggled myself on and off for years, and have learned so much through the highs and lows. I’m a yoga teacher living in the midst of the health world, who doesn’t possess the typical “yoga body.” I’m not tall, long, and lean. I’m five-foot-two, incredibly driven and strong, and possess a body that isn’t prone to getting super lean. Honestly, I feel like I would have thrived in the Botticelli era but seem to be short a time machine, so I love myself as I am in this current time and place.

I’ve always been praised for my “normal” body. In fact, my first big photo spread in a mainstream magazine was given to me because of that. The photo shoot was focusing on several challenging arm balances, which I happened to be particularly good at. These yoga postures required ample strength, and they loved the fact that I could do these postures with a smile on my face. A compliment is a compliment, and I’ll always accept one with a receptive “thank you,” but what is a normal body, anyway? I was 24 at the time; I practiced yoga for two hours a day and ate incredibly clean — I can’t say that’s the most normal of lifestyles, yet it was mine at the time. People kept commenting on how normal and real I was. I said my thank-yous, but thought, Wow. Good thing I work out as much as I do, and eat as well as I do, or my “normal” body would be a train wreck.

Related: What’s in My Gym Bag: International Yoga Teacher Kathryn Budig

Flash forward to my 30s: I don’t have the luxury to practice daily for two hours, and still eat clean but have learned how to find a good balance in life. My current popular compliment is “You’re so brave! I love that you’re the curvy girl in yoga! It’s so great to see a person who clearly likes to eat! Wow, I love that you’re OK with showing your belly.”

Brave? I thought brave people battled monsters, not posed to be photographed having fun in a bikini.

It can feel virtually impossible to peacefully exist when the world is constantly throwing out labels — curvy, skinny, slender, athletic, round, normal, etc. Some people are praised for being thin, then called anorexic the next moment, while others are being celebrated as “real,” then critiqued for being too big. 

People love to judge, and there’s an unfortunate power in labeling another person, as it seems to take some of the pressure off of the person delivering the slam. “If I can find flaws in you, it alleviates the flaws in me.” It might make someone temporarily feel better to pick out what’s “wrong” with someone else (think gossip magazines and all the fashion faux pas), but ultimately it’s a way of deflecting pain instead of dealing with your real emotions about yourself.

So what can we do? Start simple and stop labeling each other. Things like pant size, hair color, and body type hold no weight over the bigger picture. Drop the judgments and see people for their character and energy they give off into the world. Challenge yourself to let up on the judging of others so you can get to what really matters — learning to accept and love yourself as you are.

Watch: How Kathryn Budig makes an immune-boosting essential oils blend

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Raw Chocolate Instant Energy Treats

Text and Photography reproduced by permission of DK, a division of Penguin Random House, from Energy Bites (2016).

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How to Make Quinoa Maki Rolls

Quinoa is a great alternative to rice; it is gluten-free, high in protein, fiber, antioxidants and must-have minerals including magnesium, manganese and copper.

Makes 24

Ingredients:

1 avocado juice of ½ lime 1/3 cup quinoa 2 tsp cider vinegar 1 tsp wasabi paste, plus more to serve (optional) 4 nori sheets 1 red bell pepper, finely sliced 3/8-inch slice of gingerroot, peeled and finely sliced 2-inch piece of cucumber, sliced into matchsticks 1 small carrot, peeled and sliced into matchsticks gluten-free tamari, to serve (optional)

Instructions:

Peel and pit the avocado, finely slice the flesh, and sprinkle with the lime juice, tossing gently to coat to prevent discoloration.

Cook the quinoa in boiling water for eight to 10 minutes, until softened but still with a little bite. Drain. Sprinkle over the vinegar, stir it in evenly (and add the wasabi if you want, though you can add it to the filling), and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.

When the quinoa is completely cool, lay a sheet of nori out on a sushi rolling mat or cutting board with a long edge facing you. Spoon one-quarter of the quinoa onto the sheet and spread out, leaving a ¾-in [2-cm] gap along the edge furthest from you. Lay out one-quarter of the pepper, ginger, cucumber, carrot, and avocado in a line across the center of the nori sheet (along its length) and spoon over ¼ tsp wasabi paste, if you didn’t mix it into the quinoa earlier.

Roll the sheet up tightly away from you, using the mat to help, to form a cylinder. Roll in plastic wrap and chill until required. Repeat with the remaining nori sheets and filling. Cut each into six equal rolls with a very sharp knife, to serve. Serve with a dish of tamari, or wasabi, or both, if you like, for dipping.

Excerpted from COOK YOURSELF YOUNG: Improve Your Skin & Hair, Sleep Better, Look & Feel Younger With 100 Easy Recipes by Elizabeth Peyton-Jones by arrangement with Quadrille Publishing, distributed by Chronicle Books, Copyright © 2016 by Elizabeth Peyton-Jones.

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Eating Fat Does Not Make You Fat

It’s time for us to rethink the way we view fat. (Photo: Yahoo Health/iStock)

Mark Hyman, MD, is a functional medicine doctor and best-selling author of 12 books. He is also the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, the Pritzker Foundation Chair in Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, the chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine, and the founder of The UltraWellness Center. Below is an excerpt from his latest book, EAT FAT, GET THIN.

If you believe that all calories are created equal (and you now know they definitively are not), then it stands to reason that you’d also be quick to demonize fat and blame it for weight gain. It seems like simple math: If fat has more than twice as many calories per gram as carbs or protein, then if you eat less fat, you will eat fewer calories and lose weight. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Unfortunately it just doesn’t work out that way for many reasons.

That all calories are the same in terms of effects on your weight and metabolism is one of the most persistent myths in medicine today. They are the same in a laboratory, when you burn them in a vacuum. But not when you eat them. New public policies require restaurants to list the calorie content of each dish, and food companies to label calories per serving in large, bold type. But this is the wrong strategy, because it implies that only calories matter. The truth is that different calories affect your gene expression, hormones, brain chemistry, immune system, metabolism, and even your gut flora differently. While it is helpful to track calories in processed and fast food (because they can be so loaded with bad calories) — it can deter you from eating that 1,200-calorie meal— if you eat real food, you don’t need to track calories.

Metabolism is not a math problem. It’s not about balancing “energy” or calories in and calories out. If it were, and you ate an additional 100 calories a day, which is about a big bite of food, after a year you would gain ten pounds. After a decade you would gain one hundred pounds. This just doesn’t happen. Even if you were the world record holder in calorie counting, you couldn’t get the math right to control your weight.

That’s why weight and metabolism are not math problems. The quality of the food you eat matters much more than the quantity. If food were only about calories, it wouldn’t matter what specific foods you ate, as long as you kept below a certain number of calories. But it does. Why?

Food is not just a source of energy or calories. Food is information. It contains instructions that affect every biological function of your body. It is the stuff that controls everything. Food affects the expression of your genes (determining which ones get triggered to cause or prevent disease) and influences your hormones, brain chemistry, immune system, gut flora, and metabolism at every level. It works fast, in real time with every bite. This is the groundbreaking science of nutrigenomics.

The whole idea that a calorie is a calorie is finally being intensely studied by the Nutrition Science Initiative, 1 headed by Dr. Peter Attia and Gary Taubes (author of Good Calories, Bad Calories). The institute is funding rigorous and larger studies by the world’s best researchers to answer this question once and for all and quiet the naysayers— of which there are still many, despite adequate evidence. They are even enlisting scientists who disagree with their hypothesis that all calories are not equal so those scientists can prove themselves wrong.

This is not a new idea. Nutrition expert Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, CNS, the former director of nutrition at the renowned low-fat, high-carb Pritikin Longevity Center, was the first in the country to write about the importance of fats in her bestselling Beyond Pritikin, released in 1988. For years, she has been a pioneer and the lone voice in promoting the importance of the right fats. She identified the flaws in the science back then and, in thirty of her books that followed, implored us to eat more fat. Sadly, we ignored her prescient advice.

Related: The 20 Best Full-Fat Foods for Weight Loss

More and more scientists are confirming that calories coming from fat are better for weight loss and improving metabolism. Kevin Hall, from the National Institutes of Health, has found that in a metabolic ward where every ounce of food and every movement and every calorie burned are carefully measured, those who ate more fat calories (compared to an identical number of calories from carbs) burned more than 100 additional calories a day. Over a year that amounts to a ten-pound weight loss. He also reported that in studies of brain imaging and function, eating more fat shuts off the hunger and craving centers of the brain. It seems that the brain matters most in terms of controlling food intake, taste preferences, and metabolism. And that dietary fat can positively impact the whole calorie-burning process.

WHY WE OVEREAT

Most of us assume that overeating makes us gain weight. That sounds like a reasonable assumption, right? But in a brilliant paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard professor Dr. David Ludwig lays out the case for a very different view of obesity and metabolism.

He says, simply, that we have it backwards. It is not eating more and exercising less that makes you fat, but being fat that makes you eat more and exercise less. Essentially your fat cells “get hungry” and drive you to overeat. He describes this process in detail in his book Always Hungry? When you are overweight, your hormones and brain chemistry make you hungry and tired.

Related: 5 Delicious Recipes Made With Healthy Fats

This turns all our thinking about weight gain upside down and contradicts every single established recommendation for weight loss. Rather than focus on calories and quantity, Dr. Ludwig suggests we focus on quality and the composition of our diet (amount and type of protein, fat, and carbs) to allow the body’s natural intelligence to regulate hunger, activity, metabolism, and weight. Forget about willpower— use science to cut your hunger, give you energy, and speed up your metabolism!

Here’s how this plays out in your biology.

First, when you try to restrict calories and exercise more, your body is hardwired to perceive a starvation situation. That makes you tired (so you move less and conserve energy) and hungry (so you eat more), and it slows down your metabolism (so you don’t die!). This “eat less, exercise more” formula is not too successful for most people. It can work for a short time, certainly, but less than 10 percent of people lose weight and keep it off for a year; you will almost always rebound and gain back the weight.

Second, when you eat carbs and sugar, insulin spikes and your blood sugar drops. The insulin drives most of the available fuel in your bloodstream into fat cells, especially the fat cells around your middle, otherwise known as belly fat. So your body is starved of fuel, and this stimulates your brain5 to make you eat more. You could have a year’s worth of stored energy in your fat tissue and yet feel like you are starving.

The only thing that can stop this vicious cycle is eating a lot of fat and cutting out the refined carbs and sugar. A high-fat, low-carb diet leads to a faster metabolism and sustained weight loss.

EAT FAT, GET THIN excerpt courtesy Little, Brown and Company. Copyright © 2016 by Mark Hyman, MD

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Zika Tests For Pregnant Women Being Shipped to Health Departments Across U.S.

A medical research works on results of tests for various diseases, including Zika, at the Gorgas Memorial laboratory Panama City on Feb. 5. (Photo: AP/Arnulfo Franco)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is shipping Zika virus tests for pregnant women to health departments around the country, but warning there could be temporary shortages, as travelers try to tell if they returned with an infection that could put a developing baby at risk.

Health officials don't expect widespread transmission of the mosquito-borne virus in the continental United States, but said Thursday that Puerto Rico is especially vulnerable. They asked for emergency funding from Congress to battle an outbreak that is quickly spreading through Latin America.

"We may see rapid spread through the island and we need to respond urgently," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a Senate appropriations subcommittee.

The Zika virus is suspected of causing a rare but potentially devastating birth defect, an abnormally small head, which can indicate underlying brain damage. Brazil has reported an apparent increase in cases of that defect, called microcephaly, as Zika exploded in that country, although scientists haven't definitively proven the link.

"With each passing day the evidence that Zika is causally related gets stronger," Frieden said. "Even in this week, the data that's come out makes it look very much like this is a virus that's what we call neurotropic — it targets the nerve cells."

Related: Study Highlights Zika's Devastating Spread to Fetus

His agency last month found the Zika virus in the brain tissue of two dead newborns from Brazil and in placentas from two miscarriages. On Wednesday, European researchers caring for a woman who returned there from Brazil reported a post-abortion autopsy that found the virus in her fetus' severely damaged brain — one a fraction of the proper size and lacking the usual crinkly folds.

If someone is actively infected, the CDC has a test that diagnoses Zika fairly well. But most people experience no symptoms or very mild one, and the antibody test used to tell afterward if they were infected isn't very accurate. It might reflect prior infection with related viruses instead.

The CDC is urging pregnant women or those trying to become pregnant not to travel to Zika-affected areas. But if they already did, the CDC is telling doctors to test the women for Zika between two weeks and 12 weeks after they return. Those thought to have been infected then could undergo ultrasound scans to monitor fetal development.

Frieden said the agency has shipped 62,000 of those Zika tests for pregnant women to health departments and is working on more but "there may be a period of weeks or a couple of months where there aren't enough tests for the women who want to have them done."

Related: Brazil and University of Texas Reach Deal on Zika Vaccine

How long after Zika exposure is it safe to get pregnant? Asked by lawmakers, Frieden responded, "If this behaves as other viruses behave, there would be no risk to the next pregnancy after some period of a month or so, but we don't know that for sure."

The Obama administration has asked Congress for $1.8 billion in emergency funding to fight Zika at home and abroad, including mosquito eradication, study of the microcephaly link and developing a vaccine. "We are stretched," Frieden said, telling lawmakers the money is needed fast, within weeks.

Asked if health officials couldn't instead use unspent money that Congress allocated for Ebola in West Africa, Frieden said those remaining dollars are committed to ensuring the remnants of that outbreak are stamped out.

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said later Thursday that the House would act on the Zika spending request, though he said Republicans would search for spending cuts elsewhere in the budget to cover the cost and would "scrub" it for unnecessary items.

"We do anticipate some kind of bipartisan action on this because this  ...  is a problem we want to get ahead of," Ryan said.

What Is the Zika Virus?

More on the Zika virus on Yahoo Health:

Is the Zika Virus Contagious?

Zika Virus Symptoms: What Are They?

Do Pregnant Women in the U.S. Need to Worry About Zika Virus?

What to Know About the Zika Virus If You’re Trying to Get Pregnant

U.S. Issues Treatment Guidelines for Infants Exposed to Zika

10 Essential Facts About the Zika Virus

What Happens When Countries Without Abortion Advise Against Pregnancy?

Can Brazil ‘Zika-Proof’ in Time for the Olympics?

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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15 Science-Backed Ways to Make Any Workout Feel Easier

(Photo: Stocksy)

Some days, working out really does feel like work. Your legs are heavy, every breath feels more like a gasp and you have the uncanny suspicion that your next rep is going to be your last.

But here's the research-backed fact: Exercising doesn't have to feel so hard. Here are 15 tips to make every workout – from running and weight lifting to yoga and cycling – feel so much easier. Plus, the easier your workouts become, the more benefits you'll reap – and without any extra sweat.

1. Craft the Perfect Playlist

And invest in a smartphone armband if you don't already have one. In a 2015 study from McMaster University in Canada, when researchers had people perform high-intensity interval workouts they didn't feel their workout getting any harder when they were also listening to their favorite songs. When they went sans tunes, they had no such illusions. In a previous Northwestern University study, researchers found that more bass equals more feelings of power and control.

2. Exercise With Others

Workout buddies and classes are about way more than accountability. It turns out, people have double the pain tolerance (and double the endorphin boost!) when they perform workouts together versus solo, according to Oxford University research.

3. Keep Your Eyes Straight Ahead

On runs, walks and bike rides, it can be tempting to look around and take in the sights, but according to one 2014 New York University study of walkers, it's in your best interest to narrow your gaze. In the study, researchers found that people who looked straight ahead while walking a course thought the finish line was 28 percent closer and walked 23 percent faster than those who let their eyes wander. They also said the workout felt easier.

4. Drink Some Java  

Caffeine can do more than get you through a 3 p.m. slump. In one Appetite study, cyclists who downed caffeine an hour before taking the saddle ranked their workouts as being less difficult and more pleasurable compared to the non-caffeinated riders.

5. Change the Way You Think About Pain

No pain, no gain? Not quite. In a 2015 PLoS One study, researchers found that changing how you think about side stitches and muscle fatigue changes how much they hurt. For instance, by thinking "this is the feeling of my body changing," your workout will feel less, well, painful than if you just think, "this is hard!"

6. Look in the Mirror

It's about more than vanity: If you watch yourself as you bop along on the treadmill, you'll do a better job at sticking to your own gait pattern, expend less mental energy and feel like every step is just a little bit easier than if you look at other things like a weight stack or fitness poster, per one Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise experiment.

7. Eat Some Beets

Whether whole or in juice form, beets contain nitrates to help more blood and oxygen reach your muscles with every breath. In one study from the University of Exeter in the U.K., when people drank half a liter of the red stuff two and a half hours before a workout, they needed less oxygen to power their workouts and were able to run or bike 15 to 20 percent longer before tuckering out. What gives?

8. Cool Down Before You Warm Up

Downing an icy beverage before you work out can boost how long and hard you can exercise before hitting "the wall," especially when you're sweating it out in hot and humid temps, per 2016 research in Gait Posture. A previous study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found wearing frozen undies also does the trick. Yikes!

Related: 7 Exercises That Trainers Wouldn't Be Caught Dead Doing

9. Down a Sports Drink

Sports drinks are part physical, part mental. While in one 2015 Nutrients study the carbs and electrolytes in sports drinks fueled people to help them run 16 percent longer before they zonked out, a previous Psychology of Sport and Exercise study found that just looking at a sports drink or water bottle made people feel like they could exercise longer.

10. Get a Light-Emitting Alarm Clock

Waking up to bright light does more than help you drag yourself out of bed in the morning. According to 2014 research from the University College London, exposing your eyes to light 30 minutes before your alarm goes off and throughout the morning hours helps increase oxygen flow to your muscles, boosting physical performance big time.

11 . Time it Right

Some of us are morning people. Others, not so much. Know which one you are. You'll perceive any workout to be easier if you perform it during your own peak hours, suggests 2014 research from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Related: Dietary Guidelines Do-Over

12. Have a Pre-Workout Snack

Have you decided you're a morning workout person? Don't leave your front door before you've eaten something. Exercising in a fasted state (not having eaten within a couple of hours) makes workouts feel so much tougher, per 2014 research in Sport Sciences for Health. Plus, it makes you get less out of every rep.

13. Take a Warm Bath

Forget the ice baths. Soaking in a hot bath after each workout isn't just more enjoyable, it makes subsequent workouts, especially in the heat, feel easier, per 2015 research from Bangor University in the U.K.

14. Check Your Iron Levels

Iron does the body good. In one University of Melbourne study looking at women of reproductive age, those who increased their iron intake were able to exercise more efficiently and with a lower heart rate. That was especially true when it came to women who had been iron-deficient or anemic.

15. Get Better Sleep

Exercise makes it easier to sleep, sure. But sleep makes exercise even easier. It turns out, the longer it takes you to fall asleep and the less time you spend snoozing tonight, the less time you’ll spend at the gym before you’ve just got to call it quits, according to research in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Read This Next: 7 Diet Mistakes Sabotaging Your Weight Loss

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The Surprisingly Simple Way to Anti-Age Your Whole Body

Building strength is only one way to stay young. (Photo: Getty Images)

Dr. Frank Lipman is a pioneer and internationally recognized expert in the fields of integrative and functional medicine. He is the founder and director of Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City. Below is an excerpt from his latest book, 10 Reasons You Feel Old and Get Fat.

When you think about exercise, what first comes to mind?

Most people, I think, start by thinking about the muscles. But what about the parts of our body that lie between the muscles, connecting muscle to muscle, muscle to bone, and bone to bone? The tendons, ligaments, and particularly the fascia are of crucial importance to health and well-being — and yet they are often ignored, even by physicians, trainers, and exercise gurus.

What’s Between Your Muscles?

Fascia (pronounced FASH-ya): bands of soft tissue that are fused with your bones, muscles, tendons, nerves, blood vessels, and organs. Superficial fascia lie close to the surface — just below your skin. Deep fascia lie farther down. You need soft, supple fascia to allow your muscles to move easily, but as you age — and especially if you have had injuries, haven’t been active, or haven’t stretched properly — your fascia tend to stiffen up. When your fascia aren’t doing their job, you can develop adhesions: tight places where tissues that should be separated by fascia have fused. Injury can create adhesions. So can inflammation. And so can chronic stress. As a result, you feel stiff, inflexible, off-balance, and sometimes in pain. 

Tendons: tough cords that attach your muscles to your bones. Your muscles communicate with your brain via your nervous system, so if you want to move, you move your muscles — which then rely on your tendons to transmit power to your bones. Tendons can easily become inflamed, producing the painful condition known as tendonitis. The diet, supplement, and lifestyle suggestions described throughout this book can help heal and prevent tendonitis by reducing inflammation. Exercise also has key anti-inflammatory benefits.

Ligaments: tough tissue that connects bones directly to other bones. By holding your bones in place, they support your joints. Healthy ligaments are crucial for preventing sprains, strains, aches, and pains. To prevent straining the ligaments, it’s essential to keep the muscles, tendons, and fascia in shape.

As a physician, I know how important these connectors — particularly the fascia — can be, which is one [reason] I actually think that flexibility is as important as strength, especially as we age. Don’t get me wrong: Strength is important. You want to have arms strong enough to lift a suitcase and legs strong enough to carry your body. But you also want to feel supple, flexible, and open to new experiences, because that sense of flexibility and openness is one of our best defenses against feeling old.

Related: Banish Stress and Tone Your Whole Body With a Foam Roller

Think about what happens when you feel stressed or upset. If you’re like most people, you tense up, usually in a characteristic place; you tighten that part of your body over and over and over again. Perhaps when you’d like to snap back at your boss or get into a familiar argument with your spouse, you restrain yourself— and tense your jaw. Perhaps when a family member starts a familiar complaint or round of teasing, you brace yourself— and hunch your shoulders. Perhaps when you think about the long round of errands and obligations that awaits you before you’ve even gotten out of bed, you try to rouse yourself— and tighten your back. Repeat those movements hundreds and thousands of times over the years, without ever doing yoga, massage, acupuncture, or even gentle stretching to loosen and open the affected areas, and by the time you’re in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, you might easily have developed a permanent ache, pain, or stiffness.

These insults to your fascia are exacerbated if you have a job that requires you to sit for long hours at a desk. Your soft tissue realigns to accommodate this habitual posture, sitting slumped and round shouldered. Your hamstrings — the muscles running down the backs of your legs — become shortened, which rounds your lumbar spine (your lower back), pulling your pelvis forward. Your shoulders roll forward too, and creep slowly up toward your ears. As you try to focus your eyes, your chin pokes forward, tightening the muscles and fascia at the base of your skull. 

By the time you reach middle age, what’s the result? You’ve got a chronically stiff neck, or perhaps a perpetually sore back. Your joints, worn out from the pressure, begin to ache. Your muscles don’t respond easily and vigorously — they stiffen as you try to bound up out of your chair, or fight you as you try to sink gracefully back down. 

As with the other conditions we have considered, stiffness, achiness, and loss of mobility are not the inevitable result of getting older. They result from a way of life, a sedentary life without the movement your body craves. Or, if you have indeed exercised vigorously your entire life, stiffness, aches, and pains are your body’s way of telling you that perhaps you neglected to stretch — perhaps you focused on the strength of your muscles, ignoring their flexibility and the suppleness of your fascia.

What Creates Tension, Adhesions, Aches, and Pains?

Keeping a muscle in a shortened position for a long time: sleeping in a bad position, sitting at a desk, sitting on a plane

Repetitive movement: typing, cradling a telephone, running with poor form

Lack of stretching

Unhealed or partially healed old injuries

Adhesions from surgery

Inflammation

Air conditioning or cold air

Viral illness

If stiffness and achiness are, in some sense, things we’ve done to ourselves, the good news is that we can undo them. By choosing to stretch and nurture our fascia, we can regain the youthful openness we might have thought was lost forever. 

Related: Sculpt a Ballet Body — Without Ever Touching a Barre

So many of my patients have greatly improved from these simple ways of freeing up the fascia and releasing muscular tension. Once you become aware of how your body holds tension, you can easily learn one of several techniques to release that tension. A habitual practice of releasing tension — through breathing, stretching, and/or yoga — will make a world of difference to your mind, body, and spirit. Your physical flexibility will nurture your mental flexibility so you won’t feel so “stiff-necked” and “braced” but will greet the world with more suppleness and grace. Instead of feeling old and stiff, you’ll feel vigorous, youthful, and open. That is the gift of movement.

How Stretching Keeps You From Feeling Old 

Less soreness because of the decrease in muscular tension: no more back pain, neck pain, or headaches

Increased flexibility: Stretching counters the gradual constriction you can suffer from overuse or underuse of different areas of your body

Fewer injuries: strains, sprains, tendonitis, muscle spasms

Faster recovery time from injuries

Greater body awareness

Mental and physical relaxation

Better performance at skilled tasks, including sports 

Better function in the nervous system: less anxiety, depression, brain fog, and fewer memory problems

Improved circulation: healthier heart and cardiovascular system

EXCERPTED FROM ‘10 REASONS YOU FEEL OLD AND GET FAT’ BY DR. FRANK LIPMAN, PUBLISHED BY HAY HOUSE (FEBRUARY 2016) AND AVAILABLE IN BOOKSTORES AND ONLINE AT WWW.HAYHOUSE.COM.

Read This Next: This Body-Boosting Secret Wards Off Colds, Puffy Eyes, and Excess Weight Gain

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Raw Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake

(Photo: Yuki Sigiura)

The best treat for anyone who’s gluten- or dairy-free, raw
 or vegan. It’s simply delicious and rich in nuts, vanilla and cinnamon... and so mood-enhancing and nutritious, too. But remember that sweet is sweet, so don’t eat the whole thing and expect to feel youthful! Small slices work best. 

SERVES 8

For the filling:

1 ¾ cups raw cashews 1 small zucchini, peeled ¼ cup raw cacao powder ¼ cup maple syrup (optional) 1 Tbsp vanilla powder, or seeds of 1½ vanilla beans ¼ tsp Himalayan or Celtic salt scant ¼ cup coconut oil, melted

For the crust:

2/3 cup almonds 2/3 cup hazelnuts 3 oz Medjool dates, pitted ½ tsp ground cinnamon (optional) 1½ Tbsp coconut oil

To decorate:

¾ cup strawberries pinch of black pepper 1 Tbsp cacao nibs

For the filling, soak the cashews for two hours, then drain.

Meanwhile, for the crust, blend the nuts and dates in a food processor, add the cinnamon and coconut oil, and blend until well combined. Line the bottom of an 8-inch springform cake pan with wax paper. Press the crust down evenly inside the pan so it is well compacted, then place in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up.

Return to the filling: chop the zucchini into four pieces. Blend the drained cashews until smooth, then add the zucchini, cacao, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt. Finally, mix in the melted coconut oil. Blend until smooth, then spread over the top of the crust. Return to the freezer and let set.

Take the cheesecake from the freezer 30 minutes before serving. Slice the strawberries, sprinkle them with the pepper to bring out the flavor, then arrange them on top of the cheesecake, and sprinkle over the cacao nibs.

Recipe originally from Cook Yourself Young by Elizabeth Peyton-Jones. 

[yahoohealthmag]

3 Tricks to Keep Your Avocado From Browning

(Photo: Getty Images)

There’s something so satisfying about slicing into a perfectly ripe avocado — the flesh buttery and pliant, but not mushy. Loaded with healthy fats and macronutrients, avocados make for a delicious and sustaining snack on their own, and take meals to the next level with their decadent creaminess and flavor. But the avocado is also a finicky fruit, its flesh oxidizing the moment it encounters air. If you’re merely looking for a few slices to ramp up your salad, you’re left with more than half an avocado destined for a sad, mushy brown fate.

While the only way to truly preserve an avocado’s peak ripeness is to eat all of it on the spot, there are a handful of tricks to keep the green fruit relatively fresh.

Save the pit

You might be familiar with this one: When you halve an avocado, use the side without the pit first. Store the side with the pit still intact in the refrigerator for up to a day. Alternatively, if you’ve made guacamole or diced the avocado, store it in an airtight container along with the pit(s). Airtight containers are preferable to plastic bags or wrap, because, as the name suggests, they’re much better at keeping air out.

While this trick works well for short-term avocado storage, it’s not ideal for more than a few hours. The pit will keep the flesh it covers perfectly green because that portion is not exposed to air, but it won’t preserve much more than that. You can, of course, scrape off the slightly brown portions to reveal much greener avocado flesh beneath.

Related: 7 Reasons Why The Avocado Is Amazing

A slice of lemon

There are many iterations of the idea that some form of citric acid will help keep your avocados green, but one time-tested trick promises the best results. If you only need to keep your avocado fresh for a few hours — say, you’re prepping lunch for the office that morning — try cubing the avocado halves in a cross-hatch pattern (but don’t fully remove them from their skin). Take one or two slices of lemon and sandwich them between the two avocado halves. Wrap the avocado “sandwich” tightly so that it all sticks together.

Related: You Will Feel Sad When You Realize the Actual Serving Size of Avocado

Grab an onion

This unexpected combination is the best way to keep your avocado fresh for days. If you don’t plan on using the remnants of your avocado for more than a few hours, cut off a large chunk of onion and place it in an airtight container with the remaining avocado. Store the container in the fridge. While it’s not totally clear why the odd couple works so well together, The Kitchn suspects it has to do with the sulfur compounds released by the onion. Don’t worry about taste: The avocado keeps its characteristic flavor. This tip works for guacamole, too!

More from PaleoHacks:

The Best (and Healthiest) Way to Peel an Avocado

Easy Baked Avocado & Egg Recipe

28 Avocado Recipes You Can Make For Dinner

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The Meal-Time Trick to Improve Your Digestion

Tummy trouble? You can deal with your distress by tweaking how you eat.  (Photo: Getty Images)

Somewhere along the line, many of us develop poor eating habits: emotional eating, stress eating, mindless eating. Over time, these habits end up causing issues like moodiness, stomach aches, and excess weight. Also, many people end up taking over-the-counter meds to treat the body’s reaction to mindless overeating. These medications may have long-term consequences on your digestive system, especially when used frequently. I don’t advocate any of these types of “solutions”; they have negative side effects and can confuse and muddy our ability to understand what’s really going on in our bodies. Most importantly, most of these issues can be resolved without popping a pill.

For most of us, bad eating habits become a never-ending cycle of negative emotions that take up a huge amount of mental space. It goes like this: You hate yourself because you know you should be eating better and the fact that you’re not is your fault. You don’t think you have the willpower or strength to follow through on what you plan to do. So, you feel guilty, and in order to resolve that guilt, you turn to cookies or a bag of chips.

But here’s the truth: Lack of willpower is not the reason why you eat this way. The Food and Brand Lab is a research department at Cornell University that examines all the different elements that affect how much and which foods we eat. Their research is astounding. For instance, do you know that the color of your plate matters? It does! (Hint: Choose soothing colors like blue over yellow, as bright warm colors naturally stimulate appetite.) Cornell has tons of such studies, which all support the fact that our environment has a crazy amount of power over our eating habits. Another example, if a friend says something that stresses you out at dinner, you’re more likely to order the mac and cheese instead of the veggies and fish. When you consider the results of these studies, you might rethink those bad habits you’ve developed over time. They’re definitely not all your fault! 

So let’s end the blame game. It. Stops. Right. Here. OK?

Related: To Get Your Probiotics, Opt for This Over Pills

In one of those classic Sex and the City scenes that is imprinted in my brain, I fell in love with the image of Carrie Bradshaw standing in the kitchen of her stylish apartment, eating saltines with jelly (a college favorite of mine) as she flipped through fashion magazines, something she described as “Secret Single Behavior.” It seemed so glamorous to me; it was such a marker of the independent, cool, city girl. However, this is what we do, us on-the-go-gals: we stand and eat with one hand while texting with the other. Maybe you feel busy and important and in-demand (and you are!) when that phone lights up every minute, but let’s take a second to be present with ourselves and of course, our food.

HOW TO: MINDFUL EATING

So what to do? First, chew. Chew until your food is mush or liquid, and eat more slowly. Use your new chewing habit to slow it all down—the whole experience.

Next, it’s time to turn off the TV. It is way harder to know when you are full and satiated if you are wildly distracted as you eat (not to mention all the appetite-stimulating commercials and shows you wind up watching). When you eat with distractions, you wind up feeling as if you never ate at all. You tend to eat much faster and chew less. Practicing mindful eating is the best way to change those habits that no longer serve you and counteract the subconscious factors that get in the way of achieving your health and wellness goals. I know that the sheer mention of mindful eating usually results in an eye roll and probably a sigh. I thought that way too, before I learned what mindful eating truly was. Even after I became a health coach, I used to think I ate mindfully. I was wrong. The first time I really “got” mindful eating, I was at a retreat at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts, taking one of my continuing education programs for nutrition professionals. After I completed my own eye rolls and got to work, I realized how transformative an experience mindful eating can be. The teacher had us each take one almond in our hands. She instructed us to really look at it. What did we notice? How did it smell? How much could we observe before taking our first bites? I quickly realized how beautiful nature’s foods are. The striations in the almond, the lovely light brown color; this one little almond was a little piece of art.

Related: The 10 Healthiest Foods For Your Gut

Next, we tasted. Anything we noticed there? Was it smooth? Rough? How exactly could we describe the texture? And then finally, we chewed. What flavors did we immediately notice? What flavors did we notice after it was completely chewed until liquid? Were they different than what we noticed at first? It blew me away how sweet the almond tasted the more I chewed—something I never really noticed before. It had taken me 10 minutes to eat one almond. It was an experience I’ll never forget. The more I incorporated mindful eating into my routine in a natural, innate way, the easier it was for me to be happy and satisfied with so much less. 

Excerpted from Go With Your Gut by Robyn Youkilis, out now.

More Healthy Gut Tips:

1. Reach for yogurt or kefir — a recent study showed that certain strains of probiotics are more effective when taken in dairy form, versus supplement form —as long as you don’t have a lactose intolerance. 

2. Enzymes in your stomach break down the food you eat, but some studies show that your body produces fewer enzymes as you age. Taking a digestive enzyme, such as Enzymedica, with meals can support your body’s natural digestion. 

3. Try adding miso to homemade soups in place of table salt. It’ll add a subtle, earthy flavor, plus natural probiotics.

4. Take the 21-Day Chewing Challenge to break the habit of scarfing down food. Your belly will thank you.

Read This Next: How To Stock a Probiotic Pantry