Food for Thought from Creators Syndicate

Foods by the Decade for 02/11/2012

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Last week on ABC's "The Chew," we celebrated a decade each day, starting with the 1950s on Monday and ending with the '90s on Friday.

Our aim was to conjure nostalgia and celebrate the famous foods of each decade, giving our viewers inspiration to revisit favorite lost recipes and remember how their lives were shaped by the specific food, fashion and entertainment of each perio ...

Updated: Sat Feb 11, 2012

Cookie Wisdom for 02/04/2012

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Whenever I go to Chinese restaurants, I find myself unusually drawn to the pithy one-liners that pop from my fortune cookies. Typically, I'm not a very superstitious person, but I like guessing at what "Expect the unexpected" might be referencing or how I should "Be ready for a surprise windfall."

I find them particularly compelling because — unlike horoscopes, ...

Updated: Sat Feb 04, 2012

A Whole New You for 01/28/2012

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

With the end of my three-week cleanse in sight, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on why any of us should bother to take inventory and do a little cleansing — in mind, body or spirit — every now and then.

I'm a firm believer in treating the person as a whole rather than as any one specific condition or isolated area of struggle. For instance, my own weight loss success onl ...

Updated: Sat Jan 28, 2012

Cleansing Bad Habits for 01/21/2012

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Week two of my time on the Whole Living 21-day cleanse is wrapping up, and I am 8 pounds lighter, with eyes whiter and skin clearer, energy renewed through better sleep and purer food for fuel, and a positively outrageous permanent smile plastered to my face that is part sinful pride at having stuck with it this long (a record for me!) and part uncontrollable giddiness at how much better I feel ...

Updated: Sat Jan 21, 2012

Cleanse House for 01/14/2012

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

As some of you may know, I committed to doing the Whole Living 21-day cleanse starting this past Monday.

In short, I went from "allowing" myself to have at least a few bites of anything I wanted over the holidays — part of my commitment to a healthy lifestyle year-round is acknowledging that there are occasions when it is better to splurge on calories so as to incentivize ...

Updated: Sat Jan 14, 2012

'Will Power' to the Rescue for 01/07/2012

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

If you're like me, chances are you are only just settling back into normal life after the departure of the holidays. The nonstop traveling, socializing, cooking, eating, clinking, drinking and general merrymaking of the past two months finally have given way to a schedule that resembles normal life. And though I relished every minute of this euphoric time, I must say that I am very excited to g ...

Updated: Sat Jan 07, 2012

Some New Year's Resolutions You Actually Might Like (And Stick To) for 12/31/2011

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

With 2012 upon us, let's once and for all give up the idea of "resolutions" that are made to be broken in the first month and adopt a new strategy for self-improvement. Rather than resolve to torture ourselves with unrealistic goals (plenty of my old lists of New Year's resolutions featured "run five miles every weekday" and "never eat bread again" — vows nev ...

Updated: Sat Dec 31, 2011

Keep That Champagne Bubbly and Other Ways to Beat Holiday Stress for 12/24/2011

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Let's face it: The holidays are stressful. Heck, as I'm sitting here writing this column, my brain is churning over 15 other absolutely essential tasks — how many batches of cookie dough are left to make, how many presents do I still have to collect, who RSVPed for dinner Saturday — and I can feel the anxiety creeping up as I realize how few days remain to get everything done. Will ...

Updated: Sat Dec 24, 2011

Finding the Holiday Spirit for 12/17/2011

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

I find it slightly ironic how quickly a season that is meant to be about peace, love and gratefulness finds its way to the other end of the emotional spectrum, rife with stress, anger toward your neighbor (specifically the one who swiped the last cable-knit cashmere cardigan you'd been eyeing for your sister) and a constant feeling of inadequacy and unpreparedness.

The holiday season sta ...

Updated: Sat Dec 17, 2011

Your Holiday Party Survival Guide for 12/10/2011

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

As we settle in for what is sure to be a busy few weeks of holiday party-hopping, we can look forward to seeing old friends, singing our favorite holiday songs (some of us better than others) and enjoying our yearly quota of baked Brie and eggnog.

To the latter point, holiday parties — drenched in sugary booze and fattening finger foods as they tend to be — come bearing a dec ...

Updated: Sat Dec 10, 2011

Don't Come Undone: Last-Minute Gifts Everyone Will Love for 12/03/2011

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

I always have thought of myself as a fairly responsible, organized person. I did pretty well in school. I helped my mother raise my three younger siblings, and they turned out all right. I had a lot of pets, most of whom enjoyed long, happy lives.

The point is, I like to have a plan and I like to think of myself as sticking to that plan. Yet procrastination seems to have defined my life ...

Updated: Sat Dec 03, 2011

Rapunzel Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet for 11/26/2011

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

When I was growing up, the day I dreaded more than any other was not the first day of school or the visit to the dentist. I didn't scream when getting shots or fret over the bully on the playground. No, the thing that terrified me most in the entire world was getting a haircut.

In 25 years of trying, I have yet to leave a salon without feeling, well, heartbroken. They take it all from yo ...

Updated: Sat Nov 26, 2011

Guilt-Free Sweets for 11/19/2011

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

I'm a baker by nature — a lover of all things involving a disproportionate amount of butter and sugar and not very much of anything else. But as much as I love these wonderful treats, my big thing is indulging for a good cause.

By that I mean that when I choose to indulge in a delicious homemade cookie or my favorite kind of cake, I make sure those calories count. I savor every bit ...

Updated: Sat Nov 19, 2011

Why You Should Care About Genetically Modified Foods for 11/12/2011

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Throughout history, humans have relied on animals and plants for sustenance. Our bodies have developed to properly digest a large variety of these naturally occurring substances. The body understands how to excrete portions of a given food that might be hazardous to us, as well as to isolate the nutrients we need for health. These complex relationships evolved over tens of thousands of years &m ...

Updated: Sat Nov 12, 2011

For Long-Term Health, Swap Diet Soda for an Ice Cream Cone for 11/05/2011

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Last week on ABC's "The Chew," we did some health food myth blasting. It was especially exciting for me to be able to share these tidbits, because when I learned them, I realized I'd been depriving myself all along and for no good reason! Part of the fun of hanging around in the nutrition nerd pool is you start to realize how misleading advertising can be — and how easy it is to ...

Updated: Sat Nov 05, 2011

A Halloween Detox Plan for 10/29/2011

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This week, you may come down off an overwhelming sugar high after Halloween's "one for you, two for me" candy rule — which, by the way, is the reason I refuse to purchase any of the candies I personally love to enjoy; it is much easier for me to say no to Smarties and Necco Wafers than Baby Ruths and Butterfingers.

Besides the momentary thrill of gobbling your favorite bi ...

Updated: Sat Oct 29, 2011

Meat as a Treat for 10/22/2011

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Have you ever considered going vegetarian?

Whether out of concern for the horrible animal injustices that occur every day on factory farms, knowledge about the pollution these enterprises create or concern over the manifold health issues that might arise from eating a diet loaded with meat from animals that have been raised on genetically modified feed and loaded up with antibiotics and ...

Updated: Sat Oct 22, 2011

A Love (and Health) Affair With Chocolate for 10/15/2011

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

You probably have read how chocolate has been touted as an aphrodisiac, and certainly its wonderful taste is hard to resist, but recent studies done at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing have shown that dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa content or more) can actually lower your blood pressure, improve cell integrity and provide valuable antioxidants your body needs. Che ...

Updated: Sat Oct 15, 2011

Press-On Nails and Sheet Ghosts for 10/08/2011

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

For the past month, every time I have stepped out of my building and headed off to work, I have been greeted first by an eviscerated corpse and then by a slew of terrifying killer clowns and finally a rotating swing of demonic zombie babies. My own personal nightmare exists as the horrific vision erected in the storefront of the latest Halloween superstore.

Whatever happened to sheet gho ...

Updated: Sat Oct 08, 2011

Let Them Drink Superfood Smoothies for 10/01/2011

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

With one week of ABC's "The Chew" behind us, I've been loving every minute of learning what it is like to create a live television show. We were so lucky to have Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Paula Deen stop by to share some of their favorite food memories, and my dad, Dr. Oz, dropped in Sept. 26 to taste my superfood breakfast smoothie. (He also casually mentioned that I looked like ...

Updated: Sat Oct 01, 2011