LiveWell Vermont

Why should we eat and buy local foods? Fresh food tastes really, REALLY good. Foods that don’t travel long distances can be bred for best taste, not for traits like durability that help them ship well. Buying food within your community is a way to learn about the farms and farmers who produce it. Local food is an investment in your region’s working landscape Local food can reduce energy demands, from the equipment used in the fields to transportation to the amount of packaging. Local farmers carry on their region’s food traditions, including through raising heirloom varieties of products that are not commonly found in the commercial marketplace. Buying local food keeps money in the local economy. Anyone interested in where their food comes from will find that eating local food is a great way to learn about every meal! Eating 100% local makes us break our normal mealtime routines and look more closely at the food around us. 100% local meals unlock the creative cook inside...

Stress stemming for the workplace is a common and costly problem in America, leaving too many hard working individuals unscathed. It seems pretty much everyone has some form of stress these days.  A recent survey, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, noted that for those working 12 hours a day, there was a 37% increase in risk of illness and injury in comparison to those who work fewer hours. A study done by Northwestern National Life, reports that one-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives. A St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. study concluded that problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than any other life stressor, even financial or family problems. Sometimes it feels as though stress in the workplace is hitting you from all angles. We all have both internal and external pressures - both of which result in decreased job satisfaction, reduced productivity, and increased...

Morning, midday or midnight — when’s the best time to work out? Well, that depends on when’s the best time for you . “The best time of the day is when you will do it most consistently, because the benefits of physical activity are tightly linked to the amount you do on a consistent basis,” said Russell Pate, M.D., professor of exercise science in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbus. Your best time is based on a the following factors: location, time of day, type of physical activity and social setting, among others. “It’s not just what time, but what activity, with whom and where,” said Pate, who is also an American Heart Association volunteer. “This mix of factors for people come together to result in being consistent.” Remember - Everybody’s Different “Different people will have different preferences and predispositions with regard to how they respond to exercise at different times of the day,” Pate said. For exampl...

Food of the Month: Arugula Spring is certainly in the air, so I thought it would be helpful to highlight a wonderful and tasty vegetable you can grow in a pot without a lot of work - we have enough of that, right! Arugula is a dark green leafy vegetable with various names including rocket, roquette, rucola, eruca, or rocket salad. It grows well in a mild, cool springtime setting with some sun. Haven't heard of it? Well, you may only have come across arugula as one of the many irregularly shaped green leaves in a prepackaged salad mix you find in the grocery store. More recently, packages or bunches of arugula have become more available for purchase. Nutrition Facts for Arugula 1 cup of raw arugula contains: Calories: 5 kcal Fat: 0.1 g Carbohydrates: 0.7 g Protein: 0.5 g Fiber: 0.3 g Glycemic Index (GI): Low As you can see, arugula is a very low-calorie vegetable that is also high in Vitamin K and a good source of Vitamin A. More recently, it has ...