Puppy Bowl VIII, I mean, Super Bowl XLVI Sunday is upon us! Whether you are cheering for New York or New England (or even if you’re just in it for the commercials) there is one thing that we can all agree on: good snacks are an absolute must. 

It may seem like a daunting task to whip up healthy snacks that will satisfy a houseful of hungry football fans, but rest assured, it is possible! We’ve put together this list of healthy Super Bowl recipes that are great alternatives to all of your favorite game day snacks and are guaranteed crowd pleasers!

If you like BBQ wings, try….

Baked BBQ Chicken Tenders

If you like French fries, try…

Butternut Squash Fries

If you like sliders, try…

Green Chili Turkey Burgers

If you like chili, try…

Tofu Chili with Black Beans

If you like potato chips, try…

Kale Chips

If you like vegetables with ranch dip, try…

Yogurt Dill Dip with Vegetables

If you like hummus, try…

Cumin Hummus

If you like pizza, try…

Deep-Dish Polenta Pizza

If you like trail mix, try…

Home Touch Trail Mix

If you like 7 layer dip, try…

Black Bean Salad

If you like artichoke dip, try…

Roasted Garlic Spread

If you like nachos, try…

Loaded Healthy Nachos

If you like chips and guacamole, try…

Guacamole with Jicama Sticks

If you like chocolate chip cookies, try…

Peanutty, Chocolately, Coconutty, Popcorny, Sweet and Salty Cookies

If you like brownies, try…

Gluten-Free, Vegan Chocolate Chip Blondies

Now that you’re armed with snacks, you’re all ready to host a healthy Super Bowl for all your favorite football fans! 

Ah, Sacramento! California’s State Capitol, delta town, seat of the 19^th century gold rush, and the town where the Pacific Railroad began.  It’s also my old college town, a place where me and my friends spent our afternoons picking sour Seville oranges from the old trees lining downtown’s gorgeous streets (yes, harvesting is both legal and encouraged!), strolling in the camellia gardens at the Capitol, and scouting the perfect bowl of menudo in the hundreds of muy authentico Mexican restaurants that dot the area.

Located in Northern California’s fertile Central Valley, Sacramento is an agricultural powerhouse. The city itself is home to some of the biggest urban citrus groves in the nation. Past the city limits, farms dominate the landscape. Popular area crops include rice, all manner of nuts, vegetables, orchard fruits, berries, and melons. There are also wineries, cheese makers, beer brewers, marmalade makers (using the above mentioned Sevilles) and other food artisans. You can taste it all at any of the area’s farm-to-table restaurants that are so popular. Or, visit one of the local farmer’s markets, roadside produce stands, tasting rooms or pick-your-own farms.

But food isn’t all Sacramento has going for it. With its temperate climate and soft breeze—made possible by the surrounding Sacramento, American, and San Joaquin rivers— Sacramento is an outdoorsy town. Be prepared to cycle along some of the hundreds of miles of dedicated bike lanes, jog next to the one of the rivers, canoe or raft, swim, stroll through historic Old Town, ski in the nearby Sierras, hike through foothill nature preserves, or join one of the Frisbee or soccer games that are always being played in one of the hundreds of area parks.

Looking for healthy options in your town? Check out the rest of our healthy living guides!

Restaurants

	Sugar Plum Vegan Café 2315 K Street  This vegan cafe and bakery is home to some of Sacramento’s most beloved vegan dishes and baked goods! Sugar Plum is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—but we can’t get enough of their Sunday brunch menu! The Tofu Frittata and Hempy Blueberry Pancakes are simply outstanding.
	The Green Boheme 1825 Del Paso Boulevard The Green Boheme is a very popular spot among Sacramento’s health-minded community! They serve healthy, gluten free, raw, vegan dishes at their café; many with a delicious Asian flare. The café also hosts raw cooking demonstrations, food plans and raw food cleanses!

February is all about one thing: Love. Or as we like to call it: Vitamin L. This month we will be exploring the various relationships that not only help define who we are, but bring us closer to our happiest, healthiest selves!

Let’s start the series with a relationship that has been proven essential to our health and well-being: Friendship.

What would life be without our friends? Slightly lonely? Probably. Much less fun? I think so.

But could being friendless also affect your health? Several studies say yes.

In 2006, a study, involving 3,000 women diagnosed with cancer, was conducted to see what effect friendship had on cancer patients. Researchers found that women, who had 10 or more close friends were four times more likely to recover from the disease.

For most of our great-grandmothers, and for many women throughout the world still, giving birth at home was not a choice motivated by emotional, political, or moral conviction – it was simply the only option. Fast-forward to present-day United States, and most women are lucky enough to receive close medical supervision throughout their entire pregnancy and delivery. The vast majority of women give birth in hospitals with an OB/GYN, and throughout the 1990s, the number of home births steadily declined.

In an interesting reversal of trends, a new report from the CDC reveals that the rate of home births in the United States is now on the rise. Though the actual number is still proportionately very small – home births account for less than 1% of all births – the 30% jump between 2004 and 2009 is substantial.

So why the increase? The CDC data doesn’t say, but it seems to have a lot to do with growing concern about personal choice. Unlike our great-grandmothers, women in Western countries today do have options as to where and how they give birth, and there may be new factors making hospital births less attractive.

Here’s a powerful exercise to try: wherever you are, wherever you go, simply look at the people around you. According to recent findings from the American Heart Association, one third of everyone you see has high blood pressure.

Hypertension is not just for grandfathers any longer. A whopping one in three Americans now have it. According to the Centers for Disease Control, hypertension is now common in everyone from toddlers to college students to grandpas (and grandmas.)

Scary, right?

More commonly known as high blood pressure, the disease occurs when blood pumps too forcefully through blood vessels. The great push of blood stretches veins and arteries out of shape. The vessels then tear and develop scar tissue as they try to heal. These scars act like burrs, on which cholesterol gets caught and builds up. Another scenario: vessels tear and rupture, sending fast-flowing blood everywhere.  

Continuing down the Pacific Coast, our next stop is Portland, Oregon! I’m lucky enough to call Portland home and couldn’t be more excited to share some of my favorite healthy hangouts with all of you!

Recently, Portland has come to be known as quite the food town, and a healthy food town at that. It is truly a locavore’s paradise (see video at the end of this post!), with almost all of the popular and trendy restaurants serving only local, organic dishes.  In addition to the booming restaurant scene, Portlanders have taken their food obsession to the streets in the form of dozens of food cart pods littered around the city.

When we’re not eating in Portland, we’re out enjoying the natural beauty that is the state of Oregon. With the majestic Cascade Mountain Range only a short drive away in one direction and the Pacific Coast in the other – not to mention the miles and miles of forests, trails, rivers and lakes in between – there is never a shortage of outdoor activities in the area!

Now that I’ve (hopefully) successfully sold you on a trip to Portland, check out our list of healthy restaurants to try while you’re there. Can’t make it to Oregon? Check out our other Healthy Living Guides for recommendations in your area!

Restaurants

	Vita Café 3023 Northeast Alberta Vita Café is a long time Portland favorite, serving mostly vegetarian and vegan food, along with some all-natural, hormone-free meats and eggs, since 1999. All ingredients are organic and locally sourced from the Northwest. Everything on the menu is delicious, and as a bonus, kids eat for a buck every day from 5 to 7 pm!
	Blossoming Lotus 1713 Northeast 15th This café specializes in Asian-inspired cuisine with a vegan or live food twist. They are located on the Willamette River in Portland’s Irvington District, and are open for lunch, dinner and Sunday Brunch. All of the meals are nourishing and delicious, but we especially love the Live Pesto and Portobello Pizza!

Healthy diners, rejoice! A recent study released in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior proves that with a little education and a mindful approach, it is possible to maintain and even lose weight while eating out.

35 healthy women who ate out often were assigned to one of two groups: one that offered weekly sessions on education and mindful eating meditations, or one without any counseling. The first group learned about portion sizes, strategies to prevent weight gain in various types of restaurants, setting personal goals, and meditating to increase awareness of feeling hungry or full.

At the end of the six-week period, the women in the first group felt confident about achieving their goal to prevent weight gain, and many lost weight - an average of 3.7 pounds! The women even made some serious caloric cutbacks at home as well, proving that the education from the counseling sessions transformed their eating habits at every meal, not just the ones eaten out.

This study just further proves what we already know about the effectiveness of health coaching. Yet this issue remains a challenge for many, and we live in a culture where dining out is routine. We celebrate special occasions at fancy restaurants, the paper’s latest review urges us to try the pizza joint that just opened up, and business clients would prefer a nice dinner out rather than leftovers at your place.

Lost a few hours this weekend on Pinterest? You might jokingly call the site "addictive," but new studies suggest that you could be more right than you know.

The condition is called "Internet addiction disorder" (IAD), and we'll probably be hearing a lot more about it in the coming years. Even Deepak Chopra has weighed in on this 21st century problem.

While some doubt the existence of the disorder, research published in the science journal, PLoS ONE, suggests that obsessive Internet use can actually damage the brain, similar to alcohol or drug dependency. 

Brain scans of Internet-addicted participants showed reductions in their white matter, or the neuronal fiber pathways that connect parts of the brain together. Disruption of these pathways can negatively impact emotions, decision-making, and self-control. The study also suggested that if the addition continued, the changed brain structure would likely be permanent.

Sounds pretty scary, right? But there's no need to panic and toss out your "crackberry" just yet. True IAD means a person is literally unable to control their Internet use, at the expense of their lives and relationships. 

Most of us who kill and hour here and there on Etsy or Facebook are unlikely to undergo any permanent brain alteration. However, taking a technology time-out now and again is never a bad idea. You may even find it a relaxing change of pace.

Like Deepak says in the video, it's all about mindfulness when it comes to the Internet.

"Technology is not stoppable. That's the problem…. But what you can see is that when you practice mindfulness, you rewire the brain in a completely different direction."

Do you spend too much time surfing? What do you do to cut back on Internet dependency?

Recipes for green juices and smoothies are popping up all over the place and these beverages are slowly becoming a more mainstream approach to healthy eating and detoxing. One thing is for sure – green juices and smoothies are good for you. But is one better than the other? Here is a short comparison to help you learn the ins-and-outs of green beverages. Hopefully this will help you pick which is right for you!

Green Juice

What you need: Juicer, 1 to 2 pounds of your favorite green vegetables

Advantages: Juicing is great because it extracts all of the water and nutrients from vegetables, leaving behind only the plant fibers. This means your body is better able to absorb the nutrients without having to digest the dense bulk of the plant. Plus, you can fit an incredible quantity of vegetables into a single glass of green juice, leaving you with simple, smooth and delicious drink that packs an incredible nutritional punch!

Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables. I love everything about it – from its beautiful purple color to the way it so kindly absorbs the favor of whatever I decide to pair it with. Usually that’s tomato sauce and cheese. Since the classic dish eggplant parmesan isn’t exactly healthy, I’m always on the lookout for new ways to cook this pretty vegetable.

When I found this recipe on 2008 IIN grad Amie Valpone’s blog The Healthy Apple, I was elated! Not only does she use eggplant, but she also incorporates some of my favorite flavors – paprika and balsamic vinegar. If you love eggplant like me, definitely give this recipe a try! And don’t be afraid to switch up the flavors by using your favorite spices!

Eggplant Fries

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup green tea, brewed and chilled
• Juice of 1 fresh lemon
• 1/3 tsp. sea salt
• 5 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp. ground flax seeds