The very thought might send tremors of terror through your body, but studies show that the key to relieving stress is only a phone-call away -- to your mother. According to recent research, the sound of your mom's voice is just as good at helping ease a stressful situation as a hug, particularly for young girls.

To determine this, Dr. Seth D. Pollak, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his team exposed over 60 girls aged seven to 12 to a stressful situation -- giving a presentation or doing math problems in front of a class -- and then had them either visit with their mom, talk to their mom on the phone or watch a neutral movie.They then tested their levels of stress hormones and found that the girls who saw their moms or talked to them on the phone recovered from their stress much more quickly than the ones who didn't. What's more, the girls who had some sort of interaction with their mothers showed an increase in oxytocin levels, while those who didn't showed little or no increase.

Dear Sarah,

I joined my local gym a few months ago and while taking a step class the other day with my favourite instructor, who I thought was in her mid 20's (at the most), she announced that she had just celebrated her 35th birthday. I couldn't believe it! I am 38, how is it possible that she was almost the same age as me and looked ten years younger, was it all the exercise? Is it true that exercise makes you look younger?
Thanks,
Joyce

Dear Joyce,

Exercise can definitely make you look younger! While we don't have any control over our actual age (chronological age), we do have control over our biological age (how old we look and how healthy our bodies are). As time passes, your cells regenerate and your biological age is determined by how quickly (or slowly) this happens. The faster this happens the younger you appear. This regeneration process naturally slows down as your actual age goes up in number, fortunately exercise is one of the best tools to combat this process.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.


When we change our diet, cut our calories and begin a fitness plan, we typically alter our energy expenditure balance by taking in fewer calories than we burn. At the beginning, this imbalance is beneficial for fat loss, as the body taps into fat stores for fuel. But because our body prefers balance, it gradually adjusts by burning fewer calories in order to protect its reserves. This point is usually when our eating and exercise efforts stop producing the results we are looking for.

A weight loss plateau may occur because:

1. Your body simply needs a "rest" period to adapt to calorie-reduction.
2. Your current calorie intake may be in balance with your calorie expenditure.
3. You have reduced your calorie intake too much. Excess calorie cutting prompts your body to respond by slowing your metabolism to conserve calories. Note that you are also at risk of losing metabolically active muscle with excessive caloric restriction.
4. During weight loss, water is generated in the body as a normal part of fat metabolism. This process can lead to water-related weight gain.
5. A hormonal imbalance is interfering with your body's ability to burn fat.
6. For women, fluctuations of a few pounds may also be related to the menstrual cycle or water retention.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.

A good rest has always been called beauty sleep-but how about a lean body sleep? New research shows that individuals who are not sleep-deprived have an increased capacity to lose weight and keep it off.

Sleep reduces stress hormones, important for fat loss. Sufficient rest and recuperation effectively reduces our stress hormone, cortisol. When we are sleep-deprived, cortisol levels rise. Cortisol controls our appetite, often making us feel hungry even when we have eaten enough. It also raises blood sugar and insulin levels and results in increased fat deposition around the abdomen. To further complicate the situation, high cortisol can negatively affect our sleep patterns, making it difficult to fall or stay asleep when we finally do go to bed. This increase in stress hormones also has detrimental effects on other aspects of our endocrine system, like thyroid gland function which governs our metabolism.

While I was staying with my parents over the holidays I was chopping celery to go into a salad. My mom commented that she never buys celery since it has no food value. I stopped chopping and gawked at her. "What do you mean 'no food value'? Celery is loaded with nutrition".

My mom went on to explain that when she was younger it was widely propagated that celery was an "empty food". It was promoted as a good diet food because you actually netted negative calories by eating it. In other words, celery's calorie count is supposedly so low that you actually burn more calories through eating and digesting it than the veggie had in the first place. Sounds delicious.

Unfortunately, celery got this bum rap back in the 70s and 80s when people seemed to only judge a food by its calorie count, and it hasn't shaken it to this day. I'm sure many people out there are under the impression that celery is pretty useless unless you're trying to lose weight.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.

It's that time of day again or maybe that time of the month, when your craving for chocolate arises and nothing else will do. But with your New Year's resolution fresh in the works - what can you do about it?

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner will illustrate a health issue she commonly sees in her practice, and advise readers on how to remedy the problem as well as improve their overall health.

This week she discusses ten nutrition habits that will kick-start fat loss.



1. Consume lean protein at every meal and snack. If we fail to get enough protein in our diet, we can experience mood disorders, memory loss, increased appetite and cravings, decreased metabolism, sleep disruption, muscle loss and weight gain. Protein also packs a punch because it stimulates the activity of many of our fat-burning and appetite-controlling hormones when we consume it in the right amounts. Your serving should be the size and width of your palm (at least three times a day).

2. Enjoy low-glycemic carbohydrates and healthy fats at each meal and snack. Non-starchy vegetables should occupy two-thirds of your plate at lunch and dinner. Healthy fats are essential because they help us feel full and satisfied because of their effects on our appetite-controlling hormones that prevent cravings and actually help us to lose weight when we consume them in the right forms and amounts.