wellness - ClaimLinx

Autumn Health Tips From ClaimLinx

by ClaimLinxNovember 15, 201916 Comments

Colder weather is here, and the leaves are changing colors in the throes of autumn. ClaimLinx is ready to celebrate the harvest, Thanksgiving, and upcoming winter holidays. In today’s blog, ClaimLinx discusses autumn wellness tips to keep you and your family healthy as the year comes to a close.

Boost Your Immune System

Fall time means allergies, colds, and flu. Boost your immune system by eating healthier with more fruits and vegetables loaded with vitamins and minerals. Wash your hands more often and carry plenty of hand sanitizer with you to prevent the spread of germs. Since you might wash your hands more often during flu season, invest in a bottle of quality hand lotion for softer skin. Support your immune system by drinking plenty of water and getting seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

Maintain Food Safety

Fall time means Halloween, Thanksgiving, holiday parties, and plenty of delicious food. Maintain food safety practices by cooking food thoroughly and to the correct temperatures, and keep food prep surfaces clean to prevent cross-contamination. ClaimLinx believes food safety is an important part of ensuring healthy and enjoyable family gatherings.

Head Outside

Fall brings gorgeous scenery thanks to beautiful leaves. Entire hillsides sing with red, orange, yellow, and brown hues during autumn. Bring out the warmer clothing before taking a hike, jog, bike ride, or drive to enjoy the signs of the season. Getting more sunlight during the fall increases your vitamin D, which improves your mood and helps your body function properly.

Maintain a Routine

Your routine faces several challenges in the fall months. Kids have sports practice, school recitals, and teacher-parent conferences. Family members might come in from out of town, or you might travel for the holidays. Children also have days off of school for holidays. All of these events could end up disrupting your healthy daily routine.

Maintain your routine by planning for healthy living in advance. Prep meals on the weekends, maintain a regular sleep schedule, find time for fun activities, and get the kids in bed at the right hour every night. Even when Daylight Savings Time ends, you can still keep the same routine despite less sunlight during the day. ClaimLinx expects that a regular routine makes you healthier and more productive in everything you do.

Fall Health and ClaimLinx

Our fall health tips will help you and your family stay strong during cooler months. We utilize a holistic strategy, called the ClaimLinx Simple Option Solution, to save businesses money on health insurance. Contact ClaimLinx or call (800) 858-1772 for more information.

Enroll Employees in Stress Less Workshops

by ClaimLinxAugust 24, 2017December 4, 2019Leave a comment

Having an energetic and effective staff isn’t always just about providing good health insurance benefits.

At ClaimLinx, we have seen even our own employees health and productivity affected by the stress of their work. That’s why this year we had each of our employees attend a Ritemind Stress Less Workshop.

Through these private online sessions, our whole team learned how to identify and cope with stress in more productive ways, a vital tool as we all move into the busier season of Fall and the holidays.

We encourage all of our clients to use their savings to invest in employees through programs like these. Please see the information sheet about their sessions and the workshop.

If you have any questions about the program, please contact Laurie Althaus by email at laurie.a@stresslessworkshops.com or by phone at (513) 703-3891.

FDA Joins Modern Nutrition Thinking With Updates

by Whitney FaberMay 11, 2016December 3, 20191 Comment

Which afternoon snack do you think is healthier: a handful of almonds or a handful of Frosted Flakes?

According to the Food and Drug Administration’s current definition of the word “healthy,” you should grab the Frosted Flakes.

The agency announced this month that it will be reevaluating its regulations on which foods can be labeled “healthy,” as well as other nutrient claims, after decades of evolution in the field.

“Just because a food contains certain ingredients that are considered good for you, such as nuts or fruit, it does not mean that food can bear a ‘healthy’ nutrient claim,” FDA spokeswoman Lauren Kotwicki wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times.

Current food regulations reflect the more simplistic views from the 1980s and 1990s. As such, food can only be marketed as healthy if it meets five criteria: fat, saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol and beneficial nutrients, such as Vitamin C or Calcium.

When the term “healthy” was first officially defined in 1994, low fat content was the primary focus for health professionals. Sugar content, processed chemicals and sodium levels were not yet on the FDA’s or most nutritionists’ radar.

For this reason, foods like Kellogg Co.’s Frosted Flakes and Pop-Tarts and Campbell’s SpaghettiOs can be marketed as healthy. Though they are all still high in sugar and processed chemicals, they meet all the current criteria, as they are low in fat and are fortified with vitamins.

Meanwhile, foods like salmon, avocado and almonds could not be marketed as healthy under the current regulations, because of their high content of fat per serving.

Kind, makers of the fruit and nut bars, discovered firsthand how outdated the FDA’s regulations are when they received a warning letter to stop using the word healthy on its packaging. As most of Kind’s bars are made with almonds and other nuts, they do not meet the requirement for low fat content.

Kind has since petitioned the FDA to change the requirements and has received support from doctors, dietitians and lawmakers around the country.

“We very much hope the FDA will change the definition of healthy, so that you don’t end up in a silly situation where a toaster pastry or sugary cereal can be considered healthy and a piece of salmon or a bunch of almonds cannot,” Kind Chief Executive Daniel Lubetzky said in an interview.

Congress is pushing the FDA to make this issue a priority, as it affects how agricultural companies can market their products in the future. However, the process will still likely take several years.

If the FDA changes the definition, it will first propose updating the “healthy” definition, followed by a comment period for food makers and the public to submit their ideas and research what “healthy” means. Then the FDA will present its proposed rule change, followed by another comment period, the final rule and an implementation period to give food makers time to comply.

It would serve as a test case in a long list of necessary FDA regulation updates surrounding nutrition — changes many nutritionists agree are finally time to make.

New Cases Of Diabetes Finally Decline in the U.S.

by Whitney FaberDecember 3, 2015December 3, 2019Leave a comment

The message was clear: obesity and the resulting cases of diabetes were harming millions of Americans. Changes in lifestyle and eating habits had to be made.

And it appears many citizens actually listened.

Finally, after decades of what appeared to be an insurmountable number of reported cases, rates of diabetes in the United States have declined.

The number of new cases fell by about 20 percent from 2008 to 2014, according to research at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the first consistent drop since the disease started to explode in the country about 25 years ago.

The decline has been slow, so gradual over the years, in fact that the drop was not statistically meaningful until new data from 2014 was released. They showed there were 1.4 million new cases of diabetes in 2014, down from 1.7 million in 2008.

“It seems pretty clear that incidence rates have now actually started to drop,” Edward Gregg, a diabetes researcher for the CDC said to the New York Times. “Initially it was a little surprising because I had become so used to seeing increases everywhere we looked.”

Experts cannot yet confirm if the change can be attributed to the increased efforts to prevent diabetes or if the disease has peaked in the population. But the shift is consistent with recent progress reported in the overall health of Americans.

The amount of calories consumed daily by the typical American adult, which peaked around 2003, has declined consistently for the first time since federal statistics began tracking the information more than 40 years ago. Children are also consuming on average about 9 percent less calories per day.

For the first time since the late 1990s, the amount of full-calorie soft drinks Americans are consuming has declined by about a quarter. All of this has likely contributed to the marked halt in the rise of obesity rates for adults and school-aged children.

Americans will need to continue with these trends, as experts say the number of people with diabetes is still more than double what it was in the early 1990s.

“It’s not yet time to have a parade,” Dr. David M. Nathan, director of the Diabetes Center and Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, said to the New York Times. But he noted, “It has finally entered into the consciousness of our population that the sedentary lifestyle is a real problem, that increased body weight is a real problem.”

10 Tips For Staying Healthy During The Holiday Season

by Whitney FaberNovember 23, 2015December 3, 2019Leave a comment

Happy Thanksgiving from ClaimLinx!

The upcoming holidays are a wonderful time to relax, enjoy family and indulge in the traditional tasty foods of the season: spicy pumpkin pie, creamy mashed potatoes, sweet honey ham and cold creamy eggnog.

But it’s important not to indulge too much. Although the average weight gain during the holiday season is only one pound, statistics show most people do not lose that pound during the year. So that one pound can really add up year after year.

Keep the extra holiday weight off this year with these 10 tips from dieticians and nutritionists.

Make holiday treats year-round – Prevent some of the “last-chance” eating we all do during the holidays by setting dates to make holiday favorites during other parts of the year: green bean casserole in February, pumpkin pie in March.
Don’t be fooled – Many holiday foods seem healthy on concept, with ingredients like sweet potatoes, green beans and Brussels sprouts. But if vegetables are covered in cheese, butter or sugar, they’re no longer the healthy options. It’s important to treat these dishes like the indulgences they really are.
Break out the skinny jeans – Loose clothing, stretchy waistbands and relaxed fit sweaters encourage everyone to overeat. For your next party, squeeze into your skinniest jeans, from-fitting dress or slim-fit suit. You’ll look good and your outfit will be a subtle reminder not to indulge too much.
Catch those Zzzs – Busy holidays schedules, travel and all that shopping sometimes keep people from their regular sleeping schedules, but getting a consistent six to nine hours of sleep helps the body regulate hormones, recover from workouts and prevent sickness.
Detox after the season is done – Over time, our bodies adapt to “hyperpalatable” foods, those stuffed with fat, salt and sugar. By eating these foods, we erode the body’s ability to taste subtler flavors. When the holiday season is over this year, try going just seven days without these foods and your old taste buds will return.
Arrive for the party, not the food – Remember that the holiday season is more about socializing than eating. Try eating a lean meal before a party so that you are full when you arrive and you can enjoy others’ company.
Set down the fork – Next time you’re eating with friends or family, try setting your fork down after each bite. You will naturally slow down your eating and be more aware of when you are full.
Chug, chug, chug water – Don’t confuse hunger with thirst. You may continue to snack without ever feeling satisfied. Try drinking half your body weight in water, so if you weigh 140 pounds, drink 70 ounces of water.
Splurge on your loves, not your likes – Don’t pile your plate high with foods that don’t make your taste buds soar. Choose only foods that you truly enjoy. Most often, you won’t miss munching on the foods you don’t adore.
Set a treat day – The biggest mistake during the holidays is continuing the unhealthy habits. Be sure to keep your treats to only one day during the week.

For even more tips, read the article this information was taken from.