Zig Ziglar Dies

Zig Ziglar speaks at the Get Motivated Seminar at Staples Center in 2004. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / October 26, 2004)

Zig Ziglar died Wednesday at age 86, a deep-voiced motivational speaker whose clever way with words inspired millions to stop looking for shortcuts to success -- and instead earn it the old-fashioned way by rolling up their sleeves and getting to work.
"Zig Ziglar" was a trending term on Twitter, Yahoo and Google today, social media outlets that were unfathomable when a young Ziglar returned from World War II and landed a job in sales.
It was on the job that Ziglar developed a curiosity about human nature -- What made a man tick? Why did some succeed where others failed? -- that ultimately led to a thriving career in motivational speaking.


Ziglar's speaking career came later in life, something that no doubt added to his appeal to many Americans who felt that after a certain age there was nothing to do but give up. Ziglar's first book, "See You at the Top," was published in 1975 when he was 49.

He would go on to rub elbows with U.S. presidents and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, according to the Associated Press. 
Ziglar's personal assistant told the Associated Press that Ziglar was suffering from pneumonia when he passed away at a hospital in the Dallas suburb of Plano.
A devout Christian, Ziglar credited his faith and his red-headed wife, Jean, with much of his success. The couple had celebrated their 66th "honeymoon" on Monday. (Watch the video below to find out why Ziglar and his chose to celebrate "honeymoons" instead of anniversaries, and his sweet little joke about his wife's hair color.)
To today's audiences, Ziglar's words might seem kitschy and a little bit corny, or involved wordplay. Among them: "Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street" and "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."
But it was that same easy-to-remember, home-spun simplicity that caught on with people including rapper-actor L.L. Cool J and social media guru Jeff Bullas, and prompted many to tweet their sadness at Ziglar's death and pass along their favorite Ziglarisms. 
What follows are just a few of the Zig Ziglar-inspired Tweets, Facebook postings and YouTube videos being shared online today:

Sleepy Brains Drawn to Junk Food

SUNDAY, June 10, 2012 (Health.com) — As any college student or shift worker will tell you, staying up all night or even just skimping on sleep can lead a person to seek out satisfying, calorie-packed foods.
An emerging body of research suggests that sleep-related hunger and food cravings, which may contribute to weight gain, are fuelled in part by certain gut hormones involved in appetite. But our brain, and not just our belly, may play a role as well.
According to two small studies presented today at a meeting of sleep researchers in Boston, sleep deprivation appears to increase activity in areas of the brain that seek out pleasure—including that provided by junk food. To make matters worse, sleepiness also may dampen activity in other brain regions that usually serve as a brake on this type of craving.
In one of the studies, researchers at Columbia University used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which tracks blood flow in the brain, to compare brain activity in 25 volunteers following a normal night’s sleep (about eight hours) and a night in which they were limited to just four hours.


In each case, the researchers performed the scans while showing the volunteers images of unhealthy foods interspersed with healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and oatmeal. Brain networks associated with craving and reward were more active when the participants were sleep-deprived than when they were well-rested—especially when the participants viewed the images of unhealthy foods.
“The pleasure-seeking parts of the brain were stimulated after an individual was sleep-deprived,” says lead researcher Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Ph.D., a research associate at the university’s New York Obesity Research Center. “People went for foods like pepperoni pizza, cheeseburgers, and cake.”
St-Onge and other researchers working in this field suspect that tired people gravitate to high-calorie foods because their bodies and brains are seeking an extra energy boost to help them get through the day. “We hypothesize that the restricted-sleep brain reacts to food stimuli as though it [were] food deprived,” St-Onge says.
Previous studies have established a link between sleep deprivation and obesity, although it remains unclear how sleep might affect weight gain (or vice versa). In an effort to unravel the relationship, researchers have begun exploring how insufficient sleep influences hormones and appetite. Several recent studies—including one led by St-Onge—have found that people who are sleep deprived tend to snack more and consume more calories.
Hunger and cravings may not be the only factors, however. A second study presented today suggests that so-called higher-order brain functions—those that help up us weigh pros and cons and make complex choices, including about what we eat—may be compromised by a lack of sleep.

Immune-System Test May Predict Early Death

MONDAY, June 4, 2012 (Health.com) — A blood test that measures a marker of immune-system activity may help doctors identify people who are at risk of dying at an early age, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic measured levels of the immune-system molecules known as free light chains in 15,859 Minnesotans age 50 and up, and found that people whose levels were in the top 10% were four times more likely than the other study participants to die over the next 13 years.
Doctors commonly test for free light chains to diagnose and manage blood disorders and blood-related cancers, such as multiple myeloma or lymphoma. This study, which was published this week in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, is the first to link high levels of free light chains with earlier death in a group of people without any known blood disorders.
Normally, light chains bind with so-called heavy chains to form infection-fighting antibodies. The presence of unattached “free” light chains has long been recognized as a signal that the immune system has gone awry, either due to inflammation, infection, or both, says lead author Vincent Rajkumar, M.D., a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn.


Elevated free light chain levels have been observed in people with kidney dysfunction, and are also seen in autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Even after the researchers took into account the kidney function, age, and gender of the participants, however, those with the highest free light chain levels were still twice as likely as their peers to die during the study.
Free light chain levels appeared to be equally effective at predicting death from many different causes, including cancer, heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes.
It’s not clear from the findings why, exactly, free light chains are linked to a higher risk of early death. High levels could be a marker of inflammation, which is associated with heart disease and numerous other health problems. But it’s also possible they’re a sign of normal, age-related deterioration of the immune system, the study notes.
And it’s still unclear how this test might be useful in generally healthy people. For now, Rajkumar and his colleagues urge doctors not to use the test as a screening instrument, as that will simply serve to alarm patients.
On the other hand, Rajkumar says, if doctors order the test for a specific reason and it comes back high, they may want to use that information to test for additional problems that could then be treated. “It might be telling you something you might be missing,” he says.
Neil Blumberg, M.D., a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, N.Y., says he’s skeptical that free light chain tests are more powerful than existing tests that measure immune-system function or markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein.
The study authors didn’t compare the free light chain test with these other tests, Blumberg points out, and it “may not measure anything that we don’t get with white cell count or C-reactive protein or 15 other tests which are cheaper and easier to do.”
Besides, Blumberg says, if a person’s test results were to come back sky-high, the advice for preventing an early death would likely be what patients hear from their doctors already. “We really don’t need any more tests to tell us we ought to lose weight, exercise, [and] eat a less pro-inflammatory diet,” he says.

5 Surprising Things You Don’t Have to Buy Organic

Avocados

By Sara Reistad-Long
You’re pretty safe with fruits and vegetables like avocados, which have a thick skin that you don’t eat. Just remember to wash the peel before cutting into them to get rid of any residue.

Eggs

Chickens as a rule are not given growth hormones. And research has shown that factory eggs don’t have higher quantities of contaminants than organic eggs.

Frozen food in plastic bags

The risk of leached chemicals is heightened by heat, and frozen produce is, well, as cold as ice. As long as you’re not boiling in the bag, the chance of ingesting harmful chemicals from these is low.

Spices

"Even when you’re using spices liberally, you’re consuming such small amounts of each that the risk is minimal," says Sonya Lunder, senior analyst at the EWG

Clothing

While there’s no question that organic cotton is excellent for the environment, the benefits it has on your personal health are unclear—it’s unlikely that pesticides remain in clothing in quantities large enough to seep into our bodies. The one possible exception is clothing treated with flame retardants (the label will tell you if that’s the case).

Diet Doctors Gone Wrong

Dan Saelinger

When we seek out an MD, we believe we're in the care of someone who has received extensive training and is ethically bound to "do no harm." But what we may not realize is that the financial realities of modern medicine are leading some physicians to tout untested, unnecessary, or potentially dangerous cures. In this three-part series, Health examines the specialties most vulnerable to these unscrupulous doctors.
Mary Lynn Adams just wanted to lose some weight while her husband was deployed in Afghanistan. "I wanted to look good by the time he got back," says Adams, a 28-year-old homemaker in Tennessee. She found a diet doctor last December after reading a flyer that came in the mail. The doctor checked her height (5 feet 7 inches), weight (238 pounds), and blood pressure, and did some basic blood work including testing her cholesterol levels. Although Adams had high blood pressure (145/95), the doctor recommended that she start the prescription appetite suppressant phentermine—a drug not recommended for patients with high blood pressure because, as a stimulant, it may increase blood pressure even more. "He explained to me that the risks of my being overweight were worse than the risks of having high blood pressure," Adams says. The drug definitely curbed her appetite—"I felt sick just looking at food," she says—but she also noticed her heart was racing. A month later, her blood pressure was up to 150/100. Her doctor cut her dose in half, but Adams decided to stop taking the drug. She's now working with a personal trainer, who she says is benefiting her more than the medicine.
Many women assume that any weight-loss treatment prescribed by a doctor must be safe—certainly safer than sketchy supplements or weird crash diets. But the truth is that some doctors are pushing the limits of what's medically acceptable, prescribing drugs that may put their patients' safety at risk or offering treatments that aren't proven to work. "The field is ripe for abuse because there are a lot of desperate people out there trying to lose weight and a few doctors who just want to make some fast money," says Rhonda Hamilton, MD, MPH, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and medical coordinator of Bariatric Quality at Winchester Hospital in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Home >> Food & Recipes >> Recipes >> Cider-Roasted Chicken

Cider-Roasted Chicken

Becky Luigart-Stayner; Jan Gautro

Ingredients

• 3 quarts water
• 1 quart apple cider
• 1/4 cupkosher salt
• 1 tablespoonblack peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (6-pound) roasting chicken
• 2 cupsapple cider
• 1 large onion, peeled and halved
• 4 flat-leaf parsley sprigs
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled

Preparation

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring until salt dissolves. Remove from heat; cool completely. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Rinse chicken with cold water; pat dry. Trim excess fat. Pour brine into a 2-gallon zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken; seal. Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight, turning the bag occasionally.
Preheat oven to 400°.
Bring 2 cups cider to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until cider has thickened and reduced to 1/4 cup (about 15 minutes). Set aside.
Remove chicken from bag; discard brine. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Place the onion halves, parsley, and garlic into cavity. Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under chicken. Tie legs. Place chicken on rack of a broiler pan. Bake at 400° for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until thermometer registers 175°. Remove from oven (do not turn oven off). Carefully remove and discard skin. Baste chicken with half of reduced cider; return to 400° oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; baste with remaining cider reduction. Transfer chicken to a platter.
Place a zip-top plastic bag inside a 2-cup glass measure. Pour drippings into bag; let stand 10 minutes (fat will rise to the top). Seal bag; carefully snip off 1 bottom corner of bag. Drain drippings into a small bowl, stopping before fat layer reaches opening; discard fat. Serve jus over chicken.

9 Summer Drinks From Bethenny Frankel

Cool down, guilt-free

By Alyssa Sparacino
Nothing says summer more than dining alfresco. And who can really relax on the porch, mingle at a barbecue, or lounge poolside without a little something to sip on? These nine drinks from Skinnygirl Bethenny Frankel—some with alcohol and some without—will leave your thirst quenched and your weight in check. Cheers to that!

Sangria

Bethenny’s version of the classic wine-based cocktail uses soda, rather than sugary syrups or liqueurs. The fizz adds a new element to the fruity drink without adding major calories.

American Virgin

Sans alcohol, this citrusy drink clocks in at a mere 34 calories per glass! It’s soda, juice, and lemonade combined to create one ridiculously refreshing cooler that’s perfect for your next family picnic.

Berry-Good Smoothie

Your post-workout snack just got tastier. Choose your favorite berries: Strawberries contain potassium, which can lower blood pressure; blueberries add fiber and vitamin C to your diet; and raspberries are loaded with antioxidants.

Blend with a few more add-ins and ice and you’ll be berry, berry satisfied.

Skinnygirl Margarita

The drink that started it all for Bethenny is just as satisfying as the tried-and-truly-fattening original. Sit back and relax, knowing your diet is still on track with this slimmed-down version of a summer favorite.

Tequila Berry Blast

You might call this a cousin of the famous Skinnygirl Margarita. Switch things up with cranberry instead of lime juice and you’ll have the perfect cocktail for a backyard dinner party.

Mint Mojito

Thanks to its expert use of muddled mint, the mojito could quite possibly be the most refreshing summer drink ever. Unfortunately, restaurant versions could cost you a few hundred calories. Bethenny’s, at just 150, really hits the spot!

Piña Colada

Bethenny knows that where there’s a tropical drink, the beach (and bathing suits) can’t be far. That’s why her version of a frosty piña colada treat is made with coconut milk, not high-calorie cream of coconut.

Green Tea Lemonade

The lightest drink on Bethenny’s list, this combination is as healthy for you as it is delicious.

Black-Eyed Susan

Indulge in this mixture of rum, juice, and soda, and you might find yourself transported to a breezy ocean somewhere—or at least make it easier to pretend.