| Healthy Holiday Gift Guide 2007 |
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| by Charles Stuart Platkin | |
| Sunday, 25 November 2007 | |
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[ DietDetective.com Podcast: Listen to the podcast here and subscribe here free if you have iTunes ] [ To Download This Podcast as an MP3 file Right Click Here. Select "Save Target As" and Save on Your Desktop. ] Gift: Healthy “To Do’s” and Experimental Activities Why: Giving an experimental or experience-oriented gift such as healthful cooking or yoga classes is a great way to help someone get in shape and also have fun. Description: Examples such as healthful cooking classes, yoga instruction, personal training sessions, tennis lessons, private boxing instruction, golf lessons with a pro, surfing lessons with a world-renowned champion or rock climbing, to name a few. Health bonus: All those calories burned from the activities or saved from healthful cooking. Price: Varies per experience. For instance, a cooking class demonstration can be about $55. What we liked least: There’s nothing that pushes the person to use the gift. Where to buy: Go online and put a few key words such as your ZIP code, the activity and “lessons” into Yahoo.com or Google.com. Or try Signature Days, an experiential gift-giving company that offers more than 3,200 different experiences across the country and has something for every age, interest and budget. You can even give a “Trading Pass,” which allows your recipient to exchange the “experience,” if they don’t like what you gave them. Gift: Suunto Core and Suunto Lumi watches Why: These watches are stylish and also offer some great assets for any outdoor enthusiast. The theory is that if you look and feel like a physically active person, you have a higher chance of acting like a physically active person. Description: Suunto Core: What an amazingly “cool” watch. It has a compass, barometer, storm alarm (tells you if a storm is coming), altimeter, digital thermometer, sunrise and sunset times, alarm, dual time, stopwatch and a really fantastic design. Suunto Lumi is the first Suunto watch designed specifically for women. The funky, good-looking design disguises the high-tech machine on the inside. Health bonus: Hiking, walking, running, biking or swimming are all activities these two watches help inspire and make more interesting — all good for your health. What we liked least: It’s very difficult to program initially so that you can use all the functions. Price: Suunto Core, from $250, Suunto Lumi, from $300. Where to buy: http://www.rei.com/ Gift: Healthy Living Shirts, Aprons and Grocery Totes from the FoodTee Market Why: Wearing shirts, carrying totes and cooking in aprons printed with healthful fruits and vegetables and cute or funny sayings, helps keep you motivated. Plus, you’re setting an example and showing off your healthful lifestyle. And they’re really adorable. Description: Long- and short-sleeve shirts, as well as aprons and totes that let people express themselves through healthful food slogans (No Sugar Added, Locally Grown, Live Green, Stalker, Organic, Spicy, Bite Me, Grainiac, etc.). The women’s shirts are printed on American Apparel tees. They’re made for adults, children, toddlers and, yes, even babies. [FoodTees are affiliated with DietDetective.com.] What we liked least: They are only sold online, but shipping is free and there’s no tax. Health bonus: A portion of the profits is donated to three not-for-profits dedicated to promoting and educating people about healthful school lunches. Price: $15-$29. Where to buy: FoodTee.com Gift: Play With Your Food plate and mug set Why: If your children think eating healthfully is fun, they will eat more of the foods you want them to eat. Description: Kids spin a dial and eat a food from wherever the spinner lands. The game board is actually a plate, and the set also comes with a matching mug. The plate and mug are made of melamine and are dishwasher safe. What we liked least: For some reason we thought the game should also come with plastic “healthful” foods so kids could play during non-mealtimes. It’s made with melamine plastic, and cannot be used in a microwave. Health bonus: Your kids will associate fun with eating more healthful foods. Price: $14.99. Where to buy: www.daydreamtoy.com Gift: Black & Decker FC150R Infrawave Speed Cooking Countertop Oven Why: Cooking healthful food can be very time-consuming. Description: Using infrared light waves, the Black & Decker Infrawave Speed Oven produces chef-quality taste at microwave oven-like speed. Whether the food is fresh or frozen, the Infrawave Oven bakes, broils, roasts, toasts, sears, browns and reheats up to 50 percent faster than a traditional oven. No defrosting or preheating time necessary. What we liked least: It’s a bit pricy compared to your average toaster-oven or microwave. Health Bonus: Eating out can be entertaining; however, restaurant food is generally higher in calories and saturated fat and lower in fiber and nutrients such as calcium than home-prepared foods. Price: $149.95. Where to buy: www.amazon.com, www.buyinfrawave.com Gift: Home Blood Pressure Testing Omron’s HEM-790IT Why: With a touch of a button you can monitor your blood pressure. High blood pressure — sometimes called the “silent killer”— affects more than 72 million Americans. If left untreated, it can lead to numerous life-threatening conditions, including heart disease, stroke and kidney failure (the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 9 causes of death in the United States). Being able to check your blood pressure and resting heart rate with the touch of a button could save your life. And it’s actually fun to use. Description: The monitor, which comes with a comfortable cuff, is very easy to use and detects both morning hypertension and irregular heartbeat. The software will help keep track of your progress to better blood pressure health. Health bonus: Morning hypertension is an important predictor of increased risk for stroke. What we liked least: It’s a bit pricy, and a few of the “extra” features were not intuitive to use. Price: $89.99. Where to buy: www.amazon.com Gift: TasteBook (http://www.tastebook.com) Why: This is just a sensational gift for anyone who cooks and eats healthfully. We tested it and were very impressed. It’s perfect for anyone who is not sure which recipes are healthful or how to get recipes that include their favorite ingredients. You pick recipes from your own collection or from the more than 25,000 recipes on Epicurious.com and create a personalized hardcover cookbook. TasteBook also offers “premixed” recipe books created by top cookbook authors and Epicurious editors. Description: You use a simple drag-and-drop interface to create a personal 100-recipe cookbook complete with customized covers. You can also add helpful hints, cooking tips and personal notes to any recipe. You can make the book and give it as a gift, or you can give a gift card and let the lucky recipient make his or her own. What we liked least: The site is still in beta mode, so it’s a tiny bit “buggy.” Health bonus: The biggest excuses for not cooking at home are lack of time and lack of ability. Having easy, healthful, tested recipes with the ingredients you love helps overcome these issues so that you’re more likely to get into the kitchen and start cooking healthy. Price: 100 recipes cost $34.95. Where to buy: www.tastebook.com Gift: Gaiam Everything Fits Retro Gym Bag & Akha Yoga Mat Backpack Why: If you know a yoga enthusiast (or someone who would like to be one), these stylish, useful gifts are designed to help them get excited about their next (or first) class. The backpack has a really interesting, multicolored design, and the gym bag is very functional. Description: The gym bag has a roomy interior with a zippered pocket, an elastic pocket and a key tether. A vented outside compartment can hold shoes, wet clothes or a towel. It includes an easy-reach outside pocket for a water bottle, inside and outside holsters for a cell phone and MP3 player, and bottom adjustable straps for your yoga mat. 18"L x 8½"W x 13"H. Green or black. And the Yoga backpack holds a yoga mat perfectly, has a multicolored design and a convenient drawstring opening. What we liked least: The gym bag is a bit stiff, and the shoulder straps are not adjustable. Health bonus: The backpack meets the Fair Trade Group requirements, and the gym bag is made from 100 percent recycled polyester with polyester mesh. Price: $60 for the gym bag; $39 for the backpack. Where to buy: www.gaiam.com Gift: Yoga Journal's Great Instructors 3-DVD Set Why: Yoga really does live up to its hype, and what better way to show you care? Give someone this great instructional DVD featuring some of the country’s leading experts, all compiled by the premier magazine Yoga Journal. Description: Includes three different approaches to Vinyasa, today’s most popular form of yoga: Baron Baptiste Foundations of Power Vinyasa Yoga, Seane Corn Yoga From the Heart, and Shiva Rea Free Flow Vinyasa. The 90-minute DVDs help you develop physical strength and flexibility as well as emotional balance and include in-depth interviews with each world-renowned instructor. What we liked least: Yoga is not always easy to do while following a DVD. Health bonus: Yoga incorporates strengthening, breathing, stretching and balance — it's a combination physical, mental and spiritual workout. Price: $49.99. Where to buy: www.yogajournal.com _____________________________________ CHARLES STUART PLATKIN is a nutrition and public health advocate, founder and editor of DietDetective.com, the health and fitness network and author of The Diet Detective's Calorie Bargain Bible (Simon & Schuster, 2007). Copyright 2007 by Charles Stuart Platkin. All rights reserved. Sign up for the free Diet Detective newsletter and iTunes podcast at www.DietDetective.com. Bookmark:            Trackback(0)
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 November 2007 ) |
We scoured the country to find interesting, healthful gifts for 2007 — including watches, DVDs, games, t-shirts, personalized cookbooks and more --- here they are.
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