Elizabeth Banks fertility and fitness

From the new movie, Man on the Ledge, Elizabeth Banks looks lovely on the cover of Lucky magazine, on stands now. On the right, Elizabeth portrays a pregnant woman in the poster for her upcoming movie, What to Expect When You're Expecting. The 38-year-old actress got married to Max Handelman at the age of 18 but couldn't get pregnant for the longest time because of fertility issues. "The one true hurdle I've faced in my life is that I have a broken belly," Banks said last March. "After years of trying to get pregnant, exploring the range of fertility treatments, all unsuccessful, our journey led to gestational surrogacy." With gestational surrogacy, Elizabeth and Max conceived their baby boy Felix using another woman's uterus.

ELizabeth tells Lucky mag: "It's a big leap, inviting this person into your life to do this amazing, important thing for you. And it's hard losing that kind of control. But our surrogate is so extraordinary, and she's still in our lives. She's like an auntie." On screen Banks has played pregnant women a number of times, and tells whattoexpect why she thinks she keeps getting such roles: "I hope people want me to be a pregnant woman because they think I'll make a great mom (laughs). I think I look a very, like a, sweet approachable mom...that's my hope anyway. Because the other side is that people like knocking me up!"



Actors Chace Crawford, Elizabeth Banks, and Paula Patton, workout together for the launch of 'The Sport Of Fitness Has Arrived' campaign in New York City on January 26, 2012. This fitness campaign is sponsored by Reebok in partnership with CrossFit, a strength and conditioning program. As for her own fitness, Elizabeth believes in more outdoor activities than hitting the gym. "To catch up with a girlfriend, rather than sit and have coffee for an hour, we'll hike in Topanga Canyon," Banks told Self magazine in November 2010. "I rarely go by myself because it's such a perfect way to exercise and be social at the same time. Doing that so easily is one of the things that's great about Los Angeles."

For her diet Elizabeth talked to ThePostGame.com about how she stayed in great shape: "I work out with our trainer, Jocelynne Boschen of Alpha Sport LA, hike a lot, and eat healthy. I love cooking so prepare a lot of my own food and avoid processed foods. No fast food. No soda."

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Caffeine affects estrogen levels in young women

Drinking excessive coffee, more than two cups a day, has always been known to be bad for health. It increases the risk of heart disease and certain cancers, and can also make cellulite worse. A study published in the August 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology found that pregnant women who drank more than two cups of coffee every day increased their risk of miscarriage and premature birth.

Now another study on more than 250 young women (aged 18 to 44), examined them one to three times a week over two menstrual cycles, while drinking one cup (90 milligrams) or more of coffee every day. Published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition the results show that excessive caffeine (200 milligrams or more) elevated estrogen levels in women of Asian and Black ethnicities, but lowered estrogen levels in Caucasian women. While the study is looking more at how caffeine is metabolized by different genetic groups, it makes sense to limit coffee consumption to one cup a day and substitute it with something like tea at other times in the day.

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Flexitarians are healthy and happy

Flexitarians are people who mostly eat a plant based diet and occasionally eat animal products. A recent article in The National explores this trend in healthy eating:

In 2003, the American Dialect Association declared flexitarian its most useful word of the year, defining it as "a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat". Registered dietitian and the author of The Flexitarian Diet, Dawn Jackson Blatner, elaborates further: "Flexitarian is the combination of two words: flexible and vegetarian. This is an eating style for someone who wants to eat a mostly plant-based diet - and get the health benefits - without having to be 100 per cent strict with the rules. It's an eating philosophy that is pro-plants, not anti-meat."

It does make sense. When you commit to vegetarianism or go to the extreme of becoming a vegan, for ethical, environmental, or health reasons, it doesn't always work out in certain real life situations. Suppose there is a shortage of fresh fruit, vegetables, mushrooms, and no whole grains or pulses.....would you then eat pasta, pizza, pies, cakes, just because they don't contain animal products? If you do that then you'll turn into a FAT vegetarian because these things are all made from refined flour.

At the other extreme are people who eat meat everyday. All the studies show that this habit is the leading cause of heart disease and hypertension, not to mention obesity. Such people would be leading a more healthy and happy life if they added more fresh fruit, veggies, and whole grains to their diet. A Gallup survey on the eating habits of British people in 1988 revealed that only 5.5 per cent of the population avoided red meat. Twenty years later the number of people reducing the amount of meat they eat, rose to as much as 45 per cent!

Over in the United States, data from the USDA shows that Americans will consume 12.2 per cent less meat and poultry in 2012 that they did in 2007. This rising movement of flexitarians includes people who are including more healthy eating options into their daily diet. It creates a middle ground where the obvious health benefits of plant-based diets can marry the practical necessity of sometimes eating animal products. Reducing the amount of meat, and not cutting it out altogether, does reduce the burden on the environment and the cruelty inflicted on animals.

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