Over 300 Delectable Vegetable Recipes

Why Vegetable Juicing is So Good for You?

2009-11-07T12:39:00.001+07:00

It?s no secret that vegetables are good for you, so it stands to reason that vegetable juicing is one of the best things you can do for good health. Vegetable juicing provides your body with a very concentrated source of nutrients and enzymes, particularly when organic vegetables are used.

It also helps to detoxify your body and boost the immune system with high doses of vitamins and minerals that are easy to absorb. In order to get the most benefit from eating vegetables, it is best to eat them raw. Of course, it can be difficult to eat large quantities of raw vegetables, but drinking several glasses of vegetable juice daily is relatively easy. Veggies are generally lower in sugar and higher in nutrients and enzymes than fruits, so vegetable juicing is an especially good way to nourish the body especially when you are sick.

One of the most important results of giving your cells a healthy dose of vegetable juice is that it will help to maintain the pH balance of your body. An optimum pH level is essential for maintaining good health. The pH scale ranges from 1 to 14 with a measure of 1 being extremely acidic and a measure of 14 being extremely alkaline.

Ideal pH Level

The reason pH (or potential hydrogen) is important is that too often our cells become too acidic. The more acidic the cells are, the less able they are to transport oxygen throughout the body. In this regard, acid is toxic to the body?s cells. The ideal pH level is slightly alkaline, between 7 and 7.5. Unfortunately, the environment tends to contribute too much acid, making it difficult to maintain a healthy pH balance without a concerted effort to include more alkaline foods like vegetable juices in the diet.

Enzymes for Enhanced Digestion

As mentioned, vegetable juicing also provides a concentrated source of enzymes to aid digestion. Proper digestion is just as important as nutrient concentration, since undigested nutrients cannot be utilized by the body. Because the typical diet includes foods that are difficult for the body to digest, many people do not have enough digestive enzymes to break down foods and utilize nutrients.

But the good news is that with a few vegetable juice drinks a day, digestive enzymes can easily be replenished.

There is another very important advantage of juicing and, which helps you get the most out of what you eat thus having a positive effect on your overall health. To find out more and learn which are the best vegetables you can use to get maximum benefits visit, http://www.bestofjuicing.com/vegetablejuicing.html

Article written by Caroline White. To lean more about juicing, tips and techniques as well as popular juicers, visit: http://www.bestofjuicing.com

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Eating Close to Nature

2009-08-10T22:46:00.001+07:00

Recent findings have concluded that a majority of our illnesses; mental and physical, can be traced back to the way we eat. In two words: ?Junk Food?. Most people know this. So why do we do it to ourselves? Do we all have a long a painful death wish? Why?

I believe in a majority of cases this has to do with exposure to these foods throughout our lifetimes. They become habit. A habit that seems to be the most difficult to break as we have to eat, and they do seem most convenient in our fast paced world.

We are living in a ?throw away society? where our values seem to be forgotten. The best foods for our bodies are vegetables and fruits. How easy is that? They come without fancy expensive wrapping, they are environmentally friendly, people are not dying from consuming them over a course of years, and at the end of the week, they don?t leave piles of garbage and recycling at the end of your driveway.

However it is easier to drive up to a window and mindlessly stuff a fried burger down your cake hole, and drive away with no thought or dishes to clean up.

Our bodies seemingly take on the role of garbage can, all because of convenience and the constant media push.

Very similar to drugs or alcohol, Junk Food becomes habitual. The solution sounds easy enough ?eat close to nature?. You need five to ten servings each day of fruits and vegetables. It takes a little bit of time to prepare your own meals but once you get used to it, you start turning your nose down to all those packaged foods. Once you get back to a natural way of eating, then you can start to be picky about organic foods including meats. Here is a very easy recipe for a healthy meal.

Enjoy!

Chef?s Veggie Burger

1 cup mushrooms and onions

1/2 cup corn and peas

1/2 cup diced peppers

1 cup cooked wild rice

1 cup cooked brown long grain rice

whole wheat bread crumbs

4 eggs; egg beater equivalent

cornstarch

pepper

garlic

olive oil

Saute vegetable and rice together and season to taste. Brown, then place in bowl. Add liquid egg and mix thoroughly. Dust with bread crumbs and cornstarch until a very thick burger like consistency. Season with pepper and garlic to taste. If you like fresh herbs, you can add them too. Form into patties about 1/2″ thick and grill or pan fry them (with little oil in the pan) in a nonstick pan. Add tomatoes, lettuce, onions and whatever other condiments you like.

Kate Woods is an athlete, a mother of three, and an award winning entrepreneur. She resides in Canada. Her web page is http://optimumhealth.blogodyne.com

Dark Green Leafy Vegetables And Dark Red Fruits Help Prevent Skin Cancer

2009-05-18T18:40:00.000+07:00

According to recent statistics the rising incidence of skin cancer is one of the main problems in United States. Considering that this condition appears to be becoming an epidemic, very critical is to develop new approaches to primary and secondary prevention. As consequences we can see many studies exploring the therapeutic value of natural ingredients and researches suggest that common fruit and vegetables extracts may have an important clinical benefits in lowering risk for skin cancer.

It is well-known that fruits and vegetables contain a variety of minerals and vitamins and other bioactive substances that include lutein, flavonoids, folic acid, vitamins C and E, and fiber. The folic acid has a key role in repair and synthesis of DNA, and all dark green leafy vegetables are very rich in it. So, new findings show with no doubt that higher intakes of green leafy vegetables may help prevent Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) tumors among patients who have prior skin cancers.

Another new finding is that pigment that gives certain fruits their dark red colors has an antioxidant activity higher than that of green tea and red wine. Researchers evaluated that pomegranate fruit extract (PFE) is capable of inhibiting conventional as well as new biomarkers of TPA-induced tumors and they may have chemopreventive action in a wide category of tumor models.

Anitta Viali is a freelance writer interested in issues such as a skin formula to avoid diseases.

Broccoli The "B" in Beating Cancer

2009-05-15T00:34:00.000+07:00

Many people see broccoli as nothing more than another green vegetable that they are supposed to consume as part of the eat five a day regieme.

Well people that is where you are wrong. Broccoli is not just another vegetable broccoli is in fact a super vegetable that can help fight against and prevent cancer. So lets look at broccoli a little closer.

Broccoli contains life-enhancing, health-enhancing phytochemicals that protect all ten of the body's healing zones and broccoli is also among the foods that are richest in these agents. Broccoli's phytochemicals help protect the body from Cancer, cardiovaascular disorders and premature aging but in this article we are focusing on Cancer.

Broccoli has been recognised as the number one vegetable by the National Cancer Institute and if you want to prevent your body from getting cancer it is suggested that one half cup of broccoli a day will do just that.

A half a cup of broccoli per day can provide the body with protection from various types of cancer including cancer of the oesophagus, lungs, larynx, stomach, colon, prostate and mouth. So what is the magic ingrediant? Sulforaphane, an antioxidant that works by bonding with toxins it encounters and then flushes these toxic substances from the body.

The antioxidants in broccoli also inactivate oestrogens that are known as 16 alphahydroxyestrone. These oestrogens promote cancer of the ovaries, breasts and cervix.

Broccoli also contains both the beta and alphacarotenes and this is what accounts for broccoli's ability to both resist and even help to reverse lung cancer and also slow the growth rate of tumours.

That's not all broccoli also contains high chlorophyll levels and this helps to block pre-cancerous cell mutations.

One serving of broccoli will also provide you with 125% more vitamin C than that of a glass of orange juice and together with the anticancer antioxidant beta-carotene broccoli helps to reduce the risk of respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tumours.

So as you can see broccoli really is the B when it comes to beating cancer. Don't you think it's time you started eating more broccoli.

Amanda Evans SNHS (Nutrition) is a qualified Nutritional Therapist and freelance writer. Amanda is also the webmaster of http://www.qualityfreelanceservice.squarespace.com a website dedicated to helping others achieve their dreams of becoming writers.

Improve Your Eating Habits.

2009-05-12T15:03:00.001+07:00

1. Water. If you?re thirsty you?re already dehydrated. The majority of us don?t tend to drink enough during the day. If you drink a lot of tea and coffee to keep you going then these have a diuretic effect so you should be drinking water to compensate.

Have a glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing at night ? your body loses a lot of water while you?re asleep ? not only if it?s warm and you sweat a lot but just going 8 hours (if you?re so lucky) without food or drink it?s going to be dehydrated.

Dehydration can also be mistaken for hunger ? have a glass of water first before reaching for a snack or eating a meal.

2. Fruit & Veg. Fruit and vegetables provide you with vitamins, minerals and fibre to help keep your body healthy. Eat a piece of fruit or drink fresh juice for breakfast. Fresh berries on muesli or porridge or cereal. Have fruit as a snack during the day and salad and vegetables with your main meals.

If you can, buy organic and wash fruit and vegetables before eating unless your peeling them. Pesticide residues are more likely to remain on the skin and fruits such as apples are often treated in storage.

3. Avoid processed food. With the increased reliance on ready-prepared meals, take-aways and convenience food to save time there is an increase in the amount of processed food that people eat.

Before you buy that convenience meal ? check the label. How much sugar, salt, hydrogenated fat, E preservatives, colouring does it contain? Because it?s processed ? a lot of the flavour and goodness is lost and has to be added. Because it needs to survive transport, increased shelf-life and cooking fats and preservatives are added. And how much does it really cost. Cooking simple meals such as stir-fries and casseroles are just as convenient and so much better for you.

4. Fresh Juice. One great way to kick-start your day and gently wake up your digestive system is to have a fresh juice every morning. I don?t mean orange juice with your breakfast but fresh vegetable juices. Invest in a good juicer, buy local organic produce and find out how good fresh juice is.

An easy recipe you can have every day is one apple, one carrot (peeled), stick of celery, cube of ginger and thick slice of lemon (remove rind).

5. Fish. Eat fish at least once a week. It contains healthy Omega 3 oils, which are good for your joints, and nerves. Flax and hemp oils offer an alternative for non-fish eaters.

6. Eat regularly. Get into the habit of eating breakfast. Your body has been without food over night ? break the fast with a glass of fresh juice (see above) and then a healthy bowl of cereal, muesli or porridge (avoid those loaded with salt and sugar). Try to eat every 2-3 hours ? little and often ? to avoid your blood sugar levels fluctuating too much. Don?t eat a heavy meal late in the evening. Your body will naturally be slowing down at that time and food eaten late is more likely to be stored as fat.

7. Alcohol. There?s nothing wrong with the odd glass of wine, in fact these days it?s seen to be healthy for the anti-oxidants it contains. Excess alcohol causes your kidneys and liver to work overtime to rid the body of the toxins. Know your limits and drink water to help your body eliminate the toxins.

8. Sugar and Salt. These two ingredients are added to most processed food. They add flavour and act as a preservative but they can be present even in foods you don't expect or are labelled in ways that you don't recognise. Sugar is empty calories, in it's basic form it contains little nutritional value. Natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables are all you need. Avoid adding sugar to food and drinks and avoid synthetic replacements. Watch your salt limits too.

9. Know what you?re eating. Be aware of the food that you?re putting in your body. Read the food labels if you buy tinned, processed produce to be aware of how much salt, sugar and fat is in the food you buy. Buy organic meat whenever possible to avoid the steroids, hormones and anti-biotics that are in factory farmed meat. Know how much sugar, salt and fat you should be eating.

10. Balanced diet. One of the most important ways to improve your eating habits is to have a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, whole food, fish and meat, nuts and seeds. Everything in moderation. Keep fatty and sugary foods low but if you enjoy chocolate, cakes and curries there?s nothing wrong with having one once in a while.

If you?d like help in putting some structure in place to organise your health ? contact me through my website.

Clare Evans ? Do more of what you want, less of what you don?t.
http://www.clareevans.co.uk.

Clare is a Personal and Business Coach who works with individuals and small business owners to help them organise their time more effectively and create a better work life balance - enabling them to spend more time doing what they want and less time doing what they don't.

Contact me today to find out how to create balance in your life.
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High Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity Foods Yield Antiaging Properties

2009-05-12T14:58:00.001+07:00

Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) is a test tube analysis that measures the total antioxidant power of foods and other chemical substances.

First research reports suggest that eating high-ORAC fruits and vegetables?such as spinach and blueberries?may help slow the aging processes in both body and brain.

ARS Administrator, Floyd P. Horn, states, ?If these findings are borne out in further research, young and middle-aged people may be able to reduce risk of diseases of aging?including senility?simply by adding high-ORAC foods to their diets.?

The studies revealed high-ORAC foods:

?Raised the antioxidant power of human blood 10 to 25 percent
?Prevented some loss of long-term memory and learning ability in middle-aged rats
?Maintained the ability of brain cells in middle-aged rats to respond to a chemical stimulus--a function that normally decreases with age
?Protected rats' tiny blood vessels--capillaries--against oxygen damage

The health community has long held the thesis that oxidative damage culminates in many of the maladies of aging. The evidence has stimulated sales of antioxidant vitamins. However, the early studies have mixed results.

Nutritionist Ronald L. Prior posits, If we can show some relationship between ORAC intake and health outcome in people, I think we may reach a point where the ORAC value will become a new standard for good antioxidant protection.

In a second study, men and women had a 13- to 15-percent increase in the antioxidant power of their blood after doubling their daily fruit and vegetable intake compared to what they consumed before the study. Just doubling intake, without regard to ORAC scores of the fruits and vegetables, more than doubled the number of ORAC units the volunteers consumed, Prior said.

While the research jury is still weighing the evidence, one company has hit the market place with a product, few can resist. Xo?ai? has capitalized on the natural antioxidant properties of chocolate and combined it with Blueberries and Acai. Acai is a plant with the highest antioxidant rated fruit on earth.

This product is ?a dream come true? for chocolate lovers everywhere. Xo?ai? blends the world's best antioxidant ingredients into a delicious dark chocolate beverage, rich dark chocolate nugget, and health-packed chocolate protein bar. They are truly unique! Xo?ai? claims a 3,120 ORAC per 12 oz. nugget of dark chocolate. Each Xo?ai? protein bar contains an astonishing 4,066 ORAC units! And because Xo?ai? is made from whole, natural foods, its antioxidants are in a form your body can easily absorb and use. (ORAC tests conducted by the USDA and Brunswick Laboratories.).

This product seems like the ideal way to ?Have your cake (candy) and eat it too,? with healthy benefits of antioxidants and satisfying the chocolate lover?s palate.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, author, international speaker and inspiration leader specializes in: Mind, Body, Spirit healing and Physical/Sexual Abuse Prevention and Recovery. Dr. Neddermeyer empowers people to view life's challenges as an opportunity for Personal/Professional Growth and Spiritual Awakening. http://www.drdorothy.net

Eat More Veggies Eat More Fruit Get Healthy Really?

2009-05-05T18:56:00.001+07:00

While it is common to see scientific studies on how health can be improved by using certain, particular supplements of vitamins and minerals it is not the same for the real McCoy.

How true? Ask yourself and do a goggle search (or a PUB Med or any advanced search of scientific articles) about how many times you see a study--any study--on a particular fruit or vegetable that comes out proving some health improvement. Not a group, but a particular fruit or vegetable. And proof of health, not disease (this is an important distinction).

We are talking about real science here not just made up stuff from some science nut or health nut. And we are talking about real fruits and vegetables like a particular apple or broccoli as opposed to a group of fruits or vegetables. In other words we are talking about something very concrete and not at all abstract--this is where real scientific study comes in very handy: such study is not abstract or it is not science. And, importantly, if I can prove it and you cannot, it is not scientifically provable. Period.

How many? Which vegetable? Which fruit?

There are plenty of promoters of eating fresh fruits and vegetables and many of them provide solid credentials like the Harvard, Tufts, Eat 5 a day, and so on (for a really good goggle search try vegetables and health or fruits and health).

For example, the Harvard site cites the latest dietary guidelines that, call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day, depending on one's caloric intake. For a person who needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into nine servings, or 4? cups per day. The citation for this is The USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is a helpful abstraction but not a particular guide to particular fruits and vegetables and how they can promote your health.

But most of what these prestigious institutions promote is air--no scientific studies demonstrating the health effects of a single fruit or vegetable could be found on the Harvard site, not one. True, it's nice air, but air nevertheless.

Now we are not talking about the genuine research on fruits and vegetables like this one listed in Pub Med, Electron beam and gamma irradiation effectively reduce Listeria monocytogenes populations on chopped romaine lettuce, (J Food Prot. 2006 Mar;69(3):570-4, for those who need to know) . This kind of research is not after the health promoting effects of eating, in this case, romaine lettuce. And it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is.

Of course sites promoting the health benefits of eating of fruits and vegetables could be hiding the scientific studies and don't want to bother their visitors with all those numbers and scientific names for turnips or plums. Or farmers who grow the really good stuff and how to buy them.

I remember a study concerning folate and green leafy vegetables and some kids on an island in the South Pacific. The study, a genuine scientific study, had to be halted because the scientists found that the children in the study could not get enough folate for their diets from the fresh vegetables because the vegetables themselves were deficient. So the study stopped because, ethically, depriving the children's diet of this essential ingredient could hurt them--especially when the science proved the children would be deficient on a natural diet. So much for the health promoting benefits of this entire group of vegetables--and I have not seen another study to refute this single isolated, particular controlled scientific study on green leafy vegetable and exactly how they promote health in humans.

So how do you know if the fruits or vegetables you eat can really promote better health? Simple answer is you don't. But then again, if you stopped eating fruits and vegetables what would happen? Could be all those diseases they write about in Pub Med and cited by the Tufts nutritionists and become the cover story about our fat nation for Time Magazine: eat your fruits and veggies and stay healthy or until we know, for sure, something different.

Herb Dreyer is the critically acclaimed artisan chef at Good Friends & Company, http://www.goodfriendsco.com , makers of fine American foods.

Fruits and Veggies Consumption Could Cut Stroke Risk

2009-04-28T18:50:00.001+07:00

The benefits of fruits and veggies consumption are all too well known. Fruit and vegetables are full of fiber, plus a whole range of vitamins and minerals. They also make an important and healthy part of any diet because they are quite low in calories.

Many scientific studies have reported that people who eat a lot of fruit and veggies may have a lower risk of getting illnesses.By consequence, the specialists recommend an intake of at least five portions of fruit or vegetables per person per day. This is to help reduce the risk of prostate cancer and some other malignant conditions, heart disease and many other chronic disorders. By a portion they mean an amount of 80gr.

A recent study based on data on more than 257,500 people from Europe, Japan and the US has concluded that consumption of more than the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day can cut risk of stroke as well.

Very important is that study observations revealed that people who ate three to five portions cut the risk by 11 percent compared to those eating fewer than three. The explanation is very simple. By increasing from three to to five servings a day, people would increase the potassium intake by about 50 percent, and this mineral is suspected to be the most important factor in preventing stroke.

Valerian D is a freelance writer interested in health benefits of low fat diet and exercising

A Mediterranean Diet Means Healthy And Tasteful Weight Loss

2009-04-24T12:03:00.001+07:00

Some weight loss companies have used The Mediterranean diet as a name for a diet consisting mainly of food that are eaten by the population of the Mediterranean countries. By eating such foods as one of the ways to increase metabolism in addition to calorie counting and exercise, people will lose weight fairly fast. Quite frankly, the variations in dieting culture among these countries and even within regions of each country is too broad to call it a specitic diet. So, rather than talking about a pure diet, it is more appropriate to call it the Mediterranean-style diet. Because even with all this variation in food culture and dieting practice, their dietary pattern has something in common:.

The Mediterranean people eat much fruit, vegetables, potatoes, beans, nuts, seeds, bread and other cereals. The protein they eat is mostly fish and poultry but in pretty low amounts and they don't eat much red meat. They also eat eggs as often as four times a week. Their most important fat source is olive oil which is monounsaturated fat. They drink wine in low to moderate amounts.

If we compare the Mediterranean-style diet with the average American diet, we'll find that the average Mediterranean-style diet contains less saturated fat than the average American diet. More than half of the fat calories in a Mediterranean-style diet come from monounsaturated fats, mainly from olive oil. We also know that monounsaturated fat doesn't raise blood cholesterol levels as much as saturated fat does.

At the same time statistics show that the incidence of heart disease in Mediterranean countries is lower than in the United States. Death rates are lower too. At least a part of these differences can be explained by different dieting patterns, there are also other lifestyle factors that play a part. Until we know more about it, why not eat Mediterranean-style food more often?

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet marketer. He runs the website 11-Weight-Loss.net. Terje enjoys to give advice and help people with rapid weight loss like the mediterranean diet and workout as one of the ways to increase metabolism.

Diet For Aching Joints

2009-04-13T18:09:00.001+07:00

Chronic illnesses like arthritis, are often linked to dietary practices. Researches show that certain food can start arthritic pain. But on the positive side, recent studies also show that some food can alleviate pain caused by arthritis. However, it must be clarified that far from being cures, these offer only temporary relief or act as preventive measures.

Teas are known detoxifiers and cleansers. But did you know that they also minimize inflammatory signals that cause arthritic pain? It is actually advised by doctors to persons who suffer from arthritis to drink more tea. Moreover, all teas made from tea leaves have the same effect. This means that it doesn't matter if you prefer black tea over green tea. Another drink which have high anti-inflammatory agents is red wine or other grape-based wine. Snacking on fresh grapes is also advised since these agents are actually found on grape skins.

Vegetables are also known to restrict transmissions of pain signals. Experts even advocate the removal of animal products from your diet to reduce pain and inflammation due to arthritis. Broccoli has glutathione, an efficient detoxifier and antioxidant. Researches show that people with lower glutathione levels are more prone to arthritis than people with higher levels. It's not a problem if you don't like brocolli; cauliflower, tomatoes, asparagus, potatoes, and cabbages also have high levels of glutathione. If you are a fruit person, this agent is found in watermelon, grapefruit, peaches, oranges, and avocados. Speaking of fruits, pineapples also contain anti-inflammatory agents and are known minimize swellings.

Containing large amounts of fatty acids like omega-3, fish had also made its mark as an anti-inflammatory agent. Researchers found that consuming more fish actually reduced risks of developing arthritis in women. Omega-3 in fish limit the inflammatory agent production. Fish diets composed of tuna, mackerel, herring, and other oily fish are recommended. Fish oils supplements are even prescribed for people who suffer from severe arthritis. Another source of good fatty acids is olive oil. Experts recommend cooking vegetables in olive oil. They found out that compared to raw veggies, those cooked in olive oil actually produce more anti-inflammatory agents. Another health food that reduces pain caused by arthritis is soy or soy beans. What's more, it's an excellent substitute for protein.

Maintain a diet abundant in the above-mentioned foods and minimize the discomfort of having arthritis. Don't have arthritis? Start this diet just the same and lower the odds of having it. After all, no one wants to grow old with aching joints.

For more valuable information on Arthritis please see http://www.eknowitall.com/eshops/health-beauty/bones-joints/arthritis-relief/

Wheatgrass & Linseed Supplements: Why People are Raving About Them

2009-04-12T17:05:00.001+07:00

In today's polluted society is very taxing on the body. While the body benefits exceptionally from fruit and vegetables, to cope with all the chemicals around us the body needs specific supplements.

Most supplements turn into very expensive urine. This is a very important point. Carbon dioxide, exhaust fumes, putrid invisible gases and boron (a chemical that leaks into buildings from bricks) poison our bodies on a daily basis. We need extra support to counter this.

Want to know how to counteract all the wastes the body has to take in? Chlorophyll is the substance that causes the green coloration in plants and vegetables. It is similar to hemoglobin in the blood except for one molecule. Green vegetables, especially leafy greens, shoot the highest energetic nutrients into the body.

There is one supplement that has high concentrated source of chlorophyll. This supplement also contains Vitamins A, C, E, K and B including B12 and B17 (these two are particularly significant because it's been suggested that it's not easy to get vitamin B12 on a vegetarian diet. B17 is significant because of the latest research that suggests possible benefits it provides on specific types of cancers). It also contains every single known mineral, in organic form (on Day 2 we talked about the importance of getting organic minerals). That's every single known mineral needed by the body. Some of these are extremely hard to get. It also has every known trace mineral. A true phenomenon. It considered a wonder food. It is tasteless in a glass of fruit juice. It's much better than its name suggests. This is Wheatgrass. Don?t be mistaken, this is far different from wheat ? the most important point is that Wheatgrass does not contain gluten.

Have you ever seen or come across the latest craze for Omega 3 Fats? They are also known as Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids. If you haven?t seen it yet, you will very soon. Many scientists are linking them with everything your body needs, everything from weight loss to skin shine. One challenge is that the body can?t store Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Omega 3 is made from a substance called ALA (alpha-lipoic acid). ALA can be stored by the body. Linseed is packed full of ALA, or basically the building blocks of essential good fats. These fats are good fats, as opposed to the excess weight which comes from bad fats. Scientists are now finding that good fats will push out bad fats from the body. Linseed is not green; however it's very powerful, so we've included it here.

Remember you get most of your nutrients from fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Edward Steiner has dedicated over 15 years to understanding nutrition and articulating complex information simply. He has worked internationally with indivduals who wish to improve their lives through the proper use of exercise and nutrition. He has condensed the best information he has discovered in 15+ years into one place at http://www.energyboostnow.com.

Cooking School

2009-04-02T12:39:00.001+07:00

Ideally, the best way to get recommended nutrients is?to eat them! We have the potential to live long, healthy lives due to advances in technology, discoveries in medicine and improvements in lifestyle. We can reap these rewards if we are mindful of what we eat.

Your food and physical activity choices each day affect your health?how you feel today, tomorrow, and in the future. These tips and ideas are a starting point.

Use the Nutrition Facts label and choose products with a higher % Daily Value (%DV) for fiber ? the %DV for fiber is a good clue to the amount of whole grain in the product.

Select fruits and vegetables with more potassium often, such as sweet potatoes, white potatoes, white beans, tomato products (paste, sauce, and juice), beet greens, soybeans, lima beans, winter squash, spinach, lentils, kidney beans, split peas, bananas, prunes and prune juice, dried peaches and apricots, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and orange juice.

If you do not consume milk products try these for your calcium sources: calcium fortified juices, cereals, breads, soy beverages, rice beverages, canned fish (sardines, salmon with bones) soybeans and other soy products (soy-based beverages, soy yogurt, tempeh), some other dried beans, and some leafy greens (collard and turnip greens, kale, bok choy).

Choose fish more often for lunch or dinner. Look for fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, trout, and herring. Processed meats such as hams, sausages, frankfurters, and luncheon or deli meats have added sodium. Check the ingredient and Nutrition Facts label to help limit sodium intake.

In a restaurant, start your meal with a salad packed with veggies, to help control hunger and feel satisfied sooner. On long commutes or shopping trips, pack some fresh fruit, cut-up vegetables, low-fat string cheese sticks, or a handful of unsalted nuts to help you avoid stopping for sweet or fatty snacks.

In addition to eating well, fitting activity into a daily routine is paramount. This can be as easy as taking a brisk walk to and from the parking lot, bus stop, or train station. What?s important is to be active most days of the week and make it part of daily routine.

For more cooking school resources visit http://www.incookingschool.com.

This article may be used without permission as long as it is shown in its entirety with links intact.

5 Ways to Get the Best Out of Radishes

2009-03-30T13:05:00.001+07:00

They sit left behind on relish trays. They?re often by-passed in grocery store refrigerator shelves. Dad and Grandpa usually eat them but later complain of belching them up. The poor radish has gotten a bum rap. There are at least five different varieties; but for now, the popular, red globe variety will be spotlighted. They are a great source of vitamin C and an excellent low calorie snack (only 12 calories in a half cup of radishes). Radishes are root vegetables that are classified in the cabbage and mustard family, thus their strong taste.

Most people eat them raw, with a little salt. If you?d like your radishes to be a little crispier and a little less sharp in taste, put them in ice water for a couple hours before you plan to eat them. There are also a number of ways to cook them. Boil a half inch of water, add the sliced radishes, and then cover and simmer until tender, adding more water if necessary. Cook five to ten minutes. To microwave, place a half pound of sliced radishes in a microwave safe dish with 1 tablespoon of water or broth. Cook for approximately four minutes.

If the taste of raw radishes is a little too pungent for some, try them steamed. Their bright red skin will turn pink on steamed radishes. The easiest way to steam them is to place whole radishes in a vegetable steamer and cook over boiling water until barely tender. Cook approximately eight to twelve minutes. Another way to prepare our friend, the red radish, is to stir fry them. Sliced radishes combine well with other vegetables and meat in stir-fries. Don?t over cook them or they?ll become mushy. Cook approximately three to five minutes.

As Cliff Claven would say, ?It?s a little known fact that ?? radishes were first cultivated thousands of years ago in China, then in Egypt and Greece. In Greece they were so highly regarded that gold replicas were made. (Now that?s some serious radish lovers!)

So the next time you walk past radishes in the grocery store or at the market, back track a few steps and pick up a bunch or two. Or better yet, plant some in your garden this year. Radishes are one of the very first vegetables ready for harvest in the spring. They will in turn, ready your soil for other veggies! Give these little guys a chance again.

The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program.

Emily Clark is editor at Lifestyle Health News and Medical Health News where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information on many medical, health and lifestyle topics.

Buying Organic Produce: 6 Tips on How to Shop Wisely and Save Money

2009-03-29T19:38:00.001+07:00

Some say they don?t or can?t buy organic foods due to higher cost and less availability. Here are a few ways to make organics more affordable and easier to purchase for your family.

1.Do not always assume organic is more expensive. Look at the prices of conventional and organic products and compare. You may be surprised that on some items, there is little or no difference in price, depending on where and when you buy.

2.Buy in season. These items will be the lowest priced, whether you?re shopping at a specialty market or local farmer?s market.

3. Grow your own. Even a small window box can yield some organic herbs or tomatoes. Larger areas can accommodate lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, carrots and more. A garden is also a great classroom and hobby for children and adults alike.

4.Shop at one of the more than 2,500 farmers? markets in the United States. The produce here is as fresh as possible, because the food is usually picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This is a great place to check prices with little effort. Becoming a regular shopper and getting to know growers personally, is a good way to get the best selection and price.

5.Join a food cooperative. A food co-op is kind of a buyers club for affordable, fresh, local organic and natural products. It is an actual store where members buy ?shares? of the business to provide the capital necessary to run the store efficiently. You as a member directly influence the kind and variety of products and foods available, and also receive a discount in the store. Many co-ops allow you to ?buy? shares by volunteering several hours per week or month.

6. Visit a farm and pick your own produce. Children love to experience something new, especially when it involves dirt and food. According to the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) ?Parents had reported that their children started to eat more vegetables after visiting a farm on a school field trip, having experienced for the first time the process of gardening.?

Lisa Barnes is the owner of Petit Appetit, an educational service promoting healthy eating habits and good nutrition for infants and toddlers. She is also the author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook (Penguin March 2005). For information and to sign up for a free newsletter visit http://www.petitappetit.com

Vegetable Diets: Facts For Fitness

2009-03-27T19:32:00.001+07:00

The body needs a lot of fiber, so it?s only common sense to add plenty of fiber to your diet. Vegetables will definitely supply you with much of the daily fiber that you need. Nature grows the required vegetables and fruits suitable for the complete nourishment of your body, so you have no excuses.

So, go ahead? it?s perfectly OK to go crazy eating vegetables.

Here are some juicy tidbits about the benefits of vegetables, and how to prepare them properly.

1. Vegetables are your best bet when it comes to losing extra pounds. Nature provides a terrific buffet of healthy vegetables, and leafy green veggies are your best choice for dropping that spare luggage. So, always try to include a salad with your meals.

2. If you need to have a snack, stay away from the cookie jar! Choose vegetables as a healthy snack instead. We all get those pangs of hunger in between meals, but it is something that we have full control over. A great snack suggestion would be to try munching on carrots. They are a wonderful way to satisfy those hunger pangs and are good for your eyes, as well as your teeth. If people tease you about being Bugs Bunny, just remember that you won?t be saying ?What?s up Doc?? nearly as often as they will. You will be healthy!

3. Fresh vegetables are far better for you than cooked or canned vegetables, so always try to eat your vegetables raw. Wherever possible, locally produced seasonal fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden or grove should be eaten. When you cook vegetables, you are taking away nearly half of the vitamins in them. Canned vegetables are not much better than cooked. They are processed and are not nearly as good for you as fresh vegetables. Also, when you buy your vegetables it?s always a good idea to see if the label states whether it?s pesticide free or not.

4. If you do have to cook your vegetables, steam them. Try steaming them without adding anything at all. This is probably the healthiest way to eat vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflowers and a whole host of other yummy vegetables.

5. Consider carrying some sprigs of parsley with you. Parsley is another excellent thing to snack on in between meals. Not only is it good for you in terms of vitamins, but it is also a perfect way to make your breath fresher? just in case you might need it.

Your mother was right? eating your veggies is very important for your overall development. And if you haven't been listening to your mother, it's not too late for you to start now!

To support your Mom's advice one more time, here's one more benefit to eating your vegetables that is often overlooked. Water intake.

Most people seem to be surprised when they learn of the pure simplicity and effectiveness of water for weight and health management. And yet, it?s right in front of us!

Since some vegetables like tomatos (actually a fruit) are a good source of water, you now have one more reason to consume vegetables. So, don?t think about it anymore; just do it.

**Water intake is a whole other topic, but one that will also enable you to drop the pounds and stay healthy. To learn more about the amazing benefits of water and how to maximize it?s use in your dietary routine, visit: http://www.privilegedinfo.com/waterwisdom.html.

Steve Shannon is webmaster at PrivilegedInfo.com and finds unique and useful information such as the weight loss tips at http://www.privilegedinfo.com/waterwisdom.html . You may reprint this article in its entirety as long as this resource box remains intact and the links are live.

Vitamins and Children

2009-03-26T14:25:00.000+07:00

By this time, most of the population has become aware of the great importance of a healthy and balanced nutrition. This importation is exponentially greater in the case of children. Their diet has an immense influence over their developing body. Also, this is when they need to gain strong principles and habits for a healthy adult life.

Fruits and vegetables provide a child with all the vitamins and minerals they need for a healthy growth. Their diet also has to incorporate a fair amount of meat and dairy. The problem is that a child, when facing a decision, will always go for the more attractive junk food or sweets in the detriment of what they know to be ?right for them?. After all, a pizza looks much more appealing than a platter of healthy vegetables.

For many kids, these types of food that don?t nearly cover the sufficient necessary nutrients for their bodies form their regular diet. The consequences of an inappropriate diet to modern children are deficiencies of mineral and vitamin and child obesity. Children should get most mineral and vitamins from their meals. Vitamins are most important to a child?s growth like for example Vitamin D that is mostly responsible for bones and teeth strength. You can imagine that lacking crucial vitamins for their system is a real concern and must never be taken lightly. There are some cases when the child?s organism simply can?t extract the appropriate nutrients through eating. The right thing to do is to guide the children to a vitamin rich diet and balance the nutrients levels with vitamin supplements. Some professional assistance will help you find out the child?s nutrient efficiency and how you can augment their diet with nutrient supplements.

protein,diet,body building body building news

Detox Diet: Juice Fasting Recipes

2009-03-25T12:48:00.001+07:00

Juice fasting is gaining popularity as a great way to detoxify. Many people are interested in getting toxins out of their system so they can live a healthier life. When toxins accumulate in the body, they feel sluggish and also have a poor immune system. Juice fasting, as a cleansing method, can help to people to achieve better health and more energy. It is quite easy to do as fruits are readily obtainable and all that is required additionally is a juicer.

For a beginner to juice fasting, it is important to start out slow and to try it out for one day. By juice fasting, you are limiting your intake to juices only. Fruit juice is high in sugar, so if you are a diabetic or otherwise in need of monitoring your sugar intake you should be cautious of trying a juice fast with fruit juices. Anyone just starting out with fasting should always speak with their doctor first. Also, do not juice fast for prolonged periods like more than 3 days, not unless your doctor agrees that it is safe for you to do so.

The following are sample recipes that can help give you an idea of combinations of fruits and vegetables to use together:

Recipe 1: Vegetable Juice Combo

2 Swiss chard leaves

1/2 beetroot

2 or 3 sprigs of watercress

3 carrots

1 celery stalk

Wash with filtered or distilled water, cut and put in juicer.

Recipe 2: Carrot-Apple Juice

2-3 Green Apples

1 carrot

Fresh basil leaves

Wash with filtered or distilled water, cut and put in juicer.

Recipe 3: Carrot-Vegetable Juice

A handful of dandelion leaves

1 kale leaf

4 carrots

Fresh mint, basil or coriander leaves

Wash with filtered or distilled water, cut and put in juicer.

Recipe 4: Peach Juice

2 or 3 peaches

Wash with filtered or distilled water, cut and put in juicer.

There are many different types of juice fasts. Some diets call for fruit juices while others used less sugary vegetable juices. You can always come up with your own unique combination of fruit and vegetable juice diet recipes.

About The Author
Sandra Kim Leong posts information on colon cleansing, liver cleansing, kidney cleansing, detox diet , juice fasting and alcohol detox on her site. For updates and more articles, please visit http://www.Detox-Cleansing.com.

Carbohydrates Weight Loss and the Glycemic Index

2009-03-24T11:57:00.001+07:00

You may have heard about the glycemic index and wondered what it is all about. The glycemic index is a ranking of carbohydrates based on their immediate effect on blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. It compares foods gram for gram of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates that breakdown quickly during digestion have the highest glycemic indexes. The blood glucose response is fast and high. Carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the blood stream, have low glycemic indexes.

Foods with a high glycemic index convert into sugar very quickly, with negative physical effects. Foods with a low glycemic index turn into sugar gradually, helping maintain your body's chemical balance. In general, foods with a low index are preferable.

Glycemic Load measures the amount of sugar a food actually releases in the body. Foods with a low glycemic load usually have a low glycemic index, yet still have a low glycemic load. Other foods have both a high index and a high load. You should avoid high load foods as a regular part of your meal plan.

When you choose carbohydrate foods, check both their glycemic index and glycemic load. Detailed tables with this information are widely available. Use the chart below to get started.

High Glycemic Index

Fruits and Vegetables

Corn
Cranberry juice
Orange juice*
Raisin

Starches

Bagel
Bread (white)
Refined cereal
Granola
Muffin
Pasta
Potato
Pretzel
Rice
Tortilla (flour)

Medium Glycemic Index

Fruits and Vegetables Starches Apricot* French Fries Grape* Oatmeal Pineapple* Pita Bread Watermelon Waffle

Low Glycemic Index

Fruits and Vegetables

Apple*
Asparagus*
Broccoli*
Brussels sprout*
Cauliflower*
Celery*
Cherry*
Cucumber*
Grapefruit*
Green Bean*
Green pepper*
Kiwi*
Lettuce*
Onion*
Orange*
Peach*
Plum*
Spinach*
Strawberry*
Tomato*
Zucchini*
* Low glycemic load foods.

Simply eating more fruits and vegetables is not the answer - they must be the right fruits and vegetables. Starchy vegetables such as peas or lentils (200 to 250 calories per cup) are healthy, but they contain more calories than you may want. If you need to eat more to satisfy your hunger, add low glycemic load vegetables. For example, spinach and asparagus are better choices than higher calorie corn and peas. A cup of spinach topped with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce has only about 90 calories, but it gives you nutrients from two colour groups.

Why Not Brown and Beige?

When considering which foods to enjoy sparingly, also use colour as a guideline. Many brown and beige carbohydrates, like pasta, beans and potatoes, while healthy, also tend to be high in calories.

Kim Beardsmore, M.Bus(HRM), B.Sc., is an Independent Herbalife Distributor and creator of the online magazine Weight Loss News. For more information about healthy weight loss, recipes and health visit http://www.weight-loss-health.com.au Your online Herbalife store at http://www.weightlosshealth.herbalcoach.com

Veggies for Breast Health? The Breast Cancer/Vegetable Connection

2009-03-23T10:04:00.001+07:00

Breast cancer is now the most common cancer women get, putting lung cancer second to this growing female epidemic. Although the exact causes of breast cancer still are not known, studies and statistics show that a woman's risk of getting breast cancer increases as she ages.

A new intriguing study suggests - no, concludes - that not only is a vegetable-rich diet good for preventing breast cancer, but it also significantly improves a breast cancer patient's odds of the disease returning after remission.

You may have been going all these years, thinking that eating your veggies was just a good health measure that was only the skinny minnies and health nuts. Well, new studies are showing that the consumption of vegetables is not only preventative maintenance against many kinds of cancers, but it also dramatically improves a woman's odds of breast cancer returning once she has gone into remission.

Not only is it the mere consumption of your leafy greens and brightly colored veggies, it's also got a lot to do with the variety of veggies that are consumed. The wider the variety, the better the women's chances were in the study of continuing on in full remission and recovery from their cancer.

The Carotenoid Connection

So, what exactly is the responsible factor for this improvement of odds against the return of cancer? It's a tiny little micronutrient, found commonly in many vegetables, called carotenoids which is believed to be responsible. The reason this conclusion was reached is that women who did not see their breast cancer return tested with very high carotenoid blood levels, while the women who did see their breast cancer return did not.

The same women who had high levels of this potent antioxidant compound said that they not only consumed a veggie-rich diet, but that they also consumed a wider variety of vegetables in their diet, which lends itself to higher levels of this antioxidant in the blood stream. This translates into a powerful anti-cancer message : Eat your veggies, just like your grandma said.

Visit Natural Breasts: Enhancement and Health for information on how to naturally manage breast health, as well as beautify your breasts and keep them healthy and young. Danna Schneider is the founder of Breast Enhancement.

How To Improve Your Health In 14 Days: Small Changes For Maximum Health & Weight Loss

2009-03-22T16:23:00.001+07:00

Many Americans include health improvement in their New Year?s Resolutions. But real life intrudes, and we find ourselves facing the fact that our plans for reshaping our lives and health were a bit too much to manage in the face of the rest of our busy lives. However, small changes can be as effective as large ones - much less intimidating - and result in long-term improvements in your health.

Here are two week?s worth of small changes and activities that can improve your health. While these are written with people in an office in mind, they can be adapted to outdoor work or full-time parenting.

Day 1: Identify your Junk-Food-Hour. Put an index card in wallet or purse. Keep track of times at which you?re most likely to hit the candy machine or potato chip stash, that one thing that frustrates your good eating habits. For many of us, it?s mid-afternoon, though it may be at 1 a.m.! Track yourself for a week.

Day 2: Have a Green Day. Whether you buy lunch out or make it, see if you can include a green veggie each day. If you?ve got kids, they can have fun picking out new green food (nope, green gelatin doesn?t count!)

Day 3: Exercise Nibble. Take five minutes of your lunch break to walk. Walk two and a half minutes towards any place (up the street? up the stairs?) and then take the other two and a half minutes getting back. Got kids? Make it a small family ritual and start their good habits early!

Day 4: Sneaky Exercise. Sneak in exercise while you watch TV! Every time there?s a commercial, stand up and march in place until the commercial?s over. If you only watch public TV? Pick a word that characters or announcers are likely to say and march in place for two minutes.

Day 5: Start the Smoke-Out. If you smoke, pick up your phone, today, and make an appointment with your healthcare provider to set up a quitting plan. Alternatively, call the National Quitline at 1-800-784-8669, or check out the webpage put out by the Surgeon General (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/conspack.html) for the booklet ?You can quit smoking? in both English and Spanish.

Day 6: De-stress the Drive. At each red light or stop sign, take a slow deep breath, counting to five as you inhale, count to five as you exhale. This simple habit makes sure you?ve really stopped at a ?STOP? sign , and reducing your stress can keep you focused to prevent an accident.

Day 7: Junk Food Begone! Use your index-card record to figure out when you?re most vulnerable to a junk-food attack. Put some healthy alternatives (depending on your nutritional needs, this may be whole wheat crackers, dried fruit, nuts) in a bag at your desk or in your purse. Five minutes before your tough time, check to make sure that you?re hungry. If you?re just bored, take a short walk (even up the stairs, wash your face, or reapply lipstick). If you?re hungry and losing energy, make use of the stash of healthy food you?ve created.

Day 8: Check the Pressure. Stop at the drug store and use the automated blood pressure machine. High? Time to see your healthcare provider. Low? Check back each month.

Day 9: Life-Saving Self-Exam. For women of all ages: Pick a date and circle it on your calendar in pink. Repeat for the rest of the year. If you menstruate, make sure the dates are unlikely to coincide with PMS. Each ?pink? day, do a self-breast exam. Don?t know how? Go to www.bigbam.org to download a ?how-to? card.

Day 10: Medication Weed-Out. Set a timer for 30 minutes and tackle the bathroom cupboards. Medication that are expired? Vitamins that have been sitting there for years? Get rid of them. Make sure that you don?t flush these medications; your pharmacy or sanitation company can help you discard these items safely. If it takes more than 30 minutes, repeat on Day 11.

Day 12:. ?Sleep hygiene.? Cleaning up your sleep habits to reduce interrupted or difficult sleep. Things that can help you sleep well: cutting down alcohol or caffeine before bed, not watching TV or looking at the computer for a half hour before bed (the bright light in your eyes can trigger wakefulness)

Day 13: Measure Me! If you?re engaged in weight loss, put a tape measure by the scale. Waist measurements are a good indicator that exercise and diet are improving your health (below 35 inches is associated with lower heart-disease risk).

Day 14: Housework Works. Pick one physical chore that you pay someone to do - mowing the lawn, raking the yard, vacuuming. Do it yourself, and stash the cash. Reward yourself with a healthy, stress-reducing, or ?don?t I look great!? treat.

They seem like small steps, but small steps can add up to a marathon of good health!

Gaesser, G.A. Multiple Short-Bouts of Exercise: Fitness Alternative for Those Who Don't Have Time For Exercise. (Continuing Professional Education article) SCAN's Pulse (Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutritionists),Volume 20, issue 3-4, 2001.

Proper, K.I. Effect of individual counseling on physical activity fitness and health: a randomized controlled trial in a workplace setting. Am J Prev Med - 01-APR-2003; 24(3): 218-26

USDA, 2005 Dietary Guidelines ?Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Nutrition and your Health?

Ian Mason, owner of Shoppe.MD, your source for Online Prescription Medications and health news.

Ian studies health, weight loss, exercise, and several martial arts; maintaining several websites in an effort to help provide up-to-date and helpful information for other who share his interests in health of body and mind.

Contact Ian Mason by e-mail at ian@shoppe.md.

Protein Poisoning Acid Cause of Disease

2009-03-21T21:54:00.001+07:00

With all the Hype about our need for protein, millions are being poisoned, by too much protein, and/or the wrong kind of protein. For the arthritis sufferer, this creates an acid condition that;

?Robs calcium from bones and teeth, producing osteoporosis, tooth decay, and extreme sensitivity to toxins in the food and environment.

?Causes degeneration of joints irritating joint tissues, causing inflammation, pain in the joints, and other connective tissue.

How much protein do we really need?

The best research (as outlined in the China Study *) has demonstrated that we were designed for a diet of 5% protein. The average American eats a diet of 25% protein.

The most simple way to back this up I know is to look at the stage of life when we should need the most protein. It would stand to reason that a growing human baby, during the first year of its life, would need the most protein, on a percentage of total calories basis. Does that sound logical to you?

It is a no brainer, to say that a human baby is designed to eat its mother's milk. So what is the protein level in mother's milk? It is 5%. This has been demonstrated countless times.

If the child is fed cows milk, which is much higher in protein, it is very likely to experience many disease symptoms. Cows milk is designed for a growing calf. A Calf grows to full maturity in less than two years. We humans take 20 years to grow to maturity. To be blunt, Cows milk is designed for a fast growing calf.

When we feed our children too much protein, it is like trying to force them to maturity too soon, before they are ready for it. They exhibit all sorts of symptoms. One of the most obvious is premature puberty. Many of the sources of excess protein are high in Growth Hormones that accelerate a child's body to a maturity level far beyond what they are emotionally ready for.

There are many other side effects; allergies, cancer, juvenile diabetes, early onset arthritis, ADHD, the list goes on and on.

What Kind of protein do we really need?

That is the subject of another debate. I touched on that above. When you look at our physiology it is easy to see that we were not designed to easily make use of whole protein. We were designed to get our protein in the form of amino acids.

The protein in fruits and most vegetables is in the form of amino acids. Because of this fact, it is much easier for us to make use of the protein in fruits and vegetables, since it is already in the form we need it to be in.

The protein in animal products must be broken down into amino acids before we can make use of it. Our digestive system is not equipped to do this in a timely manor, especially if we eat a large percentage of animal products at a given meal. It has been shown that if we eat leafy greens with a small amount of animal products our bodies cam make better use of them, though they are not ideal.

Another problem with animal products is that the protein has been deranged by heat. This makes it that much more difficult to digest and that much more toxic to our bodies.

So what are the results?

The obvious primary result is a high incidence of cancer and heart disease. Our bodies have to work hard to deal with this foreign protein.

It is like giving a builder defective building materials to build your house. It is likely to fall down or have some other mishap like a fire caused by defective wiring. If the bricks are sound but he mortar is not the wall could fall down if bumped or with the least vibration.

If we try to build our bodies with defective building materials, why should we be surprised when we have a defective body, or a body that is falling apart?

Diabetes is rampant in our society. In areas of China, * where they eat a diet based on whole plant foods, Diabetes is unheard of.

Our people are plagued with all sorts of allergies. Take away the animal protein and the allergies disappear. High protein levels in the blood make our bodies hyper sensitive to the toxins we are exposed to.

The Main result of a high protein diet is that our blood is too high in acid content. We were designed to have our blood on the alkaline side of neutral. We cannot tolerate an acid blood PH. To compensate our bodies rob our bones and teeth of calcium and other base minerals to neutralize the acid. This is a defensive measure. If this did not happen we would die much sooner than we do from acid poisoning.

The calcium in cow's milk has been cooked. The result is that it is inorganic. The only benefit we can get from inorganic calcium is to help neutralize acid. Inorganic calcium cannot be used to build strong bones effectively. The problem is that when combined with too much protein there is not enough calcium to neutralize the acid produced by the digestion of, foreign, deranged, whole protein.

Arthritis is caused by an acid condition in the body. As stated above this is usually caused by the consumption of animal products. Eating too much cooked food can also cause it. Cooking destroys most of the food value of otherwise healthy foods.

Protein poisoning causes Cancer. Foreign proteins in the blood are attacked by our body defense system. Cancer is the natural result of the defense and healing process. High protein levels cause cells to break away from bodily control. If the defense system is unable to destroy these cells that are out of body control, it tries to isolate them. This is what causes tumors to develop.

The Body creates tumors as a way to isolate toxins and cells that leave the control of the body. If we don't stop causing this situation, It is likely to continue. Cutting out the tumor only addresses the results, or symptoms. It does nothing to remove the cause. The same is true of radiation and chemotherapy. They do nothing about the underlying cause.

To Summarize

We need our protein from whole plant sources, in the form of amino acids, in the form and percentage we were designed for. That is living whole fruits and vegetables, or the fresh juice of the living fruits and vegetables, with their living enzymes intact. Any other source is not what we were designed for.

Charles Snyder is a Health Minister and teacher of Natural Hygiene. He has been living what he teaches for 23 years. He changed his diet and lifestyle in 1983 after suffering for 13 years with arthritis in his back and knees. You can read his story and contact him by going to his website.

He has written a fiction adventure story called Six Months to Live. It is based on testimonies of real people, who did what he did to overcome disease, set into an exciting, adventure that is hard to put down. Ask for it in your local bookstore or visit his website to order an autographed copy. http://www.arthritis-back-knee-pain-free-health-restored.com/books.html

Another books at that webpage that can help you are The Health Seekers Yearbook

Juices Are Not Health Foods

2009-03-17T13:53:00.001+07:00

Contrary to the ads that you may see on television, juices are not more healthful than whole fruits or vegetables. How can an extract from food be more healthful than that food? For some people, they are much less healthful. For example, a glass of orange juice contains about one tenth as much fiber as an orange and twice the calories. Diabetics shouldn't drink fruit juices because they drive blood sugar levels too high, nor should people who are trying to lose weight drink fruit juices because a rise in sugar calls out extra insulin that makes you hungry.

Don't be fooled by juices that claim that they supply 100 percent of your daily needs for vitamin C and A. Most drinks that can make that claim have artificial vitamins added to the drink and are no better for you than juices that have only 10 percent of your daily requirements. Adding calcium to fruit juices is reasonable because there are no known harmful effects and some people do not get enough calcium from other foods that they eat.

There is no known advantage or disadvantage to drinking fruit juice that has first had water removed to form a concentrate and then had the water added back in to form the juice. This process does not destroy nutrients, nor does it add any.

It really doesn't make much difference whether you drink juice that is 100 percent fruit juice or made from 50 percent sugar water and 50 percent juice. Some fruits have higher water and sugar content; others must have water or sugar or both added to make them palatable. All juices contain around 8 to 10 percent sugar because that's the concentration of sugar that tastes best and that most people prefer. All fruit juices often use added sugars extracted from grapes, apples or other fruits rather than from sugar cane. There is no difference between any type of sugar added to a diluted fruit juice and the sugar that was originally in the fruit. Both are lower in fiber than the fruit, so they both cheat you of fiber, and since they both contain the same amount of sugar, they affect diabetics and obese people in the same bad way by driving their blood sugars higher.

Pasteurized means that the fruit juice was heated to kill germs. You are less likely to be infected with E coli from a pasteurized drink and pasteurization does not reduce the amount of nutrients in a drink. Ultraviolet light, freezing, dehydrating and bubbling ozone through a drink get rid of germs and do not reduce nutrients.

The bottom line is to eat whole fruits and vegetables, and drink juices if you can afford the extra calories and sugar. You gain nothing extra from juicing, and diabetics and overweight people should restrict their intake of juices because they are not much more than sugared water

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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FeelGood Organics

2009-03-15T18:46:00.001+07:00

You'll find tons of articles and lists on how to be more eco-friendly, and they're all great. I still believe that going organic in our average lives should be a pleasurable adventure, like taste-testing, not a social or political statement.

Organic food:

On a pretty autumn Saturday, swing into a local organic farm stand and browse. Nothing is better than locally grown produce that's grown exclusively for flavor and color, compared with supermarket veggies grown to withstand harsh cross country shipments.

Visit local pumpkin farms at harvest time. In many areas of the country, families annually enjoy autumn weekend outings to pumpkin farms that are a riot of color, and absolutely packed with incredible organic vegetables at great prices. Try organic apple orchards and berry farms where you can pick your own baskets.

Try organic coffee. Yum! More stores are carrying organic java now, which may cost more but has rich flavors that cannot be matched by chemically processed coffees. Look for the Fair Trade label which means beans grown and harvested by organic farms and coops around the world, who get a fairer price. Organic coffee farmers are better able to feed their families, provide education for the children, and provide community services we take for granted.

Absolutely plant some herbs. There's nothing like clipping some basil and oregano from your own garden patch or patio pots, for your favorite sauce recipe. Most herbs don't require much babying and come back year after year.

Go Vegetarian?

That's a very personal decision. If your family is accustomed to meats, I suggest initially just cutting back on the burgers and introducing more fish, and more vegetable based entrees with cheese. Some restaurant chains are introducing vegetarian appetizers and entrees that are so good, being meatless is more of a bonus. Try some vegetarian dishes. If you and your family like them, add them to the menu.

Is an Organic Home too high-end?

No, not at all. While organic bedding and organic cottons for bed and bath are typically considered luxury items, they are for EVERYBODY. No need to strip your bedrooms and go nuts, unless you want to. In the range of around $100, you can pick up a few organic cotton bathtowels, an organic cotton bathrobe, or some basic organic cotton sheets.

Organic cotton blankets and throws are also around the $100 range, and the quality is amazing. Organic cotton and wool comforters are a bit more expensive, but will last years longer than conventional comforters. Gradually replace old pummeled bed pillows with organic cotton or wool fill pillows, that range between $50 and $100 apiece, depending on size.

Organic cotton underwear is very affordable. You can replace a bunch of undies for around $100.00, and good local or web-based stores are easy to find.

Organic foods and home products are to be enjoyed, and integration into our normal lives should be natural, pleasurable, and easy.

Susan Fullen-Yurek of Kushtush Organics, http://www.kushtush.com, is an e-commerce entrepreneur specializing in organic bedding and organic cotton linens.

Vegetables Benefits for Health

2009-03-15T12:27:00.001+07:00

They are extremely rich source of minerals, enzymes, and vitamins. Faulty cooking and prolonged careless storage, however, destroy these valuable nutrients. Most of the vegetables are, therefore, best consumed in their natural raw state in the form of salads.

There are different kinds of vegetables. They may be edible roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds. Each group contributes to the diet in its own way. Fleshy roots have energy value and good sources of vitamin B. Seeds are relatively high in carbohydrates and proteins and yellow ones are rich in vitamin A. Leaves, stems and fruits are excellent sources of minerals, vitamins, water and roughage.

To prevent loss of nutrients in vegetables, it would be advisable to steam or boil vegetables in their juices on a slow fire and the water or cooking liquid should not be drained off. No vegetable should be peeled unless it is so old that the peel is tough and unpalatable.

In most root vegetables, the largest amount of mineral is directly under the skin and these are lost if vegetables are peeled. Soaking of vegetables should also be avoided if taste and nutritive value are tobe preserved.

To learn more about the energy principle in healing, please read:

Cost-free Miracle Asthma Cure
Overcome Type I Diabetes and Type II Diabetes Naturally
Alternative Treatments for Incurable Diseases made easy

Minerals Minerals Minerals

2009-03-12T20:35:00.001+07:00

You are a mineral body

Every part of you is made from minerals - your bones, cell structure, lymph liquid, arteries, organs, tissue, muscle, hair, and so on. You cannot live without minerals. Your body does not produce minerals.

Where do you get your minerals? You get them from vegetables and fruits and good supplements. Since only 10% of the people eat enough fruits and vegetable, the rest of you are deficient in minerals.

If we eat enough vegetables and fruits, why do we have to take a mineral supplement?

Long time ago when the soil was rich in minerals, vegetable and fruits were jammed pack with minerals. Fruits and vegetables were not picked early, frozen, waxed, radiated, or stored in argon gas. Those who ate these vegetables and fruits obtained an adequate supply of minerals and seldom has a deficiency.

Today the opposite is true. You and I cannot get enough minerals from eating fruits and vegetables. Now we eat more cooked vegetables, more vegetables in packages, fruits and vegetables that are waxed, and vegetables from other countries not processed properly.

Today, we need to supplement our eating habits with a live mineral liquid to make up for the lack of minerals in the good food and junk food we eat.

Here is a partial list of illnesses and their related mineral deficiencies and below each mineral is the food that is highest in that mineral.

* Calcium - receding gums, PMS, panic attacks, muscle cramps, lungs weak, low back pain, kidney stones, insomnia, bone weakness, bone spurs, calcium deposits.

** Foods - cheeses, cottage cheeses, dulse, greens, kelp, goat milk, sesame seeds, unrefined cereal grains, seeds and almonds.

* Sodium - restless nerves, poor eyesight, mental confusion, lack of saliva, frontal headache, white coated tongue, cracking joints, fatigue, offensive breath, stiff tendons, stiff joints

** Foods - goat milk, goat whey, black mission figs, apples, apricots, kale, kelp, prunes, raisins, strawberries, sunflower seeds, black olives, celery, dulse, asparagus, greens

*Potassium - fearfulness, mental illness, low energy, pains and aches, body acidity, tendency toward violence, suspiciousness, loss of ambition, nervousness, negativity

* Foods - black olives, dulse, potato peeling broth, bitter greens, kelp, Irish moss, various seeds and nuts, apple cider vinegar, soy milk, spinach, goat milk, grapes, apples, bananas, cheese, cucumbers, fish, dale, lettuce

* Magnesium - A.D.D., anorexia, arterial calcification, low calcium absorption, convulsions, depression, gastrointestinal disturbances, growth failure, menstrual migraines, osteoporosis, tremors, hot temper, fainting

** Foods - seeds and nuts, yellow cornmeal, rice polishings, wheat germ, avocados, coconuts, spinach, goat milk, grapes, honey, whole wheat

* Phosphorus - constant weakness, neuralgia, numbness, lack of confidence, slow oxygenation, sensitive to noise or criticism, fatigue

* Foods - meat, egg yolk, dairy products, fish, almonds, rice bran, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, lentils, sunflower seeds, almonds, various types of beans, carrots, pecans, lentils, cabbage

* Manganese - A.D. D., asthma, carpal tunnel syndrome, convulsions, loss of libido, miscarriage, retarded growth rate, still birth, TMJ, nightmares

** Foods - black walnuts, and other nuts and seeds, pineapple, parsley, leaf lettuce, celery, blueberries, black eyed peas, apricots

* Copper - A.D.D., anemia, arthritis, behavior-violent, cerebral palsy, high cholesterol, eyelids sagging, gray or white hair, hernia, liver cirrhosis, learning disabilities, low blood sugar, slow healer, high risk of strokes, varicose veins

** Foods - liver, sea foods, almonds, greens, leafy vegetables, whole grain cereals

* Selenium - age spots, aging skin, Alzheimer?s, cancer, cystic fibrosis, fatigue, heart palpitations , HIV, hypothyroidism, liver damage, muscular weakness, scoliosis

** Foods - wheat germ, bran, whole grains, onions, broccoli, eggs, seafood's, milk products, meat, asparagus, tomatoes, mushrooms, nuts

* Iodine - goiter, menstrual difficulties, thinking confused, heart and lung problems

** Foods - kelp, fish, dulse, sea plants, watermelon, okra, mustard greens, green peppers, eggplant, brussels sprouts, carrots chives, artichokes, agar

* Iron - fatigue, low auto-immunity, anemia, depression, low blood pressure, slow speech, poor memory, susceptibly to colds

** Foods - greens, unsulphured dried fruits, dulse, kelp, Irish moss, black cherries, black berries, liquid chlorophyll, strawberries, celery, spinach, rice polishings sunflower seeds, blackstrap molasses, eggs, goat milk, pinto beans

* Zinc - A.D.D., hair loss, congenital birth defects, body odor, brain defects, diarrhea, slow healer, heart defects, hernia, impotence, lung defects, prostate enlargement, loss of sense of smell, short stature, webbed toes

* Foods - goat milk, brewer's yeast, pumpkin seeds, wheat germ, wheat bran, high protein foods, cow's milk

* Chromium - A.D.D., unexpected weight loss, low sperm count, pre diabetes, manic depression, learning disabilities, impaired growth, hyperactivity, coronary blood vessel disease, cataracts, low blood sugar

* Foods - brewer's yeast, whole grain cereals, clams, meat, cloves and spices, corn oil.

There are more minerals than the ones listed above. This is just a start, so that you can see why minerals are so important. A consistent lack of a specific mineral can lead to a serious illness.

Rudy Silva has a Physics degree from the University of San Jose California and is a Natural Nutritionist. He has written an ebook called ?How to Relieve Your Constipation with 77 Natural Remedies.? You can get more information on this ebook and more constipation remedies at this site. http://www.stop-constipation.com

Vitamin C ? What Why and How to Include It in Your Diet

2009-03-12T17:27:00.001+07:00

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid is found in many of our ?every day? foods and is essential to keep our bodies running at an optimum.

Vitamin C has several key uses:

?It aids our bodies by helping form collagen which is an important protein that creates new tissue so that we can grow and/or repair any damage to our organs.

?It is also an antioxidant which means it blocks some of the damage that can be caused by free-radicals which can build up as a result of our bodies transforming food into energy.

The human body cannot produce vitamin C on its own; therefore it needs to be made a part of our daily diet.

Symptoms of a vitamin C deficiency include ?

-Anemia ( Vitamin C aids absorption of iron )
-nose bleeds
-easy bruising
-dry skin
-inflammation of gums
-decreased immunity to infection
-higher risk of developing cancer
-lung related problems

The average amount of vitamin C needed for an adult is 80-100mg per day. The body cannot store vitamin C, it will excrete any excess, and therefore this amount needs to be included in the diet every day to maintain health.

There are many foods that contain vitamin C. Most fruit and vegetables contain some vitamin C. Ripe food will contain more than unripe. Some examples of food with higher vitamin C content are?

-parsley
-broccoli
-bell pepper
-strawberries
-oranges
-lemon juice
-papaya
-cauliflower
-kale
- mustard greens
- Brussels sprouts

So make sure you are getting enough vitamin C in your diet and help boost your health today.

For more information on Vitamin C or any other vitamin, as well as recipe ideas on how to include these essential vitamins in your diet everyday, you can visit
www.truth-about-vitamins.com

Lysah Woods is an Australian currently studying to become a paramedic. She has always had a keen interest in all health related topics and combined with her love of food, nutrition is one of her strongest topics.

An Apple a Day Does Keep the Doctor Away

2009-03-11T14:14:00.001+07:00

Increasing the fiber in your diet has been shown to: reduce your cholesterol, reduce your hunger, lower your fat absorption, reduce surges in insulin levels, help with weight loss, lower the risk of colon cancer, and lower your risk of heart disease. WOW! Sounds like a miracle cure - where can I get this stuff? The answer: At your grocery store.

Old Ben Franklin, citing in Poor Richard's Almanac 250 years ago stated An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well he was right. Not only because the apple contains vitamins and minerals, but also because it is a major source of fiber. Maybe three apples a day keeps three doctors away!

What is fiber? Well, it is basically indigestible complex carbo-hydrates that come from plant foods. What your Grandma called roughage is called fiber by scientists. When you look at some food labels, fiber is often listed under carbohydrates - but it is not a single food or substance and by itself has no calories because your body cannot absorb it.

There are actually two types of fiber and they have different health benefits. The two types are water soluble and water insoluble. Soluble fibers include the skins of fruits such as apples, oranges (not the orange peel, but the white material after you peel it), pears, peaches and grapes; the skins of vegetables, seeds; oat bran, dried beans, oatmeal, barley, rye, and prunes. Insoluble fibers include the meat of fruits and vegetables, dried beans, wheat bran, seeds, popcorn, brown rice, and whole grain products such as breads, cereals, and pasta.

Bran of course does bulk up the diet and results in larger, softer stools. But it actually does more than prevent constipation - there are clear data showing that fiber also reduces the risk of colon cancers. The stickiest kinds of fiber are the gums and pectins (soluble fiber) and they help keep cholesterol under control by removing bile acids that digest fat. Bile acids, which promote better digestion, unfortunately also contribute much to the reabsorption from the bowel wall of our bodies own home-made cholesterol. Every gram of fiber intake per day reduces your total blood cholesterol by approximately one point. The same class of fibers may help regulate blood sugar as well. This latter feat is accomplished by coating the bowel's lining and delaying stomach emptying. As a result, fiber can slow sugar absorption after a meal and may reduce the amount of insulin needed to keep blood sugar at the right levels. Reducing the over-production of insulin is a major factor in reducing obesity.

Insulin resistance (abnormally high insulin levels) is common in very obese patients and may be a factor in obesity begets obesity. Fiber is also a weight watchers dream since fibers called cellulose and hemicelluloses take up space in the stomach, making us feel full; thus lowering total caloric intake at meal time. Popular agents such as Metamucil are actually an important part of many weight reduction diets as they slow down absorption of sugars taken in as part of most meals - promoting further weight loss.

The average American gets only 14 grams of fiber per day in their diet. Most scientists agree that the optimal amount is closer to 35 grams per day. Increasing the consumption of complex carbo-hydrates is the best way to increase fiber intake. Fiber supplements are also available at the grocery. However, be aware that a large increase in your fiber intake over a short period of time may result in bloating, diarrhea, gas and general discomfort. It is important then to increase the fiber amount in your diet gradually over a period of time (up to three weeks) to allow your gut to acclimated and avoid abdominal side-effects.

Disclaimer: If you are under 18, pregnant, nursing or have health problems, consult your physician before starting any weight loss plan. The information here is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Please consult your physician before beginning any course of treatment.

Dr. John Rumberger is the Author of The WAY Diet, The complete lifestyle plan to live longer, reduce stress, and lose weight the healthy way. To purchase The Way Diet simply go to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?path=ASIN/0974993387
&linkcode=as2&camp=1789&tag=icobweb-20&creative=9325 or go to Empty Canoe Publishing http://www.emptycanoe.com and order your copy of The Way.

Prevent the Bird Flu!

2009-03-10T14:22:00.001+07:00

Avian influenza, or the bird flu, was discovered in China in 1996. It is currently spreading like wildfire across Europe, Africa, and Asia leaving tens of millions of slaughtered poultry behind. Though rare in humans at this time, those contracting the bird flu have a survival rate of only about 50%. Experts fear that this virulent avian influenza strain will eventually mutate and acquire the ability to pass easily between people. When this happens, an influenza pandemic could annihilate millions of people as happened in the past.

The Spanish Flu Pandemic, of 1918, was an unusually deadly strain of avian influenza that killed millions of people (estimates range from 20 to 100 million worldwide). It is believed to have been one of the most deadly pandemics in human history, possibly even surpassing the Black Plague. The bird flu is expected to reach America before the end of the year. Are we prepared? There is no vaccine available at this time.

The good news is that any virus must first get past our body's homeland security- - the immune system. The immune system is our body's first line of defense against viral invaders, but it can't do its job without the proper military hardware.

Here is what your immune system needs:

Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables contain more of what your immune system needs than any other food. You should be getting 9+ servings a day (a serving is about half a cup). Go for a wide variety, in a rainbow of colors. Fresh? Frozen? Canned? Raw? Cooked? The best choice is to eat what you enjoy.

Vitamins and minerals are important to the immune system, particularly the antioxidants. Taking supplements might help, but can also be risky business. Some vitamins can attain toxic levels in the body if taken in excess or for a prolonged period of time. Iron supplements can actually depress the immune system. This is a subject to discuss with your doctor.

Now is the time to avoid the things you know are bad for your health. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco smoke are obvious villains to avoid. Sugar is one of the worst enemies of the immune system so pass up pop, candy, and other junk or processed foods. You need a high fiber diet, so stay away from products made with white flour or soy.

Good nutrition is important, but the immune system also needs a healthy mind and body. You need moderate, though not stressful, exercise. Mental exercise is helpful too. Social activity is good for the immune system, so learn how to enjoy family and friends. Rest is essential; get 7-9 hours sleep nightly. Water is vital, so drink at least 8-12 cups daily. Love, laugh, and live.

John Ritter has written a free online encyclopedia concerning herbs and other healing foods used in nutritional healing and disease prevention.

5 Ways To Help Your Children To Love Fresh Vegetables!

2009-03-09T00:51:00.001+07:00

It?s so important to get your kids to eat more fresh vegetables every day, but what do you do if they groan every time they see a broccoli spear? Try these five crafty ways to get children to eat more veg.

Rethink the way you serve meals. Don?t have the plate half covered with meat, with an apologetic spoonful of veg hidden behind it. Gradually reverse the ratio, so that the main part of the plate is filled with generous helpings of veg. It?s easier if you cook a couple of types.

Add extra veg to meals you already serve. A can of borlotti beans in a pasta sauce, a sprinkling of sweetcorn kernels on a pizza, spaghetti served in a ?nest? of steamed broccoli florets. Every extra bit helps.

Peel and chop into crudit?s a couple of carrots, a few celery sticks, a red pepper ? anything with a bit of crunch. Leave these lying casually on the table before supper as the hungry hordes gather and just see what happens.

Master the art of rapid soup-making. I never mess about with pre-frying the veg, it adds fat and makes no discernible difference to the flavour. Chop the veg you have to hand and simmer in stock (try Marigold bouillon powder) until tender. Add herbs - mint, basil, tarragon, coriander ? or spices ? ground coriander, cumin, paprika grated fresh ginger (not too much). Whiz in blender and there you really do have it. If it?s a bit thin, throw in a some cous cous or add a handful of broken spaghetti bits and simmer for a little longer. It?s great for lunch, in a flask for a packed lunch, as an evening snack ? any time. Well, maybe not breakfast.

Add greenery to sandwiches. There is not a sandwich in the world you can?t improve with a generous handful of green leaves. Don?t let your sandwiches leave home without one.

And there you have it. Any or all of these little tricks are simple to build into the daily routine once you get started, and are fantastic ways to get your kids eating more fresh vegetables.

Elizabeth Martyn is webmaster at http://healthy-eating-made-easy.com, where she provides information, tips and recipes on using seasonal, fresh ingredients to feed the family healthily and without hassle. There are also over 120 easy healthy recipes for family meals on the site.

For more help with feeding the family, check out healthy eating for kids.

This article may be published electronically or in print in its entirety as long as the author by-lines in the resource box are included and urls kept live.

Gift Basket Idea for Senior Citizens

2009-03-08T01:53:00.000+07:00

Evidence for the importance of fruit and vegetable intake to health and quality of life with aging is widely recognized. Consuming fruits and vegetables can reduce an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease and many cancers.

Furthermore, fruits and vegetables are important components of diets for the secondary prevention of diabetes and hypertension. Of course, with diabetes, you want to use the low glycemic fruits. The highest sugar fruits are melons. Diets rich in nutrients and phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables have also been associated with delay or decreased risk of conditions associated with aging such as cataracts, diverticulosis, degeneration in neurological and cognitive performance, decline in bone mass, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Diets that are high in fruits and vegetables lower an individual's risk of chronic disease and contribute to healthy aging. Homebound seniors often have low intake of fruits and vegetables and limited access to fruits and vegetables with the most protective nutrients and phytochemicals.

Wouldn't it be a great idea to send someone you know who is a Senior Citizen or someone you know in your community that would benefit from a nice, juicy fruit gift basket?

Once a year, our home care agency sends a Thanksgiving gift Basket and Christmas gift basket to one of our patients who can really benefit from receiving one of these gift baskets. It not only makes them feel special, but they get a nutrition meal.

If you don't know what to give your friend for the holidays, consider a fruit and vegetable gift basket.

Home delivery of fruits and vegetables is an effective way to increase fruit and vegetable intake in homebound seniors.

http://www.diabetestestingcenter.com
http://www.attentiondeficitdisordercenter.com
http://www.acidrefluxandgerd.com

You may reprint this article as long as you keep the links active.

Simple Tips for Good Health

2009-03-07T02:25:00.001+07:00

Many people take for granted very simple ways to healthy living and eating. Our foods are full of toxins, chemicals and preservatives so when you eat try to think natural which is the best way to know your eating right.

If we go back thousands of years when man had no supermarkets and no packaged goods but just simple food then we can relate that to how we should be eating in the 21st century. Back then man would eat food straight from the fruit trees, vegetables that have no chemicals in the soil and free of pesticide spray. Men and women would have been much healthier as they would have also had to work hard to gather their food and we all know that exercise is a vital part of healthy living.

Instead of buying your vegetables from the supermarket which are usually full of chemicals and pesticides consider taking a visit to your small local fresh fruit & vegetable store. Not all of these small fresh fruit & vegetable stores are are that much better as many of them still buy their stock from the same growers as the supermarket chains. The best way to judge if the produce is free from toxins & chemicals is to take it in your hand and take a look at the produce. Study the leafs in greens, do they have a look of been nearly perfect and pest free? If the leaves looks like they have had some harmless insects nibbling at the leaves then thats a good sign the produce has not been sprayed. Do the tomatoes looks pale and without blemishes? If so they have been grown in a hothouse artificially. You are the best judge, use your own discretion and ask the shop keeper directly if the produce is organic and free of sprays & chemicals.

You can also find particular sections in supermarkets & fresh fruit & vegetable stores that cater especially for organic foods which is probably one of the best guarantees that the food is free of toxins. You can also find fresh fruit & vegetable stores that only sell organic foods which is usually the best places to buy.

Eggs are another food source we all need but can be unhealthy to eat due to the chickens been bred in cages and they get no exercise and the eggs contain traces of chemicals from the artificially produced eggs. The eggs also have less natural vitamins, minerals and proteins so we don't get the full benefits of what natural eggs would normally contain. To be assured your eggs are going to be good for you then buy farm range eggs that are organically grown.

How many of us buy white sugar or use white sugar when buying a drink from a caf?? Most likely over 80% of us... Instead of having white sugar which is very bad for our health when too much of it is consumed, buy raw sugar which is less refined or even better use honey to sweeten your drinks and food. Honey is a very healthy food but make sure you buy it unfiltered and honey that has not gone through any processing or heating. The best place to buy honey is straight from the owners of bee hives. If you do have to buy your honey from a store then look for a dark natural color with traces of honey comb and read the label.

Another over consumed everyday food source is salt, apparently most people eat 2 sacks of salt a year more than they need. That is an awful lot of salt but its in nearly every packaged food and nearly all foods from your local restaurant, caf?s or fast food outlet. Aways insist on salt free food when buying from these places and most restaurant & caf?s will be happy to prepare a special dish free of salt for you although at a slightly higher price but it's well worth it. We all need some salt but not so much, only use natural sea salt or kelp in our meals and do so moderately.

Lucy Denim writes part-time about nutrition and is in charge of the Health & Beauty department at DiscountSaver.net - http://www.discountsaver.net/coupons.asp?savediscount=healthbeauty

Low Price Health Care Everyday Preventative Action

2009-03-07T00:34:00.001+07:00

Let's start with what you should do in the morning. Get up and go straight to the kitchen. It's very important that you eat or drink something in the morning to get your metabolism going. The earlier you get your metabolism going, the more calories your will burn. It will also help your circadian rhythm stay in balance. Get out a banana, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, and a cup of yogurt and start blending them in your blender or better yet, your smoothie maker. Get that smoothie in your stomach and you'll be doing your intestines a favor the later morning. Bacon and eggs might be your prefered choice when it comes to taste and satisfaction, but you'll find that your tastes will change overtime and your body will start to appreciate and crave this new diet of fruit and yogurt.

When lunchtime comes around go to your grocery store and browse the produce section for whatever is on sale and in season. Not only do vegetables taste better when they are in season, they can actually be more healthy for you at the same time as they can contain more antioxidants, minerals and vitamins when they are in season. In addition, people often have bad associations with fruits or vegetables just because they once ate something that was unripe or rotten and did not realize that that was not a good representation of what it was supposed to taste like. If you have a bad association with a fruit or vegetable learn how to tell when they are ripe and never leave them on the counter for too long and expect them to stay fresh and taste the same. I always examine my vegetable rigorously for this very reason and I have found that I can take a liking to almost anything in the produce section.

Take your vegetables home and give them a good washing. Put them in a microwave safe dish and set your microwave setting to fresh vegetables. If you don't have a microwave with this setting, I highly recomend you go out shopping for a microwave that does. It is a huge time saver and I love being able to just press a button and get perfectly steamed vegeables everytime. Eat your vegetables up and get on back to work. But take with you your favorite tea. Green tea, black tea, spice tea whatever. As long as your tea makes you happy, I don't care what kind it is. The important thing is that you drink tea instead of something that will give you heartburn like soda pop. Drink your tea throughout the afternoon as you desire. I find it's a nice break time activity that generates good conversation with my coworkers. I like to talk about the benefits of drinking tea and I am fortunate that my coworkers do as well. If your tea has ginger in it, it is even thought to aid in digestion. You might think that you have no digestive problems, and that is great, drinking tea may just prevent you from ever having them in the future. It 's so much easier and less expensive to keep your body in good working order by taking simple preventative steps that are as easy as drinking tea. I can't stress this enought.

Speaking of stress, when you get home at night and finish your dinner there is another tea that I like to drink. Before we get to that, let's talk about dinner. Dinner should not be the largest meal of the day as contrary to popular practice that may be. However, this is time for your body to slow down and get ready for a good night's sleep. Have a small portion of chicken or your favorite cut of meat with some good whole grains and vegetables on the side. If you can boil your chicken instead of fry it to reduce your fat intake. Once dinner is over, I like to drink some chamolile tea and listen to the radio in bed. The radio? Yes, the radio helps to calm my body down much more than the T.V. does. This might not be your idea of an exciting night, but it can really pay off in your long term health if you get to bed at a reasonable time and get your sleep started off early. Today, it is all to common for people to get in a bad habit of going to bed late and getting up feeling groogy and tired. This is not only a bad idea for your body's health, it is also a bad idea if you intend on performing well at work.

Please don't put your health care on the backburner. If you do, you're just asking for high price emergency health care at some point in the future. Doctors then must resort to powerful medicines with negative side effects and surgery to treat aliments that could have been prevented. Keep your body healthy and strong and empower your natural ability to fight off diseases.

I thank you for reading my article on everyday preventative health care. Please feel free to repost this article on your website, but you must keep this footer intact. Please also visit my website Low Price Health Care to read reviews, articles, and find low prices on a variety of health care products online. Our website is nicely organized into categories like:

Allergy, Sinus & Asthma, Cough & Cold, Diabetes, Digestion & Nausea, Eye Care, Feminine Hygiene, First Aid, Hair Care, Homeopathic & Natural Remedies, Oral Hygiene, Pain Relievers, Sleep & Snoring, Smoking Cessation, Thermometers, Herbal Supplements, Homeopathic Remedies, Massage & Relaxation, Nutritional Supplements, Nutrition Bars & Shakes, Vitamins, Skin Care, and Weight-Loss Products.

Thank you for reading my article and be well!

Potatoes: Once and For All Are America's Favorite Vegetables Good For You or Not?

2009-03-06T21:19:00.001+07:00

Potatoes are one of the top crops grown throughout the world, and they're certainly a favorite right here in the United States. In fact, potatoes are America's favorite vegetable, and they are harvested somewhere in the United States during every single month of the year.

Americans love potatoes. We each eat about 126 pounds of them every year -- a hefty amount when you consider that we only eat 30 pounds of lettuce and 4.5 pounds of broccoli in the same time-span. Interestingly, though, despite their popularity there is an ongoing debate as to whether they are good for you or not.

Potatoes are As Bad as Sugar

At the heart of the argument against potatoes is their high level of carbohydrates. They were avoided like the plague during the very recent low-carb craze, with Atkins' dieters and others swearing they were one of the worst foods you could eat.

Harvard's head nutritionist, Walter Willett, M.D., agreed. White potatoes are like white sugar and white bread, he said. Not only do they cause a spike in blood sugar, but they can raise levels of harmful triglycerides and lower HDL (good) cholesterol. Willett maintains that this increases the risk of heart attack, particularly in people with insulin resistance.

Two Harvard studies also found that eating a lot of potatoes increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Further, while most vegetables reduce the risk of cancer, potatoes do not appear to have this effect.

Willett says that potatoes should be treated like candy and desserts and eaten only sparingly.

Most Potatoes Eaten are Fried

Eating a plain baked potato is one thing. It is in this form, or, perhaps, roasted, mashed, boiled or steamed, that a case for a healthy potato can be made.

When potatoes come in their processed form -- French fries, potatoes chips, tater tots, hash brown patties -- no one claims they are good for you. But it is in this processed form that the majority of potatoes are consumed. In fact, from 1977 to 1995 Americans increased their potato consumption by 30 percent -- mostly in the form of French fries and potato chips.

What is so unhealthy about fried potato chips and French fries?

They contain artery-clogging trans fats.
They contain acrylamide, a cancer-causing substance. While the EPA safe limit for acrylamide in drinking water is 0.5 parts per billion (ppb), a small order of fries contains 400 ppb!
They are cooked in vegetables oils that may be rancid, thereby producing large amounts of free radicals in the body.

A Heart-Healthy, Antioxidant-Rich Comfort Food

Many believe that potatoes have gotten a bad rap -- that they're actually quite healthy (as long as they're not fried or processed).

Potatoes are a good source of:

Vitamin C
Vitamin B6
Copper
Potassium
Manganese
Dietary fiber

Further, potatoes contain a variety of antioxidants, including:

Carotenoids
Flavonoids
Caffeic acid
Unique tuber storage proteins, including patatin, which help fight free radicals

It has also been discovered that potatoes contain newly identified compounds that lower blood pressure called kukoamines. The compounds, discovered by UK scientists at the Institute for Food Research (IFR), were previously only thought to exist in Lycium chinense, an exotic herbal plant.

Potatoes have been cultivated for thousands of years, and we thought traditional crops were pretty well understood, said IFR food scientist Dr. Fred Mellon, but this surprise finding shows that even the most familiar of foods might conceal a hoard of health-promoting chemicals.

How to Best Bake a Potato

It certainly looks like the potato will continue to be a mainstay of the American diet for some time. To best bake a potato, so as to retain the maximum number of nutrients, we recommend the following recipe:

Scrub the potato under cold running water using a vegetable brush.
Remove any eyes or deep bruises with a paring knife.
Leave the peel on -- it contains a load of healthy fiber.
Pierce the potato several times on either side. This will allow steam to escape and keep the potato from bursting.
Do not wrap the potato in foil; some believe that aluminum foil may transfer toxins to food. Also, the foil will trap moisture, causing the potato to be steamed rather than baked.
Place potatoes in a 400?F oven.
Bake for 45-60 minutes. Potatoes are done when they give slightly after squeezing.

This article was provided by the world's #1 most popular and trusted holistic living e-newsletter -- FREE to you right now at http://www.SixWise.com! The old way of thinking: holistic living pertains only to personal health. The new way of thinking: holistic living means prevention of the negative and adherence to the positive in all SIX practical areas of life: relationships, finances, career, home environment, safety and health. With the SixWise.com e-newsletter, you will get holistic wisdom from the world's top experts in all six of these areas -- completely FREE with a simple sign-up (and a guaranteed no-spam policy!) at http://www.SixWise.com.

Eat Yourself Healthy

2009-03-06T02:02:00.000+07:00

You?re hungry, so you eat. It?s so simple, isn?t it? Well, maybe not so simple these days.

It is apparent that what you eat has a profound effect on how you feel and how healthy you are.

Your diet, the number of calories, the Glycemic Index, the mix of protein and carbohydrate, the amount of refined sugar, processed or home made, when you eat and more, all have some effect on your long-term health and ultimately happiness.

Eating has turned into a science instead of a simple necessity. The focus on food is now where and how it is grown and the time it takes to get from field to your table.

Food processing companies are becoming as large and powerful as drug companies in that they bombard us with advertising to try the latest food combination ready-made, frozen meal. They play on the pace of life today and the lack of time to prepare and cook food for you and the family.

The consequence of poor diet throughout your life increases your chances of becoming overweight and developing diabetes, or even possibly some other disease such as cancer. It is not something to look forward to.

Maybe now is a good time to review what you eat and think about changing to a healthier mix of food. Certainly, cutting down of processed food is a must, as is trying to reduce the amount of refined sugar you munch through in cookies, cakes and candies.

But, don?t think the news is as bad as it might seem. The benefits of fresh and organic foods are many, and they taste just great. Once you get into the habit of choosing fresh fish and meat, seasonal fruit and vegetables, you?ll never go back.

You will feel better and happier, and you will be healthier.

What to do is take a look at what makes up these delicious fresh foods. Check out their calorie content, how many vitamins and minerals they contain, how much fat both saturated and unsaturated, the water content and most of all just what impact they can have on your health.

Suddenly you will see how omega-3 fatty acids help a whole list of conditions such as helping your memory, lowering cholesterol, reducing inflammation, building up your immune system and much more.

You?ll discover the benefits of antioxidants to help combat ageing, and lutein to help preserve your sight.

What about the good things that fibre, both soluble and insoluble, does for health?

Then, there are the foods that fight cancer. Broccoli, for instance, slows cancer growth and may kill Helicobacter pylori in your stomach so preventing ulcers.

The list is endless. All kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables contribute to your well-being. It doesn?t take a lot of time or effort to prepare healthy, nutritious and delicious meals. And, buying healthy food takes no longer than unhealthy processed meals.

Take a look at some fresh foods and you?ll be surprised just how good they are for you.

James Brunton is a pharmacist with many years experience. Get his booklets on alternative therapies including basic food groups at http://www.healthexplored.com, subscribe to his newsletter and get a free tips booklet, or claim some of his special reports on cholesterol, antacids and pain.

The Grapefruit Diet

2009-03-06T01:18:00.000+07:00

The Grapefruit diet is not a diet for life. It is a short time diet; it only lasts 2 1/2 months. It is a diet for rapid weight loss and fast weight loss diets are always popular. We have seen popular diets come and go and this dieting program is no exception; we can call it a fad diet. It is also a weight loss diet for real heavy weighters who need to lose lots of pounds. If you follow this diet exactly you should be able to lose 52 pounds during this two and a half month's dieting period. To sustain the weight loss however, you need to change to a long term diet. The usefulness of this diet is to motivate people who are severely overweight towards a flying dieting start. If you look at the diet this way, it might be useful for you.

General Guidelines

During this diet you should reduce your coffee consumption, it slows down the burning process. Only one cup a day

Don't eliminate anything from the diet. The combinations of food listed in the diet are important for the fat burning (especially bacon AND salads)

Drink eight 8 oz. glasses of water per day which means 64 oz. total daily

Fry your food in butter and cover your vegetables generously with butter

If you want you may double or even triple helpings of meat, salad or vegetables

Never change the amount of grapefruit or juice. This has to do with the diet's fat burning effect

This diet allows no desserts, breads, white vegetables or sweet potatoes

The diet does not allow eating between meals. If you follow the diet you will not get hungry

Stay on the diet 12 days, then stop the diet for 2 days and repeat the dieting cycle for two and a half month (approximately 75 days)..

On this diet you can eat until you are stuffed

Never eat less than the minimum listed at each meal in this diet.

The Diet Plan

Breakfast:

Either 1/2 grapefruit OR 8 oz. unsweetened juice
2 eggs any style
2 slices of bacon

Lunch:

Either 1/2 grapefruit OR 8 oz. unsweetened juice
Salad with any dressing
Meat any style and any amount

Dinner:

Either 1/2 grapefruit OR 8 oz. unsweetened juice
Salad with any dressing OR a red or green vegetable cooked in butter or spices
Meat or Fish any style cooked any way
Coffee or Tea (1 cup)

Evening Snack:

8 oz. glass of tomato juice or 8 oz cup of skim milk.

This diet is not for everyone but could be right for you. Good Luck!

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet marketer. He runs the website 11-Weight-Loss.net. Terje enjoys to give advice and help people with fast weight loss with the grapefruit diet. fad diets and more balanced diets.

Eat More Vegetables: A Dozen Easy & Delicious Ways to Improve Your Daily Diet

2009-03-05T22:20:00.000+07:00

In today's fast paced, fast food world, most of us need to improve our daily diet by eating more vegetables. For optimum health that means 3 to 5 servings a day. Try these twelve ways to easily (and deliciously) incorporate more veggies into your meals and snacks.

1. In the winter, make one pot meals, like soups, stews, and chowders. Use a combination of fresh and frozen vegetables. Turnips, parsnips, and other vegetables you might not enjoy on their own are quite satisfying in a hearty winter soup or stew.

2. Make a simple tossed salad part of your dinner every night. No need to wash and cut up veggies. Buy salads already prepared, so all you have to do is open the bag, put the salad in a bowl or on a plate and add some low-fat or low-calorie dressing. Toss in a few sunflower seed kernels, dried nuts, or sprouts for extra crunch and additional nutrients.

3. Trade potato chips and other high fat, high calorie snack foods for matchstick carrots. Again, buy the carrots already washed and prepared. They may seem a bit expensive but there's no waste (if you actually eat the carrots and don't leave them to rot in the crisper of your refrigerator).

4. Make at least one stir-fry meal a week. Experiment with various stir- fry recipes to come up with your favorite variation of vegetables, seasonings, and a small amount of meat. Use fresh veggies, or try some of the many frozen varieties of stir-fry mixes available at the supermarket.

5. Try a chicken and veggie fajita for dinner or lunch at least once a week. Simply cook diced chicken and chopped onion in a few tablespoons of oil. Add seasoning (look for fajita seasoning in the spice section of your supermarket). When the chicken has cooked all the way through, and the onions are translucent, add chopped green, yellow, and red peppers and continue cooking until they soften. Put a couple of spoonfuls of the cooked veggies and chicken in the center of a flour tortilla, add some shredded cheese, and fold as you would for a burrito.

6. Add shredded carrots or zucchini to meatloaf or meatballs.

7. Instead of a meat lover's pizza, order (or make) a veggie lover's pizza once in a while.

8. Serve low calorie dips with fresh veggies instead of chips and crackers.

9. If you get tired of salads, try slaw. Browse cookbooks for recipes that include red cabbage and interesting ingredients besides the ordinary green cabbage and carrots.

10.Experiment with vegetable casseroles. Broccoli and Rice is an easy one that most families will eat. You'll find recipes for some variation of this in many cookbooks, or try the all time kid's favorite, Green Bean Casserole.

11.Make a simple and satisfying veggie quiche for dinner once in a while. Use a frozen pie crust and all you'll need to prepare is the filling.

12.Drink vegetable juice for a morning or afternoon snack. Also add it those hearty soups and stews you rustle up for dinner.

Once you start thinking about it, you'll find it really isn't that difficult to incorporate more fresh and frozen vegetables into your daily diet.

Suzanne Lieurance is a freelance writer, children's author, and owner of the Three Angels Gourmet Co. Read her daily food tips at http://www.threeangelsgourmet.blogspot.com or visit http://www.threeangelsgourmet.com for heavenly gourmet mixes.

Eat More Vegetables 12 Sneaky Ways

2009-03-05T17:56:00.000+07:00

Eat more vegetables when you want to lose weight. You've heard it before and you know the benefits:

Hard to overeat. You can eat potato chips all day and night, but you quickly feel stuffed on carrot and celery sticks.

Feel fuller faster.

Decrease meat content by adding more vegetables.

But eating more vegetables is often easier said than done. Try these painless ways to sneak more vegetables into your diet:

Precut vegetables into serving-size portions and place in the refrigerator for easy access. Make your vegetables as convenient to eat as any other snack food and you will eat more of them.

Serve your vegetables on a beautiful plate or bowl. Break out the china or treat yourself to a funky new serving platter.

Serve vegetables in fancy shapes. Use cookie cutters or learn how to make roses, palm trees, birds, and other creations with vegetables. You have fun decorating cakes and cookies, why not vegetables? There are simple courses on the market teaching vegetable garnishing. This web site offers books, videos, and other tools for decorating with food: www.chefharvey.com.

Create a salad bar with healthy dips and those vegetable decorations you learned to make. Dips include low fat salad dressing, peanut butter, cottage cheese, and salsa.

Slice vegetables thin and layer them in sandwiches.

Got a shredder? Choose a variety of vegetables you don't normally eat: asparagus, parsnips, beets, whatever strikes your fancy. Shred them together and top with your favorite dressing.

When serving hamburgers, sloppy joes, pizza or any other kid-pleasing fare, toss in some shredded carrots or broccoli. Just a small amount will blend right into a red sauce and boost the nutritional value of any dish. While you've got the shredder out, shred more vegetables and package them in zip-lock bags or air-tight containers for the next meal.

In beef stew, cut the meat in half and double the vegetables. Try adding another vegetable along with the traditional carrots and potatoes. You'll still have the meaty taste, but with lower fat and calorie content.

Traditional nori seaweed wraps form the outer casing of sushi. You can buy nori made from vegetables or fruits and use it in place of tortillas or sandwich bread. Asian grocers or health food stores carry this product, or you can order on-line.

Hide vegetables in chocolate cake. Add tomato juice or pureed spinach to the batter. You won't be able to taste the veggies after the cake is baked!

Learn to cook spaghetti squash. A 4-ounce serving has less than 40 calories! Spaghetti squash can be boiled, baked, slow cooked, or microwaved. Once tender, pull a fork through squash to tear out spaghetti-like shreds. Ladle on tomato sauce perked up with shredded carrots, mushrooms, and sliced broccoli. Nutritious and delicious!

Try grilled kabobs. Cut bite-size pieces of vegetables and grill them on skewers or alternate with chunks of meat. Add a tasty marinade.

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Go Organic!

2009-03-05T01:54:00.000+07:00

Would you care for a side dish of pesticides with your meal tonight?

Most sane people would not raise their hand in the affirmative. So how do you reply in the negative, so that food manufacturers will hear you?

Go organic! It is healthier for you to not ingest chemicals not intended for your system. With large-scale food production, pesticides and chemicals are added to help the earth and plants perform. Soil becomes depleted with overuse in food production, so the chemicals are added in an effort to amend that, and to fight off the pests that invade the off-balance system. The chemicals themselves lead to an imbalance, causing a cycle of depletion and perpetuating the system imbalance. In the meantime, these same chemicals are killing off earthworms, which eat soil and produce a richer fertilizer than can be manufactured!

The Environmental Protection Agency lists 60,000 of the 70,000 chemicals produced as being potentially dangerous to our health. Hundreds of millions of pounds of pesticides are added annually to the billions of pounds already in the ground, which in turn leach into the cells of the foods that we will be ingesting. To top it off, food plants grown in chemical-additive soil contain more carbohydrates and are lower in protein and minerals. The chemical fertilizers can also cause a severe lack of magnesium in plants, which in turn causes deficiencies of magnesium in humans. This means that the foods we are purchasing are coming to us nutritionally inferior, in their natural state, as a result of their production!

Food plants grown in soil rich in natural minerals and humus have a greater protein content than those grown in chemically fertilized soils. Calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron contents of vegetables from mineral-rich organic soil has ranged from four to many hundreds of times higher than soils chemically fertilized. These foods are more natural, as a direct result of their being grown naturally, and clearly more nutritionally beneficial.

The question is why food manufacturers would continue to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, when the risks appear to outweigh the benefits. It comes down to economics, as usual - organic production requires a little more labor and effort, which in turn can make the cost of production a little higher. By spreading chemicals instead, the result is a cheaper solution, with the cost being somewhat hidden in the way of environmental side-effects and our ingesting chemicals not intended for human consumption.

Organic foods, when first introduced, were generally a lot more expensive than their chemically-grown counterparts. What has happened, as a result of consumer demand, is that the supply of more organically-grown foods were requested and purchased, and in turn, the costs have come down. What you have to consider is how much is your long-term health worth? It doesn't seem to make sense to purchase foods that are nutritionally deficient right off the shelf. The purpose of food is to provide our body the maximum amount of nutrients possible. We certainly don't eat for malnutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiency, and unnatural chemicals migrating into every cell of our bodies.

What wouldn't you pay for vitality and the most premium health you can possibly possess?

Debra Augur has studied holistic nutrition for years, put that knowledge into practice, and has a passion to share that knowledge with others who are seeking their own best health. If we are what we eat, are we denatured, devitalized, deficient and potentially toxic? Visit http://www.eat-well-to-be-well.com to learn more, and begin acquiring your healthiest self.

Powerful Health Weapon Can Increase Your Energy

2009-03-04T02:16:00.001+07:00

By the time you finish reading this article, you'll possess a powerful weapon in your fight against chronic tiredness and other health problems.

This potent weapon is not new. It's well known by many health experts.

So what is this key resource to help you enjoy better health?

It's making your own fresh fruit and vegetable juices. When you juice fruits and vegetables, you make delicious drinks that will contribute to increased energy and enhanced health.

Why is juicing so effective?

Here's how this wonderful health weapon works: juices are absorbed almost immediately into your body, thus supplying needed vitamins and minerals. Cooking vegetables removes a lot of their nutritional value, but juicing saves these vitamins and minerals. So you get mega-doses of vitamins and minerals.

Let's say you make a carrot-apple drink from one apple and four carrots. Imagine sitting down and eating all those at one time in their original state! But you get the vitamins and minerals from the fruit and vegetables in their juice and it's living! That's because the vitamins and minerals have not been destroyed by the pasteurization process used to make juice sold in stores.

How do you get the maximum health return from juicing?

Start your day right by drinking freshly-made juice. It's wise to drink it before you eat and then wait about ten minutes (before eating the rest of your breakfast) to give your body a headstart as it absorbs the life-giving fluid into your bloodstream.

Don't let the juice sit around, but drink it within minutes of making it to retain those precious vitamins and minerals.

You can also add to your fiber intake by using the pulp in muffins and bread. Just add the pulp of your favorite fruits and vegetables to your recipe and you'll have a moist taste-bud pleasing treat!

How are fruits and vegetables prepared for juicing?

First wash them. Cut out any bad spots that you wouldn't want to eat. You usually don't need to peel fruits and vegetables.

What are some popular juice recipes?

1. Carrot Juice

Carrots are a favorite for juicing purposes. Put them through your juicer one at a time and don't peel them.

Carrot drinks taste great all by themselves, but you can also use them as a base for other fruits and vegetables too. Carrots and apples taste wonderful together. Children love this combination taste treat!

2. Celery Juice

Celery should be cut into 3-4 inch sections and fed into your machine at a steady pace.

3. Fresh Apple Drink

Just cut the apples into pieces that will fit into the feeding chamber. You don't need to core them, although you might want to do so.

4. Melon Thirst Quencher

You'll need to remove the rinds but not the seeds. Most varieties of melons are great for juicing.

5. Combo Drink

Add all different kinds of vegetables together, including tomatoes. It's fun to experiment! But don't put in vegetables or fruit that you don't like to eat because your beverage won't taste good to you.

What kinds of juicers are available?

1. Centrifugal-ejection machines

These are good for most uses.

2. Low-speed masticating juicers

These do a better job juicing spinach and wheatgrass.

3. Twin gear juicers

These machines work in two stages. First the fruits and vegetables are crushed and then the juice is pressed out. You get a higher quality drink because of this process, but twin gear machines are slower than the other juicers.

4. Citrus juicers

If you're just squeezing lemons, oranges and grapefruit, this is the one for you.

The better the machine, the longer the warranty. The inexpensive juicers aren't made to withstand daily use. A powerful motor extracts juice faster with less strain. Centrifugal juicers should have a motor rating of at least 450-watts. Machines that use a slow, grinding motor speed (masticating and double-auger models) don't need as much wattage.

If making your own energy-packed juice isn't in your arsenal of health weapons yet, it should be.

Step up your energy to a much higher level by juicing your way to vibrant health!

Patricia Wagner offers health tips & newsletter to help you live a more energetic lifestyle. She is also an artist, so be sure to view her original landscape art.

A Personal Skincare Program for You

2009-03-03T22:18:00.000+07:00

Why is it that all of us cannot keep the skin we were born with. Well I?ve still got my skin but it has changed and, according to my mother, it has changed a lot. It would also need to have stretched a bit, well in my case stretched a lot. As we get older, things happen to our skin, like wrinkles. I have them but I am a man so I can get away with it. Unfortunately, ladies find it harder to get away with having a few wrinkles. As a man, I am not too bothered by a few wrinkles and as long as I keep my skin clean, I do not bother with it much and no one really notices. What we do notice though is skin on women, and because many men are somehow genetically programmed to be uncaring and insensitive about your skin, you spend a great deal of time and effort to make your skin look good.

Why is it then that men can get away with wrinkles but women cannot? Is there anything you can do about it? If you adopt a skin care program then this should help to affect how your skin looks and more importantly it will affect how you feel as well, and that is very important. You have to remember that the skin is the largest organ in your body and so by adopting a skincare program you are looking after yourself.

So what can you do about it? Well to start with after every shower even after you have dried yourself your skin is still damp and by applying moisturizer you are trapping moisture into your skin which is a great plus factor. Another one is to drink water and this hydration helps your skin as well. However, if you notice that even after this your skin is always dry and sometimes a little flakey, just visit your doctor to check things out. One other reason you should quickly visit is if there is a major change such as dark, (or lighter), skin patches and any changes or growth to moles you may have. Get these checked out just to make sure you have no problems.

One thing to watch out for is the effect the sun has on your skin. The sun is at its fiercest when it is highest, which is generally at midday, so just take care. Applying a good sunscreen helps, and another thing to take into consideration is that elastin, which is a substance in your skin, breaks down under strong sunlight. This can cause the skin to sag so just be careful. It is a pity about the effects of sunlight on skin as most of us feel much happier when exposed to sunlight.

Rather than buy every skincare product on the market there is a lot you can do to help your skin by developing your own personal skincare program.

Healthy skin is helped by a healthy diet, and a healthy diet is usually a balanced diet containing fresh vegetables and fruit. Both of these have been found to contain antioxidants which can help your skin protect itself from day to day living. To get the best values from fruit and veg though it must be fresh or only lightly cooked.

Another important factor in skincare is skin hydration and this is helped by drinking a sensibly amount of water. I have seen it suggested that 4 to 8 cups a day is sensible but if you are drinking bottled mineral water check the chemical makeup of the water as some are high in sodium which means high salt levels. Do not fall into the trap that drinking 4 to 8 cups of coffee a day, (which is mainly water after all), is as good for you. Coffee contains plenty of caffeine which helps the body to dispose of water. I had a great idea that I would drink beer instead of coffee as that is mainly water, but drinks containing alcohol, (including wine,) do not class as water either. It does not have to be bottled water either; tap water is fine as long as it is pure and clean. Not at bedtime though as drinking late at night means your body may retain this water causing your skin to stretch a little which is not something you want to happen.

Your skin also stretches when you become overweight and after a diet, and loosing weight, you will need to exercise to tone your skin into shape again. A younger person has more flexible skin but when you are older your skin is not as flexible and it becomes harder to tone your skin after loosing weight. The answer is not to try and put on weight in the first place but that is not always easy especially as we get older. However please try to keep weight gain off your skin care program as the two do not go together.

Whatever you decide to do, do some research and find out what will work best for you. One way of doing this is to talk to people selling skincare products in stores. Although their job is to try and sell you their product, they will still give you good advice. You could ask your friends as well, as some of them may be able to guide you in the right direction. Whatever you decide to do, good luck.

Ric Wiley is an established writer and Internet author. His latest advice site about skincare can be found at http://www.skincare-today.info

The Benefits Of Taking A Vitamin Supplement

2009-03-03T17:44:00.001+07:00

Vitamin supplements seem to the new hot item discussed on the Internet, in newspapers and magazines, sometimes even on the evening news. There's a good reason for the growing popularity of vitamins, minerals and supplements and that's the simple fact that our bodies need quality nutrition in order to function properly.

There are a large number of essential vitamins and minerals that our body needs to routinely make it through the day and with our daily food intake not adding up into a balanced diet the need for a vitamin supplement has never been greater. Vitamin supplements are responsible for making sure they fill the gaps created by our improper diets in order to prevent a deficiency from taking place with the essential vitamins and minerals we need. Although there are plenty of ways to research vitamin supplements online the best advice can be gained from the advice given by a trained health professional or even better a dietary technician. Expert advice can be very important to your health because although vitamin supplements do help our bodies they can also harm you (in some cases they can be toxic) if taken in large dosages. Additionally a dietary specialist can determine the types of minerals and nutrients you need by analyzing your diet and then accurately prescribe a vitamin supplement to meet your deficiencies in the correct dosages.

The benefit of seeking expert advice and dietary opinions is magnified if you fall into a specific category of health or follow a specific diet such as a vegetarian. The reality is no matter how good a vegetarian diet is for your health and weight it leaves your body deficient in a number of essential vitamins that are normally only found in meat type products. For that very reason a good vitamin supplement is needed in order to properly address the nutrient deficiency based on only eating vegetables. Vegetarians also don't need to be worried about ingesting any animal type products with their supplements since there are synthetic versions available that allow vegetarians the opportunity to get the minerals and nutrients they need without compromising their dietary beliefs.

As you can probably imagine the older we get the more we rely on vitamins and nutrients in order to help us make it through the day. Unfortunately our bodies lose the ability to effectively draw the nutrients we need from our daily dietary allowance. We don't completely lose the ability there is just a degradation in the efficiency process of extracting nutrients from the food we it. A vitamin supplement is a natural fit here in order to help us process our food more better and to again fill in the vitamin deficiency we may be experiencing.

Finally, although children naturally have a better system for drawing nutrients out of the food they eat the problem with their vitamin deficiency lies in the actual diet they consume. Let's face it; children don't eat a sufficient amount of foods in a wide variety so a vitamin supplement would help to augment their development until such time as they start eating more foods with a better source of nutrients and minerals.

Your health is important and in order to optimize our bodies so they can properly react to the stress involved in the activities know as daily living we need the proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals in the correct amounts. Vitamin supplements are an effective way to accomplish this quickly and easily.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of VitaminSupplementsGuide.com. He provides more information on anti-aging supplements, dietary supplements and the benefits of taking a vitamin supplement that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

The Importance of Fruit and Vegetable Juices in Nutrition

2009-03-02T22:35:00.001+07:00

A man?s health is a very important aspect of his life. To say that ?health is wealth? is not only to utter an old, used up mantra, but to mean that for most human beings, staying fit and healthy is parallel to being wealthy, for a person?s everyday life is influenced mainly by the state of his mind and body, especially by the presence and absence of certain diseases.

Many people go through various efforts to stay fit, maintain good health, and ensure their longevity. Examples of these practices include engaging in rigorous physical fitness training, eating a balanced and healthy diet, maintaining ideal weight, and employing an effective stress management procedure. It is also important to stop smoking, reduce alcohol intake, and avoid the use of prohibited substances.

Poor health can be caused by a host of different factors, such as poor eating habits, lack of exercise, stress, and excessive smoking and alcohol intake. Unbalanced intake of nutrients, for one, may cause excessive or deficient nutrient intake, which will definitely affect the body?s normal functions. These nutrients are necessary for a person?s growth, metabolism, and other functions. There are about six nutrients, which are needed by the human body in different amounts to perform its various processes. These are: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, or nutrients that are known to provide energy to the body; and minerals, vitamins, and water, or those nutrients that support the body?s metabolism.

Water, the last nutrient in the list, is sometimes called the forgotten nutrient, but it is considered as the most important. Water is necessary for the body?s growth and metabolic processes. It runs through the blood and lymphatic system, carries oxygen and distributes nutrients to the cells, and rids the body of toxins and wastes in the form of urine and sweat. If water and its other liquid substitutes are not present in the human diet, food digestion, nutrient absorption, and waste excretion would be impossible.

The human body is made up of two-thirds water. It needs eight to ten glasses of water or caffeine- and alcohol-free liquids to replace the water it loses during the day. The body?s need for water is satisfied by the intake of other drinking liquids free from caffeine and alcohol, such as juices; fruits and vegetables, which are made of 80 to 95% water; meat products, which are made of 50% water; and cereals like rice and oats, which can contain as much as 35% water.

Fruit juices, on the other hand, have been scientifically proven to give certain health benefits, provided that they are taken in moderation. Nutritionists also suggest that fruit juices should be taken in their pure state, and people should only drink 100% fruit juice. Cranberry juice is believed to prevent urinary tract infections; grape juice is believed to lower the chances of blood clots in the heart; and orange juice is believed to prevent stroke and reduce the risk of heart attacks.

Though these popular beliefs have no scientific basis to their therapeutic claims, most scientists say that many fruit juices are indeed healthy to drink. Pure orange juice, for example, is very rich in Vitamin C, potassium, and folic acid. Other fruit juices that are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and anthocynanins (water soluble pigments found in plants which act as antioxidants) include grape juice (purple), pomegranate juice, and cranberry juice. It is believed that juices that are made from fruits with rich colors such as grapes, pomegranates, cranberries, and blueberries are rich in vitamins and antioxidants. New juices from black currants and Tahitian noni have also found their way in the international market.

Recent scientific studies have also claimed that the antioxidants found in most fruits and vegetable juices can help lower a person?s risks of developing Alzheimer?s disease. Antioxidants are naturally occurring substances found in most plants and have the potential to help combat heart diseases and fight cancer.

Freshly squeezed juices from fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of minerals and vitamins which catalyze chemical reactions occurring in the body. These enzymes also produce the energy needed for digestion, absorption, and conversion of food into body tissues. An increased intake of fruit and vegetable juices ensures that the body will efficiently absorb more minerals and vitamins.

Another helpful benefit of fruits and fruit juices is their ability to promote detoxification in the human body. Fruits help to cleanse the body, especially those with high acid levels. Tomatoes, pineapples, and citruses such as oranges, red grapefruits, and lemons are known for their detoxifying properties. While these fruits promote cleansing, they still provide the body with a high boost of Vitamin C!

D. David Dugan is a supporter of http://health.divinfo.com, a site devoted to promoting good health, and http://retirement.divinfo.com, a site designed to provide people of all ages helpful retirement information.

Protein Diet The Healthy Way Of Living

2009-03-02T16:39:00.001+07:00

You need protein for the repair and growth of the body. Protein is composed of chains of amino acids. There are only twenty common amino acids but they are combined in nature in an infinite number of ways so that proteins differ in structure and in their enzymatic qualities.

In the old days scientists spoke of first and second class proteins. Today we know that out of the twenty amino acids, eight are essential in that the adult cannot make them in the body, and the rest are called nonessential because they can be made from the essential ones.

One more amino acid, histidine, is needed for growing infants, and so is essential to begin with, but not later on. It is a mistake to think of the non-essential amino acids as being without value, for they too are found in the cells of our bodies; it is only that we can do without them if we have to. The essential amino acids are: isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.

Most vegetable sources of protein are lacking in one or other of the essential amino acids, but eggs, milk, meat and fish contain all the amino acids in the correct proportions. However if you mix grains, seeds, pulses, nuts and legumes so that your diet is not consisting of a single type of vegetable protein, then the biological value of the mixture is excellent.

Indeed such a diet is good because if does not contain the saturated fat commonly present in meat.The body does not need a great deal of protein, provided this supplies the essential amino acids in the right mixture. The unwanted amino acids are converted into heat and energy and not materials for the growth and repair of the cells.

Only recently did the World Health Organization realize that vast sums were being spent on giving too much protein to the starving and under-privileged millions, when all the poor were doing was to convert the excess protein to much-needed energy. When energy providing foods are given instead the protein levels usually do not need supplementation.

Kevin Pederson has been managing a number of natural home remedies websites which have information on home based natural cures and the importance of proteins and other necessary supplements required by our body.

Getting Up Early Can Help You Lose 10 Pounds

2009-03-02T01:13:00.001+07:00

Weight gain can be a very slow process. For most people, it is a matter of one pound here, one pound there, and the next thing you know you're 10 pounds heavier. This is why almost everyone, at one point or another, will want to lose 10 pounds. To lose 10 pounds is very realistic for almost everyone, and is achievable though some small changes in diet and by exercising more. The vast majority of people, with their busy schedules, get little or no exercise, so even a small bit of regular exercise should be able to achieve noticeable results. If we don't have time to exercise a great deal, though, we're going to want to maximize the effectiveness of the exercise we do get, and a great way to do that is by exercising in the morning.

There are two main reasons why you can more easily lose 10 pounds by exercising in the morning. The first has to do with the fact that it is much easier to build into your daily routine. One of the keys to losing weight by exercise is to do it regularly, which many people find difficult: it's always hard to find time. So a great reason for exercising in the morning is that you'll have very little distraction. In many ways, you are literally making time for the exercise by starting your day earlier.

Now, in terms of your goal to lose 10 pounds, morning exercise will be more effective because you will be burning calories from fat already in your system. This principle is based, of course, on the idea that you don't eat before you exercise. The way you're going to lose 10 pounds is by burning fat, and when you exercise your body normally burns both fat and carbohydrates. Now it gets a little more complicated: your body's main and preferred energy source is carbohydrates, so when you exercise you will (more or less) burn carbohydrates first, and then your body will dip into its fat reserves.

Carbohydrates come from your meals, so when you exercise at a normal time of the day your body will have plenty of carbohydrates to burn. In trying to lose 10 pounds, however, you're hoping to burn fat. If you exercise in the morning on an empty stomach, you're burning energy at a time when your body's carbohydrate levels are the lowest, and therefore more fat will be burned with the same amount of exercise. There have been studies that suggest over 250% more fat is burned when you exercise in this state.

There is never any immediate way to lose 10 pounds - ultimately, losing weight requires smart dietary decisions and a well thought out routine of exercise. By exercising in the morning, however, you will be giving yourself a distinct advantage in that battle to lose 10 pounds - you will be privy to not only a physiological advantage, but also the practical one of conducting your exercise at the beginning of the day without distraction.

Ron Goodpaster is a freelance writer, an entrepreneur and a self-proclaimed health nut. He has written many health related and weight-loss articles. His website's address: http://www.bestvitasource.com

Is Your Vitamin Giving You All You Need?

2009-03-01T22:27:00.001+07:00

The Health Craze

The health craze has been going on in America for over 50 plus years. Whether people were concerned with their weight, or a particular pain or illness, health issues, in so much, of what we put into our bodies does play a huge part in how healthy we really are. It does not matter how much you exercise that makes you healthy your body needs all the proper nutrients, minerals, and other micronutrients to go along with your exercising that makes you healthy.

Food

The food we eat may not be giving our bodies enough of the nutrients our body needs to do its job so the solution for most of us is to supplement our diets with a multivitamin. This is a good thing to do; however, it may not be enough either. I say this because most of the vitamins we take are made with synthetic vitamins, which is more like taking a half a vitamin. Our bodies are amazing; however, we need to give our bodies all the right nutrients to function properly and to protect our organs. Our bodies treat synthetic vitamins and whole vitamins quite differently.

Synthetic vitamins vs. Whole vitamins

Taking vitamins made with synthetic components is definitely not giving your body what it needs. Synthetic vitamins do not trick our bodies; therefore, we are doing our body a grave injustice by taking synthetic vitamins. What our body?s need is whole vitamins like those found in fruits and vegetables. What I mean by whole vitamins is that whole vitamins have all of its natural components attached unlike synthetic vitamins. Thus, our body?s get all it needs to utilize the vitamin effectively. You may be asking yourself, ?Where can I get these whole vitamins? One of the best sources would be whole foods like fresh fruits and vegetables. The problem here is what fruits and vegetables will give your body all it needs. Another excellent source is the Whole Food Vitamin (GVW).

Whole Food Vitamin Source

Get your whole food vitamins from these foods: Wild Yam, Spinach, Kale, Tomato, Carrots, Broccoli, Wheat Germ, Acerola Cherry, Nutritional Yeast, and Black Current. In addition, you can get whole vitamins from juices like Blueberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Guava, Orange, Watermelon, Apple, Pineapple, Carrot, Cabbage, Broccoli, Spinach, and Parsley. Getting a daily dose of whole vitamins from these food sources would be quite expensive for most families these days. The other alternative is to get a whole vitamin made from all these whole food sources would be ideal for anyone who care about their health and wants to give their body what it needs to be and remain healthy.

Learn more about whole food vitamins by pointing your browser to One Unique Vitamin.

The author is a freelance writer, home business owner, writes poetry and loves learning new things. Your health is the corner stone to you and your Family?s future and wealth. Make your health your personal business and help others to do the same. Simply, find a health food or vitamin product that improves your health and offer you a great business opportunity without a huge investment. Get started on improving your health and increasing your wealth today, click here. You can also call 1.800.605.8482 Code# 232652 for more information.

History of Trans Fats

2009-03-01T19:36:00.001+07:00

It all started by two business men. There names were William Proctor and James Gamble. William Proctor was a candle maker and James Gamble was a soap maker. They formed the soon to be billion dollar company named Proctor & Gamble.

William was an immigrant from England and Proctor was an immigrant from Ireland. These two met by a weird twist of fate, they married each other?s sisters. On April 12, 1837 they started selling there products candles, and soaps. There business bloomed even more during the Civil War where they were given multiple contracts to supply the union army with there products.

Once the war was over the soldiers continued purchasing their products. James Norris Gamble, made an inexpensive but yet very high quality soap, he named the product IVORY. Over time the company chose to shift there interest into soap making, because with the invention of electricity, candles were no longer needed. The business started to bloom again and the demand for their products exceeded their production so they started to diversify and focused on a lot of different products. One of these products was the famous Crisco invented in 1911 that would forever change the world. This was an ingenious invention, and Proctor knew that so that?s why he urged his business partner to push for advertising and marketing of the new product.

They traveled all over the country and promoted their product through free cook books. Most of these recipes consisted of cookies and cakes, and were an instant hit. American women love the pie crust because it was an easier and longer lasting crust. Soon these pioneer hydrogenated oils started re-placing butter and lard. Soon margarine was invented and was supposedly healthier for you. These oils lasted longer than other oils.

They no longer had to go door to door like they did for milk and eggs. These oils were like a miracle, and it soon change the health of America. Some people will argue that trans fat don?t have any effect on humans. Well, people are entitled to think what they want but the facts are there. In 1900 America was the healthiest nation in the world! That?s right the healthiest nation. Today we are the wealthiest nation, but we are extremely far from even being in the top ten healthiest nation. We have advanced technology and medicine, but that won?t save people from killing themselves through the food they eat.

Doug Purcell
Certified Personal Trainer
Alternative Medicine Expert
Owner of www.cardiacgym.com

Health Tips For Busy People: Healthy Diet & Exercise In the Office

2009-03-01T15:52:00.001+07:00

Many women?s lifestyle magazines frustrate us by providing exercise regimens for work and then adding: ?You can do this exercise in your office!? What about those of us who work in a cube or other small space (with no floor space for Pilates-style stretches) that?s not very private (do you really want your boss to wander by right when you?re doing jumping jacks?). Even if you are cube-confined, you can maintain your health in a cube.

Make A Health Drawer

Your filing spaces are your friends. Most cubes have lots of little drawers. Make one of them a ?health? drawer. Add a ziplock bag or two with healthy non-perishable snacks in it (maybe dried veggies), a few bags of herbal, non-caffeinated tea (switch over from coffee midday to help you sleep better at night), and a travel-size hand-sanitizing gel for use regularly when there?s a cold going around the office (did you know most colds are transmitted through shared objects like doorknobs?). A decorative canvas bag can store an extra pair of athletic shoes in case you can take a 10 minute walk or stretch break over lunch.

Get Blood Back To Your Brain:

Pop goes the weasel. When you sit in a cube in front of a computer or on the phone for hours at a time, gravity pulls your blood towards your feet. It pools in your feet, ankles, and fanny; if you?re ever noticed your feet looking puffy towards the end of the day, the puffiness may be a side-effect of having blood spending so much time down there! Our arm and leg muscles function as ?pumps? to get blood back to the heart.

While you could just do jumping jacks to get the blood flowing back upwards, there are less noticeable ways to get blood moving: If you?ve got a shelf in your high in your cube, keep daily useables (paperclips, stapler) there; getting up regularly will remind you to stretch. While standing lift your legs up at the knee, one at a time, to help get blood flowing. One enterprising woman kept a postcard pinned up towards the very top of her cube wall - and kept an ever-growing collection of postcards that she exchanged every day in the afternoon. The new postcard each day perked her up, and it gave her a reminder to get up and stretch several times a day.

Muscular injury is common in the desk-job world. The Center for Disease Control reports that 92,576 injuries resulted from repetitive motion, including typing or key entry. Make sure to take breaks from the keyboard at least once an hour. Use a wrist support at your computer when you are typing or browsing, Your forearm, wrist, and hand should be on a level, not making a V. The Harvard RSI action group suggests some exercises to help prevent repetitive stress injuries (http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/). If you spend a lot of time on the phone and can?t use a speaker phone, don?t hold the phone by crunching your shoulder against your ear. Instead, invest in or ask for a headset or shoulder support for your receiver.

Drink Plenty Of Water:

Drinking water is very important. It can help you recover from a cold more quickly (though it doesn?t ?cure? it), replenish lost fluids after exercise, and assist in weight loss (many people think they are hungry when they are actually thirsty, so make sure to take a drink before diving for the candy machine). Keep a four-cup bottle or thermos near the computer and replenish daily. Don?t overdo though - excess water can dilute important minerals and vitamins in your blood stream.

Make Sure To Take Your Vitamins & Other Pills:

Pill reminders. Do you need regularly forget to take vitamins because you?re busy? Find an attractive, desk-top container to put the bottle in - a decorative flower pot is one option. Something attractive and eye catching will remind you it?s there. This can also work for daily medications, but keep in mind that some medications can be toxic to others or have street-value (many prescribed pain killers), so these are medications that should stay with you, rather than your desk.

American Council on Exercise, ?How much water is too much?,? 2005

Center for Disease Control, ?Repetitive Stress/Strain Injuries,? www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/Ergonomics/Ergohome.htm

Tyrrell, D., Fielder, M. , Cold Wars: The Fight against the Common Cold, Oxford University Press, 2003

Ian Mason, owner of Shoppe.MD, your source for Online Prescription Medications and health news.

Contact Ian Mason by e-mail at ian@shoppe.md.

Boosting Your Brain And Your Body

2009-02-27T12:43:00.003+07:00

?Brain researchers estimate that your unconscious database outweighs the conscious on an order exceeding ten million to one. This database is the source of your hidden, natural genius. In other words, a part of you is much smarter than you are. The wise people regularly consult that smarter part.

Michael J. Gelb (b. 1952) Writer, author

If your goals have a wellbeing aspect to them, is it time for you to take responsibility for your future health? What can you do to move you a step further towards a healthier, fitter future?

You?ve read the reports; you?ve seen the programmes and filed the information in your mental ?To Do? File. So do it! It might involve taking some omega-3 supplements (obtainable from either fish oil or vegetarian supplements), it could be that you need to up your water intake, it might be getting the old bike out of the garage but you haven?t quite got round to it yet. No more putting it off! The time and effort you invest in yourself from now on will more than provide you with a generous future dividend ? good health.

What better thing can you do for yourself than take care of your health?

If you haven?t already started to add a little more activity to each day then now is the time to start. If you have started, can you up the ante and push yourself a little bit more? You?ll reap the benefits if you do.

I can go on and on about this (and probably will!), but essentially it is down to you.

I?ve read that the best kind of meal is the naturally colorful ones (no artificial colorings in sight!). How creative can you get with your meals? Lovely crisp red, yellow, orange and green peppers, gorgeously crinkled Savoy cabbage, beautiful beetroot, crunchy carrots in all their golden splendour! Oooh, it makes my mouth water just to write this!

What can you do to help you increase your sense of wellbeing that involves no, or very little, cost? What do you like doing that would give you pleasure to do more of? Have you a book waiting to be read? How about going for a blustery autumnal walk? Go on! You can do it! Get those brain cells boosted!

Kate Harper is based in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland. Check out her website http://www.harpercoaching.com

She works with people who are fed up with moaning about their lives and have decided to do something about it. If that is you, please take a look at Kate's website. Her special interest is in promoting Wellbeing through coaching. She is happy to work with people from any part of the world.

The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult. Madame Marie du Deffand

Take your first step today and contact Kate.

Why You Need More Omega3 Fatty Acids

2009-02-27T12:43:00.001+07:00

Fat is classified into saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and monounsaturated fats. Saturated fats are believed to increase your risk for heart attacks when you take in more calories than you burn. We used to think that all polyunsaturated fats help to prevent heart attacks when they replace saturated fats, but now we have different information. Polyunsaturated fats are classified by their structures into omega-3s and omega-6s, and you need both types; these are called the essential fatty acids because you cannot make them in your body and must get them from your food.

For most of the time humans have been on earth we have eaten foods containing omega-6's and omega-3's in a ratio of about 2:1. However, over the last 50 years in North America, the ratio has changed to from 2:1 to 10-20:1. Our diet now includes huge amounts of oils that are extracted from plants and used for cooking or in prepared foods. These oils (such as corn oil, safflower oil, cottonseed oil, peanut oil, soybean oil) are primarily omega-6s. We have decreased our intake of omega-3's, found primarily in whole grains, beans and other seeds, and seafood.

Eating too much omega-6 and too little omega-3 causes clots and constricts arteries to increase risk for heart attacks, increases swelling to worsen arthritis, and aggravates a skin disease called psoriasis. It may block a person's ability to respond to insulin, causing high insulin and blood sugar levels and obesity. It increases hormone levels of insulin like growth factor-1 that causes certain cancers.

To get your ratio on omega-6s to omega-3s back to a more healthful 2:1, eat seafood, whole grains, beans and other seeds, and reduce your intake of foods made with or cooked in vegetable oils.

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Got Greens? Eat Greens for Healthy Bones

2009-02-27T12:33:00.001+07:00

Healthy bones need a variety of nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, boron, copper, manganese, zinc and many vitamins. The popular notion that bone health can be improved simply by increasing calcium intake is false. In fact, numerous studies demonstrate that countries with the highest intake of dairy, such as the U.S. and Holland, have the highest incidence of osteoporosis and fractures, while countries with very low calcium intake have the lowest rates of osteoporosis and fracture. Instead of focusing simply on calcium, begin to think about strong bones as needing a strong and balanced diet to stay healthy. Eating more greens is a great way to start.

Green vegetables are the food most missing in modern diets. Learning to cook and eat greens is essential to creating health. Nutritionally, greens are very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and Vitamins A, C, E and K. They are crammed with fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll and many other micronutrients and phyto-chemicals. In addition to keeping bones strong, greens offer you a whole host of benefits including: blood purification, improved circulation, strengthened immune system, promotion of healthy intestinal flora, subtle, light and flexible energy.

But, the real reason to eat greens is that they are really, and I mean really, delicious. I eat greens as a major part of my regular diet and, when I don?t get them I crave them! Try them and I think that you will love them too.

When incorporating greens into your diet, find greens that you love and eat them a lot. When you get bored of your favorites, be adventurous and try greens that you?ve never heard of before.

Some greens to try: Broccoli, bok choy, nappa cabbage, kale, collards, watercress, mustard greens, broccoli rabe, sauerkraut, dandelion, arugula, endive, chicory, lettuce, mesclun and wild greens. Spinach, swiss chard and beet greens, although delicious, are high in oxalic acid, which depletes calcium from you bones and teeth. Keep eating them as they taste great and offer lots of nutrients, but it is best to cook these vegetables with something rich like tofu, seeds, nuts, beans, butter, animal products or oil to balance the effect of the oxalic acid.

Cooking Greens: Try a variety of methods like steaming, boiling, saut?ing in oil and water saut?ing. Eat them salted, or with a dash of vinegar, tamari or lemon juice.

Greens are delicious and nutritious. So, have you got greens?

To get started with greens, try my favorite Kale recipe:

Helen?s Favorite Kale Saute

1/3 cup toasted walnuts
? pound kale (about 6 cups, chopped)
2-3 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup raisins
1-2 Tbs water
dash or two of balsamic vinegar
salt to taste

Toast walnuts either in the toaster oven or regular oven, at about 325 degrees for 5 minutes (take care not to burn). Set aside

De-stem kale, discarding the stems. Coarsely chop the kale and then wash it in a strainer.

Chop the garlic

Add olive oil to a skillet over medium heat, lifting and tilting the pan to coat. Add garlic and saut? for 15 - 30 seconds.

Add raisins and saut? for 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring constantly to prevent browning or burning. Raisins should be glossy and slightly puffed.

Add Kale and a few spoonfuls of water, cover and allow Kale to cook for a two minutes or until the Kale is a deep green and somewhat wilted.

Add nuts, salt and a dash of balsamic vinegar.

Stir and serve warm.

Helen M. Hendrickson is the founder and director of Fit For Fun, an organization dedicated to helping you create vibrant health in your life with a holistic approach to diet and exercise. Helen is a certified holistic health counselor, personal trainer and level 1 triathlon coach and has worked in the field of health for over ten years. For more information about Helen and Fit For Fun contact us at (617) 957-4386 or Helen@getfitforfun.net or visit our website at http://www.getfitforfun.net

Health Benefits Of Dandelion Juice

2009-02-27T00:27:00.001+07:00

Dandelion leaves, when young, are a tasty salad vegetable. Dandelion roots can be dried, roasted and then ground as a good coffee substitute without caffeine and which has beneficial healthy effects on indigestion and on rheumatic complaints.

Nutritionally, dandelion juice is of remarkable value with a high iron content, quadruple the carotene content of lettuce plus rich supplies of calcium, potassium, and vitamins C and E.

With the juices of the stinging nettle and watercress it is the ideal basis for a 'spring clean' and is used this way in Germany as pan of a two week course combined with a diet without meat or much sugar or starch. This treatment helps to make the liver and the gall bladder normal, and it has a beneficial effect upon the nervous system.

The secret of growing your own is to use well dug soil and then to remove the flowers as soon as they appear. This avoids the random seeding of the plant and ensures a lush growth of leaves for several years. It is best to select seeds from a broad leafed variety as those are more tender and juicy. It is often mixed with the juices of the leaves of carrots and turnips.

As a diuretic, it can be taken alone. The Romans called the plant Herba urinaria, but this effect is the consequence of a dose of several ounces a day, whereas for other uses 2floz (50ml) is sufficient.

The humble dandelion is so often seen as an annoying weed in the garden and in the farmer's fields. Yet this attractive golden sunburst is a herbal medicine of renowned effect and great antiquity. The Germans call it Lowenzahn, or Lion's tooth, but the French Pissenlit, which means 'wet the bed' is more descriptive of its diuretic properties. In Belgium the dandelion plant is grown as a crop.

The botanical name Taraxacum comes from a Greek word which means to alter or to stir up and this refers to its medical properties. The specific word officinal used to be given to all officially recognized herbs.

Kevin Pederson has been managing a number of natural home remedies websites which have information on information on various vegetables, their benefits are being provided with the inclusion of dandelion and other juices.

Is Your Diet Colorblind?

2009-02-25T00:48:00.001+07:00

Next time you have a meal, look at your plate - what colors do you see? If its mostly white and brown then your diet might be colorblind!

In order to have a healthy diet you need foods from all the food groups and that means a colorful plate. Just eating meat and potatoes won?t provide you with the essential vitamins and minerals you need to stay in your best health - you need to add in colorful fruits and vegetables!

If you want a good balanced diet, here?s some colors you might want to see next time you look down at your plate:

Green

Green colored foods like peas, kale, spinach, honeydew melons, kiwifruit, dark leafy lettuces, and leafy greens contain lutein which helps maintain good vision and can help reduce the risk of macular degeneration and cataracts.

Another green group includes broccoli, cabbage, bok choy, swiss chard, brussels sprouts, rutabaga, turnips, cauliflower, and watercress. These foods contain indoles, which can help reduce the risks of cancer and reduce tumor growth in cancer patients.

Yellow

The yellow orange colored food are high in bioflavonoids, which work in combination with vitamin C to help reduce the risk of cancer and heart attack. They also contain powerful antioxidants and help maintain healthy skin, strong bones, and good vision. The foods in this group include oranges, tangerines, pears, lemons, nectarines, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, pineapple, pineapple, yellow raisins, and yellow peppers.

Blue and Purple

Blueberries, purple grapes, blackberries, black currents and elderberries contain Anthocyanins which can reduce the risks of heart attack, cancer, diabetic complications, Alzheimer?s disease and age-related memory loss. Dark purple foods contain phenolics, which are powerful antioxidants and can help to slow the effects of aging.

Orange

Dark orange foods like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, apricots, peaches, carrots, cantaloupes, mangoes, and butternut squash contain beta-carotene, a powerful antioxident that can help keep your immune system healthy as well as maintain good vision and can even aid in reducing heart attacks and cancer.

Red

Tomatoes, guava, watermelon and pink grapefruit are all red colored foods. These foods contain lycopene which has been much publicized lately as helping to protect against prostate cancer. In addition, these foods can help reduce the risk of breast, and skin cancer as well as reduce the risk of heart attack.

Red onion, cherries, kidney beans, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, beets, red apples (with the skin), and red cabbage contain anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that can help control high blood pressure as well as reduce the risks of cancer, heart attack, Alzheimer?s disease, and diabetes complications.

One way to get a colorful plate at every meal is to try to fit in 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Try to include food from all these color groups at least once during the day and you will be surprised at how much your health improves.

Lee Dobbins writes for the A2Z Vitamin And Herbs Guide For Natural Healing where you can find out more about vitamins and herbs as well as natural healing methods.

Five Ways to Rise the Vegetable Consumption

2009-02-25T00:40:00.000+07:00

Vegetables are strongly recommended because they offer a wide category of health benefits. Veggies are leading sources for many essential nutrients, such as vitamins A and C and folate. In addition, vegetable diets may prevent risk of several chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and some of the major cancers of the Western world such as cancer of the stomach , lung, mouth, esophagus , colon and rectum.

By nature most vegetables are low in calories. They are great in salads because people can eat them in their natural low-fat, low-calorie form.

Cooking vegetables properly is very important. Their weight control value depend on how they are prepared. If you want to loose weight you must avoid fried potatoes. The best for a healthy life style is to lightly steam vegetables in the microwave on the top of the stove. It is important to use as little water as possible to preserve their maximum nutrition power.

In order to rise the vegetable consumption, here are some ways you may follow:

Keep your meat on your dinner plate no more than 3-ounces (about the size of a woman's palm) and make the vegetable portions at least twice the size of your meat portion.

To avoid a grain calorie overload, eat equal portions of vegetables and grains at dinner. A cup of cooked rice or pasta has about 200 calories, whereas a cup of cooked veggies doles out a mere 50 calories.

If you use a sandwich for your lunch, make it half as usual and add a veggie salad to create a more satisfying, higher volume mid-day meal.

If you need a fast snack, build a sandwich that has more lettuce and tomato than meat. Be creative and try to eliminate meat and bred from your snacks.

If you are a pre-dinner muncher, try a plate of veggies before dinner to help curb your appetite.

Valerian D is a freelance writer specialized in health issues like obesity. This condition may shorten life expectancy

Acne Program Step 8 Vegetables to Eat and Drink

2009-02-20T22:20:00.001+07:00

Eating and drinking vegetables is necessary for good health and for keeping your skin free from acne. Most people don?t eat enough vegetables and seldom drink their juices. Here is a list of vegetables and their juices that you need to eat and drink daily to help eliminate your acne.

Vegetable juices

Vegetable juices are absorbed quickly into your bloodstream. As a result, your cells are quickly provided with nutrients that feed them and that wash away waste. Vegetable juices give you the opportunity to get quick relief from various body conditions such as acne, skin disorders, and constipation.

Eating and drinking vegetables provide you with minerals and nutrients that build your blood, tissue, bones, and cells. It is minerals that build every part of your body. It is minerals that keep your body?s pH at the required level. It is minerals that keep your body alkaline by neutralizing body acids. Concentrate on putting minerals into your body by eating and drinking plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Carrot apple juice

Drink carrot juice every day. I like drinking carrot juice mixed with apple juice. My stomach can handle this combination better.

Carrot juice contains many vitamins and minerals. It is high in beta-carotene. Carrot juice will enhance your skins health and help you eliminate acne.

Carrot, spinach, and apple juice

A combination of carrot, spinach and apple juice is a powerful drink for cleaning the colon, relieving constipation and improving your skin conditions.

To make this drink, juice 3-4 carrots and a bunch of spinach. Then add juiced apples to make this drink more drinkable.

Vegetables

The word phytochemicals is used frequent here. Phytochemicals are all of the chemicals that exist in vegetables and fruits. There are so many phytochemicals that scientists have yet to investigate and learn about all of them.

Here are the vegetables that you should be eating the most of, so you can support the cleansing of your face and eliminating acne.

* Carrots ? contain a rich source of vitamin A-like carotenoids. These phytochemicals have been shown to enhance the health of skin and repair it when it is damaged.

* Cabbage ? helps to detoxify the body of harmful chemicals from the air and food additives.

* Celery ? helps to reduce nervous tension. It contains many minerals that help to neutralize body acid waste and is high in fiber

* Cucumber ? helps to reduce acne problems because it is high in silicon and sulfur. It is also a diuretic which helps flow more water through the kidney to clean out your blood

* Broccoli ? is rich in beta carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, which is good for the skin

* Garlic ? is a natural antibiotic and will help relieve skin bacterial infections

* Green pepper ? The nutrients in green peppers are good for liver health and constipation. Its minerals are good for neutralizing acid waste.

* Radishes ? help to digest your food. Good digestion is necessary to avoid constipation and to keep the liver and pancreas strong

* Sprouts ? provide plenty of vitamins and minerals, which help to reduce body acids

* Watercress ? helps to prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies at the skin surface. It provides Vitamin A, B1, B2, C, iron, manganese, copper, and calcium.

Look this list of vegetable over, make a list of them, and head for your favorite store or farmers market. Concentrate in eating and drinking these natural products and you will see results in your health and a decrease in your skin disorders.

Rudy Silva has a degree in Physics and is a Natural Nutritionist. He is the author of Constipation, Acne, Hemorrhoid, and Fatty Acid ebooks. He writes a newsletter call ?natural-remedies-thatwork.com.? More acne hints and information on his acne e-book can be found at: http://www.acne-remedies.for--you.info

The 12 Most Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

2009-02-19T10:47:00.001+07:00

We know that pesticides are definitely dangerous to human health. We also know that one of the best things we can do to avoid pesticides is to consume organic food. However, this isn?t always possible due to several restraints: availability, price, etc.

There?s another thing we can do, however, to reduce our pesticide exposure: avoid the fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated.

When organic is not available, eat fruits and vegetables with consistently low pesticide loads.

It?s been shown that you can lower your pesticide exposure simply by avoiding the top 12 most contaminated types of fruit and vegetables, and eating the least contaminated instead.

Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to nearly 20 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 12 least contaminated will expose a person to a fraction over 2 pesticides per day.

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The Black List
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So, what are the most contaminated fruits and vegetables? Here?s the black list, according to the most recent data analysed:

---> The top 4 are fruits, in the following order:

#1 (Most Contaminated): Peach
#2: Strawberry
#3: Apple
#4: Nectarine

---> The other highly contaminated fruits in the top 12 are:

#5 Pears
#6 Cherrie
#7 Red raspberries
#8 Imported grapes (Chile, Mexico, etc.)

Some of these fruits, such as peaches and nectarines and raspberries, can contain up to 45 different pesticides! Overall, studies show that those fruits have a high chance of being contaminated with a good number of different pesticide residues.

As for the vegetables, those that are the most likely to expose you to pesticide residues are:

#1 Celery
#2 Spinach
#3 Potatoes
#4 Sweet Bell Pepper

Those vegetables have a high chance of containing pesticide residues, some of them containing several!

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The Least Contaminated Produce
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---> Now, for the ?good? vegetables, here?s the top, least contaminated, in order of purity:

- Sweet corn
- Avocado
- Cauliflower
- Asparagus
- Onions
- Peas
- Broccoli

---> The least contaminated fruits are:

- Pineapples
- Mangoes
- Bananas
- Kiwi
- Papaya

Very few mangoes and pineapple have pesticide residues on them, and when they do they usually contain only one type. Bananas do often contain pesticide residues, but rarely multiple ones.

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Conclusion
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To avoid pesticides, the best thing is to consume organic foods. When that is not possible, select the foods that have the least pesticides on them, and avoid those on the ?black list.?

---> Other importance tricks to help reduce our pesticide exposure:

* Peel non-organic fruits, whenever possible*: That means pears, apples, etc. I know many nutritionists say that the peel contains the most vitamins, but it isn?t quite true. The peel of fruits is indigestible, so even though it may contain many vitamins, they are not assimilated as well as the vitamins in the flesh of the fruits.

*Wash your produce with a non-toxic soap*. You can buy a non-toxic soap for washing produce in most health food stores. Use this soap to wash your non- organic peaches, or other fruits if you happen to buy them.

Remember however that eating non-organic fruits and vegetables is still better than drinking organic beer or eating organic pizza!

Young entrepreneur, Frederic Patenaude, is the author of the best-selling e-book ?The Raw Secrets? and is known for his no-gimmick, BS-free approach to health and nutrition. To learn more about ?The Raw Secrets,? and to read his FR*EE how-to articles and newsletter, visit http://www.askfrederic.com

Healthy Ways to Have Fun This Summer

2009-02-19T10:37:00.001+07:00

Summer is a great time to enjoy fresh produce and being outdoors. Achieving better health doesn't have to be a restrictive, unenjoyable process. Here are four easy ways to improve your health while enjoying the season. See how many of these ideas you can try this month!

1. Berries- Berries are in peak season right now. Choose whichever you prefer- raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and more! In addition to being loaded with vitamins, they?re very easy to eat. I like including berries with my breakfast or alone for a light dessert.

2. Farmer?s Market- Visit a farmer?s market for the freshest produce available, in addition to supporting local farmers! Your local grocery store's produce often travels a great distance, and the transit comes with a price. Your local farmer's market will have the most vitamin-packed fruits and vegetables, and they will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Here's an insider tip: bulk discounts are more likely at the end of the day, when the vendor is eager to lighten their load before packing for home. Remember to bring cash!

3. Free Yoga- Many yoga studios offer a free class to new students, and sometimes bonus free classes are offered for those who bring a friend. Take advantage of these offers and find your favorite studio!

4. Picnic in the Park- Now is the perfect time to have a picnic with a friend or loved one. Remember to bring lots of water, a book you?ve been meaning to read, food that is easy to store & eat- like sandwiches and fruit- and of course sunscreen.

To avoid ants, use talcum powder around your picnic blanket. The ants won?t cross the powder because of the smell. Bring along a sprig of fresh mint to ward off bees as well. To ensure your drinks will remain cold, freeze the drinks you plan to bring along on the night before. Be sure to remember your camera!

Have a great time this summer!

Kristie Lyle is a health & wellness counselor with a private practice in Manhattan. She loves working with women who want to improve their health through nutrition and self-care. She is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City and a current student of Clayton College of Natural Health.

Juice Fasting Clean Your Insides

2009-02-19T10:25:00.001+07:00

A wise man once said, ?Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they are sticking to their diets.?

What a fit description of the seemingly endless battles that we fight to lose weight and to stay healthy and vital for as long as humanly possible!

Up and down, up and down, your metabolism bounces between walking pace and light speed; you have nightmares about celery sticks; you can work out the exact calorie count of every meal in 2.5 seconds; and the wheels on your exercise bike spontaneously combusted months ago.

In short, you wear yourself out and end up landing on a bottom that, despite all your best efforts, still looks like a pair of bowling balls.

Juice fasting is a great way to get off the dieting rollercoaster and see real results quickly. Safe and effective when carried out correctly, juice fasting benefits your entire being:

Your physical wellbeing increases as the body is rid of toxins and excess fat.

Your mind benefits because fasting creates a stillness that brings mental clarity and helps you to develop will power and to better control your senses.

As you lose weight and feel much better about yourself, self-esteem improves and sets you on the road to what could be a life changing experience, connecting you to your spirit and helping you to achieve balance in your life.

Juice Fasting and Weight Loss

A juice fast is a great way to shed some extra pounds, especially when you?re in a hurry. During the fast the body uses its own stored substances and, at the same time, detoxifies. A healthy combination of juices squeezed from fresh fruits and vegetables adds vitamins, minerals and trace elements to the body.

Because your only source of nourishment during the fast is water and the juices that you drink, it?s imperative that the juices you drink contain the maximum possible amounts of enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients in the fresh produce.

Many of the juicers on the market process the fresh fruits and veggies in a way that destroys many of the nutrients in the food. A top quality juicer such as the Oscar VitalMax juicer is an excellent tool for the job because it serves up living juices. The food is processed in such a way that it retains as many nutrients and essential enzymes as possible.

Juice fasting is a much better diet option than fad diets. Fad diets literally starve the body of nutrients. On the other hand, juice fasting provides the body with the nutrients it needs for vibrant health, helping to fix any chemical imbalances in the body ? even those created by fad diets.

Juice Fasting and Detoxification

Juice fasting for detoxification is probably the most well-known usage of this particular type of fast. Juice fasting allows the organs of the body to rest, cleansing and revitalising them. The organs? functioning is much better, which in turn aids in the digestion of food and production of energy for day to day life.

Juice fasting may also be helpful for the treatment and prevention of fluid retention.

Juice Fasting: How To

Before launching into a fast, it?s a good idea to begin preparing the body a week ahead. Cut out or reduce nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, sugar and wheat. Ideally the diet prior to fasting should consist mainly of fruits, vegetables and beans.

If you?ve never fasted before it might be a good idea to limit your first fast to three or four days. Sometimes abstaining from food entirely is a bit much, so it?s ok to eat fresh fruit or veggies if your stomach is complaining.

Now its time to get juicing! If you can?t make your own juices buy them from a health food shop ? the fresher, the better. The GreenPower Kempo juicer is another excellent juicer that produces high quality juices to help you to get the best possible result from your fast.

Mix between one and three parts of pure water with your juice of choice. To get you started, here a few tasty recipes courtesy of Fasting to Freedom, by Tom McGregor:

Jogger?s Paradise

3 oranges
2 hard pears
1 small yam

Mix and add a little crushed ice. Great for energy.

A Taste of Heaven

2 carrots
1 sweet potato
2 apples
Thin slice of Spanish onion
Pinch of Dulse powder

For energy and endurance.

Red Ice

1 beet
1 sweet potato
2 apples
1 lemon
1 tomato
Thin slice of Spanish onion
1 garlic clove
? can of frozen apple concentrate

Sit back and relax!

With the aid of a good juicer or fresh juice from a health shop, give yourself a power up and try a juice fast. Better than any fad diet, you can stop running yourself ragged. It?s a great way to remove toxins from the body, to lose weight, and to improve your health and wellbeing.

Look better, feel better, be healthier than ever before!

Please note: It's always safest to get the advice of a health care professional before making drastic changes to your diet, particularly if aren?t well to start with. Even natural juices can interfere with medication and you should consult your doctor before fasting.

Written by Sara Schell from Spellcast Advertising.
spellcastadvertising@yahoo.com.au

For more information on the benefits of making fresh juices a part of your regular diet, along with more nutritional information, recipes and tools, visit http://www.vitality4lifeshop.com.au and http://oscar-living-juicer.com

Juicing A Beginners' Guide

2009-02-19T01:11:00.001+07:00

You can spot a juicer a mile off at the supermarket or greengrocer. Apart from the huge number of carrots and apples they are loading into their trolley, they also have that slightly smug, see-how-healthy-I-am look about them. Or is that just me?! Actually, I don't buy a lot of carrots and apples any more, because (other than my indiscretion with a packet of shortbread this week) I've radically reduced the amount of sugar I take in. My juice of choice is a vegetable one, a green one - but more about that later, first let's ask...

Why is juicing so good?

In my article Enzymes and Raw Food, I explained why eating enzyme-rich food is so important. If you are buying cartons (or bottles) of juice, even many of those labelled 'freshly squeezed' you are almost certainly missing out on the enzymes. Why? Because they are likely to be pasteurised. There are different methods of pasteurisation, but all of them involve heating to temperatures a lot greater than 118F - which is the point at which enzymes are killed.

Fresh juices, on the other hand, are packed with enzymes, vitamins, minerals etc. and they taste a zillion times yummier too. Plus if you invest in a good juicing book, you can select your ingredients based on your immediate health needs too. I recommend Superjuice: Juicing for Healing and Health by Michael van Straten.

Do I need a juicer to juice?

Wel, yes and no. There are so many juicers on the market and the prices vary radically. I always recommend that you start with a mid-priced model that is easy to clean. This is important. If cleaning it is a right old pain, you will be put off using it which is no good at all.

The US market is probably quite different, but for UK readers, I use the Breville AWT JE3 which retails at just under a ?100. It's by no means the best juicer on the market, but it is very good for the price and a doddle to clean. Plus the new model features two speeds, one for hard produce and one for soft fruits.

There is also the Magimix Le Duo which I understand to be better than the Breville AWT and is the same price.

If you are reluctant to invest in a juicer at the moment but you already have a blender, you could just stick to smoothies. Or for around ?5, you could buy yourself a nylon sprout/nutmilk bag and simply strain the juice from the pulp to create your healthy drink. Make sure you chop up the produce and add some bottled water too.

What should I juice?

If you have acid reflux/heartburn problems, candidiasis, thrush, diabetes, IBS or an IBD, then you should avoid going overboard with fruit and sweet veg juices eg. carrots. (Actually this strategy will benefit anyone with any health issue!)

The irony is that the sweet juices may be the ones you are most drawn to, but sugar feeds microforms (like yeasts, fungus, molds, bacteria and viruses) which thank us by excreting acidic, toxins into our blood stream when they 'digest' the food we give them!

Your best bet is to stick to green juices which aklalise the body. I really struggled with this to start with as the flavour is a bit of an acquired taste but then I discovered lemons! My favourite juice now is...

Claire's Green Goddess
100g of curly kale
2-3 sticks of celery
4-5 inches of cucumber
5-6 Green beans
A quarter of an unwaxed lemon (with peel)

The lemon really does do something special to the flavour. For those who are concerned about the acidity of lemon, here's an interesting thing; lemon is only acid outside the body. Once it goes in, it alkalises. Same is true of white grapefruit and lime. But not oranges or ruby grapefruit whose higher sugar content makes them more acid inside the body.

If you have a sweet tooth and the lemon isn't working for you, you could try adding an apple instead, but aim to reduce the quantity over time.

Should I peel?

Obviously, you will want to peel some fruits and veg, eg. a pineapple. But using organic produce means you need only give the produce a good scrub rather than peeling it which is recommended for non-organic produce.

And one final tip...

If you want to add ginger to a juice and your juicer tends to spit the chunk of ginger out without really juicing it, put it through your garlic press and stir in to the finished juice! Happy juicing.

......................................................................................................................................
Claire Raikes is a Wellbeing Coach, Speaker and Writer who 'cured' herself of a chronic, disabling and potentially life-threatening bowel condition without the use of steroids, surgery or any other traditional medical intervention. She now shares her passion for natural and vibrant health through coaching, speaking and writing about the importance and power of a truly healthy diet.

She publishes a free weekly eZine, In Essence and is compiling an eBook of Healthy Fast Food with 25% of the proceeds going to The Cancer Project, a charity set up by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and nutritionists to educate the public on the benefits of a healthy diet for cancer prevention and survival. If you have a recipe you would like to submit, visit http://www.LiveInEssence.com for further details. To book Claire to speak at your event, email her at Claire@LiveInEssence.com.

Veggies & Vitamins For Vim Vigor and Vitality

2009-02-17T18:29:00.001+07:00

Veggies with less vitamins? Yes, I?m afraid it?s true! According to recent research published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, fruits and vegetables today contain much less nutritional value compared to produce grown back in the 1950?s.

Dr. Donald R. Davis of the University of Texas found that produce grown on huge modern agribusiness farms carry anywhere from 6% less protein to 38% less of the B vitamin riboflavin. Some other essential nutrients found to have dropped dramatically are calcium, iron and vitamin C.

This is one reason most people today aren?t getting even the minimum Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of nutrition from the food they eat. And the RDA?s are only the bare bones necessary to prevent scurvy and beriberi. They?re not any where close to the optimum nutrition you need for excellent health.

Since current hybrid varieties of fruits and vegetables are grown with synthetic fertilizers to increase plant yield per acre, they end up with less nutrition. Plants can?t get all the important minerals or synthesize sufficient vitamins and amino acids. Organic produce, however, is grown without artificial fertilizers, pesticides or genetically modified organisms, so it?s safer, more nutritious and tastes better too.

Your health is your most valuable asset and optimum nutrition is essential if you want to look and feel your very best ? all day, every day. Extraordinary vim, vigor and vitality require that you add optimum nutritional supplements to your diet. This assures you get all the necessary nutrients to look better, feel better and have more energy. After all, wouldn?t you like to stay younger longer?

Moss Greene makes it easy for you to look and feel better. Visit her site at http://nutrition.bellaonline.com to learn the simple things you can do for yourself right now. Be sure to subscribe to her free newsletter - you don't want to miss a thing!

The Health Benefits of Kale

2009-02-17T18:09:00.001+07:00

When you mention kale, the majority will look up with raised eyebrows and mumble ?What?? ?What?s that?? An old, hardly spoken of and powerful green food. Kale is a leafy green vegetable with a mild earthy flavor. The season for kale is between mid winter and early spring where it can be found in abundance in most produce sections of the local grocery store. However, one can find kale year round. Thankfully, kale is starting to garner well deserved attention due its nutrient rich phytochemical content which provides unparalleled health promoting benefits.

Kale absolutely rich and abundant in calcium, lutein, iron, and Vitamins A, C, and K. Kale has seven times the beta-carotene of broccoli and ten times more lutein. Kale is rich in Vitamin C not to mention the much needed fiber so lacking in the daily diet of processed food eating Americans. The ?Icing on the Kale? are the natural occurring all important phytochemicals sulforaphane and indoles which research suggests may protect against cancer. Let?s not forget the all important antioxidant Vitamin E. Rest assured kale spares nothing in providing one with much needed nutrients and associated health benefits.

The naturally rich sulfur content of kale deserves a bit more discussion. Science has discovered that sulforaphane, helps boost the body?s detoxification enzymes, possibly by altering gene expression. This is turn is purported to help clear carcinogenic substances in a timely manner. Sulforaphane is formed when cruciferous vegetables like kale are chopped or chewed. This somehow triggers the liver to produce enzymes that detoxify cancer causing chemicals, of which we all are exposed on daily basis. A recently new study in the Journal of Nutrition (2004) demonstrates that sulforaphane helps stop breast cancer cell proliferation.

Kale descends from the wild cabbage which originated in Asia and is thought to have been brought to Europe by the Celtics. Kale was an important food item in early European history and a crop staple in ancient Rome. Kale was brought to the USA during the 17th century by English settlers.

A leafy green vegetable starting to gain widespread attention, kale belongs to the Brassica family, a group that also includes cabbage, collard greens and Brussels sprouts. Choose kale with small leaves as they will be tenderer and offer a sweeter taste. Make kale leaves a regular addition to your salads. A saut?ed side dish of kale, onions, and garlic drizzled in olive oil is second to none. Enjoy your kale. You?ll be glad did.

The Perfect Supplement

2009-02-15T16:48:00.001+07:00

I wanted to write this article because of my sincere belief that everybody in the world should be taking the product I am about to talk about Greens First. This product contains over 49 super foods and tastes absolutely delicious. I have personally been on this super product for over 3 years now. I can't say enough about it. It is the only product that I can say absolutely positively works!! And the best part about it is it mixes in water very easily and you take it once a day first thing in the morning. And it doesn't taste like sawdust or make you want to hold your nose trying to get it down. It is like tasting clear water with a minty taste to it. It really is a refreshing taste.

I can truthfully say I have not even had as much as a cold over that time frame. It is an unbelievable immune system booster. This is the only supplement that I presently take outside of some protein supplements for snacks and replacement meals. I have thrown away all my pills, capsules, tablets, and use this for all my vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant needs. It is the equivalent of taking in (10 plus servings of fruits and vegetablesdaily. I also cut my cost by over 50% on a monthly basis.

I don't know about you but there was no way I was getting in 10 fruits and vegetables everyday. I mean once in awhile I would have an apple or a banana but not everyday. I really don't consider myself a fruit eater. I would have salads and veggies for lunch or dinner but that was about it. I had to do something to get the antioxidant power that fruits and veggies give you but I didn't want to take a pill or physically eat that many everyday, there was just no way around it.

Since there is a high cancer rate in my family, I started to look around for an alternative and here it was Greens First Powder It was formulated by a team of doctors and professionals for the highest quality,assimilation, digestion, and most of all taste.

This product is not sold in health stores, or on the shelf in super markets. You can only get it thru qualified professional distributors. I believe so much in the product I was fortunate enough to be able to have the right to offer this fantastic product to all my readership.

You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to at least check this out. For more detailed information you can go to my blog under recommended supplements. See Below...

Herb Daly jr.
http://HealthAndFitnessConsultant.com

Nutrition Is More Than The Nutrition Facts Box

2009-02-14T00:51:00.001+07:00

Nutrition usually only comes up when people are finally deciding to diet. By that point, the only purpose of mentioning nutrition is just to find a reason why one particular diet might be better than another. However, most fad diets do not work nearly as well as the originators claim they will, due to the nature of most strict diets.

The majority of weight-loss diets work by banning you from eating certain foods that you would normally eat. Sometimes this means eating less of a food or ingredient, but often it means totally abandoning certain food groups.

Obviously if the food you are cutting out altogether is junk food you will be better off nutritionally. The problem is that when you totally stop eating a food that you are used to eating regularly, you will get cravings for this food.

Right from the start you will have a major temptation to cheat on the diet. Eventually you will probably cheat and render the diet useless. You should therefore opt for diets that don't restrict you as severely as this.

Most diets tend to focus on one attribute of food as being a problem (such as carbohydrates, or fat). A better approach is to look at the overall nutritional value of the food.

For example, many popular fad diets focus on eliminating fat, or sugar, or carbohydrates from the diet. This gives people blinkered vision by looking at only part of the nutritional picture and leads to bad nutritional decisions.

Say you are on a diet which aims to avoid carbohydrates. You have to decide between a diet soda (which is bad for you in almost all respects but contains very few carbs) and a fruit juice drink (which is very good for you but is high in carbs). The diet would have you disregard your general health and go for the diet soda. The best choice is, of course, the fruit juice which is rich in minerals and vitamins and is much better for you.

The best way to take care of yourself is to make sure that your chosen meals are nutritious, as often as you can. Try to make sure that you eat a balanced diet, consisting of several different types of food.

When choosing food for its nutritional value it is best to avoid packaged meals and food. This food is packed full of chemicals and retains few of the minerals and vitamins present in fresh food. Pre-packaged food will also tend to have an unhealthy amount of salt in it.

If you get into the habit of eating fresh food that you cook yourself you will become much more aware of what you are eating and what is in it. You will be able to ensure you don't eat too much sodium for example and it will be obvious to you if you are eating too much of one thing or indeed too much of everything.

The most important thing to remember about nutrition is that in order to be healthy, you have to look closer at the ingredients in the food you eat. While different statistics like calories, grams of fat, and grams of sugar are good indicators, the ingredients list is key to figuring out whether or not you should eat that particular food.

Connie Roemer is the Staff Writer of FF Nutrition This is where you will discover excellent information, resources and articles you want on nutrition. Connie also invites you to sign up for her free newsletter.

To find out more go to: http://www.ffnutrition.com

Food for Thought: the Naked Truth about Weight Loss and Fad Diets

2009-02-12T00:21:00.001+07:00

?Eating less fat and having dietary programs has worsened the weight loss problem because the whole concept was built on wrong philosophy. Eating is thinking. And until flawed thinking is corrected, weight problem will persist.? Uzo Onukwugha

Being over-weight is becoming an epidemic in the United States. Statistics states that 68% of U. S. population is over their ideal body weight. And that 1 in 3 Americans are suffering from clinical obesity. This sad statistics also includes children and teenagers.

Despite the proliferation of low fat foods and endless barrage of fad diets, these statistics seem to be increasing. Individuals and companies come up with new and confusing dietary programs every day. Most of these diets do not work. Examples include Atkin?s diet (has some success), South Beach Diet, ABS diet, Cave Man Diet, Origin diet, and all sorts of diet code. The truth is that even if folks lose weight, 95% of them gain it back in one year.

Oprah Winfrey created news a few years ago when she lost sixty seven pounds and gained back eighty four pounds a year later. She is not alone. I know of a popular preacher who lost weight and even wrote a best-seller, Lay Aside the Weight. The last time I checked, he has gained it back and has stopped talking about how to lose weight. The story is always the same regardless of who is involved. The church world doesn?t eat differently from the rest of the world.

A lady asked me a question a couple of years ago, ?Why are all these men of so fat??

?Food,? I replied. ?We don?t teach gluttony as sin. The Scriptures says that if you?re given to appetite, you should put a sword down your throat for a binge.?

I said all this to state that the whole multibillion dollar weight loss industry is built on a wrong foundation. Any house that is built on wrong substructure cannot stand. As long as the prevailing mindset is to lose weight, people will also lose it and gain it back. Most of these diets are unnatural and under tension, people will always go back to what they are used to. The mind is the greatest pattern recognition organ in the universe. And will conform to its original programming even when it will harm you.

I was talking to a former footballer who was complaining to me about his weight gain. He kept on saying to me, ?I want to lose weight?I lost sixty pounds before. I can do it again.?

I kept saying to him that weight is not the problem. Yet, he did not seem to get it. Weight gain is the surface rather than the source. If you deal with the source, the surface will disappear. He is not interested in learning how his physiology; neither does he want to know about healthy eating habits. Change the seed. The fruit you?re looking for is in the roots. This is the sad story about many people struggling with over weight.

Blaming fat and cholesterol is not the problem, either. In fact, lack of essential fat can cause weight gain because of accumulation of the wrong fat. Nutrition is an evolving science?a sort of all-comers course. We know that there are the good, the bad and the ugly fat.

The good fats are the essential fatty acids that we must take through the diet because they are necessary for cell membrane and nerve function as well as reproduction. The essential fatty acids are Omega 3, 6 and 9. We should consume more of them in that order. The ratio of Omega 3 and 6 is 1:4. Flax seed (oil) and Salmon Fish are good sources of Omega fatty acids. Udo?s blend has the right combination of all the essential fatty acids in a bottle.

The bad fats are the saturated fats that everybody tends to recognize. These are animal fats from chicken, beef and hog.

The ugly fat is trans-fatty acid that tend to act as free radical and damage the cells. Example her is margarines and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils we find in all sorts of cookies.

I must add that cholesterol is not fat. And it is never found in plants. Animals need cholesterol for procreation. The problem is excess cholesterol. Fats are needed to emulsify and carry cholesterol to the tissues and blood vessels. (Erroneously, they are called cholesterol: High Density Lipoproteins, HDL: Low Density Lipoproteins, LDL; and Very Low Density Lipoproteins, VLDL). HDL is the so called good cholesterol, LDL is the bad cholesterol and VLDL is the very bad cholesterol.

Change your mindset to eating right, exercise and maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle and nature will choose your ideal weight for you. It is a bondage counting calories before you go to bed. Don?t watch your weight; watch your diet and your weight will take care of itself.

Ninety five percent of weight problem is caused by over-eating and eating junk. The body stores junk and excess as toxins in fat tissues if they are not water-soluble. Weight gain is worsened by sedentary life style. (Please don?t embark on any exercise program without proper diet and advice from a professional). It?s surprising that people blame obesity on genetics, stress, sweet tooth, emotional upheaval, diabetes, hypoglycemia, ignorance and indiscipline. These are merely the surface and not the source.

Uzo Onukwugha operates a website that is geared towards changing your paradigm so that you can reprogram your mental software for business success. To learn more, visit http://www.weblinkbusiness.com and subscribe to his newsletter. Reach him with your care and concerns at: uzonukwugha@yahoo.com

Ready?To?Eat Salads: Chlorine Washing and Modified Atmosphere Packaging Anyone?

2009-02-12T00:19:00.002+07:00

In the vegetable aisle of my local supermarket I am greeted with row upon row of ready washed, ready-to-eat salads in plastic bags full of air (sort of like pillows). They all look good, the leaves are green and fresh and there is no sign of discolouration or wilting. In fact, the word 'exotic' springs to mind.

What's even better is that all I have to do is split open a bag and stick the contents on a plate, perfect for when I'm too busy to bother with sorting, washing and chopping vegetables. So I get a nice, tasty, nutritious salad with minimal effort. Or do I?

Chlorine Washes

It turns out that much of this fresh, ready-to-eat salad has more in common with my local swimming pool than a field of lush green lettuces, for it is likely (unless it is organic) to have been disinfected with chlorine (a powerful bleaching and disinfecting agent).

Chlorine washes are used to prevent disease-causing bacteria from contaminating pre-prepared salads. My first thought was that perhaps this is no big deal, after all tap water contains chlorine, so if I wash it at home I'll only be doing the same, won't I? Well, not quite.

Chlorine levels in tap water are tightly controlled and are typically restricted to no more than 0.5 mg/litre. It is common practice to use chlorine washes that contain up to 100 mg/litre of chlorine to rinse food that's sold as 'ready-to-eat', or to put it another way, 200 times as much chlorine as tap water.

Alarmed? Well don't be. UK Government legislation permits this as long as all residues that might pose a health risk are washed off. What you really need to worry about is the by-products.

When the sap from picked salad leaves reacts with chlorine, this can generate chloromines. Chloromines are known causes of eye and respiratory irritation. Unfortunately there is little or no research available to tell us if the by-products of pre-packed salads are harmful to us or not, or if indeed the people who pack them are in any danger.

Members of the Fresh Prepared Salads Producer Group have responded to concerns about chlorination by-products and ill health by carrying out their own tests, the results of which they claim show no cause for concern. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt while remembering they have an invested interest in producing such results.

Interestingly enough, EU Directive 2092/91 bans the use of chlorine for decontaminating organic food. This means that chlorine cannot be used to wash organic food anywhere in the European Union, including the UK.

Some countries, including Germany, Denmark, Holland and France do not allow chlorine washing of any fruits or vegetables; water used to wash them must not contain higher levels of chlorine than ordinary drinking water.

Modified Atmosphere Packaging

The chlorine issue aside, appearances can be deceptive, as a salad 'pillow' is not full of air as I (perhaps naively) first thought. The plumpness of the bag is down to Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), a process whereby oxygen is removed from around the food in order to stop oxidation and the subsequent browning of leaves.

This is why as soon as a bag of salad processed in this way is opened it has to be used up quickly; the presence of oxygen starts to cause spoilage. In essence, by modifying the atmosphere around the food, MAP serves to increase its shelf life.

MAP can also involve the addition of other gases, namely carbon dioxide and nitrogen. This is because some disease causing bacteria are still able to survive in the absence of oxygen; the additional gases prevent them multiplying by making the atmosphere inside the bag more acidic.

It is of paramount importance that foods packaged without oxygen are stored and used exactly according to instructions (sometimes within 24 hours of opening). The absence of bacteria means there will be no odours when the food starts to spoil, and you may not be aware when it becomes unsafe to eat.

Again the Fresh Prepared Salads Producer Group says that foods prepared using the MAP process are perfectly safe, and that MAP ensures food is as fresh as possible by the time it reaches the supermarket shelf.

Furthermore, the manufacturers of ready-to-eat salads and the supermarkets they supply work together to ensure the food gets to the consumer as quickly as possible after harvesting and packing. Even so, this can take up to three days if the salad is grown in the UK, and up to seven days if it comes from Europe.

So What's My Verdict?

Whether any residues left on salad related to chlorine washing are harmless or not, drenching fresh salad leaves in chlorine does not appeal to my taste buds.

I can't help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that chlorine washing of fruit and vegetables is not permitted in some countries and banned completely on all organic food in the EU.

MAP means that no artificial preservatives are needed to keep the food fresh, so this for me is a big plus. But I'm still not sold on the idea of my 'fresh' salad leaves sitting in a sealed bag of an unnatural mix of gases for possibly days on end.

On two separate occasions I have discovered live bugs in ready-to-eat salads I have bought. This leads me to take the view that if they were still alive, the chlorine process and the gases can't be harmful. But if the washing process does not get all the bugs off what's the point in paying the extra money to have it washed for you?

So are pre-packed salads better or worse than loose, unwashed salad vegetables? For me, the jury is still out. So how do I buy my salad now I have investigated this issue? It depends how lazy I'm feeling.

Sharon Kirby is a freelance health writer who likes to write about exercise, fitness, nutrition and a multitude of other health issues. She also writes about eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorder.

Vegetable Protein Has One Definite Advantage Over Meat Protein

2009-02-12T00:19:00.001+07:00

While it?s still controversial which one is better, most recent study shows one definite advantage of vegetable protein over meat protein is that plant protein can help lower blood pressure. Those who consume a lot of vegetable protein have lower blood pressure.

Researchers at Imperial College London did a survey on nearly 4700 people from the UK, the US, Japan and China. They found that the more vegetable protein the subjects said they had, the lower their blood pressure.

The report published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine suggested vegetarians tend to be lighter than non-vegetarians, and that the amino acids and magnesium found in plant protein may play roles in lowering blood pressure.

Since the study shows plant protein has at least one definite benefits that meat protein lacks, it is highly recommended we add some amounts of vegetable protein in our diet for overall better health. Good sources of vegetable protein include whole grains such as corn, wheat, oats, milo, barley, soya products such as tofu, soya milk, nuts and seeds like peas, beans, peanuts, almonds, pipe nuts etc. A well balanced diet including certain amounts of plant protein is definitely better than a diet that gets dietary protein from meat only.

Interested in more information about healthy diet food? Then drop by http://helthydietfood.info.

Carbohydrates

2009-02-12T00:15:00.000+07:00

They are a very important source of energy. They are made of H,O and Carbon. You can even observe this looking at the name : ?carbo? stands for C and ?hydrates? stands for hydrogen H. The ?ate? part represents the Oxygen. The interesting thing is the ration of Hydrogen and Oxygen 2 to 1.They contain sulphur and nitrogen but in minute quantities.

The fact is carbohydrates contain 4 kilocalories per gram and fats contain 9 kilocalories. The starch is found in foods like: rice, yams, bread and cereals. This starch is turn by the human digestive system into glucose. The glucose is transported all over the human body by blood vessels any they assure our body gets the levels of energy need it to run properly.

If the food you eat is rich in glucose this element will be directly absorbed by the body without the need for digestion. Sucrose is the second form of carbohydrate our bodies absorb. When we think of sucrose we think the sugar we put in our everyday coffee. Even if glucose and sucrose are sugars the difference is the fact that sucrose at a molecular level is bigger so the digestive system must be put to work.

The tissue respiration requires a lot of Oxygen. As a result of this proves a lot of Carbon Dioxide is produced but also the energy levels required for the normal functionality of the body,

More information about the topic can be found on the site body building diet plan

diets,supplements,vitamins

If you have an interesting article about body building,diets,supplements,vitamins or nutrition you should send it to our Email address contact@bodybuildinghealth.net and you will get in return a link on the page your article will be published.We only accept original articles not published anywere else !

Train Your Self To Eat Healthy

2009-02-11T00:12:00.001+07:00

For some people it is really hard to give up the junk food and sweets and eat a better, more nutritious diet. So let's use the example of eating the 5 to 9 fruits and vegetables we need daily.

There are ways to work with your mind so that it becomes much easier and more enjoyable to eat all those servings of vegetables we need each day.

Did you know that you think in pictures?

You are motivated by the things that you want to move away from that might cause emotions you don?t want such as pain, grief, anger etc. Examples: Ill health, overweight, not being able to join your family due to sickness is certainly things you want to move away from.

You are also motivated by the things you want to move towards. Emotions that would go with this are feeling happy, satisfied, loved, forgiven, respected, etc.

Move away from or move towards. These two ways you are motivated are the key to help you get past your dislike of vegetables and fruit if that is the problem .

Decide which type you are. Which are you most motivated by? Do you put moving away foremost in your mind or moving toward?

Ready to Start? Grab some vegetables. Look at them, feel them taste them, Chew on them. Snap them, break them up and hear the crunchiness. Involve as many of your senses as you can.

While doing that, do one of two things:

If motivated by what you are moving away from:

Paint the picture of what you are leaving behind. Accentuate the problems. Make them look really big and bad in your picture. Show your self what the big bad picture would be like a year from now or 5 years from now if you continued eating your bad diet. Put a lot of feeling into this.

If motivated by what you are moving towards:

Paint a big bright picture of what you will look like and feel like when you have better health. Think about who you love, who loves you and what you want to do and could do when you have good health.

Maybe you are not sure where you fit in to this process. Then play both pictures for yourself. Really put some pictures in your head. Use plenty of color. Turn the sound up.

Now which did you feel more motivated to eat the vegetables you need?

Play this picture over and over again as you eat the right foods, especially your vegetables and this will help you stay on track for better food choices.

Jeannie Crabtree C.Ac. shares health answers that work, tips, nutrition suggestions and research in her newsletter and health blog. http://www.health-doc.com

New News From Old Cook Books

2009-02-11T00:11:00.003+07:00

Vintage cook books are catching the eyes - and dollars - of customers. For some, vintage cook books are a trip down memory lane, a chance to recreate childhood recipes. Other customers are interested in food history. Avid cook book collectors may buy a cook book for one recipe only.

Old cook books, the ones our mothers and grandmothers used, have things to tell us. The Victory Cook Book, published in 1943, is a good example. The title page tells you instantly what the book is about. Wartime Edition, the page declares, With Victory Substitutes and Economical Recipes for Delicious Wartime Meals.

The key words for Americans in the thoes of a war were substitutes and economical. This cook book told them how prepare store food and home grown food. Cooks were told how to render the fat from meat, which was put in cans and turned in to local butcher shops. Hard as it is to believe, this fat was made into explosives.

A large section of the book is devoted to menu planning. Doughnuts, cookies, and pancakes were to be eaten only after you had eaten wholesome foods. Meat was eaten in small amounts. Sweets were to be eaten in moderation and The Victory Cook Book recommends eating salad for dessert.

Meat was scarce during World War II the chapter on meatless meals must have been very helpful. Just reading a dinner menu can make you feel full. A sample dinner menu includes chilled fruit, stuffed tomatoes, parsley potatoes, creamed asparagus, pumpkin pie, and milk. If that didn't fill you up nothing would.

School cafeteria menus continued the fruit and vegetable theme. A sample lunch menu menu includes brown bread sandwiches filled with cottage cheese, a thermos of cocoa, applesauce, and graham crackers. Today's kids would probably strike if their school cafeteria served this food.

The point is, there's no mention of a double cheeseburger, giant order of fries, or supersized soda pop. What is the new news in this old cook book? It's eating fruit and vegetables, things that can help us to feel fit and live longer lives. This news could help to reverse the obesity trend.

According to government statistics 65% of Americans are overweight. Many Americans are eating double or triple servings of food and it shows. Go to a mall and you'll see people who are waddling, not walking, people who are at risk for heart disease and diabetes. Some Americans are literally eating themelves to death.

Maybe it's time to return to the foods recommended in The Victory Cook Book. We can plan meals around fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, small servings of meat, and few sweets. The best news of all is that fresh vegetables and fruit taste really good.

The next time you go to a used book store or are on the Internet, look for vintage cook books. Find books that feature fresh fruits, vegetables, and vegetarian meals. Look for brand name cook books and booklets, too. You may be surprised at their new and healthy news.

http://www.harriethodgson.com

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Before she became a health writer she was a food writer for the former Rochester Magazine in her hometown of Rochester, MN. Her 24th book, Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief, written with Lois Krahn, MD is available from http://www.amazon.com A five-star review of the book is also posted on Amazon. You'll find another review on The Ameican Hospice Foundation website under the School Corner heading.

Vegetables and Fruits: Never a Fad

2009-02-11T00:11:00.001+07:00

When choosing vegetables and fruits, select a rainbow of colors to ensure you gain the entire range of benefits they offer. The various pigments in plants confer particular health benefits.

Red and purple plants -- grapes, blueberries, strawberries, beets, eggplant, red cabbage, red peppers, plums, and red apples -- contain antioxidants that prevent the formation of blood clots.

Yellow and green plants -- spinach, collards, corn, green peas, avocado, and honeydew -- include the pigments lutein and zeaxanthin, which help heal cataracts and macular degeneration and also reduce the risk of developing these eye problems.

Orange plants -- carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and mangoes -- have alpha carotene, a cancer fighter, and beta carotene, which helps repair damaged DNA. Oranges, peaches, papaya, and nectarines support the transmission of nerve impulses between cells and strengthen the cardiovascular system.

Green vegetables -- broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and bok choy -- have anticancer properties.

Vegetables also help raise mineral levels in the body -- provided there are enough fat-soluble vitamins A and D in the diet to assimilate the minerals. Because individuals who have excessive levels of some minerals are usually deficient in others, they need to eat more of the vegetables that will normalize their deficient mineral levels and less of those that contain large amounts of the minerals in which they are oversupplied. Because it is in the pigment of plants that many of the minerals and other nutrients in plants are stored, the choice of vegetables depends to some extent upon color. For example, anyone with a potassium deficiency needs green, leafy plants because the dark green pigment in these leafy plants contains high levels of potassium; on the other hand, eating white, orange, yellow, and light green plants increases calcium levels in the body. When we lack a particular nutrient, we also lack one of the pigments that store this nutrient.

an excerpt from the book Eat Right for Your Metabolism by Felicia Drury Kliment
Published by McGraw-Hill; April 2006;$16.95US/$22.95CAN; 0-07-146015-2
Copyright ? 2006 Felicia Drury Kliment

Felicia Drury Kliment is a nutritional consultant in private practice and the author of the acclaimed book The Acid-Alkaline Balance Diet. Visit her website at http://www.eatrightforyourmetabolism.com.

5 to 9 A Day: Are You Getting the Fruits and Veggies You Need? Juicers Can Help

2009-02-11T00:09:00.001+07:00

According to a 1997 study (revised in August 1998) by the Food and Drug Administration, Americans ate less than five servings of fruit and vegetables, less than five to nine servings recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Think we?ve improved? In 2003, according to a 5 A Day study by the National Cancer Institute:

1) 74 percent of women surveyed and 85 percent of men surveyed didn?t think about eating the required minimum five a day, which the dietary guidelines recommend increasing to nine a day for men, seven for women. Note that this is a target goal, not an absolute number!

2) 46 percent of men and 40 percent of women were aware of the original 1998 message to eat five servings a day.

3) 12 percent of men and 19 percent of women ate the recommended amounts (minimum of five, maximum of seven and nine for women and men, respectively), though women were more likely to be aware of the recommendations.

4) Six out of ten people polled thought it was good to eat a variety of different veggies and fruits in different colors, and nearly two-thirds of adults believed eating plenty of fruits and vegetables lowered their chances of getting cancer and other illnesses.

New findings reported in the UK?s THE LANCET medical journal in January indicate that eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of strokes. Yet many people, especially men, are only contemplating changing nutritional habits.

There are a variety of reasons why this is so, according to the FDA article, Fruits and Vegetables: Eating Your Way to Five a Day.?

Reason #1: Fruits and vegetables cost too much.

Solution: According to dietitians, fruits and vegetables are smart buys. They contain many of the vitamins and minerals we need such as vitamins A and C. There are ways to make fruits and vegetables an even better bargain:

1) Buy fresh fruits and vegetables in season when they are at their peak in terms of flavor and nutrition. Then, you can always dehydrate them or turn them into juices with a juicer.

2) Watch coupons and grocery advertisements for money off on your favorite fruits and vegetables and juices--canned, frozen, and fresh.

3) Compare prices of different brands of canned and frozen fruits and vegetables and juices and buy the cheapest.

4) Juicers cost far less in the long run than spending $5 a day in a juice bar, and owning one encourages you to eat fruits and vegetables.

Reason #2: Fruits and vegetables take too long to prepare.

Solution: Look for ways to make fruits and veggies an easy, delicious treat you?ll want to eat.

1) Your grocery store has many ready-to-serve raw vegetables and fruits in the produce section. These items can be used easily in juicers and dehydrators without any loss of flavor or nutrition.

2) Buy a juicer and make fresh fruit and vegetable juices whenever possible. Juices can be refrigerated or frozen, but for maximum benefit, drink fresh juice as soon as you make it.

3) Keep on hand canned and bottled juices, homemade juices, and frozen, dried, and dehydrated fruits and vegetables.

Reason #3: Fresh fruits and vegetables spoil too quickly.

Solution: There are great ways to preserve fresh fruits and vegetables if you aren?t tempted to reach out and grab a medium-size apple (one serving).

1) Turn fruits and vegetables into juices. Juice is not as likely to spoil and can be frozen.

2) Buy both fresh and canned fruits and vegetables. Eat the fresh vegetables first. You can even dehydrate and preserve them. Then, save the canned items for use later.

3) Keep fruits and vegetables where you can see them--in juice bottles and quarts, on the top shelf of the refrigerator, or, for oranges and bananas, on the table or counter or another easy-to-spot-place. Attractive bowls or containers and veggie or fruit trays will invite you to reach out when you?re hungry.

4) Vary your veggie and fruit colors so you?re not tempted to let strawberries spoil and lettuce wilt. Think veggies all have to be boring green? Think again! You can place, for example, fresh carrots besides avocadoes. Have an avocado-and-tomato salad. Did we mention guacamole?

Reason #4: People are concerned about pesticides in their food.

Solution: The increased availability of organic produce makes your food choices safer?you don?t have to worry about your healthy snacks. Just make sure to read labels?not all produce is 100% organic. Some other helpful hints:

1) Wash your fruits and veggies?even if bagged salads say pre-washed. Use a vegetable brush for fruits and veggies with skins, such as apples and potatoes.

2) Outer leaves of cruciferous or leafy vegetables wilt quickly, and pesticides are more likely to linger. Toss them.

3) Although fresh is best, steaming, boiling, or baking will cleanse your food.

Fruits and vegetables offer a variety of tastes and nutritional values. And--surprise--most of them make delicious juices with little extra effort. The FDA has a complete list of vegetables available.

Think five, seven and nine. Like the respondents of the 2003 study, you?ll feel better when you do. Visit 5ADay.gov and say, ?Gimme five!?

Kristin Johnson is the health editor for LivingRight.com, your source for health appliances, including juicers such as the Omega 8003 juicer, the powerful top-selling juicer for fruits and vegetables. You?ll also find other health-enhancing juicers such as the Green Power Kempo, Champion Juicer 2000+, Green Star Juicer GS-2000, and the L?Equip Pulp Ejector Juicer Model 221. Visit http://www.livingright.com for health appliances and ideas on living right.

And The Healthy Diet For This Week Is?

2009-02-11T00:08:00.001+07:00

Before we go any further the word diet does not necessarily mean an act of losing weight but a style of eating. If you follow a healthy diet you will lose weight naturally and you will get into a lifestyle that will keep you weight stable.

Every week a ?new healthy diet? comes out by some expert and it often appears that there are as many healthy diets as there are experts. Taking the cynical viewpoint these experts have only hit the world with a new regime to sell their latest book, DVD or new line of health food products. OK, everybody has different dietary needs due to their body type, metabolism, and genetic makeup but there are some basic guidelines that can be followed to keep to a healthy diet.

One of the first steps to a healthy diet is to rid your body of all the rubbish that is already there. These are the toxins that have built up over time. Well one way of doing this is to go down to your local pharmacy and get a pre-packaged detox kit and follow that for a specified length of time. Or you could buy antioxidants in supplement form. These are both workable quick fixes but you really need to make you diet a lifestyle.

Antioxidants are abundant in fruit and vegetables and generally, brightly coloured fruits and vegetables contain the highest levels of antioxidants: for example, yellow, orange, and dark green vegetables and citrus fruits. Now the Catch-22 in this is that you are better to be eating organic produce so that you are not introducing more toxins into the body as you neutralise the ones that are already there.

Research has shown that children who regularly eat organic foods have lower levels of toxic chemicals in their bodies than those who only eat conventional foods.

Fruits and vegetables are also high in other vitamins and minerals. Vitamin C is abundant in strawberries and oranges and this helps to support the immune system. Carrots and sweet potatoes contain beta-carotene, which is important for vision and high levels of calcium, magnesium, and vitamin K can be found in green leafed vegetables to support the health of our bones and teeth, among other things.

Some helpful guidelines to follow: Eat two to four pieces of fresh fruit daily, and fill half your plate with vegetables at any given meal.

A healthy diet program requires planning and lots of knowledge, both in the supermarket and at the meal table but the results are more than worth it!

I have given you some of the facts concerning a healthy diet but something that you do not see in many of these weekly diet regimes is a realistic approach, we are not all at home all the time, we are sitting in traffic or having meals in the canteen where you cannot dictate what is on the menu.

Here are some healthy eating habits to think about and to bring into your new healthy eating lifestyle.

?Eat a good breakfast. When there isn't time to sit down and enjoy your morning meal, and oats are a good choice there, grab some fruit and some juice.

?If you only viable option is to eat fast foods, choose a pizza with half the cheese, a regular roast beef sandwich, baked potato, or green salad with reduced calorie dressing. Do not opt for things like fries, fried chicken or fish and remember to use low calorie dressing and not the regular variety.

?Always have healthy snacks close by to fend off sudden hunger attacks. These could be fresh or dried fruit, nuts, rice cakes, whole wheat crackers or raw vegetables with low fat yogurt or dip.

?Eat calcium rich food by including ample amounts of low fat yogurt, low fat cheese, milk and green leafy vegetables in your diet.

?If you need to lose weight, do it sensibly. Remember we are going for lifestyle changes not a quick fix starvation diet. The only safe way to lose weight, feel good while doing it, and keep it off is to eat a balanced diet.

?Reduce you sugar intake, use it sparingly and consider sweetening coffee, tea, cereal and fruit with sweeteners instead. Though sugar provides calories it supplies few other nutrients and it contributes significantly to tooth decay.

?Salad bars sound healthy but they can also be harmful. By all means go for the leafy greens, raw vegetable and fresh fruit as they are beneficial. But the creamy dressing, bacon bits, and mayonnaise based salads are not and the calories and fat they contain may equal or even exceed those of a burger and fries.

?Reduce or cut alcohol out completely, remember that alcohol supplies calories but has no nutritional value. A small beer, a glass of wine, or a shot of spirits contains about 100 calories. Adding this to the associated problems that are linked with drinking alcohol the benefits can be two-fold.

?Drink lots of water. Your body needs at least two or three pints a day, and if you exercise vigorously, this could be more. Try to keep a water bottle handy.

www.health.knowhowpages.co.uk

About The Author
Dave Odell has been a freelance writer since 1984, during which time he has lived and worked in Paris, Amsterdam, Antwerp and London until recently moving to the north of England. Though he has specialized in technically related matters his investigative skills has recently inspired him into writng articles and web sites on other subjects that he is interested in therefore expanding his knowledge in these areas.

Vegetables: Key to Fitness and Weight Control

2009-02-11T00:06:00.001+07:00

I was a young child during World War II. To make up for food shortages the government asked citizens to plant Victory Gardens. Like other families on our block, we had a garden in a vacant field. Weeding our Victory Garden was more than a war time activity, it was a social activity.

Families caught up on news as they planted and harvested their crops. Picking vegetables - fat orange carrots, turgid Swiss chard, and giant potatoes - seemed miraculous to me. One day some older kids built a fire on a bare plot and we roasted potatoes. We ate the blackened potatoes without any butter or salt, and I can still remember how good they tasted.

Vegetables fed the nation during World War II. We were a fit nation then because people walked to conserve gas, ate little protein (steak was a rarity), and were restricted by food stamps. No obese people lived on my block. In fact, I didn't know any obese people. How things have changed.

America is no longer a fit nation, it is a fat nation, and the obesity statistics are alarming. According to the President's Council on Fitness and Sports 37% of Americans aren't physically active. More than 108 million Americans are either obese or overweight. Teens and younger kids are developing type 2 diabetes, formerly an adult disease.

What can Americans do? We can eat more vegetables. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has posted an article on www.MyPyramid.com titled Why is it Important to Eat Vegetables? The reasons include reducing the risks of type 2 diabetes, stroke, mouth, stomach, and colon-rectum cancer, and heart disease. In other words, eating vegetables is a way to protect your health.

Mayo Clinic has posted an article about the energy density of vegetables on its website. The article, Energy Density and Weight Loss: Feel Full on Fewer Calories, tells how energy density works. Many vegetables have low energy density, Mayo says, and you can eat large servings of them, feel full quickly, and because you feel full, consume fewer calories.

Green vegetables are a good example. One serving of green beans, asparagus, or broccoli contains about 25 calories, according to Mayo Clinic. This number refers to plain vegetables, not vegetables drenched in butter or smothered in cheese sauce. Lightly dressed salads also have low energy density.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says most of the space on your dinner plate should be filled with vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Eating lots of vegetables can help you reach and maintain a healthy weight, according to the CDC. To learn more log onto the CDC Homepage and print out How to Use Fruits and Vegetables to Help Manage Your Weight.

Vegetables and daily walking have helped me to keep a healthy weight. I love vegetables, probably because of my childhood Victory Garden experience. But many Americans grimace when they think about fixing vegetables or eating them. Why? It takes time to wash and slice vegetables and Americans are short of time.

Many of us don't know how to cook vegetables. A serving of limp, gray-green beans is hardly appealing. Carrots cooked until they are mush are a turn-off. How can we get Americans to eat more vegetables? We can explain cooking techniques.

Steamed vegetables, for example, retain their color and crispness. The same is true of stir fried vegetables. I stir fry vegetables in a cast iron skillet. The skillet is so well seasoned that I need only a tablespoon (or less) of olive oil.

Americans also need to learn how to season vegetables. Though I rarely cook with salt, sometimes I sprinkle light salt on vegetables. Most of the time I season vegetables with lemon pepper or fresh lemon juice. I also season them with fresh thyme, rosemary, basil, and garlic.

Involving kids in meal preparation is another way to get Americans to eat vegetables. Older kids can cut the tips off of string beans, peel and slice carrots, or slice mushrooms. Younger kids can get pans out of the cupboard, measure ingredients, and set the table.

Trying new vegetables, such as jicima, may also help Americans to eat more of them. Fresh vegetables add sparkle to any meal. We don't have Victory Gardens any more, but we can eat vegetables to prevent disease and maintain a healthy weight. Put vegetables at the top of your grocery list today!

http://www.harriethodgson.com

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Before she became a health writer she was a food writer for the former Rochester Magazine in her home town of Rochester, MN. Her 24th book, Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief, written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from http://www.amazon.com. A five-star review of the book is posted on Amazon. You will also find another review on the American Hospice Foundation website under the School Corner heading.

Dietary Guidelines For Adults 2

2009-02-11T00:05:00.001+07:00

Dietary guidelines for adults 2 is, naturally, a follow up to article 1, and focuses on what foods constitute a good diet where article 1 focused upon why we need a good diet. My approach is that food should be fun because most health food aficionados that I know don?t seem to smile too often and therefore I don?t hold them up as good examples. Eating is a major part of life and life should be fun; if we only get one life what?s the point in being miserable? The challenge for healthy eating is to make healthy food fun to eat and reward yourself occasionally with a treat and to heck with the diet.

We need to eat fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, dairy products and drink plenty of water to have a perfect diet. We also have to accept that certain people have allergies. The most common allergies are dairy products and nuts. Just because you have an allergy you shouldn?t use it as an excuse not to eat a healthy diet; if you can?t eat nuts eat more fruit or vegetables to compensate. Using a little common sense will overcome all perceived obstacles. Once you have a diet based upon healthy foods you can add a few luxuries like chocolate and ice cream providing it is within your daily calorie allowance.

A healthy breakfast is cereal, or oatmeal (porridge) with fresh fruit and a glass of milk. If you are really rushed for time a fresh fruit smoothie is great. Alternatively a couple of slices of toasted whole-grain bread. Do away with common white bread it acts like glue in your intestines and creates digestive problems. If you take toast it is always sensible to eat at least one piece of fresh fruit.

If you feel like a snack mid-morning eat a few nuts, a raw carrot or a piece of fruit.

Lunch should consist of a sandwich made with whole-grain bread, a piece of fruit and some green salad leaves. - Common question: ?Should I add salad dressing?? - Why not. If you like salad dressing use it or the food becomes boring but use it in moderation.

Afternoon snack ? same as morning snack.

Dinner should have meat or fish; red meat is OK in reasonable servings about three times each week. It must have vegetables including peas or beans and if you can utilize fresh fruit for dessert that is even better. Berries are especially healthy and tasty.

To summarize you must eat seven servings of fruit and/or vegetables every day. This is an absolute minimum requirement for a healthy body. Frozen is fine if you are unsure of the freshness of vegetables or fruit because it is snap frozen when fresh and retains the nutrients. Older fruit and vegetables lose nutrient value.

There is much to play with in this diet and the challenge is to make it fun when mixed with some of your favorites.

This article is copyright ? David McCarthy 2006 and may only be reproduced in its entirety with no additions or deletions.

About The Author
David McCarthy is a prolific article writer and webmaster at http://www.recipesmania.com a site dedicated to freely sharing knowledge of all things connected to food and diet. It contains recipes for all occasions, diet recipes and has a free weight control program.

Eating Clean Tips for Overcoming The Dilemma

2009-02-10T23:59:00.001+07:00

Continuing from my previous post on the Malaysian's dilemma of being able to 'eat clean', we need to first know that a balanced meal would need to consist of protein, carbs, and fat. Yes, this means that if you thought eating 'healthy' meant gobbling down vegetables and fruits all day, you're wrong. Those are just fad-diets that probably has a greater mental effect on you rather than actual results. I know someone who used to train at the gym, but practically survived on all sorts of blended fruit juices + a cabinet full of vitamins.. let me tell you that because of her so called 'healthy' diet, she ALWAYS looked tired, sick and nowhere near being fit at all. A balanced meal IS important.

The nutrient ratios for protein/carbs/fat can vary based on what your goals are (to gain weight, maintenance, or to lose fat), but that's a topic on its own and would require another writeup altogether. What I'll cover today will hopefully help ensure that we'll at least get all the nutrient groups covered in a decent meal, minus the hidden nasties.

So, you're at a restaurant and everything seems so unhealthy and oily.. and there seems like there's no way you can ever eat any of it without doing damage to your diet.

PROTEIN

I think the easiest and most practical option to get protein into your meal is to ensure you get a piece of chicken or fish. As for red meats like mutton and beef the problem lies with the restaurants often buying the cheaper cuts of meat, which are loaded with more fat than usual, so you might want to stay clear of the red meats.

Choosing a piece of Chicken/Fish for protein content

I personally always look for a piece of chicken thats soaking in curry instead of the ones that are stir-fried or deep fried. Some restaurants tend to cut up the chicken pieces into smaller pieces, which is bad because if the dish is generally an oily one, what happens is that those pieces of chicken now have a much wider surface area to absorb all that nasty oil. Stick to whole pieces, like a whole chicken breast, which is the leanest part of the chicken or a drumstick, which isn't that bad too. Meat from the wings and other pieces generally have more fat, skin, and less protein in them.

To sometimes bump up the protein content a little, I add a hard-boiled egg to my meal. Fried eggs and yellowish omelettes are a no-no. It's useful to remember that any uncanny tint of yellow on food is most likely oil. It may not be that obvious until you touch it.

CARBOHYDRATES

Choosing vegetables as a source of carbs
If you think this was gonna be the easiest... think again. The problem with how vegetables are prepared in most restaurants is that way too much of oil is used. Frankly, I don't see the need to use any oil at all for vegetables.. but then, I'm sure most cooks would disagree with me on that, so let's not go there. I'm reminded of the time when I scooped up some healthy looking long beans, only to realise in horror later that I could easily squeeze out about 5 drops of cooking oil from EVERY single piece (the oil was hidden n the hollow area of the beans).

Even a stir-fried cabbage dish is prepared with way too much oil than necessary. Notice how some seemingly innocent vegetables dishes leave an almost fluorescent-green layer of oil on your plate once you've finished eating.. but its already too late then. The only oil-free vegetable dish I'm ever able to find at the restaurant are the cut-up cucumbers with pineapples, which I think they soak in a mild vinegar and sugar solution which is way better than the other oily choices, if you ask me.

And of course, who can forget - RICE. Contrary to popular belief, rice isn't a bad thing at all. Think about it.. its oil free, and more than half of its weight is water. It's only when you stuff your face and eat it excessively, that is when it becomes a problem. Just remember that too much of any good thing can be bad too. As for me, I eat rice with some of my meals throughout the day, often at an equal portion size with my vegetables.

FAT

Incorporating Fat into your meal?
Although dietary fat forms part of a balanced meal, you could most likely do without the need to add any additional fat into your meal as what you're eating would already have sufficient (if not excessive) amounts of fat already present in the first place.

I guess the message I'm trying to drive to you is to always take a few moments to think before you reach out and put that food onto your plate - think with your head, and not your tongue! Looks can be deceiving.

Once you understand the basics of what your body needs and doesn't need, and also on how you can make more informed choices, you will soon realise that you will almost always be able to find something to eat at most places without having to bust your diet. Your meals can become the most simplest and easiest part of your quest to fitness if you only opened your eyes. It all depends on how willing you are to do it.

Josh Stone, also known as DM, is the author behind the site http://www.dailymuscle.com which offers the author's personal views on real-life fitness, bodybuilding, sports nutrition, cardio, fat loss, training information, and on all things that surrounds fitness.

Healthy Eating isn't Enough You Need Supplements Real Health Part 3

2009-02-10T23:55:00.001+07:00

The next step on your road to real health is supplements. And I?m not talking about one multivitamin a day either. Exactly what you take is up to you, but you need to get in the habit of taking quite a few pills or powders every day. In this article I?m going to lay out the case for supplements.

You might be thinking, why supplement? By now, you should be eating more good food, fruits and vegetables, drinking more water, getting sunlight, and eating more whole grain foods. You should also be reading labels on food to avoid health-robbing ingredients. However, two factors work against you being able to get all the nutrients you need just from the food you eat.

The first is soil depletion. Our farmers do produce a lot of food. However, the minerals in the soil, that the plants take up through their roots and then pass on to us, have been depleted. In medieval times, farmers would let a field lie fallow for one or two growing seasons. This allowed the soil to replenish itself. These days, this is not feasible. The plants do grow, of course, due to the use of either chemical or organic fertilizers.

These plants grow and are healthy and good for you to eat. However, they often lack the minerals you need or have reduced amounts of them. So, to get all the you need, you would need to eat a lot of them. This is the second factor. In prehistoric times, people walked and gathered and ate, all day. They took in a lot of calories and expended a lot.

You however, have other things to do. It has been estimated for you to get all the nutrients you need on a daily basis, you would have to eat 10,000 calories a day. You?d be eating all day and you?d obviously gain weight. This is not practical at all in today?s world.

Supplements get their nutrients from whole foods. Vegetables, microalgae, grain, fruits, and other healthy foods are dried and combined, either in powder form or pill form. This makes it relatively easy to get the nutrients you need, without having to spend all day eating.

Barbara Pfieffer writes about gaining real health on her blog, Real Health.

A Few Good Minerals

2009-02-10T23:54:00.001+07:00

Most of us now know that our soils are becoming depleted of essential, trace and rare minerals which are essential to our health as well as wellness. So it should not be a major shock that according to scientists at the 1992 Earth Summit in South America that the U.S.'s soils have, unfortunately, been depleted the most dramatically, with some eight-five percent of its essential minerals literally stripped out. And that was over ten years ago.

So where have all the minerals gone to? Are they somewhere deep inside the earth beyond the reach of our tractors? Do minerals believe in reincarnation? Will they return in the next life to form of more enlightened minerals? The answer is no.

Just to give you some background, minerals are the basic elements of the earth as well as the universe. Like energy, they simply can't be created (or eliminated, for that matter). The reason why mineral rich soil can be depleted is quite simple. They are absorbed into vegetables and fruits. Once those fruits and vegetables have been harvested and consumed, the minerals are gone for good. While plants can create proteins, carbohydrates and certain other nutrients to help enrich the soil, sadly they are unable create minerals.

And let us not forget that a great deal of of our soil has been producing food for many centuries. Most of the minerals in these foods were consumed a long time ago by our forefathers. In addition, the synthetic fertilizers that are being sprayed on our fruts/vegetables makes it even harder for plants to absorb whatever essential minerals still remain in the soil.

It is very simple-without the proper minerals, vitamins are useless, enzymes can't function correctly and some hormones are thrown out of balance. As a matter of fact, nothing can really work effectively. Our brain cells and nervous system transport electrical signals over a wide network of minerals to each section of our body. Each beat of our hearts and each cell has to have minerals just to be able to function.

Sea vegetables are truly the ocean's nutritional gems; they are extremely rich in vegetable proteins and a full spectrum of chlorophyll, enzymes, amino acids, fiber as well as carotene. As a matter of fact, no single category of food has as diverse a mineral composition as sea vegetables do. They are the one and only vegetarian source of vitamin B-12 for cell health, with quantities close to the leading animal sources (beef and liver).

Furthermore, sea vegetables still have the vital trace minerals such as selenium, boron and chromium that have been leached from the majority of our top soil.

This article first appeared in the March 2006 Issue of the Zone Net Newsletter. There you can find high quality go to Sea Health Plus Liquid Vitamin Supplement from Dr. Barry Sears.

Fruits and Vegetables Are Good For YouAt Least For Now

2009-02-10T23:50:00.000+07:00

Imagine bananas which produce human vaccines against hepatitis B or fish that mature 2 times as quickly as they do now. With genetic modification or biotechnology, these possibilities are all on the science world's horizon.

What is Genetic Modification Anyhow?

The transfer of a gene from one organism to another is called genetic engineering. The trait that the gene is responsible for is engineered into the cells of another organism. The future of vaccines, antibiotics and food safety is being placed into the arms of genetic transplants scientifically called transgenics.

According to the Human Genome Project, in 2003 about 167 million acres in 18 countries grown by seven million farmers were planted with transgenic crops. Principally, these crops were herbicide and insecticide-resistant soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. Other crops that are grown are rice with an unusually high content of beta-carotene (vitamin A) to alleviate the common issue of blindness in developing countries as well as tobacco and potato plant seedlings that are able to tolerate unexpected frost due their introduction to an antifreeze gene from cold water fish.

Genetically Modified Organisms Controversy

In 2003, the U.S. grew 63% of the global transgenic crops. Though supporters of this technology offer dramatic promises of using our foods to combat the greatest health challenges of our century, their adversaries, particularly the Organic Consumers Association, believe it to be an infant science with infinite health risks?both known and unknown. They believe that unlike defective tires, once these crops are released into the environment, they can never be recalled. Pros ... Many advocates of genetic modification argue that GM:

Enhances nutrition and the quality of life for people all around the world. Enables crops to taste better and contain more nutrients and decreases growing time. Enables organisms to have a greater resistance to disease, pests and chemicals. Improves animal health. Lessens the use of pesticides, increases the conservation of soil, water and energy. Benefits societies due to increased food security for growing populations. Cons ...

Genetic Modification adversaries come from all sides. Many environmental activists, religious organizations, professional associations, public interest groups and other scientists and government officials are resistant to this growing field. They argue against GM because of:

The potential risk to human health: allergens, antibiotic resistance and the possible development of chronic and terminal illness after years of exposure?in essence, too many unknowns. The domination of world food production by a handful of companies, which ultimately results in increased dependence on industrialized nations by developing ones. The issue of ethics: the tampering with nature by mixing genes among and across species.

The FDA, USDA, EPA and other government agencies are so complex with how they do business that labeling regulations could slip through the cracks, which means that many people may not know if the food they purchase is natural or not. Genetically engineered products may never be identified as such leaving the consumer without a choice, not knowing that they are eating a food that is anything but natural.

We all know that technology comes with a price. GMO's are no exception. The intrinsic question is: what price are we willing to pay for the necessities and luxuries technology provides?

Ryan Joseph is a writer/researcher, More information about Health and Supplements available at: Sea Health Plus from Dr. Sears

Guerilla Health Tactics: 5 Snappy Rules For a Healthier Happier You

2009-02-10T23:47:00.000+07:00

The subject of health care itself often seems plagued with conflicting advice, or even heated controversy. Witness the recent Cruise-Shields incident, which will doubtless occupy several chapters in future health and nutrition texts. So what to do about this advice-riddled and divisive field when you want to find out what you can do to better your own health? We suggest that you do a little research, read differing opinions, and the reasons given for them, and then go with what you feel confident about.

Although I am neither a doctor nor a health care professional, I have studied a great deal about the effects of various kinds of personal habits, vitmains, etc., and their known consequences to your health. So here I will offer what I regard as well-proven tips for really improving your own health in very practical and effective ways.

1. Eat yogurt and a banana every day. Yogurt has live cultures in it, meaning good bacteria that your body absolutely needs, and which any caffeine beverage or alcohol will tend to reduce or eliminate. Electricity and anti-biotics kill these off too. This good bacteria functions like millions of tiny janitors, eating up and cleaning away any sort of debris which might float about in your bloodstream or body. You must replace these daily to stay healthy in the long run, and yogurt is one of the easiest sources both for this, and for calcium. You can also buy acidophilus milk at the grocery store, or pro-biotics from your local health food store.

Bananas contain potassium, a mineral necessary for many bodily functions, including muscle development and maintaining proper hydration, and which can ? and often does ? suffer depletion from environmental and dietary factors. So, as they say, go bananas.

2. Eat fresh ? not cooked or canned - vegetables and fruit every day without fail. Once you heat a vegetable to over 120F degrees, the enzymes they contain begin to break down. These enzymes aid the digestion process, which forms the central part of good health. There are other ways to get enzymes in your diet, but eating fresh fruits and veggies remains the best way.

A great way to enjoy your daily dose of enzymes comes by juicing. This has become something of a health craze of late, and a great one at that. You can buy a good juicer for about $200 or so, or for less if you don't mind bargain hunting. Try e-bay. To juice, you simply turn the juicer on and stuff your fruits and veggies down the chute. The juicer then aggressively works them over, yielding only the juice inside them out the bottom chute to fill your cup.

Fresh fruit and veggie juice is delicious, and it will really help improve your health in many little ways. Try combining different juice partners, including oranges and carrots. They go well together. And, yes, ladies, the vitamins and minerals in fresh fruit and veggie juice can help give your skin a healthier, more youthful tone. And the anti-oxidants they offer overflow with other health benefits too.

3. Exercise For Fun. Find a game or sport you enjoy, and do it for 10 minutes a day. My children love it when I chase them around the park ? so I do. They laugh and we all exercise, but no one outruns the claw. Studies show, time and again that most people don?t exercise because they think they don?t have enough time. But this is nonsense. Most people waste more than 10 minutes a day just chatting.

Start slowly if you are a beginner, and go easy. Maybe just walk for 10 minutes at a comfortable pace. Just do SOMETHING. 10 minutes of exercise every day will greatly enhance every aspect of your health, starting with your cardiovascular system. After you feel confident with your level of health, set some short term goals. Time yourself, and see if you can do it just a little farther or faster. If it?s too hard, slow down or back off a little. Enjoy your exercise. It really can be fun.

Studies also show that you derive far more benefit from exercising if you do it at intervals. If you walk for ten minutes, walk slowly to warm up for the first minute, then speed it up with a little burst for the next minute or two, then slow way down to relax and rest up for your next, more rapid interval. This way, you are never more than a minute away from a resting point, and you don?t feel so much pressure to perform. Interval training (or I.T.) has remarkable benefits (compared to mere steady state exercising) ? including the reducing of stress. So go alittle harder on Tuesday in your exercise routine, and a little easier on Wednesday. Then pick up the pace again on Thursday. Train at intervals.

4. Keep your house very clean at all times, especially the bathrooms and kitchen. This is where germs tend to accumulate. All houses have some dirt and mold in them. Dirty houses have a great deal more than clean ones, and over the long haul to much micro-garbage in the air will tend to cause all sorts of allergy problems and other harmful side-effects. Keep the toothbrushes well insulated when not using them, and store them in a room OTHER than the bathroom. I could tell you why, but some of you might be eating. Trust me, just do it.

If your circumstances make it too difficult to keep the house very clean, hire a cleaning service. Your health is worth the cost. And wash your hands ? and your children?s hands ? often throughout the day. This simple practice can reduce illness-related down time by as much as 50% or more

5. This one may seem a bit odd at first, but there is good logic behind it. Try not to use the heater or air-conditioner in your vehicles much, especially if you travel on rural or dusty roads. The air blown into the cab (and blown into the faces and lungs of the driver and passengers) has NO FILTER. This is nuts, but it is true. Just think about it for a minute.

Your engine has an air filter in it because dirt blows under the hood and can clog up the mechanical works. Hence the filter. But the same dirty air, which blows across the engine and into the cab of your vehicle, doesn?t have to traverse a filter before it reaches your lungs.Yikes.

It is often quite dirty ? especially if you live near a construction site or dirt road ? and this dirt can accumulate in your lungs, and possibly even your bloodstream. I have no idea why no one seems to have thought of this when they built the vehicles we drive, especially when so many now spend countless hours commuting ? sitting behind the wheel, with the heater or A/C blasting away. I know of no studies on this topic either, but common sense says Don?t blast a steady stream of dirt into your lungs over long periods of time.

If you can, instead of using the heater, put on another layer of clothes, or a very warm jacket. If you can, instead of using the A/C, just roll down the window(s) to cool off ? or drink some cold water. And remember, exercise helps keep your system stay cleaner too, so take that advice seriously and put it into practice.

Your personal health ranks very high among your personal assets, so take it seriously enough to spend some time thinking about it, and doing something to improve it. Start with our big five. You will be glad you did.

Carson Day has written some 1.3 gazillion articles and essays on all manner of topics. These aim to glorify God and offer people real help to live wisely and well. You can visit Carson's websites at http://ophirgold.blogspot.com (The Omniblog, where Carson blogs everything) or http://extremeprofit.blogspot.com (Carson's Day Trading Outpost). Thanks for stopping by.

The Value Of Water Content Food

2009-02-10T23:45:00.001+07:00

Do you want to know how to feel good? Do you want to be vibrant for a long time? Take care of your body and it will take care of you.

Digestion takes probably more energy than anything else. The average meal takes 3 hours and 30 minutes to digest if combined properly. Incorrectly combined food can sometimes take up to 14 hours to digest. This is a very powerful way to conserve energy.

Take note: Recall the last time you had a huge meal?a huge meal when you felt so full you could hardly move. That doesn?t make you feel like going out and running a marathon, does it? How often do you feel like going out and running a marathon after eating a huge steak?

How would you like to learn something interesting? Starches and proteins require different mediums to digest in the stomach. One requires acid in the stomach to digest and the other alkaline. Now anyone with even a basic knowledge of chemistry knows that acids and alkalines cancel each other out.

If you want to have more energy you need to learn to properly combine your foods.

You?ve probably heard people say you need to eat more vegetables. I heard that too for a long time. It didn?t motivate me to go out and eat it. It wasn?t until I understood that food is literally the building blocks of all the substances of your body that I understood the importance of it. What you eat literally becomes your brain, your liver, your kidneys, your skin and your eyes. This is powerful. What you put in to yourself becomes part of your body.

If 70-80% of your body is water, what does it make sense to eat? Foods which have a 70-80% water content. Vegetables are the most important food you will feed yourself in your lifetime. Vegetables will cause your energy to increase, your skin to look brighter, your eyes to sparkle, your energy to rise and your libido to increase. Vegetables are high in almost every substance known to be essential to the building of the body and life.

For the next 7 days eat a salad with every meal.

See, would you take a green shiny apple, spray it with fly spray, then eat it? You know how ridiculous that sounds. Would you eat it? Of course not. Yet that?s what?s happening to our food every day. Our fruits and vegetables are now being treated with pesticides and industrial strength sprays that are poisonous to the delicate insides of our body. Some foods are now being treated with radiation. It?s now proven conclusively that radiation contributes to cancer.

If you tried describing sex to an alien, they probably wouldn?t understand it until they experienced it. They wouldn?t understand it until they did it. You won?t understand the power of making at least 50% of your diet vegetables until you take this and do it. Vegetables are around for a reason, and for the same reason there are no hamburger trees!

Organic food contains up to 3 times the amount of nutrients of conventional fruit and vegetables. How would you like to eat spinach and have the nutrients of 3 times the amount? I certainly would. As food grows, it?s draws nutrients from the ground. The better the quality of soil, the more nutrients can be drawn into the food. Research reports many of our foods are missing vitamins, minerals, enzymes etc because of depleted soils. Buy organic food wherever possible.

The brain knows when you are full, because the stomach sends a signal to a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is 12 minutes ?behind? the stomach. There is literally a 12 minute delay between being full, and your body knowing you are full. When you stop eating before you are full, you give your body a chance to recover energy.

Sugar is widely considered to be one of the most dangerous substances for the body. Avoid it at all costs. There are a few other ingredients to keep away from if you are serious about your health and energy. Salt dehydrates the body. It?s not widely known that black pepper is 17 more times irritating to the liver than alcohol.

That brings us to the next point, caffeine. I understand people love their coffee. I was once a coffee drinker, before I became interested in health. Caffeine gives us energy because it opens up the capillaries in the brain. The same effect can be had by deep breathing. The challenge comes when the effect of caffeine wears off. The capillaries in the brain restrict causing us to feel lethargic. Caffeine works because the body has to ?speed up? to cope with the dose of poison it?s been given.

Unfortunately, while alcohol has perceived benefits, it is pure fermentation and decay, rotting sugar. It is absolutely toxic. There are other things you also need to be aware of. White rice is treated with bleach. It starts out brown and is bleached to become white. What about white flour? It?s also bleached. What about sugar or pasta? They too have been bleached to give a false sense of purity. Would you go to your laundry cupboard and drink bleach? That?s preposterous, yet most of us eat food treated with bleach. Bleach has the effect of ripping the stomach lining - an effect that is similar to the drug ecstasy. A report out of Germany states ?they?re putting fine pieces of cracked glass now in ecstasy, those pieces have the effect of putting finite tears in the stomach lining enabling the substance to enter the bloodstream more quickly?.

Do you like food? Amazingly, most people I interview say ?Yes?. What?s the purpose of eating food? While it tastes good and feels good, physiologically eating is the building blocks of the body. Skin, eyes, internal organs, joints, white and red blood cells, they are all built out of the food and liquid that goes into our body. So logically, what?s one of the most powerful ways to change the appearance your eyes, skin and strength of the organs?

Change the building blocks that you choose to take in. Literally improve the food you eat. There?s an old saying that goes ?There was no hamburger in the garden of Eden?. Religion aside, when your body starts getting the food it wants and needs, it will start to desire healthy foods. Try it; you?ll literally make new food choices.

Due to the common diet, most people?s bodies are full of bacteria; these bacteria are what are responsible for cravings for terrible food. It?s not the built in mechanism of the body to crave these substances, it?s the bacteria! No one smokes a cigarette for the first time and says ?Oh boy, this tastes great!? Over time, the body learns to adapt to the poisons put in.

As you give your body more and more wholesome food and treat yourself with respect, you will naturally crave better and better food. There are plenty of delicious recipes around, recipes that will leave you with energy for hours rather than tired and bloated. It?s just that very few people know about them.

Eating natural food will also return your body to a more wholesome weight. Have you ever had the case of eating a big meal and immediately afterwards having to go and raid the cupboard? Why is that? The brain has a built in survival mechanism that when it senses the body is lacking nutrients, it tells us to get hungry. That is the sense of hunger is the body telling us it needs nutrients. If you suffer from the problem of being frequently hungry, it?s because the hunger mechanism is literally turned on all the time, the body is in a constant state of asking for nutrients. Due to our poor diets and low nutrients in most of our foods now, many people find themselves living in a case of constant hunger.

Ideally, you should invest in a ?juicer?. A juicer takes all the nutrients in food and releases it for the body to absorb readily and quickly. A glass of vegetable juice is more filling than an entire pizza because of the concentrated amount of nutrients.

About the Author

Getting Your Child To Eat Vegetables

2009-02-10T23:41:00.001+07:00

Many parents strive to ensure that their children eat vegetables. Some meet with complete success, others with very little success. Veggies contain many vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients that a body needs to main good health and energy. They help protect against the effect of aging and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

If you want your child to eat vegetables, improve your own attitude towards eating them. Early in age, child tends to mimic either or both parents for almost everything. If you as a parent dislike any particular vegetable, your child will do the same.

How you eat and what you eat affects your child directly. If you want your child to eat something that you dislike, you have to make an attempt to eat it first and then encourage your child to try a spoonful or plateful of it. It is not easy to get children to like any new food the first time. Keep reintroducing them from time to time.

Some tricks of trade that you can try to get your child to eat vegetables.

- Blend vegetables in a blender and add them to spaghetti sauce or liven up any non-veg dish.

- Keep a plateful of green salad, either in raw or grated form. You can toss up a salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, onion, and radish and so on. You can have salads either at mealtime or in between meals, as a snack.

- While making sandwiches for lunch, add lettuce, tomato slice or carrots in between. Chicken, tuna or pasta salads taste great with dash of vegetables in it.

- If your child thrives on noodles, add boiled or lightly steamed vegetables to it.

- While making pizza, add chopped broccoli, spinach, etc in addition to other toppings.

- Vegetables with a dash of melted cheese added to soups changes the flavor altogether.

Kevin Pederson manages websites on Nutrition, Diet and Health

Healthy food promotes good health and unhealthy food habits lead to a diseased body. Healthy Food contains vital nutrients that aid our body?s metabolic function.

Weight Loss Good Health and Fibre

2009-02-10T23:38:00.000+07:00

What Is Fibre?

Fibre is the part of the plant that we eat and cannot digest. But while it is still in our body it can do a great deal of good for us.

There Are Two Kinds of Fibre

? Soluble Fibre
? Insoluble Fibre

Soluble Fibre is the kind of fibre that dissolves in water. You can get soluble fibre from eating fruit. Especially good is when eating an apple, don?t peel it (wash it well) but in the skin is where the fibre is hiding.

Insoluble Fibre does not dissolve in water. It is found in most vegetables and grains.

What Foods Contain Fibre?

Soluble Fibre is found in:

? Beans (they have both kinds of fibre)
? Oatmeal and Oat Bran
? Some Fruits, eg Apples, Mangoes, Plums, Kiwi, Pears, most of the berry fruits, Peaches, Citrus Fruits, Dried Fruit and some Vegetables such as Dried Peas, Beans and Lentils.

Insoluble Fibre is found in:

? Whole Grains
? Pasta
? Bran
? Brown Rice
? Seeds
? Beans
? Vegetables eg Carrots and Celery

How Much Fibre Do We Need?

As Fibre is not considered a Nutrient (Like Vitamins, Minerals, Proteins, Fats) there is no Recommended Daily Average. But some Health Care Experts have said that we need 7.5 ozs or 20 ? 35 grams per day.

If you are not used to having a High Fibre Diet, it would be better to start increasing your Daily Intake of Fibre gradually over several weeks. Otherwise, if you increase your Fibre Intake too quickly, you may suffer with stomach cramps and discomfort.

What Are The Advantages Of Having Fibre In Your Diet?

Eating a diet that contains a lot of Fibre has been shown to lower Blood Cholesterol Levels. So lower Cholesterol Levels can help prevent Heart Disease. It can also prevent Constipation and slow down the whole Digestive System. Fibre can also help us to eat less, so we lose weight.

Our bodies need Roughage to help with our Digestive Processes. The bulky substance cleans the Colon as it makes its way through our Digestive Tract.

Studies have shown that large amounts of Fibre in the Diet can help regulate Blood Glucose and Insulin

Some Ways To Get More Fibre

? Have more Whole Grains. Wholemeal Bread, Cooked Brown Rice,
? For Breakfast. Raisin Bran, Cooked Oatmeal.
? Eat Beans several times a week.
? Have several servings of Fruit every day.
? The same with Vegetables. Have a variety of Vegetables every day.

If you increase your Fibre Intake, it can only be to the benefit of your Health and Well-being.

This article was written by Eva Moffat a disabled 66 year old woman, living in Manchester, England. Feel free to use this article on your website, or in your E-Zine or Newsletter. But please leave this Resource Box intact. For more health related articles like this one, you can see them on my website http://www.weight-loss-4-you.com or E-Mail me on eva.moffat@onetel.net.

Detox Diets

2009-02-10T23:35:00.001+07:00

Detox Diets are the last craze in dieting, that?s why the number of people searching for detox diets is growing everyday.

You may have heard about toxins, detoxification, cleansing, purifying ? they are all related to detox diets.

Toxins are harmful chemicals affecting your body. They are all around you (in your food, water, air) and inside you (as waste products of metabolism). Your body eliminates most toxins and the rest are stored within body fat.

These stored toxins combined with stress can affect your health in very unpleasant ways:

- weight gain
- headaches
- feelings of fatigue and weakness
- heartburn
- sore muscles and skin
- joint pains

These symptoms will fade when you start detox. Well, you may feel some discomfort in the very first days, but that is a normal body reaction.

You may feel headache or sore muscles, but that is because the toxins are released faster then your body can eliminate them. These symptoms will not occur again if you detox regularly.

Detox and Weight Loss

Detoxification is the process of releasing and expelling the stored toxins through the elimination organs of your body - the intestines, liver, lungs, kidneys and skin.

Detox Diets are dietary nutritious plans that use detoxification, which helps you lose weight by cleansing out your body and improving your metabolism.

Detox and Disease Prevention

Detox Diets are recommended for improving resistance to disease, mental state, digestion, strengthens the organs involved in detox.

Detox Diets can help prevent serious diseases such as cancer, ADD, ADHD, chronic fatigue syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivities, as well as treat heart disease, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease.

Detox Foods

Detox Diets recommend consumption of foods that are beneficial for your health and essential to weight loss - organic foods, fruits and vegetables.

You should drink purified water and cut back on processed foods, as well as give up alcohol and smoking.

You should know?

Detox Diets are quite restrictive and once you start a detox diet, you should follow it strictly. Detox Diets are safe, but you should consult your doctor before starting.

Types of Detox Diets

+ Fasting - drinking only water, juices or broths, or eating one kind of food for a certain period of time. Your body starts burning fat for energy.

+ Nutritional supplements ? intake of nutritious powders, vitamins and packaged protein snacks.

+ Hydrotherapy - detoxifying through your skin pores by taking special baths.

+ Specific detox diets - last between 7 and 30 days; there are quick detox diets for one and three days, and long detox diets for 8 weeks.

Find more information for Detox Diets at http://www.weight-loss-advisor.com/blog Read about author?s experience with 1 week detox diet at http://www.weight-loss-advisor.com/blog/2006/04/04/my-1st-day-of-the-1-week-detox-diet/ Experience the amazing health benefits of detox diets now!

Not all Fats are Bad

2009-02-10T23:31:00.000+07:00

Fats have been unfairly lumped together as being all bad for too long. Fat doesn't necessarily cause disease, and can actually cause a role in its prevention. The truth is that some fats are very bad for us and some fats are actually very good for us.

Time has shown us that diets that restrict all fats fail in terms of weight loss. Since the end of World War II, Americans have been told that they need to restrict saturated fat in their diets. So we switched to margarine from butter, and did what we could to restrict fat. We have been constantly told that the reason for our health problems is that we still eat too much fat, especially saturated fats.

Since Americans have been told to eat a low fat diet to lose weight, the results are that nearly two thirds of adult Americans are now classified as overweight and more children are overweight now than ever before. Obviously something is wrong. That is because we need special kinds of fats in our diets that we are not getting.

If you are like me, you grew up being told that vegetable oils were the good oils and saturated fats were the bad ones. Now we are finding out that it is just the opposite. Diets that are moderate to high in "good" saturated fats and oils such as coconut oil and olive oil are actually very good for us. They raise good cholesterol levels and lower bad cholesterol, blood glucose and blood pressure. As a matter of fact, people who started adding at least 4 tablespoons of coconut oil to their diets every day, have found that they can now lose weight when they could not before on a fat restricted diet. Sometimes the addition of these oils even helps with their health problems.

It turns out that the bad guys are polyunsaturated oils, which carry toxic fatty acids (long chain fatty acids or LCT's). These LCT's tend to produce fat in the body. Polyunsaturated oils are the vegetable oils we commonly see in the grocery store, such as soy, corn, cottonseed, rapeseed and safflower.

We have been told that they lower cholesterol, but they way that they do is not healthy, as it ends up collecting in the liver. These oils are easily oxidized and damaged by free radicals. When cooked they become rancid in a few hours, even in the refrigerator. This causes damage to our body at a cellular level, the end results showing up as problems like diabetes, cancer, hypothyroidism and heart disease. And if that is not enough, these oils help us to get fat, lower the metabolic rate in our bodies, help suppress the thyroid function and cause our skin to age quicker.

Trans-fat is one of the worst bad guys. Trans-fatty acids often appear on ingredient labels as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. It is what they do to vegetable oils to make them into hard fats such as margarine and vegetable shortening. It is used in the prepared food industry in baked goods like cookies, crackers, and most supermarket peanut butter to prolong the shelf life. These bad fats are used almost exclusively in fast foods that are fried. When heated and eaten, they turn into something like poison in your system, because your body can not process this kind of chemically made fat. Trans-fats not only increase levels of bad cholesterol, but they will decrease levels of good cholesterol in the blood stream and trans-fatty acids have been linked to heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Fats such as margarine and shortening should be totally avoided, as well as foods items that contain them.

The United States FDA is finally catching up to this truth, and by January 2006 they will be requiring food products to label the amount of trans-fat they have in them.) What is frightening is that trans-fats are found in over 40% of the products on our supermarket shelves.

The fatty acid chains in coconut and olive oil are medium-chain fatty acids (MCT's) and they promote weight loss by increasing the body's metabolism to create energy. Coconut oil has become popular lately, because it has been discovered that coconut oil is nature's richest source of MTC's. If you decide to add coconut oil to your diet, it is recommended that you purchase virgin coconut oil (VCO), usually found in health food stores, because it from the best part of the coconut and has not been chemically bleached and heat processed. It is better for cooking than olive oil, because olive oil can be damaged by the heat of cooking, making it similar to the other vegetable oils in the body when cooked.

Even saturated fat from animals is not as bad as it once was thought to be, especially if it is from organically raised animals (free range and grass fed). Organic butter has a very high conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content, which helps us lose weight and gain muscle. But non-organic meats may still be dangerous because of the way the animals were raised or fed. Most grocery store meats are filled with hormones, pesticides, medicines and unhealthy fat that gets transferred to us when we eat it.

Organic grass fed and free range meat and eggs avoid these problems, and give us a much healthier source of protein and saturated fat. Organic saturated fats and oils are actually good for you and should be eaten daily. The body needs these fats for healthy functioning.

So, forget the guilt and fry up that range-fed chicken in some coconut oil and enjoy!

By Dianne Ronnow ? 2006 Mohave Publishing. All rights reserved. The rise in obesity in America has reached epidemic proportions. If you need some extra help changing your diet to promote healthy weight loss, check out my site at http://coconut-oil-diet.com today! And for information about a new safe and very effective diet patch that is safely helping thousands of people lose weight, go to http://powerdietpatch.com now! This article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and the resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

PhytoNutrients

2009-02-10T23:30:00.000+07:00

We have all heard that it is important to eat fruits and vegetables everyday. Some of us actually do eat the minimum recommended servings. However science has discovered that consuming increased amounts can provide even greater health benefits.

The value of fruits and vegetables goes beyond that of the vitamins and minerals they contain. The discovery of a class of micronutrients (phytonutrients) is largely why major health agencies recommend a minimum of five different fruits and vegetables daily. Phytonutrients are not essential for life, but they appear to be essential for OPTIMAL HEALTH and LONGEVITY.

Phytochemicals are compounds that exist in plants to protect them from the sunlight and affect human beings and other mammals in a number of beneficial ways. The more Phytochemicals you add to your diet, the greater the degree of health protection you can enjoy. People who eat large quantities of fruits and vegetables have reduced risks of cancer. A lifelong diet of phytochemicals plays an important role in health and longevity.

CRUCIFERUS VEGETABLES

When it comes to fighting cancer, cruciferous vegetables may be the real champs. These plant micronutrients work by speeding up the production of enzymes, especially in the liver, with which our bodies convert toxic, mutagenic (cancer causing) chemicals into less harmful substances. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute proclaimed that cruciferous vegetables substantially lowered the risk of prostate cancer in men. Various studies also suggest a protective role in cervical, uterine and breast cancers in women.

It is important to know which fruits and vegetables contain these important phytochemicals. The National Cancer Institute recognizes the following twelve (12) fruits and vegetables important for their phytonutrient content: pineapple, papaya, turnips, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, garlic, and onions.

Phytochemicals concentrated or prepared in such a way as to likely have therapeutic effects are generally referred to as ?nutraceuticals?. According to one source, twenty (20) heads of cabbage, juiced and dehydrated, will fit into 0ne (1) capsule of cabbage powder.

It is difficult for most adults to eat a variety of all twelve (12) fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. What about your children? Every parent knows how difficult it can be to get children to eat the right foods that support healthy growth. This requirement becomes especially difficult when it comes to making sure they snack on nutritious foods, instead of high calorie sweets and other ?junk? foods.

A Texas based company has recently developed an innovative product for children. Delicious, chewy pectin ?gummi-bears? that contain green tea, fruits and vegetables, the ideal snack to help children stay healthy and grow properly.

To learn more about the benefits of phytonutrients go to http://www.glycoscience.org. For information on the children?s supplement, e-mail Dr. Enders at dr.dkenders@sbcglobal.net, with ?gummi-bears? in subject line.

Dr. David K. Enders is a 1973 graduate of the Palmer College of Chiropractic. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force as a medic before entering college. Dr. Enders has studied nutrition for 30 years and has had several articles on nutrition published in professional journals. After completing a Clinical Teaching Residency at Palmer College of Chiropractic he moved to the Chicago area, where he now provides nutritional counseling. His web site is: http://www.OptimalHealth.TopChiro.com

Mother Was Right

2009-02-10T23:28:00.000+07:00

Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables. It is almost impossible to get too much of these foods. They are full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients, as well as high in complex carbohydrates. And fruits and vegetables are an important source of fiber, as well. Even the much maligned potato, eaten baked with the skin on, is full of vitamins C and B6, potassium, and nearly 5 grams of fiber!

When eaten raw, the enzymes that most vegetables and fruits contain help the body process foods better. Enzymes are an essential part of our diet, and if it is not found in food, the body must draw from its store of energy to produce enzymes for digestion, instead of other important jobs, such as fighting disease.

Phytochemicals are nutritional substances that recently have been in the news frequently. These are naturally occurring chemicals in plants that are thought to possess disease-fighting properties and play a potentially important role in fighting cancer and heart disease. Recent research demonstrates that they stimulate enzymes that breakdown carcinogens into harmless substances, and appear to be particularly protective against stomach and intestinal cancers.

Most whole foods contain phytochemicals, including whole grains, beans and herbs. Garlic and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, are some of the richest sources of phytonutrients, as well as fruits like blueberries, cherries and apples.

If you have hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid), go easy on the raw cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts and rutabagas.) They are believed by some to help depress the thyroid function when eaten raw. But don?t avoid these important vegetables, just be sure to cook them. On the other hand, if you are suffering from hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid), you should eat plenty of raw cruciferous vegetables.

Many studies have shown that increasing your vegetable and fruit intake may dramatically reduce or even prevent other chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. Some scientists are now recommending up to nine servings a day of fruits and vegetables.

To get the most from your diet, try to eat a variety of different fruits and vegetables. Choose leafy greens often, lots of berries, and try to eat as many colors as you can, since every color of fruit or vegetable will give you different benefits.

The Japanese have a tradition of choosing foods with five different colors and flavors for their meals. The five colors they include are yellow, black, white, green, and red. The five flavors included are sweet, spicy, salty, bitter and sour. Take an example from the Japanese and think variety. Be daring-- try out new foods and food combinations.

This is an excerpt from the ebook The Enzyme Health Diet Plan by Dianne Ronnow. Copyright ? 2005 by Mohave Publishing. All rights reserved. The Enzyme Health Diet Plan is a FREE e-book that can be found on the Enzyme Health website at Enzyme-Health.com.

Choosing Fruits and Vegetables For A Healthy Diet

2009-02-10T23:26:00.001+07:00

The new food guidelines issued by the United States government recommend that all Americans eat about nine servings of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables each and every day. This is important to provide your body with the minimal levels of essential nutrients and antioxidants needed by each and every cell in your body to support optimal health. When you first hear that number, it may seem like a lot, but it is actually much easier than you think to fit that many servings of fruits and vegetables into your healthy diet plan. Shelves of the grocery stores are bursting with fresh fruits and vegetables. Uncooked, these provide essential nutrients, fiber and even a portion of the water you need every day of your life. In addition, vegetables and fruits are some of the least expensive, most nutrient rich, foods in the supermarket. With all these fruits and vegetables to choose from, it is very easy to make these nutritious, delicious foods part of your daily meals and snacks.

Adding nine servings of fruits and vegetables to your healthy diet plan is not as difficult as it sounds. Seek a variety of foods; choose foods with different colors because those colors are indicators of different nutrients inside the cells of the food. As a general guideline, the nine servings come out to two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day. Most people who add this to their diet quickly find that they no longer have cravings during the day and save money on other snack foods which typically provide no nourishment of any kind. So not only do you improve your diet, you can save money and experience the health benefits of a diet, high in whole foods and low in sodium, fat, simple carbs and preservatives.

As your wean yourself from a life of snack foods to better foods, you may experience some changes as your body uses the improved fiber and higher levels of nutrients to deal with your biological to do list. This is normal so keep at it and eventually you should experience more energy, better sleep and a variety of other benefits reported by people who share a better diet.

When shopping for fruits and vegetables, choose a variety of different colors. This is for more than purely aesthetic reasons. Different color fruits and vegetables have different types of nutrients, and choosing a variety of colors will help ensure you get all the vitamins and minerals you need each and every day.

New recipes can also provide you the important opportunity to try out some fruits and vegetables you have never tried before. Be sure that you're cooking things lightly to preserve as many of the essential nutrients as possible. Try to avoid putting any of your food through the microwave because the penetrating radiation heats water, sugar and fat molecules inside the food as well as on the surface and will damage even more of the essential nutrients than conventional cooking practices.

Many people mistakenly believe they do not need to eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day if they just take a vitamin supplement. Nothing could be further from the truth. Supplementation should be a means to supplement, not substitute, the benefits of a healthy diet. Fruits and vegetables contain far more than micronutrients. They also contain the more complex phytochemicals, phytosterols and essential fiber that you need to support proper cell function and optimal health.

While fresh fruits and vegetables are not the only component of a health diet, they are an essential one and are typically left out of the Standard American Diet (which is S.A.D.). Choose optimal health and choose a healthy diet. By adding fresh, raw fruits and vegetables to your daily diet, you too will discover the benefits that others do when they choose a healthy diet.

Dave Saunders is a professional lecturer, and certified nutritional educator. He enjoys creating interconnections through his writings and lectures to help others create context and see new discoveries and technologies in more a practical light. You can find out more about new discoveries how to benefit from a Healthy Diet at http://www.glycoboy.com

The 12 Most PesticideRidden Fruits and Veggies

2009-02-10T23:25:00.001+07:00

I will never forget the day my mom told me to wash strawberries. As a typical inquisitive 4 year old, I asked, 'Why?' Because fruit pickers pick their nose was her response. I then washed them - sometimes.

Now as a 31 year old, I buy organic produce which must mean it is free from boogers and by all means, it best be free from pesticides. But as a med student with a wife, two kids and a mortgage, the wallet feels stress when buying organic produce.

Demand has gone up for organic products, especially in Seattle, which has lowered the cost some; but not enough during the rough financial times.

So I find myself wondering which of the non-organic veggies and fruits are the safest to eat? A watermelon looks tough - it has a big thick skin. A juicy thin-skinned peach must be really tasty to bugs so the growers must spray the heck out of it.

This rationale obviously is not fool-proof and did not put me at ease when buying non-organic produce.

What to do? I enrolled in med school, got to the second year nutrition course and found out which are the twelve most pesticide ridden fruits and vegetables. Good plan, Ben. $50,000 later I now know which twelve they are.

Being strapped on cash again, I needed to refresh my memory. In doing so, I thought I may as well benefit the public as well. This information is not new but it definitely may be new to you.

So which are the most toxic? This information is gathered from FoodNews and they gathered the information from the Environmental Working Group

Most Popular Fruits and Vegetables with highest pesticides

Apples
Bell Peppers
Celery
Cherries
Grapes (imported)
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Red Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries

So my rationale of thin-skinned produce was not all bad. I would have never guessed potatoes though.

So what to do? Not eat these sprayed fruits and veggies? Pretty much. Definitely do not feed them to your children. The body mass of a child is much less than a fully grown adult. Thus, it does not take many non-organic strawberries to inflict potential harm on a little one. The best method is to buy these twelve organically. If you cannot, then wash them with the pesticide-removing soaps they sell in good stores. There will still be poisons harbored in the produce but diminished at least. You can also peel apples and other produce with skins but then you lose nutrients along with some pesticides. So you may as well then go eat some plastic as it is toxic and has no nutrient value. Organic is the best bet.

Spend your tight dollars on buying these twelve fruits and vegetables organically - or keep them away from your kids.

Now that you've purchased expensive organic strawberries, what are the safest non-organic fruits and vegetables?

Most Popular Fruits and Vegetables with lowest pesticides:

Asparagus
Avocados
Bananas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Corn (sweet)
Kiwis
Onions
Mangoes
Papaya
Pineapples
Peas (sweet)

To save you writing all this down, I have provided the option for you to view the FoodNews Wallet Guide. Cut out the guide and stick it in your wallet. Go shopping without having to guess.

For those of you who want to know the details of the Environmental Working Group's report on Organophosphates Insecticides in Children's Food, you may view it.

Enjoy worry-free shopping. If there is anything that is on your mind, let me know. Ill do my best to anwer your health questions.

In health, Ben

Benjamin Lynch has a BS degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Washington. Currently, he is obtaining his doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University. His online health site, HealthE Goods, http://www.healthegoods.com offers a free health information service where one may ask specific health questions. We provide physician-grade non-prescription natural health products. Wholesale spa products are available to all that qualify. Do visit our Healthy Lifestyle and Wellness Blog and submit your health question. Our blog can be found here: http://www.healthegoods.com/blog.html We are here to help serve the public with proper health information and effective products.

Steam Your Veggies

2009-02-10T23:23:00.001+07:00

Eating certain vegetables is very good for you. As a matter of fact, having five to nine daily servings of bright red, yellow and green vegetables is one of the healthiest things you can do.

But how should you fix them? For many (like dark green leafy veggies), it?s preferable to eat them raw. However, when you?re cooking them, steaming veggies can best preserve their nutrients, as well as their natural flavor, color and texture. Plus, steaming requires no added fat and is easy to do - once you get the knack of it.

Start with about an inch of pure water in a large pot or steamer. If you?re not sure about the quality of your tap water, consider using purified or bottled water instead.

Bring the water to a rolling boil so the vegetables will cook fast and absorb less water. As it comes to a boil, cut and trim your veggies just before cooking to prevent dehydration and oxidation. Slice thinly for quicker more even cooking and be sure to include the stems of things like broccoli and cauliflower whenever possible. If you?re cooking a mixture, put the firmer ones in first, before adding more tender varieties. Add greens like spinach last, since they cook very fast.

Don?t overcook. Steamed veggies should be a little crispy, but tender enough to eat. You can usually tell they?re done by poking with a fork to see if they?re chewable. Vegetables cut thin will only take a few minutes. Greens cook fastest, broccoli and green beans take a little longer and roots, like carrot chunks, may need 12-20 minutes or more.

A little reduced sodium soy sauce, lemon juice, herbs or onion and garlic added to the water can provide extra flavor. To avoid overcooking, use a timer so you can see how long it takes. When done, be sure to serve them right away.

You can learn to cook vegetables healthfully and even learn to love them that way (if you don?t already). Just like with everything else, practice makes perfect.

Got Sprouts?

2009-02-10T22:30:00.001+07:00

They're not only good for you, but they taste good, too. Sprouts are also a great source of vitamins, fiber, protein, anti-oxidants, and enzymes. A sprout is produced when a seed starts growing into a vegetable. Sprouts can grow from the seeds of vegetables, from grains such as buckwheat, and from beans. While Mung beans are perhaps the most common source of sprouts, you can also obtain good results from lentils, soybeans and chickpeas just to name a few.

Sprouts can be grown almost anywhere and the best part is you only need a few basic supplies to get started. By following a few simple steps, you can receive a continual supply of nutritious sprouts.

While there are several commercial products available to cultivate sprouts, here are some of the easiest methods to help you get started.

- Growing Sprouts in Flower Pots -

1. Start with a clean clay or plastic flower pot. Make sure there is a hole in the bottom of the pot to ensure good drainage. Then place a piece of cheesecloth or muslin in the bottom of the pot over the hole so that the seeds/beans cannot fall out.

2. Next, soak the seeds or beans overnight and then put them in the pot. Remove any that are broken or damaged. Cover the plant pot with a dish.

3. Once a day, hold the pot under running water for a few minutes. This is to soak the seeds/beans thoroughly.

4. Once the sprouts begin to show, remove the dish and cover the pot with a piece of clear plastic wrap to let in the light. Place the sprouting pot near a window that allows daylight but is not in direct sunlight.

- Growing the Sprouts in Trays -

1. Soak the seeds or beans overnight. Remove any that are broken or damaged before you begin the sprouting process.

2. Select a low, flat dish (like a pie plate) or tray. You can purchase growing trays wherever planting supplies are sold.

3. Next, spread out a 2-inch layer of soil and then sprinkle the soaked seeds or beans on top of the soil.

4. Cover the seeds/beans with four layers of damp newspaper.

5. Cover the top of the tray with clear plastic wrap.

6. When the sprouts start to lift the plastic cover, (usually about three days) remove the newspaper.

7. Place the tray in a window so that the light can turn the sprouts green. You will need a space to place the sprouting tray that receives daylight but is not in direct sunlight.

8. Because the thin layer of soil dries out quickly, water twice each day.

9. After about 8-10 days, you will have sprouts tall enough to harvest.

- Growing Sprouts in a Jar -

1. Soak the seeds, grains, or beans in lukewarm water overnight in a wide-mouth glass jar. Remove any that are broken or damaged before you begin the sprouting process. (Sprouting increases the seed volume. 4-tablespoons will be sufficient for a quart size container.)

2. In the morning, pour off the water in the jar and rinse the seeds/beans thoroughly.

3. Place a piece of cheesecloth or muslin over the mouth of the jar. Use a rubber band to hold the material securely in place. This makes rinsing easier.

4. To keep the sprouts constantly damp, repeat the rinsing 2-3 times a day. Remember to drain any excess water because the sprouts should not stand in water.

5. Keep the jar away from the light for the first few days.

6. When the seeds/beans begin to sprout, (usually about the forth day) move the jar into the light to activate the chlorophyll and turn the sprouts green.

- Harvesting and Storing the Sprouts -

Newly germinated grain, seed, and sprouts, increase in food value in the very first period of growth. Grains should be harvested and eaten from when they are six days old until they are 4-5 inches tall. To harvest, just take your kitchen scissors and cut what you need.

Sprouts from beans, peas, etc., are ready earlier and can be eaten when they are 3-6 days old, depending on the type of sprout. For spouts grown in no soil or in seed trays, you can harvest the green grass when it starts to grow. Sprouts, from grain sown in jars, are ready sooner and are edible even before they turn green. Seeds sown in soil take a little longer.

If necessary, wash the sprouts thoroughly to remove the seed coat. Sprouts need to be stored in the refrigerator once they are ready to eat. Put the sprouts in tight sealing bags, and they will remain flavorful and crisp for one to two weeks. Rinsing the sprouts daily under cold water can extend their life.

Sprouts may be frozen by blanching them over steam for three minutes and then cooling them in ice water. Drain them and pack into freezer containers.

By growing your own sprouts, you will save yourself money because it is less expensive to buy sprout seeds and grow and harvest the sprouts yourself than it is to buy the sprouts from a market. Sprouting at home takes only a few minutes a day, and can produce a good part of your daily requirements of the nutrients you need from fresh produce. The hassles are minor, the costs are low, and the freshness is wonderful.

Pia Nutro operates http://www.forvegetables.com She has studied nutrition and understands the importance of vegetables in the diet. Visit http://www.forvegetables.com often for up to date information on vegetables.

Vegetable of the Month Club

2009-02-10T00:11:00.001+07:00

We should eat more vegetables. But knowing doesn't translate into doing.

So let's keep it simple. How can we get more of those wonderful veggies into our wonderful bodies?

Adopt a vegetable of the week or month. Experts say it take us that long to form a habit.

Start with an easy vegetable, say the carrot.

Consider the carrot's statistics: Carrots are crunchy like potato chips, but without the salt. And you definitely can't inhale an entire bag of carrots like you can with chips because carrots fill you up much sooner! That's a good thing, right?

Next time you're at the grocery store, buy a bag of carrots. Try the bite-size baby ones. No prep time!

When you get home, divide the big bag into smaller, sandwich-size bags and put them in the refrigerator. Take one with you to work each day. Need a snack? Reach for a carrot bag.

Then progress to other veggies--cucumbers, spinach, cauliflower.

Sure, you'll have to get creative with some of them. A little dip goes a long way toward making some vegetables more palatable.

Got a salad shooter? Haul it out, dust it off, and run broccoli, zucchini, and spinach through it. Any vegetable will do. A food processor works, too, just put the appliance in a spot where you can use it easily on a regular basis.

Once you've shredded or julienned your vegetables, add a couple spoonfuls of your favorite dressing and you've got a tasty salad. Throw in some mandarin oranges or a diced apple for a little sweetness and zip. Chopped nuts or sunflower seeds add extra flavor.

Be sure not to go overboard with the salad dressing. A couple spoonfuls should coat all of your vegetables.

Eat a vegetable salad every day for a month and see how good you feel!

Try some shredded veggies in a sandwich and decrease the amount of meat.

Do you need to consume the vegetables in their raw state? No, not at all. Cooking enhances the nutrition of many vegetables, including carrots, and often aids digestion.

So why not cook up a delicious, nutritious pot of vegetable soup. Great news for the culinary-challenged: Making delicious vegetable soup doesn't require Iron Chef status. Just add the vegetables of your choice, some seasoning, and water, then let it simmer.

Traditional soup vegetables include onions, carrots, and potatoes, but experiment with different, more exotic varieties.

Put the soup in a crock pot or slow cooker in the morning and come home to a delicious supper.

Add a small amount of beef or chicken for flavor if you prefer, maybe an ounce or two.

Leftovers make a quick, nutritious lunch the day next. Pack in a thermos to take with you and skip the cholesterol burger and fat fries.

Start your own Veggie of the Month Club. It'll be a healthy tradition!

Looking for diet and weight loss tips? Kathy Ferneau has created an excellent resource for information on diets, healthy eating, and exercise. Click here: http://www.lose-weight-diets.com

How To Drop Your Weight and Become Healthier Using These 7 Everyday Life Tips

2009-02-10T00:10:00.000+07:00

These days more and more people are getting intellectual instead of physical jobs. Sitting in the office chairs all-day long has become a norm for many of us. Stress, busyness, and rush make us forget about regular food and stuff our stomachs with cheeseburgers and sodas, which don?t do anything good for our bodies.

As a result of such crazy life rhythm, we rarely find time for exercises, gyms or balanced nutrition. As a matter of fact, it?s one of the reasons why there are now more that 60% of U.S citizens that have overweight. However, it is possible to change your lifestyle and lose your weight if you are willing to.

These 7 day-to-day life tips provided below will help you to drop your extra pounds, become more energetic and healthier.

Drink More Water

Our bodies need a lot of water. Water removes waste from our organisms and carries various nutrients into all our organs and cells. Your body also loses water by using it for various ways. For this reason you have to replace it and drink water more often than you are used to.

Start your day with a glass of water in the morning. Drink a glass of water before any meal. Take a bottle of water with you when you go to work. Your body needs approximately 3-5 liters of water during one day. So don?t hesitate to drink plenty of water wherever and whenever you can.

Eat Fruits and Drink Fruit Juices

Eating fruits and juices helps you eliminate toxins from your body. Eating a variety of fruits also helps you get enough fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. That?s why you should eat fresh fruits and drink natural fruit juices as often as possible.

Fruit juices from stores are often sweetened. If you want to drink juices, make fresh juices yourself. If you think it takes too much of the time, then look for juices with labels that say ?100% fruit juice?. These are much healthier for your body as long as they contain much more vitamins.

Eat Lots of Vegetables and Vegetable Salads

When it comes to losing extra pounds, vegetables are a great choice. They are natural and contain different vitamins, minerals and tons of other useful chemicals known to provide benefits for your body. Vegetables are low in fat and calories, they help control blood glucose levels, reduce blood cholesterol and reduce the risk of colon and other cancers. All these features also help control your weight effectively.

If you feel that eating vegetables alone isn?t great choice for you, then make some salads. Mixing vegetables together gives you even more different vitamins and health benefits. There are tons of tasty, healthy salad recipes on the internet. You can also use you imagination to make some great salads.

Eat Only When You Are Hungry

How many times you?ve been to a party where you saw lots of different and tasty looking meals, which you were offered to try.

Don?t eat, because you are offered to. Eat only when you want to.

Many people also like snacking. In between meals or when have nothing to do. Quit snacking. Most snacks contain a lot of fat and calories. Replace your usual snacks with vegetables or fruits. These are healthy to your body and you?ll never get fatter, only thinner.

Carry Healthy Food with You

Many of us work busy office jobs and don?t have time to eat regularly. In this case, bring your own made food with you. Instead of bringing sandwiches with meat, take vegetable salads, carrots, chicken salads. Any low fat food will do. This way, you won?t have to wait for a break to fill your stomach. You?ll be able to have fixed times when eating food.

It?s also important to try to eat about 5 times a day, rather than 3 or 2. Eat in smaller quantities, but more often. This helps you to increase your metabolism.

Work Out When You Can

Working out in a gym is not only a great way to grow some muscles, but also to drop a few pounds. Exercising helps you burn your calories instead of storing them in your body as fat. Our bodies were made to be active, so exercising slowly and easily can actually help you get more energy and make you feel much better.

At the end of the week, try to lose all the stress and burn your calories in a gym or having some kind of physical activity at home. If you have time, then try to do easy exercises everyday.

Don?t Lie Down or Sit When You Can Move

Many of us like to watch TV lying on a couch or sitting in a comfortable chair. Of course, when you come home after hard working day, you?re tired, and all you can think of, is a couch and a remote in your hand. But such laziness won?t help you lose weight. Contrarily, it will make you grow some more pounds.

So don?t lie or sit, when you can walk and move. Instead of staring at TV, like a goofy, go ahead and work out in your garden for example, clean your garage, fix your car, go to walk in park or beach. Breathe fresh air and move more often. Not only does it help to reduce stress after work, but also ups your mood and makes you more energetic.

In Conclusion

Remember that all these tips will help you to lose weight, but only if you are determined and are ready to devote some of your time. Don?t expect to slim down 4 sizes after eating 5 carrots and drinking orange juice.

Your body, just like many things in this world, needs time. So be patient. And if you will honestly use at least some of these tips, you are going to change your lifestyle, which in the end will lead you to a thinner and healthier body.

Monty Lee is dedicated to helping people lose weight by providing quality and natural products. Visit http://www.body-health-online.com for more information.

A Free Negative Calorie Diet

2009-02-06T12:02:00.000+07:00

Here is a free negative calorie diet that you can use in the way that fit you best. It is not recommended to eat negative calorie diet food only, but should be used together with a regular weight loss diet. This diet can help you when your food cravings are especially high.

Which foods are we talking about?

Not everybody knows about this food, therefore I will explain exactly what this diet consist of and what it really does to your body. Many people think that this is food which has less than 0 calories, but this is not right because, all food has some calories even if it's just a bit. So what negative calories refers to is the net result of eating certain kinds of food: by eating this food your body will burn more calories than the calories contained in the food you ate. Let's say that you eat an orange containing 50 calories. Since oranges are negative calorie food, your body will burn more than the 50 calories the orange contained. How much more calories it will burn varies from individual to individual. Some people would burn 1.5 times as much as the calories contained in the orange. In this case the net result would be that your body will burn 25 calories per orange you eat, just by doing nothing but eating them.

To find out how many calories You will burn, the only thing to do is to try it out. As I've said before, you should not diet with this foods all the time, but some days in between your ordinary weight loss diet and especially when you really have annoying food cravings, this can help you. You should also incorporate as much as possible of negative calorie foods in your regular diet and adjust the proportions of this food in accordance to what your situation is from day to day. Here are the foods:

Fruits

Mango
Lime
Lemon
Honey Dew Melon
Grapefruit
Cranberry
Cantaloupe
Blueberry
Apple
Watermelon
Strawberry
Rasberry
Pineapple
Peach
Orange

Vegetables

Garden Cress
Endive
Dandelion
Cucumber
Chili Peppers
Chicory
Celery
Celeriac or celery root
Cauliflower
Carrot
Broccoli
Beet
Asparagus
Zucchini
Turnip
Spinach
Radish
Papaya
Onion
Lettuce
Green Cabbage
Green Beans
Garlic

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet marketer. He runs the website 11-Weight-Loss.net. Terje enjoys to give advice and help people with negative calorie diet food and other weight loss diets

Life Span Show Stopper

2009-02-05T14:05:00.001+07:00

If you take 100 Americans and put them in a large room, it is likely that approximately 33 of them have high blood pressure.

Blood pressure is a measurement of the force of blood flow against the walls of your arteries. When blood pressure is taken, there are two numbers. The top number is the systolic pressure, which is a reading of the force the blood exerts on the arteries when the heart contracts. The bottom number is the diastolic pressure, which is the reading of the force of the blood between heartbeats, when it is at rest. A consistent reading over 140 systolic and 90 diastolic is considered high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke. It is a despicable adversary, working in silence to undermine our health and shorten our life span, oftentimes with no warning signs. Some of its acts of aggression include:

*Degeneration of blood vessels
*Thickening of the heart muscle
*Scarring and shrinking of the kidneys
*Damage to the retinas of the eyes
*Leaking, clotting, or bursting of blood vessels in your brain

Though some incidences of high blood pressure are hereditary, there are also controllable risk factors for high blood pressure:

*Diets high in fat
*Diets low in fruits and vegetables
*Not enough potassium and too much salt intake
*Inactive lifestyle - too much sitting around!
*Stress

Knowing that there are controllable risk factors means there are options for you to take advantage of to help prevent this killer from undermining your good health:

*Lower fat intake in the diet
*Load your plate with fruits and vegetables
*Get moving! Take a walk, turn up the radio and dance, go swimming
*Lower stress through relaxation methods that have proven effective: meditation, yoga, aromatherapy.

It is something that humans know how to do instinctively to keep themselves out of harm's way. We learn that if we touch a burning stove, we will get burned. We know that if we step in front of a moving vehicle, we may get very seriously injured. These are things that we know, and it wouldn't occur to us to do them anyway. So how do we get so far off track in our diet, eating things we know are not so good for us? Maybe it is because we can't actually see the damage we are doing, until the symptoms of damage come back as evidence. If we had a window we could see through into our bodies and could actually get a visual on the damage that the unhealthy things we eat does, maybe we would be very conscious of what we feed our bodies.

It is essential to good, vibrant health that we stick to the basics, what we know works: whole foods. This includes whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and healthy oils. Moderation in all things, the wise saying goes. So help yourself to a moderate amount of the good things to fuel your body and protect it.

Your body will work to be good to you if you are good to it!

Simple Tips for Good Health

2009-02-03T22:47:00.001+07:00

Lucy Denim writes part-time about nutrition and is in charge of the Health & Beauty department at DiscountSaver.net - http://www.discountsaver.net/coupons.asp?savediscount=healthbeauty

Healthy Ways to Have Fun This Summer

2009-02-03T20:24:00.001+07:00

Have a great time this summer!

Five Ways to Rise the Vegetable Consumption

2009-02-03T20:05:00.001+07:00

Keep your meat on your dinner plate no more than 3-ounces (about the size of a woman's palm) and make the vegetable portions at least twice the size of your meat portion.

If you use a sandwich for your lunch, make it half as usual and add a veggie salad to create a more satisfying, higher volume mid-day meal.

If you need a fast snack, build a sandwich that has more lettuce and tomato than meat. Be creative and try to eliminate meat and bred from your snacks.

If you are a pre-dinner muncher, try a plate of veggies before dinner to help curb your appetite.

Valerian D is a freelance writer specialized in health issues like obesity. This condition may shorten life expectancy

Vitamin C ? What Why and How to Include It in Your Diet

2009-02-03T12:52:00.000+07:00

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid is found in many of our ?every day? foods and is essential to keep our bodies running at an optimum.

Vitamin C has several key uses:

?It aids our bodies by helping form collagen which is an important protein that creates new tissue so that we can grow and/or repair any damage to our organs.

?It is also an antioxidant which means it blocks some of the damage that can be caused by free-radicals which can build up as a result of our bodies transforming food into energy.

The human body cannot produce vitamin C on its own; therefore it needs to be made a part of our daily diet.

Symptoms of a vitamin C deficiency include ?

-Anemia ( Vitamin C aids absorption of iron )
-nose bleeds
-easy bruising
-dry skin
-inflammation of gums
-decreased immunity to infection
-higher risk of developing cancer
-lung related problems

There are many foods that contain vitamin C. Most fruit and vegetables contain some vitamin C. Ripe food will contain more than unripe. Some examples of food with higher vitamin C content are?

-parsley
-broccoli
-bell pepper
-strawberries
-oranges
-lemon juice
-papaya
-cauliflower
-kale
- mustard greens
- Brussels sprouts

So make sure you are getting enough vitamin C in your diet and help boost your health today.

For more information on Vitamin C or any other vitamin, as well as recipe ideas on how to include these essential vitamins in your diet everyday, you can visit
www.truth-about-vitamins.com

Minerals Minerals Minerals

2009-02-03T12:46:00.001+07:00