Fruit and vegetables are brimming with fibre, plus a whole range of vitamins and minerals, and because they're low in calories, they make an important and healthy addition to any diet. Here is some information for you about vegetable nutrition. "Eat your fruits and vegetables" is one of the tried and true recommendations for a healthy diet, and for good reason. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss."5 A Day" is a national health programme in the USA and also in the UK to explain why you need vegetable nutrition as well as fruit and to encourage you to eat more servings of fruit and vegetables every day. People all over the world are becoming more and more aware of how important fruit nutrition and vegetable nutrition is to stay healthy.
In general, yellow and dark green vegetables are excellent sources of vitamin A. Green leafy vegetables are rich in calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin C and many of the B vitamins. The greener the leaf, the richer the nutrients will be. Here are some suggestions to think about color to pack nutritional power in your diet: · White: Eat cauliflower more often than potatoes, onions and mushrooms.· Green: Add more dark lettuces, such as romaine and red leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli and Brussels sprouts to replace iceberg lettuce and green beans. · Yellow-orange: Substitute more carrots, winter squashes, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, oranges and grapefruit for corn or bananas. · Red: Select tomatoes, red peppers and strawberries in favor of apples. If you are trying to watch your weight, an idea is to make sure you are not eating too many calories if you are adding these foods to your diet. increasing the amounts of fruits and vegetables you eat can promote weight control, but only if they replace higher fat foods like ice cream, meat and chips to help you consume fewer calories. But if fruits and vegetables are simply added to what you already eat, total calories won't significantly drop and weight loss should not be expected. The most important thing to do is to vary the fruit and vegetables that you eat from day to day. This is to give your body a variety but to also keep you interested in your food. There are always great new recipes, ideas and ways to make your food look and taste great!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Natural Supplements for a Healthy Life
Everyone wants to live a healthy life, but sometimes an on-the-go lifestyle can make that goal extremely difficult. Energy levels wane, and times of stress and extra demands make it harder to eat well and get enough sleep. Over time, this can wreak havoc on the body and its functions, including the immune system.
It can all too easily become a vicious cycle of feeling low and trying to combat your fatigue with all of the wrong tools. People want a quick pick-me-up so they use caffeine as a stimulant, or they grab a donut for a sugar rush. This only makes sugar levels in the blood crash even harder later, leaving the person feeling worse than they did before and reaching for yet another cup of coffee or another donut.
Instead of repeating this detrimental cycle, try supplementing your routine with green tea instead of coffee. The properties of green tea are beneficial in so many ways! Green tea contains phytochemicals with wonderful antioxidants. Some researchers believe the antioxidant properties of green tea to be stronger than those found in fruits, vegetables and berries. Green tea also suppresses appetite, and this of course helps in maintaining a healthy weight. Finally, there is a calming effect for most green tea drinkers, and no danger of over-indulging in this supplement. There is a mild caffeine level in green tea, so one should be aware and not drink enough to become affected by the caffeine. For the most part, though, the benefits far surpass any possible negative element of green tea.
Another natural supplement that can contribute to a healthy life is vitamin E. Vitamin E is metabolized in fat, unlike some vitamins which are water soluble and leave the body soon after digestion. Because of this, you do not need to supplement with vitamin E as often or as heavily as you do with some other supplements. This vitamin is not found as readily in popular foods as some other vitamins such as vitamin C or vitamin A, which makes it a great candidate for supplementation. Vitamin E is important for good cardiovascular health, and is also a factor in healthy skin and nails. Some people have been known to use Vitamin E topically, as the capsules can be broken open and used directly on the skin to heal and soothe.
Whey protein is another supplement that you may not consider when you think of taking something ‘extra’ to meet your nutritional requirements. However, in this day of overloading with carbohydrates and eating fast foods, many people have a difficult time meeting their protein requirements for the day. This is not only true of vegetarians! It is very easy to mix up a protein shake in either milk or water; mixing it in milk adds about ten more grams of protein. While protein powders come in various forms such as egg protein, whey (milk) protein and soy protein, whey isolate is the most easily assimilated by the body and probably your best bet. It comes in delicious flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and even odd dessert flavors like cookies and crème. These shakes are tasty and low calorie, and offer upwards of 30 grams per shake along with a number of essential amino acids.
Another supplement gaining in popularity is probiotics, and with good reason. Probiotics are a great way to keep your intestines healthy. They help to maintain the good bacteria in a healthy digestive tract, and can replace the good bacteria in the colon that is lost through consumption of preservatives, toxic food substances and other environmental dangers. Some of these supplements need to be refrigerated, as the cultures are live and need to be kept in a certain temperature. However, you can find probiotics that are easily kept without refrigeration and have a longer shelf life.
The latest in supplements that pack a great nutritional punch are drinkable greens. Many people (try as they might) do not like the taste of vegetables and refuse to eat them despite their important role in a healthy diet. With greens in supplement form, you can get all of the benefits and antioxidant properties of a great number of vegetables in one shot. Some are available in pill form, but most are drinkable powders that offer up a wide array of vegetables, fruits, and other whole green foods into a serving the size of a tablespoon. The taste may take some getting used to, but the health benefits are worth making the adjustment. There are virtually no calories in greens you can drink, but they have more nutrient value than virtually anything else you can consume in such a small quantity!
These are just some of the important and basic supplements that, when incorporated into an otherwise healthy lifestyle of diet and exercise, can go a long way to help you live your healthiest and longest life possible. If you are new to the world of supplements, these few are a great place to start!
It can all too easily become a vicious cycle of feeling low and trying to combat your fatigue with all of the wrong tools. People want a quick pick-me-up so they use caffeine as a stimulant, or they grab a donut for a sugar rush. This only makes sugar levels in the blood crash even harder later, leaving the person feeling worse than they did before and reaching for yet another cup of coffee or another donut.
Instead of repeating this detrimental cycle, try supplementing your routine with green tea instead of coffee. The properties of green tea are beneficial in so many ways! Green tea contains phytochemicals with wonderful antioxidants. Some researchers believe the antioxidant properties of green tea to be stronger than those found in fruits, vegetables and berries. Green tea also suppresses appetite, and this of course helps in maintaining a healthy weight. Finally, there is a calming effect for most green tea drinkers, and no danger of over-indulging in this supplement. There is a mild caffeine level in green tea, so one should be aware and not drink enough to become affected by the caffeine. For the most part, though, the benefits far surpass any possible negative element of green tea.
Another natural supplement that can contribute to a healthy life is vitamin E. Vitamin E is metabolized in fat, unlike some vitamins which are water soluble and leave the body soon after digestion. Because of this, you do not need to supplement with vitamin E as often or as heavily as you do with some other supplements. This vitamin is not found as readily in popular foods as some other vitamins such as vitamin C or vitamin A, which makes it a great candidate for supplementation. Vitamin E is important for good cardiovascular health, and is also a factor in healthy skin and nails. Some people have been known to use Vitamin E topically, as the capsules can be broken open and used directly on the skin to heal and soothe.
Whey protein is another supplement that you may not consider when you think of taking something ‘extra’ to meet your nutritional requirements. However, in this day of overloading with carbohydrates and eating fast foods, many people have a difficult time meeting their protein requirements for the day. This is not only true of vegetarians! It is very easy to mix up a protein shake in either milk or water; mixing it in milk adds about ten more grams of protein. While protein powders come in various forms such as egg protein, whey (milk) protein and soy protein, whey isolate is the most easily assimilated by the body and probably your best bet. It comes in delicious flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and even odd dessert flavors like cookies and crème. These shakes are tasty and low calorie, and offer upwards of 30 grams per shake along with a number of essential amino acids.
Another supplement gaining in popularity is probiotics, and with good reason. Probiotics are a great way to keep your intestines healthy. They help to maintain the good bacteria in a healthy digestive tract, and can replace the good bacteria in the colon that is lost through consumption of preservatives, toxic food substances and other environmental dangers. Some of these supplements need to be refrigerated, as the cultures are live and need to be kept in a certain temperature. However, you can find probiotics that are easily kept without refrigeration and have a longer shelf life.
The latest in supplements that pack a great nutritional punch are drinkable greens. Many people (try as they might) do not like the taste of vegetables and refuse to eat them despite their important role in a healthy diet. With greens in supplement form, you can get all of the benefits and antioxidant properties of a great number of vegetables in one shot. Some are available in pill form, but most are drinkable powders that offer up a wide array of vegetables, fruits, and other whole green foods into a serving the size of a tablespoon. The taste may take some getting used to, but the health benefits are worth making the adjustment. There are virtually no calories in greens you can drink, but they have more nutrient value than virtually anything else you can consume in such a small quantity!
These are just some of the important and basic supplements that, when incorporated into an otherwise healthy lifestyle of diet and exercise, can go a long way to help you live your healthiest and longest life possible. If you are new to the world of supplements, these few are a great place to start!
4 Healthy Tips On How To Have A High Quality Life...
The quality and the length of your life is vastly influenced by how you live. If you stuff your face with junk food at every meal, you will probably live a shortened, lower quality life. Lots of doctor visits, medications and problems. Conversely, if you live like a health nut, you will probably live a high quality life with lots of energy and optimism.
For people who are obese, living a high quality life seems unattainable. So much work is involved that most people just can not find the courage to re-invent themselves...so they give up. What they may not realize is that there is a safe middle ground where they can be healthy without spending all day exercising and eating fruits and vegetables.
It is not about how many crunches you can do, or how fast you can run a mile. It is not about eating rice cakes instead of chocolate bars and it is not about starving yourself to the point where you almost pass out from trying to function on an empty tank of gas. It is about making small changes that make the most difference in your lifestyle.
Healthy Tips #1: Diet And Nutrition
Having had chronic asthma my entire life, I could not exercise. Most people take for granted the one thing I would have loved to physically be able to do. Once I began providing my body with proper nutrition, however, miracles began to happen. Not only did I lose 70 pounds (and have kept if off for over 15 years now), but I am now medication free, I can exercise and have a high quality life.
The key here though is that I lost weight and got healthy without exercise. I still eat, but I modified my diet to include a soy-based meal replacement shake once or even twice a day. I know what you are thinking. How can I enjoy a bland shake instead of yummy meal? Because the shake is delicious and it makes me feel good afterwards...not only physically but mentally.
Healthy Tips #2: Exercise
You do not have to be one of these power lifters who spend 10 hours a day at the gym to achieve healthy weight loss. You do not even need to work out for an hour. Simply move more. Park at the back of the parking lot instead of driving around waiting to get a space up close to the door. Exercise is not necessary but if a little bit is added to your day, it can accellerate your weight loss efforts and allow you to live a healthier life.
Remember sit-ups and push-ups? Haven't heard those scary words in a long time I bet. Words cannot describe how much better I look and feel since I began doing these two exercise before going to sleep and when I wake up in the morning. I'm not talking about 100 each here. 20 each. That is it. It does not even take 5 minutes. Now I can not even think of resting until I do them. Why? Because I made a small lifestyle change for the better.
Healthy Tips #3: Smoking And Drinking
Make a decision now to eliminate one of these (or both if you are smart) and you will be well on your way to not only losing weight but promoting a high qualify life. Everyone knows it is not OK to smoke. You were not born with a need to pollute your lungs with tar or dehydrate your brain until it is shriveled up like a styrophoam peanut. People do it to fit in while other people and all it does is bring you down to their level. You are better than that.
Healthy Tips #4: Stress
When you reduce the amount of stress in your life, you will be amazed at how easy it is to lose weight in a healthy way. Write down eveything that you think is giving you stress on a daily basis. No, you should not go out and quit your job..but you can always look for a different job that is less stressful. Do not let other people think they can tie you down and control you. This is America and you are free to live without stress and have a high quality life.
The more people are stressed out, the more they seek out comfort foods that are no good for them. Want to feel better? Have your favorite cookie! Then regret it afterwards and feel even worse that you did before! Had a bad day at work? You deserve a fatty meal at the Cheesecake Factory! Then you can walk into work the next day weighing even more and feeling worse about yourself. See how this is a vicious cycle that can be broken by simply avoiding stressful situations?
The conservative American Medical Association has stated that 60% of deaths before age 65 are preventable, usually by simple life style changes. I have listed four of the most important ones above. Start making small changes in each of these areas and you will begin to become the person you always wanted to be. It does not have to be a mountain you must climb to achieve your dreams but rather a few small hills to walk over for a high quality life.
For people who are obese, living a high quality life seems unattainable. So much work is involved that most people just can not find the courage to re-invent themselves...so they give up. What they may not realize is that there is a safe middle ground where they can be healthy without spending all day exercising and eating fruits and vegetables.
It is not about how many crunches you can do, or how fast you can run a mile. It is not about eating rice cakes instead of chocolate bars and it is not about starving yourself to the point where you almost pass out from trying to function on an empty tank of gas. It is about making small changes that make the most difference in your lifestyle.
Healthy Tips #1: Diet And Nutrition
Having had chronic asthma my entire life, I could not exercise. Most people take for granted the one thing I would have loved to physically be able to do. Once I began providing my body with proper nutrition, however, miracles began to happen. Not only did I lose 70 pounds (and have kept if off for over 15 years now), but I am now medication free, I can exercise and have a high quality life.
The key here though is that I lost weight and got healthy without exercise. I still eat, but I modified my diet to include a soy-based meal replacement shake once or even twice a day. I know what you are thinking. How can I enjoy a bland shake instead of yummy meal? Because the shake is delicious and it makes me feel good afterwards...not only physically but mentally.
Healthy Tips #2: Exercise
You do not have to be one of these power lifters who spend 10 hours a day at the gym to achieve healthy weight loss. You do not even need to work out for an hour. Simply move more. Park at the back of the parking lot instead of driving around waiting to get a space up close to the door. Exercise is not necessary but if a little bit is added to your day, it can accellerate your weight loss efforts and allow you to live a healthier life.
Remember sit-ups and push-ups? Haven't heard those scary words in a long time I bet. Words cannot describe how much better I look and feel since I began doing these two exercise before going to sleep and when I wake up in the morning. I'm not talking about 100 each here. 20 each. That is it. It does not even take 5 minutes. Now I can not even think of resting until I do them. Why? Because I made a small lifestyle change for the better.
Healthy Tips #3: Smoking And Drinking
Make a decision now to eliminate one of these (or both if you are smart) and you will be well on your way to not only losing weight but promoting a high qualify life. Everyone knows it is not OK to smoke. You were not born with a need to pollute your lungs with tar or dehydrate your brain until it is shriveled up like a styrophoam peanut. People do it to fit in while other people and all it does is bring you down to their level. You are better than that.
Healthy Tips #4: Stress
When you reduce the amount of stress in your life, you will be amazed at how easy it is to lose weight in a healthy way. Write down eveything that you think is giving you stress on a daily basis. No, you should not go out and quit your job..but you can always look for a different job that is less stressful. Do not let other people think they can tie you down and control you. This is America and you are free to live without stress and have a high quality life.
The more people are stressed out, the more they seek out comfort foods that are no good for them. Want to feel better? Have your favorite cookie! Then regret it afterwards and feel even worse that you did before! Had a bad day at work? You deserve a fatty meal at the Cheesecake Factory! Then you can walk into work the next day weighing even more and feeling worse about yourself. See how this is a vicious cycle that can be broken by simply avoiding stressful situations?
The conservative American Medical Association has stated that 60% of deaths before age 65 are preventable, usually by simple life style changes. I have listed four of the most important ones above. Start making small changes in each of these areas and you will begin to become the person you always wanted to be. It does not have to be a mountain you must climb to achieve your dreams but rather a few small hills to walk over for a high quality life.
Creating a Healthy Life Expectancy
In general healthy life expectancy has increased due to several factors of out lifestyle. During the span of the 20th century, average life expectancy jumped from around 49 years of age in 1901 up to 77 years by the century's end.
The center for Disease Control and Prevention gives the following as the big reasons for our increased healthy life expectancy:
-Vaccination
-Improvements in motor-vehicle safety
-Workplace Safety
-Better infectious diseases control
-Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke
-Safer and healthier foods
-Healthier mothers and babies
-Family planning
-Fluoridation of drinking water
-Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard
Another factor contributing to the increase of average life span has been the drastic reduction in infant mortality rate.
The biggest piece of the life expectancy puzzle missing from their list is the ability to remain free from illness and disease. Modern medicine has become very involved with developing methods to mask symptoms and thus prolong our ability to live with a condition, which has contributed some to increased longevity. However, the person still has the root cause of the illness or disease. And most of the time there are side affects of the treatment the patient must live with, stated as a lesser suffering than the original symptom. The question becomes, is their quality of life actually improved when new symptoms from the treatment are then needed to be treated, it's more like the symptoms are just transferred and altered but not eliminated. This is because the cause has not been altered.
Remaining healthy is the greatest quality of life and anti-aging strategy that can even increase your healthy life expectancy. Imagine if you were healthy enough not to get seriously sick you would not need to get involved with taking drugs and medicines that many times cause more additional unwanted symptoms that the initial ones. And once on these drugs you are likely never off of them because they don't actually alter anything that supports the real cause. Doesn't it make you wonder why our huge medical resources are not applied to stopping or preventing the cause?
There is a school of thought that focuses on the root cause and questions why disease has been allowed to take hold in the body at all. If the body's immune system is functioning properly, disease should not occur. It is thought that the only way for a disease to take hold is for the body to be in some sort of state that is less than optimal or as it should be. Standard medical therapies such as drugs, surgery, and chemotherapy help mask and even diminish the symptoms but the causative condition is really still there. A surgeon can remove a tumor, but the reason the tumor grew in the first place is not addressed. Through this medical process we have been led to believe that treating an illness or disease is a complicated process that takes time and of course lots of money. But what is usually going on is the masking of symptoms rather than a cure, nor restoration to a state of wellness.
In order to look at enhancing prevention of illness and disease we must change our focus from treating to wellness. Treatment is done after something has happened, wellness keeps it from happening. Actually focusing on wellness can also better serve curing or healing what has occurred better than treating the symptoms because it aims to restore the core cause to a desired healthy state rather than just masking symptoms.
Studies have shown that the problem is at the cellular level where the bodies cells are designed to perform many functions, as long as they are healthy. Two things happen which both work against you. Disease can only thrive in the kind an internal environment that is also not good for your cells. So, your body is in a weakened state and the disease is thriving. Plus, your immune system is weaker too and less able to fight off the disease. When in this condition it is very common for multiple problems to exist at the same time making the immune system choose what to focus it's reduced abilities on.
While all the areas of life expectancy improvement listed above are important the greatest factor knocking us down is still our general health. If your body is truly healthy and able to do it's job, it would not be normal to be taking medicine every day, rather an exception. And many would not spend years living with a restricted lifestyle because of debilitating ailments. Doing all you can to enhance your overall wellness is key to quality of life and longevity.
Discover how your body can be healthy and free of illness, increasing healthy life expectancy - Find out how to naturally create a state of wellness where disease can't live - How your body can reverse disease, curing it naturally. John Halderman provides effective resources for natural health and wellness supporting your living the life you desire.
Organic Foods. A Step Towards A More Healthy Life
One of the first things any body should do when they are going to choose healthy snacks and appetizers over their normal choice of food is to prepare a list before they go shopping and then make sure that they stick to it. Just because you have decided to take on a more healthy life style it does not mean that you have to give up on all the foods that you have previously eaten, you just need to learn to make better choices and try to eat more organic and raw foods instead. Even if you find that you are not overweight a diet that also consists some raw foods will be healthier for you in the long term. So make your list and stay well away from the biscuits and sweet aisles.
The first thing you really need to do if you are serious about having a more healthy diet and lifestyle is to clear your kitchen cupboards and fridge/freezer of all those fatty foods that are lurking there. Items that you should no longer have in your cupboards or fridge/freezer are chips and microwavable foods.
Once you have rid yourself of all that old junk food and made room for the healthier options, you now need to replenish your cupboards with the healthy options. At the shop buy fruit, vegetables and nuts, which you will be able to use to make fresh appetizers and snacks from. You may even consider purchasing some dried fruits (bananas, apricots, peaches etc.,) as they are good for snacking on, but remember to keep away from those that have added sugars.
If you are able to invest a good quality food process and juicer or just a juicer on its own for making natural juices and smoothies (yoghurt and fruit juices combined) and for helping to chop up all those fresh fruit and vegetables that you are now going to eat. Ensure that you have plenty of space in your fridge for keeping all those healthy vegetables and fruit fresh when you bring them home.
A perfectly healthy appetizer for either in the evenings or at dinner parties for guests to snack on is slices of carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber and olives placed on the table with a small container of low or fat free ranch dressing in to which the vegetables can be dipped.
However, if you are the kind of person who really must have some sort of meat in their diet, then try having fish (either sushi (raw fish) or fresh tuna (which can be cooked (seared) quickly) and provide with it some soy sauce for dipping into.
If you really do want to stay as fat free as possible and live a more healthy life style then eat as many raw organic foods as you can.
The first thing you really need to do if you are serious about having a more healthy diet and lifestyle is to clear your kitchen cupboards and fridge/freezer of all those fatty foods that are lurking there. Items that you should no longer have in your cupboards or fridge/freezer are chips and microwavable foods.
Once you have rid yourself of all that old junk food and made room for the healthier options, you now need to replenish your cupboards with the healthy options. At the shop buy fruit, vegetables and nuts, which you will be able to use to make fresh appetizers and snacks from. You may even consider purchasing some dried fruits (bananas, apricots, peaches etc.,) as they are good for snacking on, but remember to keep away from those that have added sugars.
If you are able to invest a good quality food process and juicer or just a juicer on its own for making natural juices and smoothies (yoghurt and fruit juices combined) and for helping to chop up all those fresh fruit and vegetables that you are now going to eat. Ensure that you have plenty of space in your fridge for keeping all those healthy vegetables and fruit fresh when you bring them home.
A perfectly healthy appetizer for either in the evenings or at dinner parties for guests to snack on is slices of carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber and olives placed on the table with a small container of low or fat free ranch dressing in to which the vegetables can be dipped.
However, if you are the kind of person who really must have some sort of meat in their diet, then try having fish (either sushi (raw fish) or fresh tuna (which can be cooked (seared) quickly) and provide with it some soy sauce for dipping into.
If you really do want to stay as fat free as possible and live a more healthy life style then eat as many raw organic foods as you can.
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