Healthcare, Health Insurance, Vitamins, Nutrition

March 31, 2009

Why Eat Bananas For Energy?

Filed under: Nutrition — Tags: , , , , — @ 2:01 am
by Rachel Greene

If you watch athletics and sports events on the TV or go to a stadium live to see a meet or a match then you may quite often see athletes/sports people snacking on a banana. This isn’t just about the fact that they may like the taste of this fruit, the fact is that the humble banana is a bit of an energy super fruit!

Bananas are a rich source of naturally occurring sugars so basically eating a banana can give you the kind of immediate energy rush or sugar hit that you might get from a candy bar. But, the energy rush you get here will be a healthy one which is why this fruit is often the snack of choice for people participating in sports or training.

So, eating a banana can give you a quick energy boost but what happens when this initial boost wears off? Well, the beauty of a banana is that, unlike the candy bar, the rush doesn’t disappear almost immediately leaving you wanting more. A banana is absorbed relatively slowly into your system so that you get a slow and steady release of energy over time rather than that simple one-off hit.

So, if you are going to the gym or for a long run then eating one or two bananas before your workout can actually supply your body with the energy necessary to cope with the effort you’ll be expending. And, as an exceptional source of potassium bananas can also help avoid muscular problems related to workouts and fitness programs such as cramps and spasms. This is another reason why athletes love them!

The energy giving properties of bananas can also suit you if you are on a diet or looking to eat more healthily. For many of us the changes in the foods we eat when we start to diet can be quite depressing and we can feel for a while that we lack vim and vigor.

A lot of the time this is simply down to the bad things in the junk food that we used to eat. It made us feel good but was bad for our bodies. But, bananas can help here. The energy that they can provide can be a healthy alternative and they can also help your body produce serotonin which can have a significantly positive effect on your mood.

In addition, eating a banana as a healthy snack is a great way of making your stomach feel that it is full as this fruit can be quite bulky. You may also find that your brain is less likely to tell you that you are hungry after snacking on a banana as the energy/nutrients that it brings into your body can take a while to be completely sorted.

So, if you are looking for an energy boost – no matter for what reason – then consider picking up a banana next time you need a lift. This is the healthy way to an energy boost that could keep you going for hours at a time!

About the Author:
Rachel Greene helps people find out about banana nutrition facts at her website on banana nutrition.

March 17, 2009

Fat Lose Without Losing Muscle

Filed under: Nutrition — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — @ 1:39 am
by Victoria Jamison

It takes a very careful balancing act with your diet to achieve fat lose without losing muscle. I’ve put together six top strategies that give you these kind of results.

Keep On Eating

I know, you think I’m crazy. How can you lose weight by adding more food. I should be more specific. Eat more often, not necessarily more food. It’s very important to give your body protein periodically throughout the day.

When you go for a long period of time, your body kind of freaks out. The next time you eat, your body will think that meals are going to come few and far between, so it will store whatever it can from that meal as fat.

It’s extremely important to keep your blood sugar levels .. well, level. When they fluctuate up and down, it’s nearly impossible to lose fat. When you go for an extended amount of time without food, your blood sugar level drops dramatically.

When you eat smaller meals more often, your body can better digest what you’re putting into it. This means greater nutrient absorption and utilization. When you’re body runs more efficient it craves food less often. Try to keep your meals 3-hours apart at the most.

Clean and Lean Food

When you eat processed simple carbohydrates you cause a huge jump in your bodies insulin levels. Try to avoid foods made with white flour and sugar. Instead eat proteins that are very lean and complex carbohydrates from fresh fruits and vegetables.

Sugar – The New Fat

Sugar is everywhere! It’s in our home and in our supermarkets. Sometimes it’s in plain site but other times it’s hidden with other names we don’t always recognize: Glucose, lactose, maltose, fructose, and sucrose. Some sugars are even harder to find and go by the name sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, and malitol.

Drink more water

If you’re not drinking about 8 glasses of water each day, you’re depriving your body of a very important need. Water will help your body to digest your food more easily and efficiently, making sure it absorbs all the nutrients you’re offering it. What will also help your tone your muscles and lose weight.

Be Pro Protein

When you don’t give your body enough protein it will turn to it’s own lean muscle to gain energy. This obviously isn’t a good thing. So, keep putting lean and clean proteins in and you’ll be fine. Sometimes this is difficult to do. Try eating fish and chicken as much as you can. You can even throw in some lean beef every once in a while.

Rotate Your Carb Levels

Carb rotation or cycling is achieved when you drop your intake for a couple of days and then bring it back up for a day or two. This does a number of things. It doesn’t allow your body to think it’s starving. Just when it starts to think it’s not getting enough carbs you inject it with plenty. This also makes staying on your diet a little easier. You can power through a couple of days of very low carbs if you know that’s lal it is, a couple of days.

If you have been struggling with weight loss and desire to lose fat fast then look at your carb intake and consider using “carb rotation”. Soon, you’ll see the results you’ve been seeking.

About the Author:
Victoria Jameson spends most of her time running her Fit Supermom website where she helps people with their weight loss program and diet nutrition in order to help them achieve their physical goals.

March 14, 2009

Why You Should Raise Hdl Cholesterol

Filed under: Nutrition — Tags: , , , , , , , — @ 3:08 am
by Adrian Fletcher

When you are told your cholesterol is too high and what you should do to bring down the cholesterol levels, your goal should also be to raise HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. High HDL cholesterol levels are thought to lower the bad effects of LDL cholesterol, thus avoiding complications associated with the high cholesterol count.

Patients with an inadequate level of HDL cholesterol have a greater chance of getting heart disease since it is believed that the HDL cholesterol takes away cholesterol transported to the arteries by LDL cholesterol and brings it to the liver. When the good cholesterol levels are insufficient the bad cholesterol will increase excessively and could cause hardened arteries or even a blockage. To eliminate this risk, you would need to raise HDL cholesterol levels.

Being careful about the foods you eat is the first step that a doctor will take to attempt to reduce your overall cholesterol levels. You should go to see a nutritionist to get information about the foods that are helpful to raise HDL cholesterol, while decreasing LDL cholesterol simultaneously. Usually your diet will have limited fat and sugar and plenty of lean protein, vegetables and fruits.

You should do plenty of research and plan out a fun, easy exercise routine targeted to reduce excess weight and bad cholesterol. This will help you to raise HDL cholesterol and thus help to unclog your arteries. Daily attention to your health, by way of proper diet and exercise, can result in a decrease in your risk of most forms of heart disease.

Once you switch over to low fat diet and regular exercise, teach this healthy living technique to the whole family. By this you will not only be maintaining your own health, but will also help in maintaining the good health of all your family members. A healthy diet is not always easy to follow, but once you get used to it, it’s a piece of cake (low fat of course!). By being a role model for your children, you will be helping them safeguard their health. This will play an important role in their future health also. Teaching your children to eat healthier foods makes plenty of sense.

There are various sources from which you can get information on how to eat and live healthy. Eating healthy as well as tasty food is what everyone would like, and these recipes can be found in many cookbooks. With the help of these books, you can cook food which will help you lower your LDL levels and raise HDL cholesterol levels.

If you are able to lower your cholesterol level with the foods that you consume and some light exercise, then there is a good chance you won’t need to take medication to remedy your cholesterol reading. However, remember that a diet plan alone may not be sufficient to lower bad cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol concurrently. Depending on your particular circumstances it may be prudent to take medication in conjunction with the other methods. Ultimately this decision will be up to you and your doctor who can make a decision based on your unique circumstances.

About the Author:
Find out more about low cholesterol and the importance of Cholesterol Lowering Medication for lowering your cholesterol level.

January 28, 2009

A Diet I Can Stick To- Best Weight Loss Needs A Simple Diet

Filed under: Nutrition — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — @ 2:35 am
by Xania Hughes

How hard is it to find a diet you can stick to? The start of the working week is a date that many overweight people designate as the day they will start a diet plan. Often though, by mid afternoon coffee break, all the diet aspirations have gone out the window and a doughnut replaces a healthy afternoon tea option. To be fair to most dieters though this is not really a lack of will power, its more like they just haven’t found the diet plan that is correct for them. They simply fail to find a diet that they can stick to!

The real problem is that a healthy diet is basically about what you eat rather than how much you eat and unfortunately, most popular and fad diets today dont address this. The inescapable truth is that a fad diet or amazing revelation about a diet miracle isnt going to help. To lose weight, get in shape and stay there is not something that can be resolved with a quick fix that will then allow you to go back to the way you used to eat. The question, Where do I find a diet I can stick to? involves an answer with far more insight than that!

The best weight loss plans of all are those that actually allow you to design your meals to your own taste, whilst still keeping within the diet plan guidelines. These plans are usually based on every day foods that are simple to prepare and do not cost a fortune to buy. It is major movement in the right direction when we understand that for permanent weight loss , we ”are not on a diet” but rather are on a”healthy eating plan”. This way your portions will not be restricted to tiny offerings and the foods you love will not completely disappear. The idea is to find a healthy lifestyle on a long term basis. Contrary to what you may think, you will still lose weight!

A great example of an online diet program that meets this criteria is the well respected Strip That Fat program. To help demonstrate the way a healthy eating plan should work, I will use the Strip That Fat example to show how you really can finally answer that constantly nagging question of Where do I find a diet I can stick to?

Firstly, modern diet programs like Strip That Fat offer practical and easy to implement weight loss techniques that help you lose weight and then keep it off long term. In the case of Strip that Fat, quantity is not an issue. You are not restricted to small portions and can eat as much as you want. However, it is what you eat that is the secret of the programs success.

This program also offers a specialised diet generation software tool that allows you to plan and create meals using your favourite foods and ingredients. This is what sets a diet like this apart! It lets you decide what you will eat and when!

We cannot deny that the health problems associated with overweight such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer, are not going to suddenly disappear!. For the sake of our health and wellbeing ,finding a diet you can stick to and losing excess weight has to become a priority. When you think about it, we have an awful lot to gain by eating well .

It really is possible to answer the question “Where do I find a diet I can stick to?” in a positive way.The secret to dieting success is to use a diet plan that lets you eat until full and gives you the flexibility and control to make the correct food choices so that you lose weight. Using a respected diet plan such as Strip That Fat will empower you with the tools information and knowledge that will help you lose excess weight and keep it off for life!

About the Author:
you can begin today on a proven program to lose weight that you CAN stick to? Read about the success of Strip That Fat here. You can also find out about how Strip That Fat is helping someone lose 100lbs right at this moment by clicking this Get Slim With Me link.

January 16, 2009

Clay Cooking for Healthier Meals

Filed under: Nutrition — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — @ 12:09 am
by Jana Banks

Recently our family enjoyed a delicious pot roast dinner served with steamed asparagus on the side and sweet baked bananas for dessert. And how were these scrumptious dishes prepared? In clay! Generally, when we plan on roasting a turkey, baking a fish, cooking a chicken or steaming fresh vegetables, we usually use cookware made of stainless steel, aluminum, copper, or ceramic. However many people around the world use cooking vessels made of clay. Even here in the United States there are many loyal clay pot users who imagine the only people who don’t enjoy clay pot cooking are the ones that haven’t tried it.

Thousands of years ago, Romans would prepare their meat by covering the food in clay and toss the “clay pot” into hot embers. As the moisture would leave the clay from the heat, the meat would be cooking on the inside of the pot. Once the clay dried, it would be pulled from the embers and cracked open to reveal the delicious, juicy, cooked meat inside.

The reason cooking in clay is considered a healthy alternative to many cooking methods is that the dishes do not require any additives such as fats and oils to produce tender results. To begin, the clay pot must be soaked in water for approximately fifteen to twenty minutes prior each use. The porous clay pot absorbs this moisture which delivers tastier, moister and tender results. It’s important to note that once you place the ingredients inside the clay pot, the pot should be put into a cold oven prior to setting the temperature, usually at about 400 to 450 degrees.

You’ll find an array of recipes available that have been adapted for cooking in clay. One example of a tasty dish is Beggar’s Chicken. You simply combine chicken legs with a few spices such as ginger, pepper, and garlic plus some flavoring sauces such as sherry and soy. After baking in your clay cooker, serve with a side of rice pilaf, pasta and a fresh salad or vegetable.

Clay pots also serve perfectly as slow cookers and stockpots too. You can make any number of your favorite soups, stocks, and casseroles in these versatile cookers. Whether you’re in the mood for a rich pea soup, a creamy potato soup, a layered vegetarian casserole, or beef stew, the clay cookware cooks evenly and slowly producing perfectly flavorful foods your family is sure to enjoy.

Not only is clay cookware functional, but it’s very attractive and perfectly useful as serveware too. Romertopf is a company that produces a popular clay cookware line that offers a great variety of pots in different sizes and styles. You’ll find apple and banana bakers, fish roasters, maxi bakers for a big Thanksgiving turkey, garlic bakers, and much more. Next time you’re ready to buy some new cookware for your home, take a look at some of the great clay cookware available and treat yourself to a piece or two – you’ll be glad you did.

About the Author:
Covered Ceramic Bakeware Sets are perfect for making casseroles as well as many other great dishes. You just can’t beat the versatility and value found in a set of quality Ceramic Bakeware.

January 9, 2009

Is Shrimp Bad For Cholesterol ?

Filed under: Nutrition — Tags: , , , , , , , — @ 10:29 am
by Adrian Fletcher

For people that have to lower their cholesterol levels by altering the foods they eat, it may be a depressing thought to think about all the foods you can’t eat. For some people, concern about the cholesterol in shrimp or other favorite foods may be preventing them eating these types of foods while in the process of trying to lower their cholesterol. But in fact, this is not always true, not all foods that contain cholesterol are bad.

It is a common belief that shrimp contains cholesterol and is, therefore, a food that should be avoided. The cholesterol in shrimp does increase the LDL levels of cholesterol, but the level of good cholesterol is incrementally increased by a higher percentage. So you do not have to totally avoid shrimp, as long as you don’t overdo it, eating shrimp should not have an adverse effect on your cholesterol levels.

Your diet should include foods that are not only healthy and nutritious, but foods that you actually like and will enjoy eating. Do some research and look into the types of food that fit with your dietary requirements and learn to prepare them properly. The effect of cholesterol in shrimp or other foods might be offset by preparing it with light fat-free sauces or a sprinkling of spices as opposed to dowsing with heavy cream sauces.

Many diets don’t work because people try to sustain themselves on food they don’t like. When you’re trying to improve your cholesterol, try to find healthy foods that you enjoy. You can plan a strict diet, but it won’t help you if you can’t stick with it. Invest is a cookbook that can instruct you in choosing and preparing healthy, nutritious and delicious foods. There are plenty of them around, even in the library. Everyone wants to pick the very best foods and have success in healthy eating, but not knowing what to prepare and how to prepare it can be a tremendous stumbling block.

For help in finding the healthiest, most satisfying choices in foods, be sure to consult a nutritionist. Healthy, nutritious food can be delicious food, and you can love your new diet. Devote a bit of time, energy, and consideration to your nutrition plan so that you will be sure to choose the foods that will give you the most nutritional value and proper balance for a truly healthy diet.

Careful menu planning is the key to maintaining your diet and achieving your health and decreasing cholesterol levels. Often, poor planning is the cause of backsliding when it comes to dieting, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Just by knowing the values of cholesterol in shrimp and other dishes can help you create a satisfying and healthy meal plan.

You certainly want to control your weight and your cholesterol level, but be sure to eat enough food to feel satisfied. By knowing all of the specifics of the foods you plan to include in your diet, for example, the amount of possibly beneficial cholesterol in shrimp, you can balance your other diet components to have a satisfying and delicious meal.

About the Author:
Find out more about dealing with cholesterol at http://www.lowgoodcholesterol.com and the importance of low cholesterol food for lowering your cholesterol level.
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