Thursday, October 30, 2008

5 Helpings of Vegetables A Day

Research studies deliver the goods that people on a weight loss program or not who run through a great deal of fruit and veggies may sustain a lower gamble of developing sicknesses, such as heart disease and many cancers. For this rationality, health authorities recommend eating at least 5 servings of fruit and veggies every day. Whether fresh, canned, frozen, cooked, juiced or pickled - run through your veggies.

How much is a serving?

1 medium apple, banana, or orange
1/2 cup chopped fruit or berries
3/4 cup fruit juice

How can this work out for you? How to get your 5 a day?
Here are a few ideas:

1 Glassful of fruit juice for breakfast = 1 serving
1 Small package of dehydrated apricots for mid-morning bite = 1 serving
Side salad with lunch = 1 serving
1/2 Cup of peas and asparagus, served with main meal = 1 serving
1/2 Cup of strawberries with dessert = 1 serving

If you run through a banana with your breakfast (1 serving); or entree salad for lunch (which may be at least three cups of greens, or 3 helpings); or grapefruit for an afternoon bite (1 serving); a bean salad to go with dinner (1 cup, or 2 helpings); or a blended berry compote with a spoonful of plain yogurt for dessert (1 cup, or 2 helpings).

For most people it is not essential to actually measure each helping of food. The serving sizes are contributed only as a average guidepost. For mixed in foods you can appraisa the food group serving of the essential fixings.

For instance, a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato can be counted as: 2 bread (two sides to the hamburger bun), 1 meat (the beef patty itself), 1 dairy (the slice of cheese), and 1 veggie (the lettuce and tomato.)

Unrefined and refined carbs

Aside from potatoes, the foods listed in this grouping started out as a grains. Potatoes and grains are very hearty and satisfying All The Same, it is even more hearty to choose unrefined renderings of these over refined renderings.

Unrefined carbs still contain the complete grain, including the bran and the germ, so they hold more fiber and will fulfill hungriness longer. That is consequential if setting about to drop off fat. Instances include whole-wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, and whole grain rice.

Refined carbs relates to foods that have been modified by treating to transfer the high fiber parts (bran and germ) from the grain. Good examples include white rice, white bread, and sugared cereals.

To get more dietary fiber or bar hunger pangs, try these good for you switches:

Refined Switch to Unrefined

Sugar coated flakes Bran flakes
White toast Whole oats
Cereal bars Rice cakes
French bread Whole wheat bread
Regular pasta Whole wheat pasta
Breadsticks Dark rye crispbread


Simple and complex carbs are frequently muddled with refined and unrefined carbs. The terms simple carbs and complex carbs concern the chemical construction of a carbohydrate instead of it comprising whole grain or not. The ordinary person has more or less 4 teaspoonfuls of sugar circling in their blood stream.

Complex carbs are the most common sort of carbs there are and are comprised of 3 types:

Glycogen. The body's leading fuel reservoir - sometimes denoted as blood sugar. Glycogen is forged from glucose. Glucose is found in almost all foods.

Starch. Starch is unique to in plants and doesn't make you fat. The rich sauces, fats and oils slopped on pasta, potatoes, rice, noodles and bread that is the reason you can pinch more than an inch.

Fiber (non-starch polysaccharide). Fiber is superabundant in unrefined carbs, fruit and veggies. Fiber helps to process waste expeditiously and helps maintain your belly filled longer.

How much is adequate?

Nutritionists urge that breadstuff, cereals and taters grouping make the majority of your diet - close to 50 % and run through 18 grams of fiber a day. An easy way add these to your diet is to bring food from this grouping at every meal and choose for fiber-rich unrefined carbohydrates.

Intelligent ways to commence finding the good carbohydrates you need:

Oatmeal with natural yoghurt, raisins and sunflower seeds for breakfast.
Lunch - whole wheat bread banana sandwich or tater and chilli.
Dinner - seafood or fish, made with brown rice.

Working to lose weight? Step-up your activity and trim back the empty calories. Beware highly processed carbohydrates encountered in junk foods, white bread, sugared pop, and enormous servings of fat-free eats. Recall just because it is fat-free does not mean it contains no calories.

Eat On your fruits and veggies. We have been heaing that forever. Now, scientific studies deliver the goods that people who run through a great deal of fruit and veggies may sustain a lower gamble of developing sicknesses, such as heart disease and many cancers.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Genetics and Body Fat

Genetics play a primary part in body composition and our bodies are hard-wired to lay in fat as a guard against future starvation. With a steady physical exercise schedule you can overthrow your body's sensitivity to salt away fat. Diet pills are a fantasy! Diet pills will not allow you to lose weight on their own! A physical exertion plan is the true-to-life approach to dealing with body make-up. All those common myths and tales about burning weight instantaneously using expensive work out equipment and pills are lies! Finding a way to make physical exercise exiting and switching workout programs sustain your motivation and keep you from getting spent.

Dropping off fat by not consuming anything.

Keeping weight burned from starving yourself does not work. You will gain everything back the second you cease the diet. In addition, your metabolism will slow to a crawl as a result of the extensive reduction in calorie intake. This means that not only will your body start using calories less often (as a consequence you will be capable of assimilate even less food before you touch the total at which you initiate gaining weight), but it will likewise go into starvation mode (since your body doesn't know when its next meal is coming, it will attempt to salt away as much energy as feasible in the form of fat to build up for a potential starvation regime).

A medical grounding of why starvation dieting is not the most effective way to lose weight. 1st, when you are not consuming enough your body drops weight by feeding on its own muscle mass (muscle weighs more than fat). When you do feed your body is more likely to draw other fats and things you do not need because it is in a starvation mode. Hence when you suppose you are dropping off weight it in truth is an increment in fat and step-down in muscularity. When you lose muscular tissue you also retard down your metabolism.

Just don't do it - blend exercise and diet (Yea, yea, you in all likelihood already heard it a million times).

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

How to develop a weight loss plan

How to develop a weight loss plan

If your weight loss plan includes looking lean and cut then thinking of your body as a machine that needs fuel can benefit your weight loss goals. Having a nice display of muscle details throughout your physique while not looking thin and depleted is the goal of most dieters. There are weight loss plans that are shocking by how quickly you can reach your goal. Thinking of your body as a machine that needs fuel, can make your endeavor a success. As the body ages, one problem is that the rate at which fat is used inside the body tends to drop as we get older. This is known as basal fat oxidation. As fat oxidation drops, fat burning slows down and fat increases. What can be done to prevent fat-oxidation rates from slowing down? Build muscle mass. Researchers recently studying a large volunteer group of common women, aged 18 to 73, the testers found that the best prediction of the decline in fat-burning was the depletion of muscle tissue not aerobic endurance. Losing muscle volume causes the adipose tissue-reduction to spiral down much more hastily, compared with progressing age or diminishing fitness. Anyone can reduce or even reverse the bias for fat oxidation to decline with age simply by bolstering their muscles. Maintaining high fat-burning rates would make it hard to develop a big gut or thunder thighs and would increase athletic endurance. Weight training two to three times a week for 30-45 minutes will end up with a stronger, thinner you. Eat six small meals spaced during the day. Evenly Spacing food intake every 2 1/2 to 3 hours provides a host of metabolism-enhancing benefits such as: Improved hunger control Improved glycogen storage in the liver and muscle cells Adequate fuel stores to adequately fulfill the muscle’s and organ’s minute to minute nutritional needs Decreased gastrointestinal transit time from the stomach to the muscles. You should eat whether you feel hungry or not. Hunger indicates a deficit of nutrients. Women always want to ready to supply their body’s needs when it comes to adequate cellular nutrition. Increase your good carb intake. A strict carb diet limited to baked potatoes or white rice isn’t advised. Vary your diet by eating more carbs that metabolize slower - yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice and assorted grains. Eating salads and vegetables. Vegetables require more energy to process, a few vegetables require more energy to process than the energy they contain. To keep your body working optimally, vary your carbs. To keep your cells working, change your intake of carbs. Take in the your normal amount of carbohydrates your diet calls for on day one; on the next day, drop carbohydrate consumption by 250 calories (62.5 grams), day three, increase carbohydrates by daily level by 250 calories, day four, return to your standard intake of carbohydrates. For additional shock to your metabolism, decrease your carb intake by 500 calories every week or two. A weight loss plan that keeps your body guessing will prevent your body from going into a state of homeostasis, but don't vary the carb changes too radiaclly, you want to shock your system not create rapid weight loss. Increase your fat-burning furnace- by varying the intensity of your aerobic workouts. After a good warm-up, add a few short bursts of speed to increase your heart rate up a little higher for a minute or two. Then decrease your speed and recover at your normal pace. Called interval training adds variety, burns more calories, doesn’t allow your body to sink into a training rut, and increases your cardiovascular fitness level. Drink Lots. Muscle mass is 70 % water. If you want to get a lean and hard body, drinking plenty of H2O is required. Water is essential for metabolism. The conversion of carbs to energy cannot take place efficiently without plenty of H2O. Without water, muscle cells won’t load with glycogen or deliver amino acids to muscle tissue. The process of mobilizing fate – hydrolysis – requires enough water to break down fat, much of which is stored just under the dermis. Hydrolyzing the fat just under the skin gives the lean, defined look seen in athletic people. Get enough protein each 24 hour period. To limit muscle mass decline get enough protein delivered evenly throughout the course of each day. A good way to estimate the amount of protein you should consume daily use a reasonable weight at which you think you would look good if you were lean. Multiply that number by 0.8 grams. If that number is, 170 pounds, the 24 hour requirement is 136 grams of protein, which requires 27 grams per meal on a 5 meal a day weight loss plan. Stop starving. Many studies show that dieting has both physiological and psychological results. Food depravation is a signal for the body to store fat. Food deprivation is known to prompt binge eating in previously ordinary eaters. Alter the workout routine. Mentally, the same routine, week after week, has the potential to lead to burnout and boredom. Physiologically, the body needs change to avoid hitting a wall and reducing results. Change your workout routine a little after 4-6 weeks. Change the type of activities in your workout, change up the order of your exercises, the intensity and reps of your workouts. Adding these proven techniques to your weight loss plans, keeps your fat furnace working.

Friday, October 10, 2008

BMI - A Better Perspective on Body Fat

The BMI formula factors your height and weight to detect if you have excess body fat. BMI measurement is a better appraisal of fatness, as opposed to body weight alone, since it relates height to weight. For example, knowing a person weighs 200 pounds isn’t sufficient info to assess whether they are overweight. Factoring in a person’s height helps place their body weight into perspective: An individual who is 6-foot and 200 pounds may not be excessively fat, while another person who is 5-foot-8 and 200 pounds is more than in all likelihood to have extra body fat.

BMI and Health Assessment

Higher BMI numbers are connected with increased dangers of disease and death. Higher BMI numbers are connected with diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Studies has discovered that the lowest and highest BMIs are connected with the highest health risks. So BMI figures are categorized into classes meant to reflect the degree of jeopardy a person faces.

Those people with the lowest risks of disease seem to land in the 18.5 to 24.9 BMI scope, so they are regarded to be “normal.”

Wellness perils significantly increase with a BMI of 25 or more, so BMI ranks above 25 are broken into "overweight" and "obese".

Extremely high BMIs are associated to even larger perils of certain health perils. The “underweight” class is included because being too thin is also tied in with increased health perils.

BMI Classes - Overweight and Obese

Underweight <18.5
Normal 18.5 - 24.9
Overweight 25.0 - 29.9
Obesity 30.0 - 39.9
Extreme Obesity 40+

Possessing a BMI meter reading of 25+ is an indicant of being heavy, but not necessarily fat. A BMI of 30 or above is an indicant of carrying too much body fat.

People who are heavy may be that way because they are highly muscular. Muscular people may have a very low percentage of body fat, even though weighing more on a scale. So their BMI amount might not be a authentic way to specify if they have more body fat than they do. Beefed-up people, often have higher BMIs. But since they are fit and lean, they are not necessarily at magnified risk of certain health risks only because they sustain a higher BMI.

In certain illustrations BMI is not a sure indication of body fat.

Older people may carry more body fat and less muscularity, but their BMI total may stay along the low end of the BMI scale, indicating that they have less body fat than they do.

People under 5 feet may as well have BMI numbers totals that do not reflect their degree of accumulated fat. People who are sick or on medicinal drugs that cause exceptional quantities of edema, or swelling in the body, may weigh to a greater extent from surplus fluid collection. In this example, a larger BMI total may not suggest the absence or presence of body fat.

As a statistical tool utilizing 1000s of cases, BMI is functional when working with scientific data points to approximate the numbers of the overweight and obese and linked disease perils. For the individual, BMI is a functional way to monitor changes in weight over time.

Because BMI does not directly measure body fat, or where in the body fat is divided up, it may not be the best method of judging personal tiers of fatness and how it links to health risks. Waistline, and other factors should be taken into account when valuing a person’s overall health endangerments.

How to Check Your BMI

A laboratory is the proper setting to measure your BMI. Some laboratory body testing equipment such as underwater scales, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and the Bod Pod measure body fat directly. There are other methods (although less reliable) to quantify body fat. Including skin fold testing or using a commercial body fat scale, some gyms offer up these body fat testing services.

The BMI screening is a improved mode to check out if you have surplus body fat. BMI associates height to weight and is a better judgment of fatness, as opposed to using body weight only.


Scientific research has determined that the lowest and highest BMIs are tied in with the highest health hazards such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

BMI numbers are classed into categories meant to interpret the degree of risk a person faces. A BMI of 25 appears to be the threshold where health peril really steps-up, and a BMI of 30 entails even heavier health perils. Extremely high BMIs (40+) are coupled to even more grievous dangers of certain health hazards. The BMI “underweight” category is part of the chart because being too trim is also attached with raised wellness perils. Having to take the time to get your BMI appraised may be an unreasonable or overpriced proposal for some people, but there are alternatives such as skin fold measuring, that are not as correct, but less costly or free and are accessible at local health clubs.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Atkins Diet

Review - The Atkins Diet

I have worked the Atkins Diet and lost 34 lbs. I was able to keep until I stopped the weight loss plan and started back on my previous way of eating. The diet lets you intake fats and proteins, but limits carbs to encourage the body to enter a metabolic state of ketosis. The body then begins breaking down fat to burn as a source of nutrition. Fats and proteins will leave the body feeling fuller and hold off your appetite between meals.
The Atkins Diet theory is based on maintaining your body in a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state where the liver excessively converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which in turn are used by the body for energy.

Dr. Robert Atkins, the author and founder, says the theory behind the Atkins Diet: your body's main source of energy is from carbohydrates. If you significantly decrease your intake of carbohydrates, it forces your body to utilize your stored fat for energy.

The Atkins Diet Advantage program offers pre-packaged low-carb to make meal planning quick and convenient.

Studies are continuing to determine if the Atkins Diet affects weight for more than 1 year. Studiesthat were conducted on the Atkins Diet for 1 year showed quantifiable fat loss.

Details of the Atkins Diet program are written in an easy to follow format in the Diet Revolution and the New Diet Revolution, by Dr. Atkins

Atkins Diet - Four Phases
The weight loss program is set up into four phases.

• Induction
• On-going Weight Loss
• Pre-Maintenance
• Lifetime Maintenance

Atkins Diet - Induction

For the induction phase (approximately 2 weeks) carbohydrates are restricted to 20 grams per day. Only leafy, green carbohydrates are allowed. Cheeses, meats, oils and creams are the bulk of this phase. Alcohol and caffeine are not allowed during induction. The ketosis state starts and causes calories to be burnt at a higher rate, usually producing the largest amount of weight loss throughout the diet.

Atkins Diet - On-going Weight Loss

Cheeses, meats, oils and creams are still the main focus of Atkins, but carbohydrates are increased weekly by approximately 5 grams. If there is an increase in weight or weight loss stops, it is advised to decrease your intake of carbohydrates. This phase is continues until you're within 10 pounds of your desired weight.

Atkins Diet -Pre-Maintenance

Following the Atkins Glycemic Ranking, carbohydrate intake is again increased. The goal is to find level of carbohydrates that can be eaten while maintain the desired body weight.

Atkins Diet - Lifetime Maintenance

Lifetime Maintenance is maintaining the desired body weight while trying different amounts of carbohydrates. Varying the types of carbohydrates to determine how much of each food can be consumed without affecting body weight.

Atkins Diet – Exercise

Walking is one recommended exercise to maintain fitness levels while on the Atkins Diet. Walking is aerobic and will encourage the body to utilize fat for fuel.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Choosing a Weight Loss and Fitness Center

When you reckon about joining a weight loss and physical fitness center, consider of it as a one stop shop for physical fitness and wellbeing. Think about placement, convenience, and open programmes. Do you want a weight loss location that has many training centers in the state or nation wide? Do the weight loss fitness location have equipment for strength training as well as cardio vascular equipment, cardio classes, or yoga instructors? A diversity of physical fitness options can support you propelled and preclude burn out. Do you need locker rooms, showers, sweat rooms or baby sitting accommodations; these are a few of the amenities furnished by many of the better weight loss and fitness businesses. Over all, is the fitness center a complete, clean and extremely well maintained installation that provides to all your physical fitness desires, needs and tastes?

Think of placement, convenience, and available aerobic programs. It is very easy to begin on your course to physical fitness. Is the weight loss and fitness location on hand 24 hours? Is there a long term contract to sign up or can you pay month to month? Some weight loss and fitness location have the alternative to pay off monthly, you are offered a complete personal coaching bundle that accommodates your body type, body weight and developed so you are ensured with a service that is really individualized?

Does the weigh loss and fitness location afford you the option to opt the proper type of club that you desire. Remember about positioning, convenience, and accessible plans. The active club necessitates a group exercise as well as free weights and aerobic conditioning machines to work off that fat. The sport club takes on all parts in the active club but with add-ons such as basketball, heated pools and whirlpool. The super-sport club also includes the amenities establish in the active club and the sport club but with more add-ons such as massages, a sweat room as well as a steam room. The ultra sport club includes most of the parts obtained in the active, sport and super sport club, plus a day spa, courtyards for racquetball as well as an executive locker room.

What do you want to attain? Think about location , convenience, and available programs. A specific specialized physical fitness plan is available to anyone who merely needs to improve their performance in a specified sport or is seriously training for contest.

Think about location, convenience, and available programs. The performance programs takes on a menu design specifically tailor-make for those extreme exercises. Weight training is also available as well as a total cardio physical exercise. After your exercise, a metabolic rank screen is taken. A plan can be fashioned for those who want to get started at once but have no defined and specified idea how. This is the best selection for people that are not experienced in planning training plans. All the info on nutrition, resistance developing is planned inside this program and a initiate can construct a groundwork of weight loss and fitness knowledge. This is the groundwork one demands in order to have outcomes that would last your body a lifetime.

Regular physical exertion and an intensive physical exercise is just part of a course to health, physical fitness and wellbeing. There are different components that should play a portion. Think about location, convenience, and available programs. Food consumption is a crucial portion. A menu with a selection of foods that are permitted, forbade and throttled should be a component part of the performance way of life. This menu details what you should or should not eat, or at least consume less of, if not completely avoid. Cardio raises your endurance to stress and exercise. Vitamins and supplements are crucial unless you are sure that your diet furnishes the correct measures of iron, calcium, vitamin C or D or E in a day. Resistance conditioning is a essential tool for being healthy, building muscle increases the metabolic process and burns calories even when dormant.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Are You a Healthy Eater

Healthy eating is not about demanding nutrition doctrines, working to be unrealistically skinny, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Instead, it’s about feeling great, experiencing more vitality, and keeping yourself as healthy as manageable – all which can be achieved by picking up some nutrition fundamental principles and incorporating them in a way that works for you.

Getting yourself educated and smart is part of learning to lose weight healthily. Staying food smart isn't about learning to calculate grams of fat, it is about examining labels and counting calories.

Sensible eating gets down with studying how to eat smart. It's how you eat and how much you eat and how often you eat, not what you eat that determines if you have chosen good weight loss tips. Attentiveness to what, how, and how often you consume and opting for foods that are both good for you and gratifying helps support an broad wholesome diet.

Evolve your individualized program for wholesome eating. You will be able to create a custom array of considerable choices to take on a potpourri of yummy foods. Using satisfying food rules of thumb and tips for creating and observing a healthy diet.

Discover how to see food in a smarter, better manner.

Make the most out of your meals by applying weight loss tips. People who eat slow eat less and notwithstanding still feel full. Most people don't take time to enjoy and chew their food. Chew your food slowly, enjoying each morsel. Chew each mouthful for 20 seconds or chew it 20 to 30 times. We are so busy shoveling it in that we forget to taste what we're eating. Get back to delighting in eating and grant your stomach time to transmit the "full" signal to your brain.

Avoid stress while eating. Stress can take its toll on your digestive system. Digestive troubles like colitis and heartburn can be the result of a irritating eating environment. Avoid eating while at work, in the car, arguing, or viewing disturbing tv programs or the news. Breath deep a few times prior to starting your meal. Create a relaxing ambiance with a few and soothing music.

Take Heed to your body. Ask yourself if you are very empty, stop eating when you feel full. It actually requires a few minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it has had plenty food, so eat slowly. Eating just enough to fill your hunger will help you stay vigorous, mellow and feeling your best, instead of eating to the point where your in a sugar coma.

Eat 6 times a day. Opening your daybreak with a intelligent breakfast can ramp up your metabolic process, and taking in the majority of your day-to-day caloric intake early in the day gives your system time to work those calories off. Eating small, intelligent meals throughout the day, instead of the classic three large meals, can help keep your metabolic process running and ward off snack attacks.

Healthy eating is all about balanced and reasonable eating, consisting of sensible meals at least 6 times per day. Hearty eaters run through numerous types of nutrients, not fixing themselves to 1 specific food type or food group.

A wholesome eaters solve problems. Heart-healthy eaters have picked up on how to take charge of themselves and their eating with sound discernment and forming wise decisions. Level-headed eaters are ever heedful of what they eat, and recognize the upshot that it will have on their bodies.

Heart-healthy eaters discover how to “eat smart”. It's not just what you eat, but how you eat. Giving care to what you eat and opting for foods that are both nourishing and pleasant helps bear out an overall wholesome diet. Heart-healthy eating is a style of living, restraining food severely in any way is always a wrong thing. Heart-healthy eating is just the place to embark on making your life sweeter. Eating wholesome necessitates quite a bit of leeway. You might eat up too much or not enough, ingest foods that are sometimes more or less heart-healthy. Nonetheless, you should constantly fuel your body and your brain on a regular basis with sufficient food to keep both your mind and body strong and alert.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Long Term Care - Color You Healthy

Adding Some Color to Your Plate

Your wellness and weight is in your grip. You are the person in control of your body. It is your decision to keep moving and be physically active, the proper things, and live a well-founded life-style. Filling up your belly with fruits and vegetables at every meal is a tremendous setting off point because they are furnishing your body with fiber, nutrients and are low cal low fat. Well-nigh all fruits and vegetables are fiber-rich, nutrient-dense foods (signifying they are heavy with important nutrients your body requires and low in calories and fat). Individuals who eat more fruits and vegetables as factor of a sound diet are less likely to get prolonged diseases including stroke, type 2 diabetes, several types of cancer. People likewise suffer cut down issues of heart disease, and serious blood pressure levels. Eating fruits and vegetables is a smart decision you can do to lose weight or support a healthy lifestyle.

Do You Get the Big Picture?

A healthy diet is more than fruits and vegetables, there are a host of nutrients you body needs from a variety of foods - Whole grains, low fat or fat free milk products (think - low fat, fat free yogurt, cheese make with 2% milk), lean meats, fish, beans, eggs and nuts are all low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt and added sugars.

Update Your Colorless Plates

Vary the colors of your fruits and vegetables to give your body a wide range of valuable nutrients. Green spinach, orange sweet potatoes, black beans, yellow corn, red plums, red apples, yellow onions or blue blueberries. Mix and match them for a more colorful variety. Make it a regular habit to try a new fruit and vegetable regularly. Look for new fruits and vegetable that are in season or visit your local farmers market to get fruits and vegetables at their peak of flavor.


Make your diet a little more colorful

Add fruit to your cereal, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, or oatmeal.
Snack on fruit during the day. Grab an apple, banana, or some grapes on your way out the door.
Eat a colorful salad at lunch. Try mixed greens with tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers.
Make fruits and vegetables about half your plate.
Snack on raw veggies with a healthy low-fat or fat-free dip.
Enjoy your favorite beans and peas. Add them to salads and low-fat dips.
Eat at least two vegetables with dinner.
Have fruit for dessert.

Are we really getting enough?

How colorful are you? Fruits and veggies come in a wide assortment of colors and flavors, but the hidden value is on the inside. Fruits and vegetables are incredible healthy sources of many minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients that help work to fight chronic diseases related to diet. Consuming a heart healthy diet and making other lifestyle adjustments are the cornerstone to maintaining your beautiful body. Tons of scientific study has proved that eating diets rich in fruits and vegetables are connect with decreased risks for cancers.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Long Term Care - Fight Cancer with Super Foods

Fight Cancer with Superfoods

Overthrow getting older. Superfoods actually reverse the aging process and be an effective part of your long term care. Affecting shifts to your diet are much more than just making you fat or thin, they can make the difference between living a high-energy life and development of chronic diseases. Super Foods are not just vague hopes, they are facts backed up by research. A nutritious diet containing a diversity of super foods will help you preserve your body weight, combat disease, and live longer.

Good For You Oils

There are many healthy oils, such as olive oil, sesame seed oil, flaxseed oil, grape seed oil and canola oil. Maximize their health benefits, by using good oils properly.
Store healthy oils in a dark bottle in the fridge.
Don't burn your good oils.
Don't cook the oil, cook the food. Use a small amount of oil - warm it - add the food - bring up to cooking temperature. This prevents the oil from becoming damaged by the heat

Good For You Beets

Beets are naturally sweeter than any other vegetable. Beets pack tons of flavor underneath their roughened exterior. Beets are naturally sweeter than any other vegetable. A great source of folate and betaine, beets are one of the best sources. Folate and betaine fight together to lower your blood levels of - homocysteine - an inflammatory compound that can impair your arteries and increase your risk of heart disease.
The natural pigments - called betacyanins that give beets their color are a powerful cancer fighter.
Eat beets raw. Beets lose their antioxidant power with cooking.
Beets' leaves and stems are edible and are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Wash thoroughly and cut off the stems just below the point where the leaves start.

Good For You Garlic

Garlic is bang-up for our body. Garlic slacks up the arteries and may help fight cancer. Garlic is tremendous for the good bacteria in your intestines.

Good For You Cabbage

At 22 calories a cup, cabbage is riddled with nutrients. Sulforaphane tops the chart.
Stanford University scientists ascertained that sulforaphane encourages your levels of these cancer-fighting enzymes higher than any other nutrient. Sulforaphane steps-up your body's output of enzymes that stop cell-damaging free radicals and reduce your risk of cancer.

Good For You Tomato sauce

Lycopene is found in tomatoes.
Found in tomatoes and used in many antioxidant dietary supplements, lycopene is a powerful antioxidant of the carotenoid group.

Raw tomatoes are fine but adding a little fat with it will help you absorb it easier. Eating tomato sauce or paste with healthy oil is better than plain tomatoes.

Good For You Guava

Guava has a high concentration of lycopene, an antioxidant that fights prostate cancer, than any other plant nutrient, including tomatoes and watermelon. 1 cup of Guava provides 688 milligrams (mg) of potassium, 63 percent more than in a medium banana. And guava may be the ultimate high-fiber food with almost 9 grams of fiber per cup. You can eat the whold thing, from rind to seeds. It's edible and nutritious. The guava rind has more vitamin C than you'll find in an average orange. Guava is an obscure tropical fruit that's subtly acidic, and gets sweeter as you eat to the center.

Good For You Spinach

Jam-packed with nutrients, spinach is the most miraculous thing for your eyes. Spinach is better than carrots for eye wellness A great deal of macular degeneration can really be averted by eating this food that is heavy in carotenoids and folic acid.


Good For You Swiss chard

A little bit bitter and salty, this veggie is native to the Mediterranean.
A half cup of cooked Swiss chard provides a huge quantity of both lutein and zeaxanthin, supplying 10 mg apiece. According to Harvard researchers, lutein and zeaxanthin protect your retinas from the damages of getting older. Both nutrients accumulate in your retinas, where they absorb the type of shortwave light rays of light that can hurt your eyes.

Good For You Raw nuts

Heating nuts damages the healthy oils they contain. To maximize the health benefits of found in nuts such as hazelnuts, almonds or walnuts, nuts should be eaten raw and stored in the refrigerator.

Good For You Cinnamon

Cinnamon's active ingredients, methylhydroxychalcone polymers, increase your cells' ability to metabolize sugar by up to 20 times. Your risk of heart disease can be lessened with cinnamon. Cinnamon helps manipulate your blood sugar, which in turn influences your risk of heart disease. USDA research workers observed that people with type-2 diabetes who consumed 1 g of cinnamon a day for 6 weeks (about 1/4 teaspoon) significantly minimized not only their blood sugar but also their triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Cinnamon's active ingredients, methylhydroxychalcone polymers, increase your cells' ability to metabolize sugar by up to 20 times. Dust the cinnamon in your spice rack into your beverage or on your oatmeal.

Good For You Pomegranates

Pomegranates may help fight cancer and change the way your arteries age. Pomegranates have some promising health benefits. Pomegranates are a knockout antioxidant.

Good For You Purslane

Think of purslane as a great alternate or add-on to lettuce. Purslane leaves and stems are crisp, chewy, and succulent, and they have a soft lemony taste sensation.
The FDA classes purslane as a broad-leaved weed, it's a popular vegetable and herbaceous plant in China, Mexico, and Greece.
According to the researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio, purslane has the highest measure of heart-healthy omega-3 fats of any eatable plant. Having 10 to 20 times more melatonin, an antioxidant that may curb cancer growth, purslane has more melatonin than any other fruit or vegetable tested by the researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Good For You Goji berries

About the size of a raisin, these fruits are chewy and taste like a merge between a cranberry and a cherry.
Used in Tibet for over 1,700 years, these powerful berries have been used as a preventative nutrient. Goji berries have one of the biggest ORAC ratings, a method of gauging antioxidant strength, of any fruit, according to Tufts University research workers.
Only recently analyzed, research workers have determined that the carbohydrates that make goji berries delicious, cut down insulin resistance, a risk factor of diabetes, in rats.
Found in specialty food markets, integrate dried or fresh goji berries with a cup of light yogurt, splosh them on your oatmeal or cold cereal, or enjoy a handful by themselves.

Good For You Dried plums

Dried Plums equals Prunes
Prunes contain high-level amounts of neochlorogenic and chlorogenic acids, antioxidants that are especially good at combating the "superoxide anion radical." This dirty free radical, the superoxide anion radical, causes structural harm to your cells, and such harm is thought to be one of the underlying causes of cancer.

Good For You Pumpkin seeds

The piece we cast off away is the most nutritive piece of the pumpkin. Pumpkin seeds are the easiest way to consume more magnesium. Men with the highest amounts of magnesium in their blood have a 40 percent lower risk of early death than men with the smallest levels, French research workers discovered. Consume pumpkin seeds whole, shells and all, the shells are a ample source of fiber. Roasted pumpkin seeds hold in 150 mg of magnesium per oz.. Add pumpkin seeds to your usual diet and you will quickly hit your daily target of 420 mg advocated by the USDA. You can find pumpkin seeds in the health-food or snack department of your food market store, beside the almonds, peanuts and sunflower seeds.

Super Foods are not just about stopping disease. Making the right nutrition options everyday will help prevent coming chronic ills. Most researchers concur that at least 30 percent of all cancers are directly related to the food we injest. It's not only cancer that is food interrelated, about half the cardiovascular diseases are interrelated to diet as well. Our diets composed of prepared foods are killing us in the US. Our bodies are not designed for the overabundance of food obtainable, instead, we are designed hard-wired for starvation. Our bodies are designed to eat on a diet robust in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and wild-game, not fast-food, sodas, white flour, and sugar. Long term care of you body means eating the right foods in the right amounts.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Long Term Care - Getting Out of the Tub

Everyone enjoys a warm bath. Bathing is crucial to long term health. Bathing is relaxing, soothing, and promotes blood flow. For some though, bathing has risks of falling and injury. A host of new products can make bathing safe and comfortable as well. Arthritis sufferers can find relief in a nice warm bath or shower, but also find a slippery surface keeping some suffers out of the water. Others who would enjoy the tub find it difficult to enter and exit over a high tub side. There is help with those having problems getting in and out of the tub or those having problems standing.

For support while standing, a tension pole can be of assistance. Like a pole in a subway car, it is mounted between the ceiling and floor, providing a comfortable height to hold onto.

A bath grab mounted on a wall also provides something to hold onto. Be sure to select a comfortable size for gripping suitable to your needs. Many styles fit right over the tub edge without damaging to the tub. A good bath grab has various angles allowing easy grabbing while you maneuver in the tub.

Grab bars and tension poles vary in lengths, textures and colors. Finding one to fit your needs and decor should be easy. Mounted on the wall and in strategic locations, grab bars help provide support. Taking appropriate precautions before mounting a grab bar will prevent a grab bar from coming off. Be suer that the wall is capable of providing enough support before using it as a mounting surface. Towel bars a not a suitable substitution, as they are not meant to support the weight of a person. A professional should be consulted before installing a grab bar or tension pole.

For assistance with poor balance, a transfer bench allows one to sit and slide into the tub.

Sitting on the outside of the tub, the bather slides their body onto a bench in the tub. Lifting one leg at a time, the bather moves from the outside of the tub to the inside. Once in the tub, the bather remains above the water, at the same height as the top of the tub.

A bath lift allows bathers to submerge into the water. The lift lowers the bather into or out of the water with the push of a button.

A bath seat or shower stool allows sitting in the tub or shower comfortably.

Grip covers enable the bather to grip and twist existing round faucet handles with less effort.

Slipping and sliding is prevented with a non-slip bath mat or non-slip tread strips in the bath or shower.

Rinsing off is easy with a hand-held shower. As part of a shower head or connected to the tub faucet, it is easy to direct the water where needed.

There are also control valves that prevents scalding for those who cannot feel water temperature.

Other tools that assist with bathing:

Sponges with handles come in differnet lengths to ease stretching and twisting while washing back, feet, and toes.

A back scrubber with a "U" shaped handles that allows reaching your back without raising your arm or lifting your shoulder.

A hair washer with a long handle makes it convenient to wash and rinse your hair without lifting your arms.

The soap bag has a long handle that attaches to the wall. No matter how the soap falls, the soap is always within reach.

Long Term Care - Hearing Aids


Hearing loss can be the result of listening to loud music or a very noisy environment. Almost everyone experiences hearing loss as they age. Having your hearing tested by a professionally is the best way to determine the cause and degree of hearing loss. Hearing aids are usually the first line solution for severe hearing loss. But, if the hearing loss is not severe enough, products that increase volume and clarity are available to replace the hearing lost.

Some of the most popular hearing accessories:

Amplified telephones have adjustable tone that allows you to hear the higher pitch in speech that many hearing impaired people find harder to hear or have speech programs built in that loudly announce the call, caller id and phone number the caller is calling from, some keypads have oversized keys that are lighted, some have large lcd displays that show caller id, time, and date.

Portable amplifiers are compact listening products that boost the environmental volume. Portable amplifiers come in lightweight, ergonomic designs that are easy to use. Adjustable volume controls allow quick fine-tuning to the listening environment. Portable amplifiers are good for hearing loss, amplifying low frequency or high frequency sounds. Head phones or ear buds plug right into the amplifier’s jack letting you use your choice of headphones. Most portable amplifiers come with a neck strap or can be slipped into a pants or shirt pocket. Additionally, some come with a neck loop to amplify a telecoil-equipped hearing aid. You can expect about 100 hours of battery life before performance starts to degrade.

Amplified listening systems use an infrared signal to send boosted volume to earphones.. TV shows, videotapes, or stereo are sent to you at the volume you need, without disturbing anyone else in the room. Amplified listening systems can be taken auditoriums, theaters and events that provide their audiences with an infrared hearing assistance system.

Vibrating Personal Pagers are a wireless pager system that gets the attention of someone with a hearing impairment by pressing the button on a transmitter. The personal pager will chime loudly or vibrate to catch the attention of people with severe hearing loss. Battery operated with a 100-foot range, it is ideal bed for bedridden people or people that are limited in mobility.

Amplified alarm clocks are effective on the heaviest sleepers, having a volume louder than a smoke detector. The adjustable alarm volume allows you to set the sound level that wakes you up. Optionally, there models that have flashing lights or vibrate your bed.

There are many alternatives to compensate for diminishing hearing. The wide selection of new products comes in ergonomic, compact, user-friendly styles that are easily hidden or blend into your wardrobe.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Long Term Care - Magnetic Clasps


Magnetic clasps help arthritis fingers with necklaces
Magnetic clasps take the place of lobster clasps and trigger clasps that are extremely difficult to open with arthritic hands. Magnetic clasps are easy to use. Gently pulling apart releases the ends of the necklace or bracelet. Magnetic Clasps are easy add-ons to necklaces and bracelets. The magnetic clasps clip to the existing fasteners or can replace the existing fasteners.
Magnetic clasp converters quickly and easily attach to most finished chains, necklaces or bracelets. If it is difficult to open or close clasps, magnetic clasps are a welcome relief. The strong magnetic clips pull themselves together for easy fastening. Magnetic clasps are available in a variety of styles and colors to match your jewelery, magnetic clasps blend right in with your outfit.

Magnetic clasps are available in silver or a gold color that matches most jewelry.

Add magnetic claps to your jewelry and save your hands some pain.