Category Archives: Nutrition

Foods that Help us Detox Heavy Metals

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Toxic heavy metals are impossible to avoid, they are everywhere! Gas emissions, industrial processes and manufacturing, pesticides, fertilizers, deodorant sprays, paints, PVC plastics, to name but a few, all contribute to polluting our water systems and air with toxic heavy metals. Although, we need to be heavily contaminated to suffer serious nerve, brain and tissue damage or even death, light to moderate contamination also has its negative effects. Oxidative stress leading to cancer, heart disease and premature aging, a weakened immune system and an increased acidic body PH in which disease can develop more freely and rapidly are all conditions that can be cause by toxic heavy metals in out cells. Fortunately there are some everyday foods that can help us detox heavy metals.

Cilantro (Chinese Parsley)
Using cilantro to clear toxic heavy metals out of the body is a method strongly supported by several scientific studies. One of these studies, conducted in S.Korea, found that cilantro is especially effective at flushing the toxic heavy metal mercury out of the body. Patients who just had amalgam fillings removed, a process that leeks an extensive amount of mercury into the body, were tested to see if cilantro would help. The results found that those who were given cilantro excreted vasts amounts of mercury through their urine compared to those who were not treated with cilantro! As a result of this study and other similar ones, cilantro has become a staple ingredient in many heavy metal detox program. Cilantro is not just limited to detoxifying mercury either. It also helps to clear out aluminum and lead to, just not to the extent that it does with mercury.

Cruciferous Vegetables
Broccoli, kale, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower and brussel sprouts are all members of one of the most potent plant families for helping us to detoxify. Cruciferous vegetables greatly enhance our ability to remove all sorts of toxic substances from the body, including toxic heavy metals. They contain specific antioxidants called sulforaphane and indoles that stimulate the liver to greatly increase the production of detoxification enzymes needed for phase I and phase II detoxification of our cells.

Phase I detoxification actually changes the toxic substances within us to a chemical form that can be passed out of the body. Unfortunately, this makes the toxic substance even more harmful! However this is a necessary process, otherwise we would need be able to clear the toxins out. Phase II then converts these altered toxins into yet another form that is now much less harmful and safe to be passed out of our cells and bodies. Making fresh juices from cruciferous vegetables has been found to be a lot more effective for detoxification than eating them.

Preventing Disease with Hemp Seed

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Preventing disease is one of the most important things you can do. In fact, President Obama has talked about the importance of preventative care, because it is a lot more affordable than treating disease once it starts. This is because the cost of drugs is exorbitant, and in some cases, it can reach into the thousands of dollars. On the other hand, by taking some easy preventative measures, you can save yourself a lot of money. More importantly, you will not have to experience the pain and suffering of having some sort of condition, as there are few diseases that one can have without feeling a lot of mental and physical stress.

There are several things that you can do every day to make sure that you stay healthy and disease-free. The two things that you will hear most often are diet and exercise, but those are not very specific suggestions, albeit how useful they are. I would like to focus on an aspect of diet, and how one simple food can really improve your health. This food is the seed of the hemp plant, which you can purchase at any health food store, or online.

Why is this type of seed specifically so good for you? In addition to having a lot of protein built into it, the real power comes from the perfect balance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. There is also a little bit of Omega-9, as well as Super Omega-3 and Super Omega-6 (that just sounds good right there!) Fatty acids are important because they are converted by your body into endocannabinoids, which are integral to maintaining homeostasis within the other organ systems. In fact, there are many conditions where the root cause is believed to be endocannabinoid deficiency, so by ensuring that a deficiency does not occur, you should eat some hemp seed every day.

Good Practices for Purchasing Supplements

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Did you know that at least 42% of all people of United States currently taking vitamin supplements daily? That’s more than hundred million people!

However you should be aware of many good practices related to taking and buying vitamins

Price: don’t simply try to go for the cheapest brand because for many supplements you also get poor quality. This is a factor for fish oil supplements because the best fish oil will be refined and have all toxins from the original fish removed. Another example again with fish oil is that you want a certain % of EPA and DHA (important proteins for omega. Keep in mind like many other products this does not mean that you should buy the most expensive product. It simply means that you should be aware that calling for the cheapest available vitamin can be hazardous to your health.

Brand: try to find a brand that you trust and often these brands will also make many other supplements that you can then choose to also take. For example theirs a brand that I enjoy that makes vitamin A and C that I personally often take. But if later on I would want to try other supplements because I feel I need to add them in greater quantities to my diet they probably can provide it! It might be a good idea to shop in a natural food or vitamin store because the employees are more likely to have knowledge about the brands and the specific benefits of taking a particular vitamin compared to an employee in a big superstore like Wal Mart.

Try to often take your vitamins as part of one your daily meals. This is because many vitamins work better when other nutrients are present in your body. This often called co-factors because of how a vitamin alone might have a specific effect and when present with other vitamins it might have other benefits.

Here’s a brief overview of certain vitamins you should look out for depending on your diet or lifestyle.

If you follow a vegetarian diet you might have vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms due to your low consumption of food derived from animals such as meat, milk and eggs. Seaweed also apparently might contain B12 because of the suspicion that microorganism living in the actual seaweed might be a good source. If you don’t take fish oil supplements you definitely need to take a vegetable source of omega 3 such as flax seed because it’s only usually in fish.

Another example is women are more likely to be deficient in magnesium, iron, zinc, folic acid and possibly calcium. If they are nursing or are pregnant they are likely to be deficient in folic acid and iron.

So keep these vitamins in mind when you are looking at your diet. If you do not think you have ample supply of them than either specifically add foods that contain them or add some vitamin supplements!

Easily Improve Your Diet With Fresh Fruit And Vegetable Juices

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In a world where it seems that food is becoming more unhealthy every day, it is really important for people to try and eat naturally and healthily. This is not always easy – busy lives interfere with cooking healthy meals, and usually you don’t feel like snacking on a plate of carrot and celery sticks when you do get a chance to relax. However, research shows quite clearly that the secret to a long, healthy life is to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

A great way to cheat a bit is to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juices instead. This is virtually just as good, and is a great deal easier and faster to do.

You might have seen those late night infomercials about a juicer called the Power Juicer. They are endorsed by health legend Jack Lalanne, and the Jack Lalanne juicers are selling like no other machine at the moment. This juicer is very fast – it makes a glass of juice in about 10 seconds, and can process virtually any ingredient. It has been designed form the ground up to be the most user friendly juicer money can buy, and the result is a machine that disassembles in seconds, has only three removable parts, and can be entirely washed in a dish washer. You don’t need to spend long periods scraping pulp out of the parts, or scrubbing delicate small components.

The Jack Lalanne juicers have another great selling point to consider. Unlike most other juicers, they come with a 60 day money back guarantee. So if you don’t love it, you get your money back. It is unusual to find an offer like this on a machine that the retailer can’t just throw back on the shelf if you do return it – so this is one company that knows it s customers are going to be generally very happy. The power juicer also looks great, finished in stainless steel. It will complement any modern kitchen.

Health benefits of probiotics

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One way of introducing much needed friendly bacteria into the digestive tract is by taking probiotics. The benefits of probiotics are varied and many and may become necessary if there is an upset stomach as a result of bacterial imbalance in the gut. Bacteria always reside in the digestive tract and often die during times of digestive problems and illness, which can result in problems such as poor digestion and immune dysfunction.

Who can benefit:

Probiotic acidophilus supplements are completely safe and as the benefits are so varied, even people with no known conditions claim to have felt a significant difference after taking them, that there is no reason why anyone with a digestive or immune system complaing shouldn’t try them.  Probiotics are also recommended for older generations.  As we age body systems tend to slow down and by introducing a probiotic supplement it can help get the system back on track. The supplement should be taken on a regular basis to gain the ultimate benefit, particularly if you are taking probiotics to assist with an illness, stress or poor digestive function. One thing to keep in mind though is that with all of these complaints, our bodies benefit greatly from even light exercise weekly and a healthy, balanced diet.

Availability:

Probiotics that are available today come in a variety of forms. Some come in the form of natural food sources, some are developed into food powder supplements and others are synthesized. Look out for probiotic supplements which offer a live culture delivery system. This is available in the form of lactobacillus yoghurt products, or food products containing acidophilus as well as in a capsule. The best probiotic capsules should be in the fridge at your pharmacy and should be taken immediately home and placed in the refrigerator at the advised temperature setting.

Boost Your Diet with Natural Fat Burning Foods

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The fastest weight loss can be achieved by choosing the right diet plan and adding some fat burning foods to it. Read on to know more about how to do it.

Let’s talk about the right diet first. You need to think about your goals now. Are you hoping to lose weight super fast or would you rather do it a bit slower but get permanent results?

If you really are after some very quick weight loss, your best choice is a short low calorie diet like the TWA stewardess diet. This is the ideal choice if you need to fit into a dress within some days, but not really a good solution if you are after some permanent results.  Fast diets are demanding and you are likely to gain the weight you lost back once you go off the diet.

If you are hoping to lose weight for good, you need to take a look at your eating habits and make some changes there. It is often enough to remove or replace one or two foods on your diet (hint, the foods with most sugar in them are usually the key here) to start losing weight. You can also adopt a new lifestyle, like the low carb – high fat food regime, which is the best diet there is when considering long term results both weight and health wise.

Once you have chosen a suitable diet plan, you can go on introducing the fat burning foods on your menu. Some of the best foods to burn fat are cayenne pepper, cinnamon and citrus fruits due to their high concentration of vitamin C.

Cinnamon enhances the body’s ability to use blood sugar as fuel instead of storing it as body fat. 0.5-1 teaspoon of cinnamon per day is enough to get the full benefits of cinnamon. Delicious! Cayenne pepper, or actually capsicum, a chemical found in cayenne pepper, makes the body burn more fat for energy, and simultaneously reduces your appetite. The best combination for a weight loser! Consume half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper a day for these benefits. Vitamin C is essential for the body to be able to use fat as energy. A vitamin C deficiency can slow down your dieting attempts. Fresh citrus fruits are a great vitamin C source. Just remember that they are also high on sugar, so keep your citrus fruit consumption on one a day or less.

If you combine the right diet with these fat burning foods, you will get great results before you know it. Start today!

Vitamin B12 Shots as a Mood Enhancer

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Vitamin B12 has been firmly established as an essential nutrient that plays a key role in the creation and maintenance of the body’s cells. Most of the time Vitamin B12 shots are prescribed for people whose natural ability to absorb the nutrient has been compromised, since a deficiency can result in many serious health problems. However, since Vitamin B12 is generally safe and excess amounts are either stored in the body of safely excreted, it has become one of the most popular supplements on the market today. While many of the claims related to the positive benefits of a Vitamin B12 shot do have at least some clinical evidence supporting the basic contention, other claims are more far fetched. The idea of Vitamin B12 serving as a mood enhancer is one of these claims for which there is little actual evidence, though many users still claim that the nutrient, taken as a supplement, does improve their mood.

The basis of the claim is the relationship between Vitamin B12 and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), which is also sold as a supplement. SAMe is not a neurotransmitter and does not directly affect mood, but it does improve transmethylation reactions, which in turn, improves the effectiveness of the brain’s neurotransmitters. Vitamin B12 enters the picture because it is a necessary substance for the creation of SAMe, therefore people with B12 deficiencies frequently create less SAMe, which results in decreased neurotransmitter effectiveness. As is apparent, Vitamin B12 is far removed from any actual mood enhancing process, which is governed by neurotransmitters in the brain. It is certainly true that there can be a mood enhancement effect for people suffering from a Vitamin B12 deficiency, but realistically this is uncommon among most well nourished people.

The general consensus among medical professionals is that taking supplemental Vitamin B12 plays no real role in mood enhancement and that people reporting this effect receive it from the placebo effect. Further, since SAMe is directly available as a supplement in its own right, Vitamin B12 is probably superfluous for most people. Nevertheless, it can not be denied that many people do report mood enhancement resulting from Vitamin B12 shots, so it is impossible to say that this is not a real effect of taking the supplement.

Raw Chocolate Muffin Recipe

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I am a big proponent of raw foods. On what other lifestyle regime can you enjoy treats like this chocolate muffin recipe without the guilt of saturated fat and hydrogenated oils? While my diet is not 100% raw, I do incorporate aspects of the raw lifestyle into everything I eat. To me, a raw food diet consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts,  whole grains in their raw unadulterated state. Processed foods are a no-no. There are never any recipes that contain refined sugars or refined carbohydrates. Everything comes from nature.

In my everyday life, I do incorporate these factors into my lifestyle. I have cut out all processed foods, hydrogenated oils and refined carbohydrates and white sugar. I make my meals from scratch so that I am aware of everything that I am feeding myself and my family. As a result, our health has improved greatly and we have lost weight.

This is one of the healthy muffin recipes that everyone can enjoy. It contains 100% raw, unprocessed ingredients and requires no baking or dehydrating. Plus, unlike some raw recipes that are ultra complicated and time consuming, this one is quick and easy to prepare. They are rich and delicious with a cookie dough texture and taste.
Even if you are not raw, this recipe is worth a try!

Ingredients:
¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon of ground cardamon
½ cup raw organic almonds
½ cup raw organic macadamia nuts
½ cup medjool dates, pitted and sliced – pack them down
¼ cup raw organic cacao nibs


Method:
Pulse the nutmeg, cardamon, almonds and macadamia nuts in a food processor until it becomes crumbly and is well mixed.

Add the dates into the mixture and blend until well mixed. It should now all be sticking together to form a dough. Mix in the cacao nibs and pulse just to combine, do not over mix or pulverize.

Put mini-muffin liners in a 12 muffin pan. Spoon a small amount of the mixture into the liners. Press it down with your fingertips or a spoon to pack it down. Fill all 12 mini-muffin liners in the same fashion.

Chill muffins in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving so that the muffins hold together well.

This muffin recipe tastes great served along side a glass of cold nut milk such as almond or cashew milk. If you are not vegan, regular milk works well too!

Makes about 12 mini-muffins.

Enjoy!

A Convenient Diet for a Fast Pace of Life

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These days, many people lead what can only be described as very fast paced lifestyles and when they realize that they need to lose some weight, it suddenly hits them that there really is little spare time to devote to working on a regular type of diet plan. That is where the newer breed of convenience diet come into play. You can read plenty about them in the huge number of articles that have been published online, such as the many Nutrisystem reviews and similar reviews of all the other diet food delivery and related plans that are amply dispersed all over the web these days.

So are they all they’re cracked up to be, or are they more hype and hot air than anything else? Well, the better known brands have been around a long time, in fact Nutrisystem itself has been in operation since the 1970s, so it has a long history of helping people lose weight as conveniently as possible while providing healthy meals and advice to dieters. Their particular brand of diet food delivery works by having your own customized diet plan delivered to your door in batches of 28 days worth of three meals a day which you store in your freezer. Each meal is labeled and all you do is put it into the microwave for the stated time and inside of a few minutes you have your meal in front of you. Its sort of like an instant diet that you don’t even have to think about.

This is the huge appeal of diets such as these. Total convenience without any of the calculations and preparation needed as with regular diets. Just ready food that you heat up and eat and all the hard stuff is already done for you. So you might be thinking, “What’s the catch?”

The trade off is you have to pay for this convenience, of course! But even then, when you work out the cost over 28 days and subtract what you would normally spend on your regular meals, it actually works out pretty reasonable for a ready made diet that you will lose weight with as long as you stick to it. In anyone’s language, that adds up to a pretty fair deal that is pretty tough to beat.

Four Steps To Healthy Eating

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Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will changing your diet be accomplished overnight.  To have the most success its a good idea to ease into these steps gradually.  If you bombard yourself all at once it will be more difficult for you to achieve the success you desire.  I want you to succeed at eating more healthy so slow and steady is the recommended pace.  I am listing the steps from one to four because that’s they way in which I’d like you to proceed but know that the order of these steps are not written in stone.  Which step you begin with is a personal choice and my only request is that you not bite off more than you can chew.

  1. Eat A Nutritious Breakfast – Unfortunately too many people skip this meal and its a big mistake.  Eating breakfast helps to boost metabolism and an increased metabolic rate helps to burn fat.  Breakfast is undeniably the most important meal of the day especially if weight loss is your goal.  Another great reason to eat breakfast is because it increases your energy level so that have more vigor for both your mental and physical tasks.
  2. Set An Eating Cutoff Time – Don’t take in a bunch of calories when your least likely to burn them off.  It’s a good idea to cutoff your eating time at least a couple of hours prior to going to bed.  If you can try to work up to as long as three hours.  It’s good to be a little hungry because that means you’re burning fat.
  3. Redistribute Your Calories – When you eat matters but what you eat also matters.  The more times during the day that you eat, the more of metabolic surge you get.  You will burn more calories eaten earlier in the day than you will calories consumed in late afternoon.  Try to eat 5-6 meals every 2-3 hours and this alone will shed inches off your chubby belly.
  4. Make Healthy Food Choices – You don’t have to eat bland, tasteless foods to lose weight but you have to make healthy food choices.  There is a world of delicious, mouth savoring foods available for your consumption.  You can reach your goals without depriving yourself of the foods you love.