Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Book: Superfoods: The 101 Best Foods to Live Longer and Feel Younger
Superfoods: The 101 Best Foods to Live Longer and Feel Younger by Millwood Media. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
You’ll likely meet some new friends on this list along with foods that may already be a part of your diet. But they all share at least one thing in common: superfoods are foods that can have a profound impact on your health, vitality, well-being and even your longevity. Includes a shopping list that conveniently organizes the superfoods as you would find them while shopping.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Fast Snack Ideas Kids Love
Children love to snack. Unfortunately, most snacks that you can buy in the store are unhealthy. They’re packed with sugar, fat, and sodium. None of this is good for your health or your children’s. With a little advanced planning, you can have quick and easy snack ideas on hand at home. Here are seven fast snack ideas your kids will love.
#1 Apple slices and cheese - It sounds so simple and so basic but children love apples and cheese. Add a few whole grain crackers and even some slices of ham and you have a well-rounded and healthy snack idea. The good news is, it only takes minutes to prepare. Make it fun and use a small cookie cutter to cut the cheese into fun shapes.
#2 Ants on a log - This is an old favorite and can be prepared two ways. The foundation of both preparations is celery sticks cut into two to three-inch lengths. Place natural peanut butter or low-fat cream cheese down the middle. Now top with raisins or chocolate chips – they’re the ants!
#3 Gorp - Gorp stands for good old raisins and peanuts. However, you can give it any twist you like. Many children are allergic or don’t like peanuts. Substitute dried fruit chips, whole grain cereal like Cheerios or Chex. Add a few chocolate chips or candies and your children have a high fiber snack they can eat by the handful. Prepare a large batch of it and serve it as an after-school snack. It’s also great for road trips.
#4 Baked chips and salsa. Again there are two approaches to this tasty snack. You can use wonton wrappers or corn tortillas. With the wonton wrappers cut them into triangles. You’ll get two triangles per wrapper. Brush them with a little bit of sesame oil and sprinkle with salt. Place them in the oven at 350 degrees F for ten minutes. Watch them carefully. When they begin to brown at the edges they’re done. Let them rest for a few minutes to get crispy, then serve plain or with a fruit-based salsa or chutney.
If you’re using corn tortillas, cut them into squares, brush with vegetable oil and place in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes. Again, watch the time because they can get too dark very quickly. Serve with salsa.
#5 Edamame. Edamame are soy beans in their shell. You can buy them frozen or fresh. Place them in a microwave-safe bowl. Place water in the bottom of the bowl to steam the beans. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for three to five minutes. Test. If the beans are still cool, warm for another few minutes. Sprinkle salt on the beans and enjoy.
#6 Hummus. Hummus is a mixture of chickpeas and tahini (sesame paste). It’s usually made to taste. Begin with a can of chickpeas and a tablespoon of tahini. Add garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with vegetables to dip.
#7 Air-popped popcorn. You can buy an air popper for under twenty dollars. Keep fresh popcorn on hand. You can buy it in bulk. Melt margarine or spray with low-fat margarine topping. Sprinkle salt lightly and enjoy.
Kids love to snack and eat. With these seven quick and easy ideas you can be sure they’re eating healthy too.
Monday, July 25, 2011
The Power of Raw Food Enzymes
By Yuri Elkaim
Digestion is one of the most important functions our body is able to perform. Unfortunately, most people don't digest their food properly.
In my experience, having worked with thousands of personal clients, faulty digestion or an "underactive stomach" is the most common health concern I notice.
So why is digestion a health concern?
Well, consider that improper digestion can lead to nasty conditions like leaky gut syndrome, allergies, and auto-immune disorders - just to name a few.
Think Back to When... The last time you ate a heavy cooked meal.
Did feel really tired (and full) for several hours?
I know I did. And it's not fun.
Think about those big family Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners where you'd stuff yourself with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, bread, wine, and on and on.... Thankfully, those kind of meals are rare.
Cooked Foods Are Dead
Remember that cooked foods are dead. They contain no functional enzymes since the heating any living thing above 118 degrees Fahrenheit denatures them.
This makes it inherently difficult to digest these foods. After all, there's a reason that all living foods contain enzymes that will naturally assist in their digestion. But as soon as their cooked... all bets are off!
What this means to you is that your body now has to secrete more of its own digestive enzymes from the pancreas to breakdown these "dead" foods. And by the way, these enzymes can run out. When they do, you run out of life!
Think of the Toughest Piece of Steak Ever
To help you understand just how hard it is for your body to digest dead foods - especially cooked proteins - let's consider a piece of steak for a moment.
To begin with, animal protein (even in its raw state) is very tough for our stomach's to digest. But what happens when we cook meat - or a steak in this example?
All of the steak's proteins become denatured (just like those enzymes we talked about). They get all bent out of shape, coil together, and make it even tougher for our stomach to breakdown.
Just think of how many times you need to chew each bite of that steak just so you can swallow it! Maybe 100 times? Just imagine how much strain is now put on your stomach to further digest it.
So Remember This... When you cook a protein, you make it tougher and, thus, harder for your body to breakdown.
Here's another example... Taking a raw egg, throwing it in a frying pan, and watching it " coagulate" into a fried egg. Which do you think is easier for your body to breakdown - the raw "liquidy" egg or the tough, protein-denatured fried version?
If you said the latter, then you're right.
That's why if you someone has digestive difficulties and they love their eggs, one of the best things they can do is eat a soft boiled egg instead of a hard boiled egg. Less cooking time makes it slightly easier to digest.
Bottom Line - Raw Foods Are Easier to Digest
Based on what we just discussed I'm sure you can appreciate just how much easier it is for us to digest raw foods. Raw foods are packed full of food enzymes, which assist in their own digestion. They don't contain cooked, undigestible proteins.
And they're actually good for you. They contain tons of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that you simply don't get in a cooked food.
Yuri Elkaim is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and author of the raw food diet book Eating for Energy. Visit http://bit.ly/jOtBcW to get started with his FREE "Energy Secrets" e-course and discover what your diet has been missing.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The Problem With Most Raw Food Recipes
Are you overwhelmed by the complexity of the raw food diet?
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of raw food recipes taste great, but they just take forever to make.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Want a gourmet raw pizza? Great – just take 24 hours to dehydrate the crust…then add your favorite raw veggies…and then throw it all back in the dehydrator for another 18-24 hours.
I don’t know about you but I don’t have 24-48 hours to wait for my meals. And the labor-intensive nature of so many raw food recipes is really what held me back initially from eating more of my diet “in the raw”.
But that was until I discovered an easier and fresher approach to raw foods. This “easy-to-follow” approach to raw foods was developed by holistic nutritionist, Yuri Elkaim.
His program is called Eating for Energy and what I love about it is that he packs in 120 raw food recipes that take less than 10 minutes to prepare!
That’s right – just 10 minutes!
Click here to check out Eating for Energy <--------- You owe it to yourself
Friday, July 22, 2011
The Latest News About Green Beans
The Latest News About Green Beans: "It's impossible to describe the potential health benefits of green beans and ..."
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Pass the Parsley...and Celery!
Pass the Parsley...and Celery!: "
Parsley and celery contain a compound that may help protect against breast cancer, possibly by blocking the growth of tumor cells. This interesting finding, from a University of Missouri animal study, suggests that apigenin, a flavonoid found in parsley, celery, apples, oranges, nuts and other plant products, seemed to block or delay tumor formation in rats that had been programmed to develop breast cancer when exposed to MPA (medroxyprogesterone acetate). MPA is a synthetic hormone that has been found to accelerate human breast tumor development in women on hormone replacement therapy. In the rat study, apigenin blocked the formation of new blood vessels needed by breast tumors, and also reduced the overall number of tumors the rats developed. However, apigenin didn't stop cancer cells from forming in the breast in the first place. The investigators said that they're not yet sure what dose of apigenin would be appropriate for humans, but suggested that eating some parsley and fruit daily could help ensure that you're getting the minimal amount. The study was published online April 19, 2011 by Cancer Prevention Research.
Q&A: Pour on the Parsley?
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3 Easy Ways to Starting a Raw Foods Diet
By Yuri Elkaim
If you want to make a big change in your life to make yourself healthier, you may want to consider switching to a raw food diet. But you might not know where to begin. There is a lot of information about the raw food diet out there, and it can be overwhelming to the newcomer. With that in mind, here are three easy ways to ease yourself into new eating habits that will help to improve your health and assist you in losing weight.
1. Replace your coffee pot with your blender.
For many of us, the morning cup of coffee isn't just a nice-to-have, it is a life-or-death requirement. If you think about it, this isn't exactly a healthy way to live. And of course, coffee is far from a raw food, thanks to the roasting process to darken the beans, and the boiling that brews the final product. So coffee is most definitely out.
But don't try to go cold turkey in the mornings. Dust off your blender, as it is going to become your new best friend. In the mornings, you need vitamins and energy, and a green smoothie is just what the raw foods experts ordered. It's quicker to prepare than a pot of coffee, and offers a tasty way to get your body moving in the morning. The caffeine monkey on your back will take a while to kick, but once you lose him, you'll be hooked on smoothies for breakfast.
2. Learn to snack all over again.
For most of us, snacks are the nutritional equivalent of a dirty word. At the movies, it's popcorn and chocolate-covered mints. At home, it's a bag of greasy potato chips. At the bar, you order wings and onion rings. None of these are healthy, and all of them do a terrible job of properly filling your stomach.
One of the easiest ways to get you into the raw food habit is to replace those unhealthy snacks with suitable replacements. Sure, the local movie theatre is unlikely to stock anything even remotely unprocessed enough to work, but it's easy work to smuggle in a bagful of mixed nuts. At home, you can still have chips but make them dehydrated yam and kale chips. And at the bar, you can always order the veggie platter.
3. Experiment with food at least once a day.
Just like any diet, you are going to come to a point where you get bored with what you are eating. It happens. You start off with a dozen different recipes, lose half of them to personal dislike, and narrow it down to three that you love, are fairly easy to make, and you can regularly find ingredients for.
Well, you need a lot more than three meals to get by. You have twenty-one meals a week to eat and that's if you want to stick to the standard three per day. Oh, and that doesn't include snacks. So, when you run through all your original stock of recipes, go find a new book or web site. Spend a few hours pouring over the options. Or even better, go to your local grocer, and pick up one raw food item that you either can't identify, or have never tried before. Bring it home, and find a recipe for it. Do this on a regular basis, and before you know it, you're going to be hooked on the raw foods approach to eating.
Yuri Elkaim is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and author of the raw food diet book Eating for Energy. Visit http://bit.ly/jOtBcW to get started with his FREE "Energy Secrets" e-course and discover what your diet has been missing.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Protein on a Raw Food Diet
By Yuri Elkaim
There is an oft-held perception about the raw food diet that you are going to have to deprive yourself of a lot of different and important areas of a healthy diet, and if you are the athletic type, number one on your list of concerns is likely protein. After all, without a solid supply of protein in your diet, your athletic endeavors will suffer the consequences. But fear not, there are plenty of ways to eat raw, get the protein you need, and keep your sporting engine running at maximum capacity.
Nuts are the first food item that most people would think of when they hear about protein in a raw food diet. No matter what variety of nut you choose, there is plenty of protein to help build a healthy body. If you want to include more nuts in your diet, it is relatively simple to do. Most people enjoy a handful of nuts as a handy snack, but they can be turned into a milk to be mixed into a morning smoothie; crushed to make a great addition to any salad; or ground down and dehydrated to make great raw breads and crackers.
Salmon might not be a food item that you would consider when you talk about raw foods in the first place, but remember that there are two great options to eat salmon on a raw diet. If you want to eat it completely raw, you can consume it as a sushi or sashimi. If you prefer a more firm texture for your meats, you can consume salmon as a cold-smoked food. Either way offers great taste, some highly beneficial fatty acids, and of course, a great source of protein. If you want to add more salmon to your diet, you can make raw crackers and a "cheese" ball, and have a delightful and high-brow snack when company comes over.
Beef is another food group that many people forget when they talk about raw foods, but there are a number of raw options for beef that allow you get the flavor and the protein of red meat, without resorting to the damaging effects of cooking it. Many people enjoy raw ground beef with a liberal dosing of lemon juice to "cook" the meats chemically rather than with heat; another option is to consume it as a thinly-sliced Carpaccio. Of course, many people chose to not consume any animal products or by-products, so this option is not perfect for everyone.
Sprouts are another often overlooked source of protein in a raw food diet. Sprouts can be grown from alfalfa, broccoli, chick peas, wheat and many other food items. Special care must be taken when eating sprouts, as nearly every grown food can be sprouted, but not every sprout should be consumed by people. Check before you try to grow your own sprouts. Also, there are concerns regarding E-coli contamination with sprouts, which means that extra caution should be taken when purchasing, growing, handling and storing your sprouts
Yuri Elkaim is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and author of the raw food diet for weight loss ebook, Eating for Energy. Visit http://bit.ly/jOtBcW to get started with his FREE "Energy Secrets" e-course and discover what your diet has been missing.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Starting a Raw Food Diet
By Yuri Elkaim
If you are in the beginning stages of following a raw food diet plan, you might be at the point where you're starting to tire and not because you're not getting the required vitamins from your diet, but because you're hitting the beginner's wall.
The beginner will be highly excited to start the raw food diet plan. Maybe they're doing it on the recommendation of a friend, or because of a book they've read, or something they've seen on television. Whatever their motivation, the first few days are always exciting. The first big meal with no cooked items will be a real treat. The beginner will buy cookbooks, look up tips online, talk it up endlessly with their friends, and raid the local grocer more often than they used to, looking for fresh new ingredients.
But after a few weeks, even the most exciting newcomer to the raw food way of eating is going to get a little tired out. The dozens of recipes they started with have been whittled down by availability and personal taste to no more than half a dozen irregular dishes that will start to become stale and repetitive; they will have all the cookbooks they could ever use, and read so many web articles that their eyes hurt. They'll miss coffee and bread and the smell of a roast in the oven. Their friends will be sick of hearing about it, and they'll be sick of ordering salads when they go out for dinner.
In the end, the raw food diet will become just like every other diet, unless you do two mantras you need to learn, right now, and repeat every day to prepare yourself for the beginner's wall.
"It's not a diet."
If you go into eating raw foods because you want to lose weight, you can definitely achieve those goals. But if you think you can eat raw for a few weeks, drop a few sizes, and then go back to "normal living", you might as well stop right now.
Diets don't work because people don't see them as lifestyle changes, they see them as quick fixes. So once the diet session is over, they go back to old destructive habits, and gain back all the weight they lost, and lose all the benefits of their quick trip to Healthyland. Now, no one is saying that in order to lose weight and keep it off, you need to eat nothing but raw foods for the rest of your life.
But if you want to see real results, you're going to have to incorporate the information here into your own life, and make it work. The raw food diet is a lifestyle change, not a diet.
"You don't know it all yet."
You may become bored with this new raw food kick, but only if you let yourself become bored. When you stop learning, your attention falters, and other things grab for your interest. If you want to stay with it, you need to remember there is a lot of information out there, and you can't possibly know it all, but it's fun to try. Make an effort to learn one new fact about raw foods every day, a new recipe, a new way to prepare an old favourite, a new item that you've never heard of. Make every day different, and starting a raw food diet won't be so difficult.
Yuri Elkaim is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and author of the raw food diet book Eating for Energy. Visit http://bit.ly/jOtBcW to get started with his FREE "Energy Secrets" e-course and discover what your diet has been missing.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Energy Eating
By Yuri Elkaim
If you are looking for ways to increase your energy levels, one of the most important considerations in what sorts of fuel you are putting into your system. Much like a high performance car, your body will run on lesser fuel sources - but don't expect it to run as well. Many people, when they feel an energy decrease coming on, will reach for sugary snacks and fatty fast foods. But if you're serious about your health, you know you can do better. Here are some food items that you should be eating and what you should be replacing them for.
Berries are a wonderful food for energy, particularly blueberries and acai berries. Besides the natural sugars they contain, there are a host of vitamins and anti-oxidants that are essential to your continued good health. If you want to find a place for more berries in your diet, try dropping the energy bars. These high-sugar bars might give you a temporary sugar high, but they'll leave you feeling empty in no time flat.
Nuts are another great snacking option. Filled with good fats and oils, these bite-sized wonders will help to fill you up, in both energy and in feeling well fed. If you want to add more nuts to your diet, simply replace the candy you eat. Instead of reaching for a little sugar treat, keep a bowl of almonds and walnuts handy for anytime snacking.
You might have heard bad press about the next item, avocados. People see this fleshy fruit and worry about the high fat content. But really, the fats contained in an avocado are the sorts you want more of in your diet. The contents of an avocado are rich and delicious, and make any salad seem like a real treat. If you want to eat more avocados, you might consider it as a replacement for your pre-processed salad dressing, which is filled with processed oils, fatty creams and extra sugars that will do absolutely nothing good for your energy levels.
Another great anytime treat are bananas. Full of potassium and nutrients, bananas are particularly good for after a hard workout, so that the potassium can help to repair your worn and worked muscle tissues. If you need to leave something out to make room for bananas, try leaving the ice cream at the store. Still want a cool, creamy treat? Freeze a whole banana overnight, then peel and blend. Serve immediately, and you'll be shocked by how similar it is to ice cream!
And lastly, but most importantly, is water. You might look at water and see nothing but an empty fluid, but keeping your body properly hydrated is essential to keeping you energized. A dehydrated athlete is one that is not performing at their peak. Simply switch out your usual energy drink or sports drinks, and add more water to your daily diet. You'll be surprised at how much better you feel when you don't feel thirsty.
These are just some of the food choices you can make to give yourself more energy. The best rule of thumb here is, the less processed and cooked, the better.
Yuri Elkaim is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and author of the raw food diet book Eating for Energy. Visit http://bit.ly/jOtBcW to get started with his FREE "Energy Secrets" e-course and discover what your diet has been missing.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
What Most People Think About a Raw Food Diet
By Yuri Elkaim
There are a lot of misconceptions about the raw foods diet. It sounds like such a radical departure from the average person's intake of food, that people make some crazy assumptions about what it means to eat raw. Here are some of the reactions you're likely to come across, and some information to counter that well-intentioned ignorance with.
"Nothing but raw foods? That must cost you a fortune!"
This is probably the reaction you're going to hear the most. There is this conception in our culture that you can eat for very little money, as long as your diet consists of nothing but foods with the words "nuggets" or "super sized" in them somewhere. And for the average sort who wants something a little healthier, you can throw a few of those expensive veggies on the side of the plate. But nothing but veggies must be expensive.
Ahh, but the raw foods diet is more than the sum of its parsley. Veggies and fruits alone do not a raw meal make and while fresh foods to tend to cost a little more than the canned and pre-cooked alternatives, it will actually be lower if you go with bulk produce, or about the same if you prefer higher end fresh food items. Oh, and don't forget to take into account the extra energy costs of running an oven!
"How do you ever find the time to do all of that prep work?"
Another common and frightening thought for most people. We are all so busy in our daily lives, that the idea of spending even one extra moment of our precious free time in the kitchen is abhorrent.
But when you stop to really think about it, how would a raw diet possibly mean more work in the kitchen? If you're not cooking anything, you have just dropped a very large step out of the preparation time of every single meal. The occasional blending and dehydration times will never compare to the cooking time on the stovetop or in the oven.
"That's fine for the short term, but you know you aren't getting all the nutrients you need, right? I mean, do you know about protein?"
It's amazing how many people, who know so little about good nutrition, will tell you so much about the unavoidable benefits of meat protein. Surely, a raw food diet will short-change you on a lot, right? Well, yes. A raw food diet means you will have a deficit of carcinogenic charring, fattening frying oils, and all the rich and varied sugars available in almost every single processed food item.
Yuri Elkaim is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and author of the raw food diet book Eating for Energy. Visit http://bit.ly/jOtBcW to get started with his FREE "Energy Secrets" e-course and discover what your diet has been missing.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Healthiest Chocolate in the World - What is it?
You may be surprised to find that chocolate is actually a fruit. Okay, not the chocolate you find wrapped in a package and sold on store shelves, but rather cocoa beans. Cocoa beans grow on trees in warm, rainy climates near the equator, such as West Africa, Mexico, Central and South America.
Cocoa, or cacao, is rich in antioxidants and minerals that are beneficial and promote a healthy body. But, not all chocolate is created equal. With today’s manufacturing capabilities, chocolate is mass produced and often contains fillers which are not healthy for us at all. Let’s look at the various types of chocolate to see which one(s) is/are the healthiest chocolate in the world.
Dark chocolate: Most dark chocolate we find today is probably closest to the way nature intended. Dark chocolate has the most concentrated amount of antioxidants found in nature. Research has also shown that increased blood flow, lowered blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels have been achieved due to eating dark chocolate.
Milk chocolate: Milk chocolate is made by adding milk, sugar and other ingredients to cocoa. While the cocoa in milk chocolate still contains the aforementioned health benefits, some of the benefits may be diminished due to the added dairy products and sugar.
White chocolate: White chocolate really isn’t chocolate, although it is made from cocoa butter, the substance produced by pressing cocoa beans. However, cocoa butter is absent of the cocoa solids which make chocolate, chocolate. Cocoa butter is a fat, but it’s considered a healthy fat because 36% of it is made up of neutral fat…meaning it won’t raise your cholesterol levels.
Organic Chocolate: Organic is a way of growing and producing foods without the use of chemicals and pesticides. Many chocolate growers are now being taught how to grow cocoa beans using this technique. Because organic chocolate doesn’t contain any of these harmful chemicals and pesticides, organic dark chocolate is probably the healthiest.
Where can you find organic dark chocolate? Online is probably the best place to conduct your search. Other places would be health food stores, and you might possibly find it on your grocer’s shelf. Be sure to read the ingredients to ensure the cocoa used is superior quality and to ensure no other ingredients are added that would reduce the amazing flavor of real chocolate.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
The Omega 3 Factor – A Super Food Element From Within
No discussion of the world’s healthiest foods would be complete without talking about Omega 3 fatty acids. Nor would any diet be complete without Omega 3 fatty acids. These specific types of molecules play a vital role in our health and development throughout our entire life. Let’s take a closer look at these odd sounding nutrients to find out why they are so important.
Wellness Starts at the Top
First, let's try to understand a bit of brain science. The brain is made up of about sixty percent fat. This fat is found mainly within the membranes that surround the brain's nerve cells. The composition and chemistry of these membranes has a direct effect on chemical reactions in the brain. These chemical reactions are the brain's signals. The influence that more Omega 3 in the fat has on these signals has been studied extensively. It is believed that Omega 3 fatty acids promote better and faster transfer of signals in the brain. Okay. I guess that means Omega 3 fatty acids are good for you. Let's see how.
When your brain signals are working well, your whole body benefits. Besides brain health itself, other health benefits related to Omega 3s include inhibiting cancer cell growth, reducing inflammation throughout the body, prohibiting excess clotting in the blood, and reducing the risk of obesity by stimulating a hormone called leptin, which helps regulate metabolism and body weight.
While there is some speculation about the true power of Omega 3s in treating or improving things like mental disorders, heart disease, and cancer, many researchers still claim there are significant benefits to consuming foods that contain these vital fats.
Looking for Omega 3s
If you live in Alaska, Taiwan, or Japan you may already be eating enough foods rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. The reason is that these populations routinely consume fish that is fatty, in a good way. Diets that contain fatty fish are continuing to show better results with respect to less inflammatory ailments and less obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
But, if you don't live in one of those areas, you can still find plenty of the Omega 3s you need. These fatty acids are most prevalent in seafoods, with salmon, tuna, scallops, sardines, and trout being particularly rich. Other sources of Omega 3s are algae, krill, shrimp, and tofu, as well as certain nuts and seeds, like walnuts and flaxseeds.
Other vegetables and spices like cloves, mustard seeds, cauliflower, collard greens, and cabbage are good sources for Omega 3s. Even certain berries, like strawberries and raspberries, provide at least some of the same healthy benefits.
Generally speaking, eating a healthy diet rich in green leafy vegetables, lean meats, seafood, as well as nuts and berries, contributes to better health. This general guide just happens to include many foods that are naturally rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. That could be one of the simplest ways to supplement your good health, and it's all right on your dinner plate!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Guide to Great Beverages and Snacks During The Hot Summer Months
The following is quoted from the Introduction to the of the above named guide:
When the weather gets hot, everyone wants to stay cool. It's not because we don't like the sun but there is such a notion as too much of a good thing.
While you're thinking about ways to keep your body cool from the outside, don't forget that you can also find refreshment in foods. In the winter, we eat hot foods to stay warm and filling ones to keep us satisfied. We warm from the inside out. Why should summer be any different?
It's time to get in the swing of healthy summer nutrition. Choose fare that will be good to your body without weighing you down. When we spend most of our time on the go, food shouldn't slow us down.
In this [free] report, you will learn how to get the most out of what you eat. We will concentrate on drinks and snacks - two things that everybody enjoys during the warmer months. But before we go into that subject you'll learn some tips on how to get the best nutrition with a variety of fresh summer food choices. And as a bonus, you'll discover some new recipes that your family can enjoy the entire season.
Here is the link for your free report >>> http://healthybiz2000.com/coolsummer.pdf
Is a Vegetarian Diet the Same as a Raw Diet?
A vegetarian diet is a broad category of dietary choices. Generally, it refers to any variation of a non-meat-eating diet. Sometimes vegetarians eat seafood and fish, and some vegetarians eat milk, cheese, eggs, and other dairy products. However, a vegetarian diet is not necessarily composed of only raw foods.
A raw diet, on the other hand, is composed only of raw foods - generally, raw food diets are vegetarian or vegan, since raw meat is not considered healthy. Some people on a raw diet will eat sushi, or drink raw cow's milk. By definition, the raw diet is not necessarily vegetarian or vegan; but you will find that most people who adopt a raw diet also adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. It just isn't advisable to eat animal products raw.
Why Raw?
Raw food enthusiasts believe that vital enzymes are destroyed when food is cooked. Some proponents believe that a raw diet is more natural, since no other animal on earth cooks its food (that we know of). There is some controversy as to how far back in history the tradition of cooking food goes; some say it is a fairly recent phenomenon, while others cite archeological evidence that the cooking of food goes back for millennia.
Raw food diets have been credited with promoting dramatic weight loss and robust health as well.
So a raw diet is a vegetarian one, generally speaking. In fact, it is extremely restrictive in this regard. Beans, grains, and pasta are prohibited in a raw diet since they are invariably cooked. Green beans, of course, can be eaten raw.
A raw diet may be beneficial for those with food allergies. Common food allergens such as wheat, corn, dairy products, eggs, and pork would of course be eliminated on a raw food diet.
It's worth noting, however, that there are concerns about the raw foods diet. Some health experts and natural health enthusiasts warn of the bioavailability of various nutrients. "Bioavailability" refers to the ease with which the body can absorb a substance - the easier the absorption, the more bioavailable the substance.
It has been shown that cooking actually makes some nutrients more bioavailable, and inactivating certain enzymes in foods may not necessarily be bad. Cooking also helps break down fiber, which experts say makes the nutrients in the food more available for absorption.
So a vegetarian diet is not necessarily the same thing as a raw diet. Vegetarians may eat beans and rice, vegetable and tofu sautés, roasted vegetables and baked fruits. Those who eat only raw foods can get very creative with dishes, such as creating ravioli from thinly sliced fruit cut in pasta shapes.
If you decide to "go vegetarian" or even "go raw" after a lifetime of eating omnivorously, make sure you speak to your doctor or other health care professional first.
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