Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts

Saturday, 25 February 2012

Diet Deception: Diet Deception: The Blood Type Diet

The Premise:
Peter J. D’ Adamo, author of Eat Right for Your Type, says that in order to optimize the use of your food intake and channel it into the proper caloric expenditures needed to keep the body healthy, you must take into consideration your blood type. The basic premise is that Type Os are the dominant, hunter/caveman types and thus, are mainly carnivores; Type As are docile vegetarians and Type Bs are dairy-eating omnivores. According to D’ Adamo, this fact is supported by the action of lectins, sugar-wielding proteins found on the surface of certain foods that cause various molecules and cells to stick together.

The Provisions:
Type Os should stick mainly to protein-rich foods: meat, fish, tofu, eggs etc; Type As to vegetables and food of plant origins: vegetable oils, peanut butter, wheat-based products like pasta and breads, and should stay away from milk as this blood type cannot process milk. Type Bs can eat all the dairy products they want: butter, creams, etc. and since most of these products come from animal sources, meat and poultry is allowed in minimal amounts.

The Promise:
Reduces the risks of heart disease and steers you away from multi-organ dysfunction. Plus, it can ensure the proper processing of your daily intake and channel it into healthier, more effective means of expenditure.

The Prognosis:
The book contains a lot of scientifically dissatisfying, one-size-fits-all statements such as “Type Os don’t tolerate whole wheat products at all,” which leads one to believe that Type Os can generally die from taking wheat products. How much wheat can Type Os tolerate before it leads to massive heart failure or smoke?

Another argument is that “if a Type A drinks milk, her system will immediate start the agglutination process in order to reject it.” But the author offers no proof to support this statement. No statements are even offered explaining why Type As who drink milk (sometimes massive quantities of it) aren’t rushing to their graves as a result of strokes when their blood agglutinates in their entire system

Agglutination is when the red blood cells (RBC) stick together to form clumps; a process that happens when the surface of red blood cells become coated with fat or other substances that make them adhere to each other’s surfaces. When agglutination occurs, the RBC can block the blood flow in the smaller capillaries and obstruct the flow of oxygen to vital organs such as the brain, the heart and the kidneys. Oxygen deprivation leads to infraction of the tissue or cell death. Again, the whole concept of the Blood Type diet is to eat only foods compatible to your blood type to prevent agglutination. Eating incompatibility can lead to fatal consequences and eventually death.

Most people aren’t even aware of their blood types so one can safely assume that on a daily basis and based on the premise of this diet; a person eats the wrong type of food regularly. According to the author, it’s only a matter of time before it takes its toll on the person’s health causing severe damages to his vital organs.

Search if you will, but you’ll find no pathologist to support the contention that tissue infraction from lectin-induced red cell agglutination causes disease and death in humas.

The Pros’ Position:
“Being that there are no concrete medical studies to back up the author’s assertions. I don’t think this diet holds much water. If milk’s really bad for you, why does entire government launch elaborate campaigns to promote it? Why there has been no documentation on people being hospitalized by the dozen because their blood cells stuck together?” says Ana Cruz, an L.A. nutritionist and dietician who once worked for the Duke University Medical Center. 

Sunday, 29 January 2012

The Ways To Improve Our Health

Picking a healthy lifestyle can benefit us in numerous ways. It offers an enhanced energy and helps to makes our body to always feel in tune. It is imperative to discover ways on how we can improve our health.

Picking a healthy lifestyle can do well to a person in numerous ways. It will make a person’s body to feel more in sync and provides an enhanced energy.  So it is always imperative that we classify ways on how we can improve our health.

The following are the ten actions that we can execute to ensure that we get a best possible nutrition:

1. Always look at what you eat. Our meals must include healthy balanced food on a daily basis. Identifying our nutritional requirements and not indulging ourselves too much or even too little can show the way to a more well-balanced healthy lifestyle. There are a number of resources to seek advice from in order to find out our body's needs and requirements.

2. Hit the Sack.  When we are deprived of sleep, our body starts to blackout. We need to make sure that we always feel rested from obtaining a sufficient amount of rest or sleep. This will permit our body to do its role at a consistent and best possible speed every day.
 
3. Vitamins and supplements are big help. We need to pay attention to where our diet feels deficient. Once we have determined this, then we can start to balance it by taking vitamins and supplements.

4. Do Exercises. We should work out no less than four or five times a week. Doing exercises or working out helps our body to build more muscles, lose some weight and can help us to avoid getting illnesses and diseases.
 
5. Be at war with addictions. Stay away from under or over eating. This can effortlessly interrupt our nutritional balance and can cause severe problems.

6. Keep on learning. There is numerous different description of health improvement.  Health Improvement not just means diet, but there are some approaches that can be an element of your daily life. We need to keep studying and researching to decide on what are and are not efficient to help us in maintaining and improving our health.

7. Continue to be motivated. It is effortless to start working on our health improvement and it is as well easy to stop once we don’t see any abrupt results. A key feature on improving our health is by remaining steady and motivated in all our activities. It is very vital to make health care as our priority every single day.

8. Get your accurate body measurements. Knowing our body mass index taken, as well as discovering where we need to center our efforts with the aim of improving our health can assist us in staying motivated in improving our health.

9. Building networks or connections. A network consist of not only of those that can supply us information, but also aid and assist us in structuring and maintaining health.

10. Seek Advice. There are a range of health care nutritionists and providers that can help us. If we are hesitant about the essential steps to take, be connected with the right person to find out what we need to do.

We can help ourselves to live a more rewarded life by constantly working towards our health improvement.  By identifying what we need to do and by following the above steps, we can be certain that we will achieve a superior energy and nutrition.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

A Diet for Stunning Skin

The best get that perfect skin routine? It is not the up-to-the-minute treatment in a spa. It's our manner of eating. Yes of course, we are familiar to that for years. Experts believed that greasy oily foods and also chocolates don't cause a pimple breakout and that, in general, what we eat has no effect in our skin. But the latest research proves a different one. So go after these four rules on how we can feed our skin.

Stay away from white stuff 
It turned out that our favorite french fries is a cause for breakouts. However it's not the oil that's the reason, it is the potatoes. In a latest study, researchers observed the 1,200 inhabitants of an island next to Papua New Guinea and 115 hunter-gatherers in the country of Paraguay and could not find even single breakout. Do you want to know their secret?  According to Loren Cordain Ph.D., a professor of health and exercise science at the Colorado State University, their secret is a diet that consists of almost exclusive protein, veggies and fruits. Not present from their meals are carbohydrates- such as pasta, bread, white bread, potatoes, rice, and sweets- that are the foundation of our present diet. These carbohydrates send our insulin levels to soar, and researchers thinks that this sets off a chain reaction that leads to pimple breakouts.

Food switching: As a substitute of refined white carbohydrates, go for reasonable amounts of complex carbohydrates like brown rice, whole-grain bread, and whole-wheat pasta (they are being digested more gradually).  And to keep line away later, binge on brightly colored fruits and vegetables. They’re rich in antioxidants, which ward off the dangerous free radicals that lead to wrinkles, furrows, and other signs of aging.


Take pleasure in Seafoods 
Fish is a good source of omega-3 and omega-6 or being referred as essential fatty acids (EFAs), which lessen the inflammation in the body. Inflammation triggers our cells to block our skin's pore, causing acne breakout. This is according to Nicholas Perricone, the author of The Perricone Prescription. The varieties of fish that contain the most EFAs are mackerel, salmon, and tuna (mostly the albacore and variety of blue fin). EFAs can also be found in flaxseed, almonds, and hazelnut.

Food switching: Eat smoked salmon for your breakfast, eat tuna sandwiches for your lunch, and consume salmon burger in replacement to hamburgers. If eating fish is not your thing, then eat a handful of almonds as an afternoon snack.


Evict blush triggers  
While a slight color in your cheeks is pleasing, full-on reddishness is not just the look you are after. And some beverages and foods, such as cured meats, spices, MSG, and alcohol (chiefly red wine) , can be a reason for our blood vessels to widen, bringing on redness on our face, says John Wolf, M.D. , chairman of the department of dermatology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Food switching: If you have a tendency to redden easily, keep your mind on to which foods carry it on, since people have dissimilar triggers. If eating spicy foods get you redden easily, then order Thai foods without the curry and eliminate wasabi when you go and crave for a sushi. If you redden after a few drinks, hold back or at least passes on drinking red wine.


Spoil yourself with Olive Oil
If we stay away from fat or grease for the sake of keeping our waistline trimmed, our skin could be sacrificed. According to says Joy Bauer, the author of The 90/10 Weight Loss Plan, a lot of young men and women have dry, flaky skin, and it is because they do not eat enough fat. If we are getting less than 20 grams of fat a day (approximately 2 tablespoons of oil) , our skin might not be able to lubricate itself and our body may not absorb enough supply vitamin A, which our skin needs to avoid premature aging.

Food switching: shower your salad with some olive oil and toss in some nuts and avocados. I swear this won’t have any unfavorable effect on the size of your jeans.




Images:

Bread: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41061319@N00/3195546454/
Salmon: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreagp/1122613434/
Olive oil: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10413717@N08/3868212179/




Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Caffeine: The Right Way


The word “coffee” comes from the ancient Arabic word qahweh which means “gives strength”. The computer data-base at the Colgan Institute contains over 600 citations on caffeine, stretching back two centuries. So the effects of caffeine, the main stimulant in coffee, have been known for thousand of years.

Properly used, caffeine is a bonanza. Dr Melvin Williams and his colleagues at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia have produced excellent reviews, showing that caffeine stimulates the our  central nervous system, increases the release of adrenalin, increases the use of body fat as fuel, and spares glycogen.

There are also two detrimental effects of caffeine that commonly being cited: it is a diuretic which will make us lose water in our body, and is a thermogenic which means that it raises our metabolic rate and our body’s temperature.  The athletes are frequently being warned that taking caffeine can make them dehydrated. But nearly all the studies showing these effects were done with inactive folk.

Recent research using athletes as subjects, found no diuresis or thermo genesis. Dr Baraket Falk and his colleagues at McMaster University, Ontario, gave endurance runners caffeine at 7.5mg/kg bodyweight (560 mg for a 75kg man). The dose had no effect on water loss, and did not raise temperature any higher without it, in men running a treadmill to exhaustion at 70-75% of VO2max. That's about as fast as you can go in long endurance exercise. So forget those two old bogeys of sedentary caffeine use. Caffeine on the run is a different animal.

The most common beneficial finding on caffeine use is an increase in burning of body fat as fuel. Compared with controls, up to 100% more body fat is used by subjects given with caffeine. If your body is using more fat for energy, then it is sparing your muscle glycogen, and therefore will extend your time to exhaustion in long endurance events. One proviso: if you load carbohydrates, so that your muscles are filled with glycogen above its normal levels, then your body is more primed to use glycogen, and caffeine fails to increase the burning of fat. Your body always takes the easiest of its many alternative routes. Supercharge one fuel source and it will use that first.

We also have to take the caffeine at the right time. Although many exercise studies have given caffeine one hour before exercise, studies that centers on measurement of our body’s free fatty acid metabolism, show that our body's fat-burn reaction to caffeine will only begin 3 hours after ingestion. 

As a final tip. If you drink coffee to get your caffeine, which is a better way to do it than taking pills, keep away from the inexpensive coffees prepared from the beans of Coffea Robusta. They make a sour brew, brown that is hell on the gut. Go and get Coffea Arabica, like Guatemalan Antigua, Kenyan AA or 100% Columbian.  




Image 1: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1982
Image 2: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=413
Image 3: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1499








Thursday, 29 December 2011

Get Great Complexion by Exercising

As what we have we listened to all the time, doing exercises can do great for our body. Exercise can help out our physique to stay trim, get toned muscles, and assist us as well to enhance our body energy.  But what we perhaps are not aware of is the piece of information that doing exercises can truly help us attain the complexion that we have always been wanting.

It's factual that doing regular exercises can help us nourish the skin all over our body with enough supply of oxygen, nutrients and fresh blood.  Also, the improved blood circulation and blood flow as a result of a work out can help our body to secrete toxins and enhance the condition of our body’s different vital organs, including of course our skin’s epidermis.

Most of us think that production of sweat can be a cause of an acne break out.  But the truth is, sweating thru exercise will do well for any type of clogged skin, because it can help to encourage washing out of skin’s impurities from its epidermal layer and to clean out our skin’s pores.  Also, doing energetic exercises can in fact correct our body’s hormonal imbalances which triggers the formation of blemishes, thus decreasing the probability of getting a skin outbreak.

The physical activities that we like to do will assist to reduce the stress that we might come across on a daily basis and will help to prevent the production stress-related break out. Activities such as biking, boxing, aerobics, yoga, spinning, running,  pilates, etc. , are just some of the activities that you can get involved with which can help us achieved great complexion.

Bear in mind that doing exercises may not be a miraculous treatment for everything, since our skin may still have breakouts once in a while though the acne will surely be less severe and will only last for a much shorter time.
                                                    
Exercising is also good for other skin conditions that may perhaps not have to do with the existence of acne. Our skin’s losing its elasticity or may become thin and less flexible and is something that we for sure we’ll encounter as we age.  This can be an issue for most of us as we grow old. As we get older, our skin starts to lose its collagen, which will make us appear exhausted. And as most of us are not aware of, doing physical activities or exercises can certainly help in promoting the development of collagen in our skin, which will brighten up and stretch our facial skin and will make us look and feel more youthful and livelier.
And if we are worrying about our wrinkles, we should try to consider relaxing after we exercise. This has a result of making our muscles and facial muscles, become softer. This means that our facial lines will come into sight less obvious, and will assist in contributing to a more youthful appearance that we want to achieve.
             
By doing exercises we can achieve a better toned muscle, smaller waistline, softer skin, less blemishes, and taken as a whole, younger and fresher look.  If we want to add or change our complexion, we should never be indecisive to exercise.  Because exercise will help us feel livelier and will enhance our body.  And all we need to do is take a bit of a break of our schedule to do some exercises in order to attain a great skin complexion.

Monday, 5 December 2011

Vitamins 101 for your Health



‘Vitamin’ was derived from the root word ‘vitamine’ which means vital amine. So what does it do? Vitamins are very powerful natural compounds that can be found mainly in the food that we consume. These are essential to all of us because they assist the cells in our body and tissues to perform their essential functions. To keep it simple, vitamins are what our body needs in order to grow.

Vitamins have two types. First, there is the water soluble vitamin which is commonly known vitamins of which the ascorbic acid or the we call vitamin C is the most common. Another one is the fat soluble vitamins which are also being called as hormones. It was believed a long time ago that all the kinds of vitamins only belong to one single group called the B complex since they all are coming from the same source but this was later categorized as vitamins that are different from each other. 

Some of these vitamins are Inositol, Choline, Vitamin B9, B5, B3, B1, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, etc. Others are being known by their biological names such as thiamine for vitamin B1 and Biotin for Vitamin H. 

These vitamins are important component of the balanced diet that we have. Some people with persistent diseases are being advised to take different vitamin supplements by their respective doctors. However, there are people who need to watch out their intake of vitamins like women who are pregnant or those who are suffering from a bowel disorder because bowel disorder hinder the absorption of the fat soluble vitamin in the body. While the patients suffering from anemia need to be given with dose of vitamin B12 because of their body’s deficiency from this vitamin. 

To assist our body to function efficiently and stay healthy, we need to take these vitamins on a normal basis. Vitamins assist our body organs to carry out their individual functions. Without the presence of these vitamins, it is for sure that our body will become weak and sick and will suffer from vitamin deficiency diseases. Most of the time, there are sufficient amount vitamins present in our food but if we will not eat a balanced diet, these external supplements like vitamins will do the work for our body.

It is very useful and compulsory for our body to take vitamins. However, as what the old saying goes, “excess of everything is bad”. Vitamins taken in excess can be a cause of harsh damage to our body. For example, our body needs just around 400 to 800 units of vitamin D/day. If our body exceeded this amount, too much calcium will be absorbed by our bloodstream, which will harm our kidneys. In addition, supplements in no way can substitute the healthy diets, so it is still better to take vitamin-rich diet than to take supplements or vitamins.

Lastly, we should not take vitamins by gathering different information from here and there. We have to consult a Doctor. It will not hurt to consult one. Remember, little understanding is a dangerous thing.



Monday, 28 November 2011

Making it a Good Healthy Habit



Having a healthy body is very essential to all of us. There is a need to be fit, strong and energetic, have uninterrupted sleeping, and be in shape and have an ill-free body, which for sure will provide us with an excellent overall well-being. And for us to always be in shape and fit, we need to put into practice different vigorous lifestyles along with eating the right and healthy food and of course, by doing exercises.

Laziness is a barrier in achieving a good health for the body. Focus, determination and working hard is what we call for both mentally and physically in order for our body to be on top form and healthy. Aside from doing exercises, we must also avoid taking into our body some unhealthy foods that usually make us sluggish and slow such as junk foods and only eat foods that will makes us healthy and strong. Problems relating to health will surely make you suffer in the presence of obesity and overweight. So there is really a need to preserve an optimum body weight to keep in good physical shape.

Having healthy and positive lifestyle is something that you as a person need. It is very vital to keep having a positive mindset in order to be fit. It is best to always clear your mind, eliminate different stressors and negative feelings and fill it up with a ton of positivity. Optimistic feelings like this can be very revitalizing and at all times will lead you to great things in life. You can also be engaged in different activities such as yoga or even meditation to throw out that negativity and strengthen your mind with positive thoughts.

Consuming healthy foods is also essential for you to be healthy and in shape. Food such as fruits, lean meat, nuts, vegetables and even tubers can maintain your body and keep it strong. You should avoid eating foods with preservatives. Taking in improper food is the main reason in getting diseases and ill health. Due to this, a lot of people are being diagnosed to have illnesses like cancer, diabetes, obesity, etc. Effortless change in your lifestyle or diet routine can root a huge difference and can better develop your health significantly. Make an effort to stop consuming alcoholic beverages and smoking.

To ensure a good health, you need to do some exercises daily. Doing some exercise especially in the morning can make you feel refreshed for the whole day. It can set your good mood and it will help you to think positively and only consume healthy foods. Activities such as walking, biking, playing your favorite sports, swimming, etc will surely help to keep you in shape. Go for an activity that you will enjoy. Why not try to have your work outs done in an open air or an open field? This way, your feeling will be refreshed.

In addition to exercises, getting you with a good sleep and rest will keep you healthy. It will refresh your mind and can help you feel healthy if you are getting Sound sleep or quality sleep every time.

Never make sudden severe changes in your life style. Start with the simple changes and just enjoy it. You should try to put together these simple changes into a customary routine for you to achieve a long term health success. It is very essential to make progress into your health for you to be happy and enjoy your life.





Wednesday, 16 November 2011

The Importance of Health Fitness



Exercising and working out is a great way to always look and feel better in getting a total wellness for our body. The physical as well the mental well-being of a person always depends on it. One good thing about exercising is that it can help a person lessen the chances of getting heart diseases or even diabetes. It is also good in the reduction of various effects of depression and getting rid of different stressors.
Getting the mental and physical benefits of health fitness are always well worth all the hard work. It will make certain that you are able to live a happier life and is always in good shape. Now, I have one great question for everyone. Do you want to just live your life or do you want to enjoy life and take pleasure in your existence? The choice will depend on you.

Discovering different activities that will develop your current fitness level is what Health Fitness entails. Everyone has a different existing level of fitness. It varies from person to person. It can be brisk walking for 10 minutes. For some, it can be jogging an extra 1 mile. It can also be a hardcore weightlifting. So the point here is you have to begin your fitness level and you must only make an assessment to where you want your health fitness level to be, say next year or next two years. Ensure that you set realistic goals that are very tough but are still attainable.


Improving your health fitness can involve too many ways. You yourself can select and participate to different activities that you will surely enjoy. It is a good way to be healthy while getting a self motivation aside. If you love and will take pleasure in playing basketball, then let yourself be engage in that sport maybe twice a week. And if you hate gymnastics then do not force yourself to do it. Find other exercises that will promote a healthy heart but that will keep you motivated and enjoyed.
      
It has been a long time that our society, viewed doing exercises as something awful that we always have to stay away from it. And spinning the entire situation into something that is positive will do great help in achieving very promising health fitness goals.


Now, how many among us take some time to meet our own needs on a normal basis? I guess, not all of us. We have our families and career that make us busy as a bee. You then should take some time to find value in yourself for at least once a week. Grab this opportunity to do something, new things for yourself. You can simply soak in bubble bath yourself or read a very interesting book. Try as well to take a pastime that you will enjoy or will let you learn new skills. A quality time like this will surely help you get relaxed and relieved stress. It is one great importance of health fitness.

This isn’t all about exercise either. Proper way of eating also plays a vital role in health fitness. You for sure will feel very sluggish and irritable if you will consume large amounts of carbs and sugar. They will provide you a momentary boost of energy but not for so long. Consuming fresh fruits and veggies will help you sustain your energy levels all day long. This will let you consume fewer calories but you feel full all day long.

Health Fitness is an essential issue that most of us need to focus our interest on. Because it influence both our physical and our mental well-being. As a final point, it gives us the chances to be the healthiest we can be.

Sunday, 6 November 2011

Overall Health: Fitness and Dieting



If we are to talk about having an extended and a healthy life, two components are needed to be considered. We have to consider fitness, and of course, diet. For sure many of us think that these two are just the same and cannot stand alone from each other, but reality check, they can be. It can be possible to still have an ideal healthy diet that comes with an improper fitness practice. Likewise, it is also not impossible to be very physically fit and buff but still satisfying a savory eating habits.

I always remember the line from a song by Jimmy Buffet “Fruitcakes” when the lady is crying for this line, "I treat my body like a temple…You treat yours like a tent", in cases I visualize that all the human in the world who are into the process of garbage in, garbage out plans on their diet and are extremely willing and wanting to attain the weight loss success of those people, celebrities and sports figure advertising different diet products.

Is it achievable to take away extra pounds by dieting alone? To be totally honest, yes it is. Though it may be very difficult but still, it is doable. It is also within one’s capabilities to be fit physically yet still have small extra pounds present in their body. And in totality, we are what we eat. It reflects to who we are as a person. By consuming a rich fat but with low substance diet, our bodies for sure will lack the fuel that is essential in burning our body fat. Simultaneously, by not providing our bodies with the essential tools it needs in building muscles, the weights we are lifting will no longer matter and will become useless.

So how can we get the best possible fitness and diet results? 

The answer is we can achieve the optimum results when fitness and a healthy diet work mutually rather than independently. Bring into play your usual fitness activities to shed extra calories and utilize your diet in order to greatly deliver your body with the nutrients and fuel that it needs in building more muscles. A lot of times in my life, I’ve been informed that a pound of muscle is less than a pound of fat upon weighing the two. Though this may not be correct at all, regardless, a pound is still something; a pound of muscle take up less space in the body than that of fat. And with that in mind, I would then be composed of muscles rather than fats.
Diet by itself does not help in muscle generation and that is something you will do well in remembering your efforts. 

You must also realize that as you are building more muscles you may be shedding inches and still not showing an enormous deal of progress on the weighing scale. It is extremely imperative that you instill this in mind during the whole weight loss course. Progress should not me measured by the scales alone or you will achieve deceptive results. The issue is that far too many people do just this and get bothered and give up when in reality without their knowledge, they are actually making progress. Please do not allow yourself victimize by the scales. Get a mirror, look at it and try on your tight jeans, and assess your waistline. Measure your improvement by how you feel with your body after climbing a trip of stairs and not by how many pounds fell of the scale this week.
And by including body fitness as being a part of your diet practice, you yourself is allowing your entire body to take away extra calories that you may have eaten during the entire day This means that if you would want to have some cheat meals during the day, you can still make up for it by burning additional calories than the normal in the evening. This should not be happening often but an intermittent occurrence for sure isn't going to make or break your diet plan

Everyone should also look at these (dieting and fitness) as a relationship that is something like a ball and glove. For sure you can still play the ball without having the glove, but it will work a lot better if you have and is using both. Diet and fitness when come together can produce very incredible results for weight loss for those who are taking them both sincerely. The thing that we should always keep in mind is that neither works as well without the other and neither will deliver results unless you are very eager and wanting to do the work. And to attain the best promising results, you must make this as a priority in your life.