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Monday, December 26, 2011

Fresh Hot Cocoa - More Effective in Reducing High Blood Pressure Than Green and Black Teas

!±8± Fresh Hot Cocoa - More Effective in Reducing High Blood Pressure Than Green and Black Teas

Just recently, a wave of enthusiasm towards green and black teas as heart healthy drinks has made these Oriental favorites into popular American drinks. But one treasure from ancient Americas stole the attention from these drinks--fresh hot cocoa. Which is the best of the three? Let us examine cocoa's properties.

Cocoa can reduce high blood pressure more effectively.
According to a recent research, cocoa stands a better chance at lowering blood pressure compared to black tea and green tea. It turns out that this rich, dark drink can produce results almost similar to laboratory-produced medications prescribed for blood pressure. With this effect, it is possible to reduce the odds of developing blood pressure-related illnesses. Disorders can be reduced by as much as 20% among regular fresh hot cocoa drinkers.

Cocoa drinks have more dynamic polyphenols than teas.
While both drinks have high levels of polyphenols (a type of antioxidant), dark chocolate possesses the more potent type.

Flavonoid content of cocoa plays a huge role in the reduction of blood pressure.
Dark, pure chocolate has more flavanoids than black tea or green teas. The flavonoid epicatechin which is found in dark chocolate can reduce the chances of cholesterol collecting in the blood vessels and of blood clotting. It is also known for its property to delay the immune response that leads to the clogging of the arteries.

Unless you are someone who hates chocolate (which is very unlikely), you would definitely love the news that very dark chocolate can do more good for you than you can ever imagine. So try to incorporate this into your diet and you will most likely decrease your chances of developing heart problems. You will increase the likelihood of reducing blood pressure-related problems. However, you should remember that despite these benefits, chocolate is still packed with calories, and the addition of this in your diet would mean a reduction of something else.

Fresh Hot Cocoa - More Effective in Reducing High Blood Pressure Than Green and Black Teas

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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Diet Shakes Vs Green Smoothies - Which is Better?

!±8± Diet Shakes Vs Green Smoothies - Which is Better?

You've heard of a fruit smoothie. And you've heard of a diet shake. But have you heard of green smoothies? A green smoothie is nature's own diet shake. They are sweet, creamy, delicious-and packed with nutrition. If you have tried diet shakes in the past and like the convenience but can't get too enthusiastic about the taste, try whipping up a smoothie.

A green smoothie is simply a fruit smoothie with vegetables added. Despite the name, your smoothie might also be a vivid purple or chocolate colored depending upon the ingredients. You can add whatever veggies please your palate. Leafy greens are popular, and you should probably include them for highest nutritional value. Spinach, romaine, collards, kale and parsley are all good choices. But, you can also throw in red leaf lettuce, mint, basil, red pepper, celery and tomatoes if the mood strikes you. It is best to vary your greens so that you get a wide spectrum of vitamins and minerals.

Green smoothies provide energy to power you through your mornings. Rich in fiber and high in antioxidants, they can also provide an abundance of vitamins like A, C and K. Contrary to popular opinion, greens provide a readily available source of essential amino acids (protein). In addition, you may find that the more fruits and vegetables you consume, the more your body seems to crave. These smoothies are just as convenient as diet shakes. You can make one fresh each morning and sip it on the way to work. Or, carry your smoothie along in a chilled thermos for a snack or fast meal replacement.

The best green smoothie recipes include a liquid, such as water, soy or almond milk, or a splash of grapefruit, lime or lemon juice. To keep the calories down, avoid using liquids that have added sugar, like a commercial smoothie mix or base. You can include frozen ingredients to make your smoothie thicker. Add in ice, frozen juice cubes, or frozen chunks of fruit. Frozen banana give the drink a creamy consistency, just like your favorite fast food shake. Green smoothies also include fresh fruit. Use whatever fruit you like: grapes, berries, cherries, mango, oranges, pears, kiwi, peaches or apricots to name just a few.

Here is a recipe to get you started. It has approximately 145 calories in one large serving. With a delicious drink like this, who needs an artificially sweetened and flavored canned diet shake?

Bluebana Smoothie

2 cups Romaine lettuce
1 banana (frozen, cut in chunks, or fresh)
2 cups blueberries
1 cup water
4 to 6 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Makes one quart or two large servings. Enjoy!

Diet Shakes Vs Green Smoothies - Which is Better?

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Breaking News! The Holidays Are Coming and YOU Can Stay Healthy

!±8± Breaking News! The Holidays Are Coming and YOU Can Stay Healthy

Yes, we've all been there before - early January comes and we're feeling sluggish, heavy, bloated, and perhaps a bit guilty. I'm on a mission to revolutionize how we take care of ourselves, all year long. But the best place and time to start is here and now.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and the "Festive Season" rolls in quickly after. It can often seem a bit overwhelming, so many events geared around food, seeing family & friends, getting all the work done before you go off work or traveling. Or maybe it's just tough to be at home with a chill in the air, comforting, warm food in the house, and to NOT overeat.

I've put together my 7 best tips on how to care for yourself during these next couple of months - through all of the celebrations and all of the invites. And I'd like to invite you to join me in self-care without deprivation. Yes, I mean it - no dieting, no self-punishment or torture. Let's aim to get to January feeling great, feeling strong, and feeling nurtured.

7 Empowering Ways to Stay Healthy During the Holidays

1) Be your own friend.

You, whether you fully accept it or not, are a human being, and you have amazing, wonderful qualities. Choosing unhealthy food choices (whether it's foods that aren't good for us, healthy foods in too large quantity, or both) is always a sign that you arenot valuing yourself in the way you deserve. Before you make these choices, just take a minute to think about how great you really are - think of your 3 best qualities, nice things you've done for someone else lately, and/or what your friends really love about you. And know that these good qualities - they are your truth.

2) Always acknowledge that you have a choice.

The diet industry doesn't want us to believe that we are powerful enough to make our own choices. They make a heck of a lot of money on the premise that you're not. Then they get to tell you what to do.

I'm telling you, YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE. You can choose to eat German chocolate cake all day long, you can get up early and go running, you can get drunk every night, or you can base every meal around fresh veggies. All of these have consequences. But know that the choice is YOURS and YOU ARE CHOOSING the results as well. Your friend who wants you to join her in one last piece of pie does not have the power to make you do so - you can say yes, you can say no. You can take the pie home if you want, for later. It's you who makes the choice. And sometimes, of course, you will join her for that pie. Just make sure YOU choose to do so. It's totally liberating when we realize that we do have the power of choice.

I don't care if you say you want to feel great in the morning, and then you gorge yourself on 8 beefsteaks & a cheesecake, and feel sick. Well, really I do care, but it's not my choice. It's not something I'm going to do for you. It HAS to come from you. And you need to know you are making ALL of your own choices.

3) Keep drinking.

Water that is, in whatever form works best for you. Carry a water bottle with you if you like, or a thermos & drink herbal tea. Lemon & ginger tea is a great combo this time of year - detoxing, warming & soothing. If you stay hydrated, I promise you, your food cravings will be less - they may still be there, of course, but they will be less.

If you plan on drinking alcohol (and remember it's your choice), then increase your water intake even more - perhaps have a pint glass of water for every one of booze. Whatever works to remind yourself to drink water. And, of course, remember that if you drink alcohol at all, your judgment will be compromised so you'll be less aware of what you're eating. I'm not saying don't drink, just be conscious of what you're choosing, so if drinking & losing control is an issue for you, then you can have a plan to be prepared for it.

4) Choose your own guidelines ahead of time.

If I'm going to a big party, event, or gathering where I know there'll be great food served for hours at a time, I try to tune into myself and the situation before I go. How hungry am I now & how long do I have before I'll need to eat? What foods am I craving today? Is it a holiday & I really want the foods associated with that day? It helps me to know how long I'll have before I'm truly hungry, and to keep a mental guide with me in while I'm at the event.

What works best for me is to work out how long it will be before I'm hungry, then to hold off eating until then, and to consciously choose* what will feed me best in that moment. In doing so, I'm not depriving myself and I'm not overeating. I'm making choices, which will help me to satisfy myself and feel good later.

*I know it's not always easy to consciously choose what you're going to eat if you're at a dinner party, but in these cases you can consciously choose to be present & relaxed, and to still choose how much of it you will eat. Just because someone serves you a huge plate of their food, it doesn't mean you have to finish it.

5) Wherever you are, whatever you eat, eat it slowly.

This one's quite straightforward. The more you chew your food, and the slower you eat it, the better you will digest it, and the less chance you will eat too much. How slow is slow enough? You can count your chews, if you like, but it's not the most social of behaviours. Better off, just slow down, and try to be one of (if not the) last ones to finish. If you're always the first one done, then this especially applies to you!

6) Celebrate & Have a Good Time.

You know you can celebrate by doing other things than eating! In fact, food should play only a small part in a good party. Good conversation, dancing, perhaps walks outside, helping to cook, serve or clean up, playing and making art with children, playing music/singing, offering to walk the dog, offering to get people drinks, helping to decorate or light the fire...the list could go on and on...there are always more ways to celebrate and there are always other things to be done at parties.

7) Make sure you get adequate self-care throughout the whole season, beginning now.

Start taking immune-building herbs today (if you are unfamiliar with this idea, ask a local herbalist or health-food shop). Cold & flu season, combined with overindulgence & stress is just a recipe for illness. Start building your immune system, get regular exercise throughout the winter months (maybe start a new exercise class in November or December, instead of in the New Year), and make sure to treat yourself (at least once a week, if possible) to things like warm baths, body massage or reflexology, healing sessions, quality time with close friends & loved ones. And keep laughing - it's great for you.

Breaking News! The Holidays Are Coming and YOU Can Stay Healthy

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

How to Lose Weight While Still Eating Bad Foods Everyday

!±8± How to Lose Weight While Still Eating Bad Foods Everyday

Losing weight is hard enough, but having to give up your favorite foods to do so is almost like torture. It's like you're losing part of your identity.

Well fear not. I have 2 simple tricks you can do before and after each meal that will help you to lose weight while still allowing you to eat those "bad" foods that happen to be your favorites.

The first trick is to eat a small salad or a homemade soup before each meal. Simple, huh? Here's what you're actually doing when you do this.

You are crowding out bad calories with good calories. You're still eating those bad foods that you like, but you'll automatically start eating less of them. This "crowding out" effect is great because you're shifting to better sources of calories... and usually less calories.

Now don't make the mistake of loading your salad up with a high calorie salad dressing. Just use lemon juice, organic apple cider vinegar, or virgin olive oil. Nothing else!

Another mistake is to use soup from a can. It's better to make it from scratch. Get some broth, chop up some celery, carrots, chicken breast, etc. Cook up a huge batch and just grab some of it before each meal. Or use a thermos or tupperware if you're on the go.

So what's the 2nd trick?

The second trick is to eat an apple or half of a grapefruit after your meal. This works great for weight loss because of the high fiber and high volume of water in each of these. The high fiber also helps to crowd out calories. It will crowd out future calories later in the day. So this trick is more to moderate your future calorie intake and prevent snacking.

You'll be much less likely to eat snacks. You'll also space out your meals more properly since the fiber naturally makes you feel full. So you won't be feeling hungry 1 hour after you've just eaten.

So there you have it. Two simple tips that pack a powerful weight loss punch. Easy? Yes. Boring? Yes. Effective? Yes! This works. So why aren't you doing it? Just try it out for a few days and see for yourself.

How to Lose Weight While Still Eating Bad Foods Everyday

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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Digestion and Absorption of Carbohydrates

!±8± Digestion and Absorption of Carbohydrates

The digestion of carbohydrates begins in the mouth, for the teeth and tongue to perform mechanical digestion, while amylase, a salivary enzyme, begins the chemical digestion. Both the mechanical and chemical processes of digestion are necessary to initiate the breakdown of the food. As the food reaches the stomach, the digestive processes temporarily stop due to the acidic conditions of the stomach which inhibit the activity of salivary enzymes. When the food reaches the small intestine, pancreatic amylase and oligosaccharides from the small intestine continue the digestion process until the carbohydrates are reduced to monosaccharides and are absorbed.

After being absorbed in the small intestine, the monosaccharides enter the bloodstream where they are: transported to cells that require them for energy, stored in the liver or muscles for later uses of energy, or remain circulating in the blood awaiting future transportation to a cell. When excess amounts of carbohydrates are circulating in the blood, they may be transported to adipose tissue to be stored as fat.

Sugar substitutes are created to allow food to digest easier, while alleviating a number of the problems that occur with sugar ingestion; such as an increase in blood glucose, increase in caloric intake, and promotion of tooth decay. Sugar alcohols are often used to solve the problem of tooth decay. Sorbitol and Xylitol are examples of sugar alcohols. Another group of sugar substitutes that are non-caloric and non-promoters of tooth decay include aspartame and saccharine. Actually, both aspartame and saccharine contain 4 calories per gram, but both products are approximately 200 to 400 times as sweet as sucrose; therefore, in the amounts consumed, their caloric content is virtually nothing. These help digestion because they lower the density of the enzymes involved in the digestion process, allowing them to work faster. As many people consume sugar substitutes to reduce caloric intake, an important question recently raised is whether consumption of sugar substitutes is healthy. Today, the use of sugar substitutes has never been associated with an increase in caloric intake or a gain of weight in humans. There are, however, some health issues that need to be kept in mind when consuming sugar substitutes as some people have adverse reactions to them, and the effects of long-term use of the products are not yet known. Despite the advantages in digestion, most people should limit their consumption of any sugar carbohydrates, and even sugar substitutes.