Your Body And Antioxidant Foods

Even though a lot of people don’t actually realize it, a lot of antioxidant foods that we consume are from vegetables. Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and peppers are all excellent choices with some great benefits for your body. When consuming vegetables, you should always go for those that are rich in color, as they are high in what is known as phytonutrients.

Phytonutrients are nutrients found in the skins of several fruits and vegetables, which give the food color as well as flavor and scent. Phytonutrients are quite simply the best types of antioxidant foods that you can find anywhere. If you are looking for a supplement value, the coq10 offers you a high level of antioxidant value.

Although fruits and vegetables are the best sources for antioxidants, the problem with them is that they are produced by the use of chemical herbicides, pesticides, and different types of fertilizers. Over the years, studies have shown that fruits and vegetables which are organically grown are high in antioxidants, and boast a much higher concentration than those that have been produced commercially.

In the busy world of today, it can be very tough to eat like we should, nor can we eat organic fruits and vegetables all the time. If you can’t or don’t have access to organic fruits or other sources of antioxidant foods, you should look into nutritional supplements that offer you the phytonutrients you need in your diet.

Supplements that contain phytonutrients do have advantages when compared to certain fruits, such as carrots – which can elevate your blood sugar level to a very high level. Phytonutrients found in supplements are the extract of pigments where nutrients are concentrated, meaning that they draw the best from antioxidant foods, leaving the calories and sugar behind.

Don’t get the wrong idea here, fruits and vegetables are indeed good for you. They are high in antioxidants, although those that are produced commercially generally come with chemicals and such that aren’t so good for you. Canned fruits and vegetables come with high levels of sugars and calories, which antioxidant supplements don’t have. The supplements offer you the levels you need, without any chemicals, sugars, or calories. This way, you don’t have to worry about consuming anything that isn’t good for you.

No matter how you look at it, healthy eating for your body starts and end with foods that contain antioxidants. There are several types of foods that contain antioxidants, although fruits and vegetables contain the most amounts. Steak and meat are also great sources of antioxidants, along with other great benefits, such as protein. Anytime you can’t get foods that contain antioxidants – you can count on supplements to deliver the amount you need to stay healthy.

Why You Learn About Food Nutrition Facts?

If you’re a parent then you know just how important nutrition can be to your growing child. You’ll also know just how difficult it is to get that nutrition into your child. It’s an almost impossible task these days to get your child to eat properly, and it’s probably a good bet that you don’t get too many nutrition rich foods into you either. However, you do need to be aware of what a proper diet can do for you, and for this a guide to some food nutrition facts might just be what you need.

These days it’s just so difficult to get anything into your kids mouths unless it’s first been run through a vigorous treatment of processing. Anything where all the goodness has been leached out, or alternately where all the nutrition has been overwhelmed by other substances, is the type of food that you’ll find is what your kids want to eat. And when you’re in a hurry, this is the food that you’ll resort to eating as well.

Almost all processed foods are at the root of all your bad eating habits, and you should become of aware of this so as to be able to at least put a halt on it. You won’t be able to do it cold turkey, and you might not even be able to do it at all, but if you know your food nutrition facts it’ll be that much easier for you to make an informed decision.

Food nutrition facts can help you decide what foods are not good for you and what foods are. You’ll even come across some food nutrition facts that target fast foods alone. From this you should be able to decide which type of fast foods you really should stay away from, and which types are alright to eat.

When you start learning about food nutrition facts there’s even a good chance that you might become so horrified to learn what you’re eating that you might even try a complete change in your diet. Even if this only lasts for a little while, it’s okay, since you’ve tried a better healthy living plan. You might lack the commitment to it now, but when you’re ready you’ll come back to it and start looking into all those food nutrition facts again.

There’s really only one thing that you need to remember right now though, and that is that processed foods are bad for you. Along with artificially sweetened beverages these can become an unhealthy living style for you and your kids. So look into some food nutrition facts and find a better way of living and eating that will be healthier all around. You’ll not only be healthier for it, but ultimately you’ll be happier for it too.

Whole Foods vs Shakes For Muscle Gain

Copyright 2006 Jonathan Perez

After many years of spending hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars, after getting sick on them, and after seeing NO KIND OF RESULTS from them, many have finally realized that they are WORTHLESS.

Yet, many are still confused if the supplements that are sold as “Meal Replacements”, “Weight Gainers”, “natural supplements”, and “amino acids” have some good use in substituting for some WHOLE FOODS.

Surely you see them in just about every other page in every-single bodybuilding / fitness magazine. Everyone at the gym uses them.

Go to any grocery store and they have them there too. Yes, even you have probably used them and / or are using them right now………

Shakes and supplements.

Many different “meal replacement” powders and shakes, also known as RTD’s, are sold as being a substitute for a real, whole food meal.

The makers claim that they are “just as good, if not better, than eating a real meal”.

They claim to have higher amounts of protein, lower amounts of sugar, and add in ingredients such as BCAA’s, Glutamine, Creatine, HMB, CLA, so on and so forth.

They claim that your muscles need a high amount of this and that, and that you can’t get those from just eating the right foods. …..

That’s what the makers claim.

First off, no supplement that is out on the market right now will build any kind of real, permanent muscle on your body, none!

Not creatine (which makes you gain nothing but “water weight”), not glutamine, not HMB, not NO2, not any one of them.

If you are skeptical, perform a test on yourself:

For one month, don’t change anything about your training routine or your eating habits.

Measure your arms, your chest, and your waist with a measuring tape and fat calipers.

Take one supplement, and only one. Use it for that month.

Then take your measurements again.

I guarantee you that your measurements will reveal that your arms or chest didn’t get any bigger or vascular, regardless of what the weight scale says.

Yes, some people report gaining 8-10 pounds of weight after one week of using creatine, but are those 8-10 pounds muscle? No!

They are made up of water and / or fat. The measuring tape and fat calipers will reveal that to you.

So, when a meal replacement shake or powder advertises that it is better than eating whole food because it contains all of these extra “muscle building ingredients”, don’t be fooled.

Even if it actually contains those ingredients, they don’t work anyway!

Second, meal replacements claim to have a certain amount of protein grams, carb grams, and fat grams.

Well, lately there have been several analysis done on many popular supplements, and it has been discovered that many of them do not contain the amount of ingredients as printed on the label!!

Just a while back a report was written that a popular “protein bar”, that claims to taste like Snickers, contained up to 7% less amount of protein than the label claims.

And it contained much more sugar than stated.

Many of these makers “skim” on the ingredients to bring the cost down of making those supplements, while lying on the nutrition labels, just to make a bigger profit!

Third, the price.

A meal replacement powder can cost you up to $3.00 PER PACKET, while it would probably cost you $1.00 or less if you were to eat the same amount of calories from real food.

I don’t know about you, but I rather keep my money in my pocket.

Fourth, and probably the most important out of all, is that powders and shakes contain many ingredients that are down-right harmful to your internal body.

In order to make these “meal replacements” into powders and to be able to be stored for long periods of time (for shipping and sitting on the store shelves), many chemicals and preservatives must be added.

What do you think happens when you are constantly putting into your body foreign chemicals and preservatives, substances that are not from nature.

Your body does not handle well those types of unnatural substances.

Instead of making you gain muscle, all you will get is a BLOATED STOMACH, DIARRHEA, and EVEN FAT, since your body doesn’t digest it well.

How many times have you drunk a protein shake and 30 minutes later you start to get “gas”?

That’s your body’s way of telling you that it cannot handle that shake.

Also, “meal replacements” DON’T contain vital nutrients that are a “must-have” if you want to grow a healthy physique, such as vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, enzymes, etc.

These powders don’t have any of those things.

Don’t believe me, read the nutrition labels.

On the contrary, whole foods are natural, they contain all of the vital nutrients that your body requires to get big and strong, they are much less in price, and they won’t cause you to go running to the nearest toilet.

Without a doubt, if you want to gain muscular weight, forget about those disgusting-tasting meal replacement powders and shakes, and eat real whole foods, just like our ancestors did back before the supplement industry came along with all of their lies.

What Are the Symptoms of a Food Allergy?

Do you develop hives after eating a certain food? Do you find it difficult to breathe after eating a certain food? If you do, you may be suffering from a food allergy. Unfortunately, for some individuals it isn’t so easy to tell if they are. This is most commonly the case when symptoms are not severe. For more information to help you determine if you do have a food allergy, please continue reading on.

One of the best ways to determine if you are suffering from a food allergy is to visit your healthcare provider. Many develop tests or trails to determine which food or foods you are allergic to, if any. It is also a good idea to visit a doctor if you suspect that you may have a food allergy, as they may be able to provide you with information and tips on making a lifestyle change, which may include eliminating the food or foods that are causing your problems. Medication may also be given.

As previously stated, hives are a good indication that you may be suffering from a food allergy. In fact, hives are one of the most common symptoms experienced by those who do have a food allergy. Hives are easy to notice and spot. If you develop hives, they can be treated with use of oatmeal. A great home remedy involves taking a cup of bowling water and pouring it over oatmeal. After a few minutes strain, then let cool some more and dab on the hives with a cotton ball or cloth. While this home remedy will help with your hives, it is still important to determine which foods are causing them.

Swelling of the tongue and throat are two more common symptoms of a food allergy. These symptoms can, unfortunately, lead to difficult breathing. If you ever experience these symptoms, you will want to seek medical attention right away. This is important if you have not officially been diagnosed as having a food allergy, as you may not have helpful medication on hand.

Those who suffering from food allergies who have a reaction may also feel light headed or experience a loss of conscious. If this happens to you, it is important that medical attention is sought right away. In fact, death can be the results if improper medical attention and care. That is why it is important to seek medical attention the moment that you suspect you may have a food allergy. As previously stated, hives are a good sign that you may. You should seek the advice of a professional in the medical field before your symptoms are able escalate.

Once you have officially been diagnosed as having a food allergy, it is important that you let those around you know of your diagnosis. This is particularly important if you regularly eat dinner at the homes of your friends or relatives. Those individuals will need to know what not to include in their meals or they can make alternative arrangements for you. This notification is also important in case you have a reaction. As previously stated, those that are around you need to know the proper way to react, whether it be administering medication or calling for an ambulance.

As stated above, it is important that you seek medical attention if you suspect that you have an allergy to food.

What Is “Muscle Building Food?”

In the bodybuilding world, you may hear about “muscle building food.” What exactly is “muscle building food?” Is this food that actually builds muscles for you? “Muscle Building Food” is essentially food that aids in building muscles. It does not, by any means, build the muscle for you.

Most “muscle building food” is high in protein. Protein is essential to bodybuilding, because it aids in muscle growth, and it quickly repairs any damage done to muscles during workouts. Protein also has the ability to enhance your body’s natural pain relieving hormones, which enables you to workout day after day, with minimal pain. The benefits of protein go on and on, but all you really need to know is that it is essential to your bodybuilding program.

Foods that are considered “muscle building foods” include eggs, beans, meats, poultry, fish, and dairy foods. Your diet should contain all of these foods, but you must use caution. Some of these foods, such as an abundance of meat and dairy, can also quickly put on body fat, which is not what you want. You must determine how many calories you need to consume daily, based on your own personal needs, and make sure that you are not consuming more than that in food.

Because of this, “muscle building food” isn’t the only thing that you need. You also need protein supplements. If you are a bodybuilder, you cannot get the amount of protein that you need simply from the “muscle building food” that you eat. A good whey protein supplement is recommended, and you will hear a great deal of discussion and debate concerning protein supplements in your local gym.

There is a great deal more to “muscle building food” than just eating the food. The time of day that you eat the food matters as well. You will hear many theories and recommendations concerning this. The first step is to make sure that you and your muscles have enough energy for your workouts, which means that “muscle building food” needs to be consumed before workouts, including protein supplements. It is suggested that you consume pre-workout food and supplements about one and a half hours before your workout, so that the food has time to digest.

“Muscle building food” must also be consumed after a workout, preferably within twenty minutes, to prevent your body from going into a catabolic state. A carbohydrate is recommended, as well as more protein supplements. If you fail to eat within twenty minutes of a workout, and your body goes into a catabolic state, your body is essentially breaking down other muscles to replace what the muscles you have worked lost during the workout, which kind of defeats your purposes.

One thing is certain, if you are serious about bodybuilding, you must be serious about your diet, including “muscle building food,” and you must be serious about protein supplements as well. Other issues that should be important to bodybuilders include the intake of vitamins and minerals, water, and of course, adequate sleep.

Using Antioxidant Food For Health

Fighting against diseases such as cancer – and maintaining a healthy lifestyle – has become something of a pastime among those who are tuned in to continuing research. And what research has shown is an ever-present connection between diet and the sustenance of the body’s health. Antioxidants – the buzz word of modern health talk – have garnered quite a bit of attention as of late, as has those foods that contain them. Antioxidant food varies in is form but provides consistent results – to help protect the body against illness.

Antioxidant food contains nutrients that work to combat free radicals – those molecules in the body that attack healthy cells. Free radicals develop from molecules that become unstable due to poor diet as well as environmental factors such as smoking. Molecules are considered unstable when they begin attacking healthy cells to find their missing electrons. These rebel molecules have been linked to many different types of cancer.

Those nutrients found in antioxidant food work to stabilize these rabid molecules. Included in antioxidant food are such things as fresh fruits and vegetables – fruits such as apricots, watermelon, and tomatoes and tomato products, all of which contain lycopene; green leafy vegetables such as spinach which contain the antioxidant lutein; vegetables rich in beta-carotene such as carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes; and foods rich in Vitamins A (eggs and milk), C (fruits and vegetables), and E (nuts and broccoli) that have also been shown to be high in antioxidants. On the more enjoyable side – dark chocolate and even red wine have been shown to be acceptable antioxidant food.

Finding antioxidant food that satisfies health requirements as well as meeting your specific enjoyment requirements, can take a little time. Work with your doctor to identify antioxidant food that you can implement into your lifestyle. Your effort will be rewarded with a healthier body and a life of ongoing vitality.

The Truth About Carbohydrates In Food

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just want to eat healthier, you may be confused by the news you’re hearing about carbohydrates. With so much attention focused on protein diets, there’s been a consumer backlash against carbohydrates. As a result, many people misunderstand the role that carbohydrates play in a healthy diet.

Carbohydrates aren’t all good or all bad. Some kinds promote health while others, when eaten often and in large quantities, may increase the risk for diabetes and coronary heart disease.

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates come from a wide array of foods - bread, fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, corn, and cherry pie. They also come in a variety of forms. The most common and abundant ones are sugars, fibers, and starches. The basic building blocks of all carbohydrates are sugar molecules.

The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the same way – it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since only these are small enough to absorb into the bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source. This is why carbohydrates can make us feel energetic. Carbohydrates fuel our body. Your body stores glucose reserves in the muscles in the form of glycogen ready to be used when we exert ourselves.

Carbohydrates are the highest octane - the most desirable fuel source for your body’s energy requirements. If you don’t have an adequate source of carbohydrate your body may scavenge from dietary protein and fat to supply glucose. The problem is when you’ve depleted your stores of glycogen (stored glucose in muscle and lean tissue) your body turns to burning muscles or organs (lean muscle tissue) and dietary protein or fat to provide blood glucose to supply energy needs. When this happens, your basal metabolic rate drops because you have less lean muscle tissue burning calories and your body thinks its starving and cuts back on energy requirements.

So you should continue to eat carbohydrates discriminately selecting those which have the greatest health benefits.

The carbohydrates you consume should come from carbohydrate-rich foods that are close to the form that occurs in nature. The closer the carbohydrate food is as Mother Nature intended, the greater the density of other vital nutrients. If you are looking for health-enhancing sources of carbohydrates you should choose from:

Fruit: rich in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, potassium and often vitamin E.

Vegetables: fiber, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, often vitamin E, potassium and a wider variety of minerals than fruit.

Whole grains and grain foods: rich in fiber, protein, and some B vitamins and are very rich in minerals.

Legumes: an excellent source of protein, fiber folate, potassium, iron and several minerals. Dairy foods: protein, vitamin D, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamin B12.

You can also source carbohydrates from processed foods such as soda pop or soft drinks, snacks such as cookies and chips, and alcohol. These generally are considered to be a poor food choice and should be consumed rarely. The carbohydrate source (sugar and flour) in these food choices has been highly refined processed. A diet rich in refined carbohydrates and processed foods has been associated with heart disease and onset of type 2 diabetes.

Why are these sources of carbohydrates to be avoided?

1. They are calorie dense and contribute a large number of calories in a small amount of food. For example a 7oz bag of potato chips or corn chips have approximately 1000 calories. Most women on a weight management program will be aiming for 1200 daily calorific intake. So, this is what we mean by calorie dense and nutritionally scarce.

2. They offer little appetite-holding power because they have no fiber or protein. As a result you end up searching for food again soon after your first serve.

3. They contribute nothing to your nutritional profile except calories. This means you have fewer calories left for foods that your body requires for good health.

Whenever possible, replace highly processed grains, cereals, and sugars with minimally processed whole-grain products and ensure you have at least five serves of fruit and vegetables daily.

Rather than cut out carbs completely for a very short-term gain (usually weight loss), there are greater long-term health benefits in learning how to distinguish good carbs over bad carbs and incorporating healthy carbohydrates into your weight loss program.

(c) Copyright Kim Beardsmore

The Importance of Food Elements

The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live. Various vital processes remove these worn and useless particles; and to keep the body in health, their loss must be made good by constantly renewed supplies of material properly adapted to replenish the worn and impaired tissues. This renovating material must be supplied through the medium of food and drink, and the best food is that by which the desired end may be most readily and perfectly attained. The great diversity in character of the several tissues of the body, makes it necessary that food should contain a variety of elements, in order that each part may be properly nourished and replenished.

The Food Elements.
The various elements found in food are the following: Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances.

The digestible food elements are often grouped, according to their chemical composition, into three classes; vis., carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and inorganic. The carbonaceous class includes starch, sugar, and fats; the nitrogenous, all albuminous elements; and the inorganic comprises the mineral elements.

Starch is only found in vegetable foods; all grains, most vegetables, and some fruits, contain starch in abundance. Several kinds of sugar are made in nature’s laboratory; cane, grape, fruit, and milk sugar. The first is obtained from the sugar-cane, the sap of maple trees, and from the beet root. Grape and fruit sugars are found in most fruits and in honey. Milk sugar is one of the constituents of milk. Glucose, an artificial sugar resembling grape sugar, is now largely manufactured by subjecting the starch of corn or potatoes to a chemical process; but it lacks the sweetness of natural sugars, and is by no means a proper substitute for them. Albumen is found in its purest, uncombined state in the white of an egg, which is almost wholly composed of albumen. It exists, combined with other food elements, in many other foods, both animal and vegetable. It is found abundant in oatmeal, and to some extent in the other grains, and in the juices of vegetables. All natural foods contain elements which in many respects resemble albumen, and are so closely allied to it that for convenience they are usually classified under the general name of “albumen.” The chief of these is gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. Casein, found in peas, beans, and milk, and the fibrin of flesh, are elements of this class.

Fats are found in both animal and vegetable foods. Of animal fats, butter and suet are common examples. In vegetable form, fat is abundant in nuts, peas, beans, in various of the grains, and in a few fruits, as the olive. As furnished by nature in nuts, legumes, grains, fruits, and milk, this element is always found in a state of fine subdivision, which condition is the one best adapted to its digestion. As most commonly used, in the form of free fats, as butter, lard, etc., it is not only difficult of digestion itself, but often interferes with the digestion of the other food elements which are mixed with it. It was doubtless never intended that fats should be so modified from their natural condition and separated from other food elements as to be used as a separate article of food. The same may be said of the other carbonaceous elements, sugar and starch, neither of which, when used alone, is capable of sustaining life, although when combined in a proper and natural manner with other food elements, they perform a most important part in the nutrition of the body. Most foods contain a percentage of the mineral elements. Grains and milk furnish these elements in abundance. The cellulose, or woody tissue, of vegetables, and the bran of wheat, are examples of indigestible elements, which although they cannot be converted into blood in tissue, serve an important purpose by giving bulk to the food.

With the exception of gluten, none of the food elements, when used alone, are capable of supporting life. A true food substance contains some of all the food elements, the amount of each varying in different foods.

Uses of The Food Elements.
Concerning the purpose which these different elements serve, it has been demonstrated by the experiments of eminent physiologists that the carbonaceous elements, which in general comprise the greater bulk of the food, serve three purposes in the body;

1. They furnish material for the production of heat;

2. They are a source of force when taken in connection with other food elements;

3. They replenish the fatty tissues of the body. Of the carbonaceous elements, starch, sugar, and fats, fats produce the greatest amount of heat in proportion to quantity; that is, more heat is developed from a pound of fat than from an equal weight of sugar or starch; but this apparent advantage is more than counterbalanced by the fact that fats are much more difficult of digestion than are the other carbonaceous elements, and if relied upon to furnish adequate material for bodily heat, would be productive of much mischief in overtaxing and producing disease of the digestive organs. The fact that nature has made a much more ample provision of starch and sugars than of fats in man’s natural diet, would seem to indicate that they were intended to be the chief source of carbonaceous food; nevertheless, fats, when taken in such proportion as nature supplies them, are necessary and important food elements.

The nitrogenous food elements especially nourish the brain, nerves, muscles, and all the more highly vitalized and active tissues of the body, and also serve as a stimulus to tissue change. Hence it may be said that a food deficient in these elements is a particularly poor food.

The inorganic elements, chief of which are the phosphates, in the carbonates of potash, soda, and lime, aid in furnishing the requisite building material for bones and nerves.

Proper Combinations of Foods.
While it is important that our food should contain some of all the various food elements, experiments upon both animals and human beings show it is necessary that these elements, especially the nitrogenous and carbonaceous, be used in certain definite proportions, as the system is only able to appropriate a certain amount of each; and all excess, especially of nitrogenous elements, is not only useless, but even injurious, since to rid the system of the surplus imposes an additional task upon the digestive and excretory organs. The relative proportion of these elements necessary to constitute a food which perfectly meets the requirements of the system, is six of carbonaceous to one of nitrogenous. Scientists have devoted much careful study and experimentation to the determination of the quantities of each of the food elements required for the daily nourishment of individuals under the varying conditions of life, and it has come to be commonly accepted that of the nitrogenous material which should constitute one sixth of the nutrients taken, about three ounces is all that can be made use of in twenty-four hours, by a healthy adult of average weight, doing a moderate amount of work. Many articles of food are, however, deficient in one or the other of these elements, and need to be supplemented by other articles containing the deficient element in superabundance, since to employ a dietary in which any one of the nutritive elements is lacking, although in bulk it may be all the digestive organs can manage, is really starvation, and will in time occasion serious results.

It is thus apparent that much care should be exercised in the selection and combination of food materials. Such knowledge is of first importance in the education of cooks and housekeepers, since to them falls the selection of the food for the daily needs of the household; and they should not only understand what foods are best suited to supply these needs, but how to combine them in accordance with physiological laws.

The Foods You Eat Determine Your Health

Somewhere caught up in your busy lifestyle, between your Palm Pilot or Blackberry, day planner, lap top, the kids sports, piano lessons, traffic, and household duties, being healthy got deleted from your agenda. Instead of planning and taking time to sit down to eat, you’re on the go, driving through fast food franchises eating combo meals, forgetting to eat lean protein, fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, the quick and easy foods are loaded with carbohydrates, sodium, sugar and fats. Healthy eating will help you stay healthy.

Here are a couple of tips for healthy eating so you don’t ignore your healthy:

1. Don’t skip breakfast. Eating in the morning will jump-start your metabolism, giving you energy to get you through the morning. Protein and carbohydrate in the morning is a great breakfast. Breakfast should be your largest meal for the day.

2. Reduce your intake of caffeinated and carbonated beverages. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant and is addictive. Caffeine will make you hungry. Carbonation prevents your body from absorbing nutrients. Both caffeine and carbonation will cause your body to be in a more acidic state. The best pH for your balance is more alkaline or slightly over 7.0 which is half way between total acidic and alkalinity.

3. Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day. I personally drink distilled water and avoid tap water at all costs. Filtered, purified, ionized and reverse osmosis water is also good. Think of water as cleansing the toxins out of your body. Water is water and water is not ice tea, coffee, Crystal light.

4. Eat your fruits and vegetables daily. A diet rich in dark green, orange, red and yellow choices are best. Your body likes variety which comes in all colors. Variety gives your body a greater amount of nutrients. The most overlooked benefit of eating raw vegetables in your diet is the benefits of the enzyme activity in raw vegetables. Eat at least 3 portions of raw vegetables a day.

5. Eat whole-grain products. Your best sources are whole-grain breads, cereals, rice and pasta. Stay away from enriched and white flour products. Read the label. Processed foods are not whole-grains. All the healthy nutrients have been stripped away from processed foods.

6. Cut the “bad” (saturated) fats and increase the “good” (unsaturated) fats. The bad fats include coconut and palm oil, butter, full-fat dairy products and animal fat. Eat the good fats that include olive, canola and corn oils. Read the label. Anything fat which is solid at room temperature is best to avoid.

7. Drink alcohol in moderation if at all. Alcohol has wasted calories and if consumed on a regular basis, adds unwanted pounds. Alcohol also increases your blood sugar levels which is unhealthy for your metabolism.

Just try and make one change a week. Or continue to work on one of these tips until it becomes a part of your healthy lifestyle. Healthy eating takes some planning. It’s very difficult to eat healthy on the fly. Spend some time and plan your meals. It’s well worth the rewards. You are what you eat. If you are eating unhealthy, don’t expect to stay healthy for long. I believe it’s easier to stay healthy than to try to get healthy once your sick.

With only a few simple changes, you can make a big difference in your daily eating habits. Use your mind – if you think healthy, you will eat healthy. Think of foods as fuel for your body. Eating healthy foods will produce a healthy body. For more information, motivation and tips on weight loss and healthy eating, go to http://www.womensweightlosscoach.com

The Best Foods On The Planet For A Lean Body

In most of my newsletters, I like to provide a healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is delicious, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body appearance that everyone is looking for. In this article, I’d like to give you healthy food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured I’d just give you some ideas of what I stock my kitchen with. Remember, if you don’t have junk around the house, you’re less likely to eat junk. If all you have is healthy food around the house, you’re forced to make smart choices. Basically, it all starts with making smart choices and avoiding temptations when you make your grocery store trip. Now these are just some of my personal preferences, but perhaps they will give you some good ideas that you’ll enjoy.

Alright, so let’s start with the fridge. Each week, I try to make sure I’m loaded up with lots of varieties of fresh vegetables. During the growing season, I only get local produce, but obviously in winter, I have to resort to the produce at the grocery store. Most of the time, I make sure I have plenty of vegetables like zucchini, onions, asparagus, fresh mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, red peppers, etc. to use in my morning eggs. I also like to dice up some lean chicken or turkey sausage into the eggs, along with some swiss, jack, or goat cheeses. Coconut milk is another staple in my fridge. I like to use it to mix in with smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt for a rich, creamy taste. Not only does coconut milk add a rich, creamy taste to lots of dishes, but it’s also full of healthy saturated fats. Yeah, you heard me…I said healthy saturated fats! Healthy saturated fats like medium chain triglycerides, specifically an MCT called lauric acid. If the idea of healthy saturated fats is foreign to you, check out an eye-opening article at truthaboutabs.com called “The Truth about Saturated Fats”.

Back to the fridge, some other staples:

• Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt – I like to mix cottage or ricotta cheese and yogurt together with chopped nuts and berries for a great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal.

• Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias, etc. – delicious and great sources of healthy fats.

• Whole flax seeds – I grind these in a mini coffee grinder and add to yogurt or salads. Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, potentially creating inflammation causing free radicals from pre-ground flax.

• Whole eggs – one of natures richest sources of nutrients and high quality protein (and remember, they increase your GOOD cholesterol).

• Nut butters – Plain old peanut butter has gotten a little old for me, so I get creative and mix together almond butter with sesame seed butter, or even cashew butter with macadamia butter…delicious and unbeatable nutrition!

• Salsa – I try to get creative and try some of the exotic varieties of salsas.

• Butter – don’t believe the naysayers; butter adds great flavor to anything and can be part of a healthy diet (just keep the quantity small because it is calorie dense…and NEVER use margarine, unless you want to assure yourself a heart attack).

• Avocados – love them…plus a great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.

• Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs).

• Rice bran and wheat germ – these may sound way too healthy for some, but they actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.

• Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots – for salads with dinner.

• Home-made salad dressing – using balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo’s Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil (source of inflammation-causing free radicals).

Some of the staples in the freezer:

• Frozen fish – I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. There are so many varieties out there, you never have to get bored. Plus, frozen fish is usually frozen immediately after catching, as opposed to fresh fish, which has been in transport and sitting at markets for days, allowing it more opportunity to spoil.

• Frozen berries – during the local growing season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the year, I always keep a supply of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. to add to high fiber cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies

• Frozen veggies – again, when the growing season is over and I can no longer get local fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best option, since they often have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce that has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before making it to your dinner table.

• Frozen chicken breasts – very convenient to nuke up for a quick addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.

• Frozen buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other “exotic” lean meats – Yeah, I know…I’m weird, but I can tell you that these are some of the healthiest meats around, and if you’re serious about a lean healthy body, these types of meats are much better for you than the mass produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that’s sold at most grocery stores.

Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:

• Oat bran and steel cut oats – higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats.

• Cans of coconut milk – to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.

• Various antioxidant rich teas – green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best. Surprisingly, even chammomile tea has been shown to provide important trace nutrients and antioxidants.

• Stevia – a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.

• Organic maple syrup – none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima crap…only real maple syrup can be considered real food. The only time I really use this (because of the high sugar load) is added to my post-workout smoothies to sweeten things up and also elicit an insulin surge to push nutrients into your muscles.

• Raw honey – better than processed honey…higher quantities of beneficial nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to improve glucose metabolism (how you process carbs). I use a teaspoon or so every morning in my teas.

• Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta – much higher fiber than normal pastas

• Brown rice and other higher fiber rice – NEVER white rice

• Cans of black or kidney beans – I like to add a couple scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fiber and high nutrition content. Also, beans are surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!

• Tomato sauces – delicious, and as I’m sure you’ve heard a million times, they are a great source of lycopene. Just watch out for the brands that are loaded with nasty high fructose corn syrup.

• Dark chocolate (as dark as possible) – This is one of my treats that satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides loads of antioxidants at the same time. It’s still calorie dense, so I keep it to just a couple squares; but that is enough to do the trick, so I don’t feel like I need to go out and get cake and ice cream to satisfy my dessert urges. Choose dark chocolate that lists it’s cocoa content at 70% or greater. Milk chocolate is usually only about 30% cocoa, and even most cheap dark chocolates are only around 50% cocoa. Cocoa content is key for the antioxidant benefit…the rest is just sugar and other additives.

• Organic unsweetened cocoa powder – I like to mix this into my smoothies for an extra jolt of antioxidants or make my own low-sugar hot cocoa by mixing cocoa powder into hot milk with stevia and a couple melted dark chocolate chunks.

Of course, you also can never go wrong with any types of fresh fruits. Even though fruit contains natural sugars, the fiber within most fruits usually slows down the carbohydrate absorption and glycemic response. Also, you get the benefit of high antioxidant content and nutrient density in most fruits. Some of my favorites are kiwi, pomegranate, mango, papaya, grapes, oranges, fresh pineapple, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, and all types of berries.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this special look into my favorite lean body meals and how I stock my kitchen. Your tastes are probably quite different than mine, but hopefully this gave you some good ideas you can use next time you’re at the grocery store looking to stock up a healthy and delicious pile of groceries.

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