The Cholesterol Myth
Cholesterol. What images come to mind when you see this word? Is it positive or negative? Is it health, or is it heart disease?
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Oregano: Nature's Antibiotic and Antiseptic
Many of us sprinkle oregano on our pizza and stews without realizing its impressive healing powers. But oregano is much more than a flavorful herb. It contains three to 20 times more antioxidant activity than other herbs or fruit, and oregano's mineral rich content supersedes that of milk, cheese or green vegetables in calcium, magnesium and potassium. Yet its most remarkable use is to
safely wipe out upper respiratory infections including bronchitis, sinusitis, sore throats and other bacterial and viral ailments.
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Healthy Diet Essentials
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a healthy diet as one that Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products; includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts; and is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars. But just what minerals and nutrients are vital to our health and
well-being? Consider these nutrient-dense foods when you're looking to improve your vitamin and mineral intake.
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Compulsive Eating Alternative: Learning to Eat With Pleasure
Do you allow pleasure from food? Are your senses throughly engaged as you eat? Do you fuel your aliveness with each meal or eat to deaden and numb out? Do you eat foods that taste good in your mouth and feel good in your physical body - both now and later?
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Jump for Joy and Juice!
Juice can actually be considered a natural water source and provides the body with protein, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that can be absorbed quickly and efficiently. Fresh juice also contains necessary enzymes, and pigments such as carotenes, chlorophyll, and flavonoids.
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Natural Foods Defined
With so many people concerned about natural and organic foods these days, it's useful to stop and really take a look at what "natural" and "organic" foods really are. We all know that natural and organic foods are better for us than highly processed or artificial foods, but do we really know which foods are natural and organic? When you buy food that is labeled "natural," what does that
really mean? What about "organic"?
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You Really Are What You Eat
Recent dietary research has uncovered 14 different nutrient-dense foods that time and again promote good overall health. Coined "superfoods," they tend to have fewer calories, higher levels of vitamins and minerals, and many disease-fighting antioxidants. Beans (legumes), berries (especially blueberries), broccoli, green tea, nuts (especially walnuts), oranges, pumpkin, salmon. soy,
spinach, tomatoes, turkey, whole grains and oats, and yogurt can all help stop and even reverse diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and some forms of cancer. And where one might have an effect on a certain part of the body, it can also affect the health of other body functions and performance, since the whole body is connected. With these 14 foods as the base of a
balanced, solid diet, weight loss gimmicks and other fly-by-night programs can become a thing of the past in your life.
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How Does Glucosamine Chondroitin Help Your Body?
Glucosamine is readily produced in the human body and is necessary for the production of joint cartilage. As we age, producing enough glucosamine becomes more difficult and cartilage begins to detiorate causing stiffness and painful joints. When osteoarthritis is present, the supply of glucosamine is insufficient.
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(Fitness) Health Thoughts, Living on the Health Minimum Wage?
Random thoughts taken from valuable sources, what many nutrition experts consider to be the most important nutrients and health habits a person should have to help them stay healthy long term. We would categorize them into the following areas.
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Superfoods for Fighting the Flu
Breakouts of the flu are responsible for millions of lost hours at both work and home each year, not to mention many miserable days trying to recover. If you're wondering what you can do to naturally boost your immunity and prepare your body's defenses, study the foods you're eating, look at your family's meals, and make the changes needed to ensure everyone is eating a well-balanced diet
abundant in nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables, low-fat proteins, and complex carbohydrates.
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The Danger of Curbing Hunger Artificially
Unhealthy eating is a harmful problem in America, and contrary to a very outdated perception, this harm is not limited to those who suffer from obesity[1]. In reality, according to the Directors of Health Promotion and Education, the majority of Americans exhibit unhealthy eating habits, with just over one in four women and only one in five men claiming to eat the minimum five daily
servings of vegetables and fruits[i].
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Ocular Nutrition and Eye Health Food
Understanding ocular nutrition and eye health can be one of the ways to support your vision. As early as in our 30's, our eyes and vision can begin to deteriorate. Wind, dust, chlorine fumes, automobile fumes, smoking, freezing temperatures and physical injury are examples of threats to healthy eyes and good vision. Long hours spent at a computer screen and the vibration from driving have a
cumulative negative impact on eye health over time.
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High Blood Pressure? Natural Alternatives Can Help!
High blood pressure (hypertension) is a dangerous condition that can lead= to stroke, enlarged heart, congestive heart failure, kidney and eye damage, atherosclerosis hardening of the arteries, and premature death.
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Introduction to Detox Diets
Detoxifying the body has become an apparent key preventative measure to all kinds of health problems. Since most of us are busy, and unable or unwilling to maintain a strict diet in order to completely eliminate all the toxins from our body. We have chemicals building up in our bodies day after day. Since these chemicals are not harmful in small amounts, only in larger accumulated amounts,
we don't notice side effects until we are much older. A proper, even if occasional, detox diet is necessary to relieve our bodies of harmful toxins and chemicals, and maintain a healthy, normal, and long-lived life.
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SELECTING CHLESTEROL-FREE FOODS
Almost everybody knows the effects of bad cholesterol in the body. By bad cholesterol, it literally has to do with low-density lipoprotein's molecular transport deposits that thicken in the walls of the arteries hindering the flawless passage of blood affecting the atherogenic status of the arterial walls. While few people do not fully appreciate the importance of cholesterol in the body,
this non-soluble waxy substance is essential to aid in building membranes, manufacture of bile, cell walls, nerve sheaths, and produce hormones.
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Eating ... Gaining Weight ... How to Control the Urge to Splurge
I confess: I'm completely addicted to Pringles. My determination weakens every time I think about munching into one, hearing the crunch, and getting that first taste of its salty flavor. Pure heaven. Although you don't flip over chips, probably there's another food that lures you into the refrigerator or the pantry cabinet. According to one study, 97% of women (compared to 68% of men)
experience cravings on food.
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How The Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
When was the last time you consumed soda? Most likely, it wasn't that long ago. You may even drink several cans or bottles each day. In the U.S, carbonated soft drinks are a huge business. Every year, they generate more than $50 billion in annual sales.
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Things You Should Know about Vitamin K's Unique Power
How well do you know about vitamin K? This vitamin is probably not as popular as other vitamins. But still you need this vitamin for your health. So, never underestimate vitamin K! Without vitamin K you will be in miserable. In fact, vitamin K is one of the most extraordinary anti-aging vitamins ever discovered. A research shows that vitamin K has unique powers, not only to help blood
coagulate or to make you look younger, but also has so many other benefits.
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Homeostasis and Complementary Therapies
The word 'homeostasis' is made up of two Greek words: homeo; meaning the same or similar, and stasis; meaning stable, or standing in the same place. The body's systems participate in maintaining homeostasis, keeping the body's internal environment healthy despite external environmental change.
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Fruitceuticals - The Evolution of Fruit
Since the beginning of time, everyday fruits have been known to help maintain a healthy body. The popular "5-A-Day for Better Health" is a national program encouraging Americans to increase their daily servings of fruit and vegetables to five or more per day.
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Nine Facts About Fiber
If you've been looking for a way towards a high octane diet, you'll find fiber to be exactly what you need. Even though research has shown fiber to be powerful, many people aren't taking this nutrient seriously.
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Superfoods that have your Heart in Mind
Heart disease is number one killer among both men and women in the United States. And though we all realize that eating nutrient-dense healthy foods help reduce the risk, we may not know which foods are the best choices to battle this deadly disease head on. The key is stepping up fiber and choosing unsaturated fats. Eating unsaturated fats, like omega-3 fatty acids and olive oil, can help
to reduce triglycerides. And a diet rich in soluble fiber, which is often found in legumes and some fruits and vegetables, helps to decrease LDL cholesterol levels.
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Beans - The Perfect Food?
Beans. Legumes. Pulses. Whatever you call this plant group, they are all edible seeds in a pod. The majority of them are packed with complete plant protein and contain almost no fat. They are also a good source of healthy complex carbs.
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Superfoods for Healthy and Natural Conception
In both the female and male body, the balance of hormones has to be just right for conception to occur and for pregnancy to proceed. Nutrients that are in excess or that are in depletion can throw off balance and disrupt the pregnancy process. When we can choose whole foods for our diet, we are increasing our chances of obtaining the most nutrients we need. Whole foods include fruits, fresh
vegetables, unrefined grains, beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, and small whole fish. It's important to make sure you're choosing healthy whole superfoods that have an abundant supply of each of the following vitamins and minerals.
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Super Foods for Super Weight Loss
Experts say there are two basic categories of foods that can be considered "keeping it off superfoods" because they fill your tummy without piling on the calories: fruits and vegetables. And the nutrient that gives fruits and vegetables that 'staying power?' Fiber. So, if fruits and vegetables are the "keeping-it-off superfood groups," fiber may well be the "keeping-it-off super-nutrient."
Protein is another super-nutrient. It's becoming more scientifically accepted that protein may help to curb appetite. Protein also offers staying power, and can slightly boost your metabolism in the process. But it's imperative that you choose your proteins wisely, because like all other foods, if you're eating more than your body needs, it'll show up on the scale as a gain, instead of a
loss.
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Trade In Your Diet For A Lifestyle!
Dieting is a pain. I think basically everyone would agree that having to adhere to a rigid restriction of your free-flow eating preferences puts a bit of a damper on the whole food experience. And eating should be one of the pleasures of life, right?
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Five Reasons You Should Drink More Water
I know you've heard this many times - "Drink more water!". Yet, 99% of the people don't heed this advice. Maybe if water was more expensive, people would pay more attention to consume enough of it on a daily basis. We are living in a dehydrated world of carbonated beverages, caffeine and alcohol.
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An Apple a Day, Does Keep the Doctor Away
Increasing the fiber in your diet has been shown to: reduce your cholesterol, reduce your hunger, lower your fat absorption, reduce surges in insulin levels, help with weight loss, lower the risk of colon cancer, and lower your risk of heart disease. WOW! Sounds like a miracle cure - where can I get this stuff? The answer: At your grocery store.
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The Power of Capsulized Foods
For most people, the concept of capsulized food? usually conjures up images of space travelers ingesting meals condensed into a compact pill. However, in modern-day reality, things are quite different. Capsulized foods are one of the most innovative nutritional advancements in recent memory, and will soon become a significant - and highly valued - concept within the healthy eating
community.
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A Background to Dietary Fiber
Fiber is the part of the plant that is resistant to hydrolysis (A chemical decomposition in which a substance is split into simpler compounds by the addition or the taking up of the elements of water) by human digestive enzymes and, with the exception of lignin, fibers are complex carbohydrates. These include pectin, gums, mucilages, hemicellulose, polysaccharides cellulose, and
nonpolysaccharide lignins. Fibers are water-soluble except cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, all of which form part of cell walls. Soluble fibers are sticky and combine with water to form gel-like substances. Pectin is a water-soluble fiber found in soft fruits and vegetables. Gums that are common food additives are also water-soluble, found in stems and seeds of some tropical plants.
In general, fruits are higher in pectin and vegetables are higher in cellulose. Although cellulose and hemicellulose are not hydrolyzed, intestinal bacterial can digest some fiber to produce lipid fragments known as short-chain fatty acids. These fatty acids are absorbed in the colon and yield energy when metabolized.
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Face Check Up
Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the healthiest of them all? Here is your handy-dandy checklist for a healthy you. Discover how your face reveals your health.
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Choosing Organic for Health
We come from a society where growing organic and just growing produce and livestock for food Was once one of the same. Small, family farms still grow their own food using traditional methods passed down through the generations. As commercial farming became big-business, however, growers and farmers started to investigate methods of increasing crops and building bigger livestock in order to
increase their profits. This led to increased use of pesticides and drugs to enhance yield.
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Carbohydrates - Good or Bad?
Carbohydrates have gotten a lot of bad press in the past few years with the advent of low carb diets, but the truth is that not all carbohydrates are "bad" and, in fact, your body needs carbs to survive.
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Post Workout Nutrition: Secrets to a Hard, Lean Body
As you've probably heard before, your post-workout meal may very well be your most important meal of the day. The reason is that when you're finished with an intense workout, you're entering a catabolic state where your muscle glycogen is depleted and increased cortisol levels are beginning to excessively break down muscle tissue. These conditions are not good and the only way to reverse
this catabolic state (and promote an anabolic state) is to consume a quickly digestible post-workout meal as soon as you can after training. The goal is to choose a meal with quickly digestible carbs to replenish muscle glycogen as well as quickly digestible protein to provide the amino acids needed to jump start muscular repair. The surge of carbohydrates and amino acids from this quickly
digested meal promotes an insulin spike from the pancreas, which shuttles nutrients into the muscle cells.
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The History of Ambrotose� Complex
Ambrotose� - the Nutritional Alphabet of the "Sweet Language of Life"
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Just How Dangerous Are Splenda and Artificial Sweeteners - Which Side is Spinning?
There seems to be fairly poor tracking by any formal standards once a product is approved as a food additive. Despite supposedly tracking adverse reactions, the reality has been different at the FDA. Aspartame is a case in point. Apparent collusion, distorted research reports, lack of funding for independent research, questionable practices in tracking adverse reactions and reporting them.
It's a pretty ugly sounding story. It's been said that Aspartame is a contract on humanity. Here's one source you might find puts you off Aspartame for good: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/suffer.faq - "Reported Aspartame Toxicity Effects".
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Maximizing Your Nutrition Dollar
Because of consumer demand, the food industry focus is on producing fruits and vegetables that ship well, not nutrient content. How food is stored and processed has an impact on nutrition. The best defense against nutritionally depleted foods is careful supplementation followed by purchasing fresh foods as close to the source and organically grown whenever feasible.
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Aging Gracefully with the Aid of Various Nutrients
During the past thirty years there has been a steadily growing amount of scientific evidence linking vitamins and minerals to having a direct effect in protecting one's self from aging. Apart from the usual health benefits that we can receive from having adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in our body, it's also a highly appealing note to include that being healthy
inside will actually reflect on how we look like on the outside. This is why a great change in one's lifestyle is highly encouraged, a healthy way of living can still be achieved given that you have the patience and enough self-discipline to actually control yourself from wolfing down hamburgers and steaks as well as chugging bottles of soda each and every day.
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Superfoods for Conquering the Pain of Arthritis
With some thought and planning, it's easy to make these nutrient-dense foods part of your daily diet. With choices from virtually every food group, you'll soon be well on your way to arming yourself to battle the pain of arthritis and begin to manage it from the inside out.
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The Best Way to Consume Vitamin C
Eating orange mean absorbing vitamin C to our body, is that right? Probably yes because orange is rich with this nutrient. Vitamin C is a very essential nutrient for human body because its play a great role as a powerful antioxidant.
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