Fit, Healthy Self Blog

Antioxidants are the latest craze in healthy eating, and for good reason. Antioxidants can help prevent cancer, boost your immune system, and prevent aging. Here are the facts about antioxidants and how to get more in your diet.

Health Facts

Antioxidants can slow or prevent the oxidation of other molecules. This is important because oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which can cause cancer. They also can keep cells healthy, which important for many aspects of health in the human body.

Many studies have found that eating berries, fruit, and tea that are rich in antioxidants can make you healthier and can cure some diseases. For example, The University of Florida found, in a cell-culture model, that the tropical berry called açaí (pronounced ahh-sigh-ee) causes leukemia cells kill themselves. The berry worked in up to 86 percent of the tests according to the study by Alexander G. Schauss, Ronald L. Prior, Xianli Wu, Boxin Ou, Dejian Huang,Dinesh Patel, and James P. Kababick in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry,12 Jan 2006, pp 8598 – 8603.

Foods high in antioxidants have also been found to have the ability to keep skin cells healthier, longer. This helps to prevent aging and cancer.

Food High in Antioxidants

There are many foods that you can eat that contain high levels of antioxidants. Berries such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and black berries are all good choices. Pomegranates are also a good choice. Many popular antioxidant drinks contain pomegranate juice.
Most teas contain high levels of antioxidants. Teas that contain the most antioxidants are green and white teas. When making these teas make sure to let them steep for quite a while to get the maximum benefits.
One of the latest foods to be found full of antioxidants is dark chocolate. That’s right, chocolate can be good for you! Choose dark chocolates that have a high level of cocoa for the most antioxidant content. Choose chocolates that have at least 60% cocoa.

Alcohol and Antioxidants

Drinking a little is a great way to boost the power of antioxidants. According to researchers Korakot Chanjirakul, Shiow Y Wang, Chien Y Wang, and Jingtair Siriphanich at the United States Department of Agriculture and the Kasetsart University in Thailand, adding alcohol to antioxidant-rich berries increases their antioxidant capacity. This finding was published in the study Natural Volatile Treatments Increase Free-radical Scavenging Capacity of Strawberries and Blackberries. One way to use this finding is to make cocktails and mixed drinks out of 100% berry juice. How about a Monavie cocktail?

Better Food Choices for a Healthier You

Sometimes it seems like life is just too busy to eat what we should. New health information about foods can get put in the “to-do when I find the time” file and your body misses out on the benefits. Reaping the benefits of some of the latest health trends is fast and easy, though. Here are a few trendy foods to start eating today.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon has been making headlines lately, and for good reason. It can make a huge impact on your health. A study published in the June 2007 edition of the Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that subjects that ate more than a teaspoon of cinnamon a day lowered their normal elevations of blood sugar.

Many experts agree that adding at least ½ tsp to 1 tsp of cinnamon a day to your diet can speed up the body’s metabolism. It also stabilizes blood sugar levels by stimulating the release of insulin. It also decreases the build-up of plague, which can cause clogs in the heart. Cinnamon also works as an antioxidant, which can slow down cellular damage, free radical damage, and vulnerability to chronic disease.

Better Meat

Red meat is full of fat and heart damaging properties. A great alternative is white meat. White meat has been in the news for years, so it’s time to get on the boat! Pork (known as “The Other White Meat”), chicken breast, and fish are all great white meats that are lower in fat and calories.

My local grocery store sells Laura’s Lean Ground Beef. It comes in 4% fat and 8% fat. That’s awesome. The 4% variety gets me mostly protein and hardly any fat. Look for similar varieties in your store too.

When shopping for pork, look for cuts with the words “loin” or “round” in their name. These cuts of meat are leaner than others.

“Eat more fish” is one of the biggest healthy eating newsflashes today. Why? Fish contain a large amount of essential fatty acids such as omega 3 and omega-6, which help with good brain function. Fish can do a lot more than that, though! Fish oils can be used to prevent, treat, and cure angina, arteriosclerosis, congestive heart failure, heart attack, arrhythmias, peripheral vascular disease, and stroke. How does it work? Fish oil keeps the elasticity of artery walls healthy, reduces blood pressure, stabilizes heart rhythm, and it prevents blood clotting. Fish are also low in fat.

Açaí Berry

The tropical açaí berry (pronounced ahh-sigh-ee) made headlines when it became touted by Oprah as the new “super food”.  This little berry is a powerful, and tasty, little food that should find its way into your diet for a number of reasons.

The purple açaí berry from the Amazonian rain forest has some of the highest levels of antioxidants found in foods. It also contains fatty acids, protein, and fiber. A study by the University of Florida found that, in a cell-culture model, açaí berries caused leukemia cells kill themselves in 86 percent of the tests, so they may be an effective preventive of some forms of cancer.

The fresh form of açaí berries cannot be found outside of the Amazon because the berry becomes rancid very quickly. You can buy açaí berries in a dry powder form that can be added to smoothies, milkshakes, juice, and other types of foods at many health food stores and on the internet.

I found a great açaí berry drink and you can learn more about it by looking through my Mona Vie site.

Stop letting good health news go in one ear and out the other. Start eating these healthy foods today and reap the benefits!

Say the word diet and I immediately think, hunger, cravings, and weight gain.  I just can’t go on a diet.  Chances are if you are overweight you don’t need to go on a diet either. You just need to adjust your eating behaviors. So what might you do?  Here are a few suggestions that you can practice starting now.

1. Eat much, much more slowly.  Don’t be the first person to finish.  If someone else finishes before you do, stop eating. Yes. Push your plate away and step away from the food. Since I am single and date, I watch how people eat. The bigger people always eat all their food, and quickly.  The skinnier people leave some and are not in a hurry.  That’s my mini research project conclusion.

2. Leave food on your plate, especially at a restaurant. The servings are huge and loaded with fat.  That’s why it tastes so good (but not good for you in large quantities). You eating your food or not does not impact people starving in Ethiopia. If you really care about them, stop eating out and send a little money each month to your favorite charity.

3. If you drink soda pop, juice or put sugar in your tea of coffee, stop that right now.  Drink water, diet sodas and use Splenda. It won’t kill you, but your deteriorating health due to excess weight will shorten your life. Yes, juice is just basically sugar water with added nutrients.  Limit yourself to one juice a day.

4. Move more. Whatever your activity level, make a plan to increase it gradually over the next ten weeks. If you’ve not been very active, start slowly.  You don’t want to hurt yourself. I suggest walking. It’s the easiest thing to do and you can walk outside or in a mall.  Get a good pair of walking shoes and comfortable clothes and go for a walk.  If you haven’t walked more than a block in a long time, then your next walk would be two blocks until that is comfortable.  Then increase your time or distance.

One of the best things about being overweight is that you have such a great potential for improvement and you can create success for yourself (in weight loss) by just changing a few habits. Write down 3 - 4 things you want to do differently, put them on your calendar or planner, set an alarm for when you need to be doing it and do them for several weeks.  After that becomes easy, add a few more . . . and you won’t have to follow any diet plan ever. Nice!

Hi Readers,  This article is from my mini-course but is too important not to share with you on the blog.

Did you know that aerobic activity three times a week for 30 – 45 minutes may reduce your chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease? 

It’s been studied and proven that frequent aerobic exercise may either delay the onset of Alzheimer’s even in people that have a genetic disposition to the disease.

Here is another piece of information.  Staring in mid-age, your aerobic capacity will decline if you do nothing to keep it up.  When your maximum aerobic power declines to a certain level, you are unable to do any activity without feeling exhausted. A typical sedentary 60 year old has about half the aerobic power as a 20 year old.

Researchers have proven that a 60 year old person can gain back the about 25 percent of that power (equating to 10-12 years of life) by engaging in an aerobic exercise program.  That’s good to know if you’ve led a sedentary life. 

You want to be really careful when starting an exercise program, especially if you’ve been inactive for a while. Check with a doctor before you start.  Start out slowly. Walk around the block every day for a week - slowly.  Then ramp it up to two blocks. It will take some time, but you’ll get improvement, safely.

Another interesting bit of information to share with you; prior to 2002 the US government activity levels for adults recommended 30 minutes 3 times a week of aerobic activity.  This is the new recommendation and is from this report Physical Activity and Public Health Updated Recommendation for Adults From the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. It’s dated August 1, 2007.

You need:

·         Moderately intense aerobic activity for a minimum of 30 minutes, 5 days a week,  OR

·         Vigorously intense aerobic activity a minimum of 20 minutes three days a week.

Moderate intensity means a brisk walk that noticeably accelerates the heart rate for more than 10 minutes.  You can add up 10 minute sessions to get to your 30 minutes a day. Bump it up for vigorous activity.

I don’t know about you, but this information really makes we want to get out a ride my bike hard for about an hour, right now.

We’ve all heard that getting enough omega-3 fatty acids in our diet is healthy. But do you know why?

Research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids can lower inflammation in the body.  Reduced inflammation is closely correlated with lower incidences of many chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and many more.  These fatty acids are also concentrated in the brain and are very important for brain function including memory and behavior. While omega-3s tend to reduce inflammation and related disease, omega-6s increase inflammation. However, you need both in the correct balance for good health.

If you’ve been experiencing extreme tiredness, failing memory, heart issues, dry skin or eczema, moodiness or depression, there is a chance that your levels of essential fatty acids are way out of balance.  See your doctor for a diagnosis.

Why the focus on omega-3s?

Omega-3s are essential fatty acids, meaning that they are critical to your health but your body does not manufacturer them.  You need to eat food containing these nutrients to get your daily dosage.  The body needs essential fatty acids (omega-3s, omega-6s and omega-9s) to make hormone like substances called prostaglandins, which regulate many critical body functions.

Too much of a good thing?

The North American diet has a very high concentration of omega-6s somewhat due to high meat consumption. What we’re lacking are the omega-3s. That is why we need to pay attention to the food we eat, to get enough omega-3s.  However, you can get too much of a good thing.  Just because a certain amount of omega-3s are good for you, it can be overdone. 

Omega-3s are most beneficial when correctly balanced with omega-6s.  These fatty acids work with each other to sustain your health.  Get them too badly out of balance and you could end up with health problems.

So what is a good balance and how much omega-3 do you need? 

If you are consuming about three times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids you’re in the ballpark. The typical American diet can contain about twenty times more, or higher, omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. It is thought that this out of balance condition is aggravating the increase in inflammatory diseases in the US. The omega-6s are found in meat so lowering your meat intake while increasing your whole grains, nut oils and fish intake can lead to a healthier balance.

Precautions.

If you bruise easily, take blood thinners, or have any bleeding disorders, unnecessary amounts of omega-3s could cause bleeding.  In the worst case you could end up with a condition where blood vessels in the brain leak or rupture causing death.  Your target is not to exceed 3 grams of omega-3s per day. Check with your doctor. Eating three or more servings of fish per day is not recommended.  It might give you too much omega-3, leading to health problems.

Food sources of omega-3s.

Essential fatty acids are prone to break down in pure form if they are exposed to light or air, which is why getting them in the food you eat makes the most sense.  Some foods containing omega-3s are albacore tuna, salmon, halibut, mackerel, lake trout, herring and sardines.  It is also available in almonds, walnuts, whole seeds and grains. If you’re adventurous, try eating sea algae and krill. Dark, leafy greens contain omega-3s but you need to eat quite a bit to get your daily requirement.

The “Mediterranean” diet tends to have a better omega-3 to omega-6 balance. If you’re an egg eater you can find eggs from chickens that have been fed a diet high in flaxseed which makes the eggs higher in omega-3s.  Flax seed itself is high in omega-3 but you need to crush the seeds to be able to get the nutrients out.  And you must eat the crushed seed within 24 hours or the potency is lost.

The American Heart Association recommends eating fish twice a week.  Pregnant, nursing women or children need to be cautions about eating fish due to that fact that some of it may contain mercury that can affect growing bodies.

Remember to include exercise on a regular basis.

Along with a healthy diet you also need a good exercise program consisting of moderately intense activity 5 times a week for 30-45 minutes or, 3 times per week for 20 minutes at a higher intensity.  Short on time but still want to stay healthy? Learn how you can get the benefits of both strength and aerobic workouts in 20 minutes, 3 times a week in Fit, Healthy Self.