Posts Tagged ‘Grains’
How to choose Healthy Food
Taking healthy food is something we all would like to do,although it can be hard. In order to eat healthy, you must first take the right food choices. Eating healthy is all about what you eat, which makes the choices very crucial to your results.
Grains:
You should need 6 ounces of grains per day. To getting this,you can eat 3 ounces of whole grain cereals, breads, rice,crackers, or pasta. You can get an ounce of grains in a single slice of bread, or 1 cut of cereal.
Vegetables:
These should be varied, as you should eat 2 1/2 cups of them each day. You should start eating more of the dark vegetables, such as broccoli and spinach. Carrots and sweet potatoes are also good as well. You should also eat more dry beans such as peas, pinto beans, and even kidney beans.
Fruits:
Fruits are very important. You should try to eat 2 cups of them each day. Focus on eating a variety, such as fresh, frozen, canned, or even dried fruit. You should also drink fruit juices although you should use moderation when doing so.
Milk:
Milk is your calcium rich friend. For adults, 3 cups is the ideal goal. For kids 2 – 8, 2 cups is where you want to be. When choosing milk products , you should go for fat-free or low-fat. Those of you who don’t like milk or can’t have it, should go for lactose free products or other sources of calcium such as fortifiedfoods and beverages.
Meat and beans:
Eating 5 ounces a day is the ideal goal, as you should go lean with your protein. When eating meat, always bake it,grill it, or boil it, as this will prevent grease from adding to the equation. You should vary your protein as well, with more fish, beans, peas, and nuts.
When you are cooking your food, you should also limit solid fats such as butter, margarine, shortening, and lard. These foods may add flavor to your dishes, although they can also help raise your cholesterol as well. Therefore, youshould try to add these foods and any foods that happen to contain them.
To help keep your c fat, trans fat, and sodium low, you can check the nutrition facts label. This label can be found on the food package and will tell you all the information you need to know about the food item.
By selecting your foods wisely and watching what you eat,you’ll help control your lifestyle. Exercise is great as well, as it goes along perfect with a healthy eating lifestyle. This is no matter what your age may be, eating healthy will help you keep your active lifestyle for years by years – even help you and your health in the long run as well.
Ashutosh Mehta providing SEO Services India, Plastic Surgery in Chandigarh and Cosmetic Surgeon India
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The Story of Nutrient Dense Food
Nutrient Dense Food? …..What the heck is that?
In the next few minutes you are going to hear the story of nutrient dense foods and how this information can change your life.
I think you are going to love the story of nutrient dense
foods for several reasons.
1. It is interesting.
2. It will change the way you think about every bite
of food you consume for the rest of your life….in a positive way.
3. It will help you become healthier, live longer and have
more energy.
4. It will help you reach your weight goals…and much more!
OK, let’s get started. The easiest way for me to explain what nutrient dense food is, is to first talk about a food that we are all very familiar with, “bread.” Most of us eat bread on a regular basis. There are many, many varieties of bread, but for now I am only going to talk about 2 varieties….white bread,and whole wheat, (dark) bread.
First, let me give you a little history on white bread. Do you know why white bread came into being?
In the days of our grandparents, farmers grew vegetables, grains, etc. on local farms and the harvest went straight from the fields to your grandparents dinner table. This was a time when local farms were the main source of food, when bread was baked fresh every day with fresh-harvested grains.
Milk came from cows who lived in natural, stress-free environments, and were not injected with hormones and antibiotics.
As the population grew, farms become bigger and centralized. Distribution channels were set up so that farmers could sell their products to consumers hundreds of miles away.
But, there was a problem….a very big problem.
Farmers began to notice that their nutritious bread was spoiling and growing moldy before the consumers even had a chance to buy it. The “shelf life” of the nutritious bread they were shipping was very low. They needed to increase the shelf life of their bread products.
Enter “White Bread.”
White bread is bread made from wheat flour from which the bran and germ have been removed, in contrast to whole wheat bread made from whole wheat flour, in which these parts are retained and contribute a brownish color.
In addition, this white flour is generally bleached using potassium bromate or chlorine dioxide gas to remove any slight yellow color and make its baking properties more predictable.
Most of the vitamins inherent in wheat are removed along with the germ or destroyed in the bleaching process.
OK, Dan so what does this have to do with the nutrient dense food story?
I want you to think about the difference between a one ounce slice of bleached white bread and a one ounce slice of whole wheat bread.
Which of these 2 kinds of breads do you think has a higher nutrient density?
You guessed it….the wheat bread which still has it’s germ and vitamins intact has more nutrients per ounce than the white bread.
OK, so now let’s take this formula and apply it to all the foods that we eat. What we want is to consume as much “nutrient dense” food as possible.
Why?
The human body is an extremely complicated machine; it requires a wide variety of nutrients to maintain a constant state of health.
But the simple truth is that the average American does not get the nourishment needed to maintain a healthy body free of disease. The reason is that they are consuming processed “nutrient poor” foods. They are getting calories but they are not getting quality nutrition.
We can take the knowledge we gained from the story of “nutrient dense” foods and apply it to our lives for positive change.
How do we do that?
It is actually very easy. Make it a habit to start thinking about the food that you consume on a daily basis. Think about the nutrient density of the food. If it is processed food it will likely have a poor nutrient density. If it is an organically grown fresh vegetable it will likely have a high nutrient density.
The idea is to eat more nutrient dense foods. Look for foods that are closest to their natural state such as fresh fruits and vegetables and other raw foods. Fresh foods have higher nutrient values than processed food. Read the nutritional labels of the food you buy.
Daniel Robey is the author of the Best-Selling book “The Power of Positive Habits” which is published in 22 countries worldwide. To learn more about how Positive Habits can change your life, and to sign up for a complementary 21 day e-course on Positive Habits, visit: www.thepowerofpositivehabits.com
Article Source: http://www.thecontentcorner.com
Certain Types of Meat That Are Healthier Than Others
I’m sure you have heard all of the news over the last couple of years about the health benefits of wild salmon and other fatty fish that contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
However, I bet you didn’t know that there is a “land meat” that has similar omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratios as is found in wild salmon and other fatty fish. Yep, you heard me right! In fact, this “land meat” not only contains similar or even higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids as wild fatty fish, but without the possible negative compounds such as heavy metals (mercury, etc) and PCBs that can be found in fish many times.
I have talked about this type of meat before and how it is one of the healthiest types of meat that you can possibly eat. What I’m referring to is grass-fed beef and other grass-fed ruminant animal meats such as bison, buffalo, lamb, and venison.
Now I know that a lot of well-meaning, but misinformed people will try to convince you that meat is not good for you… and to be honest I partially agree with them when referring to your typical factory farm-raised meat where the animals are fattened up with huge quantities of soy and grains that are not their natural diet and given unhealthy doses of hormones, antibiotics, etc.
However, when animals are healthy and are allowed to eat the diet they were meant to eat naturally, the meat is not bad for us and is actually a very healthy food.
Let us take beef for example… When cattle are fed mostly soy and grain based diets, the fat composition of their meat becomes higher in inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids and lower in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.
On the other hand, when cattle are allowed to graze freely and eat mostly grass instead of grains and soy, their meat becomes higher in omega-3 fatty acids and lower in omega-6 fatty acids. In addition, grass-fed beef also contains much higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which has shown some potential benefits in studies for losing body fat and gaining lean muscle mass over time.
A similar comparison can be made between wild salmon and farm raised salmon. Wild salmon is a much healthier option for you than farm raised salmon and has higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids because the wild salmon eat what they are supposed to eat naturally and instinctively. On the other hand, farm raised salmon are fattened up un-naturally with grain and soy based food pellets which negatively changes the salmon’s fat ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.
The problem is that it is VERY hard to find healthy grass fed meats in typical grocery stores. In fact, even at health food stores, you might find some “organic” meats (which is at least a little better than standard), but it is often hard to find any real grass-fed meats.
Well, about two weeks ago, I did some searching and found a great website that sells all kinds of varieties of grassfed beef and other healthy grassfed meats. They have everything you could ever want… grassfed burgers, filet mignon & any other quality beef cuts, grass-fed buffalo, grassfed cheeses, and even free-range chicken and turkey!
And better yet, they deliver it right to your house with no shipping costs either… and I actually found that the prices were pretty comparable to what I usually pay at the grocery store anyway.
I’ll tell you what… I was like a kid in a candy store when I found this site. I placed my order for all kinds of goodies on a friday, I got a shipping notification email that Monday, and my delivery came right to my door the very next day in a sealed cooler… I couldn’t believe the service I got from this company.
Wouldn’t it give you peace of mind to know that you and your family are eating meat that is actually good for you instead of the mass produced junk at most grocery stores? I know I’m getting most of my meat from them from now on, and choosing grassfed options whenever I can in the future.
Article Source: http://www.a1-optimization.com/articles
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