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Posts Tagged ‘Fruits And Vegetables’

Healthy Diet Benefits - Some Interesting Tips

March 10th, 2009
healthy diet
Abhishek Agarwal asked:


Many of us don’t pay enough attention to our eating habits until it becomes and issue and our health is affected. This may come as quite a shock to some who are unaware that their eating habits are not providing them with the right vitamins and nutrients to maintain a healthy body. So many people think they are subscribing to a healthy diet but are gaining weight rather than losing it. For some weight isn’t the problem, yet they are not enjoying optimum health. Maintaining a healthy diet is easy if you have a variety of healty cooking recipes

Eating from a choice of healthy cooking recipes can only enhance your way of life even if you always go to the gym everyday. If losing weight is the problem then healthy eating recipes will certainly help to shift stubborn excess weight. And because healthy eating recipes focus on healthy foods and variety, the chances of sticking to a healthy eating plan are much higher as there are so many healthy cooking recipes to choose from.

For anyone who has tried to maintain a diet which is low in fat they will know how boring it can be because of the lack of flavour and limited choice of foods. The variety of healthy cooking recipes is endless and you can be sure you are getting a balanced intake of fruits and vegetables. Many healthy cooking recipes have included fresh or dried herbs for extra punch, which are beneficial to our bodies in so many ways. The types of food contained in healthy eating recipes promote healthy happy bodies. You will eventually become aware of how much more revitalized you feel and will experience a feeling of wellbeing.

Healthy cooking recipes are certainly topical as more of us strive to maintain and healthy lifestyle and diet. There are so many books and articles dedicated to healthy cooking recipes. Surf the internet and you will be aware of the vast amount of information relating to healthy cooking diet and nutrition there are. And if you are willing to take the steps to find a healthier lifestyle and eating habits the internet is certainly a useful resource.

Narrow down your search for healthy cooking recipes by finding ones that are really of interest to you and that you know you will enjoy using every day of your life, the more information you have the greater your choices are if you are committed to improving your health and, therefore, quality of life.

So much has been written on the subject of how best to look after the body by following a healthy lifestyle. What types of food are good for us and what vitamins and minerals they contain and what should be avoided because it may be detrimental to our health. Healthy cooking recipes like education and information are great but we must put what we have learnt into practise so that we can enjoy a long and healthy life



Pearl

Cooking Tips , ,

How Do I Possibly Eat All Those Fruits and Vegetables?

November 29th, 2008
dash diet
Leeann Simons asked:


Copyright (c) 2008 At Peace With Food

You want to improve your eating, but you just don’t know if you can eat a crock of broccoli or a head of romaine lettuce. You want to reduce your heart disease risk, but the idea of steaming vegetables for each meal just doesn’t sit well with you.

Not only do you feel guilty about not wanting to eat these profoundly healthy products, you don’t even know which recommendations to follow-there are so many! You hear amounts anywhere from 5 servings/day to 9-14 servings/day. You hear these foods will treat anything from heart disease to high blood pressure (which you will surely get from reading articles about foods you don’t like to eat). You know all these things, and yet—you still don’t know how to manage any of this.

Let me try to help you.

First, let me explain where these numbers come from. The “5 a day” is a recommendation from the National Cancer Institute. Research suggests that following these recommendations you may be able to reduce your risk of certain types of cancer. Whether it is the plant chemicals involved in cancer reduction, or the fact that eating more fruits and vegetables means consuming less protein and saturated fat (primarily from animal products), populations of people following these guidelines seem to have lower cancer rates.

The “9-14 servings/day” resulted from the DASH study, the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. This study showed that consuming between 9 and 14 servings of vegetables and fruits each day helped reduce blood pressure as much as certain medications. If you are taking blood pressure medications, talk to your health care provider before trying this diet-but it is certainly worth considering if you have experienced side effects from your medication.

Before I go further, let me just tell you that if you want to try this approach, you should know is considered a serving size. This way you won’t worry about spending your entire budget at the produce counter. A serving of fruit is about the size of a baseball or 4 ounces of juice; a serving of vegetables is ½ cup of cooked or 1 cup of fresh vegetables.

Now, let’s talk about some ways to sneak these foods into your daily meal plan.

What about using a banana instead of jelly the next time you make a peanut butter sandwich? A medium sized banana counts as two servings of fruit.

While it may not seem like much, how about a few pieces of fresh spinach or Boston lettuce on your next roast beef sandwich? It adds crunch, and also a half of a serving of vegetables.

Do you like spaghetti? Why not try cooking some carrots until they are really soft, then blending them in with your spaghetti sauce? Saut?g onions in a little olive oil also adds vegetables to your sauce-and helps reduce your risk of chronic disease.

How about soup? One way I get my son to eat vegetables is to cook LOTS of vegetables (carrots, broccoli, onions, potatoes) in broth, then blending the entire mixture and serving it in a bowl. Using frozen vegetables reducing the cooking time, if you are in a rush.

If you want to add fruits, as well as bone building calcium, how about fruit smoothies? You can mix frozen berries (or unfrozen bananas) with low fat vanilla yogurt and there you have it! A snack that’s good for your heart, your bones, and most importantly, your taste buds.

While I don’t recommend drinking juices (fruit sugar is the same as table sugar, as far as calories go; “natural” doesn’t really mean healthier), 4-6 ounces a day is the maximum I tell anyone to drink. So if you need ONE more serving, go ahead, have a small glass of orange juice (or whatever juice you like).

Hopefully these suggestions are helpful for you. One of my newsletters, has a wonderful, colorful handout entitled “Eat From The Rainbow.” When in doubt, think about the rainbow, and see if you can find one fruit and/or vegetable from each color, and add it to your diet.

Here’s to your health!



Steve B

Health , ,