Raw Food Benefits - Uncommon Tips for the Uncommon Eater

If you eat raw, you're most likely idealist like me. You want the energy to do the things you want. You want to look good in your body and feel good in your mind. And you want to avoid the ailments of modern society. Experience and study have shown that these guidelines help bring about that favorable lifestyle.

Optimal Digestion: Chewing and Liquids

Digestion doesn't begin after you swallow. 80% of the enzymes that break down fats, sugars and proteins dwell in your mouth.

Cooked food doesn't usually require much chewing so most people aren't keen on using the old jaw bone. But simply chewing more makes meals more nutritious! More of the food becomes usable to the body. It goes toward building muscle and energizing you instead of being stored as fat. 

• Chew your food until its warm and sweet.

Warmth means proteins and fats are being broken down. Sweetness indicated that sugars are burning.

People usually have a beverage with their meals. But liquids swish digestive enzymes out of the mouth. It takes at least 20 minutes for the mouth the gain its normal digestive power after drinking.

• Enjoy drinks about half an hour before meals

Having green juices 30 minutes before eating solid food actually boosts digestion. The vegetable juices stimulate enzyme activity.

Food Combining: Melons are good.. ALONE

The common melon digests in about 20 minutes. Other foods take 2 hours or more. Throw a melon in with slower digesting foods and it will ferment. This doesn't exactly feel the most pleasant and might leave you gassy.

• Melons go in alone

You really shouldn't eat unsoaked nuts and seeds at all. Every one of them (except hemp) contains enzyme inhibitors that stop your digestive enzymes from properly breaking down food.

But if you do decide to eat some unsprouted almonds or some dried sunflower seeds, don't combine them with others foods. Their slow digesting proteins take the longest to digest. Other foods will be over digested, causing bloating and nausea.

• Combine only soaked nuts and seeds with other foods

Usually sweet and acid fruits (example: pears and sour apples) don't mix well. They call for two different digestion responses. A confused stomach expends a lot of valuable energy and leaves you drained.

Don't mix sweet and sour fruits.

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There is one exception. Lemons have proven themselves very versatile! They promote digestion when combined with just about anything.

We went (or are going) raw because we want to look and feel our best. Simple tips like these make all the difference. Little distinctions help you get the results you want and keep moving forward. Why try to figure it all out on your own? Experienced raw fooders want to give you their wisdom so you don't have to suffer the trial and error. So take advantage of this Free Raw Food Diet Presentation and discover the proven raw food diet strategies of thriving raw fooders.

Written by Angela R Parker at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Raw-Food-Benefits---Uncommon-Tips-for-the-Uncommon-Eater&id=6328136

Juice Weight Loss Recipes - A Sweet Way Towards a Perfect Body

Today, losing weight can now be done in a very juicy way. Unlike other weight loss methods, juice weight loss recipes do not oblige you to eat boring food and to indulge in tiring exercises. Before, the perfect juice for losing weight is a glass of water with a splash of lemon. However, there are a lot of other more exciting juice recipes that can help men and women to be perfectly fit today.
What is good about these juice recipes is that they give natural vitamins to your body that are of no question great for your health. Fruit and vegetable juices can make the stomach feel full considering the fact that it actually is not a full meal. This is actually fine since weight loss juices can give you the nutrients you can get from a full meal.
Diet juices can be made in a lot of variations, from a single fruit to a combination of two or more. It can also be a mix of a fruit and a vegetable. Whatever you wish to combine, that is fine as long as you get to enjoy it. Here are some juice weight loss recipes that can become your exciting weight loss buddy daily:

• Flying Orange Juice. This is made out of two pears, three grapefruits plus one sweet potato. Indeed, this is a sweet and refreshing drink, without any hangover.
• Papaya Passion. To have this, you must prepare a combination of one medium-sized papaya, one red apple, and five pitted dates on it.
• Strawberry Delight. This includes a refreshing blend of around four to eight strawberries, one to two bananas, and about eight to 10 dates.
• Potassium Drink. This juice differs in any other weight loss juice recipes because it is richer in vitamins and it contains potassium. This is a blend of one celery stalk, a handful of spinach, a handful of parsley, four carrots, and half a lemon.
• Joggers' Paradise.  This is another healthy juice made from a combination of one small yam, three oranges, and two pears. This juice is commonly known as muscle-blasting and power-pushing juice drink.
• Calcium Drink. A glass of calcium drink can be accomplished with a combination of three carrots, an apple, half a cup of broccoli, a handful of parsley, and half a lemon.

Moreover, these combinations of fruits and vegetables are helpful keys in detoxifying your body and are proven to be useful in internal cleansing. They also increase the vitamin intake of the body. Basically, a glass of juice done in a combination of fruits and vegetables also provides a package of vitamins, enzymes, minerals, and photochemical that is helpful for the health of your body.
So if you no longer want to suffer from your tiring exercise workouts and from your boring food diet, you can take a glass of juice and get the same results. For sure, if you have a regular intake of any of these juice weight loss recipes, you will never have to lose with your weight problem. One sip of a refreshing and sweet juice can definitely give you a sweet result.

Written by Ronald Yip at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Juice-Weight-Loss-Recipes---A-Sweet-Way-Towards-a-Perfect-Body&id=3113840

Developing a Healthy Weight Loss Plan

This has been in for a long while now; a little flab here and an extra inch there are widely regarded as being bad news. Look around and you will see weight loss representatives eager to help you start off on programs for healthy weight loss. "Healthy" -- now that is a word to emphasize. Fad diets are all over the place these days. Most often, they are not ways of guaranteeing healthy weight loss. After all, what is the point of losing weight if you end up with metabolism-related problems? Obesity does lead to health problems, but so do fad diets. So how does one come across a healthy weight loss program?

Obesity eats your energy levels and affects your self-esteem. Your neighbors might suggest a crash diet program that worked wonders for her. However, this does not mean that the same diet would work for you. Yo-yo dieting is bad news for health more often than not. Cut down on your fatty indulgences and drink some protein shakes and you could be on your way to losing fat and building muscles. On the flip side, however, you could end up with kidney troubles. Similarly, reducing your calorie intake might help you shave off a few inches in the short term. However, the weight loss might not be a permanent one.

So how does one come up with a healthy weight loss plan? Popeye, the well-known cartoon character is always shown eating spinach, while his friend Wimpy is constantly chowing on hamburgers and fries. The results are there for all to see. While Wimpy is flabby, Popeye is muscular enough to take on any villain that comes his way. It is just another reminder that the key to healthy weight loss lies in eating right.

To begin with, one's weight loss targets need to be reasonable. You can't just wake up a week before Christmas and hope to lose twenty pounds before that Christmas Eve party. Not only is this an unreasonable target, but achieving it can only be done through unhealthy means. You need to develop a healthy weight loss plan. This would involve setting reasonable goals. Tell yourself that you will lose two pounds a week and work towards it. Start slow, be patient and be persistent -- that is the secret to healthy weight loss.

It is best to visit a doctor or a qualified dietitian to figure out what would be a healthy weight loss plan for you. Each person has a different kind of metabolism combined with different health issues. You will need to chart out a suitable diet plan that will give you your daily dose of carbohydrate, calories, proteins, fats, and vitamins. You would also have to start doing some regular exercise. You could set out for a jog every morning; or you could get together with some friends and join an aerobics class. If you are the sporty type, playing tennis more often could work wonders. Healthy weight loss need not be a faraway dream if you are focused on your goal.

"Lose 10 Pounds in 1 Month" (realistically)

Written by Ethan Quinn and available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Developing-a-Healthy-Weight-Loss-Plan&id=1330590

The World's Healthiest Diets

Is the American diet really so bad that it’s time to look to other countries for help?
That’s the premise behind a spate of recent books and Web sites touting plant-heavy diets of various far-away places. Looking at traditional diets has become something of a fad in recent years. Numerous books, including The Jungle Effect and The China Study, have tried to document the link between diet and great health in various countries and regions. Researchers, for example, are still trying to understand how a sweet-potato-based diet may boost longevity on the Japanese island of Okinawa, home to a large population of centenarians. But you don’t have to wait for the definitive answer–The Okinawa Diet Plan can be bought right now.
The latest entrant is The Five Factor World Diet by celebrity trainer and author Harley Pasternak. During his far-flung travels with stars like Jessica Simpson and Hillary Duff, Pasternak noticed that people in many of the countries he visited were slimmer and ate a more nutritious diet than most Americans. The experience left Pasternak (who has a master’s degree in exercise physiology and nutrition) convinced that Americans have a lot to learn from the rest of the world.
His book lists countries with healthy diets that also have long life expectancies and low obesity rates. These metrics best capture the effects of a lifetime of good eating and exercise habits, he argues. Japan tops his list because it has a 1.5% obesity rate (for men) and an 82-year life expectancy, vs. a 36.5% obesity rate and a 78-year life expectancy in the United States. South Korea, China and Singapore also do well. France makes the list with a 6.6% obesity rate and an 81-year life expectancy, as do Italy, Spain and Greece. Pasternak’s rankings aren’t scientifically rigorous, but they may shed light on how other countries eat well and manage to stay healthy.

In Pictures: The World’s Healthiest Diets

What virtually all these countries have in common are low-fat diets rich in fish, lean protein, vegetables, fruits and beans. Plant-based diets can reduce cholesterol levels, while fruits and vegetables also contain antioxidants that may protect against cancer. Consumption of certain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish may reduce heart disease risk. Many of the traditional diets only include small amounts of red and processed and salt-cured meats, whose consumption may increase risk of colorectal and stomach cancers.
Most of the countries in question practice portion control. Although they indulge in high-fat cheeses, cured pork and condensed milk coffee drinks, they rarely pig out like Americans. “Whether you adopt one or multiple things [from these countries] and bring them into your life,” says Pasternak, “you’ll be healthier and lose weight and keep it off.”
Beyond this common-sense message, science doesn’t have much to say about which traditional cuisines are the healthiest. It’s impossible to tell whether the long life expectancies of some countries are actually the result of better health care systems, not better eating habits. No researcher has developed a method to accurately measure the comparative health benefits of one country’s diet vs. another, says Harvard epidemiologist Dimitrios Trichopoulos. “We have no evidence because we don’t have a yardstick,” he says. There are indications that Japanese and Chinese diets, for example, are protective against chronic diseases and improve longevity, but Trichopoulos says that they haven’t been studied enough to say that conclusively.
The one exception, he says, is the Mediterranean diet, high in olive oil, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains. A 2008 meta-analysis of 12 studies of 1.6 million subjects found that people who stick closely to the Mediterranean diet had a 9% lower death rate than people who ate the same diet less stringently, according to the results published in the British Medical Journal. Numerous other studies show it can protect against heart disease.

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But pinpointing the most beneficial components of Mediterranean diet is tough, says David Jenkins, a University of Toronto nutrition professor. “It could be pasta, bulgur, hummus, fava beans,” he says, “What we generally mean is a diet with more fruits and vegetables and less dependence on red meat.”
Trichopoulos says that traditional diets have pitfalls of their own. The Japanese, for instance, eat lots of nutrient-laden cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, bok choy, and their main sources of protein are fish and soy. That’s the good news. The downside: Thanks to a preference for cured foods, they also consume colossal amounts of sodium, which can lead to high blood pressure and more strokes.
So while it may be useful to borrow dietary tips from other cultures–whether it’s rye bread from Sweden, buckwheat noodles from Japan or bok choy from China–it probably doesn’t matter exactly which things you borrow.
 Written by Rebecca Ruiz at: http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/02/healthy-diet-country-lifestyle-health-soy-vegetables.html

The top 25 healthy fruits: Blueberries, apples, cherries, bananas and 21 more healthy picks

Take your pick of the 25 most nutritious, fibre-filled, disease-fighting healthy fruits for sale at your local supermarket. And they're delicious too!

This story was originally titled "A Glossary of Healthy Fruits," in the March 2008 issue. Subscribe to Canadian Living today and never miss an issue!

Few things compare to the sweetness of fresh-picked strawberries or the luscious first bite of watermelon that leaves juice dripping down your chin.

Fruits are not only delicious but healthful too. Rich in vitamins A and C, plus folate and other essential nutrients, they may help prevent heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer and guard against vision loss. They're so good for you that Health Canada recommends that most women get seven or eight servings of fruit and vegetables each day.

If it's the vitamins that promote good health, you may wonder if you can just pop supplements. Nope. Sun-drenched peaches and vine-ripened grapes contain more than just vitamins; they're a complex combination of fibre, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals – as well as the vitamins – that work in combination to provide protective benefits. You can't get all that from a pill.

All fruits offer health benefits, but the following 25 stand out as nutrient-dense powerhouses with the most disease-fighting potential. (Note: Only the best sources of each vitamin, mineral and antioxidant are listed in the "nutritional value" section.)

Apple 
• Nutritional value (1 medium): 75 calories, 3 g fibre
• Disease-fighting factor: Apples contain antioxidants called flavonoids, which may help lower the chance of developing diabetes and asthma. Apples are also a natural mouth freshener and clean your teeth with each crunchy bite.
• Did you know? An apple's flavour and aroma comes from fragrance cells in apple skin, so for maximum flavour, don't peel your apple. Plus, the vitamins lie just beneath the skin.

Avocado
• Nutritional value ( ½ avocado): 114 calories, 4.5 g fibre, source of vitamin E and folate
• Disease-fighting factor: Avocados contain healthy monounsaturated fats that can help lower cholesterol levels when eaten instead of harmful saturated fats. For a heart-healthy boost, replace butter with avocado on your favourite sandwich.  
• Did you know? Babies love avocados. Their soft, creamy texture makes them easy to eat, and their high fat content helps with normal infant growth and development.

Banana
• Nutritional value (1 medium): 105 calories, 3 g fibre, source of vitamin B6, potassium and folate
• Disease-fighting factor: With 422 milligrams of potassium per banana, these sweet delights have more potassium than most fruit and may help lower blood pressure levels.
• Did you know? People with rubber latex allergies may also be allergic to bananas since the two come from similar trees and share a common protein.

Blackberry
• Nutritional value (1/2 cup/125 mL): 31 calories, 4 g fibre, rich in antioxidants
• Disease-fighting factor: Blackberries get their deep purple colour from the powerful antioxidant anthocyanin, which may help reduce the risk of stroke and cancer. Studies show that blackberry extract may help stop the growth of lung cancer cells.
• Did you know? The ancient Greeks called blackberries "gout-berries" and used them to treat gout-related symptoms.

To read more about this article by Cara Rosenbloom, go to:  http://www.canadianliving.com/health/nutrition/top_25_healthy_fruits_blueberries_apples_cherries_bananas_and_21_more_healthy_picks.php

Welcome

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From now on, you'll see posts on tips on how to lose weight an links to products that will aid you on your journey to fulfilling your weightless goals.
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Dieting on the Holidays, Tips For Christmas

If you have been on a diet or maintaining your weight and you don't want to blow it during the holidays, here are some healthy holiday tips.

Can one meal of eating whatever you want really hurt you? The answer is yes. It does a couple of things. After you eat the big meal, it could make you feel sluggish, which will get you a little depressed, because you knew you should not have eaten that much. Then you could see a couple pound weight gain.

You should enjoy some of your favorite foods in moderation. You only live once, and the holidays are important. Don't try to totally diet, it could backfire and make you feel more stressed on the holidays. Treat yourself to good food, less fat, and moderation. Don't use January 1st as a date for watching you weight again. Watch you weight the day after the big holiday meal. Here are some tips for the holidays.

Don't bring home leftovers from the relatives house. That will not be a good idea. If you have leftovers, save just a little bit for your house. Give the rest to your company.

You can substitute some of your foods with less fat ingredients, or less fat items.

Instead of making a turkey, and using heavy stuffing, make Cornish Hens. They are like little chickens with a mild taste. Stuff it with Lipton-Knorr Chicken Rice - Rice Sides, a package rice you prepare. When preparing only cook on stove so it is still pretty moist, when you stuff it in the hens, it will cook more in oven. When hens are almost done drizzle on top Ocean Spray can fruit, Crushed Fruit, it is in a container in the fruit isle that looks like a soft margarine plastic tub.

Instead of Green Bean Casserole, just make some of the steamable whole green bean variety bag and sprinkle 2% Parmesan cheese on top. Squash or yams baked with a little light margarine and cinnamon is also good. If you must have rolls, eat only one. Pillsbury make a reduced fat crescent rolls, that you bake.

Here are some kid friendly low fat desert ideas. Make Rice Krispie gift package treats. Make Rice Krispie Treats as indicated on back of cereal box. I only use 2 1/2 tbl of margarine not 3. Cut into small squares, take the peeling kind of red licorice, the string kind, and wrap around each side of treat and tie in a bow. Take a round plate and layer them around, put another set of treats , going in a little. Keep adding layers until only one will fit on top, and it should look like a tree.

Take fancy beverage glasses, and make Jell-o Parfaits, with sugar free Jell-o and lite Cool Whip. Use red and green Jell-o. Refer to Mykoodles.com for recipe.

If you are making cookies on the holidays, give some away as gifts. Only keep a few days worth in your house. Oatmeal raisin cookies are healthy, if you don't eat a lot. Peanut butter is a good source of protein, but is high in fat.

Written by Lauren Jones at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Dieting-on-the-Holidays,-Tips-For-Christmas&id=1754814