Archive for the 'nutrition' Category

Green Tea Benefits

July 18th, 2010 -- Posted in nutrition | No Comments »

The history of Green Tea is a long and exotic one, with the ancient Chinese long extolling the virtues of the drink and placing great faith in its life giving and healing properties. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that tea found its way to European shores, but only recently have the benefits of green tea been fully realised in the western world.

There is a lot written on the web about green tea benefits, much of it anecdotal but also now backed up scientifically and the list of ailments green tea is claimed to be able to cure or prevent is extensive indeed. It includes cures for digestive problems, the ability to improve the time it takes to heal wounds, purification of the blood and detoxification of poisons.

Scientists continue to investigate claims of its health advantages, but study after study has shown that drinking green tea has curative or preventative powers. It is claimed that Green tea can:

  • Reduce cholesterol
  • Shrink tumors/cause cancerous cells to die
  • Improve blood vessel function
  • Slow the passage of glucose in diabetics and regulate insulin levels
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Reduce triglycerides
  • Provide protection against heart attack and stroke
  • Act as an anti-inflammatory and promotes the growth of good bacteria in the intestine
  • Staves off Alzheimer’s – investigations taking place suggest it may work on Parkinson’s as well
  • Inhibit viral infections
  • Fight bad breath
  • Trigger weight loss

Of course these are not guaranteed, but people have reported benefit in all of these areas to varying degrees. How is this possible? Scientists attribute the miraculous healing benefits of green tea to the high concentration of antioxidants found in both the tea leaves in the wild and the steeped tea that we drink.

Antioxidants are vary importing in neutralising the effect of something called free radicals in the human body. Free radicals
are the atoms that are thought to accelerate ageing and damage skin. Ultimately Free radicals have in their place in biology and we should not strive to eliminate them altogether, but we can combat the types of free radicals whose cumulative effect is harmful to our bodies with Antioxidants.

Usually our antioxidant intake come from fruits and vegetables, and, not surprisingly, in tea. But studies show that green tea has 8-10 times more antioxidants than fruits and vegetables, another reason to cultivate the tea-drinking habit.

Succeeding with the Nutrisystem Diet Plans

July 2nd, 2010 -- Posted in nutrition | No Comments »

A big part of succeeding with any kind of plan for losing some weight is in understanding what to expect from it before you go jumping in with both feet and landing with a thump. For the several Nutrisystem diet plans that are available in particular, there will be aspects to them that you may not be expecting. So being ready for what is coming will really help you to not only better understand the diet itself, but to have the very best chances of succeeding in achieving your own weight loss goal. This article will explain some of the aspects that you may not be so well prepared for.

Cost

The cost of the Nutrisystem diets varies depending upon which plan you select, but paying a single payment in one go for a four week diet menu may at first seem quite expensive. But when you offset that cost against what you’d normally spend on all your food for those four weeks, you’ll see it actually works out very reasonable for a quality diet that is simplicity itself to use and will help you lose weight.

Storage

The regular menus consist of three meals plus one dessert and two snacks per day for twenty eight days. That’s quite a collection of food packages, which need to be stored somewhere suitable. Either a cool, dry place or the freezer depending upon the plan you select, so make sure you have space before ordering!

Meal Size

The size of the meals is probably smaller than you are used to. This is partly because you may have gotten used to large meals, which will be part of the reason you are overweight in the first place, and partly because, well, it is a diet and you are meant to eat less in order to lose weight!

Healthy Food

One aspect that you may not be prepared for is the switch from a diet of probably bad food, like junk, processed or fast food to one of healthy food. Your body will need to adapt to the better food and this can produce flatulence. Its just a normal body function, so don’t let it bother you!

Support

There is full customer support with counsellors and nutritionists available to help you via the Nutrisystem website as well as a customer forum where you can chat to other customers for mutual support and motivation. Be sure to use it to get the best from your diet plan and make the most of these Nutrisystem diet tips for fast weight loss to ensure success is yours.

4 Key Factors That Contribute to a High Quality Acai Juice

June 25th, 2010 -- Posted in nutrition | No Comments »

High quality acai juice is very beneficial to our health. It is loaded with antioxidants called anthocyanins along with many other health promoting nutrients that can help protect us from degenerative disease like cancer, macular degeneration, premature aging, arthritis and heart disease. However, the key word here is high quality. Lower quality acai juice products will not provide the same level of health benefits. So when buying acai juice there are some key factors to look out for that will ensure you get the every best from acai. continue reading »

The Scientific Health Benefits of Green Tea

June 22nd, 2010 -- Posted in nutrition | No Comments »

The health benefits of green tea is one of a very few natural remedies in which there is very little dispute to its effectiveness. In Asia, and especially China, green tea has been used for its medicinal benefits for centuries. In China there is even evidence that green tea has been used as a natural medicine as far back as 4000 years. Today, there is a lot of hard scientific evidence to support the long known health benefits of green tea.

Cancer Prevention
One of the benefits of green tea that has been focused on extensively in studies is its potent anti-cancer properties.  One such study that was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1994 released strong evidence that drinking green tea can help protect us from cancer. The study looked at the diets of many men and women in China and found that those who drink the most green tea are 60% less likely to develop cancer of the esophagus.  Other studies show that green tea can help protect us from other forms of cancer too, including cancer of the breasts, lungs and prostate.

Research undertaken at the University of Purdue discovered that a lot of the anti-cancer benefits of green tea can be attributed to the antioxidants that are found most abundantly in green tea – catechins. Catechins help to protect our cells form oxidative damage that can lead to cancer development.

Heart health Benefits of Green tea
Many studies show that drinking green tea is very beneficial to our heart and cardiovascular health. Catechins help to protect LDL Cholesterol from oxidative damage that can lead lead to the development of atherosclerosis and the formation of blood clots. This is important for heart health because atherosclerosis and blood clots are key risk factors that can lead to heart attacks.

Not just limited to protecting LDL cholesterol from oxidative damage, studies show that drinking green tea helps to lower blood levels of LDL cholesterol while raising HDL cholesterol levels. This is great for heart health because High HDL cholesterol blood levels are protective against heart disease, while the opposite is true for LDL cholesterol!

Weight Loss
Green tea weight loss is actually one of a very few natural forms of weight loss that is based in solid science. The amazing anti-cancer and heart protective catechins of green tea increase our metabolic rate and therefore helps the body burn more calories just by performing its basic functions. However, studies show that we would need to drink about 12 cups of green tea a day to achieve this effect. That’s a lot of tea! A great alternative is to take a quality green tea extract supplement that can provide the weight loss benefits of many cups of green tea.

Role of Complex Carbs in a Runner’s Diet

June 13th, 2010 -- Posted in Exercises, Featured, nutrition | No Comments »

We all know how running can be effective when your health is in question. First of all, you increase the flow of oxygen in the blood stream which energizes the entire body and lifts up your mood. Second, it keeps a strong and healthy heart over the years. Also, the muscles are developed, bones and joints are strengthened and the fat is trimmed. continue reading »

Healthy Vitamin C

June 12th, 2010 -- Posted in Featured, nutrition | No Comments »

Ever since we were young, we have always been taught that different vitamins give different effects to the body. Vitamin C is one of the more popular types of vitamins; but what it is really? What does it do to our body? How can it be beneficial for us? Let us learn more about it and the advantages that we would get from it.

Vitamin C is also known as Absorbic acid, a water soluble vitamin that is used to treat different diseases or conditions from the simple ones like colds to more serious ones like Parkinson’s disease. continue reading »

The Importance of Breakfast

June 6th, 2010 -- Posted in Featured, nutrition | No Comments »

All of us have our own morning rituals. Some of the things that are usually done after waking up, in no particular order, are going to the bathroom, reading the newspaper, checking emails and text messages, watching the morning news, drinking coffee and cleaning the car. These things are all okay because they set us off for the day. But the one important thing missing here is eating breakfast. It is a healthy eating habit that we must all have. continue reading »

The Differences Between Popular Chinese Teas

June 5th, 2010 -- Posted in Featured, nutrition | No Comments »

Many people, especially those not familiar with Chinese teas, tend to become very confused about what each tea tastes like, how it should be brewed and what benefits it possesses.  The first thing to realize is that all tea, aside from herbal teas, are made from the same plant, the “Camelia Sinensis” which is actually a relation to the regular garden variety of Camelias! continue reading »

The 15 top fat burning foods

June 2nd, 2010 -- Posted in Featured, nutrition | No Comments »

If you want to lose fat you have to do fat burning exercise and eat foods that help to burn fat – fat burning foods. You should also not eat more calories than you burn. Let’s have a look at 15 foods that can help you to burn more fat: continue reading »

Composing A Healthy Slimming Diet Plan

May 21st, 2010 -- Posted in Featured, nutrition | No Comments »

When you are trying to get into a good body composition, you most likely want to get it in a healthy way. Obtaining it in a healthy way usually means that you are going to keep the results without difficulties, and even though it is a lot more comfortable to look at the scale and aim for a target weight, it is a better idea to to look for the healthiest possible diet that you can get and obtain a healthy body. A healthy body is a lean one, since it a scientifically proven fact that once our bodyfat percentages get too high we start having problems with our health. continue reading »

Next »