Cantaloupe is an unusual word for a fruit, but when we learn that cantaloupe was first cultivated in the Italian village Cantalupo, around AD 1200, it makes more sense.
This brightly colored fruit belongs to the same family as the cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and gourd. It is filled with strong compounds with many health benefits. It helps to protect your sight, controls your blood pressure, lowers your cholesterol level, keep your blood running smoothly, and protect you against cancer.

“Cantaloupe belongs to one of the rare fruits or vegetables which are a rich source of two potent antioxidants: vitamin C and beta-carotene,” says John Erdman, PhD, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Both of these antioxidant compounds have been shown to protect against cancer, heart disease and other age-related health problems, such as cataracts.

Cantaloupes are charged with carotenoids, the pigments that give fruits and vegetables their bright colors and offer powerful health protection. According to a study in the Netherlands, eating carotenoid-rich fruits results in a 35% lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of irreversible blindness in developed countries.

Cantaloupe protect you also for another sight problem: catarcats. Another study found that women who received the most vitamin A through their diet, reduced their risk of developing cataracts by 39%. When beta-carotene comes inside the body, it is converted to vitamin A. Still another study found that people whose diets included the most vitamin A, halved their risk of cataract surgery.

As I wrote before, antioxidants are compounds that neutralize free radicals, which can cause cellular changes that can lead to heart disease, cancer and cataracts.

Vitamin C, Like potassium, helps to keep your arteries clear and a smooth blood flow by preventing bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing and clogging the artery walls. Another use of vitamin C by our body is the production of collagen, a protein that makes up skin and connective tissue.

Cantaloupe is an excellent source of vitamin C and beta-carotene. One cup contains 68 mg vitamin C, which is 113% of the Daily Value for this vitamin. Half a cantaloupe provides 5 mg beta-carotene, which is about half of the daily amount recommended by most experts.

Important Tips
Cut cantaloupe under water to keep it longer fresh. Scientists from the USDA found that, when you slice cantaloupe under water, it short-circuits the signals that plant cells send to each other when they detect an injury, like being sliced.

Buy them ripe.
Cantaloupe contains more beta-carotene when it is ripe. The challenge is that melons are often picked while they are still unripe so that they can make it through the shipping process undamaged. To check for ripeness, tap the melon and listen for a hollow sound. Then lift the fruit to make sure that it’s heavy for its size. Finally, smell the fruit to make sure that it exudes a sweet, musky parfume. (The smell shouldn’t be too strong; an excessively strong smell indicates an overripe fruit.) If there is no smell, don’t buy it and try another one.

Check the stem.
There shouldn’t be one. Mature cantaloupes will only have a smooth, symmetrical basin where the stem once was and flesh that yields slightly to pressure.

Set it out.
Leave a firm cantaloupe at room temperature for several days to allow it to become softer and juicier. Once’s it’s ripe, put it in the fridge.

Eat it quickly.
Vitamin C degrades quickly when exposed to air, so it’s important to eat cantaloupe fairly soon after cutting, says Dr. Erdman. This is in particularly necessary when the fruit is cut into small pieces, which significantly increases the amount of air to which it’s exposed. Research found that cantaloupe cubes lost 25% of their vitamin C content and 10-15% of their carotenoids after being exposed to air for 6 days.

Research has shown that when people are missing certain nutrients, their mental performance drops. When people meet their nutritional needs, they are okay. But even if they are not getting enough water their mind can get fuzzy. The thirst mechanism slows down when we age. The result is, that we’re not always aware immediately that we need water. However, your diet is not responsible for all memory problems, but when everything else is okay, it may be what you eat that cause you to slow down.

Your brain needs vitamin B
The most essential nutrients to keep your mind sharp are probably the vitamin B complex. Your body needs the B vitamins for the transformation of food into mental energy and for the manufacturing and repairing of brain tissue. “Thiamin, niacin and vitamin B6 and B12 deficiencies can all cause mal function of the brain”, says Vernon Mark, MD, author of Reversing Memory Loss. In fact, pellagra, a niacin deficiency, used to be the main cause of admissions into mental hospitals,” he explains. Research has shown that when children are given 5 mg thiamin instead of the Daily Value of 1.5 mg, they achieve remarkable higher scores when they are given tests of mental functioning, Dr. Mark adds.

Nowadays many cereals, breads and pastas are enriched with thiamin and niacin, so that most people are getting enough of these vitamins. Niacin deficiencies have become extremely rare, especially in this country. But in older people or those who frequently drink alcohol, levels of thiamin can drop low enough to cause memory problems, says Dr. Mark.

The best way to make sure you get enough brain-boosting B vitamins is to eat foods that contain enriched grains. One cup of enriched spaghetti, for example, has 0.3 mg of thiamin, or 20% of the Daily Value (DV), and 2 mg of niacin, or 10% of the DV. Meat is also a good source for getting these nutrients. Three ounces of pork tenderloin, for example, provide 0.8 mg of thiamin, 53% of the DV, while 3 ounces of chicken breast deliver 12 mg or 60% of the DV for niacin.

It’s not so easy when we get older, to get extra amounts of vitamin B6 and B12, because it’s harder for the body to absorb them. After the age of 55, it’s common to be low in these vitamins, because the lining of the stomach is changing. When you get older, it’s a good idea to get more than the DV of both of these nutrients. Vitamin B6 is abundant in baked potatoes, bananas, chickpeas, and turkey. One baked potato provides 0.4 mg of vitamin B6, 20% of the DV. and one banana provide 0.7 mg or 35% of the DV. For vitamin B12, meat and shellfish are good choices.

Maintaining blood flow to the brain
There should be sufficient blood flow to the brain in order to avoid memory problems. When adequate blood flow is not maintained, the brain and memory begin to perform poorly. The lack of blood to the brain is often caused by a buildup of cholesterol and fat in the arteries, the same problem that leads to heart disease and stroke. This condition is not only preventable through diet, it is even at least partially reversible. The primary cause of cardiovascular disease – clogged arteries in the heart and the brain – is too much saturated fat in the diet. Keep your intake of saturated fat low by cooking with small amounts of liquid oils, such as olive or canola oil. instead of margarine or butter and by minimizing your intake of fatty foods, such as full-fat mayonnaise, rich desserts and fatty meats.

It’s also important to get plenty of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants, compounds that block the effects of harmful oxygen molecules called free radicals.This is important because when free radicals damage the harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, it becomes stickier and more likely to stick to artery walls.

Studies have proved that antioxidants in fruits and vegetables can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002, researchers studied nearly 5,500 people and found that those who ate diets rich in antioxidants, vitamin C and E, lowered their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.Citrus fruits, kiwifruit, sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage are packed with vitamin C. While whole grains, nuts, milk and egg yolks contain vitamin E.

The combination of eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and reducing fat in your diet will help to keep your arteries clear, including those leading to your brain. Actually, it can help restore blood flow through your arteries that have already started to close up.

Coffee can Improve Memory Function It’s not without reason that millions of Americans jump start their day with steaming cups of coffee. The caffeine in coffee has been shown to improve mental functioning, including memory.

In one study, Dutch researchers used a chemical to block short-term memory in 16 healthy people. They found that giving these people 250 milligrams of caffeine – about the amount of 3 cups of coffee – quickly restored their powers of recall. However,too much coffee can be bad, if only the java buzz wears off within 6 to 8 hrs. For some people, at least, the after-coffee slump can result in mental fogginess.

Everyone has different reactions to caffeine. For people who rarely drink coffee, having a cup or two can definitely improve performance and memory. But if you drink coffee throughout the day, you quickly build up tolerance and you won’t get the same benefits. In fact, too much caffeine can make you nervous and reduce your concentration.

Don’t kill your brain cells “Killing brain cells is not the best way to get a high score in the memory department. Yet that’s exactly what many of us do to our grey matter. Drinking too much alcohol can cause a significant decrease in memory function.” In fact, even small amounts of alcohol can damage cells in the brain responsible for memory.

Many doctors recommend to stop drinking alcohol all together to keep your mind at its sharpest. At the very least, it’s a good idea to limit yourself to one or two drinks – meaning 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 11/2 ounces of liquor – a day. When you do drink, choose red wine. It contains resveratrol, a compound that may keep your brain young.

Optimal Diet for your Brain
You can’t prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia altogether, but you can keep them at bay longer with a heart-healthy diet that focuses on the nutrients that have been found to be critical for brain function and aging.

Aim for a body mass index of 23 to 25
Being overweight increases your risk for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and hypertension, which leads to vascular disease and brain damage.

Choose Dairy
Eat one serving of low-fat, low-sugar dairy once a day, such as milk, plain yogurt, cottage cheese or ricotta cheese. Epideemiologie studies show that people who drink milk are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Toast to a young brain
Drink one glass of red wine or 4 ounces of purple grape juice or pomegranate juice a day. They contain resveratrol, a compound that doctors believe activates a gene that is associated with longevity.

Eat berries
When you eat one cup of berries a day, it gives your brain resveratrol, and other flavonoids, that strengthens your resistance against the development of chronic diseases associated with aging.

Drink some juice
Drink 8 ounces of fruit juice high in vitamin C daily. Three times a week, substitute a glass of vegetable juice that you buy or make on your own for the fruit juice. Antioxidants and other compounds in those juices help protect the brain from dementia.

Include fish oil in your diet.
Omega-3 fatty acids are powerful agents for a healthy heart and arteries. When you eat oily cold water fish such as sardines or mackerel you will ensure that you get enough omega-3. You can also substitute with 2,000 to 3,000 mg of fish oil or flaxseed oil per day.Walnuts are also rich in omega-3. Eating 8 to 10 walnuts per day or using walnut oil in your salads of dark green vegetables will help protect your brain.

Drink green tea every day.
Green tea is rich in antioxidants and has proved to reduce the risk of dementia. Experts recommend drinking one to two cups a day.

Use Multivitamins
To include those in your diet is particularly important for older, inactive adults who’s calorie intake doesn’t supply the micro nutrients that they need. Choose a multivitamin without iron or reduced iron if yo ‘re not anemic or menstruating.

Consider vitamin D supplements
Vitamin D is a new shining start in the role of brain development and function and many people are deficient without knowing it. We get about 95% of our vitamin D from sunlight, but young people who work long hours and elderly adults who are home bound often don’t get enough sunlight to fill their vitamin D requirements.

Avoid omega-6 fats The omega-6 fatty acids in corn- safflower- and sesame oils aren’t as healthy as omega-3’s found in olive and canola oil. So use those oils sparingly.

Nourish Your Brain
An overall brain-healthy diet is low in refined carbohydrates, (Found in sugars, baked food, candy, and other sweets, for example), red meats and trans fats. It’s high in fatty fish, poultry, soy protein, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

We can get easily motivated and get started with some form of exercise, when we realize the large number of health benefits which we can get from physical fitness.

One excellent study was conducted by well known exercise expert Dr Kennith Cooper who followed 13,344 men and women for 15 years. This meticulous research, taking into account all major variables, like age, family history, personal health history, smoking, blood pressure, cardiovascular condition, and insulin metabolism, showed that, at the fifteen year follow-up, reduced risk of death was closely correlated with physical fitness. This included death from cardiovascular diseases, a variety of cancers, and even accidents.

Physical activity strengthen your heart & lungs.
Many studies prove that with exercise your body’s vital capacity will be maintained, and as a result adequate oxygenation of tissues will also maintained. The health benefits of restoring vital capacity are superior to any drug or medical treatment.

Exercise protects blood pressure
In a typical study, sedentary hypertension patients, aged 55 to 78 years were followed. They all had elevated blood pressure. After they participated in an exercise program, systolic blood pressure went down by a whopping 20 mmHg.
Regular exercise will lower blood pressure in almost everybody.

Physical activity lowers cholesterol
Cholesterol is essential to every function of your body. It forms part of all organs, including your heart and your brain. Recent research showed that average cholesterol levels in runners and bodybuilders ranged between 158 mg/dl and 183 mg/dl. It proves that exercise makes the healthy difference.

Exercise and Cardiovascular Health
Cardiovascular diseases are far out our biggest health problem. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. Almost 50% of all deaths each year from heart disease and cancer combined, account for and affects nearly 14 million.More than twice as many Americans are killed as all cancers, 9 times as many as all other lung and liver diseases together, and 28 times more than all forms of diabetes. There are good reasons to tell everybody who want to begin with an exercise program to have a thorough medical examination and physicians approval before they start.

Cancer prevention
Dr Kenneth Cooper’s study showed that incidence of all forms of cancer was closely related with lack of physical activity. Unfit men and women where 300% more likely to develop cancer. But the best findings from this study is that you have to move only a smidgen out of couch potato land to prevent cancer big time.

Exercise against all diseases
The right exercise maintains your heart, lungs, your muscles, your bones, a healthy level of body fat, even your intestinal function. In healthy people the right exercise completely protects glucose tolerance against the degenerative changes in insulin metabolism that lead to adult-onset diabetes.

Research has revealed the mayor way in which physical exercise protect you against all diseases. It started with evidence that physical activity increases overall white blood cells. Then came more precise findings that moderate exercise increases bodily production of disease fighting components of the immune system. There is no longer doubt that the right exercise strengthen your immunity.

Exercise is a medicine to create a positive change in a person’s physical, emotional and mental states.
When we have health, we have hope, and when we have hope, we have everything.

If you like all of the above, I can recommend one of the best exercise programs on the internet to improve and maintain your overall health!

We were told by our parents to eat carrots, because they are good for our eyes. When my mother was scrubbing carrots, I always liked to eat one raw.

But researchers discovered that the nutritional value of carrots goes far beyond supporting our eyes. They contain a range of compounds that can help prevent certain cancers, heart attacks and lower cholesterol.

A substance that gives carrots their orange color, called beta-carotene, contains many health benefits. Carrots are one of the richest sources of beta-carotene, an antioxidant compound that fight free radicals. Just one cup of carrots provide more than 250% of the daily amount recommended by experts.

At Women’s Hospital in Boston, researchers found that women who ate just five servings of four raw carrot sticks a week had 54% lower risk of getting ovarian cancer, due to the carotene in carrots.

And another research in Sweden, involving 61,000 women, found that those who ate four to six servings of antioxidant-rich carrots a week cut their risk of the most common form of kidney cancer by 54%.

Other studies, involving large populations, showed that low levels of beta-carotene gives people a higher risk of developing certain cancers, especially lungs and stomach cancers.

Carrots are not only good for your body cells, but they are very good for your heart as well. It has been proved, that eating large amounts of carrots rich in beta-carotene and related compounds may reduce the risk of heart disease. “A half-cup serving of cooked carrots contains 12 milligrams of beta-carotene, about twice the amount you need to get the benefits,” says Paul Lachance, PhD, executive director of the Nutraceuticals Institute at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

According to a research in Germany, eating carotene-rich foods can reduce your blood levels from a substance that can cause cardiovascular disease called c-reactive protein (also known as CRP). In the study men who ate eight servings of fruits and vegetables containing beta-carotene reduced their CRP levels by 42% in just four weeks.

Carrots not only contain beta-carotene, but also alpha-carotene, which appears also to fight cancer. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that lung cancer appeared more often in men with low intake of alpha-carotene then in men who ate more.

Better Vision
The beta-carotene in carrots works in two ways: by converting the vitamin A in the body and helping to improve vision.
This better vision effect is a well known fact. Researchers in World War II cultivated carrots with high beta-carotene content to help pilots to see better at night.

Vitamin A helps vision by forming a purple pigment that is needed by the eyes in order to be able to see in dim light.
This pigment, called rhodopsin, is located in the light-sensitive area of the retina. The more vitamin A you get, the more rhodopsin your body is able to produce. Consequently, people with low levels of vitamin A may suffer from night blindness, which make it difficult to drive after dark.

Apart from giving you better vision, carrots also help to protect your vision. A study in Boston at Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that eating carotenoid-rich food was linked to a 36% lower risk of the leading cause of severe vision loss in the elderly – age related macular degeneration.

How to get the most out of carrots
Look for new-colored carrots with more powerful pigments at your supermarket: lycopene-rich red and lutein-laden yellow in addition to the usual orange. When buying carrots with the green still on it, cut it off before storing them. Otherwise, those pretty leafy tops will act like nutrient vampires, sucking out the vitamins and moisture before you can eat the carrots. Eat them cooked. In general, raw vegetables are more nutritious than cooked, but carrots can benefit from a little cooking. This is because carrots contain a lot of dietary fiber – more than 2 grams in one carrot – which traps the beta-carotene, says John Erdman, PhD, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois. Cooking carrots can help free beta-carotene from the fiber cells, making it easier for your body to absorb. But when you cook carrots, you will lose some of the nutrients in the cooking water. You can save them by using the cooking water to make soup or in a sauce. Another way to release more of the beta-carotene from carrots is to make a carrot cocktail. Processing carrots in a blender breaks apart the fibers, allowing the beta-carotene to escape.

When you roast carrots, it brings out their flavors. Toss 1 1/4- inch pieces of carrot with salt, pepper, and a little extra-virgin olive oil. Bake, covered for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes longer. It’s important to add some olive oil. Beta-carotene needs a small amount of fat to get through your intestinal wall and into your body, says John Erdman, PhD, of the University of Illinois. So the next time you’re serving carrot sticks, you may add a small amount of a dip, such as a ranch dressing..

Related Articles – eyesight, beta-carotene, cancer protection, carotenoid, lycopene,

There are many books and articles that encourage young and older people to exercise.
Exercise is good at any age, but to determine the right exercise program is not so easy,to be honest, it can be quite difficult. People have different body shapes, different medical issues and different musculo skeletal problems.

For that reason it is not advisable to start an exercise program that is not adjusted to meet the specific needs of the individual older adult. One have to be careful when choosing a trainer when joining a gym or health club. Many athletic trainers are not trained to understand all the potential risks and dangers involved with training the elderly.

The elderly person needs someone who understands the subtle issues that come with aging muscles and ligaments. In addition, many seniors have arthritis and osteoporosis, which changes the normal body alignment during exercise. Others may have degenerative changes in the spine. If a trainer doesn’t pay attention to these details, the person could get hurt. You have to train a seventy-eight-year-old woman differently than an eighteen-year-old football player. You have to be very careful.

Exercise is vital for any older adult who wants to remain healthy. Studies have shown that older adults who exercise regularly have better balance and a lower risk of falls. They have better control of their blood sugar levels, better flexibility, better quality of sleep and fewer symptoms of depression. They will also improve their muscle strength and have less arthritis pain on their hips and knees.

AEROBIC EXERCISE
Endurance exercise will help you to strengthen your heart and lungs and increase your stamina as well. Many older adults have much atherosclerosis (plaque) in their coronary arteries, which put them at a higher risk for heart attacks. Older adults who have not exercised for years should talk to their doctor first before starting an aerobic exercise program. The doctor may determine whether the person’s heart is able to tolerate the increased exertion associated with exercise.

It is generally recommended that people should try to exercise for thirty minutes at 75% to 80% of their maximum target heart rate. The maximum heart rate is calculated using the simple formula 220 – your age in years. This formula doesn’t work well for many seniors. For the older adult who has not exercised for years and wants to start exercising, it is recommended to set a goal of 60% – 65% , rather than 75 – 80%. For those who can’t exercise for the full 30 minutes, two 15 minute periods or three 10 minute periods may suffice.

Be careful before you buy any of those heart rate meters, if you are on heart medications called beta-blockers,which can slow down their heart rate. Many pacemakers regulate how fast the heart can beat. If you have an irregular heart rhythm problem called atrial fibrillation, you also have to be careful. So how hard should elderly people exert themselves? It is suggested that they should be able to talk comfortably while exercising.

STRETCHING
You also have to be careful with stretching exercises, especially if you haven’t stretched for decades. During that time your tendons ( which attach muscles to bones) and ligaments (which attach bones together), have undergone a variety of degenerative changes and the water content decreases. The water content of cartilage also decreases. As a result, most people become less flexible as they age. Tendons and ligaments tend to tear easier and when they tear, the healing process is slower.

Here are some helpful hints on stretching from the National Institute on Aging: Stretching exercises should only be done after a warming up period by walking or some gentle bicycle riding. Especially during the winter time when your joints and ligaments are stiffer because of the cold weather. Stretching should cause some minor discomfort, but it should not be painful. If you are getting pain, you need to lesson the tension or stop. Move slowly into a stretching position. Quick jerking motions can cause an injury. Hold the position for at least twenty to thirty seconds. If you can’t hold the stretch that long, than you are overstretching and you need to do it more gently. We believe that all frail elderly people should consult with their physician or their physical therapist before starting a stretching regimen. Don’t do just stretching exercises that you saw someone perform TV or at the gym. Even a yoga or Pilates class that is not specifically designed for the untrained older adult can lead to injuries.

WEIGHT TRAINING
There is some truth in the saying: “use it or lose it”. The real truth is that many elderly folks don’t have much more that they can afford to lose. This brings up the concept of functional reserve, which refers to the amount of extra work that can be done by an organ or muscle when needed. By the time some seniors reach their eighties or nineties, they have such a small functional reserve in their muscles that they can barely out of bed or walk.

Many seniors take up exercise programs that involve lifting weights. By lifting weights their muscles will grow in size and become stronger. Weight training would appear on the surface to make sense. Increasing muscle size and strength could help many seniors who have lost some of their size and strength over the years.

The real truth is that older adults need to be careful before beginning a weight lifting program. Proper instruction with the correct weight and form is critical. We cannot over emphasize the danger that a poorly designed weight training regimen poses to the joints, tendons and ligaments of seniors. Studies have shown that a carefully designed regimen may make seniors’ muscles a little bigger and stronger. Any benefits gained have usually been lost once the study is over. Researches have not been able to show that weight-training exercises by themselves can decrease the level of disability among frail seniors.

Some recommendations for folks who have not exercised for decades. 1. Walking – it is very simple and very effective. Even 15 minutes twice a day can help improve one’s lung function and lowers the blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes. For people who are out of shape, this a nice way to exercise without putting much stress on joints. 2. Pool exercises – you don’t have to do laps in the pool. Walking in the pool or simply moving your arms and legs as you stand in the shallow end of the pool is an excellent way to exercise. Buoyancy provides support to joints during movement and even provide some resistance. Muhammad Ali used to do pool exercises to help him train for many of his fights. It works very well for patients with arthritis of the hips and knees as a way to exercise arthritic joints without putting much weight-bearing stress on the joints. 3. Stationary bicycle – when done at low speeds and low resistance this exercise can be of great benefit for patients with arthritic knees. 4. Tai chi – this Chinese martial art promote balance and strengthening without putting much stress on the joints and ligaments. Although it does not involve punching or kicking, it is still considered a martial art. It has also been shown in several studies to improve balance and decrease the risk of falls in older adults. 5. Yoga – many older adults enroll in yoga classes in order to enjoy its many health benefits. These benefits include increased flexibility, improved balance,and an improved sense of well-being. However, older adults have to be very careful. There are yoga classes that cater for clients who have medical challenges as well as older adults. Look for a yoga instructor who has experience in adapting poses for individual needs. 6. Custom exercises – for patients who can no longer walk, there are even exercises that a physical therapist can design to be done in bed or in a chair.

It is recommended to start slowly with exercise. Once started, some folks get quite motivated and exited about there new exercise regimen. The improvement in how they feel and in their exercise performance helps to motivate them further. As the amount of exercise increases, we often see that many of them succumb to joints and ligament injuries. The point is that even if you think you can do more, it is advised not to do so.

Questions to ask your doctor 1.Is it save for me to exercise? 2. What type of exercise should I be doing? 3. Are there exercises I should avoid doing?

A final tip: Proceed with caution when starting an exercise program. Start easy and work your way up slowly.

Related Articles – exercise program, flexibility, aerobic exercise, atherosclerosis, heart rate, stretching, weight lifting, yoga,

As the toxins and the poor nutrient value in our food increases, juicing is one of the best ways to compensate for it.
Whipping fresh fruits and vegetables through a juicer and extracting a glassful of vitamin-packet nectar ensures that we get the recommended five to seven servings of these foods every day. Some people like juicing to get more carotenoids and flavonoids, which are healing compounds that can fight major diseases like cancer and heart disease.
Others see juicing as a way to get rid of the toxins in our body, boost immunity and help to treat a variety of diseases, like anemia, constipation and arthritis.

For people who don’t like to swallow pills or capsules, Juices are a multivitamin/mineral supplement.Our body can absorb the nutrients much better than from pills. Plants are filled with vitamins, minerals and other beneficial compounds, but these substances are bound to vibrous tissue and contained within cellulose walls. By grinding vegetables and fruits to make juice, you break down the cellulose walls and release these compounds, making them available for consumption.

You can get much more nutrients out of food from juice, than from just eating, unless you chew very, very well. In fact, juice is one of the most powerful whole foods that you can put in your body. It takes very little energy to digest it, so you maintain almost all of the energy and nutrients that it gives. Plus it takes a whole lot of vegetables to get the same
amount of nutrients found in one glass of juice.

A 6-ounce glass of carrot juice contains large amounts of beta-carotene, which, when it is converted to vitamin A in your body, represents 948% of the Daily Value. The same glass of juice also contains 16 mg vitamin C, 27% of the Daily Value, 0.4 mg of vitamin B6, or 20% of the Daily Value; 537 mg of potassium, or 15% of the DV, and 0.2 mg of thiamin, or 11% of the Daily Value.

Juicing can even help to control your weight.Drinking juices helps the body iron out its nutritional deficiencies, which leaves you more satisfied from a healthy diet and less likely to overeat.

In spite of their nutritional goodness, juices should be used to supplement fresh fruits, vegetables and grains in your diet, not to replace them. The contribution of fiber is not sufficient to get the 20 to 35 grams that adults need every day.
For example, eight carrots provide 17 grams of fiber, while a 6-ounce glass of juice contains a measly 2 grams.

Fresh juices gives you more than the necessary vitamins and minerals. They also contain a variety of phytonutrients.
Perhaps the best known of the phytonutrients is beta-carotene, a plant pigment that gives the orange color on sweet potatoes and carrots, and the red on tomatoes. Fruits and vegetables also contain flavonoids, compounds with strong antioxidant power and prevent
low-density lipoprotein, (LDL) cholesterol.

From a large study, involving more than 100,000 people, researchers found that when one serving of fruits and vegetables was added to the diet each day, the risk of ischemic stroke, a stroke in which the artery to the brain was blocked,was lowered by 6%.
The best protection came from citrus fruits, dark green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables, which include broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.

Other studies have shown that antioxidants help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002, a study involving nearly 5,500 people, researchers found that those people who ate diets rich in the antioxidants vitamin C and E, decreased their risk of developing
Alzheimer’s disease. Drinking a large variety of vegetables and fruit juices is an exellent way to get therapeutic amounts of all of these healing compounds.

Drink your juices right away, otherwise it will lose their nutritional benefits as well as the flavor. So juices, like cabbage, become funky in a few hours. So it’s best to make only as much as you like to drink right away.

It’s best to consume vegetable juices, they are better nutritionally. Although a tall glass of fruit juice may look appealing to you, it’s better to concentrate on vegetable juices.Fruit juices are high in sugar and too acidic to drink in large quantities.
For maximum healing benefits, drink vegetable juices from a variety of vegetables.
The more variety you can put in your diet, the better.

A good way to lose weight and body fat is to follow a low-fat diet.
There are many health benefits as a result of a low-fat diet.

The key to losing weight is to reduce the total calorie intake. The easiest way to do that is to eat less fat.
One gram of fat delivers 9 calories, which is more than twice as many as the same amount of protein or carbohydrate. In addition, our body likes fat. It’s easier to store calories from fat than from other sources.

When you eat fatty foods it will significantly increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, and many other conditions. Today, more than 66% of American people are overweight or obese and the rate of obesity has more than doubled to 32%, and most of the increase did happen during the last 20 years.

In one study, Danish researchers found that those who reduced the amount of fat in their diets from 39% to 28% of total calories and increased their intake of carbohydrates were able to lose an average of 9 pounds in just 12 weeks. Also, people who stuck to lower-fat diets were able to keep the weight off long after the study ended.

Another advantage of reducing fat from your diet is that it can increase your general sense of well-being. In a study of more than 550 women, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found that when the women cut their daily fat intake in half from 40% to 20% of total calories – they felt more vigorous, less anxious, and less depressed than they had when they were eating their former diets.

Heart Health Fat in your diet often goes to your arteries. There is a direct link between the amount of fat in your diet and your risk for heart disease. This is particularly true of saturated fat. The dangerous type that can clog your arteries and we find mainly in meats, full-fat dairy products, and snack foods. Research has shown that eating a diet low in saturated fat is the best way to lower this risk.

It’s not necessary to go on an extremely low fat diet to get the benefits. Even reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet only a little bit can help you to lower your cholesterol levels.

Cancer Protection
Switching to a low-fat diet offers great protection against many diseases, including cancer. Researchers at the University of Benin in Nigeria found that when laboratory animals were fed high-fat diets, they started producing enzymes that caused cancerous changes in their colons in just three weeks.

What works in the laboratory can also be applied in real life.In a study of 450 women, researchers in the department of epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine found that cutting just 10 grams off saturated fat a day – the equivalent of switching from two glasses of whole milk to the same amount of fat-free milk – could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by 20%.

A low-fat diet not only protect you because of what it doesn’t contain, but also because of what it does.
When you reduce your fat intake, you generally eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. all of which have been shown to keep us healthier, says JoAnn Manson, MD, professor of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Good for the Eyes
To close it of, eating a low-fat diet may also protect you against macular degeneration. Which is the main cause of vision loss in older adults. In a survey of more than 2000 people, researchers from the University of Wisconsin in Madison found that those who reported getting the most saturated fat had 80% higher risk of getting macular degeneration than those getting the least.

Starting your Low-fat Diet
If you want to start reducing the amount of fat in your diet, it’s not always easy to know where to begin.
Firstly, you have to find out how much fat you’re actually getting each day. Ideally, you should get between 25% and 30% of your total calories from fat.

For example, suppose you normally get 2000 calories per day. When you’re following a low-fat diet, no more than 600 of your total calories should come from fat. This will adds up to 67 grams of fat per day.

Don’t let lowering your fat intake to 30% discourage you! This is a reasonable amount of fat to go into your diet. According to Lalita Kaul, PhD, a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and professor of nutrition at the Medical School of Howard University in Washington D.C. Eating low fat means: avoiding fried foods, forgoing rich, fatty restaurant meals for home-cooked fare, and searching for tasty low-fat recipes with which to replace some of your higher-fat favorites. Reach for a Lean Cuisine meal or a Lean Pocket when you’re looking for at-home convenience.

Probably the easiest way to keep track of your daily fat intake is reading food labels.They are based on a 2000-calorie diet. So you can look at foods which are 30% or below. To avoid partially hydrogenated oils, look for a spread that says “zero trans fat” on the label. And avoid cookies and other baked goods and snack foods that contain trans fats.Trans fats are now required to be listed on nutrition labels along with total and saturated fat.If you are dining out or buy foods that don’t have labels, you can buy a nutrition reference guide in a bookstore or supermarket.

As mentioned before, the most dangerous type of fat to watch out for is saturated fat, which is found in animal foods like meat, butter, cheese and eggs, and some plant sources such as coconut oil, palm oil, tropical oils and cocoa butter.The same foods that are high in saturated fat are also high in cholesterol. So when you decrease one, you automatically decrease the other.

The American Heart Association recommends that we should get less than 7% of our total calories from saturated fat,partly by choosing fat free or low-fat milk and leaner cuts of meat, like sirloin or top round.

Enjoy the Good Fats in Moderation Generally, you should reduce all kind of fats in your diet. Although monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are not bad,you should eat them in moderation, because they contain as many calories as bad fats. They are found in vegetable and seed oils, such as olive,sesame, and safflower oils, and in nuts and seeds. They have been shown to actually lower cholesterol and may help prevent it from sticking to artery walls.

The fat found in fish, omega-3 fatty acids, has been shown to reduce clotting and inflammation in the arteries, which can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. You don’t have to eat a lot of fish to get the benefits. When you’re following a low fat diet, having two fish meals a week will go a long way toward keeping your arteries in the swim. Discover the best Fat Burning Techniques

Foods like fruits and vegetables are the Ultimate Protection against the damaging effects of Cancer

Cancer is the No 1 killer in the United States, causing 25% of all deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. However, when it comes to cancer prevention, a healthy diet, consisting of fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains can significantly reduce the risk of cancer.
Research shows that if we all ate more off the right foods and less of the wrong ones, the change of getting cancer would be reduced by 30%. Diet plays an important role when dealing with cancer.
There are compounds in foods that can both prevent and help fight cancer at the cellular level.

Research recommend to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. This will reduce cancer deaths by 35%. One study in particular found that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables reduce the risk
of pancreatic cancer – a particularly deadly one – in half.
Recently researchers discovered the reason why plant foods offer such powerful cancer protection.
Certain compounds, found only in plant foods and known as phytonutrients (from the Greek word phyto, meaning plant ), have the ability to stop cancer.

Research has proved that eating just one serving of watermelon or pink grapefruit a day can reduce man’s risk of developing prostate cancer by 82%!
Watermelon and pink grapefruit are high in a phytonutrient called lycopene. In fact, watermelon contain about 40% more lycopene than fresh tomatoes – the vegetable most people probably think of when they think of lycopene.

When processed into sauce, juice or ketchup, however, tomatoes do yield more usable lycopene.
Interestingly, a recent study found that organic ketchup has up to three times more lycopene than ordinary kinds. Probably because organic ketchup is made with riper tomatoes than other types of ketchup.
The darker red the ketchup is, the greater its lycopene content.

The Power of Antioxidants
Every day, your body is under attack of free radicals, harmful molecules who have lost an electron.
Nature anticipated this damaging threat by packing fruits, vegetables, and other foods with antioxidants, protective compounds that either stop or disable the formation of free radicals before they have a change to do harm.

Besides the many compounds in foods that act as antioxidants in the body, two in particularly powerful and best studied are beta-carotene and vitamin C. Beta-carotene is the pigment that gives many fruits
and vegetables their lush, deep orange to red hues. However, it’s more than nature’s palette.
Beta-carotene has been shown to stimulate the release of natural killer cells, which hunt down and destroy cancer cells before they can cause damage.

You don’t need a lot of beta-carotene to get the benefits. Research recommend getting 15 to 30 mg/day – the amount provided by one or two large carrots – is probably all it takes.Cantaloupes, sweet potatoes,
spinach and bok choy are all excellent choices of beta-carotene.

Another antioxidant, vitamin C, has been shown to help preventing the formation of cancer causing compounds in the digestive tract. The Daily Value for vitamin C is 60 mg, which is very easy to get from foods.

Beans as a cancer fighter
Beans are high in magnesium, and can reduce the formation of colon cancer by 23%. Only a half cup of beans, provides 43 mg magnesium, which is almost 11% of the Daily Value of 400mg.

Beans also protect against breast cancer. A study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who ate beans twice a week had a 24% lower risk of developing breast cancer than women who seldom ate them.

Drink red wine as protection
According to a study of more than 3,400 men by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, drinking a 4-ounce glass of red wine a day may cut a man’s risk of prostate cancer in half.
Which wine is best? Researchers at the University of Mississippi tested 11 different types of red wine and found that Pinot Noir from California have the most resveratrol , an antioxidant that can help ward off cancer and even heart attacks.

Tea is the second most popular beverage. It has recently been shown to fight cancer.
A Swedish study of 61,000 women found that those who drank 2 cups of tea a day lowered their risk of ovarian cancer by 46%.

Researchers examined 63 studies and revealed that milk has high levels of vitamin D and cut the risk of colon, ovarian and breast cancer by up to 50%. Researchers recommend getting 1000 IU of vitamin D per day. One cup of milk contain 100 IU vitamin D.

Fiber against cancer
Fiber is not a nutrient and was not taken seriously for a long time. AS it turned out, fiber does more than anyone ever imagined. Consuming a high-fiber diet is essential for reducing the risk of certain types of cancer, particularly colon cancer. Fiber works against cancer in several ways.
Since fiber is absorbent, it soaks up water as it moves through the digestive tract. This makes stools larger. And the more quickly stools move, the less time there is for any harmful substances they contain to damage the cells lining the intestine. Also, fiber helps trap cancer-causing substances in the colon.

If you pick the right foods, Beans and certain vegetables are the best sources of fiber. A half-cup of kidney beans contains 7 grams of fiber, and the same amount of chickpeas contains 5 grams.
Whole grains are also good sources of fiber.

There are three main keys to losing fat and gaining muscle. If you’re missing any of these you will most likely fail in your attempts to build a lean muscular body. So what are they?
1) Eat Less Calories than you burn off
2) Resistance Training
3) Eating enough protein to maintain muscle mass
That’s as short and sweet as I can put it.
Any diet can work as long as it gets you to eat less calories than you burn off.
The key is to find a diet that suits your personality and your lifestyle. If you’re like me you don’t have time to spend on diet rules and focusing on good foods and bad foods and what to eat and what not to eat, and meal timing and all of that.

The diet that will work for you will most likely be the one with the least amount of rules, or in fact no rules at all but rather just provide a guideline or two. For me that diet is Eat Stop Eat. It is the simplest nutrition program I have ever come across.

There is only one guideline, and that is to take a 24 hour break from eating once or twice per week. That’s it, simple and effective.
This type of eating program might work for you, or it might not. You just have to try it first.
As long as you can find a diet you can stick with for the long term you’ll be able to lose weight, the next key it making sure all of that weight comes from fat.

This is where resistance training comes in.
You have to do some form of resistance training in order to maintain and build muscle mass while you’re losing fat. If you are following an effective diet without doing resistance training you could end up losing muscle mass along the way. If this happens you could lose body weight
without actually improving the look or shape of your body.

Your actual body weight doesn’t matter as much as your percentage of fat. If you can lose 5 pounds of fat, but gain 3 pounds of muscle you will only lose 2 pounds of body weight on the scale, but you’ll look 8 pounds different. Even though 2 pounds doesn’t sound like much, the difference on your body fat percentage is the key.

This is why weight training is so important while dieting.Weighttraining is the best way to make sure you don’t lose muscle while you diet, this helps with overall health as well as improving the overall look and shape of your body. After all when you diet the goal is to show off the lean muscle that is under the fat.
The third key to building muscle while losing fat is protein. You have to eat just enough protein to make sure your muscles can grow. This is a controversial topic that many nutrition ‘experts’ still don’t agree on. But the bottom line is protein is your friend when it comes to building muscle and especially when you’re dieting.
Mix these three key ingredients together and you’ll have a potent fat loss and muscle building program that can transform your body in no time.
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