Edition #31  

How to use resistance Bands for strength training.

Would you like to increase your metabolism so that your body will burn more calories throughout the day? Or maybe you are more interested in increasing the lean tissue on your body so that you can work harder, play longer, and have a decreased chance of a life-related injury. Strength training offers just that. But… read more……

Using This Raises Your Heart Attack and Stroke Risk By 30%

For many men in their 50s and 60s, that all too familiar dip in energy and sexual vigor is often a fact of life–and a clear sign of diminishing testosterone levels. For many healthcare professionals, though, the solution is clear: Have them take a testosterone supplement.   Read More »

VENUS FACTOR: For Permanent Female Fat loss!

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By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

I couldn’t be any simpler with my nutrition recommendations for fat burning. You will get have the most energy and the best body and fitness level possible if you eat whole, natural foods. I always ask Dr. Chris Mohr, author of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss Nutrition Guidelines if I ever need help with nutrition information.

You must avoid processed foods, which is pretty much anything in a bag or a box. So cut out muffins, donuts, pre-packaged cereals, white bread, pasta, chips, crackers, cookies, etc.

We need to return to a time of simpler eating, focusing on fruits, vegetables, nuts, lean proteins, and healthy fats. It will take some “bad habit breaking” to rid yourself of your addiction to processed foods, but in your journey you will learn to appreciate the taste of REAL food again.

You don’t have to eat meat to lose fat and build muscle, but it’s not unhealthy to eat beef, chicken, and fish. In fact, fish contains essential fatty acids we can’t do without.

You might have heard about the importance of healthy fats, which is a big turn-around from the low-fat mentality of the 80’s and 90’s. We now know eating fish and nuts won’t make us fat, but will in fact make us healthy and help control our appetite.

So just focus on foods that haven’t been processed, and you’ll start to see changes in your body and energy levels in a matter of days. Get rid of the processed foods and you won’t be tired anymore!

I strongly believe nutrition is the MOST important factor in fat loss and in health. If you’re eating processed foods, trans-fats, and too many calories, you won’t get maximum benefits from your exercise program, no matter what you are doing. Nutrition can either heal you or kill you, so choose wisely. Fortunately, the right choices are the simple choices.

I’ve had clients that switched to whole, natural foods and almost overnight they’ve reported changes in their bodies and huge increases in mental energy. So stick with the simple nutrition approach for fat burning.

About the Author
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

Cholesterol is a fatty substance which occur naturally in our blood.
Our body makes cholesterol and we can also get it from food.
The level of cholesterol in our blood varies from person to person.

There is “good” and “bad” cholesterol. Too high level of “bad”
cholesterol is one of the riskfactors that can lead to heart disease.
Cholesterol can build up on the inside of our arteries,narrowing them
and making it harder for our blood to run through.

Narrow arteries can become blocked, stopping the flow of blood.
If an arterie feeding your heart becomes completely blocked,
you will have a heart attack.

Other risk factors are: high blood pressure , having diabetes and smoking.
Also men over 45 and women over 55 may be at increased risk of heart disease.

You may also have inhereted a gene from your parents that causes
high blood cholesterol.

The usual goal for cholesterol content is 5.0 MMOL/L. For some
it could be lower. Check with your doctor.

How to lower your blood cholesterol.

Step 1. Change your eating habits.
To keep your cholesterol level down you need new healthy eating habits.
Avoid foods containing saturated fat.
Eat plenty of rice, pasta, breakfast cereal, fruit, vegetables & legumes.
Eat a moderate amount of fish, lean meat, chicken, low-fat dairy products,
eggs ( no more then 2 to 3 per week) and nuts.
Small amounts of “bad” oils, margarines and alcohol.

Step 2. Medication.
For some people , changing their diet may not be enough and
it may be necessary to add a medicine to lower cholesterol.
Have your cholesterol level checked regularly by your doctor.

by  Gabrielle Maston

The popularity of gluten-free diets is exploding and we have seen many diet books published about the effects of gluten on the heart, digestive health and cancers. While there isn’t yet enough scientific evidence to support these claims, it is still worth looking into whether gluten-free is a passing fad or whether more people should be cutting gluten out as part of a healthy diet.

The low-down on gluten

Gluten is a protein found in certain grains such as wheat, rye and barley. Flours made from these grains form the basis of many common carbohydrates including pasta and bread. Gluten isn’t a nutrient, it’s the stickiness of the grain that binds it together.

There are a small percentage of people who need to cut out gluten for medical reasons. These include people with a food intolerances or coeliac disease, but this is by no means a blanket recommendation for everyone. For most people, avoiding gluten provides no real benefits.

At the same time, it is true that more people are being diagnosed with food intolerances and coeliac disease. However, this is mainly due to more awareness rather than increased intolerance among the population.

If you suspect you have a food intolerance or coeliac disease, you should contact your local dietitian or doctor for professional help on treating the issue.

Gluten-free doesn’t make it calorie-free

A common mistake that is made when cutting out gluten is to give all other food free rein. Often when cutting out gluten, dieters will substitute old comfort foods with more pre-packaged, highly processed cakes, biscuits and pastries – albeit gluten-free!

Gluten-free products can often have more calories, preservatives, sugar and fat than their gluten-laden counterparts. Different ingredients are used to replicate the binding action that occurs naturally in gluten to make gluten-free products stick together. These products are usually lower in fibre because they are made from high fat alternatives like almond meal, coconut flour and rice flour.

Cutting out gluten is by no means a magic pill.

The verdict on going gluten-free

The problem is that when you cut out gluten you are excluding a large majority of healthy grains available to you. Whole grains that include gluten contain a fantastic array of vitamins and minerals such as B-vitamins, fiber and iron. Wholewheat, oats, rye, and barley are all high fiber grains that are slow releasing.

Gluten-free carbohydrates like potato, rice and corn are all fast releasing, and lower fibre options. If you need to go gluten-free for medical reasons, try to include low GI whole food alternatives where possible like amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa, sweet potato or wild rice. Tap into legumes like lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans and broad beans for sources of high fibre low GI carbs.

More importantly, following a gluten-free diet pushes an unnecessary preoccupation on the food you are eating. Food is meant to be a source of enjoyment and fuel for the body. A normal healthy diet consisting of mainly plants, whole grains, lean meat and fish proteins will give you all the health benefits you need. You could even say a balanced, wholesome diet is the best thing before sliced bread!

– See more at: http://www.asteronlife.com.au/balance/nutrition/truth-about-gluten#sthash.WAma155i.dpuf

If you want to obtain optimal health from nutrition, you have to understand first,
how much what you put in your body effects your health.
The human body was designed with lots of care in order to transform a mixture of certain compounds
that are found in nature into muscles, bones, organs, glands and our brain.
The interactions of these nutrient compounds are the hairy bags of chemical soup what we call human beings.
Every time we mass around with them, they will mass around with you.

People who consume fatty burgers with nutrient poor fries don’t realize how much they
are disturbing the excellent precision of nutrient use by their bodies.
Let’s look at some examples in order to make clear how that precision makes the engine of
a Masserati look like a child’s toy.

Let’s look at a good one: vitamin B12. You need only a few micrograms (millionths of a gram) of vitamin B12
each day: the RDA (Recommended daily Allowance ) is only 2 micrograms. Your blood contains
only about 5 nanograms (billionths of a gram) per liter,
less than a speck of dust. Even under a microscope you couldn’t see such amount.
It represents less than one part per trillion of your body weight.
But if you lack that tiny speck, your whole body declines into a serious disease, called
pernicious anemia, which gradually destroys the myelin sheaths, which protect your nerves, leading to blindness, insanity and death.

A second example is iodine. A daily intake of about 50 micrograms is considered to be sufficient for most people. This amount is still so tiny that you could hardly see it on the
head of a pin. Every day your body separates the few molecules of iodine that occur in
different foods with a precision that goes for beyond the most advanced computer and
transport them straight to the thyroid gland. There they convert an enert chemical
called thyronine into powerful thyroid hormones. These hormones then control your
energy supply, your mood and even how well you can think.

The same applies to other micro nutrients. It is still a mystery how such minute amounts
of these substances can hold the keys to health, to sanity and even to life itself.
But they do and if they are deficient in your food, you are asking for disease.
We need a daily dose of a precise mix of 59 nutrients for optimal bodily function.

Elements required in large amounts daily:
Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Sulphur, Nitrogen

Elements required in medium amounts daily:
Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Chloride

Elements required in small amounts daily:
Iron, Manganese, Chromium, Fluoride, Arsenic, Germanium, Zinc, Silicon,
Selenium, Molybdenum, Boron, Copper, Cobalt, Iodine, Nickel, Tin.

Vitamins (common form names):
A (retinol), B3 (niacin, niacinamide), B12 (cobalamin), C (ascorbic acid),
K (phylloquinone), B1 (thiamin), B5 (pantothenic acid), Folic Acid, D (calciferol),
B2 (riboflavin), B6 (pyrodoxine), Biotin, E (d-alpha tocopherol).

Co-factors (common form names):
Choline, Para-amino-benzoic acid (PABA), Pyroloquinoline quinone (PQQ),
Inositol, Bioflavonoides, Co-enzyme Q10

Essential amino acids:
Isoleucine, Methionine, Tryptophan, *istidine, Leucine, Phenylalanine,
Valine, Taurine, Lysine, Threonine, *Aginine,
* Conditionally essential

Essential fatty acids:
Linoleic acid, Linolenic acid
From some you need a lot, others you need only tiny amounts. But they all have to
be provided in the correct amounts. The first five, which you need in large quantities,
are plentiful present in foods and in the air we breath, so supply is not often a problem.

The remaining 54 nutrients we need in medium or small quantities and are less readily
available in the environment. More important, they may be deficient or entirely absent
in any of the degraded foods, which we now find in most of our food supply.

We know that 13 vitamins, 22 minerals, 6 co-factors, 8 amino acids ( plus 3 more in certain circumstances)
and 2 essential fatty acids are required for optimal bodily function.

All these essential substances interact with each other in precise synergy to produce,
maintain and renew your body. IF one is missing or in short supply,
the functions of all the others are impaired.

Although the essentiality of co-factors is still controversial, they are included, because
recent evidence all points in that direction. The meaning of the word ” essential”
in science means:
(a) The nutrients have to be present in adequate amounts or function is impaired.
(b) The body can’t make the nutrients or can’t make enough of them for normal tissue function.
(c) You have to get them from your diet.

If you can’t get them from your diet, you have to supplement them from a high quality source.
for example from USANA Health Sciences. These are the facts on nutrition.

   Edition #30

More Health & Nutrition by Nutrobalance
The Fight against Osteoporosis
Are we getting enough vitamin D in our Day?
Foods without nutritional value

In Mass- production of food, during the process of ripening, storing, drying, cooking, freezing, blanching, pasteurization, hydrogenation, ultra-fibration and multiple other practices of modern food processing, our already degraded foods produced by NPK fertilizers on depleted soils, are further deprived from their essential nutrients.

The latest RDA handbook, the official government handbook stating the quality of our food, reviews hundreds of studies, showing that the already degraded crops of today may lose even what’s left over of nutrients after harvesting, before it reaches your dinner table.

Here follows some examples of the evidence from the RDA handbook:
Vitamin E: “the tocopherol content of foods varies greatly depending on processing, storage and preparation procedures during which large losses may occur”
Vitamin C: “may be considerably lower because of destruction by heat and oxygen” Vitamin B6: “50-70% is lost in processing meats and 50-90% is lost in milling cereals”
Folic acid: “as much as 50% may be destroyed during household preparation, food processing and storage”.
Magnesium: “more than 80% is lost by removal of the germ and outer layers of cereal grains”
Next time when you eat a slice of bread, realize that the germ and outer layers of grains
are removed in the manufacturing process of all white and so-called “enriched” flours.

You must realize that these facts are not from some scary media report but from the official handbook, Recommended Dietary Allowances, published in November 1989
by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. They are the latest official facts on nutrition.

Here follows some more evidence from authorities in food science to show the nutrient losses by food processing.
Dr. Robert Harris, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry at MIT describes in his “Nutritional evaluation of Food Processing”, destruction of nutrients in vegetables by modern cold storage. Stored grapes lose up to 30% of their B vitamins. Tangerins stored for 8 weeks, can lose almost half their vitamin C. Asparagus stored for a week, loses up to 90% of its vitamin C.

Any time you eat an apple and see the flesh turn brown within a few minutes, it a sign that the apple has oxidized in storage and has lost most of its vitamins.

Dr. Theodore Labuza, Professor of Food Technology at the University of Minnesota, recently reviewed studies showing up to 90% loss of thiamin in the drying of meats and losses of up to one-third of pyridoxine and pantothenic acid in freeze-drying of fish.

Professor Darryl Lund of the Department of Food Science of the University of Wisconsin, shows that the process of blanching , commonly applied to vegetables and fish, can destroy one-third to one-half of their content of thianin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine and vit. C. Similar large losses of B vitamins and vitamin C occur in the pasteurization and ultrafilration of milk.

Dr Henry Schroeder, foremost American authority on nutrient content of foods, has proved that freezing of meats can destroy up to 50% of their thiamin and riboflavin content and 70% of their pantothenic acid content.

These are some small examples of the evidence. If you add up all the nutrient losses that have accrued to our food since the late 1940’s, there is not much left. First came the degradation of the soils by use of NPK fertilizers, depriving us from the minerals which are essential to human health. Then came the development of nutrient-poor hybrid strains of grains and vegetables that would grow better on NPK. Finally the methods of modern food processing have deprived from our food much of its remaining nutrients.By the time it reaches your table, it is hard to determine the nutritional value of any food that you put in your mouth.

One more reason, besides our toxic environment of polluted air and water,and the generation of free radicals caused by our stressful lifestyle, causing oxidative stress, to supplement our diet with first grade nutritional supplements.

There is no better way to find what is proven to be the best dietary supplements on the market,than by visiting:http://nutrobalance.usana.com

   Edition #29

How much protein DO we really need to support normal health
and activity?  You can find out by visiting:http://www.drbillsukala.com.au/nutrition/protein-requirements/

Health benefits of Ginger
The ginger root has been used as a cooking spice and medicinal herb for thousands of years. It originated in Southeast Asia where it was first used medicinally for aiding digestion and treating nausea. Over the centuries, the potent root has continued to travel west across the globe. Today, ginger is still popular for its…
read it all….

Travel tips for healthy snacks and meal planning.
Travelling is exciting. You get to meet new people, experience different cultures and most of all,try interesting foods. Maintaining a whole foods, plant-based diet while eating on the road can be challenging but I’ve had some practice and know ways to make it easier for you.   read it all….

Recipe of the day – Chargrilled veg kebabs
click here!

More Health & Nutrition from Nutrobalance
Heart Healthy Diet
How to Fuel your Brain for Energy
Understanding depression

There are some foods that make us sleepy, while others give us energy to burn.
It’s only in recent years, however, that scientists have begun to understand why.
The answer, as it often does, begins in the brain.

To a large extent our feeling, moods, and energy levels are controlled by neurons –
nerve cells in the brain that communicate with the help of chemical messengers
called neurotransmitters. Studies have shown that changes in the levels of
neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine can dramatically affect
energy levels, which is why they are sometimes called wake-up chemicals.

Studies show that people tend to think more quickly and feel more motivated
and energetic when their brains are producing large amounts of theses chemicals.

Our diet provide  the raw materials needed for the production of these neurotransmitters.
What we eat – or don’t – can play a large role in how we feel.
“We’re talking about a whole symphony of brain chemicals that ebb and flow
throughout the day,” says Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of Food and Mood and
Nutrition for Women.

The building block for dopamine and norepinephrine, for example, is the amino acid
tyrosine. Tyrosine levels are elevated when you eat high protein foods, such as fish,
chicken, or low-fat yogurt.

“Make sure to eat some protein along with carbohydrates at each meal or snack,”
says Molly Kimball, RD, a sports and lifestyle nutritionist at the Ochner Health
System’s Elmwood Fitness Center in New Orleans.
For instance, instead of having whole-wheat toast with jelly or fruit with juice
for breakfast, have whole-wheat toast with peanut butter or fruit with cottage cheese.
The carbohydrates alone cause a rapid release of blood sugar and a rapid drop in
energy, but the protein helps even that out.”

You don’t have to eat huge amounts of protein to get the energizing effects.
Eating just 3 to 4 ounces of protein-rich food, like a broiled chicken breast  or
a hard-boiled egg “feeds” your brain enough tyrosine to get the dopanine and
norepinephrine flowing.

Even though protein-rich foods can help boost energy, the fats that often come
with them can drag you down. Digesting fats diverts blood from the brain,
which can make you feel sluggish. So don’t overload a turkey sandwich with
high-fat cheese and mayonnaise; dress it with mustard, lettuce, and tomatoes
instead, recommends Somer.