Category Archives: health & nutrition

Facts about the Glycemic Index

Health & Nutrition, , , , , ,

One important factor when trying to lose weight is to choose
foods that keep your insulin levels fairly constant.
This is especially true in regards to carbohydrates.
When we eat foods that contain carbohydrates, the carbohydrates
are digested in the stomach and intestines and are absorbed
into the bloodstream, generally in the form of glucose.

When the carbohydrates we eat cause the blood sugar to quickly
rise to high levels,excess insulin can cause to much sugar
to be absorbed by the cells.This results in a condition of
low blood sugar. The subsequent stress on the body stimulates
the adrena glands to secrete hormones into the blood.
Metabolism rises, glucose is manufactured from stores in
the liver and the entire body may be activated in what is
called “fight-or-flight response.”

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a classification of ranking of carbohydrates,
based on their potential for raising blood glucose levels.
Carbohydrates that are broken down slowly and cause only a moderate
increase in blood sugar, have a low Glycemic Index.
Some carbohydrates fall in between.

Specifically, the Glycemic Index measures how much a 50-gram portion
of carbohydrates raises your blood sugar levels compared with a control.
The control is either white bread or pure glucose.
Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream faster than any other
carbohydrate and is thus given the value of 100.
Other carbohydrates are given a number relative to glucose.
Foods with low GI indices are released into the bloodstream at a slower
rate than high GI foods.

All carbohydrates cause some temporary rise in your blood glucose level.
This is called the glycemic response. A number of factors influence
this response: the amount of food eaten, the digestion and absorption
rate of food, including the physical structure, ripeness, particle seize,
the degree of processing and preparation, the commercial brand, the
nature of the starch, acidity and the characteristics of the diabetic
patient. These factors naturally effect each food’s glycemic index
position or rank.

The slower your body processes the food, the slower the insulin is
released and the healthier the overall effect is on your body.
In addition, differences exist in the glycemic indexes due to the choice
of reference food, the timing of blood sampling or the computational
method used to calculate the glycemic index.

When you desire to lose weight, you choose the foods that raise your
blood sugar level slowly. You’ll discover that many of those foods are
high in fiber and will keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time.
And if you have been on a diet, you will be thankful for this.
The longer you feel satisfied, the less temptation you will have to eat
something in between your meals that will spike your blood sugar.

As fructose is a slow moving sugar, almost all fruits, except bananas
and dried fruits, have a low GI. Also, all vegetables that contain
lots of fiber, except carrot and corn. Whole grains, starches and pasta
have a higher GI. On top of the list are white bread, refined grains
and some potatoes.

The Glycemic Load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of
carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account,
but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone.
A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate
turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate
is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things
to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar.
That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon
for example, has a high GI, but there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon
glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of
11 to 19 is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

Following the latest research it appears that women experience cravings
about 10 times during the day. The most common times for these cravings
to appear are at 10 am and 4 pm. Interesting enough, these cravings
correspond almost exactly to your low blood sugar levels as well as
your low levels of serotonin. This is a chemical that drives women to
start eating. And because the drive is so strong, it’s quite difficult
to overcome.

Research performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
Clinical Research Center uncovered this truth when it found a
relationship between carbohydrates in the brain and weight loss.
Dr. J. Wurtman, lead researcher of the study, demonstrated, that
eating carbohydrates high on the GI raised the levels of serotonin
in the brain.

The results also showed that women suffering from premenstrual syndrome
eat to many carbohydrates and as a result gain weight.
Others overeat when they are depressed, stressed or angry in an effort
to balance these serotonin levels.

The objectives of diet management in diabetic patients are to reduce
hyperglycemia, prevent hyperglycemic episodes, and reduce the risk of
complications. For people with diabetes, the GI is a useful tool in
planning to achieve and maintain glycemic control.
High GI foods are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream, causing an
escalation in blood glucose levels and increasing the possibility
of hyperglycemia. The body compensates for the rise in blood sugar
levels with an accompanying increase in insulin, which within a few
hours can cause hypoglycemia. As a result, awareness of the
glycemic indices of food assists in preventing large variances in
blood glucose levels.

A low GI pre-event meal may be beneficial for athletes who respond
negatively to carbohydrate-rich foods prior to exercise or who
can’t consume carbohydrates during competition. Athletes are advised
to consume carbohydrates of moderate to high GI during prolonged
exercise to maximize performance, approximately 1 gram per minute of
exercise. Following exercise, moderate to high GI foods enhance
glycogen storage.

The fat content of food is one of the components that affect the GI.
Like fiber, fat acts like a brake on the absorption process.
Apart from this fact, fat just make food to taste better.
Fats also play an important role of signaling your body to stop eating.
This is vital to any weight-management program. The fat that you eat
causes the body to release a hormone called cholecystokinin.
This hormone is stored in the stomach until notified by the presence of
fat and is responsible for informing the brain that you’re satisfied.
It really is a marvellous thing and it means you don’t have to
deprive yourself.

Another factor that influence the absorption rate of glucose is
the protein content of the food. Protein seems to have the greatest
effect when it comes down to satisfying those hunger pangs,especially
for a long period of time and makes you feel fuller.
Protein also helps you to stay alert. However, we have to be aware of
the good and the bad protein. Always make sure you choose the lean
protein in either beef, fish, chicken or plant-based protein.

Protein itself rates zero on the GI scale, this means you don’t have
to be sparingly by adding it to your diet, only watch the calorie content.
It slows down the rise in insulin that happens when you eat any form of
carbohydrate. This means, if you add some protein to a food that ranks
high on the GI scale, you will counteract the spiking effect in insulin
rise. Another benefit of protein is, that it keeps you feeling full
longer after you eat it.It is therefore a good idea to add some protein
to your breakfast. And if you take a snack, make sure it contains some
form of protein.

If you like fish, you are doing yourself a favor. Fish not only
slows down the spiking in your insulin level, it also contains a rich
source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Eat fish at least twice a week.

The Glycemic Index is an excellent tool. It provide you with a
weight-management system that puts you in control of the foods you eat,
how much you eat, the way you eat and when you like to eat.
When you have a good variety of foods from which to choose, it makes
it easier to stay with the system.

Try eating according to the Glycemic Index, you will be pleasantly
surprised how easy it is to keep your weight under control and
you’ll also find that your energy level will rise as a bonus!

You can find the Revised International Table of Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic
Load (GL) Values—2008 By David Mendosa by visiting:www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Built for Life: Motto for a New You

Health & Nutrition, ,

Built for Life.” Kind of an interesting title, if you think about it, because it has two meanings. The first is staying in attention-grabbing muscular shape for as long as you’re alive and able to exercise—you will remain “built” your entire life, never embarrassed to peel off your shirt at the beach, lake or pool. And as my colleague 60-plus-year-old bodybuilder Tony DiCosta so aptly put it, “You’ll usually be the best built guy in the room.” (Talk about a conversation piece!)

The second meaning is that you’re mentally and physically tough, prepared for whatever life throws at you. You’re “built” to withstand the stress, pressures and problems that come your way throughout your time on this planet—almost like you’ve created a bulletproof mental and physical fortress, able to deflect any negatives, that attitude-altering artillery shot at all of us every day.

Proper weight training can give you both of those—and contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t take joint-busting, spine-crushing poundages to make it happen.

In fact, training with max weights can be a negative, especially as you get older. Sure, if you’re a young ego-driven dude looking for a monster bench press, training heavy is where it’s at. Low reps and lots of sets will build your strength to the extreme—but not necessarily lots of muscle, as I’ll explain in future blogs—just be careful. There’s a cumulative cost. I’m still dealing with injuries I sustained during my power lifting years.

I’m not saying power lifting or power bodybuilding are bad training models—just that throwing around mega weights is NOT necessary for you to build an impressive bodybuilder-type physique, a body so muscular that people comment on the size of your arms or the width of your back or the vascularity streaking down your forearms. You can have a muscular look for a lifetime, and it doesn’t take soft-tissue damage or as much work as you think—if you train smart.

Whether you’re 18 (that’s Jonathan Lawson, my former training partner, in his 20s in the photo above with us) and just starting the muscle-building journey or a 50-something trainee who’s been lifting for decades (like me), lifting smart means training in the most efficient, safest and fastest ways to build muscle and burn fat.

I promise you that Old School New Body is a no-B.S. program—that’s because my sole goal is for you to have all the ammunition you need to own a physique that turns heads and raises eyebrows and one that supports your health and well being. I want you to be able to keep that attention-grabbing, muscular look—and feel healthy doing it—for the rest of your days.

Stay tuned, train smart and be Built For Life.

Steve Holman

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Revving Your Lean Machine: The Truth about Soreness

Health & Nutrition, , , , , ,

When you first started working out, you probably hated it. Soreness hurts! But as you progressed, you no doubt embraced it—most of us consider it a signal that we’ve done our diligence and stimulated plenty of muscle growth. But is that true?

The fact is, there are no studies connecting muscle soreness to hypertrophy. Okay, don’t stop reading yet; you will get some good stuff from being a bit sore–and you’ll probably even want to strive for it. But first you need to know what causes muscle soreness.

It’s believed that the pain is caused by microtrauma in muscle fibers—and it’s primarily triggered by the negative, or eccentric, stroke of an exercise—like when you lower a bench press, squat or curl rep.

Once your body repairs those microtears, it follows that the muscle should grow larger; however, that trauma is in the myofibrils, the force-generating actin and myosin strands in the fiber. Those strands grab onto and pull across one another to cause muscular contraction. When you control the negative stroke of a rep, there is friction as those strands drag across each other in an attempt to slow movement speed to prevent injury—and that dragging, it’s believed, is what inflicts the microtrauma.

That’s a simplification, but you get the idea. So it appears that some growth can occur after muscle soreness is repaired, but it’s in the myofibrils. More and more research is beginning to show that those force-generating strands do not contribute the majority of muscle size; serious mass comes via sarcoplasmic expansion. That’s the “energy fluid” in the fibers that’s filled with glycogen (from carbs), ATP, calcium, noncontractile proteins, etc.

So if soreness is an indication of only small amounts of muscle growth, why strive for it? Well, even small amounts of growth contribute to overall mass. Most of us want every fraction we can scrape up. But the real reason to seek some soreness is to burn more fat.

When the myofibrils are damaged by emphasizing the eccentric, the body attempts to repair them as quickly as possible. That repair process takes energy, a lot of which comes from body fat. The process usually takes many days, so your metabolism is stoked to a higher level for 48 hours or more, helping you get leaner faster. (Note: High-intensity interval training, like sprints alternated with slow jogs, damages muscle fibers during the intense intervals, the sprints, which is why HIIT burns more fat in the long run than steady-state cardio where no muscle damage occurs.)

Do you need heavy negative-only sets to get that extra bit of size and metabolic momentum? That’s one way, but negative-accentuated, or X-centric, sets may be a better, safer way.

For an X-centric set you take a somewhat lighter poundage than your 10RM and raise the weight in one second and lower it in six. That one-second-positive/six-second-negative cadence does some great things, starting with myofibrillar trauma for some soreness. While you’re coping with that extra post workout muscle pain, remember that it can build the myofibrils and that it’s stoking your metabolism during the repair process for more fat burning.

The second BIG advantage is sarcoplasmic expansion. At seven seconds per rep and eight reps per set, you get almost an entire minute of tension time (seven times eight is 56 seconds). A TUT of 50 to 60 seconds is something most bodybuilders never get—which is a shame because that’s optimal stress for an anabolic cascade and this is the perfect way to train as you age. I call it Old School New Body!

You can do an X-centric set after your heavy pyramid—if you’re into heavy training. In other words, use it as a backoff set.

If you’re more into moderate-poundage, high-fatigue mass building, as I am with the F4X method featured in the Old School New Body method, you can use X-centric as the last set of the sequence. Reduce the weight and do a one-up-six-down cadence. You’ll get sore, build some extra size and—bonus—burn for fat. How great is that?

Till next time, stay tuned, train smart and be Built for Life.

Steve Holman

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Fat Burning: A Different Approach

Health & Nutrition, ,

No more cardio? Well, not quite—but if you train with weights correctly, you won’t need to visit that boring treadmill quite as often to keep your abs sharp.

And I’m not talking about interval cardio, although the weight-training method I’ve been preaching has an HIIT feel to it. That’s the F4X method, (featured in Old School New Body) which is moderate-weight, high-fatigue training with short rests between sets. It burns more fat and pumps up your muscles like crazy too. Here’s the drill:

You take a weight with which you can get 15 reps, but you only do 10; rest 30 seconds, then do it again—and so on for four sets. On the fourth set, you go to failure, and if you get 10 reps, you increase the weight on the exercise at your next workout. Notice how those sets are like intervals with short breaks between—you can even pace between sets to burn extra calories, but there’s more.

Fat-burning pathway 1: While that training style does great things for muscle growth, via myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic expansion, you also get loads of muscle burn. That lactic acid pooling has a spiking effect on your growth hormone output—and GH is a potent fat burner. Fire up muscle burning to get your GH churning. (GH also amplifies other anabolic hormones, so it effects both muscle and rippedness.)

Fat-burning pathway 2: If you do the reps correctly on every set, you’ll also get myofibrillar trauma. The myofibrils are the force-generating strands in muscle fibers. By “damaging” them with slower, controlled negative strokes, you force the need for extra energy during recovery. In other words, your body runs hotter while you’re out of the gym as it revs to repair the microtears.

To attain that extra fat-burning trauma, use one-second positives and three-second negatives on all 10 reps of all four sets. On a bench press that’s one second up and three seconds down. It’s the slow lowering that will produce the metabolic momentum after your workout. (That rep speed will also give you 40 seconds of tension time on every set, an ideal hypertrophic TUT.)

Fat-burning pathway 3: Now if you really want to get some blubber-busting microtrauma, try your last set of a F4X sequence in X-centric style. That’s one-second positives and six-second negatives. You may have to reduce the weight, but it will be worth it. Try for eight of those, 56 seconds of tension time, and you should feel the results the next day. Your muscles will be aching, but it’s a good indication that fat is baking.

F4X for a GH surge, slower negatives for fat-burning micro trauma and X-centric for even more time under tension and fat extinction. It all adds up to faster leanness with less meanness—because you’ll need less cardio. Prepare for acid-etched abs! Yes!! Even as you age this system works, in fact it is the closest thing we have to the fountain of youth.

Stay tuned, train smart and be Built for Life.

Steve Holman

Editor in Chief Iron Man Magazine and co-creator of the Old School New Body program

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Your Healthy Life begins in the Kitchen

Health & Nutrition

The day has come. You are committed to losing the fat, getting fit and living longer.

And then … you have to cook dinner for the family.

Oh no! Your kitchen is a minefield of fatty sauces, canned soups and chocolate goodies that want to attach themselves to YOUR hips!

What is the solution?

It’s time for you to meet Karine Losier and Dave Ruel, who spent over a full YEAR developing the cookbook that will set you free!

http://bit.ly/2kiqPBn

Listen, no one wants to eat food that looks and tastes like cardboard. Karine and Dave get it.

That’s why the food you cook using their guide will look great, TASTE great, and help you feel better every day.

Go to this page and take a look at the picture near the top. That’s REAL food you can cook beginning today!

http://bit.ly/2kiqPBn

Why is this cookbook better than the others?
Because it teaches you to prepare foods that literally ignite your internal fat burning system so you drop the pounds (and inches) fast!

All while enjoying easy to prepare, healthy and delicious meals and snacks.

You are going to love how easy this is. You are going to love seeing your family enjoy healthy foods for a change.

And you are going to LOVE the peace of mind knowing you are helping your kids learn to eat health for the rest of their lives!

Begin your new journey today …

http://bit.ly/2kiqPBn
<< Adrian Joele >>

P.S. It’s never too late to get a new start. Make THIS your new start so you can look better, feel better and enjoy every day of your life!

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The Hidden Dangers of Your Excess Abdominal Fat

Health & Nutrition

It’s More Serious Than a Vanity Issue!

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

Did you know that the vast majority of people in this day and age have excess abdominal fat?  The first thing that most people think of is that their extra abdominal fat is simply ugly, is covering up their abs from being visible, and makes them self conscious about showing off their body.

However, what most people don’t realize is that excess abdominal fat in particular, is not only ugly, but is also a dangerous risk factor to your health.
Scientific research has clearly demonstrated that although it is unhealthy in general to have excess body fat throughout your body, it is also particularly dangerous to have excess abdominal fat.

There are two types of fat that you have in your abdominal area.
The first type that covers up your abs from being visible is called subcutaneous fat and lies directly beneath the skin and on top of the abdominal muscles.

The second type of fat that you have in your abdominal area is called visceral fat, and that lies deeper in the abdomen beneath your muscle and surrounding your organs.
Visceral fat also plays a role in giving certain men that “beer belly” appearance where their abdomen protrudes excessively but at the same time, also feels  hard if you push on it.

Both subcutaneous fat and visceral fat in the abdominal area are serious health risk factors, but science has shown that having excessive visceral fat is even more dangerous than subcutaneous fat.
Both of them greatly increase  your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, various forms of cancer, and other degenerative diseases.

Part of the reason visceral fat is particularly dangerous is that it apparently releases more inflammatory molecules into your body on a consistent basis.

If you care about the quality of your life and your loved ones, reducing your abdominal fat should be one of your TOP priorities! There’s just no way around it.

Besides, a side-effect of finally getting rid of all of that excessive ugly abdominal fat is that your stomach will flatten out, and if you lose enough stomach fat, you will be able to visibly see those sexy six pack abs that everyone wants.

So what gets rid of extra abdominal fat?
Is there actually a REAL solution beyond all of the gimmicks and hype that you see in ads and on commercials for “miracle” fat loss products?

The first thing you must understand is that there is absolutely NO quick fix solution. There are no pills or supplements of any sort that will help you lose your abdominal fat faster.
Also, none of the gimmicky ab rockers, rollers, or ab belts will help get rid of abdominal fat either. You can’t spot reduce your stomach fat by using any of these worthless contraptions. It simply doesn’t work that way.

The ONLY solution to consistently lose your abdominal fat and keep it off for good is to combine a sound nutritious diet full of unprocessed natural foods with a properly designed strategic exercise program that stimulates the necessary hormonal and metabolic response within your body.

Both your food intake as well as your training program are important if you are to get this right.

I’ve actually even seen a particular study that divided thousands of participants into a diet-only group and an exercise/diet group.
While both groups in this study made good progress, the diet-only group lost significantly LESS abdominal fat than the diet & exercise combined group.

Now the important thing to realize is that just any old exercise program will not necessarily do the trick.

The majority of people that attempt getting into a good exercise routine are NOT working out effectively enough to really stimulate the loss of stubborn abdominal fat. I see this everyday at the gym.
Most people will do your typical boring ineffective cardio routines, throw in a little outdated body-part style weight training, and pump away with some crunches and side bends, and think that they are doing something useful for reducing their abdominal fat.
Then they become frustrated after weeks or months of no results and wonder where they went wrong.

Well, the good news is that I’ve spent over a decade researching this topic, analyzing the science, and applying it “in the trenches” with myself as well as thousands of my clients from all over the world to see what works to really stimulate abdominal fat loss.

The entire solution… all of the nutritional strategies, as well as training sequences, exercise combinations, and more have all been compiled in my exclusive proven program.

Keep in mind that the point of this whole program is NOT abdominal exercises (that is only a very small portion of it).
The main point of this program is showing you the absolute most effective strategies for losing your stubborn abdominal fat, so you can get rid of that dangerous health risk, as well as get a flatter more defined midsection.

If you follow the guidelines, you WILL lose your belly fat that has been plaguing you for years.
This is not guesswork… I t is a proven system that works time and time again for all of my clients on every corner of the globe that actually apply the information I teach. If you apply it, the results will come. It’s really that simple.

The only reason most people fail in their fitness goals is that they have good intentions at first to adopt a new lifestyle, yet after a few weeks or months, they abandon their good intentions and slip right back into their old bad habits that gave them the excess body fat in the first place.

I want to help you succeed in finally getting rid of that extra abdominal fat that is not only UGLY, but also DANGEROUS.

Don’t waste another day allowing that nasty abdominal fat to kill your confidence as well as contribute to your risk for MAJOR diseases.

Get the solution to rid yourself for life of this problem by clicking here! bit.ly/2iLaocT

Train hard, eat right, and enjoy life!

Mike Geary Certified Nutrition Specialist Certified Personal Trainer Author – The Truth about Six Pack Abs

Health & Nutrition #100 by Nutrobalance

Health & Nutrition

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    EDITION #100

 

A vitamin cure against stress and sleeplessness

People suffering from stress and sleeplessness are usually busy people, living under a lot of pressure.
Science has proved that with  people living under stress, hormonial and metabolic changes take place.
Neurotransmitters are released in the brain to help people to perform better and stay on top of certain unpredictable circumstances.

Neurotransmitter supply can dry up when people are continuous working, without rest or relaxation.
Research work tries to prove the connection between a protein rich diet and and a nice, relaxed feeling.
Meat, chicken and soya products are rich in protein. Meat contains apart from protein also vitamin B6, that works as an co-enzyme to produce neurotransmitters.

The three B’s.
Bananas, beer and bread are rich on vitamin B complex. These three are necessary for the building up of neurotransmitters.

If you feel restless, forced up and when you have been busy all day, try a hot grog with lemon before going to bed. All citrus fruits: oranges, lemons, grapefruits and mandarins contain vitamin C.
A deficiency can cause irritability. I take daily  a citrus cocktail, usually in the morning  when I get up. Smokers need an extra dose of vitamin C.

If you suffer from mental fatigue, take vegetables like asparagus, avocado’s, cabbage, celery, unions and pulses, they are very rich on minerals.

Vitality for  the Taking

Virtually all the energy of living things originates from the sun.
We obtain our energy from plant foods or from animal foods, which have also derived their energy from plant foods. In turn, green plants obtain their energy from sunlight, using a process called photosynthesis, in which carbon dioxide and water are made into the simple sugar, glucose, which is a storehouse of the sun’s energy.

Sunshine also provides us with energy in another, more subtle way, a way which is observable though not fully understood. Regular, very mild exposure to sunlight has been observed by therapists to enhance vitality, as though reflecting a strengthening of the life-force.

Sun-riped fruit tastes much better than fruit picked green. Perhaps we can ‘sun-ripen’ ourselves with cautious exposure to the sun. Millions of nerve endings in the skin absorb the radiant energy  of the sun and transmit it to the entire nervous system.
This is why people tend to feel relaxed and more energetic after a brief sunbath.

The importance of Vitamin D

Vitamin D is found in animal foods, and does not occur in plant foods.
In a vegetarian diet there is no vitamin D, unless small amounts of eggs and cheese are included.
However, we can get vitamin D from sunlight.
Deficiency of vitamin D can cause our bones to become soft and brittle.
In advanced cases, the disease in children is called rickets, and in adults osteomalacia.
That’s why it is important for growing children to get adequate vitamin D.

We manufacture vitamin D from a cholesterol derivative in the skin, when sunlight is
falling on the skin. The component of light which causes this to happen is ultraviolet radiation.
But because the beneficial form of ultraviolet (UVB) is filtered out by window glass,
our skins must be directly  exposed to daylight, whether direct sunlight or reflected light.

The amount of time in the sun required for our bodies to produce sufficient vitamin D is
surprisingly small, a matter of minutes, rather than hours. Short periods of sunbathing in the early morning or late afternoon will usually produce adequate vitamin D.
Even a brief walk outdoors in short sleeves (and always a hat) will produce significant vitamin D.

Eating for Arthritis

When it comes to controlling inflammation, food is a double edged sword that can both cause and reduce inflammation. There are dozens of foods that create inflammation in our bodies, and there are dozens of foods that reduce and/or prevent inflammation.
Consuming a balanced mix of these is essential to living a life with decreased arthritis symptoms.

 Foods to be avoided by arthritis sufferers:

Animal milk products
Hydrogenated oils: Crackers, Cookies, Chips, Snack Bars
Nitrates: Hot Dogs, Cold Cuts, Pepperoni, Sausage,Bacon, Liverwurst
Processed Sugars : Candy, Soda, Bread, Bottled Fruit Juice.
Nightshades : Potatoes, Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Paprika
Convenience Foods : French Fries, Onion Rings, Loaded Baked Potatoes, Fatty Burgers
Processed white flour Products: Flour, Bread, Pasta, Pizza, Crackers, Pretzels, Donuts

Foods that reduce pain and inflammation:

A diet high in fiber and whole foods, low in preservatives and unhealthy fat and  infused with blood invigorating aromatic spices  can help reduce pain and inflammation.

It is essential in a diet for arthritis sufferers to consume as much fresh, organic, whole foods as possible. Eating foods in or as close to their original state is one of the keys of being healthy, preventing self-induced diet-based  inflammation.

The best foods to help prevent and reduce inflammation and pain from arthritis:

Wild Alaskan salmon
Fresh whole fruits
Bright colored vegetables (except  nightshades)
Green and white tea,
Purified and distilled water
Healthy oils (olive, flex, hemp, safflower, hazelnut, coconut )
Beef and poultry that is certified organic
Nuts, legumes and seeds
Dark green leafy vegetables
Organic oatmeal (regular, not instant)
Aromic spices (turmeric, ginger, cloves, garlic, onions, coriander, ground mustard seed)

Antioxidants Maintain Your Brain

The next big discovery about the brain is that much of the damage to brain cells occurs by oxidation.
European research shows that the amino acid acetyl-l-carnitine maintains brain function partly by antioxidant action.

More than 50 controlled studies show that this remarkable nutrient has profound effects in addition to antioxidant action. It improves memory, prevent brain cell loss, boost intelligence, and restores acetylcholine metabolism. It is used in millions of doses of 1000 – 2000 mg per day throughout Europe, for treatment of Alzheimer’s, depression, and memory loss in the aged, and for improvement of cognition in normal folk.
Acetyl-l-carnitine has recently become a popular nutrient at life extension clinics in the US.

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

Tips for Getting Back on Track after Setbacks
Working on diet and lifestyle changes? Setbacks are going to happen. Life gets busy and you begin heading back to your old habits. This is described as the maintenance part of change which is often more challenging than the initial steps. Use these tips to help you get back on track quickly and learn to…
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BOOK REVIEW.

“What Your Doctor doesn’t know about Nutritional Medicine may be killing you”. by Ray D. Strand, M.D.

Discover how you can:
. Reap the benefits of cutting-edge discoveries in nutritional science.
. Use drugs as a last resort instead of a first choice.
. Take charge of your health – and learn why your health doesn’t have to decline just because you   are getting older.
. Arrest or even reverse the progress of your disease if you are already sick.

“Coronary artery disease, cancer, strokes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s dementia and macular degeneration…. every chronic degenerative disease that I have mentioned is a direct result of the “dark-side” of oxygen – oxidative stress. In fact, oxidative stress is the leading theory behind  the aging process itself. This generation is under greater attack from the pollutants in our air, food and water than any previous generation. Our stress-filled lifestyle also takes the toll on our health.

It is critical that we understand the best defense against developing any of these degenerative diseases and premature aging is the body’s natural defense system, not the drugs I can prescribe.
This is why the truths in this book revealed are so critical to our health.” – Ray Strand, M.D.

When Dr. Strand’s wife, Liz, began to feel tired, it was easy enough to chalk it up to the demands of being a wife and mother of three children under age of four. By the couple’s ten’s anniversary, however, Liz was experiencing constant total body pain, overwhelming fatigue, debilitating allergies, and recurrent sinus and lung infections. Even with drugs to treat every symptom, Liz was unable to keep up with basic household chores or care for the horses she had once so enjoyed riding.

When a friend told Liz and Ray about a course of nutritional supplements that had dramatically improved her husband’s health, a desperate Ray could only surrender:
“Honey, you can try anything you want. We doctors certainly are not doing you any good.”

Within months, the sparkle returned to Liz’s eyes. She was out riding horses again and seemed to have completely renewed strength and joy. How just a few nutritional supplements could cause such a dramatic improvement was a mystery to DR. Strand. He had always dismissed vitamin supplementation as simply the ingredients for “expensive urine”.
This experience with his wife proved to be the launching pad for a seven-year quest to research for himself the facts behind nutritional medicine.

What Dr. Strand discovered made a revolutionary impact on his practice. And based on his extraordinary findings, whether your desire is to protect your good health or reclaim it, you can now learn what to do to improve your own health.

Start now using the practical nutrient guidelines contained in this book
to equip your body to fight the war within.

Jamie Oliver’s recipe-of-the-day cranberry pumpkin seed crispbreads
click here!!

Cycling as Medicine

Health & Nutrition, , , , ,

Cycling is healthy, convenient, cheap and also good for the environment.
I cycle often: to the train, the shops and the library, and this way I get my recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise.

Thirty minutes exercise a day is sufficient to stay healthy. It seems little, but yet a lot of people don’t get to it. They are often tempted to take the lift instead of the stairs, the car instead of the bicycle, the TV instead of the ball.

Movement takes care that less fat accumulate in the blood and prevent that HDL Cholesterol start to dominate.
Also the supply of oxygen takes care of better combustion of fat.With bodily exertion our blood starts to run better and waste products are quicker exposed.

Moving also helps in most cases to lower blood pressure, as a result that there will be less pressure on the artery walls. In other words: moving keeps your blood clean and your heart and veins in condition.

Another mechanism that plays a roll in the development of cardiovascular disease is stress.
The body produce hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones take care of uppermost readiness.That is okay for a short period of time, but ongoing stress cause problems.

Chronic stress lead to the same kind of inflammation in the arteries as too much fat.
Activity takes care that we relax physically and spiritually.
The less stress, the better for your heart and veins.

If you think that it is useless to start moving when the process already fully started,
or if the blocking of arteries already caused a heart attack, got it wrong.
Cycling helps instantly, but if the artery walls are already attacked, half an hour cycling a day is not enough. It is better to cycle five to six hours a week vigorously, spread over the week.

People often say that they don’t have time to sport one hour a day.But what is one hour? If you build-in cycling in your daily schedule, is it a no brainer.

Make a record of all your activities during the week. Do you have to go by car to work,to the shop, or the cinema or can you take the bike as well? Could you bring the children to school on the bike? Could you take the stairs instead of the lift? People often think that cycling cost time, but is that really so? When you cycle, you get fitter physically and mentally.

When you are fitter, you can do more in your day and you can do more things.
Just start and see where your ship strand. There are plenty of changes to unhook.
To persevere is a much greater adventure!

Through the years we have arranged our environment very unhealthy. How can we bend the trend and tempt people to start moving?

I recommend cycling whole-hearted as a dope for life: to promote performance, a habit-forming drug, delicious! And you can get it everywhere without a recipe.
Free of charge!

Health & Nutrition #98 by Nutrobalance

Health & Nutrition

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Can Diet Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?

Experts are studying how diet may affect the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Learn the latest research into this memory-robbing disease.
continue reading…

High cholesterol triggers mitochondrial oxidative stress leading to osteoarthritis

Date:
October 14, 2016
Source:
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Summary:
High cholesterol might harm more than our cardiovascular systems. New research using animal models suggests that high cholesterol levels trigger mitochondrial oxidative stress on cartilage cells, causing them to die, and ultimately leading to the development of osteoarthritis.   continue reading……

Are Raisins a Good Snack Choice?

nf-oct13-are-raisins-good-snacks-for-kids

Raisins, like all fruits, have a variety of health benefits, but dried fruit is higher in calories per serving than fresh, so might they contribute to weight gain? A study done by the University of Connecticut helped set people’s minds at ease. Men and women were assigned to consume a cup of raisins a day for six weeks and were able to successfully offset the consumption of other foods in their diets such that they experienced no significant change in weight or waist circumference. What about in kids? I explore that in the video, Are Raisins Good Snacks for Kids?.

Fat loss nutrition: Eat this BREAKFAST to burn off body fat‏!

By On September 13, 2014 · Leave a Comment

When asking me for fat loss nutrition advice, a lot of people are surprised when I say that eating at restaurants isn’t necessarily unhealthy and shouldn’t always be avoided. Let’s look at breakfast as an example:

Home breakfast: Cereal and orange juice

Many westerners (hopefully not you if you’re a regular reader of this website!) eat heavily processed breakfast cereals each morning, along with orange juice to provide ‘nutrition’.      continue reading…..

The Value of Cellulose

October 17, 2016Health & Nutritioncellulose, constipation Edit

The virtue of foods rich in cellulose is that, once they have parted with their nutrients, the cellulose remains and , as it is capable of holding water like a sponge, it encourage speristaltic action and also prevent the drying out of food debris which causes constipation.      continue reading..
.

Jamie Oliver’s Recipe of the Day – Insanely good oxtail stew   click here!!

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The Value of Cellulose

Health & Nutrition,

The virtue of foods rich in cellulose is that, once they have parted with their nutrients,
the cellulose remains and , as it is capable of holding water like a sponge, it encourages
peristaltic action and also prevent the drying out of food debris which causes constipation.

A moment’s consideration of the dietary adopted in most civilized countries, reveals
that it is excessively constipating because of it’s relative lack of cellulose.
These foods are meat, fish, eggs, boiled potatoes, white bread, biscuits, cake,
confectionery, processed breakfast serials, jams, sandwiches , etc.

Vitamin B1, which helps to stimulate the peristaltic action of the intestines,
is notoriously lacking in the diet of constipated people.

The foods containing cellulose are the fruits, both fresh and dried, and vegetables –
particularly such salad vegetables as lettuce and celery.
Potatoes do not contain much cellulose , a mere 3.1% against 18% by cabbage and
25% by pears. At the other extreme is white flour, with less than a half per cent
of cellulose.

Prunes are rich in cellulose and those subject to constipation are advised to soak
six to eight good quality prunes in a cup of water overnight, and eat them on rising,
then drink two glasses of water.
Wheatgerm promotes muscular tone and regular bowel activity, and this food
should be eaten as breakfast instead of processed cereals, and plenty of fluid
should be taken during the day.

Exercises to Prevent Constipation
The following simple exercises are helpful for those who suffer from constipation.
1. Squat down, knees bent, back held straight, then arise to an erect posture again.
Do this a few times each day.
2. Hold both arms straight out at right angles to the body and walk on tiptoes.
This pulls in the abdominal muscles.
3. This exercise can be done before rising.
Lie flat on the back and bring the thighs back against the chest as far as possible.
4. Place hands on hips, with the body erect, to circle from the hips six times
in each direction.