Tag Archives: vitamins

Soy Foods – Controls Your Weight

Health & Nutrition, , , , , , , , ,

This highly versatile food is loaded with beneficial nutrients, like fiber, omega-3 fatty acids,
low-fat protein, and a series of important vitamins and minerals. Also, it’s low in saturated fat,cholesterol and calories. When you take soy you get many of the health benefits you usually find only in fruits and vegetables. Soy can lower your risk of heart disease, and because it contains less fat and calories than meat, it can also help to control your weight.
Once hidden in Asian supermarkets and health food stores, soy is decidedly mainstream.
Sales of soy foods in the United States have skyrocketed – from $300 million in 1992 to $3.9 billion by 2004.

The new bottom line on soy? Choose it if you are looking for new alternatives to high-fat
mainstream protein products like meat and cheeses.
Skip it, if you never loved the taste of it.
And if you are at risk for breast and prostate cancer, be cautious ( the jury’s still out on
whether plant hormones in soy might stimulate tumor cells).Here’s what you need to know.

Soy foods faced big setbacks in 2005, when a US government panel decided that there was
protect bones from osteoporosis. In response, the National Institute of Health said it would
stop paying for new soy studies. That fall, soy producers withdrew a petition that asked
the FDA to permit food labels to claim that soy protein helps prevent cancer.
Behind these changes were new studies that put soy foods in perspective.

Modest cholesterol benefits
An American Heart Association review of soy research concluded that a daily dose of soy
might cut cholesterol by just 3%. The panel said the slight drop was probably due to the
fiber in soy and low fat, not to estrogen – like isoflavones in the beans.

No significant help for hot flashes
Out of eight randomized controlled trials of soy foods, only one found a significant reduction in the frequency of hot flashes, according to a report from the Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute. While three out of five studies of soy isoflavone extracts found that isoflavones did help, they only cooled hot flashes by about 10% to 20%. And soy didn’t
improve vaginal dryness at all.

Doubt about cancer protection
While eating soy foods in childhood may help protect against breast cancer in adulthood,
studies have found that eating soy as an adult didn’t seem to help at all, according to Linus
Pauling Institute experts. Researchers had thought that the plant estrogens – called isoflavones- in soy could protect against breast cancer, triggered by more potent human estrogens, but studies showed that it doesn’t seem to help.

Soy Safety
Experts advice to be careful with soy products – especially for women who’ve had breast
cancer or are at risk. Because the isoflavones, which researchers worry, could have an impact on estrogen-fueled breast cancers.According to soy experts from the National Cancer Institute there is not enough evidence to say whether soy foods or supplements increase risk for developing breast cancer, or having a recurrence. Prostate cancer survivors
should be cautious too, say Tufts University cancer experts.
Even if you like soy and have no cancer risk you shouldn’t have more than 50 to 70 milligrams of isoflavones per day. That’s the equivalent of 1 to 2 (8-ounce) cups of soy milk or 6 to 9 ounces of tofu

Good reasons to Try Soy
For most people, soy foods like tofu, tempeh, and other meat replacements made with soy,
can be a healthy replacement for higher fat content meats and cheeses. “There are lots of reasons to add soy to your diet just from a basic nutritional perspective,” says prominent
soy researcher Mark Messina, PhD, of Loma LInda University in California.
For example, a half-cup of tofu provides about 20 grams of protein, or 40% of the Daily
Value (DV). The same half cup supplies about 258 milligrams of calcium, or more than 25%
of the DV, and 13 milligrams of iron, or 87% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)
for women and 130% of the RDA for men.

While soy foods are moderately high in fat, most of the fat is polyunsaturated.
Soy foods contain little of the artery-clogging saturated fat found in meat and many dairy foods, says Dr. Mesina.

How to Eat Tofu
You can eat tofu anyway you like. It has little taste of its own but it takes on the flavor
of whatever you cook it with. You can use it in soups, vegetable dishes or desserts.
There are two main types of tofu.

Firm Tofu
It has most of the water removed, making it more solid.
Soft (or silken) tofu
It contains more water, giving it a soft, creamy texture.
It is often used for salad dressings and desserts.

Rinse both types with cold water before using.
Keep it submerged in fresh water or frozen.
Remove excess water which will help the tofu to maintain its shape during preparation.

Tempeh
These are chunky, tender cakes, made from fermented soybeans, that have been laced
with mold, giving them their distinctive smoky, nutty flavor.
You can grill tempeh or add it to spaghetti sauce.

The Healing Power of Vegetarian Diets

Health & Nutrition, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In the 1960’s chefs started to experiment with cooking without meat.
But the meals were often tasteless. But now-a-days after experiencing
for more than a quarter of a century, cooks are combining fruits, vegetables
grains, and legumes in exciting new ways. The tastes are so good that even
large restaurants are now offering meatless meals.

As a result, more than 30 million Americans, including one in three teens,
have tried vegetarian meals, according to the American Dietetic Association.
They like the health benefits and how good the food tastes.
Vegetarian diets have changed, but one thing stayed the same: a plant based diet ,
which is low in saturated fat, high in fiber,vitamins, antioxidants, and a powerful
array of protective chemicals. This is the ultimate prescription for a longer and
healthier life, according to Virginia Messina, MPH, R.D. a dietitian in Port Townsend,
Washington, and coauthor of The Vegetarian Way.

Research results have showed that vegetarians have lower rates of cancer, heart
disease, high blood pressure, type two diabetes and obesity than people who eat meat.
According to British researchers, vegetarians have a 20% lower risk of fatal heart
disease and a 40% lower risk of cancer.

Other studies found more positive facts. Fifty years ago a large study of 27,530
Seventh-Day Adventists, whose religion advocates a vegetarian diet, provided the
first scientific link between vegetarian diets and better health.
Researchers were amazed to discover that among the vegetarian Adventists,
death rate from cancer were 50 to 70% lower than among other Americans.
Since then, study after study has confirmed the benefits of vegetarian eating.

In China, where people eat little or no meat, diseases such as heart disease,
breast cancer and diabetes, are far less common than in the United States.

Naturally lean
Something that makes vegetarian meals so healthy is that they don’t have all the
saturated fat and cholesterol that comes from meat. In fact, while most Americans
get about 36% of their total calories from fat, vegetarians get less, usually
between 30% and 34%. And most of the fat they get is the healthier polyunsaturated
and monounsaturated type – and not the dangerous saturated fat that comes from
animal foods.

In one study, researchers put 500 people on a vegetarian diet. After twelve days,
cholesterol levels had dropped an average of 11%.

Besides the fact that vegetarian meals don’t contain saturated fat that makes
vegetarian meals so healthy, they also contain the “good” fats.
According to studies, both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which are
found in olive oil, canola oil, nuts, seeds, and many other plant foods, can lower
the level of cholesterol when they’re used to replace saturated fat in the diet.
And the omega-3 fatty acids found in some plant foods, such as walnuts and
flaxeed, can further protect against heart disease by helping to keep artery walls
flexible and supporting the electrical “system” within the heart that regulates
a healthy heartbeat.

The Power of Plants
Doctors in the US have been pleading with Americans for years to eat more fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, the same foods that vegetarians eat in
abundance. Most plant foods are loaded with antioxidants, like beta-carotene and
vitamin C and E. They are essential to protect you against diseases.
Also, plant foods contain an abundance of phytonutrients, which are natural plant
compounds that have been shown to lower the risk of cataracts, heart disease,
and many other serious problems.

In another study researchers found that people who got the most carotenoids,
the plant pigment that are found in dark green and deep orange, yellow, and red
fruits and vegetables, had half the risk of developing macular degeneration
(the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in older adults) as people getting less.

Vegetarian diets cut the risk of breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancer in a
number of studies. The magic ingredients include a number of cancer-fighting
phytochemicals. The naturally lower levels of saturated fat in most vegetarian diets
(except those that rely heavily on cheese) avoid a problem which is connected
with meat-rich diets: High-saturated fat diets seem to promote the production of
a form of estrogen called estradiol, which is linked to breast cancer.
In a study it showed that women who ate the most animal fats had a one-third
higher risk of breast cancer than those who ate the least.

Another study found that vegetarians have higher levels of “natural killer cells” –
special white blood cells that attack cancer cells – in their bloodstreams.

But even if you took all the nutrients out of plant foods, the vegetarian diet
would still have an edge, because of all the dietary fiber it contains.
The average American gets only 12 to 15 grams of fiber per day,
while vegetarians are getting as much as three times that amount.

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of getting enough dietary
fiber. because it isn’t absorbed by the body, fiber passes through the
digestive tract, adding bulk to stools and helping them to move more quickly.
This does more than preventing constipation. The more quickly stools
and any harmful substances they contain move through the colon,
the less likely they are to do cellular damage that could lead to cancer.

Also, one type of fiber called soluble fiber, forms a gel in the intestine that
helps to prevent fat and cholesterol from passing through the intestinal wall
and into the bloodstream. In a study of more than 43,000 men, for example,
researchers found that those who added just 10 grams of fiber a day to their
diets – about 25% of the amount vegetarians get each day – decreased their
risk of heart disease by almost 30%.

Vegetarian diets also guard against other health issues, like kidney stones,
gallstones, and asthma. Because high-protein diets with much meat prompt
your body to excrete more calcium, oxalate, and uric acid – which are the
main building blocks of kidney stones. Diets with a lot of meat increase
the change of getting gallstones in women and could threaten bone density
by prompting the excretion of calcium.

In a Swedish study of 24 women and men, vegetable-based meals cut
the frequency and severity of asthma attacks.

Balance is the Key
A vegetarian diet can provide all the nutrients your body needs, including protein.
This is even true for strict vegetarians, who may avoid eggs, milk and other
animal foods all together. The proteins in meat are complete, that means they
contain all the amino acids your body needs.
The proteins in legumes and grains, however, may be low in one or more of the
amino acids, but because legumes and grains contain some amino acids, eating
a variety of these foods throughout the day will provide the proper balance.

However, vegetarians have the risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, which the body
needs to make red blood cells. It’s only found in animal foods.
People who don’t get enough vitamin B12 feel weak and tired.
You can get plenty of vitamin B12 by eating foods which are fortified with this
nutrient, such as fortified cereals, or/and you can take vitamin B12 supplements.

Why don’t you try Vegan Cooking? It’s one of the best things you can do for your health!
Try it here!

Nutrition: The Key to Fitness

Health & Nutrition, , , ,

 

The key to fitness is nutrition and everyone of us has previously ‘lain in his own platter’.
We are mainly what we eat and, in the words of Cervantes, ‘the stomach carries the heart and not the heart the stomach.’

It is true that exercise, restful sleep, peace of mind, regular habits of elimination, bathing, etc., are all factors in keeping fit, but these will avail us nothing if our nutrition is at fault.

Modern research scientists no longer regard germs as the primary cause of disease, and their study of the body’s chemistry and the part played by nutrition in health and disease, is opening up important new vistas of research.

It is now recognized that most common illnesses are closely associated with nutrition and arise from lack of vitamins and minerals, just as some more serious ailments, which where dominant in the old days, such as scurvy, rackets, anaemia, beri-beri, pellagra, and nerve trouble are equally deficiency ailments, and respond to appropriate vitamin therapy.

Periodically, new and successful uses of vitaminss in diseased conditions are reported in the world’s medical journals and more and more physicians are prescribing vitamins instead of drugs.

Many people wonder why the terrible epidemics which formerly ravaged the earth – typhus, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, malaria, etc. -have largely brought under control, yet the degenerative diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, stomach ulcers, nervous breakdown, colitis, cataract, and kidney and liver ailments are all on the increase.

The reason is that the plague or ‘dirt’ diseases, spread by vermin, mosquitoes and human contact, are disappearing owing to improved methods of hygiene and sanitation.

The degenerative diseases arise primarily from man’s continual tampering with natural foods, thereby depriving them of vital nutrients that Nature, in her wisdom, incorporates in our foodstuffs to ensure good health.

It is a tragic commentary on these times that most people only begin to take an intelligent interest in their health, after they have lost it. Nature requires that we co-operate with her, and we cannot escape the consequences of our refusal to do so. Postponement merely increases the severity of such consequences.

You can read more about nutrition by visiting my blog post: Phytonutrients, compounds
from the garden.  Also: Facts about Healthy Foods

The Benefits of Raw Food

Health & Nutrition, , , ,

It is a well known fact that with high temperatures when cooking, some vitamins will be destroyed, particularly vitamin C and vitamin B9 (folic acid). It may also render minerals inorganic and denature some proteins, and it certainly destroys the life force in raw plant food.

Cooking kills all enzymes. Their activity increases as the temperature rises, but only up to 42 degrees C, after which enzyme activeness slows down. If the food is heated to 48 degrees C for more than half an hour, all enzymes are completely destroyed. In contrast, dry heat would not be destructive to enzymes until around 150 degrees C,
but this is theoretical, as all foods contain moisture.

Thus cooking and pasteurisation completely destroy the natural, health-giving enzymes that are present in all raw foods.

Like vitamins, enzymes are present in all vegetable and animal tissue in their natural state.
They are the biological catalists that trigger off all the millions of chemical changes that are taking place within the human body, every second of our life. There are tens of thousands of enzymes working away in our body – with something like 50.000 in the liver alone! And each of them has his own specific purpose.

When food intake is above starvation level and all the necessary nutrients are provided, the less food that is consumed on a long-term basis by humans, animals
and  insects, the longer they live.
When the air temperature raises, causes insects to be much more active, but they die sooner because their enzymes are used up more rapidly. Enzyme supply may well be the yardstick of vitality.

It is accepted in general, that the enzymes in food cannot work in our bodies, although Dr. Edward Howell has written a book :”Food Enzymes for health and longevity”, in which he states that there is strong evidence to the contrary.

The enzymes in raw food commence the digestion of each morsel the moment the food’s cell walls are ruptured by chewing. The food enzymes assist our own  digestive enzymes, easing the load on the organs that produce our enzymes, particularly  the pancreas. When humans eat cooked food, the pancreas is enlarged due to overwork.
In fact, oriental people on a high carbohydrate cooked diet, mainly rice, have pancreas approximately half as big as Westerners .

All animals in the wild consume abundant enzymes in their always raw diets. Some have a separate stomach in which the food enzymes pre-digest food before the body’s digestive enzymes are called upon, for example, the rumen in the cow.

The enzyme content of organically-grown food that has ripened at its source (on the tree, vine etc.) is significantly higher than conventionally-grown foods.

When raw food enzymes reach the bowel, they encourage the friendly gut bacteria by binding any oxygen present, thus eliminating the aerobic conditions in which harmful bacteria grow and cause putrefaction, toxaemia and ultimately degenerative diseases, including cancer.
When the harmful bacteria are gone, beneficial bacteria, like acidophilus and bifido bacteria can flourish and carry out their vital functions, including the manufacture of B vitamins, digestion of fiber, and production of natural ‘antibiotics’ against pathogenic bacteria.

In the highly cooked Western diet, a high incidence of arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other degenerative conditions is exactly what can be expected as a result of enzyme damage.

In contrast, the remarkable therapeutic value of a short-term diet of raw fresh fruits and vegetables and/or their juices, which have been employed all over the world, is exactly what we would expect.

The Need for Supplementation

Health & Nutrition, , ,

Never before has the need for supplementation been greater than in our present time.

The connection between good nutrition and long term health is beyond dispute and backed by a wealth of scientific evidence.What we eat and how we eat effects our health on the long term.

Our diet fails in supplying the essential nutrients we need for optimum health.We have put good nutrition on the backburner and as a result our diet fails to provide even the minimum levels of nutrients that we need for long term health. Only 9% of people consume the five daily servings of fresh fruit and vegetables recommended by the National Cancer Institute. Until the 1940’s,farmers used to practise crop rotation and returned essential nutrients back into the soil by mulching,manuring and churning. Because of growing population and industrialization it was no longer possible to grow crops that way. So the farmer use large farms and make use of artificial fertilizers. But crops can’t make their natural insect repellents with artificial fertilizers,so the farmer has to use chemical pesticides, which are sprayed on the crop and fruits and when we consume those fruits and veges,those chemical pesticides accumulates in our body and causes diseases.

Most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies, which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our food come,are brought into proper mineral balance.The alarming fact is that fruits and vegetables now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain minerals, are starving us, no matter how much we eat.In other words, we cannot get the necessary nutrients out of our food. 96% of the US population dies of a degenerative disease, like cancer, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer disease etc. Over 65% of American adults are overweight or obese (20%-25% of children). We are not even getting the minimum of RDA levels of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. The RDA levels were designed in the early 1920’s and 1930’s as minimum requirements of TEN essential nutrients to protect against acute deficiency diseases,like Scurvy (deficiency of vit.C), Rickets (deficiency of vit.D) and Pellagra(deficiency of niacin)

The RDA’s did a good job to eliminate Scurvy and Rickets, but consuming the RDA’s will not even come close to helping prevent a degenerative disease and our EPIDEMIC health stats prove that. To protect us against degenerative diseases we need OPTIMUM LEVELS of nutrients. Just to make a comparison between the RDA levels and Optimum levels: The RDA level for Vit.C is 60mg.However the Optimum level is 1300mg.
The RDA level for vit.E is 15IU. But the Optimum level is 450IU’s(IU stands for International Unit).
The RDA level for vit.D is 200IU’s,but the Optimum level is 600 IU’s. To be able to get the Optimum level of vitamin C(1300mg) out of our food, we have to consume 17 medium kiwifruits or 16 medium oranges daily, which is unpractical. So what’s the solution? We have three choices:
1. do nothing and pay the price.
2. become an old fashion farmer.
3. take a 1st. grade supplement.

It’s been scientifically proven that there are substantial health benefits in taking nutritional supplements.
The benefits of nutritional supplements are scientifically verified over the past two years.Hundreds of scientific studies have proved that nutritional supplements can significantly reduce the risk of degenerative diseases.

Supplements provide a convenient and effective means of achieving good nutrition every day for a lifetime. Chronic degenerative diseases are not diseases of old age.Heart disease starts at childhood. It appears prudent for all children and adults to take vitamin supplements.

For information about nutritional supplements, please visit: http://www.nutrobalance.usana.com