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Posts Tagged ‘healthy food’

Jul
12

Waking up in the morning, we tend to feel hungry, and large breakfasts full of things like eggs, toast and bacon always seem to hit the spot. Of course, as we all know, these traditional breakfast foods are not the healthiest things in the world, especially when consumed on a daily basis: Eggs are high in cholesterol, bacon is high in fat, and bread is full of the types of carbs that can cause you to become sluggish by midmorning. It’s great to have a big breakfast every once in a while, but it’s usually a better idea to start your day with something lighter and more nutrient rich.

To have a healthy breakfast, here are some tips to keep in mind:

Make fruits central: Fruits are far from the typical greasy things that we associate with a full breakfast, but they happen to be the best foods for starting your day in a healthy fashion. They’re full of vitamins that keep you going throughout the day, and they have plenty of those healthy sugars that keep you energetic and help your brain to function at the top of its game at work or school.

Have whole grains: If you must have bread with breakfast, avoid white breads as well as so-called “wheat” breads that are actually not healthy. Instead, have true whole-grain breads made with organic ingredients and featuring real grains and nuts baked right into the bread. Meanwhile, it’s always a good idea to have whole-grain, non-instant oatmeal. Things like this give you good energy, plus plenty of dietary fiber.
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Keep things simple: Breakfast sets the tone for the full day, and when you include too many ingredients in this meal, you’ll end up getting your digestive processes off to a sluggish start, which will slow your metabolism and make you feel languid all day long. To counter these effects, keep your breakfast light and don’t include too many different ingredients. A simple egg, a piece of bread, and some fruit are quite enough.

Exercise first: If you’re trying to be healthy, it’s a good idea to get your daily exercise first thing in the morning, even before you eat. You may feel a little rumbling in your stomach as you’re exercising, but this just means that the calories you burn will have extra impact. Then, by the time you do sit down for breakfast, you’ll be clear-headed and energetic from your workout session, and your body will hungrily devour everything you eat without any negative metabolic effects.

Go organic: Many people are skeptical about whether organic foods are actually beneficial from a health perspective, but there are many studies that have shown that the benefits are real. A Penn State study, for example, found that eggs produced by free-range chickens are higher in vitamins and omega-3 fat content than eggs produced by industrial-farm chickens. The same is true of organic fruits, which tend to have higher nutrient content and lower toxin content than their non-organic counterparts.

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May
18

Our family loves Ginger Snaps. When we were children, my siblings and I would find all types of creative ways to use the delectable disks. From spicing up a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich to adding fire to ice cream, the Ginger Snap had a fixed place in most of our menus. So you can imagine how disappointed I was when, in one of those adult moments, I flipped the box over to see just what caused the Ginger Snap’s appeal. The answer horrified me. How could this be? Is it a mistake on the label or am I possibly misreading it? The snap came from the arch-enemy of dentists: sugar!

I had read the packaging correctly, and unfortunately my days of consuming 10-15 cookies in one sitting had come to an end. Not only was there sugar, there were other forms of sugar disguised in creative names.

As we enter that adult phase of our lives, many of us try to reduce our sugar consumption for personal reasons or under the advice of our medical practitioners. But the desire to cut back on the sweet stuff is made even more difficult because food manufacturers often disguise sugar with legal – yet crafty – labeling. Most often, the list of ingredients on food products begins with the ingredient of greatest quantity and continues in descending order until the final ingredient (of least quantity) is listed. Some manufacturers find ways to list sugar with different names, thereby making it appear as if each sugar is an insignificant part of the product.

Beware! The truth is that, when combined, all these sugar pseudonyms often equal almost half of the ingredients in common food products.

Returning to my Ginger Snaps, I found sugar for sure. Reading further, I found brown sugar, corn syrup, and dextrose. Though labeled differently, in the end they are just various forms of sugar. Naturally, there are some ways to avoid falling into manufacturers’ sweet snares.

First, become aware of the common alternative names for sugar that you will see listed on ingredient lists. These monikers include sugar (obviously), honey, brown sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, lactose, maple sugar, sorghum syrup, turbinado sugar, caramel, dextrin, fructose, grape sugar, invert sugar, maltose, and molasses.

Second, if you want to ease back on the amount of sugar that you consume in your food and beverages, choose sugar-free options. Sugar free beverages are often indistinguishable from their sugar-laden counterparts. The multitude of sugar substitutes offer another way to cut back on your sugar intake. Most of them are safe, but it’s a good idea to do at least some preliminary research before using them. The FDA regulates food safety, but an overworked and understaffed federal agency can’t catch everything.

Third – and this is only if you can really do without sugar as we commonly consume it – opt for either black strap molasses or Sugar in the Raw. These products are the least processed forms of sugar available, and they retain quite a bit of the nutrients not found in white sugar. As a matter of fact, in order to obtain snowy white sugar, manufacturers wash it an average of seven times, stripping many of the natural nutrients. Raw sugar is usually washed only twice.

Finally, and most effectively, you can just take simple sugar out of your diet. This seemingly extreme measure does not mean you can’t enjoy the great tastes of foods, but you will have to find healthy alternatives to satisfy that sweet tooth.

We still love Ginger Snaps, but we have sought out the similar snacks that use unprocessed sugar or no sugar at all. If we do want to relive the youthful, carefree days, we might slip in four or five of the decadent Ginger Snaps every once in a while.

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Apr
22

When food is lovingly tended and hand-picked so that it is naturally bursting with flavour and beauty, a certain respect is inevitably given to it. In China, a few extra seconds are always devoted to presenting the food in such a way that just looking at it gets the digestive juices going. This ensures not only enhanced pleasure but also proper absorption and assimilation of the food. It doesn’t matter how simple the food is, it can always be presented in an appetising way, for instance by arranging ingredients of different colours and the plate and adding some aromatic herbs.

Vegetables:

Sweet potatoes and pumpkins, their orange flesh packed with anti-cancer beta-carotene, are often eaten with corn to provide flavour and texture. Tomatoes and peppers also full of beta-carotene and, are frequently used in Barma in elaborate displays of food uniquely arranged around colours and patterns. Tomatoes and peppers, also full of beta-carotene are frequently used around the world in varies degrees of meals. Red peppers are one of the richest sources of vitamin C there is, while tomatoes are the only reliable source of the potent anti-aging antioxidant lycopene.

Green leafy vegetables eaten by many people include the wild amaranth, an attractive and colourful plant that is similar to spinach. Amaranth contains twice as much calcium as milk, as well as the magnesium needed to get calcium into our bones. It is also high in potassium, phosphorous, folic acid, manganese, iron and the top three anti-oxidants, vitamins a, c and e. Its seeds which have a nutty, malty flavour are available in health shops in the West – these can be combined with brown rice or corn to make a complete protein meal. They make an ideal ingredient for a green smoothie which is the most nutritious type of smoothie you can consume, just add some of your favourite fruits along with other leafy vegetables and all your essentials are in one drink.