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Best Diet seventh Year Running

April 21st, 2017 ernie Posted in Nutrition No Comments »

The best diet seventh year running is called DASH which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The main concept of DASH  is to focus on eating less salt while eating healthy food. This includes all food that already have salt added to them as well as the salt you add at the dinner table. Reduce hypertension and improve many areas of your body that could suffer from high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and damage to organs over a period of time. For the seventh year running, DASH has been voted by nutrition experts as the best diet for consumers. It beat out all of the fad diets that cost consumers thousands of dollars every year.

Best Diet seventh Year Running – What is it?

DASH entails focusing on lower-sodium foods and foods rich in potassium, magnesium and calcium. Bottom line: fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy is good. Sugary snacks, red meat and salty nibbles are bad.You have to read the labels and make decisions about prepared food. Most contain either a high level of added salt or sugar to keep them fresh longer.  Even bread has a lot of salt added to it.

Load up on brown rice, fish, fat-free yogurt. Avoid the candy aisle and prepared foods which contain a large amount of salt per serving. All of this assumes that you maintain proper amounts of fibre and vitamins as part of your daily intake. A balanced level of food will help you maintain a healthy lifestyle as well.

Eating healthy does take more effort. Gone are all of the prepared foods that you take out of the freezer and heat up. preparing low salt meals and low sugar meals takes more effort. But then again to effort, no results. Your family will appreciate your efforts in the long run.

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Slowing Metabolism with Age

October 21st, 2016 ernie Posted in Nutrition No Comments »

Slowing Metabolism with AgeTurns out there are multiple reasons for a slowing metabolism with age that affects us all once we are over 20 years of age. Most seniors already know that their metabolism is slowing down. They really do not understand why other than that they are aging. Activity level, body maintenance and energy to process your food all add up to your metabolism rate.

Processing your Food – it takes energy to process food and turn it into the nutrients that your body can use. This is about 10% of your basic metabolism level.

Body Maintenance – accounts for 60 to 70% of the calories that you burn each day. Just your normal day to day activities will use this level of energy even when you are at rest doing your best couch potato impression.

Activity Level – Highly active adults will burn many more calories and increase their metabolism levels. You burn more calories and maintain muscle mass as well as cardio capabilities.  Bottom line is burn off more calories than you take in if you want to lose weight and maintain a higher metabolism.

Slowing Metabolism with Age – What to Do?

There are five things you can do to ramp up your metabolism and burn off more calories.

Increase intensity levels – do more exercise. Exercise every day for 20 minutes at least and focus on high intensity levels while you are doing this exercise.

Strength Training – build muscle. Muscle uses more energy and burns more calories.

Increase your Protein intake – reduce your fat intake and your carb intake to decrease your bad calories. Eating protein will help build those muscles.

Water Intake – drinking lots of water keeps you hydrated and your body working optimally. It helps to build muscle and keep metabolism high.

Don’t Starve Yourself – the body will react by decreasing your metabolism to conserve energy and resources. Eat regular meals and focus on healthy eating habits.

For more about managing your metabolism and nutrition, click here.

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Coping with Slowing Metabolism

September 21st, 2016 ernie Posted in Nutrition No Comments »

Coping with Slowing MetabolismWe will all find ourselves coping with slowing metabolism at some point in our lives. It may be in our senior years or it could also be at a younger age. There are several reasons why our metabolism slows down. Once your understand why your bodies metabolism slows, you can do something about it. You may be surprised when you read on. A slow metabolism means you burn less calories and you also gain weight unless you take the proper steps to counteract it.  There are three areas to consider. First is the base metabolism rate which is how many calories you need just to maintain your body at its current weight.

Second is the activity level or how many calories you burn through an active life style. Third is the number of calories it takes to digest the food you intake. The first consumes 60 to 70%, the second consumers 20% and the third consumes about 10% of the calories.

Coping with Slowing Metabolism

From the above three areas, it quickly becomes obvious what you need to do regardless of what age you are. As we age, our metabolic rate also slows because we are no longer growing, we are maintaining our weight, height etc. The only thing left is to either cut down on the calorie intake or to increase our activity level.

Fasting or starving ourselves will also decrease the metabolic rate.. It is important to eat regular meals, just cut back a little bit on the total amount of calories to avoid lowering your metabolic rate.

Next increase your activity level. Increase muscle mass by doing weight baring exercises. Creating muscles and using them burns calories and actually increases your metabolic rate. As we age we need to find ways of coping with slowing metabolism in our bodies. By tricking the body to deal with a higher activity rate, you will improve your strength, your cardio level and burn calories at the same time.

Start with regular exercise. Walking, lifting weights, cycling , golf or whatever sport you enjoy. Keep at it as long as you possibly can.

For more about managing your metabolism and nutrition, click here.

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Fast Food Meals Still Unhealthy

December 21st, 2010 ernie Posted in Nutrition No Comments »

Fast Food Meals Still UnhealthyFast Food meals are still unhealthy and in particular kid’s meals are also still unhealthy. Despite all of the advertising to the contrary most fast food restaurants are still loading up their fast food meals with lots of carbs, calories and salt. They tend to be filled with fat calories, fat, sugar, and sodium in kids’ meals and menu items. The salt content will give anyone high blood pressure if you eat these meals long enough.

More and more families are opting to eat out or grab something quick to feed their families. With both parents working, getting home late and with kids activities to get to many parents end up at one of the fast food restaurants for supper or even breakfast on the weekends. The choices are not great in terms of healthy meals and even if you are able to select a healthy main course, the french fries and soft drinks up the sodium and calories well beyond acceptable levels for healthy eating.

Fast Food Meals Still Unhealthy

Sodium is the silent killer in adults, elevating blood pressure and hypertension, so much so that doctors are beginning to see the same symptoms in young adults and teenagers. Imagine being in your teens and having high blood pressure! With all of the advertising these days on TV and on the internet, there are more and more ads aimed at young children and of course as parents we know what that means when we get to the restaurants.

Even if the ads are good ads, advertising healthy choices, there is the old “Bait and Switch”, approach to ordering food in fast food restaurants. You may see healthy choices advertised, however the kids meals come with a toy or some other gimmick that draws them into the less healthy choices. Some cities have gone as far as banning toys from being included with meals unless the meal fits a healthy definition.

So what can a parent do with all of this un-healthy advertising?

There is no easy answer when you are bombarded with advertising all of the time. You are short on time. The alternative is to be super organized. Have frozen meals ready for supper in advance which you prepared on the weekends. At least meals that you prepare yourself can be healthy and you can manage the amount of sodium that finds its way into both ourselves as well as our children.

It is all about choices that we make every day, what we eat, what we chose to do with our time and so on. We also have to be aware of the kinds of food that our families are eating as well.  Even fast food from the grocery store in the frozen dinner section is not a good choice. Pick up any frozen dinner, pizza or even canned food and read the ingredients.

Chances are that the sodium levels will be one third to as much as 50% of the daily intake of salt that most adults are supposed to have. With children’s smaller bodies this level will be even higher than it is for adults. Reading labels in our family has become a regular activity so that we can manage our salt intake both for ourselves and our kids.

Avoid Soft Drinks

Avoid soft drinks which is a major component of any fast food meal  to cut down on calories. Children will demand a soft drink with every meal if they can get  away with it. There are hundreds of calories in every drink. A lot of sugar which is contributing to an early onset of sugar diabetes.

When we go to a fast food outlet these days, I order a glass of water. Which not only cuts down on the calories, which is my prime objective. It also saves money as well since the drinks are really were the profit is for many of these restaurants. The kids are not so excited about drinking a glass of water. However it is better for them and they can have as much as they wish!

If you have ideas about how to avoid fast food restaurants please leave your comments on our blog. We would love to hear about our readers choices and help our readers at the same time. Spam comments will be deleted.

If you do want us to link to your web site , place a link on your page to ours. We monitor ping backs and will reciprocate once we see the incoming link!

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Neglecting Hypertension – Dangerous to Your Health

March 28th, 2010 ernie Posted in Nutrition 1 Comment »

Live Long and HealthyHow many people actually realize that they might have high blood pressure or hypertension? Most have heard about the problem. They are Neglecting Hypertension and assume that it must be other people who have the problem. After all they feel fine and do not have any out word symptoms.  Yet this silent killer is slowly attacking your organs by causing high blood pressure and stressing your organs. It wears them down over time as well as your arteries eventually leading to a stroke, a heart attack or aneurism. Neglecting Hypertension can be dangerous.

Neglecting Hypertension – Take Control of Your Health

The answer is to take control of your own health and also contribute to the community in any way you can, but start with yourself first. If you are at all concerned or just interested, visit your local pharmacy and take your own blood pressure. Most pharmacies have blood pressure machines available that are easy to use with instructions to tell you if your readings should be of concern. These same pharmacies also sell portable blood pressure machines you can use at home to keep an eye on your blood pressure. Take a number of readings to obtain an average over a few days.

Believe it or not one out of every three American adults has high blood pressure, or hypertension. One of every six American adults will die from complications related to hypertension, such as heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure, making it a leading cause of death in this country. This is a serious disease and you need to pay attention. You may not even realize that you have high blood pressure until it is too late and the damage has been done.  You can quickly check your blood pressure by following the steps mentioned above and then if necessary visit your doctor to be professionally assessed.

Millions of Americans “develop, live with, and die from hypertension,” says David W. Fleming, MD, chairman of the committee that produced the report. Last year, hypertension cost the health care system — directly and indirectly — more than $73 billion. Yet prevention efforts, Fleming says, are “woefully underfunded.”

Live Long Enough

“If you live long enough in this country, you are almost guaranteed to get hypertension. That’s not true across the world,” says Corinne Husten, MPH, MD, senior medical advisor for the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and member of the committee that produced the report. “Environment explains why we are so at risk, and the reality is that unless we create the environment to do the right thing, we are going to continue to have all these deaths.”

Most people, after all, have already gotten the message about eating right and exercising regularly. The problem, as the committee sees it, is that too many communities, in particular those in low-income and minority areas, lack the infrastructure to support healthy lifestyles, including such basics as safe places to walk and neighborhood markets that stock fresh produce and low-sodium foods.

The writer of this post believes you cannot wait until the government takes the necessary steps to improve the community situation, assuming that this would even work. Instead, you need to take control of the situation yourself and modify your eating habits to help improve your blood pressure, as well as visit your doctor to be assessed. If you cannot afford a doctor, reduce your salt intake and monitor your own blood pressure now. Do as much as you can to get it under control yourself without the use of medication.

Neglecting Hypertension – Too Much Salt

Regardless of where you live, it’s likely that there’s too much sodium in your diet. Nearly 90% of adults consume more than the recommended 2,300 milligrams (about a teaspoon) daily limit. For those with high blood pressure, middle-aged and older adults, and African-Americans, the daily limit should be even lower (1,500 milligrams).

The salt shaker is not to blame. Most of that salt is already in food when it is purchased. Whether it’s processed food from a supermarket or a meal eaten in a restaurant. Processed food contains huge amounts of salt. Just read the labels to find out how much salt is in a daily serving. Even some cereals contain a lot of salt, but the real culprits are snacks and prepared meals.

Stay focused on reading labels and avoiding prepared foods with high salt content. Stop adding salt to your food with the salt shaker. Every little bit counts and pretty soon you will enjoy the taste of food when there is no salt added. In fact once you get used to low salt content in food, you will really notice foods you eat that are high in salt. Every time, I have tried prepared soup from a can for example, I find that I cannot finish it, since it is so salty!

Tips You can Apply In Every Day Life

Here are a few tips that will help you reduce your salt content in the foods you eat:

  •  Do not add salt from a salt shaker, use spices instead.
  •  Read labels and avoid any that have a high sodium content
  • Prepared foods such as cold meats may not have labels that are easy to read. They have high salt content and should be avoided.
  • Avoid snack foods such as salted chips and peanuts. If you must snack, use unsalted popcorn or peanuts.
  • Add spices to your meals if you feel that you need something to add to your food. Pepper works great.
  • Every little bit counts and you need to start now by reducing your salt intake to avoid this silent killer.

While most people get too much salt, the report also emphasizes that those same people often get too little potassium. This is another factor in the uptick of blood pressure levels. You can improve your potassium levels as well by eating more bananas with breakfast or between meals. Bananas are a great source of potassium and other minerals.

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Common Sense Nutrition

January 25th, 2010 ernie Posted in Nutrition 1 Comment »

Common Sense NutritionTaking a common sense approach to nutrition can significantly improve your lifestyle and overall health. This approach might even save you some money as well compared to what you are spending on fad diets etc. But what do you need to do to follow a common sense approach to nutrition instead of all of the fads and diets that are out there, advertised on TV , the radio and newspapers? This is a question asked by thousands of people every day.

Common Sense Nutrition – Fads & Diets

There are numerous fads and diets that are advertised on TV and other venue’s. Some of them work and some do not, but how can you tell. Certainly some of the stars that are making pitches appear to have lost weight and are doing very well according to the advertisement. Valerie Bertinelli is a good example. She looks fabulous and has benefited from Jenny Craig. But is that the whole story?

The first thing to remember it that everyone who is making a pitch is getting paid in some manner to pitch a program or a product. Today, people will say what ever they need to say to sell a product, knowing that there is no repercussion if they misstate  or stretch some facts. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. There is no doubt in Valerie’s case that she has lost weight.

There are many other fads and diet programs, however most people either do not have the money to invest in these programs or they are looking for the quick fix to lose weight. Little attention is paid to the level of nutrition in these various diets. Even frozen foods such as lean cuisine have been reported to have 20% more calories in some of their meals than what is claimed on the box. In addition , look carefully at the sodium levels in each meal. Some will have as much as 30 to 40% of the sodium intake in one meal that you need all day.

Common Sense Nutrition – Read Labels for Nutrition Balance

Always read the labels when you are purchasing prepared food. Even cereal will have some elements that you may question such as sodium, fat content, and other elements that the body does not always need. Soups are notorious for high salt content. Frozen meals of all types are often high in fat content and high in sodium content. Fast food can also be a source of high fat and sodium with little nutritional value. Read the labels and make your own decision, before blindly following the advertisement on the box or on the TV. Often they conveniently forget to mention various factors that you may be interested in.

Follow the Food Guides

Both the United States and Canada have their own food guides which if followed will help to ensure that you meet your needs for the right vitamins,, minerals and other nutrients. Consumers can also reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes, some types of cancer and osteoporosis. A balance diet based on the food guide will contribute to your overall health and vitality.

Food Guide Basics for great Nutrition

Adults should eat seven to 10 servings of vegetables and fruit every day. Six to eight servings of grain products and two to three servings of milk products and two to three servings of meat products. Meeting these guidelines will generally give you all of the necessary food groups, minerals and vitamins that you need every day.

Serving sizes should be matched to your overall food intake required to maintain your ideal body weight. Over indulging in anything can have negative impacts including weight gain even if it is nutritional for you. Combine this with 6 to 8 liters of water to aid in hydration and digestion of your food. If you exercise, additional water is usually required based on the level of exercise you undergo.

If you would like more details about the food guides, search the internet for Canada’s food guide.

A Common Sense Approach to Nutrition

Take some time to really educate yourself on what is needed to provide the nutrition you need for your age and gender. Read the labels and look for low sodium content and low fat content, with a mix of minerals and vitamins. Cooked foods at home prepared from scratch are usually better than prepackaged prepared foods that have a lot of preservatives and additives included. Combine good nutritional intake with the proper amount of food and exercise. Getting one or all of these out of balance can contribute to weight gain and poor health.

Fast food restaurants are not the best place to go to get well balanced low calorie meals. Some have begun to introduce better meals. However you need to pick and chose those that provide the right nutritional value along with lower caloric intake. Many are deep fried, have lots of fat and sodium to make them taste better. Even splitting a meal is better than eating all of the meal yourself. But it is better to just not order a high calorie, high sodium high fat meal in the first place. Some of the new salad meals at fast food outlets are great until you add the salad dressing. These high calorie, high fat dressings should be used lightly.

Multi Vitamins

If you feel that you might not be getting all of the necessary vitamins from your food intake, multi vitamin pills are often a great idea. However you should talk to your pharmacist first to get a recommendation. Which vitamins to take based on your age and gender. Also if you are prone to osteoporosis, consider additional calcium tablets and vitamin D to help with the absorption of the calcium. Again your pharmacist can assist with the selection.

In summary think for yourself, ask questions, do some research and read the labels to ensure you are getting the necessary nutritional value you need from the food you eat. Talk to your pharmacist regarding vitamin and calcium supplements if needed.

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