Monday, April 27, 2009

Eat Big to Get a Smaller Waist

Eat Big to Get a Smaller Waist
Big foods are those that are low in caloric density, but they give you a feeling of satiety on fewer calories.

Examples include salads, noncreamy soups, vegetables fresh fruits, water, nonfat plain yogurt, fish and seafood, and cooked oatmeal.

Because these natural high-volume, or “big,” foods are high in fiber and water they fill you up on fewer calories than the calorie-dense highly processed foods.

You are hard-wired to eat until your stomach is stretched, which generally takes about fifteen to twenty minutes.

If you are eating cheese fries, chicken nuggets and M&M’s and drinking sugared sodas, during that fifteen to twenty minute meal, you will consume thousands of calories, mostly in the form of unhealthy and nutritionally barren foods that will be stored as belly fat and leave you hungry again in two or three hours.

On the other hand, if you sit down to a meal of boil shrimp, crisp celery sticks with guacamole dip, an apple and a tall glass of iced tea, fifteen to twenty minutes later you will be just even full though you consumed a fraction of the calories and loads more antiaging antioxidants, fiber and vitamins.

As a bonus, you remain full for four to six hours without cravings for junk food.

Many healthy foods are essential calorie-free, including spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and asparagus. But not everybody enjoys all the vegetables.

Drinking calorie-free beverage such as water tea and coffee is another way to fill up without stressing your system with excess calories.
Eat Big to Get a Smaller Waist

Monday, April 6, 2009

Variety of Foods: The Good and the Bad

Variety of Foods: The Good and the Bad
You will thrive best if you can learn to eat an array of fresh, natural foods to get the wide range of nutrients that are necessary for vibrant health.

Different foods provide different nutrients, so the greater variety of nature’s bounty in which you partake, the better health you will enjoy.

Eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables and try new ones every chance you get.

Look for brightly or deeply colored varieties as they are high in anti-aging antioxidants.

Variety is also important when choosing animal protein sources. Red meat poultry, nonfat dairy, whey protein, seafood, and fish all have very different nutritional profiles.

Try not to eat the same type of meat or fish day in and day out.

A mixture of protein sources will supply you with an array of healthful nutrients and still help you to avoid the over-consumption of potentially toxic substance that may be present in specific meats or fish.

For instance, tuna is fine once or twice a week, but if you ate it every day, you might end up accumulating toxic amounts of mercury.

Lean red meat is great in moderation, but when eaten in excess you might absorb too much iron, saturated fat, and heterocyclic amines (carcinogens).

Lean chicken breasts are low in fat but don’t have the beneficial omega-3 fats found in fish and seafood, or the high zinc levels of red meats.

Variety, however, have a dark side. The dramatic rise in America body weight over the past twenty-five years is paralleled by a line documenting the number of new man-made foods introduced into the diet over the same time period.

They are often advertised as low fat, low carb, or vitamin-fortified, but nearly all of these synthetic, caloric-dense delicious new foods are designed to entice us into overeating.

A whole host of designer “fat free” highly processed foods were gobbled up by the American public as it packed on pounds of fat tissue faster than grain-fed cattle in feed lots.
Variety of Foods: The Good and the Bad