Many of us don’t know the fat content of the foods we eat. What foods contain fats and which don’t? What are the best choices you can make when it comes to choosing the food you will eat?Here are some foods you should avoid eating because they are incredibly harmful:1)Margarine is incredibly harmful and deceptive. Margarine is jam-packed of saturated and unsaturated fats which create heart problems and cardiovascular diseases. Dairies also contain saturated and unsaturated fats, with the exception of butter. If you eat one spoon of margarine you will get 2.8 grams of unsaturated fats and 2.1 grams of saturated fats. If you eat one spoon of butter you will get 7.2 grams of saturated fats and just 0.3 grams of unsaturated fats.2)Packaged foods like cookies, biscuits, contain lots of fats. You can verify their fat contents by reading their label.3)Soups contain unsaturated fats too. If you like soups try vegetable soups which are tasty and good for your health at the same time.4)Fast food use vast quantities of hydrogenated oils to deep fry or cook anything they prepare. Fries, chicken, burgers all are jam-packed of bad for you fats.

Even if some fast foods restaurants use regular cooking oil, the pre-cooked fries are already cooked in unsaturated fats before they get to the eating place. From one piece of KFC chicken you will get 7 grams and form a medium portion of French fries you will get 14.5 grams of fat.5)Pizza, pies and cakes and any deep fried food are all forbidden foods. Deep fried foods are very bad for your health and contain lots of fats. You should always avoid eating them.  6)Pastries contain lots of fats. As an example doughnuts are cooked in unsaturated fats and lots of fats are used in producing the dough. Instead of buying them try to cook them at home using much more good for your health ingredients.  7)Constantly snacking on candy and chips is a incredibly bad for you eating habit. Potato chips and popcorn are full of fats and chocolate candy is jam-packed of unsaturated fats.8)All those good for your health breakfast foods: cereals, toast… contain unsaturated fats, but in small quantities. The nuts found in many cereals are jam-packed of fats but they are the good good for you kind of fats.9)Chocolate and cake can contain huge amounts of fats. You just have to be careful. To always make the right choice you will have to read their label and see how many fats they contain. A piece of chocolate or a piece of cake contain much more unsaturated fats than regular candy.10)Coffee, whip cream, ice-cream, toppings all contain loads of unsaturated fats. Use skim milk for your coffee.You cannot do away with all the unsaturated fats from your diet even if you tried your greatest. What you can do is cut down the daily intake by making the right choices. For example you can use olive oil in your salads or for your food preparation. It’s full of flavor and delicious.

You are storing this food in your pantry not only because you will need them when you are hungry. The food recommended here will also help to ensure that you will be eating healthily. This is very important if you do not want to develop into diseases such as heart attack.
First of all, you should make sure that you will always have some fruit in your pantry. Of course they should be fresh fruits. They will be very good snacks. I know that many people will eat chips as snacks. However, this is certainly not good for your health and it is better to eat fresh fruits as snacks.
You should also have some yogurt in your pantry. They are perfect in the summer. Some people will tend to eat ice-cream in a hot summer day. However, you may be taking too much sugar in this case. And yogurt can be a perfect substitute to ice-cream in a hot summer day.
Fruit juice can also be something good. People nowadays are drinking too much soft drink. Fruit juice can be a better alternative. Again, you can put the juice in the refrigerator so that you can keep it cool. When you feel that you want to drink something other than water, you should try to get some fruit juice instead of soft drink.
It is also very important for you to have some bread in your pantry. You will need crabs to provide your energy. Your body will not be functioning normally without crabs. As a result, some bread is a must in your pantry. It will also be a good idea to use the bread to make some great sandwiches for your lunch or even dinner.
In fact, you should also have some other food such as milk and peanut butter in the pantry. They are all good for your health. Remember, we want to live a healthy lifestyle. And the first step to do so is first of all storing some healthy food in our pantry!

             You have to learn to eat properly once and for all. Take back the natural enjoyment of food!

             Others think that exercise is the only way to health, so they exercise frantically for a few months before giving up. They try to exercise frantically, either taking up sports they don’t care for or joining an exercise class that they’ll skip. These people are somewhat better off than the dieters, as exercise is a good start. But what they don’t realize is that exercise should be enjoyable-it shouldn’t be painful or uncomfortable. They have to learn to turn exercise from a chore into a joy! Learn about it in my website below.

             One must remember that physical activity is the key factor that keeps people in shape and good health. Each of us should exercise at least 30 minutes every day and that does not mean working out in the gym: can be simple stroll, climbing stairs, going on foot instead of driving.

            Those who wish to lose weight should concentrate on a tougher physical activity. It is best to do at least 3 work outs per week. These work outs should focus on a total body and include both cardio activity and muscular strength exercise. The ideal model for women is to have 2-3 group exercise classes to burn the calories out and then 2 functional trainings, which means 5 days of working out. The other option is to choose 3 days in a week and spend an hour in a cardio class and one more hour working out in the gym.

           The exact training model should be applied individually according to the goals raised up and other individual factors. And remember-exercise should be enjoyable.

           The same applies to choosing the right diet.

Find a personal trainer who will work with you and help to choose the right diet and sports for you.

           Last, but not least thing: so-called ‘diet pills’ do not guarantee any results. Do not put up your hopes up high. If there were such a thing as a pill that could help you safely remove excess pounds, they would be prescribed by doctors across the globe.

           You have to break out the cycle of diets and discomfort. You’ve already proven to yourself that diet and exercise plans fail to help you lose weight and keep it off. Stop torturing yourself, and use a method that works.

Visit http://curvid.bezoogle.com/pp/weight-loss/ or http://basicsofweightlose.blogspot.com/ and start losing weight today!

Have you heard of all the great properties packed in the Acai berry that has now been classed as a SuperFood? And the many ways it can benefit you by adding it to your diet.

The little known Acai berry is jam packed with goodness and contains essential fatty acids, amino acids and the highest concentration of anti-oxidants than any other food.

No wonder that the Acai berry – (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) has been titled one of the most powerful and nutritious foods in the world – not bad for a small blue berry.

The Acai berry grows wild and abundantly at the top of the Euterpe Oleracea, a native tree of the Brazilian Amazon and Central American tropical forest in the flood plains.

The only draw back with the Acai berry that I can see is that it is not readily available in most supermarkets. This is wholly due to the fact that the Acai has a very short shelf life and also the period they are harvested in, keeping the price of the fresh berry quite high.

So with the Acai’s popularity increasing as its good health benefits become more widely known, other forms are easily obtainable from reputable health stores and chemists in freeze dried, capsules, tablets, juice and pulp form.

Anti-oxidants are renowned for combating the effects of premature ageing and with the Acai berry’s remarkable concentration, really does help. In fact the berry contains 10 times more anti-oxidants than red grapes and between 10 – 30 times more of the good anthocyanins contained in red wine.

The fatty acid in Acai is very rich in monounsaturated oleic acid and similar to that of olive oil. Oleic acid is beneficial and important for many reasons to the body.

Oleic acid in the Acai helps increase penetration of the cell membrane by omega-3 oils, making the membranes suppler, and together with the cell membrane being more supple aids the efficiency of neurotransmitters, hormones and insulin receptors.

High insulin levels are linked with ageing, as the higher levels of insulin creates an inflammatory state in the body and inflammation causes ageing, so the Acai can help combat this.

Not only is ageing affected by the Acai’s synergy of monounsaturated fats, but its dietary fibre and phytosterols also help to promote good health of the cardiovascular and digestive system.

The Acai also has a near perfect complex of essential amino acids and together with its valuable trace minerals are excellent and vital for proper muscle contraction and regeneration, this slows the effects of damage to the skin that cause the signs of ageing.

What more needs to be said about this fantastic berry, well as the Acai contains phytosterol – (Beta-sitosterol) that inhibits cholesterol absorption, allowing it to be naturally removed with bodily waste instead of being stored as fat, is yet another good health benefit.

So by adding Acai to your diet and eating a varied diet of nutritionally good food for good health is the main stay to keeping your skin supple and looking young, as with a varied diet you can obtain the many vitamins and nutrients needed for your body’s daily fight against ageing.

The acai berry contains a potent pack of goodness to fight not only against the ravages of ageing but many other conditions. So for your body’s whole wellbeing adding Acai to your daily diet can only benefit you.

Acai is the number one good food for good health.

Sandra & Ted

http://www.goodfoodgoodhealth.com

http://www.thetalkingbooksite.com

Anxiety is no stranger to any of us and in fact everyone needs to feel anxious sometimes, through this natural emotion the body enables a reaction which pumps adrenaline – the hormone stimulant into our systems.

Adrenaline is enormously important for spurring us on to do challenging and uncongenial tasks, helping us to cope with difficult situations.

Today, our lives seem to be ruled by constantly running from one emotional problem to the next, and unfortunately this is considered to be ‘normal’ life.

This is another excellent reason why ‘good food good health’ has to be part of everybody’s everyday regime, helping our immune system tackle the stress and strains put on our bodies.

Normal anxiety has almost always a cause of which we are aware – such as an exam coming up or an important interview etc, and causes different amount of pressure depending on the individual.

Anxiety becomes problematic when apprehension or worry is experienced for no apparent reason or when situations are deemed far worse than warranted.

A great deal of how we deal with anxiety depends on each individual and their outlook on life and character.

Even though anxiety is an emotional state, physical symptoms can be induced by it. Previously, it was believed that these symptoms were ‘all in the mind’, but it has been proven that some people really do feel pain and become ill from the effects.

The most common affect is of course the need to urinate frequently, of which I am sure we have all experienced, this is definitely myself before flying anywhere.

The most reported symptom of enduring anxiety is pain in the back, head, chest and abdomen. Some sufferers become nauseas and actually vomit. Diarrhoea, dizziness and muscular tension are also common problems.

In the worst cases panic attacks can sometimes occur which generally involve sweating profusely, palpitations and abnormally deep breathing.

For some chronic sufferers it is a vicious repeating cycle, as they can become anxious about being anxious, recurrent attacks that can happen over a period of years – this is known as chronic anxiety. In these cases medical attention should be sought.

Insomnia is another well-known side effect, and this again only adds to the anxiety felt by the sufferer by laying mulling over the problem that is causing concern, making the smallest of problem often seem a giant hurdle in life.

The best self-help to allow your body cope and keep good health under duress is to make sure you are eating good food. A diet rich in vegetables, raw fruit, salads and plenty of proteins will give you a good balance and help to keep your immune system on top.

Carrots, and especially carrot juice is believed to have a calming effect on the nervous system. Camomile tea is another favourite.

Many vitamins are said to help, Vitamins B and C are attributed to help in coping with anxiety and stress, functioning of the central nervous system is said to be improved with Vitamin E, and also calcium, magnesium and zinc minerals.

So by eating a varied nutritional diet these vitamins and minerals should be easy accessed for good food good health to be obtained, otherwise dietary supplements can be taken, but always check with your physician.

The other easy self-help method to try and overcome anxiety is breathing exercises. Controlled breathing exercises calm and relax you. If you have read my previous article on Visualisation Therapy, which I use for relaxation, you will see how easy it is to use and how it can have amazing effects on yourself and your outlook on life.

Many people who suffer from anxiety often tend to dwell on fears and problems making them ill, instead of being positive and this really needs to be addressed. Try to adopt a positive attitude and be kind to yourself, although make sure you are not too indulgent.

Chocolate really does have that good feel factor and a little of what you fancy can be helpful, as so can a glass of wine lift your spirits, but using this as a crutch or using too much obviously has its own side effects.

Aromatherapy is another good mood enhancing remedy, as we all know nice smells lift our spirit and essential oils are a good way of achieving this.

A combination of lavender, sandalwood, clary sage and basil help with panic and anxiety, but if you suffer headache with your anxiety or even muscle tension add camomile and marjoram essential oils.

Why not try using these oils in a pot burner while having a relaxing bath to rid yourself of your daily anxieties.

Listening to music is another great method that helps us to relax, why not try listening to some on a personal stereo or MP3 whilst waiting for that appointment or whatever it is that has you feeling anxious.

Music that appeals to us generally lifts our mood, and sometimes by listening to ‘natural sound’ such as water, whales etc can have a beneficial effect.

Uncovering the root of your anxiety is necessary to help alleviate this problem and talking things through with a good friend can really help or in more severe cases a psychiatrist can be of assistance.

I feel that our outward look on life really does help or aggravate our fight with anxiety throughout our lives, and that by eating good food for good health and keeping a positive attitude can only help to fight the symptoms, maintaining a healthy immune system to keep our bodies in tip top condition.

Remember visualisation is positive food for the brain.

Sandra & Ted

The elderflower has been well known through the centuries for its high vitamin C content, anti oxidant and healing properties, and because of this is today one of the top selling natural summer cordials.

Drinking a glass of cordial daily is very refreshing and will help to improve your health, and it is not just the flowers that are good for you but also the berries when made into wine have equal beneficial properties.

We are all well aware now just how important anti oxidants and vitamin C are, and I do not mean only the ladies thinking about their skin and premature aging, but then maybe that is why through the ages women have always made and drank elderflower cordials and tea ritually, and is a staple product of the Women’s Institute along with jams.

Antioxidants are needed to help reduce the production of ‘free radicals’ (highly re-active and unstable molecules which contain atoms with unpaired electrons) in the body, high fat diets attribute to ‘free radicals’, but they are also produced naturally and especially in people who exercise heavily, attacking cells leading to long term damage and a higher risk of cancer.

Studies have shown that taking antioxidants such as vitamin C before eating high fat foods, reduces the damage greatly to the arteries.

The elderflower is well in bloom now and can be found in most hedgerows and roadsides, scrubland and gardens alike, and to many gardeners is a nuisance as it grows almost anywhere in a very short time to a considerable size.

The elder has acquired the nickname of ‘Nature’s Medicine Chest’, as its healing properties have been used for a very wide and varied range of problems from Rheumatism, hay fever, coughs and colds, asthma and influenza.

The elderflower is only in bloom for about six weeks, from the end of May to the beginning of July, but it is best picked now while the flowers are fresh and white and before they turn creamy brown.

I remember making this with my grandma every year, from collecting the flowers and berries to all the smells associated with this. I still have the hand written recipe of this and other by grandma, although I think some of these recipes are probably illegal to make at home now, like the marrow rum, I will have to check up on this at a later date.

The recipe to make 1.5 litres of Elderflower cordial is below, which you dilute to taste, is easy and inexpensive, and is great served with fizzy water and ice. Perfect for the summer.

Ingredients you need – 20 heads of elderflower, 1.8kg granulated sugar, 1.2 litres of water, 2 lemons and 75g citric acid.

Preparation time takes 20 minutes, plus overnight infusing and 5 minutes cooking.Method. Shake the flowers to expel any insects and place in large bowl.Put sugar in pan with water and bring to boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Pare zest off lemons in wide strips and place in bowl with elderflowers. Slice lemons discarding ends and add slices to bowl. Pour over boiling syrup and stir in citric acid. Cover with cloth and leave for 24 hours at room temperature. The next day strain cordial through a muslin (or a new boil washed J cloth or similar) and pour into thoroughly cleaned plastic or glass bottles with screw on lids, and that’s it.

The elder is also used as a natural garden insecticide, by crushing up and bruising the foul smelling leaves you can leave them around young plants to deter aphids and caterpillars. Obviously as they dry out and the smell disappears they need to be replaced.

Farmers used to hang bunches of elderflower above their horses before insecticides were used to rid flies, and dairy farmers used it as they thought it had properties to stop the milk from turning sour. People used to wear a small sprig to keep midges away. The elder has been closely entwined with pagans through the years to summon spirits, with twigs woven into head-dresses to enable the wearer to see spirits and undo evil spells! The mind boggles.

On the Isle of Man, every cottage has an elder growing outside its front door to ward off witches even to this day. In other parts of the country, people would never burn elder wood as it was said a member of the family would die. It was truly a revered plant.

The great thing about elderflower is that it tastes delicious, is highly refreshing and a good provider of vitamin C – an antioxidant, so why not try making your own or buy a good reputable manufactured cordial and start getting the benefits for good health now.

Happy drinking Sandra & Ted

http://www.goodfoodgoodhealth.com

http://www.thetalkingbooksite.com

http://www.quantum-mind-power.com

For many years garlic has been known to have great health benefits and is often thought of as natures own antibiotic’ but people have been wary of eating fresh garlic because of the pungent odour it leaves on your breath, or excreted through the pores. Garlic has this effect because it is a substance that is not metabolised; instead it is absorbed through the stomach lining.

Now it has been realised that taking a good quality supplement of Allicin (the active ingredient of garlic) gives you equal effectiveness, and of course you can use the odourless variety, for this garlic is aged and detoxified leaving it deodorised.

I adore garlic and am happy with garlic on just about any type of savoury food, but being the minority in the family have resorted to taking odourless capsules to keep the peace. I think garlic is one of the few foods that everybody has an opinion about; you either love it or hate it!

In fact my father-in-law Joe used to eat raw cloves every day, probably one of the reasons he is in his eighties and has never suffered from bad health. Joe originates from Poland where garlic had been used for health benefits for years and years, primarily eaten against influenza, but they would also use it topically rubbed on the soles of their feet to ward of colds and many other ailments.

But yes, there was a problem with odour and it came to a head at the maternity centre when I had our eldest daughter, the nurses could not believe how after he visited us the odour lingered, and went on to tell him they were worried it would upset the babies on the ward. Obviously he was a little offended, but more embarrassed, even though we had approached the subject before, thank goodness this time it sank in. Now he still uses garlic, but not every day, and happily takes a daily odourless supplement.

To date garlic has under gone many studies and it seems the list of its benefits keeps on increasing. The main reason I have taken garlic for several years now is because of the effect it has on strengthening the body’s immune system.

With all the stress in today’s society our bodies could do with a little help. The antioxidant properties contained in garlic comes from selenium and germanium that are sulphur-containing antioxidants that boost the immune system.

It is this property that helps rid the body of free radicals that are believed to be associated with the ageing process, growth of tumours and atherosclrosis. Garlic in it’s raw state is thought to be one of the most potent boosters of you body’s natural killer cells. This alone should encourage non-garlic lovers to change their minds.

Research has shown that garlic-Allicin is an excellent natural antimicrobial that can disable a wide variety of infectious organisms. These antibiotic properties can provide extremely active against yeast, fungi and viral infections.

Garlic is great for your heart too, as it contains properties that fight bad’ cholesterol. Nowadays we are all aware that HDL- high-density lipoprotein which is not dangerous, but LDL – low-density lipoprotein definitely is because of the fact that it can be oxidised by dangerous free radicals. Garlic’s antioxidising qualities help diminish the free radical damage.

Garlic is a natural aspirin as it can help prevent red blood cells from clumping together. Garlic naturally keeps the blood thin which is necessary for the prevention of strokes and heart attacks, so people who regularly take garlic benefit from the same aspects as aspirin but without other risks associated with it, but it should not be taken in place of prescribed medication.

Garlic is also beneficial for the cardiovascular system – circulation, and has been proven to improve circulation in the body’s peripheries, which is extremely helpful especially in the aged, when getting enough exercise is often difficult.

Studies are also being undertaken to find the effect garlic has on cancer cells, and to date the findings carried out on mice are looking good. This is really encouraging.

I hope if you are not a lover of garlic this has given a good insight into the benefits of eating garlic or at least taking a supplement. Not only will your health benefit, but you will also have the added benefit of knowing you are safe from vampires!!

Garlic has been written about throughout history. 22 Egyptian remedies using garlic were found on papyrus dating back to the sixteenth century BC. Vikings would not take to long sea voyages without garlic, because of its anti-bacterial properties, this was also the reason it was used against the plague in the 1770′s. African missionaries found that garlic was successful at stopping dysentery.

In fact my granddad grew garlic, and he used to use old cloves steeped in water to cleanse his lean-to come greenhouse, he would fervently swear that it killed mildew and other infections, and apparently having been his grandfather that passed this down to his father, was obviously well thought of for its antibacterial properties.

In our modern hi-tech world we now live in, we have all but forgotten natures own natural problem beaters and these are often absolutely harmless, with no man made chemicals to endanger the environment. Perhaps we should look closer at what our ancestors knew and we seem to have forgotten.

Good food is good health

Sandra & Ted
http://www.goodfoodgoodhealth.com

http://www.thetalkingbooksite.com

http://www.quantum-mind-power.com

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