Thursday, August 19, 2010

Anti Aging Foods That Make You Look and Feel Young

Aging is a natural phenomenon in a human lifecycle. It can’t be prevented because as each year passes by people age. And it is a fact that as people age, there will be physical changes that come along with it. Wrinkles will show up, there may be memory deterioration, and there would be a high risk of contracting diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, elevated blood pressure and cardiac failures. But we can slow down aging by eating the right kinds of food and living healthy. This way it would be looking and feeling healthy and youthful at the same time. And since more and more people are health conscious nowadays and most of these people take into consideration their food intake, many have now known the benefits of eating anti-aging foods. These anti aging foods are rich in antioxidants that help keep skin firm by safeguarding the skin’s collagen and elastic tissue from oxidants or free radicals that damage it.

Berries

Berries of all hues contain vitamin C and phytochemicals known as flavonoids that are powerful antioxidants which help protect the body against damage caused by free radicals and aging. Blueberries are also known to have memory-boosting potential.

Avocado

Avocado is a good source of healthy monounsaturated fat that helps reduce the level of bad cholesterol in the body. It is a good source of vitamin E which can help maintain healthy skin, prevent skin aging, and alleviate menopausal hot flashes. It is also rich in fiber that is good for the digestive system and the heart.

Cruciferous Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts assist the body in fighting toxins and cancer. It is best to eat them raw or very lightly cooked so that the important enzymes remain intact.

Green Leafy Vegetables

These vegetables are prime sources of lutein and zeaxanthin that protect the eyes from the harmful effects of ultraviolet light. Green leafy vegetables are also rich in vitamin K which helps reduce bone loss and prevent fractures.

Nuts

Nuts are rich sources of unsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals and other phytochemicals, including antioxidants. They also enhance the digestive and immune systems, help control and/or prevent cancer, and control cholesterol levels.

Whole Grains

Whole grains like whole wheat, oats, brown rice and cereals are high in fiber and vitamin B which help improve the digestive system. They help prevent diabetes, heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, high blood pressure and gum.

Wine

Moderate alcohol consumption help alleviate problems with heart problems, diabetes, and age-related memory degeneration. Red wine at the same time contains resveratrol which in turn is actually a potent antioxidant, inflammation depressant, fat burner and artery protector. However, animal researchers have exhibited that high amounts of resveratrol may avert cell death within the heart and brain which could prolong life expectancy among humans.

All of the aforesaid anti aging foods ordinarily are not hard to come by. These are all found in the supermarkets and grocery stores. Therefore there will be no further reasons on not having these foods in your list whenever you go shopping for food. Stock up the grocery bags with these anti aging foods for a much healthier brand new you.

Diet Plans And Menus - The Best Life Diet

The Best Life Diet was created by Bob Greene. It became popular thanks to Oprah Winfrey who relied on it to lose weight. This diet includes three phases, which progressively lead you to change your eating habits and engage in physical exercise. In Phase 1 you eat as you have been doing but take up physical exercise on a regular basis. In Phase 2 you start to change your eating habits and increase the intensity of your exercise sessions. In Phase 3 you maintain your weight thanks to habits acquired in the previous phases.

Here are some Best Life Diet principles: In Phase 1 eat three meals a day including a good breakfast and perhaps a snack. Integrate athletic activity into your daily life. Don't eat for at least two hours before going to bed. Drink water all day long and take supplements if necessary. In Phase 2 follow those good habits that you acquired in Phase 1 and increase your physical activities. Be sensitive to hunger signals. Eat reasonable portions. Eliminate the following foods from your diet: carbonated drinks, foods with trans fats as often found in prepared dishes, fried foods, white bread and standard pasta, and whole milk products. Substitute them with whole grain bread, pasta and skim milk products. In Phase 3 continue to follow the principles of the preceding phases. Increase your level of athletic activity and your consumption of whole grain products. Reduce your consummation of sugar, salt, and saturated fats.

Advantages of the Best Life Diet might include a good lifestyle with balanced diet and the regular practice of one or more sports. One disadvantage is the necessity of becoming a member to obtain information from the diet web site. Another is the excessive strictness in excluding some foods for life. Here are two sample menus: Menu 1 Breakfast: A banana and blueberry smoothie. Orange juice and 12 almonds. Lunch: Vegetarian hamburger and an orange. Your mid-afternoon snack is a half cup of apple sauce and a slice of whole-grain bread. Supper: A can of chocolate protein drink. A slice of whole-grain bread with a slice of cheddar cheese.

Menu 2 Breakfast: A spinach and cheese omelet and a cup of strawberries. Lunch: Humus sandwich accompanied by a half cup of carrots, a half cup of cherry tomatoes, and a half cup of grapes. The mid-afternoon snack is an apple, a slice of whole-grain bread, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Supper: Asparagus, grilled salmon, and 2 cups of broccoli.

Some information in this article comes from a fascinating new book, La Bible des Regimes, written by Jenny de Jonquieres and published by Amerik Media. Her book describes over 80 diets and weight reduction programs. Each diet is presented with 5 menu plans, a detailed discussion of its advantages and disadvantages, and lots more. La Bible des Regimes is presently available only in French. For additional information consult the publisher's website www.amerik-media.com.

Eating Counseling

I come to the eating counseling topic from three directions. The first is the connection between low blood sugar and violence as outlined by Barbara Reed Stitt in her book, Food and Behavior.

The second is from the brain fitness work of Simon Evans,Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt,Ph.D., who have written about the role of micro and macronutrients in their book Brainfit for Life, and the third is through my experience with the Coronary Health Improvement Plan, or CHIP program, which is the brain child of Hans Diehl.

I live in Rockford, Illinois which has been participating in Dr. Diels's epidemiological studies at the community level.

Here is some background information on CHIP from Illinois Central College.

"Coronary Health Improvement Program

As the debate rages on how to "fix" our country's ailing health care system, a new understanding is dawning: At the root of our current health care crisis is a health crisis. A U.S. surgeon general's report in 1990 warned that 70 percent of all causes of death in America are lifestyle related—and therefore preventable. Ten years later, three studies showed the following to be avoidable: 71 percent of cancers, 70 percent of strokes, 82 percent of heart disease and 91 percent of type II diabetes.

CHIP has been shown to be effective in preventing, controlling and even reversing many chronic diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, gout, arthritis, overweight, certain adult cancers, impotence, diverticular disease, constipation, heartburn and gall bladder disease.

Eating Counseling Common Thread

Dr. Diehl, Barbara Reed Stitt, who is the owner of Natural Ovens Bakery, and Professors Evans and Burghardt all advocate strongly for the importance of eating lots of fruits and vegetables and grains for a full complement of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, fiber, glyconutrients, antioxidants, omega 3 fatty acids, and this is hardly a complete list of ingredients that our bodies need to minimize violence, chronic illness, and maximize brain function, or any other function.

So eating counseling would certainly include information about two recent discoveries about the human brain.

The first discovery is that we grow new brain cells every day, which is called neurogenesis. Neurogenesis is contingent on how well I attend to the pillars of brain fitness, which are physical exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and novel learning experiences.

The second discovery is that our neurons are incredibly plastic and make new connections constantly when I learn new things.

Those connections are not kept, though, unless I make the new circuit fire a number of times, because the brain is very much an energy efficient organ, which pares connections and circuits which are not being used.

How does nutrition play into those discoveries?

For example,Evans and Burghardt speak to the importance of omega 3 fatty acid for our brain fitness.

It turns out our neurons are sheathed in a membrane composed of omega 3 fatty acid, which becomes brittle if not fed replacement omega 3. If those membranes become brittle, communication between neurons can become garbled, and the body that goes with that brain will look and sound confused.

I emphasize the brain fitness aspect of eating counseling because I think folks will pay attention to that faster than they will eating carrots for the beta-carotene for your immune system function.

Immune system degradation happens slowly enough that we can easily ignore it.

Folks my age anyway are very worried about alzheimers though, which is about the memories forming my identity, and when folks discover that they can keep their memories longer by eating fruits and vegetables, they tend to change a bit.

Home Grown Juicing and Smoothies for Your Eating Counseling

Do you have a blender? Try this for a sweet treat full of antioxidants and immune system boosters.

A scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt, a banana, an orange, several fresh or frozen strawberries, several blue berries, and some milk, enough that the blender will run easily.

In fact, you may want to blend this in stages so as not to burn out your blender's motor, but blend the mixture until all the frozen fruits are blended, if you used frozen and taste. I guarentee you will be surprised at how tasty this combination of fruits is.

Do you have some tomatoes, carrots, and celery from your garden? Blend them with some V-8 juice for a very tasty home made potion full of the requisite brain fitness stuff.

So hopefully you get a sense of how flexible, nutritious, and tasty eating counseling can be.

No boring and bland here, and of course, as you wake up your body with all those nutrients that it misses from processed foods, you will want to practice some of the computerized brain fitness programs that maximize your neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.

In fact your resurrected neurons will demand it.

Why Do You Have Body Odor?

For us to have body odor, another thing has to happen before body odor can occur...and that is that we have to sweat. But it isn't the sweat that gives us our unique body odor. This is mainly due to the fact that sweat is primarily water and nutrients or minerals excreted by our body during the process of cooling down from being heated.

We sweat as a mechanism to cool our body down from when we have become too warm or too hot, either through our environment warming up or through some form of physical activity. There are other forms of heating involved with our body, like sickness sweating, a sweating fever, or disease sweating, but physical activity and environment are our main two reasons for 'sweating up buckets'.

During our sweating process, where the water is brought to the surface of your skin and then cools in the surrounding air, thereby cooling you off, the minerals and nutrients are left behind by the evaporating water and they remain on your skin.

After a period of sweating and you have dried off, just rub your hand or fingers over those parts of the skin that you have sweated from and you will notice the skin is a little rougher than normal. That is the mineral/nutrient deposit!

Now, we have body odor because of what does happen next in the cycle. This is where bacteria becomes involved as you perspire, and the bacteria starts to process the minerals and nutrients on your body. The bacteria that attack your sweated remnants they process those bits of nutrition through their own systems, and of course they have their own waste byproducts that they excrete. This is where your body odor comes from, the bacterial waste byproducts, not your sweat as such.

This is the unfortunate part of sweating, and unless you sweat whilst taking a shower where you can wash the sweat and bacteria straight off of your body, there is very little chance that you are going to be able to get away without some form of body odor when you sweat. Your are nearly always sweating, sorry about that!

Some people may have strong, pungent and excessive body odor, whilst other people may only be affected by a slight smell, and it has nothing to do with your age or your sex. But there is a case for your diet playing a role in your body odor smell. So if you are going to exercise, play sport, or be strenuous, try not to have a dinner the night before that is loaded with loads of garlic, otherwise you may not have too many exercise partners that day...peeehew!

So become aware of how your diet does interact, and impact, with your sweating and your body odor.

How Do I Do Treat My Sweating Feet

If you suffer from excessively sweating feet, it may be a problem that is medically known as plantar/palmar hyperhidrosis. This condition can pose some very serious problems on the person that is affected. Your shoes may well be ruined. Your sandals or thongs may not be able to be worn. Foot odor, and fungal infections, could become a very serious problem. And your sweating feet can also lead to some other intimate problems and concerns. These concerns may include situations such as potential marriage problems, and even personal difficulties in your workplace. It is really a problem that can take command of your life, and lifestyle, and has the potential to make you feel extremely miserable and might even lead to developing depression.

About Sweating Feet

Sweating feet happens when there is excessive perspiration on the sole of your foot and between your toes. It is actually, a very common problem in our society. Some causes of sweating feet can be related to perhaps any mental stress or nervousness, especially in young teens and adolescents, with their rampant hormones, and young adults, making the change from child to adult.

However systemic disease such as anemia and hyperthyroidism could also be associated with your sweaty feet problem.

Treatment

Although a foot sweating problem could be incredibly damaging to your self esteem and your self confidence, it is very important to know that there is targeted treatment available, and you can get help for your problem. You need never feel helpless, alone, or feel as though there is never going to be a solution for your sweating feet problem. This message is totally not true.

If it does come down to your treatment, you should decide to try the available simpler methods first. There are a large amount of fresh new cost-effective treatments available. And then, if those treatments don't work, then try the more serious treatment if you need to.

Your excessive foot perspiration can be improved by doing a few simple and easy things, including;

* soaking your feet in warm water, try salt water or homeopathic scented water;

* wear absorbent socks or hose;

* make sure your socks etc, are natural garments - cotton, hemp, wool etc;

* avoid wearing any synthetics at all, such as nylon or rayon;

* change socks, or hose, several times during the day;

* wear leather shoes or sandals (or other footwear);

* and avoid any man-made synthetics;

* and use a good quality, absorbent foot powder.

But, if nothing on this list seems to work or makes an improvement in your condition, you may need to find a more serious method of treatment. Don't stop any trial from the above list that you may try using in your treatment, as it may take you several weeks for your condition to improve. Set yourself a realistic time frame to trial each treatment, go the distance, and then try another treatment. Try only one treatment at a time so that you can determine the effectiveness of each method, and if or when you have finished your selection of treatments and you may not have achieved your desired results, then try some combination of treatments.

But do try to keep a record of your treatments, write them down somewhere safe and private, include the time frame you conducted the treatment over (either days or weeks), the results you received from each of the treatments, and how comfortable or easy the treatment was within your life or lifestyle. It may be poignant to note also how the treatment affected those around you, your family, friend, even your work colleagues.

Professional Treatment

In the most stubborn of cases, you may need to be treated by a professional podiatrist. They will most likely recommend that you use some form of prescription medication, but you may wish to think through this course of action if all of the other methods of your own treatments have failed.

If you do not have a podiatrist, you may probably need to be referred to one from your own qualified medical doctor. But should your excessively sweating feet condition continue, then you will definitely need to find yourself one. Podiatrists are qualified medical practitioners who treat and/or diagnose disorders related to the human foot or leg. They should be able to recognize any systemic disease that you may have, by it's manifestation in the foot. They are the specific medical professionals that you will need to seek out if you have a foot sweating problem that is not responding to your prior treatments.

If you are using any form of prescription antiperspirant, be sure to wash it off after 8 hours. If this medication is left on too long, it could cause your skin to become red, swollen and itchy.

As with any self-diagnosis, please use a well informed approach that you are sure is safe to do, if you have any concerns or insecurities about any treatments, ointment, powders, or clothing, always air on the side of caution with regard to your own safety. Do not put yourself at risk for the sake of saving a few bucks.

Stress Reduction with Massage Therapy Treats

Today’s fast-paced world creates a highly stressful environment. Stress-related ailments increased in number at the end of the 20th century. These disorders commonly involve the autonomic nervous system, which controls the body’s internal organs. Disorders that can be caused by stress include hypertension (high blood pressure), headaches, back pain, skin disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, and ulcers. Stress is also believed to contribute to coronary heart disease (atherosclerosis, or narrowing of the heart’s arteries) and some cases of cancer.

Physicians have long recognized that people are more susceptible to diseases of all kinds when subjected to great stress. In order to preempt such disorders, people can turn to alternative medicine for answers—one alternative option is massage therapy.

A well-known Clearwater massage spa has long been promoting the benefits of massage therapy for treating stress-related ailments. It is believed that regular body massages regulate blood pressure and endorphin production, that in the end, lessens feelings if stress and anxiety.

An Oldsmar massage therapist shared some studies on the effectiveness of body massage in reducing stress-related disorders among employees. One case study was conducted in a Florida company, whose employees were given 15-minute back massages for a month, and observed for stress and other behaviors. Results showed that the control group felt less anxiety and headaches due to the regular massage sessions. Furthermore, evidences of the use of body massage to treat diseases can be seen in ancient artifacts and scrolls, clearly showing the process of muscle manipulation and touch therapy to make people feel better.

There are various massage techniques that can cater to specific physical and mental conditions, according to a massage therapist from Trinity, FL.

One of the most popular among these body massages is the Swedish massage. A Swedish massage makes use of the 5 basic strokes of massage therapy. According to a massage spa in Safety Harbor, these are effleurage, petrissage, friction, tapotement, and vibration. These strokes are then combined in different variations to perform other massage techniques.

A deep tissue massage uses deep and long strokes, namely: friction, effleurage, and petrissage. This massage technique is ideal for people experiencing chronic pain on their back, neck, and head (migraines). A deep tissue massage is known for being a bit uncomfortable, but the feeling of soreness after a session is a natural occurrence. Make sure you get a certified massage therapist to carry out a deep tissue massage on you. It is often mistaken for a sports massage, but a sports massage uses faster and lighter strokes, mainly, tapotement and vibration to warm up our muscles.

Other massage therapy techniques, according to a Clearwater massage spa are: acupressure—for better energy flow; reflexology—for correcting internal organ functions; aromatherapy—for stress and respiratory-related problems; and pregnancy massage—for treating pregnancy symptoms like nausea, mood swings, cramps, and headaches.

Stress-related disorders can be prevented by early onset management, and regular massage therapy sessions is one effective way of detoxifying your body of the physical, emotional, and psychological stresses brought about by work and other sources of negative feelings and energy. Set an appointment with your nearest Clearwater, Oldsmar, Trinity, and Safety Harbor, FL massage spa now.

Ways To Control Your Weight

The healthiest weight loss program implements eating at smaller intervals of time so that metabolism can be maintained at a higher level. You can combine weight loss diets with some form of exercise to achieve maximum benefits. You'll be able to burn more calories each day by doing exercise for at least half an hour everyday.

For better weight management you can include a lot of soups and salads to your diet. A healthy weight loss will help you feel satiated for a longer time period. You can consume boiled vegetables or pulses when you are hungry between meal times. You can just add some water to the vegetables if you wish to have some soup. You can indulge in this type of food choice during any time of the day. You can also include a lot of vegetables and fruits which can become a part of healthy diet.

You can include dry fruits also in your healthy weight loss plan. You can also eliminate mineral and vitamin deficiencies in your food by including the dry fruits in your diet. However you must avoid eating these items in excess. For better weight loss, you must listen to the signals given by your body.

Reaction in the body can result from the intake of items such as potatoes, beans, peas etc. You can include more fresh and leafy vegetables in your diet. The mineral balance in the body can be restored through the intake of coconut water and other natural liquids in your diet.

Weight loss help is also available online. You can make use of the tips and suggestions available for weight loss online. In situations when you want to eat tasty foods, you can do so by keeping pre cooked foods stored in the refrigerator in advance.

In this way you can avoid binging or eating oily stuffs which can impede with your weight loss efforts. You may also end up eating more than needed if you happen to spend time at home most of the time. You can pursue a hobby or go for a walk outside which can not only rejuvenate you but also leave you relaxed and happy while helping you to shed weight in the process.

Weight loss diets are of several types such as Atkins diet, Mediterranean diet, detoxification diet and so on. Each and every diet pattern has its own pros and cons. You may have to choose a particular diet type based on its suitability for you. You can also seek the advice of your nutritionist or fitness expert regarding weight loss help. By combining a good weight loss program with sufficient exercise you can find your efforts paying off in no time.