Healthy Life

Dark chocolate, apples and coffee are among 20 foods essential for living as long and healthy a life as possible, according to a leading nutritional scientist.
Gary Williamson, Professor of Functional Foods at the University of Leeds, has drawn up a list of what he calls ‘lifespan essential’ foods needed for a long and healthy life.
In his inaugural lecture, Professor Williamson said that although each person’s lifespan is genetically pre-determined, eating ‘lifespan essential’ foods will maximize your chances of living as long as possible. It will also increase your quality of life as you age by reducing the incidence of disease.

The 20 foods are:
apples
blackberries
black tea
blueberries
broccoli
cereal bran
cherries
cherry tomatoes
coffee
cranberries
dark chocolate
green tea
oranges
peaches
plums
raspberries
red grapes
red onions
spinach
strawberries

The foods are rich in polyphenols - naturally-occurring chemicals like tannins, lignins and flavonoids found in plants which are widely accepted as having health benefits. A recent international study carried out by scientists in the US, UK and Australia which looked at the health benefits of polyphenols concluded that they helped protect against heart disease.*
Although the importance of eating fruits and vegetables as part of a balanced diet is widely understood, Professor Williamson’s work goes further by prescribing 20 foods which are essential to allow you to fulfill your life’s potential.
Professor Williamson, who has published more than 240 refereed scientific publications including more than 100 papers on polyphenols and health, says: “These foods have been chosen because they are highest in polyphenols, which reduce the risk of heart disease and help to slow down aging processes.
“Epidemiology studies support the protective effects of polyphenol-rich foods. Lack of these components in the diet, because of low intake of fruit and vegetables, increases the risk of chronic disease.
“Although they might not be essential for growth and development or the maintenance of major body functions, there is increasing knowledge concerning their potential for health maintenance or disease risk reduction throughout adulthood and during aging.
“This means that they are essential to fulfill the maximum individual lifespan, and so I propose that they are ‘lifespan essential’. This does not necessarily include an increase of the maximum potential lifespan, but rather an increase of the chance of reaching the genetically determined lifespan and an increase in the quality of life during aging by reducing the incidence of chronic, age-related diseases.”

Source: University of Leeds

Few people have given any thought to what their nutritional needs are or how important nutrition is to their overall health. They don't know that, for example, if the human brain doesn't get enough protein, it won't develop correctly, or that if a female body doesn't get enough of certain nutritional substances like flax oil, the metabolism will be impaired, and the body will gain weight. This information highlights and emphasizes the critical importance of determining what our needs are and meeting our nutritional needs through good eating habits. Experts in the media often remind us to take our vitamins and to eat fortified cereals and to drink out milk, but what we really need is information about how our eating habits and the foods we eat contribute to nutrition on a daily basis. We must learn how to provide our bodies with everything they need - food, vitamins, minerals - to maintain optimal health. In order to determine our basic nutritional needs, we need to educate ourselves about what, exactly, our individual needs are. Then we can use that knowledge and apply it to buying, preparing, and eating appropriate foods. We need to recognize that our nutritional requirements change as we age; the nutritional needs of a teenager are different from those of a senior citizen. In many cases, what we need in terms of vitamins and minerals is much more critical than our need for calories. If it is necessary, we can take vitamin and mineral supplements, which are manufactured by nutrition firms, to help us fill the gap that may exist if we don't get enough of these substances in our daily diet. Nutrition is an extremely complicated subject because there are so many variables to consider. As mentioned before, it is a fact that our bodies change as we age, and we will need to adapt our eating habits and nutritional foods accordingly. Additionally, the nutritional needs of people with illnesses are different from those of healthy individuals. Few doctors recognize this fact, however, and may provide the same nutrition advice to health pregnant women as to an ailing cancer patient. To remain healthy and to sustain the optimal health and functioning of our bodies, we must pay close attention to our unique nutritional needs. And we must pursue more knowledge concerning how nutrition, physical exercise, and mental and emotional factors influence our overall health status.

Author: NARA

Nowadays people are getting more and more health conscious.Nutritionists and doctors always advise us to eat healthy food.Most of us ignore the advice and eat whatever our taste buds prefer.We eat more of tasty food without paying much attention to healthy food.The quantity of food we eat also determines our health.Food taken more than the requirement is only digested partially and the rest acts as a foreign substance.Hunger is the natural expression of the needs of the system and appetite is the index for the quantity of food to be taken.The nutritional quality of various kinds of foods is being described in a most popular language to feed the brains of the common men and women.The lists of healthy foods are being published in books and health magazines.‘Do not eat junk food’ is a slogan we hear from the four corners of the world.Still the restaurants selling the junk food are increasing in number all over the world.Mostly young people are trapped by the chain of food stalls which impart an injurious habit.Americans eat more of junk foods than any other nationals, because of their multiplicity and availability.Healthy food is one which has less oil (fat), salt and spices.But our tongue looks for oily, salty and spicy foods for a better taste.How to compromise?In fact, diet influences every aspects of our life including our mood, body weight, sexuality, fertility, life span etc.,Breakfast followed by lunch, evening snack and night dinner is a set pattern followed by everyone in the world, with slight modification at times.Whatever healthy food we eat should be digested before we take the next course of food.Better digestion takes place only when we do physical exercise.In other words, calories have to be burnt to gain energy to do work.Reducing the body weight is one of the major problems faced by a good lot of people in most of the developed countries.Obesity has become almost a disease to fight with.In fact, vegetable and fruits are considered to be healthy foods, because of their fibre and mineral contents.Non vegetarians get animal proteins from fish, mutton, beef and chicken.Milk and its products such as curd, cheese and cream contain most of the essential nutrients we require.Similarly, egg also is a good source of protein.It is always debated whether vegetarian diet is superior to non vegetarian diet.There are arguments for and against each type of diet.One thing acceptable from these arguments is the selection of food to eat depends on the climatic conditions in which one lives.People living in temperate region prefer non vegetarian diet whereas people in the tropics prefer vegetarian diet.Healthy food for children, middle aged and aged people will also vary.Food nutrition is a good field of specialization.Standards have been fixed for good food based on their chemistry.Dieticians know much about the standards and they also know about what to eat and what not to eat.Because of greediness for excess production of food for the ever increasing population, all sorts of adulteration take place.Such adulterations are not known fully well to the people who consume such foods.Production of most of the agricultural products is subjected to poisonous pesticides and other chemicals.Animals and birds are being injected with excess doses of antibiotics and growth promoting hormones. The reseals as well as the accumulated substances are accompanied with the consumed meat creating trouble to humans.Therefore, the movement of organic agriculture is gaining importance in every country.Food safety is the talk of the day.Safe food and environment are needed for human health.Thus healthy food has a number of dimensions.One has to take care of his or her health by going through the details of healthy food.Strict control on the food we eat is essential to achieve a healthy life for a happy stay in this Planet.Let us not neglect the habit of taking only healthy food and feeding our children with it.

Fine living is often associated with people of a higher socioeconomic class. This is simply not the case though, and it seems people are finding ways to give their lifestyle lift, perhaps in the form of a healthy lifestyle choices such as planting an herb garden, growing ones own vegetables and participating in family activities that are fun but not necessarily cost much. There are a variety of magazines, websites, blogs and television shows now dedicated to fine living, and healthy life style options. Life style lift is a term that often refers to enhancing, or improving ones life and others in positive ways. Because feeling good and living well are often associated with one another, such features draw attention among affluent consumers and those looking to pinch pennies alike. To enjoy life money is not the center around which the universe revolves, and so the spreading of luxury ideas at little to no cost has become quite a popular subject. It used to be that eating organic foods came at a high price. This is still the case, especially if you shop at luxury type food stores. How is it possible that something straight from mother earth actually costs more than a processed item? Well for starters, mass produced food is just that, less attention is paid to each and every item while there is more direct human contact and control with organic crops that are naturally limited in size and number. Fine living can start in your own backyard with a few simple tips, techniques and know how of planting a full herb garden. People are often surprised buy the flavorful effect herbs have on food, even with little to no added calories most of the time. What is a luxury to buy at the store is easily attainable in your own backyard, and this can even be a life style lift project your kids and the whole family can take part in.Planting a vegetable garden is another way to bring fine living associated goods usually high in price at the grocery store, down to a relatively cheap price and healthy life style choice the whole family can get excited about. Healthy life style projects such as planting a garden will inspire children to start good habits early on that hopefully continue into adult life. It is a luxury to eat fresh, delicious and healthy life style types of foods like broccoli and other greens, but what many people do not know is they have the ability to give their own life style lift right in their own backyards.

by: Sue DeFiore

One of the biggest misconceptions people have today is what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. Just because you exercise does not mean you are healthy. I hear much too often, oh, I can eat this because then I will work 30 or 40 minutes on the treadmill, jogging, walking, (fill in the blank with the exercise of choice). NO, NO, NO! Once in a while transgressions are one things, however, if you want to be healthy you need to eat healthy and exercise, the two go hand in hand.
Now, think about this, if you think this way as an adult, what are you teaching your children. Yep, that is it OK to eat junk food as long as you are active. Not only that, so many parents, say well my kids eat all this stuff but don’t gain any weight, so it is OK. NO IT IS NOT! While on the surface, you think it is, it is doing major damage to both yours and your child’s body. Think high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Remember folks the old adage “you are what you eat” applies here. We all carry over what we learn in our childhood into our lives as adults. You are setting the foundation here for a lifetime of bad eating for your child. Do you really want to do that? No, I don’t think so. So you need to set an example and start eating healthier and continue to be active. Right now the majority of children that are active are doing so through after school or organized sports activities that interest them. However, what happens when they get older, when these activities are no longer a part of his/her life. You got it, sedentary behavior because you didn’t provide the role model they needed for a healthy lifestyle. You need to provide them with other choices besides just sporting activities: walking, jogging, riding, jumping rope, aerobics to name a few.
It is one of your responsibilities as a parent to teach your children about healthy eating and the importance of activity not only as a child but as they grow into adulthood. So you need to be a good role model. We have discussed in other articles, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and walking from the far end of the parking lot. Joining a gym or having exercise equipment (bikes, trampolines, DVDs) in your home. One of the cutest things is for a young child to watch their mom or dad watching a video or working out on a piece of exercise equipment and trying to emulate them. What a perfect opportunity for you to show them how to dance, jog, jump rope so they can do something right along with you.
Next be sure you let them be active in the planning and preparation of meals. Let them give their input. Take the time to talk to them about the foods you are making and they are eating. And please don’t tell me you don’t have the time, make the time or in all honesty why did you have children!
Yes, we want our children to be active and involved. However, one big caveat here is to limit the number of activities your children get involved with. Too many children today join everything to please their parents and they are exhausted! So be realistic with their time just as you would be with yours. Be sure to emphasize to your child that they don’t have to be involved in everything. Emphasis that if they do too much they are going to make compromises in one or more activities and that isn’t fair to that particular group. Talk to them about down time. Be sure they know it is OK to relax. We need balance in our life and the only way to be sure we do is to do everything in moderation and get that down time for ourselves. Relaxing restores our balance which is so very important for healthy living.
So let’s start today to show our children that Healthy Eating + Activity = Healthy Lifestyle!

by: Fred Goldman

As children, some of us might remember the trip to the candy store. While the old-fashioned candy stores that sold Snaps, Bun Bars, Horlick’s Malted Milk tablets and Teaberry gum may not be around anymore, we can purchase the sweets we crave online. As adults, most of us want to make healthy life choices but we don’t want to give up our childhood candy-land dreams. A lot of us are nostalgic about candy. It represents a happier time in our lives when things were easy and life was carefree. But as adults we are watching our waistlines and trying to prevent Type II diabetes. The solution is to purchase sugarless, natural candies and chocolate. Organic food trends More people today are interested in organic choices for healthy living. It would be absurd to eat green algae, wheat grass and organic vegetables all day, only to snack on candy loaded with sugar and preservatives at night. As part of a healthy lifestyle, select natural candy that contains no sugar. You don’t have to be diabetic to enjoy the benefits of sugarless foods. Chocolate is not the enemy Some people think they need to give up chocolate as part of a healthy lifestyle. But the opposite is true. Chocolate contains magnesium as well as antioxidants. The fat in chocolate is made from cocoa butter, which contains a heart-healthy form of monounsaturated fat called oleic acid. Furthermore, chocolate contains healthy flavonoids that protect our cells from damage caused by free radicals. Finally, as part of your healthy lifestyle, don’t just replace your regular candy with sugarless candy and chocolate. It’s also important to eliminate carbonated beverages from your diet. Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables throughout the day. Select organic and natural whole foods whenever possible. And when it’s time for a sweet treat, savor every bite of sugar-free candy and luscious chocolate just like you did when you were a child.

Looking for something to turn back your internal clock by increasing your vitality and improving your appearance? Of course there's no Fountain of Youth, but research suggests that nature has provided us with an answer that comes very close -- fruit. It almost seems too simple: Eat fruit; fool Mother Nature. Yet studies show that by eating four to five servings of fruit each day, you can improve your chances of staying healthy and vibrant as you age. That's because fruit is loaded with phytochemicals, which are natural compounds that may help slow the aging process and reduce the risk of many diseases.
Phytochemicals fight to protect your overall health by providing antioxidant effects, stimulating your immune system, modulating the metabolism of your hormones, and acting as antibacterial and antiviral agents. Get too few of these marvelous compounds and you set yourself up for premature aging, as well as placing yourself at risk for some cancers, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cataracts, osteoporosis and urinary tract infections. But if you eat the recommended amount of fruit each day, you improve your odds for a healthier life.
If you think "eat more fruit" means you should just have another slice of strawberry pie, it's time to explore the variety of offerings Mother Nature has provided in her fruit basket:
APPLESGranny Smith, Jonathan, Macintosh, Red Delicious -- there are many different varieties of apples. Whether you like them tart or sweet, apples are a good source of vitamin C and fiber. (One medium apple has 5 grams of fiber.)
APRICOTSApricots are "stone-fruit" and are related to the plum and peach. Buy apricots that are orange-yellow -- that indicates ripeness. They spoil quickly so if you don't eat them right away, freeze them for later. Apricots contain vitamin A, which you need for healthy skin and to protect against infections.
BANANASBananas are an excellent source of potassium, fiber, and vitamins C and B6. Store bananas at room temperature, never in the refrigerator. (The cold makes the fruit decay from the inside.)
BLUEBERRIESBlueberries have more antioxidant power than any other fruit or vegetable, giving them remarkable anti-aging potential. Research suggests that blueberries protect against the effects of age-related deterioration of the brain, such as short-term memory loss. Blueberries are also a good source of fiber and vitamin C.
CANTALOUPECantaloupe is high in vitamins C and A and a good source of potassium and folate. Folate is linked to the prevention of birth defects (such as spina bifida), heart attacks, stroke and colorectal cancer.
CHERRIESCherries are a good source of fiber and vitamin C.
DATESDon't mistake dates for dried fruit -- they're not, even though you're likely to find them in the dried fruit section at the supermarket. Sometimes known as "the candy that grows on trees," dates are a good source of fiber.
GRAPEFRUITGrapefruit is high in fiber and vitamin C, and a good source of vitamin A. Just one-half a grapefruit counts as one serving of the recommended four to five servings of fruit per day.
GRAPESGrapes are not only high in vitamin C, they contain the phytonutrient "reservatrol," which is known for its potent antioxidant properties, as well as providing protection against cancer and heart disease.
KIWIFRUITKiwifruit may look a little funny -- it's brown and fuzzy on the outside; bright green on the inside with tiny black seeds -- but it's high in vitamin C and a good source of fiber, vitamin E and potassium. You'll know kiwifruit is ripe when it's slightly soft to the touch and has a fragrant smell.
MANGOESThis tropical fruit has a flavor that's often described as tasting like oranges, peaches and pineapples all in one. You'll know you have a ripe, delicious mango when you can detect a pleasant scent of pine and peach from the stem (no fragrant aroma usually means no flavor). Mangoes are high in vitamin A and a good source of vitamin C.
ORANGESOranges are the largest citrus crop in the world, with navel oranges and Valencia oranges the two most common varieties. One orange contains all the vitamin C your body needs for the day.
PAPAYASPapayas are a tropical fruit that are rated as one of the most nutritious. They're high in vitamin C and a good source of fiber and folate. As an additional treat, the black seeds found inside a papaya are edible and have a spicy, pepper-like flavor.
PEACHESEver wonder why peaches smell so great? The peach is a member of the rose family and has a similar sweet fragrance when ripe. Peaches are a good source of vitamin C.
PEARSThere are more than 3000 varieties of pears; Bartlett being the most popular. Pears ripen better off the tree, so ripen your pears in a brown paper bag at room temperature. Pears are a good source of vitamin C and fiber.
PINEAPPLEWhen selecting a fresh pineapple don't look for shell color -- that's no indication of ripeness. (A green pineapple can be just as ripe and sweet as a pineapple with a golden shell.) Look for a pineapple that has a fresh appearance with deep green leaves, and remember to refrigerate it when you get home to preserve freshness. Pineapple is high in vitamin C.
PRUNESPrunes are actually dried French plums, and just eight of them make one serving of fruit for the day. Eat them right out of the bag for a healthy snack -- they're high in fiber and a good source of vitamin A.
TANGERINESOne of the most distinctive features of tangerines is that when they are peeled, the segments of fruit separate easily, making them an excellent snack food for kids! Tangerines are high in vitamin C and a good source of fiber.
WATERMELONWhether seedless or full of seeds, watermelons are high in vitamins C and A.
Remember that whole, fresh fruit is better than canned fruit or fruit juices, but any fruit is better than no fruit. It's a sweet treat or an excellent side dish or dessert, comes in its own easy-to-open packaging, and best of all, can provide your body with unsurpassed health benefits.