We have repeatedly heard how we should eat more fruits and vegetables for optimum health and to reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately although it sounds simple, research data shows the majority of people simply do not consume enough fruits and vegetables. Instead they continue to eat only two servings of fruits and vegetables per day even though they should consume a minimum of five. Hopefully this article will inspire you with numerous ways to include more fruits and vegetables into your pattern of eating every day.
First, positive belief goes a long way. Begin your day optimistic, thinking about how you can include fruits and vegetables in your eating habits. Develop a positive expectation this is easy to do because canned, dried, fresh, frozen, juiced, and liquidized fruits and vegetables all count towards the minimum goal of five.
Starting with breakfast, add in bell peppers, mushrooms, salsa, and/or spinach into eggs for an omelet or to be wrapped up in pita bread or a tortilla. Happily top off your bagel with your favorite berries or a slice of tomato. Don’t forget to consume fruit like apples, applesauce, grapefruit, oranges, and/or juice. Complement your cereal, granola, pancakes, toast, waffles, or yogurt with bananas, blueberries, or strawberries.
Next, instead of single servings, eagerly think of combinations of two different vegetables to serve for lunch and dinner. Are you content with peas and carrots, or corn and beans? Remember to complete your sandwich with cucumber, lettuce, onion, and/or tomatoes. Enthusiastically replace white potatoes with nutritious sweet potatoes. Make sure to keep bags of your favorite frozen fruits and vegetables, which can be heated or thawed in minutes.
Instead of snacking on chips or pretzels throughout the day reach for nutritious raw vegetables. Balance your nutritional regime with baby carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber spears, or red pepper strips dipped in hummus or salad dressing for satisfying crunchy alternatives. Munch on grapes or raisins for a change. Consider a banana or fruit snack. Nibbling on dried fruits like apricots, cherries, cranberries, dates, and figs, will complement any day.
Make sure you keep fruits and vegetables visible and easily accessible. When you open your refrigerator door, have a cleaned prepared portions of your most consumed fresh produce at eye-level. Have available on your kitchen countertop or table a bowl of your family’s preferred fresh fruit.
Don’t neglect leftover vegetables to grow moldy in the back of the refrigerator. Passionately heat them together in a pan to make vegetable soup broth. When you have more time, strategize to use these when you make and freeze casseroles, lasagnas, primavera, soups, and/or stews for use on the days when you are pressed for time.
Banish the thought this can be too time consuming by tossing together several fruits for a fruit platter. To complete your eating habits mix apples, coconut, bananas, blueberries, papaya, pineapple, strawberries, and/or mangos with a little orange juice for a fruit salad. Appreciate how well some fruits freeze. Wash off your fresh bananas, blueberries, grapes, or strawberries, and toss them into a freezer bag or container to be popped into the freezer. To balance your fruit intake, once frozen you can add them to drinks, ice cream, pudding, smoothies, yogurt, or just eat them plain as refreshments.
When dining out at restaurants, start with a salad. Substitute vegetables for the fries, or order stir-fried vegetables. When you go to the buffet, first head for the fresh fruits and vegetables before moving on to other selections.
Last but definitely not least, don’t forget to harmonize your nutritional intake with shakes and smoothies. With or without ice, ice cream, yogurt, kefir, banana, blueberries, oranges, papaya, pineapples, strawberries, or more, spiced with or without cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, mint, or more. Put in some of your frozen fruit for savored tang. Gratefully throw your favorite combination of fruit, juice, spices, or more in a blender, select liquidize, and pour into your favorite glass or mug for a satisfying meal on the go.
In fact in March 2007, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) became so concerned about increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables by all Americans they launched a public private partnership, the National Fruit & Vegetable Program. The partnership maintains Fruit & Veggies – More Matters encouraging us to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables every day. This website is loaded with all types of information and recipes with the goal to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your daily diet. I particularly enjoy their pictures of what a daily serving of 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables actually looks like. The CDC in partnership with Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) maintains
www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org with the goal of encouraging families to achieve increased daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. They even have an interactive children’s area www.foodchamps.org for learning with age appropriate materials, games, and recipes.
Hopefully you are now empowered with the knowledge of the unlimited choices available so you have the freedom to balance your food intake with more fruits and vegetables every day. In summary, when you start your day thinking positive about how you can add fruits and vegetables into your pattern of eating, you will appreciate finding them abundantly available everywhere in your life. Always remember to include a full serving of love, mixed well with joy and laughter in your life.
©
Debby Bolen
Friday, November 14, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Empowered to Overcome Diabetes
An example of a disease requiring careful attention to diet is diabetes is diabetes mellitus. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2007, 23.6 million people or almost 8% of Americans have diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes. Both principal types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2, are characterized by abnormalities in production and use of the pancreatic hormone insulin.
In either case, diabetes results in the body not producing or not properly utilizing insulin, which regulates the amount and the rate cells absorb blood glucose or blood sugar. Glucose, one of our main sources of energy for blood cells, circulating in our blood stream is formed from digestion of carbohydrates. Furthermore, since glucose is the brain’s only food, proper minimum levels have to be maintained for normal brain function.
Throughout every day each person has varying blood sugar levels. After food consumption, our blood sugar often rises between 120-130 milligrams per decaliter (mg/dL) triggering pancreatic beta-cells to release insulin. Then glucose is allowed to enter mainly body fat, liver, and muscle cells. As a result, the blood sugar level falls back to normal and insulin secretion diminishes until the next meal is ingested.
People with diabetes have insulin levels too low resulting in blood sugar levels too high, or hyperglycemia. Symptoms of hyperglycemia include dry skin, frequent urination, thirst, vision changes, weight loss, and reduced resistance to infection. Persistent hyperglycemia results in injury to the nervous system, and blood vessels particularly of the eyes, and kidneys, leading to greater risk for Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular problems, infections, and stroke. The two major types of diabetes are Type 1 insulin dependent (IDDM) and Type 2 non-insulin dependent (NIDDM).
Affecting 5-10 percent of diabetics, physicians consider Type 1 IDDM an autoimmune disease since insulin producing pancreatic beta-cells are destroyed by the body’s own immune system. Typically striking before the age of 20, it is also referred to as juvenile-onset diabetes. Scientific research suggests contributing factors include nutrition or viral infection. Theoretically several insulin injections per day are required for sufferers to survive.
Often striking middle-aged and older people, the more common form Type 2 NIDDM affects 90-95 percent of diabetes sufferers. Researchers do not completely understand how Type 2 NIDDM develops but it results from a combination of reduced production of insulin from beta-cells and a decrease in the body’s ability to use insulin, referred to as insulin resistance. However, several factors have been identified which increase a person’s risk for developing this syndrome including obesity or excess body weight, and lack of exercise. Between the US lifestyle of consuming larger portions of high-calorie food complicated by lack of exercise, the incidence of Type 2 diabetes has significantly risen especially among the ethnic groups of African, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, and Native Americans.
Consequently, a large industry has emerged around traditional diabetic research and treatment including oral diabetic medicine, pumps, surgery, and injectable rapid, intermediate, and long-lasting insulin. Regrettably, diabetic medicine puts people at risk for blood sugar levels too low, resulting in hypoglycemia. Initial signs of hypoglycemia are confusion, dizziness, hunger, palpitations, and sweating. If a person is left untreated, it can rapidly progress into disorientation, seizures, loss of consciousness, and they could lapse into a coma. The cost of money and the suffering of people with this long-term ailment is staggering. The American Diabetic Association stated in their Economic Costs of Diabetes in the US in 2007, direct medical costs of diabetes care, chronic diabetes-related complications, and general medical costs, plus indirect costs including disability and work loss, now total $174 billion.
Even though the American Diabetes Association Website states diabetes is an incurable disease, apparently there are countless numbers of people managing this malady with diet and exercise. The CDC acknowledges this in their 2007 fact sheet. In fact, some individuals are very public figures. For example, last November actress Halle Berry shocked the country by stating she had weaned herself off her insulin and was managing her health with diet and exercise, which she shouldn’t be able to do with Type 1 diabetes. This caused an entire flurry of debates within the medical community. In a state of disbelief some stated this wasn’t possible, while other physicians stated she had been initially misdiagnosed.
But what if diabetes expense and suffering is not necessary? What if the American obsession with alcohol, caffeine, dairy, fast food, nicotine, processed food, soda, and sugar are causing more health problems and suffering than we realize? Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the well-known holistic medical physician specializing in alternative healing and raw living food nutritional therapies, produced a very enlightening documentary Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days chronicling six diabetic Americans who went to the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona. Here they embarked on a 30-day health regimen of diet change to vegan, organic, uncooked foods to reverse disease and get off of pharmaceutical medication. Each participant struggled with exercising, learning about food selection and preparation, and practicing yoga and meditation. Some adapted to the new diet and new lifestyle more easily, while others felt deprived and frustrated. To tell the truth, I was amazed a group of diabetics could get such obvious results in as little as 30 days and it left me reviewing my own diet, lifestyle, and willpower.
To say the least, the clique: you are what you eat may have more meaning than we realize. In summary, perhaps our American lifestyle and diet have more to do with the growing diabetes problem than we are aware of or care to admit. In the final analysis, if a change in diet and lifestyle can free people from suffering with diabetes, maybe other illnesses can be managed this way also.
©
Debby Bolen
www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2007.pdf
www.diabetes.org/about-diabetes.jsp
www.diabetes.org/diabetes-statistics.jsp
abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3822870&page=1
www.rawfor30days.com/
www.treeoflife.nu/diabetes
In either case, diabetes results in the body not producing or not properly utilizing insulin, which regulates the amount and the rate cells absorb blood glucose or blood sugar. Glucose, one of our main sources of energy for blood cells, circulating in our blood stream is formed from digestion of carbohydrates. Furthermore, since glucose is the brain’s only food, proper minimum levels have to be maintained for normal brain function.
Throughout every day each person has varying blood sugar levels. After food consumption, our blood sugar often rises between 120-130 milligrams per decaliter (mg/dL) triggering pancreatic beta-cells to release insulin. Then glucose is allowed to enter mainly body fat, liver, and muscle cells. As a result, the blood sugar level falls back to normal and insulin secretion diminishes until the next meal is ingested.
People with diabetes have insulin levels too low resulting in blood sugar levels too high, or hyperglycemia. Symptoms of hyperglycemia include dry skin, frequent urination, thirst, vision changes, weight loss, and reduced resistance to infection. Persistent hyperglycemia results in injury to the nervous system, and blood vessels particularly of the eyes, and kidneys, leading to greater risk for Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular problems, infections, and stroke. The two major types of diabetes are Type 1 insulin dependent (IDDM) and Type 2 non-insulin dependent (NIDDM).
Affecting 5-10 percent of diabetics, physicians consider Type 1 IDDM an autoimmune disease since insulin producing pancreatic beta-cells are destroyed by the body’s own immune system. Typically striking before the age of 20, it is also referred to as juvenile-onset diabetes. Scientific research suggests contributing factors include nutrition or viral infection. Theoretically several insulin injections per day are required for sufferers to survive.
Often striking middle-aged and older people, the more common form Type 2 NIDDM affects 90-95 percent of diabetes sufferers. Researchers do not completely understand how Type 2 NIDDM develops but it results from a combination of reduced production of insulin from beta-cells and a decrease in the body’s ability to use insulin, referred to as insulin resistance. However, several factors have been identified which increase a person’s risk for developing this syndrome including obesity or excess body weight, and lack of exercise. Between the US lifestyle of consuming larger portions of high-calorie food complicated by lack of exercise, the incidence of Type 2 diabetes has significantly risen especially among the ethnic groups of African, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, and Native Americans.
Consequently, a large industry has emerged around traditional diabetic research and treatment including oral diabetic medicine, pumps, surgery, and injectable rapid, intermediate, and long-lasting insulin. Regrettably, diabetic medicine puts people at risk for blood sugar levels too low, resulting in hypoglycemia. Initial signs of hypoglycemia are confusion, dizziness, hunger, palpitations, and sweating. If a person is left untreated, it can rapidly progress into disorientation, seizures, loss of consciousness, and they could lapse into a coma. The cost of money and the suffering of people with this long-term ailment is staggering. The American Diabetic Association stated in their Economic Costs of Diabetes in the US in 2007, direct medical costs of diabetes care, chronic diabetes-related complications, and general medical costs, plus indirect costs including disability and work loss, now total $174 billion.
Even though the American Diabetes Association Website states diabetes is an incurable disease, apparently there are countless numbers of people managing this malady with diet and exercise. The CDC acknowledges this in their 2007 fact sheet. In fact, some individuals are very public figures. For example, last November actress Halle Berry shocked the country by stating she had weaned herself off her insulin and was managing her health with diet and exercise, which she shouldn’t be able to do with Type 1 diabetes. This caused an entire flurry of debates within the medical community. In a state of disbelief some stated this wasn’t possible, while other physicians stated she had been initially misdiagnosed.
But what if diabetes expense and suffering is not necessary? What if the American obsession with alcohol, caffeine, dairy, fast food, nicotine, processed food, soda, and sugar are causing more health problems and suffering than we realize? Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the well-known holistic medical physician specializing in alternative healing and raw living food nutritional therapies, produced a very enlightening documentary Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days chronicling six diabetic Americans who went to the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona. Here they embarked on a 30-day health regimen of diet change to vegan, organic, uncooked foods to reverse disease and get off of pharmaceutical medication. Each participant struggled with exercising, learning about food selection and preparation, and practicing yoga and meditation. Some adapted to the new diet and new lifestyle more easily, while others felt deprived and frustrated. To tell the truth, I was amazed a group of diabetics could get such obvious results in as little as 30 days and it left me reviewing my own diet, lifestyle, and willpower.
To say the least, the clique: you are what you eat may have more meaning than we realize. In summary, perhaps our American lifestyle and diet have more to do with the growing diabetes problem than we are aware of or care to admit. In the final analysis, if a change in diet and lifestyle can free people from suffering with diabetes, maybe other illnesses can be managed this way also.
©
Debby Bolen
www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2007.pdf
www.diabetes.org/about-diabetes.jsp
www.diabetes.org/diabetes-statistics.jsp
abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3822870&page=1
www.rawfor30days.com/
www.treeoflife.nu/diabetes
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Healthy Snacks
Almost everybody does it every day: Snack! Found very good information on one of our favorite things to do: snack. Since we are all doing it they might as well be: healthy snacks.
Healthy Snacks That Taste Great
This first video is excellent. The first half of the video is about healthy snacks. The second half of the video is a real eye opener about how we consume too much sugar in our diets. Sometimes we can read and read and read but there is nothing like seeing the reality of what it really looks like. They discuss the relationship of daily amounts in teaspoons and grams. Thank you Parents.tv, Juli Auclair, and ADA's Eliza Zied.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugLesV47xiE
Parents.tv Juli Auclair and ADA's Eliza Zied shows you how snacks can be healthy and taste great.
6:39 minutes
How to Choose a Healthy Snack
Here is another excellent video on snacks and treats with specifics on types and amounts. In this clip Dawn Jackson Blatner, myLifetime.com's Nutritionist, recommends sticking to 2 healthy snacks per day between meals. Each snack should have about 100 to 200 calories. Some good options are pistachios, granola bars, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf67TlFRQws
3:30 minutes
Healthy After School Snack
Great video about kid tested foods from Good Housekeeping Magazine. Trade in the cookies and chips for healthy snacks that kids will actually want to eat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX41hm4WVSU
1:17 minutes
Healthy Snack Ratings
Good advice from Better.tv, Robert Murray, MD, of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and SnackWise.org about children’s snacks. Movie, video games, and music are rated based on their content. So, why not snacks? A new Web site does just this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noK-ataKaTM
57 seconds
Top Ten Healthy Vending Snacks
From SnackWise
http://www.snackwise.org/home.cfm
- Debby Bolen
Monday, November 3, 2008
Nutritional Data Website
For the last half decade, one of my favorite Websites to obtain nutritional information from is Nutrition Data. Their continuing goal is to provide the most accurate and comprehensive nutrition analysis available, and to make it accessible and understandable to all. They haven’t lost any of their authoritative status either since being acquired by CondéNet in 2006.
Their database information comes from the USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference and is supplemented by listings provided for by restaurants and food manufacturers with source footnotes. While they caution they cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of every listing, they state they make every possible attempt to ensure the quality of their data. Even though Nutrition Data's interpretations represent opinion, they are based on calculations derived from Daily Reference Values (DRVs), Reference Daily Intakes (RDIs), published research, and recommendations of the FDA.
Besides their food composition data, they have interesting proprietary tools to use to analyze and interpret data. Among their numerous search selection tools include Compare Foods, Nutrient Search Tool, and Food Category Explorer. Moreover, Nutrition Data provides a variety of information from how to read a label, to a wide selection of nutritional topics, in addition to recipes. Among their numerous topics includes Better Choices Diet, Glycemic Index, Food Additives, and Effects of Processing Food. What is more, they have a couple of blogs with even more information.
Under their Help function includes a Quick Start, Search Tips, and several Help sections for each tool. They also have Nutrition Management Tools for BMI, Track, Analyze Recipe, Input Food and Foods by Nutrient. They even have a Unit Conversion widget for numerous calculations.
Furthermore, earlier this month they launched My ND with a My Foods function to save your entries for easier access to the nutritional content of your favorite foods, My Recipes to create and analyze foods, and a My Tracking section. So now you can search through their information, see their detailed information, and save your favorites for easy retrieval. Clearly, with all the information they have, this function comes in handy.
All things considered, Nutrition Data is a very complete Website for learning a lot about numerous nutritional related topics. In brief, it’s like getting lost in another world of surprising facts and figures. In conclusion, you will know a lot more about what you eat after visiting Nutrition Data.
©
Debby Bolen
Their database information comes from the USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference and is supplemented by listings provided for by restaurants and food manufacturers with source footnotes. While they caution they cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of every listing, they state they make every possible attempt to ensure the quality of their data. Even though Nutrition Data's interpretations represent opinion, they are based on calculations derived from Daily Reference Values (DRVs), Reference Daily Intakes (RDIs), published research, and recommendations of the FDA.
Besides their food composition data, they have interesting proprietary tools to use to analyze and interpret data. Among their numerous search selection tools include Compare Foods, Nutrient Search Tool, and Food Category Explorer. Moreover, Nutrition Data provides a variety of information from how to read a label, to a wide selection of nutritional topics, in addition to recipes. Among their numerous topics includes Better Choices Diet, Glycemic Index, Food Additives, and Effects of Processing Food. What is more, they have a couple of blogs with even more information.
Under their Help function includes a Quick Start, Search Tips, and several Help sections for each tool. They also have Nutrition Management Tools for BMI, Track, Analyze Recipe, Input Food and Foods by Nutrient. They even have a Unit Conversion widget for numerous calculations.
Furthermore, earlier this month they launched My ND with a My Foods function to save your entries for easier access to the nutritional content of your favorite foods, My Recipes to create and analyze foods, and a My Tracking section. So now you can search through their information, see their detailed information, and save your favorites for easy retrieval. Clearly, with all the information they have, this function comes in handy.
All things considered, Nutrition Data is a very complete Website for learning a lot about numerous nutritional related topics. In brief, it’s like getting lost in another world of surprising facts and figures. In conclusion, you will know a lot more about what you eat after visiting Nutrition Data.
©
Debby Bolen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
