The Many Benefits of the Acai Berry

The Acai berry is a small and round berry that is purple in color that comes from the acai palm tree. It is about the size of a small grape. They start off being dark green in color, but as they mature their color changes to a dark purple. The taste of the acai berry is a mixture of chocolate blended with a variety of berries.

The Acai berry is highly concentrated with antioxidants and therefore have many benefits. Aside from that, they also contain monounsaturated fats, dietary fiber, phytosterols, and the necessary amino acids. With that being said, there are a plethora of benefits to be gained from the Acia berry.

Health Benefits of the Acai Berry: 

• Contains antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins that are good for your health and can help to prevent diseases
• Contains many polyphenolic anthocyanin compounds and pro-anthocyanidin tannins that are said to be anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer compounds
• Contains fatty acids that reduce LDL cholesterol levels, raise HDL cholesterol levels, and help to prevent heart disease
• Contains fiber that will help to remove cholesterol
• Contains potassium, manganese, copper, iron, and magnesium; all of which aid in controlling the heart rate as well as blood pressure
• Contains vitamin B, vitamin B6, vitamin K, niacin, and riboflavin; all of which are helpful in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins

The Acai Berry Being Used in Medicine:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

McDonald’s is Becoming More Diet Friendly for Kids and Adults

As a someone who just had a baby four months ago, I know how crucial a proper diet is to maintain my slim figure I recently got back. As a parent, I don’t try to take the fun out of being a kid by putting my children on an outright diet. However, I do try to make certain they are eating healthy. With the busy life between work, going back to school, and being a parent; the time to cook isn’t always available. So, sometimes we do get something quick from McDonald’s. I know McDonald’s is about as unhealthy as they come. However, coming next month and following years McDonald’s is looking to make some changes.

September 2011 McDonald’s will now be including both produce and fries in every happy meal. However, with them now offering both, the fries will be a small portion. The portion of fries offered in a happy meal will be going from 2.4 ounces to 1.1 ounces. While normally the produce will be apples, there will be some other options depending on location and time of year. Some of the other possible produce options include carrots, pineapple, raisins, and mandarin oranges.

Aside from what McDonald’s plans to do to better the diets of children, they are also looking to better the diets of everyone who eats their food. They are realizing the impact sodium has on people’s bodies and are therefore looking to make a change. They plan on reducing the sodium content in all of their items by 15% by the year 2015.

So, it looks as though McDonald’s is making an honest effort to improve their food. I will no longer dread getting my children food from McDonald’s because they will have less unhealthy food with a side of produce. That’s good enough to make any parent happy. I will also be happy when they minimize the sodium content.

You Really Are What You Eat

Beans (legumes), berries (especially blueberries), broccoli, green tea, nuts (especially walnuts), oranges, pumpkin, salmon. soy, spinach, tomatoes, turkey, whole grains and oats, and yogurt can all help stop and even reverse diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and some forms of cancer. And where one might have an effect on a certain part of the body, it can also affect the health of other body functions and performance, since the whole body is connected.  With these 14 foods as the base of a balanced, solid diet, weight loss gimmicks and other fly-by-night programs can become a thing of the past in your life.

Conversely, the ill-effects of an unbalanced diet are several and varied. Low energy levels, mood swings, tired all the time, weight change, uncomfortable with body are just a few signs that your diet is unbalanced.  An unbalanced diet can cause problems with maintenance of body tissues, growth and development, brain and nervous system function, as well as problems with bone and muscle systems.

Symptoms of malnutrition include lack of energy, irritability, a weakened immune system leading to frequent colds or allergies, and mineral depletion that can trigger a variety of health concerns including anemia.

And since the body is connected, realizing that an unhealthy body will result in an unhealthy spirit only makes sense.  When we nourish our body with these superfoods and complement them with other nutrient-dense and healthy fresh foods, our spirit will be vitalized and healthy as a direct result.

Many modern diets based on prepackaged convenience foods are sorely lacking in many vitamins and minerals, which can affect our mental capacities as well, and cause irritability, confusion, and the feeling of ‘being in a fog’ all the time.

Superfoods can be the basis of a sound, healthy, nutritious solution to curing many of these ailments and more.

Ancient Nutrition Myths and Modern Medicine

Recently, modern medicine had ignored the healing power of everyday foods, considering it a popular belief no proven scientific validity. But mainstream scientists have begun to study the principles of folk medicine and dietary practices of the past, seeking remedies and antidotes for modern diseases. The investigation of natural medicine is advancing at a rapid pace.

Why this sudden interest in the medicinal aspects of food? Why such prestigious institutions as Johns Hopkins and Harvard begin to announce with great fanfare that broccoli or broccoli is full of very powerful agents against cancer and that eating too much carrot seems to reduce drastically the risk of heart disease and stroke?

The reason: for the first time in history, science begins to validate the hard fact ‘that diet in the first instance determines the events that occur in cells where the real tragedies occur and mysteries, which are lost and permanently wins battle to build the health and longevity, or, conversely, to condemn us to disease and death.

That is where life begins and ends: in the seas of liquid cellular and structural genetic material where fate may depend on the presence of a particular enzyme or a fatty acid metabolized from one molecule of food. I recommend reading the article (the great miracle of food)

If you know what is happening in their cells, know what is happening to their health. The body consists of about 60 trillion cells. Each cell is an amazing and complex miniature universe in which occur billions of chemical reactions every second of life. And what those dependent intracellular chemical reactions?.

The only source of energy is in the food you provide them. For the first time, science can now study how foods promote health or disease since the cell itself, validating the assertion of the ancient wisdom that foods have medicinal powers.

Certainly the first physicians to use food as a pillar of the fight against disease. In a medical journal, Dr. John Potter of the University of Minnesota, recently spoke count of the first medical uses of food: “In ancient Egypt, Pliny said the cabbage. Cured to eighty-seven diseases and onion, twenty.

Garlic was considered sacred. Cruciferous (cabbage and broccoli were grown primarily as medicinal plants and used to cure headaches, deafness, diarrhea, gout and stomach problems … The Romans believed that lentils cure diarrhea and balanced temperament . The fresh and dried grapes had many medicinal uses and are used in various oral preparations, enemas, inhalation and topical applications.

Since the dawn of civilization we have sought remedies for diseases in forests, fields and orchards.

About 75% of the world’s population still does. Such a knowledge cluster do not be ignorant, says James Duke, Ph.D., a physician and expert on medicinal plants of the agriculture department of the United States. He said that the popular belief attributed to food is the ability to heal, proof of its validity.

After all, he notes, is precisely the popular usage that has led scientists to discover powerful elements in medicinal plants.

At least 25% of laboratory medicine come from plants, including taxol, a new cancer drug.

Doctors and healers ancient herbal medicine used to treat the diseases were based on their own experience and that of their ancestors and relatives. Obviously, they knew nothing about invisible germs, hormones and cholesterol, or the way they act analgesics and anticoagulants, let alone how to determine the pharmacological properties of food.

How to improve child nutrition

A date almost coincides with the presentation, a few days ago, the draft Law on Food Security and Nutrition, a standard that focuses specifically on issues related to child nutrition. The draft of the new rule on Food Safety and Nutrition has been prepared jointly by the Ministry of Health and Social Policy and the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine.

This law aims to comprehensively address food security in our country and fight the bad eating habits and obesity, poor increasingly widespread (according to national health survey, one in four Spanish children is overweight) .
Improve the nutrition of schoolchildren

The new draft Law on Food Security and Nutrition emphasis on promoting the adoption of good nutritional habits and infant feeding, especially in schools.

In this line:

* It is intended to restrict the sale of foods high in sugar, saturated fat and salt in vending machines, bars or canteens of schools (in this way is intended to industrial products such as pastries, crisps and soft drinks will disappear from the school environment).
* It is anticipated that there will always be a check on school menus from a professional with adequate training and accredited university in nutrition and dietetics.
* You want to promote nutrition education and nutrition.

With measures like these, the law seeks to address some of the most common problems in infant nutrition, failures and shortcomings that the OCU has complained on several occasions, as the imbalance in school menus.
Less advertising

In addition, the bill also focuses on limiting advertising to children, within hours of 6 to 22 hours. The novelty is that for the first time spoken of minors (under 18): so far only provided PAOS code restrictions on advertising aimed at children under 12 years.

Also want to limit the gift, prizes and giveaways associated with food, a practice which has denounced the OCU abuse in an article on marketing in fast food. Our studies have helped us to check out are precisely those foods high in fats and sugars more newsworthy by the big brands targeting children and adolescents.
Better nourished, healthier

Since the OCU welcome this new standard. It is a comprehensive blueprint that is certainly regulate some of the gaps that we have reported our articles: from the deficiencies in vegetables, fish, eggs and dairy products from school menus, abuse of foods high in fat or low quality excesses of advertising directed at children. We hope that you approve the draft and put into practice.

Fitness Tip: Be Vegetarian

Many people ask this question, does it worth being a vegetarian? And we get different views of life. Some says there’s not much of a difference, being a vegetarian or a non vegetarian. Some animal protectionists say save animals and become vegetarians. Well, the decision is of the individual.
The fact here is many people die every year for just eating meat. Confused? Let’s talk of the side of not being a vegetarian.
Meat, eggs and milk products increases cholesterol in the blood. That causes heart attacks and other heart diseases. Pure veggies have only the 10% chances of getting heart attacks, when compared to non-vegetarians. You have fewer chances of coronary heart disease, heart blocks and other heart related diseases.

You get chances of cancers from the artificial preservatives used for preserving the meat and they are harmful chemicals that cause irritation of your immune system and may cause cancer.

Animal diets have no fibers and plant diets have a lot of fibers, so your alimentary canal remains healthy when you eat a vegetarian diet. You are less likely to get constipation if you are a veggie. This also increases the risk of colon cancer in non-vegetarians.

There are lots of anti-oxidants in fruits and vegetables so veggies live a longer life because of these antioxidants. Anti-oxidants found in fruits are basically anti-aging agents that neutralize the active free radicals.

Meat and egg are big source of saturated fats. This fat is not utilized much and gets deposited in the body. This not only makes you obese but also makes you prone to many diseases.

Meat has lot of sodium salts when compared to plant products. This sodium causes hypertension and retention of water in the body and blood. This causes edema and other kidney disorders.

Plant products are the best source of vitamins, one of the most essential biochemicals.  While, meat don’t have vitamins.

Vegetarians are less likely to put on weight when compared to those who eats meats.

So you can see there are many advantage of being a vegetarian. Not only your life span increases but also you gets a healthy and fit life.