Eating Healthy Myths Destroyed
Dr. Jamie Fettig

All Refined Carbohydrates are Hazardous to Your Health. The average American eats over 300 pounds of sugars each year. Most of this is because of all the sugar that is added to the everyday foods most people eat. Sugars are refined carbohydrates include anything that ends in ose. Sucrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, dextrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and sugar all count as sugar. An easy way to remember this is anything that rhymes with gross.

I am not talking about sugar naturally found in fruits and other such sources. If nature put it there, it is usually fine. And again, how it affects you will depend more on you individually than the type of fruit itself. Yes, sugar is natural, but it is not fresh. And when you add it to another food, the other food is not pure either.

Refined carbohydrates also come in the form of grains and flours. Most pasta, bread, flour, and other grain-based products are refined, almost to the point of sugar, and to the point where the refined carbohydrates respond in the body the same way sugar does.

There are two big reasons why refined carbs and sugar are so bad, as well as hundreds of smaller reasons. The two big reasons are these:

1.Refined carbs and sugar have no vitamins, minerals, or anything else that is needed to operate and run a healthy body
2.Refined carbs and sugar cause blood sugar levels to be artificially raised and lead to all the problems that come with high blood sugar levels.

First, the refining process takes away all the vitamins and minerals that are naturally found in whatever plant is being refined. There is nothing left but pure carbohydrates.

Why are vitamins and minerals so important for you anyway? Let me give you a little example of why vitamins and minerals are so important. If you want to build a brick house, what do you need? Well, you need bricks and mortar, and wood, and windows and doors. You need some basic stuff to build that house. What if you dont have bricks, or mortar or windows or doors? How well do you think the house will function after you are done trying to build it? Not very well.

Vitamins, minerals and nutrients are like the bricks, mortar, windows, doors, wood, etc. of the house. They are the parts that your body uses to build you. If you dont give your body those key building blocks, things in your body are not going to work very well.

If you try to substitute cheap, not so good imitations, if you tried to build a brick house with a bunch of rocks, the house would not be as good. If you tried to use old, warped windows, the house would not function very well. If you used wood that had holes in it and was not complete, your house would not be very functional. For your body to continue to function at its best and do everything it used to, your body needs to continually be replacing the broken down worn out parts with new parts. And if the new parts, if the vitamins and minerals you give it are not whole, or not enough, your body is going to break down. If you give your body less wood than it needs, so you cannot finish the roof, you might be able to keep the wind out, but when it rains, you get wet.

The second reason refined carbohydrates are not good for you is that refined carbs drastically alter your blood sugar levels. What is the big deal with this? The easiest to show you is what happens to you after you eat. You get really tired and lethargic. You have trouble staying awake and you want to go to sleep. Guess what? The rest of your body is doing the same thing. Your cells are going into a sugar coma. Your mind, which controls everything, is also going to sleep on the job. Your brain is not doing everything it needs to do to keep you functioning properly. And if your brain is not doing its job properly, anything could be going wrong with your body, and often is.

Refined carbs/sugars also are one of the main contributing factors to heart disease and high cholesterol levels, as I showed you earlier.

About the Author

Go to http://www.HealthyEatingDiet.com to get the full e-course. Dr. Jamie wants to help give you Permanent Results with his “non-diet.” He is also giving you dozens of valuable free gifts to “ethically bribe” you into helping him make his new book, “The Ultimate Non-Diet” a #1 best seller. For details on the book go to: http://www.TheUltimateNonDiet.com/free

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Eating Healthy Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
Rachel Williamson

So many people dread the idea of “health food,” but the truth is that many foods labelled “healthy” are actually quite delicious. The key is the way you eat them, what you combine them with, and how much you eat.

When you think of healthy foods, do you think of boring Brussels sprouts and bland broccoli? Think again! You can have all the flavor you want and still keep the number on the scale down and keep your heart healthy.

Take your favorite recipes and look at the ingredients. Decide which ingredients are the least healthy and replace them. It’s as simple as that. For recipes that call for butter, try to replace it with olive oil. For recipes that call for whole milk, replace it with skim milk (or soy milk). For recipes that call for chicken broth, replace it with vegetable broth.

One big thing you can do to lower your intake of saturated fats is to lower your consumption of red meat. Whenever you can, replace red meat with fish. If you’re adventurous, you can replace red meat with soy substitutes. There are many soy products on the market that taste delicious. Soy crumbles are particularly good in homemade tacos and casseroles.

If eating healthy is difficult for you, don’t be too hard on yourself. Focus on changing gradually. If you can’t give up your usual dinner, have a healthy lunch. Every little bit helps. While it may not be true that “you are what you eat,” it is true that your health is directly affected by what you eat. You owe it to yourself and your body to feed it the proper fuel.

Besides replacing your old stand-bys with healthier alternatives, try to add 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. You’d be surprised how easy this is. For example, you might add some sliced banana to your morning breakfast, have an orange with lunch, have an apple for an afternoon snack, eat some beans with dinner, and have some blueberries on top of ice cream for dessert. Find your own way of adding fruits and vegetables into your diet so it works for you.

Small changes in your diet can make a huge difference. Don’t beat yourself up if your diet isn’t perfect. The important thing is to make it better than it was before. Even if you only add one or two pieces of fruit per day, you’re on the right track! You’ll begin to feel the difference and that will encourage you to do even better.

About the Author

Rachel Williamson shares healthy recipes and food news in Eat This!, a food blog.

Tags: Afternoon Snack, Author, Blueberries, Broccoli, Brussels, Brussels Sprouts, Bys, Casseroles, Chicken Broth, Dread, Favorite Recipes, food blog, food news, Fruits And Vegetables, Health Food, Healthy Foods, Morning Breakfast, olive oil;, Proper Fuel, Rachel Williamson, Red Meat, Saturated Fats, soy products, Tacos, Vegetable Broth, Whole Milk —

Eating Can Be an Adventure – Keep It Interesting, Simple, Healthy, and Fun
Alan Detwiler

I have been preparing my own meals for many years. Like most people, I suppose, I would fix only familiar dishes. That has changed. For health benefits, I began eating more fruits and vegetables. Trying unfamiliar vegetables and fruits made eating interesting and more
enjoyable. Many of those new fruits and vegetables became favorites. I tried many other foods that were new to me, for example, whole grains, various types of beans, seeds and nuts. Many of those became favorites. Using unfamiliar ways of preparing food also made eating more of an adventure. A few of my favorites are pesto (pureed greens and oil), raw foods that are normally eaten cooked, and unusual combinations such as bread with peanut butter, covered with pizza sauce.

The circumstances of my life encouraged more changes. Making do with a small amount of money gave me a liking for oatmeal, beans, and other very low-cost foods. Growing up on a farm and having a garden each year provided new fruits and vegetables to try and enjoy. Having been raised to ‘waste not, want not’, helped me not to pass up unusual foods: gifts such as my sister’s ‘beans ‘n’ greens’, the landlord’s parogies, and my son’s homemade deer jerky. The point is: The changes in my diet gave me more foods to enjoy. I now know that I can like a great many unfamiliar foods. At first some of those foods may not be enjoyed because they are so different and are unrecognized as a ‘goody’. For me, that recognition is typically made gradually by many small trials. Once that recognition is made, the food ‘hits the spot’ and can be nutritious, healthy and convenient. Then I have yet another food to enjoy.

The process of trying new foods and having them become enjoyed fare, makes eating an adventure. Eating becomes more interesting and more enjoyed. Meals become more than a time to enjoy what I have enjoyed before. Awareness is heightened by experiencing the unfamiliar.
There is anticipation of discovery of a new enjoyment. Meals become pay-off times of previous experimentation efforts. The food is more appreciated for having creative effort invested in it. Perhaps I have gained a health benefit, saved some prep time, saved money that can be used for some other purpose, and have added to my repertoire of pleasure.

A cookbook might help you get ideas about what new foods to try. A cookbook about a particular ethnic food or some other unfamiliar category of food would be particularly helpful. Buy one or get one from the library. Some ethnic categories are Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, African, soul food, Southern, and Mexican. Other categories are health food, quick and easy recipes, weight loss diets, vegetarian recipes, and using food from the garden. You might even enjoy some obscure categories such as pioneer/early American food, Native American food, wild food, early European food, food from storage, and low cost food. I particularly like quick and easy cookbooks.

If you need help becoming comfortable with trying new foods, try small changes:

– Eat breakfast foods at lunch or supper.
Or try a vegetable at breakfast. If you normally have a sandwich at bedtime, have a salad instead.

– Try different brands from the ones you normally use.

– Leave out one or more ingredients from your standard recipes.
Or change the proportions – a little more of this or a little less of that.

– Substitute a similar ingredient for a usual ingredient, for instance, orange juice concentrate or lemon juice instead of vinegar on a salad.

– It may help to eat smaller portions but include a greater number of foods at each meal. That may help you develop a liking for variety.

– Try unusual combinations such as cooked chicken and raw fruit cut in small pieces and mixed together…or pizza sauce on a peanut butter open-face sandwich…or a teaspoon of honey or pancake syrup on a dark green, leafy salad.

Salads are great to experiment with. Many vegetables can be enjoyed in a salad. Try various amounts and combinations of carrot, tomato, cabbage, broccoli, bell pepper, cucumber, or other vegetables you enjoy. Use other types of greens: romaine lettuce, bibb lettuce, collards, mache, and basil. Dressing can be just oil, pesto, syrup, tomato sauce, ketchup, fruit juices, mayonnaise, peanut butter softened with oil, and even jam or jelly. Dressing can be used to soften the strong flavor of raw cabbage, basil, or dark green lettuce.

The subtle flavors of many vegetables are easily hidden with anything more than tiny amounts of vinegar, lemon juice and tomato sauce. Try a salad without any dressing to enjoy the full flavor of the vegetables. The vegetables can be proportioned to subdue or enhance particular flavors – use less basil to lessen its pungent flavor, use more carrot to boost its flavor and texture. Other salad ingredients can be nuts, peanuts, coconut, cereal, baked beans, and fruit. Some ingredients I like are raw beets, raw potato and raw sweet potato.

Watch out for raw greens and other raw vegetables that cause digestion system upset. It only takes small amounts of some raw vegetables to cause a lot of discomfort. Use small quantities of an untested food to begin with until you know how well your body deals with it. The body will adapt to some food over a period of weeks or months but results vary from food to food and, I suppose, from individual to individual. Some raw foods I avoid because of previous bad experiences are green beans, asparagus, and beet leafs. I don’t eat more than a tablespoon of raw parsley pesto in a day. The same for kale. I don’t eat more than the equivalent of 1/4-cup pesto of raw Chinese cabbage.

To develop a liking for a new food, eat it at the beginning of a meal when you are most hungry. Being hungry greatly improves the ability to appreciate the taste of a food. Eat only a small amount of the new food at each sitting. For some food, a tiny bite, just enough to sense its flavor, is enough to handle at first. Don’t give up easily on a food that at first seems too strange to be enjoyed.
Some foods will require dozens of ‘get acquainted’ trials.

Other strategies for liking new foods:

– Read about nutrition and health to know the benefits of a changed diet.

– Be aware of how much time you spend shopping for food and other food related tasks. Would you rather have some of that time available for other things? Non-traditional foods can use preparation methods that take less time.

– Make a choice about the money you spend for food. Atypical foods may be less expensive than traditional and popular food. Getting the most bang for the buck can add to the pleasure of eating.

– Make a decision to increase the pleasure in your life. Your success in developing a fondness for a new food, will encourage you to try other kinds of new pleasures.

Have reasons in mind to try unusual foods:

– to be able to enjoy healthy foods.

– to enjoy low-prep-time foods.

– to use what you can grow in your garden.

– for the satisfaction of acquiring new pleasures.

– to increase your enjoyment of eating.

Know why liking new foods is difficult. This is the know-your-enemy principle. It seems to help me. People have an instinctive protection against eating toxic foods. Nature has provided you with a mistrust for new, unfamiliar food. If the food is enough different from what you are used to, it will not be immediately liked. This is a necessary instinct that keeps you from poisoning yourself by eating the wrong mushroom, for example. Evolution along with chemistry eliminated the gulp-down-anything individuals from our gene pool. The little-by-little taste-developers survived.

If it’s the sugar, salt and spices you depend upon to enjoy food, other flavors will go unappreciated. To help your fondness for new foods come easier, ease up on spices, salt, and sugar. That encourages your taste to appreciate a greater variety of flavors. You then can more appreciate the sweetness of cherry tomatoes, the sweetness of raw pumpkin, and the sweetness of sweet potatoes, for example. You can enjoy the mild flavor of raw chestnuts, the richness of nuts, and the subtle starchiness of cereal grains. Your palate will be more adept at experiencing the pleasures of subtle
flavors. A great many foods that previously seemed mostly tasteless, can then be enjoyed for their unique flavors.

Your enjoyment of stronger tasting food will be helped by reducing sugar and salt use. You will be switching from depending on saltiness and sweetness to getting pleasure from other flavors.

Finding new foods:

– Browse at a health food store, a farmers market or an ethnic food festival.

– Take the time to look at all the items at a local supermarket.

– Browse at local ethnic food markets: Middle Eastern or Greek, for example.

– Try raw foods and whole grains.

– Use native plants and foraged plants. Know what you are doing, there are poisonous plants that resemble edible ones. A few plants are toxic even when eaten in small quantities.

– Do your own cooking and gardening, if you have the time and space.

A few unusual recipes can be found at www.leisureideas.com/easy recipes unusual recipes.htm
About the Author

Alan Detwiler is the author of several books. To find them, do a search for his name in the Ebooks and Docs category at Amazon.com
He has a web site about ideas for having fun at www.leisureideas.com

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Eat Right For A Healthy Life
Dr. Shashikant Patwardhan

Our diet is an essential factor for the formation of our body. It is clearly mentioned in an Ayurvedic classic ‘Charak Samhita’ that consuming improper diet in improper way is the main cause of ‘Disease’.

According to ‘Charak Samhita -“An appropriate and suitable diet in a disease is equivalent to hundred drugs and any quantity of drug hardly compares to good results in disease without following proper dietetic regimen”

Ayurvedic has mentioned following principles for living full span of life with perfect health.

Diet should be regulated taking into account the ‘Desha'(territory), ‘Kala’ (Season as well as time of the day) etc. On should be in a habit of taking all six ‘Rasa’ (tastes) in order to prevent nutritional deficiency disorders.

Time of consuming food : A person should take meal only when he feels hungry. Lunch should be taken early between 12 and 1P.M. this coincides with the peak Pitta period, Pitta is responsible for the digestion. Ayurveda recommends that the lunch should be the largest meal of the day. The supper should be lesser and lighter than lunch

Quantity of food : Generally half of the capacity of stomach should be filled with solids, th with liquids and rest kept empty for the free movements of body humors.

Sequence of consuming food :Madhur (sweet) rasa food like fruits are advisable to take in the bigining of meal, food with Amla and Lavana (sour and salty) rasa in the middle and Katu,Tikta,Kashay (bitter ,astringent and pungent) foods should be taken at the end of meal

Method of consuming food :

* Wash the face hands and feet before meal. Dine in an isolated neat and clean place in pleasant environment with the affectionate persons in sitting position.

* Food should be taken after complete digestion of previous one.

* Hard items should be consumed in the beginning followed by soft and liquids subsequently.

* Few sips of water is advised now and then while taking meal.

* Heavy substances are contraindicated after meals and should be avoided

* Consumption of excessive hot food leads to weakness. Cold and dry food leads to delayed digestion. Intake of food prepared by giving extra

heat leads to ‘Glani’. Hence consumption of such food should be avoided

Incompatible Food (Viruddha ahara):

Milk followed by fruits and vice versa.

Soar substance along with milk.

Milk with salt, horse gram, green gram & cow gram

Wheat preparations in gingelly oil(Tila taila)

Hot drinks after alcohol, curd or honey.

Cold and hot substances together

Banana with curd and butter milk

Chicken with curd

Ghee kept in bronze vessel

Radish with jaggery

Fish with jaggery or sugar

Jingelly seeds with kanjika.

Use of incompatible food leads to skin disorders, Gastro intestinal .Disorders , anaemia, leucoderma hyperacidity impotence etc. hence should be avoided.

General Rules about food consumption :

Walk a while after meal to help digestion

No travelling, exercise or sexual intercourse within one hour after meal.

Avoid meals when thirsty and water while hungry.

Avoid meals after exertion

Avoid meals when you are having no appetite.

Don’t suppress the appetite as it leads to body pain, anorexia, lassitude, vertigo and general debility

Don’t suppress the thirst as it leads to general debility, giddiness and heart diseases.

Consumption of the fresh, acceptable, easily available and compatible food with various nutrients is a key to lead a healthy life.

Dr. Shashikant Patwardhan is practicing as ‘Ayurvedic Consultant’ for last 25 years at the city -Sangli , Maharashtra -India.

He has done his graduation in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery [B.A.M&S] and post graduate Fellowship of Faculty of Ayurvedic Medicine [F.F.A.M.] From Tilak Ayurved Mahavidyalaya, Pune University , India, during the years 1970-1976.

He is a chief editor and Ayurvedic Consultant of a ‘Comprehensive website on Ayurveda – http://www.ayurveda-foryou.com

He is an author of many books on Ayurveda and is first to publish them in ebook format. He has written ebooks like – Ayurvedic Cure of Diabetes , Home Remedies in Ayurveda , Treat Common Diseases with Ayurveda & Yoga , Ayurvedic Principles Revealed.

He regularly writes articles on various topics in Ayurveda in Ayurvedic health magazines and alternative medicine sites.

editor@ayurveda-foryou.com

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