Use the five a day rule for healthy eating

Use the five a day rule for healthy eating

The five a day rule is one of the most important rules to healthy eating.  The five a day rule refers to the government’s recommendation that everyone eat at least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables.  At first blush, five a day seems like a reasonable goal, but most people fail to eat sufficient amounts of these important foods.

It is important to remember the many advantages of fruits and vegetables when applying the five a day rule to your own diet.  For one thing, fruits and vegetables taste great, contain fewer calories than many other foods and are full of many important vitamins and minerals.  In addition, fruits and vegetables are colorful and beautiful, making them great garnishes and salad toppings.

In addition, fruits and vegetables are easy to prepare, even for the busiest individual.  In most cases, fresh fruits require no preparation at all, other than a quick wash and perhaps peeling. 

The five a day recommendation equates to roughly two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day, based on the average 2,000 calorie diet.  This is not a difficult goal to reach, but it is important to keep the five a day goal in mind when grocery shopping, cooking and planning meals.

One great way to get started toward a five a day lifestyle is with a delicious serving of 100% fruit juice every morning.  Apple juice, grapefruit juice and orange juice are all excellent choices for both taste and nutrition.

Fruits and vegetables can also be used as garnishes for other foods.  Who doesn’t enjoy a sliced strawberry or banana with their morning cereal?  And fruits and vegetables make great snacks as well.  Whether you keep a couple of apples at your desk or a selection of carrot and celery sticks in the fridge, having fruits and vegetables readily at hand is a big part of the battle.

Of course variety is extremely important when making any change to your diet, and many dietary changes fail due to boredom.  Constantly trying new varieties of fruits and vegetables is a great way to keep yourself interested in your new healthier way of eating.  If you’ve never had kiwi fruit or asparagus, for instance, why not give it a try?

Combining attractive colors, shapes and sizes of fruits is another way to provide attractive and interesting meals for yourself and your family.  Combining white grapes, red peppers and pineapple chunks can provide a delicious and attractive salad.

It is important to provide constant variety when implementing the five a day plan, particularly if you are cooking for a family.  Try making some interesting new dishes, such as veggie pizza, made with fresh vegetables and whole wheat pizza crust, a fresh vegetable wrap, vegetable stir fry or pasta with fresh vegetables.

For those who think they are too busy to incorporate five servings of fruits and vegetables a day into their diet, there is help available.  The many ready to eat, prepackaged salad kits on the market make it easier than ever to create a healthy salad on the go.  Just keep a bottle of your favorite low fat or nonfat salad dressing on hand and you can enjoy a healthy salad anywhere and anytime.

Even fast food restaurants have made it easier than every to eat healthy, with every major chain now offering at least a few healthy menu items.  In addition, most grocery chains offer fresh salad bars where you can create your own healthy lunch even if you’re pressed for time.

When creating your five a day healthy lifestyle, remember that fruits and vegetables make great snacks.  An apple, orange or banana provides both great taste and excellent nutrition.  In addition, the natural sugars contained in fruits do not provide the sugar high/sugar crash scenario all parents are familiar with.

Topping meals and salads with additional fruits and vegetables is a great way to enhance your new five a day lifestyle.  Strips of green and red peppers, broccoli florets, sliced carrots and cucumbers are all great additions to pasta and potato salads.  And of course carrots, spinach, apple slices, orange slices, nectarines, pineapples and raisins are all great additions to any salad.

In addition, adding fresh fruits to foods you already eat is a great way to make such foods part of your new lifestyle.  Adding berries, bananas or oranges to cereal and yogurt is a great way to make sure you meet your five a day goal every day.

Healthy eating for a healthy body

Healthy eating for a healthy body

Healthy eating means many things to many people, and everyone has different goals for the perfect diet.  The key to following a healthy diet is to find a diet you can stick with for the rest of your life.  A diet should not be simply a temporary change in the way you life, eat and exercise.  Rather, it should be a permanent change that you can live with day in and day out, year in and year out.

For some people, a healthy diet can be as simple as increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in the daily diet.  For others, a radical change, involving strict control of fat and cholesterol, may be required. 

Of course what is needed will depend on the goal of each individual.  The serious runner in search of greater conditioning will of course have different goals than the couch potato who is concerned about the possibility of heart disease.

Even though every person will different goals when it comes to healthy eating, the basic tenets of healthy eating are the same.  The most important thing is to eat a good variety of foods, while eating less of the bad stuff and more of the good.

That may sound like an oversimplification, but it really is that easy.  Putting that simple concept into proactive, however, is the hard part.  Everyone wants to eat healthier, but there are so many temptations in today’s world that healthy eating can be very difficult.  The key is to make healthy choices as appealing as unhealthy ones.

One way to make healthy foods appealing is buying a wide variety of exotic fruits at the local supermarket.  There are probably varieties of fruits and vegetables at your local grocery store that you never even heard of before.  Why not make your next trip to the grocery store an adventure by sampling these exotic offerings?

Experimenting with new recipes is another great way to bring excitement and adventure to healthy eating.   A quick perusal of your favorite low fat or healthy eating cookbook will likely present you with many fun and exciting recipes to try.  Often a new cookbook, or a couple of new recipes are all it takes to spur a healthier lifestyle.

It is also important to know that eating healthier does not necessarily mean making a radical change.  There are very simple things you can do, such as cutting the skin off your chicken breast, or trimming the fat from your favorite steak, that can result in significant fat reductions and health improvements.  Dieters should not overlook the importance of these small changes when seeking a healthier diet.

Other examples of small changes resulting in healthier eating include:

Ø  Replacing whole milk with skim or 2%, both in recipes and for drinking

Ø  Snacking on sorbet or low fat frozen yogurt instead of premium ice cream

Ø  Spraying pans with nonfat cooking spray instead of using butter or margarine

Ø  Replacing high fat cuts of meat with leaner ones

Ø  Eating more low fat fish and less red meat

Ø  Using egg substitutes, the kind made from egg whites, in recipes, meals and baking

There are probably hundreds of other such tips, and they can add up to significant health improvements, whether your goal is to get fit, lose weight or improve your level of health.  No matter who you are or what your current level of fitness, eating a healthier diet and losing weight may be easier than you think.

In the end, eating a healthy diet, improving your level of fitness, and managing your consumption of fat and cholesterol boils down to common sense.  Depriving yourself of your favorite foods can be counterproductive to a long term dietary change.  Deprivation leads inevitably to cravings, and that can start a vicious cycle of dieting and splurging.

It is best to think of healthy eating as a marathon rather than a sprint.  The goal of any healthy eating program should be to make easy, lifelong changes in the way you shop, cook and dine.  Only by making changes that you can follow for a lifetime will you truly be able to enjoy a healthy diet.

Avoiding fat for healthier eating

Avoiding fat for healthier eating

While some fat in the diet is necessary, and it would be a mistake to try to eliminate all fat from the diet, most people simply eat too much fat.  Cutting back on fat is an important part of creating a healthier diet and lifestyle.

There are a number of good reasons for cutting back on levels of dietary fat.  Those reasons include:

• Ø  Lowering levels of dietary fat helps in weight loss and weight management.  Fat contains twice as many calories per gram as protein and carbohydrates, so eating less fat usually means consuming fewer calories.
• Ø  Lowering fat has been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease.  Dietary fat, particularly saturated fat, has been implicated as a factor in heart disease and elevated cholesterol levels.
• Ø  A low fat diet may help to reduce the risk of some forms of cancer.  Although this matter has not been totally settled, there have been a number of studies which indicate that a diet low in fat can keep certain cancers at bay.
•   And of course eating fewer high fat foods means that you will be able to enjoy many more low fat alternatives, such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains.  Since these types of foods tend to be nutrient rich and low calorie, they can be enjoyed guilt free.

Of course cutting back on dietary fat is easier said than done, so we have compiled the list of tips for low fat healthy eating to help you get started.

ü  In place of spreads like peanut butter and full fat cream cheese, use lower fat alternatives such as low fat cream cheese, jellies, jams, fruit spreads, apple butter, mustard, low fat margarine, or low fat mayonnaise.

ü  Use high fat foods as an occasional treat, not as a dietary staple.

ü  Use reduced fat or nonfat salad dressings whenever possible.  When eating out, request the salad dressing on the side so you can compare the amount used.

ü  .Instead of butter or sour cream, top baked potatoes with plain nonfat or low fat yogurt.  Other delicious baked potato toppings include steamed broccoli, cottage cheese, salsa, low fat cheese and low fat or nonfat sour cream.

ü  Get creative with seasonings to add flavor without adding fat or calories.  Garnishes like lemon juice, herbs, salsa or green onions are great toppings for vegetables and salads.

ü  Use high fat toppings sparingly.  For instance, instead of using a tablespoon of blue cheese salad dressing, try using only a teaspoon.

ü  Avoid full fat dairy products whenever possible. Using skim milk or 2% milk instead of whole milk can make a huge difference in your daily fat intake.  Likewise, low fat alternatives to ice cream, such as frozen yogurt, provide all the flavor and none of the fat.

ü  Low fat cheeses also provide a great alternative to full fat varieties.  Most varieties of hard cheeses are available in low fat versions.

ü  Use low fat varieties of popular snacks.  Ginger snaps, angel food cake, vanilla wafers, fig bars, jelly beans, hard candy and gum drops are all excellent choices for a sweet treat.

ü  Instead of potato chips, which are very high in fat, choose pretzels, unbuttered popcorn and other healthier alternatives.

In addition to choosing the right foods, the preparation of the foods you buy is very important to keeping fat levels as low as possible.  Proper low fat food preparation starts with buying the leanest cuts of beef, pork, fish and chicken, and removing the skin and fat from chicken breasts, legs and thighs.

Broiling, backing and grilling are generally the lowest fat methods for preparing the meats and seafood you buy.  Try to avoid frying foods, and if you must fry, try to use a pan that allows the excess fat and oil to drain off easily.

Healthy, low fat cooking does not have to be boring or unappetizing.  There are great many excellent recipes for low fat, healthy meals that are easy to make.  The most important thing is to be an educated consumer and shop carefully for the healthiest produce, meat and seafood.

Choosing the best meat for healthy eating

Choosing the best meat for healthy eating

Choosing the right meat and poultry products can be one of the most difficult parts of cooking and eating for better health.  Meat, seafood and poultry are important sources of protein, iron, vitamins and minerals, but they are often laden with undesirable qualities such as saturated fat and cholesterol as well.  Choosing the best, leanest cuts of meat is important to any health conscious shopper.

One of the most important things to know when choosing meat, seafood and poultry products is that less is often more.  That means buying meat, seafood and poultry products that have been processed as little as possible.  The past few years have seen quite a jump in the number of convenience foods, but these foods are often much less healthy than their fresh meat counterparts.

One reason why this is so is the need preservatives, sodium and other additives.  Foods that are frozen, microwavable or ready to eat often contain large amounts of sodium, often more than you need in several days.  While it is fine to keep a couple of these convenient foods on hand for quick meals, they cannot form the basis of a healthy eating lifestyle.

Fresh meat, seafood and poultry, on the other hand, does not suffer from the need to add sodium or preservatives.  Buying fresh meats and seafood, and preparing it yourself, is the best way to have confidence in the nutritional quality of the food you feed your family.

Of course no discussion of fresh meat is complete without a note or two about safe handling techniques.  Food borne illnesses can easily be spread through contaminated meat, poultry and seafood, and it is impossible to tell from looking if the product is contaminated.  Since cooking to the proper temperature destroys these food borne pathogens, the most important thing is to keep raw meat and poultry away from foods that will not be cooked.

That means keeping things like salad bowls and bread plates well away from the area of the countertop where the meat is prepared.  Any surface touched by raw meat, seafood or poultry should be thoroughly cleaned with an antibacterial solution, and separate cutting boards should be used for vegetables and meats.  Following these basic food hygiene practices is the best way to protect yourself and your family from food borne illnesses.

Cutting the fat is also an important consideration when it comes to choosing meat, seafood and poultry.  While most types of fish are healthy and low fat, some fish, such as salmon, can have significant fat content.  Again, the nutritional labels should be your guide.

When it comes to chicken, the best course of action is to buy skinless, boneless chicken breasts.  This type of poultry is healthy, convenient and easy to use.  And best of all, skinless, boneless chicken breasts are often on sale, so stock up on them when your local grocery store runs its next promotion.  A good alternative for those with the time is to buy regular chicken breasts and remove the skin and bone yourself.  This is often a less expensive alternative than buying the boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Ground turkey can be an excellent and lower fat alternative to ground beef, but again it is important to read the label carefully.  That is because ground turkey, particularly the less expensive brands, often contain skin and fat along with the lean meat.  Ground turkey breast, or a brand with a lower fat content, can be a healthier alternative.  Ground turkey breast can be used in any recipe that calls for ground beef, including burritos, barbecue, tacos, chili and even hamburgers on the grill.

And of course, eating healthy does not mean giving up delicious foods like beef and pork.  Lean cuts of beef and pork can be an important part of a healthy diet.  Beef and pork are both excellent sources of iron, zinc and B complex vitamins, and properly prepared, lean beef and pork are nutritious as well as delicious.

And finally, there are a number of lower fat, healthier alternatives to beef and pork.  Meats like buffalo, venison and emu are much lower in fat than beef, while providing the same or even higher levels of protein.  The downside of these exotic meats, of course, is the price, but if you can find a local supply at a good price they are definitely worth a look.

Biofeedback: An Instrument of Relaxation

Biofeedback:  An Instrument of Relaxation

          In time past, in some restaurants, you could find biofeedback machines.  They offered you all sorts of information about your body.  Today, biofeedback is still considered a legitimate way to attain relaxation.  It’s a technique that uses monitoring equipment in order to help control stress.

         Biofeedback is rooted in the idea that the autonomic nervous system can be trained.  For instance, equipment can determine heart rates, muscle tension, and blood pressure while individuals try to change their breathing, thinking, or posture.  By working with the machines, individuals can conceivably learn the best methods for relaxation.  However, the equipment can only be monitored by someone with specific training in biofeedback.

         According to Dr. Leonard Holmes, feedback can come in a variety of forms:  a line on a computer screen, a tone of a certain pitch, or a blinking light.  A typical type of biofeedback is the EMG, which indicates the tension in your muscles.  It is important to note that biofeedback is not active treatment.  It is up to you decide what you can do in order to lower your heartbeat and reduce your stress level.   If you suffer from migraines or neck pain, biofeedback can also help you to relax your muscles so that you don’t experience as much—or possibly any—pain.

         In order to determine whether biofeedback would be effective in your particular case, a stress profile might be used.  Monitoring device will determine your heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature.  You are then exposed to stress, such as a history quiz.  As a result, the biofeedback professional will have some idea how your body reacts to stressful situations.

       Interestingly enough, insurance companies have been known to cover biofeedback treatment.  For instance, biofeedback may be covered for headaches.  However, other companies view biofeedback as entirely experimental.  When biofeedback first came onto the scene, some practitioners believed that it would enable us to have nearly complete control over our bodies.  However, that is not the case.  In many situations, our bodies are basically operating under “automatic pilot.”  However, it is true that biofeedback can be helpful to some individuals, particularly those who are looking for a means for relaxation.

        Biofeedback is used in a number of cases today.  For instance, it has been used to treat headaches, stomach problems, high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, epilepsy, and paralysis.   A number of different kinds of health professionals use biofeedback, including physical therapists, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, and dentists.    Once the biofeedback machine detects certain physiological reactions, patients usually engage in various relaxation exercises.  Also, you as a patient may learn about the triggers that cause certain physiological problems.  You can also learn how to deal more effectively with stressful issues that appear in your life. 

        It is important, however, to note that biofeedback is not a quick fix.  It cannot in itself cure any illness.  It is simply a tool that you can use to take control of your health and well-being.  With biofeedback, individuals can be empowered to seek solutions to common health problems.   Unlike other treatment programs, biofeedback requires of great deal from the patient in order to be successful.  

     Would you personally benefit from biofeedback?  That depends on your willingness to experiment and your own comfort level.  If you believe that biofeedback could be beneficial, you should discuss it with your doctor.  He or she might want to determine first whether traditional treatment would be better in your particular case.  In most cases, you will need to have a complete physical exam before you engage in biofeedback.  You may even have to undergo a neurological test.

        If you’re considering biofeedback, you should ask your family physician for a referral to a biofeedback expert.  You’ll want to make sure that you are dealing with a trained professional.  Keep an open mind during the treatment.  If it makes you uncomfortable, you might be better off looking at other treatment options.  While it first began in the 1960s, biofeedback remains an experimental technology.  Therefore, don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t seem to work in your particular case.  However, there is little harm in trying it.  In fact, it could make you more attuned to your body and better able to manage the stress in your life.