Nutritional Benefits of Pineapple

Pineapple is one of the most popular tropical fruit that is well known for its juicy sweet taste. This delicious fruit is also known as Pina, Nanas and Ananas. This fruit is rich in nutrition. It has a high content of vitamins, minerals, fibers and enzymes. This fruit is totally fat free and so help to maintain an ideal body weight and provide a balanced diet for those who want to be fit.

Pineapples are a good source of vitamin-C and cholesterol free. This healthy nutritious fruit can be eaten raw as well as can be used in preparing various tasty recipes. The sodium content of the fruit is also very low. The micro nutrients content of this fruit helps to protect us from many diseases like cancer, stroke and other heart problems. Pineapple juice also helps to kill intestinal worms and helps to relieve intestinal disorders. The chemicals that this fruit contain stimulate the kidneys and aids in removing toxic elements in the body. An enzyme called bromelain that blocks the production of kinins which is formed during inflammation. This helps reducing swelling brought by arthritis, gout, sore throat and acute sinusitis. Surgical wounds or any wounds received due to injury can be healed fast by having pineapple juice. So do not think more just include a slice of pineapple in your five day plan meal. Drink a glass of juice or have a slice of it. If eaten during or after meals, the enzymes will be utilized for digesting food. You can try out various recipes with this fruit.

Make a Pineapple slaw; it is very easy just shredded cabbage, carrots. Then take these shredded vegetables in a bowl and mix 1 cup pineapple slices in it, add few raisins and two tablespoon pineapple juice. Just freeze it and taste this healthy nutritious dish. While preparing a chicken dish you can also add pineapple juice into it to make the taste different as well as good. Crushed pineapple is great to add extra taste on any recipes even desserts.

You will be stunned to know that a molecule found in pineapple has shown to be anti-tumor activity. This fruit helps to prevent cancer. The eating of pineapple each day for aged person helps them a lot, it lower the risk of age related muscular degeneration and vision related problems.

In all, the pineapple fruit has many beneficial effects to our body. For the patients of tuberculosis, the juice of this fruit is found to be very helpful and effective to cure the disease by dissolving the mucus. Pineapples are also rich in manganese that is needed for your body to build bone and connective tissues. Pineapple also strengthens the bones of older people as well as the growth of bones in younger generation.


Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Nutritional-Benefits-of-Pineapple&id=1296753

Heart Healthy Menus

Eating a heart healthy meal is essential to the overall well-being of the human body. A healthy menu is the first step in living well. Choosing the right foods to eat now will help to improve your health, and avoid costly trips to the doctor later. Some of most common illnesses associated with poor eating habits and lack of exercise include:

-anorexia
-cancer
-diabetes
-heart disease
-kidney disfunction
-obesity

Creating a nutritional menu is a great first step in combating these types of illnesses. Contrary to common beliefs, a healthy menu does not have to be a "bland" recipe. There are many different healthy recipes that all offers a low carb alternative to some recipes that are packed with carbs. A lot of natural foods such as fruit,vegetables, legumes and grains are very high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, while at the same time they are low in fat, and free of cholesterol. A healthy menu also takes into consideration the right calorie intake. A balanced diet can be achieved whether you are looking to lose a few pounds, or you simply want to maintain the proper weight levels.

Eating healthy is not about depriving yourself of all of the foods that you love, or starving yourself. Eating healthy is all about healthy weight loss and diets that brings your body to a level of healthiness as recommended by doctors everywhere.

DAILY MEAL PLANNER

A daily meal planner is a menu planner that could be used to make it easier to get started and to stick with a healthy menu. It makes it easier to prepare and create a healthy menu at home. It helps you by organizing recipes and meals for each day.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

And of course, a healthy menu would not be complete if we did not mention the importance of exercise!

It is very important to exercise regularly, while limiting your calories, and always make good menu choices...with this balance, you should live a long, happy and healthy life!

It is always best From planning your meal to reaping the benefits of a heart healthy lifestlye...enjoy!

Source : http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Heart-Healthy-Menus&id=3149327

Heart Healthy Recipe That Taste's Great

When it comes to our heart health it's important that we follow a heart health diet, that we get enough exercise and that we learn to control our response to negative stress in our lives.

It's true that heredity plays an important role in our susceptibility to heart health problems, but there are many aspects of our diet and lifestyle we can control, starting with a heart healthy recipe that you will enjoy.

Many studies have demonstrated the benefit of extra virgin olive oil, vegetables and garlic to overall health and wellness, yet it can be tough to combine these into something that is simple to eat, so here is a tasty pesto heart healthy recipe that will not only do wonders for your overall wellness but will taste great too.

I have to admit straight up that I have often had trouble digesting pesto recipes that I get in Italian restaurants, I'm not quite sure why, but my feeling is that there is too much oil or the garlic is perhaps too heavy.

That's the great part about making your own heart healthy recipes such as this pesto is that you can alter the amount of ingrediants to suit your preference.

There are 2 major ingredients in pesto that make it especially healthy for the heart.

Several studies have demonstrated the benefit of quality olive oil to heart health. By swapping other fats or carbohydrates for unsaturated fats such as olive oil you can have a positive impact on both lowering blood pressure and on lowering cholesterol. The impact on lowering blood pressure is a relatively recent finding by scientists and just one more added benefit of a heart healthy recipe that includes olive oil.

Another great ingredient in pesto that benefits the heart is garlic. Once again, several studies have demonstrated a beneficial impact on heart health with garlic including the ability to control and even remove existing plaque build-ups in your arteries. Even more important is that recent findings suggest that pure garlic (as opposed to supplements) is better for your system, pesto heart healthy recipes certainly fill that requirement.

In addition, the fact that this heart healthy recipe is low in salt and includes the tasty and healthy basil herb, also makes it a superb food for our heart.

HEART HEALTHY RECIPE - BEST PESTO

To make pesto you will need a food processor to combine and even liquify the ingredients turning them into a marriage of flavors that is just simply incredible.

You will need...

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (I've even done 1/4 cup and had good success)

2 peeled garlic cloves (move to 1 if you not garlic crazy)

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon of lemon juice

2 Cups of fresh Basil leaves (if you find the Basil overpowering, substitute some parsley)

Fresh ground pepper

Combine everything together except the cheese into your food processor and puree until smooth - I like it when it's combined into a thick paste. Finally, stir in the cheese and store it for at least a day in your refrigerator - it will keep for days and the taste will actually get better.

You can east this heart healthy recipe with thin toasts such as Melba toast or oven roasted toast that you make in your own oven. You can also serve it with meats or bump up the flavor of many other recipes. Of course, this pesto recipe will also be great with any pasta. Just remember, keep it cool until you pour it over your pasta.

There you have it, a heart healthy recipe that is quick and simple to make, lasts for days, is big on flavor and inexpensive to make over and over again.

Healthy Lifestyles and Longevity

Foresight is something generally lacking in most people's lives. We live in a society predicated on instant gratification. Fast food restaurants are a good example. When hungry, just go to the drive-thru and eat to your heart's content. Two weeks later, you are left to wonder how the weighing scale can possibly register an increase of 5 pounds.

The opposite of this is deferred gratification. Where instant gratification is geared towards getting something as soon as possible, deferred gratification is the ability to wait patiently in order to get a greater reward. This is also known by more common terms such as will power and self control.

The Marshmallow Experiment is a good example of instant vs. deferred gratification. In this test (conducted during the 1960s), subjects composed of four-year olds were given a marshmallow. They were told that they could eat the marshmallow now, but if they waited for an unspecified amount of time, they would receive another marshmallow. Researchers later followed the progress of these children and discovered that, on average, those who waited to get another marshmallow had higher SAT scores.

The average life expectancy in humans has steadily increased through the years. This serves as an incentive for individuals to prepare for the future by having a healthy lifestyle. It would be difficult to live a long and happy life without an active mind and body to go along with it. Advances in medical technology has also improved longevity, along with the means to further improve it. For this reason, there is greater emphasis in our society to exercise regularly and eat a healthy and balanced diet.

One reason why health care programs are crumbling is due to the aging population. As the population ages, the amount of people earning income becomes disproportionate to the amount of people relying on the benefits of health care. Many couples opt to have children after first establishing a career, which only exacerbate the problems of an aging population. Current projections show most health care programs to be unsustainable as we progress into the future.

It is easy to compain to the government to fix things by restructuring the health care program, but we can't rely on that. We have to do what we can to change our lifestyles and stay physically and mentally fit to prepare against these increasingly unreliable health care programs. Thinking about the future and planning for it will reap great benefits as we progress further and further into old age.

Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Healthy-Lifestyles-and-Longevity&id=3185438

Vitamins and Antioxidants - Necessary For Optimum Health

For optimum health, the most important elements that are needed in our body is the correct and balanced amount of vitamins and antioxidants.

Antioxidants help protect our body from free radicals and protect your cells from damage and go a long way to ensuring that we maintain a healthy body.

There are lots of vitamin and antioxidant supplements to choose from to ensure that your body will always have all it needs. Your diet is obviously the ideal way to take in a good balance of vitamins and antioxidants but, with a busy life and the advent of convenience foods, we can not be sure that we are consuming the right amount for optimum health. There are lots of different supplements available today and, due to the increase in internet shopping, they are very easy to obtain.

You should however, make sure that you buy the very best quality vitamin and antioxidant supplements that are available. Try to buy supplements that contain only natural ingredients. Yes, there are cheap, synthetic supplements available but always go for the ones with natural ingredients. They will dissolve and be absorbed better in the body giving you the full benefits almost immediately.

The ideal time to take supplements is with your meals. Your body can absorb the nutrients better, as your digestive system will be stimulated with food. If you are using time released supplements, you should take them with food to ensure that they move through your body at the right pace and release the proper amount of nutrients and vitamins your body needs at the right time.

Not everyone will need the same type of vitamins and antioxidants, your lifestyle will help you to determine the right supplement for you. A good beginning is to buy a good quality multi vitamin supplement. This will ensure that you are getting a good all round selection of vitamins and minerals. You could then begin to consider narrowing down your specific requirements. If you are currently on a weight loss diet, look for a higher than average RDA (recommended daily allowance) on the label because you may not be getting all the necessary vitamins, antioxidants and minerals due to a change in your diet. Pregnant women, women experiencing the menopause, bodybuilders etc. all have different needs, so do some research to find the perfect supplements for your situation.

Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Vitamins-and-Antioxidants---Necessary-For-Optimum-Health&id=3190388

Sleep Vitamins - Healthy Supplements For Sweet Dreams

More often than not, people experience insomnia or sleeping problems due to a deficiency of vitamins and minerals. A simple and natural way to improve your sleep is to feed your body the vitamins it needs with specific foods or supplements. There are a few supplements known to improve sleep.

The three most basic and important vitamins that should be taken to combat insomnia include calcium, magnesium, and the B vitamins. Calcium has sedative effect on the body and without it you may experience restlessness and excessive wakefulness. Drinking calcium rich liquids such as milk or calcium fortified orange juice before bedtime may help calm this restlessness. Calcium in food form is the effective way to induce sleep but a supplement may also be taken.

Magnesium is also helpful when trying to induce sleep. Magnesium can be found in foods like wheat bran, almonds, cashews, and brewers yeast, but can also be taken in the form of a supplement. Sometimes people wake from sleep with painful leg cramps. This may be a sign of both a calcium and magnesium deficiency.

B vitamins along with calcium and magnesium are necessary for normal sleep and have sedative properties. Of the B vitamins, B6, B5 (pantothenic acid) and B12 are the most helpful. These vitamins can be taken as supplements or found in foods like whole grains, liver, wheat germ, tuna, bananas, peanuts, and walnuts.

Other helpful supplements include tryptophan, 5-HTP, phosphatidylserine, chromium, and melatonin. Tryptophan is most commonly known as the reason why everyone falls asleep after eating Thanksgiving dinner. Tryptophan is the amino acid that turns into serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is a natural sleep-inducing chemical. Yes, it is found in turkey but is also available in milk.

Tryptophan supplements are not legal in the United States. Usually high amounts of tryptophan must be taken in order for an effect to seen, but in most cases, the intake of tryptophan is not an effective method of treating insomnia.

5-HTP is a form of tryptophan that is one step closer to serotonin production and has proven to help insomnia patients fall asleep faster. It also increases the length of the REM cycle as well as sleep stages 3 and 4 and by so doing makes sleep more restorative rejuvenating. It should be noted that the higher the dosage of 5-HTP, the longer the REM cycle will be.

Phosphatidylserine is an amino acid that helps regulates how much cortisone your body produces. In normal cases, cortisone is found in high levels in the morning, for wakefulness, and at lower levels in the evening, for sleepiness. But people with increased stress produce high levels of cortisone and have trouble getting to sleep at night. Phosphatidylserine can help those with stress minimize the amount of cortisone their adrenals are producing and thus fall asleep easier.

Chromium can be found in brewers yeast and in supplement form and may be helpful to those people who can't sleep due to blood sugar problems. Melatonin is a sleep hormone that is produced by the pineal gland. A deficiency may be a cause for insomnia and can easily be remedied by taking a supplement.

Source : ttp://ezinearticles.com/?Sleep-Vitamins---Healthy-Supplements-For-Sweet-Dreams&id=2039902

Healthy Sauna Benefits - Discover the Secret

The Scandinavians have known all about sauna benefits for years and gradually the rest of the world is catching on. There are now many studies that can show that not only does a sauna session help you to relax, but it also gives you many different health benefits.

There are a few different types of saunas: those that you dry heat and a steam sauna, but both have a long list of health benefits.

Saunas a particularly good at reducing stress levels, which brings a great deal of health problems. If you have ever used a sauna, then you know that you leave floating on cloud nine and completely chilled out. People with stress related conditions such as sleep disorders have often reported positive results from using saunas and find they have no problems catching forty winks after a sauna session.

Another of the sauna benefits is that they effectively open up the pores. The heat brings the blood to the skin surface and the steam opens up pores, which allows toxins to escape. All the different creams, lotions and oils that we apply to the skin often block up our pores and keep toxins in the body. By releasing these toxins your skin is left refreshed, younger looking and it can prevent acne.

Some studies also indicate that saunas can improve your immune system. With your body's largest organ, your skin, functioning effectively it can remove toxins and infections that can make you sick.

While it is true that saunas can help with weight loss it is also true that much of this is due to water loss and will be regained immediately. However, there is substantial evidence that a sauna session can reduce blood pressure and offer a mild aerobic workout due to oxygen being drawn away from the heart and the heart having to work harder while in the sauna. It is estimated that around 300 calories are burned in a typical sauna session.

Another of the sauna benefits is that muscle tension can be relieved through saunas regardless of whether it is caused by exercise or stress. The increased blood flow to the skin surface helps to repair torn muscles and reduce swollen and strained muscles. The sweating also helps to get rid of lactic acid stored in the body after rigorous exercise.

There are many sauna benefits that can positively impact your health and they have been backed up by scientific studies. From acne to stress and everything in between everyone can benefit from regular sauna visits.

Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Healthy-Sauna-Benefits---Discover-the-Secret&id=3162390

Healthy Juice For If You Are "Down and Out"

For the past two decades, many people have been claiming that we can get several benefits from noni juice. It is quite difficult which of these benefits are actually real and which are just made up. Since there are several types of noni juices such as Tahitian, Polynesian and Hawaiian, we can not really tell to which variety the benefits actually belong to. However, there are two benefits that are common to all three.

What are the two major benefits of noni juice?

A healthier skin is probably the most sought after benefit of the noni juice. For several years, people from the South Pacific islands have drank this juice to keep their skin healthy, smooth and young looking. Even if they are under the sun for many hours everyday, the juice protects them from acquiring skin blemishes like acne and pimples. When noni juice was first introduced to the rest of the world, people then discovered that they could produce something else from noni aside from the juice. A noni cream was invented for skin problems like blisters and rashes.

Another good thing about the product is its ability to prevent hair loss. We can not deny that many people lose their hair for a lot of reasons: stress, hereditary and other serious illnesses. There are also men who lose their hair at a young age, and this often causes them to feel ashamed and have low self esteem. By drinking noni juice regularly, this problem can be remedied. It acts like those anti hair loss soap and shampoo products that you see on tv. It acts on the source of the problem by helping regenerate more hair cells. You will also not experience any kind of side effects because the noni juice does not have preservatives or harmful chemicals. It is made of natural and organic ingredients that are safe and healthy.

When looking for a noni juice be sure to list your requirements and check out the supplier and read reviws.Sold in capsule form, pulp powder was the first noni product brought to the commercial market in Hawaii by Herbert Moniz of Herb's Herbs in 1992 after patenting a unique noni dehydrating method. (US patent 5288491) In 1995, David Marcus, of Hawaiian Herbal Blessings Inc., began marketing the first traditionally fermented noni juice from Maui, Hawaii.



Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Healthy-Juice-For-If-You-Are-Down-and-Out&id=3129692