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Eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables
Health Benefits from eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruits
- reduce risk for heart disease, including heart attack and stroke.
- may protect against certain types of cancers.
- Diets rich in foods containing fiber, such as some vegetables and fruits, may reduce the risk of heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
- may lower blood pressure, and may also reduce the risk of developing kidney stones and help to decrease bone loss.
Nutrients
- Most vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories. None have cholesterol. (Sauces or seasonings may add fat, calories, or cholesterol.)
- Vegetables are important sources of many nutrients, including potassium, dietary fiber, folate (folic acid), vitamin A, and vitamin C.
- Diets rich in potassium may help to maintain healthy blood pressure. Vegetable sources of potassium include sweet potatoes, white potatoes, white beans, tomato products (paste, sauce, and juice), beet greens, soybeans, lima beans, spinach, lentils, and kidney beans.
- Dietary fiber from vegetables, as part of an overall healthy diet, helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower risk of heart disease. Fiber is important for proper bowel function. It helps reduce constipation and diverticulosis. Fiber-containing foods such as vegetables help provide a feeling of fullness with fewer calories.
- Folate (folic acid) helps the body form red blood cells. Women of childbearing age who may become pregnant should consume adequate folate from foods, and in addition 400 mcg of synthetic folic acid from fortified foods or supplements. This reduces the risk of neural tube defects, spina bifida, and anencephaly during fetal development. Vitamin A keeps eyes and skin healthy and helps to protect against infections.
- Vitamin C helps heal cuts and wounds and keeps teeth and gums healthy. The following are some of the fruits and vegetables are recommended Squash and Cruciferous Vegetables
The following are some of the fruits and vegetables are recommended
Squash and Cruciferous Vegetables
Adding pureed squash to soups, sauces and casseroles is a tasty and simple way to increase your fiber intake. One cup of acorn squash has 6 grams of fiber, and the same amount of winter squash contains 7 grams. Cruciferous vegetables are high in fiber and have sulfurous compounds that give them a spicy or bitter flavor. A cup of broccoli, cabbage or Brussels sprouts offers 4 grams of fiber each. Roast them or add them to soups.
Other Vegetables
One cup of cooked spinach or kale contains 3 to 4 grams of fiber. Add either one to egg dishes, lasagna or soups for extra color and fiber. A cup of cooked carrots has 5 grams of fiber. Cut up a large bell pepper for a snack and an added 3 grams of fiber. A cup of corn with dinner offers 4 grams of fiber.
Their tiny seeds make berries an excellent source of fiber. One cup of blackberries has 8 grams of fiber, or about one-third of a woman's daily needs. A cup of blueberries or cranberries will provide 5 grams of fiber. A 1-cup serving of strawberries contains 4 grams of fiber. Choose berries as a snack, add them to salads or have them for dessert with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of chopped nuts.
Other Fruits
A medium apple each have 4 grams of fiber and make a convenient snack. A large of mango or kiwi each offer 3 grams of fiber. Eat three small plums or five prunes for an extra 3 grams of fiber. One-half of a medium avocado has 4 grams of fiber and can be used as a sandwich spread or mixed with salsa for a simple dip.
Tag :
Healthy Eating,
Weight Loss
Best Strategies for Long-Term Weight Loss Success
The Habits
The specific habits you form to lose weight are very personal, but here’s an idea to get you started:
- Eat whole foods — whole grains, nuts, seeds, veggies, fruits, non-fried protein — instead of sweets, fried foods, processed carbs.
- Exercise each day — walk, do some bodyweight exercises, run, do a short intense workout, etc.
How to Form the Habits
Habits are formed by tying a habit to a trigger, and repeating it a bunch of times until it becomes automatic. We’ll solve that in this habit plan:
- Replace an old habit with the new habit. Start with just one habit for now, to make it more likely that it’ll stick. Let’s say you want to eat more veggies. Instead of snacking on chips or sweets in the afternoon, snack on carrots/broccoli and hummus.
- Keep the habit small. We tend to be ambitious and do a lot at first. Then we crash and do nothing. But in the beginning, keep it small if you want it to stick.
- Focus on the enjoyment. Instead of thinking, “I have to do this” think, “I get to do this.” And enjoy the crap out of it. Then the habit itself becomes the reward.
- Have some accountability. Commit to doing something really embarrassing if you don’t stick to the habit each week.
So what are we to do? Before you get started on a weight loss program, consider the following tips. They should help you reach the goal of obtaining and maintaining a healthy weight.
Set the Right Weight Loss Goals
Setting effective weight loss goals is an important first step. Keep in mind that effective weight loss goals are specific, attainable, and forgiving. For example, "exercise more" is a wonderful goal, but it's not specific. Walk 30 minutes, five days each week" is specific, attainable, and forgiving.
Reward Weight Loss Success, But Not With Food!
An effective reward is something that is desirable, timely, and contingent on meeting your goal. Rewards may include treating yourself to a movie or massage, taking an afternoon off from work, or just an hour of time to yourself. Keep in mind that numerous small rewards, delivered for meeting smaller goals, are more effective than bigger rewards, requiring a long, difficult effort.
Balance Your Food Checkbook
This means that you should monitor your lifestyle by observing and recording some aspect of your eating and exercising behaviors, such as how many calories you eat in a day, how many servings of fruits and vegetables you eat per day, or how often and for how long you exercise. Doing this can really help you determine how you are doing and what you need to do to meet your weight loss goals.
Avoid Eating and Food Triggers
Identify those social and environmental cues that tend to encourage undesired eating, and then work to change those cues. For example, you may learn that you're more likely to overeat while watching television, or whenever treats are on display by the office coffee pot.
Get the (Fullness) Message
Changing the way you go about eating can make it easier to eat less and lose weight without feeling deprived. It takes 15 or more minutes for your brain to get the message you've been fed. So slow down the speed that you eat. Eating lots of vegetables or high fiber fruit can also make you feel fuller. Another trick is to use smaller plates so that moderate portions do not appear smaller.
Tag :
Healthy Living,
Weight Loss
Cut the carbs, lose the weight
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| from www.healthambition.com |
All carbohydrates change into sugar, the importance is the time it takes for them to be absorbed by the body. Unlike the other carbohydrates, fiber is the only one that does not turn into sugar when passing through the body. Fiber actually slows down sugar absorption. There are complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates.
There are several great reasons to control your carbohydrate intake. Managing diabetes (blood sugar), improving mood, improving energy, and weight loss are a few of these reasons. Cutting carbs is really difficult to do without setting goals and following a plan to help stay on track. It is hard to only eat a few potato chips. Eating half the bag happens before you know it. Stocking up on fresh fruits, vegetables and other food items are a much better idea. They are full of nutrients that are healthy for the body and are great snacks during the day. Those labels are put on foods for a reason. Reading them is a necessity when trying to cut carbs to lower calorie intake.
Why does cutting carbs work?
Cutting carbs is a great plan for losing weight. It makes sense because eating an excess of carbohydrates will fill the bodies storage tanks and the rest will be stored as fat. Another way to think about it is, many high carbohydrate foods are high in calories and unburned calories are what puts on the pounds. Who eats just one slice of toast.
Most people eat two or three. Do you over-eat bananas, apples, carrot sticks and celery? Generally, the answer is no. Overeating tends to be the high carbohydrate foods. High Carb foods are high in calories. When the body takes in more calories then it works off then it produces weight gain. It takes burning 3500 more calories than you eat to burn off 1 pound of body fat. Eating too many high calorie carbohydrates makes it difficult to burn off fat to lose weight and very easy to gain weight.
Is cutting all carbs a good idea?
Cutting all carbs would be really difficult for most people to do and unhealthy. Having no carbs in the daily diet is extremely restrictive and unsatisfying. For the longterm, learning to control the amount of carbohydrates , eating the right kinds of carbs, and learning how to use them as a tool to burn fat is a much better way to live. It is beneficial to cut carbs, but not remove them entirely.
Lowering carbs in the daily diet is a lifestyle change that can be maintained instead of a crash diet where the pounds come right back. Controlling carbohydrate intake is a much better solution. Carbs do turn to sugar, but they also break down into energy quickly. It's eating the wrong types of carbs, and in excess, that causes weight gain. It makes more sense to eat a diet high in protein and low in carbs in order to build muscle mass and provide higher levels of energy.
Eating lots of protein and the right kinds of fat helps a person feel stronger and more energetic. Cutting carbs entirely reduces the nutrients the body needs to be strong and healthy. It is the unused carbs that create the unwanted weight gain. A limited amount of carbs allows the body to actually burn fat while working out and build energy. This is why athletic teams have pasta feasts before competition. A reduction in carbs allows the body enough to use for burning fat while reducing the amount that causes weight gain.
Losing weight is a balance of eating right, lowering carbs, and exercise. Without exercise it is very difficult to lose weight. Cutting carbs completely out of the diet will result in weight loss, but it does not allow the body to function properly. The best way is to lower carb intake and eat fiber rich and low calorie foods.
Lower carbs in the daily diet instead of cutting them out entirely. Choosing fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, high fiber, vitamins, and minerals is the healthy and most longterm solution. A healthy diet is not something you do for six months just to lose weight. It is a way of life. Following a diet that a person cannot maintain for life is not the answer.
Tag :
Healthy Living,
Weight Loss
