Fiber Filler

Not all foods are created equal. When you go to the grocery store, there are endless choices and options, and the variety can be dizzying. You know you need to watch how much fat you ingest, you have heard that you need fiber, you think to watch your calories. You have the desire to be healthy, but at times it may feel like you are walking through a dense jungle to get to where you want to be - a state of radiant health.

Good nutrition and healthy living is a process, and something that you will work on daily for the rest of your life. The goal is to have the rest of your life be filled with energy and all of the benefits of good health and staving off debilitating diseases.

Take a look at refined foods. You may have heard the term, but what exactly does it mean? It is a process where a once whole food is stripped of the very ingredients that could make it nutritious, and those ingredients are replaced with refined sugars, salt, excess fat, and chemical additives.

In refined foods, all-important fiber is usually deleted. Fiber is important because it helps guard against constipation by increasing the volume and fluid content of stools, and it may work with certain types of bacteria to inhibit the formation of cancer cells in the colon. Some types of fiber, found in oat bran, beans, apples, and grapes, may lower elevated blood cholesterol. The National Cancer Institute recommends 20 to 35 grams of fiber per day. The average American is consuming only about 12. Fiber is also very filling, so you don't have to eat as much to feel full, which cuts down on the amount of foods you need to eat overall.

When eating processed and refined foods, the fiber has generally been removed, and then synthetic fibers are added back in so as to appeal to those who are concerned about their health. Isn't it better to eat the original, closest-to-nature variety, then to eat something that is added in later as an after-thought? It is better to eat a bowl of bean soup and follow it up with an apple than to eat a couple of slices of white bread with some processed meat and cheese in the middle. Guess which one will fill you up longer and give you more for the mouthful in terms of nutrition?
It is recommended that we eat 3 to 5 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables a day. A serving of fruit can be an apple, a cup of grapes, a banana, half a cup of canned peaches. Servings of vegetables can be a cup of fresh, or a half cup of frozen.

With a steady diet of refined foods, you may constantly feel hungry, literally starving your own body. Make a conscious decision to replace these types of foods with ones that are fiber-rich, so that your body can feel like it actually had something to eat!

Inferior Foods Reign Supreme

Whole foods are the most sensible choices when it comes to putting nutritional value on our plate.

So why would we pile on anything less?

It's a simple matter of economics. A multi-billion dollar's worth, to be exact.

Refined foods are big industry, and draw enormous profit. When industries are accustomed to bringing in big profits, they do what any industry would do: protect those profits at all costs. In addition, these profits bring power, and information can be put forth, covered over, or otherwise manipulated to protect that power.

Does this sound paranoid?

Think about it: big industry can invest big money. In this case, the refined foods industry can fund a great deal of research. Anything that is found that could reduce sales and profits is certainly not going to be broadcast to the general public!

There is a counter-balance to this conglomerate, in the form of a much smaller, but very valuable, independent research contingent. Their voices strive to broadcast the message that through their research, they have found that the increase in disease and obesity has a direct correlation with the increased consumption of nutritionally inferior products. These products are put out by the refined foods industry, in the form of overly processed, nutritionally substandard food. They are "quick and easy", and have been stripped of their essential nutrients. The shortage of nutrients in our daily diet leads to multiple deficiencies, the severity of which is determined by our overall diet. The very vitamins and minerals that are bodies require in order to fight off illness are discarded in the processing phase.

The good news is that as long as the deficiency hasn't caused lasting damage, it can be reversed as soon as we begin to incorporate those nutrients back into our diets in the form of whole foods nutrition.

There is already a push to limit the amount of advertising that the refined foods can do, similar to what has been done in the tobacco industry. Most reprehensible has been the amount of advertising that has been directed at children during commercials between cartoons. Characters are created for the purposes of the advertising, and these foods seem like "friends" to the young mind, because they blend in with the characters they are seeing in their favorite programs.

For the sake of our collective health, sweeping changes need to be made, in the form of more research on nutrition, and focusing on the nutritional value that our bodies can get from whole foods eating. It has already begun, as more and more fruits, vegetables, and grains that are common in other parts of the world have been imported and become more familiar. Organic products are also thriving. As people learn more about what they put into their bodies and the effects, they are willing to make changes in order to improve.

When the refined foods industry protects its profits "at all costs", this includes your health. Are you willing to continue to pay the price?

Is Chocolate Really Good For You?

The makers of M&Ms and Snickers say that they have developed candy bars that they say "promote heart health" and "lowers cholesterol."

One such product is called "Cocoa Via". The nutrionist and spokesperson for the candy company, Dr. Kris Clark, says it has health benefits because of two ingredients: plant sterols, which she says has been shown to lower cholesterol; and the second ingredient, cocoa flavinols, which she says has been shown to improve cardiovascular circulation.

Though it has also been reported by a highly reputable and unbiased outside scientist and nutritionist that these claims are getting ahead of the science.

In addition, to get these proclaimed benefits you need to eat two bars a day. Considering that each contains between 160-280 calories, you might want to think twice about the ramifications of adding these extra calories to your diet.

Nutrition news by Eat Well to Be Well.

A Delicate Dance

Antioxidants, vitamins, minerals... known to reduce the risk of... cancer, heart disease, diabetes... eat more: greens, grains, fruits, vegetables...

We hear the admonishments and advice in the news, on talk shows, and read it in magazines.
Do we have this much control over our health?

We do. While nothing is fool-proof, the idea should be to stock up on anything that can provide us with maximum health benefits, leaning the balance in our favor. It is truly our choice how we live.

We also hear a lot about vitamins and supplementation. It is implied that a state of perfect health cannot be reached without them. The idea is to shore up your eating habits with all of those nutrients you are missing at mealtime. Why are nutrients missing at mealtime? The culprit is our food choices. If you were to make a meal out of a loaf of white bread, wouldn't it make sense that you may be missing a few things in the nutrient department? While the example is a little extreme, the thinking is the same. What do your meals actually look like?

Logically, balanced eating habits that are rich in whole foods would be a better prescription than supplementing poor choices. There will be days in which you don't provide every single vitamin and mineral your body needs, but take a long-term perspective. Look at how you are eating over the course of a week. Plan meals that include ingredients from whole, unrefined sources. It can be dizzying to go into a grocery store and choose from the vast array of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain products that can now be found on shelves. Variety is the key to filling in any possible deficiencies, so mix it up and try some new recipes and ingredients each week.

Supplements aren't "bad" - they can assist in your overall plan for radiant health. But to rely on them exclusively is taking the seemingly easy way out, when it’s just replacing good nutrition with a man-made ingredient! Vitamins found in whole foods are much more effective than their synthetic counterparts. For instance, 70 mg of vitamin C in one cup of broccoli strengthens your immunity more effectively than 700 mg of synthetic vitamin C. Plus, there are other nutrients found in broccoli that makes it a more productive choice.

Research has found that with minerals, there is a balancing act going on inside of our bodies. You’ll read that in order for a certain mineral to be absorbed by your body, you need to ingest another mineral to help it along. This shows that a balance and variety of whole foods will work hand-in-hand to provide your body with its requirements for optimal functioning.

Choose balanced whole foods eating over the crutch of supplementation. Instead of spending your time trying to remember which bottle of vitamins you have or haven't taken for the day, use your time more wisely and eat foods that work hard for your body!

Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Obesity is linked to the development of type 2 diabetes, which can put people at risk of heart disease, blindness and limb amputation.

Treating diabetes and its complications costs an estimated $340 million a year and is predicted to rise to $1 billion by 2021.

The Government is deeply concerned about obesity and is trying to encourage people to eat more healthily and be more physically active.

ACNielsen qualitative research director Suzie Dale said the study's main significance was that it showed up the "slightly faulty rules" many people applied to food and obesity.

An interim report on the study says the research arose out of the links between obesity and the rising trend of people buying food at fast-food outlets, restaurants and convenience stores.

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Learn more about eating a healthy diet

Myth-busting on bone-breaking osteoporosis

We fell in love with these common myths about osteoporosis, found in an article from The Daily Times of Salisbury, Maryland:

Wrong: Osteoporosis is an inevitable part of aging.
Building a strong skeleton during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood may help individuals avoid osteoporosis later in life.

Wrong: Only older women get osteoporosis.
Women and men can develop osteoporosis at any age.

Wrong: Only Caucasian women get osteoporosis.
Fifty-two percent of Asian women age 50 and older, 49 percent of Hispanic women age 50 and older, and 35 percent of non-Hispanic African American women age 50 or older are estimated to have low bone mass.

Wrong: Osteoporosis is not very common.
Osteoporosis and low bone mass affect 44 million women and men aged 50 and older in the United States. This represents 55 percent of the people aged 50 and older.

Wrong: Osteoporosis is not a serious or deadly condition.
The consequences of osteoporosis are devastating and painful. Approximately 20 percent of hip fracture patients will die in the year after fracture, usually from complications such as pneumonia or blood clots in the lung, which are related to the fracture or to the surgery to repair the fracture.

Wrong: If I had osteoporosis, I would know it.
It is usually called the "silent disease." It is important to have your bone density checked frequently and eat a healthy diet.

Wrong: Once I have osteoporosis, there is nothing I can do about it.
Even if you have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, it is not too late to take steps to protect your bone health. Consuming the recommended amounts of calcium and vitamin D, performing weight bearing exercises and quitting smoking can help slow bone loss.

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Brought to your attention by this nutrition site.

The frailties of humanity

It’s difficult to get people to prevent something until it hurts, or until a loss is suffered. Let’s assume for a moment that it is finally proven that most diseases can be remedied with proper nutrition. Would humanity take it seriously and starting eating right?

Would you?

www.Eat-Well-To-Be-Well.com

Choose Radiant Health

We hear it on the news consistently: the decline of American health, the rising rate of obesity, and higher incidents of heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

How do we stop this alarming trend?

Given the appropriate nutrients through whole foods eating, the body has a remarkable ability to heal itself. Studies show that increasing our intake of fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer. Obviously there are other factors to consider, but if there is something that falls under our power to control - such as what we put into our mouth - why would we do anything less?

Overeating, especially of overly processed and refined foods, can contribute to premature aging. If you eat more food than your body needs, you are taxing the system to break all of that matter down. To add insult to injury, a refined foods diet gives little nutritional value in return for all of this effort. If you worked this hard for your boss and earned nothing in return, how would you feel? Wouldn't you want to rebel?

Eating a nutritionally sound diet does not replace expert medical advice, but it is a complement to it. While self-doctoring is never a wise choice, eating well is good common sense. It makes sense to treat our bodies to the very best we are capable of providing in the form of good nutrition.

Let's say at the age of 20, you are handed a form that lists heart disease, cancer, stroke, and obesity with little boxes next to them. It goes on to say that you should put an "X" next to as many choices as you want to have of these items. Would you be scrambling to locate a pen and trying to figure out what to choose first? Of course not! No one wants any of these choices. They are truly dread diseases. You would most likely rip this form into pieces and run, not walk, away.

If you were handed a form that lists radiant health, energy, clear skin, and strong bones, you would "X" all of these items to have for yourself! Now, you need to do what you can to claim those attributes for yourself.

Starting with your next meal, be conscious of your choices. If you don't do so already, start reading labels and figure out exactly what you are putting into your body. Are you giving it the best possible materials to work with, or are you taxing it with nutrient-absent foods? Try redefining "food". Is it food if it does nothing to fuel you, and is it worthy of you?

You can choose to do your part in not becoming one of the statistics in the news - this is one trend for which you don't want to jump on the bandwagon! Become an expert: learn to do what’s best for yourself, that will provide you with health and the strongest sense of well-being.