Eating For Health

Almost everyone seems to think water is the healthiest choice for a beverage.   Yet, is it?   WebMD ( Types of Tea and Their Health Benefits and Health Benefits of Green Tea )   has had a few articles on the benefits of tea drinking.   It seems drinking tea is great for our health.   Various studies have shown that tea can help prevent cancer, prevent diabetes, prevent heart disease by lowering our cholesterol, and help us be more alert.   Is there a downside to drinking tea?   The only downside would the drinking sweet tea loaded with sugar.   But the tea itself is a very healthy choice for a beverage. What tea has these benefits? Green, black and white tea all provide health benefits.    What is in the tea that provides us so many health benefits?   Flavenoids - - are a unique antioxidant.   These help prevent the build up of “free radicals” which can lead to cancer or heart disease by clogging our arteries.   Substances, like antioxidants, that prevent the build up o

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (at eatright.org) celebrates National Nutrition Month in March as it has for forty years.   Each year the Academy has a theme and this year it is, “Eat Right, Your Way.”   This is to focus on basic healthy eating and not any fad diets or latest trends.   In their press release , the Academy noted: “Eat Right, Your Way” Individual food preferences and food choices are OK. You don’t have to give up your favorite food to eat healthy. Eating healthy can be tailored to individual lifestyles, culture, traditions, tastes. It is the overall eating pattern and total diet that is important.   The Academy issued helpful hints about eating right whether you are a student, a vegetarian, busy parent, executive.   What do they suggest in this recent press release ?   Work Days: Healthy Snacks- keep healthy snacks at your desk.    Single size servings of nuts, whole wheat crackers, peanut butter, dried fruit, canned tuna.   Keep sim

     Many of us have heard about foods with supposedly great health benefits.   The grapefruit diet is based on the myth that grapefruit somehow melts fat away.   Similarly, there is a myth about a vinegar drink to cleanse our system.   But are there superfoods, foods that pack an extra health benefit?   Well there are a number of foods that are super healthy and can be considered a “superfood”.   These foods have no special powers but do pack a lot of nutrients and other beneficial substances like antioxidants.   What is so good about antioxidants?   These substances help prevent cancer and decrease our risks of age-related diseases.   Sweet potatoes – many people malign the potato.   But the sweet potato is rich in vitamin A (carotene), providing us 9 times our daily dose.   It also offers fiber and they are a rich source of potassium, making them a heart-healthy vegetable.   If someone gives you sweet potatoes from their garden this summer, store them at 85-95 degrees for a

Almost everyone who hears the word “diet” thinks of weight loss.   But all of us eat a “diet” every day.   Our diet can be healthy or unhealthy depending on our daily food choices.    R esearchers have studied people’s diets across the nation, what they eat and how healthy they are as a result of their eating habits.   They found that those who ate a Mediterranean Diet not only had “healthy” eating habits but were less likely to die of heart attack or stroke.   So effective is this diet, that the New York Times notes :   ...about 30 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease can be prevented if they switch to a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables, and even drink wine with meals. These findings were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.   But studying this diet is not new as a professor from the University of Minnesota, Ancel Keys, PhD, studied this diet in post World War II.   At that time