Eating For Health

We have all heard that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day for good health.   But is this true?   What if you drink coffee, tea and only 4 glasses of water a day?   Are you unhealthy?   Now that it is summer, paying attention to fluid intake is a good idea.   How do you know if you are becoming dehydrated?   Thirst is the first sign of dehydration.   So if you are thirsty, get something to drink to replenish your body fluids. Does coffee, tea count as fluid?   Yes.   Both are fluids that can help you stay hydrated.    Popular belief says these drinks contain caffeine so they don’t count as “fluids” or part of the 8 glasses a day.   But that isn’t true.   Researchers have found that the caffeine in these beverages doesn’t cancel out their hydration effects. Does milk, juice or even foods like watermelon – other foods count towards our “water” intake?   Yes.   All liquids count towards your fluid intake.   Many foods have a high water content such as watermelon.    In f

Many of us hear the word “exercise” and we groan.   But simple walking is exercise.   But to be healthy we need to add some aerobic exercise to our routine.    Why aerobic exercise? Heart – our hearts are a muscle and as such we can strengthen our heart muscle with aerobic exercise.   This will increase the size of your heart and make it stronger and pump more efficiently.   An athlete has a heart that is about a third larger than a normal heart because they have strengthened their heart muscle.   Cardiac efficiency – a stronger heart pumps more blood with each beat.   This delivers more oxygen and nutrients to your cells.   Heart rate – a stronger heart pumps more blood with each beat so it needs to beat less.   This gives you a lower heart rate which Is good for your heart and your health.   Your heart just doesn’t have to work as hard to get oxygen and nutrients to the cells in your body. Exercise recovery – do a sprint and one gasps for air.   With a stronger heart your

Just returned from a 10 day trip to France.   I was looking forward to all their great bread and cheese.   It was a group trip, about 31 people in all: many college students and some adults.   Our first day we got off the plane in the morning, stored our luggage at the hotel and our tour guide began our tour of Paris.   Yes, we did take the metro into Paris proper but then the walking tour began including Notre Dame and many sites near there.    In a park a French teacher had a group of elementary students out for a picnic lunch.   What was striking was there were no overweight kids in the class.   Then a group of high school students came with their lunch, again no overweight students.   As we continued our walking tour, I noticed many Parisians walking to lunch, to the metro, carrying their 2-3 foot long baguettes.   Again, I observed that no one was obese and almost all were normal weight.   That night I looked at my pedometer and we had walked 5.6 miles.   The next day was

I was talking to a neighbor and she said her college age son was borderline for high blood pressure.   I told her he should eat a banana a day.   She looked at me with surprise.   Most people have heard of lowering sodium for high blood pressure but not as many have heard of increasing potassium.     Potassium is one of 7 nutrients the USDA has said Americans aren’t getting enough of.   Are you lacking in any of these nutrients? Potassium – not only helps keep our blood pressure healthy it also helps our muscles and nerve function.   Food sources:   Bananas Milk Sweet potatoes  Legumes   Avocados   Magnesium – since so many of us eat white bread and few fruits and vegetables, we may be missing out on magnesium.   Low levels are linked to osteoporosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, muscle cramps, and heart disease.   Food sources:                 Whole grains   (e.g. oatmeal)      spinach    beans   nuts (especially almonds)   Vitamin A – pretty easy to get i