Eating For Health

Who doesn’t like to eat out and enjoy meals with family or friends?   Many of us now bring hand sanitizer to restaurants when eating out and think we have done our “germ prevention”.   But did you know that there are many items in restaurants full of germs?   What are these items and what steps can you take to enjoy eating out without risking getting ill?   WebMD has a great article outlining these items, Germiest Things in Restaurants .    Menus:   Many times, I get to a restaurant and pull out my hand sanitizer, clean my hands, and then open the menu.   But WebMD notes some of the germiest items in a restaurant can be the menu.   Ever get a paper menu?   Paper menus are less germy than the plastic menus.         Suggestion :   Look at the menu and then wash or sanitize your hands, especially before enjoying some finger foods like many appetizers.   (See:   Healthy hints for choosing restaur...

Who among us isn’t trying to reduce the size of our bellies?   Are there really foods that can help cut the belly fat?    MSN listed foods this week that are worth a try.   Even if you don’t add all of these, some are really easy to incorporate into our diet and daily routine.         Onion and leeks – so easy to add to our diet.   Onion slices on our hamburger, onion in our salads.   How do they work?   Onions produce butyrate which is a prebiotic that encourages the growth of good bacteria in our intestines.   The butyrate also helps one burn body fat.            Artichokes and asparagus – on a recent trip to the Cheesecake Factory, my daughter and I enjoyed the fire-roasted artichoke appetizer.   Absolutely delicious.   Asparagus is now plentiful at our local farmers markets where I live and a great health food.   These two are also prebiotics and they produce acet...