Nutrition

A ”Flexitarian” Diet Meets in the Middle

— By Liza Barnes, Health Educator

“What do you eat?!” may be the question most often heard by vegetarians, as if meat is the only food group available. Obviously, as the five million thriving vegetarians in America have shown, there’s a lot to eat, without choosing meat—and they’re healthier as a result.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, vegetarians have lower rates of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and asthma. While simple recipes abound for tasty meatless fare, vegetarianism is a leap that many aren’t prepared to take. But you can still have many of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet without trading your turkey for Tofurkey by trying “flexitarianism” on for size. Flexitarians, or semi-vegetarians, are “sometimes” vegetarians, meaning people who reduce some of their meat consumption and fill the gap with other plant-based food groups—eating a mostly vegetarian diet, yet remaining flexible.

Although the name is new, the idea is not. In fact, a few generations ago, meat was most often eaten in side-dish portions, while other food groups took center stage. Beans, vegetables, and grains supplied the bulk of a meal, while the meat supplied the flavor. This might sound backward, but many nutrition experts agree that our health would benefit if we took this “old-fashioned” approach to eating.

Eating less meat and more grains, beans, fruits and veggies means you’ll be consuming fewer calories, less saturated fat and cholesterol, and higher amounts of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. And that adds up to a lot of health benefits. On average, people who eat less meat are leaner, less apt to weight gain than people who eat the most meat, less prone to cancer, especially colorectal cancer, and suffer from fewer heart problems.

Another benefit is that you’ll save money. Meat costs more per pound than most foods. You can use that extra cash you save to get a gym membership, new running shoes, or an iPod for your workouts.

Committing to a 100% vegetarian diet isn’t necessary to achieve the health benefits that vegetarians enjoy. There aren’t specific guidelines to exactly how much meat to cut out to achieve these benefits, but cutting back even slightly is a positive change. A national health campaign known as Meatless Monday promotes cutting out meat one day each week, but you could try meatless lunches during the week for the same effect.

Now, replacing a sirloin steak with a can of pinto beans might not appeal to you. But how does roasted tomato-eggplant ratatouille with rice, or spicy black bean chili and cheesy cornbread sound? There are many meals like these that taste so good you won’t even think to ask “where’s the beef?” Eggplant parmesan, pasta salad, bean burritos, and vegetable fajitas are some good examples. Admittedly, a flexitarian diet will call on your creativity. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Stock up on vegetarian cookbooks. Some good ones to try include Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison and The New Moosewood Cookbook, by Molly Katzen. These and many other titles are available at your local library, so you can check them out before you commit.

• If you’re cooking at home, make your main course meatless and serve meat on the side. You could have vegetarian lasagna and a salad topped with cubed chicken, roasted eggplant and zucchini sandwiches with antipasto, or spinach frittata and a side of organic sausage.
• Pick a meatless day each week. Or go vegetarian during the week and omnivore on the weekends. This will give your body a break from processing all that cholesterol and saturated fat, and balance your overall caloric and fat intake.
• • Try some meat substitutes. Most vegetarians enjoy cold-cuts as much as anyone, but theirs are made from soy, and are lower in fat and cholesterol-free.
  • When dining-out, scour the menu for vegetarian options—restaurants usually offer at least one. If not, choose an entrée that is served with veggies and grains—like pasta, or stir-fry.
  • Fill up in the garden. Imagine your dinner plate is divided in quarters. Fill two quarters with veggies, one quarter with grains, and the last quarter with meat.
  • Eat your veggies first. Along with vitamins, they’re also loaded with fiber, which will begin to satiate you before you dig in to the meat.
  • Bank your meals for the future. If you go to a restaurant and order a steak, order a take-away container along with it. Cut off a section about the size of a deck of playing cards, and that’s your dinner. The rest will make a great lunch tomorrow and maybe even more—all for the price of one meal.
  • Skimp on cheese. There is a common pitfall for anyone attempting a vegetarian or semi-vegetarian diet—substituting one saturated fat (meat) for another (cheese). Remember that cheese is high in saturated fat too, and can contribute to health problems if over-consumed. Rely on vegetables and whole grains to fill in the gap instead.
  • Check out www.MeatlessMonday.com for more ideas and recipes.

   

  • What it all boils down to is balance and moderation. Although moderation never sounds exciting, the benefits to your health, your waistline, and your wallet can be very exciting indeed!

By Lou Schuler,

Our modern world conspires to make us fat and keep us fat. Here are the weapons that can help you fight back.

A recently study from the American Dietetic Association revealed that even though two groups of individuals ate the same amount of calories, individuals who at 30% more of one particular nutrient sported low levels of body fat while the other group was clinically overweight and/or obese.  Ouch!

What’s this magical nutrient?  Well, it’s found in foods like:

Apples
Pears
Berries
Beans
Avocado
Sweet Potatoes
100% Whole Wheat Pasta
Brown Rice
Artichokes
Oatmeal
Peas
Brocolli

And a ton of other foods…

The nutrient is fiber, and you BEST to be getting your fair share (~30 grams a day) cause it packs a ton of benefits like:

**slowing digestion and gastric emptying to support stable blood sugar levels and decreased insulin output (this means more fat loss)
**signaling the release of hunger crushing hormones supporting feelings of fullness and appetite control
**promoting weight control independant of calorie intake (as the ADA study revealed)

Basically, it’s one of those super nutrients that you should be aiming to consume with every meal, and it’s found in abundance in most fruits, vegetables, and whole grains…so stock up, and eat up!

Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, eczema … all of these conditions are widely recognized as stemming from chronic inflammation. BUT did you know that heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes — even obesity and aging itself — also have a strong inflammatory component, and may in fact be caused or exacerbated by unchecked inflammation in your body?

Inflammation is a hot topic in medicine right now, and for good reason.

Inflammation is the reason for pain. And while you’ve probably experienced the “good” kind of inflammation — the redness, heat and swelling that occurs at the site of an injury, for instance, which is a key part of your body’s healing process — chronic inflammation is much different. Ongoing inflammation in your body is often the result of stress, unhealthy lifestyle and exposure to toxins, and it serves no useful purpose. Instead, it actively contributes to disease and imbalances in your system.

Foods that fight inflammation are therefore an invaluable way to maintain your health and prevent disease. Whereas certain foods are decidedly pro-inflammatory (sugar, alcohol, trans fats), others, like many fruits and vegetables, are anti-inflammatory.

Adding more of these foods to your diet is one of the simplest, and smartest, ways to boost your health, so without further ado, here are 10 top options to consider.

1. Broccoli

Phytonutrients in broccoli, such as sulphoraphane, are known to fight inflammation of the joints, respiratory system, colon and more. One study even found sulphoraphane may help prevent the activation of an inflammatory enzyme known as COX-2, similar to how anti-inflammatory arthritis drugs work.  However, while the COX-2 enzyme will begin triggering inflammation as soon as the drugs are stopped, researchers suspect the sulphoraphane may stop to COX-2 enzyme from increasing, thereby stopping inflammation before it starts.

2. Olive Oil

Olive oil contains a natural anti-inflammatory agent researchers have named oleocanthal. Like sulphoraphane in broccoli, the substance acts on the COX enzymes, acting as a natural non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent.  Consuming olive oil for breakfast has even been shown to repress in vivo expression of several pro-inflammatory genes, which researchers suggested may help explain why there is a reduced risk of heart disease in Mediterranean countries, where olive oil is a main source of dietary fat.

3. Blueberries

Rich in antioxidants known as anthocyanins, studies show blueberries help ward off both inflammation and oxidative stress. In particular, eating blueberries daily for six weeks increases anti-inflammatory molecules called cytokines, even if the body is engaging in strenous exercise, which is known to trigger an inflammatory state.This suggests blueberries may offer a protective effect against inflammation when your body is in stressful situations.

4. Fish

Fish are an important source of omega-3 fats, the anti-inflammatory healthy fats that are known to help prevent cancer, arthritis, heart disease and more. Omega-3 fats play a powerful role in regulating inflammatory processes, and research shows that women with the highest omega-3 fat intakes had a 44 percent reduced risk of dying from inflammatory diseases compared with women who ate the least.

Eating oily fish like salmon and mackerel, in particular, have been shown to improve inflammatory conditions, but King Mackerel is actually one of the most dangerous types of fish to eat based on average mercury levels. You have to take potential pollution into account when choosing which fish to eat – you can find which fish are safest to eat here.

However, even the safest fish to eat still have some small amount of mercury contamination. If you want to get anti-inflammatory omega-3 without eating a ton of potentially harmful fish, it is highly recommended you supplement with a high-quality option like Super Omega CoQ10.

Along with the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA found in fish, Super Omega CoQ10™ also contains CoQ10, which serves as the miniature “power switch” found in all 100 trillion cells of your body. Our Super Omega CoQ10™ supplement contains high-quality fish oil concentrate, too, which helps reduce inflammation throughout your body.

5. Nuts

Nuts are another natural inflammation fighter. They contain not only omega-3 fats, but also antioxidant vitamins, dietary fiber, L-arginine and magnesium, all of which play an important role in modulating inflammation. In fact, studies show eating nuts helps reduce your risk of dying form an inflammatory disease.[vii]

6. Tart Cherries

Tart cherries are rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins that yield powerful anti-inflammatory benefits. Studies show consuming tart cherry juice reduces important markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), while a tart cherry-enriched diets reduces plasma inflammation, abdominal fat inflammation, and cardiac inflammation, all known risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

7. Kelp

Kelp contains a complex carbohydrate called fucoidan as well as chlorophyll, which have anti-inflammatory properties. When choosing sea vegetables like kelp for a snack, be aware that, like fish, they can accumulate toxins from the water in which they grow. Always choose sea vegetables that come from unpolluted waters.

8. Fermented Foods

Kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and other fermented foods are rich in friendly bacteria known as probiotics. These good bacteria influence your health in numerous beneficial ways, one of them being to help curb systemic inflammation. One recent study found that people with inflammatory conditions like ulcerative colitis had lower levels of inflammation after taking a probiotic supplement for 8 weeks. Even healthy people who took probiotics had a reduction in inflammation compared to those taking a placebo.

9. Papaya

This tropical fruit contains the enzymes papain and chymopapain, which help lower inflammation. In addition, it’s a rich source of antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene, which also have anti-inflammatory effects.

10. Green Tea

Rich in natural anti-inflammatory compounds called flavonoids, green tea has been shown to actively increase anti-inflammatory substances while decreasing pro-inflammatory substances in animal studies. Researchers have conclued, “ … drinking adequate amounts of green tea may play a role in the prevention of inflammation-related diseases.

In addition to adding these top foods that fight inflammation to your diet, you can also make sure you’re consuming The Top 12 Anti-Inflammatory Ingredients. These ingredients are some of the most powerful, safest, and most effective pain relievers in the world. By feeding your body with the inflammation-fighting foods noted above and the 12 most effective inflammation-fighting natural ingredients below, you’ll give your body a powerful and proven one-two punch against inflammation and pain…

from www.losethebackpain.com

By Dr. Kareem

There is so much ‘gook’ in your system,
it’s pretty disgusting if you think about it…

Your colon, intestines, and entire digestive
tract are ridden with build-up of toxins mixed
with bile, inflammation, and food deposits.

This is mostly because of the immobility of
our intestinal tracts that takes place over time.
We inflame ourselves and end up having a
difficult time excreting bowel contents, suffer
from constipation, and even worse, stop absorbing
the nutrients that matter most to our health.

There are a ton of things you can do to improve
your digestive health, including, but not limited to:

• Quarterly 3 Day Detox
• Make sure you stay away from radical methods such as ‘Master Cleanse,’ in my opinion.  I really don’t believe at all in depleting your body 100% of all the nutrients it needs for an extended period, as this cleanse asks you to do.  It’s dangerous, in my opinion, and it only leads to poorer health
  in time, although the philosophy is to give your digestive tract a break.
• Instead, consider checking out a much more natural and less extreme, cleansing method, like the 3 Day Detox.  In my professional opinion, this is much more effective and removes the danger or radical cleansing.
• Increasing fiber intake
• My favorite thing to do here is carry around a bag of baby carrots all day long. For the entire day, every time I’m hungry in between meals, I’ll first consider filling my belly with carrots, before moving on to other more tempting foods.
• Balancing hydration and electrolyte consumption
• if you don’t get a lot of electrolytes naturally from fruits,
  make sure you include this as part of your hydration strategy)
• Consuming digestive enzymes, specifically designed to help you process food more easily.
• I get my enzymes through my superfood cocktail
• Supplementation – the best Digestive Supplement I know of is:  Ultimate Digestive Health
• This helps with regularity, if that’s a concern.
• Exercise designed to improve intestinal mobility.
• Lower intensity, longer duration on Day 1 and Day 3 – promotes circulation.
• High intensity, super short duration on Day 2 and Day 4  – promotes reciprocal nervous system response by hyper-stimulating your Sympathetic Nervous System
  during your exercise so that your Parasympathetic Nervous System takes over after you exercise and naturally results in increased digestive prioritization.

If you are suffering from poor digestive health, make sure you implement
as much of the above as possible.

However, if you’re not even sure about your digestive health, but you’re feeling fatigued, weaker than you should, and under-nourished considering your otherwise healthy nutritional intake, it’s time to cleanse.  Do this the right way with the Easy 3 Day Detox: