Healthy eating for vegetarian TEENS (2 of 2)

Iron: Plant foods with plenty of iron include broccoli, raisins, spinach, Swiss chard, tofu apricots, lentils, chickpeas and pinto beans. Fortified breakfast cereals provide iron, too. However, the kind of iron found in meat is more easily absorbed by your body than the iron found in plants. The trick is to eat or drink food with lots of vitamins D (i.e. orange juice) along with your meals. This helps increase the amount of iron you absorb from vegetable sources.

Vitamin B12: This vitamin, found in animal products but not in plants, helps your central nervous system function properly. Although only a tiny bit is needed, it is critical. Vegans need to add some to their diet through fortified foods.

Going Veggie Among Meat Eaters

These days, it’s quite easy to go meatless in a meat-eating world. There are usually plenty of appetizing options in restaurants, cafeterias and supermarkets, from vegetarian sandwiches to couscous, roasted vegetables, pasta and coleslaws. Many restaurants also offer salad bar fixings and non-meat entrees such as baked potatoes. Finally, there are many ethnic restaurants (Indian, Chinese and Thai) that offer a rich array of non-meat dishes. And of course, there is always pizza

Types of Vegetarians

The term “vegetarian” can include many different kinds of diet, here are three are primary ones:
♦ Semi-vegetarian—no red meat. Occasional fish and poultry.
♦ Vegetarian (lacto-ovo)-no meat, fish or poultry. Animal products such as eggs, milk, cheese are eaten.
♦ Vegan—no animals or animal products. Many vegans also will not wear leather, wool, silk or use goose down because there come fro animals.

Healthy eating for vegetarian TEENS (1 of 2)

You have decided to join the growing number of teenagers who are “going” vegetarian. Perhaps you choose to do so because of your concerns about animal welfare, healthy eating, or for religious reasons. Whatever your purpose, making sure you have an adequate diet is very important. Here are some information you should know.

The Key to Healthy Eating: Variety

The years between 12 and 18 are a time of enormous change and growth, so your nutritional needs are specially high. A vegetarian diet can be very good in this regard-if you include a healthy variety of foods. Eating nothing but crisps and salads simply will not do. A good diet includes at least five portions of fruits and vegetables every day, as well as whole grain products, nuts, seeds and legumes (beans and peas). Milk products and eggs are included as well, except in the vegan diet.

Here is a short primer about nutrients of special concern in a vegetarian diet:

Energy: As you grow, your body request extra energy. This can easily be met in a vegetarian diet by including a good selection of high-energy foods, such as fats, spreads and oils, nuts and seeds.

Protein: Can you get enough protein without meat in your diet? Absolutely. Milk and cheese are excellent sources. So are soya beans, pulses, lentils and nuts. Your goal should be to eat a variety of theses foods over the course of a day.

Calcium: This mineral helps build bones—very important for you right now. Milk and cheese have plenty of calcium. But what about vegans? The good news is plant foods provide calcium, too, if you know which to choose and eat plenty of them. Green leafy vegetables such as kale, turnip greens, okra and Chinese cabbage, as well as broccoli and fish are good choices. But calcium is so important you may want to take calcium supplements or consider calcium-fortified soya milk or orange juice. And remember: strong bones also result from exercise and sunshine. So make sure you get both.

Ginkgo (Ginkgo Biloba)

There is promising evidence that ginkgo improves memory and brain function. Purchase ginkgo biloba extract standardized to con tain 24% flavonol glycosides and 6% terpene lactones (should say on label). Typical amount is 120 to 240 mg of ginkgo biloba extract daily, divided into two or three doses. Avoid taking with blood-thinning medications or aspirin. Small number of people may experience headache or stomachache.

Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon)

Cranberry helps prevent urinary tract infections. It usually consumed as juice or in capsule. Very safe, but see a doctor if you think you have a bladder infection. 8 oz of juice or 400 mg of cranberry extract in capsule.

Evening Primrose Oil (Oenotherabiennis)

Studies indicate it may be helpful for menstruation-related breast pain. Also used to treat eczema. Usually standardized to provide 320 mg linoleic acid (70%) and 40 mg gamma-linoleic acid (9%) per 500 mg capsule. Typical for breast pain is 3,000 mg a day, in divided doses; for eczema, 3,000 to 6,000 mg per day, in divided doses. Considered very safe. Patients on seizure medication should talk with their doctors before taking.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Used as a mild sedative and calming agent. Approved by German health authorities as a treatment for insomnia. Although some clinical trials report fast onset of action, full effects may take two to four weeks. Products standardized to 0.8% valerenic acids. Typical amount for insomnia is 400 to 600 mg of a standardized extract, 30 to 60 before bedtime. Generally considered safe but should bot ne taken with other types of sleeping medications or tranquilizers. Not prescribed during pregnancy.

Anti-Aging Plan (3 of 3)

Preosteoporosis: What is it?

Coined just 15 years ago, the term osteopenia (or preosteoporosis) describes bone densities that are lower than normal. It is not a disease. But rather a descriptive term to identify people who are starting to lose bone mass. Osteoporosis, which can be an outcome of osteopenia, is a known as the silent disease because it has no outward symptoms until a bone breaks. Ten million Americans, 80 percent of them women, have osteoporosis. But the number of people on their way to osteoporosis is much higher: 44 million Americans—33 million women and 11 million men—have osteopenia.

How do I find if I have it?

A noninvasive bone density scan measures bone strength. Bone density scans are rated by something called a T score. Normal bone density is anything above a T score of 1. Osteopenia starts at a score of -1, but it is not really a concern until the score drops to between -1.5 and -2. Osteoporosis is diagnosed at -2.5.

Should I get tested?

Because osteoporosis overwhelmingly affects women, all women should have a bone density test by age 65. Younger women should get tested if they have entered menopause and have any additional risk factors. These include a personal or family history of fractures; smoking, drinking in excess: taking corticosteroid or thyroid medications; or having type 1 diabetes or chronic liver or kidney disease. Men who pursue exclusively non-weight-bearing exercise program such as serious cyclists, any also want to get tested.

A recent study found that even very fit male cyclists could be at high risk for developing osteoporosis later in life if they pursued no other forms of physical activity.

Anti-Aging Plan (2 of 3)

Prediabetes: What is it?

Prediabetes (also known as metabolic syndrome) is fairly new term that describes when a person’s blood sugar level rises higher than normal but not quite high enough for a diabetes diagnosis. The estimated number of Americans with this condition is near epidemic: 41 million, or about 40 percent of adults 40 to 74. By contrast, only 6 percent of Americans have diabetes itself. If prediabetes is not properly treated, people are at a high risk of developing diabetes.

Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes (to which prediabetes can lead occurs when the pancreas produces the hormone insulin, which allows blood sugar to enter cells, but the cells of the body are insensitive to the insulin and thus become starved for sugar.

How do I find our if I have it?

Two tests help detect prediabetes, the fasting plasma glucose test (FPG) and the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Administered in the morning, the FPG test measures blood sugar after an overnight fast and again two hours following a sugary drink.

Should I get tested?
Every one should have their blood sugar checked when they reach 45. However, if you have certain risk factors, you should certainly get checked earlier. So talk with your doctor about blood sugar testing if you are younger than 45 but are overweight, or have high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, a family history of diabetes, or a history of gestational diabetes or giving birth to a baby weighing more than 9 pounds.

Anti-Aging Plan (1 of 3)

Good morning to all. I’m sure with this article many will be benefited. Even if someone is still young they should have to care for themselves.

Treating the disease you don’t yet have.

Predispositions towards diabetes, osteoporosis, and hypertension are among today’s fastest-growing diagnoses. We’ve marshaled the best natural tips for aging healthfully-and disease free.

Even if your mother’s and grandmother’s bones fractured from osteoporosis, or all the men in your family seem to die from heart disease, your future is far from preordained. You have ample opportunity to change your health outlook for the better, thanks partly to a new health care trend that has doctors diagnosing people with such conditions as prediabetes, preosteoporosis, and prehypertension (high blood pressure). An array of early screening tests can now pinpoint your potential problem areas. Then it’s up to you to create a diet and lifestyle that provide maximum protection.“

Finding out that you have a predisposition to a disease is actually an opportunity.” “It is a chance for you to take charge of your health. By making simple adjustments-such as working out with weights if your concern is osteoporosis-you will be much more in control of your future health.”

Calcium Consumate

Putting backbone into your bones with nutrition’s other “Big C”.

Now we know we mom always told us to drink our milk: Calcium, the mineral found in a glass of milk (290 mg), is also the mineral most needed by the human body. Besides building and maintaining good strong teeth, calcium helps regulate the heart’s normal functions, and is essential in coagulation, acid-base balance, muscle growth and contraction, nerve impulse transmission, and the passage of nutrients through cell walls.

Calcium is also crucial for optimum bone health. Children raised on a diet rich in this mineral not only strengthen their still growing bones till their teens, they also prevent the onset of osteporosis. A condition wherein the bones as so brittle, they break at the slightest impact, osteoporosis affects women after age 35 (the time when bone mass reaches its peak and begins to thin back) in the seventh and eight decade of life.

Athletes who adhere to intense training programs are also susceptible to this disease, as are people who smoke, drink and eat meat, sugar and salt in great excess. While sugar and sodium increase calcium exertion, too much alcohol and the preservatives in canned sodas stimulate bone breakdown, and cigarettes and excessive protein inhibit proper calcium absorption. At least 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day—2oo mg to 500 mg more if you’re teens, are pregnant, or are lactating—reduces, if not eliminates altogether, the chances of developing osteoporosis. Excellent sources of calcium includes low-fat milk, dairy products, calcium-fortified fruit juices, beans, cauliflower, oranges, eggs, tofu, dark leafy vegetables like broccoli and spinach, and sardines, salmon, and other seafood that you can eat in their entirely (i.e., including the head and the bones.) Vitamin D aids in the proper absorption of the mineral, and weight-bearing exercise like running or tennis ensure that you’ll be walking tall and proud—an osteoporosis-free!—in the years to come.

Cereals…..Your Best Bets for a Nutritious Breakfast (3 of 3)

For Adults, Too

Children don’t have the monopoly of the nutritional benefits from cereals. Even adults stand to enjoy the same benefits—10% less calories (of which 20% comes from fat and 40% from complex carbohydrates), 75% less cholesterol, 33% les sodium, and 50% more of essential vitamins and minerals. And alas, cereals are virtually fat-free!

Like children, adult cereals eaters enjoy lasting benefits from including cereal in their diets. After a day’s full diet, cereals will have given them lower intake fo calories from fat, 40% less cholesterol, greater amounts of com0lex carbohydrates, and 20% more of essential vitamins and minerals.

And when it comes to your kids, or you, having cereals for breakfast, you can’t go wrong with Breakfast Cereals! Available in six delicious flavors—KokoKrunch, Cornflakes, Apple Puffs, Honey Stars and Gold. All fortified with vitamins and minerals. Truly the excellent way to start your day!

Cereals…..Your Best Bets for a Nutritious Breakfast (2 of 3)

Hello everyone! Here I am again. I know most of you out there don’t want to get fat by eating this kind of food. But it’s problem free. We all know that more than you eat any kind of food is harmful. Eat right and you will have no worries at all.

Who’s Afraid of Sugar?

Most mothers know that sugar is the enemy no. 1 of healthy teeth. And so the question: isn’t sugar an all important ingredient of most ready-to-eat cereals? The answer is yes, especially of the pre-sweetened kind of cereals. But contrary to popular beliefs, cereals are only a minor contributor of sugar to children’s diets. Only less that 4% of the children’s total daily intake of sugar actually comes from cereals; the rest from other foodstuffs. Research has also shown that children’s total sugar intake from cereals at breakfast is not much heavier than on non-cereal days; in fact, it is even slightly lower.

Why be afraid of such sweet stuff as sugar anyway? There are actually many kinds of sugar, aside from what we serve on the table to sweeten found. Some sugar occur naturally in foods. And regardless of whether a sugar is added to food or whether it is naturally occurring, it is used the same way by the body.

Sugar does contribute to the development of tooth decay, that’s fact. However, a lot of other factors are at play here. It is not the amount of sugar, but the frequency of consumption. The incidence of tooth decay is also influenced by the form in which sugar is taken (sticky or liquid), the amount of liquid consumed with the sugar-laden food and other dietary factors.

And since breakfast cereals are taken with milk 86% of the time, they hardly contribute to tooth decay because milk helps wash the cereal and the sugar off the teeth. And to top it all the mineral and protein content of cereals may even help neutralize the acid that causes cavities.

Cereals…..Your Best Bets for a Nutritious Breakfast (1 of 3)

Most of us adults think that cereals are only for the kids. But that’s all wrong. I want you to come along with me and have that knowledge and awareness that it can be eaten by anyone. Now it can be told: When it comes to giving your children a healthy breakfast, you can’t go wrong with cereals.

In a recent study on the nutritional values of cereals, the facts are crystal clear: Breakfast cereals give children 27% less calories, 38% less sodium and 75% less cholesterol, while furnishing them with 50% more of many essential vitamins and minerals than non-cereal breakfast. This should give your young ones a head start in meeting their dietary allowances, including iron and zinc which children usually have a difficult time consuming enough of.

These nutritional benefits actually last the whole day, going a long way in providing children with pep and energy. Whatever else they may choose to eat the rest of the day, cereals in the morning already assure them of 20% more of seven essential vitamins and minerals, including iron and vitamins A and B6, than non-cereal breakfast. At the same time, cereals enable them to get less that 35% of their total daily calories from fat and 40% less cholesterol – no matter what else they usually take in during the day.

Cereals, in fact, are hailed by nutritionists as nutrient-dense, which means they contribute too little calories compared to the amount of nutrients they supply. Research figures show tha cereals for breakfast give only 17% of the children’s total daily calories while already supplying over one-third of their daily intake of many essential vitamins and minerals.

As an added bonus, children who are into cereals hardly ever skip eating breakfasts; if ever, they skip much less frequently than children who savor some other breakfast goodies.