It is not a question anymore of why is it necessary to have a strong and healthy body; it is a question of how we are going to sustain a healthy body. We know the benefits of having a healthy body. However, many of us don’t know how to sustain a healthy body.
This is the true challenge, and once you can master the concept of keeping your body fit, you’ll be able to fight any physical, mental, and emotional disability better than the others.
So how do we sustain a healthy body? We can keep our body in good shape when we feed it with the right nutrition, and at the same time, we do regular exercise. Physical exercise is known to be very effective in keeping our bodies working properly.
This is because good exercise can strengthen the immune system, which is responsible for defending our body against any diseases. Furthermore, it can also improve our body’s digestion, blood circulation, and musculoskeletal function.
The Basics of a Healthy Body
Another way of keeping our body healthy is to allow it to have full rest. Throughout the night, our body is working to repair and maintain body parts that are not functioning well. Therefore, depriving ourselves of sleep will cause us to feel weak and eventually feel fatigued.
On the other hand, when we are fully rested, our body can easily repair cells and gain enough strength for the next day.
Furthermore, when our body is consistently healthy, we can handle stress easily, and we will become more resilient to any infection. Also, a well-maintained body can effectively fight back chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and much more.
More than that, these diseases can be prevented when we are maintaining a healthy body through exercise and proper nutrition.
On the other hand, staying fit also means keeping a good body build.
The more time we spend exercising, the more calories we burn. Based on studies, when we exercise for at least 30 minutes daily, our food intake will be reduced from high to average. This also means that our calorie intake will be balanced, which result will give us a healthy and controlled weight.
Maintaining A Healthy Weight With The Right Foods And Not Dieting
When it comes to the subject of weight loss, the first thing that comes to our minds is dieting. However, there are arguments that came out that it is not dieting that will help us maintain a healthy weight, but it is eating the right foods.
Common sense would tell us that when we eat less nutritional food, we are not feeding our body enough nutrients that it needs to function properly. Therefore, when our body is not properly nourished, there is a tendency that gets sick because our body parts cannot function well.
Eat Healthily
Again, the answer to weight problems is not short-term dietary programs that give out fast results. Instead, the key is feeding our body with the right food, having healthy lifestyles, and engaging ourselves in regular physical exercise.
In short, we don’t need to get quick results; we need to get lasting results in a natural way.
The good thing about losing weight the right way is that it does not only give us long-lasting effects, but it will also help us to stay healthy and look younger as we age. Here’s how to get started with eating right to look and feel good.
Choose a healthy lifestyle over a short-term diet. When it comes to staying fit and healthy, there is no such thing as a quick fix. It should be done gradually and properly to get permanent results. Although prevalent diets can help you get a good start in your weight loss objective, it’s not the package that will give you enduring benefits.
Establish a support group that will help inspire, remind, and support you with your plans. You can combine people and tools in taking each step and maintaining a healthy weight. Ask any of your friends or family members to be your support group and let your plan be known to them so that they can guide you throughout.
Also, to complete your support system, you may want to add a weight loss tool that can help you trace your calorie intake and more.
Make a real change slowly but consistently. Remember, it is not about the thing that you do that will make you successful in maintaining your health, but it is how persistent you are in doing it.
Therefore, it is also important that you make achievable and effective goals for you to stay motivated. When temptation attacks, focus more on the long-term benefits that you will receive rather than the temporary ones.
Lastly, consider experimenting for you to discover the right diet that can supply your needs aside from keeping you in great shape. This is because whatever you do, finding happiness and satisfaction in it will make it worth the effort.
What You Need To Know About A “Raw Diet.”
For many years diet programs have evolved. A few of the most popular diets are the Atkins Diet, Zone Diet, Vegetarian Diet, South Beach Diet, Mediterranean Diet, and Raw Food Diet. In this article, we will talk about the Raw diet.
The Raw Diet
The way raw diet enthusiasts describe this regime is “it’s like a magical potion handed on a salad plate.” This is because its effect is delightful, it makes people feel like they don’t age, and rather they grow younger. More than this, the feet have so much energy to do things because they feel light and teeming.
A raw diet is distinguished by food that has been heated to a certain level, normally around 104 to 115 degrees. The reason for this is that when the food is heated elaborately, the enzymes will be destroyed, and when they’re destroyed, we will not be able to get all the essential benefits that our body needs.
However, there are disputes to this claim, and they are telling us that while it is true that cooking destroys enzymes, eating raw food will not give much of a benefit. This is because as soon as the food reaches the acidic nature of the stomach, the enzymes will also be destroyed.
Thus, the same thing occurs in whichever process you prepare the food. The real reason why the raw diet is perceived as an effective method for maintaining a healthy weight and body is that it’s a plant-based diet that is known in helping us to move on a healthier path.
Most raw diet enthusiasts are vegan because it is a 70 to 80 percent plant-based diet. When you go for a raw diet, you should be ready to eat fresh fruits and vegetables all the time as well as other raw products such as unpasteurized milk, raw meat, and the like.
On the subject of losing weight, raw diets can deliver great results as long as the rules are being followed. The general rule is to eat a smaller amount of calories to weigh less. But the final question is, while this has several benefits, will there be a health risk that goes with the raw diet?
The answer is yes! When you are practicing the raw diet, you have to avoid food poisoning as it is common when food is uncooked.
Using Juicing For Better Physical Health
No doubt eating vegetables will make you healthy. The question is, will drinking vegetable juices give out equally healthy benefits? Or will it give more? I know you want to know the truth about juicing, that’s why you are reading this. To give you this satisfaction, read on, and learn more.
Juice It Up!
Juicing will allow you to consume more vitamins and antioxidants for an obvious reason; you can consume more vegetables when it is in liquid form compared to when you eat vegetables in solid form. Studies show that drinking juice of raw vegetables helps fight back chronic diseases such as immune disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancers, skin diseases, and many others.
Furthermore, drinking raw vegetable juices is excellent for your digestion because your digestive system uses less energy to digest and liquefy food. Thus, it can rest more. Although you will not be able to benefit much from fiber, you will surely be delighted with the benefits that a live enzyme can give knowing that juicing will preserve the enzymes since the food is uncooked.
Then again, we need to understand that juices are not created the same except when done freshly. For bottled juices, make sure to read the labels because highly concentrated fruit juices can significantly increase blood sugar levels, aside from the fact that it has less nutritional value since they underwent the artificial process.
To conclude, it is best to prepare fruit and vegetable juices by yourself to ensure optimum benefits. To enjoy it more, you can try combining a few types of fruits and veggies while you experiment until you find your favorites. Nevertheless, you can try some great mixes such as blending leafy vegetables like spinach and cucumber, mixed with apple or carrot to add some sweet taste.
What You Need To Know About Natural And Organic Foods
Over the years, there has been confusion concerning natural and organic foods. Today we will talk about how these two differ from each other. Many people cannot differentiate natural foods from organic, maybe because of how it is labeled and marketed. However, if we study deeper, there is, in fact, a major distinction between the two.
Know The Facts
Organic food is defined as all foods that are grown in the absence of pesticides, fertilizers, irradiation, growth hormones, antibiotics, and genetic engineering. Furthermore, it is the product of organic farming, where the system used in growing foods enhances biodiversity, soil biological activity, and biological cycles.
Natural foods, on the other hand, are foods that are prepared with little or no preservatives as well as chemical additives that are usually present in other processed products.
While it is true that organic foods will lessen the chemicals and pesticides that you get from chemically processed foods, it doesn’t mean that you get more health benefits out of it because even nonorganic foods are still within safety levels and therefore organic foods are not necessarily more nutritious.
The reason why other people choose organic foods over traditional is that it tastes better, but in terms of health, there is not much of a difference.
Furthermore, whether or not the food is organic, the chance of bacterial contamination in food is still uncontrollable. On the other hand, there are other benefits of natural and organic foods which include better taste as it has better firmness and texture.
Choosing The Right Fats
We are perfectly created. Therefore even fats have an important role to play. Having said this, let me describe fat first. Fat stores energy while it shields our vital organs. It is also known as the passage system of fat-soluble vitamins. We need it in our bodies but only in moderation. Eating fat in large amounts will make us grow heavier and will increase the chance of reaching the level of obesity.
Get The Right Stuff
To stay within the healthy scope, we must only consume at most 55 to 60 grams of fats per day. There are several types of fat, and they are categorized into two broad categories, which are, “The bad fats” and “The good fats.” Each type has different effects on your health.
The bad fats are identified as Trans Fats and Saturated fat. When vegetable oil undergoes a certain process called hydrogenation, trans fat is informed. This process causes the oil to harden; as a result, hard facts are produced.
Moreover, trans fat increases bad cholesterol and decreases good cholesterol levels; this condition increases the risk of having heart disease. The most common sources of bad fats in our daily diet are fried food, cakes, pastries, cookies, and the like.
Saturated fat works in the same way as trans fat. It increases bad cholesterol levels that cause heart diseases. Some of the identified sources of saturated fat are fatty meat, margarine, dairy products that contain high fat, and other food prepared with coconut milk and palm-based vegetable oil.
On the other hand, the two good fats are polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat. These two reduce the bad cholesterol in the body, which in effect will keep the body healthy and away from chronic diseases.
Polyunsaturated fat reduces the dangers of blood clotting and decreases the risk of heart problems. Its major sources are food rich in omega-3 like sardines, mackerel, salmon, and longtail shad.
Other sources are canola oil, walnuts, sunflower oil, soybean oil, and the like. Monounsaturated fat also reduces bad cholesterol in the body. The foods that are rich in monounsaturated fat are peanut oils, nuts, canola oil, and olive oil.
It is easier to exceed fat consumption than to stay on average. But now that you already know the types of fats and their benefits, always choose the good over the bad. Also, strive to consume fats in moderation as even good fats when taken excessively can be harmful to your health.
Choosing The Carbs
Dietary carbohydrates, also known as saccharines, have actual sugars and starches that are responsible for providing energy to humans, animals, and even plants. Carbs in a real sense have advantages and disadvantages, especially since right now, food production has dramatically changed as well as how food is consumed.
Proper Selection
Carbs have two types, monosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides can be easily digested and absorbed by the body. It is normally obtained in fruits and specific dairy products.
Other sources of simple carbohydrates are pasta, white bread, and white sugar.
Polysaccharides, on the other hand, take a longer period to be digested and absorbed by the body. It is normally found in vegetables, legumes, whole grain bread, brown rice, and the like.
Unrefined grains are good sources of complex carbs compared to refined grains; this is because the filtering process removes the fiber and nutrients present in grains. Therefore, eating unrefined grain products will give you lasting energy.
While carbs are essential in the body, we must make sure that we are picking the right carbs to consume. To do that, we need to understand carbs even better and know how to use them to our advantage. The catch is, that we need to eat the right carbs that our body needs for us to sustain the right energy.
It is recommended by the experts that for an adult’s dietary energy, 40 to 65% percent of it must come from carbs, and around 10% of it should be simple carbs. Too many cravings for high-glycemic foods will not only make us fat but also increases the risk of acquiring diabetes.
Talking about diabetes and weight problems, cutting all carbs in your diet is not the solution. Carbohydrates are very important in providing our body with enough nutrients, vitamins, and soluble fiber that is good for maintaining healthy sugar and cholesterol levels.
So how do we choose the right carbs? Here’s how. Switch from low-glycemic foods and reduce calorie intake to at most 250-500 calories per day. Moreover, allow yourself to consume 20g to 35g of fiber in a day. One of the best sources of fiber is whole-grain foods.
Protein is known as very low in carbs. Consume foods that are lean in protein such as nonfat dairy products, skinless poultry, tofu, legumes, and fish. On the other hand, you must avoid foods that are high in saturated fats like pork, high-fat dairy products, and beef.
What Does It Mean To Your Health To Be A Vegetarian
A vegetarian is a person who prefers eating vegetables and no meat at all. However, it does not mean that they don’t eat foods other than vegetables; they still eat other food but strictly no meat.
Many people try to go vegetarian because of health and weight loss benefits. Studies show that cutting some meat into your diet will give you more benefits regarding achieving a healthy weight and body.
Know The Facts
A lot of people are lured to vegetarianism for many different reasons. Some want to live healthier and longer; others would love to preserve animals, and some just want to shed some pounds by eating pure vegetables.
There is something you need to understand about being a vegetarian. Vegetarian diets will protect you against most types of diseases, including heart disease and cancer. In the U.S., around 1 million people died because of cardiovascular diseases, and right now, it is considered one of the major causes of mortality in the U.S.
Also, vegetarian diet patrons acquire more fiber than those meat-eaters. This is because veggies are rich in fiber, and at the same time, they are high in antioxidants that will keep you healthy and younger-looking.
Being a vegetarian is also effective in losing weight because it is plant-based. What is good about it is that you lose weight without even measuring the calories that you have consumed and best of all you don’t feel hungry as you can eat whenever you want to.
The more vegetables you eat, the more fiber you get that can help you regulate your bowels, which is also good prevention for colon cancer.
More than achieving a healthy weight is attaining a healthy body and a longer life. Research shows that when you switch to a healthier vegetarian diet, you are adding 13 more years to your existence. This is especially true when you go on a low-calorie diet, unrefined complex carbs, and soy and fiber-rich foods.
Vegetarians also enjoy high amounts of calcium from calcium-rich vegetables like broccoli, collards, kale, and turnip greens. Other great sources of calcium that are present in vegetarian diets are soymilk, dry beans, and tofu.
Ultimately, aside from having strong bones, you will also experience more energy than you need to last the day.
It provides longer vigor since eating vegetables will prevent your bloodstream from clotting, giving a good passageway for oxygen to be used by the body. Therefore, a vegetarian diet will keep you energetic throughout the day.
Foods To Kick To The Curb
I know most of us can relate when I say that there will always be that bad food that we don’t want to give up no matter how badly we want to get healthy and fit. What we can do is identify and be familiar with our usual food intake.
We can list down all of the foods we eat and identify the foods that we need to give up or consume in strict moderation.
What To Avoid
To guide us through this, we can consider the below guidelines to help us succeed in keeping our bodies fit. We should know to what level we should be avoiding such foods.
First, the list is red meat. If we want to stay healthy, we need to throw out red meat from our diet as it will not give us any good. It is best that we go for white meat instead. Next, would be frozen and processed food.
These foods are high in calories and contain preservative chemicals. The majority of us are consuming frozen and processed foods because of the convenience it brings. However, we must pay greater attention to our health than our convenience.
Also, we are well aware that fast foods are not good at all. Kick it out to give way to healthier and tastier foods. Soft drinks are one big temptation.
A lot of people are addicted to sodas. If you are one of them now is high time for you to give up your favorite soda and let your body become chemical and sugar-free. When you do that, your body will thank you forever.
Alcoholic drinks are included in the list. It is not bad to drink alcohol when taken in moderation. However, if you want to lose weight while obtaining a healthy body, it is best to drop the idea of drinking. Normally we can avoid drinking alcohol if we have illnesses that we need to treat, therefore pulling out from alcoholic drinks is possible.
Lastly, when all the foods above are eliminated from your regime, you can be sure that you will become healthier and leaner. Of course, it will not happen in an instant, and things will happen gradually.
Don’t leave it off and continue changing for the better, one day you will wake up, and you will be used to it. You will realize that keeping yourself healthy is not a challenge anymore, but a regular part of your system.
The Benefits Of Eating Right For A Healthy Body
As we all know, eating the right foods in the right amounts will give us the maximum benefits. However, most of us are not well educated on the right types of food that are needed by our bodies to function properly.
Some of us don’t even know when to stop eating. When we eat the right kind of food, we are allowing the body to be properly nourished. Hence, as a result, we will be able to gain health benefits from our healthful efforts.
The Rewards
There are several benefits to eating the right food. Below is the list.
1. Maintains a healthy body weight
2. Maintains a normal blood sugar level
3. Reduces the risk of heart attacks
4. Reduces the risk of cancer
5. Improves good blood circulation and maintains stable energy levels
However, despite the benefits mentioned above a lot of people still tend to avoid eating right for the reason that they are under the impression that whether or not they eat good food, there is not much of a difference in their health status. Others tend to evade eating the right food because they cannot afford to live such a healthy lifestyle.
It is true that each of us has different needs. Thus, it would be better if we discover and explore more healthful ideas that will best suit us. In general, health professionals always recommend eating the right food for a healthier body.
A healthy diet is composed of protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water. These elements need to be taken in proportion to be able to get optimum results.
The good thing about this idea, when you start eating the right foods, there is a possibility that your family and friends will begin to follow. Aside from that, when you start a good habit and strive to carry on with it, chances are you will become more motivated to continue what you are doing. Thus, staying away from unhealthy foods will never be that difficult again.
Maintaining a healthy body and mind is not that difficult of a task. In reality, part of the hardest part is making the decision to make some changes in your lifestyle. The sooner you can be honest with yourself about the choices you make in your life, the sooner you can begin to live healthily.
Properly maintaining your body is key to handling the stresses of everyday life. It is also crucial in maintaining the energy levels we need to accomplish our daily tasks.
Take the first step in changing your health by utilizing the steps and tips from the above guide. All it takes is practice and effort, good luck!
