Leafy Greens Vegetables and Health Benefits

Without leafy green vegetables in your diet you are missing out on many health benefits. These leafy green plants are truly a miracle of nature, they are loaded with minerals and vitamins. They are low in calories so you can eat your fill. There are numerous was to eat leafy greens, added to casseroles, in sandwiches, and an addition to any salad.

What are Leafy Green Vegetables?

Depression How Diet can Help

This is something that I have had almost ALMOST a lifetime of dealing with. But there are things that can help. Read on to see how your diet can improve your mood.

Depression can be offset or even eliminated when your diet consists of nutritional and healthy foods. Indeed, certain foods are not just good for you physically; they also enhance your mental and emotional states as well.

There are many causes of depression and of course, if you feel that depression is a problem you should consult a licensed medical professional to get proper medical advice.

Benefits Of An Alkaline Diet

In the average American diet, many consume foods which are too acidic to effectively promote and maintain a healthy body. Some examples of these acidic sources we consume are refined sugars, dairy products, and meat, such as, beef and pork. There are different side effects that result from a high-acid diet, such as, a diminished immune system and lethargy.

A sugar high can feel good every once in a while when eating rocky road ice cream, but remember that unless you attempt to alkalize your body, you run the risk of a crash as a result. Alkalizing the body is not difficult, but, in order to understand the benefits of doing so, one must first understand the definition of alkaline foods, how they work with the body, and which foods in particular will counteract the effects of their acidic counterparts.

Anti Aging the Holistic Approach

Holistic is defined as: relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts. So the Holistic Approach is the only way to go. Let's face it, modern medicine is about return business. There is not much money in seeing people just once.

The holistic approach for anti-ageing is not some New Age trend. For thousands of years people in Eastern cultures have viewed lifestyle and self-care to be essential in facilitating a healthy ageing process.

Functional Fitness - Fitness For All Ages

Functional training, also referred to as functional exercise is any workout that adapts or develops exercises that allow individuals to perform activities of everyday life more easily and without risk of injury.

The truth is that just because you can lift heavy at the gym and do 20 minutes of HIIT every other day, does not mean that the next time you lift your 65 pound suitcase on your way to the airport that you won’t throw your back out.

Functional fitness focuses on training the body in such a way that it can handle day to day real life activities, like lugging groceries, picking up kids and others.

So, instead of focusing on lifting a certain amount of weight, or the proper form of a particular exercise, functional fitness trains us to become better at real life positions and to perform every day activities that we are all tasked with.

Junk Food How to Remove it from Your Diet

Just as the name suggests junk food is junk. Junk food is full of calories that do absolutely nothing for your body. These are called empty calories because they have no or very little nutritional value. The truth is that most of these calories come from sugar and fats and they will do nothing but increase weight and body fat.

Junk food can also cause you to retain water which will make you feel bloated and sluggish. This causes you to feel tired instead of having the energy to get up and move around. The long term effects of eating junk food can be extreme from causing you to be overweight to causing the clogging of arteries that leads to heart attack.

Why do people love junk food? The truth is that our brains have very positive reactions to fatty and sugary foods. It induces “feel good” hormones in the brain that actually mimic the effects of powerful addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin. It is no wonder that we need them.

How many people have cravings for spinach?

But, cravings for ice cream, chips, soda and cookies is a whole other matter. In order to overcome these perilous food addictions, you must retrain your body, change old habits and change tastes. It takes time and effort, but, it can be done.

Did you know that there are thousands of fitness conscious people who NEVER touch any junk food? Yes it’s really true! Removing junk food from your diet is an important way to become proactive when it comes to your health.

How To Remove Junk Food From Your Diet

It starts with some common sense.

Many people say that it is cheaper to eat junk food than it is to eat healthy food. Or they use the excuse that they just don’t like the way healthy food tastes.

First you will have to reprogram your taste buds to get used to eating healthy foods. You have been eating junk food all of your life, this is what your body is used to and what it will crave but it is up to you to retrain your body and your mind to crave healthy foods.

It is not cheaper to eat junk food!

Let’s forget about the fact that you will save thousands on medical bills by eating healthy and let’s look at what you are spending right now.

Potato Chips Versus Oranges

A bag of potato chips costs about $3.99 this will usually last a family of four one day, if that long. But, for me it will last one setting, then it gone.

Now let’s look at a bag of oranges. One bag of oranges costs about $4 on average. When you buy a bag of oranges you will get 8-10 oranges. This can make as many as 16 snacks which can last up to four days for a family of four. Now you have to look at which you would rather your family or yourself eat.

Potato chips are loaded with fat, salt and a lot of calories. 1 ounce of Lays plain chips has 160 calories, 1 grams of fat and 170 grams of sodium (7% of daily allowance). An orange has 0 fat, 0 salt and only 45 calories. Plus, it’s loaded with essential nutrients, like vitamin C (a whopping 85% of the daily recommended allowance), plus potassium and fiber.

When eating a bag of potato chips you may be watching television, letting all of that fat attach itself to your body, but, when you eat that orange, you are energized simply by the smell of it.

And, this is just one example of how junk food compares to healthier options. Next time you go to the market do some comparison shopping and you will see that the prices of healthy food are not so different from junk food. There are also plenty of healthier snack options available that can fill kid’s lunch boxes with healthier alternatives.

Planning
It may take some planning when you are removing junk food from your diet, but, it is possible to eat healthy on the same budget you have right now.

Healthier Substitutions For Junk food

When you remove junk food from your diet you will find that you suffer from cravings. Here are a few substitutions you can use to get past the cravings.

• A square of dark chocolate instead of a chocolate candy bar
• Unsalted pretzels or no butter popcorn instead of chips
• Baked vegetable strips instead of chips
• Raw nuts instead of chips for a crunchy snack
• Plain yogurt with fruit, honey, or nuts instead of ice cream
• Flavored sparkling water instead of soda
• Fresh fruit instead of cake and cookies
• Raisins instead of candy
• Cherries instead of candy

Substituting In Recipes
There are also ways that you can alter your favorite recipes to create a healthier version. For example instead of using butter in your cakes and cookies you can create a healthier version by substituting the butter with apple sauce.

You can also use non-fat plain yogurt instead of sour cream or mayonnaise. If you are a real lover of mayonnaise than try replacing it with avocado on your sandwiches. It has the same texture and you never miss the empty calories of the mayonnaise.

Bottom Line

These are just a few things that you can do to remove the junk food from your diet. There are so many other options that you can do, but, rest assured it is possible to remove the junk food from your diet and replace it with much healthier alternatives. This will ensure your good health and the health of your family.

Healthy Replacements for Junk Food & Healthy Junk Food on WCIU TV (video)

For more, visit http://www.stepitupwithsteph.com
Steph stopped by WCIU's "You and Me This Morning" in Chicago for National Junk Food Day! She's sharing her healthy favorites to replace your favorite junk foods. Kind bars, Popchips, carrots and hummus, and protein smoothies are taste-good junk food options that you can integrate into your daily diet! Stephanie is a Chicago life coach, a Chicago personal trainer in Streeterville, River North, and Gold Coast, a Chicago yoga instructor, a Chicago lifestyle expert, and a Chicago Pilates instructor.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post "Junk Food How to Remove it from Your Diet"
Thanks again and Y'all come back now

Keep Smiling
reuben

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Seniors Healthy Eating Practices

As people age, their bodies require extra care and attention to ensure that health and vitality are maintained. The number of calories one needs begins to decline, making it important that every calorie consumed is filled with the necessary nutrients aging bodies require.

Many seniors notice that as they slow down, they need more rest and specific foods to feel energized. The diet one keeps as they age can make a big difference when it comes to longevity and energy, making it imperative that the right foods are included in one’s everyday lifestyle.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of choices to consider, and seniors may not know where to begin when building their new healthy diet.

Blood Pressure Foods that Help and Hurt

When you have high blood pressure, foods can either help or harm you. Let’s take a look at a few rules of thumb when it comes to foods and controlling your high blood pressure – these tips could lead to saving your life.

Some foods are important to add to your diet when you have high blood pressure. Foods high in potassium have been shown to help reduce blood pressure. This includes foods such as kidney beans, cantaloupe, dried fruits, bananas, potatoes, and carrots.

A Longer Life Starts with a Healthy Liver

The liver it is something most of us do not think about. Yet the liver function is affected by everything we eat and drink. Living an unhealthy lifestyle makes the liver work twice as hard to keep the body clean.

The second largest organ in our body; it is the organ that processes and purifies our blood, metabolizes proteins and stores essential minerals and vitamins. It removes harmful bacteria found in our bloodstream. If there is a problem with the liver then the other organs are impacted as well.

Food that Burn Fat

Eating foods that burn fat, is the easiest way to lose and maintain your weight. And weight is one of the issues that my mother has with her blood pressure.

Since most people that travel the internet don't want to read I have the images of the foods that burn fat, though out the post. Because, I can not put, all of the images, of the food that burn fat, in this post, at the bottom I have a (actually three) list that you copy and paste into your word processor.

I have also embeded a youtube video, that the young woman has in simple, to understand English, explaining calorie intake and dieting, to help us succeed. Enough of this - let us get to the article.

Healthy Blood Pressure How to Achieve and Maintain

One of the most important things to keep healthy is your heart. When it comes to heart health it is critical to achieve and maintain a health blood pressure.

The best time to achieve and maintain a healthy blood pressure is before you are diagnosed with hypertension (a reading of 140/90 mm Hg or greater).

If you have already been diagnosed, it is not to late, only when they throw dirt in your face, have you waited to long. My poor old grey-headed mother almost waited to long. Being my mother she is almost as pig-headed as me and waited way to long to go to the doctor. Her doctor is trying to get the medication right, and I will be publishing quite a bit on blood pressure. So, sit back, relax, take your shoes off, and let us get started.

Things That Help

Healing Your Digestive System for Better Overall Health

This is something that I have to pay attention too, healing my digestive system for my overall health. So sit back and let us see what we find out.

Power Packed Foods the Top Ten

We all know that the first step to a long, healthy and prosperous life is choosing the right foods. All foods are not created equal. Choosing and eating the right foods, has no other chose but to increase your life expectancy and the quality of your life. If you are going to live longer, you need to be healthy enough, so you can keep producing.

I have ten of the top power packed foods designed to give you energy, vitality and all around good health. At the bottom I will have a smoothie recipe, a power packed drink that can not do anything but help.

The Power of Antioxidants for Staying Young

Model of the antioxidant metabolite glutathione. The yellow sphere is the redox-active sulfur atom that provides antioxidant activity, while the red, blue, white, and dark grey spheres represent oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon atoms, respectively.

Antioxidant Rich Foods With Every Meal

There is better way of maintaining that youthful look and healthy glow, without turning to the plastic surgeon's knife. Making peace with the aging process and keeping that healthy glow, is as simple as changing the types of food's we eat. God has put in a magical ingredient in certain foods and that magical ingredient is antioxidants, which gives you the power, for staying young.

Antioxidants, has shown its face on the pages of magazines, been wrote about in medical journals, and has become an additive in every product from hand creams to supplement. Now, I don't think that processed products, are as good for us as the natural forms.

Why Carbs Are Important to Fuel our Brains

There is so much information out there in the news and in the papers about carbohydrates. They are good for you, they are bad for you. Just like the egg in the 70's. With all this different information, it has done only one thing. Confuse me. So I wanted to find out what is, fuel for my brain, and if carbs are important.

So it seems that when you feel sluggish, confused, irritable, and even foggy-headed, these conditions can be attributed to your brain being hungry. Yea! that right, your brain just does not have enough energy to do its job proper. And let us face it the brain has a lot of work to do.

Understanding the Body's Natural Healing Process

Our bodies has a natural ability to heal itself. Our bodies natural healing process kicks in to correct all kinds of health problems, from illnesses to injuries. After a hard days work it has to recover, you have to be in shape to get up and do it again.

According to Wikipedia this is the definition of healing.

Building a Healthy Immune System

Building a healthy immune system

God in his infinite wisdom, has given us an immune system that does an excellent job at fighting all those nasty little germs, that want, to do us harm. However, do to many factors in our lives, our immune system can weaken. Giving those nasty little bugger an entry port. And they take full advantage, illness could soon follow.

The jury is still out on the debate as to whether or not lifestyle changes, vitamins and supplements will effectively boost the immune system. But, it took them till the late 90's to realize that Grandmaw's chicken soup actually helped the common cold. Positive lifestyle changes should have positive benefits.

I have found out that building a naturally healthy immune system is not difficult. There are quite a few things that can help. I have a few suggestions, implement as many as you can.

Good Foods for a Healthy Liver

14 Foods that Cleanse the Liver"

The liver is a very special organ, and if truth be known probably the one most abused by most of us. Everybody seems to be taxing their liver, those personal life chooses we make. Some of us work the poor gland in overdrive. That's why it is important to know what foods are good to eat, for a healthy liver.

The drinking of alcohol (how many of y'all can drink just one), recreational drug use, prescription drugs, and even the toxic poisons sprayed on our fruits and vegetable. All over work our poor livers.