Healthy Foods

May 1, 2013

How to Burn Fat with Superfood ^{0}

Have you ever had an extra ten pounds that you can’t seem to lose? There are hundreds of different pills and diets that claim to be the miracle fix, but when you get down to it the only real results come from a combination of two things: understanding and diligence. You need to understand what you are putting into your body, what to expect as a result, and when to expect to see a change. If you can understand these things you will be one step closer to losing the weight you want to lose.

In order to effectively go about losing weight you need to have at least a basic understanding of how the body works when gaining and losing weight. The body typically stops producing fat cells after we go through puberty, and how much “fat” we have is determined by how full those fat cells are. These cells store fat as energy to be used when we don’t have enough nutrient rich food in our diets, but that energy is not efficiently used, or burned, by typical dieting. There are several ways to circumvent this process and start burning our body’s stored fat rather than burning short term energy sources, and one such way is to incorporate Superfood into your diet. Not only do Superfoods naturally burn calories and increase energy, but they inhibit the process by which fat is stored.

The second thing you need in order to have success with Superfood is diligence. Just like Rome was not built in a day, weight loss is not something that will happen overnight. However, if you have the desire to have more energy and lead a healthier life, than it might not be as quick as a day, but it will be that easy. All it takes is the motivation and you can be on your way to a new body with more energy today.

By Ben Category: Healthy Foods, Meal Tips

Apr 3, 2013

Simple Great Tasting Meals ^{0}

Cooking at home is a great way to make sure your children are being fed healthy food that will help them to grow and become strong. Ordering out for dinner or giving your kids money to buy lunch at school can all be tempting alternatives to cooking at home because the time commitment of cooking can be very daunting sometimes, but when you implement simple ideas in the kitchen you can almost guarantee that time you spend in the kitchen putting together sack lunches for the kids will be well worth it.

Part of putting together simple, great tasting meals is knowing what ingredients to keep stocked in the fridge. If you’re someone who doesn’t spend much time cooking at all, it might be necessary to look through a few cookbooks to see if you can find any recipes that you think your family will really like. By picking out a few favorite recipes, you can form in your mind the sort of things that you and your family will enjoy eating, together or on the go. When you become more comfortable cooking at home, you can start to tweak recipes in a way that will gear the food you cook even more towards pleasing your family. No matter how much you cook, there are always new combinations of spices and ingredients that will make each recipe something special.

Cooking at home also means making some of your own ingredients. While it might be easy to buy juice in bottles at the store, it’s only slightly less convenient to grab a bushel of apples and take them home to juice on your own in your cider press. Using a cider press is a great alternative to buying bottled or powdered juices. When you press your own apples with a cider press, you carry with you the satisfaction of knowing that your family is only getting the best. You can also rest assured knowing that the harmful chemicals and preservatives that are put in juice to make it look, last, and taste better are nowhere to be found. By simply adding a little sugar to the juice that you press and boil at home, you can create a yummy drink with very few ingredients.

This kind of conscious approach to cooking is the thing kids need in order to start taking health seriously. By creating a simpler menu for your children with fewer ingredients and more flavor, your kids will begin to realize the value and great taste that comes from cooking simple. Taking care of your children is important to you, so make it clear to them in the way you choose to feed them that they mean the world to you.

By Vivian Category: Food Like That, Healthy Foods

Dec 20, 2012

How Vegans Do Emergency Food Storage ^{0}

Emergency food storage for vegans is a little different than for omnivores but it isn’t hard. Many of the foods that do well in an emergency storage situation are vegan and it is relatively easy to substitute for the few meat, egg and dairy products that are commonly used. Canned and dried foods are usually the core of any emergency food storage plan, whether omnivorous or vegan.

Dried Foods

Lentils

Lentils cook quickly in 30-45 minutes and are a good source of protein and fiber. The beans need to be sorted in order to remove bad ones and rocks and then rinsed before boiling. They can easily be made more interesting by adding onion, tomato and spices which they are cooking and can be either made into soup or a thicker bean dish.

Pintos

Pintos take a bit longer to cook than lentils but otherwise share their good features. Sorting pintos is a little easier since the beans are bigger. Cooking is the same as for lentils except that these beans must be boiled for several hours before they can be eaten.

Grains

Wheat

Many items in our daily lives are made from wheat and storing this grain along with a grinder gives you lots of options. The flour that you can make can easily be turned into simple biscuits or breads, crackers, tortillas or even a hot cereal. Sprouting wheat seeds increases the nutritional availability of several vitamins and minerals as well.

Rice

Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice but emergency storage is one place where you might want to go with white. While brown rice has a shelf life of about a year after which the oils in the grains go rancid, properly-stored white rice has an indefinite shelf life. Rice and beans of any kind make a complete protein meal and can easily be made more interesting by the addition of canned vegetables and various spices.

Canned Foods

Tomatoes

Various tomato products can be used in cooking a wide variety of dishes. Choose your favorites among steamed, stewing, diced, sauce, or other canned tomato formats. Adding some spices to your emergency supplies gives you the basic setup for tomato soup, as well.

Other Veggies

Canned veggies aren’t as good for you as fresh ones but they provide many vital nutrients just the same. As well as adding interest to your dishes they provide nutritional support that might otherwise be lacking. Good options include corn, green beans, carrots, asparagus and onions.

Faux Meat

If you eat fake meat there are several types that can be purchased in a can. These items provide protein and are usually ready to eat which makes them extra convenient. Vegan hotdogs, faux ground beef and more are available in cans.

Author Bio:

Rowena is a blogger who enjoys writing about survival and emergency preparedness. She is currently promoting food for survival and emergency food supply information.

By Rowena Category: Eating With Medical Conditions, Healthy Foods

Nov 14, 2012

Healthy Thanksgiving Meal Ideas ^{0}

Thanksgiving conjures images of feasting with family, with a bounty of food and drinks to try. Thanksgiving dinner can be flavorful and healthy simply by creating a few healthy dishes to balance and compliment the less healthy ones. Those that highlight the autumn season’s bounty, including root vegetables and pumpkin, are a great addition to bring to the table.

Roasted Root Vegetable Medley

This easy side dish can be prepared in advance. The autumnal hues of these fiber-rich root vegetables offer a visually appealing presentation.

Ingredients:
6 red beets, peeled, cut into sixths
3 turnips, peeled, cut into sixths
2 large parsnips, peeled, sliced crosswise into 1-inch rounds
5 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, but into sixths
1 1-pound bag of baby carrots
12 garlic cloves, peeled
6 shallots, peeled, halved lengthwise
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the cut vegetables, garlic and shallots in a roasting pan. Add the olive oil, thyme and sage. Generously sprinkle the mixture with salt and pepper. Toss all of the ingredients well, until the vegetables are evenly coated with the oil, herbs, salt and pepper. Roast this for about one hour, stirring once halfway through the cooking time. Serves eight.

Pumpkin Bread

Loaded with beta-carotene, potassium and healthy fat with every bite, this satisfying dessert option makes the most of fall pumpkin spice flavors without the inclusion of heavy cream.

Ingredients:
1¼ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg
¼ cup vegetable oil
7 ½ ounces canned pumpkin
¼ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
½ cup raisins or dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a loaf pan. Mix all ingredients and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 ¼ hours. Cool to room temperature before removing the loaf from the pan. Makes one loaf.

Side dishes of vegetables and complex carbohydrates create a visual cornucopia of autumn’s bounty. In lieu of mashed potatoes laden with butter and heavy cream, consider mashing the potatoes with turnips and roasted garlic cloves for added flavor. Substitute white flour rolls and stuffing bread with whole grain variations. Instead of heavy cream pies, choose desserts that showcase the season’s fruits.

To your health, happy Thanksgiving!

Rowena is a writer for Ivein.com. In her spare time she loves to go hiking and read.

By Rowena Category: Healthy Foods, Meal Tips, Recipies Tags: Dinner, Healthy Meals, Thanksgiving

Oct 21, 2012

Top 5 Foods That Will Stain Your Teeth ^{0}

Everybody wants a winning smile, but we don’t always make the connection between the foods and beverages we put in our mouths and the effects that they will have on our teeth. If you want to brighten your smile, then you will have to pay close attention to the foods you eat every day.

Here are 5 foods that will stain your teeth.

DARK FRUITS AND FRUIT JUICES

Grapes, pomegranates, and berries of all types are notorious for staining clothes, so why would we want to let them stain our teeth too? Due to the concentrated levels of antioxidants and other goodies in these fruits, don’t eliminate them completely! Just be sure to limit their consumption and to brush as soon as possible after eating them.

CURRY

Red curry, green curry, yellow curry, and spicy-evil-jungle-devil-curry are all delicious, but they will absolutely kill your smile. If eating out at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants (or when cooking at home), stick with other options that are easier on your pearly whites, like Thai pad noodles or pho.

COFFEE, TEA, AND SODA

These habitually consumed beverages are major culprits in our battle against yellowness! If you just can’t get going without your java, then be sure to sip and swish some water in between cups. Can’t live without soda? Try colorless varieties like lemon-lime and all natural sodas.

SOY SAUCE

You probably don’t chug this stuff every day, but even a little dab will do you. To keep your teeth from losing their shine, find other ways of seasoning your rice dishes. Try substituting furikake or even ketchup spiked with some hot chili pepper sauce instead.

CIGARETTES

Okay, so this technically isn’t a food or beverage, but it’s earned its place in the Teeth-Yellowing Hall of Fame. A pack per day will dull your teeth just as much as any food listed above, so does that mean you should quit smoking to preserve your smile? Well, you could do that; it wouldn’t hurt. But there may be other options.

Try switching from regular to filter kings. That will keep some of those chemicals out of your mouth and off of your teeth. Also, consider substituting nicotine gum or patches for cigarettes for a portion of your day. Who knows…besides preserving your smile, these changes might actually help you cut back on smoking as well!

Reducing your consumption of these foods will go along way in whitening your teeth and giving you that beautiful smile you keep dreaming of. Be sure to brush, floss, and use mouthwash at least twice per day, and brushing your teeth after lunch isn’t a bad idea, either.

Author Bio:

Rowena works for a dentist in Temple Texas and is an expert on Dentrix software. When she is not blogging or working she enjoys live music and being outdoors.

By Rowena Category: Healthy Foods, Meal Tips

Mar 29, 2012

You Are What You Eat ^{0}

I am certain that at some point in your life that you heard this saying. Maybe your mom said it to you as you started on your third cup of root beer and fourth piece of pizza, if not then that was an experience that must be unique to my family. But you know what I am trying to say here. I was always curious about the origin, because I was convinced that this was true when I was young and was terrified of actually turning into Cheerios and mac ‘n cheese. For those of you also wondering about the origin of this statement, here is some history.

The message behind this statement is that when you want to be healthy and fit, then you need to eat good foods and not those laden in sugars and fats. The phrase was used at various times before it made it to the United States. A french author, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, wrote a book that contained the phrase [translated into English]: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” That is pretty darn close to the modern colloquialism. His book was published in the summer of 1826.

The next mention of something close to this is by Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach. He wrote an essay that was all about materialism and how it relates to religion and spiritualism. In the translated version of that essay, Feuerbach says that “man is what he eats”. That was around forty years after Brillat-Savarin wrote his book.

This phrase ended up catching fire in Britain and was monopolized on by Victor Lindlahr, who was a nutritionist in the late 1920s. He used the phrase “you are what you eat” in an article that he wrote for a local newspaper. The article receives so much attention that he ended up using it as the baseline for a book that he was writing about dieting and nutritional stuff.

The final phase of this phrase was during the hippy era in the ‘60s. During this era, whole foods and healthy eating become very popular. There was a belief among some people that eating unhealthily leads to cancer and other bodily issues.

Another origin for this phrase comes from the Catholic church, and their administration of the sacrament. The sacrament is bread and wine that symbolize the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ and by eating and drinking of it, they believe that you are partaking of the mercy of Christ and becoming more like him.

Whichever origin makes sense to you, then by all means go with that one. These are just a few options to pick from so that you can better understand what this phrase means and that there is a small amount of truth in it.

By Emily Category: Healthy Foods

Feb 15, 2012

Eating Foods in Season ^{0}

When you go to the grocery store, you might notice that some of the fruits and vegetables are more expensive at different times of the year. This is because they are in season only at certain times, and in season means that they are grown naturally without certain exceptions being made. People have said that it is better to eat fruits and vegetables when they are in season, you might be wondering what the logic is behind this. Here are a few reasons why in-season fruits and vegetables are the best.

They make it better for your wallet. Fruits grown out of season require more work and they are less abundant, therefore the suppliers charge more per fruit than they do otherwise. The farmer’s market is THE best place to buy produce. The fruit sold there is in season, fresh, and local. You really cannot do much better than that. Also, the herbs there are so much better. At the grocery store in the winter there is a nasty selection of limp sprigs and they do not have the nutritional quality that they do at other times of the year. So, moral of that story: buy local and buy fresh.

The taste of food when it is in season is so much better. Imagine the difference between a snap-pea right off the plant and a snap pea that came in a frozen bag, packaged in plastic. I hope that you could imagine the difference and know that the fresh pea pod tastes much better than the alternative. The sun is what is used for the summer plants and the other plants are not able to harness that full power. Also, the flavor tends to go out of fruits the longer they sit around and are not eaten. Fruits at farmer’s markets are right out of the field as opposed to fruits in grocery stores off season because they are transported there and have periods of waiting before they reach the shelves.

When you buy the same fruits and veggies all year, then you are not being exposed the the huge variety of produce that is out there. There are some veggies and fruits that are only available in the winter that are incredibly delicious. Things like turnips, kale, and various citrus fruits.

It is a little hard, though, to remember what is in season and what is not. If you are not a gardener, then there is little reason that you would know how plants grow and which ones are in season during the various times of the year. There is a website out there, link is here, that can help you know what is in season during the month and season you are in.

Try eating fresh fruits and vegetables because they are healthier for you overall and decrease the amount of money that you spend on produce.

By Emily Category: Healthy Foods

Jan 31, 2012

A Very Vegan Diet ^{0}

As the whole world begins to ‘go green’, becoming vegan is an ever more popular diet choice for people to make. Some reasons that vegans cite for becoming so are: it saves money, “thou shalt not kill” applies to animals, it is more environmentally friendly, and it reduces the National debt. While some of these may seem a little ridiculous (such as the reason of National debt), they are turning many people away from meat.

Before we go any further, let us define the term vegan. For a person to be vegan means that they do not partake in any animal product. This means they do not eat fish, milk, dairy, eggs, and honey on top of not eating meat. I am sure that you know someone that is vegan or at least thinking about becoming so. However, if you do not then here are some famous people that are either vegan or vegetarian. Some famous Americans that have become vegan are: Alec Baldwin, Ellen DeGeneres, Lea Michele, Jason Mraz, Brad Pitt, Olivia Wilde, and Mike Tyson just to name a few. They do not all choose to be vegan because they believe that eating animals is cruel and in violation of the Ten Commandments. That view is only held by a few, and it is a very relative idea.

Many of these stars and many people who do decide to become vegan do so because of the health benefits. The effects a vegan diet has on a person’s health are incredible and are often overlooked or pushed to the side. When you eat vegan, you eat less saturated fats and just fats in general. People generally receive the fat that they ingest through dairy products and meat. This means that your cardiovascular health will be much better as well as your overall well-being. You also receive larger amount of the vitamins that your body needs to function at optimum levels. There is more vitamin C and vitamin E as well as other antioxidants in your diet when you eat vegan. These antioxidants help your immune system become stronger as well as allowing your body to heal faster when it is sick or hurt.

As you become more healthy, you are able to prevent a variety of diseases. These diseases range from heart illness to diabetes and cataracts to cancer. You body is much better equipped to handle these illnesses and diseases when you are eating vegan. If you are worried about not eating things that you like, or things that taste good, then you are wrong. Here are some examples of sample vegan recipes: spinach linguine with pesto, Chipotle chili with sweet potatoes, mushroom stroganoff, and raspberry truffle brownies. These are all things that you can fix and make yourself that keep you healthy and following a vegan diet.

If the vegan diet is not for you, that is fine. It takes a huge amount of commitment and dedication to make sure that you do it all the way. I would recommend that you still take a look at the vegan recipes because you might be able to find some that you like that you can cook so that you can avoid meat as much as possible.

By Emily Category: Healthy Foods

Jan 25, 2012

Wheatgrass and the Internal You ^{1}

The latest health craze that has swept the nation: wheatgrass. Wheatgrass is a derivative from the common wheat plant and provides a huge number of health benefits. While it may taste a little strange and seem a little too “hippie” to you, once you understand what wheatgrass can do for you, the bandwagon might be looking more appealing.

You might have seen patches of green, grass-like substances sitting in the window of your favorite smoothie place. That was most likely wheatgrass. It is able to be grown in a tray indoors and it only takes about ten days for the plant to mature to the point that the juices are harvestable. In order to extract the juice, the wheatgrass is typically places in a press of some sort and squeezed until it has yielded all the juice that it can. Next time you are picking up a mango smoothie, ask the cashier about their wheatgrass.

Wheatgrass is a serious superfood. Thirty milliliters of juice is roughly equal to two pounds of green veggies. That type of ratio is hard

to beat! Health food stores and some restaurants offer a wheatgrass shot which is sometimes the easiest way to get the wheatgrass you need. Along with containing a huge serving of your vegetable dietary needs, it also contains two times the amount of vitamin A as carrots have and it has more vitamin C than an orange. Here is another fact for you, having a teaspoon of wheatgrass is equivalent to eating an entire spinach salad (if the salad weighed around fifty grams).

There are so many other benefits of wheatgrass, you should do some research into it. It is truly an amazing food. The health benefits are worth any of the slight discomfort you might have in the taste. Wheatgrass is used very often as a “detox” agent. The vitamins and minerals contained in the wheatgrass are key in the neutralization and elimination of free radicals in your body. This means that you stay healthier and everything works better. Chemicals and such aid the development of free radicals and wheatgrass stops that production and eliminates the ones that are in your body. It also takes away toxins that interfere with the cellular systems. It also can help your body eliminate the decaying waste and hardened mucus within your intestines and such. Your gastrointestinal tract along with your blood and organs will thank you because they will be able to function better thanks to the wheatgrass.

Along with detoxifying your body, wheatgrass helps it fight and prevent various infections and illnesses that your body may be susceptible to. It helps you prevent the common cold, the flu, and various other sicknesses. On top of all of that, it protects your body from harmful carcinogens which cause cancer. The body is able to mount a defense that can last for a long time just because you decided to have a shot of wheatgrass.

Do your body a favor, try some wheatgrass. It can be put into smoothies, supplements, and many other mediums.

Wheatgrass (foodservicewarehouse.com)
Organic Wheat Grass Powder (chennaifocus.wordpress.com)
Lemon Shortbread Wheatgrass Shot (thevegetablecentrickitchen.com)

By Emily Category: Healthy Foods

Healthy Foods

How to Burn Fat with Superfood ^{0}

Simple Great Tasting Meals ^{0}

How Vegans Do Emergency Food Storage ^{0}