11 Tips for Meatless Meals

April 8, 2009 at 10:18 am · Filed under Diet ·Tagged , ,

Meatless meals are an extremely healthy way of living and help to preserve natural resources as well. It has been scientifically proven that liberal vegetarians live about seven years longer and vegans (those who do not consume any animal products) live about fifteen years longer than meat-eaters. A diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals and nuts will help you in a living a long, healthy life.

Tips for Meatless Meals

  • To follow meatless meals, the first tip is that your daily food regimen should not include any meat products. This can include any dairy products or eggs also, if you would like to follow a strict vegan diet. Giving up meat helps purge the body of toxins and is the beginning of the detoxification process.
  • Secondly, fruits should be consumed in high amounts. Fruits contain antioxidant nutrients that protect the functioning of the body’s organs and systems.
  • Thirdly, eat a lot of different types of vegetables. Dark, leafy green vegetables are rich in iron, which is important for brain functioning.
  • High-protein vegetables such as beans and peas provide the body much needed amino acids, the essential building blocks of the body.
  • The next tip is to consume vitamin A rich fruits, vegetables and nuts such as carrots, oranges, and almonds. This will help with healthy skin and resistance to infection.
  • Cereals are very rich in carbohydrates and are useful in the digestive process. Therefore, wheat, oats, wholemeal breads and pasta are essential in this diet.
  • Next, in order to obtain a healthy dose of fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, nuts and seeds such as walnuts and flaxseed are essential.
  • If you are not strict about a vegan diet, you could include low-fat dairy products to provide you with essential calcium, which is extremely important for bone development.
  • Next, vitamin B-12 is necessary for proper functioning of the nervous system but is found primarily in meat products. To receive this supplement, you could consume dairy products or lentils.
  • Another tip is you should look for foods that are fortified with extra nutrients so that there is no deficiency that might result from a lack of meat products. If you miss meats, there is something called ‘veggie meat’ available, a processed mixture of vegetables that gives you the tenderness of meat.
  • This is a meatless recipe that constitutes healthy eating. As is the case with any diet, you should drink at least 8 to 12 glasses of water every day. This will help ensure that all nutrients are delivered to different parts of the body.

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7 Diabetes Diet Tips

April 8, 2009 at 10:13 am · Filed under Diet Plan ·Tagged , , , , ,

Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, a carbohydrate, so that our body can use it as energy. Our pancreas produces a hormone called insulin to help glucose get absorbed into the body cells. When you have diabetes, your body either does not make enough insulin or cannot use the available insulin effectively causing blood sugar levels to build up in your body. Common causes of diabetes include exposure to toxins, increasing age, obesity, an infection from a virus or bacteria, and others. The symptoms include blurred vision, weight loss, increased thirst, fatigue and in more serious cases, kidney problems and heart problems.
Controlling blood sugar helps control diabetes. Therefore, it is important to control the amount and timing of carbohydrate intake if you have diabetes to keep the sugar levels in your blood normal. However, protein and fat are partly converted to glucose as well.

Diets for Diabetes

Thus, the first diet diabetes tip is to have a well-balanced diet plan. If your Body Mass Index (BMI) is not higher than 25%, the ideal calorie intake for women is around 1900 calories and for men is 2500 calories.
Secondly, any diet for diabetes should be rich in starchy foods. This is because these foods are absorbed far more slowly into the blood stream and release the sugar slowly over a longer period of time.
Consequently, you should cut down on foods with high sugar content. This is because such food types require little or no digestion, which causes the blood sugar levels to rise rapidly, without adequate insulin to digest it. This is a very essential step in any diabetes diet plan.
The next tip is that you should reduce the total intake of fat. Reducing the amount of fat you eat will help reduce your overall calorie count. Managing your fat intake decreases the chances of associated risks of high cholesterol and thereby heart and kidney disease. High fat foods include red meats, oil, and candy amongst others.
Next, sodium intake into the body needs to be under control as well. Research shows that higher sodium intake tends to lead to higher blood pressure. Most people with diabetes have high blood pressure. Thus, reducing the intake of foods rich is sodium such as salt, processed foods and canned foods will help keep sodium levels moderate and is an important part of a healthy diabetes diet.
Another tip is to moderate the level of alcohol in the body. This is because high alcohol intake is associated with high blood pressure and heart and kidney conditions. The maximum amount you can drink per week is 21 units for men and 14 units for women.
Lastly, the above diet plan should be matched with a regular exercise regimen to help balance your body weight.

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Which is the Key to Weight Loss: Diet or Exercise?

April 2, 2009 at 7:04 am · Filed under Diet Plan ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Key To Weight Lose Is Exercise And Healthy Eating

It is true that either diet or exercise when used individually can bring about weight loss. However, it is impossible to determine which one is a more effective tool as each one depends on the other. Although an extremely rigorous exercise schedule would make you lose weight, you would need nutrition from a diet to sustain your body. In the same way, if you tried to diet to lose weight and had no physical exertion at all, your body would have much lower nutritional requirements. Taken individually both diet and exercise are powerful weight loss tools, but when combined, they are unstoppable!

Diet tips
•    If you have an unhealthy diet with huge servings for an extended period, your stomach and your mind gets accustomed to it. If you try to change the food you eat as well as your serving size, you will land up feeling famished and there are higher chances of you abandoning your new diet. So make sure that you Add healthy salads to your meal but do not change your serving size. Once you have adjusted to your new diet, start to decrease your meal size slowly until they are small or medium sized servings.

•    Raw vegetables and fruits are high in soluble and insoluble fiber. Eat plenty of salads that contain raw vegetables like carrot, cucumber, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower etc. The fiber on these vegetables will keep you feeling full for a longer period of time so you will not feel the need to snack.

•    Have fruit salads instead of fruit juices as juicing fruits ruins their fiber content. You can make a healthy yogurt topping for your fruit salad to break the monotony. You can also pour a spoon or two of honey over the fruits and then top it off with a spoonful of crushed nuts. Find healthy ways to spice up your salads so that you enjoy your meals and therefore have a higher chance of sticking to your diet.

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Exercise tips
•    As with your diet, do not make sudden drastic changes to your exercise habits as you are less likely to stick with them. If you have always had a relatively sedentary lifestyle, do not start a vigorous exercise schedule. You will definitely strain your muscles and could even tear a ligament. For the first few days, concentrate on stretching and warm-up exercises. In addition to this, concentrate on exercises like aerobics and pilates for the first month or so as these exercises help to strengthen your muscles.

•    Schedule your exercise routine with plenty of small breathers in between sets. This will allow the muscles of your body to relax and will prevent muscle cramps.

•    Do not exercise just before or after eating a meal and make sure that you drink plenty of water to keep your body well hydrated.

The key to weight loss is a healthy diet and a regular exercise schedule. Do not try to lose as much weight as possible, instead concentrate on a healthy lifestyle and you will see the excess pounds melt away!

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