Showing posts with label eating healthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating healthy. Show all posts

Monday, 12 April 2010

The Secret to Prevent Diabetes with Maple Syrup



Did you know that your favorite maple syrup is effective in fighting cancer and diabetes? According to the studies conducted by US researchers, there are strong evidences showing that maple syrup can substantially slow down the growth of cancer cells and can effectively reduce the risk of diabetes. 

The new research shows that your favorite maple syrup has thirteen active compounds that serve as antioxidants. These thirteen compounds were previously unknown. The discovery proved that maple syrup could be very effective in fighting bacterial infection, diabetes and cancer.

An Effective Solution for Diabetes Sufferers
Maple syrup contains high levels of phytohormone and abscisic acid. According to research, this type of acid is a natural defense in controlling diabetes and other metabolic syndromes. 

The acid is effective because it has the potential to encourage the release of insulin through the pancreatic cells. It can also enhance the fat cell’s sensitivity to insulin. The studies on maple syrup and its effects on diabetes have been reviewed by experts. The results of these studies were revealed before the American Chemical Society in San Francisco.

Maple Syrup as Your Best Chance against Cancer 
A study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food showed that maple syrup can significantly inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. This study was conducted by Quebec scholars. It seeks to prove the impact of maple syrup against cancer cells. 

Based on the Quebec research, the growth of cancer cells can be inhibited by maple syrup. Specifically, the syrup is very effective against brain, prostate, and lung cancer. Unfortunately, maple syrup has minimal impact against breast cancer growth.

Your Tasty Alternative to Fight Cancer and Diabetes 
Maple syrup can serve as your tasty alternative in fighting cancer and diabetes. There are many anti cancer foods today like blueberries, tomatoes, broccoli, and carrots. However, recent studies have shown that maple syrup is more effective against cancer compared to other anti cancer foods. Laboratory testing results also show that the syrup is more potent compared to the maple sap.

It is also ideal to use the pure dark syrup rather than the lighter syrup. Dark syrup has high color oxidation. This is the reason why darker maple syrup should be preferred. So if you want a better alternative to fight cancer and diabetes, then your favorite maple syrup is a good option. 

Reference: Journal of medicinal food. 01/02/2010; ISSN: 1557-7600, OI: 10.1089/jmf.2009.0029

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Tuesday, 8 September 2009

Down Home Healthy Cooking: Recipes and Tips for Healthy Cooking

Here is good news for all lovers of African American Cooking! The National Cancer Institute offers a 48 page booklet containing low-fat, high-fiber versions of traditional African American recipes:

Down Home Healthy Cooking: Recipes and Tips for Healthy Cooking

A word or two about this publication:
Experts found that African Americans are suffering more often from serious illnesses like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes 2 and cancer, and often die earlier of these diseases. The problem, as explained in the introduction of the booklet, is not that the African American diet is so totally unhealthy. In contrast, it contains plenty of healthy foods, but they are often prepared with too much fat which then causes the health problems.

What makes this booklet great:

  • offers healthier versions of favorite African American dishes to open up ways to a healthier lifestyle
  • tips for healthier cooking
  • advice which foods you should replace with other healthier ones
  • nutritional information for each recipe which makes it a great asset if you want to lose weight
Interested? You can:
Hope you will enjoy it! I think it sounds great, although it’s not a large recipe collection.

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Tuesday, 1 September 2009

Weight Loss Diet - 4 Foolproof Tips How To Eat Your Kilos Away

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Did you also think that you can only really lose weight if you barely eat and spend two hours in the gym each day? Well, I can assure you there’s a much easier and healthier way. In fact, you can lose weight in as little as two weeks by simply changing your diet and eating habits. Of course, a bit more physical activity is going to help a lot, but as eating wrong was what made you fat in the first place, eating right can do a great job in solving the problem.

Adopt healthier eating habits
Besides us consuming way too much calories, there are three habits that contribute to us picking up weight:
  1. too large portion sizes
  2. irregular meal times
  3. eating out of other reasons than hunger
Try to find out how much food you really need. Dish a bit less and eat more slowly to give your body a chance to notify you that it had enough food (that takes about 15-20 minutes). If you feel your plate looks empty, use a smaller one to make the portion look bigger. I want you to understand that reducing portion sizes is a gradual process that takes time. Your body is used to oversized portions and now needs to get used to eat less. But make sure you don’t overdo it. Effectively reducing the amount food you eat is not about starving, it’s merely about not eating too much.

Find a meal time schedule you can stick to every day. If you have chosen your meal times wisely, you won’t suffer hunger attacks and then overeat. Some people are fine with three meals per day and one or two snacks, whilst others do better with five to six smaller meals. Find out what works for you. Avoid eating when you are not hungry. Don’t eat just because you feel like, or because you are bored, sad or frustrated. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying food, but remember the primer purpose of eating is to give your body the nutrients it needs to function.


Reduce your calories, not your food
Our vision of a diet is to eat as little as possible. In fact, that’s totally the wrong approach. If you want to lose weight, you must make permanent changes in your lifestyle (eat healthier and be more active), and no one can follow a restrictive diet for long, as much as he wants to.

Instead of starving, it’s much better to change what you eat. Cutting down on calories does not necessarily mean you must eat less. Simply choose foods that contain little calories and lots of nutrients as your main foods: fruits, vegetables and whole grain products. Replace your dairies with their low-fat or fat free versions, and go for lean meat. Use as little additional fat and sugar when cooking as possible. And most importantly, reserve fatty and sugary foods for occasional treats.



Upgrade your carbohydrates
Processed starches, like the ones in white rice, white flour and everything made out of it (like our standard pasta), are not generally unhealthy. They are way healthier carbohydrates than plain sugar, as they are part of foods which also contain lots of nutrients. But unfortunately, they still have quite a high glycaemic response, meaning they push up your blood sugar level.

An excellent way of avoiding this problem is to replace your “simple” starches with complex ones: Eat more whole grain and whole wheat products instead.
  • replace your white bread or processed cereals with whole grain products
  • buy brown rice
  • have 100% whole wheat pasta
It will take some time to get used to their different taste, but they have many advantages. On the one hand, they fill you quicker, thus they prevent you from overeating. On the other hand, they are absorbed slower and over a longer period so that your blood sugar level is kept more constant. You won’t feel this, but what you will notice is that they keep you going for much longer.


Don’t be caught by cravings
One main reason why many fad diets fail is that they completely ban certain foods or even food groups. Unfortunately, these are often things we love, like chips, cookies, ice-cream and many others. You need to understand that although these foods are not really healthy, they won’t give you much trouble if you just have them occasionally and eat healthy in general. They only make you overweight when they drive healthy foods out of your main diet. So, allow yourself a small packet of chips once in a while, or some chocolate or a nice ice-cream. You just should keep it in moderation, then you’ll be fine.

If you long for these things, it can help to just have a bite or two and then move on. Don’t let the craving build up, for then you will end up eating a whole bucket of ice-cream instead one or two scoops, and that certainly won’t help you to lose weight.

I hope that by now you have gotten an idea of how you can comfortably lose weight with changing your diet. If you follow these tips, you can lose weight whilst enjoying tasty normal-sized meals that will never leave you feeling hungry and exhausted. And the greatest thing about the healthy diet approach is: Because it’s a lifetime concept, your overweight won’t likely come back.

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Thursday, 27 August 2009

Healthy Eating For Kids – 5 Tricks How To Make Your Children Eat Healthy Foods

Does your child refuse to eat vegetables? Or fruit? That’s a common problem in our time where children are offered chips and chocolates everywhere, and fast food is “cool”. Everyone eats it, so they also want it. Because unfortunately, all these unhealthy foods do taste very nice. If we are honest, we need to admit that we too love them.

But we know how important it is to eat healthy food in general, especially for children because they are still growing. And since we love our kids, we want to give them the best food possible, of course. For us health conscious parents it can at times be a challenge to ensure our children eat healthy, and to prevent sweets and burgers from driving the healthy foods out of our children’s diet and become their main food.

It is actually in the nature of children that they like to eat healthy foods. They just love fruit, yoghurt, milk and cereals. If they grow up mainly eating these, they won’t want to miss them, and then it’s much easier to make them eat healthy in general and having sweets or chips as treats.

But if they now are craving for everything we don’t want them to eat, and at the same time rejecting the healthy foods we serve them, we need to be clever. With some simple tricks, you can easily make your children eat healthy foods, and sometimes they won’t even notice.

Here are five tricks to make your kids eat those healthy foods:

  1. Hide the vegetables in foods your child loves
  2. Serve the healthy foods with foods your child loves to make them more attractive
  3. Serve foods in a way your child likes
  4. Make desserts, sweets and chips a bonus treat for eating the healthy food
  5. Allow your kids to help preparing the meal
Trick #1: Hide the vegetables in foods your child loves
  • Finely chop or even grate vegetables and mix them into minced meat before forming a meatloaf, meat balls or patties. Your kids won’t even notice that they are there. Especially mushrooms and aubergines can barely be seen because they take up a similar color like the meat when you cook them. Which child would reject a burger? Instead of denying it, simply make them a healthy one.
  • You can also hide grated vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes or marrows in tomato sauce which kids usually love with pasta. Even carrot cake or muffins with grated carrots and apples in are a good way of serving healthy foods without your child noticing.
  • If onions are a problem, grate them instead of chopping them and hide them in potato pancakes.
  • If your child likes milk and yoghurt but rejects fresh fruit, puree the fruit in secret and mix it into the yoghurt. If your child asks, you can say it is fruit yoghurt you bought just like that. Or make a smoothie or milk shake. Maybe add some honey to make it sweeter and tastier.
Trick #2: Serve the healthy foods with foods your child loves to make them more attractive
  • Serve her favorite ice cream with fruit or fruit puree.
  • Mix fruit into the chocolate or vanilla cream that you have as a dessert.
  • Serve a small portion of the vegetables that your child doesn’t like together with a larger portion of vegetables she eats and chips. Insist in eating it all, for example she can have a bit of the ones and then a bit of the others, or first eat the ones she doesn’t like and afterwards the nice ones. She then won’t be stuck with the taste of the rejected veggies. At the end of the meal, she’ll most likely think she just had nice food, and she’ll hopefully notice that it’s all not that bad.
  • Have vegetable puree with pasta, or make chutney to serve with bread, chips or crackers.
Trick #3: Serve foods in a way your child likes
It’s possible that your child doesn’t have a general problem with a certain food itself but rather with its texture.
  • If your child doesn’t want to eat tomatoes, try tomato sauce, canned tomatoes or tomato soup.
  • If he doesn’t like a certain fruit, prepare jam or jelly of it and put it on his sandwich for breakfast or mix it in his yoghurt as a snack. Homemade jelly still contains plenty of nutrients because you extract the juice from the whole fruit, peels and core included. You can also make low-sugar or even no-sugar jams to protect your child’s teeth.
  • Serve stewed or canned fruit instead of fresh fruit. Prefer buying canned fruit in fruit juice, not the ones in syrup, as the first ones don’t have sugar added.
  • Make your child’s plate look interesting and irresistible. Cut the fruit or vegetables and arrange the pieces as a nice picture, maybe a funny face or an animal. Some butchers also sell special polony for kids in the shape of a funny face or a teddy bear.
Trick #4: Make desserts, sweets and chips a bonus treat for eating the healthy food
This strategy requires quite some determination from your side and it might well result in some tantrums, but it should be fairly effective after a while. Don’t ever give in! Eventually your child will give up if he notices that this is the only way to get the things he wants.
  • If your child refuses a certain type of healthy food, tell him he will only get dessert once he has finished his lunch.
  • Chips and sweets will only be given after having eaten the whole dinner.
  • But make certain that you don’t overload your child’s plate, because in that case you might be punishing him for not overeating, and that would certainly be wrong and little helpful in establishing healthy eating habits.
Trick #5: Allow your kids to help preparing the meal
Children are usually much more willing to eat a meal that they have helped to prepare.
  • Give your child any task he can perform, for example peeling the fruit, cutting vegetables, stirring the food. The more you can get him involved in the cooking process, the better.
  • Allow your child to lay the table. Show him very clearly how much you appreciate this help, and give him the feeling this is a very important task.
  • Let your child dish for him or maybe for all family members. Allow him to choose his own plate and to arrange the food according to his liking as long as he takes from everything. If your child can’t dish yet, ask him how you should dish for him. Let him show you what he wants to give him the feeling of being in control over the situation.
With these simple tricks, you can get your child to eventually eat at least some of the healthy foods. It’s a good idea to focus on one food at a time, and once your child accepts this food, then you can move on to the next one. Remember that your child has developed his eating habits over quite some time and will only gradually be able to change them.

When you are really desperate, it’s a good option to hide the foods your child refuses to eat in other meals. But it’s always better to rather make the unloved foods interesting by mixing them with foods that find your child’s favor. After all, you don’t want to be hiding carrots in muffins for the next fifteen years. Your goal is to get your child to eventually eat these foods without tricks and fights.

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Helpful links
  • KookyCulinary gives you plenty of healthy meal ideas for your child’s lunch box (watch it, the list is continuously growing)

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Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Enjoying A Healthy Diet - 3 Easy Ways To Create A Delicious Healthy Dessert

For most of us, desserts are THE symbol of calorie bombs – meals high to extremely high in sugar and fat. But have you ever given the dream of a healthy dessert a serious thought? A dessert that you don’t need to feel bad about when eating it? Sure, even a high calorie dessert is perfectly okay if you just have it every now and then. But wouldn’t it be great if you could create desserts that are so healthy that you could enjoy them almost whenever you feel like?

In fact, there are quite some types of desserts that are already fairly healthy, for example everything that contains lots of fruit, little fat (like cream or mascarpone) and sugar. And there are many ways to make the not so healthy ones healthier.

For the not yet healthy recipes that you don’t want to miss, try the following tips!

  • Add some fruit
  • Reduce fat
  • Reduce sugar
Tip #1: Add some fruit
Fruit is one of the healthiest food groups we have. Experts advise us to eat at least five portions of fruit or vegetables every day. But that does not mean that you need to eat five plain and simple fruits every day. You can use them creatively.

Option 1: Fruit salad
For example, make a fruit salad. Choose fruits of different colors to get a nice colorful mix. Then add a bit of pure fruit juice (the non-sweetened, 100% one) as a dressing, and maybe a few raisins. Arrange the salad in a pretty dessert plate and sprinkle some chopped nuts or almond flakes over it. This doesn’t take you long to prepare and it’s one of the healthiest desserts possible. The variety of fruit gives you fiber and many important vitamins. Because many fruits are sweet, you don’t need to add sugar, meaning all calories you eat are fructose, which is still a healthier sugar than table sugar. And because of the fiber, the fruit fills you quicker than any sweets. It’s not so easy to overeat on fruit.

Option 2: Pudding with fruit
Serve fruit with a homemade vanilla or chocolate cream or sauce. If you use low-fat or fat-free milk and a minimum of sugar (or no sugar at all), then you get all the health benefits of milk (without the calories in the fat) in addition to the ones of the fruit. Did you know that milk contains almost all nutrients in perfect balance?

Option 3: Yoghurt with fruit
Make your own fruit yoghurt. It tastes much nicer than the fruit yoghurts you buy (because you are actually using fruit) and is much healthier. In Germany, we have a wide variety of nice fruit yoghurts, but here in South Africa, I don’t like to buy fruit yoghurt because they are all sweetened and full of preservatives. It’s much better to buy plain yoghurt and mix it with fresh fruit. If you don’t like the pieces in there, put everything in an electric blender until smooth. Yoghurt mixed with home made jam also makes a nice dessert. You can add treats like dried fruit, chopped nuts or grated chocolate to make it even tastier (dark chocolate doesn’t contain so many calories, so this should be your preferred choice).

Option 4: Ice cream with fruit of fruit puree
We all love ice cream. Serve a scoop or two together with a handful of grapes or berries, or make a fruit puree to pour over it. Fruit purees are very easy to make and only take you a couple of minutes to prepare. You can even stew fruit and thicken the liquid with a bit of corn flour and serve the hot fruit with your ice cream. Vanilla ice cream for example goes very nice with hot cherries or raspberry puree. If you stew fruit, adding some spices like vanilla pod or cinnamon can give it a very irresistible taste.

Tip #2: Reduce fat
Many desserts unfortunately contain quite a bit of fat, using cream or high fat cheese types like mascarpone. Never mind! You can solve that problem very easily.

Option 1: Use low-fat or fat-free dairy products
As I mentioned above, use low-fat or fat free milk instead of full cream milk for your chocolate or vanilla sauce or cream. Replace the high-fat cheese in your cheese cake, trifle or brownies with a smooth low-fat cottage cheese or ricotta. It will still taste great.

 Buy low-fat yoghurt instead of the full cream version. It’s also nice, and especially if you top it up with fruit or nuts, you won’t really miss the extra fat.
A great basis for smoothies and fruit shakes is buttermilk which is very low in fat compared to other products (only 1%). You can even use it for baking cakes or muffins.

Option 2: Choose healthier fats
Coconut milk is a great alternative for cream in many recipes. It contains significantly less fat, especially if you buy a low-fat version (12-14% fat, whilst cream has 30%). Check the label, as the fat content of different products can vary greatly.

 In many baking recipes you can use margarine instead of butter. It still does contain quite a bit of fat, but it’s made of vegetable fats which are healthier than animal fats and don’t have such a negative impact on your cholesterol level. Check on the label if the margarine is suitable for baking, as not every product is.

Tip #3: Reduce sugar
Our taste buds have gotten very used to us adding a lot of sugar to almost everything that is sweet. We often add sugar to things that are already sweet, like fruit salad. But just as we got used to extreme sweetness, we can also get used to eating less sugar. And as time goes by, you will notice how deliciously sweet some foods actually are just the way nature produced them.

Option 1: Use less added sugar
As long as the sugar is not an essential part of the recipe, you can simply reduce the amount. In cakes, muffins, creams, sauces and puddings this is generally not a problem.

Option 2: Use alternatives with lower sugar content
A good alternative is using natural sweeteners like fructose, honey or maple syrup. They are not very nutritious but they some of them still contain a few more nutrients than table sugar which is nothing but “empty calories”.

Option 3: Use naturally sweet foods
The best way to reduce sugar is certainly adding dried fruit like raisins or apricots, or even fresh fruit, to your dessert. Many fruits are naturally sweet and negate the need to add extra sugar. Note that dried fruit has much higher sugar content then the same amount of fresh fruit, so you will need less. If you want a lot of fruit and sweetness, it’s a good idea to combine a larger portion of fresh fruit with a smaller portion of dried fruit.

Conclusion
It’s really easy to create healthy desserts! The possibilities are endless. Eating healthy does not mean that you must sacrifice the delight of a tempting dessert. Not at all. If you have a portion of mascarpone trifle or a piece of cheese cake every now and then for a special occasion, that most definitely won’t harm your health. So there is no need to stress too much about it unless you must closely watch your calorie intake because you got a weight problem, are diabetic or suffer from high cholesterol. But if you can make your dessert healthy, why should you not?

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Useful links
Little Lady Cakes provides a list of substitutes that can help you to make your favorite cake recipes healthier and lower in calories.

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Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Food Related Illnesses – How Our Unhealthy Foods Make Us Sick And Why Healthy Eating Could Make Us Healthier

The rates of dreadful diseases go wild in our days. There are most likely very few very blessed people who don’t know somebody who is suffering from diabetes, overweight, heart disease and others, and who did not lose a friend, family member or college through cancer, heart attack or stroke. Why? It didn’t use to be like that. In my grandparent’s time, it wasn’t like that.

There are many theories proving us that the food we eat contributes a lot to these diseases. Just think of all the fat that we eat – in fast food, ready-made meals, cakes and sweets, fried foods. We face an abundance of food in our days, and we happily make use of it. We often eat merely for the sake of eating, because it tastes so nice, because it makes us feel good. We eat more than we need. And we so easily eat the wrong things. Because we don’t worry much about what we eat as long as it tastes great, is convenient and fills us.

Food production methods and economy also make it difficult for us to eat healthy. If you are health conscious and you search for the healthiest food options, you are in for some shocking experiences.

Firstly, healthy foods are much more expensive than refined and processed foods. They easily cost two or three times as much. And whilst the food prices go up and up and up, our salaries somehow don’t, at least not in the same rapid pace.

And secondly, it’s difficult to find foods that are grown naturally – fruit and vegetables grown without chemicals, or animals grown free, being fed natural food. It’s difficult to find foods that are natural and not packed with masses of these additives and chemicals that negatively affect our health, or loaded with fat and sugar. For example, in South Africa I couldn’t find fruit yoghurt that is unsweetened. The only thing I can buy is plain yoghurt. I found that they still use many additives here that have been taken off the market in Germany long time ago, and often I long for these healthier products back home.

In the endeavor to produce more food faster and at lower costs, producers use more and more additives and preservatives. That’s not healthy. These substances are the cause for many allergies we suffer from, and most likely these allergies are still some of the minor problems.

Refined foods like white rice and flour, and sugary foods (e.g. many health foods and cereal mixes) raise your risk of diabetes. Foods high in fat have a negative impact on your cholesterol level and increase your risk of obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke and heart attack.

The further food is from its original natural form, the fewer nutrients it contains. And these nutrients are what kept our ancestors healthy. If we lack them, we are likely to become unhealthy. Lack of vitamins weakens our immune system, making us prone for many illnesses. A lack of fiber gives our digestive system trouble, and it also increases our risk to overeat, since fiber is filling us without containing calories. And a lack of minerals can also cause various problems, like anemia and a lack of energy due to iron deficiency.

Eating is not only about filling your stomach. It is to a great deal also to give your body all it needs to function: to keep up a strong immune system that effectively fights disease, to be energetic and healthy. If you eat healthy, you will be healthy. Sure, even eating healthy cannot prevent all diseases that might befall you. But is has been proven that if you do eat healthy, you can lower your risk of severe illnesses significantly. Just to give you one example: How many people do you know who eat healthy and are overweight?

If you eat healthy, you will be more energetic, you will feel better, and your body will be stronger and healthier. And since healthy food also prevents illnesses (citrus fruit prevents colds and flues, olive oil lowers bad cholesterol, whole grain products stabilize the blood sugar level, preventing diabetes), you will have a much lower risk of falling ill. That includes both small and dreadful diseases. That’s the reason why eating healthy is definitely worth the effort. It’s an investment in your health.

Book tip
Your Plate Your Fate – A Revolutionary Recipe For Lifelong Health & Effortless Weight Loss:
A seven part ebook educating you to make healthy food choices and release the healing power of food to prevent illnesses and lose weight.

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Thursday, 13 August 2009

Vegetarian Cooking For Kids – How To Ensure Your Vegetarian Child Gets All Nutrients She Needs

In this article:

Children, because they are still growing, have different nutritional needs than us adults. For example, they need more fat. They need foods which are packed with nutrients to ensure a healthy development of their bodies. Since vegetarian cooking excludes a whole food group (all meat and meat products) which does provide important nutrients, you need to choose your child’s food very carefully to avoid a lack of certain nutrients which might negatively affect his development.

Food groups
Choose a diet that is well balanced between the following food groups:
  • grains (wheat, rye, buckwheat, barley) and grain products (pasta, bread, muesli)
  • vegetables and fruit
  • legumes (beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, soybeans)
  • nuts and seeds
  • eggs and dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt)
The first three groups (foods that are very difficult to overeat because they are rather low in calories) should make out the bigger portion of your child’s meals whilst the remaining two need to be kept in moderation because they also contain fairly much fat.


Vitamins and minerals – Important components for your child’s health and development
  • Make sure your child eats plenty of fruit and vegetables every day, preferably fresh ones as they got the highest vitamin content. Whole fruits contain more nutrients than fruit juice.
  • Legumes are also rich in vitamins and minerals and should be eaten often.
  • Another source of vitamins and minerals are animal products like eggs and dairy products which should also form part of your child’s daily diet.

Fiber – Keeping your child’s digestive system healthy
  • Most fruit and vegetables contain fairly much fiber, and so do starchy foods.
  • Give your child whole grain products instead of refined ones like white bread or rice, since they contain more fiber and complex carbohydrates. And the less refined a food is, the more nutrients it contains.

Carbohydrates – Giving your child energy for life
  • Rather give your child foods containing much complex carbohydrates (for example grains and whole grain products, rice, lentils, bananas). These are released into the blood stream slower and will give your child lasting energy. Since this kind of foods is also more filling, it prevents your child from overeating.
  • Keep food with “empty carbohydrates” to a minimum. Sweets, cookies and cakes only give energy for a moment and barely contain nutrients but lots of calories. These foods should be kept for occasional treats but not be part of your child’s main diet.

Proteins – Essential components for your child’s growth
  • Animal products contain all essential amino acids (the components of proteins) whilst grains, legumes and nuts only contain some of them. Since your child doesn’t eat meat, it’s important that she has milk, cheese and yoghurt on a daily basis. Eggs also provide protein.
  • Combine legumes, grains and nuts with each other. They contain different amino acids, so when you combine them your child will get all she needs. It’s also a good idea to serve these foods with dairy products or eggs.

Fat – Another energy provider and crucial nutrient for your child’s brain development
  • Make sure that your child meets his needs of fat by consuming healthy fats, for example milk, cheese, yoghurt, avocados and peanut butter. Avoid fatty foods that barely contain nutrients (cakes, cookies, chocolate bars, fried foods etc.). If your child eats plenty of fruit, vegetables and grains as well, he should not develop weight problems.
  • Never put your child on a low-fat diet without consulting your GP or a dietician first, even if your child seems to be overweight. If you cut down on fat too much or cut out the wrong type of foods, your child might develop a shortage which could possibly have a negative effect on his brain development.

General tips to create a healthy vegetarian diet for your child
  • Make your child getting used to healthy foods as early as possible. If children grow up eating healthy, they are likely to continue eating healthy. Most kids anyways enjoy it.
  • In every meal you serve your child, combine at least two of the food groups listed above to ensure a maximum of nutrients.
  • Serve a variety of fruit, vegetables and legumes over the course of the week. The more variety is in your child’s diet, the more likely she will get all her body needs for a healthy development, and the less likely she would develop a lack of something.

Menu tips for your vegetarian child
  • Give your child whole grain bread with peanut butter or self-made muesli with fruit and milk for breakfast. Don’t buy cereal mixtures or muesli mix since they are often rather high in calories.
  • For a healthy main meal providing a maximum of nutrients, you could choose a combination of vegetables, legumes and whole grain products, maybe including a smaller portion of dairy products or eggs (e.g. a risotto with peas and carrots and some grated cheese mixed in, or a chili of baked beans, tomatoes and green pepper with whole grain rolls).
  • To create a nutrient dense snack, serve fresh fruit with yoghurt, or whole wheat toast with peanut butter.

Conclusion: A healthy vegetarian diet for your child
As with any other diet, in vegetarian cooking too it is important to ensure that your child gets all nutrients she needs for a healthy growth and development: enough of all kind of vitamins and minerals, sufficient fiber, carbohydrates, proteins and fats. To ensure this, serve a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and legumes and also make sure your child eats grains or grain products, eggs and dairy products on a daily basis. Combine at least two of the food groups listed above and create meals that are high in nutrients to meet your child’s increased need for these. Foods that barely contain nutrients should be kept to a minimum, for example as a treat every now and then.

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Tuesday, 4 August 2009

Vegetarian Cooking - Which Foods To Choose To Ensure A Healthy And Balanced Vegetarian Diet

No matter which dietary style you follow, it’s always important to stick to certain rules to get its maximum health benefits. The most crucial thing is to keep your diet balanced to ensure that your body really gets all nutrients it needs, but without eating excess calories or unhealthy food additives.

Vegetarian cooking is no exception of this rule. It’s in general a very healthy way of eating, and vegetarians rarely suffer from overweight, but still there are “fat traps” even in the vegetarian diet, and you need to choose your foods wisely to prevent a lack of the nutrients you would normally get from your meat.

Read on about the importance of the different nutrients for your body and the most important sources for these in vegetarian cooking:

1. Vitamins and minerals
They keep your body healthy and functioning the way it should. These are the nutrients you need to worry about the least when you are a vegetarian. In fact, with a balanced vegetarian diet it’s very difficult to suffer from a lack of any vitamin.

Fruit, vegetables and legumes contain plenty of vitamins and minerals. Another important source is eggs and dairy products. These contain especially high amounts of vitamin B12 and iron which are the nutrients that vegetarians have the highest risk of developing a lack of.

To make sure you get sufficient amounts of the various vitamins and minerals, include a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and legumes in your diet over the course of the week, combined with dairies and eggs. Preferably buy fruits and vegetables fresh as these contain most nutrients, and avoid storing them long.


2. Fiber
This is important for stimulating your digestive system. A balanced vegetarian diet will certainly provide you with sufficient fiber since fruit, vegetables and starchy foods contain a high amount of fiber.

Unrefined or little refined products (e.g. whole grain products, brown rice) contain more fiber than the refined ones like white bread or rice.

High fiber foods are:
  • beans and peas (fresh or dried)
  • cabbage
  • un-pealed potatoes
  • carrots
  • corn
  • spinach
  • dried and fresh fruit (always eat the whole fruit!)
  • whole grains and whole grain products

3. Carbohydrates
That’s one of our energy providers found mainly in starchy foods but also in some fruit or vegetables. Prefer foods containing many complex carbohydrates to those with mainly simple ones. The glucose in complex carb foods is released into the blood stream much slower, thus giving you energy for longer.

Foods high in complex carbohydrates are:
  • whole grain products (e.g. whole grain bread, whole grain pasta)
  • grains (wheat, barley, buckwheat, rye)
  • potatoes
  • rice
  • corn
  • dried beans
  • lentils
  • bananas

4. Proteins
Proteins are important for cell growth and regeneration and the immune system. Yet we only need a relatively small amount of them. It’s important to consume foods that contain the so-called essential amino acids (protein components) which our body cannot produce itself.

Protein rich foods are:
  • dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt)
  • eggs
  • nuts and seeds
  • legumes (fresh or dried peas, beans and lentils, peanuts, soybeans)
  • grains and grain products
Animal proteins contain all essential amino acids, whilst grains, legumes and nuts only contain some of them. You should include eggs and dairy products (milk cheese, yoghurt) into your diet, but because of these foods also containing quite some fat, you should only have a moderate amount of them. The best thing to do is to combine at least two of the food groups listed above, then your body will still get what it needs. Some examples:
  • grains and legumes: baked bean chili (a vegetarian version of chili con carne) with whole grain rolls, whole grain sandwich with peanut butter, rice with lentils grains and dairy: muesli with milk, pasta with cheese
  • legumes and dairy: an oven-baked dish of beans, chickpeas and other vegetables, covered with a moderate amount of cheese
  • eggs and grains: pasta with baked eggs
  • grains and nuts: muesli with nuts

5. Fat
Fat is our body’s second energy provider. Vegetarians usually consume less fat and healthier fats than meat eaters since vegetables mainly contain unsaturated fats, but even in vegetarian cooking you still need to pay attention to “fat traps”:
  • avoid adding too much fat to your food, no matter which kind of fat
  • avoid frying foods
  • keep animal fats like butter to a minimum
  • use coconut oil, milk and cream rather sparingly since they contain saturated fats
  • keep dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt, cream, sour cream) in moderation or choose fat-reduced versions
Healthy sources of fat are (still consume in moderation!):
  • vegetable oils (especially olive oil) and products made from these
  • nuts and seeds
  • grains and grain products
  • avocadoes
Conclusion
To ensure that you follow a balanced vegetarian diet you should base your meals on a larger portion each of fruit, vegetables or legumes and grains or grain products on the one hand and a smaller portion of foods mainly high in protein and fat (dairy products, eggs, nuts and seeds) on the other hand. Prefer healthier fats and add as little fat as possible to your meals (even then you won’t run into a lack of fat). Also make sure you choose a wide variety within the different food groups over the course of the week. This way, your body will certainly get all the nutrients it needs and draw the maximum health benefits out of your vegetarian cooking.

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Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Vegetarian Cooking – How The Cherished Diet Without Meat Can Make You Healthier

In this article:
Why vegetarian cooking?
The basics of vegetarian cooking
Tips for healthy vegetarian cooking

Our overindulgence in meat has lead to numerous health problems like high cholesterol and overweight because it made us consume way too much fat, especially the unhealthy saturated fat. An increased risk of diseases like strokes and heart attacks was the result of this unbalanced way of eating. Now, after people started to understand the importance of healthy and balanced nutrition, vegetarian cooking has become increasingly popular.

Why vegetarian cooking?

  • There is in general nothing wrong with eating meat. The secret of eating healthy is in fact to consume all food groups, but the right amount of everything to keep a balance of nutrients. However, vegetarian cooking is certainly a very healthy option of eating, provided that certain rules are followed to ensure your body gets all nutrients it needs. One good example is that vegetarians rarely suffer from overweight since their fat intake is usually much lower than the one of a person eating meat (and thus less vegetables and fiber) every day.
  • Especially if you have weight problems or high cholesterol, which are to a large extend caused by an excess of unhealthy fats mainly found in meat animal products, vegetarian cooking can make a huge impact on your health. But there are also other reasons why people follow a vegetarian diet: be it religious reasons or simply the fact that they are against the way the animals we eat are treated.

The basics of vegetarian cooking
  • The main difference between “normal” and vegetarian cooking is that the vegetarian diet does not include meat. Vegetarians do, however, eat animal products like dairies and eggs, which vegans ( a very strict kind of vegetarians) do not.
  • The main foods of vegetarian cooking are fruit and vegetables, grains, legumes, eggs and dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt). Fat should come from healthy foods like avocadoes, cheese, yoghurt and nuts, and a combination of legumes with grains, nuts or seeds will easily provide you with sufficient proteins without overloading your system with fat.
  • Most important for a healthy and balanced vegetarian diet is great variety in your meals. Try to consume as many different foods as possible over the course of the week to ensure you are getting enough of all nutrients.

Tips for healthy vegetarian cooking
  • Choose natural foods, like brown rice, whole grain products and fresh fruit and vegetables rather than processed or refined foods. They still contain more important nutrients, and studies have shown that a diet based on these foods reduces your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
  • Buy your foods as fresh as possible and avoid storing them too long. Many vegetables lose a lot of nutrients within days already. If you can, buy only what you need for a day or two, otherwise buy frozen or canned foods (not processed!).
  • Fruit and vegetables that are “in season” will be cheaper and fresher. If you have a large freezer, you can buy bulks of them. Then blanch and freeze them (blanching contains nutrients and prevents bacterial contamination), or make sauces or purees that you can freeze.
  • Be aware of the fats in your food! Don’t assume you are eating healthy simply because you don’t eat meat. Cheese, cream and sour cream, butter and oil also contain fat, and if you consume a lot of these, you will still eat too much fat, even if you are vegetarian. Keep these foods in moderation, or make use of their low-fat versions, especially if you are experiencing weight problems. And rather bake or grill instead of frying. Many fried dishes can also be made in a pan or the oven.
  • The same rule as for fat applies for sugar: Keep it as low as possible. If you overeat, your vegetarian diet won’t safe you. Vegetarian cooking is healthy, but only if you do it right.

Conclusion
For vegetarian cooking, as for any other diet, applies: If you are healthy, there is no need to scientifically work out a plan how much of which food you need to eat. If you stick to a balanced diet with a great variety of foods, if you keep sugar and fat intake low and rather choose healthy fats (vegetable fats, e.g. olive, canola and rapeseed oil, and products made from these), you will be fine, getting all nutrients you need. After all, if you really listen, your body will tell you what kind of food it needs.

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Tuesday, 14 July 2009

The Cholesterol Threat – Why Your Cholesterol Level Is High And How You Can Effectively Fight It

In this article:

  1. How do you get high cholesterol levels?
  2. Limiting our cholesterol intake
  3. Foods that lower cholesterol
Many people worry nowadays about high cholesterol levels in their blood, and they got all the reason to, as high cholesterol gradually closes the arteries and thus hinders the free blood flow in our body which contributes to developing high blood pressure and increases your risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. The tricky thing with cholesterol is that you can’t just eat low cholesterol or cholesterol-free foods and be sure you are fine. It’s not that simple.

How do you get high cholesterol levels?
Let me first explain how you end up with a high cholesterol level. There are two ways on which cholesterol comes into our body:
  1. We eat it with foods that contain cholesterol.
  2. Our body produces cholesterol out of saturated fats in the foods we eat.
Cholesterol is a nutrient found in animal products, which are also the main source of saturated fat. The main high cholesterol foods are:
  • eggs
  • meat (especially beef)
  • poultry
  • fish
  • higher fat dairy products (e.g. milk, cheese, cream)
  • nuts
Prepared foods are often high in cholesterol and saturated fat, for example:
  • processed foods
  • pastry
  • cookies and muffins
It’s not actually necessary to consume additional cholesterol as your body produces enough on its own. And what many don’t know is that foods low in cholesterol can still raise your blood cholesterol level if they are high in saturated fat. The cholesterol that we produce from these fats is a harmful one.

On the other hand, food that contains cholesterol but also polyunsaturated or unsaturated fats won’t do so much harm to you, as these fats decrease the production of harmful cholesterol and enhance the production of protective cholesterol which cleans the arteries from plaque. Unfortunately, our modern diet contains way too much saturated fat.


Limiting our cholesterol intake
Experts recommend that you don’t consume more than 300 mg cholesterol per day. But besides cutting down on high cholesterol foods, you should also reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat, as we produce four times more cholesterol from saturated fats than the amount of dietary cholesterol we consume. Considering this, you see that your real and most powerful enemy is saturated fat, not so much the cholesterol in your foods itself. You don’t need these fats and they are not healthy, so you won’t miss anything by banning them from your diet as much as possible.

Another great option to reduce your cholesterol level is to increase your fiber intake by eating more foods which are high in fiber. Fiber does a great job in drawing cholesterol out of your body, like a sponge.

Regular exercising can also help to lower cholesterol, and there are proven supplements available for this purpose too.


Foods that lower cholesterol
As mentioned before, any food high in fiber should help to lower your cholesterol. Fruits and vegetables do the best job when you eat them raw, for example as a salad. The following food groups are low in cholesterol or even cholesterol free:
  • fruit
  • vegetables (especially the green leafy ones)
  • legumes
  • whole grain products
Some specific foods that help to lower cholesterol are:
  • green salad
  • avocado
  • quaker oats
  • barley
  • extra virgin olive oil
Be cautious with foods that are labeled fat or cholesterol “reduced” or “free”. “Fat reduced” products can still contain up to three quarter the amount of fat of the normal version. “Low fat” and “low cholesterol” foods contain these nutrients in smaller amounts, but they still contain them. Even fat or cholesterol “free” products are not really free of them, although they contain very small amounts only.

The bottom line
Don’t worry too much about high or low cholesterol foods, rather focus on limiting your intake of foods high in saturated fat. If additionally you increase your fiber consumption by eating more fruit, vegetables, legumes and whole grains, your cholesterol level should drop. If it doesn’t, you definitely should consult your GP and try to find another solution, maybe a cholesterol lowering supplement.

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