Superfoods for Fitness Fanatics
Superfoods provide an excellent way to improve your overall fitness, while helping to push you to new health levels. Some of the best superfoods will help to boost metabolism, while including essential minerals that will aid you in reducing blood pressure, as well as ingredients that encourage better skin, improved concentration and reduced stress. When used as part of a moderate and nutritious diet and exercise regime, superfoods can act as supplements, smoothies, or as snacks and meals in their own right. Some of the best superfoods currently available include:
1 – Goji Berries
Long used in Chinese and other medicines, Goji Berries contain over 500 times the level of Vitamin C as other fruits, and also include B vitamins, and anti-carcinogens like interferon. Goji berries are able to reduce the rate of ageing, while also using polysaccharides to assist in the running of the immune system. The berries can be added to tea, eaten whole, or mixed into soups.
2 – Blueberries
Containing antioxidant properties, blueberries are ideal for protecting the skin, and can help with better brain functioning, which can Continue reading
5 Foods for Clear, Focused, Jitter-Free Thinking through Your Day
Your brain is not just a machine: it is a collection of living, breathing cells that conduct electric pulses, and that allow you to do a wide variety of activities. Thanks to your brain, you can think, wash your car, read a book, write a paper, give a presentation, and just simply live.
Your brain shouldn’t just be oiled with knowledge or fed with information. You also need to take care of your diet in order to have a brain that actually works! Brain nutrition has been studied for a long time, and scientists will not always agree on what the best brain foods are. Research is also ongoing into more brain foods from natural sources, so every day, new findings show us that we need a wide variety of foods in our diet to make our brains work.
There are many different foods that you can take in order to not just feed your brain, but think clearly as well. Thinking clearly comes from a brain that is focused, free from jitters, and lucid. Thinking clearly comes not just from a stable emotional state, but knowing what foods to eat so that you don’t end up sabotaging yourself.
Here’s a meal plan that can help you think clearly and stay jitter-free.
1. Fresh milk and cornflakes
Start off your day with some milk and cereals. Pick cornflakes that have the minimum of artificial colors and flavors, preservatives, and Continue reading
Don’t Forget to Eat Your Brain Food
I always wondered if that extra banana or handful of almonds in the morning was the deciding factor between getting an A versus a B in school. Perhaps it wasn’t all those hours wasted playing video games and trying to light snails on fire with a magnifying glass instead of studying that kept me from academic greatness. Maybe the valedictorian at my school knew of secret brain food, while my mother just fed me Wonder Bread, mayonnaise, and tomato sandwiches. Regardless, I was curious about what exactly constituted brain food and where I could get it by the truckload.
Scientists are still learning about how nutrition affects cognitive performance, but it is clear that certain foods possess long-term and short-term benefits in the brain. The brain makes up two percent of a human’s body weight, but requires 20% of our daily caloric intake. If you neglect to eat the correct foods in optimal quantities, your memory and ability to solve complex problems will be impaired. Here are some tips for fueling your brain for peak performance:
1) Regulate glucose levels with frequent small meals
The fundamentals of feeding the brain for optimal performance are similar to fueling the rest of your body. You know that sluggish paralysis you experience after a pleasurable but gluttonous lunch?
You’ll experience the same sluggishness in your thinking if you overload your brain with sugar.
The best way to give a short-term boost to your brain is to regulate your fat and sugar intake. The brain relies upon fat and sugar, which are then converted to glucose, for most of its energy. If you withhold these fats and sugars from your diet, your brain will cease Continue reading
Is Food the Enemy? The Ugly Truth About Eating Disorders
Hollywood and magazines always seem to tell you that “thin is in”. You constantly see actresses and models looking like all they eat are salad greens and water to maintain their waif figures. Because they always look good and you look up to them, you strive to be just like them. However, what can you do if the girl in your mirror has a small spare tire around the middle or unwanted bulges in certain areas?
It is said that over 70 million people around the world suffer from some form of eating disorder. Such is a type of disease that can severely disturb your diet and can cause adverse effects to your health. Individuals with an eating disorder usually has serious issues about food, weight, and body image. When a person has an eating disorder, he or she either eat extremely small quantities of food, or consume a huge amount of food. Typically, it starts out by eating smaller (or larger) meals on a regular basis until everything goes out of control.
Eating disorders do not discriminate and can affect anyone regardless of sex, race, age and religion. However, it has been found that women are more prone to having it. It usually appears during teenage years and young adulthood. Eating disorder sufferers frequently experience other illnesses like depression and substance abuse. The three most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating.
The first type, which is Anorexia nervosa, is apparent when a person is extremely afraid of increasing his or her weight. It is characterized by starving one’s self, emaciation and having a distorted body image. Anorexic people often think of themselves as fat even if in reality, there are excessively thin. They weigh themselves all the time and obsessively control their food intake. Other symptoms of anorexia include the absence of menstruation, anemia, muscle weakness, and heart disease.
Bulimia nervosa, the second most common type of eating disorder, is characterized by eating excessive quantities of food (binge Continue reading