By Zachary Shahan •
October 30, 2009
With a lot of great health and fitness benefits, honey should be a common staple in people’s daily diets. Other than its great taste, it has numerous benefits for our bodies, immune systems, weight, and energy which you may not be aware of.
Honey is a source of a variety of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. The main vitamins it provides are niacin, riboflavin and pantothetic acid, and the main minerals are calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. Importantly, the amount of these substances in honey varies depending on its floral source, just as its color and taste vary.
On top of this, what are the main health benefits of honey?
By Kim Ukura •
October 7, 2009
Common dieting advice suggests eating breakfast because it can jump start your metabolism and helps prevent you from eating more later in the day. Researchers in London may have finally figured out why — skipping a morning meal can fool your brain into thinking the body actually wants high-calorie foods, which, if eaten too often, can inhibit weight loss.
So What Is This Study Exactly?
A team from Imperial College London presented these findings at the Endocrine Society’s 91st annual meeting held in Washington D.C. in July. Scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which measure blood flow in the brain, to see how eating impacted the brain’s reward center.
The study involved 20 healthy people who took an fMRI scan on a morning when they skipped breakfast and on a morning when they ate breakfast. During each test they were shown photos of high-calorie foods like pizza and cake, and low-calorie foods like salad and fish. On the morning they had breakfast, the participant’s reward center lit up more in response to the high-calorie foods. On the morning when they had breakfast, the reward center didn’t show any difference between high- and low-calorie foods.
There is so much more to being healthy then simply what you eat. Sometimes, taking a moment to slow down and focus on “how” you eat can actually begin to make a difference in how you feel and possibly even in your weight. Healthy digestion begins in the mouth where the digestive enzymes in your saliva start to break down the food you are eating. When food is easier to digest, your body doesn’t have to work so hard on breaking down the food, and can focus instead on assimilating all those quality vitamins and nutrients you just ate. In order for this process to happen, you have to actually chew your food. Sounds simple right? Unfortunately in the fast paced, rush everywhere, do a million things at once kind of world we live in, most of us are lucky if we are able to scarf down a sandwich, while sending an email, talking on the phone, “tweating” and saving the world all at the same time. The experience of eating has changed and it’s time we stop swallowing our food whole and take back the joys of eating. Ladies and Gentleman let me reacquaint you with chewing and mindful eating.
Eating mindlessly can lead to overeating. When you are trying to accomplish a handful of things all at the same time, including eating, it takes your brain longer to connect with your stomach to register that it has eaten and just may be full. Chewing reduces digestive distress and improves assimilation, allowing our bodies to absorb maximum nutrition from each bite of food. It also allows you to actually taste your food, leaving you and your brain more satisfied, and not looking for that extra something right after a meal. When you slow down and take the time to enjoy the eating experience with all your senses, you just may find you eat less and in the long run, may weigh less as well. Here are tips to help you get started.
It is very easy to misjudge portion sizes. We get super-sized portions while dining out and most of us do not take the time to measure out what a true serving size looks like when we cook at home. Portion control can be your key to permanent weight loss or weight control. Before your next meal check this list from WebMD of foods, serving sizes and visual clues. Check in with yourself and see how many servings you are actually eating in one sitting.
Water is essential. Your body is made up of over 70% water; making water the single most important nutrient, apart from oxygen. Water not only re-hydrates your body, but it moves vital nutrients though out your body, removes waste from your system, aids in digestion and can even help you to lose weight.
It’s ideal to drink at least 8 glasses of water though out the day to ensure you are getting all of the amazing benefits water has to offer. Don’t wait until your body tells you are thirsty, by that point you are already dehydrated and may be feeling false hunger pangs. Our brains can’t decipher the difference between being thirsty and being hungry. The stomach growl you experience at 3PM may actually be your body telling you that you have not had enough water today.
Headaches, poor concentration, fatigue, constipation and dry skin are signals that you are not drinking enough water. Your body may also retain water, holding on to the small supply it is getting, if you do not give it enough water. When you begin to drink more water daily, these symptoms should begin to alleviate.
America has reached its highest weight in history. About half of Americans are overweight; one third are obese. One size fits all diets don’t work because each person is unique, with different needs based on gender, age, ancestry and lifestyle. How could one diet be right for everyone?
Given half a chance, your body will balance out by itself, but this is only possible by getting out of the diet mentality and listening to what you truly need. Imagine taking all of the outward energy you expend on diets, fads and gimmicks and turning it inward, so that you can listen to what your body really wants. Working with your body rather than against it will bring about increased energy, stabilized weight and sustainable health. Eating consciously and making simple lifestyle changes will create positive results and release you from the endless cycle of dieting.
We are a society being weighed down (literally) by the bigger is better motto. It’s pretty hard to miss the enormous portions you are served at restaurants and even harder to say no to a “great value”. So when the powers that be use mass marketing to convince us that it’s a better value to get the large Coke with your meal or that you’ll actually save money if you add the fries, you think, hey, at least I got my moneys worth. You may want to start to think twice before saying yes the next time the check out girl asks you “do you want to super size it”?
Bigger portions mean we typically eat 30-50% more then we would have with smaller portions, hungry or not. In the last 2 decades, portion size has dramatically increased. According to the The Portion Teller, pizza pies were 10 inches in diameter back in the 1970s. Today the average size for a pizza is between 16 and 18 inches! Starbucks once offered the ”short” cup of coffee, at 8 ounces, but now the smallest cup you can order is the “tall”. At 12 ounces, this cup is nearly twice the size of what was once considered a regular cup of coffee. A Hershey chocolate bar weighed 0.6 ounces its first year on the market. The standard bar now weighs 1.6 ounces. That’s almost 3 times its original weight!
One weight loss diet fad is the “morning banana diet”.
