Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Did you hear of Holistic Remedy

goji berries cultivationFinding Healthy Ways to Fly

If you're anything like me, you always pack an appropriate meal and/or snack before you step foot on a plane you. Okay, I realize that most people probably don't do this. Some eat before hand and others buy food in the airport or on the plane. Unfortunately, eating away from home leaves you with few healthy choices. This is why I wanted to share a website with you that is designed to help you make the best food choices - just in time for your holiday travel!

Charles Stuart Platkin, JD, MPH, has been writing the nationally syndicated column "Diet Detective" for quite some time. His annual Food Survey with Health Ratings gives you insight into the best and worst choices in airline food and is updated on an ongoing basis as the airlines change what they offer.

Check out his website to read his comments, ratings, and calories for foods listed by airline. He'll also tell you what the best bets are with detailed explanations of what is healthy about the snack or meal and what is not. As a bonus, he'll tell you how much physical activity you must do in order to burn the calories in many of the items.

The one thing you can't go wrong with is bringing your own healthy food on the plane with you. Great snacks to bring include apples and peanut butter, carrots and hummus or whole grain granola bars. If you have to travel during a meal try bringing a peanut butter and jelly or turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread, or a whole wheat bagel with dried fruit.

You never have to be worried about making an unhealthy choice if you're always prepared. Do your research on what's available to you and make a pact to stay within your means.

http://www.dietdetective.com/content/view/2873/3/

Rachel Lukasavige is a Health Coach at Lukas Coaching. Visit http://www.lukascoaching.com/resources.htm for a ton of free tools to help you improve your health, finances, business, career & life!

For more free columns and articles, visit http://www.lukascoaching.com/articles.htm




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Have you heard of goji berry health benefits

goji berry health benefitsThe Fastest Way to Have Better Digestion

You might disagree, but hear me out on this. I think one of the best ways to improve your digestion is to follow some very simple food combining rules.

One question I get a lot is, �When you eat raw foods, do you have to avoid certain combinations?� The answer is yes. But then, it doesn't have to be complicated.

I will show you some very simple ways you can use food combining to your advantage, and I will also list some food combinations that are perfectly fine, although many people still shun them.

Sugar and Fat

The main combination to avoid is sugar and fat. Sugar being any type of sugar such as fruits, dates, refined sugar, or anything sweet. Fat includes oils, avocados, nuts, and any other type of fatty foods.

The reason is that fat takes a longer time to digest, while sugar tends to digest quickly. When the two are mixed together in sufficient quantities, the sugar will ferment. Say hello to gas and bloating!

So the combinations to avoid include: dates and nuts, nuts and dried fruits, adding fat to fruit smoothies (including oils, nuts, etc.), and obviously eating fruit or sweets at the end of a meal.

However, let me also say that although this is the most important rule to follow, it is not completely rigid either. A little occasional combo of fruit and fat are okay, but generally, you'll find that avoiding this combination most of the time will solve a lot of your digestive problems.

Sugar and Starch

Another very bad combo is the combination of cooked starch and sugar, so this one obviously doesn't apply to a raw food meal. Starch includes bread, potatoes, pasta, etc.

This combinations leads to a lot of gas and fermentation. Examples include: raisin bread, all pastries, all cakes, all cookies, and eating sweets after a meal!

Concentrated Foods

You can understand the philosophy and science of food combining by understanding one simple idea: it's best to eat only one type of concentrated food at a meal.

Concentrated foods include anything that's not a fresh fruit or vegetables, or anything that's high in fat. For example, bread, meat, potatoes, nuts, seeds, avocados.

The reason is that concentrated foods take more time to digest, and when they are mixed together, they tend to conflict with each other and cause digestive problems.

So the idea is in one meal to have just one type of concentrated food, and accompany that with lots of vegetables. It's also best to eat fruits alone.

Unnecessary Rules

There are several �rules� of food combining that are really not necessary. Once you become more fluent in the �language� of food combining, you'll understand why. Let me give you a few:

Melons - There's no reason not to mix melons with other fruits. You can mix melons with any other fruit you want, without any problems. Just don't mix them with concentrated foods.

Fruits - Fruits may be combined with each other without problems. There's no need to divide them in categories of their own. The only exception is the banana, which should not be mixed with very acid fruits such as oranges. The reason is that bananas contain starch and this conflicts with the acidity in certain fruits.

Tomatoes - Although we eat tomatoes as a vegetable, it is a fruit in reality so it may be combined with other fruits if desired.

Greens Don't Count - Greens such as lettuce, celery, spinach, and other green leaves, don't even count in food combining. The reason is that they combine well with anything. They combine well with fruit as well as with any other food.

Simplify Combos

So those were a few tips to help you improve your diet and get you started with some food combining concepts.

The whole idea about food combining is to simplify meals. It means that a meal with 5 ingredients will digest more easily than a meal with 10. And a meal with 2 ingredients will be easier to digest than a meal with 5.

It's more important to vary our diet from meal to meal, rather than get all that variety in one meal!

As you learn more about food combining and a simple and easy raw food diet, you'll find that it's really the best way to stay healthy with a �silent� digestion, and best of all, it's also so enjoyable to eat that way!

Frederic Patenaude, is the author of the best-selling e-book �The Raw Secrets�. He is currently giving away free access to his private library of over 100 exclusive articles along with a subscription to his newsletter Pure Health & Nutrition. Visit http://www.fredericpatenaude.com while charter subscriptions last.



Discovering Thai Cuisine

If you've never tried it before, you might think that Thai cuisine tastes a lot like other Asian cuisines. While it does have both Chinese and East Indian influences, it also has its own identity that separates it greatly from the foods served in neighboring countries. Thai food consists of four regional cuisines and is known for its balanced flavors, fresh ingredients, and fantastic aromas.

Thailand happens to be the number one exporter of rice in the world, and as such its rice (particularly its aromatic Jasmine rice) is the staple food of its people. While Western cuisines generally focus on a main entree of meat accompanied by several side dishes such as bread and vegetables, Thai cuisine usually consists of one dish with a base of rice or noodles accompanied by fresh herbs, vegetables, and a meat or mixture of meats. Thai food also contains five flavors: sweet, sour, salty, spicy, and bitter. What makes Thai food unique is that it balances all of these flavors harmoniously into a single dish.

Some of the most common vegetables found in Thai cuisine include shallots, cucumbers, carrots, bean sprouts, eggplant, zucchini, green beans, celery, and mushrooms. Popular meats in Thai recipes include seafood such as shrimp, prawns, clams, fish, and mussels. Pork, chicken, beef, and duck are also heavily used. Tofu, a meat substitute made from soybeans is another frequent addition.

Unlike many other cuisines that use dried spices and herbs, Thai cooking uses the freshest ingredients available. One of the primary flavoring agents used is a strong fish sauce called "nam pla". Many dishes also call for oyster sauce or shrimp paste. Shrimp paste is basically a combination of ground shrimp and salt. Other ingredients you'll find in Thai cuisine include lime juice, pineapples, Thai chilies, curry paste, garlic, sweet basil, lemon grass, coconut milk, soy sauce, peanuts and peanut sauce, cashews, mint leaves, cilantro, and galangal root (similar to ginger but more delicate in flavor).

One of the most important dishes to the people of Southern and Central Thailand is curry, which they serve over steamed jasmine rice. While Indian cuisine is also known for curries, Thai curries are considerably different. They are cooked for a shorter amount of time than are the Indian versions, and Thais use more garlic and fresh herbs whereas Indians use dry spices. In addition, Indian curries tend to be drier whereas Thai curries hold more liquid making them more soup-like.

In Thai cuisine you'll find water-based and coconut milk-based curries. Red, yellow, and green curries are the best known of the coconut milk variety. Thai curry pastes generally consist of fresh chilies, garlic, lemon grass, shallots, kaffir lime, fresh turmeric, shrimp paste, and cilantro roots. While curry is known for its spiciness, the amount of heat does vary depending on the type of curry you choose.

Jason Collmorgen operates a guide to Branson, MO providing information on dining in Branson, Missouri For more information visit: DineBranson.com



Can Drinking Juice be as good as Eating the Whole Fruit?

It is recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that we consume between 5 and 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. It is typically very difficult for the average person to fulfill those recommendations, either because of an aversion to fruits and vegetables or poor food choices in general. By drinking fresh fruit juices, though, you can fill your daily requirements quicker, even all at once!

Drinking your fruits can help you to meet your daily requirements and get all of the beneficial nutrients out of the food. Squeezing your fruit is the efficient way to insure you are getting the vitamins and minerals from the fruit. Besides the health benefits, it is quick, and it is convenient!

While eating the whole fruit is generally considered the ideal way to consume it, squeezing it can have just as many benefits. For example, if you are not much of a fruit or vegetable eater, it might be easier to incorporate those foods into your diet by drinking them. You will still meet the recommended daily requirement of 5-9 fruits or vegetables per day, and you can meet that requirement faster.

You might think that you will lose a lot of nutrients by squeezing only the fruit juice and drinking it, as opposed to eating the whole fruit. The truth is, fruit juice contains nearly as much of the vital fiber as the whole fruit, and all of the vitamins come along in the juice!

When you freshly squeeze juice, you have a whole world of options open to you. In addition to the many fruits and vegetables out there that can be squeezed and sipped on their own, there are countless combinations that can be made to create delicious and nutritious cocktails and smoothies. It doesn�t have to be as tedious as simply peeling a banana and eating it anymore!

When it comes to fruit juices, freshly squeezed juices are definitely the best nutritionally. When fruit juices are bottled or packaged, they are often heated or pasteurized in order to kill germs. In this process, many of the vital enzymes of the fruits are lost as well, which eliminates the nutrients you need.

Making your own fruit juices and cocktails is easy. You can buy one of the many juicers available on the market, or you can just use a blender to create a multitude of healthy and delicious juice drinks for your and your family. They will taste great, and your picky kids won�t even know that they are getting something that�s good for them!

Wayne Mcgregor has written hundreds of articles on effective ways to lose weight. His website provides tons of free weight loss information and help.

http://www.weightlossforall.com



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