A new type of Food Guide

post from Fitness Health and Diet Tips on 22 January 2007 10:06:06 PM. © Fitness Health and Diet Tips

Earlier I mentioned how I like the idea of the Canada Food Guide but I really do not like the ratios of foods. Here is how I would change things if I had the choice.

8 glasses of water a day
I don't care that water is not food. Water is still a nutrient that people need for a healthy diet and most people do not drink any water let alone a little bit. Adding water to the food guide would be a great addition

3-5 small servings of meat or fish
I know that meat and fish are not th only place to get protein but at least mentioning fish again would add to the options. Also most people think that a serving of meat is an 8 ounce steak, not a can of tuna but the can of tuna is just as good. Your body just can not metabolize a big steak.

3-5 servings of vegetables

3-5 servings of fruit
Why is it that fruits and vegetables have always been lumped together? Fruits are great for their high water content and antioxidants and Vegetables are great for minerals including iron and Calcium. I know that this is a generalization but it would be nice to see people eating more of both fruits and vegetables. Oh, and tater tots and french fries are not a vegetable no matter what my brother in law thinks.

2-3 servings of high fiber grains
The idea of lots of breads I believe is outdated as a nitritous food group, instead I beleive it would be good to have reference to high fiber foods and to have examples.

Serving sizes
Come on governments on both sides of the border, it would be nice to have a better idea, not just in print but in news papers and TV, of what a serving size really is. The biggest poblem facing most people is not the junk and misplaced nutrients but instead it is a lack of idea of what serving sizes really are. A bowl of food or cup of coffee is a great sized breakfast but a giant plate of food is not quite enough for dinner? We need to get the word out about what is a good meal morning, noon, and night.

I know that there is a lot more to a good diet than these few things but I look at this as a guide, a way to look at a days food, not the everything that we eat in a day.

Do you have better ideas? Let me know. I would love to add a few more things to this list in a follow up.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nadraszky.com/fitness/archives/a-new-type-of-food-guide.html

Digg this

Disinfecting a kitchen sponge

post from Fitness Health and Diet Tips on 22 January 2007 07:05:47 PM. © Fitness Health and Diet Tips

About a year ago my wife switched us from using regular sponges in the kitchen to some kind of strange rubber cloth that we can throw out after a month or tow. The reason for the change? Bacteria and the problem with sponges being a haven for bacteria that can cause disease. There is a story out on MSNBC today that seems to give a solution to these spongeborne bacteria and apparently microwaving is the answer.

Two minutes in a microwave oven can sterilize most household sponges, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

A team of engineering researchers at the University of Florida found that two minutes of microwaving on full power killed or inactivated more than 99 percent of bacteria, viruses or parasites, as well as spores, on a kitchen sponge.

"People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave," said Gabriel Bitton, a professor of environmental engineering who led the study.

Writing in the Journal of Environmental Health, Bitton and colleagues said they soaked sponges and scrubbing pads in raw wastewater containing fecal bacteria such as E. coli, viruses, protozoan parasites and bacterial spores.

Then they used a common household microwave oven to heat up the sponges. It took four to 10 minutes to kill all the spores but everything else was killed after two, they said.

The researchers suggest wetting the objects?water being heated by the microwave seems to play a role in the sterilization?before zapping them every other day or so.

"The microwave is a very powerful and an inexpensive tool for sterilization," Bitton said.

At least 76 million Americans get sick from food borne microbes every year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 5,000 people die from them.

Kitchens are a common source of these illnesses.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nadraszky.com/fitness/archives/disinfecting-a-kitchen-sponge.html

Digg this

UroStream the Foodie

post from The Nutrient Rich Blog on 22 January 2007 06:59:00 PM. © The Nutrient Rich Blog

Posted By Gerald PuglieseFrom Disease-ProofUroStream shares her thoughts on food, and how Americans differ from Asians and Europeans when it comes to eating:I’m spoiled in that my husband is an excellent cook and we strive to go to the market daily to pick out fresh organic produce. It’s something that the Asians and Europeans [...] Tags: Disease Proof

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nutrientrich.com/blog/?p=928

Digg this

The Problem with Weight Watchers and other
Calorie Counting Diets

post from The Nutrient Rich Blog on 22 January 2007 06:59:00 PM. © The Nutrient Rich Blog

Posted By Joel FuhrmanFrom Disease-ProofFrom the library of DrFuhrman.com:Weight Watchers and other similar diet plans have dismal failure rates. To appeal to the mainstream, who presently are eating a diet predominating in “fake” low-nutrient processed foods, they must perpetuate the same nutritional mistakes that lead people down the path to obesity, diabetes, heart disease [...] Tags: Disease Proof

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nutrientrich.com/blog/?p=925

Digg this

The New Carnival of the Recipes is Up!

post from The Nutrient Rich Blog on 22 January 2007 06:59:00 PM. © The Nutrient Rich Blog

Posted By Gerald PuglieseFrom Disease-Proof Diabetic Recipes hosts this week’s carnival of recipes. Be sure to check out Dr. Fuhrman’s submission Feel Good Snacks. *Don’t forget, not all recipes in the carnival are Fuhrman-friendly. Tags: Disease Proof

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nutrientrich.com/blog/?p=929

Digg this

More Kids Ditching Junk Food

post from The Nutrient Rich Blog on 22 January 2007 06:59:00 PM. © The Nutrient Rich Blog

Posted By Gerald PuglieseFrom Disease-ProofWell, I guess pigs learned how to fly. Because according to the Associated Press more and more students are getting hip to healthy eating, and shunning traditional junk food like fries and hamburgers for carrots and apples. Janet Frankston Lorin has more:As choices on the lunch line change, many children [...] Tags: Disease Proof

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nutrientrich.com/blog/?p=926

Digg this

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…

Posted By Gerald PuglieseFrom Disease-ProofIt’s Captain Vegetable! Hailing from his secret garden somewhere in New Jersey, Captain Vegetable teaches little Andy and Eddie the importance of eating crunchy veggies—by the bunch! Behold his awesome power: Tags: Disease Proof

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nutrientrich.com/blog/?p=924

Digg this

Get Some Veggie Calcium

Posted By Gerald PuglieseFrom Disease-ProofFrom the March 2005 edition of Healthy Times, here is Dr. Fuhrman’s list of the most healthful sources of calcium based on their calorie-to calcium ratios:Calcium Content Per CalorieVegetable Tags: Disease Proof

Read The Full Article:
http://www.nutrientrich.com/blog/?p=927

Digg this

Prolonging Life: Why exercise or calorie
restriction may be the key

Many studies have shown that animals on calorie restricted diets live longer, have less diabetes, heart attacks and cancers and appear younger. In the latest work at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, monkeys eating only 30 percent of their normal caloric intake live much longer and appear much younger than those eating their full diets (American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, August 2006).

Nobody really knows how calorie restriction with adequate nutrients prolongs life and prevents disease, or whether the animal studies can be applied to humans. The leading theory for calorie restriction with adequate nutrition is that it teaches your mitochondria to burn food to produce much lower amounts of oxidants. Mitochondria are the furnaces in cells that turn food into energy. Converting food to energy produces free electrons that form reactive chemicals called oxidants that can bind to and damage DNA and shorten life. Exercise also reduces the amount of oxidants and so should prolong life. Another theory is that excess calories cause fat cells to fill up with fat. Full fat cells produce cytokines that turn on your immunity to cause inflammation that damages all the cells in your body, which would shorten life and cause disease. Anything that prevents excess fat storage should reduce inflammation and thus prolong life. Exercise burns calories, and food restriction lowers calorie intake in humans as well as animals.

Read The Full Article:
http://drmirkin.blogspot.com/2007/01/prolonging-life-why-exercise-or-calorie.html

Digg this