Many people are not getting the proper nutrition due to lack of a healthy diet. In a world filled with so many food choices, it is hard sometimes to make the right food choice. The American diet is high in trans fats, sodium, refined sugars and preservatives. These types of eating habit have taken a toll on our bodies and had caused health care costs to soar. By decreasing the amount of processed foods that we eat can increase over all health. Small positive changes in the diet can have long lasting positive effects on our health. Taking vitamin supplements can also help the body to get the nutrition it needs to function properly.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Taking Vitamin for Optimal Health
The Benefits of Organic Vitamins
While in the process of recovering from a particularly aggressive case of the flu, I found that I felt completely lagged and out of sorts. For weeks, I felt sluggish and weak, which I attributed to the toll the illness had taken on my body. I tried getting extra rest, eating good foods, drinking enough fluids and followed the advice commonly recommended for recuperating, but nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t until I realized how badly depleted my body was that I realized the need to take better care of myself on the whole so that I didn’t feel this way again.
I needed to receive the proper nourishment that I could only get from adding organic vitamins and foods to my daily diet. I started by going shopping and purchasing some fresh fruits and vegetables and added four to six servings of each to my diet. I then searched online and found some high-quality vitamin supplements from beyondprobiotics.net, which were another addition. Within a matter of a few days, I felt like I was well on my way to become a healthier person just by doing these two simple things.
The organic vitamins I purchased from beyondprobiotics.net were called Vitamin Code One for Women Formula. Contained in the organic vitamins I was surprised to find many different raw, food-created nutrients that I didn’t find in grocery or health-food store supplements. The capsules are a once-daily formula which meet my unique nutritional needs and make me feel better and more energetic than I have felt in a very long time.
I found the vitamins also provide certain protection for my body like breast and reproductive health, bone strength, energy, healthy heart and skin. The vitamins are make from uncooked, unprocessed, unadulterated foods completely free of binding agents, contain on fructose, maltodextrine or magnesium stearate or corn starch, like other vitamins. The vitamins are easy to digest and have specially targeted peptides to provide the maximum amount of nutrients for my body.
The addition of these vitamins to my diet is convenient and contains everything I need to allow my body to be at its best health wise. Never again will I ever put myself in a position to have a weakened immune system, since adding these vitamins and organic foods to my diet, I feel like a completely new person. I would highly recommend any woman who wants to experience better health and quality of life adds the vitamins to her diet, the results are well worth it.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Make Your Metabolism Work For You: Scientific Discoveries and Nutritional Supplements
Your base metabolic rate has an enormous effect on your weight loss efforts. In fact, raising your base metabolic rate can help you burn the same number of calories as you would by jogging around the block several times a day -- but without actually doing anything! It's scientifically proven -- so how do you do that? We look at what science and the organic whole food supplement industry have to say about boosting your metabolism.
Three minute high intensity bursts
We've been told a multitude of things about the intensity and amount of exercise time needed for health benefits. From being told that 20 minutes four times a week of moderate exercise is sufficient, to saying that an hour of vigorous exercise five times a week is needed … it's all a bit confusing! However, now scientists at the University of Edinburgh have research to suggest that doing just three minutes of very high intensity exercise a few times a week dramatically improved metabolism, glucose clearance and the action of insulin.
Cut down on fructose
Fructose, a fruit sugar, could stimulate our brains to crave higher food intake and stimulate obesity, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found. Your whole food supplements designed to cut down on your appetite could be negated by consuming large amounts of fructose - which is found in more foods than you might think. Spring onions, for example, have high levels. Soft drinks, processed foods with corn syrup, and table sweeteners all have high fructose levels.
Check your prolactin
Excess prolactin (the hormone that stimulates breast milk production) in both men and women can be produced by stress, some brain tumors and some medicines can also cause raised levels. Doctors are now finding it can also interfere with insulin action and disturb metabolism. So before you begin a course of whole food supplements designed to boost your metabolism, make sure your body isn’t silently working against you.
Look for fucoxanthin
There have been enormously promising studies in trials on rodents showing that up to a quarter of body weight can be lost in four weeks, with the greatest fat loss from the belly, using a substance found in brown seaweed known as fucoxanthin. There are quite a few Garden of Life products with fucoxanthin included -- these whole food supplements can come in the form of an energy bar, in an omega 3 tablet or in a specific metabolic boosting formula. Look for organic whole food supplements like Fuco THIN, Oceans 3, and FucoProtein bars.
Cooking for Health -- How to Preserve the Antioxidants in Your Food
Antioxidants are readily available from whole food multivitamins -- however, they are also readily available from foods! You'll note that most nutritional supplement bottles state that the product is not a substitute for a healthy and balanced diet. If you’d like to make sure that you have an excellent, healthy nutrient base, and your supplements are just a bonus and a surety, read on for the best cooking methods to preserve antioxidants in your food.
Boiling
Boiling caused the greatest antioxidant loss in cauliflower, peas, zucchini and green beans. In most vegetables, antioxidant loss was significant after vegetables were boiled. If you boil most of your vegetables, organic whole food supplements of antioxidants are still recommended.
Pressure-cooking
Pressure cooking was second only to boiling for antioxidant loss in vegetables. Beets and garlic retained most of their antioxidants after these cooking methods, but that is about all! You'll want to hang onto those antioxidant nutritional supplements for a while longer.
Baking
Baking showed moderate antioxidant loss for most vegetables, apart from green beans, beets, and garlic.
Microwaving
Overall, microwaving produced one of the lowest drops in antioxidant levels after vegetables were cooked. One notable exception comes from a different study done five years earlier, which showed that microwaving broccoli caused a huge 97% drop in flavonoid content.
Griddling
Griddling, or frying without oil on a flat metal surface, helped most foods retain the highest level of antioxidants. Break out the barbeque if you’d like to get the benefits of whole food supplements of antioxidants, but from your actual food!
Steaming
In the broccoli study mentioned in the microwaving section, steaming showed the smallest flavonoid loss of all the cooking methods. There was almost no different in antioxidant content between raw and steamed.
Inconsistent results
Unfortunately, the effect of cooking a food on its antioxidant content is not consistent! For example, tomatoes and corn show higher antioxidant levels once cooked, while potatoes, broccoli and carrots show lower levels.
Remember, though, that eating foods raw is the best way to guarantee that you are getting the antioxidant content that you hear about in studies. If you definitely aren't a raw food person, then keep that bottle of whole food multivitamins handy for a while longer.
The Omega-3 Power Series: More Conditions Omega-3 Can Help With
I'll bet you thought after reading the first part that there couldn’t possibly be more that this little molecule could do for the human body … considering that depression, obesity-related complications, prostate cancer, macular degeneration, asthma, arthritis and diabetes could all be alleviated with omega-3s! In case you needed another five reasons to maintain your daily omega-3 organic whole food supplements, here they are.
Kills cancer cells: At a cellular and a molecular level, omega-3 nutritional supplements can reduce leukocytosis (an accumulation of white blood cells), oxidative stress and systemic inflammation, all of which have been associated with the growth of cancerous tumours.
Reduce harmful effects of chemo drugs: Cisplatin is a chemotherapy drug that often causes kidney damage. Taking DHA, a type of omega 3 whole food supplement, reduced the damage done by cisplatin to the kidneys and also had its own chemoprotective effects.
Protect against strokes: Plaque in the carotid arteries can sometimes come loose and lead to a stroke, by blocking a major blood vessel in the brain. In a recent study, plaque scraped from patients who had begun having neurological symptoms that indicate possible stroke were compared with asymptomatic patients. Those who had started having neurological symptoms has two times less DHA, and 1.5 times less EPA in their plaque samples.
Gum disease: Dental researchers have been looking at resolvins, a family of omega-3 whole food supplements, for their potential in preventing tissue damage and tooth loss from the chronic inflammation caused by the bacteria in gum disease patients. The organic whole food supplements don’t only provide a preventive effect, but could also restore sick gums to health.
Parkinson's: LSU Health Sciences Center researchers in New Orleans have found that omega-3 consumption can prevent the misfolding of a protein, which occurs in gene mutations seen in Parkinson's and Huntington's disease patients. Having a defective Ataxin-1 gene causes a protein to misfold, and then not be properly processed by cells. Tangled clumps of the proteins eventually lead to cell death, but omega-3whole food supplements could prevent that misfolding.
Intelligence: A study of almost 4,000 teenagers published in Acta Pediatricia showed that 15-year-old boys who ate fish once a week had improved cognition, over those who ate fish less frequently. Those who ate fish more than once a week showed around an 11% improvement in verbal, visuospatial and combined intelligence scores.
Brand Review: Mt. Capra Whole Food Nutritionals
Mt. Capra has a smaller product range than most, as they focus on goat milk products for whole food supplementation. However. they are well regarded in the natural health industry, and have been in business for over 20 years, constantly expanding since their inception. The goats milk for their products comes from their own farm, utilizing free range goats on a large property in the south of Washington state. Here are some of their more popular products!
Capracleanse
This whole food supplement aims to assist cleansing throughout the entire body, from the larger digestive down to a cellular level. It is supposed to be used daily to help remove mucoid plaque, cleanse the blood with chlorophyll and correct and prevent constipation. Their Activated FIber blend is popular, and contains arabinogalactan, psyllium husks, flax flour, apple fiber powder and rice bran solubles.
Capracolostrum
When I had just had my first baby, I was shocked to hear from the doctor's mouth that Olympic athletes would be climbing all over themselves to get their hands on my colostrum (made before breast milk comes in) if they could! The CapraColostrum whole food supplement makes it much easier than chasing around expectatant mothers. It provides dopamine and serotonin, and helps support the immune system.
Vital Energy
This quick selling Mt. Capra product contains five herb blends, that all aim to help your metabolism function optimally. It has predigested minerals and electrolytes, anti-inflammatories and melatonin as some of the notable ingredients. The immune system, your stamina, and stress-related conditions all benefit from this whole food supplement.
Capra Mineral Whey
A whey powder made from goat's milk, the most similar milk to human's in composition, this nutritional supplement has an enormous range of benefits. It is an alkaline mineral food, helping support a healthy environment in the body, and assists with conditions like:
- Weak and painful joints
- A weakened immune system
- Soothing the digestive tract
Caprobiotics Advancved Shelf Stable Formula
Probiotics have an enormous range of health benefits for humans, and the Caprobiotics organic whole food vitamins and probiotics are especially natural and helpful. People with any of the following conditions can benefit from taking probiotics like the Mt. Capra products daily:
- Peptic Ulcers
- Allergies
- Gastric distress
- High cholesterol
- Family history of cancer or celiac disease
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Effective Nutritional Supplements and Skin Products Under $20
Nutritional supplementing can be an expensive process, with some whole food supplements costing in excess of $60 for a standard size bottle. All of them have awesome benefits, but sometimes the simplest formulations and the cheapest products can have just as great benefits as more expensive items.
For budget watchers, today we are checking out 7 of the most effective nutritional supplements and natural skin products available for under $20.
This represents a 30% saving off retail prices, for the #3 selling herbal formula in the entire whole food supplements industry. The energy blends it contains are stimulant-free, and support energy and metabolism, help give you endurance and encourage a healthy response to stressful events.
You save 30% off the RRP buying this product also. The certified organic fiber supplement helps your gut naturally cleanse itself. One serve provides 20% of your daily fiber needs, more than adequate for whole food supplementation.
There is not only one strain of probiotics in this whole food supplement, but ten, aiming to help offset the effects of oxidation and help support the immune system. The probiotics are said to both help boost the immune system's action, and help directly kill pathogens in your gut for optimal health.
4. New Chapter Supercritical Antioxidants, 60 capsules for $17.97
Antioxidants are New Chapter's speciality, and these supercritical formulation antioxidants come in an easy-to-swallow soft gel form. They help support your cellular enzyme system and are backed by clinical research.
5. New Chapter True Tamanu Oil, 1 fl. oz for $17.97
Tamanu oil has been used for centuries by Pacific Islanders to assist with the healing of cuts, blemishes sores and burns. It promotes the formation of new skin tissue and prevents microbial infections.
Acidic conditions in the body are thought to lead to a host of diseases. This whey powder is not only good for helping build muscle after workouts, but for creating a healthy, disease repellent environment in the body, according to the manufacturers.
This formulation is made specifically for teenage skin, and aims to help take the infection out of spots and heal blemishes faster than your body can alone. The sulphur in works as both an antiseptic and an exfoliant, while improving the texture and tone of skin also.
Losing Weight with Probiotics -- What Science Has Found
Probiotics are one of the newest fields of study in science, helping to combat disease in a more natural way by recognizing that not all bacteria are bad, and that some are quite necessary to human life. Reserachers are now finding out about what role probiotics play in weight management, including regulating metabolism and helping maintain a healthy weight throughout pregnancy.
Uncertain, but definite potential
A recent study by Amsterdam researchers may not have uncovered any clues about HOW probiotics help people maintain a healthy weight, but it provided some unarguable facts. The team studied 256 women who had recently gotten pregnant, and divided them into three random groups. The first group received probiotics capsules as well as dietary counselling and food samples. The second group received dietary counselling and a placebo capsule, while the third group received a placebo capsule and no dietary counselling or food samples.
The women continued taking the capsules until they began their babies on solid foods and stopped breastfeeding exclusively, at around 6 months of age. Ther results were as follows:
- 25% of the women who received probiotics and diet advice showed symptoms of central obesity. Their average body fat percentage was 28%.
- 43% of the women who received a placebo and diet advice showed symptoms of central obesity. Their average body fat percentage was 29%.
- 40% of the women who received only a placebo showed symptoms of central obesity. Their average body fat percentage was 30%.
Central obesity was defined by the study as having a BMI (Body Mass Index) over 30, and a waist circumference of greater than 80 centimeters.
Speeding up the metabolism with probiotics
In a study that has been published for over a year now, researchers from Imperial College London and Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, gave two different types of commercially prepared probiotics drink to mice that had human gut microbes transplanted into them.
The mice that were treated with probiotics metabolized bile acids differently; the function of these acids is to emulsify fats in the upper gut. Being able to absorb more fat from the food you eat could contribute to obesity, while excreting more of that fat would have positive implications for weight loss.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Brand Review - New Chapter Products Organic Vitamins and Probiotics
New Chapter may sound like a young, upstart company -- but in reality it has been a considerable force in the whole food supplement arena for more than 24 years. You'll often hear that it is far more beneficial to get your nutritional needs from the food you eat, rather than from chemical isolates. New Chapter's whole food multivitamins are a big step in the right direction, as every ingredient is grown or cultured, rather than synthetically put together or reduced chemically. Here we look at the differences between New Chapter's dietary supplements and what you'll find at the pharmacy.
Potent but not dangerous supplement levels
New Chapter focuses on providing an effective dose of many nutrients and probiotics to support health, without overdosing. The true daily required intake of many vitamins and minerals is much lower than what is included in a conventional multivitamin tablet. In the case of some minerals, having too much can cause adverse health effects or even lower their potency. You will also find that in the case of many New Chapter products, while the milligram measure is lower than conventional dietary supplements, the cellular activity of the substances when absorbed this way is much higher.
Fermented soy base
Many people have trouble digesting natural or raw soy. Fermented soy is used for culturing many probiotics and deriving vitamins and minerals in New Chapter products, and this form of soy agrees even with many people who are sensitive to it.
Suitable products for pregnant or nursing mothers
New Chapter has also created a line of dietary supplements for nursing and pregnant mothers.
Fridge-free dietary supplements
Many whole-food supplements and probiotics require storage in the refrigerator. New Chapter products are formulated for shelf-stability, so you can still get the full effect without clogging your refrigerator door. However, if you live in relatively humid conditions, the efficacy of your products may be influenced by the moisture in the air. The fridge is usually the driest place in the house, so you can extend the life of your New Chapter products by storing them in the fridge.
Vegan and gluten-free options
New Chapter has herbal supplements and dietary supplements that have been derived according to vegan principles, with no animal products, by-products, or testing. There are also a range of gluten-free products, nor any ingredients that the Celiac Sprue Association considers harmful to gluten-intolerant persons.
Top 5 Women's Whole Food Supplements - What a Girl Wants!
You don’t have to be a high maintenance sort of girl to need certain things! Today we look at what a good women's whole food supplement needs to include, to help you achieve optimal health.
1. Folic acid
This is too often seen as only a pregnant woman's vitamin. It has an enormous range of health benefits in addition to helping prevent birth defects. Folic acid can help lower homocysteine levels to aid in preventing heart disease, reduce the risk of developing clinical depression, and improve memory and mental agility. Macular degeneration can also be slowed with folate whole food supplements, according to some studies.
2. Vitamin E
It is not only important for top brands of shampoo -- your body needs it as well. Vitamin E deficiency is rare, but can cause neurological problems and anemia. Combined with other common vitamin and mineral ingredients in whole food supplements, vitamin E has shown to be beneficial in reducing macular degeneration risk, and some studies have shown a reduction in Alzheimer's development associated with vitamin E intake.
3. Iron
Iron is essential for carrying oxygen around the body, and due to our monthly blood loss, women are often low on iron. Iron should be taken as part of a whole food multivitamin as iron toxicity, or an overdose of the mineral, carries health risks just as significant as deficiency.
4. Calcium
We all know that women are at increased risk of osteoporosis, and that calcium helps support our bones and teeth and in turn reduce that risk. However, most of us don’t realize how little calcium we actually have in our diets! Health consciousness leads many women to shun the dairy foods that are high in calcium, and a dislike of spinach doesn’t help either. Your whole food multivitamin should have a moderate amount of calcium, no more than 600 mg in a tablet, because the more calcium a supplement contains, the less is absorbed.
5. Green tea
Whole food supplements are your best bet for upping your intake of green tea if you don’t particularly like the drink. Green tea helps support the function of estrogen in the body, and the EGCG compound helps our bodies metabolize fats. Hooray!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Extra, Extra - Read All About It
As promised, here’s the next news installment we found during our probiotics research. This story is courtesy of Fox 7 News!
If you are one of the millions of Americans who suffers from stomach issues like bloating or constipation, relief may be as close as the grocery store! 7's Diana Diaz shows us why some doctors are making the Push for Probiotics.
Look in almost any supermarket or health food store and you'll see them: products that promise to strengthen your immunity and regulate your digestive system with probiotics.
But do they really work?
Karen Cohen is a busy mother of three.
"After I delivered Jarod, my second, I started having hoarseness, and I thought it was sinus," Karen says. But what Karen was feeling wasn't a sinus problem, it was actually a digestive problem. "I looked into it further and found it was reflux."
So she went to see gastroenterologist Charles Gluck at Memorial Regional Hospital for help.
He says the digestive system requires a critical balance. "There's a hundred trillion bacteria living in the colon, and they are an ecosystem just like any other ecosystem. If they're out of balance, you're out of balance."
Imbalances in the system can be caused by taking antibiotics that wipe out both the good and bad bacteria, causing a variety of symptoms.
"It could present itself as diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas," Dr. Gluck says, adding that probiotics are "friendly" organisms that can be found in supplement form or by eating foods like Activia and DanActive yogurt. "What you are doing in that situation is flooding your colon with non-gas-forming friendly bacteria, thereby crowding out some of those aggressive or disease-causing organisms."
Karen had been taking a prescription medication for her reflux but wasn't getting relief.
"So, two weeks in, three weeks in, I started noticing I wasn't as hoarse, feeling better."
Dr. Gluck says there is no downside to taking probiotics, even though they might not work for everyone. All Karen knows is they worked for her!
News on the Probiotic Front
As we mentioned before, we’re always on the lookout for the latest and greatest probiotics news…check out the following Fox News report!
Regular consumption of a yogurt-like fermented milk product containing the digestion boosting probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis appears to ease digestive discomfort, researchers report.
An open-label study of healthy adults who ate or did not eat Activia (Danone, Ltd.) daily for 2-weeks suggests "the daily consumption of this specific probiotic food improves digestive comfort," Dr. Denis Guyonnet told Reuters Health.
Guyonnet is the senior research scientist with the Activia Health Benefit Team at Danone Research in Palaiseau, France, and the study was supported by a grant from Danone.
Previous research has shown probiotic products -- those containing microorganisms that aid digestion -- are beneficial for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and other digestive problems , Guyonnet and colleagues point out in their article in the Journal of Digestive Diseases.
The findings of the current study suggest "people experiencing some digestive troubles, even without diagnosed gastrointestinal diseases like IBS, can benefit from the consumption of this specific probiotic product," said Guyonnet.
The study participants included 360 healthy men and women, 18 to 65 years old, who had no diagnosed gastrointestinal problems but reported some digestive discomfort in questionnaires completed at the start of the study.
For a 2-week period, 144 and 147 of these men and women, respectively, ate one or two servings of the fermented milk product daily, while 69 participants (controls) did not. The investigators urged all participants to otherwise maintain their other normal dietary and exercise habits.
After 2 weeks, about 83 and 84 percent of those eating one or two servings of the probiotic product reported improvements in digestive comfort. Just 3 percent of the control group reported the same.
Among those eating the fermented milk probiotic, "the bother from different gas-related symptoms (feeling bloated, excessive or trapped wind, swollen stomach) was significantly reduced," Guyonnet noted.
These findings suggest an overall positive effect from the regular consumption of probiotic food, Guyonnet and colleagues conclude. However, they acknowledge, a proper clinical trial, in which participants do not know if they are getting an active of placebo product, is needed to confirm the beneficial effects.
We’ve got one more hot news story to pass along…stay tuned for the next installment!
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