Soy Products As Protein Sources
There are many soy products on shelves. Here's a mini-guide for your soy protein shopping.
1. Ready Soy Foods are: soy burgers, hot dogs, sausages, hamburgers, soy cheeses, milk, and soy nuts.
2. Tofu is a kind of soy-milk cheese and goes in different degrees of firmness. Firm tofu is good for salads and stir-fries while soft tofu can be used instead of cream cheese for desserts.
3. Tempeh is made of fermented soy milk. Add it to soups or casseroles and add some exotic flavor to your common dishes.
4. Soy Protein Powder can be also added to practically any dish to increase it protein content.
4. Textured Soy is made of soybean flour and is used instead of ground beef and in ready soy foods.
Eating Garlic and Onion Together
When you read about health effects of garlic and onions, which are all positive, the only reason imaginable to advise against eating them together can be their ability to irritate stomach and intestinal mucose's membranes. That is, each can be irritating separately but together, the effect can get worse.
Can this apply to hindering one's weight loss? There's no scientific data that proves it being true or being not true.
The Most Filling Foods and the Satiety Index
Dr. Susanna Holt of the University of Sydney developed a system measuring the duration of filling effects of different foods she called Satiety Index.
The participants were given breakfast, which consisted of 240 Cal. in the form of various foods and were asked to rank their feelings of hunger every 15 minutes for the next two hours.
The resulting list of the foodss rated for their filling effects was huge but to give you an idea, here are a few foods to compare. Note that potato is the absolute champion, not only in this example but among all the thousands of foods tested. The higher the Index, the more filling the food:
potatoes 323
oatmeal 209
oranges 202
apples 197
grapes 162
whole wheat bread 154
lentils 133
bananas 118
french fries 116
white bread 100
chocolate bar 70
croissant 47
Soy and Your Thyroid
You will not find this in soy product promotions but soy indeed can be bad for you. For one thing, there are chemicals called isoflavones in soy that are dangerous to the hormone-sensitive parts of the thyroid gland.
The thyroid secretes thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyroxine (T3), which regulate the body¡¯s metabolic rate and these isoflavones can inhibit the thyroid's T3 and T4 poroduction resulting in goiter as well as oother thyroid problem including those caused by autoimmune reactions.
Low calorie density foods
Lowering calories in your food can be done differently. One is to take any food you want and eat just a little of it. Another way is to choose foods that, ounce for ounce, contain fewer calories, it's called low calorie density of foods. Strangely as it is, these foods take less calories not only to fill in a bowl but to make you feel full.
A classical example: the same calorie are found in 10 grapes and 10 raisins but the grapes will satisfy your hunger sooner so you consume less calories.
Are lowering calories the best way of dieting? It depends. If you need to use all your willpower to stay on a reduced calorie diet, it most probably will fail. The matter is, feeling hunger makes your body resist your actions and get into the starvation mode where fat burning becomes very difficult and your metabolism goes down leaving you out of energy.
On the other hand, if you feel full faster on a diet of low calorie density foods or if your appetite is reduced to start with, as on a low carbohydrate diet, you most probably will succeed.
Produce: fresh, frozen, canned
Of course the best vegetable or fruit is most nutritious when just picked up from the branch, vine, or dug out of soil. This is why natural health proponents insist on choosing local produce in season over transported from who knows where, harvested who know when, maybe even coming their long way from overseas.
Local brands of produce are selected rather for their taste than for their shelf life. In season, on your farmer's market, you can be sure they haven't treated with wax or sulfur for long transportation.
However, things tend to be not-so-perfect. What's next best to fresh local product in season?
Dr. Sears, author of the Zone Diet, prefers them frozen (over canned) which, he says, are "surprisingly nutritious." He explains that manufacturers pick the ripest fruits and veggies and freeze them as soon after harvesting as is possible. In this case, the looks indeed guarantees quality: vitamin, natural pigments, phytonutrients - all are preserved. You can be sure there's no salt and preservatives in your pack of frozen produce, unlike in canned ones.
However, some of the vitamins are being seriously reduced by freezing. For example, 394 % of daily value of Vitamin C in 1 cup of sliced fresh peach becomes 19 % in same amount of frozen peach. On the other hand, many vitamins and minerals content decreases only slightly so you can rely on frozen peach in getting them almost as much as from the fresh fruit. These are:
Calcium
Iron
Vitamin E
Thiamin
Riboflavin
Niacin
Folate
Vitamin
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Zinc
Copper
Juicing wild herbs
Let's see why and when juicing can get us something that whole food can not. The problem is that we don't eat enough fruits and vegetables to get all the benefits they can offer.
The National Cancer institute recommends five servings of vegetables and three of fruits each day, but an average American eats only 1 1/2 servings of vegetables and no fruit on most of the days. Possibly, juicing could provide the answer to fixing our fruit and vegetable deficient diets.
But how about wild plants? Is there any reason why should we get concerned about getting enough of those while we hardly get enough of regular veggies or their juices? Maybe there are some reasons. First, wild plants grow on un-depleted soils while cultivated ones don't. Farmers for already centuries get out of soil just about entire Periodic Table of the Elements but what's returned with fertilizers is hardly more than three of the elements - Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus.
Second reason is freshness. Most of the produce on shelves went a long way while harvesting wild plants gives you the control of the freshness. Of course, you can learn when to harvest wild plants to catch the pick of their nutritional value while even local farmers pick the fruits and vegetables well before their prime time of ripeness. Finally, you can be sure there's no such thing as genetic engineering or artificial selection not for nutrients but for shelf life.
Aloe vera juice contains numerous vitamins and minerals, enzymes, amino acids, natural sugars and agents which may be anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial.
Many of the benefits of Nettles are due to very high levels of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, manganese, silica, iodine, silicon, sodium, and sulfur. Nettles also are a good source of vitamin C, beta-carotene, and B-vitamins. Nettles are very high in protein, more than any other herb or even vegetable - an amazing 10%!
Dandelion Greens' juice has a high iron content, quadruple the carotene content of lettuce plus rich supplies of calcium, potassium, and vitamins C and E.
Black Peper Is Good For You
Black pepper (Piper nigrum in Latin) contains in large quantities manganese, potassium, fiber, iron, and vitamin C. However, its nutritional quality is not limited to just these four components.
Black pepper improves digestion, prevents heartburn, gas, diarrhea, and constipation. It also promotes sweating and acts as diuretic helping to get read of excessive water accumulated in body tissues.
Black pepper is a potent antioxidant with antibacterial properties and stimulates the breakdown of fat cells.
And don't forget that it's just so good in so many dishes!
Italian Greens and Beans Dish
Try this easy but not plain Italian classic salad.
Take:
1 tsp olive oil
1 head escarole
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chickpeas
2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
Cook:
Tear escarole into medium pieces. Slightly heat the olive oil with garlic and chickpeas. Add the escarole and continue to heat until the escarole is just warm. Season with Parmesan cheese and dress with olive oil and any spices you like.
Healthy Dining in Italian Restaurants
Italian cuisine offer healthy choices because you can have lots of reduced-fat and vegetable-rich options, lots of grains, beans, peas and other legumes, which provide fiber and protein.
Order pasta rather than pizza. Choose red sauces - marinara, Bolognese, red clam, or puttanesca. Avoid Alfredo and primavera unless they serve cream-free varieties. Order antipasto with olives, kidney beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and other vegetables, with fewer cheeses and meats.
Ask to trim fat from poultry or meat and serve salad dressing on the side. Choose dishes that are steamed, broiled, baked, roasted, poached, or sauteed.
Healthy choices are chicken cacciatore, chicken Marsala, biscotti, steamed mussels, clams and other shellfish. Avoid most desserts in Italian restaurants because they usually are very rich.
Cooking With Probiotics
Probiotics are truly live foods meaning they contain live friendly bacterial culture(s) and you don't want to kill the bacteria and all the health benefits along with them - so you better use them in dishes that don't require high temperature for preparation. Here's one recipe that calls for cold yogurt or kefir.
Russian Cold Soup: Okroshka
The name originates from the Russian "kroshit" which means to chop. The classic one is a mix of mostly raw vegetables with very special bread beverage - "kvas" but there's a recipe using yogurt.
For liquid:
2 cups of very fresh, "young" kefir or yogurt
2 cups of cold water
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
For solid part:
I/2 bunch of redishes
1 small raw red beet, finely shredded (or boiled and julienned)
2 boiled eggs cut into cubes
1 medium cucumber, julienned
2 medium green onions, chopped
1/2 cup baby dill, chopped
1/2 cup flat parsley, chopped
Use all parts cooled well and mixed.
To get more idea of using yogurt in dishes, try the 'Have your yogurt, and eat it, too! tips.
The Many Forms And Uses of Garlic
Garlic has been used as both a medicine and a spice for thousands of years starting as early as 3,000 b.c. Garlic flesh consists of sulfur compounds, amino acids, minerals, such as germanium, selenium, and zinc, and vitamins A, B, and C.
The active chemical in garlic is Allicin. Allicin is also responsible for garlic's odor. The cloves can be eaten raw, cooked, dried, in aromatic oils and vinegars - or in tablets and capsules. Expert herbalists agree that garlic does not have to be eaten raw to be effective. Cooked garlic or various aged extracts and oils can in some cases can provide even more effective.
Garlic's most common uses as a dietary supplement are: to inhibit and kill bacteria, fungi, and parasites, for high cholesterol, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Some studies suggest consuming garlic as a regular part of the diet may lower the risk of certain cancers. However, no clinical trials have examined this.
Preliminary research suggests that taking garlic may slow the development of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), a condition that can lead to heart disease or stroke.
Garlic can thin the blood the same way aspirin does. Use garlic with caution if you are planning to have surgery or dental work, or if you have a bleeding disorder.
Fruits Allowed On Atkins Diet
Dr. Atkins diet is based on counting carbohydrates and it is advised that you use your allowance wisely: not for sweets but for nutritious foods containing phytonutriens. Such are vegetables, berries, and fruits. The portions matters, of course, because of the carb grams in them.
However, what you eat your fruits with, matters, too! Fibers, protein, and fats (in the form of nuts or heavy cream) when eaten together with fruits, slow down and overall decrease carbohydrate absorption, up to 1.8 times!
From this standpoint, a cup of Raspberries is a worse choice than a cup of Raspberries with half a cup of heavy cream. Also, the more grams of fiber contains your fruit, the less effective carb grams in it.
For example, a halve of grapfruit has 9.5 carb grams but when you subtract 7 fiber grams, this food starts looking very low in carbs - just 2.5 grams! Raspberries have 8.6 effective carb grams in 1-cup serving and a small kivi almost the same amount: 8.4 grams.
The bottom line is: Any fruit is fine, as long as you count carb grams and combine them with nuts, heavy cream, or other fatty food like cheese.
Functional foods
Out of various vegetables, fruits, nuts, and whole grains, many are very good for you. But some are better than others and some are so good that not only feed you but can heal and prevent diseases.
When a food is researched well enough and recognized as providing health benefits beyond basic nutrition (being healing and protective) - it is officially put on list of functional foods.
Here's a sample list of official functional foods:
apples
beef
cheese
berries
broccoli
carrots
chocolate
cinnamon
citrus
cocoa
collards
corn
cranberries
cruciferous vegetables (like cabbage and lettuce)
eggs (especially yolk)
flax seeds
garlic
grapes
honey
leeks
fish oils - e.g., sardines for your snack
lamb - e.g., cold cuts
oat
onions
peanuts
pears
psyllium husk - add it to your snack shakes
red grapes
rolled oats - e.g., as oat bars
rye - e.g., as whole rye bread or crackers
salmon
scallions
soy - e.g., soy nuts for your snack
spinach
strawberries
tea
tomatoes
tuna
walnuts
wheat
wheat bran
whole grains
wine
yogurt
The Health Benefits of Carrots
A medium carrot contains 6.19g total carbohydrates and 1.83g fiber making 4.36 effective carb grams. Is this too high for a low car diet? It's now being debated. Carrots is a no-no on Glycemic Index diet due to their fast influence on blood glucose levels.
It's not advised on Atkins induction phase, but can be OK if you stay within your individual carb daily allowance on later phases. It is encouraged on the Zone diet. With just 26.23 Callories of energy, a medium carrot has 343% of Daily Value for Vitamin A - a very potent phytonutrient.
The health benefits of carrots are outstanding. Carrots' antioxidants can protect against heart disease and cancer, promote healthy vision, and prevent night vision problems.
Cooking carrots not only keep the beneficial properties but actually raises them allowing the nutrients enter the bloodstream easier due to the softening of carrot's fiber.