Natural Health

Have you ever put yourself in a good mood for no apparent reason at all? Experts from various disciplines now believe that certain foods we eat play a hand in our happiness. Avoid the diet doldrums with these healthy, happy foods:

1. Oily fish – Medical research teams believe that sardines, salmon, and other oily ocean foods can bring you up when you’re feeling down

Natural fruit and vegetables have been proven time and time again to be good for our overall health. One vegetable in particular is one we may not think twice about when we go for a carrot or tomato instead.

It’s called Beetroot.

Besides the fact that it is low in calories and has an abundance of minerals vital for our overall health, it is also a fabulous source of tryptophan which is the pre-cursor to your feel good and calming hormones. The main benefits we might find more attractive to us as athletes is that the more tryptophan our bodies can produce more productive sleep, which in turn will help overall muscle growth and recovery. Sleep is an often forgotten facet in our lives and something some people take for granted. If we are having regular sessions of deeper sleep, we are giving the body a better opportunity to grow muscle.

You’ve heard about the dangers of farm-raised tilapia, but what about shrimp? The seafood staple is a hit in the U.S., but will it prove harmful to your health?

In 2005, the USDA imposed regulations that require manufacturers to put labels on their products indicating whether the shrimp were farm-raised or wild-caught. However, due to a loophole that doesn’t require “processed” seafood to be labeled, about half of the shrimp we eat is not labeled! Even more worrisome, 90% of shrimp sellers, including restaurants, are not required to label.

Well, not really. But carnivores can enjoy steak in an eco-friendly manner, experts say. It all depends on what the cattle are feeding upon. Grass-fed cattle have up to 33% less fat and nearly double the amount of healthy omega-3 fatty acids than cattle that feed on grain. However, most U.S. ranchers raise their cattle on grain mixes composed mostly of cheap corn.

The grain-fed cattle bulk up quickly on the high-carb diet, so they’re more profitable for ranchers. However, a growing trend in the industry is bucking the grain diet tradition. The benefits are two-fold: the cattle are healthier, with higher levels of CLA, a linoleic acid associated with weight loss and reduced cancer risk, and have lower chances of being contaminated by E. coli. So what does all of this have to do with the environment? Simple. The corn that is mass produced to feed to the cattle is associated with major greenhouse gas emissions. A staggering 1.5 billion bushels of corn are produced in the United States each year just to have enough corn to feed to the cows.

Sprinters, want to shave time off your best events? The Stanford Sleep Clinic recently helped swimmers cut half a second from their best times simply by sleeping longer for about six weeks. After a baseline of five to seven hours of sleep per night was established over a two week period, the researchers had the swimmers adjust their sleep schedule to include ten hours per night.

This just in: there’s yet another reason to beef up your diet with broccoli. A new study shows that eating just a few servings per week of broccoli can significantly reduce a man’s risk for prostate cancer. Tissue samples revealed dramatic changes in key genes that play a role in cancer regulation.

By: Rick Schaff

-- an excerpt from my book, MISLED

www.HEALTHandINSPIRATION.com

Health and fitness magazines and radio and television commercial producers often find themselves in precarious situations due to the nature of how they generate revenues; most of their profits are produced by selling advertising space. Unfortunately, that means that they often have little choice but to work with companies that distort the truth. Simply put, even publications and programs that have stated goals to provide beneficial information on health and fitness to their audiences are often forced to sell ad space or time to disingenuous companies to stay in business. In many cases, the articles and programming must frequently support the “fabulous results” their clients’ products claim to provide. My magazine DIVAS was in print for two years; this provided me with firsthand experience about the compromising decisions every magazine owner and/or publisher must face. Jeff Everson, former editor for Muscle & Fitness Magazine and current publisher of Planet Muscle Magazine stated the following about this situation:

“One of the biggest problems that magazines endure is their dependence on supplement ads to pay their bills. If you just tried to publish a magazine about real training, you would never make it. While one naturally tries to improve the industry, it would be suicide to bite the hands that feed you.

Low sodium intake may lead to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, especially if you are consuming less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Scientists reported that adults who consumed less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day were 37% more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than those who ingested more than 2,300 mg. What's worse, a low sodium diet increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. We all know that too much sodium can be dangerous as well, so how in the world do we find the happy medium?

By: Rick Schaff

-- an excerpt from my book, MISLED

www.HEALTHandINSPIRATION.com

I was in a health food store about a year ago buying some spices when something intriguing caught my eye. The label on one of the spice jars read, “non-irradiated.” My immediate reaction was curiosity. Why would such a statement appear on a spice jar? Did that mean everything else was typically irradiated? When I got home, I started to research irradiated food and to my surprise I found out that many types of food are routinely subjected to some form of radiation treatment in order to kill harmful bacteria and extend shelf life.

Whether you’re on vacation near a hiking hotspot or happen to live in a place where trails abound, hiking can be a great way to change up your cardio routine. Depending on your stats and the intensity and duration of your hike, you can burn 500 calories or more in an hour of hiking (based on a 150-lb. person). Trails with several hills or mostly uphill climbs allow you to burn hundreds of calories more than cross-country treks.

Raw food may be a path to better overall health and fitness. For years, studies have shown that a diet with a high proportion of fresh raw fruits and vegetables will improve health and longevity. So how about a diet consisting entirely of raw foods?

At the root of the raw food diet is the theory that just like other animals in nature, humans are designed for raw foods and therefore can more effectively utilize raw uncooked food. Heating food above 110 degrees Fahrenheit results in the depletion of nutrients in our food, the destruction of enzymes, and the creation of toxins.

Herbal remedies known as “ginsengs” are some of the most popular herbal supplements in the United States. There are several types of ginsengs available, the most commonly used being Panax ginseng, also referred to as Korean or Asian ginseng. Panax ginseng has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years to improve mental and physical vitality. Other uses include improving exercise performance, immune function, reducing fatigue, and reducing male infertility.

It sounds counterintuitive, but eating more bacteria may actually help you be healthier. Probiotics is a new fad sweeping through the nutrition industry. Described as “superstar bacteria,” the idea behind probiotics is to maximize the impact of healthy types of bacteria. Just as the bacteria in yogurts has health benefits, new foods with probiotics can assist in peristalsis. Peristalsis is the mechanism of the intestine that allows it to process food. Probiotics have also been associated with general digestive tract regularity. But what exactly are you eating?

There is an ongoing debate about whether one should eat organic foods or not. Some say eating organic is a no-brainer because of the potential ingestion of hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and other dubious additives found in conventionally grown foods. On the other hand, some argue that organic foods are similar in nutritional quality, yet they cost more and aren’t all that accessible. So what’s the real story? Let me give you some facts, along with my personal take on the subject…

The nation’s milk industry has a great deal of advertising money and political clout behind it. While their ad campaigns have done a great job in convincing us that milk is very good for our health and comes from “happy cows,” many believe these statements to be far from the truth. The fundamental argument is that we are the only species that drinks milk past its infant stage, and therefore milk should be reserved for infants as nature intended and also come from our own species.