Trail Mix

You can make your own trail mix. Sure, you can buy a prepackaged one at the store but there is a sense of health when you take the ingredients and create something to call your own. Here are some suggestions to put in your trail mix:

Pumpkin seeds
Pepita seeds
sunflower seeds
cashews
dried pineapple
raisins
crasins
cranberries
orange cranberries
dried blueberries
almonds
chocolate chips
peanut butter chips
white chocolate chips
macadamia nuts
dark chocolate chips
brazil nuts

and many more!

What can you do with it. Well, you can put it in smaller containers or baggies and grab one on the go or carry them around with you or in your car for when a hunger stike happens. You can also sprinkle some on your salad for a sweet and salty crunch that is also healthy. You can put them in your children’s lunch boxes or take them while shopping so they aren’t hungry.

Trail mix is also a fun way to get the family involved on creating healthy snacks and they will know what they are putting into their body.

You can also do a similar version with granola. The possibilities and varities are endless.

Running a vital tonic

Why should you run?

The golden rule says – you should run because it helps in preventing the chances of developing cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

A little amount of running everyday keeps you fit mentally and physically. Research proves that a combination of diet and exercise is an effective way of reducing weight and increasing lean tissue. Running helps a person to burn on an average-500 to 600 calories per hour.  An average human being can burn around 2000-2500 calories a day by doing simple, everyday things. If you run five miles a day, it will reduce an additional 500 calories

 

Benefits-

 

Good Health

 

Lowers blood pressure and maintains elasticity of the arteries.

 

Keep’s the lung’s strong and powerful.

 

Decreases the incidence of the bone loss disease and anxiety.

 

Allay stress, depression and anxiety.

 

Promotes the release of mood enhancing endorphins.

 

Lifts up your spirits and enhances your sense of focus and confidence.

 

Running keeps you relaxed and you can eat and sleep well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Positve Thinking and Peace of Mind

Positive thinking changes life. Be positive. You get “Peace of Mind” because of positive thoughts. If your mind is peaceful, positive thinking increases. Thereby you will get happiness naturally in all things of your life.

You have to make a habit or to practice for achieving positive thinking. Once you get success in doing positive thinking, you never turn towards negative thinking. If don’t like your current job or work, change it. You need to create positive atmosphere around you. You can change your life by constructive positive thoughts.

Mind becomes weak when it comes under pressure of negative thoughts. Then, it tend to wander here and there in search of support.  It does not try to see behind it. It can’t let you to enjoy your life if you come under control of your mind .Remember, you and only you can control your mind until you want. Though, you do not get results what you want by positive thinking, it makes your mind strong to accept new challenges of life without losing peace of mind.

Raw Chocolate

This raw, organic chocolate is a fantastic food for chocoholics everywhere! You can now turn cravings for cooked chocolate into super nutrition. All chocolate is made from the cacao bean! The raw cacao bean is one of nature’s most fantastic superfoods due to its wide array of unique properties, many of which are destroyed or corrupted by cooking.

Cacao is remarkably rich in sulfur and magnesium.

Cacao seems to be the #1 source of magnesium of any food. This is likely the primary reason women crave chocolate during the menstrual period. Magnesium balances brain chemistry, builds strong bones, and is associated with more happiness. Magnesium is the most deficient major mineral on the Standard American Diet (SAD); over 80 percent of Americans are chronically deficient in Magnesium!

Cacao is high in the beauty mineral sulfur. Sulfur builds strong nails, hair, beautiful, shiny skin, detoxifies the liver, and supports healthy pancreas functioning. Anecdotal reports indicate that cacao detoxifies mercury because it is so high sulfur.

Raw Food Diet

As one might expect, the raw food diet consists primarily of plant foods including fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, seaweed, and dried fruit. Raw foodists believe that heating food above 116 degrees F. destroys the naturally occurring enzymes that assist in digestion and absorption—and saps vitamin power to boot. Therefore, cooked foods are out, as are all processed foods, refined sugars and flours, caffeine, and acid-forming foods, like meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy.

To make their meals more digestible and palatable, raw foodists employ preparation techniques including sprouting, juicing, soaking, blending, and dehydrating. In general, raw diners aim for a diet of at least 75 percent raw foods; hardcore enthusiasts shoot for 100 percent raw.

Many people who’ve gone raw rave about the raw food diet’s numerous health benefits, especially noticeable in the first few months or years.

The raw food diet has many apparent health boons. Because it is low in sodium and high in potassium, magnesium, fiber, and phytochemicals, it can help dieters to easily shed pounds and can also help fend off diseases like diabetes and cancer, particularly colon cancer.

Studies show that the raw food diet, having little or no saturated fat and trans fats, can also be extremely heart healthy. A 2005 Journal of Nutrition study found that a long-term raw food diet can lower and balance serum LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, thus reducing the risk of heart disease.

Be Sanitary When Handling Raw Meat

It is the time of year that everyone is grilling out and cooking for the family outside.  It is important to realize that you need to practice food safety when handling raw foods and raw meat.

Wash your hands frequently with soap while cooking.  Rinse utensils.  Never use the same plate the raw meat was on to place the cooked food.  Most of all make sure the meat is thoroughly cooked.  Sometimes in the rush to get everyone fed, hamburgers and chicken can be slightly undercooked and make people sick.

Enjoy your summer cooking and be sanitary when handling raw meat.

Spring into Health

The beginning of spring is the best time to rejuvenate your diet.

Fruits are getting fresher, farmers’ markets will be opening soon giving you the ability to pick up really fresh fruits and veggies…if you have been thinking about going vegetarian for a week to see if you can do it, spring is a great time for this.

Our bodies tend to crave fresh fruits and vegetables more starting in the spring, because our internal clock knows these things are available. If you haven’t had any fruit or vegetables in a long time, or you think you hate everything that doesn’t come from a drive through or out of a box from the store…give it a try. You don’t have to buy five pounds of broccoli to give it another try, just grab one stalk. You should always keep trying new things, because you never know when your taste buds will change and you will find that carrots are now much sweeter than you remember them being as a child when you refused to eat them!
Have you been thinking about juicing for health? Spring is a great time to start with the abundance available, and the weather getting warmer, starting your day with a glass of apple & carrot juice instead of coffee will be easier because it’s not so cold out anymore. Plus the vitamins in the apple & carrot juice will give you a much smoother boost than caffeine.  As much as I love coffee, some mornings I just don’t feel like it…but I still need to wake up. This happens a lot more often in spring, and when it does I grab some oranges, apples, a carrot and go to town with the juicer.

I feel awake, alive, and rejuvinated.

Negative Calorie Foods

Negative calorie foods are now a new part of my daily nutritional meals and snacks.  In fact, I try to make certain that each day I eat a few servings of these surprisingly delicious food group.  What exactly are negative calorie foods?

Negative calorie foods are foods that burn up more calories while your body works at digesting them than the number of calories that are in the actual food itself.  In essence you’re giving your stomach a workout by eating these foods.

Some great negative calorie foods include:

Apples – broccoli- green cabbage – carrots – cauliflower- strawberries – lettuce – oranges- lemon mangos- grapefruits – garlic – zucchini – green beans- hot chili peppers

Food Recalls - A Bigger Problem Than You May Think

  

Pictured left to right: salmonella, listeria, E. Coli

Consumers are wary of anything containing spinach and everyone has stopped buying and selling it. However as more news comes out, it has become apparent that this is not a surprise to people in the food, drug and health business. These problems have been going on for some time and we the consumers are only just finding out about it. As it stands now, going to the grocery story can actually turn into a game of Russian Roulette because we never know what food might be tainted with bacteria or foreign objects, lets say metal fragments (what in the world?!). Here is a list of recently recalled items that you may or may not know about.

Carrot Juice - Botulism

Botuslism is a rare food poisoning that happens in over 200 people a year but is considered very rare. It is mostly found in foods that were canned and preserved mostly at home, such as fruits and vegetables. Some symptoms include: difficulty swallowing, speaking and breathing as well as blurred or double vision. 

Raw Oysters - Vibrio

Vibrio is typically found in saltwater, which is why it was found in those raw oysters. If ingested it causes gastrointestinal illness. If it gets into an open wound it can cause infections. The illness is usually gone in 3 days but those will be an unpleasant 3 days. Symptoms include: watery diarrhea often with abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting fever and chills.

Ground Beef - E. Coli 

We are specifically talking about E. coli O157:H7 that is usually found in feces (yuck) and can make its way into our food if people are not carefully washing their hands and taking other precautions. It can also be caused by under cooking certain foods such as meat. You can also recieve it by drinking raw milk or swimming and/or drinking water that was contaminated with sewage (another yuck). If infected you can have bloody stool, kidney failure and even death.

Potato Salad - Listeria 

Listeria is a very tricky bacteria. While most bacteria do not grow in cold temperatures, Listeria does. It can be found in and grow in foods at below zero temperatures and can also be found and grown in regular human body temperatures. It can also be found in a variety of foods. From raw and cooked meats, vegetables and dairy products. This bacteria is usually found in soil and vegetation.

Crab Dip - Listeria 

Alfalfa Sprouts - Salmonella 

Some symptoms of salmonella includes: nausea, abdominal cramping, and bloody diarrhea with mucous and also Reiter’s syndrome, a rare but very debilitating form of arthritis. Salmonella is another bacteria that can be found in under cooked food such as poultry and beef. Doctors also urge people to not consume raw eggs as that is another cause of salmonella poisoning.

Beef Products - E. Coli 

Mushrooms - Listeria

Nacho Tortilla chips - Soy 

Soy is an allergen that can be fatal to individuals who are very allergic to it.

Raw Revolution Organic Live Food Bars are being recalled because they may contain metal fragments. Nice to know you get a little surprise with your food isn’t it?

Monterey Mushrooms of Watsonville, CA is recalling 10,000 cases of fresh sliced white mushrooms and fresh sliced baby bella mushrooms because they might contain Listeria monocytogenes. It has list of consequences that is bad for the young, old, pregnant and anyone in between.

Most people worry about how much the food is going to cost or what food is best for their health and diet. I don’t think that many of us choose food on the basis of will it kill us or not.

New Labels for Spinach?

After the recent E.coli outbreak, which has now possibly killed three people and sickened more than 100, officials are talking about labelling spinach with its area of origin in case of future outbreaks.

That way, the whole store wouldn’t have to be cleared of spinach if it was known the outbreak came from California spinach, for instance.

Food and Drug Administration officials say they don’t want to deny access to spinach for customers who want to eat it, but there’s no alternative right now because no one knows which spinach came from which farms.

This is a wise idea to get people to start eating spinach again once it is safe to do so. This will give people assurance that should a similar outbreak happen, it will be easier to pinpoint the source and not have to eliminate the entire supply, which is good for spinach manufacturers and those who like to eat the green stuff.

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