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5 Superfoods That You Should Be Eating

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Superfoods have been in the news lately and can be found listed in many diet plans. The obvious conclusion from their nickname is that these foods can somehow provide more nutritional benefits than the average fruit or vegetable. What makes something a “superfood” isn’t that it contains an unusually high level of any one beneficial nutrient, but that is contains a combination of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, proteins or fibers that allow it to work independently of other foods to provide the body with nutrition. Many foods that may contain one of more beneficial elements require an additional food of a different type to be consumed at the same time in order for the body to be able to use what is eaten.

superfoodsHere are 5 top superfoods that can fit into most ways of eating (except some low carb plans), including vegan or vegetarian. Each of them offers a high powered source of balanced nutrition that can help your body repair and sustain its health.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes are not only rich in fiber, nutrients, vitamins and minerals but they are versatile. You can make them into fries, bake them, make dessert with them and serve them boiled. Their distinctive and slight sweet flavor tends to discourage the usual assault of salt, butter and creams that undo many a healthy foods potential.

Blueberries

Blueberries typically are usually on the superfood list, not because they are better than other types of berries, but because they are generally easier to find in a store. Like all berries, blueberries are rich in phytochemicals, vitamins and soluble fiber. Soluble fiber is what gives you that full feeling and is also the type of fiber the body needs to promote healthy digestive functioning. There have been many studies done that suggest a strong link between phytochemicals and cognitive functioning. Blueberries are easy to add to the diet to replace sugars and sweeteners on morning cereals and as a treat at the end of the day instead of a caloric and sugary dessert.

Weight Loss on a Budget Tip #27: Bring Your Lunch From Home

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It’s almost the end of our Weight Loss on a Budget Challenge so I just have a few more tips.  Today’s Tip #27: Bring Your Lunch From Home.

bring your own lunchThere are 3 major benefits to bringing your lunch to work or while you are out.

  1. Saving Money – Buying your lunch everyday can be very expensive.  The cheaper options (dollar menus for example) tend to be very convenient, but also FULL of empty calories, fatty meats and simple carbs.  You can save money by planning out your meals according to your daily budget.  Create your own healthy meal plan with low cost items like greek yogurt, low sodium deli meat, cereal, bulk items (nuts, beans, etc), cottage cheese, apples, oranges, protein shakes, etc.
  2. Calorie Control and Healthy Ingredients – When your make your lunch, you know exactly what’s in it.  You will have selected the ingredients and you’ll know how the food was prepared.  Also, you will have already considered things like calories and the nutritional value (vitamins, fiber, etc).  If you have a calorie goal for the day, it’s easier to stay on track because youl know in advance what your calorie counts should be.
  3. Portion Control – When you order your lunch, sometimes you may not be aware of what the true portion size is for what you’re eating because you’re on the run.  You may think you’re eating 1 serving of a food when you are really eating 4 servings.  That’s because there are so many great restaurants out there that have huge portions that don’t work for people who want to cut back to lose weight.  In the end, you may feel like you’re getting a deal on food, but you are sabotaging your weight loss efforts with those huge portions.  In addition, many of us were raised to eat everything on our plates, so the thought of not eating what we just paid top dollar for doesn’t compute.  Thus we end up eating more food than we need to.  That leads to guilt because we don’t want to “waste” food, so we eat it.  When you make your own lunch, you can better control how much food you eat.

The Health Benefits of Bee Pollen

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bee pollenI love bee pollen.  I use it in my green smoothies all the time.  Bee pollen has one of the most complex nutritional profiles around, making it one of the strongest of the so-called “Superfoods.” Bee pollen has a unique combination of high powered vitamins, minerals and proteins that make it an excellent supplement to your diet to boost your immune system and support your body’s natural rejuvenation process. It also has several other properties that make the health benefits of bee pollen a worthwhile consideration for adding to your skin care routine.

There is one caution though; people who are allergic to bee stings should not take bee pollen without first consulting their allergist. “A rare but serious allergic reaction to bee pollen can cause drastic blood pressure changes, along with life-threatening complications.” Consult your doctor before using bee pollen. (more info on risks)

Is it honey?

Bee pollen is not honey. It is formed by the pollen of the flowers becoming granulated in the sticky coating on a bee’s leg. As they fly from flower to flower, they accumulate this coating of pollen before returning to the hive. The pollen is then used to feed the young in the hive. Bee pollen is how bees collect the raw ingredients that are then converted into honey.

Is it the same as Royal Jelly?

Bee pollen is not the same as Royal Jelly, another bee product that has amazing health benefits. There is a bit of controversy over the use of Royal Jelly because of the way it is gathered. With bee pollen, the substance is on the outside of the bee’s legs, and gathering it from the bee causes the bee no harm or stress. Royal Jelly is secreted by the bee as a special, high powered nutrient for their young. In order to harvest Royal Jelly, the bee is subjected to intense physical stress. For many people, this makes Royal Jelly an unethical product to use for health and beauty needs. It is also why there is such a large price difference between the pollen and the jelly.

How is Bee Pollen used?

Bee pollen is most often found in an oral supplement form. Taken daily, it provides you with a high dose of vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K, folic acid, calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium, selenium, protein and several amino acids. It can also be used as an ingredient in a topical gel or balm. It can appear in many different colors, being influenced by the season and type of flowers the bees have gathered the pollen from.

Why should I take it?

There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that taking a regular bee pollen supplement can help reduce cholesterol levels, increase your energy and promote good blood sugar stabilization. It is also being seen as a stress reducing supplement and mood enhancer as the vitamins B, D and E all help with mood stabilization. The high protein, amino acid and potassium in the bee pollen help the body’s cells to naturally repair themselves as well.

As a topical salve, the same unique vitamins, minerals, proteins and amino acids can also help to rejuvenate the skin, hair and nails as well. People swear by bee pollen to return shine to hair and to reduce brittle nails.

Bee Pollen and Allergies

As mentioned at the beginning, people who are allergic to bee stings shouldn’t take bee pollen without consulting their allergist. If you are not sure if you are allergic to bees, ask your doctor or take a very small does while having an Epi pen or allergy medicine on hand to handle any potential reactions.

With the warnings out of the way, what may surprise you is that the allergist may prescribe small doses of bee pollen to you if you are allergic to bee stings. Over the course of treatment, the dosage will increase. In some cases, this exposure to bee pollen can help to reduce the severity of an allergic reaction to a bee sting because the body gets the time it needs to build the immune systems resistance to the substance.

For people with seasonal allergies, the same reasoning applies. When we say that the “pollen count is high” it would be more accurate to say that the “bee pollen count is too high.” Consistent exposure to small doses of bee pollen can often reduce the effect of seasonal allergies.

5 Reasons You Should Start a Food Journal for Weight Loss

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food journal benefitsMany experts and nutritionists encourage people to keep a food journal when they are trying to lose weight. There are so many tools out there like FitBit, My Fitness Pal and the Lose It app to use as mobile or online food journals.  Unfortunately, most people understand this to mean keeping obsessive count of calories and using the journal to prove how they lack any self-control in keeping to health eating habits. However, a food journal can be one of the most positive tools for change in your life in terms of your daily diet and other areas like stress eating. You will be surprised to learn how much of your actions and reactions in daily life are food centered or affect your eating. The more you begin to pay attention to the details of your eating habits, the better you will be able to understand your motivations and stressors that affect emotional eating.  You will also see the things you need to stop eating.  The following are 5 reasons you should start a food journal for weight loss.

Reason # 1 – Keeping Track

A common saying is that weight loss is 70% diet and 30% exercise. A better way at looking at it is wellness is 60% diet, 25% exercise and 15% self-care habits. A self-care habits include things like how much sleep you get and how regular it is, what you do for fun and social activities and things that affect your mental health. All of these things will influence your ability to keep to a healthy eating and exercise plan. In your food journal, track the foods you eat and their calories, but also keep track of your exercises, moods and self-care habits. The goal is to create a food journal for weight loss that also provides you with insight to your whole life.

Reason # 2 – Understanding Habits

Review your food journal every week and look for patterns. If you see that you easily keep to your healthy habits for most of the week, good for you.  Most people will find opportunities to change for the good. Chances are you will discover that you are becoming unbalanced in another area of your life or dealing with social or work stresses that cause you too seek relief from through food.  It can also be that social events make make it easy to abandon to your diet disciplines. A night out with friends can mean bar food or dinner at a buffet which never makes weight loss easy. Figure out what is surrounding the choice you make to not stick to your diet goals.  Habits = What you do daily = lifestyle.

Reason # 3 –Changing the Habit

To make a food journal effective for weight loss, you have to take your understanding about what influences your choices not to follow your diet and work to change your habits. The key to this is to start small. One of the best things to try is the 20 minute rule. Wherever you are, and whoever you are with, the rule is that you get to eat what is on your plate but then you have to wait 20 minutes before having anything else. It takes 20 minutes for the body to register that it is full, so give yourself time. Another good habit to get into is to check out the menu for where you are going to go eat online first. Pick some healthier choices so you have them in mind before you get there. It will be easier to stick to your diet when you are hungry if you have already made a decision about food choices when you are not.

Reason # 4 – Discover What You Don’t Eat

Another good reason to start a food journal for weight loss is it will reveal what you don’t eat. People can overemphasize calorie counting and miss the fact that they are nutritionally deprived. One of the leading culprits of this are the 100 calorie snack packages. They make for easy recording in your journal and can help you maintain your calorie goal, but look at what they contain to see if there is enough nutrition in it. Make it a goal for the next week to add in more calories from the foods that are missing to bring more balance into your diet. Focus on fiber, vitamins and nutrients like protein.

Reason # 5 – Creating Positive Power

The most powerful reason to start a food journal for weight loss is that losing weight is a long and difficult road. While you may see rapid and visible loss in the beginning, as you begin to get down to the fats that are harder to shed, keeping up your motivation can be hard. Use your food journal to create positive reinforcement by showing yourself all the times you make right choices, and how far you have come.

Is Fast Food Making Americans Sicker?

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In addition to the burgers and fries that we consume on a huge scale, fast food also refers to foods that we purchase at the grocery store and “prepare” at home. These heat-and-serve meals are particularly bothersome because most people don’t even realize they’re consuming fast food. Often called convenience foods, these types of foods include frozen meals, pizza, and hot dogs. While most people have limited their trips through the drive-thru, these types of foods are still heavily consumed. And they are making us sick.

fastfoodHow Your Body Breaks Down Processed Foods

Processed foods and foods loaded with preservatives are particularly difficult for your body to break down and process. Digestive juices pose little threat to processed foods such as Ramen noodles which barely lose their noodle form throughout the majority of the gastro-intestinal system.

Not only is it nearly impossible for your body to extract a lot of nutrients from many of these foods, they often loiter about in your gut on an extremely sluggish journey down hill. This only serves to back up your system and make it further impossible for your body to absorb nutrients.

Fast Food Equals Malnutrition

Since processed foods and fast foods leave you feeling full without filling you up with nutrients and healthy fiber, it’s very easy to become malnourished if you consume too many of them. Even if you do consume some sort of nutrition throughout the day, a gut full of processed foods may be unable to adequately process the good foods you do eat.

Additionally, fast foods are packed with addictive ingredients such as processed sugars and MSG. When eaten, these ingredients cause a spike in blood sugar and the release of dopamine – a feel-good chemical – in the brain. This chemical reward system leads to addiction and the consumption of a larger quantity of greasy, fast, convenient foods.

Weight Gain and Diseases Associated with Fast Food

A typical number whatever from your local fast food restaurant packs an average of 1,400 calories – dieticians recommend a 1700 – 2,000 calorie per day diet (in addition to exercise) for optimal health and weight maintenance. If you eat out several times a week, you can see how you will quickly consume more calories than your body can burn off, which will result in weight gain.

As if being overweight isn’t reason enough to stop eating fast food, obesity is directly linked to the majority of premature deaths in the US. Not only does obesity put you at risk for certain heart and circulatory diseases, it also can lead to diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and a whole host of issues that can leave you feeling ill; many of the diseases associated with obesity can even shorten your life span.

Since fast food isn’t going to go anywhere anytime soon, it’s up to you to eliminate it from your diet. Consume fresh foods whenever possible and start cooking your own meals. If time is a factor, prepare several meals on the weekend so that you can heat and serve them throughout the week.

What is the difference between good carb and bad carbs?

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It is not surprising to hear someone say that they are on carb-free or low carb diet.   This is because carbs are thought to be a main contributor to weight gain, and some carbs are. There are good carbs and bad carbs, and both have different impacts on a person’s health and waistline. Telling the difference between the two can become quite complex, but it is important to tell the two apart. Carbs are a vital nutrient that provides energy for the body and the brain. There are simple and complex carbs, which both are converted to glucose during the body’s digestion process.

good carbs bad carbsSimple carbohydrates are exactly that, simple. They are all single and double-chained sugars known as monosaccharide and disaccharides. They do not contain many nutrients or vitamins, and the body needs little energy to convert them into glucose. The glucose will reach the bloodstream quickly, causing a rapid spike in sugar. A person will have a sudden burst of energy, but then just as quickly feet fatigue and sluggish, once the sugar drops. These bad carbs pack an abundance of sugar and calories into the diet, without any real nutritional value. After consuming simple carbohydrates, an individual will feel hungry again soon after eating them. These simple carbs are causing an concerning increase of sugar into an individual’s diet, which can contribute to health issues and put them at risk for diabetes.

These simple carbs are found in white breads, starch vegetables and pasta, as well as baked goods. Another culprit for simple carbohydrates is soft drinks since they deliver a ton of calories and carbs without any nutrients. Added sugar is another simple carbohydrate that rushes to the bloodstream, causing an instant rush of energy. Individuals diets have a high increase of simple carbohydrates and not enough of the good carbohydrates known as complex carbs.

Complex carbs contain many chains of simple sugars; therefore it is not as simple for the body to break it down to glucose. When consuming complex carbs, a person does not get a sudden burst of energy as they do from simple carbs. Rather the complex carbs gradually break down into the bloodstream, providing them a steady supply of energy. Complex carbs also curb hunger, since they take the body a while to break down and provide higher fiber. For athletes that are fueling up on carbohydrates, complex carbs are the ones they want to be reaching for if they need to keep their energy up for an entire game or event.

Complex carbs provide the body with more fuel that will give it energy for a longer period of time. Some foods to get complex carbs into a person’s diet are nuts, legumes, whole grains and non-starchy vegetables. Though fruits are high in glucose, the ones with a low glycemic index are another great way to get complex carbs into an individual’s daily diet.  Don’t be afraid of fruit.  Fruit sugars are not seen by the body as the same as processed sugar like, white sugar and corn syrup.

By swapping out simple carbs with complex carbs, one can be on the way being healthier and weight loss.

What is the Master Cleanse and Why Should I Avoid it?

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Master CleanseThe master cleanse is an extremely severe fasting program.   It’s also known to be a detox program.  It is not a DIET.  Most guides or books on the subject ask a person who starts this program needs to commit at least 10 days but some suggest up to 40 days (40 days is crazy).  There is absolutely no solid food allowed during this time. All that is consumed is a lemonade mixture consisting of water, fresh squeeze lemon juice, cayenne pepper and pure maple syrup. An herbal laxative an a salt water drink is also required every morning. Um…drinking basically epson salt.  It is touted as a quick weight loss diet and a detoxification program.  As you can imagine this is NOT a healthy route to lasting weight loss.

While fasting for short periods of time generally won’t do any harm long term fasting is discouraged by health professionals mainly because it’s commonly done in ways that can hurt your health.  There are healthier options like juice fasting or eating fresh fruits and veggies only.  I’m all for fasting.  However, you will not get enough daily nutrition on the master cleanse plan and over time, this can cause muscle wasting.  The Master Cleanse Lemonade is also devoid of a variety of nutrients, including protein. The body demands protein and when none is available for long periods of time, the result is the loss of lean muscle mass. Keep in mind that the heart is a muscle. So while a person may appear to lose a great deal of weight using this plan, part is water weight loss and some of the rest could be the result of muscle loss. After the fast is over, there is less muscle to burn calories efficiently so weight is even quicker to pile back on.  Plus you’ll be eating food.  If you haven’t learned to change your eating habits, that could cause more weight gain if you’re eating processed, junk food.

The normal side effects from this diet are unpleasant to say the least. Diarrhea is extremely common and is, in fact, expected, owing to lack of solid food, the laxatives and salt water ingested every morning. This is supposed to be part of the detoxification process. Headaches, nausea and fatigue are also common side effects from the master cleanse. The diarrhea can be so severe that people are unable to work and have to plan their day around how far away the bathroom is.  Using laxatives for long periods of time is not recommended and can be medically harmful.

The fact is, healthy liver and kidneys are very good at their role in detoxifying the body and research shows no benefit in special cleansing programs. A prolonged fast can do more harm than good. Too rapid of a weight loss can result in the formation of gallstones. Combining a fast with laxatives can result in loss of electrolytes. A severe imbalance of electrolytes can spell big trouble, especially for your heart.

It is much more beneficial for your mind and body to embrace a healthy relationship with food and exercise and not to rely on get thin quick remedies that may do more harm than good. Taking on an artificial means of weight loss does nothing to attack the root cause of excess weight. Downing an unpleasant drink and a quart of salt water every morning takes away the pleasurable aspects of eating. We are meant to enjoy what we eat, but balance is key. We don’t need to consume mass quantities of food that we can’t burn off during the course of the day. On the other hand, we don’t’ need to starve and put our health in danger just to lose a few pounds.

PS: IF you decide to do the Master Cleanse, you should drink an Ensure or fortified liquid diet drink for nutrition to help from hurting your health.  I don’t recommend the Master Cleanse at all.  It doesn’t work for long term weight loss and that should be your goal, not short term.  Consider juicing as a fasting option instead.

April Challenge Day 1 – Things you should know about reading food labels

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Ladies, one of the main things you will want to use a guide to find out just how processed your food is during our April Challenge is Food Labels.  This month we are committed to eating more REAL food and cutting out highly processed food and junk food, so these labels are KEY.

US food labeling requirements mandate that manufacturers give us certain information about the ingredients and nutritional value of foods, but sometimes we don’t pay attention.  It’s very easy to see from the numbers, percentages and lists of ingredients that some foods have very little nutritional value and may be contributing to our weight gain.  If you really, really want to know if your food is REAL, the food label is the place to look.

Here are some points you can look out for:

  • Fat Free/Sugar Free – Don’t believe the claims on the label or the front of the box without thinking about how all of the ingredients can contribute to making a food “fatty”.  If a fat free item has a lot of sugar grams listed in the nutrition info, that sugar can be converted to fat in your body.  That is the case with “fat-free candy”.  LOL!  I wish I could just chow down on some gummy, fat free candy as if it’s carrot sticks.  Nope.
  • “Only 100 calories per serving!” – Make sure you know just how much of a food makes up a serving by checking the food label.  You may see that a food is just “XXX calories” but what they don’t like to tell you on the front of the package is that you have to multiply that number by the number of servings.  For example, if a bag of chips has 210 calories per serving and there are 4 servings in the bag…you can quickly eat 840 calories in your mid-day snack.  Wow!  It’s my experience that most of the time, the serving size is very small compared to what most people eat as a serving.  A digital kitchen scale can help in this regard so you know exactly how much you are consuming.
  • Calorie Counts – I like to think of the calorie counts on food labels as a deterrent to me eating heavy, calorie laden foods.  You can’t deny the truth that is a label that telling you that if you eat that pint of ice cream (4 servings at 400 cals per serving) that you will eat 1200 calories.  For some, that is their whole calorie intake for the day!  Make sure you are checking calorie counts and considering what lower calorie options you could have instead.  You may also find that cooking more allows you to better control calories from things like butter, oil, corn syrup, trans-fats, etc.
Green smoothie book Kindle
Great Green Smoothies you can use to replace sugary drinks
  • Liquid Calories:  Food labels on liquids like juice and soda are also very telling.  Calories in liquid form have been shown to be a major factor in the rising epidemic levels of obesity in this country.  Since there is usually not much fiber in processed sugary drinks, you don’t feel full and there is no protein to balance out the carbs.  Your body can experience a sugar high as your blood sugar elevates.  Sports drinks, commercial pasteurized or from concentrate juice, sweet tea, soda, coffee drinks, energy drinks…all have little nutritional value when compared to real food options like water, fresh juice and green smoothies.  Oh, and don’t think that artificially sweetened is the way to go to avoid calories.  It’s thought that some sweeteners can cause bloating, nerve issues and increase your sugar cravings.
  • Fats, Cholesterol and Sodium – Everyone focuses on calories, sugar  and carbs when they are watching their weight, but many forget about fat, sodium and cholesterol.  Watch for this content and limit it as much as you can.  There are of course good fats, but you want to look out for saturated and trans-fat as well as cholesterol.  Also, too much sodium is going to weak havoc on your body’s need to retain water and can affect your blood pressure in a negative way.
  • Here is a great tip on carbs and sugar from Joy Bauer: “Low-quality carbs that shouldn’t take up much space in your daily diet (unless they’re naturally occurring, such as those in unsweetened fruit and dairy products). The USDA recommends limiting “added sugars” from packaged foods and sugar/honey/jelly packets to no more than 40 g per day, the equivalent of 10 teaspoons. But less is best!”
  • How do you know what kind of sugar is in a food? – There are so many names for sugars in term of ingredients.  Here is a good rule to go by: Look for Syrup, sweetener, and ingredients that end in “ose”.  Here are a few examples, but there are many more: corn sweetener, corn syrup, cane juice, high-fructose corn syrup, lactose and glucose.

Try the The Semi-Vegetarian Jumpstart

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Sistas, everyone wants quick weight loss. Everyone always wants shortcuts when I give them the advice to eat clean and exercise. Well, let me give you a healthy “shortcut”. Take these suggestions and do them all together for 30 days. I call it “The Semi-Vegetarian Jumpstart”. It’s not for everyone, but you may be able to make some of these suggestions work for you.

  • Make 70% of your diet raw fruits and veggies.
  • Eat raw, un-roasted nuts and flax seed for fats
  • Only drink water, freshly made juice or smoothies and hot tea. Eliminate all soda and sugary beverages.
  • Don’t eat any dairy.
  • Don’t eat anything with processed sugar or corn syrup.
  • Only eat lean meats. Eat meat during only one meal per day.

The funny thing is that when I suggest this, people go crazy. What about protein? What about calcium? There are sources of protein other than meat. There are sources of calcium other than milk products. The real question is how much real, unprocessed food are you eating. What eating like this will do is give your body the vitamins, nutrients and fiber that it’s not getting from processed food. That will allow your body to release waste and cleanse. Go Semi-Vegetarian and see what it does for your health.

Of course, if you’ve gone to the doctor and have been told not to eat certain fruits and veggies, or if you have allergies or medical issues that prohibit you from eating this way, this is not for you. Don’t hurt yourself trying to lose weight. What I’m offering is advice and my opinion. You have to do your research and check in with your doctor to find a plan that works for your individual health needs.