A Healthier Lifestyle

A Healthier Lifestyle

By Bob Taylor Taylor [ 21/06/2007 ]
[ viewed 3 times ]

There is no better way to learn about how to be healthier then at a health spa.

Many health spas have special focuses on weight loss. These spas offer customized menus, professional trainers and other therapies and procedures to help kick off a persons weight loss. There is a focus on good diet and exercise during a weight loss spa visit. The goal is to help a person learn how to eat and exercise to reach their goal and how to maintain their weight once their goal has been met.

A health spa is a great way to jump start your quest for a healthier lifestyle. Health spas are created to help people meet their health goals. They offer a range of activities and procedures which all aim to make a person healthier. They are staffed with knowledgeable and trained professionals that act as guides and teachers throughout the spa experience.

A health spa retreat can occur over a weekend or be a vacation that lasts for a week or more. No matter the length of the stay, the spa usually has everything arranged so that the person can enjoy the full benefits they have to offer. The spa will create a personalized schedule that the person follows during their stay. The schedule will be tailored to the persons personal goals.

A health spa can also be about relaxation and some sort of relaxing experience is included in the stay. Usually this involves a massage, a facial or other pampering procedure. Spas are known as being a place where a person can focus and get away from daily demands. Spa retreats are all about taking time for oneself and leaving to do lists and other demands behind.

http://www.preferedforms.com

About the author:
Believing in good balanced diet, taking vitamins and minerals. Daily exercise, yoga, stretching, breathing exercises, drinking enough water, meditation, relaxation, positive thinking, and trying to be happy.
Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Smart Healthcare Consumers Turning to Health Savings Accounts

Smart Healthcare Consumers Turning to Health Savings Accounts

By Wiley Long [ 22/06/2007 ]
[ viewed 4 times ]

"Consumer driven healthcare" is the name that has been given to the change that is currently happening in the medical marketplace. As millions of people get Health Savings Accounts, medical providers are having to adapt to the new reality of people spending their own money when purchasing healthcare. As more companies compete for your business, the opportunities to save money will continue to grow.

Since the advent of employer-sponsored health insurance during World War II, the pricing and quality of medical services has been shrouded in mystery. As the real price for computers, organic food, big-screen TV's, and just about everything else has continued to drop (including health services where there is not a third party payer, such as laser eye surgery, contact lenses, over the counter medication), the price of healthcare has continued to rise. But that is finally beginning to change. And you, fellow HSA-owners, are the reason.

To gain a competitive advantage, healthcare providers have traditionally attempted to grow local market share in an attempt to extract higher payments from insurance companies. But since Health Savings Account owners have the ability to accumulate unspent funds and invest them tax-free, those of us with a Health Savings Account have a strong incentive to avoid unnecessary care, and to be more cost conscious when we seek treatment.

There are now billions of dollars in Health Savings Accounts, and healthcare providers want access to that money. And since you control it (instead of the insurance company), the only way for the provider or retailer to get that money is to offer you high quality care at a price you are willing to pay. And dozens of companies are doing just that.

The Market Responds
One obvious response to the consumer-driven healthcare movement is the proliferation of quick-service medical clinics. These clinics, which require no appointment and typically charge less than $50, offer a low-cost way to diagnose and treat strep throat, bronchitis, pink eye, and other common ailments. MinuteClinic operates dozens of locations in Target, Cub Foods, and CVS Pharmacy stores. Wal-mart, which currently has 75 in-store clinics in 12 states, is forecasting more than 6,600 in-store medical clinics will be open in retail stores within 5 years.

Diagnostic labs, which have traditionally sold their services to physician's offices, are now offering tests directly to the public at prices often 70% less than you would pay at a doctor's office. With most you can order the test online, go give blood, and get your results in a couple days.

Companies are even providing self-testing services and devices which can enable you to avoid going to the doctor when minor medical events occur. One of the most common reasons kids see a doctor is because of a possible ear infection. For about $50 you can buy an EarCheck Middle Ear Monitor. This uses sonar to test for fluid behind the eardrum, which may indicate an infection. "The QuickVue Strep Test" which costs less than $4 per test in a pack of 25, can quickly help you determine if your child has a strep infection, which would require a doctor's visit, from a common viral infection, which would not.

Demand Price Transparency
Health Savings Accounts reward personal responsibility in three ways: 1) they reward you with tax-breaks for putting money aside to cover future medical expenses; 2) they reward you for taking care of your health by enabling you to grow your account; and 3) they reward you for being a cost-conscious and discerning consumer.

So be a discerning consumer, and spend your money wisely. Remember that the doctors and healthcare providers you see work for you. If you don't get the quality of service or a fair price, take your business elsewhere. Here are some common sense suggestions to make sure you do get a good price:

1. Ask how much it will cost, before you buy. There is nothing else that you buy without knowing the price up front, so don't feel intimidated to ask your doctor the same.
2. Review your bill before paying it. You might be shocked how often extra charges are "accidentally" tacked on to hospital bills.
3. Ask for a cash discount. To avoid the hassles of filing for insurance and trying to collect past-due charges, most physicians will gladly offer a cash discount if you ask.
4. Explain that you will be paying out of your own pocket. When a doctor is prescribing tests or writing prescriptions, he or she is rarely taking cost into consideration. The American Journal of Preventive Medicine recently reported that up to $63 billion in medically unnecessary tests are ordered every year.
5. Vow never to pay list fees. Doctors and hospitals routinely discount their services to insurance companies and PPO organizations. As a cash-paying customer, you should get the best price available.

For many years, a small group of health economists and other policy-makers pushed for a more market-based approach to healthcare. They correctly argued that healthcare was like any other market and that if you put a true price on health care services and let the market function, costs could be controlled. We are now beginning to see this happen.

Our healthcare system is the best in the world. It is a dynamic and complex work in progress, which can only get better as the consumer gets involved. So be savvy about how you spend your healthcare dollar. And watch those unspent funds in your Health Savings Account continue to grow.

The Medicare Trust Fund will soon be out of money, and there will be no practical way for the government to continue to provide the level of benefits that current Medicare recipients receive. The result will be serious rations, waiting periods, and a reduction in benefits. If you wish to maintain your medical freedom, and have access to a high level of medical service, you must be prepared to pay for it yourself. The best strategy is to take good care of your health, and to build up your medical retirement fund as large as possible by using a Health Savings Account.
About the author:
y Wiley Long - President, HSA for America (http://www.health--savings--accounts.com) - The nation's leading independent health insurance firm specializing in individual and family coverage that works with a Health Savings Account.
Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Enough Vitamin C

You May Not Be Getting Enough Vitamin C!

by: Darrell Miller

Vitamin C is the most well known and the most commonly ingested supplement on the market. If you aren’t taking vitamin C as a supplement you have encountered it in other forms such as foods, beverages and candies. Vitamin C has the amazing ability to fight free radical damage in the body. Society today does not consume enough vitamin C and this is causing a lot of damage in the body. For example, by taking 1000mg – 2000mg every day for adults and 500mg every day for children, Americans could cut there doctor bills in half. Vitamin C has been known to reduce fatigue, aches, pains, asthma, colds, flue, and hay fever to name a few. Vitamin C can reduce these aches and pains by reducing free radicals in the body. One way a free radical is created is by breathing oxygen. In the body, oxygen can loose an electron and become unstable called a free radical. The free radical looks for a replacement electron and can attach to any healthy cell in the body causing damage to cells. Vitamin C has electrons it can donate and stabilize the free radical rendering the free radical harmless which can then be excreted out of the body safely. The U.S. Government has set a minimum standard for all vitamins and minerals. The standard is called the recommended daily allowance (RDA). I would like to call it the minimum recommended daily allowance because the standard has been set to a minimum to prevent disease.

The RDA has been set way to low and people today need to remove the misleading notion that you shouldn’t take more than this standard. Remember the RDA is a minimum standard to prevent scurvy, which is a nasty skin disorder caused from the lack of Vitamin C in the diet. The recommended therapeutic dose of vitamin C for asthma is starting at 1000mg per day and reach as high as 10,000mg or 10 grams per day. Vitamin C is a great antihistamine and a great antioxidant for the lungs. As blood levels of vitamin C drop histamine levels increase and one can become more prone to allergic reactions, rhinitis (Chronic nasal drip) and asthma attacks. If you suffer from any of these symptoms give vitamin C a try. Take vitamin C at a dose of 1000mg or more for three days straight and watch how your symptoms clear up. There are a dozen human studies showing how vitamin C can improve lung function by taking only 1000mg per day. (1-6) Poor dietary habits are largely to blame for chronic asthma in adults. Adults and children need to consume more raw fruits and vegetables. It is estimated that 20 – 30 percent of Americans consume as little vitamin C as 40mg per day which is below the RDA recommended minimum daily dose. (7-9)

Vitamin C can lessen the severity and incidence of a cold. Research is still out on this subject because they do not use enough vitamin C to be effective for treatment of cold and flu. In high enough doses vitamin C can normalize and boost the immune system. To prevent colds and flu in adults and children one should consume 1000mg per day or ideally 2000mg per day. In several studies 1000mg was given and the duration of the cold was reduced by 6 percent. In another study the dose was 2000mg and the duration of the cold was reduced by 26 percent. (10)

Sever stress, cold weather, and intense athletic training increase the vitamin C requirements of the body. Nine studies with military personnel under heavy exertion experienced a 45 – 91 percent reduction in colds for the men receiving the vitamin C. (11) If you are fighting a cold take 1000 – 5000 milligrams per day spread 3 to 4 times in that day at the onset of cold symptoms. Vitamin C is available in various forms, capsules, tablets and powders.

If you have ever ventured into a vitamin store you know there is quite a selection of vitamin C on the shelves. You might be wondering which one is best for me? Is it ascorbic acid, buffered sodium ascorbate, ester C, or Ascorbyl Palmitate? You will find that ascorbic acid is the least expensive form of vitamin C available on the market. Most individuals will be perfectly fine with consuming large doses of ascorbic acid daily. Ascorbic acid tends to increase stomach acid and can cause some individuals to have an upset stomach. If you have a sensitive stomach then buffered sodium ascorbate or ester C is what one would be looking for. These forms of vitamin C are neutral non acidic and 99% of individuals can take this with out any side effects at any dose. All the previous forms of Vitamin C are water soluble and eliminate out of the body within a few hours, but Ascorbyl Palmitate is different. Ascorbyl Palmitate is a fat soluble form of vitamin C and can even pass the blood brain barrier. Research suggests that this form of vitamin C is more effective of an antioxidant protecting lipids (fats) then water soluble vitamin C. The fact that Ascorbyl Palmitate can pass the blood brain barrier makes it a great antioxidant for the brain. No matter which form of vitamin C you choose, make sure you take at least 1000mgs each day for better health.

References:
1. Ezzo J (2005) From asthma and Alzheimer’s: Cochrane vitamin reviews cover an array of topics. J Altern Complement Med 11, 213-216.
2 .Fogarty A, Lewis SA, Scrivener S, et al. (2006) Corticosteroid sparing effects of vitamin C and magnesium in asthma: a randomized trial. Respir Med 100, 174-179.
3. Ram FS, Rowe BH, Kaur B (2004). Vitamin C supplementation for asthma. Cochrane Database syst. Rev (3), CD00093
4. Boskabady MH, Ziaei T (2003). Effect of ascorbic acid on airway responsiveness in ovalbumin sensitized guinea pigs. Respirology 8, 473-478.
5. Fogarty A, Lewis SA, Scrivener SL (2003). Oral magnesium and vitamin C supplements in asthma: a parallel group randomized placebo-controlled trial. Clin Exp Alergy 33, 1355-1359.
6. Ochs-Balcom HM, Grant BJ, Muti P et al. (2006). Antioxidants, oxidative stress, and pulmonary function in individuals diagnosed with asthma or COPD. Eu J Clin Nutr 60, 991-999.
7. Johnston CS, Corte C (1999). People with marginal vitamin C status are at high risk of developing vitamin C deficiency. J Am Dietetic Assoc 99, 854-856.
8. Hampl JS, Taylor CA, Johnston CS (2004). Vitamin C deficiency and depletion in the United States: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988 to 1994. Am J Public Health 94, 870-875.
9. Taylor CA, Hampl JS, Johnston CS (2000). Low intakes of vegetables and fruits, especially citrus fruits, lead to inadequate vitamin C intake among adults. Eur J Clin Nutr 54, 573-578.
10. Hemila H (1999). Vitamin C supplementation and common cold symptoms: factors affecting the magnitude of the benefit. Med Hypotheses 52, 171-178.
11. Hemila H (2004). Vitamin C supplementation and respiratory infections: a systematic review. Mil Med 169, 920-925.

The Natural Way to Heal Cancer

The Natural Way to Heal Cancer

by: Dr Laurence Magne

Is it possible to control and influence rate at which injuries, wounds and even cancer heal? That’s the question a group of researchers from the Ohio State University asked when they decided to observe wound healing rates in a group of exercising older adults in comparison to that of a non-exercising control group.

This three-month study looked at the effects of exercise on wound healing among healthy older adults. All participants had not exercised regularly for six months, so the 28 participants who were encouraged to exercise were given one month to acclimatize to a new exercise program that included 30 minutes of pedaling on a stationary bike, 15 minutes jogging or brisk walking on a treadmill, and 15 minutes of strength training. Fifteen participants acted as controls by not changing their level of physical activity. All then underwent a small puncture wound about half a centimeter across and deep on the back of the upper arm. Individual wounds were measured three times a week until fully healed. Regular exercisers took only 29 days to heal, while non-exercisers took up to 10 days longer to recover. From these results, researchers have speculated that exercise may speed wound healing by enhancing neuron-endocrine function, meaning that stronger individuals have a higher body funct!

ion that helps the body heal wounds and cancer faster.

The point of this study is not that exercise is important. It is now acknowledged as an important factor in maintaining health. The main point is that even moderate exercise can improve the time to recover in wound and cancer healing.

In the case of a cancer diagnostic, the body and its recovery system: the immune system, are stressed by the attack of the disease on the body. Even a moderate level of exercise can improve your condition. Your breathing rate increases, bringing more oxygen to your cells. Your heart rate increases as well, pumping and circulating that oxygen to all parts of the body.

The immune system contains some of the fastest replicating cells in the human body. You must remember that self healing does occur for people with cancer. It doesn’t yet happen as often or as fast as it does with the cold or with the flu, but it can. The main strategy to improving the self-healing capacity of the body is obvious: increase the strength of the immune system. Strengthening the immune system is probably the most significant thing you can do for yourself to heal cancer and wounds quicker, and as a happy side-effect, many other life improvements come along with an improved immune system.

One very simple improvement is a modification in breathing. Far too often, we take quick and shallow breaths. This can lead to a higher blood pressure, as it constricts the blood vessels. That constriction slows our circulation, which also reduce the speed with which our immune system can respond to a problem.

Everything going on in your body is dependant upon a steady and regular circulation of blood. Anything that interferes with that circulation is unhealthy and needs to be resolved immediately. It can slow down healing and promote cancer.

The solution to this problem is really rather simple: commit five minutes, three times a day, to breathe deeply. You can do this while working, reading, driving, etc. You’ll probably find it most beneficial if you start your day and end your day with one of these five minute breathing exercises. To learn more ways to remain cancer-free, read Cancer Free For Life. Dr Magne has written in it the results of extensive studies and research that demonstrate the cancer can be healed without chemotherapy or surgery.

In close conjunction with the concept of deeper and more thorough breathing is the practice of relaxation with breathing exercises. This focuses solely on the action of breathing while you do it. Obviously, then, this requires that you not be driving or reading a book. Instead you simply find a comfortable place to sit, put yourself into the most comfortable sitting posture, and focus on your breathing.

To really focus on breathing during this time, you should focus your attention on your belly, as if you have a balloon in your stomach. Inhale, slowly, to fill the balloon and focus on the expansion happening in your stomach area. Hold the breath for a comfortable amount of time and exhale slowly, depleting the balloon in your stomach.

You’ll probably find out almost immediately that you feel a lot better…even if you didn’t realize you could! In the process, you are also strengthening your immune system, providing it with the necessary support to speed healing of cancer and wounds.

Cancer treatments can cause serious damage to the immune system. This damage opens you up to a wide-range of infections and diseases. If you are diagnosed with cancer, it’s important that you listen to what your physician tells you with an open mind. Don’t operate under the assumption that your doctor will know everything there is to know. Research all your other options, learn everything you can and take control of your own recovery. Your doctor doesn’t have the time to get to know you. Often the prognostic you receive is only the result of statistics and probabilities, but doesn’t take into account your own ability to recover and your will to live.

Even moderate exercise and deep breathing can save your life from cancer by speeding up your healing.

Vegetable Nutrition for a Healthy Life

Vegetable Nutrition For a Healthy Life

by: Shelley Green

Fruit and vegetables are brimming with fibre, plus a whole range of vitamins and minerals, and because they're low in calories, they make an important and healthy addition to any diet. Here is some information for you about vegetable nutrition. "Eat your fruits and vegetables" is one of the tried and true recommendations for a healthy diet, and for good reason. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss."5 A Day" is a national health programme in the USA and also in the UK to explain why you need vegetable nutrition as well as fruit and to encourage you to eat more servings of fruit and vegetables every day. People all over the world are becoming more and more aware of how important fruit nutrition and vegetable nutrition is to stay healthy.

In general, yellow and dark green vegetables are excellent sources of vitamin A. Green leafy vegetables are rich in calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin C and many of the B vitamins. The greener the leaf, the richer the nutrients will be. Here are some suggestions to think about color to pack nutritional power in your diet: · White: Eat cauliflower more often than potatoes, onions and mushrooms.· Green: Add more dark lettuces, such as romaine and red leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli and Brussels sprouts to replace iceberg lettuce and green beans. · Yellow-orange: Substitute more carrots, winter squashes, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, oranges and grapefruit for corn or bananas. · Red: Select tomatoes, red peppers and strawberries in favor of apples. If you are trying to watch your weight, an idea is to make sure you are not eating too many calories if you are adding these foods to your diet. increasing the amounts of fruits and vegetables you eat can promote weight control, but only if they replace higher fat foods like ice cream, meat and chips to help you consume fewer calories. But if fruits and vegetables are simply added to what you already eat, total calories won't significantly drop and weight loss should not be expected. The most important thing to do is to vary the fruit and vegetables that you eat from day to day. This is to give your body a variety but to also keep you interested in your food. There are always great new recipes, ideas and ways to make your food look and taste great!

Balance your Energy with Yoga

Balance your Energy with Yoga

by: Jennifer Marie Jordan

From energy drinks to energy bars, energy is something sought by people each day. Everything is made up of energy. Energy is pulsation - a pulsation that moves in a wave-like rhythm flowing up and flowing down. We may think we need to grab for energy outside of us in order to have more energy inside to function. What we really need is to learn how to balance the energy that is pulsing within us. While it may seem easy and convenient to purchase an energy product on the way to work, consuming it as you sit in traffic, quick energy fixes only lead to crashes later on. Instead, balance your energy with yoga a natural way to keep you invigorated throughout your day.

Practicing yoga is a great way to energize your day. Yoga helps release tension and clear blockages, allowing energy to flow freely, creating an overall sense of vitality and well-being. Yoga poses don't create energy, they release energy and they also keep us from expending energy in activities that don't do anything for us. Often we have so much tension stored in our bodies that we are forced to use our energy for support. If we can release that tension, we will be free to use this energy for whatever we really want to do.

Yoga helps you Manage Stress

Stress is a natural part of life’s pulsation. Stress can be motivating or disabling. Poor stress management drains energy out of the body, leaving you tired and unmotivated. Yoga helps you manage the accumulation of stress by helping you consciously release it.

The mindfulness aspect of yoga trains the mind to focus on body sensations, to bring the body-mind back into synch. Naturally stress begins to rapidly diminish. Restoration and rejuvenation arise from the body's ability to self-regulate as the mind-body duality diminishes.

Yoga Tones Muscles

Life is movement and movement is life - how we move can bring balance or imbalance to our muscle tone. The practice of connecting to your breath stimulates the body’s natural intelligence to move into alignment when performing yoga poses. Therefore, the integration in the body develops balanced muscle tone and increased energy. A person’s energy level is dictated by their metabolic rate, the rate at which their body is able to convert substances into energy. The expedience of this rate is based on a person’s metabolism, a process that is contingent on their muscle mass; a person with more muscle tone will have a vastly higher metabolism than someone who has a small amount of muscle mass. In other words, a person with good muscle tone will have much more energy that someone whose muscular tone is minimal.

Yoga Stimulates Blood Flow

Yoga stimulates a person’s body into an open highway, unclogging avenues through which blood, oxygen, and nutrients - all elements of energy - can travel. The way yoga does this is by cultivating balanced action when performing yoga poses... Balanced action is when we engage enough muscular energy to create stability and strength in a pose balanced with organic energy, extension through the bones, to create freedom in the joints. The breath always leads the way- it is what fuels the vehicle of the body into contraction and expansion of the body’s natural pulsation.

Balanced action helps your body to become flexible. Because a person may have a restriction that they are unaware of, gaining flexibility helps energy get to its destination with ease. Breathing, along these lines, helps oxygenate the blood, helping drive the life force of energy to muscles, organs, and any part of the body that is need of some reserves.

Yoga is Vitality

Yoga provides a direct route for tapping into your true self: a self that, by nature, is fluid and vital, not rigid and dull. All yoga postures are expressions of your true self. When the postures are practiced with mindfulness and meaning they naturally shift you out of a habitual negative rut or help you celebrate the joy that you brought to the mat. Yoga brings self awareness to our habitual patterns that either support the expression of one’s true heart or not. From this place of clarity we can then make life-affirming choices.

People can find energy in many things - protein shakes, energy powders, even energy pills - but yoga remains one of the most natural and effective ways to balance the energy in your body, giving you the ability to make the most of each and every day.

About us: TWISTED is a medical yoga studio at the Center for Osteopathic Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. Twisted integrates osteopathic medicine, Hatha yoga and mindfulness practices to teach optimal balance between physical, mental, and emotional health. It aims to educate and help people to live a healthy life from the inside out. Rehabilitation programs offer a comprehensive treatment regime for the whole being,empowering each person one breath at a time to stimulate the body’s natural healing potential

What Is a Healthy Diet

What IS a Healthy Diet

by: Chris Chenoweth

There is so much information about what is healthy and nutritious these days that it is very difficult to sort out the hype from the truth. Following a healthy diet can be accomplished by making some simple adjustments to your current diet.

If you think it is just too much trouble to make some simple changes to improve your family’s diet, think again. Most people do not realize the incredible impact that a healthy diet has on our bodies, making the difference between poor health and good health.

Along with regular physical activity, a healthy diet is the most important factor that determines your weight. If you are overweight or obese, your chances of developing many diseases or conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, and certain cancers, increase significantly.

EASY STEPS TO A HEALTHY DIET

Your first step to following a healthy diet is to make sure you include food from all food groups. Vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, legumes, lean proteins and low fat milk products should all be incorporated into your daily diet.

*VEGETABLES – A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. It also contributes to a healthy weight, reducing your risk of obesity and the conditions associated with it. There are a multitude of vegetables to choose from, the healthiest being dark green vegetables like broccoli, lettuces, and kale, orange vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash, and red vegetables like red peppers and tomatoes.

*FRUITS – Eat a variety of fruits each day, canned, dried, fresh or frozen. Stay away from fruit juices as they can be high in sugar. (Unless you make the juice yourself.)

*WHOLE GRAINS – Choose whole grain cereals, breads, rice, and pasta. Read the food label and make sure the grain that is listed such as wheat, rice, oats or corn is referred to as WHOLE in the list of ingredients. Whole grains are an excellent source of fiber. Fiber can help reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

*LEGUMES – This class of vegetable includes beans, peas and lentils. They are low in fat, contain no cholesterol, are high in protein, and have phytochemicals, compounds that help prevent heart disease and cancer. They are also a good source of fiber. Add pinto, kidney, black and garbanzo beans, split peas and lentils to your daily diet.

*LEAN PROTEINS – Choose lean meats, poultry, and fish. Bake, broil, or grill it. Do not fry! Beans, nuts and seeds also provide protein.

*LOW-FAT MILK PRODUCTS – Eat low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese or low-fat milk every day. Dairy products can lower your risk of diabetes and help build strong bones, reducing your risk of osteoporosis.

There are a variety of foods that should not be present in your diet except in very small amounts. These foods, such as sugars, alcohol, and some fats, contribute to diseases and poor health.

*SUGARS – Avoid foods containing sugar. You know what they are! Always check food labels to see how much sugar is present as some foods contain sugar that may surprise you.

*ALCOHOL – Avoid alcohol. If you must drink, limit intake to one drink a day. Alcohol can increase your risk of many conditions including some types of cancers.

*FATS – There are different kinds of fat in our foods. Some are detrimental to your health and others are very healthy.

1. Monounsaturated fats (olive oil, flaxseed oil, peanut oil and avocados)
2. Polyunsaturated fats (safflower, sesame, sunflower seeds)

These fats raise your good cholesterol levels. To stick to a healthy diet, choose foods with these fats.

3. Saturated fat and trans fatty acids raise your bad cholesterol levels, contributing to your risk of heart disease. Limit your intake.

Saturated fats are found in beef, veal, lamb, pork, lard, butter, cream, whole milk dairy products and can be present in processed foods like frozen dinners and some canned food. Always check food labels before purchasing.

Trans fatty acids, the kind of fats that increase the risk of heart disease, are formed during the process of creating cooking oils, shortening, and margarine and are found in commercially fried foods, some baked goods, and crackers. When checking food labels, make sure the ingredients do not include hydrogenated fats.

Following a healthy diet is a necessary step for the improved health of you and your family. It is not difficult to make the simple changes necessary to change an unhealthy diet to a healthy one. The advantages, better health, longer life, and more energy, far outweigh any inconveniences you may experience.