A
Nutritionist's Tips For Healthy Living
Submitted by BCB Member Diamond (Thank You!)
WATER
- Adequate water can actually reverse athrosclerosis (hardening
of the arteries due to plaque build-up). It seems that water can
actually flush the arteries of plaque.
It
also expands blood vessels and makes arteries more elastic, which
is essential for healthy hearts.
Most
importantly, I believe, is that adequate hydration raises the metabolism
and allows for stored fat to be burned more efficiently as well
as slowing heart rate, reducing blood pressures and reducing fluid
retention.
**
Drink enough water to make your urine clear and colourless all day.
Limit coffee, tea and pop to three cups a day.
BREAKFAST
- Breakfast should include at least four grams of fibre, which in
turn reduces cholesterol and fat in the blood. Every 10 gr. of cereal
fibre reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes by 30 per cent!
It
also reduces cancer and diabetes risk. Good sources of fibre are
cereals, dried beans and lentiles.
He
also suggests adding nuts and seeds to breakfast cereal and to have
a whole piece of fruit as well. Whole wheat toast, a bagel or a
bran muff is NOT a good source of fibre.
It's
important that one eats breakfast within 30 minutes of waking.
It
also reduces the risk of cancers by preventing absorption of carcinogens
and reduces cholesterol by preventing its absorption.
He
suggests that breakfast should be the heaviest, while lunch should
be a little less, and supper even less than that.
He
told me that the body adjusts and hunger won't be an issue at the
end of the day.
So,
in other words, our bodies become more efficient and burn, burn,
burn those calories when we eat a good breakfast.
VEGETABLES:
Choose at least two different vegetables at lunch AND at supper.
Eat a minimum of one cup of vegetables at each meal then eat the
rest of your meal. Rice, potato and corn are starches and are NOT
counted as vegetables.
MEAT - Eat a maximum of four ounces of meat, pork, chicken
or fish a day.
WALKING
- Walk for 25 minutes every night after supper. The benefits of
walking after supper compared to walking before supper are many.
It can lower your blood sugar by 50 per cent, but best of all when
one exercises as described above, your body is burning calories
the whole time you sleep.
Most
North American (95 per cent) eat little through the day relative
to their large meals and evening snacks. This raises the blood sugar
really high before sleeping. Higher bedtime sugars directly create
extra weight and extra cholesterol and lower anti-oxidants which
help prevent cancer.
Walking
for 25 minutes after supper raises your metabolism, releases growth
hormones which suppress appetite for late night snacks and act as
a natural fat burner overnight.
He
says one can change diet overnight, but allow an average of 3-5
weeks for these changes, as listed above, to impact your metabolism.
REGULAR
WEIGH INS - He suggests that if one follows the above, they
don't need to weigh in weekly. It has been found, that the stress
of weigh-ins create a chemical in our brains which actually retains
the fat and thus we reach those dreaded plateaus. He asked me how
many stories I had heard about people who only had five or 10 lbs.
to lose, but just couldn't do it. According to him, weigh-ins become
so stressful that they create these fat-holding chemicals. Now THAT
was an interesting thing for me to hear!
He
suggests instead, that we take monthly body measurements as a true
picture of how we are doing.
These
suggestions are based on certain statistics - People with cancer,
diabetes, high cholesterol/heart disease, bowel problems, and those
who are overweight, generally have five things in common!
They
are:
* Small or no breakfast with adequate fiber.
* Inadequate water consumption.
* Inadequate activity after supper.
* Inadequate daily fiber intake.
* Inadequate daily vegetable intake.
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