Advice on choosing health food and healthy foods and reading nutrition labels
Chris Robertson

Health food doesn’t need a definition, does it? We all know what
health food is it’s yogurt and granola, whole-grain cereal and
organically grown vegetables and fruit. It’s 100% natural, no
preservatives or dyes, unadulterated, pure. When you put all
that together, you should have healthy food, yet all too often,
what’s marketed as health food these days barely classifies as
food, let alone health food.

Take a look at one of our favorite health food choices – yogurt.
It hit supermarket shelves in the early seventies, though it had
been available before that in health food stores and
restaurants. Real yogurt has two ingredients: milk (whole, skim
or low fat) and live yogurt cultures. That’s health food –
calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, protein. Next time you’re at the
supermarket, take a look at the dairy case. You’ll find row
after row of hyper-sweetened brightly colored rainbow swirled
and candy-sprinkled yogurt packaged in ways that appeal to our
littlest consumers – children. Millions of parents buy the
enticing packages, secure that because it’s yogurt, they’re
buying food that’s healthy for their children.

One look at the label, though, and it’s clear that these kiddy
yogurts (as well as most of the yogurt that’s marketed to
adults) are a far cry from heath food. Some of the most popular
yogurts for children contain anywhere from 3 to 10 added
teaspoons of sugar. Considering how many teaspoons of yogurt are
in a single serving, you might as well hand your child the sugar
bowl. In addition, most yogurts include “natural” ingredients
that have little to do with health food. Ingredients like pectin
(to thicken yogurt), carrageenan (a seafood extract that gives
some yogurts their body, and annatto (for color) add little
nutritionally to yogurt. They’re in the mix to serve one main
purpose: to help yogurt survive its trip from the factory to
your table.

You’ll find the same situation with other foods that originally
made their debut as health foods in the seventies. Granola has
become granola bars with chocolate chips and gooey caramel.
Whole wheat flour is bleached and denuded of its flavorful
kernels. Sunflower seeds are roasted in oil and salted. Even
brown rice comes in the instant variety.

Healthy food not health food

The secret to feeding your family (and yourself) a healthful
diet of healthy food is to read the labels. The United States
Food & Drug Administration has laid out strict guidelines for
nutritional labeling of all food products. The nutrition label
will tell you all you need to know to choose real health foods.
Some things to keep in mind when reading nutrition labels for
health foods:

* In the ingredient’s portion of the nutrition label,
ingredients are listed in order by amount. The ingredient that’s
listed first is the main ingredient, followed by the next
largest amount, etc.

* The nutrition facts label must list each of the required
nutrients even if the food provides 0% of the recommended daily
value.

* The nutrition facts label must list what portion of the food’s
calories is derived from fat, from sugar, from protein and from
carbohydrates. It will also break down the fat into saturated
and unsaturated fat.

Reading labels on everything you feed your family is the best
way to tell whether a food is really a health food – or just
masquerading as one.

About the author:

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon
International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on
the web. Visit this Food Website
and Majon’s Food
directory.

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Ok, so, today is the day you start losing weight. You did your research and figured out how to lose weight naturally and you are really motivated to start putting what you learned into practice. Everything is lined up and ready all you have to do now is just pull the trigger and get busy.

It isn’t going to be easy and it isn’t going to happen overnight but just like with anything else worth having, it will be quite the journey with a wonderful prize when all is said and done. That prize? A brand new fit and trim you. Just imagine all the new clothes you will be able to buy and how good you will look. You will probably kick yourself that you didn’t do this a lot sooner.

When you learned how to lose weight naturally one of the first things you learned was you were going to need to make some lifestyle changes. No more pop or overly processed foods. You are going to have to learn how to cook for yourself with all natural ingredients and drink a lot of water. Half of your body weight in ounces of water everyday.

Did you go out and buy a good cookbook? You should, a cookbook could give you some great ideas in case you get bored with what you are eating anytime along the way. Just remember, cookbooks are mainly suggestions and if the recipes call for ingredients that are not a part of your overall diet plan then just omit them or substitute something else that you can have. For instance, instead of real eggs, use an egg substitute.

You probably also learned to track everything that goes in your mouth and to write it down in a journal. This is the easiest way to see where you can make the changes you need to make and where you trouble spots are in your day. You need to create a calorie deficit throughout the week in order to lose the weight you want. You need to take in less or burn off 3500 calories in one week to lose one pound of fat.

Journal your activity as well to see improvements in strengthening, the length of your work outs, and the intensity of your work outs. You can easily measure the intensity of your work outs by following this rule: During an easy work out you should be able to carry on a conversation without being short of breath; a moderate work out lets you carry on a conversation while being short of breath; and an intense work out will not let you carry on a conversation at all.

Every six weeks or so you should redo your plan if things are getting boring or if you have hit a plateau. One small change could get you right back on track so just keep plugging away at how to lose weight naturally and soon you will be right where you want to be.

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Everyone knows the foods to eat that improve health, although how we cook the food can be just as important. With there being so many oils and butter products claiming to be the best, it can be quite difficult to know which ones to use and which ones to avoid.

1. Canola oil

Canola oil is a popular oil, with many physicians claiming that it has the ability to lower the risk of heart disease. The oil is low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat, and offers the best fatty acid composition when compared to other oils.

You can use canola oil in sauting, as a marinade and even in low temperature stir frying. It has a bland flavor, which makes it a great oil for foods that contain many spices. Unlike other oils, this one won’t interfere with the taste of your meal.

2. Olive oil

olive oil offers a very distinct flavor with plenty of heart healthy ingedients. The oil is rich in monounsaturated fat, helps to lower cholesterol levels and reduce risk of cancer. It’s also rich in antioxidants and has a very long storage life.

Even though it can be used in cooking, it’s the healthiest when uncooked, such as with a salad or dipping sauce. When you use it with cooking, you should heat it on low to medium temperatures, making sure to avoid high heat.

3. Butter
Butter is one food that has been around for many, many years. Butter tastes good, and offers sources of Vitamin A and other fat soluble vitamins such as E, K, and even D. Butter is also made from natural ingredients and not chemically or artificially
processed.

You can use butter with cooking, baking, or even as a spread. You can also pair it with creamy sauces, marinades, baked dishes, or even bread.

4. Margarine

Margarine was first introduced as an alternative to high fat butter. When it was first created however, it was loaded with trans fat, a substance that we now know raises bad cholesterol.

As a cooking oil, margarine tastes good, it’s lower in fat than most oils and butter, and it’s quite easy to spread. It’s available in a variety of different products and a good source of vitamin E.

When it comes to cooking with oils, there are several at your disposal. There are many more than what is mentioned here, although the ones above are the most popular. Eating healthy involves cooking healthy food – which is where your cooking oil really takes center stage.

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Carb Pills – Can You Now Have Carbohydrates On The Adkins Or South Beach Diet

Low carbohydrate diets, like the South Beach Diet or the Atkins Weight Loss Plan, are not always that easy to stick to. The problem a lot of people have is how few carbohydrates they can have. They may be able to follow a low-carb diet for a few days, but then the cravings become more than they can handle. One possible solution people have been turning to is anti carb pills. Just so you know, these are not prescribed by a doctor, but are supplements that contain all-natural ingredients.

While the South Beach and Atkins diets don’t get as much media attention as they once did, they are still popular diets. But why would people go on such diets if they’re only going to end up having major food cravings? The reason is that the diets work quite well, but only when you stick to them. However, carb pills claim to solve that problem in a unique way.

It should be noted that newer low-carb diets allow people to have more complex carbs–whole grains for example. Still, it can be quote tempting to have a piece of cake every now and then. The idea behind the carb pill is that you can eat some of the carbohydrates you crave, and then the ingredients in the pill will prevent your body from absorbing the carbs in those foods. One such ingredient is white bean extract, which is 100% natural, and appears to be safe.

You should, ideally, take carb pills just prior to eating anything that has more carbohydrates than your diet plan allows. If you forget to take it before eating, you can still wait until after your meal, but it won’t be quite as effective.

Here is a basic overview of how carb blocking pills work. Fat builds up in your body after carbohydrates are broken up by the pancreatic enzyme known as alpha amylase. These carbs can be burned through expending energy, but if you take in more than you can get rid of, then the extra gets stored as fat. Carb pills keep this from happening by preventing the digestive enzymes from going to work on the carbs. This allows them to pass through the body without getting absorbed; in theory, anyway.

So, the question is whether or not carb pills really work. The practical answer is “it depends”. The medical and scientific communities have not done a lot of research on these pills, and therefore have not embraced them as a weight loss option. However, the companies that make these pills have conducted studies of their own. Their research has shown that as much as 45 grams of carbohydrates may not be absorbed by the body when carb pills are taken.

However, what these studies fail to test is how this carb blocking affects low carbohydrate diets like South Beach and Atkins. So, while they may help keep your body from storing extra carbohydrates as fat, there aren’t any conclusive results in relation to specific diet plans. That being said, carb pills could still be worth trying.

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