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You’ll find the same situation with other foods that originally
made their debut as health foods in the seventies.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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If you are following a low carb vegetarian diet to lose weight, the same principles apply. You need to turn more, watch what you eat and eat less. A grade of more exercise and less food will shift those pounds faster than following an exercise or diet program alone.

Following a vegetarian diet can leave you low in specific essential vitamins and minerals. It is not express to be low in iron and B vitamins. You may need to take a addition. There are extraordinarily of vegan and vegetarian brands available.

People sometimes consider that following a vegetarian diet will lead to weight loss. Tempo this can happen it really depends on what you eat. Some vegetarians have weight issues as they eat a lot of high fat cheese and other dairy products.

Just like non vegetarians, they may like their curries and their takeaways not to mention cakes and biscuits. Dont just assume that because they eat more vegetables they are healthier.

Properly following a reduced carbohydrate vegetarian diet will lead to better health owing to your cholesterol will benefit and your finances will love the additional fruit and vegetables. But you cannot just eat apples and salads. You need to make sure that you eat a variety of different grit sources in order to replace those vitamins and minerals normally found in unlovely commodities.

The real benefit that vegetarians are likely to have over their non vegetarian dieters is that they already read labels very closely. This means that you are more likely to spot hidden fats and sugars and thus avoid them. Also most vegetarians cook more at home as the availability of ready made pure vegetarian meals is more limited. Cooking at home allows you to avoid the bad fats and salt that are added to packaged meals to make them last longer on the supermarket shelves.

Vegetarians tend to eat soya already considering a substitute for either dairy products or protein. Soya has been proved so beneficial that most diet experts suggest we should all be eating more. An amount of 25g of soy per day may provide more health benefits.

Eating more causatum and vegetables is not likely to act for problem for most vegetarians although a couple would benefit from increasing the change and colors they eat. Green leafy vegetables such as Kale and Broccoli will help you to get the nutrients you need.

When following a low carbohydrates vegetarian diet, you need to follow similar principles to all other dieters. Cut the fizzy drinks and the alcohol out of your diet until you reach your weight loss goal. Eating whole fruits or vegetables is much better for your diet and your teeth than drinking sequence juices.

Contour back on tea and coffee and if you add milk try using skimmed milk. Skimmed milk contains more calcium and fewer calories than the full fat version.

Eat dairy products if your principles allow you to but opt for low fat to complement your low carb vegetarian diet.

24 Hour Fitness
http://www.www.24-hr-fitness.com

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