Health Benefits of Banana

There is no week that we do not have banana supply in our kitchen. It is one of our favorite snacks here in our house. I think it is not just our family’s favorite but a favorite of most people regardless of race. Banana has lots of varieties to choose from thus you will never get bored with it.

Aside from its yummy taste, we can get health benefits out of eating banana. One of my Aunts went to see their family doctor because she felt numbness on one side of her body. And, it was found out that she’s lack of potassium. What is her doctor’s first question to her as he seen my Aunt’s laboratory result? Her doctor asked her if she loves to eat banana or not. Why? Banana is rich in potassium. She was expecting to be given a prescription for her to buy a pill thus she laughingly told us her story while she’s on the way to the market to buy different varieties of banana and some potassium rich food.

If you do not want clogs on your arteries due to Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol) or commonly called bad cholesterol, banana is the answer as well. Researchers found out that unripe dried bananas could help a lot in lowering bad cholesterol, the primary cause of cardiovascular diseases. A separate research found out as well that eating 3-6 servings of potassium-rich foods like banana everyday could lower blood pressure thus preventing strokes. Now, I have an excuse why I am not contented of just 1 serving of banana. Wink.

If you are not fond of eating banana, you are missing something. So, go! Eat one now.

Be Determined to Get Rid of Belly Fat

Getting rid of belly fat is not easy but we need to be persistent. I myself am striving to flatten my stomach. I take time to exercise almost every day for health reason but not to shape up. I noticed that as we are getting older, we are prone to accumulate fat in our stomach. Of course, lifestyle, especially diet and physical activities matters a lot too.

Though I take time to move and stretch my body for health reason, I never take time to exercise my abdominal area since I undergo appendicitis operation way back my early twenties. My work now just requires me to sit on the chair most of the time. I could say that those factors counted a lot plus the fact that I am not getting any younger.

People at work just laugh at me as I told them that I want to get rid of my belly fat because as for them I am still in good shape compared to them, and it is not noticeable yet. Why? When is the right time to get rid of it, if my visceral fats could choke my internal organs and I am suffering from an illness because of it?

Nowadays, that there are lots of yummy foods coming out in the market to satisfy our cravings plus the automation that do not require us to be physically involved at work, we all have the tendency to harbor unwanted belly fat. Most people do not change their lifestyle or even have a temperance of what they eat until their doctor declares it to them.

As for other people who are not health conscious, for them having belly fat is a sign of prosperity not knowing that it is a signal that you need to be more cautious with your health. High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are just some of the outcomes of harboring belly fat because of high cholesterol level, particularly bad cholesterol. Cancer is the worst disease we could acquire in harboring belly fat that why we need to be determined to get rid of it.

Protect Your Heart By Eating Spinach

We tackled the health benefits of spinach yesterday and we learned that it is a nutrient-dense food and rich in antioxidants that could protect us from various diseases and cardiovascular protection is one of the health benefits we can get out of eating spinach.

With the said topic, we learned that spinach is rich in vitamins A and C. These two vitamins is not just essential because of their nutrient value but of being powerful antioxidants as well. Vitamin A is a fat soluble antioxidant while vitamin C is water soluble. Vitamins A and C team up could help us by preventing cholesterol to be oxidized.

What is in oxidized cholesterol that we need to be alarmed? If cholesterol is on its oxidized form, it could easily cling and build up on the walls of your arteries. If your arteries are blocked, blood could not easily circulate. At first you may suffer from high blood pressure that could double the workload of your heart in pumping the blood for all the essential elements to be carried to all your cells. Too much of oxidized cholesterol that we commonly term as “bad cholesterol” could result to atherosclerosis, heart attack, or stroke.

Aside from Vitamins A and C, spinach is rich in magnesium. Magnesium could help protect us from heart disease and could lower blood pressure. Spinach is an excellent source of folate or folic acid too. We need folate for our body to convert the harmful homocysteine into a less dangerous bi-products. High level of homocysteine in our body could cause heart attack or stroke. An antioxidant called Factor CO-Q10 plays an essential role in strengthening all muscles in our body, especially our heart muscle that never rest, it continuously work for our body to stay alive and healthy.

A cup of spinach a day will do a lot for us to have a healthy heart and cardiovascular system as a whole. So, never forget to include spinach in your diet.

How to Show Love to Your Heart and Blood Vessels

As the saying goes: “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.” We could also say that: “Tell me what is your lifestyle and I will help you determine your health.” Diet, physical activities, and presence or absence of vices are some of the factors that help determine your physical health. If you practice healthy lifestyle and has a positive outlook in life from your early age, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and other illnesses due to unhealthy lifestyle will not befriend you for sure.

Doctors try their best to give the best cholesterol treatment to their patients to help the functioning of heart and blood vessels to be maintained on its normal level but it should be accompanied with cooperation of patients to change their lifestyle as well. But, some people made their maintenance medication an excuse to eat food they want with their crooked reasoning.

Following healthy lifestyle since younger years will make your blood vessels  as if  like express highway roads for your blood to flow well carrying nutrients and essential things to millions of cells in your body. But, unhealthy diet, especially those rich in trans fats and cholesterol, accompanied by lack of exercise plus too much alcohol intake along with smoking addiction, definitely your blood vessels that are as wide as express highways will be as narrow as 2-way road because of accumulated waste materials called “bad” cholesterol or low density lipoproteins (LDL) that cling to the blood vessels.

Whether our blood vessels are narrow or wide our Red Blood Cells need to produce same amount of nutrients to the millions of cells in our body that need not to be delayed or else our body will not function well. In order for the Red Blood Cells to compensate for the narrow blood vessels, heart need to pump faster for the blood to flow faster as well through the narrow blood vessels. Consistent too much  workload for the heart and too much pressure to the blood vessels could result to Coronary Artery Disease, stroke and other health problems.

Maintenance medication for hypertension and high cholesterol level help stretch your blood vessels for the blood to flow well without much pressure. While following healthy lifestyle help you sweep away the accumulated bad cholesterol that cling to the blood vessels.

What you can do aside from following healthy lifestyle? Better have a regular check up of blood pressure and your lipid level with Lipid Profile test on the laboratory. Lipid profile is composed of 5 tests namely Total Cholesterol, Triglycerides, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol level test, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol level test and Very Low Density Lipoprotein Level Test.

The Advantage of Consuming Organic Natural Meat

Have you heard about Organic Natural Meat? Animals raised through organic production are raised in a much healthier environment. Cattle and other livestocks are not fed with mammalian and poultry by-products or simply genetically modified foods, antibiotics, and any artificial drugs. Hay, silage, grain concentrates, and pastures are their feeds instead. Compared to industrial, non-organic meat production, animals in organic farming are not kept in tightly confined pens. Animals spend time outdoor on free range thus, they could move a lot.

High cholesterol level in the blood has great effect on cardiovascular system. As we all know, food sources for cholesterol are from meat and meat products we ate. Which do you think is high in cholesterol content, animals that are raised on tightly confined pens or those that are on free range and could move a lot?

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease is another issue nowadays. This disease proliferated when cows consume genetically modified foods with parts from dead animals. And, it is believed that Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease is  caused by eating contaminated beef.

With these information about organic meat and organic farming, we could say that organic meat is much more healthy to consume than industrial, non-organic one. Healthy food to eat means healthy consumer’s body, right?

Health Benefits of Fish Oil

I love to eat oily fishes since childhood days. Tuna, salmon and mackerel are just some of my favorites. It tastes so favorably on my taste buds and love it even more since I learned that oily fishes are rich in omega-3 oil. But, some people are worried of contamination of fishes with toxic chemicals because of some illegal dumping of toxic materials into the seas thus they prefer to eat animal meat as their source of protein and could not avail the tremendous benefits of fish oil from oily fishes.

Thanks to fish oil manufacturing companies, because of them it is not necessary for us to eat oily fishes just to avail the health benefits of fish oil. Not just that, they make sure that fish oils they produce are of good quality and free from any possible contaminants from the ocean where oily fishes resides. Fish oil supplements are usually blended with vitamin E. Aside from being a powerful antioxidant, vitamin E prevents fish oil to become rancid.

The two components of omega-3 in fish oil, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), provides notable health benefits. Aside from it could fill in nutritional gap, regular consumption of fish oil could lower cholesterol level, lower blood pressure, it improves cardiovascular health so as the liver. It could also help people who are suffering from asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), multiple sclerosis and cancer. Studies also showed that it could help those who are suffering from depression, bipolar disorder and ADHD.

We have no excuse for not availing the awesome health benefits of omega-3 from fish oil now. Whether you are like me who loves to eat oily fishes or not because there are fish oil supplements that are available now in the market. For pure vegetarians, flaxseed and flax oil are great alternative for fish oil when we talk about omega-3.

Health Benefits of Korean Ginseng

There are lots of health benefits we can get from Korean Ginseng. Phytochemicals Ginsenosides, Panaxans, Saponins, Vanillic acid and Salicylates plays a big role of all the benefits we can get from Korean Ginseng. As we all know, though phytochemicals are non-nutritive  chemicals found in plants, it plays an active role in protecting us against diseases by boosting our immune system and in treatment or prevention against certain health ailments because of its antioxidant and hormonal action properties.

The famous Korean Ginseng Root is the only part of the plant that contains all the beneficial effects. Because of  its phytochemicals, Korean Ginseng Root has been famous for being anti-stress, to curing simple illnesses  and  even to dire diseases such as cancer. Lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and stabilizing blood pressure is no longer a problem if you have Korean Ginseng. Healthy individuals consume it not just as immune system power booster but physical and mental energy booster too.

Korean Ginseng Root are available in the market in the form of Korean Ginseng Extract that is in the form of a pill, powder or liquid. Though it offers a lot of benefits, we need to remember that we need to follow the safe dosage in consuming it.

Why Take Food Rich in Lecithin(Choline)

What is the significance of taking food rich in lecithin(choline)? Having time for exercise, especially if you use Kettlebell, will not just keep your mind and body healthy but shape your body as well. Did you know that lecithin (choline) has good effect on body and mind too? Lecithin(choline) has potential healing power!

Research on animals (Cippoli, C. and Chiari, G. “Effects of L-Acetylcholine on Mental Deterioration of the Aged,” Clinica Terapeutica 132L:429-510, March 31, 1990.) showed that dietary intake of choline of animal subjects on their early stage in life lessened the severity of memory loss as they aged.

Can choline help improve memory of humans too? Researchers have long suspected that it can. What are the potential healing power of lecithin(choline) I’m talking about? Aside from its potential power to improve memory of normal healthy people up to people with mild memory impairment, people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease could benefit from it too. Choline level could also influence mood, that could help control mood swings. And, some research showed that choline could prevent liver damage from alcohol, could reduce cholesterol level and lower blood pressure too.

Choline is a precursor (considered to lead to the development) of neurotransmitter  acetylcholine, which is important for memory and cognition. Acetylcholine is essential for efficient brain function and communication. Lecithin is important in dealing with fatty deposites in blood vessels too. Phosphatidylcholine is an important component of VLDL. Lack of phosphatidylcholine could result to accumulation of fats and cholesterol in the liver.

Oatmeal, soybeans, peanuts, eggs, milk, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, seaweed and chocolate are great food sources of lecithin(choline). Lecithin and choline supplements are available in health stores too. Why suffer from memory loss now that you know the potential healing power of lecithin(choline)?