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.

Health Benefits of Spinach

As one of my friends paid visit to our humble home, she noticed the green leafy plant on our yard that most people treat as unwanted plant. She said, “Convince me, how essential that plant is to our health and site some of its advantages why you guys grow it in your yard.” Of course, she does not know yet that time that the plant she was pointing at is the powerful spinach plant.

I really love to eat green leafy vegetables and spinach is one of my favorites. We grow spinach in our yard so as some of vegetables that do not take large space to grow. As for those who do not know its nutrient dense value, spinach plant is just one of wild plants that manage to survive on its own in our front yard because they easily grow like other unwanted grasses. Me and my friends use its leaves as our “sipa” for our playtime during our childhood days. But, to those who know the health benefits of spinach, they are so precious. In fact, my mom not just waters those precious plants we grow in our yard but cultivate and take care of it.

Who could not remember cartoon character Popeye the sailor man? By consuming spinach, old Popeye could transform himself to a super strong man. We may not feel literally strong like Popeye after we consume spinach, but if you’ll know that it is rich in vitamins (A, B, C, E, K), minerals (calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, copper), fibers and protein you will feel the energy Popeye has experienced upon consuming it, right?

It is not just because of the essential nutrients that spinach could boost good health but its phytochemical contents to that could give us protection against heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, skin cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, almost all kinds of cancer and other diseases. Flavanoid contents of spinach could protect us against memory loss and any type of cancer, while its lutein content could promote good eyesight and protect us against cataract and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

Consuming more or less half kilo of spinach a day could produce satiety advantage thus promoting weight loss and talkyloid content in spinach is responsible for this. It may sound not possible for you to consume that much of spinach daily for you to lose weight but incorporating spinach as much as you can and take it raw as much as possible could help, right?

Spinach is so easy to grow, it is wide in distribution. Growing spinach on your yard could not eat much of your time. So, why not let the small space in your yard stays vacant if you can grow a power-boosting plant like spinach? If you have no space to grow or no time to take care a plant, it is very affordable in the market.

A Simple Tip to Improve Your Skin Texture

Guava, guava, why do I love thee? Your taste and crispiness satisfies my taste buds. You are not expensive compared to other fruits in the market. I could even grow you on our yard and could grab not just the health benefits of your fruits but your leaves and bark as well.

Now you know the reason why I love guava since my childhood days. Guava is loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fibers that is essential to our health in general. And, if you want to improve the texture of your skin, guava could play a big role to improve your skin tone and in avoiding some skin problems.

Guava has astringent content on its fruits and leaves that are more effective than any expensive creams and toner that are available in the market. Ripe guava fruit is yummier to munch but immature guava fruits are of high astringent content than ripe one. Out of guava’s immature fruits and leaves you can make your skin glow and protect it from premature aging. After washing your skin with soap and water, wash it with decoction of fruits and leaves of guava then let it stay for 15-30 minutes before rinsing it. It could tighten up your skin. Healing of pimples and other skin problem could be hastened by doing this method.

Guava is stuffed with vitamin C, that is much richer than orange. It is also loaded with vitamins A and B. With vitamins A, B, and C antioxidants that are good detoxifying agents, munching ripe guava could keep your skin clear, free from skin problem and from premature aging.

The Necessity of Taking A Multivitamins

My younger sibling asked me if it is really needed to take multiple vitamins. As for me, taking multivitamins is necessary only if you cannot meet the  “grow”, “glow” and “go” food groups that your body is needing and if the food you eat is somewhat routine, no variation at all. Those people who has no time to cook and those that are transient who just buy food from nearest restaurants, those that solely depend on the available of food on the restaurant really need to take supplements, I said.

Of course, aside from essential nutrients, we also need antioxidants to fight and sweep away toxins away from our system. Who among us could accomplish eating at least five servings of variety of fruits and vegetables everyday? That is another reason why it has been a necessity to take multivitamins since lots of people are always on the go and prefer to eat food that are easy to prepare, does not require lots of time preparing for it, and could be stock on the kitchen for long period of time without being ruined. Antioxidants and other essential elements could only be found in fresh foods, thus, to compensate for this need people take multivitamins.

It is weekend and we all have time to prepare freshly extracted juice from fruits and vegetables and cook wholesome food. We already discussed about harmful effects of too much of good things, thus, my sister now fully understood when she will take her multivitamin supplement and when not to.

Nutrients We Should Not Take in Excess

Too much of good things is bad. This saying is true especially if we talk about vitamins and other nutrients that could harm if taken in excess.

Harmful level of certain vitamins and minerals is impossible to attain if such nutrients are taken only by eating nutritious foods, and is very possible when it is taken in supplement form. Thus, the right way to get our body’s needed nutrients is by eating various nutritious foods than taking them as supplement.

Here are some of the supplements that you must not take in excess:

IRON. Too much of iron stored in the body could cause headache, fatigue, low blood sugar, liver problems, accumulation of fluid in the lungs, testicular problem in men, or even coma.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA):
men: 8 mg/day
women: 18 mg/day
women 51 y.o. and over: 8 mg/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 45 mg/day

VITAMIN A. Too much of vitamin A in the body could lessen bone mineral density (could lead to osteoporosis), liver damage, disorders in central nervous system and risk of birth defects.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA):
men: 3,000 IU/day
women: 2,310 IU/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL):
10,000 IU/day

VITAMIN C. Too much of vitamin C could upset the gastrointestinal tract and could even cause diarrhea.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA):
men: 90 mg/day
women: 75 mg/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 2,000 mg/day

CALCIUM. High level of calcium in the body could interfer the absorption of other important minerals like iron, magnesium, zinc and phosphorus, and could impair the functioning of our kidneys.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA):
adults 19-50 y.o.: 1,000 mg/day
adults 51 y.o. and over: 1,200 mg/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 2,500 mg/day

VITAMIN E. Vitamin E is a natural anticoagulant thus too much of it in the body put the individual at risk of bleeding problems.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): 22.5 IU/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 1,500 IU/day
NOTE: 400 IU/day or more increase the risk of death

VITAMIN D. High level of vitamin D in the blood could raise blood calcium level too that may cause changes like confusion. Poor appetite, constipation, weakness, nausea, vomiting and weight loss are some of the symptoms of high level of vitamin D.

Adequate Daily Intake (AI):
70 y.o and below: 400 IU/day
71 y.o. and over: 600 IU/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 2,000 IU/day

ZINC. Too much of zinc in the body could weaken the immune system and lower the good cholesterol (HDL) level and alter iron function and copper levels.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA):
men: 11 mg/day
women: 8 mg/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 40 mg/day

SELENIUM. Too much of selenium in the body exhibits symptoms like hair loss, gastrointestinal upset, fatigue, white blotchy nails, irritability, garlic breath odor, and mild nerve damage.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): 55ug/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 400ug/day

VITAMIN B6. If it is taken at high doses but lower than 500mg/day, it could cause nerve damage to the legs as well as on arms.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA):
19-50y.o.: 1.3 mg/day
men 51 y.o. and over: 1.7 mg/day
women 51 y.o. and over: 1.5 mg/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 100 mg/day

COPPER. Too much of copper could damage the liver and kidneys, and could cause neurologic problems. The following are symptoms of too much copper in the body: abdominal pain, weakness, insomnia, diminished concentration, learning disabilities, memory lapses, stuttering, hyperactivity, seizure, and delirium.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): 900mcg/day
Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 10,000mcg/day

A Tea that Could Boost Your Immune System

It is rainy season again wherein those who have low immune system could easily suffer from cough, colds, fever and other health ailments. Well, I am not that afraid of acquiring those ailments as long as I have  ingredients for my horseradish-lemon grass-ginger tea, I feel safe. I really love to sip a cup of horseradish-lemon grass-ginger tea especially during rainy days, it boosts my immune system.

To make 2 cups of horseradish-lemon grass-ginger tea, I just gather 1/2 cup fresh  horseradish leaves and 4 stalks of fresh lemon grass leaves in our backyard then chop a small piece of ginger as ingredients. In a pan, just add  2 cups of water along with lemon grass, ginger, and a pinch of salt. Bring it to boil until the water changes to light yellow color before adding the horseradish leaves. Simmer for two to three minutes then it’s done. You can now enjoy your horseradish-lemon grass-ginger tea.

If I feel my nose is congested or I am suffering from headache, body malaise or any other health ailments, horseradish-lemon grass-ginger tea is my first aid medicine. I really love horse radish-lemon grass-ginger tea in healthy moments and in bad. Sipping a cup of hot horseradish-lemon grass-ginger tea is one of my ways in boosting my immune system.  Horseradish, lemon grass and ginger contains vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals aside from they are known alternative medicine. I am pretty sure it will do good to you too.

The Importance of Multivitamins and Minerals

Taking multivitamins and minerals as nutritional assurance that you have all the necessary nutrients is a good habit.

Good nutrition is essential to good health. Nowadays, people are mostly on the go and usually fed themselves with instant foods and less of unprocessed one, especially fruits and vegetables, do you think they have regular balanced diet? I agree that multivitamins and minerals should not be treated  as substitute  of eating a regular balanced diet but it is an excellent help to people who are always on the go. Multivitamins and minerals is a great help especially for those who are in reducing diet, and those who are picky eaters, athletes, pregnant women, nursing  mothers, teenagers (growing years), smokers and heavy drinkers not to be deficient from certain essential vitamins and minerals.

Me and my siblings prefer to take one tablet a day of centrum multivitamins as our nutritional supplement after eating  a meal. How about you? Better check the label of your multivitamins for you know that you are taking the right one. Your multivitamins should contain essential nutrients needed by your body. Remember that the main reason why you are taking multivitamins is for you to be protected against vitamin and, or mineral deficiency that could put you at risk to certain ailment like anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency. So, taking a pill of multivitamins like centrum everyday as your nutritional supplement to your regular diet is really a great help for you to attain wellness.

Womens vitamins are so essential because women has special nutritional needs. They tend to loss some minerals during menstrual periods, they have special needs of certain essential nutrients too during pregnancy and lactating stage not just for their own health but for their baby as well. Gender specific vitamins such as women vitamins is really a great help in supplementing the essential nutrition needed of women.

Acai Burn for a Sexy and Healthy You?

If you want to become sexy and healthy, why not try Acai Burn? Tuning yourself to acai berry diet is a great thing to do if you want to detoxify your body and cleanse your colon. Detoxification and colon cleansing is really important if you want to be free from various illnesses. Detoxification and colon cleansing eliminates waste substances of our body and help our digestive system on its functions especially on absorption of essential nutrients needed by our body, making our body well nourished  resulting to extra energy and, our immune system strong that is always at always ready to fight against harmful agents like bacteria and viruses. No wonder, Dr. Perricone, Dr. Oz, Rachel Ray and Oprah Winfrey recommends it.

Acai burn fats thus promoting weight loss. AcaiBurn supplement could help you get rid of your excess weight by burning your unwanted fats. Aside from its cleansing and detoxifying effects, like other fruits you could get vitamins and minerals from acai berry too and it has high antioxidant content that fight against free radicals that triggers illnesses including cancer. Acai berry contains omega 3 essential fatty acids and fibers too that  are responsible in lowering bad cholesterol level. Because of many health benefits we can get from acai berry, I am not wondering why lots of people label it as super food. Aiming to become sexy and healthy? Acai burn is best for you.