4.12.2011

The Link between Staying Healthy and Loving Life

Did you know that nutrition deficiencies can be caused by too much stress? How can you avoid such fate? You can start by simply loving yourself and loving life.

It sounds easy. But many people are finding it hard to keep everything simple. There are lots of factors that this can be attributed to. First, everything nowadays seems to be happening so fast. People feel like if they will not do anything in order to keep up with the pace of the world that they live in, life may be tougher in the long run.

Simplicity is Beauty

Does anybody still believe in the meaning of this old saying? If you want to maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle, you must first understand what you can and cannot do. You cannot keep on acquiring things that you cannot even afford. You cannot venture into various adventures that you may not even have time for or your health must not risk doing.

There are things that can spice up your life even if you keep on living by your means and according to what you can only afford. You just have to be creative and share your passion and dreams to the people whom you care about. This way, you are maintaining a healthy attitude and likewise, you are not risking your health unto any untoward scenes.

If you are concerned about stress and how it may affect your health in the long run, here are some activities that you must look deeply into. If you are guilty of doing the following, maybe it is time for you to think things over and start on the activities that will make you more productive but at the same time healthy.

1. If you are stressed out, your way of coping is to resort to the wrong foods. You tend to eat treats with high levels of fat, salt and sugar. This is caused when the levels if your cortisol or your stress hormone increase. Other people tend to gulp a whole gallon of ice cream after a stressful day. Imagine what it can do to your body in the long run. You may want to rethink things and consider the harmful effects of these activities before resorting to them.

2. Stressed out people also resort to coffee to increase their energy level. This may be a good morning starter. But if you become too much addicted to caffeine, this will cause your health trouble in the long run. You must not depend on coffee to keep you alert throughout the day. When a minute-long walk or a quick exercise can do the trick, then do such before you start going for another refill of your caffeine addiction.

3. Another thing that happens more often when a person is stressed out is that they skip the important meals. They do their best in order to keep up with a deadline and finish all their task. But they no longer think about their own health in the process. Such bad behavior will take its toll on your body as you get older. This may cause more problems in the end. It will be better if you will learn to finish your tasks but be mindful of eating the right meals in between.

This way, you are loving life and loving your obligations at the same time. And both may prove to be rewarding in the process.

4.11.2011

When Health Drinks are not Always Healthy

When Health Drinks are not Always Healthy
When Health Drinks are not Always Healthy

More than ever, the trend of healthy living is so popular right now. These are advertised in the basic products that people consume such as foods, drinks, and even in toiletries. But, among these, the piece that takes the cake is the healthy drinks, which can be bought almost everywhere.

But, with all the competitions and emergence of so many companies that produce the so-called "healthy drinks," not all drinks that are labeled as such are good for you. If you are one of those who are into healthy drinks, now is the time to be smart about these.

By now, you should know that not all that are advertised as "healthy drinks" are healthy. And by now, you should know how to determine which are the ones that can really help you achieve optimum health and the ones that don’t.

Labels to behold

The best way to ensure that you are taking in healthy stuff into your body is by taking time to choose the ones that you consume. This can be done by shopping your foods by yourself. Aside from having the time to choose what you want to eat, you can also check the labels of these foods—especially your favorite health drink—by yourself. When shopping for health drinks, make sure that you avoid those who have the following ingredients in them:

- phosphoric acid. This acid is the clear, colorless liquid that is usually used in detergents, fertilizers, food flavoring and other pharmaceuticals products. This should be avoided because it can lead to the irritation of the skin as well as the eyes once ingested.

- high fructose corn syrup. This is a concentrated sugar, which is the major cause of weight gain in many people especially to women. Aside from being among those that leads to obesity, high fructose corn syrup in some health drinks can also lead to abnormal blood sugar levels that may lead to chronic illnesses such diabetes.

- artificial flavors and sweeteners. More commonly called as "excito-toxins," artificial flavorings are so common in most health drinks that are flavored-based. These artificial flavors are the same ones that you may find in sweet juices, colas and candy bars. Health drinks that have these in them should be avoided to avoid pH imbalances in the blood.

- processed vitamins. Many people don’t realize it but not all vitamins can be healthy especially if these are liquefied, isolated, and heated. This is because these vitamins and minerals are proven to break down before the body can benefit from them.

Other things to look for include glycerol ester of wood rosin because these are acid forming, the modified food starch, and the yellow 6, yellow 5 and red 40 because these are all artificial coloring or dyes.

Looking for the healthy health drink

Although looking for a healthy drink can take some of your precious time, this will be worth it because you can ensure that you are taking in healthy elements that your body needs.

4.10.2011

Water as the Best Natural Health Drink

Water as the Best Natural Health Drink

There are a lot of commercial health drinks out there in the market nowadays.  They claim that they provide cure for illnesses, even citing studies of their drastic impact on cancer.  But amidst these countless choices, we may e forgetting about nature’s most important “cocktail” – water.

Some health professionals say that most of the people nowadays are dehydrated and they are not aware of it.  People are more interested in drinking coffee, tea and sodas which also contains caffeine.  About 83 percent of our blood is made of water.  Muscles are made of 75 percent water, while bone is 22 percent composed of water.   Actually, an average person who weighs around 150 lbs., contains 40 to 50 quarts of water.  That makes 2/3 of our body weight are from water.

Drinking water also retains the fluids necessary for the body to function.  When the body gets less water, it begins to hold on to each drop of fluid and water it has.  Water is stored outside the cells making feet, legs and hands to swell.  To overcome this problem, the best thing to do is to drink plenty of water.  The stored water outside the cells will be released.

Aside from being completely necessary for biological processes, drinking the recommended 8 glasses of water a day will definitely give you significant health improvements. It would improve your energy, increase mental and physical performance, remove toxins and other waste products from the body.

Water also helps you to get glowing and healthy-looking skin.  Water acts as a natural body purifier, this disposes the toxins out of your body.  There are even studies citing water intake as an important factor in weight loss.  When a body does not have enough water, the fat cells cannot be easily metabolized.  This “rubber-like” fat cell is harder to lose.  Water can also suppress your hunger.

Not drinking enough water is also the number one reason of fatigue.  There are also studies that showed that drinking the recommended 8 glasses of water a day relieves most patients from back and joint pain.  It even has effects on our memory and ability to concentrate.  If you lack water intake, you can have short-term memory, trouble with your basic math and focusing on what you have in front of you, either a computer screen or a page you are handling.

Aside from regular tap water, you can see a lot mineral water and even alkaline water in the stands. Compared to ordinary tap water, alkaline water has higher pH level.  Alkaline water is said to have help in neutralizing acids and remove toxins from the body.  Alkaline water drinkers and proponents believed that most of what we eat and drink produces acid waste.  Aside from this, they also say that alkaline water gives electrochemical activity to the cell.

To keep the body hydrated, you do not have to drink from your water bottle every time.  Food is also source of your 20 percent total water intake.  The remaining 80 percent comes from other beverages. Fruits and vegetables also contain a lot of water.  Oranges would have 87 percent of composed of water.

Even if there are people promoting alkaline water, there are still other health care professionals who thinks that we should just stick to regular, plain water. Whether it is alkaline water or normal water, we could not deny that it is one of the wonders of Mother Nature.  Over centuries, water has been the natural health drink for us.

Muscles with brain

Good training