Healthy Eating

Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, stabilizing your mood, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible– all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty, healthy diet.

 Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself up for success


To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.

• Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety, and freshness. This way it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
• Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking.  As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
• Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy, and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.

Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.

Water. Water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins, yet many people go through life dehydrated—causing tiredness, low energy, and headaches. It’s common to mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you make healthier food choices.
Exercise. Find something active that you like to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy greens, blueberries, or salmon. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.

Eight lesser-known steps to prevent a stroke revealed

Washington: Quitting smoke, limiting alcohol, eating more fruits and vegetables, and keeping your weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar in check, can lower your likelihood of stroke.

Still, there are eight lesser-known ways to protect yourself, based on research, ABC News reported.

Walk 20 minutes a day: We know-you work, you have kids, errands to run, dinner to make, and an episode of Real Housewives to watch, but make the time.

Even if you break it up into two 10-minute sessions, it`s worth it.

Walking a total of 2 hours a week can cut your stroke risk by 30 percent, according to a large study of nearly 40,000 women, conducted over a 12-year period.

Walk briskly (so you can talk but not sing) and your chances are reduced by almost 40 percent.

Know the difference between sad and depressed: The latter makes you 29 percent more likely to suffer from stroke, says a new study of more than 80,000 women.

Depressed women tend to smoke more, weigh more and exercise less; plus, they`re more likely to have uncontrolled medical issues, like high blood pressure and diabetes, which can also increase stroke risk.

Recognize depression symptoms and you can get proper treatment.

Talk to your doctor if you: feel persistent sadness, anxiousness, or "emptiness"; hopeless; guilty, worthless or helpless; irritable; exhausted; if you lose interest in things you used to like; can`t concentrate or sleep; overeat or lose your appetite; think about suicide or have aches and pains that don`t go away even with treatment.

Set your alarm for 7 hours of sleep: More than 10 a night in la-la land may increase your stroke risk by up to 63 percent, compared with the recommended 7-hour stretch, scientists at Harvard claim.

And if you`re especially loud in bed-while snoring, that is-studies suggest you`re twice as likely to develop metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that raises your risk of stroke, as well as heart disease and diabetes.

 Include olive oil in your diet: Make olive oil your go-to ingredient for sauteing, baking, frying, drizzling, and all other food-related ings.

You know it helps lower your risk of heart attacks; new research now shows it extends its protective branch to strokes as well.

An observational study of more than 7,600 French adults age 65 and older found that those who regularly use olive oil cut their chance of stroke by just over 40 percent.

Mind the migraine: Those extra-special headaches-particularly the ones that come with flashes of light and blind spots-appear linked to a higher stroke risk in women; and as an added bonus, most migraine-sufferers are women, thanks in part to hormonal fluctuations and medications.

Though there`s no clear proof that indicates treating a migraine means no stroke, experts agree it`s reasonable to try and reduce their frequency.

Talk with your doctor-she may prescribe preventive meds or suggest stress management techniques.

Pay attention to palpitations especially if the heart flutters occur with shortness of breath, lightheadedness, and chest pain-those are all signs of atrial fibrillation (AF), an abnormal heartbeat that boosts risk of stroke about five-fold.

Eat potassium rich foods:Eat sweet potatoes and raisins and bananas and tomato paste. Not all on the same plate but individually, each is loaded with potassium-and a diet rich in foods with this nutrient may reduce stroke risk by 20 percent, suggests a recent report. More good sources: fruits and veggies, fish, poultry, and dairy.

Lengthen that short fuse:A study published in the journal Hypertension suggests that angry and aggressive people may be at a higher risk of stroke.

Use the handy mnemonic FAST to recognize the symptoms:

F (face): uneven smile, facial droopiness, numbness, vision disturbance

A (arm and leg): weakness, numbness, difficulty walking

S (speech): slurred, inappropriate words, mute

T (time): Realize that time is critical. If you notice any of the above symptoms, immediately call 911-studies show that you get faster care if you arrive at the hospital in an ambulance than if someone drives you. With stroke s, time lost is brain lost-simple as that.

Could a Seed Fight Cancer?

Q: I've been told that adding flaxseed to my cereal every day will help prevent colon cancer. Is there any validity to this?

 

 A: We have no clear evidence that flaxseed or any other particular food or nutrient can prevent a disease all on its own. But there's reason to believe that regularly eating flaxseed can potentially help lower the risk of colon cancer—and a number of other diseases.

The seed is a highly concentrated source of cancer-fighting, heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids; a single tablespoon contains more than 2 grams. But your body converts only a small amount of flaxseed's omega-3 fats (called ALAs—they're also found in certain vegetable oils, walnuts, and some green vegetables, like spinach and kale) into the kind found in fish. And it's mostly the fish-based omega-3s that, in studies, have been shown to deliver health benefits. However, recent findings suggest that ALAs may work similarly. For example, ALAs seem to ease inflammation in the same way that fish oils can. That's important because chronic inflammation in organs or joints, for example, has been linked to the development of cancer.

In addition to ALAs, flaxseed delivers a concentrated dose of fiber; a tablespoon has nearly 3 grams. Because fiber adds indigestible bulk to your diet, it can help you lose weight by making you feel full with fewer calories; research also shows that fiber can lower cholesterol. The studies on fiber's ability to ward off colon cancer are mixed, but I find the evidence of a benefit persuasive. In countries where people typically eat a high-fiber diet, colon cancer is much less common.

Finally, flaxseed contains generous amounts of a number of disease-fighting nutrients: potassium, magnesium, antioxidants, and even plant compounds that mimic estrogen and may help protect against cancer.

To get the full benefit of flaxseed, grind it just before you use it. People typically put it on cereal, as you note, but you can also sprinkle flaxseed on salads or bake it into bread or muffins.