Why You Should Have a Varied Diet - Even If You Suffer Food Intolerance

By Charlie Monaghan Carter

If you are among the ever increasing number of people who
must restrict their diet due to food intolerances, you will
know that staying within the guidelines can be tough.

If you have a fairly common allergy or intolerance such as
dairy or gluten, then finding foods that are dairy or gluten
free isn't too difficult, its when the intolerances get more
intricate and uncommon that they become a problem. Also,
another big problem for people with food intolerances is
eating out at a restaurant for example. A lot of the time,
chefs will not understand the implications of a given food
on a person with intolerances.

A well-intentioned chef may sometimes put a little flour
into a sauce to thicken it up, believing that such a small
amount will not trigger the intolerance. If the person does
not seize up and start choking there and then, they believe
all is well and the trace of flour went unnoticed. However
it is not until the food is digested that the intolerance
takes effect around an hour after its consumed, and then the
effects can last for several days.

Eating out is therefore very difficult for people with
intolerances to common foods, and as it is very difficult to
find good food that doesn't contain the common foodstuffs
that people are intolerant to, you will soon find that
eating out becomes a bigger and bigger risk.

For the sake of your health, it is of the utmost importance
that you avoid all foods that you have an intolerance to. It
is very hard work for your body to process these foods and
so to allow it to recover, you should stick to foods that
you know your body can handle. Having said that, if you
start eating just a few foods that you know aren't going to
upset you, you may find that you begin developing
intolerances to them as well.

For this reason it is important to maintain as wide a diet
as possible. This is sometimes difficult if people have many
allergies, a lot of the time people will find foods that
don't upset them, and stick to them so as to avoid triggering
the intolerances. However, you should try to keep eating as
wide a range of foods as you can to avoid slowly but surely
becoming intolerant to everything.

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Why Seafood Should Be A Part Of Your Diet

By Shannon Linnen

No matter what anyone says, seafood is healthy and should be
a part of everyone's diet. Seafood in general is high in
nutrients and vitamins, which no other food group can
provide. However, you have to be careful about where you get
your fish from. Local waters, like lakes and rivers, can be
contaminated and your fish could contain chemicals like
mercury or PCBs. The easiest way to obtain a healthy serving
of fish is to eat at your local restaurant or do some online
shopping. Online vendors, located in coastal regions, can
usually guarantee overnight shipping and freshness you
cannot get from anywhere else.

One of the reasons that seafood is healthy has to do with
the biochemistry and lifestyle of the fish. Fishes, in order
to breathe, must swim constantly. Their entire body is lean
muscle, the delicious seafood fillets that wind up on your
plate. Compared to the chubby unattractive cow, the life of
a fish is one constant streamlined marathon.

The simplest way to prepare salmon, for example, is to rub
it with some spice - simply salt and pepper will do - and
pan fry it in a quarter-sized drop of olive oil. 6 minutes
on the skin side first, then 3 to 4 minutes on the flesh
side should cook an average-sized salmon fillet through. A
side benefit to eating healthy seafood is that it is so
delicious and simple to prepare. Unlike unpleasant "healthy"
choices like algae goo and grass juice, seafood tastes
wonderful. You can't go wrong preparing fish dishes.

Lobster meat can by steamed by boiling lobsters in the
shells, but dealing with fresh live lobster can be
unnerving, and the best addition to lobster is drawn butter
- not as healthy as pan seared salmon. Serve it with
sauteed or steamed vegetables, and you've got a healthy and
filling meal.

Another healthy substitution is to grill tuna steaks instead
of greasy hamburgers, at your outdoor grill party. They
prepare exactly the same way. Your guests will agree that
seafood is healthy, and it also seems classier than humdrum
burgers, when arranged on nice plates with a colorful
garnish - maybe grated carrots and a lemon wedge.

The healthful features of seafood are the magical omega-3
fatty acids, found mostly in salmon, and reputed to clear up
skin problems like acne, rosacea, and age lines.Fish is
important for many near-vegetarians, who rely on fish for
protein. These vegetarians are far healthier than those who
eat no meat at all. Also "good" cholesterol and "good" fat,
and a number of essential vitamins.

To conclude, fish is utterly beneficial to your health. It
is full of substances that are good for you, and unless the
fish is from some unsavory source, it is free of substances
that are bad for you.Eat some fish today, I know I will.Fish
can be prepared very easily, and it takes little seasoning
to make seafood taste good. Fish also has the added benefit
of being classier than red meat or poultry.

As recently as 5 to 7 years ago, finding good quality
seafood for people living far away from the coast was almost
impossible. The good news is that this is no longer the
case. You can now get very good quality seafood sent
straight to you, even if you life in Utah or Arizona. Fedex
and UPS both offer overnight delivery so when you choose an
online seafood vendor make sure they offer this shipping
option. If your not sure where to start, just search for
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10 Real World Diet Tips That You Can Use

Are you tired of diet tips handed out by someone with apparently unlimited income and time? For some of us, it may just not be practical to spend half of our Sunday preparing carefully portioned meals for the rest of the week, or financially feasible to buy all our meals prepackaged in just the right portions. And there are those of us who cringe at the thought of weighing food to achieve 'optimal portion sizes'. Here are ten real life diet tips for the rest of us.

1. Eating out? Restaurant portions tend to be enormous, and if it's on the plate, we tend to eat it. If it's possible, order from the kid’s menu, where portions are more reasonably sized.

2. Keep healthy snacks around and easily accessible. A bowl of fruit on the kitchen table, a container of celery or carrot sticks in the refrigerator, or a couple of pop-open cans of fruit salad in your desk at work will help you grab for something healthy when those first hunger pains begin. In other words, you'll be more likely to grab something low-calorie and good for you if it's easy to eat.

3. Substitute frozen vegetables for canned. Canned veggies tend to be high in sodium, which you don't need, and low in real nutrition, which you do. Buy economy size bags with zip closures to make it easy to pour out a single serving for a meal.

4. Buy a vegetable steamer. Steaming is one of the healthiest ways to cook vegetables. The food retains nearly all of its natural nutrients instead of leaching it out into the cooking water. Even better, it makes your veggies taste great - which means you'll be more likely to eat them instead of filling up on fatty foods that pack on weight.

5. Never eat standing up. One of the easiest ways to sabotage your diet is to 'eat without thinking'. Treat eating with the respect that it deserves. Fix yourself a plate. Sit down and eat properly. You'll be less likely to just pop food into your mouth without paying attention.

6. Spread your meals out. When you eat three meals a day, your body tends to store whatever it doesn't need right that moment. By adopting a 'grazing' habit, you'll keep your metabolism working throughout the day. Have a small breakfast, a piece of fruit with crackers or toast at mid-morning, a light lunch and an 'after school snack' mid-afternoon. Just remember that you're breaking up the same amount of food into smaller meals, not ADDING more food into your daily diet.

7. Grab a fruit juice or flavored water instead of soda. Soda is nothing but empty calories. No nutrients, lots of sugar. Instead, grab a bottle of 100% fruit juice, or water flavored with a spritz of fruit.

8. Drink water. Even the FDA recommends at least 8 full 8 ounce glasses of water a day to keep your body working right. When you're dieting, you should drink even more. It's not just that full feeling - water helps your body digest foods properly and cleans out your system.

9. Can't afford a gym membership? Make a pact with friends to exercise together. Make a date at least three times a week to play volleyball, take a walk or spend half an hour doing something active.

10. Skip the potato chips. Fatty snacks fried in hydrogenated oil like potato chips contribute fat and calories and not much else. Instead, grab a handful of dried fruit or a cup of yogurt for the same amount of calories and a lot more nutritional benefits.

Not Getting Enough Fruit & Veggies In Your Family's Diet? Try These 10 Tips

We all know by now that we should be eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. But knowing and doing are two different things, aren’t they? Sometimes it is just not easy to get them all in there. We are constantly tempted to fill up on convenience and junk food. If your family is anything like mine, they’d much rather fill up on a bag of chips or a bowl of rice or pasta instead of trying an apple or a plate of steamed broccoli. So we’ll have to get creative. Here are a few ideas to “sneak” some extra vegetables and fruits in your family’s diet.

1. Start the day with a breakfast smoothie. All you have to do is throw some fruits, low-fat yogurt and ice in a blender. You may also want to add a scoop of protein powder in there for good measure. Just blend for a few seconds and you have the perfect breakfast ready to go. I like to sip mine in a thermal cup on the way to work. To make it even more appealing for your kids, use some frozen yogurt or a scoop of ice cream in the smoothie. They won’t believe that you are letting them have ice cream for breakfast.

2. Dried fruit makes an excellent snack any time of the day. Add some small cartons of raisins to your child’s lunch box, pack some yogurt-covered raisins in your husband’s briefcase and keep some trail mix sitting around for snacking. You can also add dried fruit to oatmeal and cereal in the morning. My family loves banana chips in their breakfast cereal.

3. Add some fruits and vegetables to your family’s sandwiches. You can add some banana, sliced apples or strawberry slices to a peanut butter sandwich. Top a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and anything else they will eat. You can even make a sub shop style vegetable sandwich by combining several different vegetables with some mayonnaise and cheese on bread.

4. Have a salad bar at dinner. Set out a variety of chopped vegetables, some cheese and croutons as well as several choices of salad dressing along with the lettuce and let everybody create their own perfect salad.

5. Let them drink their fruits and vegetables. Keep an assortment of fruit and vegetable juices in the fridge and encourage everyone to drink them as a snack. Get creative. You could start “family cocktail hour” by pouring everybody a glass of his or her favorite juice over ice. Add some straws, cocktail umbrellas and sit together to talk about how everybody’s day went.

6. Try this for dessert. Put a small scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt in a bowl and top it with lots of fresh or frozen fruit.

7. Offer fruits and vegetables as snacks. You can cut apples into slices and top them with peanut butter or cheese. Cube cheese and serve with grapes. Cut up some fresh veggies and serve them with ranch dip. And of course there’s ants on a log. Spread some cream cheese or peanut butter on the inside of a stick of celery and sprinkle raisins on it (wow, fruit and vegetable in one snack).

8. Try some new fruits and vegetables. Pick something exotic to get your family’s curiosity. With a little luck their curiosity will outweigh their initial apprehension to trying something new. You could try artichokes, plantains, papaya, mango, star fruit, or anything else you can find in the produce department of your local store.

9. Make a pot of vegetable soup or a stew that’s heavy on veggies and easy on the meat. Both of these make some great comfort food when the weather gets cold.

10. Start “My Veggie Day”. Each family member gets to pick a vegetable one day of the week. They qualify to pick a vegetable as long as they tried each vegetable the week before, otherwise they loose a turn and Mom gets to pick.

Incorporate a few of these ideas and you will have everyone in your family eating more fruits and vegetables in no time.

Here is another tip:

Now that everyone in the family has gotten a taste for it, make sure you always have plenty of fresh fruits and veggies available and ready to snack on.

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How Crucial is Healthy Eating?

Have you ever heard the saying you are what you eat? In some sense, this is true, because if you eat unhealthy foods you are prone to be an unhealthy person. The foods we ingest are extremely important to our ability to grow, maintain function, and prevent illness. Therefore, if you value your health, you should learn as much about healthy eating as possible.

Healthy eating is important from the day we are born. As a child, we grow quite rapidly and this is due in part to the foods we eat. Foods all contain nutrients that provide us not only with fuel to live our daily lives, but also with the very substances that build our bones, muscles, and organ tissues. Not getting enough of one nutrient or another can cause a variety of problems, including stunting our growth. For mothers who are nursing, nutrition is important because breast milk contains the nutrients a child needs to grow and develop properly. Upon growing older, these nutrients are then found in food, but don’t think that healthy eating isn’t important for growth after you’ve gone through puberty. Cells continuously break down and rebuild, so healthy eating for growth continues to be important until the day we die.

Healthy eating is also important for maintaining body function. In out daily lives, we use energy to think, walk, talk, breathe, and perform any other action. The energy it takes our body to do these things comes from two places: fat reserves in the body or our daily food intake. If you don’t eat healthy foods, you will find that you are storing more fat than necessary or that you aren’t getting enough and you feel sluggish or weak. Along with energy-providing nutrients, like fats and carbohydrates, we also need the right nutrients to allow our organs to do their jobs. Hormones and other substances in the body make sure that everything is working properly. If you don’t eat the right nutrients, your body cannot produce these hormones and, as a result, cannot function properly.

Lastly, healthy eating is important in order to prevent illness. When we do not get the right nutrients, our body’s natural defense system against diseases weakens, allowing viruses and bacteria to attack the body. It’s like a well-trained army—if the army doesn’t have enough to eat, it will not do well in battle. Without healthy foods and plenty of water, our bodies simply could not operate on a day-to-day basis. Learning how to eat healthy foods is therefore and important lesson, and one which we should begin learning as children.

Organic, Natural etc - Understanding Food Labels

When you head to the grocery store, shopping for products like eggs, meat, fish, milk, and produce can be very tricky. Signs are posted everywhere labeling food as natural, organic, and a number of other things—but what’s the difference, really? Learning what specific names mean can help you decide if you should shell out extra money on a product or if its simply a marketing ploy.

Natural is a term associated with a number of fruit and vegetable products. Typically, this is simply a marketing ploy to convince you to buy the product. After all, all fruits and vegetables are natural, right? Unless it’s a new kind of food that has been developed and processed, the product is natural. What you really probably want is organic. Organic foods are grown without chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

There are two main benefits to organic foods. First, you are helping the environment because those chemicals are not being introduced into nature. Secondly, you are avoiding ingesting chemicals and are therefore eating more healthy foods. However, organic products are usually more expensive. If you’re on a budget, skip over organic fruits and vegetables that you can peel, like oranges and bananas. After all, once you’ve discarded the peel, you’ve also discarded the chemicals. Instead, opt for organic items like apples, where you eat the peel. No matter what you buy, however, make sure that you rinse off the food when you get home.

Another tricky label you will see is “no hormones.” This is usually in regards to milk or meat products and is false, since all animals naturally produce hormones. Hormones are what helps an animal (even a human) regulate body organs, have young, and otherwise function. All meat products have hormones. What the labels really mean is that no hormones were unnaturally given to the animal, which is sometimes done to increase milk production. Regardless of hormones, however, the milk and meat is safe for a person and not a violation of an animal’s rights.

Lastly, a label on eggs and meat can indicate if the animal was caged or penned. This does not make a difference in the quality or nutritional value of the meat, but is simply a matter of animal rights. These products may be a bit more expensive, but if you want to make human decisions, that is the way to go. Reading the label and making healthy choices can sometimes be difficult, but learning how to do so can help you make the best choices for you diet.