Archive for December, 2011

At Last – 8 Healthy Snacks For TV Couch Time

December 30th, 2011

Winter is upon us, which means that everyone is bundled up in sweatshirts and pajamas sitting in front of the television waiting for the snow outside to melt in 3 months. Getting into that bikini swim suit (and looking good in it) is probably not on the top of your priority list right now. That is OK. You have a little time to get in shape.

The problem with this way of thinking though, is that most people add fuel to the fire by eating junk food. Living a sedentary life, even if it is only for a few months, is bad enough. If you want to relax this winter, go for it! But at least eat properly. Here are 10 tasty and healthy snacks that are great for television downtime.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #1: Popcorn

You are better off skipping it at the movie theater, but at home you can prepare it in a healthy way. A bucket of oil-popped movie theater popcorn can contain as much fat as three to five double cheeseburgers. But air-popped popcorn is a relatively healthy treat. Three cups of popcorn have just 93 calories and 1.5 grams of fat.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #2: Pistachios

Pistachios are a great heart-healthy snack full of antioxidants, fiber, and good fats. A 1/2-cup serving only has 170 calories, with 6 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber. However, that serving also has 14 grams of fat, so do not stuff yourself on them. They key here are the shells. Since they are difficult to open, more work is involved which will make you eat slower.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #3: Red Grapes

OK, you had to have known that fruits and vegetables would be on this list. As much as people want to avoid them these days, there will never be a processed snack food that will even come close to matching the nutrition and health benefits of fruits and vegetables. At the top of the pile is red grapes. Full of anti-oxidants and vitamins, red grapes are natures answer to sweet candy.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #4: Mini-pizzas

Forget the frozen food section on this one. Anyone with a toaster can make their own healthy version of frozen pizza. All you need is a whole wheat English muffin, tomato sauce and low-fat mozzarella cheese. The more vegetables and herbs you add to it, the healthier and tastier it will be.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #5: Pita chips With Hummus

This is another snack you must make on your own if you want it healthy. All you need is a large whole wheat pita. Cut the edge of the pita into chip-size pieces. and then cook them in the oven until crispy before serving with your favorite hummus or dip recipe. In general, when you rely on pre-packaged foods to do the work for you, the price you pay for it is your health.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #6: Relish Tray

Pickled vegetables are extremely low in calories and a great alternative to snacking on high fat, high sugar processed foods. Marinating your vegetables in vinegar or heart-healthy olive oil will control the amount of salt you eat. The reason fruits and vegetables accelerate weight loss is because they are water rich, which means you get a full, satisfied feeling without the calories.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #7: Green Tea

You may not think this is technically a snack, but the health benefits of drinking just one cup of green tea a day can allow you to splurge a little more than usual and still keep your figure in tact. The reason this works is because this beverage has been known to actually stimulate and accelerate a persons metabolism. At the same time it fills you up, so you have a more satisfied, healthy feeling.

Healthy Snacks for TV Couch Time #8: Protein Bars

This is the closest thing you will get to eating a chocolate candy bar that is relatively healthy. The best reason these are great for snacking is because they are not trigger foods like crackers and potato chips, so you will not want want to eat a lot at once. Protein helps build lean muscle mass, which is essential if you plan on being sedentary until the spring.

Not that this needs to be said, but you can enjoy even more snack food if you can work some exercise into your TV watching. Sit-ups and push-ups, or even getting up and moving around during commercials, will at least keep you more active. You can even burn calories just stretching out your body. Anything is better than sitting for hours without moving. You do enough of that at night when you are asleep.

Just because you want to stay in and relax does not mean you have to eat poorly. Replace your junk food cabinet with the foods listed above and when it comes time for the snow to melt, you will find that you will not have to work so hard at looking your best in that swimsuit. The key here is making an attempt to lead a healthy lifestyle all year around.

An Online Health Food Store Supplies More Info For Consumers on Natural Products Like Health Drinks

December 27th, 2011

Online Health Food Stores have become a one-stop shop for health drinks and all natural foods that you can’t find in typical supermarkets or even retail health food stores. While it’s difficult these days to determine what items are really healthy and “natural” by looking at labels, online health food stores often have far more in-depth information available to consumers. Many times, products like health drinks may have only one natural ingredient, but still be labeled, “natural”, which does not always mean they’re healthy. This can be confusing for health conscious shoppers who want the highest quality nutrition.

Online health food stores are often much more thorough in describing the true nature of their health drinks and other products. They go to great lengths assuring customers that things like preservatives, isolated vitamins, artificial dyes or sweeteners are not included in their all natural foods and health drinks. They investigate the manufacturing facilities and processes to be certain that products are processed at low temperatures to maintain the whole food structures and live enzymes inherent in truly natural ingredients. Unfortunately, some of the so-called health drinks and all natural foods at typical stores are devoid of nutrients because of the processing and pasteurization in the packaging processes.

There has never been a better time to discover a new way of shopping for healthy products. Here are a few examples of things you will find at an online health food store that may appear the same as typical store bought items on the surface, but are vastly different in the way they are processed:

* Vitamins – At the online health food store it is more likely these are whole food vitamins, not isolated vitamins, which will give you more effective absorption of nutrients directly into your cells.

* Natural low carb and high fiber foods – These are not fake-food substitutes, but real, all natural food formulas prepared with long-term results in mind.

* Health drinks and teas – Not enhanced bottled waters or candy colored sport drinks, but herbal beverages with whole food ingredients and live enzymes.

* Alkaline Foods and Drinks – Unlike overly processed foods and drinks that create an acid ash in the bloodstream, alkaline foods and drinks support a healthy pH balance, so you can avoid health problems such as bone weakness and arthritis.

* Nutrition for athletes and pregnant women – Concentrated with many pounds of natural ingredients to produce one pound of finished product, these online health food store products provide more power in fewer calories.

Many of the all natural foods and health drinks from an online health food store are likely to contain ingredients that have been grown on small farms or even in the wilderness, without the use of harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizers that are robbing our foods of real nutrients. This is far different from mass-produced products made with so-called “natural” ingredients that have been manufactured on giant factory farms with artificial fertilizers and dangerous pesticides.

If you wouldn’t use it in your own garden, then you probably won’t find it in products grown for all natural foods and health drinks at an online health food store. You would be surprised to know how many non-organic foods, and even some labeled as “natural”, have been grown that way. The United States Department of Agriculture defines organic food as produced by a farmer practicing soil and water conservation. In addition, they must make use of renewable resources in order to protect the environment for future generations. These are the types of all natural foods and health drinks that you will find at a reliable online health food store.

Today, some people avoid healthy lifestyle choices because they think the cost is too high or that alternative choices will rob them of modern day conveniences. However, it is important to realize that modern technology can bring those conveniences to anyone with Internet access. If you can Google, you can find an “online health food store with all natural health drinks”. Don’t fall into the unfortunate trap of not making the switch because you believe that you can’t afford all natural foods and health drinks without making major sacrifices. It won’t matter if the weather is bad or if you don’t have time to get to the market. It’s easy to order health drinks and other items from an online health food store with more detailed information on what you are buying than you could ever get from a typical store.

As consumers, we know that it is time to restore ourselves with nature. The quick fix and shortcuts that have rooted us in our everyday lives no longer serve us well, if they ever really did. This is not a passing fad. It is a wake up call that you see more and more as online health food store owners are leading the way for a green generation to discover a better way of shopping for truly all natural foods and health drinks.

As the owner of an online health food store, Cliff Smith has firsthand knowledge of the highest quality all natural foods and health drinks available today. He created the site’s Alkaline Food Test as a way for consumers to understand the importance of a healthy alkaline/acid balance in their daily diet. Cliff is a serious athlete who has logged thousands of miles on his mountain bike over rugged terrain throughout the southwestern United States. In addition, he has worked as a radio personality, professional actor and voiceover artist since 1980 performing on television, in movies, commercials and hundreds of other audio/video presentations.

Health Drink News, Soft Drinks Are Destroying America’s Health, Why Natural Health Drinks Are Better

December 24th, 2011

Maybe you have a favorite health drink, but if you know people who still consume soft drinks then you will want to share this news with them. Just look around and you will see the many ways that these bubbly little beverages are destroying America’s health, but here are a few specifics.

1. Soft drinks work very much like a diuretic, robbing the body of essential hydration. A considerable amount of water is required just to process the high levels of sugar in sodas. To replace what is stolen, you need to drink 8-12 glasses of water for every soft drink that you consume! Health drinks made with all natural ingredients, on the other hand, help your body absorb water. This makes your water more effective in hydrating and energizing you.

2. The high sugar content in soft drinks can cause your pancreas to produce an over abundance of insulin, leading to a “sugar crash”. You have probably felt this after a meal high in simple carbs like bread, pasta and dessert. Chronic elevation and depletion of sugar and insulin can eventually lead to diabetes. This is particularly problematic for growing children.

Kids will consume health drinks if they taste good. Fortunately, there are some excellent choices made with all natural ingredients. We’re not talking about those sugary enhanced vitamin waters loaded with isolated vitamins from a lab, but beverage mixes made with whole food ingredients from real plants and fruits.

3. Soft drinks interfere with digestion. Caffeine and high amounts of sugar virtually shut down the digestive process. Your body expends all its energy to process those things while other nutrients go to waste. That means you are essentially taking in NO nutrients from the food you may have just eaten, especially if you are chasing it with a soda.

4. Diet soft drinks contain Aspartame, which has been linked to depression, insomnia, neurological disease and a plethora of other illnesses. The FDA has received more than 10,000 consumer complaints about Aspartame. That’s 80% of all complaints about food additives. This is prompting many people to take a closer look at stevia sweetener. Stevia is an herbal product that is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, and has been shown to help people maintain normal blood sugar levels. Stevia sweetener has zero calories, it is all natural and adds quite a bit of flavor to health drinks without causing problems for your pancreas.

5. Soft drinks are so acidic they can leach aluminum from the cans when sitting on the shelf too long. Alzheimer patients who have been autopsied have high levels of aluminum in their brains. Soft drinks can remove rust from a car bumper or other metal surfaces. Imagine what they do to your digestive tract as well as the rest of your body. The Acid forming properties cause your body to work extra hard in order to balance pH. The human body naturally exists at a pH of about 7.4. Many soft drinks have a pH of less than 4! Experts and books such as “The China Study” describe how diseases flourish in an acidic environment. For example, the blood pH of cancer patients and those with other illnesses is almost always low.

For those concerned about pH balance, take the Alkaline Food Test at BestHealthFoodStore.net to find out how the choices you make today influence your pH balance and your well being for life.

It is easy to see how the problems caused by soft drinks are part of the health care crisis in America. It is also quite apparent that this is an easy issue to solve. If everyone in America drank natural health drinks instead of soft drinks, the health of this nation would greatly improve. Obesity rates would go down, diabetes would be slashed and some arthritic problems would virtually vanish. It may sound too good to be true, but just take a look at the ingredients in soft drinks. You will see that the good life is not in one of those well advertised, colorful, bottles of bubbly.