THE VENDING HEALTHY

Posts Tagged ‘diet’

It can start from a very early age and we are taken in by the ‘good advice’ of the supposed experts that we take at face value.

Most health visitors will tell you to wean your breast-fed baby on baby rice, which comes out of a cardboard box. This usually is a smooth mush of almost pure white starch and most of the grain’s nutrients were removed by the processing.

This is an easy route for many tired, busy, harassed mums and I can see the temptation, but babies retain a liking for the foods / tastes they are weaned on. In fact they keep their liking for foods that the mother ate while pregnant. Breast milk (unlike formula) exposes them to all the different flavors of the mother’s diet and thus makes them more likely to try different flavors as they get older. Encouraging them to sample different tastes and textures from an early age is key to developing a healthy attitude to food in later life.

But, for the food industry, it is much better to train the baby’s palate on cereal from a packet and progress to jars of baby foods, then onwards and upwards to the processed crap that most of the population now eats!

There is a natural progression from boxed baby rice to packaged breakfast cereals, with 97% of British homes having at least one box of cereal in the cupboard.

Cereals are one of the earliest forms of convenience foods, representing a triumph in packaging, marketing and foreign policy.

Unlike most of Europe, the UK has succumbed to the American cereal invention almost completely. Approx 100 years ago, simple grains, i.e. porridge or bread were the staple breakfast seen around the world. Today, however the British and Irish are the largest consumers of puffed, flaked, sugared, salted and extruded cereals in the world! The Mediterranean’s, who we credit with a healthy diet, have not gone down this route.

Are you taking aecia berry as part of an aecia berry diet? If so you may be wondering how and when to take it for the very best results. The answer will depend on a number of factors including the product you are taking, the other foods you eat and your body size.

You should always check the label on the supplement product you are using. However, in some cases the directions may be vague. It may say for example, to take two to eight capsules a day. That is a big range. So how do you know how many to take? Start by asking your doctor for input. Though pure aecia have not been shown to have side effects, you should always make your physician aware of any supplements you are taking.

Next, consider your size. If you are a larger person you will need more than a smaller person would. If you are tiny then naturally you will need less. Your diet plays a role also. Do you eat a nutritious diet? If so then you can get by with less aecia berry. On the other hand if you tend to eat more junk food and you need to get more nutrients from your supplements, then extra aecia berry may be in order. So you will need to experiment.

When should you take this product? Because this supplement lends energy to the body you will want to take it during the day. If you take it late in the day or early evening you may find that you have difficulty getting a good sleep because you have so much extra energy. In addition some of the products on the market include fat burners that stimulate the cardiovascular system, another good reason to take this early in the day.

It is always best to get a good dose of your daily nutrients from healthy fruits and veggies and your overall diet. So keep this in mind when you take this nutritional supplement. Use it as a healthy supplement to your healthy diet but not as a replacement for eating right and exercise.

Protein is needed for the human body – that much is a concrete fact. The question is how much protein is needed. For the average person, the need is around 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For the person who is working out either more frequently (more than 3-4 times per week) or more strenuously (over 30 minutes per session) the need for protein increases slightly.

Know the Amount of Protein that YOU Need

Just like fingerprints and other identifying factors, the need for protein in your diet is very individual and is based on a number of different factors. There are some that can be changed like your weight and your activity level and then there are a number that cannot be changed like your gender and genetics. Only you know how much you actually exercise, which is important in figuring out your protein needs.

Do: Count the calories that you are consuming presently and how many you will need to reach your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, for instance, you might need to decrease your calories by 500. However, it may be easier to decrease calories by 250 and then increase your workout to burn an additional 250 calories as well.

Don’t: Assume that you can just cut your calories and lose weight without taking into account your nutritional needs. Sure you can eat a single 1200-calorie burger in a day and be within your calorie count, but you are also over your count for sodium, saturated fats and probably protein in the process. After eating a beastly meal like that in one sitting, you are less likely to want to work out at all.

Don’t: Assume that all of the protein that you eat is automatically heading to your muscles. Protein like all other nutrients can be stored in the body as fat, especially if too much is eaten at one time. The body typically only digests the first 30 grams of protein in a meal to the muscles and the rest is more likely to be stored.