Healthy Heart Food

Pasta lovers who are looking for healthy heart food are in for some great news... a team of scientists from Italy and Spain have developed a spaghetti made from barley flour that harnesses all the good-for-you power of barley in a tasty (not to mention curly) package.
Very soon you could be enjoying your favorite food without the worry that you're risking your heart in the process.
If the researchers are correct, we may all soon be seeing pasta bearing labels with the words "may lower the risk of heart disease" or "good source of fiber" thanks to barley.
Barley is a first-rate fiber, full of antioxidants and even vitamin E, and is known to give beer its strong taste and distinctive flavor. It's also been increasingly used in "functional foods". These are foods that have been supplemented with good for you additives and marketed as healthier alternatives. The functional food industry is expected to be valued at $176 million by 2013.
Some examples of functional foods you may already have to hand include; calcium fortified orange juice or spreads with omega-3 fats added.
The U.S. FDA is charged with regulating claims that a manufacturer can make about content or effect on disease of their products. But, the FDA doesn't call these items "functional foods" and is concerned by the many claims that are being made, while continuing to look for ways to make it easier for consumers to figure out what's healthy and what's not.
To see if the new type of healthier pasta could be created, the team of researchers tried to up the fiber and antioxidants by using barley. They produced barley flour that contained the most nutritious element of the grain, created using a healthy separation method.
As they hoped, the spaghetti that was made with this barley flour displayed increased fiber and antioxidant action than traditional pasta made with wheat flour. Adding gluten increased the cooked quality of barley pasta, but the cost was the power of the antioxidants.
Still the researchers say the barley spaghetti meets all FDA requirements to be able to make the heart healthy claims on the packaging.
If you're trying to stick with a healthy eating plan, this latest development shouldn't bring on any major changes - keep on enjoying a balanced and varied diet that includes lots of good for you choices and don't rely on a single food for all benefits. Giving the new spaghetti a try, when it becomes available, can do no harm... just so long as you're not expecting miracles from this food, or any other.
When it comes to heart disease, any healthcare professional will tell you that preventing this condition is the best way to avoid the many life altering and dangerous complications it can have. There are risk factors that you can control... things like smoking or having untreated high cholesterol, high blood pressure or peripheral artery disease, and of course if you are carrying more weight than your body, and your heart, can handle you need to take steps to change that as soon as possible. Eating a diet of healthy heart food is a good step that can take you closer to good heart health.

The Importance Of A Healthy Lifestyle For Maintaining Normal Cholesterol Levels

The accumulation of medical research into heart disease has raised public awareness of the importance of living a heart healthy lifestyle. This generally means exercising regularly and eating healthily. Most people now understand that raised blood cholesterol, especially LDL cholesterol levels, caused by fatty foods significantly increase the risk of developing heart disease and having a heart attack. It is therefore imperative to monitor cholesterol within the body, and to take action to ensure that it remains at an acceptable level.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in the blood, which if left to build up over time attaches itself to the walls of the arteries leading to the heart. Once arteries become blocked blood and oxygen cannot reach the heart, and it begins to fail. What will typically begin with chest pains will ultimately result in cardiac arrest. A blood test called a lipoprotein profile can measure cholesterol levels, and should ideally be performed on adults every few years.
When this test reveals a high level of cholesterol in the blood, it is essential to take action to reduce it. Furthermore, even when a person's cholesterol levels are within the acceptable range it is important for them to live a healthy lifestyle in order to maintain the normal cholesterol levels. One of the best ways to achieve this is to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, and to avoid any types of food which have a high saturated fat content. Saturated fat is known to directly correlate with rising cholesterol levels in the blood and the development of heart disease.
A healthy diet is also important to prevent weight from being gained. People who are overweight or obese tend to have high LDL cholesterol levels in their blood due to having a poor diet, but their excess weight also puts extra pressure on their heart to function properly. These two factors greatly increase the risk of suffering from a heart attack. Diet is only part of the solution to obesity and heart disease, as it is also important to remain active. Regular exercise speeds up the metabolism and burns calories, thereby allowing people to reach and then maintain their ideal weight. Working out for at least thirty minutes a minimum of three times a week will also actively reduce cholesterol levels. Cardiovascular exercise, in particular, keeps the heart active and working as it should.
Although it is important to lead a healthy lifestyle at all stages of life, it is particularly important as people get older. This is due to the fact that cholesterol levels are often left to rise unchecked over a period of several years. As the risk of having a heart attack increases with age so too does the need to eat healthily and take regular exercise. In addition, it is important to refrain from activities such as smoking and drinking to excess, as they are known to place extra strain on the heart.
Living a healthy heart lifestyle is not difficult, but it does take dedication. The risks associated with allowing blood cholesterol levels, especially LDL cholesterol levels, to rise are all the motivation required to eat well and exercise every day. A healthy lifestyle allows people to look and feel better, and will in all probability increase their life expectancy.

How to Reduce LDL Cholesterol Naturally With a Liquid Diet

Doctors have recently linked having high levels of LDL cholesterol to a very wide variety of different illnesses. Heart attacks, diabetes, and strokes have been linked to high cholesterol, and these diseases are no laughing matter. In fact, suffering a heart attack is one of the leading causes of death among adult Americans. If you want to avoid having your life cut short, you will need to find a way to reduce LDL cholesterol naturally. To do this, you will need to supplement your diet with all-natural foods that reduce cholesterol, curb cravings for overly fatty foods, and also stabilize your blood sugar.
A few years back my father had quadruple bypass surgery because of all the built up plaque in his arteries. What a scary moment for all of us! As a precaution, I immediately got my cholesterol checked and found out mine was high too! In an attempt to avoid medications, I sought out solutions to lower my cholesterol naturally by diet and exercise.
Reducing Bad Cholesterol with Diet
Dieting is hard! If you have ever gone on a diet or tried to lose weight for a special event you know how difficult it can be In fact, the truth is that getting healthy is about 80% dependent on what you eat. So in order to avoid taking medications, I have began a slow transformation away from red meat which contains high amounts of cholesterol and fat. I also make sure I am getting at least one fruit and some veggies in my diet each day. As far as protein, instead of red meat, I eat more chicken, fish and protein shakes.
Liquid Nutrition
As I mentioned, I have begun to add protein shakes to my diet recently for several reasons. One, the more protein I take in the more full I feel, and am less likely to pig out on my next meal. To make this work, consume one protein shake an hour before lunch and/or dinner. This also helps curb my appetite between meals so I don't snack on bad foods like potato chips or candy.
There are a variety of protein shakes and meal replacement shakes on the market today but understand that not all of them are equal. You have to read the labels and make sure they are not high in sugar. Sometimes when the sugars are low, they replace it with extra fat and vice-versa. You also want to check out the source of the protein, because not all protein is created equal.
Secondly, you also want to try several shakes because you need to find one that tastes good. No matter how healthy it is, if you gag every time you drink it the chances of you sticking with it are slim.
In addition to protein, make sure the shake also contains a good dose of vitamins and minerals to help supplement your body with the good stuff it needs that we don't always get from eating. Other good items to look for are prebiotics and digestive enzymes, antioxidants and essential amino acids.
Lastly, be sure you know whats in the shake, read the label. If you begin to see lots of chemicals that you can't pronounce and added sugars and man-made ingredients, put it back on the shelf. Look for all natural ingredients that you can actually look up and find what the benefits are so that you are putting good things into your body; remember, our goal is to not put more medication into our body (think natural).
Conclusion
In order to reduce your LDL cholesterol, it all comes down to diet and nutrition. Since it is difficult to eat all the vitamins and minerals, I suggest drinking healthy protein shakes and meal replacement shakes to give your body the good stuff it craves. This way you can avoid having to take expensive medications and start live a healthier life.

If you are currently taking medication for high cholesterol, may I suggest trying Shakeology and see what it can do for you. Not only does it taste good, but it contains over 70 whole food ingredients with no added sugars.

Hearing Aids and Modern Family Football Matters

My dad worked in construction for more than 20 years. He's a wizard with home fix-it projects but also hard of hearing; he said it was from all the power tools around the job site. It used to drive me crazy because unless I was within 6 feet of him, I'd always have to repeat what I said. Dad blamed power saws for being practically deaf in one ear, whether it was the power tool or rock concerts, his life changed dramatically last year when he finally gave in to our advice and got a hearing aid from a local doctor. The man can hear a chuckle from two rooms away and has experienced genuine improvement in his quality of life.
Humans have been using hearing aids long before we were using electricity, in fact some of the first hearing devices date back to the Middle Ages. These amounted to what was basically a megaphone the user would hold up to their ears to catch additional sound waves. Less than fashionable, but acoustic hearing aids were used widely until the early 19th century. As the miniaturization of our industrial technology continued, the hearing-aid industry saw the introduction of carbon-filled microphones which allowed the user to pick up more range and sound frequency. The carbon produced a scratchy sound amplification effect, and was phased out after the implementation of the vacuum tube to hearing aid devices in 1921.
The transistor hearing aid gained popularity during the 1950's and 1960's, these two-piece systems would be called the first "streamline" hearing aid design. Flash ahead to modern-day 21st Century, there's more advanced technology in vending machines than the most sophisticated transistor hearing aid of the 1960's (right around the time my father first started using power tools coincidently).
Most folks today use some form of ear-level device, depending on their individual hearing loss situation. These can be seen in several sub-styles, such as behind-the-ear (BTE), eyeglass style, In-the-ear (ITE), In-the-canal (ITC), Completely-in-the-canal (CIC) or Bone-conduction devices. There are other articles here worth reading if you would like to learn more about the progression of the hearing device.
Dad's doctor helped him decide on a bone-conduction device given his advanced degree of hearing loss in one ear. This little device is impressive, the first unit sits behind his ear and uses a wireless chip to transmit sound signals to a piece that fits in the back of his mouth, over the molar which creates sound vibrations that travel through the bones around the teeth and into a part of the ear called the cochlea which recognizes sound in the impaired ear. A far cry from the metal tubes our forefathers used!
Things around the house have been great since my Dad got his hearing aid, for the most part. There are times that I wish he couldn't hear me as well - our college Alma matters are football rivals and I used to be able to talk trash about his team without concern he would hear. Those days are long gone, unfortunately.

Vitamin C Overdose

Using Vitamin C products beyond recommended the limits may cause stomachaches and diarrhea. Even though the body would only use as much as it needs of the vitamin, Vitamin C Overdose can hinder metabolic activities in the body.
The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for Vitamin C in nonsmoking adults is 75 mg per day for women and 90 mg per day for men. For smokers, the RDAs are 110 mg per day for women and 125 mg per day for men. A dose of 200 milligrams daily is almost enough to maximize plasma and lymphocyte levels.
Higher levels of Vitamin C are needed when under environmental stress such as trauma, fever or infection. Full saturation is reached with daily intakes of 200-500 mg per day (in 2-3 divided doses). This is a water-soluble protein, and anything in excess is excreted by the body. Vitamin C Overdose can cause diarrhea, gas, or stomach upset. Other side effects could be stomach cramps, nausea, and diarrhea, and an increased risk of developing kidney stones. Large amounts of Vitamin C reduce body levels of copper, an essential nutrient. People with iron overload diseases must avoid Vitamin C Overdose, as it increases iron absorption. Special medical advice must be taken by individuals who have kidney stones. If a pregnant mother takes 6,000 mg of Vitamin C, the baby may develop rebound scurvy due to a sudden drop in daily intake. Hemochromatosis patients should not take Vitamin C due to enhanced accumulation of non-heme iron in the presence of this vitamin.

Vitamin C provides detailed information about vitamin C, benefits of vitamin C, topical vitamin C, vitamin C creams and more. Vitamin C is the sister site of Frequent Sinus Infections

 

What Vitamins Actually Work?

There's a lot of to-do going on about natural vitamins having an edge on the synthetics. And, truth to tell, going natural sure sounds good. The way God intended and all.
But like with so many things, the devil's in the details.
The major sources of natural vitamin B vitamins are wheat and yeast. Well, if you have candida-a constant concern with thyroid and adrenal problems-you don't want to throw yeast down the old hatch. Same thing if you have a mold allergy.
And wheat? Anybody with a digestive system dancing the fandango should consider the possibility of an allergy. Medicine's finally realizing the disaster of one such, a sensitivity to gluten. And no wonder since they've pumped the gluten content in today's wheat way, way up-because it makes bread "fluffier." So much for natural.
Natural vitamin C, meanwhile, often comes from corn-to which untold numbers of people are allergic. And who knows if the corn is genetically modified, as most of it is?
A lot of vitamin pills contain corn starch as a binder, which is why I talk about capsules so much-not so many fillers.
And natural vitamin E tocopherols can come chock-a-block full of evil soy. And some E comes to us from wheat germ, which, of course, takes us back to the whole gluten story.
On the other hand, some vitamins, like vitamin A, are better in their natural, animal-based form. Which means, of course, that most vitamins offer us synthetic, plant-based forms of vitamin A.
And natural, plant-based vitamin/mineral products come up way short in minerals, too. Since almost all of us are mineral deficient, this is a very bad thing.
So, what about synthetics then? Well, it depends. Our bodies are happy to join forces with synthetics that look like the real thing, bio-identical as it's called, but sometimes the supplement people decide they have a better idea.
And maybe their idea looks good on paper. A lot of things look good on paper. I used to write software, and I guarantee you everything I wrote looked swell on paper. But sometimes when a computer got its innards on my fabulous code, things fell apart. In fact, I've been known to yell at computers for their intransigence, for all the good it did me.
Our bodies are like that, too. If something unrecognizable comes down the hatch, things fall apart. Not as quickly as with a computer, though, and that's a pity. The sooner we know, the better off we are.
So, it's not just any natural, and it's not just any synthetic.
Let's talk, then, about a natural turned into a synthetic. It's called an isolate, wherein they strip away all the so-called extra parts of something natural to get down to the "active ingredient." They isolate it.
Our bodies don't think much of isolates. Fact is, they don't recognize them without their missing parts and start defending themselves against the foreign attacker.
This is how a lot of prescription drugs do us in. It's a big reason why "properly prescribed, properly taken" prescription drugs kill more than 100,000 people a year in the U.S. alone.
To get a patent, pharmaceutical companies have to come up with something that doesn't naturally occur in nature. (Well, that's the law, which is sometimes observed, sometimes not.) Patents generate the big bucks. Big, big, big bucks. Really big bucks. Really big.
And so we get isolates, which never occur in nature, alien life forms that they claim will make life better. Riiight.
And it's not just prescription meds. Big Pharma's muscling into the vitamin/mineral world, too.
When vitamin D hit the news, pharmaceutical companies jumped all over it, racing to get a patentable version by isolating one part of the whole. Last I heard their "new, improved Vitamin D" was bumping people off instead of doing them any good.

Five Healthy Eating Tips to Lose 5 Pounds

Are you struggling to lose that last 5 pounds? Well it's no surprise because that last few pounds are always the toughest to lose. This is when diet becomes very important and really looking at what you are eating can make a big difference in the results you see. So here are 5 tips you can start implementing right away to lose 5 pounds.

1. Eat breakfast. Skipping breakfast is one of the worst things you can do if you are trying to lose weight. After a long night of not eating, your body is starving for some food. If you choose to skip breakfast you'll also slow your metabolism down and since your body is depleted of protein and carbs, you'll even start burning off that your earned muscle. So make sure to get a healthy breakfast in before you head out for the day. Choose a meal with a good mix of carbs and protein such as oatmeal and eggs or a protein smoothie with fruit.


2. Don't skip meals. If you want to keep your metabolism boosted so that you burn lots of fat be sure to avoid skipping meals or going long periods of time without eating. Ideally, you should be eating a small meal every 3-4 hours for a total of 5-6 meals each day. These meals should be balanced and contain both carbs and proteins, as well as a small amount of healthy fats sprinkled in here and there too. This will make your body a fat burning machine and make it much easier to lose 5 pounds.


3. Get your protein. You keep hearing me say to eat protein with your meals. This is very important. Your body needs protein and eating it will help you feel fuller and help you recover from your workouts. But I'm not talking about bacon, hot dogs, and sausage here. Instead get protein every time you eat from lean sources such as chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, and lean beef.


4. Eat the right carbs. And just like protein you need to have your carbs in your diet. Carbs are important to give you energy and help your body absorb protein, but you must be getting the right kinds of carbs in your diet to get the best results. So stay away from white processed carbs and stick to whole grains, oatmeal, brown rice, and sweet potatoes instead.


5. Avoid added sugar. If you really want to lose 5 pounds than added sugar is your biggest enemy. I'm not talking about fruit sugar here but rather that white, processed stuff added to a variety of foods. There's nothing good about added sugar and eating too much of it will definitely hinder your weight loss goals. Even healthy foods such as oatmeal packets and protein bars can have loads of added sugar. So start reading labels and avoid foods that have lots of sugars in them. By sticking to whole, natural, unprocessed foods you'll be able to avoid getting added sugars in your diet.