Is Couscous Healthy?

Couscous plays a vital role in the world of health and fitness. In fact, many people considered it as one of the best alternatives for rice, especially, if they want to lessen their intake of carbohydrates brought about by rice. Because of infamous recognitions, there are still many people who doubt the health benefits of this ingredient.

Couscous is actually a type of pasta made from semolina flour. At first glance, one will never be able to distinguish it from rice but when tasted, the texture and taste will definitely give people a unique impression. Many dishes in Northern Africa use couscous, especially, for their side dishes because of the health benefits it brings.

One of the health benefits promised by couscous is antioxidants. Antioxidants can also be found in coffee which helps the body to remain young. In addition, antioxidants protect the body from harmful toxins brought by synthetic food such as chemically preserved goods and chips. According to studies, people who have a good intake of antioxidants have a higher chance of preventing any accumulation of cancerous cells in the body. In other words, people who need antioxidants in their diet can simply eat couscous as a rice substitute.

People will also benefit from the high amount of fiber brought about by couscous. Fiber is the ideal diet for those who would like to loosen their weight a bit. Compared to carbohydrates, fiber will make you feel full for a longer period. This is because fiber is digested slowly unlike carbohydrates. This is why people who want to lose weight will never find it difficult to do so, especially, if they choose to take couscous than rice. In addition, a fiber diet is the ideal choice for people experiencing diabetes and heart ailments. The amount of glucose from rice is higher than what couscous has. Basically, huge intake of glucose is dangerous for a diabetic. In other words, couscous is the best diet for them; as well as cardiovascular patients.

Keep in mind that the two diseases stated above are more present to obese people. It is clear, then, that couscous will not only help them prevent these diseases; rather, they will be able to lose weight as well. It's like hitting two birds with one stone emphasizing health and fitness.

There are many ways to get your hands on couscous; you may do it yourself or you may opt to buy it. Either way, you will no longer ask whether couscous is healthy or not.

Get to know more on Is Couscous Healthy. Providing useful nutrition tips, reviews and writings online.

Sports Nutrition: Improve Performance Naturally

Nutrition is an integral part of peak performance. Correct foods allow the athlete a new found stamina and power they never knew existed. Nutrition when used properly separates an average athlete from a superior one.

The mind and body, similar to an automobile, always operate at top form when fueled with the top fuel. Anyone who has ever participated in a sport will attest to the fact that their performance is noticeably enhanced by proper diet and nutrition.

There are actual ways to improve performance even more so by learning how to boost Serotonin levels in the brain naturally and maintain balanced blood sugar levels in the body.

Your game is as good as the body and mind you bring to it. There is no need for special vitamins or drinks to improve your performance when you learn how to correctly use foods that are already in your kitchen. When used correctly they will naturally boost energy, maintain a calm demeanor and feed your brain. This is incredibly exciting once you learn how to use foods to work for you rather than against you.

Essential Rules for Maintaining a Strong Performance:

1- Protein: Learn how to use protein in your diet (protein from whole foods, rather than powders or bars). Protein enables you to maintain balanced blood sugar levels and is the precursor to Serotonin in the brain. Have a lean protein with every meal and snack for maximum effect.

2- Carbohydrates: All Carbs Are Not Create Equal- Along with lean protein, the right carbohydrates are essential to create a strong mind and body and supply the proper amount of energy which enables you to attain peak performance. Always choose the good carbohydrates, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, preferably ones that are lower on the glycemic index (lower in sugar). Avoid simple sugar carbohydrates (candy, cakes and sodas)at all cost to maintain balanced blood sugar levels.

3. Good Fats: Extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil to name a few. Avocados, walnuts, almonds and salmon provide good fats as well.

4. Avoid Sugar Substitutes: These chemical food enhancers interfere with brain power and often create anxiety and irritability. They will affect your performance in a negative way and are not in your best interest to ingest.

5. Hydrate with Pure Water: Even slight dehydration affects your game by slowing you down and interfering with thought processes. A well hydrated body is calmer, more alert and able to withstand stress. Stamina will increase when the body is properly hydrated.

6. Never Skip Meals: When one skips meals, the adrenal gland releases adrenaline into the body to compensate for lack of fuel. This chemical leads to feelings of anxiety, excitability, racing heart and may interfere with your performance.

7. Avoid Protein Drinks and Bars for Quick Energy: They offer a quick boost for about 10 minutes and in less than an hour one crashes both mentally and physically.

8. Retrain the Brain- Learn how to tame an overactive mind filled with unproductive/negative thoughts. Your brain determines your performance. Learn to talk back to that mind and train it to work for you. By doing so, you actually enhance your performance, which always begins with a thought.

You have much more power over your performance than you could ever imagine. You have the tools and they are all natural. These tools enable you to feel better, achieve peak performance in your game, not just "once in a while" but all the time. By making these few simple choices, you make the choice stay at top form, every game. These choices enable you to create a mind and body that remains in the zone, without the need for artificial enhancement.

Learn to use foods in the best way possible. Learn to create a strong mind and body that will enable you to reach the zone and stay in it. This allows you to bring your best to every game and to life in general. You always have the power to do so. It's always a choice. A few simple changes is all that is necessary to achieve a healthy, sound and cooperative mind and body. Enter the playing field next time with the knowledge that you are prepared in both mind and body for whatever the game may bring.

Dr. Ronnie Freedman, ronniefreedmanphd.com. Providing useful nutrition tips, reviews and writings online.

Will It Float?

Years ago when I had TV, David Letterman was one of my guilty pleasures. Dave had a spot now and then called "Will it Float?" Anyone remember that? They would speculate whether or not an item (cheese log, glass brick, a box of taffy) would float and then 4 beautiful women would drop the item of the night into a clear swimming-pool-type tank to prove or disprove Dave's prediction. Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra even had a catchy little tune they played for the event.

Even though it was very silly, I've remembered it for at least 5 years now. (That's about how long it's been since I've had TV) Things that are simple and kind of silly stick with us, right? Well, here's a simple tip to help you decide what to eat this week, or even beyond.

Are you ready? (No, it's not "Will it Float?")

Ask yourself "Will it Grow?" or "Did it Grow?" when you're trying to decide what to buy or what to eat. For instance, a potato chip will not, and did not grow. However, a potato will grow and in fact did grow in the ground! A Hershey Bar did not and will not grow. However, raw cacao nibs did grow on a tree.

You can use this for animal as well as plant foods. An egg grew but a frozen breakfast burrito did not. A chicken grew, but a chicken nugget? Nowhere to be found in the natural world!

And those "whole grain" cereals? No Cheerio was ever harvested. Just sayin'...

This is a pretty silly game, but since I came up with it I've actually had fun using it as a filter for what I eat. It's very effective if you're trying to shed some unwanted pounds, but it also works for just keeping yourself on track with healthful eating.

Everyone has their own foods that they simply aren't going to be giving up. However, if you need a little game to play as you're wandering the grocery store aisles and wondering what to put in your cart, maybe you can ask yourself if the questionable item grew somewhere.

This can even be helpful if you shop at natural food stores. There are plenty of items that you can weed out at the best of food stores and you will probably save a few bucks as well!

One more silly game: If you are really bored some night and are having junk food cravings, look up "David Letterman, Will it Float?" on YouTube and laugh a little instead of heading for the refrigerator!

Many Healthful Returns, Kay. Providing useful nutrition tips, reviews and writings online.

Did You Know, Some Vitamins Can Be Harmful to Your Health?

A lot of people don't realize that there are differences between the various kinds of vitamins on the market and the pros and cons between them. For Instance, there are two kinds of vitamins made; synthetic made vitamins, and natural forms of vitamins. People who knew the differences, still didn't know the pros and cons between synthetic made and natural forms. One difference is that there are some synthetic forms of vitamins which are absorbed much less than natural vitamins into your body.

BUT WHAT IS REALLY SCARY IS THAT...

There are scientific studies that show synthetic forms of specific vitamins have possible harmful effects.

Did you know that when you purchase an ordinary multivitamin from your favorite store, it most likely contains some synthetic forms of vitamins? That is unless the label states specifically that it is whole-foods based. That is why it's important to read the labels.

It makes sense that vitamins derived from whole-food sources are more readily assimilated into the body than vitamins from synthetic sources.

3 Vitamins to watch out for:

The 3 vitamins that are most recommended for you to purchase natural sources and NOT synthetic are:

Vitamin AVitamin DVitamin E

VITAMIN A:

Most multivitamins contain Vitamin A in the form of vitamin A palmitate. This is a synthetic version that has it's potential negatives. You will find this synthetic Vitamin A added to low fat or skim milks. That is because they need to replace the natural Vitamin A lost when they remove the milk fat. You will also find Vitamin A palmitate in many processed foods such as cereals "fortified" with synthetic vitamin A palmitate.

It is very important to note that Synthetic vitamin A palmitate is toxic in large doses. If you read labels and look out for specific foods it is not hard to stay away from anything containing synthetic Vitamin A as much as possible.

For instance, if you eat a lot of cereal combined with low-fat or fat-free milk and other "fortified" foods, or synthetic vitamin pills, you can possibly be overdosing on this potentially harmful synthetic vitamin A. It is also important to be aware that despite being marketed as "health" foods there's not really much healthy about some cereals!

Retinol is the natural Vitamin A it comes only from animal sources such as; organ meats, cod liver oil, animal liver, some other animal sources, and in lesser amounts in; butter, eggs, and milk fat. It is important to note that you can overdose Vitamin A when you overeat large quantities of liver or large doses of cod liver oil. Although overdosing on this natural form is safer than the synthetic vitamin A.

Another form of Vitamin A is beta-carotene. However, beta-carotene is NOT vitamin A, it's actually a precursor to Vitamin A. What this means is that your body needs to convert it to vitamin A.

Beta-carotene is one of the safest forms of Vitamin A, since your body will only convert the amount that it actually needs. You get healthy quantities of beta-carotene in; carrots, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, butternut squash, red peppers, and other colorful fruits and veggies. These are the foods you should overdose on.

VITAMIN D:

Like Vitamins A, E, and K, Vitamin D is another fat-soluble vitamin. Vitamin D is one of the most important substances in our body and also one of the most misunderstood.

To say everything we know about Vitamin D would be too long and complicated. I could fill an entire book, instead, I will simplify it for you.

The absolutely BEST source of vitamin D is the most natural source and it costs you NOTHING. That's right, it's FREE. In fact your body produces it naturally from adequate sun exposure. Those of you who work nights (I had to for 2 years), MUST make sure you get the sun exposure your body needs.

Vitamin D is actually produced into a hormone in our bodies and regulates hundreds of processes in the body. I believe it is simply one of the most important substances in our bodies.

Vitamin D is extremely helpful to our immune systems. With less sun exposure in the winter, you can see why there are more sicknesses. The cold weather is NOT the cause of colds, flu's or any sicknesses. Lack of Vitamin D causes your immune system to weaken. That is why I am stressing that EVERYONE needs adequate sun exposure to keep your immune system healthy especially in the winter!

Our bodies get a relatively small amount of Vitamin D from food sources like egg yolks, some mushrooms, organ meats, and fatty fish. In small amounts, cod liver oil is one of the best known dietary sources of natural Vitamin D. If you choose to take the suplement of cod liver oil in the winter, you should know it is recommended to be taken in small amounts because it is possible to overdose on cod liver oil. As I stated previously, the best source of Vitamin D for our bodies is what we produce from moderate regular sun exposure, without sun burning.

As stated previously, vitamin D deficiency usually happens in the winter months. If you think you are deficient, you can have a blood test for Vitamin D deficiency. Your Doctor will say you generally want to be between the range of 50 ng/ml to 80 ng/ml, from what I've read. Any lower than that and you risk being deficient. Check with your Doctor to be sure.

There are differences of opinions surrounding benefits and detriments of vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) vs. vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Since Vitamin D3 is naturally produced in your body from the sun, and is the natural source we obtain from animal based foods so I would suggest that this is the preferred Vitamin D.

As I impressed earlier, try to get moderate amounts of sunshine, if you can for most of the year, and focus on the healthy dietary sources of natural vitamin D that I listed above... and also look for supplements in the winter to be based on fish oil sources of vitamin D if you can.

VITAMIN E:

I think you get it that the "natural" source of vitamins are the BEST sources to look for. Here are the facts about Vitamin E:

The best sources of vitamin E are from whole foods such as nuts and seeds You will find smaller amounts of Vitamin E in some greens. Vitamin E from natural foods comes in the form of various different tocopherols and tocotrienols.
Remember to take a multi-vitamin that you have checked the label that it is the natural version of Vitamin E and not the synthetic. In supplements, the natural version specifies "d-alpha" and the synthetic versions start with "l-alpha.
Due to the potential health dangers of synthetic Vitamin E, the bio-availability of synthetic vitamin E is much lower than natural vitamin E. The facts have shown over and over that natural is always better than something that has been chemically modified.

Specific Ways to Protect Your Health:

Most Importantly, you should obtain most of your nutrition from a variety of nutrient-rich, organic whole foods. It is harder in today's marketplace to find all nutrient-rich whole foods. Today with our overly processed food supply, and chemically abused farm soils, our foods typically contain less vitamins and minerals than they did just several decades ago. So we need to supplement our foods with a good whole-foods based multi-vitamin supplement.
Look for a whole-foods based multi-vitamin, specifically you want to look for natural versions of Vitamin A, D, and E like we discussed, this assures that your body assimilates the vitamins most efficiently, and it also assures that you are not exposed to any of the potential harmful effects of synthetic vitamins

This article is meant to give you some important information on the differences between synthetic and natural Vitamins and how they can be harmful to your health. Please share this information with your friends and family. I believe that if you use this information and practice this in your life, you will improve your health. I wish you all the very Best of Health!

For further information on the Best Foods for your Diet, go to the following website. You will learn the foods that benefit your body and give your body the energy that results in muscle building. Learn what foods are marketed as "Healthy" foods but actually make you "gain fat". Go now to learn these important facts at BestDietFoods4u.com and start eating the right foods for a healthy life! Providing useful nutrition tips, reviews and writings online.