Nutrition and Weight Loss Ideas

Nutrition and Weight Loss

What do I mean when I talk about “healing foods”?

Over the past months I have mentioned “healthy eating” — “health foods” –”healthy diets” — “good fats and good carbs” — all of these relate to “healing foods” and are a vital part of your nutrition and weight loss program.

Healing Foods — what are they?

Well, first of all, they’re all natural — they have no side effects — and — they just might keep you healthy!

Way back about 2,500 years ago, a guy by the name of Hippocrates supposedly said, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” As you may know, Hippocrates is the “Father of Medicine” — you’re probably aware of the oath that all doctors are supposed to take called the “Hippocratic Oath”. Well, the thing that old Hippocrates didn’t have when he was around was drugs or drug stores — so there wasn’t a bunch of pills people could pop to make them feel healthy. But it’s interesting that he was actually on the right track when he talked about food as our medicine.

Let’s face it, the food we eat can often be the difference between being well and being ill.

What we’re going to do for the next few articles is talk about some of the many foods that can help to keep us healthy — and if we’re sick to make us well again. One of the sure ways to stay healthy is to eat these whole, nutritious foods.

We’ll take a few of these foods in each article and see what the major disease-fighting components are in each of them. Needless to say, you shouldn’t take this information as a substitute of any conventional medicine prescribed by your doctor. By the same token, if you do include these foods in your diet, you may find that you’ll be able to spend less time reading about them in the magazines in the doctor’s office — and more time just enjoying eating them.

Whole Grain Foods

One of the things that I have always recommended is that you eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. If you do you are helping to protect yourself against heart disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer.

But there’s another player on the field — and that is whole grain foods. They have just as many of the same benefits as fruits and vegetables.

“Whole grains have this whole army of different phytonutrients that are doing just as much as fruits and veggies,” says Susan Moores, a Minneapolis nutritionist and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. (A phytonutrient is the name given to the parts of plants that have health benefits.) According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, eating three daily servings of whole grains can reduce the risk of heart disease by 25 to 36 percent, stroke by 37 percent, and type 2 diabetes by 21 to 27 percent.

So how do you find whole grain foods? What are they?

The first thing you need to look for on the food labels to be sure that it is a whole grain food is the word “whole”. If you see the word “enriched”, then it’s not a whole grain food. You need to be particularly careful when choosing bread. Make sure the label says “100% whole wheat”. If it doesn’t say “100%” then there is undoubtedly a bunch of not-whole-grain flour in there as well.

Other types of whole grain foods are oats, bulgur and bran.

Another food you need to be careful with is rice. Make sure you’re getting “brown rice”. It’s hard to find, but if you look, you can find it. Brown rice is the whole rice kernel. Most rice has the outer portions of the rice stripped away — and it’s in those outer portions where all the good nutrients are located. If you happen to order “Chinese” for dinner, it’s very rare that you’ll be able to get brown rice. Get a package of brown rice and make your own and ask the restaurant to “hold the rice” when you order you Kung Pau Chicken dinner.

That’s enough for today. Tomorrow we’ll continue on with a few more “healing foods”.

I would love to hear from you. One of the advantages of using a blog to communicate is the fact that it’s not a one-way medium. At the end of each article there is a link where you can comment about what you’ve read. It’s a great way to exchange thoughts and ideas. So, let me hear from you.

As always, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet. And do whatever you can, within your doctors recommendations, to keep up with the exercise part of your program. The benefits are priceless. And look for whole grains when you shop.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program. These have helped me more than I would have ever imagined. I’m not kidding. Click on the links in the box below — you won’t be sorry!

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

And give the South Beach Diet a try. That’s what I follow and it sure has worked for me. Here’s where to go to learn more:

Shanti,

Ron
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