Nutrition and Weight Loss Ideas

Nutrition and Weight Loss

So far in our series about “healing foods” and how they are so vital to our nutrition and weight loss program, we have discussed whole grains and cherries. Be sure to look at those articles if you missed them.

Today we’re going to take a look at an old standby — Yogurt.

Yes, yogurt — what people call the “Immunity Booster”. It has become common knowledge among nutritionists that probiotics, the “friendly” bacteria that, when eaten, will help to fight off illness and disease.

Okay, so what are “probiotics”? According to Wikipedia — Probiotics are dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria. Foods may also contain probiotics in therapeutic amounts, for example yogurt “with live cultures.”

Probiotic bacterial cultures are intended to assist the body’s naturally occurring flora within the digestive tract to reestablish themselves. They are sometimes recommended by doctors, and, more frequently, by nutritionists, after a course of antibiotics, or as part of the treatment for candidiasis. (Oops! Another big word — Candidiasis is commonly called yeast infection or thrush.) Many probiotics are present in natural sources such as lactobacillus in yogurt and sauerkraut. Claims are made that probiotics strengthen the immune system.

Yogurt is the most popular food containing probiotics and may, in fact, be the most beneficial as well.

For example, there were a couple of recent studies that found that eating yogurt could significantly improve a person’s ability to fight off pneumonia. As mentioned above, doctors will often encourage their patients to eat yogurt when they are taking a course of antibiotics. When people take antibiotics, those antibiotics, in addition to knocking out the bad bacteria that is making us ill, will also kill off the flora (the good bacteria) in our digestive, or GI tract. The probiotics in yogurt will help to reestablish the healthy flora.

The digestive tract is where we all communicate with the outside world. It’s where you absorb all the good and necessary nutrients that you need to keep your body healthy. The digestive tract is such an important area of our body’s health system — it’s our biggest immune system fighter.

That prompts me to say that we really need to pay attention to what we’re doing to this part of our nutrition and weight loss program. What you eat will always work its way to your digestive tract. If we put unhealthy food in there, we are taking huge risks with our health. The need to maintain a healthy balance of flora in our digestive tract can’t be overemphasized. Not only will this be vital to our digestion, but it will also prevent constipation, reduce insomnia and, it is believed, have highly beneficial impacts on stress-related illnesses.

And, a very important point — if you eat the right foods and keep a healthy, normal digestive tract function, you will also help to reduce the risks of colorectal cancer.

So, the recommendation for today is to eat yogurt every day. You will want to make sure that the brand you buy contains “live,” or “active,” cultures, as the bacteria (or, rather, the probiotics) can’t do any good if they’re dead before you ingest them.

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 also, be sure to keep putting only “healing foods” into your body. Here again, the benefits are priceless.

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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