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Archive for the ‘Healthy Food’ Category

Many of us are aware of the latest report regarding what pregnant women eat and the eating habits of their offspring. As reported in the British Journal of Nutrition, scientists say that pregnant women and those breast feeding their young who are increasing their uptake of fatty and sugary foods may be programming the eating habits of their unborn or developing children toward similar types of food.

They further suggest that such children will have a tendency toward eating foods high in sugar and fats.

Studies done on the eating habits of rats show that those whose mothers were fed human junk foods while they were pregnant or lactating produced offspring who had a preference for foods high in fats and sugars. These same rat offspring had a tendency to eat more than rats from mothers who were fed normal diets. These same scientists suggest that human results should likely be the same.

With these thoughts in mind we should perhaps look at other aspects of food and children’s fitness.

Experts in the field of children’s eating habits suggest that they pick up many of their views, unconscious of other, by observing what adults do with regard to food. They suggest that parents who demonstrate healthy eating habits that also allow for the occasional straying to junk food as a treat develop a far healthier attitude towards food in their children. Children whose parents strictly stick to healthy foods and do not allow the occasional sampling of junk food may help develop some unhealthy practices towards eating; some of which may be binge-eating and cheating.

Dr Rachel Pryke, a mother of three, and practicing doctor in Redditch, Worcestershire, UK believes that we may be developing in our children psychological difficulties with food because of the way we, the parents, deal with food, junk food and dieting.

When one member of the family goes on a diet they eat differently than the rest of the family. Often their comments about the foods they are allowed to and not allowed to eat give their children incorrect feelings about healthy eating and associate it with discomfort, hunger and even sense of denial. They also begin to see associations with abstinence followed by binge-eating. This can be followed by guilt feelings in children when they eat the so-called forbidden foods.

Dr. Pyke goes on further to say that girls are even more prone to copy dieting behaviours and to associate guilt feelings with eating enjoyable foods. This kind of relationship with food may lead to the very unhealthy cycle of dieting followed by binge eating that has a great tendency to lead to obesity.

It is very important that we, the adults, take the lead and demonstrate that practicing healthy eating can also allow for the occasional enjoyment of less healthy foods. Teaching an understanding of the need for the healthy foods as the main intake of food will help our children to likewise learn to follow a balanced diet.

In learning to help our children to eat in a healthy manner it is important that we understand that children have different nutritional need than we do. According to the experts fat, which is part of a well-balanced diet may be even more important to the healthy development of children. Research tends to show that children attain a far greater amount of their energy from burning fats than do adults. These results tend to indicate that putting children on a low fat diet, even in cases of obesity may be the wrong direction to take.

One might extrapolate from this that increased and regular fitness activity combined with a balanced diet which doesn’t remove or restrict any food group would be the more prudent route to take.

John Kostyak (Pennsylvania State University) led a study by a US team which found that the total fat consumed by children in activity amounted to about the same as that consumed by adults. When you adjust for size and weight, one comes up with the conclusion that of the total calories consumed by children; one quarter to one third should be fat compared to one fifth for adults.

Tam Fry, board member of the National Obesity Forum was quoted as saying that “Young children need more fat and energy for the whole purpose of growing up and living. Therefore to give them low fat and sugar-free products is a bad idea.”

A rational individual might tend to conclude from this that just like for healthy adults, we should preach and demonstrate that regular physical activity combined with a sensible, healthy diet would be the ideal solution for healthy children. This should include physical fitness that embodies both aerobic and strength activity and a healthy diet that includes junk foods in moderation.

Until then…
help your child to be fit, healthy…
and… look…… marvellous!

As you’re probably already aware, owning a dog takes a huge amount of commitment lasting their entire lifetime. It is well documented that owning a dog brings many benefits such as reducing the amount of stress in your life, and it is common sense that owning a dog encourages you to get out and exercise. Although there are plenty of positives to owning a dog, you mustn’t forget that the ownership of a dog requires considerable amounts of financial commitment.

It is not just the initial cost of purchasing a dog that is the biggest blow, you must bear in mind that dogs require medical attention similar to humans, so you will have to pay vets bills throughout your dog’s life. If you have a well-bred dog then you can expect to pay less for vet bills over the dog’s lifetime. Dogs need vaccines, boosters, routine examinations, worming and sometimes surgery if something awful was to occur.Don’t forget dog food! Although the costs of owning a dog varies depending on breed, they still need feeding Premium dog food is more expensive than off-brand dog food; however, if you are to feed your dog the cheaper stuff then you can expect their health to suffer as a consequence. It is therefore advisable to buy your dog the best food available if possible.

Feeding your pet dry dog food is a great way to strengthen their jaw muscles, along with satisfying their natural chewing instinct. Dry dog food is also a fantastic way to remove plaque and tartar from your dog’s teeth. With so many different dry dog food brands to choose from, making the decision as to which is best for your dog can be difficult.

By far the best place to gather all the information you need about dry dog food is online. As with the vast majority of products we require in the current day and age, we tend to search for them online. Not only is the Internet a great source of information, most importantly you can save huge amounts of money shopping online. So, before you think of taking a trip to your local pet shop to buy dry dog food, consider it may be cheaper if you bought it online!

Junk foods are those food materials which are perceived to be having none or very little nutritional value when consumed. As it has been revealed, junk foods’ ingredients are incapable of sustaining healthy body; which renders them somewhat useless in the body. However, junk food materials ought not to be under-rated in terms of their significance in the body. At sometimes, junk foods play important roles in human body; as they are involved in various metabolic activities, despite of them having low nutritional value. Though junk foods have been considered unhealthy for consumption, they have been found to be the most consumed foods among the people, as they are pleasurable to eat. In most cases, junk foods have been found to form addictions and obsessive as their continuous intake arouses the urge of wanting to consume them more often (Sanjur 88).

Most health care providers have been advocating for reduction of intake of junk foods among the people, as they lead to reduction of capacities to consume healthy foods. Junk healthy foods are always ready to consume and therefore, the tendency of people consuming them more often than healthy foods is high. For example sugary and fatty foods like ice creams and cakes among others have been found to be most liked by children, due to their availability and easy access without wasting a lot of time. As a result, many children end up concentrating in consuming such foods in larger amounts than healthy foods. Soft drinks like sodas also have been found to be liked among all the age-groups, despite having not worthy nutritional value. Such kinds of food materials have always been habit-forming, resulting into failure to improve one’s health; as such foods have no credible nutritional values (Winkleman 28).
Healthy foods are those food materials capable of improving ones health by stimulating various body metabolisms. More specifically, healthy foods have very high nutritional values, resulting into their ability to improve and sustain body metabolic activities among the people. Healthy foods and junk foods have been found to complement each other in a way. Sometimes, individuals may be totally lacking appetite to eat healthy foods. As a result, they end up going for junk foods which in most cases results into increased appetites among the consumers. At other times, junk foods have been found to be accompaniments of healthy foods. This occurs in cases where the food to be taken requires soft drinks like sodas among others. For instance, bread may be healthy food, but its consumption without a soft drink may be difficult. On this basis, people may consume the bread with soda, even if it has no significant nutritional value. In this case, the soda acts as a facilitator for the successful consumption of the bread (O’Brian 20).

More so, junk foods usually arouse appetite to eat healthy foods; in which they act as appetite stimulators among low appetite individuals. For example, an individual may be unwilling to eat fried meat, but when some other additives are put in the food, the individual finds it more appetizing. In such cases, the junk foods would have played a very significant role of improving and reinstating appetite to eat other healthy foods. Certainly, junk foods and healthy foods have been found to intersect in various ways, where each food material taken, whether junk or healthy, finds its specific importance in meals (Houston 53).

At other times, junk foods have also been found to moderate the effects of excessive intake of healthy foods. More specifically, some individuals may over-consume healthy foods resulting into various health hazards. For instance, people who consume a lot of carbohydrates and fatty foods have been found to be prone to obesity and overweight body conditions. In this case, the individuals would find it useful to incorporate junk foods in their meals so as to reduce the rates of their body weights. In this case therefore, junk foods would be very helpful to individuals who have been found to have overweight conditions, by replacing the previously consumed high amounts of fats and carbohydrates with less nutritive foods. By so doing, the junk foods incorporated in the meals would act as weight gain moderators by having fewer nutrients to reduce the rate of weight increase among the individuals (Vargas 82).

Have you searched through your freezer and have no clue what’s in there? Taking a package of mystery meat, thinking it is steak and it is a pork chop! You are not alone and no you are not ready for the old age home.

Running around doing our usual things, we forget the obvious; like marking the freezer bags with contents and dates. If we forget, how many of our older relatives forget or don’t think about it? Okay no big deal, right!

With older adults, however, it can be serious because they tend not to throw food out. It is a sin to waste perfectly good food! Because it has been in the freezer for an undetermined length of time and it is unrecognizable, it is still perfectly okay. Or so they think.

We are finding this scene more and more when checking the freezers (and refrigerators) of older relatives. What can we do?

Here are 3 common sense tips.

1. Ignore the complaints, go through the freezer (and refrigerator); throw out: old and unidentifiable food; packages of partially used or out dated (veggies, ice cream etc), etc. If in doubt throw it out!

2. Replenish with fresh meat and frozen food packages. Wrap meat in individual servings in plastic wrap, place in freezer bags, and mark the bag with contents and date.

3. When adding new items to the freezer use the FIFO method-First In First Out-to rotate items out. New items go behind older ones. It is best to have only three rotations of food in the cycle.

These tips not only will help us manage our relative’s freezers but also our own. Knowing good healthy food is coming from the freezer and refrigerator will give us peace of mind.