Category: Food & Body

Categories
Food & Body

List Of Foods That Help Whiten Your Teeth Naturally

eating apple
Photo: saidaonline.com

Unless you grew up with parents who took care of your teeth very well, taught you how to take care of your teeth and foods (and drinks) that cause damages to your teeth, you may have one or two problems with your teeth as you grow up. This may be occasional toothache, enamel erosion, decay and discoloration of the teeth.

Even if your parents took care of your teeth very well, as we age, our teeth tend to lose some of its whiteness and starting having discolouration. The once white teeth may now become slightly yellow due to foods that we have exposed it to. Several foods are very bad for the teeth and some of these foods go as far as wearing out the enamel of your teeth. This makes you feel some pain when you drink cold water or brush in the morning.

Let us leave that and go to the topic of the day. In as much as we have to avoid eating foods such as beverages like tea, dark sodas, and fruit juices that stain teeth to stop further discoloration, there are foods we should eat too to help us remove the stains already there naturally.

whitening teeth

Foods That Can Whiten Your Teeth For You – Home Remedy

1. Strawberries

Strawberries are red in color but they have a component that helps your teeth get whiter. This component is called Malic acid, it acts as a natural astringent to remove surface tooth discoloration. You may want to start eating more of this. Recall that we also told you that strawberries and sone foods together can serve as anti-aging foods too.

Some people even use this fruit by mashing it up and leaving on their teeth for 5 minutes before rinsing it away. This gives the teeth more exposure time to the malic acid but that means wasting the strawberry by not eating it.

Click 2 below to go to food number 2 that whitens your teeth…

Categories
Food & Body

Bloating: Your Pot Belly May Not Be From Fats

bloating and distention

When many people develop protruded belly, they think they have accumulated a lot of fats in their tummy and start working out to burn the fats. Sometimes, they work out for months, eat low calorie foods and still find out that the belly is not going down. I have seen cases like this before and with what I found out, there are pot bellies that are caused by other factors other than eating too much calories and the resultant fat accumulation. I am going to share them with you now.

What causes Pot Belly other than fat?

Before you start treating yourself, placing yourself on diet and exercising, it is advisable to see a doctor to know what the cause of your pot belly is. I have seen people that are kind of underweight with pot bellies thinking they have fat belly. Yes, we store fat in different places in our body and a good way to find out if you have too much weight is to check your Body Mass Index. You can check it with few click on our website by going to this page (opens in new tab).

bloating and distention
Photo: iffgd.org

If you are overweight according to your BMI, you may want to start with burning some calories by exercising and avoiding foods that make you fat. Often, fats around the belly get burned faster than those in other places. If your belly however remains the same after seeing your BMI come to normal, then you may want to see your doctor to see if you have a bloated stomach or abdomen condition.

ALSO SEE: How Alcohol Causes Fat Belly [Must Read]

Okay! So, What is Abdominal Bloating?

Abdominal bloating is a condition in which the belly (abdomen) feels full and tight. Your belly may appear swollen (distended) and sometimes fell pains (some people don’t). Bloating is caused by a lot of factors that I cannot explain in this post. I am going to write an article on causes of abdominal bloating and how to treat it.

If your stomach bloating is not caused by medical conditions such as heart and liver disease, then it would be gas accumulation caused by any or a combination of the following factors;

  • Swallowing air, Constipation
  • Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD)
  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Lactose intolerance and problems digesting other foods
  • Overeating
  • Small bowel bacterial overgrowth

If you want to confirm you have a bloated abdomen, you have to see your doctor first. Don’t do a self-diagnosis or medication.

Another factor that can make your stomach get protruded is a lack of enough abdominal muscles. Out stomach has a tendency to expand when we eat, so if you do not have strong abdominal muscles, the stomach just push it out. People with this challenge would notice that they have flat tummy before eating and a round pot belly after eating. It goes down as your food digest.

Also, if you lie down with your back flat on the bed, you have a flat tummy but stand up, the round ball comes out. This can be devastating. In this case, you have to do three things exercise, keep exercising and don’t stop exercising. Do more of abdominal exercises.

Here are some recommended abdominal exercises you should be doing to get more muscles around there.

Categories
Food & Body

Foods You Should Avoid During Examination Period

junk foods

I am writing about foods you should not eat during your examination period or when your examination is approaching because some curious readers of one of our sister websites, who are preparing for Post-UTME screening asked. They want to know if there are foods that can hinder their concentration, brain cognitive functions and exam performances.

I thought that their questions make sense because we know alcohol can damages brain cells, so it would be wise to stay away from alcohol and foods/drinks containing them during if you would like to make the best out of your brain.

Brain Foods: Foods That Boost Brain Power & Memory

Now, let us talk about those foods you should stay clear of when you are getting close to your exams. Some of them are even foods you should not indulge too much in because if a food affect brain functions, for example, avoiding it during exams would not undo the damages it had done before that time.

Below are some of the foods you should not consume or consume less just before and during your exams;

1. Alcohol of Foods Containing Alcohol

During your examination period, you should stay away from too much alcohol. It has negative effects on many organs in our body, even the brain. When your drink much alcohol and it gets to the brain, it disables function by damaging the connective tissue at the end of neurons, called dendrites.

We have billions of these dendrites in our brains and what they do is to conduct electrochemical stimulation from one cell to another cell body in in the brain.

no alcohol sign

With some of these dendrites damaged, there is the disruption of communication among neurons, it becomes difficult for cells to talk to one another and makes it harder for an individual to focus or complete minor tasks including reading and understanding. However, our bodies do a good job by repairing this if we stay off alcohol for some period afterwards.

Categories
Food & Body

Foods As Eczema Triggers – The Facts & Myths Explained

eczema

Eczema is a skin condition that causes itchy and swollen patches of the skin. It is also called atopic dermatitis and is treated with oral medications, creams and light therapy. I do not want to go into the details of telling you what eczema is if you don’t already know what it is, you would probably not be reading this. I would like to just go straight to the main discussion.

Do Foods Cause Eczema or It is Just A Myth?

I would answer yes in some cases and answer no in some cases, depending on who is asking me this question. Foods can lead to the onset of eczema in some children below the age of 4, but as they grow older eczema as a result of eating foods is very rare.

In adult, there is no scientific backing for claims that some foods cause eczema on the skin. I have not seen one, if you have come across one somewhere, I would be glad if you point me in that direction. I am not saying this could not happen, I know someone that gets eczema after a prolonged period of eating fish and milk. Whenever she stops, the eczema leaves but there is nothing yet implicating foods in the development of eczema.

eczema

Maybe it’s just similar to what I explained under the foods that cause pimples/acne – it could just be a case of different foods for different folks.

“Don’t just take his word for it, after all, he just a Food Scientist/Technologist.” I know some people may think or say that but I am not alone on this.

Andrea Cambio MD, FAAD. Cambio is the medical director of Cambio Dermatology in southwest Florida said and I quote;

There is no science linking certain foods with flare-ups. But it can be an individual thing.

For example, if a patient reports eating chocolate makes her eczema worse, then I would advise her to cut down or eliminate chocolate from her diet.

So what are now the real cause of eczema?

Common Causes of Eczema:

Let me tell you that eczema is often caused by by a lot of external factors which also vary from person to person. Some people have noticed that they get eczema on their arms when they dip it inside water with detergent, some have reported toiletries and perfumes, too much heat and cold, dust and many more.

All you just need to do is be observant and see if any food or external factor causes eczema for you but the challenge is that, we expose ourselves to these these things in combination everyday, making it hard to separate their effects on our skin.

For example, the person that complained about milk and fish could eat both in a day, use toiletries, perfumes, get exposed to dust and detergent all in the same day. In this case, what are you going to blame for the eczema?

ALSO SEE: Foods That Keep Our Skin Young & Looking Fresh

Categories
Food & Body

Foods That Will Help Improve Your Hair Colour & Quality

kim kardashian fine hair

Gone are those days when women are particularly interested in the quality of their natural hairs, they know they can always use attachments, weavons, wigs and other hair-like materials that will make the outward appearance of their hair look great and attractive. Lesser number of women subscribe to our native hair styles and this trend had made women care less because hair fashion continues even without a healthy and good looking natural hair. Also, external treatment have been popular.

While I can not doubt the efficacy and importance of using relaxers, shampoos, gels, oils and the rest, the best way to keep your hair healthy is ‘inside out’. Just like the quality of the foods you consume affects your vision and skin appearance, so does foods affect your hair. They are all interlinked. This short post will be addressing three major categories of foods you should consider including in your diet on a long term basis to help improve your hair quality. You will be surprised at the result if you adhere to this religiously. Before sharing the top food lists, I want to discuss my personal story.

kim kardashian fine hair

For those who know me well, they are aware I have had a slightly brown coloured hair for a very long time. Recently, I got involved in the distribution and sales of Coconut oil. I was quick to include it into my diet without the thought of using it to improve my hair quality. Suddenly, after few months, I started receiving complements on the new looks of my hair, gradually becoming dark and shining. Clearly, it has improved. Then I was convinced that the composition of your diet can improve your hair quality

TOP THREE CATEGORIES OF FOODS THAT IMPROVES HAIR QUALITY

1. Foods High in Biotin:

Biotin is an essential nutrient that is needed for improved hair quality. A member of the vitamin B complex is needed for a number of enzymatic reactions which aids proper metabolism of protein. When people do not consume foods rich in biotin, there will be poor metabolism of body nutrients which contributes to undernourished hair follicles. This vitamins helps to promote the strength and texture of your hair. A diet rich in animal protein like eggs, liver and sea foods would supply adequate amount of biotin to your body.

Click to page 2 below to see the other groups of foods…

Categories
Food & Body

What Are The Foods That Trigger Pimples & Acne?

acne pimples skin

A lot of people battle with pimples and acne during and shortly after puberty while some others experience it throughout the teenage years. Throughout these periods of my life, I did not have pimples and acne anywhere on my face and body. I always pride myself on that because my face was always clear and clean. I thought this would continue like that forever but I was wrong – I would later have my own fair share of pimples later on.

What Are Pimples And Acne? Any Differences?

One of our readers sent a message to ask if the food they eat could cause acne or pimples and we will try to address that. Many people don’t even know the differences between pimples and acne. Someone even told me that pimples show on black peoples’ skin while acne only comes out on white peoples’ skin. I will try as much as possible not to dwell too much on these because the purpose of this post is how some foods lead to the onset of acne and pimples on our skin. Yes, food can trigger pimples.

acne pimples skin

Acne is the inflammation of the skin in which the secreted sebum gets collected in the pores of the skin and remains there. This causes the skin to swell up in the form of a breakout. Acne will most likely have a white head (not in every case) and is painful to touch. If it is a pimple, it would normally not be painful unless it is too severe.

So, What Are Those Foods That Can Set Off Pimples?

To continue with my story, I started seeing pimples and acne on my skin in my early twenties and it lasted into mid-twenties. It was a nightmare because when they finally go, they turn into
black scars (not just spots). I started to think of the possible causes and one day I thought of my diet – could it be my eating habit?

What I have always read about foods as they affect your skin was that they do not cause pimples and acne. Something just told me to do a little more digging and I found out that several other pieces of research were already published telling us that there could be a relationship between diet and acne.

The truth of the matter, however, is that there has not been a definite link between any food (dairy especially) and acne, but there are several theories about it.

In an article written for a medical journal in 2008, F. William Danby, MD, a skin expert who promotes the possible dairy-acne connection, explained how the two may be related. Milk contains components related to the hormone testosterone that may stimulate oil glands in the skin, setting the stage for acne.

So, could we say Milk can cause acne? Some would say yes and some would say no, but I have read reports of people who saw all their pimples and acne disappear after stopping the consumption of Milk. The same happened to me too.

Some researchers have suggested that an imbalance in the level of insulin in the body may play a role in the onset of acne. They explain that some foods make your blood sugar quickly soar. This triggers your body to make a burst of the hormone insulin to help your cells absorb the sugar.

ADVICE: What I would advise is to monitor your own skin and diet and note what foods you are eating when the acne breakouts start coming out. This is because these foods (Milk, Chocolate, Cheese, etc.), that people are implicating in the development of acne have health benefits. When you monitor yourself and you notice that milk causes acne for you, you can try to cut down on it and see if you still have acne.

I would not ask you to stop consuming milk. Never! Milk is highly nutritious – containing several vitamins and minerals that are useful for the body. I would not be pointing fingers to any food. What you should do is to observe and adjust.

ALSO SEE: Differences Between Skimmed Milk and Full Cream Milk

Categories
Food & Body

6 Common Foods That Will Surely Make You Fat

I don’t even know why I am writing this post. Honestly! What I can tell you is that I received two requests from two different readers of this blog. One wants to know the foods that we eat everyday that can make one gain weight or fat so that she can avoid them. Ironically, the other person wants to know how she can get fat. Isn’t that funny? In this world where many girls just want to do what they see celebrities do on TV, why would anyone want to get fat? Girls just want to get slim.

I discussed this with a girl that explained to me that “not every girl wants to get thin”. She told me some girls just want to have the body of the Kim Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez, Amber Roses, Sofia Vergaras of this world – not fat and not too thin. Then I reasoned with her and though of writing this article for the two people.

cereal and milkHere are Some Everyday Foods That Make Us Fat

Common could be a relative word here but I can tell you that most of the foods mentioned here are those that I see often. I also asked questions from few people and many of them considered many of these foods to be common. Here they are;

See them from page 1 to the last page… you will be surprised…

Categories
Food & Body

7 Foods That Help You Get Sharper Brain / Memory

No matter the class you fall into in any society, there is always the need to improve your brain and memory. I don’t think I have ever met anyone that does not forget things. Yes, many of us have a lot on our cards and we deal with several challenges everyday but with the inclusion of some particular foods in our diet, we might just be able to up our brain capacity and memory. As we age, so does our brain and we tend to forget thing more. Some of these foods help by slowing down the rate at which our brain ages.

I mentioned something related to this in one of my articles that talked about foods that serve as anti-ageing agents for us. They slow down the factors that age our body and keep us younger. It is a good read any day and you can still find the article here.

This article will share with you the foods that can help improve your memory and the food composition that actually does the job. I believe this should help you make decisions to determine if the food is good for you or not. If it is a food you would want to avoid eating, then simply just check the component that does the job and look for other foods that have it in abundance.

Read this article and add these foods to your diet and you may never need to read this type of article again.

7 Foods That Boost Your Memory & Brain Function

Navigate through the pages and explore the list of foods and how they help our memory. Don’t forget to take note of the food composition that does the job.

1. Sardines, Salmon, Tuna, Mackerel and Trout

These are all fishes and I trust everyone reading this knows that. Adding fish to our diet has been found to help in the boosting brainpower. Eating fish may also lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The component of the fish that does this job is what we know as omega-3 fatty acids.

Oily fish

A lot of researches have shown that these omega-3 fatty acids are particularly beneficial for brain health. Fish is a particularly rich source of omega-3 and eating them regularly can help to boost your memory function. However, if you do not eat sea food for some reasons, there are other options you can explore. I will talk about them on another page of this article.

Categories
Food & Body Food & Nutrition

Skimmed vs Full Cream Milk: Which Is Good For Your Health?

whole milk skim milk

Some days back, I wrote an article explaining the differences between skimmed milk and full cream milk or what some prefer to call whole milk. The major difference between them, I said, is the amount of fat that is present in them – skim or skimmed milk has had all or most of its fat removed while whole milk has all the fat that should be present in milk. This is where I am going to start the discussion for today.

Which is better: Skimmed Milk or Whole Milk?

I have read publications in which some experts proposed that people who are looking to shed weight should stay away from full cream milk. They said the fat that is present in the milk will only contribute to addition of more calories to the body and since skimmed milk contain almost the same amount of nutrients other than the fat that has been removed, they should go for that. This may only be true in an absolute sense.

whole milk skim milk

First of all, I would like to say that there are Vitamins that are present in the fat that was removed. These vitamins – A, D, E and K, are called the fat-soluble vitamins. They are so called because they are dissolved in the fat and they are only present when the fat is present. So, this could count as a thumb down for skimmed milk.

Secondly, reduced-fat milk and other drinks may not be as filling as those containing fat, so consumers may end up compensating for the lack of calories and eating or drinking more. Often, they tend to compensate with carbs that add more calories than the full cream milk would have added.

Dr. David Ludwig, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital said to Time’s Healthland, “We are not arguing milk should be abandoned. For kids who are consuming diets that are high in calories and low in nutrients, milk can provide lots of needed nutrients — like calcium. Somehow this low-fat milk has become so entrenched in the nutritional psyche, it persists despite the absence of evidence. To the contrary, the evidence that now exists suggests an adverse effect of reduced-fat milk.”

While you have also been probably always been informed to drink reduced-fat milk because of the calories, evidence from the majority of recent scientific studies show that drinking whole milk actually improves cholesterol levels, just not as much as drinking skim does.

Let me also give this to the men reading this post; women can also tell their boyfriends or husbands about this. If you like to build your muscle, whole milk may be your best choice: Scientists at the University of Texas medical branch in Galveston found that drinking whole milk after lifting weights boosted muscle protein synthesis—an indicator of muscle growth—2.8 times more than drinking skim did.

I believe those that are looking to reduce their weight may take skimmed milk, only if they can resist the temptations that come after as discussed above. Since it doesn’t give the filling effect that whole milk gives, you may be tempted to eat foods that will eventually add more calories to your body. Also, the fat-soluble vitamins may never be available to you if you keep avoiding fat. You get them in fatty foods, so why not take the ones in milk fat that has been shown to be more beneficial to the body? Some of these issues were addressed in one of our articles that talked about why no fat, no fruits, one meal a day diet is not appropriate for weight loss.

You know what my own recommendation is? Take whole milk.

Categories
Food & Body

Here Is How Drinking Much Water Could Be Bad For You

glasses of water

Hey friends, do you feel you are brave enough to go against the most popular health belief? If yes, your body just might thank you for that decision. It is no longer news that nutrition and health professionals regularly encourage people to drink plenty water to prevent dehydration and other conditions associated with reduced water intake. Before I continue with my article on the dangers associated with drinking plenty water, please, take your time to read the disaster that struck this woman.

On January 12, 2007, a 28-year old Californian wife and mother of three children died from drinking too much water. Her body was found in her home shortly after she took part in a water-drinking contest that was sponsored by a local radio show. Entitled “Hold Your Wee For A Wii”, the contest promoters promised a free Wii video game machine to the contestant who drank the most water without urinating. It is estimated that the woman who died drank approximately 2 gallons of water during the contest. When she and other contestants complained of discomfort and showed visible signs of distress, they were laughed at by the promoters and even heckled. Eventually she died. This was reported by Wikipedia.

glasses of water

The big question is: Could too much of a good thing be bad?

THE SHORT ANSWER IS:  YES, Just like any other food items we consume, water and other fluids taken at excessive amount can lead to water intoxication which could lead to death.

I have got few questions to ask you

  • Is your urine usually clear all through the day?
  • Do you always wake up about two to three times at night when you sleep to urinate?
  • Do you urinate up to 6-8 times during the day?

If you answer yes to two or more of the questions above then you are likely drinking more water than you need.  Another condition you might be fight with is diabetes because your body might be responding to the high glucose in your blood and trying to flush them out with more water. So, you tend to drink more. You could go for a check-up.

What is water intoxication?: This is otherwise referred to hyponatremia, a condition which results when too much water is taken within a short period of time. The effect can be fatal.

What happens when you drink too much water?

The kidney is the organ that handles liquid control within our body. When a person drinks too much water the kidneys cannot flush it out as a result of the pressure placed on it within that same time frame. So, it causes the excess water to remain in the blood. Once this happens, the water dilutes the concentration of electrolytes in the blood compared to those in the cells and later a balance is triggered which leads to water entering the body cells and cause them to swell. When the brain cells begin to swell the situation can turn lethal speedily. Remember, the major parts of your kidney can be subjected to wear and tear as times go on if you continue in this habit of over stressing your kidney to perform filtration processes which is not advisable.

What quantity of water should I drink?

Personally, I feel the drink 8 glasses of water a day is not a bad rule but at present, there is no scientific backing to this claims except the perceptions of health expert. While it is not completely out of place to subscribe to this, a number of factors should determine the quantity of water you drink daily to keep you healthy.

The quantity of water you drink depends on your peculiar condition. Geographical location, diets, and exercises are very key. Take for instance, an individual who resides in a sunny area most likely will drink more water than people who live in cold places. If you consume more water loaded foods like fruits and vegetable, there is no need for you drinking much water again. In the same vein, if you do not use salt enough in your meals, the level of water you drink should reduce because you do not want to alter the sodium level of your system by dilution and vice versa. If you are the type that exercises and sweat a lot, you might need to drink more than 8 glasses daily but not consuming a high volume within a short period.

ALSO SEE: The Dangers of Cooking Food With Too Much Salt

It is important to allow your sense of thirst to work more often rather than killing it. When you eat, take a reasonable amount of water to help in digestion, not the volume that will make you wee minutes later.

Do you wonder why alcohol drinkers have been found to have kidney dysfunction? It is because of the volume of the fluid intake usually funnelled in their bodies within a short period. Most of them urinate about three times within this period – subjecting the kidney to unnecessary pressure. Same effect happens when you adopt drinking plenty litres of water without caution.

YES, A GOOD THING CAN BE BAD FOR YOU. TAKE CAUTION. WATER IS IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY FOR YOUR BODY BUT BE CAREFUL HOW MUCH YOU TAKE.

Categories
Food & Body

Top Three Foods That Damage Your Teeth

tooth erosion

More and more people are becoming aware of the need to pay attention on the health status of their teeth. While many only few think brushing their teeth twice daily is the only care they need to do, others like me feel there is need to observe what you eat with your mouth in order to avoid gum damages and discolouration of teeth as it is commonly seen. Foods are essential for the proper development of our body and otherwise. If you indulge in certain unhealthy meals, your dental status could be negatively affected. Find below three Foods to avoid as they cause damage to your teeth.

3 Groups of Foods That Cause Damage To Your Teeth

tooth erosion

Chewing Gums, Drinking Soft Drinks And Energy Drinks

Chewing gums are quite dangerous for your teeth. As you chew, they stick in between your teeth and cause damage. You should remember than some of these hard chewing candies are not easily dissolved by water. Also, soft drinks and energy drinks cause similar damage as they are loaded with sugars that corrode the teeth. Many parents also indulge their children in these foods as they are unaware of the damage it will do to the dental status of their children in future.

ALSO SEE: Energy Drinks Damage Your Teeth! Should You Stop Drinking Them?

Acidic Foods

If you love to take lemonade as a home-made therapy to whiten your teeth, then you must have a rethink. It could eventually discolour them. It is quite acidic and corrodes the enamel. This also applies to fruit like apple that is high in acid. You have to be careful with how you consume these acidic fruits. You could wash or rinse your mouth with clean water after getting a bite of these fruits

Bread, Pasta And Potato

Carbohydrates are necessary in our daily diet and so, it is completely impossible to avoid them. But these listed carbs have been found to cause damage to the teeth. These carbs are sticky in nature and sometimes loaded with sugar especially if they are processed which make them lead to tooth decay and other dental issues. It is advisable to check the food labels to know the quantity of added sugars in them and if you must consume them try to rinse your mouth with water after.

Categories
Food & Body

Foods That Give You Fresh, Younger-Looking Skin

Oily fish

Many people don’t know that it is much more easier and convenient to use Foods to make your skin fresh and glow than using creams. Many people resort to using creams to make their skin look fresh and younger forgetting or not knowing that these creams contain ingredients that are carcinogenic. You don’t have to expose your skin to these kind of dangers; eat well and see your skin look fresh and younger.

5 Foods For A Fresh & Younger-Looking Skin

Skin beauty largely depends on the overall health of your body. Adding the right foods into your diet helps you fights wrinkles and get you glowing to keep you attractive and vibrant. This post will share with you, some of the foods that can help you achieve the kind of beautiful skin that you desire. Some of these foods help us by protecting skin from the damaging and ageing effects of the sun.

1. Eat nuts for fresh skin

Nuts will help remove signs of ageing and gives you some youthful appearance. Nuts in general are high in vitamin B complex help with not only skin cell restoration. They also help improve hair growth and dry skins.  Nuts such as Brazil nuts are also rich in antioxidants like vitamin E. This Vitamin E is skin-friendly and have been shown to improve skin’s circulation, this in turn helps a healthy skin glow.

It is a common knowledge that some nuts can be rich in fats. However, these fats are usually polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which promote a healthy circulatory system. All nuts have different nutritional profile and will offer various health benefits, one of which is to help get a fresh and glowing skin.

Mixed nuts and seeds

Examples of nuts that fall in this category are; Almonds, Brazil nuts, Peanuts, Pecans, Sesame seeds, etc.

Categories
Food & Body

Reasons You Should Not Skip Breakfast; Day’s Most Important Meal

The work schedules of many people have made them to perpetually skip breakfast. It has become a norm such that this habit is even inculcated into their children, as the children are made to eat only brunch at school. While this trend has increased over the years, there has not been a decrease in the calorie intake of people and obesity has become popular.

What could be the cause of this considering the fact that breakfast had been skipped by many? Skipping meals, especially breakfast, can actually make weight management a difficult task. Breakfast skippers tend to eat more portions of food than usual at the next meal. In this article, I will be sharing with you why breakfast should not be skipped for any reason in order to get your body system performing optimally.

4 Important Reasons To Stop Skipping Your Breakfast

man late for work
Photo Credit: jobs.aol.com

1) Why Start Your Car With No Petrol?

Just as it is called “Break-Fast”, there is a need for you to eat something light after fasting. You could ask lent faithful Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters about this. As a general rule, you should eat your breakfast with 2 hours of waking up. The body needs fuel to get going with daily activities. Your body’s metabolism will crumble if you do not start your day with breakfast thereby leading to moodiness and expression of lethargy.

2) Improve Cognitive Abilities

I have had my fair share of experience teaching children in the past and I could tell if a child had not taken or does not eat breakfast. This group of children pays lesser attention to instructions while casting their minds to brunch time. Parents should not drag their children into this as it greatly affects their abilities to comprehend in schools and pass exams.

Asides children, as an adult, you will notice your cognitive skills are more evident at work on days you had breakfast. The simple reason is that you had provided food and fuel to the brain to function properly.

3) Helps In Weight Management

Lots of people have been deceived to believe in crashed diets and have decided to delete breakfast. While they do so, no remarkable improvement had been seen. In fact, things got worse. In order to reduce your overall daily calorie intake for proper weight control, you must take breakfast. According to a study published in The American Society of Nutritional Sciences’ Journal of Nutrition, researchers found that calories consumed early-on in the day were more satiating than the same amount of calories eaten later in the day; this led to lower calorie consumption overall. Therefore, eating breakfast helps with weight control.

4) You Will Lose Out On Nutrients

The breakfast is supposed to be a low calorie, highly nutritious food. It is advisable to include some servings of vegetables. Your lunch and dinner could be a bit more calorie-dense. If you decide to skip breakfast, you have only deprived your body of essential vitamins and minerals which are important for growth and development.

FROM THE SAME AUTHOR: No Fats, Only Fruits & 1 Meal Daily Diet Bad For Weight Loss

Categories
Food & Body

3 Super Foods That Detoxify Your Body

It is clear to me that everyone needs to renew their investments, property and other belongings. The computer engineer cleans up his system from virus, the property owner ensures his facility is neatly package to raise the face value and such renewals are carried out by other professional in order to make their businesses grow and flourish. While I ponder about all these, I wonder why all these people have decided to neglect the main engine room- “body” that keeps all these activities going. Friends and Families, Detoxifying your body should be paramount to you more than anything else. You need to make it flourish and healthy.

In this generation of processed foods flying all over the grocery store, busy mums have resulted to make fast foods the main meal for their families or subscribe to cooking highly processed foods that require lesser time of cooking. In most cases, processed and fast foods have been loaded with large loads of sugar to make it sweet, salt for extension of shelf life and other additives to make the products or meals attractive to the customers. In the long run of consuming all these products your liver could become over stressed if not well maintained.

detox your body

While you have decided to follow this path of feeding, it is certain that you and your family needs to regularly detoxify your body to avoid future health calamities. One organ in our body that performs the major role in the detoxification process is the Liver. It detoxifies and cleanses your body by filtering the blood of poisons that enter it through the digestive tract, the skin, and the respiratory system. Often times in cases of certain individual who indulge in serious unhealthy feeding habits, their  liver could become over stressed due to excessive exposure to toxins, your entire system can be thrown off proper functioning.

So, What Are Some Of The Foods That Detoxifies Our Body?

NEXT [2]: Foods that help rid of toxin…

Categories
Food & Body

5 Foods That Help Fight & Reduce Belly Fat

In one of my previous articles in which I talked about the relationship between beer and pot belly, I promised to write an article listing foods that can help to reduce belly fat. I am here to fulfil that promise now. There are many reasons why you accumulate fats in the belly and I am going to discuss some while mentioning others in the process too.

You are definitely not being kind to your body if you can’t go a day without downing a bottle of carbonated drink. All these sugars ultimately get converted into fat in your body and depending on your sex, age and rate of metabolic activities, the fats might end up being stored in your tummy.

Eating late at night is also a bad habit that contributes to belly fat. Our body naturally breaks down the food we eat but this rate reduces when we go straight to bed after eating. We do not expend the energy we have, so the body does not try to break down the food to supply more energy. The best practice is to eat not later than 6pm in the evening and make sure we do not go to bed immediately after. When we go to bed on a full stomach, it also increases our risk of developing acid reflux and indigestion, since gravity is no longer able to pull everything in our belly straight down.

Belly Fat
Photo Credit: infomazza.com

If you deprive yourself of fats because you think it contributes to accumulation of fat in your body, you are wrong. There are very good and beneficial fats that help the body. The irony of it is that foods such as avocados, olive oil and seeds work well in eliminating belly fat for you.

Endeavour to get enough sleep everyday, adults should get about seven to nine hours of sleep each day. When we refuse to get enough sleep, the level of cortisol (stress hormone) in our body increases and causes the craving for sugary foods. We consume these sugary foods and add more calories to the body. Overeating, depriving our body of protein-rich foods and genetics also have their roles in how we process and store fat in the body.

Healthy eating and living in general will helps us reduce fats in our body but there are also foods that we can include in our diet to reduce belly fat. They help fight and reduce the fat in our tummy.

List of Five Foods That Help To Reduce Belly Fat

Navigate through the list of the foods by Clicking 1, 2, 3… below!

Categories
Food & Body Food & Nutrition

Best Anti-ageing Foods To Include In Your Diet

olive oil

There are several things involved in ageing and we cannot really talk about them all. We can only talk about some of them and tell you the foods you can regularly eat to help against these ageing process. For example, antioxidants such as vitamin C, zinc, and beta-carotene help protect your vision from macular degeneration, the leading cause of loss of sight after age 64.

This vitamin C has also been shown to help keep your skin looking younger. Did I mention that the antioxidants mentioned above can also help slow down the rate of macular degeneration if you already have it? Yes, they help!

Eating good food is not the only thing that helps us slow down the rate at which our body age but also avoiding the bad foods, the junks and craps that we eat.

Timothy Harlan, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine said and we quote “Poor-quality foods, like trans fats, cause inflammation — and ageing is basically a chronic inflammatory state. Can you look older because you’re eating crap? Absolutely.”

ageing
Photo Credit: piximggif.com

For example, collagen is a protein that helps our skin stay firm and resist wrinkles. Consumption of too much sugar and processed carbohydrates (like bread, pasta and baked foods) can lead to damage in the skin’s collagen. The implication is that we start getting softer and loose skins with development of wrinkles.

Ageing is much more complicated than this, involving several degenerations on different parts of the body and organs. We have given few examples above so we can have an idea of what ageing looks like all over. So what foods can we include in our diet to retard the ageing process. We cannot stop it but we can make effort to slow it down.

5 Anti-ageing Foods To Include In Your Diet