Month: March 2011

Fruit and vegetable in nutrition

What is natural food of the human beings? Fruits and vegetables, of course! When early human beings were staying in caves, they had absolutely no means or the knowledge of processing the food. The generations of early humans must have survived in spite of all the odds, consuming fruits and vegetables only. From this, you yourself can understand the importance of fruit and vegetable in nutrition for humans.
Fruit and vegetable in nutrition can give you a complete meal. From ages mothers are advocating eating more fruits and vegetables. This advice has lot of scientific evidences to prove its importance.
In initial research days, use of fruit and vegetable in nutrition was associated with fighting cancer. Several studies were carried out to find the link between the consumption of fruits and vegetables and cancer. It is proved that this type of diet does help to fight cancer. However this type of study has to be taken over long period of many years. This long duration, does present some technical difficulties, to prove link between fruit and vegetable in nutrition and it’s cancer fighting properties conclusively. However it is easy to relate one particular type of fruit with one particular cancer. Consider the case of tomatoes. These fruit contain a chemical named as lycopene. This chemical is useful in fighting prostate cancer. The studies prove that cooked tomato products are more useful in fighting prostate cancer. The other types of food items containing lycopene, show similar anti prostate cancer activity. Thus importance of use of fruit and vegetable in nutrition for fighting cancer is explained above.

Presently all the importance of fruit and vegetable in nutrition emphasizes, how fruit and vegetable in nutrition helps to keep your heart fit and healthy. All the focus of research in fruit and vegetable in nutrition is now focused more; on heart studies than on cancer studies. It does not mean that the study in role of fruit and vegetable in nutrition in fighting cancer has stopped completely. The cancer associations are still funding the research on the role of fruit and vegetable in nutrition.
As more funding is available in research about the role of fruit and vegetable in nutrition for fighting heart diseases, many startling facts are being revealed. It is conclusively proved that consumption of diet rich in fruit and vegetable considerably lowers the possibility of heart disease and stroke. If you consume more diet of this type, the possibility of heart disease lowers further down. Lowering of blood pressure and cholesterol level is possible by using fruit and vegetable in nutrition. If you use fruit and vegetable nutrition, your eyes will remain healthy. These are many advantages of use of fruit and vegetable in nutrition.

Weight Loss Supplements

The weight loss supplements market has today become a multi billion industry today. Organizations like Herbalife which manufactures and markets weight loss supplements have spread their reach far and wide. These organizations do constant research to come out with newer and better weight loss supplements to help people lose weight more quickly. The only disadvantage of weight loss supplements is that people depend entirely on these supplements to lose weight. Actually it is a combination of proper dieting, exercise and weight loss supplements that will give you the required results.

There are two types of weight loss supplements available in the market. They are prescription drugs and non prescription drugs. Prescription drugs are drugs that are checked, tried and approved by the FDA. Non prescription drugs have just undergone minimum test standards set by the FDA. In case you would like to go for weight loss supplements you should consult your doctor or dietician before taking them. A dietician will tell you which weight loss supplements to take and also how many times to take them. The doctor will also explain to you the side effects if any of the particular weight loss supplement.

Many of the weight loss supplements do come with side effects. Hence it is necessary to take them in moderation. Weight loss supplements from companies like Herbalife are said to be relatively safer as they are made from herbs and other botanical plants. Weight loss supplements which are natural do lees damage as they have minimum side effects. They also increase the metabolism of the body. Metabolism refers to the rate at which the body burns the fats. Hence better the mechanism your chances of getting slimmer are also better.

People are increasingly using these weight loss supplements to lose large amounts of fats quickly. Also the results if using weight loss supplements are long and permanent. However as mentioned before do not start taking any weight loss supplements without the advise of your doctor or dietician. Many weight loss supplements work by suppressing your appetite and hence you tend to eat less. There are many weight loss supplements coming up in the near future. The companies are doing their best to invent weight loss supplements that are more effective and safer and pose less risks in the case of side effects to the patients. The weight loss supplements are here to stay for long.

Nutrition pyramid

Nutrition pyramid is in important too for the use, for the health conscious persons. We know that our health depends upon the food that we eat. It also depends upon the activities that we undertake every day. Nutrition pyramid puts both our physical activities and food requirements in to proper perspective
Like any other pyramid, nutrition pyramid also has a very wide base and narrowing upside culminating finally in the tip of the pyramid. The base will obviously denote the foods that we can consume more. The top will signify the foods that we can consume very less. The nutrition pyramid published by US govt shows following anatomy.
The left hand side of the nutrition pyramid shows a person walking up the steps. First of all, the dynamic figure shows importance of the regular exercise. Daily physical activity is most important. If you want to remain healthy, then consuming food is also essential. If you consume the food, then converting it into essential chemicals required by the body is important. For this proper digestion should take place. For proper digestion, daily, regular physical activity is a MUST.
The inside body of the nutrition pyramid shows different food groups. Each food group is broad at the bottom. As it approaches the top, it goes on narrowing. What does this part of nutrition signify? It signifies moderation. The foods which contain sugars are at the top part of the nutrition pyramid. The foods which do not contain any added sugar are at the bottom of the nutrition pyramid. When the food contains no fat or very little fat it resides at the bottom. The more you do physical activity; your body will need more foods with fats or sugars. If you want to eat more of chocolates and other sugar added foods, you must do lot and lots of exercises.
The personalization is shown by the steps the person is climbing. It will have personal slogan and url.This will be personalization part of your nutrition pyramid.
There is proportionality feature in the nutrition pyramid. But generally the nutrition pyramid does not show exact mathematical proportion. The nutrition pyramid shows approximate proportionality. This is more in guiding nature. The width suggests how much a person should consume the food from each group.
The variety of foods is represented by the color bands, in the nutrition pyramid. There are five food groups and oils are sixth requirement of the body. The first point to be noted in this part of the nutrition pyramid is that our body requires every type of food. Nobody can avoid consuming any one type of food group. For good health, we must consume every type of food.
The gradual improvement is shown by the slogan and small steps taken, in the nutrition pyramid. If you bring small changes in your diet, your life style, you can become healthier.