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Milking Chocolate for Healthy Benefits

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I’m making a confession. I am one of the stealth chocoholics. That is bad news and good news-the bad news is that like you, it can be tough for me to turn down a sample of the creamy confection. On the good side, chocolate has health benefits.

Now I am not saying you can have all the chocolate you want. I want to share with you how chocolate can help with your goals to include foods that are good for you as ingredients in your diet. Chocolate begins with the cacao beans. It’s the cacao beans that are the key in creating the good-for-you factor. These beans are rich in plant nutrients called flavonoids, which protect the cocoa plant. The primary type of flavonoids found in cocoa and chocolate are flavanols which have antioxidant properties. Research has shown that these flavonals have positive affects on health. Antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E help protect healthy cells from substances called free radicals which can attack health cells. These nutrients are also found in red wine and green tea.

There are several types of chocolate which contain varying amounts of cacao beans and flavanols. Bittersweet or dark chocolate contains the most generous amounts from higher cacao content chocolate. The higher the percentage of cacao in the chocolate, the greater the benefits and nutritional value. For example, an average 65% dark chocolate serving would look something like this (these are estimates, as actual numbers will vary, depending on brand, size, etc.):

Total Fat 15 g, Sat. Fat 9 g, Sugars 16g, Protein 3g.

In comparison, an average 99% dark chocolate serving would look something like this (these are estimates, as actual numbers will vary, depending on brand, size, etc.):

Total Fat 22 g, Sat. Fat 14 g, Sugars 2g, Protein 5g.

As the percentage goes up on the cacao content, the less sugar and more protein you’ll find.

You may also notice the higher fat content -don’t worry, most of it comes from healthy fats. (yes, you can find healthy fats in chocolate!)

Benefits of dark chocolate include:

-High antioxidant content—it is an antioxidant powerhouse.

-It can have positive affects on maintaining heart health

-It can help lower blood pressure

-It can aid in maintaining healthy arteries that are relaxed and flexible, thus increasing blood flow.

-It may reduce insulin insensitivity and lower the risk of diabetes.

-A greater feeling of fullness or satiety which can reduce cravings for sweet and salty foods.

Consumption of chocolate and other flavanol rich foods like red wine and tea can also reduce stress and increase performance on cognitive tests.

This sweet indulgence can also tip your scale toward the heavy side. Choose a dark chocolate with cocoa content of 65 percent or higher. Limit yourself to 2 or 3 ounces (56 to 85 grams) a day, this will add between 300 to 450 calories to your diet. You may want to cut back on calories from some other food or boost your exercise to make sure you can add the chocolate and maintain a healthy weight.

A little chocolate goes a long way and it’s health benefits can soothe your conscience if you’re you are reluctant to fess up to enjoying this guilty pleasure.

TAKE AWAY: It’s a good thing to be able to enjoy foods that give you pleasure. The caveat is to remember too much of a good thing can easily become less enjoyable and that is true of chocolate. It contains calories and overindulgence with pack the pounds on.

The Benefits Of Urine Testing For Optimal Nutrition

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Urine testing has been used since ancient times for the detection of abnormalities. Early medical practitioners would pour urine on the ground and observe it to determine whether or not it would attract insects. If insects were attracted
to the urine, it indicated it was sweet, which we know in modern times to be a symptom of diabetes. In the sixteen and seventeen hundreds, it was common practice for physicians to actually taste their patient’s urine.

Fortunately, today’s clinicians no longer have to become quite so intimate with their patients body fluids and can rely on sophisticated analytical
techniques to uncover the wealth of information found in a simple urine sample.

Each of us has a unique physiological makeup. That is why it is very important to use vitamin supplements based on your body’s needs and biochemistry. The strategy of those low-cost one-size-fits-all vitamin supplements provide either too little of what you do need or too much of what you don’t.

Urine testing allows you to know which vitamin supplements to target specific areas of deficiency to help your body achieve an ideal nutritional and chemical balance.

For instance, urine sampling is an excellent method of evaluating:
– Hydration status
– Acid/Base balance
– Blood sugar regulation
– Existence of certain cancers
– Existence of pregnancy and complications of pregnancy
– Liver diseases
– Infections
– Functional nutritional status

While science limits us from testing for every conceivable illness, we can determine if certain nutritional deficiencies exist through urine testing. Urine testing really tells you what’s going on in your body, and what you need to know if these nutrients are getting into your cells and how your cells are using them. One of the best ways to do that is to look at the end products of your metabolism in your urine. These individual tests called ” Priva Test ” utilize a urine sample which you provide through an in-home test kit

Two main purposes exist for urinalysis:

1. The first is to diagnosis actual damage or disease to the physical kidney itself. In this instance, substances normally found in urine will be increased or decreased. This reflects alterations in the filtration system of the kidney due to disease. This
is the basis for the standard urinalysis screen.

2. The second is to detect disturbances such as endocrine or metabolic abnormalities. In this instance, the kidneys function normally but excrete abnormal amounts of metabolic end products, indicating alterations in metabolic pathways. This second function is the application that is used in the PrivaTest.

The three areas evaluated in the Priva Test are major areas of concern for any person living in our industrialized society. The three compounds measured in your urine at the laboratory give you vital information about:

– Your body’s ability to detoxify toxic substances.
– Your body’s ability to balance the production of an important regulatory compound influencing immune, nervous, and vascular system function.
– Your body’s ability to handle challenges to its antioxidant systems.

Each one of these areas can be manipulated favorably by personalized nutritional supplementation.

Nutrition As A Valuable Part Of Your Life

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Nutrition includes monitoring the food that you eat on a daily basis. If you want to have a healthy lifestyle, good nutrition is of the utmost importance. You will live longer and be healthier with regular practice of proper nutrition principles. This article can give you nutrition tips that can be easily used in your life.

Have you tried a healthy puree of peaches, pears or berries? This makes a spread that is sweet which you can eat as a dip for pita chips or pretzels. Try this with different kinds of fruits and prepare a different snack each time to keep things interesting. .

Processed foods can contain high percentages of trans fat and should be avoided. Foods that contain high trans fat are responsible for putting you at risk for heart disease. Trans fats replace the good cholesterol, HDL, with bad cholesterol, LDL.

Add a multivitamin to your diet to get the best nutrition. Although you should try to get as many vitamins from your food as possible, a multi-vitamin gives you the insurance that you need if you slip a little.

Almonds are the absolute best nuts to use in cooked dishes. These are the healthiest among other nuts because of their ability to lower cholesterol, their richness in protein, and their benefit to your blood cells. They don’t cost as much as other nuts, either.

Baking, grilling, broiling, and roasting are the healthiest ways to prepare meat for consumption. If you need butter to prepare your foods, try substituting it with cooking spray instead. Strain and rinse using hot water when browning beef. This minimizes the fat you will consume when eating the beef.

When pregnant, ensure your diet contains enough vitamin B12. Taking Vitamin B12 during this time helps to lower the possibility of having birth defects. Not everyone is vulnerable to B12 deficiencies, although it does seem to affect females who frequently diet.

Frozen vegetables are great to consume for their health content and fit in the freezer nicely. They thaw quickly and can be tossed in with meat dishes or served as a healthy side. If they are stored in the freezer, you won’t be forced to go through them quickly to avoid spoilage.

Nopalea Cactus Juice

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All living creatures depend on nature and natures products (plants, animals and minerals) for basic sustenance and Nopalea is one such product. For centuries, man has depended on the products of nature not only for basic sustenance, but also as sources of treatment for bodily injury, illness and the myriad maladies that can affect the human body system.
Nopalea A Natural Product

Even today, given vast advances in science and technology, virtually all (if not all) health and medicinal products consumed by man are derived, in some shape or form, from natures products. Penicillin, for example, comes from plant mold.

Today man is again turning to nature and the scientific community, to find products from nature that possess the power to sustain, heal and manage the human body system in a way that promotes better living and freedom from conditions that can debilitate the human body and spirit. This is for several reasons:

First, today, people throughout the world are increasingly concerned about their health and the positive and negative effects of their food and beverage consumption (i.e. dietary intake of cholesterol, sugar, fats, especially saturated fats, sodium, etc.).

Second, there is increased consumer interest in natural products (i.e. whole foods and beverages without high levels of preservatives, produce grown organically, health supplements from natures plants that provide nutrients that have been lost in todays fast food, prepared and processed food, eat-on-the-run culture, etc.). By way of scientific explanation, Dr. C. Leigh Broadhurst, a geochemist who works as a visiting scientist for a government nutrition research laboratory and heads 22nd Century Nutrition, a nutrition/scientific consulting company, stated in a 1998 article published in Nutrition Science News regarding essential BLOOM BLOOM phytochemicals that are found in natural fruits and vegetables that:

Third, in many counties, the United States in particular, there is increasing concern about the rising costs of health care. Furthermore, increased longevity and the increased likelihood of health disorders associated with aging are of growing concern. The high cost of health care is least affordable among the elderly.

Fourth, in some cases, unwanted and/or undesirable side effects are associated with prescription pharmaceuticals and their positive effects may by short lasting as against natural products that basically work from within, to help the human body maintain and strengthen itself.

In short, there is a significant and growing market throughout the world, for natural products that have special nutritional, health maintenance and medicinal benefits. Nopalea can provide such benefits. Among the primary areas of market opportunity are consumer concerns about:

Heart conditions (which have been associated with high levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, saturated fats and sodium),

Obesity (which been associated with diets high in calories, sugar and saturated fats),

Immune system efficiency (Cancer, pathogen control, resistance to disease, etc.),

Digestive system efficiency (which requires dietary intake of fiber, particularly soluble fiber, pectins, mucilage and gums that aid in digestion and in reducing the effects of saturated fat and toxic substance intake) and
Nopalea Health Disorders

Certain health disorders to which certain segments of the population are or have become more susceptible. One example is Adult On-set (Type II) Diabetes, the incidence of which is rapidly increasing (particularly among Hispanics, Asians, Blacks and native American Indians).

Scientists in the United States and in other countries have in the past studied many plants and herbs in order to determine their nutritional content and to ascertain their medicinal properties and health benefits. Only recently, however, have scientists begun to focus on some of natures plants that were, prior to modern times, used for centuries both as a source of food and for their medicinal benefits. Nopalea fits this category.

Ovarian Cyst Cures – Herbal And Holistic Methods

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Proponents of alternative health often stand by an all-natural ovarian cyst cure, whereas most doctors go down the surgical route to removal cysts that do not disappear naturally after a few menstrual cycles. Whether you go for a natural ovarian cyst cures or undergo conventional treatment by a health care professional, it is imperative to have a cyst diagnosed by a doctor. Depending on the type and size of the ovarian cyst, medical treatment may be necessary or may be the only safe option. With this said, most functional cysts can have a natural cure applied to them because they generally disappear on their own and a natural cure can improve the speed at which they disappear.
A functional ovarian cyst usually disappears on its own even without treatment however it could come back. Natural treatment is an option to prevent an old cyst developing or even new ovarian cysts. Abnormalities in the female menstrual cycle are what cause cyst development, so it stands to reason that herbs containing the right properties and proper nutrition are helpful as natural ovarian cyst cures to get the hormones levels back in order.
Women who have previously had ovarian cysts may want to try preventing recurrence by taking supplements and herbs that would help the body to function properly. There are numerous supplements available to assist in balancing hormones, improving immunity and enhancing liver functions. Taken consistently these herbs and supplements may be the first line of defense for ovarian cyst cures along with proper medical care.
Vitamins and minerals can help a person to maintain proper nutrition. Vitamin C in particular helps the immune system and thus can help prevent ovarian cysts from occurring. Zinc assists in cell growth while the egg is maturing and aids in limiting free-radical damage to DNA as well. Similarly, the B-vitamins help maintain the balance of hormone levels by assisting the liver in converting large amounts of estrogen into substances which are not as harmful. Lastly, antioxidants help cells avoid damage.
Certain herbs can be taken as ovarian cyst cures by women who suffer from the condition. These herbs help to regulate hormone production and work to prevent dysfunctional ovarian follicles from developing into cysts. As effective as the herbs are for some women, if a woman is already taking hormonal medications, she should not take any herbs.
Herbs such as echinacea improves the body’s ability to fight infections and prevent cancer by increasing white blood cell activity as well as increasing the amount. Echinacea is most effective when taken for 10 days, which is followed by a three day break, then taken for 10 more days. Silymarin marianum, the technical name for milk thistle, is another type of herb that has been shown to help detoxify the liver and rid the body of excess hormones.
Should you decide to try a natural ovarian cyst cure, it makes sense to discuss this with your doctor first. He/she can advise you on whether certain supplements or vitamins can be of harm to you and what the best approach to an ovarian cyst cure is.