Juicer Recipes - 3 Vegetables for Heart Health

By Darren Haynes

A great way to get the healthy nutrients you need from vegetables is to juice them. Here are three vegetables that have been researched and shown to have heart healthy benefits. What are they you might ask?

SPINACH

Vitamins A and C are found abundantly in Spinach. These are both well established nutrients that protect cholesterol from getting sticky and protect the arteries from hardening. Sticky cholesterol is able to attach itself to the arteries causing a build up of plaque and the restriction of blood flow.

The muscles of the heart will not function properly with out magnesium and potassium. If our potassium and magnesium levels get too low, this can cause irregular heart beats and even a possible heart attack. The good news is that spinach contains potassium and magnesium in abundance. Further more, these two minerals also help lower blood pressure.

Spinach also contains the nutrient folic acid (folate). Folic acid is needed to lower the blood levels of a chemical called homocysteine. High blood levels of homocysteine is a powerful factor for the development of heart disease. If the homocysteine levels in the blood increase too much, it can cause heart desease. Folic Acid's job is to change homocysteine into harmless molecules.

Juicer recipes idea: Adding an apple to your spinach juice will make it a lot more tasty. You will also need a considerable amount of spinach to produce enough juice, 5 or more cups will do it.

BROCCOLI

Sulforaphane is an antioxidant plant chemical that is found abundantly in broccoli that can indirectly safeguard the heart from cellular damage. Research from the University of Connecticut has shown that sulforaphane some how activates a release of the protein thioredoxin into the body. It is then thioredoxin that protects the heart's cells.

In addition to this, broccoli is also abundant in vitamins A and C, which carries the heart health benefits described above for spinach.

Juicer recipes idea: Be sure to juice the stalks as well as the flower heads to get more juice out of this vegetable. This will also increase the variety of nutrition in the juice.

TOMATOES

Are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable? Well it is heart healthy enough to make it to this list, so I will leave the answer at that. Tomatoes contain a plant chemical called lycopene which is responsible for its vibrant red color. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant which protects the tomato from the harmful effects of heat and light from the sun. Lycopene is equally powerful at protecting our arteries from cellular damage. In a recent study from Harvard women taking lycopene were 50% less likely to develop heart disease over a five year period. Furthermore, lycopene is considered to have beneficial effects on blood pressure.

Juicer recipes idea: You can make soups or salsa with the left over pulp. - 17274

About the Author:

Darren Haynes enjoys writing about health topices and especially about food and its healing qualities. Check out my juicer recipes blog Juice Recipes

Theories Of Excess Weight Gain

By Katherine Crawford M.S.

Top scientists believe that weight gain is being caused by many things, there is no single enemy here. Therefore, your struggles with body fat is most likely caused by a variety of negative variables.

And in an attempt to figure out the fat factors, many academicians have tried to come up with solid hypothesis. Now these ideas aren't the end all be all, yet they can shed some light on how to begin the battle against fatness.

Thus, here are some explanations of excess weight gain:

1. Enzymes. Fat doesn't get stored in your body automatically. It needs the help of certain enzymes to get stored within your adipocytes. Who does the dirty work? Lipoprotein lipase. People who are seriously overweight tend to have more lipoprotein lipase than those who aren't.

2. Sheer number of fat cells. Your fat cells can increase in size, but they can also replicate and increase in number. Proponents of this idea believe that overweight individuals have a higher number of fat cells and therefore constantly struggle with losing weight.

3. The idea of a set-point. Proponents of this theory believe that your body tries very hard to maintain a certain weight and any effort on your part to change it results in very specific metabolic compensation. So the harder you try to restrict calories, the harder your body tries to slow down your metabolism.

4. Brown fat. Not all body fat is created equal. White fat, the one responsible for fat storage, is sluggish and wants to hoard nutrients. Brown fat, on the other hand, makes fat cells release their energy as heat. This theory believes that lean people have a higher proportion of brown fat.

5. Calorie burning from eating. Food has a thermic effect. Some foods have more of a thermic effect than others. And this theory claims that lean people will burn more calories right after eating in comparison to heavy people.

The causes of body fatness are many and it's very hard to point the finger at any single cause. Having said that, knowing the possible mechanisms that could potentially be causing your weight gain doesn't hurt. The take home point here is to look at weight gain from many points of view. - 17274

About the Author:

About the author: Katherine Crawford M.S., a Harvard exercise physiologist and former flabby arms refugee, teaches women how to lose arm fat. Discover how to get sexy and toned arms by visiting her blog about toned arms right now!

A Simple Jump Higher Workout

By Bart Icles

If you are an avid basketball fan or basketball player, then you might have and most possibly thought of learning how to jump higher once in your life. Indeed, there are tons of jump higher programs available in many gyms, sports journals and magazines, and even in the internet. However, not all of these jump higher programs work the same for everybody. It is recommended that before you take on any jump higher workout, you should try to determine what your needs are first. You will also need to identify what specific improvements you would want to achieve so you can better make the most of any jump higher program.

Nevertheless, there is a certain jump higher workout that can work for everybody. It is a simple jump higher routine that you can observe even if you are just at home. That?s right; you need not lock yourself up in the gym for you to simply learn how to improve your vertical jump. All you need is to follow a few simple exercises and you can already be well on your way to jumping higher. However, you should not expect to achieve the same results as what everybody has.

You will need to start with a brisk aerobic exercise. You can either walk briskly or go for some jogging. You can also opt to jump rope for five to ten minutes. This should get you all warmed up for the different exercises ahead. Every other session or so, you can add ankle weights into your warm up regimen but you should not do it every time. You will then need to do some brief stretching and flexing exercises. These can help reduce the possibility of sustaining injuries while performing more complex exercises.

To begin the bulk of the jump higher workout, you will need to lift some weights. Remember to this properly and focus on key muscle groups like your calves, hamstrings, and quadriceps. Do not overdo weight lifting - only lift weights that will allow you to complete 8 to 10 repetitions with some effort. You will also need to do some crunches and push ups to help strengthen your abdominal muscles.

Most importantly, try to insert high intensity aerobic exercises in between weightlifting sets. Your jump higher workout will also need to cover strengthening your toes. You can do so by doing toe raises. In this manner, you can give the different muscles involved in jumping some much needed workout so you can increase your vertical jump. - 17274

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Through weight training for volleyball you can run faster, jump higher, hit harder, and throw farther. Learn more about volleyball training exercises.

Lysine Supplement

By Amanda Smith

Lysine? This amino acid is essential for the body's health and well-being. With lysine, our bodies can more effectively fight infection, develop muscles, have greater skin and stronger bones? and the list goes on. The only problem is that lysine is not naturally produced by the body. We have to obtain this via a balanced diet or by supplementation.

Here are some of the good things lysine can do for you:

Collagen Production. Lysine promotes the production of collagen, which is found in our bones, skin, muscles (tendons and ligaments), as well as cartilage. Collagen ensures that we have smooth and supple skin. It also is important during the healing process since the body needs it for tissue repair. Thus, wounds and trauma are repaired faster.

Stronger Bones. Lysine also strengthens our bones and nips osteoporosis in the bud. Our bodies need calcium in order for us to build our bones. Overtime, our bones deteriorate because of a lack of calcium and this is the disease called osteoporosis. The calcium we put in the body is sometimes flushed out of the body even before it can do our bones some good. Lysine helps the body absorbs the calcium. Also, when lysine is paired with L-arginine, bone-building cell activity is improved.

Weight Control. L-Carnitine is an amino acid that is produced with the help of lysine. This is actually a popular fat-burning material that helps our body speed up the process of losing body fat. What?s more, L-Carnitine also has a function in promoting cardiovascular health, as it aids in lowering LDL and triglyceride levels in the body.

Other benefits of lysine. Aside from these, lysine aids in improving appetite and growth in children and can be used to prevent hair loss, anemia and the inability to concentrate. It is also effective in preventing and treating herpes and the zoster virus. - 17274

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Read more on Amino Acid Lycine and explore Lysine Dosage

Know More About the Body Mass Index

By Fenidad Realy

Any weight loss expert will say, a vast major of people who come looking for weight loss help do so based on nothing more than their noticing that their weight is commensurate with a figure they saw described in a certain passage as 'unhealthy.' There tends, of course, to be a problem with this approach to weight and weight loss where people make judgment about what is healthy and what is unhealthy in terms of weight by just looking at the figures that their weighing scales reveal; without having a look at the other factors, beyond the figure on the weighing scale, that go into determining what is healthy or unhealthy in terms of weight.

One of those other factors, beyond the figure on the weighing scale, that go into determining what is healthy and what is unhealthy in terms of weight is a person's height. So what the body mass index attempts to do is to tie a person's weight (as reflected on the weighing scale) with that person's height, and from that work out whether that is a healthy or unhealthy weight.

The journey towards establishing what your body mass index is starts with your standing on the weighing scale, and establishing what your weight (in kilograms, is). Next, you stand under height-measuring equipment, and establish what your height (in meters, is). Once you establish what your height in meters is, you square the figure, and divide the weight in kilograms you established earlier by the square of your height in meters, so that: body mass index = weight (in kilograms)/(height in meters)2

Now applying BMI to weight loss, if you are a man, and the figure you obtain by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters falls between 20.1 and 25 - then your weight is healthy, and rather than focusing on weight loss, you should focus on sensible diet and exercise measures to maintain that healthy weight.

In a similar manner, if you are a lady, and the figure you obtain by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters, is anything between 18.7 and 23.8, then your weight is ideal for your height, and rather than focusing on weight loss, you should shift your attention to measures aimed at maintaining the ideal weight you have.

At the core of it, body mass index really works on the common sense knowledge that what might be considered alarming weight for a four foot person could turn out to be a very healthy weight for a six foot giant - and trying to make judgments with regard to the figure that your weighing scale shows can therefore only misguide you. - 17274

About the Author:

You can find tips for weight loss at how to lose weight quickly.

Lose Weight By Exercise And Optimum Food

By Mildred I Bailey

Right now in the United States obesity and being overweight has reached almost epidemic proportions. Our lifestyles are inactive and we eat too many nutritionally empty foods in the Standard American Diet. We don't work out enough and we eat too much.

All through history our bodies evolved in such a way as to ensure continued existence. This means that our bodies naturally preserve energy and fat to shield us in times of famine. The problem today is that the only starvation we ever actually come across is the self-imposed one that we get when we go on restrictive diets.

However, our bodies do not know the difference and our metabolisms end up slowing down and conserving all of the energy that it can. That is one explanation why it gets harder and harder to lose weight with every subsequent diet.

A big part of the answer to this predicament may be to just stop dieting and start eating. Begin working with your biology instead of against it by discontinuing the silly diets and eating like you are supposed to.

The answer encompasses more than just eating however. The Standard American Diet or the apropos acronym SAD is to a great extent contributing to our problems with obesity and overweight. Our bodies were never designed to eat the unwholesome, nutritionally void and processed foods that are so profuse in our culture.

Our bodies were designed to eat the nourishing, healthy and organic foods that are found abundantly in nature. Nature provides the foods that are optimal for our bodies. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and even fish and lean meats. The less processed and the more natural the food the better it is for our bodies.

As humans we were also designed to move and keep fit. None of our ancestors led a sedentary life. They were always up and around, moving about in the course of living. If you want to accomplish optimum fitness including losing weight you need to add in both exercise and an optimum nutrition diet.

So if you want to combat obesity and lose weight for good not to mention create optimal health start eating the healthiest foods in nature and begin an exercise program. Your body will thank you and you will see the results on your bathroom scale. - 17274

About the Author:

Have you pay attention to acais berry? The major side effects of a diet excessive in items of produce is a long life. So eat right and be healthy!

Foods that Build Muscle Easily

By Wakelin Smith

Eating to build muscle is an important part of your bodybuilding program. Eating food that helps build muscle will ensure that you are not wasting all that hard work you are doing in the gym.

Working with weights in the gym forces your muscles to work, but guess what? Working your muscles expends energy, and energy is replenished by your food. Correct nutrition also helps heal muscle injury that often occurs while you are working out. You may not even know you have caused injury to your muscles, but your body knows, and your body needs fuel from food that helps build muscle in order to repair that muscle.

Food that helps build muscle - what it is? Well, to begin with, protein. Protein is probably the most important nutritional component in a muscle building program. You probably thought the most important component was cutting out fat, in order to reduce your body fat, didn't you? Protein is essential. Without protein, your body withers away to nothing. So make sure you include protein foods that build muscle such as chicken, lean beef, eggs, fish (don't like fresh fish? Try canned tuna -it's perfect), and cheese.

There is an optimum amount of protein that your body needs for building muscle effectively. Do you know your lean body mass weight? Yes? Great! If you do not know your lean body mass weight, you will need to apply one of the formulas that calculate this.

Carbohydrates, in moderation, are also essential when finding foods that build muscle. Good high fiber carbs include rice, potatoes (yes, potatoes - just do not add butter!), oatmeal and bananas.

Reducing fat in your diet is also important when considering what foods build muscle mass. I said earlier that protein is essential for the best muscle building nutrition. The problem is that many protein sources are also high in fat. The key, therefore, is to eating plenty of proteins that are low in fat. So cut all the fat off your meat, and the skin off your chicken, and drink low fat milk instead of the full fat variety.

Drinking sufficient water with your meals, between meals, and while you are working out is also very important. Two litres of water a day is what most experts recommend to maintain optimal health. Regular bodybuilding workouts are also essential to maximise the effects of good bodybuilding diets.

Foods that build muscle are one of the two essential components to having the body of your dreams. The other component is your weight training program or other type of bodybuilding workouts that you engage in regularly. - 17274

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How to build bigger muscle is easy. Discover more in relation to bodybuilding routines, foods that build muscle other ways to build muscle, go to the best resource on finding the best ways to build muscle fast.

How To Crash Diet Successfully

By Katherine Crawford M.S.

I am strongly opposed to any form of extreme dieting. Yet I am aware that some people will do such diets irrespective of the potential harm. Thus, I will provide some pointers on how to minimize the risks with this article.

Now why are extreme diets so dangerous? The biggest down side by far is the massive weight regain that happens because of an altered metabolism. And if taken too far, there can be even worse consequences.

Thus, here is how to crash diet successfully:

1. Understand how to transition away from the diet. The biggest mistake extreme dieters make is to simply resume eating the way they used to once they hit their target weight. Huge mistake. You have to slowly phase out of the diet or else you will rebound with a vengeance.

2. Take a solid supplemental multivitamin. Purchase the best one you can afford. Any drastic diet is going to leave you with a deficiency in nutrients.

3. Figure out when you are most alert. Your biological clock will wake you up at two different times of the day. I identify when this happens and schedule your most demanding tasks accordingly.

4. Distract yourself when the hunger pangs hit. You will feel some extreme hunger pangs with a crash diet. The best thing to do is distract yourself. I knew a wrestler that used to play video game tournaments during the most tough bouts of dieting.

5. Embrace the rebound.You are going to gain weight once you stop, period. Do your best to minimize the rebound, but do not get down once it happens.

6. Avoid long term dieting. This has the potential to seriously damage your body. Do not do an extreme diet for extended periods of time.

Following a drastic diet is NOT good for you and can have some pretty nasty consequences. The saddest thing is when someone ends up heavier than before the diet. So please follow the advice in this article if you decide to take the risk! - 17274

About the Author:

Writer Katherine Crawford, a Harvard exercise expert and former arm fat sufferer, is an expert on exercise for women. Discover how to get toned arms now by visiting her website on arm exercise.

Burn Fat Without Cardio

By Ryan M Hall

Too many people suffer from the mentality that the only way to burn fat quickly is to run like crazy, but the truth is, you absolutely can burn fat without cardio. It's this assumption that muscle makes for bulk, and cardio burns fat that sets most people off course.

The truth is that building muscle will actually make your body burn more fat than ever. In fact, muscle is the reason your body continues to burn fat all day, so it stands to reason that as you build more lean muscle, you will burn more fat. It is actually a fact that traditional cardiovascular exercise, the kind you're used to seeing people do at the gym, has very little effect on fat burning.

If cardio and treadmills aren't the answer, then how can you build more muscle to burn more fat? When you go to the gym, focus on resistance exercises, specifically, compound exercises. These are exercises like squats, bench press and rows. These exercises build muscle over your entire body rather than just your legs like a treadmill will, and building total body muscle will have a huge impact on your body's fat burning ability.

The secret to building more muscle in order to lose weight without cardio, is to do your workouts without a rest between sets. If you rest between sets, it gives your body a chance to slow down, but if you keep your heart rate up, you will get cardiovascular benefits as well as more muscle building. This means that your heart and lungs improve along with your lean muscle mass.

There is a secret to burn fat without cardio, but it doesn't have to be hard, and it doesn't have to be a secret. Just follow this advice, focus on compound resistance exercises and you will be burning more fat with less work immediately. If you follow this advice, you will keep your heart rate up and build more muscle. Your body will be burning more and more fat because of your increased muscle mass. - 17274

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Looking to find the best way to burn fat without cardio, then visit www.202020diet.com to find the get a Free Diet Ebook and start burning fat today.

Dietary Fat and Cholesterol Levels

By Chris Arribbat

Fats are a group of chemical compounds that contain fatty acids. Energy is stored in the body mostly in the form of fat. Fat is needed in the diet to supply essential fatty acids, substances essential for growth but not produced by the body itself. There are three main types of fatty acids: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. All fatty acids are molecules composed mostly of carbon and hydrogen atoms. A saturated fatty acid has the maximum possible number of hydrogen atoms attached to every carbon atom. It is therefore said to be "saturated" with hydrogen atoms. Some fatty acids are missing one pair of hydrogen atoms in the middle of the molecule. This gap is called an "unsaturation" and the fatty acid is said to be "monounsaturated" because it has one gap. Fatty acids that are missing more than one pair of hydrogen atoms are called "polyunsaturated."

Doctors recommend that total blood cholesterol be kept below 200mg/dl. The average level in adults in this country is 205 to 215mg/dl. Studies in the United States and other countries have consistently shown that total cholesterol levels above 200 to 220mg/dl are linked with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol act differently in the body. A high level of LDL- in turn increases the risk of a heart attack. Thus, LDL-cholesterol has been dubbed "bad" cholesterol.

Another misconception is that people can improve their cholesterol numbers by eating "good" cholesterol. In food, all cholesterol is the same. In the blood, whether cholesterol is "good" or "bad" depends on the type of lipoprotein that's carrying it.

In 1908, scientists first observed that rabbits fed a diet of meat, whole milk, and eggs developed fatty deposits on the walls of their arteries that constricted the flow of blood. Narrowing of the arteries by these fatty deposits is called atherosclerosis. It is a slowly progressing disease that can begin early in life but not show symptoms for many years. In 1913, scientists identified the substance responsible for the fatty deposits in the rabbits' arteries as cholesterol. In 1916, Cornelius de Langen, a Dutch physician working in Java, Indonesia, noticed that native Indonesians had much lower rates of heart disease than Dutch colonists living on the island. He reported this finding to a medical journal, speculating that the Indonesians' healthy hearts were linked with their low levels of blood cholesterol.

Some research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish such as salmon and mackerel as well as in soybean and canola oil, lower both LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. Some nutrition experts recommend eating fish once or twice a week to reduce heart disease risk. However, dietary supplements containing concentrated fish oil are not recommended because there is insufficient evidence that they are beneficial and little is known about their long-term effects. - 17274

About the Author:

A Healthier You Once upon a time, everyone didn't know much about fat except that it made foods richer. everyone cooked our food in lard or shortening. everyone spread butter on our breakfast toast and poured sour cream on our baked potatoes. Farmers grew their animals to make milk with high butterfat content and meat "marbled" with fat because that was what most people wanted to eat. A Healthier You

A Healthy Attitude To Weight Lose

By Ron Cripps

You would be astounded to discover just how many individuals think that the best way to slim down is by going hungry and while this does work in the short run, you will not find one physician that would ever advocate this severe course of action. Health weight loss diets are only ever advocated since such radical measures only leave the body weak with an even weaker immune system. Most of the better healthy weight loss diets advocate providing the person the required amount of calorific intake which is considered to be just right, and the diet should contain all the necessary nutrients required by the body.

Usually people ignore the need for a good nights' sleep for the upkeep of good health, which is as essential as burning those excess calories. Many of the woman's magazines are seen advocating the use of such unscientific diet plans to its readers who are made to believe that these plans are part of a healthy weight loss program. For instance: eat only boiled vegetables with chicken, fruit and salads, and although the fundamental starting idea is not wrong, a truly healthy weight loss diet needs to include other nutrients as well, that are not present in boiled vegetables for instance. The vast bulk of individuals eating a diet that is a lead up of these food groups may lose weight and feel a little better but will ultimately fail in their healthy weight loss as they become incredibly bored by the identical food each day.

Following a healthy weight loss diet plan can be quite easy once you start. Organize your calorie allowance and by sticking to this and doing some sort of exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, a quick walk around the block is quite sufficient and not forgetting the good nights sleep. Rest is an amazingly serious part of our lives - the medical science arena is only just beginning to comprehend the importance of rest to our health. Those that do find themselves having difficulty with there weight can tend to have small feast during the night and sometimes it is not even remembered.

If you are someone who does rise in the night to eat, this will only hurt you and your body as it will be ruining any effort that you have made during the day whilst following a healthy weight loss diet program with exercise, to burn off calories. You will soon see the effects of following a healthy weight loss plan as you will have more energy, your clothes wills start to fall off you, your attitude will change and you will become a lot happier and getting a better nights sleep will only help your immune system to fight off any illnesses.

The other essential aspect for pursuing a healthy weight loss diet is that you start to feel good about the way you look and feel: entertaining damaging feelings about yourself can do more harm than anything else. You can't ask miracles from your body because it responds in a certain cycle to physical input and obese individuals who desperately want to lose excess pounds often have the tendency to work themselves out in tiresome physical exercises.

Swimming or jogging are good mild exercises to start with when you are following a healthy weight loss program which involves regular physical exercise, sometimes those that have a lot of weight to lose can forget this and go overboard. The idea is to start out gently and when your physical levels have increased then you can join a gym. It often requires some time to get fit once more but it can be done simply if you do not try to run before you can walk. - 17274

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Knowing the basics of whetheryou can lose weight from starving can be very confusing to say the least. Get all the inside news on the leading weight loss program today which is called Fat Loss 4 Idiots a very affordable and effective diet.

Do You Want To Build Muscle Quick With Less Effort

By Ryan M Hall

If you do a basic search on the internet, you will find millions of supposed miracle tips and tricks to build muscle quick. The problem is that many of these tips just plain don't work. If you follow the advice in this article, you will be well equipped to build more muscle with less effort.

With 3 easy steps, you can build lean muscle mass without committing hours to the gym.

1. Increase Your Intensity

It doesn't matter what kind of workout plan you are using for your weight loss, it is absolutely certain that you could benefit from working out with more intensity. Too many people go into the gym hoping that just lifting a few weights will give them a tight toned body. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. If you actually want to see big changes in your body and intend to gain muscle quick, you have to increase the intensity of your workout. Whether you accomplish this by increasing the number of reps you do or the weight you lift, or both, it is the only way you are going to build the body of your dreams. If you change nothing else the next time you hit the gym, increase the intensity of your workout and you will see massive changes. You can't just go through the motions of working out, you have to actually make your muscle work to build muscle fast.

2. Eat Right

Increasing your protein intake is the absolute best thing you can do to ensure you gain lean muscle mass. This means that you should eat more protein in the form of egg whites, chicken breasts or fish at almost every meal. Of these protein sources, fish is the healthiest because it contains fatty acids that aid in muscle building and fat loss called Omega 3's. Fish is also very low in bad fat and fast carbohydrates. To get the best results from your diet, be sure to eat protein at every meal.

3. Get Plenty Of Rest

It is of utmost importance that you get enough sleep at night while trying to build muscle, but it is equally important that you rest between workouts. Too many times people start working out and they think that they have to workout every single day, so they over work their muscles and end up reversing their muscle building efforts. This constant muscle fatigue will never get you great muscle gains unless you take some time to rest between workouts. The old idiom of "No Pain, No Gain," is out, it's time to rest more if you want to gain muscle fast.

These simple changes can take your workout regimen from boring to the best. If you want to build muscle quickly, you have to implement this advice. - 17274

About the Author:

Looking to find the best plan tobuild muscle quickly, then visit www.202020diet.com to find the get a Free Diet Ebook and start burning fat today.