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Posts Tagged ‘Eating A Healthy Diet’

Picky Eaters – Getting Kids to Eat Healthy

January 2nd, 2010

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Do you have a picky-eater in your house? Are you struggling to get your children to eat a healthy, balanced meal because they simply refuse to eat healthy food? Is your picky eater becoming an overweight statistic, willing to only eat fried foods, pizza, hot dogs, waffles and other sugar-coated sweet treats?

You may even find yourself feeling like you’ve become a “short order” cook in your own home, serving up cafeteria-style meals for each family member just to keep the peace. If this sounds at all familiar, and you want to learn how to get your picky eater to eat healthy foods and have better health, carefully consider the following:

Children learn what they live, so if parents are not setting the right example, by eating a healthy diet themselves, parents are setting the stage for failure with their own children‘s health. Getting children to eat healthy food needs to begin when children are very young, while their tastes for different foods are still developing. Toddlers and older children can learn to love healthy foods, even if they are now very picky about what they will or will not eat.

“Samantha” is an overweight eight year-old child, who has just begun eating salads and a couple varieties of meats. Until very recently, she refused to eat anything but hot dogs, waffles, pizza, chicken nuggets, French fries and anything loaded with sugar. When she and her parents are invited to dinner at someone’s home, they inevitably bring along a box of frozen waffles and syrup to heat and serve their “picky eater” in place of the planned meal.

Samantha’s parents’ would lament, “we think she has a mental block”, due to her refusal to eat anything remotely healthy. I dare say it isn’t the child who has a mental block! Samantha’s parents have enabled this behavior in their child by passing on their own dislike of healthy foods, and they now have an overweight statistic to show for it.

“Tara” is a mother of two young daughters, six year old Jessica and five year old Chelsey. While Tara is preparing a healthy and nutritious meal for her husband, she will ask her daughters what they want to eat for dinner because “they hate everything”, ultimately preparing three separate meals in order to “keep the peace” at the dinner table. Tara often complains that she doesn’t like this never-ending ritual, but fails to realize that putting a stop to it is well within her abilities as a parent of these two young girls.

Children that are picky eaters are that way because parents are allowing it to happen. It’s your parental responsibility to make the rules about meals and snacks – not your child or teenagers. If you want your children to eat healthy, then serve them healthy and nutritious meals that the entire family can enjoy together.

If your child adamantly refuses to eat the healthy meal set before them, then cover and save their meal in the refrigerator until they later say they’re hungry. Then simply say, “That’s good because I saved your dinner for you”. Reheat and serve the meal to your child. Children that are truly hungry will eat. Children are not harmed by missing a meal or two.

It’s important to remember that being a picky eater is a learned behavior, and it will take time and determination on the part of the parents’ to change things around.

Getting your children to learn to love fruits and vegetables can often be accomplished by offering small amounts of dipping sauces, dressings, or flavored low-fat yogurt to dip into. Instead of doling out cookies, brownies, donuts, chips and other high-calorie snacks, keep a variety of well-stocked fresh fruits or vegetables in easy reach of hungry children.

From the time my children were very young, they ate and snacked on fresh and uncooked broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery with peanut butter, and all varieties of fresh fruits. We regularly introduced new items, especially different ethnic foods, and over a period of time learned to love all healthy foods. Sugary sweets such as cakes or cookies were saved for a special treat on weekends, rather than a nearly nightly occurrence following the evening meal.

Changing the behavior of a picky eater may not be an easy task, but nothing about parenting is easy. The sooner parents’ start changing their own attitudes and behaviors towards healthy eating, the sooner they can expect their children to do the same.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/picky-eaters-getting-kids-to-eat-healthy-1658224.html

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The Way To A Healthy Heart

August 10th, 2009

Cardiovascular disease (or CVD), sometimes referred to as “stroke” in layman’s term, ranks as number one among the causes of mortality in the nation. With this information, it is imperative now that you be armed yourself with facts regarding CVD so as to stay away from it.

This disease happens when a thrombus (sometimes called plaque which is a build-up of fatty deposits along the arteries) dislodges first and then lodges in the smaller arteries thus causing blood to be blocked or to limit the flow to the major organs. Healthy blood flow is important because it carries oxygen to the vital organs in the body. There are many sites that can be affected with it. One is the heart, that when damaged can cause myocardial infarction (heart attack), the brain which causes cerebro-vascular accident (which is more commonly known as brain stroke), muscles which can cause claudication (pain in the affected areas) caused by poor circulation of the blood. The fatty deposits are also one of the main causes why aneurysm (bulging of arteries) happens.

According to studies, Americans are prone to this kind of disease because of their race, the stress they go through and the foods we eat. Because we cannot do anything about our race, what you can do is to focus on the modifiable factor among the three – foods that you eat and things that you do. Experts say that eating a healthy diet like more fruits and vegetables can help a lot in your health state. This is because of the nutrients, vitamins and fibers that can be found with it. Avoid fatty and oily foods because they contribute to the fatty deposits that, in the first place, are the main problem with regards to this disease. Proper exercise and maintaining a desirable body weight can also help in achieving that good health.

To those who have an existing medical condition like diabetes and obesity, it is best to consult an expert regarding it. Monitor your glucose (sugar level), cholesterol and blood pressure. Medications plus healthy living will help you in achieving that healthy heart.

Hospitals also take advantage of the technology in dealing with CVD. One good advancement that the Henry Ford Hospital created is their website for a healthy you. Log on to this yourself to avail of their free screening tool online. Have a healthy life and take part of this online innovation. You can also look up beauty information and facts on healthy hearts to the many health blog posts that are all about what you need to know about it.

Irene Miller is a teacher. She loves words and plays with them.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-way-to-a-healthy-heart-1114579.html

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A Gestational Diabetes Diet Chart Helps to Maintain Healthy and Varied Diet

July 27th, 2009

By preparing a gestational diabetes diet chart a woman with gestational diabetes can ensure eating a healthy diet that contains the correct calorific content with essential nutrients like carbohydrate, protein, fat and vitamins as well. Eating a healthy and balanced diet that is right for her condition and individual requirement will prevent her blood glucose from rising and keep it within the safe zone.

The amount of calories, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and other essentials varies from person to person and depends on a number of factors like individual height, weight, daily physical activity, current level of glucose in the blood etc. A gestational diabetes diet chart systematically lists all food items that are good for a woman suffering from gestational diabetes and also the quantities that she needs to eat to enjoy good health and ensure the best nutrition for her baby. If you have gestational diabetes your caregiver is the right person to prepare this chart for you.

When your dietitian prepares a gestational diabetes diet chart you may find some or all of these foods with important details listed in the chart under different food groups. For example:

Breads – Approx.15 grams carbohydrate per serving
1 oz bread slice
1 oz of bagel roughly equivalent to a quarter of a bagel bought from the bakery.
1 four-inch pancake of ¼ inch thickness
1 six-inch corn/flour tortilla

Grains and cereals – Approx.15 grams carbohydrate per serving
¾ cup ready to eat cereal (unsweetened) or a quarter cup of low fat granola
½ cup of cooked oatmeal/cereals
? cup of rice/pasta

Vegetables with high starch – Approx.15 grams carbohydrate per serving
½ cup of corn, sweet potatoes/mashed potatoes or green peas
1 quarter of a large sized baked potato
1 cup of acorn/pumpkin

Vegetables with little or no starch – Approx.15 grams carbohydrate per serving
½ cup of cooked or 1 cup of raw broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, beets, mushrooms, zucchini or tomatoes
½ cup of vegetable juice

Your gestational diabetes diet chart would also include:

o 8 cups of different drinks in a day. These can be fruit juices and other drinks that do not contain cream or are sugar rich soft drinks.
o Calcium rich food especially dairy products such as milk and yogurt. Calcium supports building healthy bones and is very good for the developing baby.
o At least three servings of iron rich food. It in necessary to eat food that can give at least 30 grams of iron every day. Such iron rich food includes, fish, eggs, meat, green leafy vegetables
o Foods that can provide vitamin C. Vitamin C can be had from eating strawberries, oranges, sprouts, grapefruits, tomatoes, mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, and honeydew.
o Foods rich in Vitamin A like pumpkins, carrots, turnip greens, spinach, sweet potatoes, beet greens, cantaloupe, water squash and apricots

The gestational diabetes diet chart prepared by a dietitian may recommend eating food that a pregnant woman with gestational diabetes may not find very tasty. However, it is essential in the interests of her health and that of her baby. Alternating between different food items in specific groups according to her choice is allowed as it will make it easy for her to control her blood glucose while having a varied diet.

An Excellent Healthy Drink for Diabetics!

Did you know that flavored carbonated water has no calories, sugar, body, sweetener, color or preservatives?

The taste is fantastic, extremely refreshing and gives diabetics a great drink without any carbohydrates. A large
and affordable assortment of flavored carbonated water concentrate is available for free delivery world wide from
http://www.allfreightfree.com.

Reading all I can about diabetes and health. Found an excellent site at adviceondiabetes.com with a free ebook with more than 500 diabetes recipesArticle Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/a-gestational-diabetes-diet-chart-helps-to-maintain-healthy-and-varied-diet-1073738.html

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Why Cardio Interval Training Is Healthy!

July 11th, 2009

The U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study of people in the United States to see how many were at risk of heart disease. People at high risk could be detected before symptoms occured.

Cigarette smoking males over age 35 who had high blood pressure, high levels of certain blood fats and family history of heart disease were among the highest at risk. At greater risk is the person who has an anxious personality and who is highly compulsive. These people can certainly use the benefits of cardio interval training.

These threats to the heart can be divided into two categories. These categories are controlled and uncontrolled by an individual. The controlled category is what is called “the triple threat” including high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol in the blood. Uncontrolled category includes age, sex and the heredity of the person.

A smoker who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day is at twice the risk of that of a nonsmoker. Add in hypertension and a diet high in fat with no exercise the risk of heart attack can be up to five times more than normal.

So, if you want a healthy heart what will help in its well-being and make it perform for a long time and do it well?

Obviously the first thing is to quit smoking and then start eating a healthy diet. The next thing you and your heart need is a regular exercise routine you can follow every week to give you a healthy body and the best way is to start cardio interval training.

The heart is similar to the muscles in the arms and legs in that it is a group of muscles which like your limb muscles will strengthen and improve in overall health with regular exercise.

Over the years there have been many studies done to find the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease. One such survey compared bus drivers to conductors and the findings were interesting to say the least. A significantly higher rate of heart disease went to the drivers who were mostly inactive compared to the conductors who had to walk around and climb stairs to the second level on a regular basis.

The results of these tests came from experiments done with dogs. The dog’s coronary arteries were narrowed like a human would be with arteriosclerosis. It was found the dogs that were exercised regularly had much better blood flow than those that did not exercise.

Exercise stimulated development of new connections between broken and normal blood vessels. Exercised dogs therefore had better blood flown to tissues of the heart. The human heart reacts in exactly the same way providing blood to the damaged area.

The heart renews itself with collateral circulation by making new blood vessels to be able to heal the heart. This process can actually prevent a heart attack if this develops long before the actual heart attack.

Now we know the facts and just have to answer the question as to how to prevent any of these problems from happening.

There have been studies done and some show that moderate exercise done a few times a week is better than doing vigorous exercise twice as often.

We all know that regular exercise reduces heart risk. There are also research findings showing that non-exercisers have a 49% greater risk of heart attack than those who exercise regularly. A third of that risk is just in the lifestyle we lead, that being non-active.

This is where cardio interval training starts to take effect the most. You will see nothing but positive results in not only your cardiovascular system but in your overall health and outlook on life in general. You will be healthier, have more energy be able to function with a better sense of well being.

This interval training done in a cycle of “repeated segments” that is intense in nature is the best way to a healthy heart. In this process you go from intense to a slower time of recuperation and this can be done with high intensity motion and moderate or slower motion.

Cardio interval training gives you the benefits that you probably never expected like the threat of a heart attack lessened if not eliminated altogether. Your heart will function overall better and more efficiently, and you will have increased metabolism thus burning more calories and losing weight. Your lung capacity will have greatly improved and your stress level will all but be eliminated. .

So as you can see a complete body workout including cardio interval training along with a great healthy diet plan will get you in shape, fit, and let you live a long and healthy life.

A program like discussed here is easy to get started. The author is ready to help you with a step by step plan that you can follow every day. This fitness routine involves a complete body workout including cardio, healthy eating and tips on how to avoid injury. Give your heart the boost it needs by clicking here now http://www.loseweightgetfitforcouples.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/why-cardio-interval-training-is-healthy-1030146.html

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