Brain health is a chief concern these days and diet is a major factor that affects it. The brain, like other vital organs, requires the right amount of nutrition to function properly. A combination of physical fitness, a brain-healthy diet, and social interaction can effectively boost brain health.

The attributes of a brain-healthy diet are that it should promote good blood flow to the brain, should be low in fat and cholesterol and should reduce the risk of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.

Consume more wild/oily fish and grass-fed meat

Research suggests that eating oily fish may protect you from developing dementia. A study found that in brain cells exposed to high levels of alcohol, a fish oil compound was hepful in protecting against inflammation and neuronal cell death. Oily fish are a source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid that is used by the brain to make myelin, which is the insulation on the wiring between brain cells.

Grass-fed meats are an excellent source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which helps protect the brain and nerve tissue.

Consume dark-skinned fruits and vegetables
Pigments are indicators of polyphenols or antioxidants. Berries help maintain cognitive functioning. According to a study published in the Annals of Neurology, women who consumed about two cups of strawberries or one cup of blueberries per week experienced less cognitive decline as they got older than women who did not consume these berries.

Some foods may lower inflammation and the risk of brain disease. Almonds, pecans and walnuts are a good source of Vitamin E, which works as an antioxidant. Also try to eat kale, spinach, brussels sprouts, broccoli, beetroot, corn and eggplant.

Maintain a healthy body weight
This is necessary to maintain overall physical and mental health. Eat in moderation and make healthy food choices. Research suggests that middle-aged adults who are obese are twice as likely to develop dementia later in life.

Lower your intake of high-fat and high-cholesterol foods

Research shows that a high consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol blocks the arteries and increases your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease. However, HDL (good cholesterol) may help protect your brain cells. Consume mono- and polyunsaturated fats, such as olive oil. Grill or bake your food instead of frying it.

Click here to read more

Article Courtesy: http://healthmeup.com/

Nowadays, it has become a common practice even in Indian households for people to eat their food with cutlery, either spoons or knives and forks, depending on the dish. It is thought to be more modern, hygienic and convenient, however most people don’t realise that there is a rationale behind eating food with your hands.

Vedic wisdom
Eating with food one’s hands is an ancient practice, one that dates all the way back to the time of the Vedas. The actions involved in eating have been derived from mudras (hand positions) that are the basis for yoga, meditation and classical Indian dance. According to the Vedas, the digits on our fingers and toes represent the five elements. It is believed that these five elements work on the food, cleansing it of any negative vibes and preparing it for us to eat. These are the representations of the elements:
• Thumb: Fire
• Index finger: Air
• Middle finger: Heaven
• Ring finger: Earth
• Little finger: Water

The benefits of eating with your hands
Touch: Unlike when you eat with a spoon or fork, your fingers come in contact with your food before you put it in your mouth. Your nerve endings in your fingers sense the temperature and texture of the food, thereby preparing your brain for what you are going to be eating and triggering the release of the appropriate digestive juices and enzymes. Additionally, you will never burn your mouth when you are eating with your hands, since your fingers will be able to sense if the food is too hot to eat. When you eat with a spoon or fork, the food goes directly from the plate to your mouth, so you may not realise if it is too hot.

Bacteria: Our body is thought to have a certain kind of bacteria that has protects us from the harmful bacteria in the environment. This bacteria resides in places like our hands, mouth, throat, intestine, gut and the rest of our digestive system. When we eat with our hands, this pattern of bacteria is maintained and we are protected from harmful bacteria. Of course, it is important for you to wash your hands before and after you eat, to ensure that they remain clean and hygienic.

Attention and satisfaction: When you eat with cutlery, it is a more mechanical process than when you eat with your hands. When you eat with your hands, you have to actually pay attention to what you eat. Not only do you experience the food more and enjoy it better, you are also more aware of what you are eating and how much. Mindless eating is one of the biggest causes of weight gain, whereby eating carefully is a much healthier option.

Article Courtesy: http://healthmeup.com/

*Image courtesy: Shutterstock

You already know that tea can improve your skin and help keep you fit and trim, but did you know that it also does amazing things for your health?

Tea has been around for millennia. Through that time, the Chinese have drunk it for everything from hangover prevention to weight control and common cold reduction. Now, modern scientific research has given us a much better insight into how tea improves health and to what benefit.

True tea, or that from the Camellia sinensis plant, includes white, green, oolong, black and pu-erh. All of them contain antioxidants, catechins, and polyphenols, which positively impact our bodies.

Let’s dive into what the research shows.

1. Lowered cholesterol

Media-favorite green tea was found to help lower cholesterol, both total serum cholesterol and LDL, according to a meta-study published June 2011 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Most sources suggest five cups per day will provide results, but multiple studies have shown that higher consumption leads to the biggest drop in cholesterol.

Tea is thought to work by inhibiting the absorption of cholesterol from the large intestine. Among the Chinese, pu-erh tea is the most renowned in its ability to lower cholesterol, though only minimal clinical research has investigated this traditional belief.

2. Blindness prevention

Since tea contains high levels of antioxidants, it is not surprising that studies have found them in eye tissue. In fact, drinking tea can help to prevent the blindness caused by cataracts (the clouding of the lens inside the eye), said a 2001 study.

3. Reduced cortisol levels

Cortisol is the stress hormone that contributes to belly fat and makes your skin age quicker. One recent study suggested four cups of tea per day may make your cortisol levels spike less.

If you’re looking to have cortisol levels drop back down to normal faster after a stressful event, a 2006 study suggested daily consumption of tea for six weeks will do just that (as compared to placebo).

Both studies found that tea consumption may reduce the impact of cortisol, thus slowing the aging process and preventing the widening of your mid-section.

4. Anti-inflammatory

Active compounds in tea can help to lower levels of inflammation and inflammatory reactions. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, inflammation is connected to almost every modern ailment, including arthritis, metabolic syndrome, and depression. Inflammation can also cause you to retain water and look puffy, so a few cups of tea can help you look and feel thinner.

Want a healthier heart? A 2007 study indicated the lower inflammation levels resulting from green tea consumption may help to protect against cardiovascular disease.

5. Increased memory, focus & concentration

Extensive research has shown that the combination of caffeine and L-Theanine, a naturally-occurring amino acid found in tea, improves reaction time and memory, while increasing focus and concentration (think of monks meditating).

Go for a cup of tea — perhaps white tea — before a meeting when you need to be sharp, or drink it during a test for increased concentration and focus.

6. Anti-allergen

With spring coming up, now is time to start searching for your favorite tea. Why? A 2007 Japanese study found that the tea polyphenol, EGCG, may be helpful for reducing pollen allergies. Tea may also reduce allergic response through quercetin, a flavonol naturally-occurring in tea, which is known to mitigate histamine response.

Yes, you can add locally produced honey to your tea to double-up the anti-allergy power.

Read more here

Article Courtesy: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/

In the perennial quest for longevity, there are no miracle cures. But what’s on your plate matters more than you think. Here are some foods to make sure are in your pantry.

Healthy Greens

How They Help
They contain folate, calcium, and other nutrients that support bone health, protect against cognitive decline, and help prevent age-related eye problems. Diets high in cruciferous veggies, such as broccoli and cabbage, help reduce risk of memory loss and cancer.

How To Eat
Crucifers and leafy greens like kale, escarole, and spinach make delicious additions to all manner of dishes, including stir-fries, salads, stews, and soups.

Whole Grains

How They Help
Rich in fibre, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, whole grains can lower the risk of age-related illnesses like cardiovascular disease and cancer. Because they’re digested more slowly than processed grains, they also help prevent high blood sugar and diabetes.

How To Eat
Grains such as brown rice, quinoa, barley, oatmeal, and millet make hearty side or main dishes — even breakfasts. They’re more filling than a plain white bagel.

Berries

How They Help
Blueberries, blackberries, and cranberries are rich in antioxidant compounds known as anthocyanins, which have been shown to slow the growth of certain cancers as well as improve brain function, muscle tone, and balance.

How To Eat
Choose fresh berries when they’re in season or frozen varieties year-round. Enjoy them alone as a snack, in salads and smoothies, or in cooked sauces.

Olive Oil

How It Helps
Rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory monounsaturated fat, olive oil figures prominently in the Mediterranean diet. It may explain the lower rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and age-related cognitive decline in people who follow this way of eating.

How To Eat
Take a cue from the Mediterranean diet and make olive oil your main cooking oil. Also use it in salad dressings or as a great dip for bread (skip the butter).

Tomatoes

How They Help
Certain red fruits — including tomatoes — contain lycopene, an antioxidant compound that helps maintain youthful skin texture and may reduce the risk of some types of cancer (especially prostate, lung, and stomach cancers) and heart disease.

How To Eat
For lycopene content, go for cooked tomatoes (in sauces and pastes) rather than raw. The cooking process creates a more concentrated source of this nutrient.

Nuts

How They Help
Varieties such as almonds and walnuts contain a generous helping of healthy fats, vitamins, and protein that benefit cardiovascular and brain health. Nuts are also high in compounds that ease inflammation.

How To Eat
Snack on 1/4 to 1/2 cup of nuts, preferably almonds or walnuts, four to five times a week. Keep in mind that peanuts are not true nuts; they’re legumes.

Click Here to Read More

Article Courtesy: http://www.wholeliving.com/

Getting healthy and slimming down doesn’t have to be confusing or difficult.

By including the following seven foods into your diet, you can help yourself naturally detox and lose weight:

1. Coconut oil

Surprised to see fat topping the list for weight loss foods? Don’t be. Good fats do not make you fat. The way in which coconut oil is metabolized in the body means that it actually boosts your metabolism. Also include hemp seeds, chia seeds, flaxseed, avocado, and oily fish to help lose belly fat.

2. Blueberries

Loaded with antioxidants, resveratrol, vitamin C, potassium and fiber, blueberries are known to help lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, improve memory, improve digestion, are anti-inflammatory, and since they are so nutritionally dense with such little calories, they are a great addition to your diet to help you lose weight.

3. Apple cider vinegar

Raw, unfiltered & with the ‘mother,’ Apple Cider Vinegar has excellent anti-inflammatory, detoxing and healing properties (both when taken internally and applied externally), has a high probiotic content which helps improve your digestive health, and whilst it is acidic, when taken internally it has an alkalising effect on the body. Use it as a dressing, to cook with, add to sauces, or add a tablespoon of it to warm water in the morning to help boost your metabolism and flush out toxins.

4. Dark leafy greens

There are reasons your mother told you to eat your greens. Dark leafy green vegetables (think kale, spinach, chard, Silverbeet etc.) and greens powders, such as Spirulina, contain a compound called chlorophyll which helps to improve your digestive health, oxygenate your blood, has an alkalizing effect on the body, and provides you with loads of essential vitamins and minerals to help with your weight loss goals.

5. Green tea

Green tea helps to boost your metabolism, works as an, energy booster, weight loss promoter, protector against radiation damage, and a powerful antioxidant. (Tip: Don’t like it? Try white tea, it’s the same tea leaves but just harvested earlier than green tea so it tastes a lot milder and sweeter).

Click here to read more

Article Courtesy: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/

We all know protein is important. But even if we’re vaguely aware that we need to watch our protein intake, it’s easy to write it off as something only body builders or people on strict diets need to worry about. For women especially, it’s not uncommon to go without a good source of protein until the evening meal.

Protein is about more than building muscle. Each and every body part requires protein to function, from red and white blood cells to hair and skin (all made of protein.) Eating protein at every meal stabilizes our blood sugar levels, helping with everything from mood to weight management to nervous system health.

So how do we boost our protein intake without resorting to a big hunk o’ steak? It’s easy to get more protein in your diet without sacrificing your favorite meals. Power up your existing favourites with these easy-to-use plant-based sources of protein.

1. Fermented Protein Powder

Health Benefits: While regular vegan protein powders can sometimes be difficult to digest, the fermented variety supports healthy gut bacteria.

How To Use: Blend it in with your morning smoothie.

2. Ground Flaxseeds

Health Benefits: On top of being high in protein, flaxseeds are also a good source of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids. Their fiber content and mucilaginous nature also make them great for gut health.

How To Use: Sprinkle ground flaxseeds onto oatmeal or cooked veggies for a nutty flavour. You can also add ground flaxseeds to homemade baked goods. Recent studies have found that cooking flaxseeds leaves the omega-3 content intact.

3. Chia Seeds

Health Benefits: Like flaxseeds, chia seeds are high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Because they can absorb so much liquid (becoming a chia “gel”), they can also help prevent dehydration.

How To Use: Chia seeds can be added to smoothies, sprinkled on porridge, used to make puddings, or even as a grain-free “breading” for chicken or fish (if you eat it!).

4. Sunflower Seeds

Health Benefits: High in protein, sunflower seeds are also anti-inflammatory, which can help with symptoms of conditions like asthma and arthritis.

How To Use: Sunflower seeds can be sprinkled on salads and porridge. Ground sunflower seeds can also be used in place of flour to dust meats or added to grain-free baking recipes.

5. Nut Butters

Health Benefits: High in healthy fats and protein, nuts are wonderful for balancing your blood sugar levels, and using all-natural nut butters is a great way to get them in your diet.

How To Use: Add a scoop of almond butter to your green smoothies, spread some cashew butter on a homemade gluten-free muffin or replace the maple syrup on your oatmeal with a spoonful of your favourite nut butter variety.

Click here to read more

Article Courtesy: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/

There are a multitude of diets to choose from, or exercise programs that run the body ragged. The simple truth is that our bodies weren’t meant to eat Lean Cuisine meals or to be engaged in hours and hours of intensive exercise. If a person examines the evolution of our body from the caveman days, they would see that the body thrives off of whole foods, clean meats and exercise that involves lots of walking.

Fast forward a few thousand years, and as a society, we are stuffing our bodies full of inflammatory food-like products that make a person sick, fat and depressed. The key to fat loss, optimal health and joy is so simple, it’s easy to overlook.

Eat whole foods that are plucked from the earth. Foods that do not come in a package, can, bag or jar, and automatically the inflammation will dissipate in your body, freeing up space for your liver to begin processing fat. The best part, you can eat all you want, as long as it’s clean whole foods.

No longer is a deprivation mentality of dieting or extreme exercising required. By pivoting our thinking, we can create a healthy relationship with food. One that creates a foundation of values based on fueling the body, and giving it health through whole foods, rather than limiting the amount of calories a person eats.

To help you with this clean eating journey, I have compiled a list of the top 6 inflammatory foods along with substitutes that allow you to eat many of the foods you enjoy, but with ingredients that give you health, rather than take it away.

1. Processed Sugar

Swap out processed sugars for raw honey, organic maple syrup, liquid stevia or fruit.

2. Sodium

Swap out table salt for sea salt or pink Himalayan salt. By eliminating processed and packaged foods, you will significantly eliminate the amount of daily sodium intake.

3. Wheat Flour

Swap out wheat for almond flour or coconut flour. While these two flours do come in a bag (unless you make them on your own with a food processor), they are minimally processed are a great substitute for baking many foods that typically contain wheat.

4. Certain Oils

Swap out highly processed oils such as vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, partially hydrogenated oil (just to mention a few) for high-quality omega-6 and omega-3 oils. The best source for oils are from extra-virgin coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, hemp seeds, chia seeds, avocados or avocado oils.

5. Cow Dairy

Swap out cow dairy for that of sheep or goat. Around the age of 1.5-2 years, our bodies significantly decrease in the amount of digestive enzymes created that specifically help to digest dairy. The molecular make-up of the sheep and goat dairy is more easily digested in the human body. Another reason cow dairy does not work as well is because the feed is typically made up from genetically modified corn and soy which creates inflammation in the cows. This is then passed on to us when we eat cow dairy. Last, casein is used in much dairy and many people are highly sensitive to it. When shopping for sheep and goat dairy, read the ingredients so that you can chose a dairy product free of casein.

6. Alcohol

Swap out alcohol for water, bubbly water, Kombucha drinks (without added sugar), tea or cold pressed juices. Alcohol tops the list of most inflammatory and toxic foods, and with a pause from the holidays, it seems like a reasonable time to take a break in order to regain and experience the most optimal and vibrant health.

Article Courtesy: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/

Cookies, popcorn, and other kid-friendly holiday treats are often loaded with fat and sugar. Avoid the store-bought varieties and make these simple recipes with your young foodie. Make a treat together as a fun holiday activity, while taking the time to teach him or her about nutrition and cooking.

Simple substitutions cut out fat and sugar without compromising flavor or fun. These Whole-Wheat Sugar Cookies keep saturated fat and cholesterol low, while adding a punch of fiber.

Click here to read more