Vegetable Juice for Health & Vitality!

As more and more people begin to drink fresh home-made juice for health reasons, it is vegetable juice that is being recognized as the perfect way of revitalizing the body and protecting it against disease.
Regularly juicing vegetables can have an enormous impact on your health, and of the many benefits of drinking vegetable juices my top three are:

• Improved Immunity Against Disease
• More Energy
• Better Digestion

1. Improved Immunity
The number one benefit of drinking vegetable juice for me has got to be the improved immunity against infections and disease. The immune boosting effect has meant that vegetable juices have become part of most nutritional therapies in the battle against many serious illnesses. The anti-oxidants in vegetable juice help to cleanse the blood which is good news for the heart, liver, and kidneys, and the chlorophyll in leafy greens helps to build red blood cells. As well as the vitamins and minerals the phyto (plant) chemicals in vegetables are also powerful anti-oxidants which help to detoxify and prevent disease.
2. More Energy
Drinking vegetable juice is a great way of increasing energy levels as many of the nutrients are converted by the body into energy. The cleansing and detoxifying effect transforms the whole body from being tired and sluggish, to more like an energy efficient well oiled machine. The energy saved in drinking vegetable juice instead of having to digest the whole food can be used by the body in other ways, such as in healing.

3. Better Digestion
Raw food contains digestive enzymes which ease the burden on the digestive system, these enzymes are only present in raw food as they are destroyed during cooking. Digesting food uses a tremendous amount of energy which can be apparent when you feel very sleepy after a heavy meal. The cleansing effect juicing has on the digestive system means less toxic undigested food remaining in the intestines and an easier absorption of nutrients.
More About Juicing!
Fruit Juice?
So, why vegetable juice and not fruit juice? The problem with juicing fruit can be the high sugar content which isn't suitable for anyone who is over weight, has diabetes, or high blood pressure. Although, you need to be aware that some root vegetables such as beets and carrots are also high in sugar. Juicy fruit is high in liquid content, so if you enjoy fruit and there's no health problem, why not just eat it whole?
Most people would agree that the big advantage fruit juice has over vegetable juice is the taste, (because of the high sugar content in fruit).
A Matter of Taste
For many people the biggest drawback in drinking vegetable juice is the taste, which is usually because they have an unhealthy acidic diet, and vegetables are alkaline in nature. This means the taste of many of the stronger vegetable juices can take some getting used to, so it's best to juice the milder tasting ones to start with. However, if someone is going to be drinking vegetable juice for health reasons, it's reasonable to assume that they will also be improving their diet, which will go some way in helping to solve this problem. Most folks sweeten up vegetable juice by including an apple or two in the mix, apple is generally accepted as being suitable to juice with vegetables.
Raw Vegetable Goodness
Raw vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, and phyto (plant) chemicals, and drinking the juice from vegetables means that the nutrients can be consumed in tremendous amounts as you aren't having to digest the fibre of the whole food. The high amount of nutrients in vegetable juice are consumed in their natural state making them easily assimilated into the body. Vegetable juices are a great way of getting your five a day (and more) and can help to make sure picky eaters (usually children) get theirs.
When to Juice?
The best time to have vegetable juice is in the morning before you eat anything, this means that the digestive tract is clear of undigested food. Other times of the day are just before meals, certainly not just after, it's best to wait three or four hours after a meal before drinking juice.

Preparation: No need to be over elaborate here, just wash and cut into suitable pieces to be able to fit into the juicer.
Which Juicer?
Choosing a juicer usually comes down to two things, your state of health and your state of wealth. There are many types of juicers around, it depends on the quality of juice required and how much you're willing to pay. Centrifugal juicers shred the vegetables and separate the juice and fibre, and masticating juicers extract the juice by a chewing action, the latter is preferred as the way in which the juice is extracted destroys far less of the nutrients. A good juicing machine will last longer, be more reliable, likely be easier to clean, and importantly will yield a good quality juice.

Energy for Life!
Whether it is for general well-being or to help in the recovery from illness, there isn't a better way of cleansing and nourishing the body. For better immunity against disease, good digestion, and more energy for life, begin drinking vegetable juice for health and vitality!

Pete is passionate about self help, and believes that regularly drinking healthy juices is the best way to maintain or recover good health.

Source:

What Happens to Food After it Leaves the Stomach? What is Bile?

The mix of partly digested food saturated in acidic stomach juice is progressively routed into the small bowel. This part of our intestinal tract is the location from the majority of digestive enzyme action and also the assimilation of vitamins. The wall of the small intestine presents a very sophisticated pattern of folds and projections.

This style enables the small intestine to possess an absorptive surface approximating the size of a tennis court. This enables for really effective absorption. When the foods mixture is spurted to the little bowel in the stomach, it hardly resembles what we ate. Yet most of the vitamins nevertheless need further digestion to reach their absorbable state.

Very first, bicarbonate created by the pancreas enters the little bowel and neutralizes the acidic food mixture draining from our stomach. Then digestive enzymes that are also produced by our pancreas and bile from the gallbladder and liver make their way towards the little bowel as well. These factors, together with digestive enzymes created by the cells that line the small bowel, will total digestion.

Bile is made up of several ingredients, probably the most outstanding being bile acids (bile salts). During digestion, the small bowel is really a watery place to be. Together using the drinking water entering our digestive tract in foods and beverages, drinking water is also the basis of digestive juices. Water-insoluble ingredients in our diet plan, this kind of as fats, cholesterol, and fat-soluble vitamins, will clump together into droplets within the little bowel.

This would decrease their digestibility and absorption. This really is exactly where bile is available in. Bile acts as an emulsifier or detergent interacting with lipid droplets so that many smaller lipid droplets outcome instead of fewer bigger ones. The benefit to creating numerous smaller lipid droplets is that more contact happens between lipidsand lipid-digesting enzymes.

If bile had been absent, as in certain disorders, lipids would stay as bigger droplets in the small intestine and for that most part remain undigested and unabsorbed and wind up within the feces. Bile is produced by the liver and oozes within the direction from the little intestine 24 hours each day, 7 days a week.

The liver is connected to the little intestine by way of a series of tubes or ducts. Throughout periods of time in-between meals, a few of the bile drains into the gallbladder, exactly where it's stored. Then throughout a meal the gallbladder squeezes the bile out and it heads to the little intestine. This allows for much more bile to become present in the small intestine throughout digestion.


 Source: 

Benefits of Barley - A Natural Fat Burner

Discover the incredible weight loss benefits of barley, how to best prepare it and how much you should eat to get maximum benefit from barley - one of nature's amazing fat burning foods.

Barley is a chewy, nutty-tasting grain. It looks a lot like wheat berries, only not as dark. You can buy barley in bulk or in individual packages in any kind of grocery store, or in organic or specialty stores. It comes in pearl, flake, and hull forms. Buy barley any time of the year.

Fat Burning Benefits of Barley

Barley is an outstanding food source for dietary fiber, selenium and tryptophan, plus it is a reliable food source for niacin, manganese, copper and phosphorus. At 270 calories per cup, barley is a low-calories food.

The fiber contained in barley is essential for a fat-burning diet. Fiber helps to create bulky stools and speeds up the elimination process of wastes and toxins in the body, plus foods containing fiber quickly make you feel full and satisfied. This enables you to cut back on consumption now, and at future mealtimes. Therefore, the fiber found in barley will curb your craving for food, which will help you to burn off more fat!

Barley contains dietary fiber, which gives your intestines friendly bacteria food to live on; this results in the better digestion of foods and also helps to keep the colon healthy. In addition, these beneficial bacteria produce acids that the liver and muscles require for energy. You can lower your cholesterol with the fiber found in barley. It binds to the bile acids in your digestive tract and eliminates them through your stools. Bile acids help to metabolize the fats that your liver produces from cholesterol. Therefore, eliminating bile acids that are filled with cholesterol and fat is healthy for your heart -- and the rest of your body, too. Fiber also helps to keep your blood sugar stable, a must for diabetics.

A recent study that was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology indicated that women who eat a lot of fiber-rich foods are much less likely to get gallstones. Barley contains niacin, a vitamin that helps protect the cardiovascular system, due to its ability to lessen both cholesterol and lipoprotein levels. It might also play a role in preventing harmful free radicals from damaging blood vessel walls, and in reducing the aggregation of platelets, which can prevent the blood from clotting.

Barley contains magnesium, a mineral that acts like a reactionary compound in more than 300 different enzymes, and this includes the enzymes in your body that are related to the secretion of glucose and insulin. Barley has magnesium that safeguards against developing type 2 diabetes. Barley provides selenium to combat carcinogens that harm the colon. Barley supplies protein to protect us from the threat of cancer, particularly affecting the liver. Selenium's anti-oxidant properties help to provide protection against cardiovascular disease, and also help in the reduction of asthmatic and arthritic symptoms.

The copper found in barley offers relief from severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. Copper is also good for strengthening our bones, joints, and blood vessels. Barely contains phosphorus, which is essential for the cells in your body.

Barley is not only beneficial to bones, but its phosphorus content is a necessary substance found in many different nutrients; a substance that is necessary for the health of the body, which includes its production and utilization of energy. Barley contains plant lignans, which help to protect the body from getting breast and other hormone-related types of cancer, plus lignans also protect the heart from getting cardiovascular disease.

Proper Preparation of Barley

When you buy barley in bulk, be certain that the receptacles are covered with a tight lid, and that the store in which you made your purchase sells a good amount of barley; this way, you can be sure you are purchasing fresh barley. Make sure the bin and the inside of the package are completely dry.

Store your barley in a cool, dry location, and in a tightly sealed glass jar, if possible. In the warmer months, barley can be refrigerated.

Before cooking barley, you should rinse it a few times under cold, running water in a pot or strainer so that any dirt or rocks will be removed. When cooking barley, use about one part barley to 3.5 parts liquid. Let the liquid come to a boil, then cover the pot, lower the heat, and let it simmer. Barley cooks slowly, about an hour for pearled barley and 1.5 hours for hulled barley.

Combine barley flour with whole grain wheat to make nutritious breads and muffins or use cracked or flaked barley in your morning bowl of hot cereal.

Enjoy a tasty cold salad made from cooked barley, chopped vegetables, and low fat dressing.

We already know that soups and stews containing barley are always tasty and healthy.

Here are a few ideas: barley posale, a South of the Border dish that includes hot chili peppers for an extra bite, chowder made with barley, a hearty winter vegetable soup made with barley, and Scotch barley soup with herbs.

Serving Size

A typical portion of barley is about 1/2 cup, but when cooking, check the recipe for the recommended amount per serving.



 Source: 

Consume Celery Before Bedtime and You Will Amaze With The Overall Health...

10 Amazing Benefits Of CASHEW NUTS

How to Be Healthy and Happy

While I do believe that we need to provide our bodies with nourishing food, the quest to eat the healthiest diet can lead to stress and also imbalance in others areas of our lives. Such a quest can become an obsession that isolates us from friends and family. It can cause us to begin to talk about the benefit of our chosen diet with almost religious fervour. Those who become driven by this fixation with ideal diet have been referred to as orthorexics. It is important to be healthy, but it is just as important to be happy.

To be healthy we need to be conscious of what we eat and provide our bodies with the good fuel they need to function effectively. However, stress is as damaging to our bodies as chemical-laden, low-nutrient food. When a person becomes so controlling of what they allow themselves to eat that it begins to cause them ongoing stress then there is a problem. When we are gulping down various super-health food concoctions or forcing ourselves to eat things just because they are healthy then we are creating stress in our body and probably negating most of the benefit we are trying to gain from the food. Here are three ways in which stress can undo the benefits of eating nutrient-rich food:
1. When our body is stressed it shuts down our digestive system. Our digestive system only works well when we are relaxed. If our digestive system is not working well then we absorb and metabolise far less nutrients from our food. Poor digestion can also lead to poorly digested food travelling though our system causing gas, upset, damage and clogging. Long-term, low-grade emotional stress such as constantly worrying about what you are eating can decrease the level of hydrochloric acid in your stomach. Hydrochloric acid is necessary for proper digestion.

2. Chronic, ongoing stress lowers our immunity and causes damaging low-grade inflammation in our body. This can increase our susceptibility to infections or cause conditions such as eczema, acne, cancer, heart disease, arthritis and diabetes. Persistent low-grade inflammation in your body is also a major factor in accelerated aging.
3. When our body is focusing on producing stress hormones it interferes with the balanced production of other hormones in our body. Two significant health issues that can arise from this are estrogen dominance and poor thyroid function, both of which can cause weight gain and severe tiredness.
If you can eat an ultimately healthy diet all of the time without it causing you any issues then that is great. However, bear in mind that stress can be insidious and we are not always aware of it. If your chosen diet is causing you undue headaches when it comes to food buying or preparation, or if you are more concerned with the nutritional value of your food than the pleasure of eating it, or if you avoid social situations where you would be eating food that didn't fit with your regime then may I suggest that your diet is causing you stress.
True health is a balance of many factors. Generally, they simplify down to being active, eating natural foods and connecting with ourselves and others. The three need to be in balance for us to experience full health and happiness. Many people get overly focused on one or other of the first two and neglect the latter. At times, an obsession with fitness or diet, because they are more easily controlled, is actually a way of avoiding dealing with the uncertainty of our relationships with ourselves and others.

If your diet is causing you stress think about what you really want to achieve. Also think about what beliefs are driving your eating habits. Is what you are doing really helping you to feel healthy and happy. The ultimate aim for all of us is to be happy. If you want to be healthy then why? Most of us want to be healthy so that we can feel good and enjoy life. Is your current path delivering that result?

The key to being healthy and happy is to balance consciousness with enjoyment. How you eat is as important as what you eat. Eat natural healthy foods, but only foods that you enjoy eating. Eat for pleasure as well as nutrition. When you eat, stop, sit down, breathe and relax. When we smell or even think about food we like the taste of it stimulates the production of enzyme-rich saliva in our mouth and hydrochloric acid in our stomach. Eating food you like is beneficial emotionally and physically.
Our bodies are actually quite resilient and what we think also has a powerful impact on our health. Unless you have a specific illness or well-being issue then if you have a foundation of feeding your body the nutrients it needs to function effectively you can relax a little about what else you eat. If everything else is in balance and you believe that having a piece of birthday cake at your Mother's party is OK then it will do you little harm. Conversely, if you believe that having one piece of cake will do irreparable damage to your body then that belief will manifest itself somehow.
There is no one perfect diet that will lead to ultimate health and eating is one of life's pleasures, so relax and enjoy it. You can be healthy and happy.




source