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Food for Thought: Spring Clean Your Diet

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Now that the long, cold, endless winter is over it’s time to give up those comfort foods and trade them in for a spring cleaning of your diet!

Spring clean your diet

The good news is it is possible to rid your body of harmful toxins that you may have indulged in during the winter months, just by eating better and right this spring.

These foods will help hydrate, refresh and detoxify your way into a healthier season and give you the energy you need to gear up for summer, too!

  • Berry green smoothie – Get started with a healthy smoothie blending together a cup of greens like spinach, kale and celery with a handful of fresh berries.  The greens contain chlorophyll that eliminates toxins that can contribute to liver damage and other illnesses.  The berries are packed with antioxidants and enzymes that fight free-radical damage, plus their sweetness combat the bitterness in the greens.
  • Curry powder – Popular in Indian foods, curry gets its yellow color from a compound called curcumin.  According to holistic medicine, curcumin is used to help aid with liver issues and digestive disorders.  And because curry powder is also an anti-inflammatory it also contributes to the production of glutathione, a liver-protecting antioxidant.  You can add curry powder as an accent to almost any food including eggs, chicken, and vegetables.
  • Cabbage – Made up of nearly 92 percent water, cabbage is a natural diuretic that will help your body get rid of excess fluids. It is also jam packed with glucosinolates, organic compounds that contain nitrogen and sulfur, that help to flush out unwanted toxins in the body.  Cabbage also is loaded with many essential vitamins like C, K, E and A, plus minerals, dietary fiber and folic acid.
  • Water – Always start your day with a big glass of water and stay hydrated all day long by carrying around with you a reusable water bottle.  Drinking water before a meal can help curb hunger and overeating.

Dark Chocolate – The Healthier Side

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Some people think that a healthy diet often includes labeling certain food groups as being unhealthy. Take into consideration fats which have an important role in body providing energy and keeping our cells healthy. Another type of food which has been receiving negative reviews is chocolate. But chocolate has its fair share of positive benefits.

Why should we deprive ourselves of life’s simple pleasures? Our food cravings after all are sublime messages that tell us that our body needs something. So the next time you feel that you’re craving for a chocolate bar, why not take dark chocolate. It definitely is the healthier alternative.

Dark Chocolate for a Healthier Heart

A huge part why people often discourage eating chocolate has to deal with high fat content. But not all fats are considered as unhealthy. Dark chocolate in particular contains saturated and monounsaturated fats which is healthier. Saturated fats are made of stearic acid that can lower a person’s cholesterol levels and reducing unhealthy fats.

Dark chocolate also contain powerful anti-oxidants and flavonoids that can unclog veins and arteries. Medical studies have proven that dark chocolate can lower the risk for heart attacks and stroke by as much as forty percent.  This however, should not be taken as a license to indulge carelessly on dark chocolate. It still contains a healthy amount of butter, milk and sugar which are rich fat sources.

Lessen your Cravings

Eating dark chocolate can do wonders for your weight. Studies have shown that eating dark chocolate could actually decrease your sweet food cravings. It helps satiate your sweet tooth and helps you resist reaching out for more sweets. Dark chocolate helps relieve the stress of sweet cravings making it easier for you to stick to your diet.

Helps You Release Stress

Dark chocolate triggers the release of feel good hormones which is the body’s natural way of dealing with stress. And if you want to release your feel good hormones naturally then eating dark chocolate can be a healthy way of doing so. This is one of the reasons why highly stressed people often end up with food cravings. Eating is a natural way of satisfying our body and restoring our relaxed state. Stress could be taxing both on our minds and body, dark chocolate can be a way of replenishing our exhausted energy stores.

Managing Diabetes

Here’s an interesting fact about dark chocolate. Chocolates that help people with diabetes could be something that can raise a few eyebrows or two. Dark chocolates contain flavonoids that are essential in the production of nitric oxide. Dark chocolate can help in controlling insulin sensitivity. Some medical studies have even shown that people who regularly ate dark chocolate lessened their risk for developing diabetes.

Helps Protect your Skin

Dark chocolate contains flavonoids which can protect your skin from sun damage. Medical research show that people who regularly ate dark chocolate are twice longer to develop skin redness after exposing themselves to the sun.

Brain Food

The brain consumes large amounts of energy. And sugars are the richest and fastest sources of energy for the brain. Dark chocolate is not merely an energy source but also enhances the flow of blood into the brain. It is able to improve blood flow for 2 to 3 hours. Some studies have also shown that people who ate dark chocolate regularly have higher cognitive scores.

If you’re searching for a healthier way to satisfy your sweet cravings then dark chocolate could a healthy answer. But even the health benefits of dark chocolate could be put to waste when too much is taken. Eating a healthy diet means taking it moderately. Too much of a good thing can have negative effects on your health. Eat dark chocolates moderately and stay within recommended dietary limits.

Image: By jules (chocolate-2) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Straight From the Headlines…Eating Junk Food An Addiction?

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i'll eat you
According to MSNBC, a recent study published in the journal “Nature Neuroscience”, states that a high-calorie diet, including junk food, may be as addictive as drugs like nicotine or cocaine, and could cause compulsive eating and obesity.

The study, conducted on rats, shows that overconsumption of high-calorie foods can trigger addiction-like responses in the brain, thereby turning the rats into compulsive eaters. Decreased levels of a specific dopamine receptor – a brain chemical that allows a feeling of reward – have been found in these overweight rats, as they are found in humans with drug addictions.

For the study researchers with The Scripps Research Institute in Florida headed to the grocery store and bought all of the stuff that people really like but really shouldn’t eat very often, items such as Ding-Dongs, cheesecake, bacon, and sausage. They also bought healthy foods and devised a diet plan for three groups of rats.

One group of rats ate a balanced healthy diet. Another group received healthy food, but had access to high-calorie food for one hour a day. Rats in the third group were fed healthy meals and given unlimited access to high-calorie foods. The rats in the third group developed a preference for the high-calorie food, munched on it all day and quickly became obese.

All of the rats in the experiment were also trained to expect a minor shock when exposed to a light. But when the rats that had unlimited access to high-calorie food were shown the light, they did not respond to the potential danger. Instead, they just continued eating their snacks.

“What we’re seeing in our animals is very similar to what you’d see in humans who overindulge,” researcher, Paul Kenny says. “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”

The research was conducted in conjunction with the announcement that obesity-related diseases cost the U.S. and estimated $150 billion each year and an estimated two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are obese or overweight.