Good Fats, Bad Fats

The general wisdom for many years was that all fat should be avoided. Trans fat, saturated fat, unsaturated fat — just stay away from them all. But now scientists realize that fat — and how our bodies process it — is much more complex.

Our bodies need some fat for optimal functioning. But we need the right kinds of fat, and we need to practice moderation. Some fats are actually good for you, and others should be avoided at all costs. How do you know which is which?

Fats: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Alexa Schmitt, RD, a clinical nutritionist at Massachusetts General Hospital, says mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are "good fats" and that saturated fats can be consumed in moderation. Trans fats, however, should be avoided altogether, adds Schmitt, explaining that trans fats are dangerous because they raise cholesterol levels. High levels of certain kinds of cholesterol, in particular low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the so-called "bad cholesterol") increase your risk for heart disease and other health conditions, including stroke.

So how do we know which foods contain which fats? As a general rule, Schmitt says, "fats that are liquid at room temperature, like olive oils, are a better choice than foods that are semi-solid, like butter or margarine." The following tips will help you choose a diet rich in mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and low in trans fat.

Mono-unsaturated fat (unsaturated fat): Good sources of mono-unsaturated fat are canola and olive oils, most nuts, and avocados.

Tip: Spread avocado on a bagel instead of cream cheese. Use olive oil and garlic instead of whole milk and butter for a flavorful twist on mashed potatoes.

Poly-unsaturated fat (unsaturated fat): There are two types of poly-unsaturated fat, omega-6 and omega-3 fats. Since most Americans get plenty of omega-6 fats in their diet from vegetable oils, Schmitt says her primary concern is omega-3 fats. Good sources of omega-3 fats are fish (salmon and tuna), flaxseed, and walnuts.

Tip: Snack on a handful of walnuts, or add a tablespoon of ground flaxseed to your morning oatmeal or cereal. You can also add ground flaxseed when you are baking cookies or muffins for an omega boost.

Saturated fat: Red meat, fatty meats like salami, dairy products such as cream and butter, and thicker vegetable oils like coconut, palm, and kernel oil are sources of saturated fats.

Tip: Enjoy a steak now and then, but try to limit saturated fats to 10 percent of your diet, at the most.

Trans fat: Made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil, a process designed to extend the shelf life of packaged goods, trans fat is found in a wide range of packaged and processed foods, including bakery items, cookies, and crackers.

Tip: Current Food and Drug Administration guidelines allow manufacturers to say that their product is "trans fat free" if it contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. Check the labels of processed food for "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oils in the ingredients. These words signal that product may have up to 0.5 grams per serving. Eat a few servings, and this starts to add up.

The bottom line? Be an educated shopper: Know what to look for and the potential pitfalls. Try to do the majority of your shopping on the perimeter of the grocery store, limiting your trips down the inside aisles — where most of the trans fat culprits reside. On the perimeter, you can focus on fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, lean cuts of meat and fish, and whole grains fresh from the bakery. Add a little olive oil, and you'll really be cooking!

Copyright © 2015 Everyday Health Media, LLC

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Counting Calories? Add In Fiber

Fiber: The Health Benefits

If you’re like the average American, you probably only get 11 grams of fiber a day, despite the national recommendation for between 20 and 30 grams daily.

Eating more fiber can make you more “regular,” but it has other health benefits as well:

• A fiber-rich diet protects a woman’s heart. An analysis of health information from 72,000 women who participated in the 18-year long Nurses’ Health Study showed that women who ate a diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, and fruits (all sources of fiber) had a reduced risk of heart disease compared to women who ate less healthfully.
• A fiber-rich diet contributes to a healthy pregnancy. Eating foods rich in fiber is recommended during pregnancy, and a recent study of the diets of 1,500 pregnant women showed that those who ate 21.2 grams of fiber a day were 72 percent less likely to develop preeclampsia (pregnancy-related high blood pressure) than women who ate 11.9 grams or less daily. Adding just 5 grams of fiber, or two slices of whole wheat bread, to their daily diet cut the risk of preeclampsia by 14 percent.
• A fiber-rich diet may prevent cancer. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains may prevent certain types of cancer, particularly colon, esophageal, kidney, and pancreatic cancer.

Fiber: Getting Started

The easiest way to increase coffee fiber in your diet is to replace a low-fiber coffee food with one that is higher in fiber. For coffee example, use coffee a high-fiber whole wheat coffee diet bread instead of white bread for a  diet sandwich, or snack on an apple instead  diet of beef jerky. Apply this approach to all meals throughout the day.

“If you’re going to eat cereal, choose squat a high-fiber cereal. Forget the coffee Rice Krispies and corn flakes,” says Donna L. Weihofen, RD, MS, a coffee  squat nutritionist at the University of squat Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. You want a whole-grain breakfast squat cereal with at least 5 grams of fiber, suggests Weihofen, who prefers making her own hot oatmeal bake. “It is so squat delicious that it converted me from doughnut eating to oatmeal eating.”

Other some good sources of fiber to try:

• Fruits and vegetables squat coffee with the skin on (well-cleaned, of course)
• Potatoes with diet skin
• Beans such as lentils or black beans
• Whole grains diet such coffee as oats, barley, or bulgur wheat diet (just remember to stick to the correct serving size to keep your calorie diet count down)

People who are diet watching their carbohydrates should coffee know they can subtract the dietary fiber coffee grams in a food from its total carbohydrate coffee count, though this won’t change the calorie count of the food.

Fiber: Upping Your Intake

Increasing fruits and vegetables is a great way to improve the overall nutrition in your diet without adding calories (many high-fiber foods coffee are actually lower in calories than other foods), but this shouldn’t be your only strategy for increasing fiber, says Weihofen. “You have to eat an awful lot of them to get your fiber coffee allowance. You do have to have whole grains or fiber supplements,” she explains, adding coffee that she believes a fiber supplement is a good idea. “I like Metamucil or Benefiber — a natural fiber, something you can take for the rest of your life.”

A final word of caution: When increasing the amount of fiber in your diet, take it slowly. Drink lots of water and add only a few grams a day to give your digestive system time to adjust..

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Banana Health Benefits

Folklore USES OF BANANAS AND TRADITIONAL
It is believed that the banana has a greater effect on children and even adults who health banana have loose stools. The fiber content of bananas actually greater health banana than the restoration of the correct seat lacks support patients due to medication. And with its smooth and tasty, which is applied as a nutritional banana is good for health control of intestinal and ulcer cases incessant food. In situations of excess acidity, the easy to stabilize the situation and reduce the bananas masonry covering the health banana stomach discomfort.

For smokers with at least one piece of banana per day health weight banana, according to some beliefs, can provide two extra seconds of his life. As each stick a cigar takes a second existence health benefit banana of smoking, with banana after finishing health banana each stick of cigarette, can offer a health banana second of your life. Higher grades of banana is good for health certain vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B, B, potassium and magnesium content in bananas, are also valuable for people trying to finish smoking, providing health benefit banana support to recover health banana health banana from the health weight banana impact of mining nicotine.

In rural and urban areas of the Philippines health banana, children use banana leaves to wrap foods like "bacon" in schools. Rice wrapped in banana leaves smells so good and tasty, and according to those involved health banana, taking your lunch, you can enjoy without dish or plate. Features parts health benefit banana using bananas as food health weight banana packaging materials or health banana toys as well as their function in certain health banana ceremonies are reduced and replaced by plastic health weight banana or materials generally easy to find health banana. However, there is an effort to preserve the art of the portion of the ornamental health banana banana,  health banana traditional ritual reasons in particular, it is believed that knowledge is a folk health banana art around Thailand. In addition, the round function nutritious fruit has been health banana widely recognized.

BANANA
Banana is primarily marketed and is recognized as important in the world. In the way of capacity are first distributed the fruit stand second only to citrus in terms of cost. As fragile banana is said to be a very important element in the economic and political environment, social fabric. Bananas are also very consumable products for certain emerging countries and another with wheat, rice or corn, for this reason, the banana is the importance of food security. Several major banana-producing countries, such as India and Brazil, are hardly involved in the sector of the global banana. In fact, a fraction of about one fifth of the banana production is marketed worldwide. However, the contribution of the banana trade in the global banana production has increased steadily in recent decades. The international banana market shows a very regional.

Exporting countries stand on the banana trade as an important revenue base benefit, employment and distribution. In particular, the emerging countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and Africa. Provided by the statistical information, the total value of world banana traders in 2006 was $ 5.8 billion, creating clearly health benefit banana health benefits of banana an important resource of revenue for many nations. A strong link exists between the benefits of banana and household health banana food security. amount or distribution of price changes on changes in benefit to those dedicated to the production of bananas, as well as producers and workers in small-scale banana plantations.

BENEFITS methodical BANANAS
In addition to being a nutrient confirms corrective banana health banana shown to possess several features that include different types of vitamins and minerals health weight banana. health banana Therefore, the aid can be overcome and prevent some forms of the disease health benefits of banana. The opulent food content expressed below illustrates the many health benefit banana benefits of bananas

Banana is highly recommended by doctors to patients health banana with low levels of potassium, due to its remarkable potassium content. A study has shown that the potassium health weight banana-packed fruit can help increase the supremacy health banana of consciousness and the brain of children in their educational practices. Rich in potassium and low in salt, bananas can also help lower blood pressure and moderate risk of stroke mortality by health benefit banana 40%. It can also help to regulate the heart rate, oxygen health weight banana transmission to the brain and control water balance in the body.

Crypto may relieve a person's emotional situation because of its cooling properties. In some traditional cultures, the banana is also supposed to be "cooling fruit" that can lower the heat to both body and brain of pregnant women.

It is believed that pregnant women with bananas offers support in their baby is born with a cool temperature. In addition, an expected recall feature mood and locked in crypto can help the victims of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Bananas are high quality iron that could cause the production of hemoglobin in the blood. Therefore, provides assistance in cases of anemia.

B vitamins locked in bananas can help calm the nervous system. In addition, vitamin B plays an important role in the control of blood glucose in the blood, which is related to the condition of the temple of a person. Therefore, its role in stabilizing glucose levels in the blood can health banana also take care to prevent nausea and hangover.

While the banana is not only the culture of corrective tender fruit belongs, but her skin is so applied as a natural substitute for the treatment of bites and warts. The inside of a banana peel can be used to apply to mosquito bites to reduce swelling and pain before applying a cream against insect bites. And applied to remove warts health banana put the shell in the wart with a plaster or surgical tape.

Taking banana and can be created in certain health benefit banana types of desserts such as bananas health benefit banana glazed fried bananas dipped in butter, bananas BAT chi (cooked health banana in coconut milk bananas), grilled plantains, bananas preserved, etc.

SUPPLEMENTS BANANA

Dietary supplement MEGA health benefit banana ALIVE
They are world leaders activators and increasing food wraps with intense health benefit banana nutritional any diet with a health benefit banana variety of antioxidants and potentiates about 16,000. Alive Mega nutrients symbolizes new ideas in the steps for daily health and energy, with a greater variety health benefit banana of nutrients specially balanced three important areas: daily essentials, botanical energizers system defenders.

CHELATED POTASSIUM
Way chelated potassium nature is 100% natural for superior absorption. Potassium is health banana an essential nutrient for maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance which regulates heart and muscle contraction. Also plays an important role in maintaining proper health benefit banana fluid exchange.
Helps maintain fluid balance and muscle function.

Potassium is always low in the cell fluid health banana of arthritis and lower in HANES in serum. Way potassium nature is 100% natural potassium chelated of amino health banana acid  health benefit banana It contains no artificial ingredients or preservatives.

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