Affordable, Healthy Food Choices
April 3, 2009 by GoodHealthMagazine
Filed under Diets, Healthy Diets
The cost of healthy food is often an obstacle to creating a healthy lifestyle. The local grocery store has a wide selective of healthy products. Unfortunately many of those healthy food choices are more expensive to buy than unhealthy junk foods. Shopping wisely can allow you to eat healthier and save money in the process. A healthy diet does not have to drive you into the poorhouse.
When going to the grocery store remember that by buying healthy foods you will ultimately spend less because you won’t be making unhealthy purchases like high fat meats and sugary snacks.
Less Waste is Less Waist:
Eating a healthy diet means replacing the foods that are high sugar and high fat with healthy foods like fruit and vegetables. If your goal is weight control, reduce your portion sizes as well. This means that you will be spending less on grocers because you are no longer buying as much.
More Veggies, Less Meat:
By replacing your meat purchases with vegetables will trim your grocery costs even more. Meat and poultry is much more expensive than fresh vegetables and much healthier for you. Salads are another cheap, healthy addition to your diet. Although you can buy pre-packaged salads, buying the lettuce and vegetables for the salad and making it yourself is less expensive and worth the effort.
Fresh and Canned Fruit:
Fruit can be a bit pricey, but buying canned fruits packed in water or low-sugar syrup is a lot less expensive. Oranges, apples and grapefruits are usually less costly than other fruits and they are on sale frequently. Buying your fruit on sale will further reduce your grocery bill.
Beans and Rice are Nice:
Brown rice and legumes are inexpensive and are good substitutes for meat a few times a week. Making a meal with one or both will fill you up and they are tasty and healthy. Bean such as adzuki and mung beans do not cause flatulence for most people.
Save on Meat:
Canned fish contains most of the nutrients that fresh fish contain. Canned salmon and tuna packed in water are very inexpensive, low in fat and calories. If you just need meat, choose chicken. It is cheaper to buy a whole chicken and remove the skin before cooking.
Eating healthy food does not have to cost you an arm and leg. Shopping wisely will allow you to buy inexpensive, healthy food, stop buying unhealthy food and save money in the bargain.
Well, what are you waiting for? Change your grocery shopping habits today.
How to Effectively Avoid Diabetes
April 2, 2009 by GoodHealthMagazine
Filed under Diabetes, Health A-Z
It is important that anyone prone to diabetes educate himself or herself about the disease. There is no reason to panic about being predisposed to diabetes. Knowledge will be your salvation. Plan carefully and approach the problem calmly and thoughtfully. By knowing about the disease, you become aware of the pitfalls and how to avoid them. In addition to that, you become aware of other options that you can take advantage of.
If you think that you are predisposed to diabetes; you need to know what diabetes are, the types, the symptoms, how and when to get diagnosed, and what treatments are available to you. Having this knowledge will help you cope with the disease and effectively manage it if you haven’t avoided it.
Avoid Diabetes
A chronic disease, diabetes usually becomes more severe and complications arise the longer that you have it. Everyone should learn about diabetes and how to avoid it because it does not just affect those with a predisposition.
The only way to avoid the disease is to develop a healthy lifestyle. If you are not living a healthy life, including eating properly, you increase the chances of developing diabetes. Even those that are prone to developing the disease can lower their risk factor if the develop healthy habits. Changing your lifestyle to a healthy one is all you need to do.
A healthy lifestyle should include the following:
Diet – “You are what you eat” has never been truer. Well-balanced, nutritious meals will lead to a healthier body. Eating non-starchy fruits and vegetables: such as carrots, green beans, spinach, and broccoli; helps everyone, including those that are genetically predisposed to diabetes, avoid developing diabetes. To decrease your risk factor, eat whole grain foods like whole-wheat pasta and brown rice. Avoid products made from processed grain products. In addition, introduce more lean meats and fish to your diet and drink calorie free beverages.
Weight issues – Weight is a very significant factor for people prone to diabetes. There is a far higher risk of suffering from the disease for overweight people. This is because they develop a high resistance in their body to produce insulin. Too much weight means that less insulin is produced. Insulin is responsible for removing glucose from the blood. Quite simply, when blood sugar increases, insulin is produced to control it. If the control fails, you develop diabetes.
Regular exercise – There is evidence that people that have regular exercise reduce their risk factors of developing diabetes. This is because it keeps fat away and fat impedes the production of insulin. When the risk factors are increased, including genetic predisposition, introducing regular exercise to your lifestyle will reduce the risk. The exercise does not need to be daily but should be undertaken a couple of times a week. Believe it or not, gardening fits this criterion.
Eliminate vices – Risk factors are increased when someone smokes and/or drinks alcohol. Smoking and drinking make the immune system struggle to cope. It is critical for those at risk of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes to immediately start reducing those things, like smoking and alcohol, from their lifestyle.
Update:
A new study of red wine ingredient may counter type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, along with other anti-aging effects:
- Resveratrol may prolong life and fight age-related diseases
- Resveratrol is one of a group of antioxidant compounds call polyphenols found in red wine that has been reported to have anti-inflammatory as well as anti-cancer properties
- Resveratrol may counter type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance