We often wonder what we should eat for optimum health and even the government has recently flip flopped its food pyramid which you can see at MyPyramid.gov.

Here’s an overview of the 2005 dietary guidelines from the government.

First off, according to the new government guidelines a healthy diet is one that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk products and will include lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and nuts.

The diet will also be low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars.

The main theme the government is proposing now is to eat a diet rich in grains and to make half of the grains you eat whole grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel — the bran, germ, and endosperm, some examples would be:

• whole-wheat flour
• bulgur (cracked wheat)
• oatmeal
• whole cornmeal
• brown rice

Next you should “vary your veggies” and in general buy fresh vegetables in season, stock up on frozen vegetables and buy vegetables that are easy to prepare.

For the best nutritional value, choose vegetables with more potassium such as sweet potatoes and spinach and limit sauces which can add fats, sodium and additional calories.

Prepare more of your foods from fresh ingredients to lower sodium. Most sodium comes from packaged and processed foods.

One suggestion for a healthy diet is to try using a salad as the main dish for lunch and go light on the salad dressing.

Focus on fruits. To help you keep focus, have a bowl of fruit always available on the table, counter, or in the refrigerator. Keep cut fruit in the refrigerator and buy fresh fruits in season whenever possible. Buy frozen, dried, and canned fruits as well so you will always have some kind of fruit on hand.

Choose whole fruits or cut fruits over juices whenever possible for the fiber benefits. Choose fruits high in potassium such as bananas, apricots, and cantaloupe. Put cut fruit on your breakfast cereal. At lunch, take a tangerine, banana, or some grapes. For dinner, add crushed pineapple or mandarin oranges in a tossed salad.

Get calcium rich foods and include low fat or fat free milk as a beverage at meals. Have fat-free yogurt as a snack. Use low-fat cheeses on salads and casseroles.

For those who cannot consume milk products due to lactose intolerance choose lactose free alternatives to get your calcium such as cheese, yogurt, and lactose-free milk.

Go lean with protein. The suggestions for your protein intake are to use the leanest cuts of meats such as top sirloin and pork loin and whenever choosing ground beef go with extra lean that is identified as at least 90% lean.

Buy skinless chicken parts as the fat is in the skin. Choose lean turkey and all kinds of fish.

To keep your meat intake lean and as free of fat as possible, broil, grill, roast, or boil your meat choices instead of frying and drain off any fat that appears during cooking.

Choose dry beans such as kidney beans and use them as the main part of a meal often. Make use of nuts for snacks and use them to sometimes replace meat or poultry.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant to many online and offline businesses and has been involved in the fitness and nutrition field for over 25 years.
Gregg lives in the Florida coastal town of Navarre with his 16 year old son. Get healthy food delivered to you from www.grocerydeliverycompany.com

We all know that a diet of food rich in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients is essential to our health and well being. Yet you tried a nutritional supplement that did little for you despite a friend’s or salesperson’s enthusiastic recommendation. Then scientific studies conclude supplementation has no benefit or could even be harmful. No wonder you may be confused! By following a few simple rules, you can choose nutritional supplements that can help maintain and improve your health.

1. Make sure the supplement is in the right form. Many vitamin makers take short cuts to keep production costs low. Inorganic forms such as magnesium oxide or calcium carbonate are difficult to absorb. Most people don’t benefit from them. Organic forms such as calcium ascorbate are well absorbed because they are similar to vitamins in our food. They are also large molecules that do not fit in a small tablet. The daily dose of a good multivitamin requires more than one pill.

2. You need more than one form of some vitamins. Many makers use a single form, again as a short cut. The vitamins in our food come in many forms, and each of these forms performs different functions in our body. So instead of beta-carotene, look for mixed carotenoids. Instead of the succinate or acetate forms of vitamin E, also called tocopherol, look for natural mixed tocopherols.

3. Make sure the dosage is high enough to make a difference. If your supplement contains the U.S.RDA or less, it will likely make little difference in your health. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) amounts prevent deficiency diseases such as scurvy from lack of vitamin C, according to the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council. The RDAs do not define the optimal intake for an individual. There is a growing body of research showing that optimal intake for many nutrients, especially antioxidant nutrients such as vitamins C, E, beta-carotene and selenium may be much higher than their current RDA. In their 1989 report, the Food and Nutrition Board stated that the RDAs do not apply to individuals with “unusual stressors.” These stressors often include prescription drug use, the habits mentioned below and chronic illness.

4. Don’t expect supplements to make up for bad habits. Smoking, processed food, carbonated beverages, caffeine, alcohol, and antacid consumption are just a few habits that deplete you of vitamins and minerals or make it difficult for you to absorb them. Work on stopping these habits instead.

5. Make sure you can utilize the supplement. Some people with health problems cannot absorb or utilize even the best vitamin and mineral supplements. Homeopathic, herbal or other support may be needed. If you think this may be your case, a practitioner skilled in these areas may be able to help.

6. Don’t cherry pick. Taking only one or two single vitamins or minerals can be harmful, as was found in the 1996 Beta-Carotene and Retinal Efficacy Trial (CARET). This study was stopped early because the researchers determined that a synthetic form of beta-carotene increased the incidence of lung cancer in smokers. If you apply our rules to the above study, you will see potential reasons for the bad outcome. Instead of mixed carotenoids, they used a poorly absorbed form of beta-carotene that is also known to block the absorption of carotenoids from food. They also used only one vitamin in isolation. Beta-carotene in the doses used in the study becomes a free-radical, unless vitamins C and E are present to neutralize it.

Free radicals are molecules that damage cellular structures, including DNA, which can lead to cancer. Everyone, even healthy people, have free radicals. Your body constantly neutralizes them to keep you healthy. Smoking generates free-radicals. So giving the smokers beta-carotene alone only increased their free radical load above and beyond that already produced by smoking, and put them at greater risk for cancer. This study reinforces the rule that supplementation cannot make up for bad habits. Not smoking remains the most effective way to prevent lung cancer.

Studies suggest that a good supplement regimen includes a quality multivitamin supplement, flax seed oil, additional vitamin C and an antioxidant formula. Beyond this, seek the assistance of a practitioner skilled in nutritional medicine.

Bethany Klug, DO

Bethany Klug, DO specializes in holistic medicine at the Kansas City Holistic Centre, http://www.kcholistic.com/ She is a member of the Lieurance Group, a freelance writers cooperative http://www.lieurancegroup.blogspot.com/ and authors the monthly column “The Doctor Cooks” for the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

It’s Thursday afternoon, you have thirty minutes to get from work, go by the house and pickup Heath, Jamie’s already at basketball practice, oh, and what about dinner? Does this scenario seem familiar? If you’re a working Mom, I can promise that it is a familiar scene.

So how do you make healthy food choices, when you only have fifteen minutes to prepare your meals? Well, the first thing you should realize is that quite often, healthy choices do not necessarily equate to two hour meals. You can make healthy food choices that are as quick to prepare or pickup as the unhealthy ones.

For example, sub sandwiches are a healthier alternative than pizza or burger and fries, but do not really take any longer to pickup. Salads can be prepared in just a few short minutes, and provide for the necessary vegetable daily requirement. Don’ care for the usual salad? Make a Waldorf or fruit salad, either way you’ve changed it up a bit, and still provided a health choice. As for the dressing, oil based or vinegar based dressings are much better for you than the cream based, and are really more tasteful.

Okay, suppose salads aren’t what your kids like. What about other prepared foods that are also healthy foods? Healthy Choice is a brand of frozen entrees or meals that take only a few minutes in the microwave to prepare, and are still healthy alternatives. Baked rather than fried is always a better choice, and many supermarkets today offer baked products fresh from their bakery, ready to go.

Still aren’t satisfied? You want a place to go and actually sit down and eat. There are still many healthy alternatives for a family when going to eat at a restaurant. Restaurants that offer buffet style meals are great choices. Thanks to many of the health conscious consumers out there, buffets have added baked, broiled, and fresh food choices to the display.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are usually always available on food bars, along with broiled or steamed vegetables. Meats are just about as varied, with many of the choices being offered in a fried and baked option. And if you’re up for dessert, watermelons and grapes are just as satisfying as the Boston cream pie.

You can always throw up objections when it comes to healthy eating, the real trick is in realizing it’s your body that will suffer. Or your children that will suffer from the unhealthy choices you make. Why not start with healthy options, set the right example, and you will have children that make health conscious intelligent decisions about their eating.

Okay, now back to our Thursday afternoon juggling act. You’ve dropped Heath at baseball practice, picked Jamie up from basketball, and you have exactly fifteen minutes to make a decision about dinner. As you sit at the red-light contemplating your options, there is a Subway, a Pizza Hut, and a grocery store with a deli in the same shopping center. How can this still be a difficult choice to make?

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Its been long accepted that if you begin to develop a poor memory you would have to live with it. Memory loss can start occurring from our thirties so don’t believe it’s just old people who can suffer. However, there is no reason why we shouldn’t have a good memory into our old age if we take the right
vitamins and minerals.

So why the reason for memory loss in the first place?
There are lots of reasons why our memory can fade in the first place. This ranges from poor concentration on what it is we are trying to remember to having additional ailments such as stress, high cholesterol, allergies and poor circulation to the brain.

How can memory loss be improved?
There are many who believe that an increase in certain vitamins and minerals can help improve matters and outlined below are some of the things you should try.

Increase your nutritional intake by:
- Eating a lot more raw or steamed vegetables
- Eating brown rice, millet, organic eggs, wheatgerm, soybeans, nuts and seeds
- Eating oily fish such as mackerel, salmon, herring, sardine, pilchard at least three times per week. When not eating these, take fish oil supplements.
- Try and avoid sugar and anything containing sugar, white flour, white rice and all refined food.
- Avoid alcohol.

All of the foods above are high in flavinoids (found in vegetables and fruit), iron (found in meats and some fruits), Vitamin C (found in some fruit and veg) & Vitamin E (found in nuts and veg such as broccoli), zinc (found in most meat, barley & wheat), omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish such as salmon, tuna and trout)

Recently more and more people have begun to rely on supplements and the following is a list of those most highly recommended to help with memory loss.

Try the following supplements:
- Acetyl-L-carnitine: As well as helping improve memory this supplement also seems to enhance the communication between the left and right sides of our brains. People with left-brain dominance may report enhanced creativity, while those with right-side dominance may notice an improvement in their analytical thinking.

- DMAE: Believed to work by stepping up production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a chemical in the brain required for proper mental functioning.

- Huperzine A: Helps prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, a brain chemical essential to memories.

- Phosphatidylserine (PS): Helps to keep the memory-related pathways in the brain functioning smoothly.

- Vinpocetine: Similar to ginkgo, vinpocetine may help guard against disorientation and memory lapses by increasing blood circulation in the brain.

- Ginko: May help reverse mental decline and optimize brain function, possibly due to ginkgo’s ability to increase blood flow to the brain.

NOTE: Any supplement you take should be treated as if it were any form of medicine i.e. please stick to the recommended dosage as although not as potent as medicine, if taken in the wrong dosage can do more harm than good.

There are also a number of nonfood/supplement related things you should do:

- Do more exercise. A healthy body means a healthy and active mind.
- Exercise your brain a bit more by reading, doing puzzles etc.

In conclusion there are lots of things we can clearly do to improve our memory and a mix of the above will certainly go a long way to ensuring you keep a well tuned memory for many years to come.

Nutrition and nutrition health suppliments are essential to a long and healthy life. Find what you need to know about everything Nutritional at http://www.NutritionIsKey.info.

Blacks suffer an inordinate amount of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and subsequently heart disease. Much of this can be traced to nutritional habits. Some of these habits stem from the days of the antebellum south, rather than traditional and healthier African dietary practices.

“Soul food” is a staple in may African-american homes. Some of these foods have high nutritional value, particularly greens, beans, squash and other green and yellow vegetables. But many of the aspects of this eating are high in fat contentespecially those recipes which call for cooking with bacon, hamhocks, salt pork, etc. Furthermore, constipation and subsequent toxicity can exacerbate matters. Processed sugar and flour also work to the detriment of the digestive system.

How the food is prepared is also important, especially when fried in animal fat. However, nowadays many more soul food cookbooks are recommending baking and using leaner cuts of meat. More fruits, vegetables and fiber should be incorporated into the diet. The latter assists in improving regularity. Reduction or elimination of salt, fat and sugar is also advised.

The transformation from the greasy diets so many are familiar with, to a healthier diet will not happen overnight. So how do we change the eating habits that have developed over generations? One idea is to emphasize these new dietary recommendations in schools, churches and have them reinforced at home by significant others. But this also means that the latter group must lead by example, which is easier said than done. Switching to a low-sodium, more nutritionally balanced diet can be cost prohibitive for many African-american families, especially those on fixed incomes and dependent on food stamps.

To lose weight many blacks resort to using dieting gimmicks like Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Dial-A-Meal, and other programs. While these programs may be helpful in some cases, studies show that the weight lost is likely to be regained. This is especially true if modified eating behavior isn’t continued and fails to become habitual. Adding fiber to the diet is an effective means of losing wait as it is low in caloric content, but gives one the feeling of being “full.”

Roughage helps the digestive system function properly. It makes it so fecal matter can be passed without straining and causing damage to capillaries in the colon and legs. Roughage also eliminates the need for laxatives and other over the counter remedies, which over time can cause dependence. Foods high in fiber include nuts, grains, wheat, cornmeal, vegetables and whole wheat bread as opposed to white bread and may help reduce the risk of colon cancer. This is based on fibers ability to remove waste from the body quickly. This lessens the amount of time toxic substances remain in the body.

The daily recommended intake of fiber is between 19 grams per day and 38 grams per day. On the other hand, too much roughage can result in iron, calcium and magnesium deficiencies. Therefore it is wise to make food your source of fiber rather than ingesting dietary supplements.

Sources:

June Ewing, “Cultural Diversity: Eating in America, African-American, HYG-5250-95″, Ohio State University

Recommended Reading: “Nutricide: The Nutritional Destruction of the Black Race”, Laila Afrika

Timothy N. Stelly, Sr. is a columnist for several online magazines and is the author of the two novels, “Tempest In The Stone” and “The Malice of Cain.” He resides in Pittsburg, California.