Mens Health - Men, What You Eat Makes A Difference In Your Health

Men, What You Eat Makes A Difference In Your Health

As a man in middle age, have you ever wondered why you just don't feel as well as you did a few years back? What has happened to your health?

As a health practitioner, I have noticed a big difference by middle age in a man who ate a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables plus good oils and those who did not.

Why? Many men suffer from eating depleted or marginally depleted foods. Men end up suffering from sub clinical nutritional deficiencies, wich lead to health problems

Increase your health through good nutrition

As a man, unless you have severe colon problems, increase your vegetable and fruit consumption. Here is where you will find the needed vitamins and minerals your body needs.

Vegetable intake, particularly intake of cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli and broccoli sprouts, help lower the risk of prostate cancer in men.

Eat a variety of raw foods daily. Cooking depletes the food of enzymes, which your body needs in order to run many of it's daily functions.

When eating cooked foods, I also suggest that you find a high quality digestive enzyme to take with your meals. Most people need them. Our body only supplies so many enzymes and often cannot break down all the foods we consume now days. This leads to toxicity and ill health.

When possible buy organic produce. These foods usually contain a higher amount of vitamins and minerals that we need in our diet than the food we buy at the grocery store. The organic producers are are trying to rebuild the soil and are careful about putting harmful herbicides and pesticides on their products and in the fields.

As a man who wants better health please note: when you eat your foods in their more natural form, your body chooses what it needs for rebuilding and balancing, from the chemistry of the food. That is why I find a whole food nutritional supplement so good to rebuild better health. It has easily digested sources of foods in a powdered form.

Do add good source of oils in your diet from such things as olive oil, almond oil, fish oils and other oils found in the Health food store. However do not use Canola Oil, or Rapeseed as it is sometimes called, no matter if it is found in the Health Food Store. It has been found to cause health problems.

You may also want to ad in a couple of foods that are beneficial for prostate health. Two of the better known ones are ground flax seed oil and pumpkin seeds. Have several servings per week.

Cut down on junk food.

Cut down on your junk food and then move into making it a treat instead of a daily thing. The lightened load from removing the Chemicals, dyes, fats and sugars from your diet will help immensely in building health.

Your body will thank you with far less illness, disease, weight loss if needed, clearer thinking and probably added years of life. Your energy will increase and people may remark that you are looking younger.

by Jeannie Crabtree C.Ac

Cranberry Juice To The Rescue

Learn about the health enhancing benefit of Cranberry juice

Cranberry juice was first made by American settlers in 1683. It is a love it or hate it beverage. For those who like it, it has a number of health benefits. Let me share some of those.

Emulsifies Fat.

This is for all of you that have some excess fat to lose. According to Nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., C.N.S., Cranberry juice contains high levels of organic acids, which have an emulsifying effect upon fat deposits. She generally suggests it along with some flax seed or flax seed oil.

Urinary infections

When it comes to urinary tract infections caused by a strain of E coli bacteria, cranberry juice compounds may help. Some of the compounds in the juice block the bacteria from sticking to the cells in the body, so that the body can more easily flush the bacteria out.

Respiratory Infections

Study results in 2002 suggest that cranberry juice may inhibit a type of bacteria that is a common cause of ear and respiratory infections in children. This is according to researchers at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

In this study it was found that cranberry juice can inhibit certain strains of Haemophilus influenzae, a type of bacteria found in the nose and throat of 75% of healthy children and adults. The bacteria can also cause infections, and may be responsible for up to 40% of bacterially-derived middle ear infections.

In this study, the researchers found that the juice could prevent certain strains of the bacteria from sticking to red blood cells or mouth cells, a step that can allow the bacteria to linger in the body. It seemed that the juice inhibited the bacteria's pili, the hair-like structures that allow them to adhere to surfaces. The juice had no effect on strains of Haemophilus influenzae that lacked pili.

While the results took place in test tubes, this certainly would be something to keep in mind for children and adults who get throat and ear infections.

Don't over do the juice!

I do want to warn you that excessive consumption of juices. Drinking too much fruit juice can contribute to obesity, the development of cavities (dental caries), diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal problems, such as excessive gas, bloating and abdominal pain. Children especially, as their bodies are smaller for the amount of juice ingested.

Recipe

Consider this more of a medicinal drink than a beverage, and you will do fine. Probably 3 cups a day for an adult, and a half cup 3 times a day for a child, until symptoms abate.

1 tea bag of Green Tea or Chai Green Tea
(Chia green tea contains ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and clove along with green tea)
2 cups unsweetened Cranberry Juice

Bring one pint of water to a rolling boil. Insert your tea bag and steep 3 to 6 minutes. Pour into a one quart container. Add two cups of unsweetened Cranberry Juice. Store in the refrigerator and use within three days.

You can drink this cold or warm it up and drink. If you have used regular green tea you can add a very small pinch of any of the spices mentioned above that is in the Chia tea, for more flavor.

Jeannie Crabtree C.Ac

Heart Health – Fish Oils To The Rescue

In a world where heart disorders and diseases are becoming more common, lets take a look at something most of us can add to our weekly diet for prevention of heart problems.

Omega 3 fatty acids, found in fish oil promotes heart health. A daily dose of fish oil has helped prevent, slow or even reverse the hardening and narrowing of arteries in heart disease in some studies.

In the current issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers from the University of Munich report that a fish-oil capsule a day may``modestly'' improve blood flow to the heart and bolster traditional therapy in patients with atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. In a study of 223 men and women, those who took a dose of fish oil per day for two years had fewer atherosclerosis complications such as heart attack and stroke.

Fish oil, found in fish such as salmon, it is a key component of the low-saturated-fat Mediterranean diet that has been linked to the lower incidence of heart disease in that area of the world.

How does fish oil work? Researchers are not ready to say, but one team of doctors used x-ray to peer into patients heart arteries at the beginning And end of one study. They found that after two years, the arteries of the fish-oil patients, on average, offered more room for blood flow to flow through, with less plaque.

The improvements were not dramatic, however the doctor’s team concluded that the benefits found in this study are significant enough to warrant including fish oil as part of traditional heart-disease treatment. At minimum, taking a daily capsule or dining on fish twice weekly would fulfill the needed amount.

Fish oil has also been found to help heart rhythm problems and can help to thin the blood as well. Research continues and always finds Fish oils to be helpful for the heart. It is certainly worth adding fish a couple times per week to the diet, isn’t it?
by Jeannie Crabtree

Diabetes: The Controllable Disease

Introduction

Diabetes is a disease that affects how the body uses glucose (say: gloo-kose), a sugar that is the body's main source of fuel. Diabetes is a chronic condition that needs close attention, but with some practical knowledge, you can become your child's most important ally in learning to live with the disease. "The prevalence of diabetes is going up because obesity is going up," says Judith Fradkin, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. "Generally, the first step in treatment is to make patients believe that diabetes is a disease that can be effectively controlled. The "amount of money it will cost in 10 years to manage diabetes is going to bust the economies" of many countries, says institute president Paul Robertson.

Diabetes

Diabetes, caused by the body's inability to produce or use insulin effectively to prevent a buildup of sugar in the blood, now afflicts nearly 21 million in the USA and roughly 250 million worldwide. Diabetes can also cause long-term complications in some people, including heart disease, stroke, vision impairment, and kidney damage. Diabetes can also cause other problems in the blood vessels, nerves, and gums.

Blood

During the past decade, medical studies have shown that by reducing high blood pressure and cholesterol and keeping blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible, diabetics can forestall many of the disabling complications that once seemed inevitable. This knowledge, along with simpler, more accurate blood tests and better drugs, has improved treatment, says Buse, an endocrinologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "New drug treatments, more accurate methods for monitoring blood sugar levels and assessing control of diabetes, and practical steps that patients can take are more common than ever, she says. Until 1993, it wasn't clear that lowering blood sugar prevented or delayed complications, and it's only within the past decade that doctors learned that managing blood pressure and cholesterol reduced complications, she says.

Type

There are two major forms of diabetes: type 1, an autoimmune disease that results in loss of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and usually occurs in children or young adults, who need daily insulin shots; and type 2, which accounts for 90% of diabetes cases and is associated with obesity and inactivity and reduces the ability to use insulin efficiently.

Type 1 diabetes (formerly called insulin-dependent diabetes or juvenile diabetes) occurs when the person's own immune system attacks and destroys the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin. Type 1 diabetes occurs at about the same rate in men and women, but it is more common in Whites than in minorities.

Type 2 diabetes (formerly called non-insulin-dependent diabetes) is different. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes about 9 out of 10 people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is more common in older people, mainly in people who are overweight.

Conclusion

The best way to prevent diabetes is to make some lifestyle changes and maintain a healthy weight.

by Richard H Ealom