Top Healthy Food for Autumn Cooking

As summer comes to an end, so does the availability of British grown seasonal foods such as berries and crisp salads. But foodies shouldn't fear - while Autumn may bring with it long nights and cold weather, it's also the perfect time of year for some of the very best fresh produce the UK has to offer, many of which contain disease fighting nutrients.

Autumn is a great time of year for English apples, and not only do these taste amazing but they are full of flavonoids, potent antioxidants that are known to lower the risk of heart disease, heart attacks and some cancers. They are completely versatile, and can be used in both sweet and savory dishes, including apple pies and crumbles and sauces to accompany Sunday roasts. Apple's aren't the only fruits Autumn gives us - pears are almost as versatile as apples, and are high in fibre, lowering blood cholesterol levels and improving blood sugar control. They can be used on salads or in sandwiches or can be poached for a warm, sweet dessert.

Often ignored until Christmas day, parsnips have a sweet, delicate flavour and are a great source if of fibre, vitamin C, calcium and iron. The best flavour comes from smooth and firm, small to medium sized parsnips, and these can be boiled and mashed together with carrots or steamed, boiled or roasted a side vegetable. They also make a great addition to soups.

Autumn is the perfect time of year for pumpkins and squashes, but too often pumpkins are thought of as a Halloween decoration rather than a food full of beta-carotene, an important antioxidant, as well as vitamin C. Even the seeds of pumpkins are packed with nutritional value, and can be roasted from a fresh pumpkin in a hot oven.
Winter squashes are one of the few vegetables that do not loose quality after picking and can be stored for months on end. In fact, during storage, the vitamin A content increases, making them a great source of heart-healthy nutrients.

Turnips, or swede depending where in the country you live, have a tough outer skin with a white flesh that's bitterer in flavour than potatoes. They are a member of the mustard family and are a great source of fibre and cancer fighting toxins. They can be cooked in a number of ways, including boiling, roasting or mashing.

Finally there's the sweet potato. Not normally associated with British gardens, the sweet potato is easy to grown in sheltered spaces and contains one and a half times the amount of vitamin C found in an ordinary potato. However the name is slightly misleading - sweet potatoes are not related to the traditional potato, and is in fact a root vegetable rather than a tuber.

Firm, smooth skins are a sign of a good quality sweet potato, and as well as vitamin C, they contain four times the recommended amount of vitamin A and are an ideal choice diabetics since they are full of slow release carbohydrates, helping to steady blood sugar levels.

Effective Weight Loss and Nutrition

Health Expert's Opinion About Weight Loss
Some people are of the wrong belief that diet plans for effective weight loss includes fasting. Health experts are of the opinion that fasting is a bad way of dieting and also dangerous. Good quantity of nutrients is required by the body regularly to sustain energy, health and growth. If the body is not supplied with proper supply of nutrients, then the muscles would use get weakened and start using the tissue as the source of energy.
Many people tend to go for the liquid protein plan. The health experts explain that it is ineffective as it includes huge amounts of protein with low amount of carbohydrate liquids. Such eating plans could cause serious side-effects. It can also cause major health related problems in the future and also death. it is better advised for you to take proper medical advice before implementing such plans, however, you would require constant supervision.
Some of them also select pills to lose the weight. Such pills for losing weight makes tall claims of burning, blocking or flushing the fat and might work for some extent, however, most of them do not work properly. Some of the pills are utilized to control the appetite. While some of them have side-effects. Some also might cause anxiety, while others fatigue, or become addictive.
Poor dieting, lack of nutrients also develops eating disorders.
To avoid the eating disorders like Bulimia or Anorexia, it is very important for you to consult a fitness expert to diagnose a good and nutritious diet plan that would work for you. You should also avoid some diet plans that include eating only a single food group, fasting or diets that would claim that you could simply eat as much as possible and still be able to lose weight. Health experts recommend everybody who are interesting in effective weight loss to avoid the kind of diet plans which supply lesser than 1400 calories. To set a good diet plan, you need to learn on making changes to your lifestyle in order to get permanent and effective weight loss.
There are various types of healthy 'diet plans' that effective lose weight and do not harm your body. One such type includes training and sports nutrition which are specially designed for the athletes. The other type of diet plan is for those non-athletic groups and consists of vegetarian and nutrition dense diets.

Healthy foods to boost metabolism

Metabolism is probably the most important factor when it comes to why some people are overweight and obese. 

Some people can eat as much as they want and still remain thin because of metabolism. On the other hand some people eat very little and gain weight. This is why the dilemma of how to speed up metabolism is important when trying to lose weight.

How to speed up metabolism? This is a common question among people who have slow metabolisms. There are several answers to this question. The first answer is to exercise regularly right after waking up. This will effectively increase metabolism throughout the day.

The second answer is to eat more. Eat more?! Yes, eat more. You should know which food you should be eating that will address the problem of how to speed up metabolism. Numerous researches have proven that some food significantly boost metabolism. All you have to do is get rid of the unhealthy stuff, eat these metabolism foods and you will reach your ideal weight quickly.

If you want to boost your metabolism, all you have to do is read on and include this list of foods in each of your meal.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a great breakfast staple that can help solve the problem of how to speed up metabolism. Rolled oats are the best kind of this metabolism super food. This is good in keeping you full and regulating energy stores. It also contains a high level of fiber that needs a lot of calories to be broken down properly. Fiber also sort of "cleans" our digestive tract and makes the digestive process more efficient.

Grapefruit

Grapefruit is probably the best metabolism food available. It regulates insulin levels which results to fast weight loss. Eating a serving of grapefruit with every meal (the grapefruit diet) is a great way to increase metabolism and decrease insulin levels. This great metabolism food also contains loads of vitamin c which has numerous benefits to the body.

Green Tea

Green tea is technically not food but this is known as one of the best ways to boost metabolism naturally. It contains properties that stimulate fat burning and puts the body into a high calorie burning mode. This is why green tea is now very popular among celebrities and athletes who prefer it to coffee and other teas. It also has anti-cancer properties that have been proven to prevent some kinds of cancer.

Water

Water is also technically not a food but it is one of the best natural metabolic boosters available. Researchers have discovered that after drinking about 17 ounces of water, metabolic rates increased by as much as 30%. Water is also very important for different body functions like digestion. It also "washes away" toxins and impurities in the body so don't forget to drink a glass or two throughout the day.

Most people tell themselves that they'll begin dieting "next week" or "after some future holiday" (or some other excuse) -- and that let's them procrastinate even further. Stop procrastinating and start eating - the right Metabolism Foods

Whey Protein: How To Gain Sustained Energy, Not Just Strong Muscles

Whey has become almost synonymous with Body Building and Huge Muscles. It is impossible to miss the Mega-containers of Whey Protein at the Gym's store and you may have wondered what Whey could do for you, even if you are just working out at the Gym for Health and Fitness? The short answer is: Yes you can benefit and increase your fitness level with Whey supplementation.

However, there is much more to know than the short answer, as the devil hides in the details. Whey is a natural product with a long history in Health and Beauty. It is not clear when it was first used, but we know that Hippocrates, 2,500 years ago used Whey liberally for its natural healing qualities particularly in the treatment of liver disease and gout. In Alpine Europe after WW 2, Whey was served fresh as a health beverage in special "Molke Kurhotels", and guest would go there for recovery after serious illness. But as the shelf-live of Whey is measured in hours, not months or years, the use of Whey was limited to close proximity to the source: the pasture roaming cows.

To make Whey available to consumers everywhere, it had to be dried into a powder. That process resulted in a natural Whey product, which today is still available, albeit not where Body-Builders run their errands. Why? Because dried, unprocessed Whey contains only about 11% Protein (highly bio-available Albumin and Globulin) and 75% Carbohydrates in form of Lactose, plus abundant natural Vitamins, particularly B 2, alkaline Minerals, very little fat and therefore is low in calories.. It is known to stimulate digestion and repopulate intestinal flora and provide a noticeable energy boost. On top of all, Whey tastes naturally great!

In order to convert this product into an Instant Muscle Generator, its Protein content had to be multiplied and the Carbohydrates minimized. The process to accomplish that is fairly simple and the industry is producing Whey concentrates and isolates with Protein contents of up to nearly 100%. But, of course, as always a gain on one side means a loss on the other, Whey is not different. So if you want all Protein, you sacrifice everything else and that means you are isolating the Protein; this means the Whey's natural balance is gone and with it, its innate health benefits. It is then not surprising that Whey isolates are connected with side effects including headache, loss of appetite, fatigue, swelling, cramps and even damage to the kidneys or the liver, the development of osteoporosis or allergic reactions.

For this reason the producers usually mix Whey concentrates with Whey isolates, because the concentrates still have some of the original components. But, unfortunately the producers don't stop there; they add a multitude of adulterants for flavor enhancement, most of them toxic chemicals, many of which are hard to identify on the label, because they are disguised under benign terms like MSG in "Flavors".

So unless your one and only interest is to build huge Muscles instantly, you want to avoid a pure Whey isolate product and choose a more balanced product with all the co-factors in tact. For example, if you are engaging in the currently taught Interval exercises, you can significantly increase your results of gaining Energy and Fat-burning, when you consume Protein within a half an hour of completion. Whey is an obvious choice and if you select a Natural Whey product without all the tagalongs like artificial flavors, you will enjoy the health benefits described above and then some.

Nutrition and Your Mental Health

How exactly does nutrition and mental health go together? What effect does the food we eat have on our mental well being? Can we make some changes that will positively influence our brains and the state we find ourselves in? Absolutely.

The foods we eat can greatly affect the body and its systems. The types of nutrients (or the lack of them) determines how our body and mind operates. If you find yourself dealing with anxiety, depression and other mental issues making some adjustments in your diet may help.

Mental nutrition and health related food is not something new, but has been somewhat overlooked by the public and to an extent health professionals. Diet and exercise are usually offered up as helpful tips to combat mental disorders, but the information is often general. Usually doctors go for therapy and drugs for more noticeable forms of depression and anxiety. They do so without more specifically looking at how natural substances can help without the need for drugs or other expensive options.

However, recent nutrition and mental health studies have begun to highlight specific natural substances that directly impact mood, anxiety and depression. Many of these we can get in our diet by adjusting the foods we eat. Unfortunately, most of us don't get enough of these even by eating right due to the fact that much of the food we get in stores is processed to the point of removing nutrients. Usually a person will need to both eat the right foods and use supplements to get the total amount needed to make a change in their mental state.

Mental nutrition and health experts have noticed that B complex vitamins have a role in mental function and mood. B complex vitamins have been understood to help provide energy to the body by working in the process of breaking down food into energy more efficiently, but research also shows that they work in the brain to protect and maintain nerve cells and brain function. Increasing levels of B complex vitamins brought noticeable improvement in mood, memory and mental energy for those studied over time.

The nutrition and mental health studies also noted that what was good for the heart was also good for the mind. Reducing bad fats and increasing Omega 3 fatty acids like those found in fish had a positive effect on the brain as well. Omega 3's contain DHA and EPA two fatty acids that help create healthy nerve cells and promote mood and function. There have been studies using Omega 3's to treat depression with positive results.

In addition to eating less fatty foods, increasing Omega 3's and B vitamins, mental nutrition and health experts also recommend adding some nutritional supplements to the mix. These supplements contain various natural extracts and compounds that the body needs to produce neurotransmitters and other brain chemicals necessary for proper communication between nerve cells as well as regulating things like mood.

For example, 5-HTP is a substance the body uses to create serotonin. Serotonin, is a brain chemical that is responsible for mood, appetite, sleep functions, etc. People fighting depression and insomnia often have issues with their serotonin levels. A supplement with 5-HTP can help the body to increase the level of serotonin in the brain and alleviate the symptoms of depression and sleeplessness.

Another substance recommended by nutrition and mental health research is SAM-e. SAM-e has been used in Europe and other countries for years to treat depression and other mental issues but has only recently begun to see use in the US. SAM-e is used by the brain to create a variety of brain chemicals and neurotransmitters. Studies done on SAM-e showed that some people started responding to it in literally hours, noticing positive effects. SAM-e may also be helpful to people who can't take prozac or who don't respond well to the drug.

There are other compounds too like L-Tyrosine, Acetyl L-Carnitine, choline, etc. that are helpful. However, we don't have time or space to go into all of them here. The important things is that there are natural substances out there that nutrition experts are now offering their patients in light of recent research. These substances can have a profound impact on lifting depression, anxiety and reducing stress. As with anything it is important to find a health provider who is familiar and comfortable with these things that can help you decide what might help you and what might interact with any medicines you are taking. Aside from that, making some simple adjustments in the food you eat and taking a daily supplement may be just what you need to get to a better place mentally.