Health Care Foods Information

French fries

Greasy, crispy, crunchy, crinkly, crackling, good tasting and flat out terrible to your health. Potatoes are not the ideal vegetable in its natural form because it is a bit on the starchy side. However it is even more detrimental to your health when it is turned into French fries. It is processed and refined which means it loses a huge chunk of their nutritional value. To make it even worse they are fried in heart clogging vegetables oils commonly known as trans fat. The higher the temperatures the fries are fried in the more carcinogens or cancer causing agents they will contain.

Doughnuts

Do not start your day off wrong by eating a doughnut or two. Doughnuts are fattening, contain high amounts of sugars, and are fried. They contain a lot of calories but will not fill you up because they don’t contain many nutrients.

Soda

Sodas are very sugary and corrode the teeth because they dissolve into them gradually weakening them over time. They contain a load of calories, are carbonated, contain processed caffeine, contain artificial colors, and raise the insulin levels rapidly (blood sugar levels). I would highly recommend kicking the habit of stopping by the nearest store or vending machine to pick up a pop.

Frozen Entrees

Frozen entrees are highly processed. In order to preserve them they usually contain trans fat. The chicken is sometimes breaded and fried. The ratio balance of nutrients in them is way off; they usually give abundant meat with a tiny bit of vegetables. The correct proportion should be a lot of vegetables with a little piece of meat. They usually contain some type of sugary dessert and usually recommend the use of a microwave which is extremely dangerous to your health.

Canned Goods

Canned fruits or vegetables are nothing close to the real thing. Imagine taking the healthiest food. Now for a twist, imagine taking it and adding loads of sugars and salt to it, stripped it of its nutrients in order to preserve it and can it with chemical agents inside them and placing it on the local supermarkets. That is what basically happens in a nutshell to can foods. There was never a problem with high blood-pressure in the early days of America. In a matter of fact America was actually known as the healthiest country in the early 1900s. However with the invention of all of these contemporary preserving methods the health of America has rapidly declined.

Candy

Try to avoid candy as much as possible. If you have to have some I would highly recommend old fashioned or homemade candy, which is not good for you but beats the processed junk that are contaminating the supermarkets today. Candy bars are sugary, contain abundant calories, processed chocolate, and trans fat. You know when there is something wrong with a food item when it can stay on the supermarket for a excessively long time. Hard candies corrode the teeth and contain high fructose corn syrup which spikes up the insulin levels.

Chips

I’m not sure which ones are worse, potato chips, or French fries? They both are cheap, greasy, and heart clogging. However when eating a big bag of potato chops you can sort of chow down until you realized that the whole bag is gone, and you can eat them while they are cold.

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Doug Purcell
CPT
Fitness Consultant
Alternative Medicine Expert
Natural Bodybuilder
http://www.cardiacgym.com owner

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Are you a Fat Buster? Do you avoid buying foods that are high in saturated fats and cholesterol? When you go grocery shopping, do you read “Nutrition Facts” panels for assistance in selecting healthy foods for your family? If so, I have great news for you! As of January 1, 2006, the FDA requires that manufacturers list the amount of trans fats on Nutrition Panels.

Why do you need to know this? The shocking truth is that trans fats have always lurked in our foods, unpublicized. Manufacturers make trans fat when they add hydrogen to vegetable oil — a process called hydrogenation that turns liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats. With no way to measure trans fats, careful shoppers like you and I have been buying foods laden with them.

Why should you care about trans fat? What harm does it do? Trans fat, like saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raises the LDL cholesterol that increases your risk for coronary heart disease. Although saturated fat is the main dietary culprit that raises LDL, trans fat and dietary cholesterol also contribute significantly.

Why do health books recommend that we include fat in our diets if it’s so bad for us? When eaten in moderation, fat is important for proper growth, development, and maintenance of good health as it is a major source of energy for the body and aids in the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K as well as carotenoids. In addition, as any good cook knows, fat provides taste, consistency, and stability and helps give us that happy, full-tummy feeling.

However, there are “good” fats and “bad” ones, just as we have good and bad blood cholesterol. Saturated fat and trans fat raise LDL cholesterol levels in the blood, thereby increasing the risk of heart disease. Polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil, canola oil, soybean oil, and corn oil) do not raise LDL cholesterol and are beneficial when consumed in moderation.

In which foods does trans fat lurk? Mainly trans fats are found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, candies, salad dressings, baked goods, and other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. You know . . . all your favorite foods.

Even some dietary supplements like energy and nutrition bars contain trans fat from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil as well as saturated fat or cholesterol. Up until now, you had no way to identify the levels of trans fat in your foods, but now you are able to identify the amounts of all three fats in your foods.

When making food choices that will be low in saturated fat and cholesterol, remember that the combined totals of saturated and trans fats along with cholesterol should be low . . . 5% of the Daily Value or less is low and 20 % or more is high. I want to assure you that trans fats, although present in many of the foods we eat, are not “essential” to any healthy diet. . Numerous health and government authorities, including the U.S. Surgeon General, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association, advocate reducing dietary fat to 30 percent or less of total calories.

If you are sadly crossing your favorite foods off your grocery list, you may be wondering what you can serve instead. Fear not, you still have a few good choices left:

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats do not raise LDL cholesterol levels and you can eat them, in moderation. Sources of monounsaturated fats include olive and canola oils. Natural vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, peanut, corn, soybean, safflower, and sunflower oils) have no trans fats and are high in good fats.

Select alternative fats: olive, canola, soybean, corn, and sunflower oils, soft margarines, nuts and fish, lean meats and skinless poultry.

Feel free to serve your family fish, as most fish are lower in saturated fats than meat. Some fish, such as mackerel, sardines, and salmon, contain omega-3 fatty acids help fight against heart disease.

Serve a healthy, balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, cereals, and pastas, chicken and fish, non-fat or low-fat dairy products. If you cook at home, select lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, cereals, and pastas. Choose non-fat or low-fat dairy products and foods that have a low % of bad fats.

Cooking your own meals helps you better control the type and amount of fats you eat.However, if eating out is one of the great joys of your life, don’t despair. You can still cut down on trans fats when eating out by eating less fast food and by asking before you order in a restaurant if they will cook your food in natural vegetable oils. If you choose wisely, avoiding fried foods, for example, you can eat out and still have healthy meals.

Avoiding trans fats does provide another benefit that I think you will enjoy! Fats are high in calories; 9 calories per gram, making fat the most concentrated source of calories. By comparison, carbohydrates and protein have only 4 calories per gram. Therefore, replacing harmful fats with healthy foods will naturally result in dropping a few pounds of “ugly fat” and reduce your tendency for health problems.

Now that manufacturers must reveal the presence of the ghostly trans fats on nutrition labels, become the “Fat Buster” for your family and enjoy the multiple benefits of healthier eating.

Eileen Silva, Ph.D., N.D. is a metabolic health balancing expert, talk show guest, and lecturer. Dr. Silva is also an individual, group, and corporate weight management consultant. Contact Dr. Silva at http://www.dreileensilva.com

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I hope that you will not be fooled by the unbelievable advertising on some food packages. For example, labels on ginseng tea and gingko-fortified cereal both claim they will promote sharp thinking. There is no solid evidence that either ginseng or gingko improve thinking, but for this discussion, let’s assume they do. Ginseng is a stimulant just like an amphetamine. If you were to take too much ginseng, you would get diarrhea and a headache; a massive overdose could raise your blood pressure, cause a stroke and even death. If the correct dose of ginseng is contained in one cup of the tea, that means that you are taking a drug when you drink a cupful; two cups can give you a headache and ten cups might kill you.

It’s the dose that makes a poison. If a substance is to cause a health benefit, you have to eat an exact dose. If you take less, you don’t receive any benefit. If you take too much, you can suffer unpleasant side effects or even die. Drugs and supplements specify the dose on the bottle; if you take a whole bottle-full instead of one pill and die of an overdose, the manufacturer will not be held responsible. But nobody measures exact portions of food. What happens if you drink the ginseng tea all day to quench your thirst?

The same applies to gingko-fortified cereals. How much cereal do you have to eat to improve your mind? What happens if your child likes the flavor and eats the whole box? Foods that truly contain medicines would harm you if you ate too much. Of course the food manufacturers are not stupid, so they put in so little of the substance that it cannot possibly harm you in any amount - and therefore, of course, cannot have any benefit. This is deceptive advertising at its worst. Save your money.

How to Pick a Breakfast Cereal

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties. For more information and hundreds of fitness and health reports, visit http://www.DrMirkin.com

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