92 Year Old Yoga Master- Inspirational!“0 Comments”
admin | 12:59 pm | January 27, 2012 | Yoga
I have always thought of yoga as a kind of elixir of youth, but after seeing this video I now know for sure! At 92, New York based practicing yoga teacher Tao Porchon Lynch is a true testament to the life-extending benefits of yoga. This woman has more flexibility, strength and Grace then many people I know in their 20s and most people I know over 30.
Click on the picture below to see Tao in action!
2012: Is It Time To Become More Vegetarian?“0 Comments”
admin | 4:07 pm | January 11, 2012 | Green Living
As time progresses, it is becoming more and more apparent that we as a human race have messed with our resources to such an extent that we are facing the possibility of a major food shortage crisis. Our reliance on meat and chicken as a food source has also caused environmental shifts that are contributing majorly to climate change and global warming. Farming of animals for food has also become out of control, with routine hormones and anti-biotics being used more frequently and animals being treated in disrespectful ways. In addition, overfishing has led to a major fish shortage with many species facing extinction.
This, coupled with various health reasons to eat less animals and more plants has lead to a world-wide shift in consciousness towards a more vegetarian way of life.
While vegetarianism may not be for everyone, the planet (and your body) can benefit from practicing just one vegetarian day per week.
10 advantages of having a meat-free day:
- Substituting proteins like beans, lentils, chickpeas, soya and nuts will provide more natural fibre and vitamins than a steak or burger patty.
- Plant foods provide antioxidants, special chemicals that help fight aging and diseases of lifestyle, like cancer and heart disease.
- Fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of vitamin C, as well as many minerals not found in animal products.
- Reducing saturated fat found in red meat, chicken skin and full-fat dairy products can help lower the risk of heart disease and certain cancers.
- You will be contributing fewer greenhouse gas emissions. According to a study by the UN’s Environment Programme, “Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels.”
- You will be reducing the estimated 55bn farmyard animals that are slaughtered each year to feed the world
- Cow grazing leads to the extinction of indigenous plant and animal species and according to Greenpeace, the chicken-flesh industry is leading the way in destroying the Amazon rain forest. So having a meat-free day will help reduce this.
- You limit your own risk of contamination by leaving out meat. The US Department of Agriculture reports that 70% of food poisoning is caused by contaminated animal flesh.
- Damaging dioxins are more prevalent in red meat, fish and dairy products than in plant foods.
- Hormones are fed to animals to promote growth and these can affect our health if we eat meat that is not organic and free range.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES!
Beat the Holiday Bulge“1 Comment”
admin | 3:02 pm | December 12, 2011 | Uncategorized, Weight Loss
Having a good time is the main intention behind taking a holiday, and this often means indulging on heavy food and drinks. But coming home bloated, overweight and unhealthy will only make you feel like you need another holiday. The following tips will help you keep in tip top shape and avoid those regretful feelings.
Don’t sacrifice on exercise
If you are travelling locally, make sure that your gym contract is activated for the city you are visiting. Most hotels have at least basic gym facilities now days. Choose high energy out-door activities, like hiking, swimming or water sports. Even a good old walk through a local market or shopping centre is good exercise (especially if you carry around some heavy shopping bags too). Remember, the more exercise you do, the more over-eating you can get away with. Don’t forget to pack some running or walking shoes, or maybe even your yoga mat.
Up the Water
This is especially important if you are travelling to hot climates or spending lots of time in the sun. Water is one of the single most important nutrients for a healthy weight and sacrificing on intake could cause you to gain.
Eat a good breakfast
Most hotels serve a big breakfast where you’ll have lots of healthy choices. Always go for some fresh fruit in the mornings, with a wholegrain cereal or porridge and yogurt. Eggs on wholegrain toast is also a good choice (poached or boiled eggs are best). Go easy on the muesli as these tend to be high in fat and sugar. If pastries for breakfast are your thing, limit these to a couple of incidences per week max.
Order Out Smartly
Most restaurants do not base their menu choices on what’s healthy, but rather on what’s tasty- and this often means rich, creamy sauces. If you are near the coast, sample some of the local fish and seafood. Always order your fish dry-grilled or Cajun style, without the lemon butter sauce. Sushi is also a great choice. Steaks should be limited and always go for the smaller option, like a minute or ladies’ steak. Grilled chicken breasts or ostrich steaks are a less fatty option that beef steaks or lamb. Regarding side orders- go easy on the chips, onion rings and creamed spinach and rather opt for a baked potato minus the sour cream, or even better for steamed vegetables or salad. Pasta should always be ordered as a half portion with a tomato base. Take out foods should be kept to a minimum. If you must indulge, why not save on some kilojoules and try a plain chicken burger instead of a regular burger with chips?
Mind Your Liquor
Alcohol is a concentrated kilojoule source and can affect your weight if you over-indulge. If you do drink, choose mixers with soda water instead of juices, cocktails and sugary fizzy drinks. Dry wines are preferable to sweet wines, which contain more kilojoules. Drinking can also take its toll on your liver, leaving you sluggish and bloated.
Become a Health Conscious Cook
If the holiday event is at your home, consider preparing dishes that require more nutritious ingredients and healthier cooking methods. Be aware of how you use fat, sugar, starch and salt. Include lots of fresh fruits and vegetables in your menus. Use plan fat-free yogurt instead of cream. Don’t fry anything. Rather grill, bake, steam and boil. Use lemon or lemon juice, herbs and spices for flavor. Garlic and crushed red pepper give most dishes flavor and character. For dessert, try fresh fruit salad with low kilojoule jellies and sorbets.
Indulge, don’t binge
There is a big difference between indulging (which involves a subtle enjoyment) and bingeing (which indicates a type of gluttony). Choose your indulgences carefully. If crème brule is simply your favourite, then by all means indulge in a dessert after dinner. But if you’re just eating for the sake of it and not deriving much pleasure- its better to stay away. Remember- everything in moderation.
I have 3 girls and am trying for a boy. Is it true that the diet before conception can influence the sex of my baby?“0 Comments”
admin | 11:31 am | November 29, 2011 | Pregnancy and Baby Feeding
There had been no evidence that diet can influence your baby’s gender until recently. Researchers from the universities of Exeter and Oxford in England asked 740 first-time moms in the United Kingdom to keep food diaries before and during early pregnancy. The women didn’t know the sex of their babies, but when researchers reviewed their food plans, they found that moms who consumed more kilojoules of higher quality before conceiving were about 24 percent more likely to give birth to boys than moms who ate less. The average energy intake of women bearing boys was 10135 kilojoules. The researchers found that women who gave birth to boys also had higher levels of protein, potassium, calcium, vitamin C and vitamin B12. There is also some evidence that in developing countries where food is scarce, the amount of boys born is dropping. The research is interesting, but it certainly is not the whole truth and we don’t yet fully understand the nutritional factors that play a role in conception.
Increasing your kilojoule intake does come with risks though, which include weight gain and a high pre-pregnancy weight. It is not advised to gorge out while sacrificing on good nutrition. Also if you are overweight, increasing kilojoules to as much as 10 000 could result in rapid weight gain and a high pre-pregnancy weight if followed for too long. To put this research to the test, start to increase your intake of nutritious foods, like lean protein, fruits, vegetables, dairy products and wholegrains and exercise at least 5 times a week to compensate for the high kilojoule intake.
Question: My baby gets wind after a bottle feed. What can I do to prevent this?“0 Comments”
admin | 11:26 am | | Pregnancy and Baby Feeding, Uncategorized
Answer: Bottle fed babies do tend to get more problems with wind than breast-fed babies do because the rate at which they get milk is slower with breast-feeding. The wind is caused by air being swallowed into your baby’s tummy during feeding. Sometimes the air gets trapped and it forms a bubble in her stomach that causes some discomfort. Make sure that the inside of her teat is saturated with milk by tilting the bottle at an angle. Feeding her in an upright position, rather than supine, also helps. Offer small amounts of milk at a time (about 60-90ml) and take short breaks to allow her to bring up wind. To assist her to bring up some wind you can try holding her upright over your shoulder holding her with one arm and using the opposite arm to rub or pat her back. You could also try sitting her upright on your lap and leaning her slightly forwards supporting her chin with one hand and using the other hand to rub or pat her back. Another position is done by laying her on your lap on her belly and supporting her head so tat it’s higher than her chest and from there rub or pat her back. The rubbing and patting need not be rough, just gentle motions will do. Try all three positions and see what works best for her. Some gripe water on her teat or on a dummy teat or dropped into the mouth can help assist the process of burping up air. If she is consistently battling to bring up wind or becomes very distressed, she may have colic in which case, she needs to be treated accordingly.
Spinach and Strawberry Salad (Serves 4)“0 Comments”
admin | 8:35 am | November 15, 2011 | Recipes, Uncategorized
3 cups baby spinach
½ red onion, chopped
10 fresh strawberries, cut into halves
Dressing:
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp poppy seeds/sesame seeds
2 tsp brown sugar
(Combine the salad ingredients with the dressing)
Oriental Chicken and Cabbage Salad (Serves 4)“0 Comments”
admin | 8:32 am | | Recipes, Uncategorized
1 cup coleslaw mix, chopped (carrots and white cabbage)
1 cup red cabbage, chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
1/4 cup slivered almonds
¼ cup sesame seeds
2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 Tbs sesame oil
Dressing:
2 Tbs sesame oil
2 Tbs soya sauce
2 Tbs lemon juice
(Place the almonds and sesame seeds in a non-stick pan and cook on high heat until golden. Lightly fry the chicken breasts in sesame oil and set aside to cool. Combine the salad ingredients with the almonds, sunflower seeds and chicken and mix in with the dressing).
Paw-Paw and Avocado Salad (Serves 4)“0 Comments”
admin | 8:28 am | | Recipes
2 cups baby spinach
2 cups rocket
1 paw-paw, deseeded and cut into cubes
1 avocado pear, sliced
1 small packet mixed salad sprouts (e.g. alfalfa, chickpeas and lentils)
Dressing:
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
2 Tbs olive oil
¼ tsp onion
1 tsp paw-paw seeds
2 tsp honey
(Mix dressing ingredients in a food processor and pour over the salad mixture)
Turn Over a New Leaf!“2 Comments”
admin | 8:24 am | | Uncategorized
Salads are a great way to stay slim, keep hydrated and nourished and ensure you get the best nutrition possible to boost your health.
Summer is a great opportunity to “turn over a new leaf” and eat more raw foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables. Maximise your summer health plan by including more fresh leafy salads. For optimum health make at least one meal a day a large, fresh salad and make sure you eat at least a small salad at your other main meal. In addition, snack a fresh fruits in season between meals, which will help ensure you meet your minimum requirement of 5 fruits and vegetables each day.
Before you start to create your delicious and vitally nutritious summer salads, stock up on the essential ingredients, which include:
Greens. Many people perceive lettuce to be of little nutritional value, but this is not always true. There are so many different varieties of lettuce, with similar but different nutritional profiles and applications. Romaine lettuce happens to be one of the most nutritionally dense foods in the world for example. Choose different varieties and look for leaves with the most colour and the darkest hues. Darker greens like spinach, are particularly rich in minerals like magnesium and chromium and are an excellent source of vitamin C and folate.
Sprouted greens. Sprouted greens, like pea shoots, sunflower sprouts are a particularly concentrated source of vitamins and minerals and add flavour and crunch to salads.
Sprouts. Sprouted chickpeas, lentils, alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts and other salad sprouts are high in protein and essential vitamins and minerals.
Herbs. Herbs like basil, rocket, watercress, coriander, parsley etc add a lot of flavour and nutrition to salads.
Cucumber. Most salads are incomplete without cucumbers. Cucumbers are a very high water vegetable and are not exceptionally high in any one nutrient. The flesh of the cucumber contains vitamins A and C. The skin is richer in nutrients and contains potassium, manganese and magnesium. Cucumber skins are also rich in a special mineral called silica.
Onion. Onion is a potent source of antioxidants that help cleanse the body and improve the immune system. Red onions are particularly nutritious and work well in most salads.
Tomatoes. Another salad favourite, the tomato is a great source of vitamin C and is also rich in a special antioxidant, called lycopene.
Other nutritious and interesting additions that work well in summer salads include:
Cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage (cruciferous vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals as well as cancer-fighting antioxidants)
Nuts and seeds and avocado pear (rich in unsaturated oils)
Fruit (adds fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants)
Protein, like chicken, fish, meat, eggs or legumes (add protein to the meal, making it more complete)
Adrenal Fatigue- Myth or Modern-day Malady?“0 Comments”
admin | 9:12 am | October 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
Corporate South Africa is stressed. Missing meals, pushing through fatigue and faltering on exercise are becoming common place as busy people live for work, moving hurriedly from one short term goal to the next. While a certain amount of stress is productive, too much could lead to burnout. Under optimal levels of stress, we are productive and creative. However, once we pass the level of optimal performance, we enter the negative phase of stress with low efficiency, productivity, creativity and poor interpersonal relationships, known as burnout. The manifestations of burnout can vary widely and can lead to a host of conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, anxiety or depression. While these are all medically accepted stress-related conditions, a more contentious one, known as adrenal fatigue, has begun to emerge as a new modern day illness. However, not all endocrinologists are in agreement as to what adrenal fatigue is or whether it even exists.
Dr Bhana, a Physician Endocrinologist treats patients for stress related disorders, including adrenal fatigue in his Johannesburg practice in Melrose Arch. According to Bhana, adrenal fatigue is not yet a widely accepted medical diagnosis, because its boundaries are still largely undefined.
Your adrenal glands, which are walnut-sized glands situated above the kidneys, respond to every stress you experience by secreting hormones (namely cortisol, adrenalin and nor-adrenalin) that mediate the many physiological accommodations your body must make to adapt to the stressor and maintain homeostasis. Long ago, as hunter-gatherers, our response to stress (known as the flight or fight reaction) was in response to impending danger and was usually short-lived. Today and especially in the corporate world, we face stress persistently and thereby eventually exhaust our adrenal glands, which have to work overtime to pump out stress hormones, explains Bhana.
Adrenal fatigue as a syndrome, according to Bhana, is caused by a gradual decline in adrenal endocrine function brought on by chronic stress. Adrenal fatigue should not be confused with adrenal insufficiency or Addison’s disease, which are accepted medical diagnoses for diseases not necessarily brought on by stress. Symptoms of adrenal fatigue, which may include fatigue, irritability, energy dips and reduced resistance to infections are non-specific and could be related to one of many other conditions, which is why it is important to first rule out things like diabetes, anemia, cancer, thyroid or blood sugar problems before making a diagnosis, explains Bhana.
Defining adrenal fatigue becomes even more difficult because of the lack of clinical studies and because the early morning reference ranges for the stress hormone cortisol are large. Bhana explains that if you consistently test cortisol levels throughout the day, you will find that with adrenal fatigue the circadian rhythm of the hormone starts shifting. Adrenal fatigue, according to Bhana, involves interplay between cortisol and another hormone, which is the building block for cortisol, known as DHEA. Chronic stress takes place in 2 stages, according to Bhana. In stage one, the cortisol is high and the DHEA is normal and in stage 2 (burnout) cortisol and DHEA are both low. When DHEA becomes low, Bhana often uses a schedule 5 DHEA replacement product combined with lifestyle changes and stress management techniques as treatment. Bhana states, “We need to take some time out and learn to relax. Busy people tend to spend most of the day using their left brain (logical, detail- oriented side), so doing exercises that help stimulate the right brain (feeling based and more creative side) will help. Physical exercise is also of the utmost importance and should be built up gradually to about 40 minutes per day for best results.”
Author: Ashleigh Caradas
A copy of the article appeared in Business Day Health News
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