Daily Health Tips

Archive for the ‘Food and Nutritions’ Category

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Binge eaters are both men and women of all ages and social classes. Some are regular and other stuff themselves with food daily. There are also those who do not binge, but do not stop eating all day.

Those who have this problem share some of their sorrows with people with bulimia. Both have recurrent episodes of binge eating in that short space of time ingest large amounts of food, prefer high-calorie foods, sometimes secretly eat, have tried more than once lose weight and due to the alternation between fasting and indigestion undergo variations in weight.

With all this comes after the feelings of disgust toward themselves and depression. It is quite common to make diet constantly. Remain in a permanent state of deprivation, so that when its resolution to continue the scheme have the feeling disappears you have to eat large amounts to make up for past privations. Read the rest of this entry »

Such as anorexia and bulimia, food addiction is often linked to emotional problems.
The root of the problem is not what you eat, but why, so that a unit becomes very difficult to overcome by oneself.

Scientists have shown that electrical activity generated in certain areas of the brain is responsible for that, given certain experiences, we feel pain or pleasure. Sufferers seek with self-induced change addictive behaviors: repeating specific actions to bring them to the brain’s nerve cells produce an activity that generates a specific feeling.

Each person develops a particular way to address the fear, anxiety, stress, pain or guilt. Some are able to directly address the problem, but many resort to drinking, drugs or overwork. For others become chronic headaches, stomach or back. Read the rest of this entry »

Brittle bones

A disease of high incidence in some countries and is caused by a calcium deficiency is osteoporosis. It is characterized by decreased bone mass. The affected bones are more porous and break more easily than normal bone. There are common wrist fractures (radio), vertebrae and hip, but can affect any bone.

Osteoporosis affects women especially after menopause, but also occurs in men. Adequate calcium intake from childhood helps prevent this disease.

Another disease caused by calcium deficiency is rickets, which causes skeletal deformities. Rickets is caused by a decrease in the mineralization of bone and cartilage due to low levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood as a result of a deficiency of vitamin D. Read the rest of this entry »

While everyone seems to know that it is necessary, very few people consume minimal amounts of calcium, hence the bone diseases are so common.

Statistics show that in Argentina between 40 and 50 percent of young men and women, and between 30 and 40 percent of those over 25 years consume less than 50 percent of the recommended calcium intake for age.

This calcium deficiency and its persistence throughout life, warning about a widespread nutritional problem, since it is one of the agents responsible for the high incidence of osteoporosis in adulthood, as well as the frequency of fractures, says Dr. Maria Luz de Portela, a professor at the Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, UBA. Read the rest of this entry »

A significant number of adolescents and young adults who say they are vegetarians eating disorders according to a recent U.S. study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Previous research has also shown a link between vegetarianism among young people and eating disorders. Some researchers have also found that adolescents with eating disorders can adopt a vegetarian diet as a way to lose weight considered socially acceptable.

Ramona Robinson-O’Brien and colleagues from universities Saint John, Minnesota and Texas, analyzed the results of a survey of 2516 adolescents and young adults, aged 15-23 years, 31 schools in Minnesota in 1998 . A vegetarian diet might mean eating only foods from plant sources, or consume dairy products and eggs, or even a little chicken and fish.

The results show that 20% of the current vegetarians and 21% of those who had been vegetarians use some forms of extreme behavior and unhealthy weight control (such as using products for weight loss, laxatives or induce vomiting ), and 21% and 16% respectively, reported having had bulimic behavior with loss of control. In comparison, 9.4% of those who had never been vegetarian had used unhealthy behaviors to control weight and only 4.4% reported having already lost control or had an eating disorder behavior.

These results can be explained partly by the increased awareness of nutrition in general and in vegetarians and more likely to report bulimic behavior and sense of loss of control. Furthermore, possible triggers bulimic episodes may be restrictions that vegetarians needed or a lower level of satiety related to a lower consumption of protein and fat, the authors note.

Nuts and nut oils lower blood pressure at rest or in response to stress, according to a U.S. study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

Previous studies have shown that omega-3 such as alpha-linolenic acid found in walnuts and flaxseed, reduce bad cholesterol (LDL). These foods may also reduce C-reactive protein and other markers of inflammation.

West and his colleagues wanted to determine whether the omega 3 from plant sources could reduce cardiovascular responses to stress.

They studied their influence on blood pressure at rest and under the effect of stress in 22 healthy people with elevated cholesterol levels.

Participants followed for six weeks each of the following plans:
- A typical American diet without nuts;
- The same diet plus 35 grams of walnuts (approximately 9 nuts) and a tablespoon of walnut oil;
- This diet plus walnuts and walnut oil together with 1.5 tablespoon of flaxseed oil.

Nuts and oils entering the composition of foods like muffins and salad dressings or were taken as a snack.

Walnuts and walnut oil reduced blood pressure at rest and in response to stress (the source of stress in the laboratory is to make a speech or feet immersed in cold water). Add flaxseed oil did not further improve the pressure.

Some participants also underwent a vascular ultrasound to measure the dilation of the arteries. The addition of linseed oil to food significantly improved results in this test. Flaxseed oil also lowers the level of C-reactive protein, indicating an anti-inflammatory. According to the researcher, this could also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Nuts contain unsaturated fatty acids such as alpha-linolenic acid and antioxidants that may be responsible for beneficial effects on blood pressure. Flaxseed oil is more concentrated in omega-3.

Milk. Contains components that are beneficial to our body.

In recent years, has greatly increased the interest of public health leadership and consumers to know the relationship between diet and health. It has been shown that many traditional foods such as fruits, vegetables, fish and milk contain components that are beneficial to our body.

Experts recommend a healthy diet, varied and balanced as the best way to prevent certain diseases, ensuring good health.

However, changing lifestyles have led to the dropping of some healthy eating habits for years have been part of our history and tradition. In today’s society, food imbalances and dislocations are associated with the appearance of a large number of diseases.

The lack of time to cook, the pace of modern life and the huge food supply makes it difficult to appropriate decision making, leads to that many people do not follow a balanced diet, and therefore do not ingest all the nutrients they need or in adequate amounts.

Because of this situation arise food “functional” can compensate poor nutrition and to help ensure nutrient intakes recommended by nutritionists. Among them, milk fortified with Omega 3 fatty acids have become perhaps the most significant nutritional innovation in recent years. But what makes a milk with Omega 3? Who can benefit your consumption?

The ice cream is a product that can multiply pathogens such as Salmonella, E.coli and Staphylococcus aureus, although the risk decreases or disappears with cold storage, a product is sensitive to temperature fluctuations. If you break the cold chain quality may be compromised.

Whenever we reach granules or crystals of water means that at some point he has made a mistake, as the breaking of the cold chain, affecting more ice creams are prepared by dairy products, which the ice.

Another type is the soft ice cream that is served from machines in the street, making it one of the largest ice cream microbial risk is concentrated mainly in the nozzle where it exits the ice exposed to external conditions and manipulation of the consumer himself.

Such machines have a mix or blend a cold enough temperature, but not frozen. When you press the dispenser, a pump is activated from aspiring product as it exits the tank and air is injected to a concentration of 50%, which helps give the proper consistency and texture. The temperatures at which they cool is -10 º C. The final product is not as cold as other ice cream and its consistency is more creamy and soft.

Technological advances and the legal regulation have allowed to extend the shelf life of ice cream and ensure quality and safety. Manufacturers, ice cream artisans, distributors, wholesalers, importers and retailers must meet specific regulations. It includes the obligation to take a self-control and implement a system of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP), the reference system to ensure food safety. Eating ice cream is not without risk, in most cases associated with poor handling during processing and distribution.

The detection of potential deterioration is complex, since the physical, chemical and microbiological changes that occur are minimal. A key is the commercial presentation: glasses, cups or trays, or as part of other foods: waffles, biscuits, pastries, syrups, liqueurs and fruit.

All should be stored in closed containers and protected and professional handlers who must have the food handler card. These people are a cause of microbial contamination.

In outlets should take preventive measures to avoid cross contamination, for example with spoons served with ice cream. The frozen remains of microorganisms may develop, hence the importance of ensuring cleanliness in the facility. The rags used to clean themselves and utensils are also a source of contamination. The right thing is to use a spoon for each type of ice cream, and avoid keeping them in water, because if it does not change often, it becomes a breeding ground for microorganisms.

The packaged ice cream and served closed represent less risk. but check that the lid is not convex, that the packaging has not been broken, indicating the date of manufacture and expiry.

The food experts at Consumer Eroski recommend not consuming ice cream in large quantities or too frequently, they are very energetic (between 210 and 320 calories per hundred grams, except for ‘light’ and no sugar), contain large amounts of sugar and mostly saturated fat, the less healthy. And counsel also take hygienic measures and preservation of the temperature to avoid the development of contaminating organisms.

Because the ice cream comes from a blend of quality foods such as milk, yogurt, fruits and nuts, is nutritious and tasty, even easier to digest. The ‘ice cream’ have more fat than simply called ‘frozen’ and is the fat from cream, butter or vegetable oil, which adds calories.

The nutritional value of ice cream depends on its components. The key is the amount of water, ranging from 85% -90% on poles and sorbets to only 45% -60% in ice cream themselves. A more water, less nutrients, but also less fat and fewer calories.

They are also fundamental milk, which can be whole and skimmed and in many ice cream is barely present, and fats, which may be dairy (butter, cream) or vegetable (some, very saturated, less healthy, such as oil coconut), and even partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, unhealthy, for its trans fats. Then there are added sugars (representing between 20% and 30% of GDP), among which sucrose, table sugar and glucose syrup.

Finally, to make ice cream nutrition assessment must take into account that sometimes complementary ingredients contained in its composition: chocolate, nuts, juice concentrates, fruit, eggs, nougat, biscuits or cakes.

But the ice cream also contain additives, allowed to ensure its quality or improved sensory characteristics. Among others, the manufacturers use natural colors like caramel (E-150) and carotenes (E-160), emulsifiers that keep homogeneous mixture of ingredients (mono and diglycerides of fatty acids E-471, lecithin), and thickeners extracted seed and algae, which increase the viscosity of the product (carragenate E-407, E-412 guar gum, sodium alginate, E-400, etc.).. In a few preservatives are added ice cream.

The conclusion is obvious: the ice cream dessert is a tasty, nutritious and supports a balanced diet but should not be considered an appetizer for any time of day. Their high energy (attention, obese individuals), sugar (id. diabetic) and fat (mostly between 70% and 95%, Saturated: increase the incidence of cardiovascular disease) requires preferentially consume dessert and always in moderation.

This is likely part of a balanced eating plan. Recall that bring in around 220 calories per hundred grams, ie twice or more than other dairy desserts like sweet rice pudding, yogurt, pudding or custard. One interesting option is to choose the presentations of low fat ice cream and less sugar.