Healthy Lifestyle

I’m slacking a little here as the weight of work has eaten up all my time, so my last post Healthy Foods: Ginger, is over a week ago and I apologise for the break. But I’m back today and I thought it might be nice to break away from the healthy food mini-series I’m putting together to begin a weight loss tips type of mini-series that I’ll intersperse with the healthy food posts. That way you’ll get good diet tips along with some related ways to lose weight.

Today’s tip is a simple one and one that will probably sound pretty unpopular to most people, but it is a legitimate way to lose weight and you can do it quickly. So what is this magic pill that you don’t have to swallow?

Its called Ditch the TV!

Oh great. What has the TV, or lack of it got to do with losing weight?

Plenty. You see, the TV is constantly ramming advertisements into your brain to buy this and buy that. Guess what it wants you to buy loads of? Yep, fast foods, fizzy drinks, processed meals etc that are all full of just about everything that’ll make you gain weight, get sick and curtail your lifespan in some nasty way!

Oh wonderful… what will I do without the TV?

That’s the beauty of this king of all weight loss tips . What you do without a TV is LIVE!!! Get out of the house and do some exercise, like walking, running, cycling, swimming. Go dancing, go skateboarding, go have some fun!

You won’t miss that brain washing, mind numbing piece of junk after much time and you’ll be amazed at all the things you’ve been missing out on by spending hours in front of the thing every day.

Now isn’t that a great tip?

I’ll be back with more posts covering health, weight loss, diet and anything else related very soon!

Keeping the theme of healthy food going as per my last post Healthy Foods: Garlic, I thought I’d take one of the great accompaniments to the smelly bulb and write about the health benefits of ginger.

Ginger is not actually a root, as many people believe, but its actually the stem of the plant that lies beneath the soil and from which the plant’s leaves grow. The swollen dull yellowish stem is the part that provides us with the bulk of the nutrients that we use.

A common flavouring in curries, many Chinese, Thai and other Far Eastern dishes as well as sweetmeats, cakes biscuits and puddings, ginger is a big all-rounder for flavour as well as being a healthy food in its own right.

Medicinally, ginger is classified as both a stimulant and carminative and as such is used frequently for dyspepsia and colic. It stimulates the gallbladder to release bile and is often prescribed to deal with gallstones. Ginger has been shown to decrease pain in the joints from arthritis, though studies have shown inconsistent results.

Ginger may also have blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties, although more studies need to be done in this area, which should prove its usefulness in treating heart disease.

The warming properties of ginger make it useful when brewed as a tea for reducing the symptoms of colds. It is also useful as a stomach settler and digestive aid. More recent studies have shown promising results in the field of treating diabetes, although more studies need to be carried out to be conclusive.

All in all, ginger is a very useful health promoting food that everyone should keep in their larder. Here’s a tip - keep a piece of ginger in the freezer for those times when you run out and the shops are closed. You can take it out frozen and grate it over food, then pop it straight back in the freezer again for another day!

See you again soon…

To follow on from my last post Healthy Foods: Broccoli, the natural progression is to more health giving foods and one of the great all rounders is that smelly little bulb adored by most people in the world apart from Brits, Americans and a even few Aussies known as garlic.

Garlic, which contains both allicin and diallyl sulphides is a member of the onion family and as such possesses similar blood cleansing properties, but it is much more than just a cholesterol busting flavoursome addition to food.

In its raw state, garlic is at its most potent and all of its health giving properties are at their best. It should be used as soon as possible after peeling the papery skin from the bulb. As soon as you cook it, you destroy most of its goodness, so the best way to enjoy this power-packed little bulb is raw, chopped finely and sprinkled over cooked food just before you eat it, or into salads where it adds a lot of flavour and zing!

So to the health-giving properties of garlic. It is antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal, making it a great all rounder for fighting most illnesses from the common cold (viral) and flu, to bacterial attacks inside (eg food poisoning) and outside the body (eg infected cuts) as well as fungal attacks (eg athlete’s foot).

Garlic also helps boost the immune system, further helping the body to naturally fight off disease and infection and is also an antioxidant, helping to mop up dangerous free radicals and prevent cancer cells from forming.

As a food, it contains essential minerals and vitamins including all the B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus potassium and zinc.

Many people avoid garlic as they are concerned about the bad breath it gives you. Well, you can cut this drastically by taking garlic capsules, but you have to consider your own health above all else. If you are more concerned with what other people think of you, then you are not concerned enough with your own well-being and that is a situation which cannot be.

When you eat garlic yourself, you cannot smell it on another person’s breath. So if someone wrinkles up their nose at you next time you have eaten garlic, just remind yourself that your are healthier inside than they are and to hell with what they think!

On that note, I think it best to leave you there to ponder your own social dilemmas and will return soon with another healthy foods article!