Healthy Eating September 02 2017
Okay, we get it. Your friends were treating to lunch. You went to that restaurant with the big menu and ordered a sensible meal, salad, apps, drinks, dessert, and then the entree! Your blood sugar spiked and so did your blood pressure. Then your colon started doing flips and you were in the bathroom for 6-hours with a can of Febreze and a half dead smartphone battery. Should you call 911 now or try to get in an episode of Master Chef?
What happened? It was probably hidden salt and sugar and the ingredients may not have been appropriate for your body. But wait, there's more...
You get to work and the stress is through the roof. All your bosses are screaming, "Well, find a way!" "I wanted it yesterday!" "Get 'er done!" And that's when the migraine starts and that weird vein in your neck starts pulsating. Maybe you should go home early?
Then you try to have an enjoyable Saturday so you sneak away to relax, but to make matters worse, your family can now track you down with GPS! "Siri, find my spouse." "Alexa, why's Daddy in the closet with the TV on?" Stop! Let's back up!
Before you explode or implode from a heart attack or stroke, and before you have another migraine that you're praying is not an aneurysm, know that there are resources to cut off that noisesome pestilence/chatter and take your life back. Heart attacks, strokes, and stress can kill, but immediate changes to your diet and adding in exercise can help fight the effects, fast!
Check out the tips, blogs, clips, and videos below in our Healthy Eating Guide. One of the best ways to face the world and defeat your enemies is with less stress, a better, cleaner core, and more awesome living!
This guide gives the following topics:
- Men's Health Facts
- Go "Green" and Shop Fresh
- Nutritional Benefits: Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits, Arthritis Treatments, Build Muscles, Charcoal Benefits, Coconut Oil Benefits, Coconut Water Benefits, Fasting Benefits, Ginger Benefits, Vegetarian Diet Benefits, Watermelon Benefits
- Healthy Eating Tips: Making Substitutions
- Drink More Water
- Know the Facts
So let's do this!
Men's Health Facts
Men are stressed. They live on average, 4 years less than women. The last few years of a man's life may be in poor health:
- If you're young and working out like a work horse, then you have to worry about spinal cord injuries later in life.
- Men are at a higher risk of dying from liver disease and why don't they show that in those beer commercials?
- Men suffer more from heart disease and die earlier in life from sudden heart attacks and later in life from strokes.
- While men make up over half of the workforce, over 90% of workplace fatalities happen to men. Construction workers. Firemen. Cops. Military. Irate postal employee who went postal.
- As if that wasn't enough, men are dying more from diabetes. Step away from the soda can!
Because these are all items that can be controlled, it's important to start early and start today.
Go "Green" and Shop Fresh
To stay in tune with the food pyramids, download them onto your phone or tablet. Be sure that when you shop you include fresh fruits and vegetables. If you don't have time to shop for fresh foods, try ordering from Amazon Fresh. With their new partnership with Whole Foods, it means a lot of food prices have been cut by as much as 43%.
To help you find the right foods to order, check out the images below:
Image: Our Fitness Guide
The image above has a convenient way to showcase the top fruits and vegetables you should be having. Want to find the best foods to burn fat? Click here... That doesn't mean that you need to have these every day or all at once. Just try incorporating mixed, fresh fruit into your breakfast, and then a salad at lunch or dinner. If you eat at Subway and have a sub at lunchtime, for example, add veggies into your sub. For dinner, limit your red meat and limit canned tuna to only 2-cans per week to minimize the amount of mercury you're ingesting.
Nutritional Benefits
Apple Cider Vinegar...
Arthritis Treatments
Image: Top 10 Home Remedies
Build Muscles
Charcoal Benefits
Coconut Oil Benefits
Coconut Water Benefits
Fasting Benefits
If you're starting a fast for your church, you can check out the spiritual fasts here. If you are fasting for health reasons, check with your doctor and you can find tips from Web MD here...
Ginger: Health Benefits
Vegetarian Diet Benefits
If you're thinking about a vegetarian diet or if your doctor has advised it, you will find that it's a healthy alternative with tons of great food choices and delicious substitutions. You'll swap out dairy products for soy versions and you can have meat substitutes by companies like Gardein, Quorn, and Morning Star. Not only can you still have pizza, burgers, and chicken, but they will be soy versions that are completely meat-free, wholesome, and yummy! Check out the Vegetarian Starter Kit here...
Watermelon Benefits...
Image: UPMC Health
Healthy Eating Tips: Making Substitutions
Going "Green" doesn't mean just adding more lettuce to your diet. Lettuce is a weak green vegetable, so substitute lettuce with spinach and kale. Use sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. Try brown rice instead of white rice. They cost about the same and the health benefits are greater as they have more healthy nutrients your body needs.
We turned next to UPMC My Health Matters for tips on Eating Healthy:
When it comes to developing healthy eating habits, it can help to make changes one step at a time. Get started with these healthy eating tips from some of our expert health coaches:
1. Make Simple Swaps
"Use Greek yogurt in place of mayo or sour cream, unsweetened applesauce in place of butter or oil, ground turkey in place of ground beef, and other smart changes.”
2. Don’t Be Afraid of the Fats
“Not all fats are unhealthy and they can be very beneficial for physical and emotional health. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (including Omega- 3’s) are the “good” fats and can be found in foods like avocados, olives, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish. Trans fats, which can be found in snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, margarine, vegetable shortenings, and anything with “partially hydrogenated” oil listed in the ingredients.”
3. Don’t Drink Your Calories
“Soft drinks are usually empty calories. They add almost nothing to your overall nutrition."
4. Eat Real Food
“Prepackaged foods with ingredients nearly impossible to pronounce are not what has kept us going. If I can’t identify what the ingredients are, I likely will not buy it.”
For the full article, please click here...
Drink More Water
What color is your urine? Are you hydrated enough? By drinking more water, you can fuel your body. If you have a PBA-free water bottle, fill it and drink it throughout the day. Don't have one? You can order it online. Because your body needs water for cell and muscle function, try to limit the sugary drinks you have and cut down on coffee. You might think, "Water will make me go to the bathroom more," but that's the whole point. You need to flush your kidneys and hydrate your body which is mostly water.
Know the Facts
Maybe you're still eating like you did in college or high school when you loaded up that burger with another burger, or you and your friends had eating contests. As you age, you have to cut back on red meat consumption and carbs and add in more greens to help your body properly digest your food. Not sure why? Picture all that protein from meat sitting in your gut. Your body is trying to digest it, but as you age, it takes longer. Now picture all the hormones, preservatives, and other junk that's used in making this new, "fast" food, and your body is working overtime to get it through your colon. If you don't have healthy, green leafy vegetables and fiber from fresh fruit, it can cause constipation, cramping, gas, and lead to colon-rectal related cancers.
Understanding statistical data is important. While most men might not realize it, by making changes to your diet and increasing your exercise, you can help reset your body and put it on the right track. Talk to your doctor about your diet and changes you may need to make. Your doctor can recommend a nutritionist who can help.
For more tips for men at any age, check out A Health Blog.
