The Whole Food Blog

We often read about how antioxidants are good for us, but what exactly are they, why do you need them and where do you get them?

What are antioxidants?
Antioxidants are protective molecules that neutralize free radicals and protect the body from damage. They help defend the body by feeding electrons to the free radicals, which neutralize them. Antioxidants are found in a variety of foods, especially fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. The body also creates its own antioxidant enzymes.

What are free radicals?
Free radicals are the bad guys that antioxidants go after. They are unstable molecules with an unpaired electron in their molecular structure. Electrons are most stable in pairs, so a free radical tries to stabilize itself by attaching to cell membranes in the body to “steal” their molecules of electrons. When the “attacked” molecule loses its electron, it becomes a free radical itself, beginning a chain reaction.

What causes free radicals?
Free radicals are caused by essential metabolic processes, such as breathing, eating and walking. Sometimes the cells of the body’s immune system purposefully create them to neutralize viruses and bacteria. Free radicals are also formed in ever-increasing numbers outside the body by factors such as pollution, radiation, pesticides and sun exposure.

How do free radicals harm us?

Where can we get antioxidants?

Click to read the full article on antioxidants

At many health food stores today consumers are complaining more regularly about food allergies with statements like, “I can’t eat this” or “I can’t eat that.” Why do so many people, in particular shoppers at health food stores, presume that they have food allergies?

Food allergies arise when the immune system is effected by a protein molecule in the offending food. This has been known to happen even to those who adhere to a strict health food diet. The body is not able to break down that particular protein molecule, so it reacts by trying to “get rid of it”. A chemical called ‘histamine’ is produced and symptoms appear in the form of rashes, irritation, itching, wheezing, respiratory problems, and mucus being expelled through the nose, mouth, lungs and sexual organs. More grave reactions from food allergies are obstructed airways, dizziness, loss of consciousness, drop in blood pressure and death.

Intolerance to specific foods and food allergies are all too often misdiagnosed by consumers searching for relief at health food stores. With food intolerances in the vein of lactose intolerance, where the digestive system has problems breaking down the sugar in the milk, symptoms are typically less severe. One could experience gas and bloating or diarrhea and cramping. Whereas food intolerance is unpleasant, it is not typically life threatening like food allergies have been known to be in severe cases. The typical distresses are intolerances to wheat, soy, dairy, and all too often anything that shoppers at health food stores consider is too pricey.

The truth is that the immune system can be motivated to overreact by a variety of substances. The best way to focus on food allergies is to support the immune system while balancing all the systems of the body evenly. Discover specialized health food products that feed the five key systems of the body simultaneously: immune, endocrine, digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems. Searching online health food stores rather than typical health food stores for these formulas will supply greater results.

For low carb foods to be healthy mood boosters and make you cheerful, they have to be the appropriate sort.

To follow just what we’re discussing here on the subject of low carb foods, let’s take a look at how certain nutrients affect the brain, the nervous system and your overall mood.

Let’s say you’ve got an important business presentation and you’re nervous about standing up in front of a group of your peers. To calm your uneasiness, would you want a diet soda, a glass of milk, candy, or a naturally low carb drink?

Choosing the diet soda with artificial sweeteners is really the worst selection. Low carb foods and drinks that include aspartame and saccharin do anything but soothe the brain and your nerves.

If you selected the glass of milk as the best choice for relieving anxiety, you should know that mixing protein with carbs reduces the tranquilizing effect of the carbohydrates.

Believe it or not, candy is the correct answer if you’re not concerned about sticking to a diet of low carb foods, or about what sugar does to your body.

Of course, the healthiest choice is the natural low carb drink. This is partly because liquids are digested more rapidly and absorbed right away. Also, low carb drinks made with ingredients from natural, low carb foods can lend a balancing effect to hormones. When the hormone controlling endocrine system is properly nourished, the body feels satisfied.

So, when you want to relieve anxiety, you can eat high carb foods like potatoes, pasta, breads and other starches, or you can search for natural low carb foods in concentrated, drinkable formulas.

High fiber foods not only act as mood boosters, they also offer these advantages.

High fiber foods contain some of the most important nutrients at the lowest cost. Beans, for example, furnish vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin C, calcium, and folate (which is notably favorable for pregnancy nutrition). Include a few grams of fiber per serving and these high fiber foods are especially advantageous for the body.

High Fiber foods are better for the digestive system. If you’re not accustomed to consuming much fiber it can take a while to ease into it. However, eating up to 35 grams of fiber regularly normally creates smoother elimination of waste as food travels through the intestines without pressure. The fiber accumulates lots of water, creating softer stools and offering relief from hemorrhoids or constipation.

High fiber foods, particularly those rich in soluble fiber, afford a path to natural weight loss without expensive diet plans or medications. Soluble fiber, which seems harder to come by, regulates metabolism and helps to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Fiber foods also make you feel full, but they generally contain fewer calories than other alternatives on the menu. It is key to note that high fiber foods have proven to be extraordinarily helpful for calorie reduction in humans. So, loading up on high fiber foods instead of junk is a great way to give yourself the gift of natural weight loss. The mix of normal blood sugar with less weight is a life changing, mood boosting experience that anyone can get pleasure from. Also, foods rich in soluble fiber such as oats, rye, and barley are proven to have a decisive effect on lowering bad cholesterol and total cholesterol levels.

The best part is, as you eat the recommended 25-35 grams of high fiber foods every day, you become so regular that you can set your watch by the time of your bowel movements. This regular schedule contributes to a long and happy life.

The significance of live enzymes, in particular in nutrition for athletes, cannot be overinflated to guarantee that the body is functioning at an optimal level. While searching online for the best nutrition for athletes, keep in mind that live enzymes are not nutrients equal to vitamins and minerals. They are catalysts, which appear as biochemical agents joining two compounds so they can react with each other, while the enzyme itself remains intact.

Live enzymes are not vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats or protein, but they generate the chemical reactions that put those nutrients to work in the body. While there are 1,300 unique variations of live enzymes that help the body perform properly, the most recognizable are digestive enzymes. Equally integral are metabolic enzymes that are critical to nutrition for athletes designed for burning fat and generating energy.

If your body does not have a sufficient amount of live enzymes, the organs switch functions. The liver and the pancreas are diverted from constructing metabolic enzymes, so tasks like converting fat into energy are given a lower priority. Live enzymes help supply essential nutrition for athletes to most efficiently burn fat and generate energy.

Fortunately, live enzymes are now plentiful in concentrated whole foods that provide perfectly natural nutrition for athletes. To get the right digestive juices that shift nutrients into energy, scour the Internet for online health food stores that suggest nutrition for athletes with live enzymes from whole foods. Search for natural whole foods and health drinks that are produced with real fruits and herbs. Filled with strong antioxidants that can be naturally assimilated by the body, these formulas produce a vigorous regenerating effect on the liver and pancreas, as well as the adrenals, reproductive glands, nervous system and kidneys.

Feeding the body nutrition for athletes with live enzymes helps it to assimilate valuable nutrients more successfully and perform better over the long haul.

The perfect alkaline health drinks contain real whole foods as ingredients. These ingredients are infinitely different from all the multi-colored dyes, “natural flavors”, isolated vitamins and dangerous sweeteners found in many of the artificially enhanced energy drinks, vitamin waters and sports drinks being sold today.

Alkaline health drinks that are created with natural, whole food ingredients are advantageous for pH balance while most vitamin waters, sports drinks, and energy drinks are acid forming and contribute to pH imbalances in the body.

Even though alkaline health drinks are not as familiar as vitamin waters, sports drinks, and caffeine laced energy drinks, there are natural health drinks manufactured with water, real fruit juice extracts and alkaline based herbal ingredients that typical consumers do not recognize. Looking beyond the nutrition fact labels, we discover the fact that these natural plant ingredients contain high quality nutrients found in whole foods, including live enzymes and powerful antioxidants. When carefully processed at lower temperatures, live enzymes in whole foods make it easier for the body to absorb valuable nutrients into the cells.

Ingredients in energy drinks, vitamin waters and sports drinks usually include things like water, “natural flavors”, sucralose, synthetic, isolated vitamins and other man-made artificial nutrients. So, along with the lifeless, demineralized water, they include a chemically processed sweetener, mysterious natural flavors and artificially created vitamins that the body does not recognize as real nutrients from whole foods. There are no real strawberries, peaches or other fruit. Even if there are any whole food ingredients, typically high temperatures used in processing are likely to destroy any live enzymes. Without those crucial plant enzymes the body cannot easily put to use the available nutrients. So, very few of the isolated vitamins in energy drinks, sports drinks, and “enhanced” vitamin waters are actually usable by the body for energy.

When the smokescreen of advertising hype has been lifted, it is easy to quickly learn why naturally alkaline health drinks are far more effective than all those multi colored vitamin waters, caffeine laced energy drinks and junk food sports drinks.

There are multiple beneficial reasons to consume natural health drinks instead of sodas, sugary vitamin waters or caffeine boosted energy drinks. First and foremost, sugar wreaks havoc on the body. An overabundance of sugar contributes to obesity, suppresses the immune system, and can unsettle the body’s mineral balance. Sugar can lead to arthritis and speeds the aging process. Also, large quantities of sugar in soft drinks, energy drinks and vitamin waters motivates the pancreas to create excess insulin, which can lead to low energy and potential diabetes.

Natural health drinks propel the level of fitness for most people. Soft drinks, energy drinks and vitamin waters are especially acidic, leading to a pH imbalance in the body. Humans should ingest 60-80% alkaline foods and only 20%-40% acid foods for good pH balance. An inappropriate balance of acid to alkaline foods causes the body to break down faster as it pulls calcium from bones in order to retain the correct pH balance. Natural health drinks, on the other hand, are mostly alkaline by nature, which leads to greater bone density and slower aging processes.

Sugary soft drinks, chemically produced vitamin waters and caffeinated energy drinks truly deprive the body of some of the health benefits of drinking water. All the phosphates, sugar, caffeine and artificial ingredients require extra water for proper assimilation. When the body does not take in an adequate amount of water with vital nutrients then it experiences cellular dehydration, which in turn leads to rapid aging.

So, consumers who are ingesting soft drinks, caffeinated energy drinks and sugary vitamin waters are truly walking around dehydrated while aging faster. On the other hand, people who choose natural health drinks that contain crucial nutrients from whole foods such as fruits and herbs are enjoying the loads of health benefits of drinking water in addition to the multiple benefits of consuming phytonutrients (from nature) in their water.

Liquid stevia sweetener is a natural dietary supplement that is becoming a favorite for those in the hunt for healthy low carb foods. A considerable majority of articles and research projects regarding stevia have concluded that it may be the one sweetener that is indeed helpful for people. It has been reported that liquid stevia can help healthy individuals to have normal blood sugar levels, and it is a zero calorie sweetener, which is great news for diabetics.

Stevia has been implemented for hundreds of years by native South American tribes as a sweetener in their health drinks and medicinal teas as well as for treating heartburn and other ailments. Stevia is a member of the Chrysanthemum family, which grows wild in parts of Paraguay and Brazil. The plant’s extracts have up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, but have a negligible significance on blood glucose. That is why liquid stevia sweetener is gaining attention as a healthy sugar replacement that can help people keep normal blood sugar levels and support a diet of low carb foods.

Stevia is widely used throughout the world, particularly in East Asia, South America and Israel. Stevia has been accessible as a dietary supplement in the U.S.A. and Canada since the mid 1980′s. Because it is zero calorie and registers zero on the Glycemix index, many intelligent consumers across the globe are now using liquid stevia sweetener to enhance the flavor of low carb foods and natural health drinks that are not overloaded with sugars or artificial sweeteners.

Above all else, stevia contains zero calories and that is valuable to everyone, especially those that are diabetic or on a diet that stresses low carb foods. It is assumed that stevia is nutritious for the pancreas, which can help support normal blood sugar levels. Anyone searching for quality nutrition in low carb foods is prudent to look into liquid stevia sweetener and include it in a healthy, low carb diet.

Liquid Stevia sweetener is a smart alternative for those who want natural foods with flavor and wholesome rewards. Among the reasons that liquid Stevia sweetener has ended up in the spotlight is the continuous flow of reports that surface regarding artificial sweeteners like aspartame and saccharin.

One of the most advantageous characteristics of liquid Stevia sweetener is that it comes from sources considered to be healthy, natural foods. Actually, it is derived from the Stevia plant, part of the Chrysanthemum family and similar to lettuce.

In addition to being 100% natural, liquid Stevia sweetener is zero calorie. It is often recommended for many diabetics. This is because Stevia does not interfere with blood sugar levels in the same way that sugar does.

Based in the USA, Sunrider, led by Dr. Tei-Fu Chen in 1995 effectively petitioned the FDA to permit the application of liquid Stevia sweetener as a dietary supplement in America. More recently, certain forms of Stevia have been authorized as a food additive, so major food and beverage makers are lining up to begin putting Stevia in a wide array of products that may or may not end up as totally natural foods and drinks.

Also, it is important to note that many powder forms of Stevia are processed with chlorine and other chemicals.  Liquid Stevia sweetener, however,  is likely to be in the natural food form, making it more easily assimilated by the body.  Plus, many consumers report that liquid Stevia sweetener tastes better than the powdered versions.

Green tea is perhaps the most well documented of all the herbal tea varieties. With a wide portfolio of scientific studies to confirm the experience of users over thousands of years, sources ranging from The Journal of the National Cancer Institute to the Mayo Clinic have discovered phenomenal benefits to green tea and its components. In addition to potentially preventing cancer, green tea has also been credited with lowering the dangers for heart disease, decreasing symptoms of arthritis, preventing tooth decay, and promoting natural weight loss.

Green tea is typically made from the Camellia sinensis bush, but herbal tea commonly contains added components, including leaves, roots, stems, and even the flowers of various plants. It is feasible to make “tea” that doesn’t utilize Camellia sinensis at all, although this would more accurately be referred to as an “herbal infusion” or “tisane” rather than a green tea or herbal tea.

Herbal tea is taken medicinally for a variety of conditions. An upset stomach can be calmed by a cup of peppermint tea. Insomnia can often be conquered with a cup of chamomile tea. It is also accepted wisdom that some forms of herbal tea, green tea among them, have the power to prevent cancer. Just the act of brewing and drinking a cup of herbal tea can be consoling, as the aromas delight the drinker and the warm liquid soothes the throat.

For an even bigger boost from herbal tea, look for those that include alkaline food grade herbs. Do a Google search for green tea plus alkaline herbs to discover the healthiest tea you can possibly buy.