Understanding What Happens When You Cut Out Processed Foods

You may want to eliminate processed foods from your daily diet plan in order to improve your overall health. Foods that are processed are altered by a variety of methods, including adding artificial chemicals such as dyes, flavor enhancers or preservatives. In addition, the process of altering foods can include heating, freezing or drying methods. Some foods are processed by adding sodium, salt or fat to change the flavor of the items or to lengthen its shelf life. Today, the majority of foods in a supermarket are processed, so it isn't easy to avoid these foods, but if you do, then you will notice healthy changes in your body. 

Change 1: A Decrease Of Your Blood Pressure

Foods that are processed are typically high in sodium. This additive is used to keep foods fresh during shipping and while the items are stored in warehouses. If you read the labels on food packages, then you will notice several names for salt or sodium, including: 

• Baking powder
• MSG
• Baking soda
• Disodium phosphate

Experts recommend eating only a small amount of sodium each day, and the best way to do this by eating natural unprocessed foods. 

Change 2: You Will Have Normal Blood Sugar Levels

Manufacturers also add a lot of sugar to foods to preserve the items and to change the flavor of fruits, vegetables and meat. Sugar also has numerous names such as:

• Dextrose 
• Brown rice syrup
• Molasses 
• Corn syrup
• Barley malt

If you are diabetic, then reducing your sugar consumption is essential to control your blood sugar levels. 

Change 3: Reduction In Body Inflammation

If you suffer from arthritis or fibromyalgia, then reducing your body's inflammation can help you to feel better. The chemicals that manufacturers add to foods can lead to allergic responses that include pain in the joints, muscles and tendons. After switching to a natural diet, your body begins to eliminate the artificial ingredients that are in processed foods, and within a few weeks, you will notice a reduction in your body pain.

Change 4: An Improvement In Your Mental Mood

When you are eating a lot of foods that are filled with chemicals, it can affect your mood, leading to depression or anxiety. By consuming a cleaner diet of natural unprocessed foods, you can improve your mood. No one really understands how the additives in foods can affect your mind, so if you have a mood disorder, then try changing to a natural diet to see if it helps you to feel better. 

5 Tips for Getting Back On The Rails with Your Diet After the Holidays

The holidays are a time for indulging, but you might wonder once you've gotten started how you will stop. The five tips below can all help you get back on track if too much rich food and other indulgences have put your diet plan in jeopardy. 

Eat on schedule

Holiday snacking and big meals served mid-afternoon can all contribute to losing track of the good health habits you've been working on. Make sure that you start eating your meals at regular intervals again with healthy snacks built in as needed.

Drink water

The holidays are ripe for overindulgence in eggnog, sugar-laden punches, alcohol and other unhealthy beverages. Get back into the habit of staying healthily hydrated by drinking water regularly again. Add a sliver of lemon, lime or cucumber if it tastes too plain.

Get rid of temptation

If your house is still stocked with holiday treats and leftovers, it's time to get rid of them. Take them to work, give them to a neighbor or throw them out, and put healthy food back in their place. If it isn't there, you can't be tempted by it.

Don't be discouraged by holiday weight gain

A big diet derail can occur if you feel as though there's no point in trying to reset your healthy habits just because you've been indulgent. Whether it's one meal, one day or several weeks of unhealthy eating, you don't have to throw your hands up in despair. Just shift back to your old healthy habits and you'll start to see results.

Rethink your diet

This can actually be a great time to do a reset of some of your habits. You might want to look into signing up for a meal planning service, doing more cooking and freezing of food on weekends or cutting back on your restaurant meals in the year ahead.

The holidays can be a tough time for healthy eating. However, you can follow the above steps to shift to a healthier mindset and better habits no matter how indulgent you've been.

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Four Trends in Fitness That Will Be Huge in 2018

 

Arguably, there has never been a time when our society was more fascinated by fitness. People increasingly realize that you need to have a sensible diet to lose extra weight. Nevertheless, most people also realize that exercise is crucial for living a longer, healthier life. Here are three trends in fitness that should prove influential in the coming year:

1. Group Fitness Coaching
Group coaching gives you access to a certified trainer without unduly burdening your budget. As gyms have reached a saturation point throughout many communities, group coaching has taken on new importance within the fitness industry. In fact, a large proportion of new gyms are exclusively focused around group training, which is one of the most dynamic modern trends in fitness. 

Though gyms have always offered classes, the evolving paradigm for group coaching represents a new level of sophistication on the part of coaches and participants alike. People now have access to highly specialized group sessions that are tailored to their specific needs. You can now find coaching gyms in smaller communities that might have been lucky to have any gyms at all in previous decades. 

2. Wearable Fitness Devices 
Even though wearable fitness aids aren't new, it seems that wearables will soon achieve an extraordinary new level of mass acceptance throughout society. Although Adidas has announced they intend to stop making wearable fitness devices, a number of other manufacturers are prepping new devices with remarkable new features. Apple has announced that they will launch a feature called Heart Study for the Apple Watch. According to the sparse details currently available, Heart Study will analyze your personal data to detect oddities in your heart rhythms. As the reigning king of wearable fitness technology, Fitbit is also facing a lot of pressure to up its game in 2018. All signs point to 2018 being an exciting year for fitness wearables.

3. Body Weight Routines 
Just ten years ago, it seemed perfectly normal to work a scheduled eight-hour shift and head to the gym immediately after work. In this era of gigs, part-time jobs and economic uncertainty, it can be hard to have a consistent fitness schedule. In 2018, people will increasingly look for ways to train their bodies without the use of any equipment at all. This type of exercise fits the "less is more" ethos of the times. 

4. Yoga
Of all the body weight regimens that are popular today, yoga is one of the most versatile. Although this Indian health practice is thousands of years old, yoga remains a hip, of-the-moment method of fitness development. As yoga's popularity demonstrates, some trends in fitness seem to get more entrenched every year. Though you don't have to have any particular beliefs to engage with yoga, the meditation that is integral to yoga can provide genuine relief for a troubled soul.

Pitless Avocados are a Real Thing and They're Awesome

Avocados are known for having those large pits that you need to cut around. While the pits are great for kitchen-window science experiments, the awkward shape of the fruit leads many to cut incorrectly, often leading to injury (a.k.a. "avocado hand"). Plus, the pit can be annoying -- who needs it? Plant breeders have come to the rescue, though, with a pitless version that will have you cutting the fruit easily while preserving the safety of your hands.

What These Really Are

There are three pitless versions of avocados. One is a naturally occurring but very rare version, where the pit is either very tiny or generally nonexistent. You can't really spot these when shopping; you get them through the luck of the draw.

The second version is an odd but ingenious one. Small baby fruit are cut open and the pit removed, and then the skin of the fruit is sewn back together with tree bark twine made from the avocado tree. As the fruit grows, the flesh and skin knit back together, creating a whole fruit that doesn't have a pit. These are boutique fruits, of course, but they are available from a mail-order company.

The third version is similar to the first but purposefully grown. If you don't pollinate the blossom, fruit can still form, but it is more likely to not have a seed. Some growers have started producing orchards where avocado blossoms are purposefully not pollinated so that more of the fruit appears without a pit. These fruits can be longer than a traditional avocado, but they taste the same.

How to Use Them

Use pitless avocados the same way you would use traditional fruit, but be careful to weigh the flesh before using it in recipes that call for a specific number of fruits, rather than a volume or weight of flesh. You can get a good 30 percent or more of extra avocado flesh from a pitless fruit, which can throw off recipes if you're not careful. If you like avocado fruit, you will love these pitless versions.

The Health Benefits of Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a remarkably popular spice that has been utilized as a medicine by people in many nations throughout the world. In addition, this spice is highly prized for its remarkable culinary qualities. Because of its uniquely sweet and earthy taste, this spice is used in a wide variety of recipes. According to impartial food researchers, cinnamon powder (CP) may provide a number of excellent health benefits. 

Reportedly, CP contains a lot of natural chemicals called antioxidants. One major theory of aging holds that the aging process is caused by the proliferation of free radicals in the body. Because they eliminate free radicals, antioxidants are thought to slow down the rate of your aging. While not all scientists agree with the free radical theory, this theory has a fair amount of acceptance in modern medicine. CP is derived from the bark of the cinnamomum tree. Specific, beneficial compounds in CP include cinnamic acid and cinnamaldehyde. Other CP components include flavonoids and phenolic acids. Due to its unique chemical makeup, CP can boost your immune system and reduce inflammation. CP may potentially reduce your risk for contracting heart disease, diabetes and several types of cancer. 

CP contains a number of important vitamins and minerals. These include Vitamin K, iron and a whole lot of manganese. Because CP is a strong-tasting spice packed with a lot of beneficial things, a bit of this spice can go a very long way. Dietitians report that you can see benefits from as little as one half teaspoon of CP per day. Further benefits of CP intake include better digestion and more normal blood sugar levels. Researchers have claimed that of all the commonly used foods and spices, CP is one of the most diverse. To date, scientists have isolated over 40 protective compounds within this delicious food. Arguably, CP is even better for your health than celebrated spices like garlic and oregano. 

If you're already a fan of CP, you'll be happy to know there are hundreds of popular recipes that include this food. Along with other foods known to reduce oxidative stress, CP is commonly called a "superfood." Other foods in this category include red wine, dark chocolate and many types of berries. Of course, superfoods are only beneficial if they are used in moderation. It is particularly important for people to consume plenty of antioxidants if they are over the age of 45. Though there a variety of ways you can improve your diet, the benefits of consuming CP should not be underestimated.

Arguably, people need more information about the benefits and properties of various foods. If necessary, we should be willing to devote public funds to dietary research. After all, poor diet contributes to quite a few public health issues. Every year, taxpayers must foot the bill to treat millions of cases of diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. People need access to plentiful, accurate information to make better dietary choices. Public and private institutions should come together to promote the use of CP and other foods with demonstrably beneficial properties. Although eating right is a personal responsibility, it's not a bad idea to nudge people in the right direction.