Archive for Health Improve

Low-cost food substitution: a simple method for improving your health

This is a wake up call for those who believe that they cannot reduce their risk of falling sick. When it comes to health, evil is watching you closely at least three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Nevertheless, the truth is so hard to accept that few people want to make the effort to change direction.

Although millions of books about weight-loss and dieting are sold every year, have you observed improvements in the health of people you know? Pricey organic items have become popular in supermarkets, but have you witnessed those products having a positive effect on someone’s health?

Most people’s health-improvement attempts are fraught with waste and disappointment. Despite great intentions and strenuous effort, the tangible results are often negligible. Do most weight-loss plans and prescriptive diets fail because they are unnatural and expensive?

Artificial lifestyles create stress and anxiety. What is unnatural goes against the grain. Trying to push people into radically new habits disrupts their psychological stability. On top of that, prescriptive diets often prove impractical and time-consuming. No wonder that many men and women give them up after a while. Who wants to lead an unpleasant and constrained life?

Take heart and stick to your objective of getting in better shape. There is a better way to achieve that goal, a more effective approach that takes into account the psychological aspects of self-transformation. The method that really works is called rationality.

Human beings are essentially logical. We can be fooled for a while, but ultimately, we come around and begin to ask tough questions. We want to make sure that we are advancing on the right track. We want to experience short-term progress in our long-term endeavours. We want to see beneficial results from our commitment.

Low-cost food substitution should be the preferred short-cut to losing weight and improving our health. Forget about purchasing costly exotic vegetables. Don’t bother with high-ticket packaged products that promise magical results. Instead, make inexpensive changes in your lifestyle, little by little.

Acquiring healthy habits at your own speed is more powerful than making radical lifestyle changes that cannot be sustained. You may for instance begin by replacing high-fat meat by simple fish, such as trout or halibut. Pick up a sort of fish that is readily available at your local supermarket and whose taste you enjoy.

Another short-cut to a better health is replacing prepared desserts, such as apple pie or ice cream, by simple fruit. Eating a modest apple for dessert instead of chocolate cake is a low-cost habit that anyone can acquire without much difficulty. You may for example peel the apple, cut it to pieces, mix it with low-fat yoghurt, and sprinkle it with cinnamon. This is easy to do and delicious.

When you replace prepared desserts by fruit, choose varieties that are abundant and inexpensive in your area. Keep always some fresh fruit on your office desk, in case you feel the need to have something to eat between meals.

A third short-cut to a better health is drinking water instead of carbonated drinks. In many areas of the world, drinking mineral water is safer than tap water. See if you can purchase your mineral water at the local supermarket in discount packs and save some money.

At the office, it is a good idea to keep a small bottle of water within reach. Drinking a fair amount of water every day allows our organism to function better. If you can heat water and make some healthy tea, so much the better. Green tea is generally considered a healthy drink, but many other types of tea have positive qualities. Try out different sorts and see which one works best for you.

Once you start on the road towards a better health, there are no limits how far you can go. The trick is to take small but relentless steps. Replace unhealthy habits by rational ones. Get rid of negative influences and embrace a thoughtful approach to living.

If you spend some time reading cooking books, you will realize the possibilities of cooking your favourite meals in healthy ways. You may for instance learn to make pizza at home by mixing yeast and whole-wheat flour. Making pizza dough by hand is not difficult and does not take long. A whole-wheat pizza with tomatoes, tuna fish, olives, and onions is delicious and healthy.

Rationality demands that we advance slowly and that we enjoy the way. Babies take a year to learn how to walk and three times longer to speak in complex sentences. In dieting, weight-loss, and health improvement, a progressive transformation is usually the one that lasts.

We only live once and little is gained by making ourselves endure unnecessary hardship. Never choose suffering or deprivation if a better option is available. Radical diets can make your days bitter, rarely better. Persistent action guided by reason is the short-cut to a better health.

We are intelligent beings and our minds call for logic and consistency. It is natural that we prefer life to be enjoyable rather than unpleasant. It is understandable that we favour methods that produce tangible results rather than speculative theories. When it comes to attaining better health, check the facts and obtain proof. Then make up your mind and move.

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How Getting a Pet Can Improve Your Health

Animals are a wonderful addition to any family, even when your family is just you.

Animals provide us with unconditional love and constant companionship, two things that are hard to find in other human beings!

It has been said that getting a pet can improve your health-a statement that is more fact than fiction. Believe it or not, having a pet really can improve your health!

Here you will find some scientific evidence that having a pet improves the health of the people who own them.

Pets can lower blood pressure and cholesterol. This is absolutely true! The unconditional love expressed to us from our pets can have a relaxing affect on us that is not mirrored by anything else.

Knowing that there is another living creature in our lives that loves us no matter what is comforting, and that comfort relaxes us, which can cause our blood pressure levels and cholesterol levels to go down.

A 1995 study published in the American Journal of Cardiology showed that pet owners are more likely to survive heart attacks that non-pet owners.

Pets elevate our moods. Having pets can relieve depression symptoms. The American Geriatrics Society published a study in 1999 that showed senior citizens are less likely to be depressed if they own pets.

Another study done on men who were suffering from AIDS showed that they were less likely to be depressed if they owned pets. They are great at cheering their people up sometimes without meaning to.

Have you tried to stay mad when your cat rubs her face against yours? It is very hard!

We mentioned comfort before as a relaxant and a lowerer of blood pressure and cholesterol. Pets provide a great deal even in small doses of comfort the repetitive motion of petting a dog or a cat can be soothing.

Having animal company also appeals to our inner instinct to nurture others, and having a pet that needs taking care of feeds that need and also gives us a sense of responsibility.

Pets keep their owners active. Active pets have active owners. Dogs need to be walked and played with as do cats and most other furry creatures.

Getting down and playing with your pet or taking them out to the park is a great way to keep yourself active and healthy.

They also increase our opportunities for socialization. Talking about our pets is a little bit like talking about our kids. Owners bond over stories of their pets and taking your pet outside or to the park can be a great conversation starter for people who might otherwise be too shy to approach others.

Having a dog, cat or any kind of animal company is a big responsibility, but if you think you can care for an animal, the benefits of having one far outweigh any inconveniences you might be uses to deter yourself from visiting your local shelter.

Pets can do a great deal to increase our health and moods!

Coffee, Tea and Caffeine Improves Your Health

Before starting my article I will like to say a few words about health.

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.”
“He, who has health, has hope. And he, who has hope, has everything.”
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”

Drinking coffee can cut your risk of developing diabetes, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome by 50% or more.

Major health studies show that drinking 6, 7 or more cups of coffee per day tend to dramatically improve the health of both men and women. These studies, performed in Sweden, Finland and Italy, involved tens of thousands of men and women and studied their health parameter over periods of many years. Some studies are still ongoing, and the results continue to endorse ‘heavy coffee drinking’ patterns, or ‘frequent coffee consumption.’

This important study was performed by the National Health Service of Finland, and involved 21,385 adults with a followup of their health over a period of over 13 years. That’s about a quarter million man/woman years of health statistics that supported drinking high quantities of coffee every day of your life!

Here is the breakdown of what the study found:

1. Drinking 0-2 cups of coffee per day: Little or no effect in reducing diabetes, insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome for either men or women.

Interestingly, a FEW studies actually showed that coffee consumption of only one or two cups per day INCREASES risks for metabolic diseases and increases inflammation. These studies were usually focused on smaller groups of people and less well designed than the larger studies, which focused on a wider range of coffee consumption including groups of 0-2 cup/day, 3-6 and 7 or more cups/day. These smaller studies that merely looked at ‘general coffee consumption’ of any amount at all compared only to none, have caused a lot of confusion in the public.

While drinking only 1 or 2 cups/day may not help you or might actually harm you in some cases, drinking more than 2 cups per day will definitely improve your health. Why this is true? There is an odd ‘s’ shaped curve of negative benefits leading to positive benefits as coffee/day increases. We need new studies to examine the reasons why light consumption may harm you while heavy consumption helps you.

2. Drinking 3-6 cups of coffee per day: Reduced the probability of developing diabetes and related conditions by 23% in men and 29% in women

3. Drinking 7 or more cups of coffee per day: Reduced the probabiliy of developing diabetes and related conditions by 34% in men and 48% in women

4. OVERALL: Averaging the two groups, drinking 7 or more cups of coffee per day reduced the typical person’s health risks by 39%

These effects were shown after all other factors, including BMI or obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and other dietary factors were accounted for statistically.
FAT PEOPLE GET EVEN MORE BENEFIT FROM COFFEE DRINKING

Importantly, when the researchers looked ONLY AT OBESE AND INACTIVE PEOPLE, they found even more dramatic results — for those men and women, risks of disease were reduced by yet ANOTHER 10% in absolute measurements, so that — their health risks for diabetes and metabolic disease was lowered by an average of more than 50%!

At Level1diet.com, we summarize more research studies that show similar, dramatic reduction of CANCER risks associated with coffee drinking, demonstrating that risks of cancer decrease significantly as coffee drinking increases. And, like the Finnish study reporting reduced risks for diabetes above, these major studies also show reductions of breast and other cancers that tend to favor heavy or very frequent coffee drinking. Consumption of 6 or more cups of coffee per day tend to be associated with the best levels of health.

CONFLICTING RESEARCH ON CAFFEINE AND COFFEE OR TEA

You have undoubtedly read many other reports about coffee and tea, or heard of anti-coffee ‘scientific findings’ on radio or TV. Why is there so much confusion about coffee, tea and caffeine?

This is because the negative studies are not being conducted on large populations, and are not focused on the overall risks for major diseases and death. They are not focused on the number of major diseases developed over decades like the studies we quote here are. Instead you will hear that coffee tends to be associated with extremely small increases in blood pressure, or with other particular symptoms which are often associated with a particular disease like increases in inflammation, changes in neuropeptides in the brain, and so on.

However, dispite any of these negative findings about specific biological processes that when examined in isolation in the lab or even in human studies may show undesirable trends, the OVERALL EFFECTS of coffee drinking tend to improve health. This is true for all people, both men and women, all around the world. And, when you examine all the studies of risk for major diseases, risk of premature death due to cancer, diabetes, heart attacks or strokes, you find that drinking coffee tends to reduce such risks in direct proportion to the amount of the drink consumed. The more coffee you drink, the longer you live and the less disease you suffer from.

Coffee helps you enjoy your life and live longer!

That’s why our Level1diet.com health program encourages drinking coffee and tea for most dieters. Caffeinated coffee or tea also helps lose weight, but that’s another essay.

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Exercise to improve Cardio Health and Cardio Health Exercise

Any individual who desires effective weight loss should include cardio exercise as a necessary part of their weight loss program. When you burn more calories than you eat you are going to be losing weight, period. And, the most effective program to maintain your weight loss and improve your health and energy include cardio exercise, strength training and a well-balanced healthy diet.

Tips to Improve Cardio Health

1. Lose weight. This should be at the top of your list to get into good physical health overall, but it is especially important to your cardio health. Overweight people are at a higher risk for developing diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even certain types of cancer. Obesity will also cause your heart to pump harder which can lead to long term damage.

2. Stop smoking. This killer habit can put you at a much higher risk for heart attack and stroke. Smoking is one of the most preventable causes of heart disease there is. So if you smoke stop. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you live with a smoker, insist that they not smoke around you. Second hand smoke can do just as much, if not more, damage to your lungs.

3. Exercise. Your heart is a muscle. The best way to develop any muscle is through exercise. This includes your heart muscle. Exercise gets your blood pumping and makes your heart stronger. It also reduces cholesterol levels and helps to reduce stress.

4. Eat heart healthy foods. Foods that are rich in potassium are good for your heart. You should also try to avoid foods that are high in sodium because sodium will make you retain excess water and put a strain on your heart muscle. Studies have shown that foods that are rich in omega 3 fatty acids are good for your heart. Stop eating the high calorie, high fat junk foods and start eating a diet rich in fiber, fruit and vegetables.

Any individual who desires effective weight loss should include cardio exercise as a necessary part of their weight loss program. When you burn more calories than you eat you are going to be losing weight, period. And, the most effective program to maintain your weight loss and improve your health
and energy include cardio exercise, strength training and a well-balanced healthy diet.

Benefits of Cardio Exercise

1.    Burns calories immediately. Depending upon the intensity of your workout, you may be able to burn from 100 to 500 calories in one session. On a treadmill, its typical to burn 100 calories in 10 minutes of fast walking. If you use an elliptical trainer which also incorporates your upper body, the calorie burn will be higher.

2.    Improves cardiovascular health

3.    Helps flush toxins from your lymph system and your body.

4.    Increases your breathing rate, helping to oxygenate your body and eliminate toxins when you exhale.

5.    Increases your metabolism so you continue to burn more calories after your workout is complete