Nutrition

After we have eaten a meal -- and often we do this in a hurry, without much chewing, under a lot of stress, or in the presence of negative emotions -- we give no thought to what becomes of our food once it has been swallowed. We have been led to assume that anything put in the mouth automatically gets digested flawlessly, is efficiently absorbed into the body where it nourishes our cells, with the waste products being eliminated completely by the large intestine. To the natural hygienist, most disease begins and ends with our FOOD;...

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Could it be possible that our beloved chocolate may actually be good for us? This is the nutrition news we have all been waiting for. So here is the scoop on chocolate and its health benefits. Yes, you read right, health benefits! Recent studies show that cocoa and dark chocolate with a high cocoa content contain many heart-healthy antioxidants. They contain a compound called flavonoids which may help prevent the oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels in the blood....

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America's major dietary deficiency - EFA a panacea for good health Today you cannot so much turn a corner without seeing a sign on a fast food restaurant's window boasting the "Low Carb" menu. You cannot read a magazine without seeing an ad for "Adkins friendly" foods. Everyone it seems is preaching the Low Carb Diet. You are told what not to eat in a sentence. "Lower your carbohydrate intake" they say, but no one is emphasizing what you should eat. As there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate for life, we humans can do just fine without bread, rice and potatoes....

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Finding simple ways to reduce my waistline is always a personal objective. I am by no means a health expert, and I have not always been too concerned with what I put into my body. But as I get a little older, I fear that if I don't concern myself with health, my doctor will have to. And regardless of the good that they do, I don't like doctors and clinics that much. I do a lot of my own research, and the internet has been a blessing. What I have learned in my research and life experience is that the crap that I used to eat made me fat....

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Scandinavian fishermen are a healthy bunch. It had long been known that they live longer and have much less heart and blood-pressure related diseases than their European counterparts. Their diet of cold-water fish, while not known for variety or sophistication, had been suspected to fortify their health. Now the scientific research gives additional credit to this claim. Eating fish high in fats like sardines and salmon might help to prevent Alzheimer's disease. Such fish contains Omega 3 fatty acids, and those acids prevent build-up of amyloid in a brain....

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On average 30% of foods in our daily diet are processed foods. These are foods that come in a box or a can and have many ingredients that are hard to pronounce, containing food starches, gums, preservatives, and colorings. Many processed foods have to be enriched, adding inorganic minerals and vitamins to compensate for the nutrition lost in the processing of the food. Some people believe enriched foods are good enough, and we will be able to absorb their nutrients sufficiently to benefit from them....

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It is always amazing to me when I find a food substance that when taken in excess can cause pain the body. And sometimes these foods, and food additives that are regulated by the government, are supposed to be safe. When I test clients and their supplements, or ask about their dietary habits, or chemicals in their work environments, we often discover chemicals or foods that are causing their chronic pain symptoms. When these chemicals are removed, much of their pain subsides. When I talk to clients, I often ask if they can decipher what foods tend make the pain worse or better, and if they crave certain foods in their diet....

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Organic farming is the production of food using all natural methods - avoiding all synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms. Its' core philosophy is that of sustainability or 'zero impact'. The organic farmer seeks to leave the earth in its' natural state after the harvest. The focus of organic methods is on soil quality. Crops are grown without artificial fertilizers and pesticides, and livestock is reared free of drugs and hormones. Proponents of organic food believe it produces food with higher quality and nutritional value than conventional chemical-based methods....

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You really are what you eat. You are also very much affected by the lifestyle you live. Every item that enters your mouth will be digested and reconstructed into your living cells for use. Although it is true that everything is broken down into general building blocks necessary for life (such as sugar, fat, proteins, etc), the quality of what you eat really affects how healthy each of your cells are. A diet high in processed foods, sugars, fats, chemicals, additives, preservatives, and low quality nutrients is harder for your body to process and leads to the building of lower quality cells....

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Fats (triacylglycerols) ... Some basic terminology ... fat or fatty acid ... In the human most of the important fatty acids are between 14 and 24 carbon atoms in length with the most common being 16 or 18 carbon atoms. There is a carboxy.. (acid) group at one end (COOH) and a methylgroup at the other end (CH3). Carbon number one is the carbon atom in the carboxy.. group and the omega(w) carbon is the carbon atom in the methyl(CH3) group at the other end. (For purposes of this discussion we will use the w symbolfor the omega symbol)....

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