Healthy Food Chart

The Role Of Nitric Oxide

Nitric oxide is a biological gas, which produced by the human body to assist the various physiological functions.  Our body cells need an adequate amount of nitric oxide to do the body functions in an optimal way. People performing rigorous activities like body builders or people doing workouts require more nitric oxide as it promotes blood flow and muscle development. Deficiency of this gas in our body can lead to fatigue. In our body, nitric oxide can work as a neurotransmitter, intracellular messenger, and a neurotransmitter. It is produced in our body by the breakdown of amino acid arginine. You can get the excess nitric oxide needed by the body from the nitric oxide supplements, which contain arginine.

The Benefits

• Relaxes Blood Vessels

Nitric oxide plays an important role in regulating the blood flow in your body. It expands the blood vessels and prevents blood clot formation. This will help in increasing the amount of oxygen in the body. It also reduces the blood pressure level and helps the heart to function optimally.  You will be able to continue your activities for a longer period with better oxygen supply to the cells.

• Builds Lean Muscle

Nitric oxide supplements relax the blood vessels and increase the blood flow to the skeletal muscles. The increased nutrient availability, in turn, increases the lean muscle development. Your endurance level increases and you will be able to lift weights and do strenuous exercises with ease and for an extended period.

Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the people find it much challenging to lose their weight. There are several ways to lose weight, but the most simple way to shed out extra kilos is to consume zero calorie food. This Infographic beautifully explains about how zero calorie foods help you to reduce your weight. You can even find negative calorie foods and various tips to reduce your weight.

Thanks to http://www.howmanycaloriescounter.com

Yes, sautéed spinach is fabulous. Kale chips are fun. A crisp Romaine salad is especially refreshing on a hot day. But the health benefits of leafy greens are numerous, and to eat more of them you’ll have to think outside the produce box and get creative with those nutrient-dense leafy greens. Check out these tips for a variety of greens, including bok choy, mustard greens, chard, kale, spinach and beet greens.

• Add chopped or sliced greens to spring and summer soups for the last 30 seconds of cooking.
• Drizzle warm balsamic vinaigrette over green leaves to wilt (warm the vinaigrette in the microwave).
• Fill steamed leaves with fresh mozzarella cheese and slices of fresh tomato or roasted red peppers and roll up; drizzle with olive oil before serving.
• Stuff leafy greens into breakfast sandwiches (egg, cheese and ham with whole grain bread, bagels or pita pockets).
• Top whole-grain tortillas with tomato sauce, shredded greens and shredded mozzarella cheese; bake in a 400 degree oven for 6 to 8 minutes; top with Parmesan cheese just before serving.
• Add chopped greens to cheese fillings for lasagna, baked ziti and homemade ravioli, or stir the leaves into tomato sauce and warm for a few minutes before serving.
• Add chopped greens to scrambled eggs, omelets and quiches.
• Stir chopped greens into fried rice dishes for the last few minutes of cooking.
• Add chopped leaves (and the stalks of bok choy) to Asian-inspired stir fries.
• Stuff greens into whole roasting chickens before cooking.
• Add chopped greens to braising liquids for chicken, beef and pork for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
• Add shredded greens to cole slaw mixes.
• Nestle shredded greens into tacos instead of lettuce.
• Stuff softened spring roll wrappers with shredded greens, rice, shredded carrots, green onions and cilantro before rolling up; serve with soy sauce for dunking.
• Pound chicken breasts until 1/2-inch thick; spread herbed cheese over chicken and top with chopped greens; roll up, secure with a toothpick or two and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Robin Miller is a nutritionist, host of Quick Fix Meals, author of “Robin Rescues Dinner” and the busy mom of two active little boys. Her boys and great food are her passion. Check her out at www.robinrescuesdinner.com.

One of the most difficult barriers dieters face are folks who try to sabotage their weight loss efforts. These are the folks who will shove an over-sized piece of cake in your face at a party or insist on having fried food at every meal. Every dieter faces them; your best defense is to be prepared.

Kids
Those sweet little ones can be a dieter’s worst nightmare! Yelling for candy at the check-out aisle or insisting on eating chicken nuggets at every meal. Oftentimes you end up giving into their whining for processed foods and end up becoming the garbage disposal for their leftovers.

Your best defense: Both adults (dieting or not) and kids should be eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and low-fat dairy foods. There are many deliciously healthy recipes that everyone can enjoy; get the kids in the kitchen to help choose and prepare healthy recipes and the whole family will benefit.

Office Buddies
There’s always one office pal who brings in the basket of baked goodies, insisting on watching you eat it. Then there are office-mates who go in groups to pick up the latest fancy coffee drinks, some with no less than 350 calories a pop. And if you try and explain that you’re watching your weight—that’s the center of conversation for the next 2 weeks.

Your best defense: Stick to your guns (and your plan)– overcoming office buddies is all about mind over matter.

Best “Friend”
Some friends let jealously get in the way. Although they’ve been supportive when you were having a bad day, they can’t stand the fact that you’re losing weight and becoming healthier. They insist on lunching at the fattiest restaurants in town and guilt you into splitting a huge appetizer or dessert.

Your best defense: Get them to join in on your weight loss efforts or consider dropping them along with the weight to become emotionally and physically healthier.

Spouse
You love your spouse, but they can just be mindless when it comes to your weight loss efforts. Instead of the gallon of nonfat milk and whole grain cereal on your shopping list, they come home with bags filled with whole fat milk, sugary cereals and everything else you’re trying to keep out of sight.

Your best defense: Team up with your spouse and get healthier together.

Grandmother
I love my grandma, but she’s always telling me to eat more and to put on more lipstick (not necessarily in that order), shoving chocolate kisses in my mouth every 10 minutes. And if your grandma’s cooking anything like mine, you just can’t resist her high-fat signature dish.

Your best defense: Keep your relationship with grandma to phone calls and video chats while trying to lose weight. And when you do share a meal together, split a serving of grandma’s best dish with a relative.

TELL US: Who do you find are the worst people for your diet?

Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, is a registered dietitian and consultant who specializes in food safety and culinary nutrition. See Toby’s full bio »

If you’re looking to up your kids’ veggie intake, read this! A new study found that serving vegetables alongside dip leads to munching on more veggies. Interestingly, kids were also found to prefer dips flavored with herbs and spices over plain, more bland dips.

The Study
A 2013 study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that adding herbs or spices to a reduced-fat dip increased a child’s willingness to eat veggies. The portion-controlled 3 ½ tablespoon dips served to the kids had 50 calories, 4 grams of fat and 90 milligrams of sodium.

Pre-school children ages 3 to 5 years told researchers from the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University that they liked veggies when paired with a favorite flavored dip compared to eating a veggie without a dip or with a plain dip. Thirty-one percent of kids liked a veggie alone while 64% liked a veggie when it was served with their favorite dip. In addition, 6% of kids refused the vegetable when served with a flavored dip as compared with 18% who refused the veggie when served without any dip.
During a second experiment, researchers found that kids ate significantly more of a previously rejected or disliked veggie when it was offered with a favorite reduced-fat herb dip compared to when it was offered alone.

Dip Recipes To Try
Dips are pretty quick to prepare and you can do so a day or two in advance. Make a colorful crudité platter by cutting up veggies like carrots, celery, squash, cucumbers, red bell peppers and broccoli and have it ready to go when the kids need a snack.

• Warm Spinach and Artichoke Dip
• Green Goddess Dip
• Ranch Dressing
• Guacamole
• Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hummus
• Lighter Creamy White Bean Dip
• Eggplant Dip
• Cucumber Yogurt Dip with Pita Chips
• Roasted Red Pepper Dip
• Kale and Artichoke Dip
• More Simple Dips

TELL US: Do your kids like to dip?

The 2-Day Diet was created by Dr. Michelle Harvie, research dietitian at Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, and Professor Tony Howell.

The authors worked together in research exploring the connection between breast cancer and obesity. They designed this diet to help women with breast cancer to lose weight and keep it off for good.

Diet for 2 Consecutive Days

The 2-Day Diet is simple: For two consecutive days each week you follow a calorie-controlled diet. The rest of the week you will eat a healthy Mediterranean diet.

Research undertaken by the authors showed that this new approach to dieting can really work. It has even been demonstrated to be effective for women with a history of yo-yo dieting, who have tried everything.

The 2 Day Phase

You don’t have to count calories or go hungry on the two dieting days. Just stick with the recommended foods and suggested portions. The plan includes lean protein, healthy fats, low-fat dairy and fresh fruit.

The diet is designed to be:

• Low enough in calories to allow you to lose weight but not so low that you feel hungry.
• Nutritionally balanced so that all your vitamin, mineral and protein requirements are met.
• On the two diet days you also need to limit your carbohydrate intake to 50 grams a day. This is because research shows that carbs make you hungry. A low-carb diet also promotes fat-burning and suppresses your appetite.

Eat the Mediterranean Way for 5 Days a Week

The rest of the week allows for a lot more flexibility in your diet. Your food intake will be based on a healthy Mediterranean way of eating with lots of vegetables, whole grains, beans, fish, fruit, nuts and healthy oils. It can also include small amounts of lean red meat.

It should be easy to lose weight if you follow the meal plans provided in the book. They are designed to be high in protein and fiber to help you feel full and reduce the tendency for overeating.

Contrary to what some people may think, a healthy Mediterranean diet should not include large portions of pasta, pizza and red wine. Treats like alcohol and chocolate are allowed but you should limit these to no more than 2-3 times a week.

Other Foods Promoted

Whole wheat bread, oatmeal, high-fiber cereal, whole wheat pasta, milk, yogurt, feta cheese, eggs, chickpeas, baked beans, tuna, chicken, shrimp, fish, walnuts, pistachios, zucchini, tomato, red pepper, lettuce, arugula, apple, plum, raspberries, apricot, fresh herbs and spices, olive oil.

Sample Meal Plan

Exercise 150 Minutes Each Week

For the first six months your aim is to build up to 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. You can break it up so that you have 3-5 sessions per week.

Eventually you should increase your activity to 300 minutes of moderate or 150 minutes of vigorous exercise. This amount will help you lose weight and keep it off, as well as providing extra health benefits.

You should also do two or three muscle strengthening sessions and two or three flexibility sessions.

Pros

• Easier to follow than most diets because you only need to strictly reduce your calories for two days a week.
• High fiber diet helps to stabilize blood sugar levels and promotes healthy digestion.
• Mediterranean diet has been associated with reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
• High protein intake reduces appetite.
• Includes a meal plan and recipes.
• Provides vegetarian options.

Cons

• Dieters may experience fatigue on the diet days due to reduced calorie intake.
• High protein levels on the diet days make this program unsuitable for those with kidney disease.
• The program is not recommended for teenagers, pregnant or lactating women and people with depression or an eating disorder.
• Advocates the use of sugar-free gum containing artificial sweeteners that have been shown to negatively affect weight loss.
• Some dieters may find it difficult to find the time to do all of the recommended exercise sessions.

May Be Easier to Follow for Some

The 2-Day Diet only requires strict dieting for two days each week. So compared to many diet plans it will probably be much easier to stick with this program.

This approach has been scientifically demonstrated to increase your chance of successfully losing weight. However, most importantly it makes it more likely that you will maintain the weight loss over the longer term.

The 2 Day Diet is available on Amazon.

I recently found this infographic entitled A Tale of Two Meals.

While the logic here seems easy to understand, there are just a few flaws with their science.

Can you spot the errors in this infographic? Let’s discuss them below.

Are you tired of your old exercise routine? Has it become dull and boring? Do you long to be the center of attention at the park?

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One of our favorite quotes here at Food411 goes like this:

“it is not what is on the table that matters but who is in the chairs”

Our Chef Silva has written a beautiful article about the kitchen being a sacred space which further defines the connection of food, family and friends. It really is what life is al about.

All of us who love food know that it’s so much more than simply fuel for the body. If that were the case, we would simply swallow a little purple pill and be done with it – and one of life’s greatest pleasures would go down with it. Though it may seem like I’m stating the obvious, preparing, eating and sharing food is an ageless practice that spans across all cultural and economic groups.

Today there is a show on PBS that has taken TV entertainment by storm – Downton Abby. In this British series set in the early 1900′s when class distinction was most clearly defined, it seems the aristocracy of this post – Edwardian age did little more than dress for dinner and chat (gossip) about the people and news in their world. The servants, who were responsible for preparing and serving the meal did much the same around their downstairs table, only they seemed to have more fun. They were cultivating kitchen gardens, going into town shopping for food, and spending endless hours in preparation that gave them instant satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment – and leftovers.

From the kitchens of grand estates to humble campfires of indigenous people around the globe, the art of preparing and sharing a meal is built into our DNA and I would venture to guess that the nourishment we gain from this practice has less to do with the food we eat and more to do with the people, ideas and stories we share around the “table”.

Growing up in a large Italian family, the kitchen was the hub of activity in our household. The kitchen table was rarely empty. It was always cluttered with food being prepared, family meals being eaten, or a steady stream of neighbors or relatives pulling up any empty and joining in.

For me, I wasn’t truly home until I entered the kitchen. Regardless of what was going on in my life, it was where I found solace. It nurtured my spirit as well as my body and that nourishment took root within me and led me to my life’s work.My parents, who are no longer alive, were brilliant at harvesting the gifts of the kitchen and extending them to us, have no idea the far reaching effects they nurtured or who have been touched and benefited from the solid foundation they built for their children and grandchildren. For each of us, in our own way has drank from it, eaten from it and used it to fortify our endeavours and contributions to society. That humble kitchen, in a small suburban town like any other, has feed more hearts than we can ever know.

These are the gifts, the legacy, that awaits anyone who enters this sacred space. This is why I choose to work there, so I may bring you there with me.

Chef Silvia

” I can’t think of anything I want more of this holiday season than compassion and forgiveness. The more I have, the more I have to give. The supply is infinite so I don’t have to worry that there isn’t enough and these gifts have a way of changing everything.” Silvia

A Holiday Salad

I don’t know about you but the holidays is a time when I indulge in all my favorite foods without guilt. But in between indulgent feasts, something much lighter – but just as festive – is called for. This holiday salad is just the thing. It’s delicious, healthy, and comes dressed in holiday finery.

Recipe
(Per person)
1 cup kale
1 cup mixed greens
? cup cooked quinoa
? ripe pear (sliced)
1 tablespoon pomegranate seeds
? cup goat cheese
1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette (or other favorite vinaigrette)

Peel and remove seeds from the pomegranate and set aside. Toss the greens in the vinaigrette and place onto individual plates. Sprinkle with the quinoa, the pomegranate seeds and goat cheese. Slice the pears and arrange on top. Serve as a light lunch or as a starter for dinner.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
? cup balsamic vinegar
? cups extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Place vinegar (and mustard) in a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a food processor) along with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Slowly add the oil while briskly mixing using a wire whisk (or with the blade of the processor spinning). The mixture will emulsify and look like caramel. Adjust the seasoning and toss with the greens