Food Archives - Healthy Men

3 Ways to rock Your next Food Festival visit

Fall is right around the corner, but that doesn’t mean all of the summer fun has come to an end. You can still check out a food festival. Do you have a favorite treat to enjoy? It might sound odd to talk about food festivals when this is a health site, but you will be surprised at the number of healthy options at these festivals. Some even have ice cream that’s organic, while others post the nutritional information close by so you can take a look. The time of not knowing what’s going on with your food is long over, and festival operators want people to have peace of mind. If people feel comfortable, they’ll keep going to the festivals.

We found this cool graphic on food festivals done by the folks over at http://www.adeltd.co.uk, who make sure that festivals large and small have the power they need to keep food on hand safely. After all, who wants to get sick when they were supposed to be out having a great time? [Read more…]

4 Common Habits That Will Sabotage Your Weight Loss

By Men

You exercise and fight off the urges to consume foods that are contrary to your diet. You count your calories and stay within your daily limits and you even have a coach to keep you on track yet the number on your scale has not gone down a single point. You’re tired and confused but before you curse the diet and the exercise regime consider these four common habits that could be sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

Skipping breakfast

Breakfast is the meal that comes after a 10 to 12 hour overnight fast and thus it is important that you take time to eat your breakfast even if you don’t feel hungry. Your blood sugar levels drop overnight and when you skip breakfast you will be tempted to indulge in unhealthy snacks to boost your blood sugar levels. Take the time to eat breakfast no matter how little time you have in the morning because in the end people who do tend to consume less calories throughout the day.

Eating too quickly

With so much to do in so little time many people rush through meals in order to move on to the next task. Take the time to chew your food if you want to promote weight loss. This is important because your stomach signals to your brain that it is full and it takes at least 20 to 30 minutes for it to do so. With that in mind you should take your time so that your brain will catch up to your stomach and avoid overeating.

Not planning your meals

Don’t wait until you’re hungry to think about what you’re going to eat. When you do you will be tempted to eat whatever you can get your hands on in order to satisfy your hunger. Plan your meals in advance so your body does not pay the price for the poor choices you make when you’re too hungry to care. Planning also involves taking time to prepare those healthy meals that will benefit your body without promoting the fat.

Poor sleep habits

Believe it or not your restless nights are sabotaging your weight loss. Your low energy body craves sugar and other unhealthy foods as a pick me up after a restless night. Give your body at least 7-8 hours of rest every night and by doing so you will resist that hunger and unhealthy cravings that you get throughout the day.

If you’re holding on to any of these habits you could very well be sabotaging your weight loss. Recognize them, acknowledge them but most importantly get rid of them if you want real results and achieve your weight loss goals.

How Bad is Junk Food, Really?

By Men

One of the first questions that people ask when it comes to diet is whether or not junk food is really bad for them. The saying is everything in moderation, but is that really the case when it seems like there’s always something waiting to tempt you or take you away from your health goals? We’re going to explore a few points today on the matter.

You see, everything is okay in moderation — however, the very nature of junk food inspires us to seek it out for just about every occasion. When we’re feeling bad, we reach for the greasiest or sweetest things that we can find. Over time, this processed food doesn’t lead to good health goals at all. On the contrary, it actually causes us to slip further and further from our goals. That means that instead of trying to capture things that aren’t important, we need to focus more on the things that matter — like health and wellness.

If you’re trying to build a healthier life, you need to make sure that you put junk food in its place. That means that you will really need to look at the foods you eat and decide whether or not they’re actually going to be healthy for you. It’s one thing to indulge in snacks here and there, but when you care more about junk food than real food, you might actually have a problem.

Sometimes junk food can be a good treat or reward, but you can’t rely on junk food to fuel your body. You will want to try to add in more healthy food than junk food. It can be hard because when you’re stressed you are most likely going to want to reach for that junk food but this is not a time to give in.

When you’re trying to transition away from junk food it might be important to try to just get with a support group rather than trying to assume that you can do everything by yourself. The support group can be a positive influence that you can truly count on. The last thing that you will want to do is let down people that have begun to trust you so now is the time to go ahead and join some sort of support group. If you try to join an online support group, you don’t even have to use your real name. You can use a pen name instead and protect your own privacy.

Overall, how bad is junk food, really? Well, if you’re trying to lose weight and improve your weight for the long term, you’re going to have to seriously cut back on the junk food that you eat. Most of these foods are just simple sugars that will turn to fat easily in the body. You’re pretty much better off focusing on whole foods that the body needs to fuel itself.

Health risks associated with obesity and being overweight

By Men

As every new week breaks we hear fresh stories and reports about the rapid rise of obesity and levels of overweight people with our society. But now more than ever those reports are concerning our children and young adults. But what does all this mean to us? What possible impact could being overweight or being obese have on our lives and do we understand the consequences of being overweight or obese. Do we even care? Before I go further into why I do not believe that we are solely at fault for this rapid increase in obesity, I shall present to you the facts. These are the very facts that should give us all incite into what is happening within our world and how if left unchecked could ruin thousands of lives – if not end them.

Much of this information comes directly from reports produced by the US Surgeon General and House of Commons Health Committee.

Current epidemiology studies have shown an increase in deaths associated with being overweight and obesity. Those people that are obese (BMI ≥ 30) are said to have 50% to 100% increased risk of premature death from all causes when compared to individuals with an average weight and body mass index. It has since been estimated that 300,000 deaths per year could be attributed directly to obesity in the US.

Surely it cannot only be me by myself that finds 300,000 deaths per year truly shocking, if obesity were a foreign land that we were at war with then our casualties would be huge. In the streets there would be thousands of protestors chanting, carrying banners and linking arms and across our land organised marches would be televised for us all to see and learn from the memory of such a disastrous waste of life. 300,000 dead people are more than those who lost there lives at Hiroshima or Nagasaki or even more than all the U.S servicemen that died during World War Two. But this war is being waged; right here, right now and we are doing our utmost to turn a blind eye to it.

We would all agree if asked that we associate poverty, smoking and alcoholism as being major factors in reducing a persons life expectancy, but it is now believed that being overweight or obese offers just as serious a risk to the reduction in ones life expectancy. Being overweight or obese can be seen to be associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, type 2 Diabetes, and many types of cancer including endometrial, colon, postmenopausal breast, as well as musculoskeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis.

Essential fatty acids: our missing link?

By Men

With all the misinformation and scandal surrounding fats and oils in our press of late, could you possibly appreciate that we have certain oils that are essential to our health, fitness and well-being? And believe it or not they are certainly not the ones that you will find on every supermarket shelf, no these are termed as essential fatty acids. These are the very oils that can heal our bodies, improve our health, clear and condition our skin and burn off body fat. I’m sure most of us have heard of Omega 3 and Omega 6 six oils without which our bodies will never reach there full potential.

Why are they so essential?

Our bodies need around 50 essential nutrients daily to maintain health and fight off disease to its fullest potential and we have two oils which are included in this list of essential nutrients they are Linoleic acid (LA) and Alpha-Linolenic acid (LNA). They are the building blocks of many important structures and functions within our cells, organs and tissues. Yet we get very little of these essential oils within our diet as the majority of the oils that are ingested within our diet are refined and have these nutrients removed from them. So no matter how much a manufacturer may claim that their product is ‘high in polyunsaturates’ or ‘low in saturates’ they are still not healthy as the oils used within their products have usually gone through the process of being chemically treated, bleached, filtered and had artificial additives added for good measure, or even worse they may have been partially hydrogenated.

So the end product that you receive from your local store is a poor quality variant of the healthful essential oils that we should be receiving daily. And this is all down to making as much money as possible with the least amount of wastage and operational costs, true this may produce very cheap oils, but what good is that if they are actively making us unwell? So if all these oils, margarines and vegetable spreads are so high in polyunsaturates (omega 6’s) where are the omega 3 oils to maintain a healthy balance? No where to be seen. Because even though they are essential for our health they are much more awkward to deal with and far more bother than any large producer would care to trouble themselves with. As essential oils react with light, oxygen and heat they have to be extracted and bottled and eventually packaged with some very extreme measure to prevent spoilage. Large producers simply don’t need that kind of added expense or trouble.

It is of utmost importance for us to receive these oils daily, but not only that, we need for them to be in the correct ratio. At present our diets are largely dominated by cheap refined polyunsaturates the type of which has no place in our diet or our body. Some of the effects from a deficiency in omega 3 LNA (alpha-linolenic acid) are dry skin, high blood pressure, high triglycerides (blood fats) and oedema and tissue inflammation. All of which hardly form the basis for life long health. We can also experience behavioural changes, impaired vision, retarded growth and overall weakness. All these problems because we don’t get enough of the right oils, and are bombarded with tons of useless flowing plastics under the guise of healthful products.

Cholesterol and high cholesterol foods

By Men

What foods contain cholesterol?

It is relatively easy to point out which foods contain cholesterol or not. Simply put, food sources which are derived from plants such as oatmeal, vegetables, fruit and nuts are free of cholesterol. While foods from animal sources do contain cholesterol such as milk, cheese, meat, fish, poultry and eggs.

Are fat and cholesterol the same?

Even though fat and cholesterol are often mentioned together they are not the same. Foods such as peanut butter maybe high in fat but contains no cholesterol, therefore high fat foods need not necessarily be high in cholesterol.

In animals cholesterol is part of the cell membrane structure of many types of cell, so by trimming away visible fat or removing the skin from chicken you are only removing some of the cholesterol, but a large portion of fat.

There is approximately 20 mg of cholesterol in 28 g of meat, whether it be Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey or Fish. This is because cholesterol is an integral part of the muscle cells and muscle tissue as a whole.

Dairy products are slightly different as their cholesterol content is dependant on the level of fat present. For example, milk is secreted from animals cells but the same as in animal muscle tissue, it has no cholesterol containing membranes. But as cholesterol is fat soluble, the cholesterol rides along with the fat in the milk, it is the same for other milk based products. So it can be seen that the more fat the dairy product contains the more cholesterol the said dairy product will contain.

High cholesterol foods.

The two highest concentrated sources of cholesterol are liver and eggs. The egg contains a large supply of cholesterol which is used to fortify the chicks cells before it hatches. The liver produces its own cholesterol so naturally liver will have a high content.

Levels of cholesterol in foods.

per 100 gm

Cholesterol in mg

per 100 gm

Cholesterol in mg

Lean beef, fat removedBeef with fatMinced beef, fat reduced

Minced beef, regular

Pork loin, fat removed

Pork with fat

Ham

Bacon

Bologna

Bratwurst

Lamb, fat removed

Lamb with fat

Veal cutlet

Duck

Chicken, fried with skin

Chicken, roasted no skin

Turkey, dark meat

Turkey, light meat

Catfish, breaded and fried

Cod, baked

Haddock, baked

Salmon, baked

Tuna, packed in oil

Tuna, packed in water

818684

122

128

167

CrabClamsShrimp, breaded and fried

Shrimp, boiled

Lobster, boiled

Eggs, 2 whole

Eggs, 6 Yolks

Eggs, white no yolk

Full fat milk

Semi-skimmed milk

Skimmed milk

Yoghurt, low fat

Yoghurt, full fat

Cheddar cheese

Swiss cheese

Mozzarella

Processed cheese

Cream

Neufchatel

Cottage cheese

Dry curd

Ice milk

Ice cream, regular

Ice cream, deluxe

Sherbet

Cream

5967177

195

548

1602

107

111

137