If you love your body and you wish to lose weight then you must consider skipping popcorn and drinks in the movies.

A medium popcorn with a medium soda packs add over 1600 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat. And when you add the so-called buttery topping that many of us like to put on our popcorn, this raises our calorie content and saturated fat even more so. Even small popcorn without the buttery topping will set you back 670 calories drinks not included. Add buttery topping and you can easily add an additional 120 calories per bag. Add a small drink and you can add another 150 calories.

Please, eat before you go to theater and skip the concession stand altogether. Not only do you save money, but you save your arteries and your health by doing so.

Movie goers are requested to consider sodium content, calorie and saturated fat content in the popcorn before enjoying popcorn and drinks in the theaters.

Adopted from article by Nancy Howard : http://www.dailyspark.com

There are tools other than mammography to monitor breast health.
Digital infrared thermographic imaging, DITI, is a procedure to gauge a woman’s risk for developing breast cancer before the change in mammogram recommendations.
Breast thermography is not a replacement for mammography but simply another way doctors can track subtle changes in a woman’s breast tissue, she said.
“If someone has their blood checked for cholesterol levels and it comes back that they have high cholesterol, that means that person is at a higher risk for having arterial blockages and, later on, a heart attack,”
“It is the same thing with thermography. Woman’s risk is identified. It doesn’t mean that the patient has cancer; it just means this patient is a higher risk.”
Mammograms and breast cancer have been on many women’s minds since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended against routine mammography screening in women ages 40 to 49 years, and screening only every other year for women ages 50 and over.
Dr. Nicole Schertell, a naturopathic doctor, is approached by women to have breast thermograph done for a number of reasons.
Women chose not to have mammograms. Some women have very dense breast tissue and have been told not to have mammograms and some women don’t like the idea of the compression and radiation (in a mammogram).”
Schertell might refer patients found by a thermograph test to be at higher risk to have a traditional mammogram as a follow up.
The digital breast thermography procedure takes 15 minutes and works by detecting infrared heat patterns emitted by the body. It translates those heat patterns into a digital image, which is sent off-site from the Newington medical practice to be interpreted by radiologists specially trained in thermography. The procedure involves no radiation and is a non-invasive approach.
“It’s easy; you don’t feel anything, you don’t even feel warmth,” Schertell said.
The digital breast thermography is FDA approved and has been extensively studied and found to have a 90 percent accuracy rate, Schertell said. There have been 800 peer-reviewed studies done with more than 300,000 women included, she said.
Some insurance companies cover a small portion of the cost for the procedure. If it’s not covered, the out-of-pocket cost for the first screening is $150 and the follow-up screening three months after is $100. If a person is having trouble paying out of pocket, Schertell works with the United Breast Cancer Foundation, which can pay up to $300 a year per person for breast thermography testing.
The first screening establishes a baseline, while the follow up looks for any changes from that baseline, Schertell said. After the first two screenings, a yearly screening is recommended.
“Thermography is looking at what’s going on in the cellular activity and new blood vessel growth,” she said. “Thermography has the ability to see things eight to 10 years earlier than mammograms.”
That early detection might not necessarily be breast cancer but more an indicator that someone is more at risk of developing breast cancer.
If someone is deemed a higher risk, they might be monitored more closely. The important thing, she said, is that it is another tool to help measure breast health.
“Thermography has always been every woman’s choice and every woman’s responsibility,” she said. “You can come on your own and take this extra preventative measure.”
Article with courtesy from: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20091126-NEWS-911260425

Japan offers a perfect illustration of the detrimental effects of an unhealthy diet on a population. Formerly a very healthy nation, Japan’s traditional diet was rich in nutritious, unprocessed foods, many of which were derived from the sea. As Japan has slowly adopted a more Western diet over the years, its rates of cancer have begun to increase, exemplifying the link between dietary habits
and health

It is imperative for every health-oriented individual that a wide variety of whole, natural foods be consumed as opposed to processed foods high in unnatural sugars and refined flours. Fortifying the body with nutrients, minerals, and vitamins from natural, balanced sources is vital to maintaining optimal health.

A recent French study published in theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology has revealed that a “Mediterranean” diet rich in fruits and vegetables, fish, and olive and sunflower oils will reduce the risk of post-menopausal women developing cancer. Findings implicated the “Western” diet as contributing heavily to incidences of breast cancer.

The Mediterranean diet is replete with foods that are rich in vital nutrients. Olive oil, for instance, contains high levels of oleic acid, an anti-cancer fatty acid that blocks oncogene HER-2/neu, a cancer-causing agent. Other anti-cancer nutrients include high levels of selenium, glutathione, fiber, polyphenols, vitamins E and C, and a highly favorable omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.

On the other hand, the Western diet consists of many highly-refined, nutrient-depleted processed foods. Grain-fed meats high in harmful fats, excess refined flours and starchy foods, processed sugars, and gluttonous alcohol intake are some of the typical staples in the unhealthy, cancer-inducing Western diet.

Prior to the study, few scientific inquiries had been made into the correlation between breast cancer risk and diet. Though the link should be obvious to everyone, the study illustrates the obvious fact that diet plays a crucial role in keeping the body healthy and free of disease.

Adopted with courtesy from: http://www.naturalnews.com

Juice fasting is a powerful detoxification method and an easy way to lose weight quickly. With juice fasting, you’ll consume considerable nutrition through freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, but forgo any solid foods. Juice fasting is a powerful detoxification method because when your body isn’t digesting food, your body can divert its extra energy to cleansing itself and eliminating old, unneeded tissue.

Most people don’t know it, but our bodies use considerable amounts of energy just to digest our daily meals. It’s estimated that up to thirty percent of all of the energy a person produces each day is used to digest food. Common meat and carbohydrate heavy meals require considerably more energy to digest than meals consisting primarily of fruits and vegetables.

In addition to giving your body considerable stores of energy to cleanse and heal itself, juice fasting can be a very easy way to lose weight quickly. In fact, if you have weight to lose, you’ll find pounds and inches melt off in just a few days. It’s not uncommon to lose 10 pounds with a week of juice fasting, if you have weight to lose. However, if you’re already lean you simply won’t lose much weight. It’s amazing how intelligent our bodies are when we return to natural methods.

Juice fasting is beneficial for weight loss because your liver, your prime detoxification organ, is also your prime fat burning organ. So when you detoxify your body, you are freeing up your liver’s resources to burn fat. However, when your body is overwhelmed with the need to detoxify itself, which is common these days, your liver will have a difficult time getting around to burning fat.

Our bodies are designed to fast occasionally. Many studies have shown that reduced caloric intake leads to health and longer life. A 1930’s study from the University of Chicago found that worms who fasted regularly lived 19 generations longer than their non-fasting and regularly fed relatives. In human terms that’s equivalent to having a 600-700 year life expectancy. Interestingly, that’s about the same life expectancy quoted in the Bible for humans when human life began on earth.

In fact, it’s likely that when humans were first around fasting was a regular occurrence simply due to the lack of established food production and distribution systems. At that time the things we regularly poison ourselves with (pesticides, chemical drugs, hormones in foods, plastics, vaccines, and virtually all man-made chemicals) weren’t in existence either. Today, many of these poisons are difficult to avoid and it’s challenging to even understand what our potential could be since most of us consume poisons with each meal, glass of water and breath - and have been since day one.

Understanding Fasting and Detoxification

Especially if you’re new to cleansing and detoxification, you may experience detoxification symptoms when juice fasting. This can mean you might have headaches, nausea, or feel a bit out of it. It’s important to understand that this is part of the detoxification process, and simply how people feel when they have large amounts of toxins and poisons in their bloodstream. However, to remove those poisons from your body they’ll need to temporarily be in your bloodstream before they can exit, which is the reason you might feel a bit badly. In any case, it’s important to know what’s going on.

To help ease detoxification symptoms and really detoxify your body, colon cleansing and liver cleansing (with coffee enemas) work wonders when combined with fasting. These methods will help you remove more gunk than you can imagine and they’ll help you feel better while cleansing too.

Article courtesy:
http://www.naturalnews.com/027576_juice_fasting_weight_loss.html

Toothpaste whitens, brightens, deodorizes, removes stains, and restores and protects enamel. But toothpaste’s cleaning capabilities work wonders on many things besides our teeth. The same ingredients that help polish our pearly whites can also soothe some common ailments, make household items sparkle, and even get rid of stains and pungent smells. Try out these fifteen tricks with a white, non-gel toothpaste (unless otherwise noted), and watch that cavity-fighting, breath-freshening tube of wonder work its magic.

1. Relieve irritation from bug bites, sores, and blisters. These skin irritations all tend to weep and, in the case of bug bites, often itch. Apply a drop of toothpaste to a bug bite or insect sting to stop the itching and decrease any swelling. When applied to sores or blisters, it dries them up, thus allowing the wound to heal faster. It’s best when used overnight.

2. Soothe a stinging burn. For minor burns that don’t involve an open wound, toothpaste can deliver temporary cooling relief. Apply it delicately to the affected area immediately after a burn develops; it temporarily relieves the sting and prevents the wound from weeping or opening.

3. Decrease the size of a facial blemish. Want to speed up the healing of a zit? Apply a tiny dot of toothpaste to the affected area at night before bed. Wash it off in the morning.

4. Clean up your fingernails. Our teeth are made of enamel, and toothpaste is good for them, so it stands to reason that toothpaste would also be good for our fingernails. For cleaner, shinier, and stronger nails, simply scrub the underneath and tops of fingernails with a toothbrush and toothpaste.

5. Keep hair in place. Gel toothpastes contain the same water-soluble polymers that many hair gels are made of. If you’re looking to style and hold an extreme hair creation, try gel toothpaste as your go-to product if you’re out of regular hair gel. (This is also a great trick for making baby barrettes stay in place.)

6. Scrub away stinky smells. Garlic, fish, onion, and other pungent foods can permeate the skin cells on our hands. Scrubbing hands and fingertips briefly with toothpaste removes all traces of smelly odors

7. Remove stains. Toothpaste can make tough stains on both clothing and carpets disappear. For clothes, apply toothpaste directly to the stain and rub briskly until the spot is gone, then wash as usual. (Note that using a whitening toothpaste on colors can sometimes bleach the fabric.) For carpet stains, apply toothpaste to the stain and scrub it with an abrasive brush, then rinse immediately.

8. Spruce up dirty shoes. This tactic works great on running shoes or scuffed-up leather shoes. As with carpet stains, apply toothpaste directly to the dirty or scuffed area, then scrub with a brush and wipe clean.

9. Remove crayon stains on painted walls. Rub a damp cloth with toothpaste gently on the marked-up wall and watch the Crayola marks disappear.

10. Make silver jewelry and other silver pieces sparkle. Rub toothpaste onto jewelry and leave overnight. Wipe clean with a soft cloth in the morning. Make diamonds shine by giving them a gentle scrub using a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a little water. Rinse thoroughly to remove all traces of toothpaste. Do not use this method on pearls, as it will damage their finish.

11. Remove scratches on DVDs and CDs. This remedy has been used with mixed success rates, but it seems to work fairly well on shallow scratches and smudges. Apply a thin coating of toothpaste to the disc and rub gently, then rinse clean.

12. Tidy up piano keys before tickling them. Piano keys retain oil from the skin, which then attracts dust and dirt. Clean away grime gently with a damp, lint-free cloth and toothpaste; after rubbing in the toothpaste, wipe the keys clean with a second lint-free cloth.

13. Deodorize baby bottles. If baby bottles develop a sour-milk smell, a good cleaning with some toothpaste and a bottle scrubber will clean away residue and deodorize. Always make sure to rinse well.

14. Remove the burned crust on irons. For those of you who still use an iron, you may find that after time, the plate of the iron develops a burned crust. The silica in toothpaste gently grinds away this rusty-looking layer.

15. Defog goggles. Scuba divers, swimmers, and triathletes may already know about this handy little trick: Rub a small spot of toothpaste into each lens of your goggles, then rinse thoroughly, and voila! There’ll be no need to ever buy expensive defogger gels again. Avoid rubbing too vigorously, though, as the abrasive ingredients in toothpaste could scratch the lenses.

Adopted from an article by Zana Faulkner, Divine Caroline: www.care2.com

If you want to add over 100% of the daily value for health-promoting omega-3 fatty acids to your Healthiest Way of Eating today then try this delicious, easy-to-prepare salmon recipe. The tangy sauce is a great complement to the flavor of the salmon and it only takes minutes to prepare. Enjoy!
Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
• 1-1/2 lbs salmon filets, skin and bones removed, cut into 4 pieces
• 1/2 medium sized onion, chopped
• 2 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 TBS + 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1-1/2 cups fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 TBS minced fresh parsley, or if you have it, green fennel tops
• salt and white pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat broiler and place a stainless steel or cast iron skillet under broiler for about 10 minutes to get it very hot.
2. Chop onions and garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to enhance their hidden health-promoting properties.
3. While skillet is heating, place chopped onion, garlic, fennel seeds, 2 TBS lemon juice, and orange juice in a shallow, wide saucepan and cook on high heat for about 10-15 minutes to reduce to half the volume.
4. Season salmon pieces with 2 tsp lemon juice, salt and pepper and place on hot pan from broiler. Return pan to broiler (approximately 5-7 inches from heat) and broil salmon for about 7 minutes depending on thickness (10 minutes per inch of thickness). Do not turn, as salmon is cooking on both sides at once.
5. Remove salmon from pan, and place on platter. Season citrus sauce with salt and pepper and strain liquid over salmon. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.
Serves 4
Recipe courtesy: http://whfoods.org/

Cranberry and Fresh Pear Cobbler for After-dinner treat

This is a wonderful after-dinner treat that provides a great combination of flavors and health benefits to your Healthiest Way of Eating! Cranberries, like blueberries, rate high in their concentration of antioxidants to combat free radical activity, while the walnuts give you an extra boost of health-promoting omega-3 fatty acids.

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

1 medium orange*
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 tsp honey
1/2 ripe pear (Bosc or other firm variety)
¼ cup + 2 TBS walnuts

Directions:
Grate enough orange rind to make 1 tsp zest and place in a mixing bowl.
Cut the orange in half and juice both halves into the same bowl as the rind.
Add the cranberries and honey. Mix until the honey is dissolved. Let sit for 1/2 hour to allow cranberries to soften.
After the cranberries have softened, cut the pear into 1/4-inch cubes and add to the bowl.
Add 1/4 cup walnuts.
Divide the mixture into 2 dessert dishes and sprinkle each with 1 TBS of the chopped walnuts.

Enjoy this dish right away, before the pear starts to brown.

* Use organic oranges, if possible, to avoid wax coating.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?

Ans:
1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise - Half an hour’s walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts
and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?

Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in
everything in life.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to
keep a healthy heart?

Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and
injury to joints

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart ?

Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body’s enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?

Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?

Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?

Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?

Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position, place an aspirin tablet
under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a
coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first
hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?

Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to
stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart? What precautions
would you recommend?

Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these
irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock. *

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complication
(short / long term)?

Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern
anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise.. So,
does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the
house, work as a substitute for exercise?

Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and
even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and
sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?

Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?

Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right
combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to
reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?

Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke
and, go for health checkup if you are past the age of 30 (once in six
months recommended) ….

Courtesy: Adopted from a chat with Dr.Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya (Heart
Specialist) Bangalore

It may not be news that a healthy diet plays a role in keeping type 2 diabetes at bay, but exactly which dietary components are most important is less well understood. A new study sheds light on this question, suggesting that eating more fruit and vegetables rich in vitamin C is one way to reduce diabetes risk.

Make vitamin C a priority

These findings come out of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer–Norfolk (EPIC–Norfolk) study, a long-term research effort focused on determining how nutrition and lifestyle factors affect risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

To arrive at the latest results, researchers collected diet information and blood samples from 21,831 men and women aged 40 to 75 years, who lived in Norfolk, England, and were free of diabetes at study enrollment. Researchers tracked new cases of diabetes in the group during 12 years of follow-up.

Study participants with the highest blood levels of vitamin C were 62% less likely to develop diabetes than those with the lowest vitamin C levels. Men and women who ate the most fruit and vegetables were 22% less likely to develop diabetes than those who ate the least. When considering fruit separately, the researchers found that people consuming the most fruit were 30% less likely to develop diabetes than those consuming the least.

The finding that vitamin C levels are more strongly correlated with reduced diabetes risk than fruit and vegetable intake may lead you to conclude that a supplement is the answer, but avoid this trap: The study authors note that errors are common when measuring what people eat and approximately 90% of the vitamin C intake in the study group came from fruit and vegetables, not dietary supplements. The study authors conclude that the results, “re-endorse the public health message of the beneficial effect of increasing total fruit and vegetable intake.”

Getting the C you need from food

Vitamin C is important for reducing diabetes risk, but where you get this superstar nutrient is even more critical. Use the following tips to “C” your way to better health.

• Start your day with fruit. Add frozen fruit to your oatmeal. The hot cereal will thaw the fruit and you’ll get a dose of vitamin C.
• Try frozen and fresh. Fresh fruit is terrific when in season, but don’t shy away from frozen. A half cup of frozen peaches provides more than 100% of daily C and a half cup of strawberries provides more than 50%.
• Enjoy citrus. Try oranges, tangerines, and even lemons. A squeeze of lemon juice into your tea or water is an easy way to add C into your diet.
• Don’t skip veggies. Many focus on fruit for vitamin C, but red, yellow, and green peppers; broccoli; Brussels sprouts; and even kohlrabi contain ample C.
• Avoid boiling veggies. This can remove vitamin C; instead, steam, sauté, and stir-fry.
• Go tropical. Papayas, mangos, and pineapple all are excellent sources of vitamin C.

Courtesy: Article by Suzanne Dixon, MPH, MS, RD at
http://nutritionresearchcenter.org/healthnews/vitamin-c-keeps-diabetes-at-bay/

Here’s the Truth About Curing Your Diabetes!