Health Research – Weight Loss Diet Solutions

I am right now drinking a very great Antioxidant Smoothie to help my body in a battle…

Anyway I am on vacation this week and knew it would be a quiet week so of course on Saturday night I started getting a cold and have gone downhill since then. I have never seen a study on it but I truly believe that if you push yourself a little too hard for too long then as soon as your body sees a time for rest then you will just get sick to recover from the stress and pent up badness in your system.

Do you think so? Or am I a bit crazy thinking that?

Introducing My Antioxidant Smoothie

I have been drinking lots of liquids but tonight I made an Antioxidant smoothie for my cold. The antioxidant smoothie has frozen mixed berries, frozen cranberries, frozen mango, hemp hearts, and cranberry juice. You can see a picture of it here. It is a little sour, not too bad at all and is really hitting the spot. But why these ingredients?

Cranberries – Vitamin C and fiber play a very important role in cranberry’s health benefits, it’s the amazing array of phytonutrients in cranberries that has gotten the special attention of health researchers. There are at least 5 key categories of health-supportive phytonutrients in cranberries

Mango -Mango is an excellent source of Vitamin-A and flavonoids like beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin. 100 g of fresh fruit provides 765 mg or 25% of recommended daily levels of vitamin A. These compounds are known to have antioxidant properties and are essential for vision. Mangos are also a very good source of vitamin-B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin-C and vitamin-E. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful oxygen-free radicals. Vitamin B-6 or pyridoxine is required for GABA hormone production within the brain.

Blueberries -Most health research on blueberries involves their phytonutrient content. Anthocyanins – the colorful antioxidant pigments that give many foods their wonderful shades of blue, purple, and red – are usually the first phytonutrients to be mentioned in descriptions of blueberries and their amazing health-supportive properties. While it is true anthocyanins are pretty spectacular when it comes to blueberries and their support of our body systems, there are actually a wide variety of health support phytonutrients found in blueberries.

Strwawberries -Packed with vitamins, fiber, and particularly high levels of antioxidants known as polyphenols, strawberries are a sodium-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free, low-calorie food. They are among the top 20 fruits in antioxidant capacity and are a good source of manganese and potassium. Just one serving — about eight strawberries — provides more vitamin C than an orange.

Hemp Hearts – Hemp Hearts are packed full of protein with 10 grams of plant-based protein per 30 gram serving size. Hemp Hearts are a great way to get an ideal ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3‘s including the rare EFA known as Gamma-Linolenic Acid (GLA). Testimonials have shown that GLA alone helps with arthritis, joint mobility, eczema, hormonal balance, migraines, menopause in women, healthy cholesterol blood pressure levels and even weight management.

Related Blogs

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Aerobic Fitness declines with age

Ran into this interesting article from Reuters:

Jul 26 (Reuters Health) – Physical fitness is known to wane with age, but a study published Monday shows that the decline gains speed with each decade, regardless of a person’s exercise habits.
The study of 810 healthy adults found that the rate of decline in aerobic fitness was about four times greater among people in their 70s or older, compared with those in their 20s and 30s.

Despite the fact that it boosts aerobic fitness, regular exercise did not change a person’s rate of age-related decline.

However, that does not mean it’s time to retire those running shoes, according to the study authors.

At any given age, people who were at least moderately active were more fit than their sedentary peers, said lead author Dr. Jerome L. Fleg of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

In addition, he told Reuters Health, research shows that older people can improve their aerobic capacity by getting regular, moderate exercise like walking. The point, according to Fleg, is to help elderly people stay fit enough to perform daily activities — like housework or yard work — and maintain their independence as long as possible.

Fleg and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health report their findings in Circulation, a medical journal published by the American Heart Association.

The study looked at changes over time in individuals’ VO2max, a measure of aerobic fitness that refers to how much oxygen the body uses during a given activity. The VO2max is the point at which the body can no longer ramp up its oxygen use to keep up with the intensity of the exercise, and the activity rapidly becomes unsustainable.

It’s well known that a person’s VO2max declines with age. But the rate of that decline, Fleg explained, has not been clear-in large part because studies on the subject have typically compared different age groups rather than following the same people over time.

His team’s study included healthy men and women between the ages of 21 and 96 who periodically underwent treadmill tests to gauge their VO2max. The researchers also charted changes in participants’ blood pressure, body composition and lifestyle habits, over an average of eight years of follow-up.

In general, the study found, VO2max declined by 3 to 6 percent per decade while people were in their 20s and 30s. The rate of decline increased with age, going above 20 percent per decade among adults in their 70s or older.

The “good news,” Fleg said, is that active people maintained a higher VO2max than sedentary people their age, pointing to the importance of staying active throughout life.

He noted that older, sedentary adults who want to boost their fitness should consult their doctors before starting to exercise, as should anyone with heart disease.

SOURCE: Circulation, August 2, 2005.
Publish Date: July 26, 2005