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Weight Loss Exercise

Bigger steak is not always better

It is barbequing season, well yes I kn ow it is always a good time for a bbq but tonight while eating I was thinking about the giant steaks that we get everytime I order from a restaurant in the US.

The fact is that steak is hard for your body to digest and the more steak you eat at one sitting the harder it is to get that digested and through the whole digestive tract.

I love steak probably as much as anyone but the best thing that you can do is to eat half of your steak with dinner and then a couple or three hours later have the other half of the steak. I know that steak does not warm well and is not nearly as good the second time around but think about how you felt after an hour or so after having a really big steak and the big pit in your stomach. If your were to have half and the potato and veggies and then just had a half steak snack later your body would really thank you for it.

One more thing that I think that I may have mentioned here before is that your body can only process 30 or so grams of protein per meal so this is yet another reason. Your body is only going to use about four or five ounces of the steak anyway and with the cost of steak you may as well get what you pay for instead of leaving it behind in the morning.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Antioxidants And Good Health

We hear very often about the importance of antioxidants and the role they play in improving our health so I thought I would check the great Wikipedia and US government research sites to see if I could find some good info on the role that antioxidants play in good health and how to get them.

Antioxidants are present in foods as vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and polyphenols, among others.

Many antioxidants are often identified in food by their distinctive colors—the deep red of cherries and of tomatoes; the orange of carrots; the yellow of corn, mangos, and saffron; and the blue-purple of blueberries, blackberries, and grapes.

The most well-known components of food with antioxidant activities are vitamins A, C, and E; ß-carotene; the mineral selenium; and more recently, the compound lycopene.

Antioxidants And Good Health

Antioxidant Fruits

The research continues to grow regarding the knowledge of antioxidants as healthful components of food.

Oxidation, or the loss of an electron, can sometimes produce reactive substances known as free radicals that can cause oxidative stress or damage to the cells.

Antioxidants, by their very nature, are capable of stabilizing free radicals before they can react and cause harm, in much the same way that a buffer stabilizes an acid to maintain a normal pH.

Because oxidation is a naturally occurring process within the body, a balance with antioxidants must exist to maintain health.

Why Do You Need Antioxidants?

While the body has its defences against oxidative stress, these defences are thought to become less effective with aging as oxidative stress becomes greater.

Research suggests there is involvement of the resulting free radicals in a number of diseases associated with aging, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, immune dysfunction, cataracts, and macular degeneration.

Certain conditions, such as chronic diseases and aging, can tip the balance in favor of free radical formation, which can contribute to ill effects on health. This leads to the idea that antioxidants can help improve health and aging.

Consumption of antioxidants is thought to provide protection against oxidative damage and contribute positive health benefits.

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Weight Loss Exercise

What to look for in protein powder

One of the real problems with eating six meals or so a day is food preparation. It is easy to eat a bunch of meals for a couple of days but to consistently eat a lot of times over the long haul you need to have some shortcuts. Having a protein powder supplement to make a quick meal is one of those shortcuts.

What to look for in protein powder

There are a couple of things that you should look at when buying a meal supplement. First of all you need to make sure that you know what you are getting. Most supplements are just cheap soy protein or lower quality protein. Make sure that your protein powder is whey protein based. Secondly make sure that the powder that you select is mostly protein. The cheapest powders have a lot of carbohydrates and carbohydrates are another way that producers can make a cheap but low quality powder.

Lastly when buying for price make sure that you do not buy a powder that has any additives. in it. Most of the time creatine or some other supplement is added to make your protein a super-protein that you may not need and you will certainly pay more for it.