Tag: vitamin c
Grapefruit And Your Metabolism, The Perfect Fat Burner?
Grapefruit is hands down, one of my favorite fruits to enjoy and yes, we can eat that! If you’ve been trying to lose weight and you’ve been looking for a great snack food that will keep you energized between meals without making you feel full or leading you to cheat, grapefruit may be exactly what you’ve been after so lets take a closer look at some of the benefits of eating grapefruit!
Grapefruit And Vitamin C:
So what is grapefruit good for? Well did you know that one half of a large grapefruit contains over 57 mg of vitamin C! According to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements, vitamin C’s functions in your body include maintaining a proper immune system and helping to create collagen, a substance found in your cartilage, skin, tendons and scar tissue. It also functions as an antioxidant, which means it can help prevent damage to your body from free radicals. Men typically need 90 mg of vitamin C per day, while women need 75 mg per day and by incorporating grapefruit into your diet, you can certainly get your daily amounts.
Dietary Fiber:
The grapefruit contains 1.8 g of dietary fiber in a single half. Maintaining healthy levels of fiber in your diet can help keep your digestive system functioning properly. Fiber can help reduce your risk for intestinal disorders like diverticulitis or constipation. The Mayo Clinic recommends that men consume about 38 g of fiber daily until age 50, after which they should consume about 30 g daily. Women should consume about 25 g daily until age 50, and 21 g daily thereafter.
Grapefruit Weight Loss?
YES! Because grapefruit is low in sodium and calories, it is an excellent food for dieters. One half contains only 74 calories, making it a food that the dieter can freely consume, guilt-free. Grapefruit also contains high amounts of enzymes and potassium that are known to burn fat. The water content is also high (90 percent), which helps increase metabolism, which in turn aids weight loss.
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Health Benefits Of Dragon Fruit For People With Diabetes:
Even if you do not know what dragon fruit, you may have seen them at your local supermarket at some point. Dragon fruit is actually an extremely nutritious fruit despite its odd looking shape. They are usually pink or reddish with spikes of green and yellow light coming from them, although there are actually three kinds.
Although they are increasingly popular in North America, they are not widely consumed. They are also very popular all across Asia, as well as in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Dragon fruit is actually grown in several types of cactus, this cactus blooms only at night when they revealed their flowers big, beautiful and fragrant. The purpose of this article is to consider the fantastic health benefits of dragon fruit.
Dragon Fruit And Macronutrients:
The benefits of eating dragon fruit are plentiful. A small 7-ounce dragon fruit contains 59 calories, 2 grams of protein, 0.4 gram of fat and 14 grams of carbohydrate, including 1 gram of fiber. The carbohydrate in dragon fruit consists mainly of the sugars fructose and glucose. The fiber is made up of mainly oligosaccharides, which aren’t digest One of the largest issues with loosing pounds is being able to keep your stomach full for hours after you have eaten. With the help of this exotic product of nature, you will be able to feel satisfied for longer periods of time.ed in the stomach or small intestine. These oligosaccharides act as prebiotics, helping to stimulate the growth of the healthy bacteria lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, which are probiotics, notes an article published in June 2010 in “Food Chemistry.” Probiotics help limit the growth of unhealthy bacteria and help with digestion. They may also help treat diarrhea and other intestinal infections, according to MayoClinic.com.
For Weight Loss:
One of the largest issues with loosing weight is being able to keep your stomach full for hours after you have eaten. With the help of this exotic product of nature, you will be able to feel satisfied for longer periods of time. What is more, it is comprised mostly of fiber and is incredibly low in calories, therefore it will help you to feel full after eating in comparison to other fruits. It also improves the human metabolism rate, assisting you with weight management.
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Lemon Water And Alkalinity
Lemon water packs a powerful punch with some amazing benefits. It balances pH, keeps your skin clear and glowing, it kick starts your digestive system, helps with weight loss, and helps to control your coffee habit. Lemon is also a natural energizer, it hydrates, it detoxifies, and it oxygenates the body so it feels revitalized and refreshed!
Increase pH Levels:
Lemons are one of the most alkalizing foods for the body. Sure, they are acidic on their own, but inside our bodies they’re alkaline (the citric acid does not create acidity in the body once metabolized). Lemons contain both citric and ascorbic acid, weak acids easily metabolized from the body allowing the mineral content of lemons to help alkalize the blood. Disease states can occur when the body pH is acidic. Drinking lemon water regularly can help to remove overall acidity in the body, including uric acid in the joints, which is one of the primary causes of pain and inflammation.
The energy a human receives from food comes from the atoms and molecules in your food. A reaction occurs when the positive charged ions from food enter the digestive tract and interact with the negative charged enzymes. Lemon is one of the few foods that contain more negative charged ions, providing your body with more energy when it enters the digestive tract. The scent of lemon also has mood enhancing and energizing properties. The smell of lemon juice can brighten your mood and help clear your mind. Lemon can also help reduce anxiety and depression.
Nutritional Value Of Green Beans, For People With Diabetes:
Green beans, aka string beans, or snap bean in the northeastern and western United States are the unripe fruit of various cultivars of the common bean. Green beans are a versatile vegetable that can be grown in many different climates. This helps the plant become such a familiar food.
There are two types of green beans: “pole beans” and “bush beans”. Pole beans usually climb vines and require support systems to grow properly. These plants take longer to grow to maturity. Bush beans on the other hand need no support system and are lower to the ground. What makes these beans so unbelievably healthy for you, lets take a closer look!
Nutritional Value Of Green Beans:
Green beans are good sources of vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin K. Green beans contain beta carotene, which is found in Vitamin A. Vitamin A, a fat soluble antioxidant, helps control night blindness and other eye problems. Folic acid and vitamin B6 present in these beans, regulate the levels of homocysteine in the blood. Homocysteine is an amino acid that is produced, as an intermediate product of the metabolic process. Increased concentration of the homocysteine is seen in heart patients. Significant amounts of magnesium, copper, iron, molybdenum, potassium are also found in green beans. Intake of these individual minerals is essential in our daily diet.
Green Beans And Fiber:
Green beans are packed with dietary fiber which is beneficial for those who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome. Fiber adds bulk to the stools and enables easy passage during bowel movements. Green beans are good for those with high cholesterol since fiber helps to lower the levels of bad cholesterol in the body. People with diabetes may also include green beans in their diet since it helps to regulate blood sugar levels, always a bonus!
Green Beans & Vitamin C:
Vitamin C, in conjunction with the carotenoids, help to support the immune system and prevent cellular damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are molecules that, when exposed to oxygen, damage DNA. Folate may help prevent DNA damage and cellular mutation as well. According to the National Cancer Institute, populations that consume diets rich in fruits and vegetables have a lower cancer risk, in part, due to their high carotenoid, vitamin A and C content. This protective benefit is particularly pronounced for cancers of the lung, gastrointestinal tract, breast, oral cavity, pancreas, uterine cervix, and ovary. Green beans are rich in all of these protective nutrients.
Health Benefits Of Papaya Fruit
There are many papaya benefits for your health and this beautiful yellow orange tropical fruit is proof that nutritious food can also have an amazing taste. Papaya is a rich source of antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals and special digestive enzymes that have a remarkable effect both internally and externally.
If you’d like to improve your skin, relieve digestion problems, protect your eyes and heart and possibly lower your risk of many diseases like cancer, then consider the many benefits of eating super fruit!
Digestive Issues?
Papaya is a great source of proteolytic enzymes that are very important in digesting food. The most important of these proteolytic enzymes is papain. Papain breaks down proteins in food, allowing for better digestion. Papain is used in prescription of digestive enzymes to treat individuals with cystic fibrosis or pancreatic conditions; producing for them what the body cannot produce naturally. Eating this amazing fruit is also a benefit because papain taken orally treats less serious digestion disorders such as bloating and chronic indigestion. In these cases papain is extracted, dried and sold as tablets.
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Can Diabetics Eat Apples?
Apples are undeniably good for you, especially if you have diabetes. Apples are high in the soluble fiber pectin, making them good at controlling blood sugar by releasing it a little more slowly into the bloodstream (no this does NOT replace insulin) nor do I recommend you stop taking your insulin, so lets just clear that up right now. In addition to helping to regulate blood sugar and bowel function, soluble fiber is thought to have an anti-inflammatory affect that may help diabetics recover faster from infections.
Apple Vitamin C Benefits:
Apples benefit your health by boosting your intake of vitamin C, or ascorbic acid. Vitamin C helps you make collagen, a protein found abundantly in your skin. Collagen is a crucial structural component of skin and helps maintain your skin’s waterproof barrier. Low collagen production caused by vitamin C deficiency affects your skin, leading to a re-opening of old wounds and skin tearing. A large apple contains 10.3 milligrams of vitamin C, 14 percent of the daily vitamin C requirements for women, according to the Linus Pauling Institute, or 11 percent for men.
Apple and Cancer:
Lab studies have shown that several compounds in this juicy fruit curb the growth of cancer cells — but apples are most potent when eaten whole (minus the stem and seeds, of course). People who munch more than one a day lower their risk for several cancers (oral, esophageal, colon, breast, ovarian, prostate, and others) by 9 to 42 percent, Italian researchers found.
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Health Benefits Of Mangosteen
Mangosteen is a dark purple fruit with white on the inside of the fruit from Southeast-Asia, Thailand being one of its largest producers in the world. Even though mangosteen sounds like a mango type, it is really very different mango. Now it is always available at Asian markets across North America. Mangosteen is delectably sweet and juicy fruit that offers numerous health benefits of both the fruit itself and its skin which are incredibly potent disease fighters. Delicious as it is useful, the mangosteen fruit is always rich in xanthones, which may promote healthy physical function
Mangosteen And Inflammation:
Systemic inflammation in people who are obese may lead to further health problems including diabetes and heart disease. Researchers studied mangosteen juice to see if it could lower signs of inflammation in obese volunteers. An article in “Nutrition Journal” reported that volunteers who drank mangosteen juice twice daily showed a significant reduction in inflammatory markers in their bloodstream, while markers for inflammation in a control group that received a different juice concoction didn’t change. The authors cautioned that more studies are necessary to confirm the benefits of mangosteen juice and determine if there are any negative side effects.
Importance Of Vitamin C:
Mangosteen is good in vitamin C and provides about 12% of RDA per 100 g. Vitamin-C is a powerful water soluble antioxidant. Consumption of fruits rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against flu-like infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals.
What Are Red Currants?
So who’s heard of red currants before? Honestly I never have but lets take a closer look at why they are so amazing! Red currants are a type of berry and are available frozen year-round and fresh during the summer months and near Christmas. They are tart, and most people don’t eat them plain, but use them to prepare jelly, wine, sauces or garnishes. Whatever you decide to do with red currants, eating them as part of a well-balanced diet offers health benefits.
Red Currants And Fiber:
With nearly 5 g of fiber per cup, red currants are a healthy food that helps you reach your daily totals, which is 21 g to 25 g for women and 30 g to 38 g for men. Fiber is a nutrient that helps to regulate your digestion and bowel function as well as treating constipation and other digestive problems. Getting enough fiber in your daily diet is also associated with keeping cholesterol levels healthy, reducing your risk of heart disease. Another perk to fulfilling the fiber requirements is appetite control. Fiber contains no calories and is digested slowly, which means that adding some red currants to your meal plan could help you feel full longer.
Vitamin C Content:
Vitamin C is important for collagen production and also boosts immune function. Collagen is a protein responsible for the strength and composition of connective tissue and skin. Red currants have a rich amount of vitamin C, with a 7/8-cup serving providing 68 percent of the recommended daily intake. Add frozen currents to a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade for a vitamin-C-packed drink.
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Health Benefits Of Vitamin E
Some consider vitamin E a wonder supplements for its ability to neutralize free radicals, and to help with blood clotting, but what other benefits can it provide? How much should I take on a given day? Does vitamin E really have all the cashe’ that medical professionals claim? All great questions, so lets take a look!
Vitamin E acts as a powerful antioxidant by neutralizing free radicals in the body that cause tissue and cellular damage. It also contributes to a healthy circulatory system and aids in proper blood clotting and improves wound healing. Some studies have shown that vitamin E decreases symptoms of premenstrual syndrome and certain types of breast disease.
Food Sources:
The best way to get the daily requirement of is by eating quality food sources. Below is a short list of foods where this powerful antioxidant can be found:
- Vegetable oils (such as wheat germ, sunflower, safflower, corn, and soybean oils)
- Nuts (such as almonds, peanuts, and hazelnuts/filberts)
- Seeds (such as sunflower seeds)
- Green leafy vegetables (such as spinach and broccoli)
- Fortified breakfast cereals, fruit juices, margarine, and spreads. Fortified means that vitamins have been added to the food. Check the Nutrition Fact Panel on the food label.
Products made from these foods, such as margarine, also contain vitamin E.
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Health Benefits Of Dandelion Root
Ok, so I’ll admit, here I was thinking that dandelions were these annoying little weeds that would pop up in the summer time and and ruin my beautifully landscaped lawn. Although partly true, dandelions are packed with nutritional value and pack quite a punch when it comes to being healthy. Lets take a closer look!
Dandelion Nutritional Facts:
Dandelion greens compare favorably in nutritional content to other commonly consumed green vegetables, providing four times as much calcium, 1.5 times as much vitamin A and 7.5 times as much vitamin K as broccoli. This leafy green vegetable also contains twice as much iron and three times as much riboflavin as spinach, and, while spinach provides no vitamin E or carotenoids, dandelion greens boast 17 percent of the daily adult dose of vitamin E and 13,610 international units, or IUs, of lutein and zeaxanthin per 3.5-ounce serving. However, dandelion greens are lower in vitamin C and folate than either spinach or broccoli.
Dandelion And Liver Disorders:
Dandelions can help the liver in many ways. While the antioxidants like vitamin-C and Luteolin keep the liver functioning in optimal gear and protect it from aging, other compounds in dandelions help treat hemorrhaging in the liver. Furthermore, dandelions aid in maintaining the proper flow of bile, while also stimulating the liver and promoting digestion. Proper digestion can reduce the chances of constipation, which in turn reduces the risk of more serious gastrointestinal issues.
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