Healthy Eating - Meal Prep Ideas

If you are like many people, you groan at the thought of doing meal prep. While you know it is something you need to do, it does not mean you like it! Meal prep takes time, but if you look at preparing say your vegetables just once for the whole week, then you will find it easier to eat healthy home-cooked meals each evening. Some foods, some vegetables are easy to prepare ahead of time and save well. There are steps you can take with your meal planning to make the task easier and then you will find you spend less time doing the meal prep and more time enjoying your food!

Let us look at a few meal-prep ideas...

1. One Recipe, Many Variations. Perhaps the most significant time-consuming task with meal prep is trying to figure out what to cook in the first place. You have to hunt down recipes, figure out what will work with your weight loss diet and then purchase all the groceries required. Time-consuming stuff!

Instead, look at finding one recipe offering several variations. For instance, you might make a vegetable stir-fry. You can just alter the vegetables you put in the stir-fry, swap out the chicken for beef as desired, and even change the sauce a little. It is the same meal overall, but with small changes that should be enough to keep you interested in continuing to carry on with your weight loss diet plan.

The more you become accustomed to preparing the same type of meals over and over, the easier it will be to plan your meal prep out for the week.

2. Two Words: Slow Cooker. Slow cooking is super easy, and a method of cooking everyone should get into doing from time to time. Just put all the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, turn it on, and by the time you arrive home from work, the food will be ready to serve. Plus, you can make a significantly sized batch, which means you will be eating healthy meals several times during your week.

3. Buy Pre-Chopped Vegetables. The last idea to consider is buying pre-chopped vegetables. Cutting up vegetables is often one job people dislike doing the most, so make it easier for yourself. Buy them ready to go, so there is little to no prep work involved.

While you will pay a little more for pre-chopped vegetables, it is money well spent.

There you have a few ideas to think about using to help make meal prep easier. If you follow these tips, sticking to your weight loss diet will be easier than ever.

Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.

For nearly 25 years Beverleigh Piepers has searched for and found a number of secrets to help you build a healthy body. Go to http://DrugFreeType2Diabetes.com to learn about some of those secrets.

The answer isn't in the endless volumes of available information but in yourself.

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Stocking a Healthy Pantry and Fridge

Benefits of Healthy Diet

Benefits of healthy diet
As said healthy diet constitute a healthy body. Before setting plans for a healthy diet there is a need to understand what a healthy diet is, a balance diet that fulfills the requirements of body for proper functioning; including all the macro nutrients and micro nutrients. It does not always include losing the fat content or specifically losing weight but providing the body with adequate amount of the nutrients required. Below are enlisted some of the benefits that will provide us reason to adopt a healthy diet

1. Prevent major diseases:
A healthy diet helps maintaining a healthy body by providing all the essential minerals and nutrients body needs for its proper working. By eating low calorie vegetables and fruits heart attacks and strokes are prevented; however, some of the cancers are also prevented.
Specifically, the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity is decreased by meals involving high fiber food. Eating higher rate of vegetables in daily diet may reduce the risk of bone loss and high blood pressure, also if adequate amount of potassium is provided in overall meals the risk of kidney stones I diminished.
2. Weight loss:
Eating diet including appropriate proportion of low calorie vegetables, fruits, whole grains and unsaturated fats can help us maintain a steady weight. Moreover, eating healthy and low-calorie food leaves no room for the higher sugar and fat intake.
3. Boasts up immune system:
Immune system is also strengthened by maintaining a balanced diet thus lowers the risk of catching diseases too quick. Eating healthy will also boast up our energy levels by preventing us from the diseases for a longer period of time.
4. Better sleep:
Process of metabolism is fastened through eating healthy food, thus increasing the body activity which ultimately helps us to get better and deeper sleep, the time when body manages to repair and heal itself.
5. Physical beauty:
One of the most charming benefit of eating healthy is that it can maintain a fabulous glow on your face, with good hair and ideal body. So it is easy for one to stay healthy and beautiful at the same time just by balancing their diet.
conclusion:
From the above points it is fair to conclude that, healthy diet can contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Simply by paying check on what we eat, we can look fabulous and feel fabulous. so yeah folks go maintain your healthy dieting!

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7 HEALTHIEST FOODS ON THE PLANET [2020]

Healthier Eating

1. Eat more fruits and veggies
· "Ultimately, the food pyramid recommends a total of nine servings of fruits and vegetables," says Lisa Young, PhD, author of The Portion Teller Plan and adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University. No need to be worried about having to try to eat nine servings a day just start adding these things to your everyday meal. For example, if you eat cereal for breakfast then cut up a banana and put it in there, or even putting spinach on your sandwiches. I practice the "50 percent rule": aim to have half of your lunch or dinner plate covered in veggies. Not only will this help you get your nutrition fix in, but you'll also likely shed some weight because veggies have less calories than other foods like breads, pasta, chips or anything else we eat daily.

2. Watch for liquid calories
· Soda is all sugar, not only is there no nutritional value to it, it just racks up your daily calories. Go with water anytime you are thirsty. Eight glasses of water are recommended per day, but you can always put flavouring into your waters.

3. Eat more fibre
Fibre doesn't only keep you full but it also can help you lose weight. The best way to put more fibre into your diet is to change your white bread for whole grain. Or even get those fibre dissolvable powder and put it in a glass of water a day.

4. Be a smart shopper
· Eat BEFORE you go to the grocery store. If you don't you will be more tempted to buying foods you should not be eating simply because they look good and easy to make. When shopping look at the nutrition content for things like no (or low) saturated fat, low sodium, and high fibre

5. Start snacking smart
· We all snack because it holds us over until our next actual meal. Prepare yourself with smart, packable choices like a whole fruit, a granola bar, or a yogurt. If you are more of a savoury and indulgent person you can have almonds or a slice of cheese just remember your portions.

6. Plan ahead
· Meal prepping can be your best friend. Find a day in the week that you have about two hours of downtime. Find some recipes online and make foods for the week and store them in your fridge or freezer. If you don't want to meal prep like that just make sure whenever you go out for long periods of time to bring something from home like a sandwich or some small snacks. It will keep you on track.

7. Pace your eating
· If you are anything like me and eat your meals in record time try to slow it down and stretch your meals to 30 minutes. Eating slowly can cause you to eat less calories per meal. Sipping on water between bites, chewing completely and just being mindful can help you slow down your eating.

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Healthy Eating - The Top Five Foods To Keep In Your Refrigerator At All Times

Hitting the grocery store and not sure what to stock up on? We have put together a list of the top five foods you must have at all times if you want your diet to be as healthy as possible. Consider these staples of any diet plan. They are not only rich in vitamins and minerals but loaded with other benefits like antioxidants and probiotics as well.

Run through this list and make sure these items are in your grocery shopping plan...

1. Spinach. As far as nutrients go, you are hard-pressed to find a better option than spinach. Spinach is loaded with...

• vitamin C,
• vitamin K,
• B vitamins,
• folic acid,
• iron,
• calcium, and

then offers a wide array of antioxidants as well. At a few calories per cup, it is also a perfect food for helping to keep your body weight in check.

2. Bell peppers. Want to prevent the common cold that always seems to hit? Try bell peppers. Most people think of oranges when we think of vitamin C rich foods, but the truth is bell peppers contain just as much of this antioxidant.

Bell peppers also add a delicious sweet taste to the foods you are preparing as well, making them a great way to liven up any recipe.

3. Avocados. Have you forgotten about avocados? If so, you are not alone. Many people neglect to add avocados to their diet because we just do not think about them as a fruit. This is because they are very high in fat content but that does not mean they should be neglected. Just serve them up as a fat source in your diet, and you will be just fine.

Avocados are loaded with vitamin E, which will help keep your skin, hair, and nails healthy while preventing oxidative damage. They are also a great source of dietary fibre so will help keep your blood sugar levels in check as well.

4. Berries. Having berries of any kind in your refrigerator is another must. Berries are loaded with antioxidants and are very high in fibre while containing just a small dose of sugar. Take raspberries for instance. You will get more dietary fibre than you will sugar with this berry, so it is perfect for body weight control and blood sugar management.

Whether you opt for blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries, all berries will do your health proud.

5. Eggs. Finally, do not forget about eggs. Eggs are a fantastic protein source for any time during the day, not just breakfast. Serve them scrambled, hard-boiled, poached, over easy, or in any other manner you please.

Have a look through your refrigerator. Does it contain these items? If not, put them on your list and buy some today.

Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.

For nearly 25 years, Beverleigh Piepers has searched for and found a number of secrets to help you build a healthy body. Go to http://DrugFreeType2Diabetes.com to learn about some of those secrets.

The answer isn't in the endless volumes of available information but in yourself.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Beverleigh_H_Piepers/123142

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How Your Health Benefits From More Fibre

Since the 1990s, medical researchers have discovered more and more benefits when dietary fiber is significantly increased in our diet. Fiber is a substance in plants. Dietary fiber, also called bulk or roughage, is the kind we eat. It is the edible portions of plant cell walls; hence, it is found only in plant foods like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, as well as beans and legumes.

Fiber is a carbohydrate and is usually listed under "Total Carbohydrates" on the "Nutrition Facts" label. Humans lack the digestive enzymes to breakdown fiber. Therefore, it is undigested and not absorbed into the bloodstream and it arrives at the colon pretty much intact. Fiber has zero calories. Instead of being used for energy, it is excreted from the body.

The current recommended daily intake for adults who are 50 years or younger is 25 grams/day for women and 38 grams/day for men. For adults over 50 years of age, the recommendation is 21 grams/day for women and 30 grams/day for men. Unfortunately, for many who eat a typical American diet, it can be a huge challenge to consume that much fiber everyday. Most people top out at an average of 15 grams/day, regardless of how many calories they eat.

Maybe if we understand more about the different types of fiber and how they can immensely contribute to better health and lower disease risks, there will be more incentives to increase the daily fiber intake. Fiber is an important part of a healthy, balanced diet. Apart from helping us stay regular, fiber has a long list of other health benefits. The following will distinguish the different types of fiber, their specific health advantages, and which foods contain these fiber.

Classifications Of Fiber

There are several ways to classify the different types of fibre. However, as their characteristics do overlap, experts have yet to agree on the best categorization. For decades, the most commonly used classification is soluble and insoluble fibre. These days, as researchers discover the benefits of fermented fibre, another classification - fermentable and non-fermentable fibre - is also used. However, do know that both soluble and insoluble fiber have some that are fermentable and some that are non-fermentable, though soluble fibre is more easily fermented.

Soluble and Insoluble Fibre

The major difference between soluble and insoluble fiber is that they have different properties when mixed with water, hence the designation between the two.

• Soluble fibre is soluble in water. When mixed with water, it forms a gel and swells.
• Insoluble fibre does not absorb or dissolve in water. It passes through the digestive system in close to its original form.

Both types of fibre serve their own purposes and have different health benefits. Most plant foods contain both soluble and insoluble fibre, just in different proportions. For instance, wheat is about 90% insoluble fiber. Oats are 50/50. Psyllium plant is mostly soluble fibre.

Fermentable and Non-Fermentable Fiber

Some fibres are readily fermented by bacteria that colonize the colon, others are not. Fermentable fibre is used by the colon's friendly bacteria as a food source. Fermentation results in the formation of short-chain fatty acids (acetate, butyrate, and propionate) and gases. Epithelial cells that line the colon use butyrate as the main source of energy.

Researchers found that butyrate exerts a wide range of health benefits. It:

• Decreases inflammation and oxidative stress,
• Prevents colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and Crohn's disease,
• Strengthens the bowel wall,
• Improves the body's ability to absorb essential nutrients such as calcium,
• Makes hormones that control appetite and anxiety.

Soluble Fibre

Foods High in Soluble Fibre

Fruits: blueberries, apple, oranges

Grains: barley, oats

Legumes: beans, lentils, peas

Seeds: flax

Vegetables: Brussels sprouts, carrots

Health Benefits

• Digestion and weight control. When soluble fibre dissolves in water and becomes gel-like, it helps prolong stomach emptying and slows down digestion, making you feel full longer and have less room for other not-so-healthy food cravings.
• Blood sugar regulation. Soluble fibre slows down the digestion rate of many nutrients, including carbohydrates, so it helps stabilize glucose levels and prevent after-meal blood sugar spikes.
• Cholesterol and heart health. Soluble fibre binds to cholesterol and bile acids (made by the liver and stored in the gall bladder for the digestion of fats) in the small intestine and promotes their excretion. Studies found that consuming more soluble fibre leads to a decrease in LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, hence, reducing the overall risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Healthy bowel movements. Soluble fibre soaks up water as it passes through your system, which helps bulk up the stool and guard against constipation.
• Colon health. Prebiotic fibre is a type of fermentable and soluble fibre that is used by the colon's friendly bacteria (probiotics) as a food source. Prebiotics and probiotics work together to maintain the balance and diversity of intestinal bacteria, especially increasing the good bacteria like lactobacilli and bifidobacteria.

Foods High in Soluble Prebiotic Fibre

(In parenthesis is the name of the fibre)

Apple (pectin)

Asparagus (inulin and oligofructose)

Banana (inulin and oligofructose)

Barley (beta-glucan)

Burdock root (inulin and oligofructose)

Chicory root (inulin and oligofructose)

Cocoa (flavanol compounds)

Dandelion greens (inulin and oligofructose)

Flaxseed (mucilage)

Garlic (inulin and oligofructose)

Jerusalem artichoke or sunchoke (inulin and oligofructose)

Jicama root (inulin)

Konjac root or glucomannan fiber (see Note)

Leeks (inulin and oligofructose)

Oats (beta-glucan)

Onion (inulin and FOS)

Psyllium (mucilage) - used as a fibrre supplement, always buy organic due to pesticides

Seaweed (polysaccharides)

Wheat bran (arabinoxylan oligosaccharides or AXOS)

Yacon root (FOS and inulin)

Note:

Konjac is native to Asia. Its fibre, known as glucomannan, has been used as both food and in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Today, glucomannan is used as a fibre supplement to promote colon health, lower cholesterol, and improve carbohydrate metabolism. It is also used in a food product called Shirataki noodles. These noodles are made of 97% water and 3% glucomannan, so the fibre content is very diluted. Though not a high source of prebiotic fiber, the noodles have zero carbohydrates, fats, protein, and calories. Thus, these noodles are suitable for diabetics and people who are looking to lose weight.

Fibre and Gas

Everyone has some intestinal gas and that is normal. The amount of flatus passed each day depends on your sex (men have more frequent flatus) and what is eaten. The normal number of flatus may range from 10-20 times a day.

If you are not used to eating a high amount of fermentable fibre, eating too much at a time can lead to excess intestinal gas, bloating, and mild cramping. So, increase gradually. When you consume vegetables with prebiotics or take a prebiotic fibre supplement, the flatus is often non-odoriferous. The foods that cause smelly flatus are usually the ones that contain high sulfur content, such as eggs and cruciferous vegetables.

If you experience severe gas and gut discomfort after gradually introducing more fermentable fiber, you may have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or yeast overgrowth. In this case, you need to work with a healthcare professional to address your gut issues.

Insoluble Fibre

Foods High in Insoluble Fibre

Fruits: skins of fruit

Fruits (dried): dates, prunes

Grains: corn bran, oat bran, wheat bran, whole grains (e.g. whole wheat, brown rice)

Nuts and seeds

Vegetables: green beans, green leafy vegetables, root vegetable skins

Health Benefits

• Weight management. Like soluble fibre, insoluble fibre can play a key role in controlling weight by starving off hunger pangs.
• Digestive health. Insoluble fibre helps to move bulk through the intestines. It lessens the amount of time food spends in the colon, hence, constipation and hemorrhoids are much less of a problem and bowel movements become more regular.
• Diverticulitis. This condition is characterized by inflammation and infection of pouches or folds that form in the colon walls. Development of diverticulitis is often associated with a low-fibre diet and becomes increasingly common after the age of 45. It exacerbates intestinal blockages and constipation. Eating more insoluble fibre can decrease the risk of having diverticulitis.
• Colon cancer. Insoluble fibre increases the rate at which waste is being removed from the body, therefore, it reduces the amount of time toxic substances stay inside the body. Insoluble fibre also helps to maintain an optimal pH (acid-alkaline) balance in the intestine, making it less likely for cancer cells to grow and prosper.

Resistant Starch is a type of fermentable insoluble fibre. It is a kind of starch that is not digested in the small intestine. Instead, it feeds the beneficial gut bacteria in the colon, just like the prebiotic soluble fibre with the same remarkable health benefits. When you eat resistant starch, it resists digestion and does not spike blood sugar or insulin.

Foods High in Resistant Starch

Cooked and cooled beans and legumes (properly soaked or sprouted), oatmeal, pasta, potato, rice, and yam (see Note 1)

Green (unripe) bananas, mangos, papayas, and plantains (see Note 2)

Hi-maize flour or Hi-maize resistant starch

Raw unmodified potato starch (not potato flour) - ideally organic or at least non-GMO

Notes:

1. By cooking and cooling these foods, the carb load is reduced by around 20-30% due to the formation of retrograde resistant starch. However, if you have trouble with blood sugar control or if you are looking to lose weight, you will still need to be very cautious with these foods as the majority of the absorbable carb is still present.
2. The unripe version of these foods have very little digestible carbohydrates. You know you are eating the resistant starch when the fruit is crispy or crunchy, and sometimes a little chalky.

Bottom Line

Dietary fiber is an essential component of a healthy diet. A high-fiber diet has many benefits: it normalizes bowel movements, maintains colon health, lowers cholesterol levels, regulates blood sugar balance, and helps in weight control.

Fiber is commonly classified as soluble, which dissolves in water, or insoluble, which does not dissolve in water. Most plant foods contain soluble as well as insoluble fiber, just in different proportions.

Both soluble and insoluble fibre can also be fermentable. Prebiotic fibre (from soluble fibre) and resistant starch (from insoluble fibre) ferment and feed the friendly bacteria in the colon. They have positive impacts on the diversity and number of beneficial intestinal bacteria in our gut. The more good bacteria we have, the harder it is for the bad bacteria to flourish. The by-products of fibre fermentation produces short-chain fatty acids like butyrate which has powerful anti-inflammatory effects that translate into protection against colon cancer, gastrointestinal disorders like constipation, diverticulitis, and IBS, and also obesity.

All dietary fibre is good for you. Ideally, you would want to get it from different sources of plant foods to reap their distinct benefits. Hopefully, this has given you more incentives to increase your daily intake of high fibrehttps://ezinearticles.com/?How-Your-Health-Benefits-From-More-Fiber&id=9956242 foods, like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, as well as beans and legumes. However, for individuals with blood sugar and weight issues, go easy on the carb-heavy fruits, whole grains, beans and legumes.

Carol Chuang is a Certified Nutrition Specialist and a Metabolic Typing Advisor. She has a Masters degree in Nutrition and is the founder of CC Health Counseling, LLC. Her passion in life is to stay healthy and to help others become healthy. She believes that a key ingredient to optimal health is to eat a diet that is right for one's specific body type. Eating organic or eating healthy is not enough to guarantee good health. The truth is that there is no one diet that is right for everyone. Our metabolisms are different, so should our diets. Carol specializes in Metabolic Typing, helping her clients find the right diet for their Metabolic Type. Her website is http://www.cchealthcounseling.com

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