Top 10 Healthy Foods We Never Eat

There are many healthy foods that never see the inside of a shopping cart or in your fridge. Some you’ve never heard of, and others you’ve simply forgotten about. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best of the bunch. Make a place for them on your kitchen and you’ll instantly upgrade your health with no a prescription.

1. Cabbage - Cabbage is a vegetable few people really appreciate, but it’s truly a dieter’s friend. It’s strong-flavored, but it’s this feature that makes it enjoyable in certain dishes.
This leafy vegetable ranks right up there with broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts with a reputation for fighting cancer. It’s also a good source of vitamin C, fiber, potassium, and other nutrients. Cabbage also offers a major payoff — the fewest calories and least fat of any vegetable. This powerful veggie is a must for dieters trying to lose weight. From green cabbage you’ll enjoy a fiber boost and a respectable amount of vitamin C. Two types of cabbage, savoy and bok choy, provide beta-carotene — an antioxidant that battles cancer and heart disease. For those who don’t eat dairy products, bok choy is an important source of calcium, which may help prevent osteoporosis and aid in controlling blood pressure.

2. Blueberrys - are the best fruit because they contain the most antioxidants, significantly less pesticides are used in their cultivation, and they are the least perishable of all berries. They are high in vitamins A, C, and E, and contain significant amounts of potassium, manganese and magnesium. Recent studies have shown that eating blueberries may improve memory, intelligence, and coordination.
Consuming blueberries au naturel is a good idea, since heat diminishes the benefits of the phytonutrients they contain. (Health experts agree that eating cooked berries, fresh or frozen, still provides significant benefits.)

3. Spinach. There are many reasons to enjoy the dark green leafy vegetable known as spinach. For many years spinach has been touted as a health food, and this superfood certainly lives up to its reputation. Spinach is a rich source of many important vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, iron, calcium and beta-carotene.
Spinach is also a rich source of dietary fiber, thought to play an important role in protecting the body from many forms of cancer. As a matter of fact, the compounds contained in spinach are being studied for their possible role in preventing many forms of cancer, including such major killers as lung cancer. One reason may be the high concentration of vitamin K found in spinach. Vitamin K has long been associated with cancer prevention, and spinach is one of the very best sources of this vital nutrient.

4. Pumpkin seeds - Downing pumpkin seeds is the easiest way to consume more magnesium. That’s important because French researchers recently determined that men with the highest levels of magnesium in their blood have a 40 percent lower risk of early death than those with the lowest levels. And on average, men consume 353 mg of the mineral daily, well under the 420 mg minimum recommended by the USDA.In terms of their fat content, pumpkin seeds are a good way to get both the omega 3 and 6 essential fats needed for hormone balance, brain function and skin health.

5. Beans - Much recent research in the food sciences has established that all kinds of beans are loaded with protease inhibitors, compounds that make it hard for cancer cells to invade adjacent tissue. Fava beans contain much herein, which has shown to block carcinogens in the digestive tract. And soy beans are especially rich in isoflavones, which appears to reduce the risk of breast cancer by blocking the tumor-growing influence of estrogen. Lentils also belong to the bean family, and are one of the tastiest, most versatile, and easiest to prepare beans.

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Retune the Body with a Partial Fast

by Patricia Neighmond

For thousands of years, beginning with philosophers like Hippocrates, Socrates and Plato, fasting was recommended for health reasons. The Bible writes that Moses and Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual renewal.

To understand how the body reacts to a lack of food, you could start by looking at what happens to newborns. Newborns can’t sleep through the night because they need to eat every few hours. They don’t produce enough glycogen, the body’s form of stored sugar, to make energy.

“Glycogen is necessary for thinking; it’s necessary for muscle action; it’s necessary just for the cells to live in general,” says Dr. Naomi Neufeld, an endocrinologist at UCLA.

Neufeld says most adults need about 2,000 calories a day. Those calories make energy, or glycogen. Neufeld says it doesn’t hurt — it might even help the body — to fast or stop eating for short periods of time, say 24 hours once a week, as long as you drink water.

“You re-tune the body, suppress insulin secretion, reduce the taste for sugar, so sugar becomes something you’re less fond of taking,” Neufeld says.

Eventually the body burns up stored sugars, or glycogen, so less insulin is needed to help the body digest food. That gives the pancreas a rest. On juice diets recommended by some spas, you may lose weight, but your digestive system doesn’t get that rest.
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22 Ways to Never Feel Tired Again

by Nancy Rones

Every day, 2.2 million Americans complain of being tired. Most of us chalk it up to having too much to do and not enough time to do it in, especially during extra-busy periods. But often the true culprits are our everyday habits: what we eat, how we sleep, and how we cope emotionally. Read on for some simple, recharging changes that can help you tackle all of the energy stealers in your life.

Energize Your Diet

Why is it that filling up on pasta or Chinese food for lunch leaves us snacky and sleepy an hour later? Or that falling short on fluids makes us forgetful and foggy? Fact is, eating habits play a powerful role in how well we function on every level. Below, six top fatigue-fighting nutrition strategies to chew on.

1. Have breakfast… even if you don’t feel hungry. You’ll be a lot perkier: Studies show that people who eat breakfast feel better both mentally and physically than those who skip their morning meal. British researchers at Cardiff University even found that spooning up a bowl of breakfast cereal every morning is associated with lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

2. Eat every three to four hours. Having three smallish meals and two snacks throughout the day can keep your blood sugar and energy levels stable all day long, says Roberta Anding, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). Note the word “smallish.” Supersized meals demand more of your energy to digest, which can leave you feeling lethargic. Read more

Achieve More in Your Life with Feng Shui

By Kathryn Weber

Life is good. Wouldn’t you like to say that? Many people are looking for a way to improve their lives. Feng shui is one of the easiest, quickest and fun ways to make a change in your life. Better than a 30-day rice and water diet or jogging three miles a day, using feng shui doesn’t require you to make a shift in your diet, your thinking or somehow alter your moment to moment existence. By simply making some small changes in your home or office, you can influence your
life on a number of levels.

It’s important to know that feng shui is energy that exists…like gravity, air waves, or air. It’s not “made” and it’s not a spiritual philosophy. It’s tapping into what already exists in the earth. Feng shui is founded on the belief that, like water that runs in underground rivers, there are also lines of energy that run in the earth and our atmosphere. Harmonizing your home with that energy helps you benefit from that energy that translates into more money, better health, happy children… a good life. When your energy runs against the energy of the earth, you are saddled with bills, your health is rundown, you’re stressed, life is a hard, uphill battle and every day is dreaded. In short, you might describe your life as being “hard,” “in a rut,” or just plain stuck. It’s a terrible position to be in. Feng shui can help you out of that rut.

Feng shui and the practice of harmonizing your home will help you to improve good energy and help you to hold down – or muzzle – negative energy. The practice of feng shui isn’t magic. It’s not a religion and it’s not meant to replace any spiritual beliefs. It’s there to help you tap good energy and control negative energy. Why control negative energy?
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