A diet to strengthen immunity should be used especially during flu season, which is now if you live in the United States. Your body is a marvelous machine that is capable of killing bacteria, virus and other pathogens. But it needs your help in order to work. Here's how to use a diet to strengthen your immune system.
Tip Number 1: Start your day right. Vitamin C is one of the best nutrients for your immune system. It increases your body's production of antibodies and white blood cells that fight infection. It increases the level of natural interferon, which is the antibody that coats cells and stops virus from entering. It raises your good cholesterol and helps prevent plaque build-up in the arteries. But waiting until you get sick isn't enough. This is a vitamin you should be getting plenty of in order to prevent a flu or cold from even starting. It takes time for your body to get these effects. To get enough in your diet on a regular basis, start your day with an orange or grapefruit. Be sure to eat berries and other fruits and vegetables throughout the day. If you absolutely need to supplement, 200 milligrams a day should be enough. This would be equivalent to about six servings of fruit and vegetables a day.
Tip Number 2: Eat steel-cut oats, as in oatmeal for breakfast. The type of fiber found in this cereal contains beta-glucans which activates your killer cells. The steel-cut oats take more time to cook than the quick-cook kind, but it has twice the amount of this nutrient.
Tip Number 3: Top your lunch salad or sandwich with plenty of tomatoes. Besides being high in vitamin C, they are an antioxidant with tremendous cancer fighting powers. In studies, people who ate a diet rich in tomatoes compared to a diet with no tomatoes had less free-radical damage to their infection-fighting white blood cells.
Tip Number 4: Add five cups of chamomile tea a day to your diet. Recent studies show drinking this much tea for two whole weeks had more polyphenols in their blood. These are plant compounds, a type of phytonutrient, that increase your body's ability to fight bacteria. In addition, this tea is well known to be a sedative and nerve relaxant. This is beneficial since your body does most of its healing and repairing while you are asleep.
Tip Number 5: Eat proteins that contain plenty of zinc. These include beef, dark meat turkey, beans and even oysters. Zinc increases your body's T-cell count, which are a type of cell that fights infections. It helps all your white cells, or immune cells, to release more antibodies and increases the production of many more. It also causes them to work more aggressively. But leave the zinc lozenges alone. Too much zinc can actually inhibit your immune system. Instead, eat the foods that contain natural zinc.
Tip Number 6: Use fresh garlic in as many dishes as you can. Add it to soups, sauces, or even fresh vegetable juice if you make it. It stimulates production of your natural killer cells and increases antibody production. It is a well-known antioxidant that is a powerful cancer fighter. It protects your heart by stopping platelets from sticking together which can clog blood vessels. This is helpful in the prevention of heart attacks.
Tip Number 7: Spice it up. Use lots of chili peppers, onions, radishes, cayenne pepper and garlic in your daily dishes. These contain "mucolytics," which actually thin mucus, making it easier to clear from your sinuses and chest. This is a natural expectorant without the side effects of medications.
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Cindy is a Certified Nutritional Counselor. Get more immune building tips at http://www.springclean-cleanse.com/diet-to-strengthen-immuni ty.html
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est diet. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est diet. Afficher tous les articles
lundi 9 mars 2009
mercredi 4 février 2009
Bloating after your Exercise Routine and new Diet?
Bloating after your Exercise Routine and new Diet? Congratulations! You've taken the first step to changing your life - you've changed your Diet, and started a Exercise Routine, and are expecting results. You've been hard at it for almost two weeks now, and go to check out your Fitness progress on the scale and in the mirror. But wait! What's this? You've started bloating and retaining water, and now feel more uncomfortable and larger than ever! What gives?! How, after all that work and eating properly, are you seemingly gaining weight? Was it all in vain?
To answer this question, one must realize that bloating is a completely natural response to sudden changes in your body. With a Exercise Routine, especially if you haven't had a regular routine in place, and are suddenly working out with high intensity, it can actually throw your body into a bit of a state of shock - your body interprets the extra stress as a physical emergency, and beings to try to stockpile necessary nutrients (which would also explain protein cravings directly after a workout as well!) and water. Another aspect is quite simple: you've worked your muscles hard, and now they've become inflamed. One thing to really keep in mind is that when you're starting your Exercise Routine, you're moving muscles in ways that they're not used to. This causes minor rips and tears, which causes the muscle to inflame to try to stabilize itself while it heals.
Solutions to exercise-related swelling:
Drink at least 64 oz of water per day, and make sure to drink before and after a workout. I've found that if I try to drink water during a workout, I get nauseated. So, what I do to combat this is take a mouthful of water and swish it around in my mouth before swallowing. It's refreshing enough to keep me going, and also keeps me from barfing.
Make sure to eat a small snack before a workout. My Wii Fit is constantly recommending bananas - not only are they a great source of easily-burned carbs, but they've got potassium, which can help reduce swelling and cramping.
Make sure to eat protein after a workout as well, such as two ounces of lean meat, ½ a cup of cottage cheese, etc. This will help your body with muscle repair after a workout. My Fitness Coach always recommends this to me, and I've find that it's helped!
Gentle stretching. Don't ream on your muscles, but some gentle cool-down stretches after a workout, and again after a night's rest to start your "morning after," will help to increase pliability and reduce long-term soreness.
Hot and cold applications - take a hot (not intolerable, but comfortable) shower, and alternate with lukewarm water, or hot and cold compresses can be alternated every 5 minutes for a half hour for relief.
If all else fails - go for an Ibuprofen if you can tolerate it. It has anti-inflammatory properties. As a licensed Massage Therapist, I did recommend this to my clients who absolutely refused to stretch, as an absolute last resort. The only downside to this is that ibuprofen will dehydrate, so it's key to take this with plenty of water.
Conversely, when switching your Diet, if you've been consuming fast food, high fat meals, high fat and high sugar snacks, and then suddenly switch to lean proteins and more fruits and vegetables, you will probably have a relatively unpleasant reaction as your body adjusts to increased fiber and starts to become less tolerant to fats.
Solutions to this:
Increase fruits and vegetables in your Diet gradually - add ½ to 1 cup every few days until you're up to your recommended daily allowance.
Keep track of what fruits and veggies you're adding! Veggies such as broccoli and cauliflower and fruits such as Prunes, Raisins, and peaches have larger amounts of fructose, which can cause an increase in flatulence (and conversely, abdominal bloating).
Drink LOTS of water (at the very least 64 oz a day! This cannot be emphasized enough!) to help flush out the fats and food that have accumulated over the last few days - the increase in fruits and veggies will help to flush these out as well
Monitor Salt Intake - excess sodium = excess swelling.
Talk to your Doctor about possible food allergies if this continues.
Another thing to keep in mind - if the swelling continues for more than a day, or pits (when pressure is applied, an indentation will remain), to contact your Doctor - this may be a sign of a more serious condition.
----------------------------------------------------
Zach Hunt is a Spokane bloating and diet expert, personal trainer and owner of Physzique, a fitness coaching service in Spokane, WA. Go here: http://www.spokanefitnesscoach.com
or you can go here for more bloating and diet tips: http://www.spokanefitnesscoach.com/spokane-wpblog/2009/01/28
/bloating-spokane-exercise-routine-spokane-diet/
To answer this question, one must realize that bloating is a completely natural response to sudden changes in your body. With a Exercise Routine, especially if you haven't had a regular routine in place, and are suddenly working out with high intensity, it can actually throw your body into a bit of a state of shock - your body interprets the extra stress as a physical emergency, and beings to try to stockpile necessary nutrients (which would also explain protein cravings directly after a workout as well!) and water. Another aspect is quite simple: you've worked your muscles hard, and now they've become inflamed. One thing to really keep in mind is that when you're starting your Exercise Routine, you're moving muscles in ways that they're not used to. This causes minor rips and tears, which causes the muscle to inflame to try to stabilize itself while it heals.
Solutions to exercise-related swelling:
Drink at least 64 oz of water per day, and make sure to drink before and after a workout. I've found that if I try to drink water during a workout, I get nauseated. So, what I do to combat this is take a mouthful of water and swish it around in my mouth before swallowing. It's refreshing enough to keep me going, and also keeps me from barfing.
Make sure to eat a small snack before a workout. My Wii Fit is constantly recommending bananas - not only are they a great source of easily-burned carbs, but they've got potassium, which can help reduce swelling and cramping.
Make sure to eat protein after a workout as well, such as two ounces of lean meat, ½ a cup of cottage cheese, etc. This will help your body with muscle repair after a workout. My Fitness Coach always recommends this to me, and I've find that it's helped!
Gentle stretching. Don't ream on your muscles, but some gentle cool-down stretches after a workout, and again after a night's rest to start your "morning after," will help to increase pliability and reduce long-term soreness.
Hot and cold applications - take a hot (not intolerable, but comfortable) shower, and alternate with lukewarm water, or hot and cold compresses can be alternated every 5 minutes for a half hour for relief.
If all else fails - go for an Ibuprofen if you can tolerate it. It has anti-inflammatory properties. As a licensed Massage Therapist, I did recommend this to my clients who absolutely refused to stretch, as an absolute last resort. The only downside to this is that ibuprofen will dehydrate, so it's key to take this with plenty of water.
Conversely, when switching your Diet, if you've been consuming fast food, high fat meals, high fat and high sugar snacks, and then suddenly switch to lean proteins and more fruits and vegetables, you will probably have a relatively unpleasant reaction as your body adjusts to increased fiber and starts to become less tolerant to fats.
Solutions to this:
Increase fruits and vegetables in your Diet gradually - add ½ to 1 cup every few days until you're up to your recommended daily allowance.
Keep track of what fruits and veggies you're adding! Veggies such as broccoli and cauliflower and fruits such as Prunes, Raisins, and peaches have larger amounts of fructose, which can cause an increase in flatulence (and conversely, abdominal bloating).
Drink LOTS of water (at the very least 64 oz a day! This cannot be emphasized enough!) to help flush out the fats and food that have accumulated over the last few days - the increase in fruits and veggies will help to flush these out as well
Monitor Salt Intake - excess sodium = excess swelling.
Talk to your Doctor about possible food allergies if this continues.
Another thing to keep in mind - if the swelling continues for more than a day, or pits (when pressure is applied, an indentation will remain), to contact your Doctor - this may be a sign of a more serious condition.
----------------------------------------------------
Zach Hunt is a Spokane bloating and diet expert, personal trainer and owner of Physzique, a fitness coaching service in Spokane, WA. Go here: http://www.spokanefitnesscoach.com
or you can go here for more bloating and diet tips: http://www.spokanefitnesscoach.com/spokane-wpblog/2009/01/28
/bloating-spokane-exercise-routine-spokane-diet/
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