Cindy Papp asked:


Our bodies are made to defend against all sickness and disease from the common cold to cancer. We can strengthen and make our immune systems more powerful by eating immune building foods.

The immune system is filled with protective cells called white blood cells. There are many and all work to kill bacteria, pathogens, eat harmful cells, and neutralize toxins including metabolic waste. Some even make antibodies.

Our bodies must constantly regenerate and build new white blood cells, especially when harmful toxins enter.

If we want to truly defend ourselves, there are nutrients from foods that you certainly don’t want to miss out on. By eating a diet to build the immune system, you will keep your body ready to defend itself anytime the “bad guys” come to visit.

For starters, it is a good idea to know that white, refined sugar has an adverse effect on the immune system – it can literally stop it from working.

Junk and processed foods also work against your immune system since they have no natural nutrients that your body needs to build white blood cells when they are needed. In addition, they are full of the harmful toxins that your immune system will have to battle leaving less to fight outside invaders such as bacteria and virus.

Here are the super foods that help strengthen and build your immune system. Adding these foods to your diet while limiting junk and processed foods can keep you healthier for the coming flu season.

Fresh Whole Vegetables are full of phytonutrients that your body uses to keep your immune system strong. Phytonutrients help your body release enzymes that protect your cells and help rebuild damaged cells.

They also fight cancer. Our bodies come into contact with carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) every day. We also constantly make cells, and some rogue cells may reproduce themselves leading to damage or cancer of an organ.

Most of the time, our bodies’ recognize and kill or neutralize these abnormal cells. Phytonutrients help our bodies do this and can also shut down pre-cancerous cells and neutralize carcinogens. No vitamin pill can give you this power!

The best veggies for an immune building diet include; carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus, kale, red and green peppers, broccoli and the dark leafy greens such as turnip greens, collard greens, spinach and romaine lettuce.

Fresh Whole Fruits are also full of phytonutrients. They are immune building and natural detoxifiers of the body. Fruits are full of antioxidants and enzymes that protect our cells from damage.

Many of the berries and red apples are high in flavonoids that protect us from heart disease.

Fruits to help build immune system include; pink and red grapefruit, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, red apples, red grapes, bananas, cranberries, tomatoes, mangoes, tangerines, nectarines, peaches, oranges and watermelon.

Omega 3’s are healthy fats that have an immune building quality. They are anti-inflammatory and help prevent auto-immune disorders. They are needed in order for the body to absorb certain vitamins.

Foods that contain the Omega 3’s include; ground flax seeds, walnuts, soybeans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, salmon, mackerel, and herring.

Good Bacteria found in the intestinal lining keep your immune system healthy. These healthy organisms stimulate the immune system, increase antibodies, and inhibit the absorption of pathogenic organisms such as e.coli and salmonella.

Be sure that you and your children consume healthy, live bacteria especially at times of illness. Foods containing good bacteria are; yogurt (be sure to check the label for live bacteria), and fermented foods such as kifir, miso and homemade sauerkraut.

Folate is essential for preventing damage to blood vessels and brain cells and ensures DNA integrity. The dark leafy greens are high in folate and include the following; mustard, collard and turnip greens, spinach, kale and romaine lettuce.

Add these immune building foods to your diet and have a healthy and happy holiday season.



Weight Loss Journal

Ben Adams asked:


A lot of people have been wondering and asking whether whole food vitamins are better than regular vitamins. Many experts have tried to answer that question based on different premises, different studies and different researches. But this article is the only one that will give you a straight-up, no frills answer and that is: YES whole food vitamins are better than regular vitamins. Of course the next question that comes after is, WHY are whole food vitamins better than regular vitamins?

Here are a few reasons why:

1. Whole food vitamins make you feel great and look great because it contains all natural vitamins and not the synthetic, laboratory-created vitamins. Whole food vitamins also help you lose weight and give you more energy to go through your day.

2. Recently, researchers and experts have been peddling the benefits of having a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and seeds. Having these in your daily regimen, they say, lowers the risk of getting cancer, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. But in order to get the sufficient amount of vitamins and nutrients it is advised to not only have fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and seeds present in your everyday diet but to also take whole food vitamins along with it. The significant antioxidant properties of vitamins, minerals and raw enzymes found in whole foods has previously been taken too lightly but is now proving to be a real life saver.

3. In order to reach the prescribed amount of vitamins and nutrients, like lycopene and beta-carotene, intake per day you would have to consume enormous amounts of food that you may not have the stomach to handle. For example, the required daily dose of lycopene is equivalent to 10 tomatoes and that is plenty enough to make you full without having enough room for other food offering other essential minerals and nutrients too. Whole food vitamins, on the other hand, allows you to achieve the prescribed daily nutritional requirement because each pill you take contains the sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals that you would otherwise be unable to get.

4. Whole food vitamins compared to regular vitamins is made of dried fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and seeds that have been pounded and turned to a powdery form and then placed in a capsule or shaped like a pill. Regular vitamins are synthetic vitamins that are not natural and are nothing but artificial concoctions by chemists in laboratories. They are not a product of nature and are therefore not as healthy as the natural vitamins you can get from raw food. Synthetic vitamins are designed right down to its molecular structure to imitate the molecular structure of a natural vitamin. This means that regular vitamins are stripped of the “life giving” enzymes present in raw foods and whole food vitamins.

5. Minerals and calcium supplements are made from rocks, corals and industrial mineral compounds. Would you want these things in your body? The truth is these compounds may not even want to be in your body in the first place because these types of minerals are in a raw form, which the human body may not absorb. Eve though these raw minerals are being treated to make it less coarse, its effectiveness is still questionable and whether it is being properly absorbed is still unknown. Aside from that, long term benefits from synthetic calcium and other minerals are also unknown. Whole food vitamins and minerals on the other hand are made from all-natural REAL food that naturally contains calcium and other minerals. Whole food vitamins and minerals is the safer, more effective alternative to regular vitamins.

6. The human body is designed to receive and process nutrients that come from food and not synthetic supplements. Regular vitamins contain synthetic materials or ingredients that the human body may not agree to and may not be able to absorb and process properly. Although regular vitamins have never been tagged as a culprit for man’s many afflictions, just the fact that it is an unnatural creation and is alien to our body is enough reason for me to fear it. Whole food vitamins are the only vitamin supplement that is 100% safe because it is 100% natural.



Chemotherapy

Mario Churchill asked:


There are many different vitamins in food. Vitamins are essential to life, but most of us do not get the amount of vitamins we need in our every day diet. Certain foods are high not only in one vitamin, but many. Let us take Broccoli, for example.

Broccoli is probably one of the most nutritional foods on the face of the planet, yet many people dislike this green vegetable. Broccoli is high in most of the B vitamins and is both an antioxidant as well as an energy booster. Consumption of certain vitamins in food, such as broccoli, have been found to stave off cancer and even fight the disease. In addition to fighting off cancer and other illnesses, vitamins in food such as broccoli can alleviate depression, help with anxiety and can improve cardiovascular health.

Oranges are high in Vitamin C. Vitamins in food that protect us from colds and boost our immune system can be found in those foods high in vitamin C. In addition to oranges, most citrus fruits contain high quantities of Vitamin C as do strawberries, cherries, pineapple and tomatoes. Vegetables that are also high in vitamin C include broccoli, asparagus, potatoes and cauliflower. Melons and cabbage are also found to have substantial amounts of this valuable vitamin.

Vitamins in food are the most natural way to take the essential nutrients that we need to sustain good health. Most of us, however, do not get the amount of vegetables and other foods that are high in certain vitamins on a daily basis. For this reason, many people choose to take vitamin supplements to make up for any deficiencies they are experiencing by not consuming vitamins in food.

Remember when your mother told you to drink your milk so you could get strong bones and teeth? She was not lying. Milk is high in vitamin D that promotes strong bones and teeth. While children need this essential vitamin to grow, older people can also benefit from vitamin D as it is shown to stave off the effects of osteoporosis. Other foods that are also high in vitamin D include fish liver oils, egg yolks, shrimp and fish.

Another one of the many vitamins in food is Vitamin E, which is also a powerful antioxidant. In addition to preventing cancer and actually making cancer treatments more effective, Vitamin E can reduce damage to lungs caused by smoking. It protects the body from toxic chemicals. Vitamins in foods containing the E vitamin include most oils, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, peanut butter and soy beans.

Vitamins in foods that help your eyesight include Vitamin A that can be found in carrots. It is not an old wives tale that eating carrots helps your eyesight. Carrots contain Vitamin A that is actually shown to protect against night blindness and can even reverse cornea damage. While eating carrots does not guarantee having 20/20 vision, other benefits of eating carrots containing vitamin A include protection against cancer as well as the common cold and flu. Vitamin A is also known to combat certain infections and aid in the care of skin disorders.

Other foods that are high in vitamin A include liver, parsley, mint, spinach, carrots, dairy products, greens, cherries, sweet potatoes, greens, peaches, cantaloupe, apricots, squash and our old friend, broccoli.

Vitamins in foods such as fish can help control cholesterol and improve memory. Many people are taking fish oil supplements to stave off diseases such as Alzheimers disease and improve their concentration. People call fish brain food because the vitamins in food such as fish are proven to help with concentration and memory.

Liver is not one of the most favorite substances people can eat and many shy away from this food. But liver contains iron. Iron is essential for stamina, although you do not want to get too much iron in your blood. Women who are pregnant or those with anemia, however, can benefit greatly from this food.

Vitamins in food come in many different varieties. In order to make certain that you are getting the proper amount of vitamins in food you should eat seven different fruits and vegetables each day, drink orange juice and consume milk or dairy products and make sure you get whole grains as well as protein in your diet. To many people, this seems as if it is a daunting task. This is why so many people prefer to take vitamin supplements.

While vitamin supplements are an excellent way to get your daily requirements of certain vitamins, vitamins in food is one way to be sure that you are keeping your body healthy. If nothing else, at least try to consume broccoli as much as you can, in addition to taking your multivitamins. Of all the vitamins in food, broccoli contains the most beneficial supplements.



Lower Cholesterol Level

Guido Nussbaum asked:


There are many great foods out there which serve as a great source for vitamin K. Vitamin K is a “fat soluble” vitamin, which means that although vitamin K foods will always provide those vitamins, the impact of the vitamins are best when ingested with fat. Vitamin K is an extremely important vitamin to have in your system, especially after an injury, during the recovery stage.

Before we get to the specific vitamin K rich foods, let’s review why vitamin K is so important and what it is most well known for. Vitamin K, while not one of the better known vitamins in the body, is a vital component of good health and is especially noticeable when the body needs to perform certain health functions, like heal from a cut. Vitamin K helps in blooding clotting, protects the human heart, and also assists and helps to build strong bones.

While it is strongly recommended that you eat foods rich in vitamin K, this one is really unique in that the body produces it naturally, and we can go long periods of time without eating foods with this vitamin and still be fine. The body produces this vitamin from bacteria inside of us that usually resides in the intestines. Even with that being so, it’s still a good idea for health purposes to eat a good variety of foods with Vitamin K.

And by far and away, the biggest and most common major source of Vitamin K is green leafy vegetables like collards, spinach, and turnip greens. People whose bodies aren’t producing enough Vitamin K, whether it’s because of a natural deficiency or a body’s increased need for it, can increase their supply drastically by eating these green leafy foods.

If you do have a deficiency of vitamin K in the body, there are several possible causes that may need to be addressed before you see drastic improvement. Some of the most common include:

? Antibiotics from medication interfering with the bacteria

? Health problems, especially those involving the gall bladder, cystic fibrosis, and Crohn’s disease

? Taking excessive amounts of mineral oil

? Liver disease or damage

? Chronic diarrhea

? Serious burns

All these factors could explain any deficiency of vitamin K in the body, as well as any extended time period where you are fed via IV instead of through regular food. A normal healthy body can usually produce all the vitamin K that is needed, but sometimes a little boost to help out is just what the doctor ordered.

So make sure to stock up on the green leafy vegetables that bring large amounts of this fantastic, if little recognized, vitamin into your system. You may not notice a lagging amount of vitamin K during your day to day activities the way you might instantly notice a lack of vitamins A, B, or C, but when you’re injured and need to heal, you’ll know the difference between a body that is full up on K, and one that isn’t. So stay healthy and have some greens – next time you need them your body will thank you.



The Biggest Loser

Jess Ray asked:


Many of you many not know that 95% of the supplements on the market are synthetic, meaning that they are created in a lab. The remaining 5% are created using organic whole foods. Essentially food in concentrated form, a super food of sorts.

There is a subtle but crucial difference between synthetic supplements, organic vitamins and whole food supplements. Vitamins, neither organic nor synthetic, were meant to be taken in isolation.

A great example of a whole food supplement is acerola cherry powder. The acerola cherry is a rich source of Vitamin C. Basically, the cherries are dried and crushed to create a powder which is mixed into water or juice. As far as your body is concerned you are eating handful of cherries which are full of Vitamin C!

Most of us know that the orange is a great food source of Vitamin C. The reason is that every other substance in the orange works synergistically with the Vitamin C in the body for maximum absorption. A plain Vitamin C tablet usually does not contain these other ‘co-factors’ which allow your body to reap maximum benefit.

Generally, if we are eating a well rounded diet of veggies, fruits, grains, legumes, dairy, eggs, and meats and avoiding white sugar, processed products and denatured foods then we should be getting all of the vitamins we need.

The reality is that most of us are not doing this and even if we were we would probably not be getting what we need. Why not?

First of all, each person has different vitamin requirements based on their genetics, diet, lifestyle and environmental stress load. Believe it or not genetics can play a role in how much say, Vitamin A, you require. Even if you have a wonderful diet full of whole unprocessed foods…

much of the soil on our farmlands has been so depleted that what looks like spinach in 2008 probably bears little resemblance nutritionally to spinach from 1950.

The caveat to this, of course, is produce that is grown organically

In this modern era of focus on diet and nutrition…whole foods, organics and supplements have become buzz words. It is all at once easy to get hopelessly confused or to completely ignore the overload of information on the subject of vitamins both in food and in supplement form.

It can become overwhelming to over think your diet and nutrition but it is not something to be ignored. While we can live without enough of a certain vitamin for a while, in the long term a vitamin deficiency is a precursor to all sorts of health problems.

For example, Vitamin D deficiency is being linked to cancer, heart disease, susceptibility to colds and flus and a host of other problems. Most people who eat a typical American diet tend to be deficient somewhere.

Another factor that depletes our vitamin stores is stress, a.k.a. a lack of sleep, busy hectic lifestyle, lack of exercise and toxins in our homes and environment. So what about taking vitamins and supplements and even more important, why should you take an organic vitamin?

A high-quality, organic, vitamin supplement made from food can be a wonderful way to ensure that your body is getting what it needs.

Granted supplements are not a substitute for a quality diet rich in whole foods, they can be a wise addition to any diet.

A good quality organic vitamin or supplement has the power to help your body heal through an illness or simply to act as an insurance policy of sorts to prevent future illness.



The Biggest Loser

Roger Wakefield asked:


Vitamin C for Good Health and Happiness

Vitamin C is without doubt the highest profile of all the vitamins. It has masssive coverage on TV and in health magazines, and most people know a little about it, but what are the real facts?Scientists now believe that The C Vitamin helps the body carry out hundreds of different functions, and without it, we would eventually die.

Vitamin C has many health benefits, but perhaps its most important are its ability to help reduce cardian problems and some forms of cancer. As both these conditions are a major problem in modern society, it is no wonder that Vitamin C comes in for so much attention. It is also essential for the body’s ability to produce collagen.

Collagen is a protein of connective tissue which is essential if the body is to repair any cuts or major injuries. Some experts believe that colalgen helps to improve skin and fingernail quality and also helps with joint mobility. All of this depends on Vitamin C.

Another great benefit of The C Vitamin is that it is an antioxidant, (a molecule which of slows down the oxidation of other molecules.) In doing this, it also helps the body to process and absorb other vital minerals and vitamins, specifically iron and folic acid. There is also a very strong view held by some experts that The C Vitamin has a major part to play in fighting off colds and influenza. Although this view is not universal, there is little doubt tht The C Vitamin does help the body whne it is recovring from a cold or flu.

Vitamin C is not something our bodies can produce on their own (unlike many other creatures), so we need to get it from our food. Some foodstuffs are particualrly high in vitamin C, for example, oranges, lemons, melon etc. But one of the better ones is the cranberry, which has other health giving properties. If you want to increase your intake of vitamin C, try some of the great cranberry recipes (http://www.recipe-ideas.co.uk/cranberry-recipes.htm)

The members of the capsicum family (chili peppers, bell peppers etc) are also a great source of vitamin c. The spicier the pepper, the more vitamin C it tends to have. Sadly, vitamin C does not survive well when cooked, and it disolves in water. This means that the best way to increase your vitamin c intake is through raw vegetables and fruit.

If you are going to cook vegetables, the best way to ensure that you get a high vitamin C intake from them is to use rapid cooking technique such as stir frying or steaming the food. You will have heard of the phrase ‘5 portions a day’ when applied to vegetable intake, this is the correct amount for your vitamin c requirements and is improved even more if you cook the food quickly or eat it raw.

If you want to make sure that you get enough vitamin C, then the easiest way for many people is to take vitamin C supplements. These are widely available, and undoubtedly work well, however, you should not think they can act as a replacement for eating fruit or vegetables. Our bodies need many minerals, vitamins and nutrients that are in fruit and vegetables, and no pill can hope to replace them all.

Nevertheless, taking a vitamin C supplement is often a good idea if you are feeling ill, or starting with a cold. Unlike other vitamins, Vitamin C is not dangerous if taken in excess. Our bodies can take as much vitamin C as they need and then excrete the excess safely.We hope you have found this article useful and now have a better understanding of this vital vitamin. You should no know where you can get your vitamin C from and how it helps to keep you happy and in good health.



Lower High Cholesterol

Karen Pijuan asked:


Vitamin B1, or thiamine, is known as the “morale” vitamin because of its dramatic effect on our nervous system and our mood. Besides supporting the nervous system, it aids in carbohydrate metabolism, enhances our immune system, wards off mosquitoes, helps develop red blood cells, maintains muscle tissue, promotes growth in children and helps control motion sickness. A synthetic version is added to white flour in America in order to ward off beriberi, but it is better to consume the natural form in whole grains. Because thiamin helps with carbohydrate metabolism, it makes energy available for the body, including the brain. So if you are not getting enough thiamine, you may not be feeding your brain enough glucose for it to think well.

Extra Thiamine Requirements

If you are pregnant or nursing, use oral contraceptives, cigarettes or diuretics, you will need more vitamin B1. Those with diets high in refined foods, too much sugar and junk foods and/or alcohol will also have higher requirements for thiamine. Last, but not least, heavy metal pollutants like mercury and stress also use up thiamine in the body and will increase your need for it.

Deficiency Symptoms of Vitamin B1

Fatigue and insomnia, poor memory, brain function and muscle coordination, headaches, weakness and confusion. Insufficient thiamin has also been linked to mood changes, disorderly thinking, fear and feelings of uneasiness. These are all signs of mental depression that can often affect memory as well.

Food Sources of Vitamin B1

Nutritional yeast, whole grains like whole wheat, brown rice and oatmeal, rice bran, watermelon, asparagus and fresh peas, pork, including ham and beef, legumes, nuts and seeds like sesame seeds.

Vitamin B2 or Riboflavin is Also Important for Energy Production

You may not hear about it as often as vitamin C or E, but vitamin B2 is often deficient in the American diet, and you may be hearing more about it in the years to come. Along with B1, it aids in carbohydrate and fat metabolism, and helps give us energy. It is very good for the eyes and can help prevent corneal ulcers and cataracts. It also helps protect the body from toxicity from drugs as well as chemicals in our environment, a very important function these days. It also promotes healthy skin and helps with psoriasis.

Research also shows that B2 can help neutralize harmful free radicals because of its antioxidant properties. Free radicals are unbalanced molecules in your body that try to balance themselves by stealing electrons from elsewhere in your body. This taking of other electrons can cause damage, and antioxidants quench free radicals by offering an electron of their own. This helps protect other cells in your body and keep them healthier. This may help your body to reduce cholesterol buildup and prevent cancer.

Riboflavin helps many important processes in the body to take place, including helping to turn food into energy. For example, it helps B6 and Folate, other B complex vitamins, to be properly utilized in the body. B2 is also crucial in transforming amino acids into neurotransmitters, which are chemicals used in the brain and needed for proper mood, memory and cognitive skills. Riboflavin also helps the body to make red blood cells.

Extra Vitamin B2 Requirements

Along with B1, you will need more vitamin B2 if you are pregnant or nursing, use oral contraceptives or diuretics. Sulfa drugs can also cause an increased need for B2. Those with diets high in refined foods, too much sugar and junk foods and/or alcohol will also have higher requirements for riboflavin. Exercise, although good for the body in many ways, tends to deplete the body of B2 as well.

Deficiency Symptoms of Riboflavin

Some of the diseases associated with a deficiency in vitamin B2 are: hypothyroidism, severe dermatitis (skin rash), anxiety, diabetes, cataracts, drug abuse, anemia, congenital heart disease and ulcers. Riboflavin deficiency can also cause other vision problems, like blurred vision and light sensitivity, and cracks and redness in the corners of the mouth as well as on the tongue. A deficiency of B2 is often seen at the same time as other B vitamin deficiencies, another reason to not just add more B2 to your diet, but all the B Complex vitamins.

Food Sources of Vitamin B2

Synthetic vitamin B2 is added to white flour and cereals, but synthetic vitamins cannot hope to have the same effects on the body as the whole food nutrient complex. Food sources of B2 include nutritional yeast, whole grains like whole wheat and wild rice, asparagus and broccoli, leafy greens like spinach and turnip greens, yogurt and milk (especially fresh, raw milk), cheeses, liver and kidney, mushrooms and eggs.

Some studies have shown that people who do not consume dairy and meats tend to have a higher risk of a B2 deficiency. Even those who simply do not consume milk tend to have lower levels of Riboflavin. If you need to add more B to your diet, you might also want to consider adding a natural source B vitamin supplement to your diet in the beginning, in order to get your B levels up to where they should be faster.



Weight Loss Journal

Paul Hata asked:


Are the vitamins you buy in the drug store the same as those you get in food? Yes, as far as those particular vitamins are concerned. But food supplies a great many other essentials than vitamins, and also supplies

you with vitamins that have not yet been discovered and hence can’t be packaged in cellophane.

Fortified bread is no more costly than ordinary white bread, so, in effect you receive free vitamins. Fortified breakfast cereals are better values than the super-refined kinds; whole-grain cereals even better in some respects. More and more, the grocery shelves are offering vitamin-enriched foods which are excellent v values. But one should not be tempted to purchase inferior kinds of food simply because they claim to be “vitaminized.” It will pay you to get the habit of checking the labels of fortified foods to see how many vitamin units they deliver in measured quantities.

If your doctor recommends synthetic vitamins for you, study the labels on the bottles. Check the units of various vitamins furnished by a measured dose, as stated on the label.

Certain vitamins, such as A and D, are relatively cheap. Those of the B complex are likely to be expensive. So-called “shotgun” mixtures preparations which contain a number of different vitamins may contain certain ones in liberal quantity while others are too scanty to be of much significance. Check your needs against the promises made on the labels.

For the ordinary person, able to sit up and take nourishment, it is practically always possible to obtain all necessary vitamins from food alone and that without adding a cent to your grocery bill. That one doesn’t usually get necessary vitamins by wise food-shopping is an unhappy truth.

The wealthy are just as likely to suffer vitamin deficiencies as the poor. Rich, expensive foods are more likely to be vitamin-poor than the simple, common ones. The reason why many of us are vitamin starved you have the word of scores of investigators and dozens of countrywide surveys for that is simply that we don’t know how to spend our food dollars for greatest value. For the same amount of money, certain foods will supply three times as much Vitamin A as others.

Whenever possible, buy vitamin-fortified foods, as long as they cost no more.

Drug store vitamins are excellent supplements but poor substitutes for food. Concentrated vitamins are useful in cases of existing or potential deficiencies. It is, for instance, usually good protection for anyone on a. reducing diet to supplement his food with small quantities of concentrated Vitamin A; additional B vitamins may also be helpful. It should always be remembered, however, that if you are getting all the vitamins you can use, additional vitamins will simply be excreted and wasted.

As long as you get sufficient vitamins, there is no need to exclude from your diet other foods that may be poor in vitamins; such foods may provide innumerable other valuable elements. The vitamin content of some foods often varies according to growing conditions, season of the year, and other factors..

Now you see how easy it is to be sure you are getting your vitamins. A cup of orange juice a day for Vitamin C, a pork chop for Vitamin Bi, a serving of greens for Vitamin A, a bit of liver for riboflavin any one of these will assure you of your basic intake of these particular vitamins.

Yet the only vitamins that really go to work for you are those that reach the platter through the kindness of the cook. Sunshine travels some 90,000,000 miles to make plant growth possible. Animals work industriously to store vitamins in meat and dairy products. And then, a dozen feet from the dining-room table, enormous quantities of vitamins come to an untimely end on the kitchen stove. Many of them are carried of in steam from over boiled foods so that, in theory, it would be possible to scrape a square meal off the ceiling of an old kitchen.

There is nothing complicated about preserving vitamins in cooking. A basic principle is simplicity. Fancy victuals that go through several cooking processes before they reach the table (even so common a procedure as boiling potatoes and then frying them) lose some of their vitamins in each operation.

Here are simple rules for preserving vitamins:

- Use a minimum amount of cooking water.

- Cook in covered vessels for as short a time as possible.

- Avoid stirring.

- Never add baking soda.

- Start vegetables in hot water.

- Serve the cooking liquids in soups.

- Handle fruits and vegetables as little as possible.

- Use a brush to clean vegetables rather than a knife to scrape them.

- Cook in their natural state as far as practicable.

Some vitamins are more temperamental than others. Vitamin C is the flightiest prima donna of the lot. It runs off and dissolves itself in cooking liquids when it gets a chance. It is a heat-hater with a tender skin and it resents rough handling. Shredding, cutting, and dicing of fruits and vegetables can result in severe losses of Vitamin C. To preserve it, conduct these manipulations just before serving.



The Biggest Loser

Dr John Anne asked:


Vitamins and minerals refer to the healthy substances that we find in the foods we eat in our regular diet. These substances are needed by our body in order to build and maintain a healthy system all over. We get them naturally from our food. In fact, some of the foods offer more of these healthy substances, some offer less.

About vitamin

Vitamins can be categorized under two heads; one is fat soluble and the other one is water soluble. Vitamin A, D, E and K are soluble in fat and can be stored within body. On the other hand, vitamin C and B complex are soluble in water. So it is needed for these vitamins to be dissolved into the water prior to their absorption within the body itself. Quite evidently, these vitamins can not be stored within our body. So any content of these vitamins if not used by the body is passed away through body along with bodily wastages. So your body needs a constant supply of these two vitamins in regular diet.

About Mineral

We all know that vitamins are derived from organic substances such as plants or animals, however, minerals are obtained from inorganic substances that essentially come from soil and water. These are either sopped up by plants or eaten by animals. We need minerals in larger amounts, especially for our growth and development. Calcium is such an essential mineral that we require in great amounts for bodily growth. Others are trace minerals such as zinc, iodine, chromium, copper, iron and selenium that our body requires in lesser amount on a regular basis.

Food – the Fuel of Growth

Our body goes through continuous changes, both physically and psychologically. To stay healthy and to maintain a healthy balance throughout our life, the most essential thing that we need is food. Without food, we may not possibly be alive for too long period. There are a variety of foods rich in vitamins and minerals available that offer us support to grow, develop and maintain health. The best way to acquire healthy substances for our system is to eat healthy foods rich in vitamins and minerals.

The foods with appropriate balance of carbohydrate, fats, protein and calories suffice the demand for optimum health. Whole or unprocessed foods such as fresh fruits and green leafy vegetables, low-fat and low-cholesterol dairy products, whole grains, fishes contain the required nutrients that we need to keep ourselves healthy and stay fit. Basically, meats, fishes and poultry products are foods rich in vitamins and minerals that fulfill the overall demands for essential nutrients for achieving a healthy system.

However, we need to be little selective while choosing foods rich in vitamins and minerals. Not all foods contain all the qualities. Say, for example, if you drink milk, you can have a good amount of vitamin D along with potassium, calcium and phosphorous. On the other hand, if you drink soda, it offers very little amount of minerals and vitamins.

Some of us really get scared when the time comes discussing about healthy foods. It seems like a desperate compromise about taste and flavor of food. But in reality, the situation is quite opposing. You have the all flexibility to choose between delicious foods rich in vitamins and minerals if you love to eat fresh salads, vegetable pizza, lean meat sandwich or baked potato. These foods are indeed tasty, delicious and full of nutritional choices.

However, if you are really serious about satisfying the bodily needs for vitamins and minerals and if you are planning to switch on considering different vitamin and mineral supplements available in the market, you are strongly recommended not to take any drastic action prior consulting with your doctor. It is true that vitamins and minerals are good for our health, but that does not necessarily imply that taking too much of these substance can offer you something better. Rather it is always good that you largely depend on a wide variety of healthy natural foods rich in vitamins and minerals.



South Beach Diet