A fruit and vegetable juice is a liquid into which all nutrients from the fibre have been extracted making the juice highly nutritious and easily absorbed into your bloodstream. Your body does not have to expend all its energy into digestion but instead use it to maximise the nutrients instead.
Most of us eat the same salads or vegetables every day. Juicing opens you to a wider range of fruits and vegetables which we are not likely to consume if eaten whole. Consuming a variety of foods is the key and only way in getting all the necessary nutrients your body needs to be in optimum health. Juicing helps you achieve this naturally without having to resort to artificially produced vitamins and minerals as supplements.
It’s very hard to cover the daily recommended portions of fruit and vegetables especially if you dislike green vegetables. Juicing takes the pain out of that. It’s an easy way to get your daily recommended intake because vegetable juice when combined with a sweet fruit or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice neutralizes the bitterness and makes it very palatable.
However, the most crucial point of drinking fresh juices for hard-core raw food advocates would be that food is eaten in its raw form. Cooking at high temperatures destroys enzymes and heat sensitive vitamins. That destruction is reduced to a large degree by juicing.
The contentious issue that arises when raw food consumption is discussed is whether or not plant enzymes have a role to play in preserving our body’s supply of enzymes. Those who argue otherwise say that our body has its own enzymes, that it will not have any use of enzymes from plants and that it will continue to produce enzymes for as long as we live.
The reason enzymes have become such a ‘hot’ topic among advocates of raw food is because enzymes are catalysts that speed up chemical reactions in the body. Enzymes equal life. Without enzymes all biological processes vital to life would slow down. All vitamins and minerals that we consume become useless. Toxic substances will build up to dangerous levels without being flushed out. Our body’s ability to heal and absorb nutrients will slow down. Enzymes help the body to correctly digest food and also to provide instruction on how to utilize the various nutrients in the food source. Enzymes regulate tens of thousands of biochemical functions that take place in our body every day. Even thinking involves enzymes. Without enzymes our bodies will fail to function and life will eventually cease to exist.
Enzymes are destroyed by heat when food is cooked and also by the application of additives and preservatives in highly processed food. Whether or not the enzyme theory put forward by raw food advocates is true will continue to be proven or disproved by many.
Putting that aside, the benefits of juicing is hard to dispute. It nourishes you, it opens up to you a natural supply of vitamin and mineral supplements, it can aid you in weight loss and will help detoxify and cleanse your body simply through the nourishment it provides. It will improve your health if you have been on a lifelong diet of highly processed food, overeating and never having met the requirements of the daily recommended intake of fruits and vegetables.
The debate of whether or not your body has a lifelong supply of enzymes or whether or not we need the benefit of enzymes from raw food is not a reason to dismiss juicing as just another fad because the drawbacks of highly processed food is just too much to bear. Why anyone would not want to juice baffles me.
Why We Should and Really Should Juice Anyway
How to manage Bland Diet
What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.
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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.
Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.
Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.
Bland Diet:
The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.
Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.
Allowed Food Items:
• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.
• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.
• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.
• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.
Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.
What is Dukan Diet and its side-effects?
This article gives pertinent information about Dukan Diet and its side-effects
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Pierre Dukan, a French doctor and nutritionist, challenged with the case of obesity started to look for alternative ways in curing the illness. After 20 years of thorough research he published in the year 2000, a book called, “Je ne sais pas maigrir” or translated as, “I don’t know how to get slimmer.” It gained the best-seller in France after a year it has been published.
It was made a hit in UK when Kate Middleton, now the duchess of Cambridge, tried the Dukan Diet before her marriage to the beloved Prince William, she reportedly claimed a loss of two dress sizes. It also allegedly claimed to help five million French. The book is also gaining fame in the US in the year 2011 when actress/singer, Jennifer Lopez, lost pounds after her pregnancy by following this diet.
Dukan Diet: What is it? How does this work?
Dukan Diet is similar to the famous Atkins diet. Atkins and Dukan are much alike in terms of non-intake of carbs initially and do not require portion control or counting calorie consumptions. In Atkins, it requires net carbohydrate intakes and unlike Dukan, it suggests a daily intake of oats, increase water consumption and 20 minutes of everyday brisk walking. Dukan Diet adopts four phases namely: Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilization.
Four Phases of the Dukan Diet
Attack: In this starter phase, the dieter is only allowed take protein rich foods that are exquisitely low in fat. Dr. Dukan provided 72-item list of foods to be eaten, it excludes pork, lamb, poultry products and cheeses. Food should always be cooked but without adding any fat to it, it best to cook in grilling or roasting. It also requires you to eat 1 ½ tbsp. oat bran & 1.5 liters of water per day. This phase should be followed around 2-7 days or more. Results from this initial phase within 5 days may result in 4-7 lbs. loss. This phase promotes quick loss of weight since it is strictly based on a protein-only diet.
Cruise: Cruise, the second to the fourth phase of the Dukan diet scheme. During this phase dieters who were only allowed to eat protein-only foods can now alternate a 28-items of non-starchy vegetables. They may take attack phase diet for today and take non-starchy veggie diet for tomorrow, and so this phase must go on by alternating these two types of diet each day. This phase may last long enough as much as you want by reaching your desired weight and assuring 2 pounds per week loss.
Consolidation: As one achieves the desired weight, one has to go the next phase called Consolidation, this is the maintenance phase of this diet scheme where you have to prevent putting back excess pounds. The plan in this phase is less strict compared to the first two phases. During this phase you are permitted to eat protein-only and veggie diet along with a piece of low-sugar fruit, 2 slices of whole grain bread and a portion of hard cheese. In this phase you are allowed to have 1-2 serving of starchy foods and one celebration meal per week. The phase of consolidation does not expect to loss off pounds but rather it is steadily the maintenance process.
Stabilization: Stabilization is the final phase and a life-long phase of the diet scheme. In here maintenance of the life-changing diet may be a challenging and tempting. During this portion of the scheme, one is already permitted to allow any food intake that a person wants and by also sticking to the diet rule in the consolidation phase. As Pierre Dukan suggest, that staying on the phase 1 rule once a week and eat whatever you like for the rest of the week lowers the chances of regaining weight.
Pros and Cons of Dukan Diet
Pros: The fast results of this diet scheme is beneficially rewarding and motivating. It allows you to have protein and veggie meal plan diets and does not require you to count off your calorie intakes.
Cons: It is highly restrictive and can exclude healthy foods. Dieters can experience side-effects such as symptoms of headaches, nausea, lethargy, irritable and loss of concentration. Dieters may acquire halitosis (bad breath), metallic tasting mouth and strong smell in their urines. For those people who have problems with their kidneys and liver are not advised to follow this diet plan. It is not also recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers.
Views and Opinions by Health Experts on the Dukan Diet
There are lots of critics in this diet plan. Due to the restrictive type scheme of this diet, some fruits, grains and nuts which are healthy and have high amounts of vitamins and minerals that are vital to the nutrition of the body are eliminated. Keri Gans of American Dietetic Association, said that the lost amount of multivitamins that should be acquired from those restricted foods are not compensated in the Dukan diet. Experts have also criticized that experiencing such side-effects may not be healthy at all.