Safer Way Of Eating For Breastfeeding Mommy

Monday Aug 3, 2009

During the stages of the last leg of the pregnancy, the baby actually could taste the food that the mother takes in. This is also true when you’re breastfeeding. The milk your body makes is how it’s going to feel on the palate.

When you are pregnant, it is easy to remember that you are “eating for two“. What some mothers may overlook, however, is that as long as you are breastfeeding what you eat still directly impacts your child. Also, your diet can affect how their immune system develops and even what kinds of foods your child prefers as he grows older. As long as you are breastfeeding you are still feeding two people and you will need to eat foods that keep you healthy and full of energy. In this article, we will discuss how to eat well while breastfeeding.

Step1
Eat lots of whole grains and cereals. Most doctors recommend these types of foods during pregnancy and you can continue your prenatal diet (minus the sweets if you are trying not to gain any more weight) while you are breastfeeding.

Step 2
Focus on fresh fruits and vegetables. A healthy diet for you means that your baby will also be well nourished. However, steer clear of broccoli and cabbage since they have been known to cause colic.

Step 3
Make sure you are getting plenty of calcium, protein and iron. It is important for your health that you get enough vitamins and minerals. Your breast milk will sustain your baby, but if you do not maintain a balanced diet while breastfeeding then you will feel weak and lethargic.

Step4
Start a light exercise program. Since you will still be eating a fair amount, the pounds may not fall off the way you want them to. Daily exercise in conjunction with your healthy diet will help you get back to the weight that you want to be. However, you must continue to eat normally so that you will continue lactating.

Step 5
Stay hydrated. Drink at least eight eight-ounce glasses of water each day, and more if you feel thirsty beyond this.

Step 6
Avoid most types of fish. Fish near the top of the food chain tend to contain high levels of mercury. Do not eat more than six ounces of albacore tuna, and avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tile fish entirely.

Step 7
Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol does make its way into breast milk so most experts recommend avoiding alcoholic beverages while breastfeeding. If you do decide to indulge, wait at least two hours before breastfeeding and drink a lot of water.

Moderation is always a good thing. Choosing to breastfeed your baby will strengthen the bond between the two of you. He or she will grow up to be a healthy child. Just keep close to your heart the best practices on how to have a healthy baby by the things you eat.


Quick Tips In Saving Money when Buying Organic Foods

Thursday Jul 23, 2009

Shopping for food during the winter can be a challenge. Organic foods are often very expensive in winter and the price of many diet staples has increased dramatically in the past year. What are your best strategies for eating healthy while still getting a good value for your grocery dollar?

* Buy in season -Trying to eat organic summer vegetables in the winter will quickly put a dent in your food budget. Right now, root vegetables, potatoes, and winter squash are at their cheapest and their tastiest. Apples are also fresh and reasonably priced, and citrus comes into season around the holidays. Use in-season vegetables and fruits to fill your family’s table with affordable nutritious goodness.
* Think ahead - Shop once a week, and don’t shop for food while hungry. Buying all of your food on one trip avoids the trap of running to the store several times, which burns extra gas and can add extra impulse buys to your basket.
* Make a plan - Planning your weekly meals and sticking to it keeps you from buying whatever sounds good when you’re shopping. Always shop from a list.
* Buy in bulk - We try to have the staple foods on hand at all times, buying a month’s worth or more and storing it in the pantry. Many co-ops and health food stores offer discounts for case quantities and bulk bags of grains. Most grains, beans, and flour is sold in 25 or 50 pound bags. 25 pounds of grains fits perfectly in a 5 gallon bucket, keeping it fresh and safe from bugs or rodents. Check at hospitals or school cafeterias for free food-grade buckets.
* Cook at home - Eating out will burn up your cash, and many restaurants serve food with dubious origins, so cooking from scratch makes the most sense to us. If you do eat out, find a local place that serves real food, clean food, food made from scratch, not a can (and organically grown, or at least MSG and GMO-free). There’s a place here in my neck of the woods that makes their own tempeh and has a 2 for 1 tempeh burger special (Tempeh Tuesday). The four of us can fill up for under twenty bucks.
* Eat simple - For families that eat meat, cutting back meat-based dishes to once or twice a week means being able to afford organic or grass-fed choices. Fill out a dish with grains or beans. Making a casserole or soup can keep the menu simple and affordable.
* Make extra - A large meal cooked once a week and served as leftovers or sent for lunches helps to save energy and water. It’s less stressful for the cook as well. If you do eat out, find a local place that serves real food, clean food, food made from scratch, not a can (and organically grown, or at least MSG and GMO-free). There’s a place here in my neck of the woods that makes their own tempeh and has a 2 for 1 tempeh burger special (Tempeh Tuesday). The four of us can fill up for under twenty bucks.
* Raid the fridge - I’m the king of the end of the week random ingredient meal. I make a pot of rice (or beans, millet, etc.), sauté onions and garlic with other random veggies, mix together, and serve wrapped in a tortilla.

Stay green and clean, and stay under budget…


FOOD THAT HEALS

Wednesday Jul 22, 2009

Do you know that if you eat vegetables and fruits that you are drinking foods that cure? Between just being great tasting, fruits and vegetables help in more ways then you can picture.

If you think of your immune system as an army that battles infections, then two vitamins are its main generals. Vitamin A helps strengthen your body’s defenses, while vitamin C helps immune system go on the attack. These two vitamins provide powerful protection against incoming germs.

There is no way to avoid germs entirely, what you can do however, is eat your way to better health. Eating the right foods not only helps prevent infections, but can also help fight them.

A number of plant foods, such as apples, tea, onions contain substances called flavonoids, which can prevent germs from taking hold. One of the most powerful flavonoids is a compound called quercetin. Found in large amounts in onions and kale, quercetin has been shown to damage genetic material inside viruses, preventing them from multiplying. Having several servings a day of flavonoid-rich foods will help keep germs in check, giving your immune system a fighting chance.

If you make the choice to eat five to seven servings (a day) of fruits and vegetables it is sincerely not that much. It is, if you look at it routinely, very painless to do such a thing. Start with breakfast, you can add assorted fruits such as raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, or even bananas to your morning cereal and get an entirety ration done and out of the way. Substitute fruit or vegetables for a snack mid day and there is two.

At lunch have yourself some lettuce and tomato on your sandwich and there are another two. If you have been care stalk we are almost at 5 servings. A daylight brunette solve can revolve into a healthful crack with a fruit smoothie. Yet another serving and we have not even hit feast.

For dinner have a small salad to recoil and then why not have two vegetables instead of just one with the actual entree. It is tranquil if you just take a few seconds to say no to the toffee bar and yes to the apple, banana, ginger, or kiwi fruit.

When you think of fruits and vegetables don’t think of it as a task. Look at it as a challenge. Your challenge is to start a stronger, healthier lifestyle. Your choices that you make nowadays will assume your health tomorrow. Just evoke that if you eat your fruits and vegetables then you wont have to 1. See the physician half as much as those who do not eat their vital fruits and vegetables and 2. You will be well for a long, long time.

Did you know your fruits and vegetables move unique battalion known as phytochemicals? No? Well they do. You know them better as things like antioxidants, and the like. Antioxidants are central for cleaning out the order. The more you eat and use the better you will feel. Not to mention look.

Look for more fiber in your diet also. Bran helps with the cleaning of the approach. Whole grains and nuts are great for you. Whole grains have many great properties for making your body rinse itself. Nuts help poorer your blood fat pleased. That is important for lessen cholesterol. Lower cholesterol is important for a lowered chance of core attacks.

You want to make yourself as wholesome as viable especially when the cold and flu term comes around. Think of all the sniffling, chills, fevers, body aches and more. Do you truly want that? I think you would rather move around, while everybody also anguish, and beam at the verity that you are fanatical enough to scrap these ailments.


POWER UP YOUR BODY

Wednesday Jul 22, 2009

Your body is being constantly attacked by very harmful substances known as free radicals or oxygen radicals. Free radicals can destroy your cells, tissues and organs.

Free radicals are highly unstable molecules that are naturally formed inside our bodies by the process of oxidation.
They are normal by products of everyday functions like digestion and physical activity. Free radicals also come from outside sources, such as smoking, environmental pollution, and synthetic chemicals that are added to our water and food. Some tips for living longer and anti-aging:

- Change your perception of time
- Access restful awareness and restful sleep
- Nourish your body with anit-aging food
- Eliminate toxins
- Make love the most important thing in your life

Scientific approach to ageing intervention, prevention and therapy is based on the knowledge gathered through more than fifty years of research on the biological basis of ageing. This research has shown that ageing occurs mainly due to the failure of maintenance and repair pathways. In this lecture, we will discuss the causes of ageing, limits of human lifespan, gerontogenes involved in ageing, and various anti-ageing methods, such as gene therapy, antioxidants, hormones and nutritional treatments.

BEST CARBOHYDRATE CHOICES: Artichokes, avocados, dark-green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, spinach, escarole, romaine lettuce, cherries, berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.), apples, pears, barley, beans (dried and fresh), bean sprouts, endive, eggplant, cabbage, kale, red and green peppers, bok choy, and celery.

BEST FATS: Extra virgin olive oil, flax oil, flax seed, nuts (esp. almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts and macadamia), pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds

BEVERAGES: Spring water, green tea, white tea, black tea

GRAINS: Buckwheat, whole oats, barley

SPICES: Turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, oregano, basil, thyme, cayenne, (every spice and herb you can think of are stellar anti-aging foods).

Aging is a very complex process that involves many areas of your body. There is no single product, pill or substance which could cure all of the ills of aging. Your best avenue for a long and healthy life is to keep yourself healthy and prevent chronic diseases.

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NUTRIENTS THAT FIGHT STRESS

Friday Jul 17, 2009

“You are what you eat”, a saying usually applied to the physical effects of the foods we eat, is also applicable to how food affects our emotional well being. Recent studies have shed light on the connection between what we eat and how we feel, particularly how we deal with stress. While stress management often involves psychological counseling, and pharmaceutical therapy, lifestyle changes involving nutrition and exercise can be very beneficial in developing a long-term strategy to handle stress. While most of us use the term “stress” to describe unpleasant anxious feelings, we need a more clinical understanding of the term to understand how food can affect it.

Conversely, making better food choices can alleviate the symptoms by helping your body and mind to restore the necessary hormonal balance. The Food and Mood project begun in the UK in 1998 to study the relationship between diet and emotional health produced a survey that highlighted the positive effects of proper nutrition on the mental well-being of the participants. The participants reported that consuming more food “supporters” was a significant factor in improving their overall mood. These supporters in order of importance were: water, vegetables, fruits, oil-rich fish, nuts and seeds, and whole-grain foods. The participants also noted that planning meals and snacks in advance was an important factor in improving mood and reducing stress. Scheduling time for breakfast every morning, and planning meals and snacks in advance rather than making at-the-moment decisions helped to steer them toward healthier choices.

Why are the foods identified as supporters effective in helping with stress? A major factor is the presence of B vitamins in many of these foods. The group of vitamins that make up the B complex support emotional health in many ways, most notably as supporters of neural functions. B6 helps to regulate blood glucose levels which can lead to a more relaxed emotional state because erratic peaks and valleys in glucose levels can have an associated effect on our mood. Good sources of b6 include salmon, turkey, and white potatoes. B2 also know as riboflavin is critical in enabling our bodies to metabolize the other B vitamins and can be found in beef liver, shrimp, and cheese. B complex vitamins are water soluble and are not stored in the body for long periods, (except for b12), so proper hydration as well as frequent ingestion are important.

Identifying B vitamins in food labels can be tricky because some, such as folic acid, are identified by their chemical name rather than with a “B” followed by a number. A chart such as this one is handy to help identify the B vitamins contained in packaged foods.

It is important to remember that managing stress through nutrition is a long-term process. We are often tempted to deal with stressful situations with certain comfort foods, which can in fact provide very short term relief. The urge to grab a cookie or ice cream bar when we are upset was instilled in many of us during childhood. (How often did your mother offer you a soothing slice of beef liver when you stubbed your toe?) The challenge is to remind yourself how often the brief elevation provided by the cookies is followed by the agitation of the glucose spike, and the letdown of the sugar crash. Having healthy snacks available at all times will help in avoiding the spur of the moment decisions that can sabotage your plan. Hummus with whole grain pita triangles and bite-sized raw vegetables is an easy snack to keep on hand, and is much better as a stress fighter than the pre-packaged sugary snack you may be tempted to grab. Raw almonds are a good substitute for chips, providing protein and B vitamins instead of starch and empty calories.

Stress management is a key component of overall health, and proper nutrition is critical to stress management. Planning meals and snacks in advance, avoiding stress accelerators such as sugar and caffeine, and replacing them with foods high in B vitamins such as beef, seafood, and green-leaf vegetables will give you the nutritional base you need to take on the day. Take a long term approach, plan ahead for the inevitable agitations and the snacking habits that accompany them, and prepare to live a more stress-free life.