Vital Guidance to The Incredible Benefits of Juicing

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We are all familiar with juice. We begin our mornings with orange juice or grapefruit juice. We give our children apple juice at snack time. And now manufacturers have offered us a variety of juice blends and juice cocktails to drink day or night.

And of course, we all know that juice is far healthier than soft drinks, sweet teas, creamy coffee, and alcohol. However, for those of us in search of an even healthier alternative, juicing is the key. Naturally derived vitamins and vital enzymes abound in fresh fruits and vegetables, and by juicing daily, you can significantly increase your vegetable and fruit intake.

According to the CDC, just 1 out of 10 people are getting the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables. The federal guidelines recommend that adults eat 1 ½ to 2 cups of fruits and 2 to 3 cups of vegetables per day. Consuming fruits and vegetables can significantly reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, some cancers, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

Joe Cross, from the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, states, “I believe that juicing is a great way to supercharge your body with the incredible nutrients found in whole plant foods – and the volume you’re able to take in when juicing is far more than you would be able to eat.” Joe lost nearly 100 pounds and healed his autoimmune disease by juicing across America.

So, What is Juicing?

Basically, juicing is the method of extracting juice from raw fruit and vegetables and drinking it. And the results are incredible for your health.

What are The Benefits of Juicing?

In this article, the focus is not on a 60-day body cleanse or a temporary diet. In this case, the emphasis is using juicing as a supplement to your daily diet, increasing the number of nutrients from fruits and vegetables that you otherwise wouldn’t get.

If you are interested in juicing to detox or cleanse your body for more than a few days, there are many books and articles available online for guidance.

Here are some of the incredible benefits of juicing to help you obtain a healthier lifestyle:

  • Juicing Ups Your Nutrient Intake

Juicing lets you absorb more nutrients from fruits and vegetables. Because of the fiber found in fruits and vegetables, consuming the recommended daily amount is difficult. By juicing, it is easier to incorporate them into your diet.

Two to three cups of fresh juice contain the same number of enzymes and vitamins as 14 apples, 2.5 pounds of carrots, and 9 pounds of spinach. Because the fiber is cut out, the body can focus more on the absorption of these vital vitamins and minerals.

  • Juicing Gives Your Digestive System a Break

Toxic foods and medications can impair the digestive systems ability to function at its best. It takes a lot of work to break them down. It is estimated that 65% of your body’s energy is used in the digestion process after eating. Possibly more if there are processed foods involved.

By juicing, you can give your digestive system a break so your body can heal and repair itself. Juicing is “pre-digested,” giving your system a much-needed rest. Drinking a phytonutrient dense juice allows pure nutrition into your digestive tract that your body can absorb rapidly.

  • It is Loaded with Antioxidants

Fruits and vegetables are packed of antioxidants that protect against disease. Antioxidants aid in preventing oxidation of molecules and fight against free radicals within the body which contribute to a range of diseases and illnesses. There are loads of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables that offer different benefits to different parts of your body.

Therefore, it’s vital to get a wide variety of these antioxidants in your diet. By juicing, you can combine several different types of fruits with vegetables to obtain a great combination of antioxidants.

  • Juicing Can Help You Lose Weight

As you juice, you will begin to feel better and have more energy. Juicing increases your metabolism while removing toxins from your cells. Having a glass of fresh juice as opposed to snacking on empty calories or right before a meal is a great way to reduce cravings while increasing your nutritional intake.

  • It Can Give You Better Skin

Fruits and vegetables are loaded with plant ingredients that can balance hormones, strengthen collagen, stimulate circulation, and reduce wrinkles. Vitamins A, C, and E are particularly beneficial for protecting your skin against harmful UV rays.  

  • Juicing Can Improve Athletic Performance

The nitrates and potassium found naturally in fruits and vegetables can help your body recover after a workout, helping repair damaged tissue faster. Other nutrients such as vitamin A, C, and E, and minerals such magnesium play a role in maintaining the immune system, easy muscle contraction, and increasing strength. They destroy free radicals that can increase the destruction of healthy tissues and muscle cells, thus decreasing the athlete’s performance, strength, and endurance.

Juicing before and after allows the body to absorb vital nutrients and minerals needed to maintain or increase overall athletic performance.

Final Thought:

Juicing is a wonderful complement to living a healthy lifestyle. It should not be considered a diet or long-term detox but should be incorporated into your daily or weekly diet. It is about adding more fruits, vegetables, and plant-based ingredients, so you look and feel your very best.

 

Article by Ellen Carleton
Independent writer

Pets Can Help You Live A Happier & Healthier Life

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We have known for a long time that vital relationships are a key to a happy, healthy, and long life. The joy that we as humans get by interacting with each other, through friendship and fellowship, is something that picks us up when we are down and that can keep us motivated and focused when times are hard.

What, though, if you are just not a people person? What if you find social interaction hard, be it for physical or mental reasons, and that desire to put yourself out there and meet other people just doesn’t exist?

According to new research published in May 2019, the answer is as simple as getting a pet and treating it like a human.

According to research conducted by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brigham Young University, loneliness is as dangerous to human health as if you were to smoke 15 cigarettes a day. This puts loneliness up there with more talked about issues such as obesity in its risk to human health and quality of life.

Human-animal interaction research manager at Mars’ Waltham Centre of Pet Nutrition, Nancy Gee, had this to say about interactions between humans and their pets.

“When we think about loneliness, we need attachment figures and pets meet that need,” says Gee. “You don’t have to worry about confidentiality or judgment. It just is what it is.”

It is that lack of judgment that can make pets so important when looking for vital relationships to fill your life with. One of the major reasons that people suffer from social anxiety or struggle in social situations is that feeling of being judged for what they are saying or doing. With a pet that judgment just doesn’t come as they love unconditionally in their own way.

“The greatest gift of animals is they remind us we can love and be loved unconditionally,” says former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

Murthy, according to his testimony on the subject, would sometimes be teased by other staff members about the pictures he would post on various social media sites of his cats. Those cats, though, would open up avenues for him to have vital relationships with other people as they immediately had something in common they could talk about or bond over.

An online survey of just over 2,000 people, which included pet owners, found that one-in-four owners got a pet because they knew that it would help their mental health. Interestingly, this number increased to over 50% when just taking into account people over the age of 55.

Research still needs to be conducted into if pets make people healthier or if it is just generally healthier people getting pets. Either way, it seems clear that having a pet, be it a dog, a bird, or something a little more unique, is a great way to live a happier and more fulfilled life.

Article by Steve Wright
 Independent Writer

 

Kombucha May Offer Many Vital Health Benefits

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you have probably heard something about kombucha. Maybe you’ve seen it on the shelves at the grocery store, gas station convenience stores, or in health food stores, but do you really know what kombucha is?

Kombucha is believed to have originated in China or Japan well over 2,000 years ago.  Considered to be an excellent probiotic, it is a living drink created by fermenting sweetened green or black tea with what is referred to as a SCOBY.  It has a colony of live bacteria and yeast that causes the fermentation process once the sugar is introduced.

During fermentation, the yeast converts the sugar in the sweetened tea to alcohol. The bacteria then converts the alcohol to organic acids.

After fermentation has been completed, the kombucha becomes a carbonated liquid. It now contains beneficial enzymes, B vitamins, probiotics, and high levels of lactic, gluconic, and acetic acids.

So not only are you getting the vital health benefits of green or black tea but now you’re getting beneficial probiotics as well. Here are six potential benefits of kombucha:

1. Kombucha Can Improve Gut Health
This fermented drink is loaded with not only antioxidants but also has high levels of probiotics. Probiotics are very much like the healthy bacteria found in the gut. Per Dr. Edward Hill from the North Mississippi Medical Center, “Probiotics are live microorganisms normally found in the intestines.”

So consuming probiotics will give your gut more healthy bacteria. This bacterium can be vital to many parts of your overall health including your digestion. The live probiotic cultures found in Kombucha help the gut repopulate with good bacteria.

2. Kombucha Can Aid in Disease Prevention
Every day we consume processed foods and chemicals that lead to oxidative stress and then inflammation. A study published in Food Microbiology in 2014 showed evidence that Kombucha contains powerful antioxidants that can assist in detoxing and prevent inflammation and illnesses. This detoxifying, inflammation reducing characteristic is the reason it can reduce the risk of certain kinds of cancer.

3. Kombucha Helps Maintain Liver Health
Kombucha has antioxidants that fight free radicals in the body that can cause cell damage. A study published in 2011 demonstrated that the antioxidant-loaded kombucha reduced toxins in the liver. This indicates that this beverage may reduce inflammation of the liver and promote liver health.

4. Kombucha Can Help Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease
Heart disease is the world’s leading cause of death and studies have shown that this fermented tea may help battle it. A study published in Pharmaceutical Biology in 2015, showed that kombucha helps reduce the levels of cholesterol associated with heart disease.

The study, which used rats, found that kombucha significantly improved two markers of heart disease, LDL and HDL, cholesterol within 30 days. It lowers bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides while increasing the good cholesterol (HDL).

5. Kombucha Contains Antioxidants
Much of kombuchas healthy benefits are more than likely due to the tea and the polyphenols it has. Polyphenols are phytochemicals that are found naturally in plants.

They play an essential role in your wellness and health. They act as strong antioxidants and decrease inflammation by fighting free radicals – the molecules that can damage your cells. The fermentation process of kombucha actually increases the level of polyphenols.

6. Kombucha May Help Protect Against Cancer
According to the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues.”

A test-tube study published in 2008, found that kombucha aided in preventing the growth of cancer cells. A study done later in 2013, found that the fermented tea reduced the survival of cancer cells.

How Much Kombucha Should I Drink?
According to the Center for Disease Control, four ounces of kombucha three times a day is considered safe. No more than 12 ounces per day.  Start by drinking very small quantities and work your way up to larger amounts.

Are There Any Side Effects?
Because it is carbonated, some people experience bloating and digestive issues. Some brands also contain an excessive amount of sugar. People suffering from kidney disease, cancer or HIV can develop severe complications from drinking kombucha.
If you are concerned about starting a kombucha routine, contact your doctor or health provider for proper guidance.

How Do I Store My Kombucha?
Once you have returned from the grocery store, if it is not already packaged correctly, you’ll want to put it in a clear, glass container with a tight-fitting lid. The lid should not be made of any type of metal. Be sure to leave an inch at the top of the container to allow for the effects of carbonation.

Store it in the refrigerator and don’t shake the bottle as you run the risk of it exploding. When opening it, keep your entire hand over the lid to prevent it from popping off.

Bottoms up!!

Story by Ellen Carleton, Independent Writer

The Magic of Mushrooms On Your Mental, Physical Performances

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Every athlete strives to get an edge over the competition and food is a powerful way to improve not only health but athletic performance. What you consume affects your immune system, inflammatory response, the ability to recover quickly and train harder, and how mentally sharp you feel.

We are told to eat a healthy diet consisting of fruit, vegetables, nuts, lean protein, clean carbohydrates, etc., but rarely is the tiny, nutrient-packed powerhouse, the mushroom, mentioned.

Often thought of as a vegetable, mushrooms are part of the fungi family. They are neither fruit nor vegetable. For thousands of years, medicinal mushrooms were a vital part of traditional Chinese medicine because of their remarkable health-boosting powers. Their use in Western medicine has only started to increase over the past several decades.

Whether you eat them cooked or raw, here are six ways the mighty mushroom can impact your health and performance. The magical mushroom can:

1.    Increase Stamina and Endurance
By increasing the amount of time you are physically able to exercise, and at the level your body can tolerate during a workout, will help you achieve your goals faster.  Medicinal mushrooms aid in transporting oxygen flow from the lungs through the blood vessels to your muscles.  Cordyceps, Shitake, and Chaga mushrooms, for example, are known as the anti-aging mushroom because of their ability to transport oxygen more efficiently and to help produce ATP, the fuel our body runs on. In traditional Chinese medicine, they were believed to act as a vital stimulant and used to increase energy and decrease fatigue.

2.    Boost Metabolism
Mushrooms contain a considerable amount of vitamin B and vitamin D, which is what the body uses to convert glucose into fuel. They aid in metabolizing the fats and proteins in your diet.  Because of this, they help the body maintain a healthy and efficient metabolism. The most sought-after mushroom for boosting the metabolism is the Cordyceps mushroom.

3.    Reduce Inflammation
Mushrooms are loaded with anti-inflammatory properties. They contain phenols, polysaccharides, ergothioneine and other antioxidants that aid in reducing body-wide inflammation in athletes. By reducing swelling, recovery time will speed up, thus boosting your performance and overall stamina.  The mushrooms containing the highest levels of anti-inflammatory properties are Turkey Tail, Reishi, Shitake, and Oyster mushrooms.

4.    Increase Antioxidant Levels
Studies suggest that high levels of free radicals damage various structures of our body’s cells and reduce cellular turnover. Cellular damage increases the risk of developing many problems, including those that are associated with recovery and aging.  Fortunately, scientists have discovered that medicinal mushrooms can fight these free radicals that can drain your body of energy. For example, the medicinal mushroom, Cordyceps, referred to as the anti-aging mushroom can help endurance and stamina because it prompts the body to produce more ATP.

5.    Improve the Immune System
Athletes are more prone to having a compromised immune system. After a session of strenuous exercise, the athlete will enter a short period in which the immune system is weakened. They are more vulnerable to viral and bacterial infections.  Several varieties of mushrooms have natural properties to help boost the immune system and help it ward off viral infections and diseases, such as the Maitake, Reishi, and the Turkey Tail mushroom. They contain beta-glucans which increase the immune system’s T-cell levels, which leads to lower inflammatory responses caused by stress or environmental factors.

6.    Enhance Mental Focus
For athletes who need to be mentally strong as well as physically strong when competing, some varieties of mushrooms fight against the decline in cognitive functions. The potassium and selenium found in mushrooms increase brain function because they increase blood and oxygen flow to the brain, thus stimulating neural activity.  Lion’s Mane and Maitake are a favorite, within the mushroom family, because of their neuroprotective properties.

Foraging for Mushrooms – Warning!
There are more than 135,000 species of mushrooms in the world. However, many species are not edible. Modern science is only familiar with approximately 10%, and only about 100 species are currently being studied for health benefits and medicinal purposes.

Most species are highly poisonous and not edible, yet they strongly resemble their edible counterparts. Eating the wrong mushroom can result in stomach pain, vomiting, and in some cases, death. So, if you are planning on foraging for mushrooms, it is strongly suggested that you consult with an expert for the proper guidance.  They can help you distinguish between what is safe and what is dangerous for consumption.

Article by Ellen Carleton
Independent Writer

Reading Is Vital To Your Child’s Learning

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Reading to your children can make a vital difference in their lives. Not only will you and your child bond and make memories over their favorite books, but you are also guiding them into a love of reading they will carry with them through adulthood. Reading is not only a source of entertainment; it is a way to expand the horizons of young minds.

Below are ten reasons to make a little time each day to read to your children.

1. Language Skills
Language skills will vitally improve when you read aloud to your child. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the four language skills, and if your child is read to every day, he or she will be well equipped to handle the challenges of school.

2. Vocabulary Skills
Vocabulary skills will also improve through hearing words and phrases that are not used in their everyday life. If your child has not yet started to read, pointing to the words while reading will give them a head start. Guide your children through the books and discuss the illustrations before reading
the text.

3. Empathy
Empathy can develop through reading. Children identify with characters, and can effortlessly feel the emotions the character is going through. Reading every day will help children identify with their own emotions and feelings as well as an ability to understand how other people think and feel.

4. Imagination
A child’s imagination can soar through reading. Being transported to other places, times, and spending time with remarkable characters can spark new ideas and creative thinking in your child. While I believe it is vital to let your children’s imagination skyrocket, it is also essential for them to understand the difference between fantasy and reality.

5. Bonding
Connect with your children through reading. A regular bedtime reading ritual will help you both relax from your busy day and enjoy a little cuddle time. Reading will also guide you and your child to increased communication.

6. Longer Attention Spans
Most young children have a relatively low attention span and living in a world of constant screen time doesn’t help. However, reading does assist in developing longer attention spans in younger children.  This will be of great benefit to them as they enter school.

7. Academic Performance
Children who read, or have been read to regularly, perform better in school. They have learned how sentences and phrases are supposed to sound, which gives them a head start in language structure. This aids your child in all subjects, not just language arts and English classes.

8. Concentration
Children who have been read to and who like to read can concentrate for more extended periods. This is a vital skill that will be needed throughout their academic career.

9. Eagerness to Learn
Reading teaches children about the world and assists them in finding topics they are interested in learning about. These topics of interest may lead to wanting to know more, therefore opening the door to more knowledge. Guide your children to different subjects, fiction, and non-fiction. A quick trip to the library may spark a new interest.

10. Cognitive Skills
Reading to your child teaches early thinking skills such as problem-solving, decision making, and remembering. Your child will have an easier time processing information with regular reading. It also has a positive effect on the growing brain, helps advance literacy skills, and is vital to attaining better comprehension skills.

Through your guidance, your children will benefit from reading, not only in the ways mentioned above but throughout their entire lifetime. Set your children up for success while enjoying the time you have with them as they grow. Reading is not only a good source of entertainment; it is an excellent way for a family to connect and build stronger relationships.

Article by Kristine Protopsaltis
Independent Writer