These simple changes can have a dramatic effect on your heart, immune system and waistline.
Healthy EatingImage Title:
Description:
The fats in avocado are heart-healthy, and they add a rich flavor, creamy texture and an extra dose of nutrients to meals. One avocado supplies one-fourth of your daily need for magnesium, folate and vitamin A, plus lots of B vitamins and trace minerals.
Image Title:
Description:
A carrot a day adds color and crunch to your meals--and carotenes in carrots lower risks of heart attack (by up to 45 percent) and lung cancer.
Image Title:
Description:
Pretzels may be lower in fat and calories, but nuts are a much better source of protein, magnesium, vitamin E and the B vitamins. Research from the British Medical Journal shows that a handful of nuts eaten as a snack a few times a week lowers your risk of heart disease by 35 percent. In addition, nuts contain heart-healthy mono-unsaturated fats, which may also help you slim down.
Image Title:
Description:
Twenty percent of women in their childbearing years are iron-deficient, according to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. They're not officially anemic, but the symptoms are the same: fatigue, susceptibility to colds and infections, difficulty concentrating. To pump up the iron content of your diet, throw out that expensive cookware and return to Grandma's cast iron. The mineral leaches out of the pot into the food, boosting iron content by several-fold, especially in acidic foods such as spaghetti sauce and tomato-based soups.
Image Title:
Description:
These beverages contain compounds called tannins that reduce iron absorption by up to 94 percent. Women already consume too little iron to meet their needs; tea and coffee only aggravate the problem. Herbal teas do the same: Peppermint blocks iron by up to 84 percent, chamomile and others by half. So drink your tea and coffee well before or after meals.
Image Title:
Description:
The heart of the wheat kernel is a gold mine of nutrition. A 1/2 cup serving of toasted wheat germ supplies more than half of your daily magnesium needs, as well as hefty amounts of vitamins, including 50 percent of your daily need for folate and 60 percent of your vitamin E requirement. Wheat germ also supplies decent amounts of trace minerals, such as iron and zinc.
Image Title:
Description:
Garlic protects against heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol and "bad" LDL cholesterol and helping to prevent blood clots, Garlic also protects against bacterial infections and stimulates the immune system; sulfur-containing compounds might help fight off cancers of the skin, stomach, breast and colon.
Image Title:
Description:
Ounce for ounce, sweet potatoes outshine the traditional spud in every nutrient from A to zinc, including more than six times the calcium. While traditional potatoes have no beta carotene, even a small sweet potato packs almost two times your daily allotment of this potent antioxidant, which lowers your risk for heart disease and cancer.
Image Title:
Description:
People who include a few servings each week of beans lower their risk for heart disease by up to 22 percent. Besides fiber, beans contain phytochemicals, including saponins and phytosterols, that lower blood cholesterol. One cup of beans sprinkled onto a salad, added to vegetable soup, mixed with quinoa to make a meal, or rolled into a tortilla with avocado and salsa supplies almost one-third of a woman's daily need for iron.
Image Title:
Description:
Lycopene, the red pigment in plants, is a potent antioxidant, with tomatoes being a rich source. Lycopene is often absorbed better in cooked tomato products than fresh ones. The more lycopene you consume, the better for lowering your cardiovascular disease and cancer risk—10 milligrams (or the amount of lycopene in 1/2 cup of tomato sauce) at least seven times a week is a good starting point. Vine-ripened tomatoes have more lycopene than tomatoes picked green and allowed to ripen later.
Powered by WPeMatico
No comments:
Post a Comment