Archive for July, 2011

The Many Health Benefits of Vitamin E

When it comes to overall health matters, one of the most popular vitamins is vitamin E. This is because vitamin E is not only used for ensuring good health but also is one of the essential vitamins used in beauty products. This multitasking vitamin has many benefits that help you look and feel great at the same time.

Vitamin E, when described scientifically, is a fat-soluble vitamin that maintains cell membranes and is also known as tocopherol and tocotrienol. Vitamin E is well known for its great benefits for moisturizing and healing the skin. Vitamin E also acts as a regulator for vitamin A, which is also important in promoting healthy and beautiful skin.

Aside from that, vitamin E also is a good ingredient for skin anti-aging. The intake of vitamin E supplements and application of skin care products that contain vitamin E helps in obtaining younger looking skin. This is because vitamin E acts as an antioxidant that protects against free radicals which are believed to play a role in skin aging. Vitamin E can help prevent or minimize fine lines and wrinkles to help you obtain that youthful appearance you’ve been seeking. Topical application of this vitamin, either by breaking open a capsule of the vitamin or buying commercial beauty products that contain it as an ingredient, can have an instant plumping effect on fine lines and repeated use can help prevent new ones from forming. Read the rest of this entry »

Junk Food Junkie – Time to Get Healthy!

We are a junk food nation. Just look at the number of aisles in the grocery store devoted just to junk food. We are a nation of pizza, chips and fries. It is these types of foods that are at the heart of our propensity toward obesity and poor health. Junk food is a slang word for foods with limited nutritional value. Every person has their own list of foods that they call junk foods. It usually includes foods that are high in salt, sugar, fat or calories and low nutrient content. Salted snack foods, candy, gum, most sweet desserts, fried fast food and carbonated beverages are some of the most popular junk foods. They generally offer little in terms of protein, vitamins or minerals and lots of calories from sugar or fat. The term “empty calories” refers to the lack of nutrients in these foods.

Rather than banning all but the simplest foods, try to judge each food based on the list of ingredients and nutrition labels found on packages. When reading the list of ingredients, look for sugar, fat or salt as one of the first three ingredients mentioned. If this is the case, you can probably consider that particular food to be very high in sugar, fat or salt.

A look at the nutritional information on a package label will list the number of calories per serving, grams of fat, as well as the food’s sodium, cholesterol, fiber and sugar content. This nutritional information will make you more knowledgeable in selecting foods that will contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Read the rest of this entry »

Coffee & Chocolate – The Health Facts You Need To Know

“Friends or Foes”

Chocolate & Coffee…Arguably, two of modern society’s more controversial of substances. For some, an indulgence, for others a daily necessity or “fix”, but, no matter what the context, there can be no doubt that the popularity of these substances is showing no sign of slowing, and it is for this reason that they warrant closer inspection…to look beyond mere “taste” and social association…and to understand the potential health implications of these two substances.

So, are coffee and chocolate good for us, or not?

Perhaps more importantly; if chocolate and coffee do provide health risks, what are they? And is there a way we can consume them without the associated potential risks to our health.

To find the answers, let’s study each separately:

1. Investigating Chocolate:

Chocolate is currently enjoying renewed popularity amongst health professionals, many of whom now believe that chocolate – particularly the dark or bitter variety – in small amounts, may possess health-giving properties – i.e. antioxidants called polyphenols – that are believed to help reduce free-radical damage in the body.

In 2001, Pennsylvania State University published a study conducted on 23 men and women in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that showed how dark chocolate helped to reduce the oxidation of LDL cholesterol (the so-called “bad cholesterol”) by 8%, and similarly increased HDL cholesterol levels (the “good” cholesterol) by 4%. Read the rest of this entry »