The Real Meal Salad By HLife Photography
When a salad is 80% of your meal – a portion from which we are expected to get loads of vitamins, minerals, complex carbs, phytonutrients, a variety of amino acids and good fats – a few leaves with two wheels of veggies on top just won’t cut it. My expectations are higher, and I aim to succeed in nourishing my body with the proper nutrients in order to maintain my optimal physical health. One of my pet peeves is what I call “petty” salads. This is the salad that is mostly made up of some leaves (for fluff), a couple of tomato wheels (if we are lucky to get more than one), a cucumber slice and one thin ring of onion chopped in half, or maybe a couple of carrot shavings. Not only is this a weak attempt at a salad, it is unfortunately a sad reality that most of us get served when out to dinner at a restaurant (or let’s be honest, at many persons’ dining tables). That needs to change. Although my salads are always nutrient dense, in this hearty, real meal salad, I decided to focus on antioxidant count, protein density and iron absorption in particular. Let’s do this. more …
Exercise: Poor air quality apparently affects the running times of women marathoners, according to a study. Higher levels of particles in the air were associated with slower running times for women, while men were not significantly affected. The differences, according to researcher Linsey Marr of Virginia Tech, may be due to the smaller size of women’s tracheas, which makes it easier for certain particles to deposit there and possibly cause irritation. “Although pollution levels in these marathons rarely exceeded national standards for air quality, performance was still affected,” Marr said. Her studies were conducted where major USA marathons are located, such as New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, where pollution tends to be highest. Although the regular person might not be significantly impacted by low-yet-still-acceptable air quality, marathoners typically inhale and exhale about the same amount of air as a sedentary person would over the course of two full days. This means they are exposed to much greater amounts of pollutants than under typical breathing conditions. Interestingly, the performances of female marathoners appeared to only be affected by particulate matter, and not other pollutants like carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide or sulfur dioxide. The research was published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise. more …
Healthy Whole Foods Plant-Based Diet
Dear HLife: What is the Deal with Candida?
Dear HLifer,
Candida sounds like the name of a hot girl who lives next door right? And that’s not far from reality. It lives closer to us than we know it, but it is not a human being. Candida Albicans is a yeast, a type of fungus that lives naturally in all human bodies of all ages from birth on. Here is the ‘big deal’ with candida and health:
If you live in a healthy body: It lives symbiotically in a balanced environment as a yeast in the gastrointestinal tract, on the mucus membranes and on the skin, causing no problems for the body. Living in a healthy body implies that you have a strong immune system via a nutrient-dense, conscious diet and high-frequency thought patterns.
If you live in an unhealthy body: This harmless ‘yeast’ (single-celled organism) can overgrow, turning into an extremely dangerous pathogenic fungus with roots that can attack any organs or systems in your body. This fungus uses its roots to dig and create holes into the intestinal lining, where it and its by products can then infiltrate the blood stream. more …
You saw him as one of the poster boys for our Protein Myth Part 1 article first, and now professional Ironman triathlete and bestselling author Brendan Brazier sat down with HLife for an extensive interview where we get down to the nitty-gritty of plant-based nutrition. As one of the principal advocates for a vegan diet and the creator of the Vega line of nutritional products, Brazier has also written Thrive and Thrive Fitness, books in which he discusses the benefits of eating everything the plant kingdom has to offer, especially for athletic performance, and physical as well as mental health.
In this interview we tackle the usual suspects – protein and calcium – as well as policy and education, food issues (the topic of his upcoming third book, to be published next year), travel, and even his favorite salad recipe. more …
Smoothie by HLife Photography
When we talk about a powerful nutrient-dense meal to start out your day energy-fueled and mentally prepared, we call upon: Our ultimate smoothie. And, yes, this smoothie is also the perfect replenish-and-repair drink to have after a great workout, filled with nourishment for your body and mind. Because breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the one that will kick start, support and carry out the performance of your mind and body, this ultimate smoothie is the perfect candidate for the job. In the morning, we must be sure to provide our mind and body with enough of the right nutrients to generate cellular energy, handle stress, and ensure efficient work performance, communication and understanding with the external and your own internal world. So, the focus of this smoothie is cellular and brain (mind) nutrition. Let’s get started: more …
Parenting: Time to make some changes, minority mommies. Efforts to prevent childhood obesity should begin far earlier than currently thought – perhaps even before birth for some populations, according to a study. Research that tracked 1,826 women from pregnancy through their children’s first five years of life found that this was a key period for childhood obesity prevention, especially for minority children. “Almost every single risk factor in that period before age 2, including the prenatal period, was disproportionately higher among children,” said Elsie Taveras, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School. Looking at risk factors, researchers found that African-American and Hispanic infants were more likely than their Caucasian counterparts to be born small, gain excess weight after birth, begin eating solid foods before 4 months of age and sleep less. The good news: most of these can be modified by getting updated information, not just “wisdom” handed down through generations. The study was published in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics. more …
Bee Pollen by HLife Photography
There are so many different ways of verbally glorifying bee pollen because its just that holistically amazing. It’s a complete food famous since ancient times due to its nutritional properties and medicinal benefits. Throughout centuries, bee pollen has been referred to via a variety of names, among these “the semen of the plant kingdom,” “the original treasure house of nutrition and medicine,” “the ultimate superfood,” and “the proactive life force of the plant world.” My family and I like to refer to bee pollen as “the real gold nuggets.” In Spanish we called them “las pepitas de oro” (seeds of gold). more …
Yesterday, President Bill Clinton joined California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to discuss the alarming issue of obesity in this country at the Summit on Health, Nutrition and Obesity. We witnessed this transcendental meeting of two minds that care very much about the issue, and here is what we have to say about what we saw and heard. more …
