I didn't understand the caffeine load in tea Photo by Manki Kim on Unsplash Having felt uncharacteristically sick for more than a week, I saw my doctor this morning. He ruled out everything except something upsetting my gastrointestinal tract, and he took notice when I said I'm drinking a lot more tea.
I'd never thought about tea and caffeine and any side-effects. I knew that it had caffeine, but I associate coffee with excess caffeine - I even wrote a post about it not so long ago.  Photo by Marco Secchi on Unsplash Including helping maintain healthy blood pressureHigh blood pressure is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease in developed countries. Yet some countries, such as Italy and Japan, have low rates of high blood pressure and lower mortality rates due to CVD.
That's not because they all go to the gym 5 times a week or due CrossFit. The reason is far less complicated and available to everyone. They eat more fruit and vegetables, and in particular more nitrate-rich vegetables.  Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash I'm diabetic. Believe me, you don’t want to have diabetesSkipping meals has become more common - and more faddish. Breakfast is often a casualty of our modern lifestyle, and rising interest in the health benefits of fasting have pushed out other meals, such as dinner.
The most common set meal to be lost is breakfast. But is that always the best choice? The consequences of missing breakfast versus missing dinner are different. If you knew the different health consequences, would you make a different choice? What choice would you make it you are diabetic like me, or potentially diabetic? Here's what I learnt from the research.  Photo by Emile Guillemot on Unsplash The wrong cooking methods destroy 80% of food's antioxidant health benefitsPolyphenols are micronutrients that are readily available in everyday food.
They're packed with antioxidants - as long as you don't destroy these antioxidants by cooking the wrong way and ruin their health benefits. For example, boiling some polyphenol-rich foods destroys 80% of their polyphenol content. But it is this antioxidant content which helps protect us against chronic disease. In this article, I'll guide you through how to preserve the most benefit from polyphenol "superfoods" like tomatoes. TL;DR slip a steam oven under your microwave and enjoy the best of both. 
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Swap snacks for these nuts and watch your weight benefit
Pistachio nuts are often regarded simply as a salty snack - calorie-heavy and salted to tempt you to drink more. That's unfortunate, as there is a lot more to pistachios than just being a great beer snack.
They are one of healthiest nuts that you can eat, along with almonds and walnuts and Brazil nuts. And they can help you better manage your weight.  Image Credit: MarkSweep - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41936 Headline: to maintain a healthy heart and blood pressure, people must limit their coffeesDrinking too many cups of coffee a day is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), e.g. heart disease and stroke, new research from the University of South Australia reveals.
The world enjoys about three billion cups of coffee every day. We'd hope that we're not poisoning ourselves! If you've ever felt jittery or irritable after one cup too many, then you are edging on the dangers found by the researchers. I don’t feel jittery or irritable but I do drink more than the recommended number of cups daily. All things considered, I probably won’t cut back.  Photo by Kaur Kristjan on Unsplash Instead of dumping the beef for beans have them bothOfficial dietary advice is a mixture of science, fads, vested interests, tradition, public relations, and sometimes even common sense. Eggs were officially bad, as was dietary cholesterol - now they are our friends. Fats were bad, until we discovered that there are "good fats" and "bad fats", and now only bad fat is bad.
Or is it?  These superfoods are easy to include in your dietYou've heard a lot about superfoods. Often it is an exotic list of foods that you might try once, but are unlikely to add to your regular diet e.g. ginseng, pomegranate, quinoa.
Here is a list of "everyday" common foods that contain some superfood qualities that are great for your body. These are among the healthiest foods that you'll see on your everyday supermarket shelves.  Photo by Taisiia Shestopal on Unsplash Improving your heart and vascular health was never so easyI see a lot of people steering clear of foods like oats and dark chocolate -the former because they fear the carbs, and the latter because it isn't packed with sugar.
What if I told you that oats and dark chocolate are two of the more healthy foods that you can eat? I eat them every day, for breakfast. Here's how to combine to two into one tasty and healthy breakfast. Firstly, let's do a quick update on their health benefits. 
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How I learnt to love walnuts
I have been eating walnuts daily for many years for dietary reasons. But only today, I learnt that they have a positive effect on our fat-burning metabolism.
That's not an excuse to eat more of them, as all nuts are high-calorie snacks. But here's an exciting finding: "Studies show regular nut eaters don't appear to gain weight and that nuts may help with weight loss if they're eaten in an energy-controlled diet." |
ChoicesSince I was diagnosed at 50 with Type 2 diabetes I've been learning how to do bone-building fitness training which lowers my age. You can too. It's your choice. Walter Categories
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