After one week this is how you'll feel![]() Photo by Vishang Soni on Unsplash Most adults don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. In fact, dietary intake of several nutrients found in fruits and vegetables — including potassium and dietary fibre — is low enough to be a public health concern for both adults and children in the US, and in Australia.
"The bottom line is that most Aussies are not eating enough vegetables each day," Alexandra Parker, accredited practising dietitian of The Biting Truth, told HuffPost Australia. The health consequences can be serious. For example, there is compelling evidence that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. A study of over 100,000 mean and women over 14 years found that, compared with those in the lowest category of fruit and vegetable intake (less than 1.5 servings a day), those who averaged 8 or more servings a day were 30% less likely to have had a heart attack or stroke. Although all fruits and vegetables likely contributed to this benefit, green leafy vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and mustard greens, were most strongly associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. What's perfect is to fill half your plate with vegetables at all main meals. That may not sound very scientific, but it is a whole lot better than worrying about the details. Add in variety and a couple of pieces of fresh fruit, and you will start to feel the difference. That's all I do - I pay attention to mixing the colours, eating 5 or so serves daily, and eating some fruit. How you do that starts with shopping! Typically, in this kind of article, we jump into the health benefits, and what should go onto the plate. Not in this case! Let's start at the shop. And add some fenugreek seeds ...![]() Photo by Gábor Szűts on Unsplash Is coffee good for you? It could be, in moderation.
Coffee has had a hot-and-cold reputation when it comes to health benefits. Not long ago, I was learning about the dangers of coffee: how it could raise your blood pressure, make your heart race, impair sleep, and maybe even cause bladder and pancreatic cancer. Now, it seems that drinking two to five daily cups of coffee may protect against heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. But too much can cause problems like anxiety, nervousness, and insomnia. And if you like Japanese food ...![]() Nato mazesoba | Photo by 8-Low Ural on Unsplash Our body needs vitamin K to produce prothrombin, a protein and clotting factor that is important in blood clotting and bone metabolism, and for regulating blood calcium levels. That is how we usually pigeonhole vitamin K.
However, vitamin K's health benefits have been recently shown [2020] to extend beyond blood and bone health and to benefit chronic low-grade inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, dementia, cognitive impairment, mobility disability, and frailty. There is also interesting, though not definitive, evidence of a direct correlation between vitamin K levels and cognitive performance. Four human studies reported an association of low vitamin K intake or low blood concentrations of vitamin K with cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's Disease. My ophthalmologist and I don't see eye-to-eye on this![]() Photo by Daniil Kuželev on Unsplash I have cataracts in both eyes, and as they have grown worse, I notice a touch of imbalance has come into my life.
I asked my GP if there was any association between the two. He said no. I asked my ophthalmologist also. He said no. I say yes. Science says they improve our sleep quality!![]() Photo by Enrico Carcasci on Unsplash Ever flipped your pillow to the cool side? I have.
There's a reason we do it, and that's the reason that cooling pillows work. Not that I knew any of this until last week. Our body lets us sleep best when the ambient temperature is about 16 to 18 degrees Celsius. A fall in body temperature due to circadian rhythms causes drowsiness and increases our propensity to want to go to sleep in the evening. If we feel hotter, our sleep is disturbed, and we flip the pillow to seek cooling. It was only one week ago that I discovered that such a thing as a cooling pillow existed. I was surprised, especially since I was not reading advertising but a research report. I had no inkling that such a thing existed (beyond marketing). A little imagination helps ...I trail run with injury-free at the top-of-mind, but I also enjoy challenging myself along the way. If I see someone 200m ahead, then it becomes my challenge to calculate a passing move.
That takes stamina. You want to run at tempo pace to close the gap, pass strongly enough to discourage tailgating, and then settle back into a pace that keeps you moving ahead. What you don't want is to pass and then blow-up. This is where stamina comes in to play. Perhaps. But overdosing will damage your kidneys![]() Photo by Marcel Friedrich on Unsplash Scientists in the UK are calling for ministers to add vitamin D to common foods such as bread and milk to help the fight against Covid-1.
However, the call is controversial. Back in 2017, Professor Louis Levy, Public Health England's head of nutrition science, responded to calls for fortification by saying that there was not enough evidence that vitamin D would reduce the risk of respiratory infections. Recently, researchers in Spain found that 82% of coronavirus patients out of 216 admitted to hospital had low vitamin D levels. The picture is mixed; some research shows that vitamin D levels have little or no effect on Covid-19, flu and other respiratory diseases. Here's how the top vegetables stack up![]() Photo by Anna Kaminova on Unsplash Vegetables are essential for well-balanced diets for their high load of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, and phytochemicals.
Right now, with the pandemic still active, salad vegetables play a more vital role than ever in our diet because of their capacity to improve our immune defences. They're also convenient since we can eat them as raw, so they present little challenge in preparing for our everyday meals. For example, a cold dish of various raw vegetables, seasoned with oil, vinegar or other dressings, can be quickly prepared. Just how vital are salad vegetables in our diet to overcome viral infections? The perfect pillow has these three qualitiesSomething we don't do often enough is to experiment with pillows and pillow positions. Read what experts say about choosing the right pillow.
Use of the wrong type of pillow will lower the quality of our sleep. That's bad for our long-term health. There's a reason we are programmed to spend a third of our life sleeping. During sleep:
Chronic sleep deprivation impairs our attentiveness, coordination and reaction time. It also increases the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes and depression. Mix and match during the week, or daily if you are a runner![]() Photo by Jyotirmoy Gupta on Unsplash We take our joints for granted until they're injured. None more so than our feet.
Our feet have 26 bones (25 percent of all bones in the human body are in the feet), 33 joints, and more than 80 tendons and ligaments. There are also 20 main muscles, each with different actions and jobs that help us walk, run, jump and stand. These muscles can become weakened, tightened and inflamed just from our everyday activities. There is a lot that can go wrong - a lot of attached parts that can transmit stress through the entire foot and into our leg, hips and lower back. That's why keeping our feet flexible and strong is worth a little extra effort. This effort not only helps reduce foot and ankle pain but also strengthen the tendons and improves our mobility and gait. |
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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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