Vegetarian Means Vegan, Right?

Actually vegetarians tend to differ from what Vegans consider themselves to be. The exact reasons for why, evade me at the moment.

I eat plenty of vegetables but also enjoy eggs so I think this means I may be a vegetarian but I am not a vegan because eggs are not on their menu. I need to watch my calories and weight.

Veganism, if I may, seems to be more like a religion than just a healthy eating regime. I think the term is applied to not only eggs but even to wearing things that may have once been alive, like leather.

I have no feelings on this one way or another and think our life choices are just that, our life choices.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The Alkaline Food To Eat With Acid Reflux

By Richal Peyton

Even when we don't realize this, most of us tend to eat more acid-forming food and much less alkalizing food. We tend to eat more dairy products, meats, and other foods high in fat. As you may notice, even most children do not like vegetables. However, it's never too late to start gaining optimum health. Being on an alkaline diet is highly beneficial, and even more for those of us suffering from acid reflux. This article will talk about what alkaline is, what alkaline food to eat with acid reflux and why it works in treating the condition.

What Does Alkaline Mean?

Any food rich in alkaline has a pH level of over 7.0. On the other hand, anything that is acidic has a pH level of below 7.0. Foods vary in nutritional value, but also vary by pH level. There are many foods that are alkaline as well as acidic. Depending on your specific needs, you may need more alkaline foods in your diet, but generally, everyone needs more alkaline foods for better health.

Why Do We Need More Alkaline Foods?

We sometimes need something to counteract the excess acids since over-acidity in the body can cause a myriad of health conditions. For those of us who suffer from acid reflux, we are even in a worse situation because we're often already predisposed to having more acid in the stomach than needed.

Certain positions or activities may trigger acid reflux, but it is mainly what we eat that makes symptoms worse. Since acid reflux mainly involves acid traveling from the stomach to the esophagus, we need to keep acid levels down by eating less acidic or non-acid-forming foods.

Is There An Alkaline Diet?

You can find alkaline diet recommendations online. An alkaline diet basically means having meal plans that mainly incorporate alkaline food. Often times, alkaline diets will require you to eat lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, vegetable roots, nuts and legumes. Of course, everyone has different tastes in different dishes, so you may benefit from researching on recipes that cater more to your liking. You may also visit a dietician or nutritionist to discuss your preferences in a special diet.

What Are The Alkaline Foods I Can Use?

Alkaline food to eat for acid reflux would include a wide range of fruits and vegetables that are alkaline. You may have grapes, bananas, blackberries, apples, strawberries, melons, cauliflower, celery, beets, radishes, eggplants, and spinach in your special diet. As you can see, a lot of these alkaline fruits are delicious and fun to snack on. There is also a myriad of vegetables you can eat as a side dish.

This diet is not just limited to fruits and vegetables. Alkaline properties can also be found in other foods high in protein. Foods that contain alkalizing protein include fermented tofu, almonds, chestnuts, whey protein powder and tempeh.

You may first need a list of alkaline food to eat with acid reflux, but will no longer need one once you've been on the alkaline diet for a long time. The alkaline diet is fairly simple to follow once you're used to using alkaline ingredients while cooking.

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Detoxing the Body by Juice Fasting

By Jay Collins

Juice fasting is increasing in popularity as many people have found it is a great way to detoxify. A lot of people are interested in removing toxins out of their body so they can lead a healthier life and feel healthier. When toxins accumulate within the body, people often report feeling sluggish and also have a less effective immune system. Juice fasting, as a method for cleansing, can assist people to get a better better health and experience more energy. It is quite easy to achieve as fruits are easily obtainable and all that is needed additionally is a juicing machine.

If you are just starting out on juice fasting it is vital to start slowly on this quest and initially just try it out for one day. Remember, you will only be taking in juice for one day. Diabetics need to be careful as fruits are high in sugar. it is advisable to consult your physician first before embarking on a fruit fast. I would not recommend juice fasting for more than three days at a time. If you do decide to, I would, again, consult your physician first to discuss.

I have compiled some good recipes below which are great combinations of fruit and vegetables to get you started on your fast:

Recipe 1: A vegetable juice combination of two Swiss chard leaves, half a beetroot, two sprigs of watercress, a few carrots and one celery stalk. It is important to wash with filtered or distilled water then cut and put in juicer.

Recipe 2: Again wash with distilled water, cut and put through the juicer three green apples, one carrot and a few fresh basil leaves. This is simple and one of my favorites.

Recipe 3: This is a carrot juice with a little extra. Mix together a handful of dandelion leaves. mint, basil, one kale leaf, four carrots and coriander leaves and just juice for a quick drink.

Recipe 4: Adding four peaches into the juicer makes a very simple but surprisingly cleaning juice.

There are a lot of different types of juice fasts that you will find on your searches. Some call for just fruit juices only whilst others use less sugary vegetable juice combinations. It is very easy to come up with your own favorite combination of fruit and vegetable juice diet recipes.

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Find a Recipe by Ingredients You Have at Home

By Mike Sasaki

Tired from working all day at the office and not excited about going home and spending 2 hours cooking? We have all experienced his. And nobody wants to do dishes after working in the kitchen for a couple hours.

Let's stop eating out and ruining our health and our food budget. Although, it's easier to just pick something up on the way home from work, it's both expensive and unhealthy. My goal is to get us all into the kitchen and to realize that it's not as time consuming to cook at home, when done right.

Cooking is easier than you think and obviously healthier because you can control the ingredients that go into each meal.

What's the most important part of getting dinner to the table without turning your life upside down? Planning.

Step 1 - Get a calendar and list your meals for the week. I only cook Sunday - Thursday. It's important to make enough for lunch the following day. For example, if I'm making a meal on Monday, I try to make enough to take for lunch on Tuesday. This really saves a lot of money because a lunch will cost at least $5 per lunch.

Step 2 - Make a list of the ingredients you'll need and compare with the ingredients you already have at home.

Step 3 - Go to the grocery store with your list. This trip to the grocery store can take 30 minutes to an hour depending on when you go. I go to the store early Sunday morning to beat the rush.

Step 4 - This is the easiest step. Cook. Once you have all the ingredients at home, cooking is easy. Have you ever watched a cooking show and saw how easy it was for them to make the meal because everything was within arms reach? This is how it should be for you in the kitchen, each night.

Final step - Make your husband, wife or kids wash all the dishes. You did the hard part of buying the groceries and cooking the meal (even though cooking was the fun part...shhh), it's time for them to pitch in.

Soon, you will see your food budget decrease and your waistline will also decrease.

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An Effective Way To Burn Fat"Use Green Tea

By Charles Raymondo

The western world has only recently woken up to discover the various health advantages that green tea has to offer. This is the reason why you will find many to be going head over heels over this wonderful drink that has been in use in the east for many centuries.

Amongst the many different benefits that can be derived from this unique drink is its ability to act as a fat burner. Green tea found its way into the tea cups of the western public because they had heard that it helps prevent many harmful diseases and promotes over all well being.

Green tea fat burners are an excellent choice

As a result we find that people have taken to the drink considering it to be one of the most effective and safest fat burners around. The fact that green tea is an all natural product gives the people a sense of security because it carries no risks of developing any side effects.

Compare this to the heavily chemical based fat burners available in the market and you will realize why people opt for green tea fat burners.

Thanks to television promotions the image of green tea has become like some kind of wonder product for burning up fat. It has been talked about at length in many talk shows which brought out its many qualities and encouraged people to start using this product.

How good a fat burner is green tea?

The publicity campaigns carried out by some of the companies do not measure the effectiveness of green tea as a fat burner and it all depends upon how well it is working on the person who is drinking it. Here we have to see the results to know how good a fat burner it is.

The majority of people have discovered green tea to be a very effective fat burner which can really enhance the weight loss process. The people who have used it are sticking with it. This is because it has helped them to lose the extra weight and brought along with it many other health benefits into their lives.

The way green tea burns fat

The people who use green tea could be happy about the fact that green tea has zero side effects at the same time it helps burns up fat. Green tea helps to increase the metabolic process in the body. Additionally it also kills appetite.

Due to green tea consumption you tend to feel less hungry thus eating lesser quantity of food. Your body metabolic rate increases thereby leading towards consumption of more energy than you generally do. This entire process of burning up fat to reduce weight is called themogenesis.

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