The most common bread sold and consumed by the American public is by far white bread.

We have all grown up eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread and our morning toast on white bread, but why?

Most likely because it’s cheaper and lasts longer then any other style bread. The issue I bring up though is it’s nutritional value, which is close to none.

When a producer has wheat refined into white flour about 25 known nutrients are removed. However after the refining process only about 4 are replaced. On average 87 percent of essential minerals are lost.

The funny thing is that the producer will put “enriched with vitamins and minerals” to give it a healthy appeal. The same procedure is used in making most pasta’s, white rice, and white sugar.

This all boils down to the fact that we are consuming two thirds of our diet on refined empty calories. This is a main culprit with low energy, obesity, low mineral intake and unstable insulin levels.

The solution is to consume whole wheat breads and pasta, brown rice, and limit refined products. You not only will see countless health benefits, but the taste improvement will be extraordinary. Give it a try and experiment with different foods that are closer to what nature intended and not what the food corporations wanted.

What does your diet do for your skin’s health? If you are eating a well balanced diet, you may be impressed with the quality of your skin.

The two interact with each other, just like every other organ in your body performs only as well as the nutrients it is provided. When it comes to eating healthy, there are several things to keep in mind in terms of what you should eat to help improve your skin quality.

In fact, your skin is a direct reflection of the quality of foods you do consume.

Hydration Is Number One

Before looking any further, remember this. In order for your body to have healthy skin, each of the skin cells needs to provided with enough water. There is no easier way to do this than to just drink enough water each day. What you may not realize, too, is that water plays an extra role in the process of keeping skin looking young. It aid in flushing away all of the cells that have died. This helps to keep your outside layer of skin as healthy as it can possibly be.

Antioxidants Are Essential

If you are hoping for a way to help reduce the signs of aging, you can do so through antioxidants. Antioxidants are the very powerful element that is found in vegetables. They work to keep skin cells as healthy as possible. These are the cleaners of the body. They work to remove waste product from cells which in turn allows the skin to remain great looking.

Antioxidants are a type of exfoliation for the skin that comes from the inside out. They also are great at removing build up in your arteries and blood vessels, which can prevent cancers and aid in the removal of dead cells.

To get these benefits, eat a diet that is rich in antioxidants. Choose vegetables and fruits that have deep colors. For example, deep greens are important. Choose a wide range of colors, too. Yellow squashes, orange melons, and blueberries are full of antioxidants that can provide this benefit to your skin.

When it comes to your diet, it does play a role in the health of your skin. There is never a time when you want to consider over the counter medications and anti aging products if you have not taken the time to improve the quality of your diet. Your diet has a direct affect on the quality of your skin.

You’ll find carbohydrates in the healthiest foods you eat, and in the least healthy. Check the food label to find out exactly how much is in your favorite foods.

How you eat can affect blood sugar
Choosing the right kind of carbohydrates and spacing them out evenly throughout the day can keep blood sugar from rising too high, too fast (90% of the carbohydrate calories you digest end up as glucose, so they have a much bigger impact on blood sugar than fat or protein).

“The goal … is to take in enough carbohydrates to nourish ourselves, but never so much that it causes high blood sugars,” says Linda Sartor, a diabetes nutrition specialist at the Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Up until about the mid-1990s experts believed that people with diabetes should never eat foods that contain so-called “simple” sugars—those found in cakes and candy—and instead eat “complex” carbohydrates, or those with longer chains of sugar molecules such as potatoes, fruit, vegetables, and grains.

We now know that all carbohydrates can cause a rise in blood sugar. Pasta and potatoes, for example, may cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, as can pastries (although other beneficial ingredients in food, such as fiber, cause blood sugar to rise more slowly).

Some carbs are better than others
The goal is now to maximize intake of the good stuff—vitamins, minerals, and fiber—and minimize carbohydrates that boost blood sugar too much, offer few nutritional benefits, or are packed with fat and calories.

A dietitian or diabetes educator will help you develop a meal plan to get a good balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, and an appropriate amount of calories. They’ll teach you how to manage carbohydrate intake, usually by carbohydrate counting, but sometimes using the exchange diet, the plate method, the modified food guide, or other meal plans.

You’ll need to fine-tune your meal plan by testing blood sugar before and after meals. Specific foods that cause blood sugar to rise too high can vary from person to person (for example, you may find you can only have small portions of orange juice or pasta due to a big rise in blood sugar).

Carbohydrates generally have their peak effect on blood sugar about an hour to two hours after they are eaten, and are gone within three hours.

A few oil seeds — canola and flax, for instance — have a very favorable ratio of the two families of essential fats, and they can be used by themselves (canola) or in combination with other oils (flax) to change the balance of omega-3s to omega-6s. Mix flax and canola with any of the other seed oils (corn, safflower, etc.) to produce a healthy blend.

If you’re curious about olive oil, it’s still fine to use, as it’s not high in omega-3 or omega-6s; it’s fairly neutral.

Other steps:
1. Replace processed cereal with cereal or oatmeal that contains flaxseed.
2. Make your own salad dressing with a mix of canola and olive oil.
3. Eat less fast food because it’s all very high in omega-6 seed oils.
4. Look for potato chips that are fried in canola oil rather than cottonseed, soy, safflower, or sunflower oil.
5. Substitute walnuts for other nuts when you can because they’re a seed that’s high in omega-3s.
6. Make your own baked goods, replacing half the butter with canola oil.
7. Check food labels to avoid hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils.
8. Avoid omega supplements that contain both omega-3s and omega-6s. You’ll see these labeled with terms like Complete Omega.
9. Choose grass-fed pork, chicken, beef, or bison whenever you can.
10. Avoid farmed fish because they are often fed corn and soy.

Below, I’ll give you a few very simple tricks you can use to eat healthier and stay lean even while dining out at restaurants.

The 3 most important things to avoid that are everywhere at restaurants are:

* refined starchy foods
* deep fried foods (anything battered that got a scorching bath of trans fats)
* any sodas, juices, or other sugary foods (except whole fruits, which are great)

If you can stay away from these major culprits, this eliminates the major food sources that do the worst damage in our food supply – trans fats, refined vegetable oils, refined starchy carbohydrates, and processed sugars.

This means you should try to skip the table bread, skip the french fries that come with every single sandwich on every menu known to man, and reduce all of the heaping portions of pasta and rice that are often loaded on the plates as well. Instead, try to order just meat with side vegetables, and a salad, asking for the vegetables or salad as a substitute for the typical french fries, pasta, or rice, that most restaurant meals usually come with. You can usually substitute a healthy vegetable or side salad for the french fries that almost always come with burgers or sandwiches.

On a side note, it always amazes me how many people scrutinize me because I substitute veggies for fries by telling me that I am “not living” because I refuse to eat french fries… are you kidding me! If that’s your idea of “living it up”, you need to get into the gym and start doing some lower abdominal exercises!

Ironically, these are also the first people to complain that they are overweight and have “tried everything”, yet can not lose weight, no matter what. I am not sure why so many people think that eating french fries equals “living it up”… hey, I am all for moderation with many things, but if there are 2 things that should be totally removed from everyone’s diet because these foods are simply that dangerous… it is sodas and fries!
Take a look at the typical difference this simple substitution makes between choosing smart and doing what most people do…

Most people will eat a meal out such as this:
• Burger or sandwich or burger
• chips or fries
• soda or other sweetened drink (and no, diet sodas are NOT healthy!)

Now here is a much healthier meal you could just as easily have:
• Burger or Sandwich
• Salad or veggies
• unsweetened iced tea or water (no diet drinks — unless you like to drink poison!)

You can save 500 to 1000 calories every time you eat out just by making these substitutions… AND you are cutting out the most harmful foods to your body as well by avoiding the evil trans fats and high fructose corn syrup from the fries and soft drinks.
Here’s something else to consider: a little-known way to eat full portions of pasta, rice, and breads and actually get away with it without packing on the body fat is to make sure to schedule a high intensity full body resistance training workout (can be free weights or body weight training) before your scheduled meal time.

Sometimes it may be hard to fit the workout into your schedule right before the meal, but if you can, the meal can be your “post-workout meal”. After a high intensity resistance training workout, your body can handle a higher amount of carbs than normal to help replenish the muscle glycogen depletion you had during the intense workout.

A typical moderate intensity cardio workout will NOT cut it for this… it must be high intensity resistance training workout to deplete enough muscle glycogen to handle restaurant portions of carbs.

While those are some of the obvious steps you can take to age well, researchers have discovered that centenarians tend to share certain traits in how they eat, move about, and deal with stress—the sorts of things we can emulate to improve our own aging process.

Of course, getting to age 100 is enormously more likely if your parents did. Still, Thomas Perls, who studies the century-plus set at Boston University School of Medicine, believes that assuming you’ve sidestepped genes for truly fatal diseases like Huntington’s, “there’s nothing stopping you from living independently well into your 90s.”

Heck, if your parents and grandparents were heavy smokers, they might have died prematurely without ever reaching their true potential lifespan, so go ahead and shoot for those triple digits. Follow these 10 habits, and check out Perls’ lifetime risk calculator to see how long you can expect to live.

1. Don’t retire. “Evidence shows that in societies where people stop working abruptly, the incidence of obesity and chronic disease skyrockets after retirement,” says Luigi Ferrucci, director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. The Chianti region of Italy, which has a high percentage of centenarians, has a different take on leisure time. “After people retire from their jobs, they spend most of the day working on their little farm, cultivating grapes or vegetables,” he says.

“They’re never really inactive.” Farming isn’t for you? Volunteer as a docent at your local art museum or join the Experience Corps, a program offered in 19 cities that places senior volunteers in urban public elementary schools for about 15 hours a week.

2. Floss every day. That may help keep your arteries healthy. A 2008 New York University study showed that daily flossing reduced the amount of gum-disease-causing bacteria in the mouth. This bacteria is thought to enter the bloodstream and trigger inflammation in the arteries, a major risk factor for heart disease. Other research has shown that those who have high amounts of bacteria in their mouth are more likely to have thickening in their arteries, another sign of heart disease. “I really do think people should floss twice a day to get the biggest life expectancy benefits,” stresses Perls.

3. Move around. “Exercise is the only real fountain of youth that exists,” says Jay Olshansky, a professor of medicine and aging researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “It’s like the oil and lube job for your car. You don’t have to do it, but your car will definitely run better.” Study after study has documented the benefits of exercise to improve your mood, mental acuity, balance, muscle mass, and bones. “And the benefits kick in immediately after your first workout,” Olshansky adds. Don’t worry if you’re not a gym rat.

Those who see the biggest payoffs are the ones who go from doing nothing to simply walking around the neighborhood or local mall for about 30 minutes a day. Building muscle with resistance training is also ideal, but yoga classes can give you similar strength-training effects if you’re not into weight lifting.

4. Eat a fiber-rich cereal for breakfast. Getting a serving of whole-grains, especially in the morning, appears to help older folks maintain stable blood sugar levels throughout the day, according to a recent study conducted by Ferrucci and his colleagues. “Those who do this have a lower incidence of diabetes, a known accelerator of aging,” he says.

5. Get at least six hours of shut-eye. Instead of skimping on sleep to add more hours to your day, get more to add years to your life. “Sleep is one of the most important functions that our body uses to regulate and heal cells,” says Ferrucci. “We’ve calculated that the minimum amount of sleep that older people need to get those healing REM phases is about six hours.” Those who reach the century mark make sleep a top priority.

6. Consume whole foods, not supplements. Strong evidence suggests that people who have high blood levels of certain nutrients—selenium, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E—age much better and have a slower rate of cognitive decline. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that taking pills with these nutrients provides those antiaging benefits. “There are more than 200 different carotenoids and 200 different flavonoids in a single tomato,” points out Ferrucci, “and these chemicals can all have complex interactions that foster health beyond the single nutrients we know about like lycopene or vitamin C.” Avoid nutrient-lacking white foods (breads, flour, sugar) and go for all those colorful fruits and vegetables and dark whole-grain breads and cereals with their host of hidden nutrients.

7. Be less neurotic. It may work for Woody Allen, who infuses his worries with a healthy dose of humor, but the rest of us neurotics may want to find a new way to deal with stress. “We have a new study coming out that shows that centenarians tend not to internalize things or dwell on their troubles,” says Perls. “They are great at rolling with the punches.” If this inborn trait is hard to overcome, find better ways to manage when you’re stressed: Yoga, exercise, meditation, tai chi, or just deep breathing for a few moments are all good. Ruminating, eating chips in front of the TV, binge drinking? Bad, very bad.

8. Live like a Seventh Day Adventist . Americans who define themselves as Seventh Day Adventists have an average life expectancy of 89, about a decade longer than the average American. One of the basic tenets of the religion is that it’s important to cherish the body that’s on loan from God, which means no smoking, alcohol abuse, or overindulging in sweets. Followers typically stick to a vegetarian diet based on fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts, and get plenty of exercise. They’re also very focused on family and community.

9. Be a creature of habit. Centenarians tend to live by strict routines, says Olshansky, eating the same kind of diet and doing the same kinds of activities their whole lives. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day is another good habit to keep your body in the steady equilibrium that can be easily disrupted as you get on in years. “Your physiology becomes frailer when you get older,” explains Ferrucci, “and it’s harder for your body to bounce back if you, say, miss a few hours of sleep one night or drink too much alcohol.” This can weaken immune defenses, leaving you more susceptible to circulating flu viruses or bacterial infections.

10. Stay connected. Having regular social contacts with friends and loved ones is key to avoiding depression, which can lead to premature death, something that’s particularly prevalent in elderly widows and widowers. Some psychologists even think that one of the biggest benefits elderly folks get from exercise the strong social interactions that come from walking with a buddy or taking a group exercise class.

Having a daily connection with a close friend or family member gives older folks the added benefit of having someone watch their back. “They’ll tell you if they think your memory is going or if you seem more withdrawn,” says Perls, “and they might push you to see a doctor before you recognize that you need to see one yourself.”

You always hear about the foods that make your skin nasty and greasy, but what about the foods that make you skin nice and clean? Well there are plenty of foods that help your skin look immaculate. I wish I knew about this earlier on.

Just as a kind of side not, I shouldn’t have to, but I’ll just remind you that if you really want your skin to look and feel good avoid junk/fast food at all cost. Avoid McDonalds like the plague; the amounts of grease and fat are not good for your skin or the rest of your body for that matter.

1. Low Fat Yogurt – Low fat yogurt and other low fat dairy products are amazing for the skin. Vitamin A is essential for the healthy growth and development of your skin. Vitamin A is an antioxidant the helps your skin repair, and even stay moist. Also, it produces the enzymes that stabilise the production of collagen, and is often added to skin creams under the name stabilised retinol.
2. Mangoes - Mangoes are also full of vitamin A. They will help keep skin nice and healthy and repair cells making sure your skin doesn’t look flaky.
3. Almonds - Almonds are full of another vitamin, vitamin E. Vitamin E helps moisturize your skin and aids in the protection from damage and premature aging.
4. Green Tea – Green tea has been proven to due amazing things for the body. Because green tea contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents it will help repair and protect your skin. Additionally, green tea has shown that it aids in the prevention of many cancers. It does this by fighting off free radicals which also cause premature aging of the skin.
5. Water – Water should be a no brainer, but many people forget to drink enough of it. Receiving adequate hydration is important for maintaining healthy skin. Drink actual water not pops and especially not energy drinks which contain an unbelievable amount of sugars.

Low-GI foods can help gradually increase your blood sugar without spiking it out of control like high-GI foods. By adding the healthy indexed staples and snacks to your recipes you can help avoid diabetes-related illness such as heart disease, vision disorders, kidney failure, obesity and joint problems.

Here’s a list of some healthy low-GI foods to enjoy:

Here’s some food to be sure to try to avoid! They can raise your blood sugar too fast:

Who doesn’t want a little help from their body’s natural fat-burning engine? These foods will get the pistons pumping

Chilli
Back in 1986, researchers at Oxford Polytechnic in the UK found that eating one spicy meal can boost your metabolism by as much as 25 per cent for up to three hours after you finish eating. More recently, a study from Laval University in Canada found that men who consumed coffee, plus chilli were able to burn nearly 400 more kilojoules a day than a control group.

Green tea
Catechins, the powerful antioxidants found in green tea, are known to increase metabolism. A Japanese study by researchers at the University of Tokushima School of Medicine found participants who consumed 690 milligrams of catechins from green tea daily had significantly lower body mass indexes and smaller waist measurements than those in a control group.

Steak and eggs
Researchers at Arizona State University compared the kilojoule-burning powers of high-protein and high-carbohydrate diets and found that those eating a protein-rich diet torched twice as much. Jump start your metabolism as soon as you wake up with a protein-rich breakfast of scrambled eggs and end your day with 200-300g of high-quality protein like lean beef, chicken or fish.

Nothing
Skipping meals lets your body’s kilojoule burning furnace go cold. Spread out snacks throughout the day. Try a cup of yoghurt with fresh fruit or almonds at 10.30am, and a hard-boiled egg or a protein shake around 3pm.