The Not so Dirty Dozen - 12 Clean Foods for Power
1. Grab Your Nuts!
Nuts
The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that those who consumed the most vitamin E — (from FOOD, not supplements) — enjoy a 67 percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease than those who ate the least vitamin E. Protein is essential to all workout programs and nuts have a bunch.
Nuts tip: • Add almond bits to your creamy peanut butter, toss some on your cereal or salad, pasta, pancakes or stir fry.
2. Berries
Got antioxidants? Berries do. This powerful fruit (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries) help your body fight heart disease and cancer. What’s more, flavonoids in berries may also help your balance, coordination, and short-term memory. And, just a cup of raspberries has 6 grams of fiber, not to mention half the vitamin C you need today.
Berry good: Blueberries top the charts in anti-oxidants. They make a great addition to cereal or salad and if you’re making a healthy pancake, be sure to add berries (and nuts).
3. Bean, Beans the wonderful fruit . . .
Many people don’t realize that beans pack protein, fiber and iron but are low in fat. Take your pick from black, lima, pinto, navy and you’ll be eating a food that is essential for building new muscle and losing old fat.
The more you toot . . . Yes. you’ll get gas from time to time but swapping meat for beans once or twice in the week can really reduce your fat intake and get more fiber. Plus you’ll reduce your wrinkles! (according to a study in Australia, Indonesia and Sweden).
4. Veggies (grean and leafy)
Take your vitamins! Spinach and many green leafy vegetables have your A, C, and K; folate; beta-carotene; minerals including calcium and magnesium; fiber; and antioxidants. These micronutrients can neutralize free radicals that cause you to age.
Go Green: Get nearly a full day’s vitamin A and half of your vitamin C from just one serving of spinach supplies nearly a full day’s vitamin A and half of your vitamin C.
5. No Whey!? Yes, Whey!
When you’re building muscle, protein is a key ingredient. But sometimes your “meal” is a smoothie, right? (nod your head, yes). Whey protein is a high-quality protein that contains essential amino acids to build muscle and burn fat. The great thing about whey is that it has the most protein per calorie, flat out.
No whey? (Yes whey!)
If you get tired of whey smoothies, eat some ricotta cheese which is whey instead of milk curd.
6. Whole Grains
Don’t skip your carbs! How many times do we have to say it? You want them because your body needs them. Just be sure to eat carbs that are as processed as little as possible to make sure you get whole grains and fiber that help you to lose weight and build muscle.
Don’t be fooled! Not all “wheat breads” are alike. Make sure you’re eating breads (and cereals and pastas, yes, pastas) that are WHOLE GRAIN or WHOLE WHEAT.
7. Get Oiled Up with Olive Oil
Yeah, no. You don’t rub this on. You eat it. Olive oil can be anti-catabolic, preventing muscle breakdown. All olive oil can be high in monounsaturated fats (good!) but virgin oil varieties have a higher level of vitamin E.
8. I love Peanut Butter!
A lot of calories. Check. Sugar in many varieties. Check. But peanut butter is packed with monounsaturated fats which are heart healthy and that can increase your body’s production of testosterone, which can help your muscles grow and your fat melt. (Don’t worry girls. It won’t hurt.) Be sure to hold the jelly and to pick natural peanut butters with no sugar. Tip: Sugar turns to fat.
9. Where’s the Beef?
Hey, you know you want meat. And it’s because your body needs lean meats. Protein is essential to your diet success. Get as lean as possible by sticking to turkey breast which also has a lot of niacin and vitamin B6. Do you prefer the dark meat? Good for you: lots of zinc and iron. Fish, chicken and lean cuts of beef are good too!
Out of Africa: A Mayo Clinic study found by observing two African tribes that the tribe that ate fish frequently higher metabolisms and better fat-burning.
10. Incredible, Edible Eggs
Egg protein has the highest “biological value” (it supports your body’s protein need better than any food). B12 in eggs also helps fat breakdown. Recent research shows that eating an egg or two a day will not raise your cholesterol levels. And don’t toss all the yolks. A lot of the protein and some fat are in there. You can use both.
Take your vitamins. Over easy, over light or scrambled, eggs have riboflavin; folate; vitamins B6, B12, D, and E; iron; phosphorus; and zinc.
11. Got Milk?
I know. Some of you are lactose intolerant. But if you’re not, get your dairy and strengthen bones, lose weight and more. Stick to low-fat yogurts, cheeses, and other dairy products and get a major source of calcium too.
What about my heart? 3 or more servings of dairy per day can slash your risk of heart disease by 31 percent.
12. Sow Your Oats
Oatmeal has soluble fiber which is great for many reasons: it attracts fluid and stays in your stomach longer than insoluble fiber (like vegetables). Soluble fiber may also reduce blood cholesterol (you’ve seen the Cheerios commercials). For breakfast, you won’t find longer lasting energy and as a bedtime snack it will prevent binging and provide calories that won’t go straight to fat. Avoid the sweet stuff and go for whole oats. For a compromise, Quaker Oats One-Minute Oats can’t be beat. (I eat them every day, sometimes 3 times).
Easy on the insulin. In a Penn State study, blood sugar levels stayed stable with oatmeal much longer than many other foods.
For healthy recipes, check out Arlene’s Healthy Cooking Blog.
Healthy Shrimp and Avocado Salad
Filed under: Healthy Cooking, Miscellaneous, Nutrition
Shrimp and avocado salad
This is a great healthy salad that is fresh and good for you. It can be used as a light lunch or as a meal. I sometimes add boiled new potatoes to it if I serve it as a dinner.
Ingredients:
For Salad
1 Large ripe avocado (you can add 2 if you like them that much). 
1lb cooked large shrimp peeled or you can use frozen and thawed.
2 fresh red ripe tomatoes chopped
1/4 red or yellow onion chopped
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 bag mixed salad greens.
ground salt and pepper to taste
For The Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
To prepare salad, cut and slice avocado. Place salad greens on plate. Top with shrimp, tomatoes, onions and cilantro dress with dressing. You may need an extra dash of salt and pepper on top.
This serves 4-6 people. Wasn’t that easy?
iPhone App Review: Good Food Near You
You read magazines and blog posts that list what food choices you should be making when eating out. However, if you are like me, you find it hard to remember the best menu option at every restaurant. I do take my food choices pretty seriously, but I’m not going to demand to see the nutrition facts before ordering. So, I do the best I can and then check myself in Eat This, Not That when I get home! That being said, I was pretty excited to test out the Good Food Near You iphone (and blackberry) app.
Pros:
1 - Simple! It was very easy to enter my zip code and have the restaurants pop up with their menus.
2 -Priority Sort You can select if you want information based on Lowest Fat, Carbs or Calories.
3 - FREE! It’s a free app for your iPhone or Blackberry!
Cons:
1 - Chain Restaurants Only The only restaurants that popped up for me were chains, not the great local eateries.
2 - Selection Variation Some of the menus were out of date as far as food selections.
3 - Skipped Restaurants I was looking down the street at a Wendy’s and it did not show up on the list - so not 100% accurate.
Overall: I found this app helpful and because its free I didn’t have to be disappointed when it wasn’t perfect. I’m sure the next versions will continue to be better and more robust. If you travel frequently or find yourself at chain restaurants often, this healthcare & fitness app will help guide you to make a smarter food choice.
You can download it for your iPhone or Blackberry at GoodFoodNearYou.com or at iTunes.
Fit Links: New Web Site and iPhone App Lets You Find Good Food Near You - Health.com Good Food Near You iPhone App - BlissTree.com
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Alcohol Contributes to Belly Fat
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Nutrition, Women's Fitness, mens-fitness
By understanding what happens when you drink, you can make your own judgment calls as to whether or not alcohol should be included in your workout and muscle-building (dieting) plan. Yes, muscle building…Remember muscle speeds your metabolism!
Alcohol and growth hormones
One major issue with the consumption of alcohol has to do with its effects on the release of growth hormone. Growth hormone is the substance in the body that plays a very large role when it comes to building muscle, stimulating other cell growth and development, and promoting optimal bone growth. When this hormone is low, you aren’t going to get the same amount of muscle development as you would when it’s at an optimal level.
Growth hormone is predominately secreted during the early sleeping hours of the night and becausealcohol tends to disrupt the natural sleep rhythms that occur, it will decrease the amount of growth hormone released. This decrease can be up to as much as 70%, so it will really short-circuit the progress you are able to make.
Alcohol and recovery (Alcohol is a TOXIN to the body)
Another area that alcohol affects when it comes to muscle building is your ability to recover. Since alcoholis a toxin to the body, energy is going to have to be expended in order to remove it from the system and to recover from any negative effects it has had on the tissues.
Since this takes time and energy reserves, you won’t have as much energy in store to recover from your workouts, therefore you will not be as fresh when you return for your next gym session.
Alcohol and muscles don’t usually get along, so consume with care:)
Alcohol and dehydration
Dehydration is another issue you have to watch out for if you choose to drink alcohol while trying to build muscle and work out. Since alcohol acts as a diuretic in the body, unless you are sure to replace the extra fluid with water or another non-alcoholic beverage that doesn’t contain caffeine, your natural water balance will be disrupted.
Dehydration has a number of negative effects on the body, from inducing feelings of fatigue to causing low physical performance, making you feel hungrier (which is especially problematic while dieting), and disrupting the ability of the muscle cells to produce ATP — which is your primary source of muscular energy.
Alcohol and glycogen synthesis
Aside from ATP, the next source for muscular work is stored muscle glycogen. Unfortunately, though, when you consume alcoholic beverages, alcohol synthesis will take precedence over glycogen synthesis, resulting in decreased stores in the muscle cells.
When you go to do your next workout, your body will have less energy to run on, causing fatigue to set in early. (NOTE: this is the perfect setting for injury and another reason to avoid alcohol)
When your workouts are ended prematurely , you won’t derive as many benefits in terms of increases in strength since the necessary overloading stimulus (which is partly defined through volume of weights lifted) will not be increased.
Alcohol and aerobic ability
Even when it comes to aerobic activities, alcohol affects performance.
In this scenario, alcohol can cause an increase in blood pressure throughout the body and a corresponding increase in heart rate.
Since your heart will already be working at an increased rate during aerobic activities, the additional stress from the alcohol will only amplify the heart rate and make the exercise feel harder than it should.
I know what you are thinking…NO drinking alcohol is not good stress on the heart! So increasing your heart rate through drinking isn’t the same as hitting the treadmill.
Alcohol and body fat
Finally, the last issue surrounding alcohol consumption is that it contains calories, and these do add up quickly. At seven calories per gram, after three or four drinks, these calories would equal a good-sized meal. Unless you are going to cut down on food intake in order to make room for these calories (which is rare, as usually you’ll actually find yourself snacking on high-calorie items such as nuts, pizza, wings or nachos), fat gain will result.
So, next time you’re contemplating whether or not you should have that drink, keep these factors in mind. Definitely, alcohol and muscle building are not a good pair, as stated by all the above points!
Broiled Tilapia with a Soy and Orange Mayo
This a quick and easy one that all you fitness fans will love. If you’re tracking your calories, add this one to your list.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Cooking spray
1 lemon
1 orange
4 (6-ounce) Tilapia fillets
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons light mayo
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Directions
Preheat the broiler. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
Place fish on cooking sheet. In a bowl whisk together the juice of one squeezed lemon, one orange along with the olive oil, soy sauce the garlic and onion powder and light mayo. Then coat the fish evenly with the mixture. Season the fish with salt and pepper, to taste, and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Place under broiler and broil until fork-tender, about 10-15 minutes or until top is brown. Garnish with fresh parsley and chives.
This is a great recipe to make ahead of time. You can make the sauce and leave it in a bowl in the refrigerator early that day or the day before and have your fish already washed and on the prepared baking sheet ready to go just covered with plastic wrap in the fridge.
When you are ready to cook just take out the fish coat with the sauce then bread crumbs and broil.
This is a great tasty healthy recipe for those of you who are working out and trying to eat right. The kids will even like it.
Welcome to the New MyBodySite.com Blog
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Nutrition, Sports Training, Supplements
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Whether you need information about nutrition, weight loss, sports training, bodybuilding, supplements, workout routines or any topic in fitness and health, you’ll find it here are we grow our articles base to be the largest on the internet.
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In health,
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Founder & CEO
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