Hair Loss Might Be A Diet Issue

While it is normal for us to shed between 40 and 100 hair strands a day, if you are starting to find that there are days when you are losing more than a few strands, you may want to take a good look at your diet.

Hair loss can be the result of many things. As we age, our hair can get thinner and stress, anxiety, hormonal issues, and even the medications we take can cause irregular hair loss. But for a large number of folks that are experiencing unexplained hair loss, the regular diet of individuals may be the key and can bring on the potential for a reversal once the problem is addressed.

Let’s take a look at some of the dietary factors that can affect hair growth.

Not Enough Protein
When you are on a protein-free diet or perhaps you are a vegetarian, you may experience bouts of hair loss because when the body is lacking protein, it will cause the growth of hair to go into a resting phase. After a few months, there can be a large amount of shedding that occurs. Eating better proteins, such as soy protein, can stimulate the growth of hair and in most cases, hair loss is reversible. You can also get protein from eating low-fat cheeses, beans, yogurt, and fish.

Missing Zinc
If your body is not getting enough zinc, you may find frequent loss of hair. Zinc deficiencies can lead to a lot of shedding because your hair shaft is weakened and it allows for easier breakage and prevention of new hair growth. Zinc helps with cell reproduction and affects the oil secretion glands that are attached to the follicles in your hair. If you need to replenish zinc in your diet, you will find a variety of supplements that are for sale in retail outlets. There are even zinc supplements that are advertised to helping hair loss. Take only the recommended dosages because too much zinc can cause hair loss since it can disrupt the absorption of other mineral your hair needs to remain healthy.

B-Vitamin Deficiencies
If you are not getting enough B vitamins in your diet, you may want to start eating more eggs and liver. Biotin in one example of a B vitamin that is required for new hair growth. It is also a crucial part of healthy nails and skin. You can also find biotin supplements to take to help improve new hair growth.

Need Iron
Iron deficiencies are more common in women than in men. Menopausal women are very likely to have iron deficiencies that lead to hair loss due to pregnancy and their regular menstrual cycle. Eating iron-rich foods like bean, spinach, raisins, and lean beef can help keep adequate supplies of iron in your daily diet. Too much iron however can cause hair loss as well as organ damage to the liver, the heart, and the pancreas.

Silica Deficiencies
Silica relates to collagen in the body and is found in hair, nails, and the muscles of the body. If you have a silica deficiency, you may notice that you are particularly sensitive to cold, even when it’s hot outside. Silica deficiencies can also lead to wrinkles, poor bone development, brittle nails, and hair loss. If you have a silica deficiency, you can supplement your diet with red peppers, potato skins, almonds, peanuts, onions, cabbage, carrots, and fish. There are even silica shampoos that are sold to prevent baldness and stimulate new hair growth.

Diets in General
If you have taken to using “crash diets” to control your weight, a side effect of these kinds of unhealthy diets is the body’s inability to regenerate new cells, resulting in unhealthy hair that breaks and falls out. Your body needs calories each day to be healthy. Crash diets prevent you from getting adequate nutrition and calories that can lead to hair loss but also to other more severe health effects.

How To Choose a Healthy Cereal

Cereal has been a beloved food for many generations by kids and adults alike. Most kids go for the sweeter, more colorful, more fun free prize kinds of cereals. So do many adults. It can be a hard item to resist at the grocery store. The marketing tactics are big business for the cereal industry. However, when choosing a good and healthy cereal for your breakfast, you have to start looking beyond the box and the gimmicks and head straight for the nutritional label. It can seem a bit of an annoyance to have to review all the choices we have these days plus add the labels to the mix but once you start doing it, you will find it makes it easier to make healthier choices.

Cereal is often eaten as breakfast or as a snack so choosing a healthy kind will ensure you are eating well all day long. On the contrary, if you are choosing not-so-healthy cereals to eat, you are filling your body up with empty calories, a load of sugar, and not much nutritional value in your diet.

When choosing a cereal, you need to look for various factors to make sure that one cereal covers a lot of bases. One of the factors at the forefront of cereal is to find one that is made with whole grains. Eating whole grains can improve your health and has been shown to reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease. You should have at least one serving of whole grains per day but more is better. Cereals made with refined grains haven’t been shown to have any health benefits at all. Whole grains have also been shown to help with weight reduction.

You also want to find cereals that is low in sugar. To do so, look at the ingredients list on the nutritional guide. If sugar is listed in the top few ingredients, the cereal likely has a lot of sugar. The farther down on the list of ingredients, the lower the amount of sugar. You also want to read the label to look for cereals with no saturated fat or trans fats.

Many people feel that when you take all those things away, you will only find a cardboard-tasting cereal that you will not want to eat. However, there are many tasty cereals that are nutritious and the varieties keep expanding. Getting creative, you can add taste and extra nutrition by incorporating fresh fruit into your meal. You can also add nuts or dried fruits.

Eating a fulfilling and nutritional breakfast is a great start to any day. Eating the right kind of breakfast will help you maintain energy and avoid the mid-morning sugar slump. Even kids can learn to enjoy healthier cereals instead of getting addicted to sugary from a young age. They just need the encouragement and the good example set by their parents and will likely follow their lead.

America’s Taste For Soda

Soda has been an American treat, present in restaurants, our own homes, and many other places for years and years. But what is it about these bubbly drinks that make them so hard to resist? Why does America have such a taste for soda?

Americans spend upwards of $60 million a year on carbonated drinks. While this may seem like too large of an amount, if you take into account how many sodas people drink in a day, it isn’t such an unrealistic number.

One of the reasons that we drink soda seems to be caused by an addiction, much like cigarettes. While cigarettes contain nicotine, a very addictive chemical, soda also contains an addictive chemical: caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system. This makes you feel as if you’re awake and alert, even when you were previously exhausted. The problem with this is that once the feeling begins to wear off, many people feel the need to jump-start it again, so they grab another soda and drink it.

While caffeine itself is addictive, the effects of caffeine-withdrawal can be quite overwhelming and cause people to drink soda. People that have had soda everyday have a lot of trouble weaning themselves off of the bubbly drink. Some symptoms include irritability, nausea, headaches, anddizziness. Because of this, people just continue to drink soda instead of risk the feelings of withdrawal.

Another reason that Americans drink soda is because it is so readily available. Everywhere you go there is some kind of soda distributor. Soda machines are strewn throughout businesses, restaurants offer free refills, and many chain stores offer deals on cans of soda in bulk. When you look at drink dispensing machines, the sodas out-number juices and water by a lot. Soda companies use aggressive marketing techniques, and there is constant advertising for different brands of soda. Because of this, it is always present in our minds.

The sweet taste of soda is a big lure for Americans. Most Americans don’t like “bland” things. Because water has no flavor, it is considered bland, while soda is exciting. Many soda companies make their drinks very colorful, so that they can be eye-catching. Because of the variety of colors and flavors, soda is preferred to most other drinks.

So, there really are four reasons that Americans drink soda:

• Caffeine Addiction
• Fear of Caffeine Withdrawal
• Aggressive Marketing
• Sweet, Sugary Taste and Eye-Catching Colors

While you can still enjoy soda, make sure to enjoy it in moderation. Too much soda can be damaging to your health in the long-term.

Lima Beans- Nutritional and Health Information

Beans have long been know to be an excellent source of health benefits.  Lima beans or butter beans as they are often referred to are no exception.  Lima beans are a member of the legume family and provide a good source of fiber while helping lower cholesterol.  Individuals suffering from high cholesterol might even be able to reduce the amount of medication taken to treat this problem by regularly adding lima beans to their diet.  Diabetics can also benefit from eating lima beans as they naturally help your body balance blood sugar levels.

In addition to being a great source of cholesterol lowering fiber and helping the body balance blood sugar levels, beans are one of the most healthy sources of protein.  The human body needs protein to remain healthy and functioning properly and we generally find protein in red meat or dairy products.  Alternative sources of protein, however often come with high calories and saturated fat.  Lima beans also provide potassium, magnesium, iron and molybdenum- a mineral that helps detoxify sulfites in the body.  If you are taking a vitamin supplement, try to incorporate more lima beans in your diet which are an excellent natural source of many vitamins, especially B vitamins and folate.

Selecting and Preparing Lima Beans
As you can see adding lima beans to your daily diet has many nutritional and health benefits.  There are different varieties of lima beans and they can found fresh, frozen, dried or canned with each having different preparation methods.  Finding fresh lima beans in the United States can be difficult to find if you do not live in the southern states.  In southern states, fresh lima beans are generally found at local farmers markets.  When preparing fresh lima beans you must first shell and rinse beans before cooking or consumption.  Frozen, dried and canned lima beans are readily available throughout the United States.  Dried lima beans must be soaked for at least five hours with most people opting to soak them overnight before cooking.  Remember that dried beans will double in size from soaking so one cup of dried beans will cook up to two cups or more.  There is no need to thaw frozen lima beans before cooking.  Boiling and microwaving remain the most popular method of cooking lima beans.

Warning: Lima beans should never be consumed raw.  When the seed coat is opened a cyanide compound is released that is only eliminated by cooking the bean.  Lima beans like other beans are also highly perishable and should be eaten immediately or refrigerated in a sealed container for up to two days.

Product Review: The Ab Rocker

Typically seen on late night infomercials, the Ab Rocker is supposed to take inches off your waistline through just 5 minutes a day.  While abdominal workouts are good for toning a small group of muscles, it is really only effective as part of an overall, more comprehensive fitness plan for the rest of your body.

The Product
The Ab Rocker is about two feet wide and five inches tall when folded up for storage.  It’s similar to a seat, and has handles that you use to rock your way up into a crunch position.  The equipment doesn’t come with diet information or recommendations for supplements or any other health information.

As people become more health conscious, we’re all aware that belly fat is dangerous.  While the Ab Rocker will take someone without a lot of belly fat and help them tone and sculp their middles – someone with a lot of excess weight around their belly is not going to have the same result.  Individuals with excess belly fat will need to lose weight first, before toning the muscles for the lean and sculpted look the Ab Rocker promises.  Definition of muscle can only show up when there is no fat covering it, and as most people know, fat is burned through total body workouts and healthy diets.  The Ab Rocker can give your abdominals a good workout, but it’s not enough to burn excess belly fat.

Most people who purchase or consider buying the Ab Rocker would do so because they are overweight and are looking to get into shape.  Unfortunately, the Ab Rocker does not do anything to help someone lose any significant weight, or to learn about healthier eating habits and overall body fitness levels.  Everyone would love to have a flat stomach, but if you’re using the Ab Rocker and starting out with a spare tire around your middle, you shouldn’t expect this product to help you lose the excess weight.  You will need to do additional exercise and healthy eating to lose the weight before you can see the definition the Ab Rocker will help add to your abdominal muscles.

Consumer Reviews

There are consumer reviews for the Ab Rocker all over the internet.  It seems the majority of people who have tried it have not been overly impressed.  Some people complain of the product hurting their back while others claim it was ineffective when used the recommended five minutes per day.

NASCAR Legend- Dale Earnhardt Senior

On April 29, 1951 a child was born to Martha Coleman and Ralph Earnhardt who would eventually take the world of stock car racing by storm.  On that day Ralph Dale Earnhardt began his life in Kannapolis, North Carolina.  He would go on to become one of NASCAR’s most infamous drivers in history.

Here we will look at the life and career of “The Man In Black”.

The Making Of A Legend
Despite his father’s efforts to discourage young Dale from following in his footsteps, Earnhardt developed a love for the sport of car racing at an early age.  Ralph Earnhardt at the time was one of best short track drivers in the area and watching his father race and win only fueled Dale’s desire to start his own racing career.  Eventually Dale quick school to begin working full time while driving at night.  After his father succumbed to a heart attack in 1973, Dale became even more determined to blaze a trail in the stock car racing world.  He launched his NASCAR career after debuting in the then Winston Cup Series in 1975.  Four years later, he scored his first full time ride which signaled the beginning of a long and enormously successful career.

After years of financial hardship, the days of working by day, scraping together enough money to race soon became history as Dale Earnhardt Senior quickly proved himself by winning the rookie crown and his first series championship in consecutive seasons.  Beating veteran drivers, Earnhardt changed teams several times before returning to Richard Childress in 1984.  Two years later the team captured their first championship and a solidified a partnership which would lead them to six championships in nine seasons.  

Family Life
People have said that Dale Earnhardt Senior was without a doubt tough, determined and unwavering in his pursuit of his goals.  Married three times and the father of four children, he experienced his share of victories as well as failures as a husband and father.

The Death of a Legend
After years of carving out his place in stock car racing, Dale Earnhardt Senior was infamous for driving the way he lived.  He worked, played and drove hard, pushing himself to his limits and allowing no room for weakness in those around him.  His name invoked strong emotions in NASCAR fans, where people either loved or hated him as a driver.  Nevertheless, his death in 2001 left a void in the NASCAR community as well as the nation.  During the final lap of the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s season opening race, Dale Earnhardt Senior was racing in the third position when a crash into the wall took his life.  Eight years later, NASCAR is still wildly popular among fans, many of whom will never forget Dale Earnhardt Senior.

Spinach – The Benefits

Everyone’s favorite sailor man loves his spinach but Popeye was really on to something when promoting the power of spinach. Green, leafy vegetables have more nutrients the human body needs than any other food. Not only does spinach make you strong, it also helps you prevent a number of diseases and health conditions including heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, and colon cancer. Spinach contains at least 13 flavonoid compounds that are considered to be antioxidants. Spinach extracts have even begun to be used in certain cancer treatments.

Incredible Health Properties

In addition to the antioxidant properties, spinach offers over 200% of the daily value of vitamin K in just one cup of fresh spinach. Vitamin K is necessary for maintaining bone health, If the spinach is boiled, one cup (which includes 6 x’s as much spinach) can total over 1000% of the daily value of vitamin K. Vitamin K1 aids the prevention of cells that break down the body’s bone. After Vitamin K1 is ingested, bacteria in the intestines convert it to Vitamin K2 which activates osteocalcin. Osteocalcin is the top non-collagen protein in bones. Helping bones even further, spinach contains magnesium and calcium.

Vitamin C and Vitamin A are also found in spinach. Both vitamins are important antioxidants that help to reduce the amount of free radicals in the body. They help to keep cholesterol from building up in the blood vessels and cuts down in the incidents of blocked arteries, strokes, and heart attacks. Spinach is also an excellent source of folate, which is needed to help convert the dangerous chemical homocysteine which can cause heart attacks and strokes if levels get too high.

Spinach Keeps Us Young

Research has shown that spinach may even help protect the brain from the effects of stress and age-related brain health issues. This is especially important because as we age, we start to lose our mental performance abilities. Eating 3 servings of spinach or other green leafy vegetables per day can help slow the rate of decline. Interestingly, when compared in studies against fruit, vegetables, and brain health, vegetables were shown to improve brain function while fruit studies did not.

Other properties of spinach includes lutein, which helps protect your eyesight from disease such as macular degeneration and cataracts and iron which helps prevent iron deficiencies especially in menstruating woman and helps the body efficiently transport oxygen to the lungs.

Choosing Spinach

Spinach should be chosen fresh, with deep green leaves and no signs of yellowing. The best time for spinach is from March to May and September to October, though it is available all-year round. You should store fresh spinach in a plastic bag in the crisper section of the refrigerator. It will stay fresh for approximately 5 days. Remember to wash the spinach only right before you are ready to use it and not before you store it or the excess moisture will ruin the freshness. Cooked spinach should be eaten and dispose of the left overs as it does not store well after cooking.

Understanding Your Respiratory System

You can think of the respiratory system as your oxygen delivery system!  It’s primary function within the body is to bring oxygen to the blood – so that the blood supply can deliver the oxygen to all the parts of the body.  Each time you take a breath, the oxygen enters your respiratory system and carbon dioxide is exhaled out of the body.  The exchange of gases is what the respiratory system uses to move the oxygen to the bloodstream.

Oxygen enters your respiratory system through your mouth and nose.  It moves through your larynx and trachea.  Your trachea is a tube that travels from your throat area into your chest cavity.  Once the oxygen moves through the trachea into the chest, the trachea splits into two small tubes that are called the bronchi.  The bronchi are divided into even smaller bronchial tubes that go directly to the lungs.  Within the lungs, there are even more tubes, which are connected to alveoli – which are the 600 million tiny, spongy, air-filled sacs found in the capillaries of an adult body.  Children have less alveoli as they develop as children age, and breathe at a faster rate than adults.  Women also breathe faster than men on average.

Inhaled oxygen travels into the alveoli and then goes into the capillaries, which sends the oxygen into the arterial blood.  While this is happening, carbon dioxide and waste-filled blood will move from the veins into the alveoli, following the same path the clean oxygen took to get back out of your body as you exhale.

Part of the respiratory system includes the diaphragm.  The diaphragm is located in the bottom of the chest cavity, and is basically a sheet of muscles.  It’s purpose is to help pump out the carbon dioxide, and to pull in the fresh oxygen to the lungs.  The muscles of the diaphragm contract and relax to generate the act of breathing.

The role of oxygen in our bodies is an important one.  The oxygen makes it possible to pull energy from the foods we eat and to carry out chemical processes that happen around the clock within our bodies.

Interesting facts about your respiratory system:

• There are hairs inside your nose that help remove pollutants from the air you breathe in.  The hair also serves to warm the air slightly.
• The right lung is a little bigger than the left lung.
• The capillaries inside your lungs would extend 1,600 kilometers if they were spread out end to end!
• People who are relaxed generally breathe 12 to 15 times per minute.
• The surface area of lungs, if they were unfolded, is about the same size as a tennis court.
• People lose half a liter of water each day through normal breathing.  To see this in action, breathe into a glass and watch the water vapors form.

Muhammad Ali and Laila Ali – Together

Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky.  His birth name was Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, but he changed it to Muhammad Ali in 1964 after he joined the Nation of Islam.

As an amateur boxer, Ali won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.  When he turned professional, he was the first person to win the world lineal heavyweight championship three times.  Ali has 56 wins and 5 loses to his career records.

In 1967, Ali was arrested for draft evasion charges after refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military based on religious beliefs and general opposition to the Vietnam War.  The arrest caused him to lose his boxing license, as well as the boxing title for four years while the case was fought in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Muhammad Ali was known for his unique fighting style, which he himself described as “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”.  Some of his most notable boxing matches included the three matches with Joe Frazier and one with George Foreman.   In 1970, while his case was still on appeal in the Supreme Court, Ali was allowed to resume boxing in Georgia against Jerry Quarry, whom he defeated after three rounds.  Shortly after the match, the New York State Supreme Court ruled that Muhammad Ali had been unjustly denied his boxing license and Ali went on to fight Oscar Bonavena in 15 long rounds before finally defeating him and qualifying for the match against the undefeated Joe Frazier.  On March 8, 1971, Frazier and Ali met for the “Fight of the Century”, which ended in Ali’s first professional loss.

During a match with Foreman, Ali invented a tactic that involved leaning on the ring ropes and covering up against ineffective body shots thrown by Foreman.  This move was later termed “The Rope-A-Dope”.  Ali regained his world title in this match.

Muhammad Ali has been married four times and has seven daughters and two sons.  It was during his third marriage with a woman by the name of Veronica Porche that Ali’s daughter Laila was born in December of 1977.

Laila Ali

In Laila’s first professional boxing match in December of 1999, Ali knocked out April Fowler in the first round.  She went on to win 8 consecutive matches and soon the boxing fans wanted to see Laila Ali face off against George Foreman’s daughter or Joe Frazier’s daughter.  It was June 2001 when Ali had the first match with Jackie Frazier-Lyde (Joe Frazier’s daughter).  The fight was given the name Ali/Frazier IV, after the women’s fathers’ fight trilogy.  After 8 rounds, the judges ruled Laila Ali the winner.

In 2002, Laila Ali co-authored a book with David Ritz, titled Reach! Finding Strength, Spirit, and Personal Power.  It was meant to motivate and inspire young people.

Laila has been married twice. She gave birth to her son, Curtis Muhammad Conway Jr on August 26, 2008.

July Veggie of the Month: GARLIC

Garlic has long been hailed for it’s numerous benefits to health. Even old legend tells tales of the strength and courage garlic provided to those who ate it. It was also known for helping to keep evil spirits at bay and has been believed to be the cure-all for the common cold as well as other major health conditions. Essentially, garlic is a health food that is nutritious and should be included as part of a healthy diet.

Garlic has a strong flavor and smell which is the result of sulfur compounds. It is often used for flavoring of various meats and dishes. It is an extremely popular part of Mediterranean and Middle East countries as well as in China and India. Americans also consume a lot of garlic. More than 250 million pounds of garlic are estimated to be used by Americans each year and with the popularity of garlic’s health benefits, that number is steadily increasing.

The Varieties of Garlic
While many consumers may think that garlic is garlic, there are actually around 300 varieties of garlic that is grown worldwide. California is the leading state for garlic production and an estimated 90% of American garlic is grown there. Garlic is harvested in two different time periods – early, which is harvested during the middle of summer is white or off-white in color. Late garlic is off-white in color. Other varieties of garlic include:

American Garlic – has white skin and a strong flavor.

Chileno Garlic – has a reddish colored skin and is sharp-tasting. This variety of garlic is grown in Mexico.

Green Garlic – has a green color with a long green top and small whit bulb. Green garlic is harvested young so the flavor is milder than mature garlic.

Italian Garlic – has a mauve color and has a flavor considered to be milder than American garlic.

Selecting and Storing Garlic
Consumers can buy garlic all year around. It is available in both fresh and frozen form. When selecting fresh garlic, look for heads that are firm to the touch and stay away from soft or wrinkled cloves.  Keep garlic cloves in a cool, dark place but not in the refrigerator. It will stay good for several weeks. There are clay holders made to keep garlic fresh for longer periods of time. If cloves sprout, they are still usable but won’t have the same strength in flavor. Sprouts can be used like chives as an additive to many dishes.

Using Garlic
Peel the outer layers of skin from the bulb to remove the garlic cloves for full strength flavor. Whole unpeeled cloves can also be used for a muted flavor to some dishes. Garlic can be added while cooking or in a marinade and can be removed before serving the dish. Garlic can also be crushed, chopped, pressed or pureed. The more finely you cut the garlic, the stronger its flavor will be. Don’t use the green core of the garlic bulb as it is bitter in taste. When you cook with garlic, the flavor will be decreased in strength. The longer its cooked, the more mild it becomes. If sauteing with garlic, do not overcook it or use too high of a temperature or the garlic will become bitter tasting.

Recipe for Garlic

Garlic Chicken Adobo

You will need:

• 4 lbs of skinned chicken breast.
• 12 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half
• ½ cup of vinegar.
• ½ cup of soy sauce.
• ½ cup of water.
• Coarse ground black pepper, to taste.

To Prepare
Brown the chicken in a large skillet; then drain off the fat.

Add the garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, water and pepper.

Cover and simmer for about 35-40 minutes, until very tender. Turn the chicken once during this time.

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