Cupid’s Heart

You can make your own hearts with arrows through them that are both delicious and healthy with two simple ingredients, Watermelon or Pineapple and Oranges. Depending on what you can find (Watermelon may not be in season), make a heart shaped cut out of the melon or pineapple fruit. You will then stick a skewer through the middle of the heart cut out and place an arrow shaped cut out of orange on one end, and on the other a simple orange wedge. (Picture included)

You can make the heart shaped cutouts using a heart cookie cutter.

Breakfast in Bed

Take your honey a healthy breakfast in bed. First take a slice of bread and use a large heart cookie cutter to cut a heart shaped hole in the center of the bread. Put the bread in a pan on low heat, crack an egg in the middle of the heart shaped hole and leave the yolk whole. Cook on low until the egg white is fully cooked.

When finished, create a small ketchup heart by putting two tiny dabs of ketchup on the egg yolk and then spreading them into the shape of a heart with a toothpick. You can also add small heart shapes as decorations on the plate.

You could also break the yolk and cook both sides then add a ketchup outline to the entire heart.

If you make two or more of these bread and egg breakfasts, you can make a strawberry jam sandwich with the leftover bread.

Strawberry Jam Sandwich

For the top layer of the heart shaped sandwich, use a smaller heart cookie cutter to make a cutout. Place strawberry jam in on the bottom layer of bread (without the hole) and then press together for a strawberry jam sandwich.

These are just a few of the many things you can do to keep your valentine’s day healthy and fresh. You can find more fresh. You can make almost anything valentine’s day themed by creating heart shapes. Good luck and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Vaccinate!

Let’s start with the one that has been hitting us over the head for the last few years. The flu vaccine. Getting a flu vaccine can be very helpful when trying to avoid getting the flu virus. The most current vaccine will work against H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the H1N1.

Those over the age of 6 months should be vaccinated yearly. Those at high risk of developing the flu, such as children, elderly, pregnant women, those with chronic health conditions, diabetes or lung disease should most definitely get the vaccine as well as Health care workers.

Take Caution

Taking precautionary actions in your everyday situations will help to stop the spread of viruses such as the flu.
Some precautions we should all take include the following:
Cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough.
Wash your hands often
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth and contact with sick people
If you know you have the flu stay at home for at least 24 hours after the fever has subsided to avoid the spread of the virus

Take Medication

Especially if your doctor prescribes it, medicine can be very helpful to treat the flu and can shorten the time you are suffering.

Additionally, you should always work on recognizing the symptoms of the flu, including: fever, cough, runny or stuffy nose, sore throat,body aches, headaches, chills and fatigue. Vomiting and diarrhea may also occur in some cases. You may also just have the respiratory symptoms but never develop any other symptoms with the flu.

The table salt that most consumers use goes through an intense chemical and heat induced cleansing process, which leaves it at 97.5% sodium chloride and 2.5% chemical solutions. In addition to being chemically treated, Salt is exposed to over 1,200 degree heat, altering its natural state.

Of course, most people are unaware that the salt they are using for common everyday cooking and eating uses is actually not beneficial to their bodies. However, there is now salt available in the United States that can provide the benefits needed to promote health.

This salt is called Himalayan Salt, originally found in the “primal sea” and recently introduced in the United States via Nepal. This salt is in its purest form and provides users with the following benefits:

• Regulates water content throughout the body.
• Promotes a healthy pH balance in cells, particularly brain cells.
• Promotes blood sugar health and helps to reduce the signs of aging.
• Assists in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your body.
• Absorbs food particles through your intestinal tract.
• Supports respiratory health.
• Promotes sinus health.
• Prevents muscle cramps.
• Promotes bone strength.
• Regulates your sleep.
• Supports a healthy libido.
• Promotes vascular health.
• In conjunction with water it is actually essential for the regulation of your blood pressure.

Unfortunately, when your body is receiving only common table salt, it is unable to use it properly and therefore has a hard time regulating it within your body. This is what often causes the unwanted conditions associated with cellulite, rheumatism, arthritis and gout, kidney and gall bladder stones.

When is the last time you sat down and actually considered what you are putting in your mouth each day. Are the foods you are eating helping you in your weight loss efforts or are they just making it more difficult? Let’s take a look at some of the most effective flat belly foods.

Nuts about Nuts

Are you nuts about nuts? In the last entry we talked a lot about the health benefits of adding nuts to your diet. Hopefully you have tried to incorporate some daily. The following nuts are included here because of their high amounts of Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), proteins and fibers which work together to cut cholesterol and aid in digestion.
• Almonds
• Macadamia Nuts
• Natural Peanut Butter
• Pistachios
• Walnuts

Avocado

Avocados are one of the most heart healthy foods and contain important ingredients to help eliminate bad cholesterol.

Dark or Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Don’t fear, dark and semi-sweet chocolate are here to stay. These two types of chocolate contain compounds that fight against heart disease, cancer, stroke and even diabetes. Enjoy plain or as a delicious fruit topper.

Olive Oil

When cooking or making dressings, be sure to use olive oil. It contains high amounts of Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), which allow for the lowering of bad cholesterol without negatively affecting the good cholesterol stores.

Sunflower Seeds

Last but definitely not least comes sunflower seeds. These seeds are very useful in a flat belly diet for the excellent vitamin source they provide. Sunflower seeds include B vitamins and Vitamin E. Additionally, sunflower seeds are used as a natural appetite suppressant.

These are just a few of the foods you can enjoy that will help guide you towards a flatter belly. Of course, exercise should be employed as well to maximize results. Happy snacking!

In addition, nuts are an easy go with you anywhere snack and all types of nuts can provide benefits you may have previously been unaware of.

Heart Healthy Ingredients

Of course there are some ingredients in nuts that are thought to be especially good for the heart. These ingredients include: unsaturated fats, omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, vitamin e, plant sterols and L-arginine.

Unsaturated fats- Scientists are unsure why, but it appears that good fats in nuts help to lower bad cholesterol levels.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids – According to research. Omega-3 Fatty Acids may help to prevent dangerous heart rythms that may eventually lead to heart attack.

Fiber All nuts have a certain amount of fiber. Fiber helps lower your cholesterol and helps you to feel more full.

Vitamin E- Vitamin E has been found to be helpful in lowering the amount of plaque buildup in your arteries. Plaque buildup along you artery walls can create a number of future problems.

Plant Sterols- In addition to once again lowering cholesterol, plant sterols can add a number of health benefits and they are found naturally in all types of nuts.

L-Arginine L-Arginine can help the flexibility of blood vessels and arteries, making them less vulnerable to clotting and plaque build up.

Which Nuts are the Most Heart Healthy?

The FDA has approved 7 different nuts for related heart health benefits. These nuts include almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, some pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts.

However, these aren’t the only nuts that can offer amazing health benefits. Just be sure that you don’t overdo any one specific product and nuts should provide a great source of health and nutrition when eaten a few times a week.

Here are just a few of the simple facts about green vegetables that are most often overlooked:

1. Greens are loaded full of nutrients including:
• Vitamins A, B, C, E & K
• Potassium
• Magnesium
• Antioxidants
• Iron
• Calcium
• Folate

2. Greens, with their high levels of antioxidants, are some of the best cancer-preventing foods you can have.
3. Greens are an ideal weight loss food and help with weight management issues. They are usually low in calories and high in fiber and other essential nutrients.
4. Greens aid in keeping our blood vessels clean from plaque buildup, thus decreasing the risk of heart and other life threatening diseases.

For many people the problem comes with finding ways to enjoy their greens. Instead of going for a salad every time there are options that allow for you to get those nutrients your body craves in more enjoyable ways.

Try Something New!

Soup is just one of the easy ways to turn a bland green into a vibrant one. Broccoli, vegetable, and even kale soup can be appetizing on cold winter days. Steaming greens is another great way to get added warmth and texture when a salad doesn’t seem like quite enough.

Another popular way to enjoy your greens is by purchasing a juicer. Juice up some kale, collard greens, spinach, cucumbers, green peppers, and even green apples and mix them together. You may be surprised at how good they turn out.

There are many prevention tips that a person can follow to make sure they avoid a foodborne illness. Some of the most common will be discussed below.

Only Purchase Safe Foods from the Store

Foodborne illness avoidance starts at the grocery store. There are many things that a person should be mindful of while grocery shopping.

First, pick up refrigerated and heated food at end of your shopping trip. This will allow less time for these foods to either warm up or cool down to temperatures in which germs can grow before you travel home.

Also, raw meat, poultry, and seafood juices can sometimes leak out of their packaging. Place these products in separate plastic bags before putting them in your cart to restrain the juices from leaking onto other foods. These juices are places were germs can thrive and be easily spread.

Only buy eggs that are refrigerated at the store. Before you purchase the eggs, open the carton to make sure none of them are broken as these juices can also cause illness.

Another place that germs can live is in cracked and bent jars or cans. Inspect them before purchasing to make sure they are still in perfect form.

Clean

Cleaning your hands, food, and the products you use to prepare food is essential in preventing diseases. Wash your hands under warm water for at least 20 seconds before and after eating or preparing food. Washing your hands in-between preparing different foods is also important to avoid cross contamination. It is essential that you wash your hands after handling raw meat, poultry, or eggs.

Some surfaces to make sure you keep clean include: cookware, tableware, cutting boards, kitchen utensils, and countertops.

Separate Foods

Uncooked foods, particularly uncooked meat, should be kept from other foods. To prevent contaminating other foods, use separate cutting boards for vegetables and meat. Do not use the same utensils to touch both cooked and uncooked food items.

Do not continue to use a dish towel until it has been washed if it is used to clean up spilled food items.

Keep Foods out of the Danger Zone

Germs can live in foods between the temperatures of 40 F and 140 F. In order to keep food safe, make sure you cook it properly.

To be safe, food should be cooked to at least 160 F to assure all microorganisms are killed.

Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of meat, as brown meat does not always mean it has been cooked thoroughly. Wash food thermometers in-between uses and among different food items.

If you need to thaw a food item, thaw it in the refrigerator (a couple of days prior to use) or run it under cold water. If you need to thaw food immediately, use the microwave. It is dangerous to thaw food at room temperature.

To prevent germs from growing on raw meat, poultry, eggs, cooked food, or cut fresh fruit, it should be placed in the refrigerator or freezer within two hours. If the external temperature is more than 90 F, than this time should be reduced to one hour.

Prevention is Primary

In order to avoid foodborne illnesses, follow these suggested prevention tips.

There are a lot of environmental factors that have contributed to our collective obesity. For example, the economic interests of the food and beverage industries, the way our cities’ and towns’ infrastructure has been built, and a corporate world that draws most of us behind a desk for a large portion of the day.

Unfortunately, we’re too deep in the middle of this disease to really understand the cause of it. However, we can look back at the way things used to be, before we were all so large that we couldn’t fit into our own plane seat, to try to find out what is so different now from then.

Some people blame our weight on the fact that we have all these labor saving devices like cars and vacuums and leaf blowers and every other device you could imagine.

But this doesn’t quite fit because ever since 1900 there has been an advent of devices to help save us time and effort (read: calorie expenditure), and yet our weight didn’t start to rise until the 1970s.

Since the 1970s, there has been one huge variable and that has been women entering the workforce. With more women in the workforce, there has been more convenience food in the home. More food that has been designed by businessmen rather than mothers.

This food has been engineered to indulge our sweetest sweet tooth, and our greasiest comforts. They are designed to be craved and devoured, not to nourish and refuel.

Dr. Swinburn, an obesity researcher at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia has been trying to link the change in our lifestyles with the change in our waistlines:

“The 1970s saw a striking rise in the quantity of refined carbohydrates and fats in the US food supply, which was paralleled by a sharp increase in the available calories and the onset of the obesity epidemic. Energy intake rose because of environmental push factors, i.e., increasingly available, cheap, tasty, highly promoted obesogenic foods.”

If Dr. Swinburn is right, then we can help turn back the hands of time, as well as obesity, by eating more foods that have been cooked and prepared within the home.

With obesity and all its related illnesses on the steady rise, we need to pay more and more attention to what we are and aren’t eating. But luckily, by listening to this advice, you’re going to feel and look healthier, and you won’t regret anything when next season rolls around.

IN: Whole grains
OUT: Refined grains

Refined grains and whole grains may seem similar, but they are quite different. Whole grains are more than just starch, containing up to 25% of other goodies, including protein, fiber, and added healthy omega-3′s, along with a complex mixture of vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients.

The refining process strips away much of what is best about grains and can leave a white product that may be up to 94% starch. This makeover changes the way grains are absorbed and used by the body and the effect they have on blood sugar, even though a few simple vitamins and iron are added back.

IN: Oils
OUT: Solid fats

Solid fats are often one of the biggest sources of empty calories in kids’ diets. Both saturated fats and trans fats, hidden in many processed foods, tend to be solid at room temperature. Getting too much solid fat in the diet has been linked to chronic disease, especially diseases of the heart and blood vessels.

The biggest source of solid fats in kids’ diets is what’s used in baked goods. Luckily, using olive oil as a substitute can give results sinfully similar to the original. In one study, researchers made three types of cakes: margarine only, extra-virgin olive oil only, and a combination of olive oil and margarine. The tasters found that all three cakes had the same aroma and tasted remarkably similar. In fact, the reduced-trans-fat cake actually edged out the margarine cake as the winner.

IN: Grass-fed organic beef
OUT: Conventional beef

Side by side, two cuts of meat may look almost identical, but they can come from cows raised in very different ways. If we are what we eat, then we are what our food animals eat, too.

Grass-fed cattle are raised on pasture without the use of synthetic hormones, toxic pesticides, genetic modification, cloning, or antibiotics. The meat can have up to four times the healthy omega-3 fats of feedlot beef. Ask questions at the meat counter; read labels.

For years now, we have been listening to everyone going on and on about how carbs are the enemy and you should always go for the low-carb or no-carb option. Ever since the Atkins diet, we have been feeling guilty about a staple that has helped our ancestors survive the long winters and thrive in the summer months. In fact, our species would not have gotten to the point that it is at right now were it not for our friends the carbohydrates.

So many people think that eating healthy means giving up satisfying and savory meals, when in fact our cravings have been genetically determined to fill us with nutritious foods that can be delicious too. Although our body will generally tell us exactly what we need, we get our ideas about what we should eat from the world around us. We grow up eating specific foods and so those are what are familiar and good to us, then we read articles and books about what is the new food devil and what we should and shouldn’t eat. It all can be very confusing if we start listening to the outside world more than our own bodies.

But, in reality, it does not have to be that complicated. In fact, in our world that cares more about diet than any before us we have ironically become the most obese and have the worst diet. This can only mean that by over thinking our diet, we have ruined it. Maybe diet professionals don’t know quite as much about our diets as thousands of years’ practice does.

Take eliminating carbs for instance. Carbohydrates play more of a role in the body than that of energy sources; they also help your body repair and rebuild itself, meaning that you’re working yourself into a deficit if you cut these essential nutrients out of your diet.

Rather than follow a diet that is found in a book, try leading a lifestyle that you could imagine Adam eating. Even if this means that you have to cut out some of your favorite hostess products, and maybe even a run to Krispy Kreme, I think you’ll find that your body will start working the way it was genetically determined to: on carbs!