Vinegar & Watermelon are Health Products
I read this article from an email.
So this household products can help us regulate our sugar level. Would you believe that Vinegar can help us clamp down our sugar level?? Well, it does. While some Carbo foods like Rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. spikes up our sugar level, vinegar will help us regulate it.
The watermelon, on the other hand, is full of lycopene that helps us crush cancer cells. It loaded with water, therefore keeping us Hydrated. Here is the full message from my email.
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Household Staple That Steadies Blood Sugar
You use it for cooking, cleaning, gardening, and a hundred other household chores. But for your blood sugar?
You bet. Seems vinegar — the tart stuff in tasty vinaigrettes and marinades — may help clamp down on blood sugar spikes from eating starchy carbs like potatoes and pasta.
Keep It Steady
Keeping blood sugar from surging may cut down on diabetes risk in the long run. But stabilizing blood sugar can do good things instantly, too — like stymieing hunger pangs, keeping your energy up, and keeping pounds off. To get the blood sugar benefit of vinegar, try pairing starchy foods with vinegar-based sauces or dressings. Or start a meal with a salad dressed in oil and vinegar.
Reality Check
Of course, a shot of vinegar will only go so far when it comes to keeping your blood sugar steady. To really ward off blood sugar problems, you’ll need to:
Get moving . . . so your body uses blood sugar better. Try this easy-on-the-joints workout.
Load up . . . on low-glycemic-index foods that help keep blood sugar stable. We’re talking high-fiber fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Check out this video on how fiber helps digestive health, too.
Pare down . . . maintaining a healthy weight helps reduce your risk of diabetes.
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Watermelon: 3 Juicy Benefits
A cool wedge of watermelon on a hot summer day? Refreshing, for sure.
But watermelon is more than just a seasonal treat. Here are three great health reasons to dig into this juicy fruit:
It’s loaded with lycopene. Watermelon juice actually gave tomato juice a run for the money in a recent study of lycopene levels. That’s good news for your body, because early research suggests that lycopene may be a cancer crusher.
It can make your skin pretty. Watermelon is loaded with a key compound credited with helping skin’s healing and regenerative processes. Say no more — bring on the melon!
It’s practically calorie-free. With fewer than 50 calories in every cup, watermelon is one smart way to satisfy a sweet tooth. And with a whopping 141 grams of water per cubed cup, watermelon will keep you hydrated, too.
Exercise Cures!
This is why exercise is so important. Any diet supplements or food we eat will not be that effective if we don’t exercise. It helps us regulate our blood flow, increase our stamina, sweat out all the dirt inside our body, and decrease the possibility of getting sick. For example, in my experience, I use exercise (basketball) as a stress reliever. I release all my anger and all the negative emotions into it, resulting to a positive note. I feel relaxed after that game and can easily look forward to the next day’s work.
Did you know that walking is also a kind of exercise? Here is an article about exercise curing diabetes and obesity:
“Walking a bit more each day can help people control their Type 2 diabetes but obese people trying to keep weight off may need to exercise harder than they had thought, according to a studies published on Monday.
Simply walking 45 minutes more each day helped people with diabetes use blood sugar better, Michael Trenell of Britain’s Newcastle University and colleagues wrote in the journal Diabetes Care.
“People often find the thought of going to the gym quite daunting, but what we’ve found is that nearly everyone with diabetes is able to become more active through walking,” Trenell said.
The Newcastle team paired 10 Type 2 diabetes patients with people without the condition of similar height, weight and age and asked everybody to walk more than 10,000 steps each day.
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI scans showed that people who walked 45 minutes more each day burned about 20 percent more fat — increasing the ability of the muscles to store sugar and help control diabetes, the researchers said.
“What is exciting about this study is that it provides an immediate way to help control diabetes without any additional drugs,” Trenell said.
Diabetes affects an estimated 246 million adults worldwide and accounts for 6 percent of all global deaths. Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90 percent of all diabetes cases and is closely linked to obesity and physical inactivity.
Obesity and diabetes both are growing problems as more developing nations adopt a Western lifestyle, something the International Diabetes Federation estimates will propel the number of people with diabetes to 380 million by 2025.
But current exercise guidelines calling for people to get 150 minutes — 2.5 hours — each week may not be enough to help the obese keep weight off, John Jakicic of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
To determine an optimal amount of exercise, the U.S. team enrolled 201 overweight and obese women in a weight loss programme between 1999 and 2003 and assigned them to one of four exercise groups.
After six months, women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 to 10 percent of their weight but many gained it back.
Women assigned to exercise for about an extra hour each day did not gain the weight back, the researchers said. These women were also more likely to stick to healthy diets.
Jakicic recommended that people who want to lose weight and keep it off get at least 4-1/2 hours of exercise a week.
“There is a growing consensus that more exercise may be necessary to enhance long-term weight loss,” Jakicic and colleagues wrote”
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080728/hl_nm/exercise_weight_dc;_ylt=Akoty..aj0eS8udEGp9K0GfVJRIF
3 Bad Sleeping Habits
There are three reasons why we can’t sleep a night which sometimes results to insomnia. I read this one while surfing the net and I would love to share it with you. This habits should be avoided before going to sleep.
“1. Setting a Bright Alarm Clock
The looming glare of your alarm clock can be distracting when trying to sleep. The goal is to have as dark a room as possible. Block the bright numbers with a book or consider buying a small travel clock. Your cell phone alarm may also do the trick.
2. Counting Sheep
When you just can’t fall asleep, it’s useless to stay in bed. If you’ve been trying to fall asleep for more than 30 minutes, the National Sleep Foundation suggests doing something mundane, like balancing a checkbook, reading or watching TV. An activity that demands marginal brainpower will lull your mind. Before you know it, you’ll be crawling back into bed genuinely tired.
3. Exercising Late at Night
Daytime workouts will keep you invigorated for hours. That’s why you don’t want to exercise within three hours of hitting the sack. Intense physical activity raises your body temperature and pumps your energy level—both interrupt a calm transition into sleep.”
source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/bedtime-habits-that-are-ruining-your-sleep-199441/
Nature’s way of Healthy Living
I’ve read this product review about ALIVE. It may sound and look like an ordinary food supplement, but if you look closer, its not. The product’s ingredient came from natural sources, unlike others that use factory-made additive. Its natural sources contain green food blend (spirulina and chlorella, veggies, fruits, medicinal mushrooms, etc) which all fight off diseases that could prove to be life threatening. In short, it makes us stringer and healthier by the minute.
More Reviews
Weapon against TB
I found this article a bit hilarious at first, but then it became interesting. Imagine a phone or something free can be a weapon against TB? Just read on to get a better picture.
“Researchers at MIT believe they’ve discovered a new weapon in the battle against tuberculosis: Free cell phone minutes.
For years, doctors have struggled to get some TB patients to take all their medication, which generally involves a six-month regimen of multiple drugs.
Now a student-led group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a way to use cell phones to let patients test themselves. And if the tests show patients are following doctor’s orders, they get rewarded with free minutes.
“We’re piggybacking on one of the bigger rollouts of infrastructure out there, which is wireless technology and telecom technology,” said Jose Gomez-Marquez, one of the project’s leaders.
The system works like this: Patients test their urine using a strip that reveals a numeric code if it detects TB medicine. They then text message the code to their health care provider and get credit toward incentives such as free minutes.
The in-home tests also eliminate the need for health care workers to make several patient-monitoring visits a week, a routine that is often impractical in remote places, Gomez-Marquez said.
Mobile phones are good tools for the project because they are common in the developing world, where it’s often cheaper to erect cell towers than miles of poles and wires, Gomez-Marquez said.
Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of a World Health Organization program to fight TB, called the MIT idea “creative.” But he said personal visits must continue because systems that depend heavily on patient self-reporting have often failed.
“I would think it’s a dangerous game to rely only on incentives,” he said.
In 2006, the most recent year statistics are available, 9.2 million people worldwide were diagnosed with tuberculosis and 1.7 million died.
The disease can be cured with a steady regimen of drugs. But many patients start feeling better and stop taking the medicine too soon. Others abandon the drugs because of side effects such as nausea, fever and rashes.
If the drugs are taken only sporadically, the bacteria build up resistance. The WHO estimates that 5 to 10 percent of TB deaths are patients who stop taking medication properly.
The MIT group — which originally included five students — took on the TB problem in 2007 as part of the university’s annual “IDEAS competition,” which challenges participants to solve various world problems.
Under the TB treatment system used by the WHO, the relationship between the patient and health care worker can get adversarial, said Elizabeth Leshen, an MIT junior working on the project.
“We wanted to do something that takes the health care worker out of the supervisory role and puts him or her back into the patient care role,” she said.
Cell minutes were chosen as an incentive because patients want them and phone companies are willing to give them out, said Gomez-Marquez, who added that other incentives and reporting methods can be tailored to different regions.
A small study of 20 patients in Nicaragua last year indicated the MIT system could work, and a larger study in Pakistan is planned for this summer. The team is trying to raise the $200,000 for a full-scale clinical trial.
The WHO’s Raviglione said the MIT group’s program could be an asset, particularly in developed countries, where people are more familiar with technology. But he said it must be combined with regular visits from health care workers or community leaders who can ensure patients take their medicine.
Before personal visits became routine in the 1990s, death rates from tuberculosis were estimated at 40 to 50 percent, according to the WHO. After officials began making visits as part of a broad strategy to fight TB, that figure dropped to 15 percent.
“Human contact is essential for people who have to take drugs for a long time,” Raviglione said”
Men it was just incentives. I thought it was something like a cool gadget. Well, its still interesting. A simple yet an innovative way of battling not just TB, but other illnesses as well.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080614/ap_on_he_me/med_tuberculosis_cell_phones;_ylt=Ale4SSBeyztjLSzvhC0NrzDVJRIF
Coconut better than Gatorade?
I noticed this when I climbed Mount Makulot and Daguldol. I also have Gatorade in my bag. The purpose of Gatorade is to replenish energy and electrolytes that was used during a workout or any activities. But when I drank some coconut juice, I felt stronger. It was really refreshing. It made me feel that I’m ready to go for more. IMHO, a coconut will not just quench your thirst but will also satisfy your hunger. A complete food? Perhaps. But for me, its better than Gatorade or any energy drink. 
Above is our picture during our mountaineering expedition at Mount Daguldol. We had our share of coconuts while taking a break. REFRESHING!!!!
Mountain Climbing at Daguldol
Me, my sister, and a couple of her friends joined the Timog Mountaineering group last weekend to climb Mount Daguldol. It is located in Laiya, Batangas. A drop off at the beach, with a couple of huge rocks to go through (rock climbing) and an hour of walk along the sea shore to reach the foot of the mountain. In short, it was a warm up before climbing. We climbed the mountain for 5 hours and some of us experienced muscle cramps. Some of us took the chance to take some pictures during the breaks. The view was awesome, trees everywhere even along the cliff side of the mountain. It was the first time I saw fire flies up in close. They’re like stars glowing in the dark. We reached the camp site at around 6:30PM. We went down the mountain at around 10 AM. We went to the beach as our side trip. It was one hell of an exercise and a great experience as well. We will repeat this kind of adventure soon.
Lakers win game 1 versus Spurs
What a game! The Lakers rallied from a 20 point deficit to clinch a win against the mighty spurs 89-85. Kobe was just awesome during the fourth quarter. It was another Jordanesque performance. Wait, let reiterate that. It was another Kobe performance. Kobe scored only 2 points in the first quarter and added 4 more at the ebd of the half. But he erupted in the 4th quarter to finish with 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists. It was enough to lift the Lakers against the spurs. Of course, he got a lot of help from his teammates. Pau Gasol had 19 points and seven rebounds, Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic had 10 points a piece. Tim Duncan had monster performance with a game high 30 points, 18 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots. Tony Parker had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Tim was just a monster in the middle, ripping Ronnie Turiaf and Pau Gasol’s defense apart for an easy bucket. Too bad they went cold in the fourth quarter. I’m sure this is a pain staking lose for the spurs which will seek vengeance against the Lakers in Friday night’s(Saturday For Philippine viewers) game 2 at staples center. Over all, it was a team effort by the Lakers to clinch the win. What a rally by the Lakers. What a game!
Source: http://sportsline.com/nba/gamecenter/recap/NBA_20080521_SA@LAL
Worst “Healthy” Beverages in America EXPOSED!!!
I knew soda was bad for your health, but this one really surprised me. This article that was shared to me by my friend is a bit shocking. I mean, how could some juice be bad for your health? The answer is the sugar and calories they take everyday. Thats just the gist of it. Read on and gain some info about what I’m saying.
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Americans have a drinking problem, and not the type you might think. After posting a blog a few weeks ago called “Belt-Busting Beverages,” we received hundreds of comments from the Yahoo community claiming they had no idea the stuff they drink could be so hazardous to their waistlines.
Here’s a typical refrain voiced by one disturbed drinker: “I know a lot of people that are battling with their weight, and they tell me all the time, ‘I don’t eat that much, and I still can’t lose weight.’ ”
Whether you are a desperate dieter or just someone looking to drop another few pounds in time for beach season, here’s a tough stat to swallow: According to the FDA, the average American takes in 82 grams of added sugars every day. That’s 20 teaspoons, which contribute an empty 317 calories to our already calorie-saturated diets.
Sure, some of that comes from soda, but even if you’ve traded regular Coke for diet, whole milk coffee drinks for low-fat lattes, and you barely touch the booze, you could still be taking in 20 percent or more of your calories from beverages. Add a few of those other indulgences in — or consume one of the liquid disasters listed here — and you can suddenly be sucking in a few days’ worth of calories through a straw!”
Here are some examples of those unhealthy beverages
- “Glaceau VitaminWater (any flavor; 20 oz bottle)
130 calories
33 grams sugarVitamins and water might sound like the ultimate nutritional tag team, but what the label doesn’t say is that a bottle of this stuff carries nearly as much sugar and calories as a can of Coke. Makes sense, though, since this so-called functional beverage is produced by our often-sugar-crazy friends at The Coca-Cola Company.
- Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d Power Smoothie (30 oz)
1,170 calories
169 g sugars
30 g fatJamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milkshake, with more sugar than an entire bag of chocolate chips. (Note: We’re pretty sure this is the drink Hollywood actors rely on when looking to put on 20 pounds for the role as a heavy!)
- Baskin Robbin’s Large Heath Bar Shake (32 oz) aka the Unhealthiest drink in America
2,310 calories
266 g sugar
108 g fat (64 g saturated)Let’s look at America’s Worst Drink in numbers:
73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.
66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.
11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.
8-12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.
240: The number of minutes you’d need to spend on a treadmill burning it off, running at a moderate pace.”
Shocking isn’t it? I for one love drinking some of this beverages, especially the health bar shake. Well, now I know.
source: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/5027/americas-unhealthiest-drinks-exposed/
Never Quit
Now this is something inspiring. My sister sent this through email, and encouraged me to face all challenges in life. I hope this one will inspire others as well. Enjoy!
One day I decided to quit…
I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality. .. I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
His answer surprised me…
“Look around”, He said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”
“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.
“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.
In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would
not quit.” He said.
“Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared
to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant. ..But just 6
months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.
I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.”
He asked me. “Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots”.
“Don’t compare yourself to others.”
“Your time will come”, God said to me.
“How high should I rise?”
“How high will the bamboo rise?” He asked in return.
“As high as it can?” I questioned.
“Yes.” He said, “Give me glory by rising as high as you can.”
I left the forest and brought back this story.
Never, Never, Never Give up.
For the Christian Prayer is not an option but an opportunity.
Don’t tell the Lord how big the problem is,
tell the problem how Great the Lord is!
Drag Racer 3
