Nutrition myths and interesting facts

We all know that word 'nutrition' relates to food and nutritious food means 'the food which provides us the necessary nutrients to stay healthy'. This article provides you information about myths and facts which everybody should know.
According to Wikipedia :'Nutrition/ nourishment or aliment is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life.'
Another definition is: “Nutrition” is derived from “nourish,” which is from the Latin nutrire, meaning to feed, nurse, support, and preserve--literally, “she who gives suck.” Essentially, nutrition refers to the variety of ways the body makes use of food.

There are six major classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins, and water. These nutrient classes can be categorized as either macronutrients (needed in relatively large amounts) or micronutrients (needed in smaller quantities). The macronutrients include carbohydrates (including fiber), fats, protein, and water. The micronutrients are minerals and vitamins.

Myths about nutrition:

• The Greeks and Romans regulated nutrition on the theory of the four humors circulating throughout the body (warm, cold, moist, dry). Classical physicians tried to correct an excess of cold and moist “humors” by providing hot, dry foods and vice versa. For example, a woman’s body was seen as wetter and colder than a man’s and, therefore, she was to avoid food that would make her even colder and wetter, such as fish, eels, and meat from newborn animals.
• Many parents during the Roman empire who were influenced by doctors such as Soranus and Galen often denied their babies colostrum (protein-rich breast milk) believing it was too thick and not good for the child’s digestion. They regularly gave their babies to a wet-nurse (though the mother’s milk was usually the best) and were likely to wean their babies onto foods that lacked adequate nutrition, such as diluted cereals and mixtures of honey or wine with softened bread.
• Most likely due to poor nutrition as children, many Greeks and Romans were shorter than people today. Men from Pompeii, for example, averaged 5 ft. 5-½ in. and women averaged 5 ft. 2 in.
• The Ebers papyrus (1350 B.C.) suggests placing drops of crushed and roasted ox liver in the eyes of people suffering from night blindness. While Egyptians most likely were not aware of vitamin A, liver does have high levels of the vitamin which help maintains normal vision in dim light.
• Alaska Natives have the highest rates of botulism in the world due to the way they butcher and store indigenous food (such as seals) under the ground in plastic bags.
• A 1552 B.C. Egyptian papyrus provides an early description of what seems to be diabetes and specifically mentions polyuria (frequent urination). Up until the eleventh century A.D., diabetes was typically diagnosed by “water tasters” who drank the urine of those thought to have diabetes. Those who had sweet-tasting urine were thought to have diabetes mellitus (Latin for “honey”), or Type 1 diabetes.
• Ancient Mesoamerican cultures such as the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec used chocolate as medicine and as a medium in which other medicines were taken.

Nutrition facts:

• Salt is the most common seasoning mentioned in the Bible. Salt was a vital mineral that was not only essential to life, but also preserved other foods critical for survival. Salt was so important that it was also often used as a form of currency or as a unit of exchange.
• Temperature can affect appetite. A cold person is more likely to eat more food.
• Minerals constitute 4% of our body weight. Unlike carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, they do not furnish energy. Minerals include calcium, iron, and sodium. 
• A deficiency of calcium/vitamin D during infancy or childhood results in rickets (deformed bones). The bones can become so weak that they can’t withstand the body’s weight, causing bow legs or knock knees. Once malformed, bones cannot be straightened. A person will usually swallow around 250 times during dinner.
• Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to anemia, neural disorders, and psychotic behavior. Women who are planning to get pregnant are encouraged to have healthy levels of Vitamin B12 to prevent potential birth defects.
• Americans collectively consume approximately 900 billion calories each day.
• In the United States, it is estimated that every adult unconsciously consumes one pound of insects each year due to garden produce, poor restaurant and home hygiene, and commercial foods for which the USDA allows a certain amount of insect fragments. Peanut butter, for example, is allowed to have 30 insect fragments per 100 grams.
• Some children and pregnant women crave non-nutritive substances, such as paint, plaster, rocks, and dirt. These cravings may suggest the person lacks certain minerals, such as iron.
•  Americans eat nearly 40 billion hamburgers a year.
• An adult can starve to death within 8-12 weeks. In the final stages of starvation, adults can experience hallucinations, convulsions, severe muscle pain, and irregular heart rhythms. Organs weakened by starvation may actually burst if food is given too quickly. 
• The best way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories and increase exercise. Experts suggest aiming for a weight loss goal of one pound per week.
• Improved nutrition (as well as vaccinations and antibiotics) has extended the average U.S. lifespan from 30 to 40 years old in the early twentieth century to 70 to 80 years old today.
• Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. Weight gained after one’s early twenties is linked to higher chances of suffering from heart disease, cancer, infertility, gallstones, asthma, and even snoring.
• Eggs contain the highest quality food protein known. All parts of an egg are edible, including the shell which has high calcium content.
• Okinawans are thought to live longer than any other ethnic group and they have healthier hearts and bones. This is largely due to their cultural practice called Hara Hachi Bu, which means they eat just until they are 80% full. Their diet is rich in complex carbohydrates and plant-based foods and is low in fat. They are also physically active. A person will eat an average of 35 tons of food in his or her lifetime, or 1,500 pounds of food a year.

Reference:
http://facts.randomhistory.com

How Does Nutrition Help Bringing Positive Change in Child Behavior

There is a direct link with right food choices and child behavior. Normally we can notice that when a child is not properly nourished, he/she cannot perform well in physical or mental tasks at school or home. Nutrition play an important role in not only physical or mental growth of a child but in child’s behavior as well. This post provides facts and statistics proving that nutrition can help bring positive change regarding child behavior.

Experts have discovered that food can ramp-up children’s behavior. Now recent research and studies have proved that foods and ingredients can, indeed, make a difference. It makes perfect sense that what kids eat affects their behavior. It is well established that poor nutritional intake and deficiencies in zinc, iron, B vitamins and protein can impair brain function and lead to violence and antisocial behavior in children. Nutritional deficiencies, including zinc, magnesium, calcium and essential fatty acids, as well as carbohydrate cravings, have also been noted in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).

Read more: How Does Nutrition Help Bringing Positive Change in Child Behavior

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Healthy Snack Ideas for Your Family

As the health of family is related to our food habits, we can easily make changes in our eating habits for a healthier body and mind. May be we eat a balanced and nutritious food but 'small snacks' in between big meals can make a big difference if our choice is not healthy.

Plan and have ready-to-eat foods that fit into a healthy eating plan. This means plan snacks that help get the recommended daily amounts from each of the main food groups:
- Grains
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Milk
- Meat and Beans Group

Snack ideas from the Fruit Group:

Most people need to eat more fruit, especially whole fruit or cut-up fruit. MyPyramid recommends whole fruit instead of fruit juice for most of your fruit choices. Whole or cut up fruit provides fiber in addition to the vitamins and minerals found in fruit juice.

Try these ideas:

* Fresh fruit available in the crisper in the refrigerator
- Grapes, kiwi, plums, peaches, pears, strawberries, or tangerines

* Fresh fruit available in a bowl on the table or counter
- Apples, bananas, nectarines, oranges, pears

* Fresh fruit already cut-up and available in the refrigerator
- Cantaloupe, mangos, or pineapple
- Always keep cut fruit in the refrigerator

* Single servings of fruit created at home and refrigerated in individual containers.
- This could be a mixture of fresh, dried, canned and/or frozen fruit.

* Single servings of fruit purchased in cans, cartons, or plastic containers.
- Applesauce, apple chunks, peaches, raisins, pineapple or mixed fruit

* Single servings of dried fruit, divided at home, or purchased in individual packages: Apples, apricots, peaches, raisins, or plums.

* Chilled fruit salad as a special treat. Have it waiting in the refrigerator!
Remember: always keep cut fruit refrigerated.

These are just a few of the many ideas that you can consider. Think about your budget, schedule and nutritional needs of your children to plan a snack idea. Remember, ideas for health wise snacks also include food choices that help get the daily-recommended amounts from the other major food groups as well. The main idea is to have available those foods that help your children to get the best nutrition.

By: Glenda Warren, Associate Professor, Foods and Nutrition/EFNEP

Source link: University of Florida/IFAS Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences.

20 tips-Learn how to keep your hair healthy?

Good nutrition is essential for healthy hair growth, as it is important for whole body.

But what are the other factors which play an important role in keeping your hair healthy?

These are some facts about hair, and at the part of the article would provide you with 20 tips which guide you to keep your hair healthy.

Some facts about hair:

There are, initially, approximately 100,000 hairs on our head. Each grows independently of the others, in three stages: 90 percent in the 'growth' stage, lasting as long as four-to-five years; 10 percent in the 'resting' stage, lasting several months--until the hair falls out because of new growth underneath--and the 'new' stage, when increased cellular activity in the hair follicles produces new hairs.

Normally, we lose about 50 hairs each day, shampooing, brushing or meditating silently. Abnormal hair loss can result from common problems involving both hormone levels and mineral uptake; from metabolic disorders or problems in the scalp and hair shafts, as well as from psychological imbalances. Fortunately, women rarely suffer the equivalent of male-pattern baldness, and even then, it's usually mild and later in life.

In men, male-pattern baldness can begin as early as the mid-teens. Heredity, androgen hormones and aging are the known culprits, although it's not yet known precisely how androgenic hormones affect hair follicles in producing hair loss. Nevertheless, the majority of males will be partly or fully bald by age 60.

Temporary hair loss (telogen effluvium) or area baldness (alopecia areata) can result from stopping the use of birth-control pills, the hormonal changes of pregnancy and its aftermath, severe emotional stress, surgery or acute illness. However, by the time you notice it's happening--one-to-three months after the cause--it's already being corrected, precluding the necessity for treatment.

Diffuse thinning can also result from metabolic imbalances or disorders, such as large doses of vitamin A, certain medications (including chemotherapy for cancer), diabetes, anemia or iron deficiency through blood loss, rapid weight loss through unskillful diets, and from malnutrition or starvation. Likewise, pulling hair too tightly in braids or pony tails; constantly wearing very tight wigs or hats, or hair-straightening regimens and permanents, applied too often or improperly, can result in hair breaking easily, as well as diffuse thinning. Again, hair ususally grows back once the underlying problem is corrected.

Ven. Rechung Rinpoche, in his book, Tibetan Medicine, concludes: "Symptoms of a deficiency of the bones: one's teeth and hair fall out." Likewise, the former personal physician to the Dalai Lama, Dr. Yeshi Dondon, in The Secret Oral Teachings On the Eight Branches of the Science of Healing, states that: "Frequent bathing gives greater virility, bodily heat, strength, long life and lively complexion, and dispels itching due to perspiration, lassitude, thirst and overheating of the body." Nevertheless, he adds: "Washing the head with warm water causes a loss of hair and visual strength."

20 tips:

1- Avoid overconsumption of salt (most vegetables have their own natural sodium) and sugar; skip them entirely, if possible.

2- Same with alcohol and tobacco, also contributing causes of hair loss and dandruff.

3- Avoid excessive shampooing--once daily is usually sufficient, using a mild, unmedicated, nonalkaline shampoo (organic ingredients, whenever possible). All bathing or showering strips from your skin the oil which traps water and keeps your skin moist, so avoid harsh soaps, especially those containing deodorant. Also avoid astringents, unless you have oily skin, in which case you can wash/shampoo more often. Those with 'dry' hair may follow shampoos with acid rinses or with oil-based conditioners (again, using organic ingredients whenever possible).

4- Try headstands--or any position lowering your head below your body--several times daily (15 minutes each time).

5- Massage your scalp by hand, or with an electric vibrator.

6- Avoid excessive mental labor, as well as mental stress, both of which reduce scalp circulation by constricting blood vessels. Meditation and mental visualization and relaxation techniques are helpful.

7- Because minerals are even more important to healthy hair than proteins, include both in your diet. Nutritional deficiencies can cause hair loss, as well as premature graying. In some cases, a copper deficiency may cause premature graying. Try one 2-mg. capsule daily of copper from chelated copper gluconate. Overall, eat a balanced, high-quality diet (organic, whenever possible), and/or supplement with good multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, trace-element and amino acid formulas.

8- Just as moderate exercise increases bone density and can improve hearing, it also improves blood circulation in your scalp.

9- Periodic, scientific juice-fasting removes toxic chemicals built up in your body, especially from chemically-grown foods, the air, the water and drugs used, thus producing healthier hair and preventing premature graying (and aging); average adult carries 5-10 lbs., accumulated over a lifetime!

10- An ounce (each) of sage and rosemary, left for 24 hours in a pint of good water, provides a tonic for treating dandruff.

11- Apple-cider vinegar, applied as a rinse, is another folk remedy for dandruff: heat only slightly, pour on, and let it 'set' for an hour on a towel-draped head, before shampooing.

12- Vitamin E, rubbed on the scalp, is also an effective remedy against dandruff.

13- Rinse immediately after swimming in chlorine- or otherwise-polluted water.

14- Avoid prolonged exposure to harsh, direct sunlight. Ultraviolet rays do the most damage, so avoid the hours they're most intense--10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (11 a.m. to 3 p.m. during Daylight Savings). Even in the shade, ultraviolet intensity can be 50% of that in bright sunlight, while sandy beaches can actually intensify UV exposure by 25% (100% in snow). Same on hazy or cloudy days, when 70-to-80% of UV rays reach the ground. Most skin cancers, for example, are related to the total amount of sunlight absorbed, so do meter yourself.

15- A correlation has been drawn between excess stress and hair loss, even among modern teenagers, so do try to reduce stressors in your life, as much as possible. Using your wisdom in finding ways to manage stress is fundamental to acheiving better hair and skin vitality, not to mention the other psysiological, psychological and spiritual payoffs.

16- With 50% of U.S. women now coloring their hair, manufacturers have perfected far-less-damaging products, although do avoid the hottest settings of hair-curlers, curling irons and hair-dryers, both to prevent hair damage, as well as avoid skin burning.

17- Don't assume that ingesting more protein will stop or prevent hair loss. The U.S. has, by one estimate, 50 times more baldness than low-protein-diet nations such as China, India, Japan and Mexico.

18- Instead, focus on appropriate exercise and on good (organic, whenever possible), balanced nutrition, including whole grains, nuts and seeds; fresh, raw fruits and vegetables (especially silicon-rich kelp, onions, nettle, comfrey and alfalfa); raw (unfertile, whenever possible) egg yolks once or twice a week, and if you still use milk, goat's rather than cow's, usually in the soured form--kefir, yogurt, etc.

19- Also, try to be accepting of what Life has dealt you, genetically, understanding that even though all of the above can help with hair problems--especially those caused by nutritional deficiencies--all but 2% of male-pattern baldness, for instance, results from an overproduction of sex hormones which thickens the galea--the top sheet of scalp tissue--thus constricting the ability of blood capillaries to feed hair roots.

20- Finally, for your entire head, as Dr. Yeshi Donden concludes in 'The Secret Oran Teachings On the Eight Branches of the Science of Healing' : "Always avoid the two conditions leading to illness--unwholesome diet and behavior--by means of mindfulness. Avoid harmful actions of the body, speech and mind, and devote yourself to what is right. Neither torment your senses of taste and so forth, nor overindulge in sensual pleasures."

As shampoos and soaps strip the body's own natural oils off the skin--leading to unnecessary dryness, especially during cold weather, it is better to use organic products. Obviously, a portion of everything you put on your skin is absorbed through the pores. Hence, anything you use should be organic.

Source link: haircare