Fruit salads make healthy desserts

Fruit keeps us healthy and desserts make us happy. But sadly most modern desserts are made with too many processed and refined foods, and are packed with so much sugar, that we have lost the taste for the natural desserts like fruit. Slice and mix together crunchy fruit like apples, cherries, or pomegranates, squishy fruit like bananas, papaya, melon, and juicy oranges, blueberries, or grapes in a fruit salad. Then there are the exotic fruits like lychee, guava, passion fruit, watermelon, figs, Curuba, and the oh-so-delicious mango!

Fruit salad is a tasty dessert for the whole family and can be preserved for a few days in the refrigerator; sprinkling it with lemon juices keeps the sliced fruit from browning too quickly. Fruit are obviously essential for health, containing vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, energy, and fiber. You can eat fruit salad as part of the daily requirement for fruit as recommended by health professionals. But what happens when you try to make it more like a dessert by adding cream and sugar?

Then what you get is a high-calorie treat. Sure, the fat in the cream leaves you more satisfied but it is unhealthy saturated fat, and while the refined sugar makes the brain release more serotonin, the feel-good hormone, this sugar is quickly absorbed in the blood and stored as fat in your body. A much healthier alternative is to mix up the fruit salad in a yogurt base.



Yogurt has protein, calcium, and probiotics, all of which are essential for our health. But natural unprocessed yogurt also has a tart flavor and creamy texture which goes really well with the sweet and juicy fruit.

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Salads: filling and nutritious

The basic salad is made with fresh vegetables, sliced and tossed together in a salad bowl, with dressing added for taste. The different colored vegetables contain a variety of essential nutrients, and when tossed together in a salad, the colors trigger those parts of the brain which are linked to the taste buds, whetting our appetite to eat that salad. Vegetables are also high in fiber and low in calories, which makes salads so filling that you won't feel hungry for hours after eating a small bowlful. Salad dressing should be some olive oil, lemon juice, garlic paste or vinegar, sprinkled with pepper or some other spices. Avoid a saturated-fat heavy dressing like mayonnaise and don't sprinkle salt on salads, because vegetables already contain nutrients like sodium, magnesium, chloride, and potassium.

To have a chewy texture in salads, people add small pieces of bacon, chicken, turkey, or fish. For vegetarians, things like mushrooms, tofu, cheese, or cooked beans and corn give that same chewy texture, while keeping the salad healthy and nutritious!

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Massage warm-up

A deep relaxing massage is useful for athletes because it aids in quicker muscle recovery after intense training session. Massages in general help ordinary people beat stress and rejuvenate tired and sore muscles. But in Sports Medicine a pre-event massage is used to stimulate blood circulation and keep ligaments, tendons, and muscles flexible, before an intense workout or athletic event.

This pre-event massage uses fast paced strokes and lots of stretching to get the blood pumping and muscle tissues ready to work effortlessly. The rapid strokes also help to mentally animate the athletes to hype them up right before a game. Interestingly the alternative medical system of Ayurveda also has a pre-exercise oil massage called Abhyanga. This is supposed to tone the muscles, boost blood circulation, and prevent injury.

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Refreshing cold milk

A glass of refreshing cold milk is a treat on a hot summer day. And of course milk is so important for girls because it contains bone-strengthening calcium, antioxidant nutrients like phosphorus and zinc, and vitamins A, B, and C. Milk is also an excellent vegetarian source of protein, which is needed in building and repairing muscle tissue.

Studies done with athletes over the past decade suggest that cold milk is the best drink to have after an intense and draining workout session. It has the complete package of carbohydrates and protein, which supply energy while repairing muscle tissue, speeding up muscle recovery. Dr. Stuart Phillips, an associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, says, "A glass of cold milk is refreshing, it rehydrates you and it helps restore muscle. It's also the source of nine essential nutrients so you get everything in one convenient package." Of course, it is best to drink skimmed or low-fat milk, produced with clean organic methods.

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Swimming to relax and workout

Swimming is fun and relaxing. The water cools down your body and provides buoyancy to relax the muscles and joints. Swimming is one of the best stress busters, and as you move around in the water or swim laps, the muscles get a good workout but you don't actually feel tired until you're out of the water!



Pretty Russian model Natalia Vodianova said in an interview with Spanish Es magazine: "I love swimming. I love being in the water, it's so relaxing.....I love the pool at our mill house, close to London. I also love the beaches in Uruguay and playing in the waves with the kids."

Swimming is a great workout and 30 minutes can burn 200 calories, if you're mixing it up: doing a few laps, lolling around, jumping off the board, diving etc. If you swim laps consistently and at a vigorous pace, then 30 minutes will consume nearly 500 calories. But most people don't have the stamina, or the space, to swim laps for that long. The major problems that people have in swimming are: the lack of technique, and the fear that they will swallow water while breathing.

Swimmers have great bodies because swimming exercises every muscle group. To swim properly your body has to glide through the water; in freestyle, push your arms over and down in a complete motion, while using the lateral muscles of your back to pull forward. A gentle hip roll at the end of the stroke and paddling by the feet give extra power. The breaststroke uses more of the leg muscles, but here too the same principle of gliding the body through the water applies. The backstroke is ideal for those who can't breathe properly while doing freestyle; it helps me relax because the ears are submerged underwater and all the noise is filtered out. Alternative to swimming laps are water aerobics; doing star jumps, running, and kicking underwater while on the shallow side.

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Break the cigarette habit

The health risks of smoking have been apparent for the last fifty years, and warning labels on cigarette packs have been around since the 1960s. And yet after all this time, the World Health Organization says tobacco kills nearly five and a half million people each year. There is international acceptance of the health problems from tobacco, and the WTO has a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which requires member countries to implement large, rotating health warnings on all tobacco products, implement no smoking bans in public places, and strive for alternative crops to tobacco. In Britain smoking in indoor public places was banned in July 2007 and since then the number of heart attacks has fallen dramatically, according to researchers at Bath University.

The problem is that farmers in some poor African countries depend on the tobacco crop to make a decent living, and these countries are hesitant about signing the FCTC. For that matter, even in rich countries like the US tobacco farming continues, even though the government has the resources to subsidize these farmers into growing alternative crops. In that country they use taxes to discourage smoking and earn revenues; these taxes are imposed by the federal, state, and city administrations. For example in New York City the overall cost of a pack of premium cigarettes would be above $10, with nearly $5.85 of that in taxes. But the cigarette manufacturers are not deterred by taxation; they have enough financial resources and use deceptive marketing practices to ensnare unsuspecting young people into picking up the cigarette habit.

Barbara Izzarelli of Norwich smoked Salem cigarettes for more than 25 years and developed larynx cancer. At age 36, she had to have surgery that resulted in the removal of her larynx. She now lives with a hole in her throat and no sense of smell. She can only eat soft foods. Salem cigarettes were designed with nicotine above the threshold for addiction. Furthermore manufacturer RJ Reynolds began a campaign in the early 1970s to market Salems to minors in order to establish a long-term demand. Barbara Izzarelli won an $8 million lawsuit against RJ Reynolds on Wednesday, May 26, 2010. This could rise to $24 million if she is further awarded punitive damages. The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is prevented by law from banning cigarettes altogether, or from reducing the addictive nicotine levels to zero. However David A Kessler, a former FDA commissioner, says that they should reduce the amount of nicotine in a cigarette from about 10 milligrams to less than 1 milligram. "If you do this, you can save 200,000 to 300,000 lives a year," he said during a forum marking the anniversary of legislation that put tobacco under federal regulation for the first time.

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Summer workout clothing - comfort and style

The lack of proper workout clothing, suited to a person's sense of style and comfort level, plays a big part in whether they actually start a workout or not. You would wear a different outfit for a workout like Yoga or Pilates than for running outdoors. Some girls don't like wearing revealing clothing like just a sports bra and shorts, even in the hot summer months. Those who are not in good shape would probably prefer hiding under over-sized T-shirts and baggy sweat pants, regardless of whether they are working inside a cool gym or outdoors. If your workout has a lot of upper body movement, like in boxing or rope jumping, then T-shirts (above) are a bad idea because the sleeves ride up into your armpits and you are constantly pulling them free.

While traditional cotton clothing was considered good for workouts, because the material is breathable, it actually causes problems of riding-up and becoming sticky when soaked in sweat. Material like Lycra or spandex is better because it stretches with the body and effectively absorbs and releases sweat into the air. Tanks and vests in general are better than T-shirts for most athletic activities. But even if you're wearing a comfortable tank top, your breasts still need the support of a sports bra.

Without the support of a bra, the average breast moves up and down through a range of about six centimeters during physical activity. This can cause discomfort and pain during an intense workout. Over the last 30 years sports bras have become universal as workout clothing, and athletic women and models really look good in just a sports bra and shorts. Sports bras with a thicker front material are designed to hide erect nipples; a common occurrence in workouts.



Attractive Russian model Irina Shayk is all comfort and style in a sports bra and shorts out shopping in New York. On the right an athletic girl in sports bra, shorts, and shoes. Many people don't like wearing socks with shoes, while working out in summer, because they heat up the feet. But socks are essential for padding that protects toes and toenails, they also absorb sweat and prevent your shoes from becoming too smelly. Runner's wear socks made with Coolmax or some other material, rather than cotton. For women the central problem in wearing shorts is the riding up factor. Because of the way our bodies are designed, with wide hips and heavy thighs, shorts constantly ride up into the crotch area and cause chafing. Spandex shorts don't normally ride up but are too revealing. Another way out is to wear skorts, a style of women's shorts that look like skirts. Look for workout skorts for maximum comfort and style.

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Fresh food at Farmers' Markets

Fresh food is better than processed food, but organically produced fresh food is the best for health. A farmers' market is the best place to get organically grown fresh food, which includes not just healthy fruit, vegetables, and grains, but also meat, chicken, egg, and dairy. There's enough fresh food for vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores. Meat sold at farmers' markets is considered ethically better than that from the meat industry, because the livestock is raised humanely, breathing fresh air, eating their natural food, and not being injected with hormones.

Most local farmers, who sell their produce in such markets, usually practice organic farming, or at least limit the amount of chemical fertilizer or pesticides they use. Organic fruit and vegetables taste better and their farming does not damage the land on which they are grown. Organic food sold in the supermarkets or health food stores is very expensive, because it has been transported over long distances. But farmers bring their organically grown vegetables and fruits to the local farmers' market and sell it fresh within a few days. This is better for the environment and for the local economy! Vegan actress Emily Deschanel told Health magazine, "Going to a farmers' market is a lot cheaper than going to a pricier health-food market."

There are nearly 500 Farmers’ Markets in Britain and over 4,800 in the United States. The US government also has a coupon program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) to make farmers' markets affordable for low-income groups. Their focus seems to be on increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables, which are good for health, and also help tackle the obesity epidemic.

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Wearing hats for sun protection

Summer brings with it increased outdoor activities. But excessive exposure to the sun will wrinkle and damage the skin in your old age. According to the World Health Organization, 60,000 people die each year from skin cancers, caused by ultraviolet radiation from too much sun. And young people are most at risk from sun damage to their sensitive skins. Health professionals advise people to slap on sunscreen, but wearing hats and sunglasses also affords protection from the sun. And this has been proved in a study published in The Archives of Ophthalmology:

The study found that people who said they had been exposed to the sun for more than five hours a day in their teens and 30's were more than twice as likely to develop early signs of the eye disease, age-related maculopathy, within 10 years than were participants who spent less than two hours a day in the sun. But among those who were exposed to the most sunlight, wearing hats and sunglasses at least half the time cut the risk in half.



Sunlight of course gives our bodies Vitamin D, the all-important sunshine vitamin, but all that takes is less than 20 minutes early in the day or in the evening. For the rest of the day, avoid the sun, and if you can't then wear sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses. The American Cancer Society recommends a hat with at least a 2-to-3-inch wide brim all around to protect the neck, ears, eyes, forehead, and scalp. Yes, that's right, a long thick mane of hair DOES NOT protect your scalp from the sun!

Hat protection is more important for children and almost all primary schools have a "hat policy". Getting teenagers, particularly boys, to wear hats for sun protection is more difficult because they don't think it looks cool. If at all, boys would rather wear baseball caps. Hats are a fashion accessory for women, as shown by Behati Prinsloo above right, worn on special occasions and they also help to keep unruly hair in place!

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Sucking in stomach exercise

During respiration, part of the air that you breathe in, goes to your stomach. Athletes blow out air from the stomach while doing high-impact exercises like running to prevent side stitches. Some fitness trainers began advising clients to suck in their stomachs while doing exercises like Pilates on the floor or on stability balls. The thinking behind this is that sucking in the stomach targets the transverse abdominal muscle, which wraps around the torso from front to back and from the ribs to the pelvis, and is the deepest layer of abdominal muscle. This muscle stabilizes the spine, helps in breathing, and in squeezing the internal organs.

The idea came from Australian physiotherapists in 1996, who used this 'sucking in stomach' technique to treat patients with lower back pain. Carolyn Richardson, one of the original Australian researchers, said, "We only wrote the book about treating back pain. I've found that for the fitness industry, it's quite a poor instruction." For one, she said that exercisers mistakenly hold their breath while sucking in. And they sometimes do it while lifting weights or doing other intense exercises, which is wrong.

So it turned out to be a fitness fad. But sucking in the stomach as a separate exercise in itself, has been practiced for a long time in Yoga. It's called Bahya Pranayama or Uddiyana Bandha, and is done on an empty stomach, preferably early in the morning. You start by breathing in and then exhale completely from the mouth, bend forward slightly and pull the abdominal organs as far up as you can. Stay in this position for as many seconds as you can, keeping the hands on the waist or on the knees for leverage. Repeat no more than 3 times. This sucking in stomach exercise is said to be good for posture, stomach ailments, uterus prolapse, hernia, urinary and prostate problems, and it helps in keeping the stomach flat.

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Obese persons weighing scale

A healthy woman of average size has 27% of body fat. The rest of her weight comes from muscle tissue (35%) and bones (12%), while the remaining 25 percent is from skin, blood, organs, hair, etc. This healthy woman moves towards obesity because of unhealthy eating habits and reduced activity levels, accumulating layers of fat first on her belly and buttocks, and later on the other parts of her body. She can see clearly that she's obese, and does not need a weighing scale or the other methods of measuring and weighing fat.

According to the Population Reference Bureau, obesity rates have increased by 37 percent between 1998 and 2006, and one in three adults living in the United States is obese. Obviously a weighing scale cannot be a guide to the different composition of muscle, bone, and fat in the total weight. But for obese persons, the increased weight has come because of the accumulation of layers upon layers of saturated fat. When such persons start eating healthy, and raise activity levels to burn off the extra fat, the weighing scale is a good way to measure their progress. The Biggest Loser uses weighing scales! Weekly weigh-ins work for obese persons, but once you've got into a more healthy shape, the body weight does not change dramatically. At this point it is better to use the waist-to-hip ratio or the skin pinch test to measure your body fat.

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Activity and Exercise

Walking at a normal pace is an everyday activity, while brisk walking which these ladies are doing is an exercise. Brisk walking will burn many more calories, and it will raise the heart and breathing rate more than walking at a normal pace. Vigorous exercise is certainly better than just being active, but raising general activity levels is also beneficial. Much better than just sitting on your behind. In a study by scientists at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, it was found that while lack of exercise causes an increased risk of developing high blood pressure and other health problems, even low activity levels are problematic.



Household chores like making your bed, doing the laundry, vacuuming the floor, doing the dishes, etc, are all activities that burn calories. They won't give you the health benefits of a vigorous aerobic exercise, but in that Northwestern University study it was found that such activity can help prevent the development of hypertension. "Ten minutes of exercise has at least an hour of effects on your body," says Dr. Robert Gerszten of Massachusetts General Hospital. Your heart rate rapidly drops back to normal when you quit moving, usually in 10 minutes or so.

Obviously activity cannot be a substitute for exercise. You need vigorous exercise to get the health benefits, but at least activity counts for burning a few calories. Some kinds of activities are more vigorous and get your heart rate up, like working in the yard.



Gardening burns away many calories from all the digging, pulling, lifting, watering, raking, and pushing the lawn mower. If you've been doing a whole hour of yard work, surely this can be a substitute for exercise? Yes, if it's been a rigorous one hour, and no, if you've just been pottering about doing a little pruning.



Some types of exercise just don't have an everyday activity counterpart...like Yoga. In your normal day to day routine you will never be bending over backwards! Yoga moves your joints and muscles through the full range of their motion, providing flexibility, strength, and making you feel young. It's a specialized exercise that cannot be substituted with any activity.

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