Month: September 2018
We all know how the cost of living can often seem to be unmanageable, forcing us to use most of our available resources for the simple necessities of survival such as energy (gas, petrol or diesel and electricity), housing and nutrition, leaving very little left over for savings or luxuries.
But what about those in Africa and beyond? Those who are forced to survive without the even the bare basics? Malnutrition can lead to terrible deficiencies such as anaemia, beriberi, scurvy, rickets and kwashiorkor, as well as devastating and lifelong effects in children and babies.
The Great Divide
Many people are struggling to maintain their quality of life these days as global food prices skyrocket. The recent oil crisis influences both the production and transportation of food and is just one element that trickles down into our grocery bills.
While the price of daily sustenance increases, many producers are experiencing a sharp rise in production costs. Food producers, especially in first world countries, are looking to specialised products and progressive methods to supply a smaller number of consumers who are able to pay more for gourmet produce.
This divide between the needs of the destitute, and decisions of the wealthy, comes at a cost. Organic coffee, for example, costs less than regular coffee bean farming, but the yields are smaller thus allowing producers to charge more for less.
Supplying the Necessities
Soup kitchens, community bakeries and other feeding schemes dont just aim to feed mouths, but rather nourish multitudes within ludicrous financial constraints.
How is this possible? Peanut butter on brown bread with a glass of milk is a tried and tested meal used in schools, refugee camps and emergencies to supply the basics of nutrition without breaking the bank. Here a breakdown of a basic nutritional meal:
Milk: As we all know, milk is one of our main sources of calcium, which is essential for the healthy structure of bones and teeth especially in developing bodies. Packed with nutrients, essential amino acids and vitamins; a glass of milk is said to contain over a third of our daily vitamin intake, and is also good for lining an empty stomach to prevent gastric acids from eating away at the lining and causing ulcers.
Whole Wheat Brown Bread: Brown bread is much less processed than white bread, contains fewer calories and is high in fibre and nutrients essential to healthy living (including Vitamin B and E, Iron and Zinc).
Peanut Butter: Like most legume products, peanut butter is incredibly nourishing. The household favourite of millions around the world, peanut butter is extremely high in protein and fibre as well as mono and polyunsaturated fats – wash it down with a glass of milk and youre well on your way to a healthy, cheap meal.
Soup Kitchens, Bakeries and Feeding Schemes
Given the resourcefulness, ingenuity and community spirit of the people of Africa, there are many who are making great strides in creating sustainable food production and distribution points like mobile soup kitchens and bakeries made from prefabricated structures and old containers such as shipping containers. Although these projects are doing a wonderful job of making an impact into malnutrition and starvation in Africa, they simply arent self-sufficient at this point. From teaching about good nutrition to buying or growing ingredients, these facilities and projects rely on donations and fundraising to feed those in need.
How Can You Level The Playing Field?
You dont need to donate a kidney, give up delicacies or live on morsels to help alleviate starvation in Africa and facilitate sustainability. Consumer consciousness coupled with a social spirit is more than enough to assist in saving the day.
There are many online charities devoted to collecting money from those who have resources to spare in order to help those who do not have anything to begin with. Many of these charities focus on nutrition and with guarantees that your donation will reach those in need, all you need to do is click the mouse and know that you are making a difference.
By being aware of what foods and brands you buy, as well as the subtleties between nutritional value and value-for-money, you can save a small fortune without having to give up the luxuries youve earned for yourself and have that small amount to spare each month to help the people of Africa.
A small sacrifice could be the difference between life and death in Africa.
It is commonly believed that if you add too much muscle quickly, you will add fat at the same time. That occurs in the muscle gaining process. It is inevitable and you have to know and agree with that if you want to gain muscle mass. Calories are a must and the more the better if you want to gain bigger muscle mass to your body. For the extra calories, you can’t direct where they go, some of them will go for growing your muscle, some won’t. And the left calories would generate fat.
If you want to make your body shape changes in a short period of time, you should focus on gaining muscle mass in a period of time and then focus on losing additional body fat in another period of time.
In order to slash your extra fat, you have to increase your metabolic rate. Muscle level controls your metabolic rate. So getting muscle mass first is good for dropping your fat. For this reason, build a bulking phase of muscle is a good start.
Based on what we get here, your goal of gaining weight should be: gain small amount of fat and big amount of muscle as you can. In this step, your main purpose is to not rid of fat completely but to get them as little as possible.
It can be accomplished by three ways.
Count the exact additional calories you need.
Instead of talking about “optimal nutrition”, we are going to talk about “super nutrition” here. Getting extra calories is needed to make your muscles larger, but eating as much as you can of random foods beyond what you need to make your muscle tissue larger will cause you to gain more fat than you should.
15 to 20 percent of extra calories of your daily needs are a good point for your muscle growth. If your calorie intake is in this range, you don’t need any more calories.
Be careful your nutrition sources.
Most of the extra food should be in the form of lean proteins, carbohydrates that are high in fiber and unsaturated, healthy fats. Don’t just eat everything you like. You should eat something good for you. Such like eating lean meat and high fiber carbohydrates for stabilizing your blood sugar level and stay away from high amount of saturated fats.
Start your cardio sessions.
Cardio workout is less important for build bulk muscle, but it will help you gain less fat. You don’t need to go overboard, it is just an additional workout. Just keep cardio workout high strength and short. 10 to 20 minutes long workouts are perfect type for keeping from losing muscle mass.
Once you’ve gained big muscle mass that you are pleased, and then it’s time to switch to fat loss exercises and focus on that to help you drop extra body fat and keep your muscle mass level. You will gain muscle and fat at the same time. It is an inevitable truth. The best course of action is just to keep the fat gain at a minimum instead of attempting to avoid it altogether.
People on weight loss programs often focus so much on losing weight that they forget an important aspect of staying healthy that is, providing nutrition to the body.
If you are on a weight loss program, you should follow the important diet tips given here.
Include A Lot Of Vegetables And Fruits In Your Diet
Vegetables and fruits are a good source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They are low in calories and high in fiber. Therefore, you should include plenty of vegetables and fruits, of varying colors, in your diet. This will help you to lose weight faster and also keep you full.
Avoid Empty Calories
Empty calories refer to food items that are high in calories but low in nutrition. Some examples of such food items are aerated drinks, French fries, cookies, white bread and so forth. These food items are not useful for the body. They make the digestive system sluggish and inefficient. It is best for a person to refrain from consuming these food items irrespective of whether he or she is trying to lose weight or not.
Have Small Meals At Regular Intervals
Instead of having three big meals a day, you should eat five to six small meals at small intervals of three to four hours. Eating small meals helps in improving metabolism. It also helps in easy digestion and maintaining uniform energy level throughout the day. You should include a variety of foods in your meals so that your body gets proper nutrition. For example, if you have a sandwich, which is high in carbohydrates, for breakfast, you should have fruits and nuts in between breakfast and lunch, and tofu or lean meat, which are high in proteins, for lunch. In this manner, your body will get all the essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins.
Never Skip Breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You should never skip it; otherwise you will tend to consume high calorie foods during the later part of the day. A wholesome and healthy breakfast is essential for good health.
Read Food Labels
Before buying any packaged or processed food, you should read its label. Check the nutrition facts. Learn to interpret the information on food labels to avoid falling prey to marketing gimmicks. For example, a low-fat food or a low-sugar food does not necessarily mean the food is low in calories.
Do Not Completely Eliminate Carbohydrates From Your Diet
Many people on weight loss programs make the mistake of avoiding carbohydrates all together. Carbohydrates are a good source of energy. A well balanced diet should contain around 40 percent of carbohydrates. For your daily carbohydrate requirement, you should choose whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.
Drink Plenty Of Water
Water helps the body in transportation and assimilation of nutrients. You should consume at least eight glasses of water everyday. That will not only help your body absorb nutrients and eliminate toxins, but will also help you feel full.
It is best to seek advice of a dietician or a nutrition consultant before starting a weight loss program. They will be able to chart a diet plan for you so that you can lose weight without compromising on nutrition.
In this day and age, its almost impossible for parents to determine what their kids can and cant eat. There are so many products these days that are truly unhealthy for kids, not to mention everyone. But these issues couldnt be more important in the junk food and the candy that kids consume on a daily basis. There are certain types of candy that could be dangerous and they might have averse affects on a childs health. TOPPS Ring Pop Space Gems, for example, may seem like something that would be unhealthy for your kids, but after looking closely at the nutrition facts for these fun candy rings, they are actually low in calories and their sugar content is much less than that of a can of soda.
To be specific, Ring Pop Space Gems have 70 calories per ring pop and only eleven grams of sugar. Also, they dont have any fat content which is a plus for kids. They can get their fat from other junk food. These tasty treats only have fourteen carbohydrates per serving and they only have around two percent of the sodium consumed per day which amounts to about fifty five milligrams. Theres also no cholesterol in these colorful ring pops.
Compared to other candy products, like Hersheys Golden Almond Solitaires, Ring Pop Space Gems are a much healthier choice for kids. One serving of these chocolate squares consists of two hundred and thirty four calories, almost four times the amount of the Ring Pops. Of the 234 calories, 137 of them are fat calories, which is twenty three percent of the fat calories one should consume in a day. Theres also more cholesterol than the Ring Pops and they have five more carbohydrates per serving and four more grams of sugar per serving.
If you were to let your children eat Charms Blow Pop Assorted lollipops instead of the Space Gems, they would be ingesting a lot more sugar and a lot more calories. A Charms Super Blow Pop contains 127 calories in one serving and has around thirty six grams of carbohydrates instead of the Gems 70 and 11 grams, respectively. It also has double the sugar content.
Inevitably, children are going to ingest a certain amount of junk food, but at least parents can control what they eat and Ring Pop Space Gems are a great choice. Other sweets hold a much higher calorie, fat, and sugar content than Ring Pops. If all these things dont convince you, theres always the fact that you can wear it as you eat it.