Good Fish Oils For Good Health

Good Fish Oils

Most people know that consuming good fish oils rich with omega 3 fatty acids can enhance both physical and mental health. Studies have shown that health benefits of a fish oil is almost endless as both a preventive and a treatment for a variety of conditions.

What Can Those Good Fish Oils Do For You?

For those of you who might not have heard about what the fatty acids can do for you, here are a few of the benefits of those omega 3s.

Improves the condition of hair and skin

Strengthens the immune system

Lowers triglyceride levels

Lowers blood pressure

Helps treat and perhaps treat heart disease

May help in the prevention of diabetes

Contributes to joint health and reduces the inflammation of arthritis

Slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease

Reduces stress and anxiety

Can help reduce symptoms of various mental illnesses

While the list of benefits can go on and on this shortened list should at least give you some idea of just how healthy those omega 3 supplements are for your health. However, knowing what a fish supplement can do for you and knowing what to look for in fish oil is not the same thing. Here is how to get those oils and those omega 3 fatty acids.

Eating Fish Vs. Taking Supplements

The health benefits you receive from fish oils are linked to the omega 3 fatty acids. These omega 3’s are essential to good health and keeping your body performing as it should. However, the omega 3 that are most necessary for good health are only found in certain varieties of sea food with the largest amounts in fatty fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, Hoki, sardines, and other such fish. Unfortunately, consumers don’t eat as much of this kind of fish as they need to get those omega 3 fatty acids because many of these fish contain high levels of heavy metals, toxins and other pollutants due to the contamination of our oceans. This makes, eating these fish risky for your overall health.

For that reason medical professionals are suggesting that rather than risk eating the contaminated flesh of these fish, people get their omega 3 fatty acids through fish supplements. However, you need to choose a supplement that contains good oils. Here is how to find such supplements.

Look for supplements that state the species of fish the supplement is made from. Make sure the oil is made from those species of fish known to have levels of fatty acid.

Look for those oils from fish that are caught in waters with the least pollution. Choosing a supplement which gets their oil from fish caught in the Southern ocean off the coast of New Zealand ensures that the fish are almost free of dangerous pollutants.

Make sure the oil rendered from the fish has been purified and the company is willing to show you the results of the laboratory tests from their current batch of oil. These lab results will allow you to be sure that the supplement you are taking is safe as well as effective.

Avoid those oils with synthetic additives or coloring and those which use fillers. Fillers reduce the amount of omega 3 fatty acids you will be getting per dose.

Choosing a good fish supplement made with good fish oils can help you live and feel healthier than you may have though possible.…

3 Tips For Building a Great Salad Bar

You want to throw a great party, but the idea of trying to serve a meal that every guest will love can seem overwhelming. One of the cheapest, easiest and most fun meals for a party is a classic salad bar! This allows you to give your guests options to create the perfect meal just for them. Here are some tips to help you make sure you have the right salad bar equipment and all you need to make this meal a success.

1. Cleanliness is Key

There is one thing that can get a bit tricky when it comes to a self-serve salad bar; and that is cleanliness. Not only do you want to make sure the hands that will be grabbing each utensil are sanitary, but you want to keep the salad bar area clean so that all your effort creates an appealing look for all your guests.

Be sure to place sanitizer and napkins at each end of the bar so that guests are sure to heed the reminder that clean hands are best for everyone. Additionally, you’ll want to keep an eye on the serving area as guests roll through so that you can wipe up any dressing spills or stray peas that keep wanting to roll away.

2. The Right Equipment

You’ll want to be sure that you have bowls or containers for each item you’ll be serving. Keep in mind which size dish each item will need and plan accordingly when spacing the salad bar. Additionally, you’ll want to be sure you have the right serving utensil for each different food item. You might use tongs for the salad, but perhaps a serving spoon would be better for the croutons. It’s best to check all this beforehand so you’re not scrambling when your guests start dishing up.

3. The Yummy Details

When it comes to the yummy goodness going into the salads – get creative! You’ll surely have plenty of vegetables like tomatoes, olives and peas, but don’t forget some hard-boiled eggs or cheese as well. And, of course, you’ll want to have something to add that extra crunch, like croutons, goldfish crackers or even chow mein noodles. The more colorful you can make each salad, the more pleasing it will be to the eye and the stomach!…

The Reason Behind Why Your Toddler Bites

Info Why Your Toddler Bites. Every single baby has bit or has been bitten but in case you have a baby that has bit it dosn’t mean that they might be a biter. In daycares studies have proven that around half in the youngsters are already bitten about 3 times a year. So biters are popular.Biting can come in various stages. The 1st stage is when the teeth are erupting from the gums. Your toddler will wish to bite to sooth the discomfort of the swollen gums. This should be carried out on a rattle or a teething ring. If your baby tries to bite you although breast feeding quickly get rid of the infant and set them down in a safe place. When an infant gets a negative response from their mother they’ll soon end biting.Around the time that your kid celebrates their 1st birthday is when they may experiment with biting again. They may possibly bite to display their excitement. At this time when your toddler tries to bit you must respond firmly each time and it should quit almost right the age of two year your baby will probably start to bite again. Your young kid bites at this time to show which they desire to be independent. When your toddler bites to prove that they might be in control then you will need to give the child a time out and explain that it hurts. It can be time to teach your kid the commutation abilities that they’re probley lacking. When your kid has the expertise which have been required the biting should certain to watch your toddler closely if they’re going by means of a biting phase. It is greatest to acknowledge excellent behaviour. It wouldn’t hurt to offer you your toddler some thing to chew on at this stage either. If you have caught your kid biting the respond using a firm voice and place your young child on a time out.…

Tips For Helping Your Child Become a Savvy Consumer

Every holiday from New Year’s to Christmas and everything else in between provides opportunities for families and businesses to celebrate. It offers a time for families to gather and do something special and it gives business a chance to increase their revenues. As a result, the holidays and other occasions, such as back to school, are always accompanied by ample media messages in print and on the screen. We have come to know these as commercials and advertisements, and every holiday comes with new enticements to buy, buy, buy!

Commercials and advertisements have been around since the 1950’s and every generation has been exposed to the shopping hype during the holiday season. Tis’ the season for a constant barrage of media messages from various sources. Everyone that watches receives overt or subliminal messages from businesses that desperately want us to buy their wares – from a company trying to convince you that your child needs a particular item in order to reach his or her potential, to playing upon a parent’s fear that their child’s safety is at stake and a cell phone is what is needed to bring peace of mind.

As difficult as these messages may be for us adults to sort out and resolve, we are able to filter out what these cooperate conglomerates are attempting to do. We are able to think for ourselves and we have our values to guide us. Most of us are confident about our parenting identity and what we want for our children.

So where does that leave our children? Unfortunately, young children are very easily influenced by media messages, especially television commercials. Young children will use them to determine what is cool and what they think they need. The average child sees more than 40,000 commercials each year. Commercials are quick, fast-paced and entertaining. They are easy to remember with catchy phrases that try to convince your child they can’t live without a certain product.

How many of you have experienced a constant request for certain toys, products, or clothing that your children have seen advertised on TV or on the internet? Once a commercial has enticed your child, the nag factor sets in. We have to expect that when kids are bombarded by ads telling them to buy certain products in order to be popular – that nagging will soon follow.

According to a national survey of youth commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream,

??? the average American child aged 12-17 will ask their parents for products they’ve seen advertised on TV an average of nine times until their parents finally give in.

??? for parents of so-called “tweens”, 12-13 year olds, these children admit to asking their parents more than fifty times for products they’ve seen advertised.

Ask yourself if this is what you want to deal with when your child is that age?

We may not be able to control the images and enticements our children are bombarded with out there in the community at large but we certainly can maintain some control over which messages creep into our homes. How does a parent in today’s media generated culture keep excessive commercialism from negatively impacting their child and the true spirit of the holidays? Here are some tips to help you get started.

Help Your Child Think Critically about TV

Whenever possible, talk to your child about what they see on television. If your child is very young she may not be able to tell the difference between a show, a commercial, a cartoon or real life and that characters on TV are make-believe and not real. For older children you can always turn a commercial or an advertisement into a learning experience by helping your child find the appropriate message. Always remember, if you do not want your child exposed to certain messages, you can either turn off the TV or explain why you object.

Help your child resist commercials

Do not expect your child to be able to resist ads for toys, candy, snacks, cereal, drinks or new programs without your help. When your child asks for products advertised on TV, explain that the purpose of commercials is to make people want things they may not need. Limit the number of commercials your child sees by watching public television stations (PBS) or other educational programing. You also can record programs and leave out the commercials or buy or rent children’s videos or DVDs.

Make television viewing a team sport.

If your schedule prevents you from watching TV together as a family, try recording the programs so that you can watch them with your child at a later time. Watching TV with your children whenever you can allows you to mute the television during commercial breaks. This is a great time to discuss …

Hair Care Products for Shiny Beautiful Tresses

Caring for your hair is as important as caring for your skin. There are different types of it and each type requires different products. It is important to choose the right type of product that suits you, so that it retains its shine and volume.
Different Hair Care Products
To ensure healthy and bouncy hair, it is vital to choose products that help to maintain the natural shine of your hair. Hair care products include shampoos, conditioners, sprays and so forth. Herbals products are best suited for different types of hair.
Since shampoo is one of the best hair care products, choosing the right type of shampoo is also very important. It helps to keep scalp clean and frees the hair and scalp from dirt and grease. Most of the shampoos available today include protection from UV rays, moisturizes the hair and keeps it shiny and soft. A variety of shampoos are available today in different names and types. There are shampoos for dry hair, oily hair and normal hair.
It is also include conditioners which condition the hair and keep it soft and tangle free. It is important to condition it once in a week. Conditioners can be used after a thorough wash with a good shampoo to achieve best results. There are many benefits of using a good conditioner. It protects the hair from harmful rays and pollution. It also improves the texture of the hair and revives the hair. Hair conditioners work on the scalp till the roots of the hair and give a shiny satin appearance to the hair. There are different types of conditioners suitable for oily, dry, normal, curly and colored hair.
Conditioning the color treated it is quite necessary as it helps to retain the color of the it and leaves it soft and shiny. Coloring products might leave the hair dry and damaged but with the use of a good conditioner, it is possible to achieve best results.
Other Hair Care Products
Among the other products include styling products like gels and sprays. The sprays and gels are used to maintain a particular style and keep the it stiff and in place. It is best suited for both curly as well as straight hair. These products can also be used on dehydrated and dry hair giving it a special glow that is quite unique.
Today most of the beauty parlours and spas use herbal medicines as beauty products. The benefits of using herbal products are multiple. There are many herbal products available both in the online and offline markets.
There are many products that help to stop breakage of hair, dandruff, dry and itching scalp and so forth. These products also help to revive dead hair, split hair, damaged and lifeless hair.
In addition to the above there are a number of styling creams that help to maintain the natural glow and volume of the hair. No matter what type of hair you possess it is very important to choose the right kind of product that suits your hair.…

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan – A Book Review

Title and Author: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Synopsis of Content:
In Defense of Food Michael Pollan has given us the most important book on nutrition in this decade. He strikes back at the deluge of diet books and nutritionalism that has confused Americans now for two generations. He uses science to attack the “science” behind the nutritionalism that has so distorted the American attitude toward food and has left Americans as the most over fed and under nourished in the world.
After poking generous holes in the various theories and diet fads of the past 40+ years Pollan gives us some very decent guidance about what we should be eating and how we should be thinking of food. His fundamental thesis is simple: we should eat food, not too much, and mostly plants. By that he means:
Eat food: the evidence is overwhelming that we should eat food in as natural a state as possible. We should eat whole foods, not processed foods or refined foods. We should eat more like our ancestors of a century or more ago. If you cannot pronounce or do not recognize the ingredients on a package don’t eat it. If there are generally more than five ingredients don’t eat it. If it contains highly processed and refined foods, including grains, sugar and oils, don’t eat it. If your great grandmother would not have recognized it – don’t eat it. Eat everything else. Eat fresh and frozen (but unprocessed) fruits and vegetables. Eat meat that is not processed or filled with hormones, chemicals, etc. There is a bit more to it than that, but that captures the essence of eating “food”.
Not too much: Americans eat on average 700 calories more per day than they did just 50 years ago. We are bigger, fatter, more obese, and have more disease arising from poor nutrition than ever. We have more diabetes, heart disease and cancer from eating junk food. We also have too much fat on our bodies because we exercise too little and eat too much. Portion sizes are too large and our food is more loaded with fats and sweeteners.
Mostly plants: while one does not need to be a vegetarian to eat healthy, the more meat one eats, especially fatty and processed meats, the less healthy we are. Plants provide the healthiest nutrients and the least unnecessary calories for our body if they are fresh and wholesome.
Pollan points out that various ethnic diets, especially in the Mediterranean and Asia are far healthier because they follow these three simple guidelines. The modern American diet, on the other hand, with its processed foods, high fructose corn syrup laden drinks and quickie pizza and burgers is a short road to disease.
Our youth, who have grown up on this diet, and will less exercise than Americans traditionally got, may be the first generation to have a shorter life span than their parents.
Pollan is not a radical. He does not say you have to eat tofu and raw food all day. There are many very healthy, delicious foods that you can and should eat. His indictment is against the highly processed and inadequate foods that dominate our diet today.
This is not the first book to send this message – but Pollan does a very good job as a careful journalist to bring us the facts to support the position he takes. By adhering to the simple guidelines he suggests we can regain health as well as our waistlines. His arguments are compelling as well as reasonable.
Readability/Writing Quality:
This is very well written. He writes in an engaging style and yet provides the footnotes and sources that support his position.
Notes on Author:
Michael Pollan is an accomplished author and journalist and is the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley. He writes for NY Times Magazine. He also authored The Omnivore’s Dilemma among others.
Three Great Ideas You Can Use:
1. Eat food that is wholesome, as natural and whole as possible and with as little processing as possible. Stick to the outside of the supermarket, if you must buy food in supermarkets, aiming for in season produce, fresh unprocessed meats and dairy with as little processing as possible. Avoid artificial ingredients and “convenience foods”.
2. Make sure to get exercise every day.
3. Eat slowly and intentionally, and only eat until you are full or nearly full. Reduce the size of portions that are all too common in the Western diet today.
Publication Information:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
(c)2008 by Michael Pollan. Published by Penguin Books. 205 pages not including Sources and Index.
Rating for this Book:
Overall Rating: Excellent
Writing Style: Very Good
Application: Very timely; very applicable.
Technical Difficulty: Moderate…

Are You Done With Your Type 2 Diabetes?

Would you like to sail into the rest of your life without needing to think constantly about your type 2 diabetes and blood sugar levels? I’m sure by now you realize the cause of your diabetes is:

genetics

lifestyle factors

Of course, we can’t change our background … we’re stuck with that. But lifestyle … that’s a different story. Enormous changes in our lifestyle has occurred in the past century. Once much of the world participated in farming, hunting and other occupations where a large amount of energy was used to obtain food. Now we lead a lifestyle where little physical energy is needed to obtain our nutrition. And of course, physical labor in trade and factories, has been replaced with sophisticated machinery and many workers now hold white-collar jobs. And we don’t walk for miles (kilometers) any more, we just hop in our car and off we go, as close to the shopping center as possible.

So these lifestyle changes have all contributed to our present world-wide epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes. We are now battling damaging effects brought about by:

processed foods

drive-through nutrition

all you can eat buffets,

over-sized meals

processed foods high in fat and calories (kilojoules)

Television, computers and computer games are also often blamed for our lack of exercise.

So what is the solution? In the end, you are responsible for your lifestyle choices. In order to be done with type 2 diabetes, what is required is a commitment to do whatever it takes, to bring about your good health.

It doesn’t take superhuman power or more money, just the realization if you keep on doing what you have been, and your type 2 diabetes and blood sugar levels are not stabilized, you will pay for it with a shortened healthy life.

Four Key Principles to Remember about a Healthy Eating Plan for Type 2 Diabetes:

1. A diabetic diet does not need to exist … you can follow a healthy eating plan that helps you with weight loss, and reducing your insulin and blood sugar levels.

2. Have an individual consultation with an Accredited Practising Dietitian who specializes in diabetes. They will consider your total health, type 2 diabetes, your food likes and dislikes, your schedule plus your cultural and religious food habits.

3. Look at changing your habits slowly and surely with your healthy eating plan plus incorporating physical activity into your daily living.

4. Learn to be realistic with yourself as sometimes your life does not always go according to the way you would like it. Your eating plan needs to be flexible enough to to fit into your lifestyle which sometimes could mean delaying your mealtime or eating out in a restaurant.

Following a healthy eating plan will help to get your blood sugar levels into your target range. Keeping your blood sugars, your cholesterol levels and blood pressure within a normal range will help you to prevent, or at least delay, long term complications of type 2 diabetes as well as help you with weight loss.…