Healthy World Digest, February, #11

February, 2010

New month, new newsletter. This month:

* Herbal remedies

* Dehydration, mood, fatigue, motor skills

* Contaminated water on airlines

* Exercise, cardiac health, longevity

* Weight loss supplements & vitamins

* Tubers for sweet tooth

Okay, we're back again. Hope everyone's OK. Making headway with your health goals? If not, don't give up. It's only February!

* Herbal remedies

The bounty of the earth gives us delectable herbs that help keep us healthy. Two healthy herbs are:

1) Thyme: provides healthy iron. Add to veggie and meat dishes, tomato gravy and scrambled eggs.

2) Rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis) helps prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Actually, it does much more as you could read on our dedicated page on this wonderfully yummy herb, rosemary Fantastic as a part of a marinade for meats and potato dishes.

* Dehydration affects mood, motor skills & energy level

Healthy Water has articulated many effects of mild dehydration on human health. Most connections are based on clinical evidence, anecdotal observations and assumptions.

Unfortunately, there are few controlled experimental studies that have been done on these assumptions.

Well, finally, a new study undertaken by the U.S. government shows that even low level dehydration affects emotions, basic motor skills and, most obviously, energy level and fatigue.

Don't expect many more studies on same in the future. After all what financial benefits can be had from conducting studies on water?

Click for our complete discussion of symptoms of dehydration, mood, motor skills & fatigue

For the governmental report on study click here

* Water contamination on airlines

Safer plane water on the way

I've never truly thought about water quality on airplanes, have you? Well, why not? Good to see someone's on the case. Excerpt follows below.

Nearly six years after environmental inspectors found e-coli contamination in the water systems of commercial airliners, the feds have come up with final rules designed to make onboard drinking water safer.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this past week ordered the airlines to routinely disinfect, flush and test water in galleys and lavatories on U.S. planes. The airlines have two years to come into compliance. Foreign airlines are not included in the rule.

* Exercise, cardiac health, longevity

Want to know what the key link is between exercise, cardiac wellness and increased longevity?

Well it's really quite simple. Proper exercise leads to a healthier heart and that allows you to do more, to do it faster and longer.

But that in itself, doesn't truly lead to a longer life. Nope, the key to a longer life is to slow down your heart beat.

Yep, our years on earth are limited by the number of total heart beats our heart can endure before it poops out.

In fact, the average heart only has around 3 billion lifetime heart beats before it wears out.

So, if you can slow down heart rate, you will increase longevity.

One pragmatic piece of advice that comes from the above fact is that health & fitness enthusiasts should include heart rate measure in addition to weight, body dimensions and athletic performance to evaluate physical progress.

So, as your health improves, take your resting heart rate upon waking up to help estimate fitness, the kind of fitness that leads directly to longer life. You should find your heart rate lowering as you get more fit

* Weight loss supplements & vitamins

Two very important supplements can help you lose or maintain weight.

Lecithin breaks down fat. Take 1200 mg before your 3 main meals. BTW, whole eggs are a great source of lecithin.

Also a good multivitamin and multimineral can also help you achieve ideal weight. In fact, taking targeted vitamins for weight loss is an absolute necessity.

Why?

Dieting can make your body crave nutrients and so, over eat in the attempt to get those nutrients. A good multivitamin and mutimineral could ease cravings.

For more, go to our pages on suppplements & weight loss.

Best weight loss supplements

Vitamins for weight loss

* Tubers for dessert

After a rest, our healthy recipe comes back. Yipee!

Okay, so you are trying to get healthy but keep experiencing cravings for sweets. Here's a great dish for you.

Its our healthy mock sweet potato (or yam or pumpkin) pie.

Start with between 4 - 10 sweet potatoes. (Substitute yams or equivalent pumpkin if you wish.) Bake or boil until tender. Then easy peel the skins off.

Toss into a large bowl, add some cinnamon, and/or nutmeg, to taste. If you want to add other flavorings to your taste. I add some vanilla extract.

I add some stevia, a low cal natural, healthy sweetener. Appx ½ tsp per potato. If you don't mind adding a bit of honey or sugar, go ahead. Maybe a tsp per potato.

Add a little salt to enhance flavor.

Add a little butter, ½ tsp per potato. I add some heart healthy bread spread which comes in organic, with flax seed oil. I vary ingredients just to see how it tastes.

Now mash up sweet potatoes with added ingredients as well as you wish. Sometimes I like the mixture to be more smooth, sometime a bit chunky. I'm crazy that way.

Now spoon mixture into individual plastic containers that feature sealers.

I dust a little cinnamon and a little sugar on top.

I eat some while warm. Store the rest for coming days, cool out of the frig. Delicious!

This treat is high in nutrition, low in carbs and sugar, low in fat. Yet it's really satisfying, filling.

Keywords: herbal remedies, contaminated water, exercise for longevity, weight loss supplements, symptoms dehydration

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