Processing and Eating Healthy

For eating healthy you have to know the foods you’ll eat. Processed foods may be convenient, but most processing changes the food’s structure and therefore changing the way the body reacts to it. To ensure eating healthy the food you eat should be more in its natural form or moderately processed.

Whole foods are the least processed foods. The lack of processing allows the food to keep most of the nutrition. Whole grains like whole wheat, oats, barley and brown rice are good sources of dietary fiber and other nutrients not present in their refined forms, so are the best choices for eating healthy.

Here’s some information.

Bottled Juice

In bottled juice processing, the fruit is separated from its fiber, pasteurized and mostly added with preservatives. Lacking fiber, the sugar in juice enters the bloodstream much faster, and hence affects insulin levels; pasteurization decreases vitamins content to some extent; and preservatives like brominated oil has been linked to major organ system damage, birth defects and growth problems. For eating healthy, you’d better make your own juice with a super blender that crushes all the fiber in the fruit or, better still, have fresh fruits.

Homogenized Milk

Mechanical homogenization exposes milk to high heated or pressured processing that may damage its fat particles so the body cannot break them down, increasing the risk of rancidity and oxidation which may contribute to heart disease. Easily separated creams in pasteurized or fresh milk may be inconvenient, but they are better choices for eating healthy

Canned Foods

Cooking in canned foods processing destroys about one-third to one-half of the vitamins A and C, riboflavin and thiamin, 5% to 20% more are lost during storing. Salt and preservatives addition may harm the body furthermore. Fresh foods are more nutritious than canned or frozen ones, so more suitable for eating healthy.

Cooking Oil

In most cooking oil extraction the seeds are subject to crushing, high heating and heavily pressing that damage naturally occurring vitamins, like Vitamin E, and produce dangerous free radicals. Toxic solvents, usually hexane, are sometimes used to increase yield and may still remain in the oil up to 100 parts per million after boiled off. High heat processing also produces residues coming off the metal containers used. Your choices for eating healthy are cold-pressed extracted oils, such as olive and coconut oils.

Instant, Refined, Enriched and Fortified Foods

Instant food processing converts naturally occurring soluble fiber into an insoluble form, which may cause unnecessary spikes in blood sugar. This also happens to refined foods. The refining process also removes or destroys many vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other nutrients. "Refined" foods, such as white flour and white sugar, significantly reduce B vitamins in the body.

Enriched and fortified are only made up strategies to compensate processing lost while increasing shelf life, color, flavor, smell, consistency, or convenience. The additives are oftentimes of lower quality. Pasteurized milk is fortified with synthetic Vitamin D (D2), which many children react to while the natural form (D3) helps inhibits skin and prostate cancer, stimulates bone density, and increases the absorption of Calcium and Phosphorus.

For eating healthy, forget about convenience and have more whole, raw, or unprocessed foods.

However some traditional processing turns our foods into better choices of eating healthy, for example:

Fermented Foods: Sauerkraut

Traditional lacto fermentation helps keep vegetables edible without freezing or canning. The process increases the foods’ nutrition, produces probiotics that promote healthy flora in the body and converts natural sugars and starches to lactic acid; so it’s better for health, flavor and taste.

Nutrition in Diet Plan

Fats contain 9 calories per gram, so this nutrition should be limited in a weight-losing diet plan. Saturated and trans fats may increase LDL ("bad") cholesterol level and hence your risk of heart disease, so limit your intake to 20 grams of saturated fat and close to 0 grams of trans fat each day. However, "good" fats, such as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats found in fish, nuts, and low- or nonfat dairy products can be beneficial to your overall health.

Monounsaturated fatty acid is the most important nutrition in a diet plan called Mediterranean diet, and is rich in nuts, legumes and especially olive oil. According to a study at the University of Athens Medical School, consuming large quantities of these, fruits and vegetables, keeping alcohol intake moderate and avoiding too much meat are the main components of the diet that showed to improve health and help people live longer.

Fruits and vegetables are included in many diet plans because they are low in calories, high in fiber, and contain unique nutrition, phytochemicals, or antioxidants, that boost your health. Different colored fruits and vegetables contain different sets of phytochemicals that provide different health benefits, as follow:

· Lycopene in pink grapefruit, red bell peppers, tomatoes, and watermelon helps fight lung and prostate cancers.

· Anthocyanins in concord grapes, blueberries and prunes may prevent clot formation and so heart disease and lower risk of cancer.

· Lutein in spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collard greens and bok choy may reduce risk of heart disease and stroke and prevent age-related macular degeneration, folate, in dark green leafy vegetables may prevent heart diseases and sulforaphane in cruciferous vegetables can detoxify cancer-causing chemicals in the body.

· Beta carotenes in carrots, mangos, pumpkin and oranges may prevent cancer, particularly of the lung, esophagus and stomach, reduce risk of heart disease and improve immune function.

· Anthoxanthins and allicin in cauliflower, mushrooms, banana and onions can help lower blood pressure and protect against stomach cancer.

After a gastric bypass surgery the nutrition in your diet plan should help you lose weight, while maintain your losses and still get adequate nutrition with limited food intake. Start the first few days with liquid diets – water, broth, juice, milk and cooked cereal, then pureed foods for about a month while your stomach heals, afterward easy-to-chew foods – cooked vegetables, soft fruits, and ground or canned meats like chicken, ham, fish and some shellfish. Temporarily avoid difficult to digest red meat (at least a year, or 10 months if lean and ground), spicy foods (four to six weeks), fruit and vegetable skins (six months), carbonated beverages (six months), and bread (one year).

You'll need protein-rich foods (lean meat, yogurt, liquid meal replacements, smoothies, eggs) to help your body recover, multivitamin plus additional calcium and vitamin D3 to help your body absorb certain nutrients, also extra iron, folate and vitamin B12. While not eating fish, you are recommended to take fish oil supplements starting two weeks after surgery.

Weight-loss after Pregnancy

In average mothers gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy, shed 12.5 to 14 pounds during the birth, and have to loss about 12 to 21 pounds of excess weight to regain the pre-pregnancy figure. Since the body needs to recover, weight-loss after pregnancy is not recommended until about three months following childbirth. Just as weight-gain during pregnancy, weight-loss after that should better be done slowly and steadily; another nine months is considered appropriate for that. In general, losing more than 2 lb a week is unhealthy.

Check the following for the purpose.

Breastfeeding

At least for the first 12 months breastfeeding may give you weight-loss after pregnancy. It makes your body expends about 200 to 500 calories everyday, and, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, it helps your uterus to return to its pre-pregnancy size and shape by releasing a number of hormones into your body.

However, for many women, pregnancy may cause permanent changes such as softer bellies and wider hips or waistlines. Also, for weight-loss after pregnancy, it’s best to combine breastfeeding with healthy eating and exercising to avoid gaining weight instead.

Healthy Eating

You need a healthy balanced diet to heal and recover from childbirth at least for the first three months. Even if you’re not breastfeeding, don't rush out to dieting. Start your weight-loss after pregnancy program when your body has begun to recover and your period has returned to normal. Even breastfeeding women could diet as long as they could maintain to have at least 1800 calories a day to keep mothers and babies healthy.

Your high nutritional foods should be low in fat, nutrient-dense and high in fiber to get enough calories everyday. Breastfeeding women need 4 servings of dairy foods or other calcium-fortified foods. For portion sizes and number of servings within other food groups, follow the Healthy Eating Guidelines. All new moms, regardless of weight, should focus on nutrition, not on weight-loss! If you're breastfeeding, your baby's nutritional needs outweigh your need for a slim body. The best way to get weight-loss after pregnancy is by expending more energy than you take in. To lose roughly a pound a week, cut out 500 calories a day from your intake and perform regular moderate exercise.

Exercising

There are many benefits of exercising beside for weight-loss after pregnancy. It alleviates post-partum depression, improves your mood, and boosts your confidence and energy level, so that you could better adapt to your new situation, meet the demands of motherhood, and battle the fatigue of caring for a newborn without interfering with your breastfeeding.

However, wait six weeks after a vaginal birth and eight weeks after a c-section, and choose low-impact exercises such as walking, swimming or yoga. Yoga is perfect for in-home working out; walking is one of the best and don't require special equipment. Six to eight weeks after giving birth you may involve your baby in the exercises for weight-loss after pregnancy to stimulate them.