Holistic Wellness for Life North of 50

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Lately, vitamin D is showing up in the news more often. It used to be the ho-hum vitamin that you got from drinking your milk and playing out in the sunshine. Apparently, this vitamin is much more important to our health and has many previously unknown attributes that can enhance your holistic wellness. Vitamin D is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight. Many factors including season, skin coloration, cloud cover, smog, and sunscreen affect UV ray exposure and vitamin D synthesis in the skin, and it is important for individuals with limited sun exposure to include good sources of vitamin D in their diet.

As civilization and the industrialization enabled humans to work indoors and wear more clothes when outdoors, these cultural changes reduced natural production of vitamin D and caused deficiency diseases. In many countries, foods such as milk, yogurt, margarine, oil spreads, breakfast cereal, pastries, and bread are fortified with vitamin D₂ and/or vitamin D₃, to minimize the risk of vitamin D deficiency. In the United States and Canada, for example, fortified milk typically provides 100 IU per glass, or a quarter of the estimated adequate intake for adults over age 50. Fatty fish, such as salmon, herring, catfish and sardines are natural sources of vitamin D. Other natural sources include: fish liver oils, such as cod liver oil, whole eggs, cooked beef liver, and UV-irradiated mushrooms. In the United States (U.S.), the 100% Daily Value used for product labels is 400 IU/day.

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My last post talked about changing your life using some research , some planning and some determination. This post is just a list of healthy foods that you can use to move toward that goal of holistic wellness and some reasons why you might want to choose them.

Whole Grains

• Whole wheat bread, wheat bran cereals, and whole wheat pasta contain high levels of insoluble fiber for gastrointestinal health.
• Oatmeal is rich in soluble fiber to help lower cholesterol levels.

Nuts

• High in monounsaturated fat to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Tomatoes – fresh, canned, juice or sauce

• Lycopene is an antioxidant found in tomatoes that may decrease the risk of cancers — particularly prostate cancer and, more recently, breast cancer.
• Lycopene is most able to be used by your body when it has been cooked.

Salmon and Tuna – fresh or canned

• Rich in omega-3 fatty acids that may decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Olive Oil

• Rich in monounsaturated fats to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Green Leafy Vegetables – fresh or frozen (spinach, kale, chard, green leafy lettuce)

• Contain flavonoids to help prevent memory loss.
• Rich in carotenoids which help to ward off macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
• Eat these greens with avocado to help your body absorb these nutrients better.

Garlic

• Can help decrease cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and perhaps prevent cancer.
• Acts as an antibiotic.

Dried Beans and Peas – dry, canned or frozen

• Loaded with soluble fiber to lower cholesterol, and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Broccoli — fresh or frozen

• May decrease the risk of breast cancer.
• Extremely rich in antioxidants to help protect body cells from disease and aging.
• Excellent source of vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps maintain a strong immune system and may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.
• Good source of potassium, an important mineral for healthy blood pressure.
• Steam your broccoli lightly to help your body absorb these nutrients

Fruits of various colors – fresh or frozen

• Loaded with vitamin C, an antioxidant that may reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Loaded with soluble fiber to lower cholesterol, and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
• Extremely rich in antioxidants to help protect body cells from disease and aging. Each color is indicative of the different kinds of antioxidants.
• Good source of potassium, an important mineral for healthy blood pressure.
• Eat the whole fruit not just the juice. The solid part of the fruit has fiber that helps regulate your blood sugar and many of the nutrients are in the pulp.

Hopefully this will give you some starting information for your research toward better health.

Be well.

Related Posts:

http://www.northof50.us/holistic-wellness/change-your-life-your-way

http://www.northof50.us/health-and-wellness/something-fishy-in-our-diet

http://www.northof50.us/holistic-wellness/truth-about-juice

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Recently, I was watching an episode of Good Eats on the Food Channel. Apparently the host, Alton Brown, had lost some weight (about 50 pounds). His feeling (which echoes mine) is that diets usually don’t work in the long run and don’t make you feel better. His idea was to make a life change in the way he eats and thereby produce a positive effect in his health. He came up with his own plan and in the process lost 50 pounds, lowered his cholesterol and improved his self image.

The system that he concocted to produce this life change is brilliant in it’s simplicity. Using his knowledge about food and working with the premise of eating nutrient dense food instead of energy (calorie) dense food, he was able to lower his overall intake. He made four (4) lists to use as his daily outline. The lists split various foods into daily, 3x weekly, 1x weekly and finally 0 (zero)x weekly. The daily list had items like fruits , nuts, and whole grains. The 3x weekly had oily fish sweetpotato and avocado. 1x weekly had red meat, dessert and alcohol . And the never (0x) list included fast food, canned soup and “diet anything.” His one big rule is always eat breakfast which helps prevent bingeing later in the day. A few lists and some rules, what could be simpler.

You can do the same thing. If you feel the need for a change, a little research, a simple plan and a little determination and you can do the same thing. There’s plenty books andauthoritative online information to pick from. People like Andrew Weil, Dean Ornish and Jorge Cruise all have books and informative websites to gather information from about holistic wellness. Then put your plan together and go forward to a better life. Not a diet but life change for the better. Good Luck and…

Be well.

Take the initiative, and you will create your own opportunities.
There is no substitute for action backed up by a well-thought-out plan. -Napoleon Hill

Technorati Tags: health and wellness, holistic wellness, nutrition