Main food in Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean Diet is a healthy style of eating that promotes portion control, whole foods and an active lifestyle.

A Mediterranean-style diet comes from the traditional eating pattern of people from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The diet refers to the traditional food cultures of the countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Lebanon.

The Mediterranean diet is a primarily plant-based eating plan that includes:
*Vegetables
*Fruits
*Extra virgin olive oil
*Wholegrain breads and cereals
*Legumes or beans (e.g. chickpeas, kidney beans or lentils)
*Nuts and seeds
*Onion, garlic and other herbs and spices (e.g. oregano, coriander, cumin etc.)

Other foods like animal proteins are eaten in smaller quantities, with the preferred animal protein being fish and seafood.

Mediterranean diet emphasis on healthy fats. Olive oil is recommended as the primary added fat, replacing other oils and fats (butter, margarine). Other foods naturally containing healthful fats are highlighted, such as avocados, nuts, and oily fish like salmon and sardines; among these, walnuts and fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids.

The Mediterranean Diet also encourages cooking own meals, choosing seasonal ingredients and enjoying mealtime with family and friends. Traditionally, people living in Mediterranean regions have emphasized physical activity, social gatherings and relaxation along with a moderate consumption of wine with meals.

The Mediterranean-style diet is healthy because:
*It has a good balance of healthy fats
*It is high in fresh foods and has lower levels of highly processed foods
*It is high in fiber. This makes the diet filling without providing excess calories
*It is high in antioxidants and can reduce inflammation in the body

The Med Diet is rich in nutrients that are associated with good heart health, like fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and healthy fats. With that, the Mediterranean Diet has been shown to help protect against cardiovascular disease. The Mediterranean diet also has been shown to reduce the burden, or even prevent the development, of breast cancer, depression, colorectal cancer, diabetes, obesity, asthma, erectile dysfunction, and cognitive decline.
Main food in Mediterranean diet

Health benefits of water spinach

Water spinach is a medicinal plant. Water spinach is an herbaceous aquatic or semi-aquatic perennial plant of the tropics or subtropics. The water spinach plant features smooth, hollow stems similar to watercress, and therefore, is called as hollow stemmed vegetable. Leaves are flat, and vary in shape depending on variety, from heart-shaped to long, narrow and arrow-shaped. Its gently sweet, mucilaginous, succulent leaves and stems are very much sought-after in the salads, braised and stir-fries.

Water spinach is a powerhouse of nutrients that benefit human body as well as skin and brain. It contains abundant quantities of water, iron, vitamin C, vitamin A and other nutrients and can be eaten cooked or raw.

Fresh water-spinach leaves carry abundant levels of phenolic antioxidants such as carotene-β, lutein, xanthin, and cryptoxanthin.

Water spinach high antioxidant, dietary fiber, and protein content may help treat several ailments. It may reduce cholesterol levels, help treat jaundice and liver problems, support anemia treatment, and aid in digestion.

The deficiency of iron is most often experienced by those who are having anemia or those who are pregnant. In this case, water spinach/ kangkong can be of great help since it could provide enough iron that the body needs.

In addition, regular consumption of this leafy veggie may help rejuvenate skin and improve hair texture. It is also found to prevent osteoporosis, vitamin-A deficiency; and further believed to protect against cardiovascular diseases, colon, and prostate cancers.
Health benefits of water spinach

Low Sugar Diet

Consuming too many foods and beverages with added sugars makes it hard to achieve a healthy eating pattern.

Cake, sweets, or chocolate are all high in sugar and will increase glucose level in blood faster. Foods that encompass fewer than 5g sugar per serving are considered low sugar while more than 10g per serving is considered high sugar.

Substitute foods and drinks high in added sugars with healthier options. It could be done by:
• Eat fruit for dessert as an alternative of cookies or cakes
• Exchange sugary cereals for unsweetened cereal with fruit
• Drink water or low-fat milk with meals instead of soft drinks

We can still have foods and drinks with added sugars but just choose smaller portions or have them less often.
• If we need to choose to have a soft drink, select a smaller size
• Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to cup of tea or coffee instead of 2

According to the American Heart Association the limiting the amount of added sugars one person should consume to no more than half of his daily discretionary calories allowance. For women, that's no more than 100 calories per day, is about 25 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar. While for men, it's 150 calories per day, is about 37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons.
Low Sugar Diet

Diet With Low Sodium Food

Most of the sodium in foods comes from salt. High sodium intake in human diet makes human body holds on to too much fluid. The fluid can accumulate where it should not such as in hands, legs, ankles, belly, and lungs. It will cause problems for people who have heart disease, or kidney disease.

Usually, American adults consume more than 3,400 milligrams (mg) of sodium each day, which is significantly higher than the recommended limit. Proposal by 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend for Americans to consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium each day as part of a healthy eating pattern. More than 70% of sodium consumed by majority of Americans are found in processed foods and restaurants dishes.

Selecting and preparing foods that are lower in salt and sodium may help prevent hypertension. Hypertension or high blood pressure can raise the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

There are foods such as sandwiches, tacos, burger, pizza that have many ingredients in it and they tend to have higher content of salt. However, there are also dishes with limited ingredients that are often high in sodium including:
•Processed meats, poultry, and seafood — such as deli meats, sausages, pepperoni, and sardines
•Sauces, condiments and dressings
•Instant products like flavored rice, instant noodles, and ready-made pasta

Depending on the selection of food, it doesn’t take much to consume more sodium than recommended.
*A slice of bread can contain anywhere from 80 to230 mg of sodium
*A slice of frozen pizza can contain between 370 and 730 mg of sodium
*Certain breakfast cereals (processed cereals) contain 150 to 300 mg of sodium before milk is added.
Diet with low sodium food

What is cholesterol?

Cholesterol is oily in nature but is not the same as fat. It is an essential molecule to our well being as it helps for making cell membranes, steroid hormones, nerve sheaths, manufacture bile acids, and much more. The liver makes most of the cholesterol and the rest comes from the diet.

Cholesterol is a member of a class of naturally occurring compounds called sterols. It is an essential part of the fatty sheath that insulates nerves and the outer membrane of all animal cells, and is a component of chemicals that include steroids and sex hormones such as androgens and estrogens.

Cholesterol can react with oxygen to become oxidized in the body. Oxidized cholesterol can injure endothelial cells and trigger or contribute to the process of atherosclerosis, Cholesterol in tallow use in some fast-food cooking, powered eggs, and french fries is oxidized. Oxidized cholesterol is also found in package mixes, powdered custards, and powdered whole milk.

Antioxidants are believed to protect cholesterol from becoming oxidized. Antioxidants act as electron donors and deactivate free radicals, preventing free radicals from injuring.
What is cholesterol?

Eat What You Crave

Eat What You Crave
If the sight of certain foods puts your mind into a tailspin, you may need to readjust your approach to eating. An overly restrictive diet may “feed” a food craving and set you to overindulge.

The jury is still out on the true cause of food cravings. It may be physiological, psychological, or both.

We don’t yet know if food cravings are linked to a need to resupply the body with nutrients it lacks, or if cravings are reinforced by positive emotional; and social links to certain foods.

Studies suggest that avoiding foods altogether often makes them irresistible.

The results? Giving in to a food craving and perhaps overeating. Then guilt creeps in and people try to resists those foods once again, only to overindulge and feel guilty again.

Eat a small portion of any food you enjoy – even if it’s higher in fat or calories. Even when you’re trying to shed pounds, you can enjoy some high calorie foods as long as your eating plan is healthful and you eat fewer calories overall than your body uses.

As another option, try to satisfy your palate with a low fat, low calorie versions.
Eat What You Crave

Food with thiamine

Thiamine was the first if the B vitamins to be recognized. Like the other B vitamins, thiamine is an important participant in many energy-yielding reactions. It promotes general body efficiency.

It plays a role in growth, cell metabolism, appetite, neurologic functioning RNA and DNA formation and normal muscle tone in cardiac and digestive tissues.

Thiamine is found throughout the food supply though most foods contain only a small amounts. Pork is an excellent source of thiamin.

Other best source are wheat germ, whole cereals containing bran, liver, yeast and egg yolk.

Soy products, legumes, orange juice, nuts and organs meats such as liver ranks as good thiamine sources. Meat (except pork and organ meat), dairy products, seafood, and most fruits contain very little thiamine.

Eating a wide variety of foods is the best way to ensure adequate thiamin consumption. Thiamine is lost during cooking, especially when cooking is prolonged or at high tenrpatrues,

Alkali also destroy thiamine. The recommended adult daily allowance for thiamine is about 1.0 1.5 mg. depending on age and sex.
Food with thiamine

Food and Diet

Food is the main tool for balancing the hormones and chemicals in the body and brain. Once food is broken down into glucose, amino acids and fatty acids, it travels through the bloodstream and feeds all the areas of the body.

It creates all the chemicals that control every system of the body. Food creates a positive or negative hormonal adjustment that lasts for up to six hours. Each meal readjusts the body chemicals.

The function of food is to keep us alive and healthy. The foods we eat derived from plants and animals. Foods are a complex mixture of many different chemical components. Food is that which nourishes the body.

Food components vary with the growth, maturation, harvesting or slaughtering, storage and handling of plant and animal parts used as food.

A balanced diet consists of adequate uncontaminated water, safe protein sources, starches (carbohydrates) fats, vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals.

A balanced diet consists of different types of food items includes a variety of foods.

The major aim is to ensure that all nutrient are supplied.

The problem with the modern food supply is that real food is transformed into processed chemicals, which effect the body’s biochemistry.

Meats are domesticated and filled with hormones, additives and antibiotics.

Grains and vegetables are contaminated with pesticides and sprayed with antibiotics.

Everyone needs safe water and food. It is time to learn to make the best food choices to control individual body chemistry.
Food and Diet

The Obesity Battle

The Obesity Battle
Americans have more choices when it comes to food than anyone else on the planet.

While we are constantly seduced by hot fudge sundaes, double cheeseburgers, stuffed-crust pizza and deep-fried doughnuts, we are expected to be as lean as the models that grace the covers of fashion magazines.

How many people have the willpower to resist temptation time and time again?

A small minority, it would seem. In 2005, approximately two thirds of the Americans adult population was classified as overweight or obese, with about one third fitting into the overweight category and the other third being obese.

The harsh reality is that fewer than one third of Americans have healthy body weights.

Overweight and obesity come with a hefty price tag - $100 billion a year in medical bills and more than 400,000 premature deaths each year.

Excess body fat causes unwanted changes to the basic functioning of the human body, adversely affecting blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, respiration, fertility, skin and joint health, hormones and insulin action.

Such changes significantly increase the risk for debilitating and often fatal health conditions, including the following:

• Cancer
• Gallbladder disease
• Gout
• Heart disease and stroke
• Kidney disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea
• Type 2 diabetes

To add insult to injury, a recent report found that being obese affectively ages a person by 20 years (in terms of physical health).

That puts an obese 30 year old in the same risk group as a normal weight 50 year old for developing serious medical problems.
The Obesity Battle

Selenium in Food

Selenium in Food
The amount of selenium in a plant-derived food varies largely with its protein content and with the area of the country in which it is grown. The concentration of selenium in the milk, eggs, and meat of animals is influenced by the level of selenium in the plant material they consume.

In North American diets, cereals are the dominant food plant origin for supplying selenium, with much of the cereal consumption in the form of bread. The United States and Canadian wheat crops are produced primarily in selenium adequate regions and this result in moderately high average concentration of the elements in wheat related foods in both countries.

Meat and fish also are good sources of selenium for humans, whereas most fruits and vegetables provide little selenium. Many experts concluded that ordinary cooking techniques did not appear to result in major losses of selenium from most foods. Little or no loss of selenium occurred as a result of broiling meat, baking seafoods, frying eggs, or boiling cereals. Experts found that food preparation methods did not affect the selenium content of legumes and vegetables. They also found that although some soybean meat extenders contain comparable or higher selenium levels than the beef or chicken they replace, others have much lower levels.

However, small losses of selenium occur during the manufacturing of breakfast cereals with lost selenium appearing in the by-product destined for livestock feeding.
Selenium in Food

Nutrition and Diet

Nutrition and Diet
Food is not simply a physiological fuel. It is a social phenomenon. In between we eat on average three meals a day and are subjected to a great deal of pressure on what we should eat, from manufacturer and advertisers, from experts and quacks and from custom and habit. Nutrition is a topic of conversation on which the average person can hold an opinion much as he holds opinions on nuclear weapon, the environment or taxation. Yet nutrition is unique among such controversies because the attendant opinion can be acted on at the individual level. A resident of Europe or North America cannot escape the threat of nuclear warfare, environment decay and certainly taxation. But they can change their diet any way they please without seeking permission, either by making an informed decision based on a sound understanding of nutrition, or by whim.

Nutrition controversies are not new. The Greek philosophers linked the four elements of cosmos – air, fire, water and earth – with four humors of man – blood, bile, phlegm, and black bile. Individual foods were assigned to humors. Accordingly, Hippocrates recommended pepper combined with honey and vinegar, for the treatment of feminine disorders. The ancient Chinese also held diet high in their medical kit-bag.

The old Chinese expert said: Experts at curing disease are inferior to those who warn against disease. Experts in the use of medicines are inferior to those who recommended a proper diet. The Egyptians believed the gut to be the root of all illness and sought considerable relief from the usage of figs.

Such early views on diet were theoretically arrived at by careful, logical thought. The first experimental evidence linking diet and disease was the relation between the incidence of scurvy aboard sailing ships and the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables. In the ensuing centuries, scientist employed the present day approach of experimentation to understand digestion, salivation, respiratory metabolism and the biological need for certain nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, amino acids and essential fatty acids. This quest extended well into the present century.
Nutrition and Diet

Age Factor in Food Digestion

Age Factor in Food Digestion
The complex process of digestion/absorption can be optimally effective only when the gastrointestinal tract and accessory organs are totally developed and fully functioning. Not only must the muscular tube (alimentary canal) with its mucosal lining and endocrine cells be operating efficiently in conjunction with the nervous system, but the accessory organs (pancreas liver, and gallbladder) with their important digestive secretions also must be physiologically mature.

The feeding of infants is based primarily on the degree of maturation of the gastrointestinal tract and accessory organs. Good examples of the emphasis on gastrointestinal tract maturity are the care given to the fat in infant formula and the time and sequence of the introduction of various foods into the infant’s diet. Only those fats processing, an ease of absorption comparable to that in human milk are used in commercial formula, and the introduction of solid food, beginning with baby cereal usually occurs no earlier than 4 moths old.

The infant pancreas, although structurally mature at term, is unable for several months to produce enzymes sufficient for effective digestion. Pancreatic lipase, alpha-amylase, and the proteolytic enzymes are in too short supply to accommodate digestion of a mixed diet. Digestion of fat is a real concern because there is a deficiency of bile salts from the liver as well as low lipase release from the pancreas.

Solid foods cannot be handled efficiently by the infants’ gastrointestinal tract much before 4 to 6 months, not only because of the deficiency of pancreatic enzymes but also because of poorly coordinated gastric motility. Antral mixing during the very early months of the infant’s life is insufficient for the proper digestion of solid foods.

Particularly attention must be given to the introduction of unmodified cow’s milk and egg white into the infant’s diet. During early infancy intestinal mucosal permeability is greater than normal, and many large molecules, such as low molecular weight proteins, tend to be absorbed intact. Although this absorption has it positive side in that neonates are able to absorb immunoglobulins from their mother’s milk, the increased permeability may allow absorption of proteins such as lactalbumin and egg albumin. Usually by the age of about 2 years the gastrointestinal tract has reached maturity, and digestion/absorption normally becomes efficient, effective process.
Age Factor in Food Digestion

Atherosclerosis and Food Diet

Atherosclerosis and Food Diet
Atherosclerosis is used to describe several pathological processes occurring in a number of arteries and is responsible for coronary heart disease, stroke and diseases of the peripheral circulatory system. Atherosclerosis is a disease characterized by deposition of a fatty material on the walls of the arteries. Their material consists essentially of cholesterol, triglycerides fats, fibrous tissue and red blood cells. As the deposit continues to build, it restricts blood flow through the artery. When the coronary artery is involved, heart attack and death may follow.

Human studies have indicated a link between atherosclerosis and diet exists. The intake of saturated fat s and cholesterol increases the likehoods of having elevated serum cholesterol which is associated with arthrosclerosis. Other factors in addition to diet are associated with the occurrence of atherosclerosis. Among them are obesity, hypertension, diabetes, sedentary living, cigarette smoking, and high blood cholesterol levels. The latter may be cause by diet or be of hereditary origin. Although diet does appear to be involved, it must be emphasized that its relative importance in contributing to atherosclerosis is not entirely clear.

Since cholesterol, a sterol found in all animal tissues, eggs, milk and other foods of animal origin, is a component of the atherosclerosis deposit, it has been reasonable to hypothesize that foods high in cholesterol can contributed to atherosclerosis. Such food may increase the level of cholesterol in the blood. But other components of diet especially large quantities of saturated fats and sugars – also can result in high levels of blood cholesterol.

Furthermore, some investigators find that high levels of blood triglycerides correlate even more closely with coronary disease than do high levels of blood cholesterol. High levels of blood triglycerides also result from the consumption of large quantities of saturated fats and sugars. Whereas consumption of large quantities of saturated fats can increase levels of both cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, liberal quantities of polyunsaturated vegetable oils tend to decrease blood cholesterol.
Atherosclerosis and Food Diet

How Gastrointestinal Tract Function?

How Gastrointestinal Tract Function?
An examination of the various mechanisms in the gastrointestinal tract that allow to be ingested, digested, absorbed, and then its residue to be excreted reveals the complexity of the digestion/absorption process. Normal digestion and absorption of nutrients is dependent not only on a healthy alimentary canal but also on an exquisite integration of the digestive system with the nervous system, endocrine system, and circulatory system. An excellent example of this integration of systems is the finely controlled emptying of chyme from the stomach into the small intestine.

The many factors influencing digestion and absorption, including the dispersion and mixing of ingested food, the quantity and composition of gastrointestinal secretions, status of the enterocytes, expanse of intestinal absorptive area and the transit time of intestinal contents must be coordinated so that nourishment of the body can occur while homeostasis of body fluids is maintained. Much of the coordination required is provided by regulatory peptides, some of which are provided by the nervous system as well as by the endocrine cells of the gastrointestinal tract.
How Gastrointestinal Tract Function?

Sugar in the Diet

Sugar in the Diet
Sugar, the common name for sucrose (also saccharides), is extracted and refined from sugar cane and sugar beets. There are many substance chemical classified as sugars, and when these are referred to, they are always used with a qualifier such as in milk sugar (lactose), corn sugar (dextrose), and malt sugar (maltose).

When the word sugar is used without qualifier in, generally refers to the common sweetener (sucrose). Other sugars have varying degrees of sweetness relative to sucrose, and some sugars differ from sucrose in that they lend varying degrees of bitterness whereas sucrose imparts only a sweet taste.

Other important sources of sucrose include palm and maple trees and fruits. Chemically, and in every other way, cane sugar and beet sugar are the same. In addition to providing energy for the body and sweetness to foods, sugars perform numerous other roles in the food industry.

Sucrose is actually composed of glucose and fructose, and it is structurally unique in that its glycosidic bond involved the anomeric hydroxyl of both residues. The linkage is alpha with respect to the glucose and beta with respect to the fructose residue.

The dietary sugars that are most important nutritionally since free monosaccharides are not commonly present in the diet in significant quantities. There is, however, some free glucose and fructose on honey, in certain fruits, and in the carbohydrates that are added to processed foods. The cellular use of carbohydrates depends on their absorption from gastrointestinal (GI) tract into the blood stream, a process normally restricted to monosaccharides. Therefore the sugars must be hydrolyzed to their constituent monosaccharides units. The hydrolytic enzymes involved are collectively called glycosidase, or, alternatively, carbohydrases.
Sugar in the Diet

Vitamin A-rich diet may reduce stomach cancer risk

Vitamin A-rich diet may reduce stomach cancer risk
A diet rich in vitamin A (retinol) may cut the risk of stomach cancer by 44 per cent, suggests a prospective study from Sweden.

The study, which analyzed dietary data from over 36,000 women and 45,000 men, also reported that similar risk reductions are obtained from high dietary intake of both alpha- and beta-carotene.

High intakes of vitamin A, retinol, and provitamin A carotenoid may reduce the risk of gastric cancer. Stomach cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in the world, according to the European School of Oncology, and there are 800,000 new cases every year. It is Japan's most common form of cancer.

Writing in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers report that, the relative risk of gastric cancer between people in the highest versus lowest intake groups of total vitamin A was reduced by 47 per cent.

The relative risks between people in the highest versus lowest intake groups of retinol, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene were reduced by 44, 50 and 45 per cent, respectively.

No significant gastric cancer risk reduction associations were found for beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin, or lycopene intake, said the researchers
Vitamin A-rich diet may reduce stomach cancer risk