When you go shopping, what do you buy from the grocery? I suspect it’s a large variety of different nutrient dense foods, but what if you only had one item to choose from each department?

This is the question being asked on the poll 5 Items You Buy At The Grocery.

It’s interesting to see the food items that people purchase around the world. There seems to be a common theme of Oatmeal though. So far it’s the most popular dry good according to the poll. What about the other departments thought. Rob is asking for our input into the areas of produce, meat, frozen, bakery and dry goods. I think I’d have to go with a good piece of steak or lamb for the meat and green beans for the produce.

Have a look at the poll and leave a comment on the what are your favorite foods poll.

Popularity: 8%

Tags: diet, weight loss, nutrition, nutrition

Gone are the days of dieting for weight loss, in is the smart way to get results – eat higher quality food full of nutrients, fiber, protein and carbohydrates. Cutting calories doesn’t necessarily cut it anymore. Instead of starving your body, feed your body to a healthy slenderness.

If you’re new to whole foods, some recipes would certainly help in getting your started.

Soups are great meals to prepare in the cold winter months and can be easily packaged to take to work with you for a healthy meal.

Here are 5 whole food soup recipes you can create at home to provide essential nutrition for your weight loss program.

Black Bean Soup - When it comes to three basic categories of nourishment - protein, fiber and anti-oxidant related substances - few foods have as solid a nutritional profile as black beans.

African Peanut Stew – Featuring Chickpeas (Garbonzo Beans). A prominent ingredient in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and East Indian dishes such as minestrones, hummus, and falafel, whole Chickpeas have a mild yet hearty flavor and keep their unique round shape when cooked. In addition to being a good source of protein and calcium, Chickpeas are especially high in iron.

Barley And Lentil Soup - Lentils are a delicious and nutritious food — high in protein, minerals, and fiber — that can be easily used as a substitute for other staples such as meat, pasta, or potatoes in soups and stews. Unlike dried beans, they require no soaking and cook relatively quickly.

Pumpkin Butternut Squash Curry Soup - Butternut squash is a winter squash with a sweet nutty taste that can be steamed, roasted, pureed or mashed and used in any type of recipe. This Pumpkin Butternut Squash Soup is just right for the cold weather as the ginger gives it a bit of a kick.

Broccoli Lentil Soup With Roasted Pepper Coulis - The lentil is a brushy annual plant of the legume family, grown for its lens-shaped seeds. With 26% protein, lentil is the vegetable with the highest level of protein other than soybeans, and because of this it is a very important part of the diet in many parts of the world, and especially South Asia.

Technically, these are soup recipes and stew recipes, but I’m sure you’ll love them anyway.

Popularity: 7%

Tags: weight loss, nutrition, diet, acne

By Tatyana Turner

Most of us have heard that antioxidant vitamins have many health benefits and can even prevent cancer. But getting the correct intake of antioxidants every day as not as simple as eating your fruits and veggies regularly. Find out how to take the most advantage of antioxidants in everyday life and to stay younger and healthier.

Cancer can affect anybody, and despite all the cancer research there is still no real cure for it. That is why it is so important for everybody, to take some preventive measures against cancer. The best way to prevent cancer is to include antioxidant vitamins into your everyday diet.

We all know how bad free radicals can be for our health. But what are they? To put it simply, free radicals are particles that allow extra oxygen into human cells, which causes the cells to break. Antioxidant vitamins can stop this distractive process.

Antioxidant vitamins rich foods

All doctors recommend including a variety of fruits and vegetables into your diet. These bring many benefits to your health, being low in fat and high in fiber. But they are also very rich in antioxidants. Brightly colored vegetables and fruits contain the most antioxidants. So including beetroot, carrots and red capsicum in your everyday menu, would serve you a reasonable amount of antioxidants.

Here are foods with highest content of antioxidants

- cherries,
- blackberry,
- strawberry,
- blueberry,
- red grape
- walnuts
- sunflower seeds
- ginger
- spices
- green tea
- coffee without milk

Common vitamins like Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin E are all powerful antioxidants, so all fruits rich in these vitamins should be included. But there are many more, for example red wine and red grape contains Reservatrol, an important antioxidant. Another great antioxidant Flavonoid can be found in green tea. So, the most sensible thing to do is to include a wide variety of different fruits, vegetables and berries in your diet. Berries are particularly good, because they all contain large quantities of antioxidant vitamins.

And there is one more source of antioxidants, a food that is usually on a “bad for you” list - chocolate. But it has to be dark chocolate; milk chocolate doesn'’t have antioxidant properties. When you eat chocolate, or any antioxidant food, avoid drinking milk at the same time. Milk significantly reduces the effect of antioxidants.

Antioxidant vitamin supplements - are they any good?

Getting vitamins and antioxidants from natural sources is of cause the best. However, with our busy lives many people can'’t eat as much fresh produce as they would like. Also bear in mind that when you buy vegetables and fruits during winter months, their antioxidant value is very low. Most vitamins are easily destroyed by light and storage, so tomatoes that are sold in a supermarket in December give you almost no health benefits, even though in general a tomato is considered a good source of antioxidants.

In this case antioxidant supplements can be beneficial. There are plenty of vitamins and dietary supplements on the market. Some of them are specifically marketed as “antioxidant supplements” others are just a variety of vitamins. Many multivitamins contains 100% of all essential vitamins for your health. Also remember, that Vitamin C is an antioxidant, and multivitamins usually don'’t contain enough of Vitamin C. So it makes since to take additional Vitamin C supplements.

Whether or not vitamin supplements are as good for you as antioxidants from natural sources is debatable. Some doctors say that by taking antioxidant supplements you can meet most of your antioxidant needs. Others argue that supplements are not as beneficial as vitamins you get from food.

The problem is that vitamins in a pill are not as easily absorbed by our bodies as nutrients we get from food. So eating mostly fast food and taking antioxidant vitamin supplements to compensate is not such a good idea after all.

You can also get natural antioxidant supplements, like grape seed extract. These are absorbed better, than synthetic vitamins.

More health benefits of antioxidants

The best you can do for yourself is to include antioxidant rich foods in your diet and take antioxidants supplements if you feel that you need additional antioxidant boost. But only take quality antioxidant supplements, when it comes to vitamins they are not the same.

About The Author

Find out what other antioxidant vitamin supplements are essential to your health. Tatyana Turner publishes an online health magazine Antioxidants 4 Health Guide where you can find reviews of best antioxidant supplements

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