Getting Started | Amber Keinath

The Secret Interests of the USDA Food Pyramid

Getting Started, Healthy Eating, Nutrition 101 4 Responses »

Sep 072010

Do you really know all about the USDA Food Pyramid and follow it on a daily basis? Are you really doing what is best for your health?

Check out this video and learn the secrets you probably don’t know about the USDA Food Pyramid!

Do you know what the USDA is? It is the United States Department of Agriculture!

Do you know what the United States Department of Agriculture has a vested monetary interest in? They want people to eat more grains, dairy, and meat! What do you think the food pyramid promotes? It recommends lots of grains, meat, and dairy products! The message is clear to “eat more of everything”!

Scientific evidence points to vegetarian, vegan, and raw (whole-plant-based food) diets as the healthiest eating plans that prevent disease and lead to ultimate health! Where is meat and daily in those?

But you remind me: we do need calcium and protein! Definitely! However, there are a lot healthier ways to meet the nutritional requirements without dairy and meats!

In fact, over the next few days, I can walk you through the different aspects of the food guide I developed to reflect a healthier approach to eating from an independent point of view. This guide will help you determine what you need in each meal, not just daily servings. You can also get a printable healthy grocery shopping guide which will help you make the healthier food choices when you are out shopping for your food! To get this, either fill out your name and email over there on the side –> or Click here!

While vegetarian, vegan, and raw diets are best, it is a radically different way to eating than may be possible for the average American! This food guide take the standard american diet and makes it more health related. It is easy to eat better for your health. Let me show you how!

YOUR TURN! Let me know what you think about the USDA Food Pyramid and the secrets you just learned above! Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this video with your friends and clicking the “like” button below!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Eating Berries = Healthy Brain Aging: Breaking New Study

Getting Started, Healthy Eating, Healthy Life, Nutrition 101 No Responses »

Sep 022010

This past week a new study emerged claiming that eating berries such as blueberries, strawberries, and acai berries will help your brain age in a healthy way. In this study, researchers report that the berries may be responsible for cleaning up the toxic debris that leads to mental decline and other age-related memory loss.

This report states:

Poulose and Joseph focused on another reason why nerve function declines with aging. It involves a reduction in the brain’s natural house-cleaning process. Cells called microglia are the housekeepers. In a process called autophagy, they remove and recycle biochemical debris that otherwise would interfere with brain function.

“But in aging, microglia fail to do their work, and debris builds up,” Poulose explained. “In addition, the microglia become over-activated and actually begin to damage healthy cells in the brain. Our research suggests that the polyphenolics in berries have a rescuing effect. They seem to restore the normal housekeeping function. These findings are the first to show these effects of berries.”

This is awesome research for your health. Age-related mental decline is not something you just have to live with!

Mental decline as part of the aging process may be due to your brain not being able to detoxify itself from the debris that accumulates.

This is important for the medical community because it shows that your diet can actually impair your body leading to disease.

Berries help the brain’s housekeepers keep up the good work! They also protect you against age-related memory loss!

So what does this mean?

Well, eat your berries! But that’s not all! Increase your consumption of a full array of fruits and vegetables which also contain many different healthful chemicals for your brain and your body. Choose fruits and vegetables that are full of anthocyanins which are found in the produce with the colors of blue, dark red, and orange.

Be eating a healthful diet full of fruits and vegetables that cover the expanse of the rainbow, you will make sure you are getting all the nutrients and antioxidants possible that will help protect your body from inflammation.

Without giving your body the nutrients it needs to fight off the damaging affects of the world around us, you are setting yourself up for development of chronic diseases!

So, get out there and eat your fruits and vegetables! Fresh is best, but frozen is a great runner up of providing the most healthful chemicals and nutrients for your body!

A great way to get your big dose of berries and some other great health superfoods is by making this awesome All-Year Berry Smoothie!

YOUR TURN! What do you think of this research study? What does your current health status look like and how can you take steps today to help protect your body against invaders? Leave me a comment below, share the love by sharing this article with your friends, and don’t forget to hit the “like” button below!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Source: Science Daily

Fresh, Frozen, Canned Fruits and Vegetables: What’s Healthy?

Getting Started, Grocery Shopping, Healthy Eating 2 Responses »

Sep 012010

Healthy fruits and vegetables are essential for your health. Fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables are readily available at grocery stores. How do you know what is healthiest for your family?

I have been getting some questions about what is healthiest, fresh, frozen, or canned fruits and vegetables. Is there really a difference?

What do you think?

Watch this video and let’s check it out!

So what do you think?

In Review, choose fresh, frozen and then canned fruits and vegetables when purchasing your produce.

YOUR TURN! Let me know what you think about fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables and what do you do for your family to make sure you are getting the best nutrient value for your dollar? Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this video with your friends and clicking the “like” button below!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

The Easiest Healthy Food Guidelines-EVER!

Getting Started, Healthy Eating 2 Responses »

Aug 252010

Have you heard of Michael Pollan? Well, have you heard of his books: Food Rules, Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food? If you have not read these books, go over right now and check them out!

Food Rules Omnivore’s Dilemma In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan really simplifies what you should eat so you can focus more on picking out great food rather than spend hours trying to figure out if this ingredient is better than this other ingredient for your health. Was this ingredient on the list of other names for MSG? There are just so many things to remember about what you should and shouldn’t buy!

Michael Pollan really illustrates a better way to go about remembering what to eat in 67 “Food Rules”. These rules are more like principles to guide your decisions on what to eat and how to eat rather than rules in the diet sense of the word.

Here are my 5 favorite “Food Rules” from Pollan’s book of the same name:

“If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.”

This rule makes it pretty easy to quickly decide what is better for you. If you are trying to decide between something that is a whole food that is from a plant such as vegetables, whole grains, fruits, etc and something that is packaged or produced in a factory, choose what comes from a plant. It will contain a much larger amount of minerals and vitamins that are essential for health that no packaged food can compete with.

“Eat your colors.”

There is not a whole lot of explanation that needs to come with this one. Be sure your daily food contains all sorts of colors. This does not mean eating every color of the rainbow when it comes to skittles means you are getting the vitamins and minerals that you need. You need to use this guideline along with the first.

Choose whole foods that come from plants that represent all the colors!

“The whiter your bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”

I thought this guideline was a funny way of expressing the need for whole grains. White bread and pasta are highly processed. They do not contain the full array of vitamins and minerals that are present in whole grains which really have the fiber and nutrients that are essential for your health.

Are you getting whole grains or falling for the “made with whole grains” marketing gimic?

“Avoid food products containing ingredients that a 3^rd grader can’t pronounce.”

When you pick up a packaged food, can you pronounce all the ingredients? Can your 3^rd grader pronounce them? If the answer is no, just put it back. If you can’t pronounce it, chances are it comes from a science lab. Chances are this ingredient in the science lab would not look like something you could eat.

You want to eat slimy goop that doesn’t even resemble food? I think not!

“Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food.”

This is a concept that is foreign to the majority of our society. We base pretty much every meal on meat. Try making recipes that have it as a light topping rather than the main course. The standard American diet consists of way too much protein.

The average American gets about 150g of protein per day which mainly come from animal protein when our bodies only need about 50g of protein per day.

Numerous scientific studies have found a vegetarian diet is the healthiest possible diet with flexitarians (those who sometimes eat meat) coming in a close second. Don’t base your meals on meat but use meat as a flavoring or light topping.

These are some easy guidelines to remember and to start implementing into your daily eating plan. For more great guidelines check out Michael Pollan’s book “Food Rules”.

YOUR TURN! Let me know what you think of Michael Pollan’s above 5 Food Rules by leaving a comment below! Have you read any of his books? What helps you make quick healthy decisions when shopping? Don’t forget to share this with your friends by sharing the love below and clicking on the facebook “like” button!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

What’s your Eating Plan: Living Foods or Dead Foods?

Getting Started, Healthy Eating 2 Responses »

Aug 242010

The #1 way to eat well and get healthy is to take inventory of your pantry and your current meals. What do you find yourself eating more of: fresh whole foods or dead packaged foods? Do your current eating habits lead your body to be riddled with disease or to ultimate health?

So what is the difference between live and dead food?

Living foods are fresh, whole foods such as fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains. These are the foods that create a life of ultimate healthy without heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity, and diabetes. These are the foods that will increase energy, extend your life, and make you feel awesome!

Dead foods are those foods out there that are not whole. They are packaged and processed with chemicals and preservatives added with expiration dates. They lead to disease and death, not a fulfilled life! They shouldn’t even be labeled as food! They don’t have the necessary nutrition to sustain a quality filled life.

Michael Pollan in his book “Food Rules” has a great quote regarding dead foods: “Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.” These ingredients you would not recognize as food if you saw what goes into these products. Stick to actual food, not chemicals labeled as something resembling food!

So, today take inventory of your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer! Which road are you taking: disease or ultimate health?

YOUR TURN! Let me know what you think about living vs dead foods and what you are currently doing to improve the health of your food by leaving me a comment below? Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this with your friends!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Antioxidants, Free Radicals, & Fruit Exposed

Getting Started, Healthy Eating, Nutrition 101 6 Responses »

Aug 192010

We all know fruit is healthy for us and any healthy diet will consist of many different fruits daily. By increasing the amount of fruits in your diet, you can dramatically decrease your risk of disease.

Fruits are colorful, naturally sweet, and have numerous health benefits. They are low in calories and fat and high in nutrients such as vitamin C and phytochemicals. Antioxidants are found in abundance in fruit. Furthermore, fruits are anti-carcinogenic, antiviral, anti-allergenic, and anti-inflammatory which means they are AWESOME for your health!

What are antioxidants and why is there so much information about them lately?

Antioxidants are very useful for fighting harmful substances found in your body. Everyday your body is bombarded with tons of chemicals, toxins, and other harmful substances that damage your body. These substances lead to many different diseases and even signs of aging. These are unstable molecules wrecking havoc in your body. Antioxidants are what attach themselves to these unstable molecules to prevent them from causing damage.

Because fruits have loads of various vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals such as antioxidants, they should be a main part of your diet. Don’t you want to give your body’s cells what they need to create ultimate health?

Fruits are pretty easy to add more of to your everyday diet because of their vast array of colors, tastes, and textures. They are nutrient powerhouses!

Add them to smoothies
Add to spinach or other dark leafy vegetables with a raspberry vinaigrette
Make a colorful fruit salad with full or cut up fresh fruits
Pineapples add great flavor with chicken
Apples make an awesome simple snack
Dried fruits with nuts, seeds, and other healthy snacks for trail mix

YOUR TURN! What are some of your ideas for incorporating more antioxidant rich fruits into your diet? Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this post with your friends and clicking the facebook “like” button below!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

4 Steps to Improve your Health by Dinner Time

Getting Started, Healthy Eating, Motivation, Tips & Tools 9 Responses »

Aug 182010

Are you getting enough nutrients for your health?

Maybe your day looks a little like this:

You wake up and get ready for work without time to fix a good breakfast. You pick up a coffee on your way to work. For lunch you go out with friends to a fast food place for a quick meal and try to order something off the menu that sounds healthy. During the mid afternoon you get hungry again and that plate of homemade finger food snacks and desserts look great and you help yourself to a few. Once you get home, you are too tired to think too much about dinner and opt for boxed dinner mixes for your family.

How close is this to your reality? How do you feel about your current health state? Are you ready to start today taking the simple and small steps that can dramatically improve your health?

How about we improve your health by dinner time with 4 easy steps?

1. Changing your health starts by making the decision to change

In order for any change to take place, you need to want to make the change. What is your reason for wanting to be healthier? Do you want more energy, to sleep better, to be more active? What is your desire to change? Are you ready for change?

2. Determine what you want to accomplish

Do you want to eat healthier by switching to whole foods instead of processed foods? Do you want to find 5 good new recipes that are healthier? Do you want to eat healthier for more energy, immune strength, or for your current chronic disease? What do you want to accomplish by eating healthier?

3. Figure out how you want to go about accomplishing your goals

What are you going to do in order to reach your goals of healthier eating? Do you need to find recipes ahead of time and make a grocery shopping list for a weekly grocery shopping trip? Do you need to clean out your pantry of all the unhealthy foods? What steps do you need to take?

4. Take Action!

What good are goals with a plan of action if you don’t actually take action? TAKE ACTION! Go out there and do what needs to be done. Stop wishing and start doing!

With these steps you can have a healthier life by dinner time! What is your first healthy step?

YOUR TURN! If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to claim your FREE printable food guide and healthy grocery shopping guide by clicking here! This can be your first healthy step! What else are you wanting to accomplish right now and how are you going to take action? Let me know by leaving a comment below! Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this post with your friends!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Eat Well during Summer Vacation with these 7 Tips!

Getting Started, Healthy Eating 17 Responses »

Aug 032010

How is your summer going? As with many people, summer is the time for lots of family vacations to take place away from home.

Do you find it difficult to maintain healthy eating habits when you are away? It is a lot easier to resort to fast food and unhealthy snacks.

In the past week, I have been to the beach for a few days and am now working on moving across the country for my husbands job.

I have had my share of challenges this past week with keeping up my healthy eating. I love whole-fresh foods and can really feel the difference when I eat processed or fast food compared when I eat the whole foods. However, that didn’t stop me this past week taking a “healthy eating vacation”.

I am sure a lot of you know the feeling of eating well verses eating junk. How do you feel when the sugar level in your body spikes after eating that candy, cookies, or ice cream and then crashes leaving you sluggish and looking for more food? How about eating that greasy fast food and feeling crummy the rest of the day?

Eating healthy on vacation can be a challenge to any family. You go on vacation to get away and that often means getting away from cooking!

So, how do you eat better on vacation without having to be a slave to the kitchen?

Here are 7 simple strategies for eating better on vacation:

Hit up the fruit and vegetable stands! I noticed on vacation this past week, there were quite a bit of farmer’s markets or even stands on the side of the road for fresh produce. Do some homework before you go on vacation to see what the area you are going to has to offer. This allows for some awesome fresh food to enjoy during the summer months that do not require any preparation time.
Check out the local grocery store if you do not find local produce stands. Hit up the produce section in the grocery store and enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables for the summer heat!
As most of us do, eating out in a restaurant is one of the treats to going on vacation. When you do eat out, choose chicken or fish for your main dish if fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, or seeds aren’t available in main dishes.
Also, when eating out, choose grilled or baked meat over smoked or fried. This dramatically reduces the fat and unhealthy ingredients in your meat!
For a great snack option, mix some dried fruits, nuts, and seeds together to create “trail mix” which is an awesome a filling snack. (If you are not so sure about it, add some m&ms even though they aren’t healthy but will allow you to eat more of the healthy snacks)
For a great healthy lunch, make sandwiches with grilled chicken and fresh vegetables or healthier yet, use a natural nut butter such as peanut butter with fresh vegetables! Make sure you get 100% whole grain bread! Serve with some fresh fruit! Sure beats burgers and fries on a hot summer day and you will feel great afterwards!
Enjoy local cuisine! If you are at the beach, go for more fish so it is fresher and tends to be healthier than food that has traveled great distances. The fresher the food to that area, the better your food will be in nutrients! Plus, it usually tastes awesome!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer! Make sure you enjoy lots of fresh and local produce!

YOUR TURN! What are some food experiences your family has had on your summer vacations? Do you have any ideas for eating healthy while away from home? Let me know by leaving a comment below and don’t forget to “share the love” by sharing this post to your friends because I would love to hear the ideas your friends have as well!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

5 Strategies for Achieving Healthier Eating Habits

Getting Started, Healthy Eating, Healthy Life 6 Responses »

Jun 282010

Are you currently practicing healthy eating habits?

The common practice in our society is to eat quick and easy meals that are not necessarily healthy and in our best interest. So, how can you make some small changes in the way you eat that can have a huge impact on your overall weight issues as well as your health?

I have put together a list of 5 strategies that can help you change your eating habits for the better!

1. Cook more at home instead of choosing to eat out. I am sure this is not the first time you have heard that cooking at home is better than eating out.

Some benefits of cooking at home include that it is typically cheaper, healthier, and gives you some great family time! To make this task easier, make sure you plan your meals ahead of time and stock your pantry with what you need to make your planned meals.

Preparing your meals at home is a great way to have quality family time by allowing your kids to prepare the meals with you which can also instill in them healthy eating habits that can follow them throughout their lives. Get creative, have some fun, and make your meals at home!

2. Eat your meals sitting at a table. This may sound very basic, but it can make a huge difference in how you feel and eat during the day.

Sitting at the table while you eat allows your brain to register your activity of eating a meal which can decrease your overall daily snacking and lead to overall less daily caloric intake. This is especially helpful when you are trying to control your calories to help with weight loss.

3. Make sure you only eat when you are actually hungry. Our society is notorious for eating too many calories on a daily basis. A good chunk of these calories come from eating food that is in front of you like at social gatherings or just when you are watching TV.

How many times have you eaten out of boredom or because other people were eating the food? Do not eat if you are not hungry. Make sure you are eating only what is necessary to live and fuel your body and that you are not living to eat!

4. Choose to eat only food that you really enjoy. How many times have you found yourself eating that last sugar cookie because it was staring at you even though you do not really like sugar cookies? A great way to cut empty and unsatisfying calories is to eat what you enjoy and leave food that is not absolutely to die for!

5. Go ahead and eat those snacks during the day. It is in the best interest of your health and weight loss to eat snacks in between your meals. It will help your blood sugar stay at a smooth level throughout the day. It can help decrease the amount you indulge in at meal time.

Make sure you choose healthy snacks that offer the most filling calories such as combining fruit and nuts.

The above 5 strategies are small tips you can incorporate into your daily lives that will help you get healthier and lose weight. There are so many ways our daily dietary habits work against our desire to be healthy and to lose weight. Make sure you learn how to look for these extra calories in your daily routine and learn how to combat them in order to get the most out of your caloric intake. Imagine what paying attention to this can do for your health and weight loss!

Its your turn! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of these tips and how they will fit in with your lifestyle. Also, let me know if you have any strategies to add to this list! Don’t forget to share the love by sharing it with your friends!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Do YOUR current Eating Habits Stack up?

Getting Started, Healthy Eating 4 Responses »

Jun 082010

So what constitutes a healthy diet? You probably know all about the food pyramid and the different food groups. But what in these food groups should you be focusing on and what can you make changes with?

Meat

As Americans, we know this food group well. Most meals are built around meat. There are all sorts of different kinds of meat: chicken, beef, turkey, fish, pork, sausage, hot dogs, and hamburger right? Well, this is where Americans have kind of strayed off the path.

We should not be consuming much processed meat. What I mean about processed meat are the sausages, the hot dogs, the lunch meats, and hamburger to mention a few of the different types of processed meats. Processed meats are high in food preservatives which can lead to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and brain damage. Scary, right? Some of the ingredients have been linked to these diseases in recent studies.

So, when you are choosing what to eat when it comes to meat, you want to focus on chicken, turkey, and fish. Red meat such as beef can have more dangerous fats and can lead to disease. This doesn’t mean you need to cut out everything besides chicken, turkey, and fish. It simply means be more mindful of the type of meat you are putting into your body. Remember, a day’s worth of meat is about 6oz. How many ounces was that burger you had last night?

If you are eating more meat, you are eating less of fruits and vegetables which is where your focus should be more than with meat.

Fruits and Vegetables

Our society eats some produce. We should definitely be eating more! I mean look at all the different choices that are in the grocery store year-round! But do you realize how much of a variety you can make with these? God has created an abundance of whole foods that it is pretty much impossible to get bored!

Doesn’t it make more sense to put whole foods in your body that come directly from nature rather than processed foods that have tons of chemicals and additives that are harmful to your health? Which do you think will create a body that will thrive? Which one will create a body that is riddled with disease?

Fruits and Vegetables play a huge role in our bodies. They carry tons of vitamins and minerals that will create healthy bodies. They also have tons of antioxidants that have been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease and cancer. Give your body what it needs: Fruits and Vegetables. Get creative! Eat from the rainbow! Possibilities are endless!

Whole Wheat

This is a huge area that could use some work in our society. Most of processed foods are made with bleached or white grain. They refer to this as “refined”. I’ll let you in on a little secret: when wheat is refined, it loses most of its nutritional value! So you are eating something that really has no nutritional value and can even cause constipation.

I have people all the time complain about constipation. I ask them what they are eating and it usually consists mainly of processed wheat products and low on whole wheat. Guess what? Switch to whole wheat and you will most likely regain your regular movements! Whole wheat is what you body needs when it comes to wheat.

So, remember to choose whole wheat pasta, bread, and whole grain rice in order to get any nutrients that your body is craving. Plus, your body knows what to do with these carbohydrates! They will not cause such a high spike in blood sugar as they are utilized by the body slower!

Milk and Dairy

This can be a great source of calcium for stronger bones. Be sure to choose low fat or no fat cheese and milk. Our society is big on the dairy. I would focus on cutting down a lot of the calories that you could be adding to your meals through cheese and butter. Do you really need all that as toppings? You sure don’t need them for eating fruits and vegetables which is what you will be eating more of on your journey to health and weight loss.

Healthy Fats

I added this in here because I think it is important to understand what is in the oil or butter you add to your food. Make sure there are no hydrogenate oils in your food. This is a known substance that is linked to heart disease. You may remember it as Trans fat.

Food manufacturers have gotten smart by renaming some ingredients to mask some popular dangerous chemicals. Your food can still have Trans fat even if it says no Trans fat. They are allowed to claim no Trans fat if it is under a certain amount. So be careful! Cooking oils can also be hidden sources of dangerous fats that are brought out when the oil is heated to a certain degree. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the oil I recommend!

Please share the love by sharing this article with your friends! I also LOVE hearing from you! What do you think about this article and how are you working at eating healthier in your life?

To your health,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!