Why is it important to eat fruit?

Do you like fruit?


Eating fruit provides health benefits — people who eat more fruits and vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet are likely to have a reduced risk of some chronic diseases. Fruits provide nutrients vital for health and maintenance of your body.

Health benefits

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet may reduce risk for stroke and perhaps other cardiovascular diseases.

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet may reduce risk for type 2 diabetes.

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet may protect against certain cancers, such as mouth, stomach, and colon-rectum cancer.Diets rich in foods containing fiber, such as fruits and vegetables, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.


Eating fruits and vegetables rich in potassium as part of an overall healthy diet may reduce the risk of developing kidney stones and may help to decrease bone loss.

Eating foods such as fruits that are low in calories per cup instead of some other higher-calorie food may be useful in helping to lower calorie intake.

Nutrients
Most fruits are naturally low in fat, sodium, and calories. None have cholesterol.Fruits are important sources of many nutrients, including potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin C, and folate (folic acid).Diets rich in potassium may help to maintain healthy blood pressure.

Fruit sources of potassium include bananas, prunes and prune juice, dried peaches and apricots, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and orange juice.Dietary fiber from fruits, as part of an overall healthy diet, helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower risk of heart disease.

Fiber is important for proper bowel function. It helps reduce constipation and diverticulosis. Fiber-containing foods such as fruits help provide a feeling of fullness with fewer calories. Whole or cut-up fruits are sources of dietary fiber; fruit juices contain little or no fiber.

Vitamin C is important for growth and repair of all body tissues, helps heal cuts and wounds, and keeps teeth and gums healthy.Folate (folic acid) helps the body form red blood cells.

Women of childbearing age who may become pregnant and those in the first trimester of pregnancy should consume adequate folate, including folic acid from fortified foods or supplements. This reduces the risk of neural tube defects, spina bifida, and anencephaly during fetal development.

.....The Best Get-Happy Foods : Leafy greens - Mood-Boosting Ingredient: Folic Acid
Research has shown that the folic acid in leafy greens such as kale and spinach can reduce depression and even improve blood flow to the brain. If you're not eating at least one serving per day you're more than likely low in folic acid, so try getting more or consider taking a multivitamin that contains it. - Abigail L. Cuffey/Woman's Day

From : THE SPIRITS OF HEALTHY LIVING

Smart Way to Lose Weight

Modern men and women need a slim body. They want a better appearance for many reasons. Yes, if you have an ideal weight you will healthier and happier. So, how to get a good body?

Dr. Kenneth Cooper in the late 1960s published Aerobics as the “perfect” way to “train” your heart. He thought that medium intensity aerobic exercise practiced three or four times a week was all you needed for heart health. Do you still follow this method? But, today the reality is different. A recent study by Harvard researchers shows that those who do short-duration, high-intensity workouts, reduce their risk of heart disease by 100 percent more than those who practice aerobic exercise.

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that men and women who exercised at a higher intensity had lower blood pressure, lower triglycerides (blood fat), higher HDL (good cholesterol) and less body fat. What’s more, medium intensity does not train your “high-energy output system” – your ability to get extra power fast. And that’s exactly what we’re missing in our modern world. You are overweight for the most simple of reasons -- because you're eating the wrong foods, the wrong types of calories per meal, and you're also eating meals in the wrong patterns each day.Food is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills, because the FOOD that you eat cans either make you THIN or FAT. You don't get fat because of a lack of exercising, that's a myth. You get fat because you don't eat the right foods at the right intervals each day.

Also, the pattern that you choose to eat your meals each day is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills. This is true because your body is like an "engine" and it only needs certain foods at certain intervals each day, and if you don't eat the right foods at the right times then it won't burn those calories -- and you'll wind up storing those calories as fat tissue.
You have gotten overweight by eating the wrong foods, that much is a fact. And guess what? You can get SLIM by eating the RIGHT FOODS at the RIGHT INTERVALS each day. Remember that the reason you cannot lose weight by starving yourself (using a low calorie diet) is because your metabolism will detect any major drop in calories and it will then ADJUST ITSELF by burning fewer calories each day.

It's not really any more complicated than that, and the way to start losing weight has nothing to do with starving yourself or jogging, but if you can combine a dynamic aerobics and eat right foods, you can achieve a better result to lose weight.

In a matter of weeks, you can: Lose pounds of belly fat, Build functional new muscle, Reverse heart disease, Build energy reserves available on demand, strengthen your immune system, and Reverse many of the changes of aging.

*) Source: from many sources.