Eating Healthy Means Eating More Fiber September 30, 2008

For many people, the road to healthier living includes eating more fiber. In fact, research has consistently shown that dietary fiber offers many health benefits to the people who consume it on a regular basis. Furthermore, although fiber is probably best known for preventing and/or relieving constipation, it can also provide other health benefits, including lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Fortunately, most people can get the recommended daily amount of fiber by simply evaluating their current eating habits and making small changes to their daily diets.

Before you do any of that though, you will need to know what fiber is. Dietary fiber (also referred to as “roughage” or “bulk”) is vegetative matter that your digestive system cannot break down into its component parts. Or in other words, it’s the plant material that you eat although your body cannot digest it. As such, dietary fiber will pass through your digestive tract essentially unchanged by your body’s digestive mechanisms and processes.

Dietary fiber is usually classified into one of two categories: soluble and insoluble. The difference is that soluble fiber dissolves in water, whereas insoluble fiber does not. Further, this difference in solubility affects the way that the fiber interacts with your digestive system. Because soluble fiber dissolves in water, it will form a gel-like substance once it enters your body. In turn, this substance helps lower blood cholesterol and blood glucose levels. Soluble fiber is often found in popular foods such as oats, legumes, apples, and carrots, among others. On the other hand, insoluble fiber is not changed by the presence of water and serves mainly to increase the bulk of your stool, which is a great benefit to people who suffer from constipation. This type of fiber is found whole-wheat flour, nuts, and many vegetables.
Many people strive to maintain a high-fiber diet and, after learning of the many health benefits, it’s easy to understand why. From preventing constipation to lowering cholesterol levels to aiding in weight loss, eating a diet that is high in fiber is a step to better health.

To attain the greatest health benefit of a high-fiber diet, you should eat a wide variety of high-fiber foods. Speak to your doctor or nutritionist if you do not think that you are getting enough fiber in your diet. You can choose foods that are higher in fiber by simply choosing healthier foods for yourself. Health food companies have recognized the value of high-fiber foods and should be in abundant supply among these businesses. One such company is YoNaturals, maker of health food vending machines. Choosing a health snack from their machine is choosing the best for your health.

Eating Well While Pregnant by YoNaturals September 23, 2008

While pregnant, women have a critical need to adjust their diets for the sake of their babies and in response to the changing needs of their bodies. For most women, these changes will include a special emphasis on increasing their daily intake of protein, folic acid, and iron, along with some other vitamins and minerals. Caloric needs will also increase as a gestating mother progresses in her pregnancy. Even if a woman maintained a healthy diet before she became pregnant, it will be important for her to monitor it and make the necessary changes that will ensure that the fetus is getting all of the nutrition that it will need to grow strong.

At YoNaturals, we know that one of the most difficult aspects of maintaining a healthy diet throughout your pregnancy is controlling your cravings for junk food. Since junk food offers little nutrition and many empty calories, it provides almost no benefit to the growing fetus and the mother to be. Further, while there is a need to increase caloric intake, expectant mothers do not usually need to consume more than about 300 extra calories per day.

Of course, expectant mothers have heard it over and over again, ad nauseum, that they should avoid all raw seafood (e.g. oysters and sushi) as well as unpasteurized milk, soft cheeses, and undercooked meats. Or in other words, any kind of food that could transmit bacteria to the mother (and thus the unborn child) should be avoided. As for cooked fish, a woman who is expecting should eat no more than two servings (about 12 oz.) of fish per week due to the possibility of mercury poisoning. Beyond these basic foods, for some women, alcohol and caffeine are two of the most difficult things to give up for the duration of their pregnancy.

As for what you can and should be eating, you should prepare a list of your questions and sit down with your health care provider to discuss how to meet all of your baby’s nutritional needs while staying within the bounds of your personal preferences. This is especially important for women who are vegan, vegetarian, or have otherwise restricted diets.
Begin eating small meals every four hours or so. Eating mini-meals is usually easier on your body and makes sure that your growing child does not go hungry. Even if you are suffering from nausea, heartburn, or another ailment that makes food unpalatable, you should not be skipping meals. Your baby needs the nutrients.

It’s important to be mindful of your health and nutritional needs at all times, but it’s almost never as important as when you are carrying a child in your womb. And you should strive to maintain your diet even when you leave your home. One way to accomplish this is by choosing healthy snacks from YoNaturals vending machines. They will provide you with both the nutrition that you and your baby need as well as the peace of mind that goes along with it.

YoNaturals says Take Time to Learn about the Foods You Serve September 13, 2008

Author: Brenda Coxe

It may take more time out of your day, but in order to ascertain you are feeding your family meals that are healthy and nutritionally sound, you must learn about the ingredients that are in those foods. Certainly this is not important if you are serving only fresh fruits and vegetables and home grown meats but few people have the luxury of providing foods that are 100% natural all the time. If you live on a farm you can grow your own vegetables and fruits and raise your own meat, but not everyone is able to do that. The days when everyone was able to farm their own land to feed their families is obsolete for the most part, but we can’t deny we were healthier when more people farmed their own land to feed their families.

Is it really that important to know everything about the foods you serve your family? Why wouldn’t it be important? You have to make sure they get all the nutrition they need, and you don’t know that unless you know what is in the foods you serve, especially those that are not grown in your own garden or purchased from a grocer you trust. In addition, even if you purchase foods from a grocer you trust, you need to understand the meaning of what he tells you. For instance, if he says the broccoli he sells is below the government approved level for pesticides, you want to know what the approved level is and how much is included in the broccoli. You need to become more educated in the foods you serve in order to be certain your family is getting all the nutrition they need.

Children are very susceptible to exposure to foods that are full of empty calories. Even some of the schools have decided that it’s more important for the children to eat something than to throw away good food. The lunches in many schools nationwide consist of pizza, hotdogs, hamburgers and other junk food. When you figure the number 9of children on the school lunch programs who may only get one nutritious meal daily, it means nutrition is lacking among those who come from poor families more than necessary. School Healthy Vending is one vendor that is attempting to assure the schools provide healthy and nutritious snacks in their vending machines, but it takes more than just snacks to create a healthy child. Parents and other caregivers need to learn how to research what is in the foods they serve and make sure they don’t serve foods with empty calories.

Obesity Is a Modern Day Killer September 7, 2008

Author: Laura Rayburn

All around this country, and, indeed, all around this world, people are adopting more and more sedentary lifestyles as their work is made more efficient by technological advances. What used to take a team of men hours of physical labor to accomplish can now be done by simply manipulating machines and robots instead. While this is good news for most businesses and the world economy in general, it has led to a decrease in the amount of energy that the average person requires in order to get through their day. This truth, complemented by the related fact that our more affluent lifestyles have allowed us to indulge our taste buds more than previous generations, is one of the underlying causes of the obesity epidemic that the human race is facing in this modern day.

Unlike generations past, we do not view life-threatening illnesses as very dangerous anymore. With all the medicines and medical breakthroughs that have occurred in the last century alone, we are freed from many of the diseases that killed people in the past. That said, it is also true that our modern society is not free of all medical ailments. Although we do not feel threatened by things like pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other bacterial and viral infections, we cannot escape the plague of death. And for over 400,000 Americans per year, death manifests itself as a complication of an obesity-related condition. That number breaks down to over eleven hundred people dying each day from something that is preventable for the most part!

Unfortunately, there are a lot of us who meet threshold for being considering obese or overweight. In fact, there are over 123 million of us! Furthermore, this problem is not even restricted to the adult demographics. Around the globe, there are at least 22 million children under the age of five are considered overweight (and thus at risk for obesity). Indeed, in this country alone, researchers report that the number of overweight children has doubled in the span of a single generation, while the number of overweight adolescents has tripled.

And although genetics do play a role in determining how easily a person gains and loses weight, for the most part, your genes do not have the final say in determining your pant size, but your brain does. And although it will take a strong act of willpower to make the changes required for a healthier lifestyle, it will soon become second nature to you. The decision to choose healthy snacks for you and your family will even be a no-brainer when you see YoNaturals health food vending machines popping up in your workplace, in your child’s school, and out and about around the town. The decision to eat healthier food is easy if you choose to stick with YoNaturals. Choose it for your health.