Oishii

Alimentação Ecológica

"Animal agriculture is directly or partially responsible for many of the worlds most serious environmental problems- global warming, water use and pollution, massive energy consumption, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and species, as well as the deep impact of fishing on our oceans. Reducing or eliminating the consumption of animal products is one of the most powerful ways an individual reduce his or her carbon footprint."

31 Dias de Receitas Vegetarianas

D de Dióspiro

Nelson Garrido

in Jornal Público, 01.10.2011

Por Pedro Carvalho, nutricionista

"Existem alimentos cujo aparecimento pode ser encarado quase como uma premonição para os tempos futuros. O dióspiro é um deles.

A capacidade de prever o futuro já é associada ao dióspiro desde tempos antigos quando os nativos americanos cortavam as sementes deste fruto de modo longitudinal para prever a gravidade do Inverno que se seguiria, consoante a forma de colher, garfo ou faca existente no interior da mesma.

O dióspiro tem assim um bouquet nutricional feito à medida para nos proteger da diminuição das temperaturas sentida nesta fase ao reforçar o nosso sistema imunitário.

Embora a possua em razoáveis quantidades, não é primordialmente na vitamina C que o diospiro se alicerça quanto ao fortalecimento das nossas defesas, mas sim na sua riqueza em carotenos e na sua capacidade antioxidante. De resto, ao nível dos frutos frescos, apenas a manga e o damasco possuem níveis superiores deste pigmento com uma enorme capacidade de protecção das nossas células dos danos provocados pelos radicais livres.

São estes mesmos beta-carotenos, juntamente com outros potentes compostos fenólicos (idênticos aos encontrados no chá verde e vinho tinto) que fazem do dióspiro um super-fruto no que ao seu poder antioxidante diz respeito e que apenas é superado pela romã e pela anona. Todo este potencial consegue ainda ser enriquecido quando no momento do consumo se opta pelo excelente hábito de lhe adicionar canela, outro potente antioxidante.

Nos alimentos, como em tudo na vida, não existe a perfeição e no caso do dióspiro a sua doçura e elevada palatibilidade tem justificação no seu alto teor de açúcar. Não há no entanto razões para discriminar o consumo de dióspiro por este facto, até porque, se por um lado se trata de um fruto sazonal que apenas está presente nas nossas mesas num período muito limitado de tempo, por outro, existem frutos mais “comuns” e com valores de açúcar mais elevados (como é o caso das bananas e uvas). Existem mesmo alguns estudos promissores que revelam que a pele do dióspiro, rica em antioxidantes e fibra, poderá ter um efeito benéfico no controlo glicémico de pacientes diabéticos, tal como na diminuição dos níveis de triglicerídeos e colesterol.

Em conclusão, os dióspiros têm um pouco de açúcar a mais, mas face a todas as outras vantagens que aportam, o melhor é aproveitá-los enquanto pode. Se possível com canela!

*Professor Assistente Convidado da Faculdade de Ciências da Nutrição e Alimentação da Universidade do Porto
pedrocarvalho@fcna.up.pt"

Fonte e imagem:

http://lifestyle.publico.pt/bemestar/294383_d-de-diospiro

Aging gracefully: Masking the signs of aging are no secret

Jim Pressler at age 50, left, and today.

Margaret Webb Pressler - The Washington Post | Posted: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

"How old is the man in the photo?

Hint No. 1: His first full-time salary as a lawyer was $12,000 a year.
Hint No. 2: He drew a low number in the Vietnam War draft lottery.
That my husband, Jim, looks good for his age has been true throughout our 20 years of marriage, but never more so than now. He is 62.
It's been a fun parlor trick. When the "Guess Your Age" guy at the West Virginia State Fair guessed he was 37, Jim had to whip out his driver's license to prove he was really 55. "Man, you look good," the carnie said.
I have always assumed that my husband benefits from especially good genes. But now that Jim is in his 60s, people aren't just shocked to learn his age, they also want to know how he does it. It has made me wonder if the real reason he's aging so well is the nutrition-exercise-supplement-skin-care-lifestyle regimen he has created for himself. Jim has been honing his routine for decades, ever since he was deferred from the draft, at the age of 22, because of high blood pressure. "I knew I could do something about it, and I didn't want to take drugs," he recalls.
If the health and fitness habits he's been developing since then are the reason he looks so young now, that would be really good to know.
I took the question -- and Jim's picture -- to experts in aging, nutrition, cell function, dermatology, genetics and vitamin research. The answer, pretty clearly, is that his efforts have in fact had a big impact on the way he looks, good genes or not.
"The older you get, the more influence you have, so that by the time you're 50, it's about 70 percent choices, about 30 percent genetics," said Michael Roizen, chair of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Roizen has spent years studying aging and runs a hugely popular website, RealAge.com, that offers health and fitness advice. Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director at the National Institute on Aging, agreed that genes are only a piece of the puzzle, and probably not the biggest.
As director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which has followed about 5,000 people since 1958, Ferrucci has been able to see firsthand what makes a difference in the way people age.
"You don't get the genes for being younger," he said. "You get the gene that allows you to do the right things to slow down your aging process."
So let's look at what Jim does.
1 Avoids the big no-no's: Virtually everyone I spoke with listed one or more of these factors working in my husband's favor right from the start: He doesn't smoke, doesn't have sun damage and drinks only moderately. The vigor with which these researchers voiced these opinions reminded me to scare my kids even more about smoking and drinking -- and about the importance of sunscreen.
2 Gets moderate exercise: Ferrucci calls exercise "the strongest beneficial behavior intervention that we know about." Moderate exercise makes the biggest difference, he said.
That would be Jim's style. His exercise routine is limited by a busy law practice, three young kids and a wife who also works. So he squeezes in a 20- to 30-minute aerobic workout on the bike or rowing machine three to four days a week in our basement, followed by 10 to 20 minutes of weight training.
Roizen said he laughed out loud when he read an email from me outlining my husband's exercise program: It was almost the exact same workout plan Roizen promotes as the ideal routine to retard the effects of aging.
3 Eats a healthy diet and eats moderately: Jim's weight has never fluctuated much, but in the past five to 10 years he has eliminated many unhealthful foods from his diet and reduced his portion sizes, causing him to drop 10 pounds without much effort. The trick, I think, has been making these changes gradually so the adjustment has been easy.
Despite a weakness for chocolate chip cookies, Jim now eats more whole grains, much less fat, more fish and more fruit and vegetables. He also eats virtually no red meat, which Roizen applauds.
"It could be the saturated fat; we're not sure. But something in red meat accelerates inflammation in arteries," he said. "And it turns out that inflammation in arteries ages your skin, ages your heart, ages all the things where your blood vessels go."
4 Eats a diet high in antioxidants: Jim devours dark fruits and vegetables such as blueberries, blackberries, watermelon, dark romaine lettuce and other dark greens. I scour the supermarket ads for BOGO deals: buy one for Jim, get one free for the rest of us.
These foods are good because they are full of antioxidants, which are thought to bind with the unstable molecules that are constantly released as a byproduct of metabolism.
Although the science is still not conclusive for humans, there is strong evidence that these free radicals, knocking around in search of other molecules to bind to, damage healthy cells in the process. This oxidative stress can lead to inflammation and other adverse effects, said Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
"I have become a very strong believer in a diet rich in antioxidants," Briggs said. "These things have a very strong observational correlation with health."
5 Takes Vitamin E: Jim has been taking moderate Vitamin E supplements daily for 40 years. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that, in animal testing, has been shown to prolong the life of cells and reduce cell proliferation.
Could it be helping Jim maintain his youthful looks?
"Yes, of course," said Maret Traber, one of the nation's lead researchers on Vitamin E. A professor of nutrition at Oregon State University, she is also a principal investigator at the university's Linus Pauling Institute, which investigates the role of vitamins and micronutrients in health and aging. She said Vitamin E, working alone or in concert with other vitamins, is doing more for Jim than improving his appearance.
"Your husband's insides, I think, look way better than his outsides, and you can quote me," she said. (This was backed up by my husband's annual checkup a month ago, with ideal or better-than-ideal results on every physical exam and blood test. "He's going to put me out of business with a physical like that," his longtime internist, Elliott Aleskow, told me.)
Traber's position is somewhat controversial: Several major studies in humans have shown little benefit from Vitamin E supplements and possible harm from high doses of about 800 milligrams a day. (Jim takes 200 milligrams a day.)
Demetrius Albanes of the National Cancer Institute led one of the few major studies that showed a positive influence for Vitamin E in humans. In this study of 29,000 Finnish men, all of them smokers, those with the highest levels of Vitamin E in their blood had a "significant" reduction in the incidence of prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease and overall mortality after 12 to 20 years, he said. "Designing a good study is complicated," he said, adding that more research on Vitamin E is needed.
Jim does other things that various experts say affect the aging process: He moisturizes his skin daily, he flosses regularly, manages stress well, has a job he often finds rewarding, has a hobby that he enjoys (photography), has a good marriage and healthy kids. Many experts said living a happy life is a key element in aging well, and Jim, even though he works long hours, is pretty happy.
"Yeah, I'd say that's true," he told me. I was only slightly stepping on his small toe when I asked that.
But I was left with one lingering doubt about the role of genetics. Surely it's genetic that he has no gray hair, right?
"I wouldn't count on that," said Ferrucci. "There is some observation that gray hair has a lot to do with oxidative stress."
Like so much in the field of aging, this is a new area of research. It was discovered only a few years ago that the pigment in hair comes from stem cells in the hair follicle. If they stop working, usually later in life, the hair turns gray.
This is a bit perplexing, though, because stem cells have the ability to self-renew, said Mayumi Ito, an assistant professor of cell biology at NYU's Langone Medical Center and one of the few U.S. researchers in this field. No one has demonstrated what factors keep particular stem cells functioning. "I personally assume it is both a genetic process and an environmental process," she said, "as it is with so much else."
The aging process is complicated; it makes sense that if someone is aging especially well, the reasons would be just as complicated. In my husband's case, it is more than good genes; it's everything he's done on top of that, including the right kind of exercise, a beneficial diet and the many other ways he takes care of himself.
The message, at least, is simple: Making an effort can really pay off."

Fonte e imagem:
http://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/article_4be82c97-c256-51fe-831e-6b67ea1c57d0.html

Mark Bittman: Cooking Solves Everything

In this excerpt from the new Byliner Original, bestselling columnist Mark Bittman reflects on his introduction to the world of cooking, and our country's subsequent alienation from it.

Buy Mark Bittman's "Cooking Solves Everything: How Time in the Kitchen Can Save Your Health, Your Budget, and Even the Planet" for $2.99.

What cooking did for me cannot be overstated. It was my first constructive hobby, my first real learned craft. It was an organizing principle for seeing the cities in which I lived as well as those I visited. It became the basis for socializing as an adult. Instead of smoking pot and eating junk food, I was learning to sauté chicken breasts, serve them with green-peppercorn cream sauce, and choose a wine to go with them. And, after the birth of my first daughter in 1978, cooking was an important means of kneading (if you will) the family together.

While I was learning to cook, I was learning to work. I wasn’t all that disciplined. In fact, I was lazy: I saw cooking as a means to an end. Which is OK. We don’t cook for pleasure the way we make love or watch a movie for pleasure. Most of the time, we cook the way we walk: to get somewhere. To get food on the table. That’s the goal. As you do this, you get better at it. First you follow recipes to the letter; then you begin to synthesize some of those recipes, comparing one with another and drawing on what you see as the best of them; then you develop a repertoire of recipes you’ve made your own. Finally you throw away the books, start shopping, open the refrigerator, and cook. You cook like a grandmother, or like anyone with experience.

Still, most people don’t bother. According to a National Restaurant Association survey, a third of Americans think that take-out makes them “more productive”; three-fourths think the social opportunity of restaurant eating is a better use of their time than “cooking and cleaning”; and more than half think they can’t duplicate the “taste sensations” of restaurants at home. (For some reason this one angers me more than the others. The reason you can’t duplicate flavors at home is because you’re not using “enough” MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, and garlic powder. The reason you can’t duplicate “fine” restaurant food at home is probably because you’re not using enough salt or fat—often butter, but have you seen how much olive oil a really good Italian cook uses?) Almost everyone agrees that eating in a restaurant relieves “monotony.”

But real cooking is not monotonous; it’s as varied and challenging and rewarding a task as exists. Unlike tennis, for example, which is incredibly difficult to become good at, or driving, which is easy but really monotonous, cooking will pay you back in spades every single time you do it. I agree that cleaning up can be monotonous, but the majority of Americans have dishwashers.

Americans, I’m sad to report, spend less time cooking than anyone. How do we spend our time? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2010 the average American spent thirty-two minutes each day preparing food and cleaning up, as opposed to two hours and forty-five minutes watching TV. Other activities competing with meal preparation include online pursuits and socializing—things for which we generally don’t budget time. (Few people say, “I don’t have time for television.” They say, “I don’t have time to cook.” Note that they have time to watch people cook on television!)

I will not argue that cooking is effortless, like watching television. It requires time, though often as little as thirty minutes. We make time for the things we care about, regardless of what they are. For many people, cooking is as much a priority as other optional aspects of life. Cooking is like exercise or spending time in nature or good conversation: The more you do it, the more you like it, the better you get at it, and the more you recognize that its rewards are far greater than its efforts and that even its efforts are rewards. When you become even marginally good at cooking, you begin to enjoy the process. Even the shopping. Even, sometimes, the cleanup.

Buy Mark Bittman's "Cooking Solves Everything: How Time in the Kitchen Can Save Your Health, Your Budget, and Even the Planet"

Fonte e imagem:

http://byliner.com/mark-bittman/stories/excerpt-cooking-solves-everything

7 Secrets for Sticking to Your Walking Goal from Leslie Sansone

1. Make your goal doable. If you stick a 3-year-old on a two-wheeler and tell him to ride, he's going to fall off and refuse to get back on for a long time. Make your immediate goal something you know you can do -- if it's just a 10-minute walk, fine. Don't push yourself to the brink of exhaustion. Just do it, and aim to do slightly more every week. Eventually, you'll achieve goals that first seemed beyond you.

2. Get in your face. The best way to do something regularly is to have constant reminders to do it. Have walking shoes at home and at work. Put a chart on your fridge. Check in with your walking tracker every day. Keep your goal in sight.

3. Seek out positive people. If your friends believe that exercise is a waste and are interested in only watching TV or going out for dessert, you're going to be forcing yourself to walk alone. Cultivate new friends, people who like being physically active, and suddenly walking every day gets much easier. Join the RealAge walkers -- talk about positive people!

4. Put it in writing. You can have the best intentions in the world, but a funny thing happens as time passes. You don't want to walk one morning, and then at the end of that week, you've walked five times instead of six or seven, and you tell yourself that's still pretty good. Soon, three times a week is still pretty good, and you don't remember your goal of at least five walks a week. That's why it's vital to write down your goals.

5. Avoid temptation. Whatever your guiltiest habit is, get everything related to it as far from yourself as possible. If your goal is to be fit and eat less junk, the best favor you can do yourself is to clear your house of junk food (be sure to toss these foods, too). Removing temptation does make a difference.

6. Recognize negative thinking patterns. There are a million varieties, but they all come down to the same issue: not existing in the here and now. Things get complicated when your mind starts focusing on the past or future, not the present. Maybe you say, "When I've lost 100 pounds, I'll look good," or "If I had started this a year ago, I'd really see progress now." But these thoughts trick you into ignoring one reality: that anything you do happens one step at a time, starting today.

7. Aim for no slips for 4 weeks. Once you've established a pattern, you can slip now and then and it won't affect your overall success or motivation. But earlier slips interfere with forming a new habit. So for the first month, try extra hard to stick to your goals. If necessary, remind yourself that you will be allowed to deviate eventually. Sticking to something with no slips for 4 weeks is doable; doing it for life with no slips isn't.

Go to Walking Center

Fonte:

http://www.realage.com/shape-up-slim-down/walking/sansone-fitness-walking?src=edit&chan=tip&con=tip&click=p5

Imagem:

http://www.public-domain-image.com/nature-landscape/garden-park/slides/path-on-peat-moor-in-sepia-colour.html

5 a day - the easy way

Kellie Collins

"We all know by now that we should be eating more fruit and vegetables. From newspapers and magazines, leaflets in supermarkets and even labels on the food we buy, we are constantly encouraged to eat more of the green stuff. And that’s no bad thing.

Fruit and vegetables are power-houses of nutrition. Packed with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and all kinds of phyto-nutrients, fibre and water, diets rich in fruit and veg are associated with better health – lower heart attack risk, lower risks of some cancers, decreased obesity, better eye-sight, healthier looking skin – you name it, fruit and veg have a role in it.

But just how many portions of fruit and veg should we be aiming for every day…and what is a portion? If you’ve been getting through 2 cartons of juice and 3 tins of beans every day to increase your fruit and vegetable intake, well done for trying. But a closer look at the Department of Health’s recommendations will help you take a step in the right direction.

The Department of Health recently launched new guidelines on what exactly counts as a portion of fruit and vegetables, after a National Diet and Nutrition Survey revealed that only one in seven adults eat the recommended quantity of greens on a regular basis. Part of the problem is that, while a lot of people are aware of the need to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day, there seems to be a bit of confusion over what exactly constitutes a portion.

The 5 a day campaign was initially launched to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables as the evidence shows that eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day could help prevent up to 20% of deaths from conditions such as heart disease and cancer. That’s a lot of lives saved just by eating more of something.

However, some food manufacturers jumped on the 5 a day bandwagon and began to promote their products as being as healthy and nutritious as fresh fruit or vegetables. Take baked beans, for example.

Beans do count as a vegetable portion and the tomato sauce they come in can also go some way to meeting your 5 a day. In fact, cooked tomatoes provide even more of the anti-oxidant lycopene than fresh tomatoes. But when those beans and cooked tomatoes are accompanied by salt, sugar, fat, Tele-Tubbie shaped pasta and even mini-sausages, the health message begins to get pushed a little to one side.

The Department of Health now insist that companies who make claims like this will have to review their recipes to ensure their processed foods are not high in fat, sugar or salt, if they want to be included in the 5 a day campaign.

So, what exactly counts as a portion of fruit and veg?

Well, the list below should help you out on that one. But to confuse matters, there are some foods that can only count once. Whether you drink a glass of fruit juice or a whole carton of fruit juice, it can only count as one fruit and veg portion per day. Sorry folks, but when fruit and veg are juiced, they lose their fibre so this guideline is in place to ensure we all get enough fibre to keep our bowels happy. If you smoothie your fruit, on the other hand (blend up whole fruit with milk, yoghurt and other yummy things like honey), each fruit portion that goes into your blender counts.

Beans (small, round beans like baked beans, not long thin green ones) and pulses can only count once because they are higher in protein and calories and lower in water than other vegetables. And 100% concentrated puree, such as tomato puree, can also only count as one portion, no matter how much you eat of the stuff.

And to set the record straight, frozen is just as good (sometimes better) than fresh, and tinned veggies are certainly better than none if that’s all you have access to.

Have a look at what constitutes a portion and get yourself down to the greengrocers pronto.

Fruit - aim for at least 2 servings a day.

½ avocado or grapefruit 1 medium apple, banana, orange, fresh peach, large slice of fresh pineapple, tablespoon of raisins, handful of grapes, handful of banana chips (a handful is how much will comfortably fit in the palm of your hand) 2 inch slice of melon, small mandarin-type oranges, rings of canned pineapple, plums, apricots, kiwi fruit, handfuls of raspberries 3 dates 7 slices of canned peach, strawberries 14 cherries

Vegetables - aim for at least 3 servings a day - but the more the merrier

½ pepper 1 cereal bowl of lettuce, medium onion, medium tomato, large parsnip 2 inches of cucumber, spears of broccoli, heaped tablespoons of cooked spinach 3 sticks of celery, heaped tablespoons of sweetcorn, lentils or beans (only once a day), mixed frozen vegetables, peas or carrots 5 spears of asparagus 7 slices of beetroot, cherry tomatoes 8 cauliflower florets, Brussels sprouts

As with everything else, variety is the spice of life. Although not specified in the government guidelines, we would recommend that waist watchers don’t rely on avocado, banana chips and raisins for their 5 a day. Avocado is a relatively high-fat food (okay, it’s good fat, but it’s still fat), banana chips are all too often fried and dried fruit can be coated in oil to keep them shiny and as good as new.

So fill up your plate with greens (and reds, oranges, yellows and purples) and get on target for better health."

Fonte e imagem:

http://www.guardianeatright.co.uk/news/article.cfm?code=27101&article_id=1741