The Secret to Healthy Eating - Whole Foods, Water and Green Tea

A healthy diet is a simple concept if you concentrate on one main but basic rule:


the majority of your diet should include whole foods.

Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined and typically do not contain added ingredients such as sugar, salt, or fat. Whole foods include whole grains, dark green and yellow or orange-fleshed vegetables and fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds, unprocessed meat, poultry, and fish and nonhomogenized milk.

Whole grains are cereal grains containing the bran, endosperm and germ of the original grain. Whole grains can generally be sprouted while processed grains generally will not sprout. The bran or the outer shell protects the seed and provides fiber, B vitamins and trace minerals. The germ provides the nourishment for the seed and contains valuable antioxidants, vitamin E and the B vitamins. The endosperm provides energy and contains carbohydrates and protein. Refined grains retain only the endosperm. In Canada, it is legal to advertise any food product as "wholewheat" with up to 70% of the wheat germ removed. While the resulting product will contain the benefit of fiber it lacks the health benefits of antioxidants found in the wheat germ. Canadian consumers can be assured of wholegrain products if a label states "100% whole grain wholewheat".

The recommended daily intake of whole grains is three servings per day. A healthy diet should also include eight to ten servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Fruit and vegetable juices may be considered a helping in this category, however caution should be taken to prevent a high intake of sugar and salt if these are not freshly squeezed juices. Eating the actual whole fruit or vegetable gives you the added benefit of the fiber which the juice does not provide. Dietary fiber, otherwise known as roughage, is the indigestible portion of plant foods. Soluble fiber is readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts. Insoluble fiber is metabolically inert, absorbing water throughout the digestive system and thereby easing defecation. Dietary fiber changes the nature of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract and it also changes how other nutrients and chemicals are absorbed.

It has been suggested by some health experts that fruits should be eaten independently of other foods to obtain the maximum nutrient value from them. Eating fruits first thing in the morning is considered very beneficial because the body has fasted all night, the fruits are very high in nutrients and are quickly digested. It is recommended that a fruit not be eaten at the end of a meal because it will be held back in the stomach by the previously eaten foods that are slower to digest and the fruit will begin to ferment. This fermentation will interfere with the digestion of the other foods. A fruit is also acceptable as a bedtime snack for the reason that it is nutritious and it digests quickly when eaten alone.

In addition to the whole foods, two beverages that should be included in every adult diet are water and green tea. Water is a perfect beverage because it hydrates and detoxifies without adding calories. Green tea, which comes from the Camellia Sinensis plant, is one of the least processed teas and thus provides high quantities of antioxidant polyphenols, namely a catechin called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (ECGC). Just one cup of green tea supplies 20-35 mg of EGCG which has the highest antioxidant activity of all green tea catechins. ECGC in green tea has been found to be 100 times more effective than vitamin C, 25 times more effective than vitamin E, and twice as powerful as resveratrol, which is a polyphenol found in red wine that limits the negative effects of smoking and fatty diets. EGCG, along with caffeine, also causes a process of heat production in organisms called thermogenesis. Green tea in itself does not contain calories and research suggests that drinking five cups of green tea a day would burn an extra 70 to 80 calories or eight pounds in one year.

Doreen Storozuk is a hairstylist and business owner who has a keen interest in the amazing health benefits of green tea. She enjoys research and writing and invites you to visit her website at http://HealthByGreenTea.com where she promotes green tea in an unbelievable range of products including tea, skin care, green tea bedding and gift baskets.