lower blood pressure
Let Dark Chocolate Help You Get Fit
When you go on a traditional “diet” it seems that everything even remotely delicious is removed from your menu. Most people cut their caloric intake too far, consume tasteless food that rabbits would avoid, exercise until they drop and make themselves utterly miserable.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
You want to maintain a healthy weight – you want to be fit. You know that excess pounds can lead to heart disease, diabetes and depression just for starters. So how do you get there?
Stop “Dieting”
Good nutrition can still taste fantastic! In fact, fresh foods prepared well are much more delicious than the high-fat, high-sugar, high-additive pre-packaged choices. Most of those frozen and prepared foods taste awful!
When you start making “real” food part of your life you will never want that artificial stuff again.
Instead of giving yourself less food or no food – you need to give it the right foods more often. Make choices – such as green smoothies – that give you tons of fiber and nutrition with less fat and sugar.
68% of the American population is overweight – half of those people are obese.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Exercise shouldn’t scare you. You don’t have to enter a triathlon to get results. Low impact and no impact exercises and strength training will give you measurable results while also making your bones and muscles strong.
Yoga, tai chi, walking, water aerobics and light strength training with resistance bands are inexpensive ways to get moving without feeling like you’ll need a week to recover.
How Dark Chocolate Can Help You Lose Weight
Over the last several years scientists have been examining the benefits of dark chocolate. While milk and white chocolate are still a no-no, the mix of good stuff 
in varieties with 70% cacao or higher are irrefutable.
Top 5 Benefits of Dark Chocolate
- 1. A study published in
Science Daily
- found that dark chocolate slows digestion so you feel full for a longer period of time – which may curb your calories by as much as 15% at the next meal.
2. The Journal of Proteome Research reported that dark chocolate actually alters the human metabolism in a good way. The monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) in dark chocolate boost your metabolism which stimulates your body to burn fat.
3. People who eat dark chocolate have fewer cravings for foods packed with sugar, salt and fat.
4. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, dark chocolate does not stimulate insulin resistance that can lead to diabetes. When your body is resistant to insulin, your cells go into starvation mode because they aren’t getting the fuel they need. The result is more weight gain.
5. Dark chocolate has been shown to lower blood pressure, stress cortisol levels and reduce the LDL “bad” cholesterol in your body. All of this is due to the antioxidant-rich cacao content not duplicated in other forms of chocolate. Harvard Medical School found that the flavonoids in dark chocolate reduce your risk of coronary heart disease.
Can You Eat Chocolate and Weigh Less?
Eating chocolate actually helps lower your body mass index (BMI) – the measurement that pinpoints how much of your total body weight is actually fat.
One all natural variety – which is also part of the – contains all the antioxidants dark chocolate is known for with no gluten and high fiber.
Getting Healthy and Being Happy
Getting fit and meeting your weight loss goals doesn’t have to be frustrating or depressing. Improving your health can go hand-in-hand with happiness and positivity. You don’t have to deprive yourself of the foods and flavors you love most.
– and why they are dangerous to your health.
Did you know…that certain foods contain a hormone that causes your fat cells to expand – thereby making your body look bloated?
on the Beverly Hills Mega Weightloss System on how you can lose weight working with your body’s natural biochemistry instead of working against it.
Pomegranates
Pomegranates have been prized for their nutrition value for more than 4,000 years, especially in the ancient world of the Middle and Near East.
Now, research shows that this time-honored fruit can fight heart disease…support healthy cholesterol levels…lower blood pressure…relieve stress…improve your sex life…and, according to a brand-new study, even slow down the aging process of DNA.
Pomegranate Benefits: An Anti-Aging Super Food
In November of 2011, scientists from the ProbelteBio laboratory in Murcia, Spain conducted a month-long study of the effects of pomegranate extract. The study focused specifically on the pomegranate’s rich stores of antioxidants (important compounds that prevent age-related cell damage).
The research team recruited two groups of volunteers. The first group was given extracts of the whole pomegranate fruit in capsule form (extracts included the pith or membrane, peel, and seeds). The second group received a placebo.
The research team was highly impressed with their results. Those who took the pomegranate extract showed a significant decrease in a specific, important marker linked to cell damage.
That marker, known as 8-Oxo-DG, can have detrimental effects such as:
- • Lessened brain function
- • Weakening of muscles
- • Impaired kidney function
- • Decrease in liver productivity
- • Aging of the skin
Sergio Streitenberger, lead researcher at ProbelteBio, believes the study “demonstrates that the regular consumption of this pomegranate extract can slow down the process of DNA oxidation.”
The pomegranate’s ability to decrease 8-Oxo-DG suggests that it wields significant power as an anti-aging super food.
Why Antioxidants Are The Ideal Anti-Agers
Antioxidants are crucial for preventing and reversing aging because they stop damage wrought by destructive free radicals.
“One way to look at aging is to think of it as rusting,” Streitenberger said, “or oxidizing.” Free radicals oxidize our body’s molecules. Everyday we take in these dangerous compounds in the food we eat, the beverages we drink, and even the air we breathe. “We get old because we fall apart cell by cell,” said Streitenberger.
Sandeep Prabhu, assistant professor of immunology and molecular toxicology at Penn State, says that foods especially rich in antioxidants
—such as pomegranates—qualify as anti-aging super food because they have “the ability to neutralize harmful molecules in our cells.”
Once free radicals reach the DNA of our cells, Streitenberger warns, “the damage is cumulative and significant.” This is why the ProbelteBio study is so astounding. For any food to so effectively guard against the aging process “would be a significant breakthrough,” says Streitenberger.
A Pomegranate A Day…Unbelievable Benefits
Some scholars believe the forbidden fruit said to have tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden was actually a pomegranate, not an apple. It could have been a mistranslation, because the word pomegranate comes from the Middle French pomme garnete, literally “seeded apple.”
Therefore, you might consider the pomegranate as the deluxe version of the apple, capable of so much more than simply keeping the doctor away.
But it’s important to remember that experts say the most potent pomegranate benefits come from consuming the whole fruit, not just the delicious seeds. Most commercial juices draw their content only from the seeds, and contain only small quantities of the powerful antioxidants that protect against aging. The real powerhouses are the inedible rind, hulk, and white pith.
These non-seed parts of the fruit are described as “inedible” not because they are toxic, but due to their bitter taste and unpleasant texture. With that in mind, heath practitioners recommend that you consider taking a supplement pill or health drink made with extracts of the whole fruit.
HealthyDad 