Soup Sippers Lose Weight - Raise Metabolic Rate

Lose weight by eating. Grazing stimulates your metabolic rate so that the body burns calories at a faster rate. My father was born in Poland. He loved soup and every Sunday we had Chicken Soup, Salad and the chicken used to make the soup. What a combination! Mom made sure we ate all those vegetables we normally would not eat. Everything was in the soup. Thanks to frozen vegetable soup mixes, we can have double the vegetables we had when I was a kid. Okra, green beans, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, oregano, and many more are already to drop in the broth.

You tell me you don't like raw vegetables but you love soup. Well that's the answer to your getting all the vegetables you need and feeling full, while lubricating your digestive system with delicious broth. Soup is easy and a great left over. You can always heat up just the amount you need to make you feel warm inside and get a full course meal in a bowl. Soup may be your best beverage when you want to watch TV and get a nutritious meal at the same time.

Throw out those fad diets and sip soup. Research shows that eating soup regularly has a lasting effect on weight loss. In one recent study, the group that ate soup lost more weight that those who didn't. The more soup -- the more weight lost!

Even if you're not into peeling carrots and dicing vegetables, and onions cause you to get all weepy -- you can buy frozen soup mixes that don't have all the preservatives yet contain all the nutrition you're looking for. And if you're a busy person you can microwave a bowl of soup in minutes.

You can use the stand-up roaster with the steel bowl at the bottom to collect the fat for the broth. Saute' fresh vegetables in that fat while simmering the package of giblets with a little oregano and a bay leaf. Enjoy the roasted thighs and drumsticks, then dice the chicken breasts for your soup. All the chicken bones, skin, (everything) goes into the pot with the giblets. Simmer slowly on a low heat with a slight bubble to the broth. Add about four cloves and a few peppercorns to give it that special flavor (that was grandma's secret Polish ingredient for a good soup). Salt and pepper to taste.

You won't need a humidifyer with soup on the stove and you'll drool with the aromatherapy of the combination of flavors. A little onion, some cut up celery and carrots and the magic is happening. Most of it is in the slow simmering process. In a couple of hours you'll be able to pour the broth through a seive to remove the bones and any other ingredients. Store the broth in the refrigerator over night. A good broth will turn into a gelatin, but not to worry if it doesn't.

Debone the chicken and store for the final mix. Make sure there are no small sharp bones in the final product. That's why the seive is important.

The next day heat the broth to a slight boil, add the frozen vegetable soup mix and the diced chicken and any chicken left over from the original broth. Add some fresh celery leaves, parseley, and your favorite pasta. I like the ditalini, tubitini or go big with kluski noodles or egg noodles. You're on your way. What a hit. It's a beginning. You learn through experimenting, by tasting and enjoying the aroma. I like a couple of crushed garlic in the mix -- but that's the Italian side of me. Some Italians make a very similar soup with tiny pasta and some even use Italian meatballs to make it an Italian Wedding Soup.

When you supply your body with a steady supply of fuel, you'll never run on empty and your metabolic rate will burn those calories. In fact when you're eating whole foods, lean protein and healthy fats and eating more often with mini meals -- you'll feel more energetic and it'll be considerably better for you. Soup keeps the body hydrated and the digestive track lubricated so that the whole system works better.

Eating multiple servings of vegetables in your soup can improve your health, reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, stroke and macular degeneration.

Better to build the fortress with strong building blocks than trying to repair it later.

Oatmeal-Starts the Day Right

The most talked about feature of our blood test is cholesterol. We know about the high fiber content and we have always suspected that oatmeal could reduce cholesterol. But did you know that oatmeal contains lecithin – often referred to as the "Drano" of the arteries?
Eating a good-sized bowl of oatmeal will actually help remove cholesterol from your body. The soluble fiber in oats binds with cholesterol-based acids and prevents them from being absorbed into the bloodstream. This simple lifestyle change can make a big difference in the health of your heart. Oatmeal meets the criteria of the American Heart Association. Exciting results have been seen in people with diabetes and those with high-normal blood-sugar levels. The soluble fiber in oats means slower digestion, spreading the rise in blood sugar over a longer time period. Some people with diabetes who followed a diet high in soluble fiber from sources like oats and beans have been able to reduce their medication.
Looking to lose weight? You’re in the right place. Oats’ soluble fiber fills you up by creating gels. The gels delay stomach emptying, so you feel full longer. Many people find they don’t even feel like eating until about 2 or 3 p.m.
Oats are tops in protein and manganese—providing 50 percent of the recommended intake of this mineral. In addition, they offer an unusual amount of iron, thiamin, and magnesium. Rolled oats are steamed and flattened between steel rollers, so they take about five minutes to cook and are easier to chew than steel-cut oats and tastier than quick oats without the high sugar or added sodium.
Store oats in a dark, dry location in a well-sealed container. Oats will keep up to a year. Whole oats are more likely to go rancid, so be sure to refrigerate them.
Let’s get started with a bowl of porridge!
Bring two cups of water to a boil. Add a shake or two of salt, then add one cup of rolled oats (not quick oats). Set the timer for five minutes and skim off any contaminates that float to the top. While the oatmeal is simmering, peel, core, and dice a small apple, loosen and add about a small handful of raisins and stir into the simmering pot. After 5 minutes, sprinkle with cinnamon and add a drizzle of honey and cover. Shut off the heat and let it set. Later, after work or some household chore, run a large serving spoon around the edges to loosen the mixture and turn it over into a 1 ½ quart casserole dish and seal with an air tight lid and refrigerate. I usually cut into pie-shaped portions for easy removal in the morning. In the morning, a serving can be placed in the microwave for a little more than 2 minutes. You may want to add a little 1% milk and a packet of sweet and low or saccharin. I like to add a little heart-healthy margarine. What a delicious breakfast. I could eat it twice a day and that wasn’t a bad idea. My cholesterol was amazingly low and people who tried that found that they dropped about 30 points off their cholesterol in two weeks.
Cinnamon helps lower triglycerides and cholesterol. Apples and raisins–well that’s special and you know how good those are for you.
You can buy bulk rolled oats for about 69 cents/lb. The amount you use would last you about a week and cost you less than $1. How can you beat this breakfast cereal with all the additional health benefits?

Cherries Stop Pain and Inflammation

Just three dried cherries a day could end your gout pain. It may sound like a miracle, but this delicious, vitamin–packed fruit is proven to relieve arthritis pain even better than aspirin, ibuprofen and other drugs–with no stomach upset or other side effects.
The secret lies in anthocyanins. These natural compounds not only give cherries their luscious red color–they also stop your body from making prostaglandins, the hormone-like substances that cause pain and inflammation. In lab studies, anthocyanins have proven to be about 10 times more effective than aspirin at relieving joint pain and swelling. That’s important because even small amounts of aspirin can worsen gout. With this fruit in hand, you may not even need to take pain pills. Instead, you can let cherries ease the ache of this arthritis. Experts recommend munching cherries every day during a gout attack. Pop a few dried ones in you mouth, or eat a bowl full of fresh ones instead. About three dried cherries pack the same punch as 20 fresh ones. As of January of 2006, we find that JUMBO CHERRIES are available at our local BJs market. They are juicy, plump and sweet with very small pitts. We purchased two pounds of these cherries (A Produce of Chile) in excellent condition and contained in a clear plastic container (important in preventing the handling a contamination). We were very pleased with the taste and the quality. At $4.50/pound, we found that this was a healthy investment in a great food source.

These sweet fruits aren’t the only gout-busting foods.
Wash gout away. If you suffer from gout and drink water only when you’re thirsty, you may not be drinking enough. Water cushions achy joints , and is crucial in flushing uric acid out of your body. If you have gout, you need plenty of this fluid to keep you body’s machinery running in tip-top condition. Make it your main beverage and add fresh lemon to help dissolve kidney stones. Sipping water throughout the day is a smart way of keeping the digestive system in good working order.
Getting rid of gout could be as easy as eating more dairy products. Getting 30 grams or more of dairy protein each day helped people put the lid on their levels of uric acid in a recent Canadian study.
A single serving of yogurt with its 12 grams of protein puts you well on your way to filling that quota. Add another 8 grams from a cup of milk and you’ll soon be saying goodbye to gout.
Some doctors prescribe generic allopurinol (Zyloprim) to control active cases of gout, but eating right can help you get back on your feet and reduce or eliminate this painful disease.