Lemon or Lime For a Healthy Beverage or Dressing

Try changing your beverage to ordering a whole lemon fresh squeezed in a glass of water. Add a sweetener is you like and you’ll have a healthy beginning to any meal.
I like to order a whole lemon cut in half and then I squeeze it into my water glass and onto my salad.
Add slices of lemon or lime and a sprig of mint to smoothies. Layer fish with lemon or lime slices. Make a dressing with extra-virgin olive oil, lime, chopped garlic and mint. Use on baby spinach, leaf lettuce, kale or other dark greens. Pick thick-skinned—shiny and thin-skinned lemons for the best taste.
The Worlds Healthiest Foods (whfoods.com) informs us that lemons are the offspring of the union between a lime and a citron. China or India is where lemons and lime are thought to have originated. Lemons and limes arrived in the Americas in the 1400s.
There are several healthy incentives for enjoying these citrus-packed orbs. Lemons and limes provide: Vitamin C — helps boost the immune system, attacks free radicals (cancer-causing cells) in the body, helps prevent the development and progression of atherosclerosis and diabetic heart disease. They are also associated with reduced risk of death from heart disease, stroke, and cancer, possible cholesterol-lowering effects, compounds called limonoids, shown to fight cancers of the breast, colon, lung, mouth, skin, and stomach in some studies. Lemons and limes are also said to provide protection against macular degeneration. Some studies have even shown improvement of short-term memory.
I have read nothing that indicates negative side effects. It is my habit to have fresh lemon before every meal with the exception of breakfast. Whether preparing salads, fish, steamed broccoli or lemonade, I love the taste of lemon and find that it appears to aid in the digestive process and preventing uncomfortable after effects from restaurant eating.
Try substituting lemons for salad dressings and beverages as a way to avoid the damage of sugar-laden beverages. You too, may become addicted to a healthier beverage with your meals. For an after-meal beverage or late night warm beverage I may have black or green tea with lemon and a touch of honey.

Benefits of Blueberries

The Benefits of Blueberries:
Delicious in salads, oatmeal, smoothies or with yogurt, one cup of blueberries contains only 81 calories and provide vitamin C, manganese, dietary fiber and vitamin E. Researchers at Tufts University analyzed 60 fruits and vegetables for their antioxidant capability, blueberries came out on top, rating highest in their capacity to destroy free radicals in the body. Blueberries neutralize free radical damage to the collagen matrix of cells and tissues that can lead to: cataracts, glaucoma, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, peptic ulcers, heart disease and cancer. According to "The World’s Healthiest Foods" website (whfoods.org), blueberries contain Pterostilbene (pronounced TARE-oh-still-bean), a powerful antioxidant compound which is already known to fight cancer, but it may also help lower cholesterol. In America, July is National Blueberry Month.
Wash and add blueberries to green salads. Use these powerful blue "bites of dressing" in place of fatty bottled dressing. Add to low-fat cottage cheese or to low-fat regular or frozen yogurt. Add to oatmeal or just use it to make smoothies. Use nutritious ingredients to design your own combination desserts. Use whole foods to prevent health problems rather than buying expensive prescription drugs to try to treat symptoms or the damage caused by free radicals, high cholesterol and processed sugar and trans-fats.

Mucus and Drinking Milk

For some time now we have known that drinking dairy products can increase mucus. Recently there have been claims that milk can be linked to causing osteoarthritis and the problems are well-known but little is brought to the attention of the public.
I receive research and medical findings from many sources including publications written by medical doctors. In my constant search for healthy eating information I came across this March 2006 article in "Real Health Breakthroughs." This information is given reference from "Carbohydrate in Nutrition" by Ron Kennedy, M.D. and the Doctors’ Medical Library (http://medical-library.net).
For many people, mucus is just a part of life, but it doesn’t have to be. The excessive formation of mucus can be simple to solve if you change your diet. That is a big IF when it becomes a matter of cutting back on your intake of sugar and starch (which becomes sugar in the body). Although a certain amount of mucus is normal, some of us find it problematic. You would dry up and burn without it, just like running an engine without oil. What we’re talking about here is excessive mucus.
If you consume massive amounts of sugar in any form—pastries, high-starch vegetables, ice cream, artificial sweeteners or fruit juices, you’ll probably suffer from excessive mucus. And eventually you’ll contact some problems a lot worse than mucus—diabetes and heart disease, for example.
Potatoes contain starch which converts to sugar in the body. Sugar can creep into your diet in some less-than-obvious ways, like by drinking milk. Milk has a lot of sugar in the form of lactose. When the milk is in its raw, unpasteurized form, your body absorbs the sugar at a safe, natural rate. This article claims that drinking copious amounts of raw milk will actually reduce your blood sugar. I don’t know enough about that to subscribe to that approach. I do remember my father taking us for a ride in the country to purchase fresh milk directly from the farmer. Pasteurized milk was supposed to be safer and then homogenized milk mixed the cream into the milk in a way that prevented it from separating at the top. But when milk is pasteurized, it transforms the lactose sugar into beta lactose. Your body absorbs this unnatural sugar faster than it was designed to absorb natural sugars, leading to a domino effect of problems in the body.
First, a massive dose of sugar enters the bloodstream, which leads to a powerful insulin injection from the pancreas into the blood. This causes your blood sugar level to drop drastically, which makes you crave even more sugar. Eventually this vicious cycle will lead to a failure of the insulin-regulating mechanism. When this happens, the blood will be saturated with insulin but will be resistant to it. The end result: obesity and adult-onset, insulin-resistant, Type II diabetes—the kind of diabetes your parents had.
Action to take: To avoid mucus—not to mention diabetes and heart disease—drink raw milk. It may be hard to find, but you can talk to the manager of your local health food store about ordering it. Cutting out the middleman and heading to the nearest farm might be the route to preventing major diseases. The other (less expensive) option is to cut down on your sugar intake. Doing both is recommended.
Sugar is a major problem for Americans and is too readily accessible to children in the form of vending machines in schools and other events. Schools are realizing the effects of sugar and removing vending machines. School discipline problems drop and focus on studies shows in the way of higher scholastic scores. Medicine that was needed to settle children down, like Ritalin, are needed less often. People do have an addiction to sugar and our culture further exacerbates the problem with ads, commercials which associate sugar with celebration, joy, happiness, family gatherings and even sex.

Changing the improper dietary habits of the American people will not happen overnight, but neither did addressing the problems associated with smoking.

Recipe to help maintain normal blood pressure

Fresh Snow Peas with Pork
This savory classic helps your body maintain normal blood pressure and fends off any tendency to diabetes. It’s also an excellent pick-me-up whenever you need extra energy.
Ingredients:
1/3 pound fresh snow peas
13 pound lean pork
2 tablespoons of cooking wine
1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
1 ½ cups of water
Directions:
1) Cut lean pork into short, thin slices.
2) Combine ½ teaspoon salt with the corn starch, cooking wine, and ½ cup water. Mix well and let stand.
3) Boil the snow peas in boiling water for 6 minutes. Drain and let stand.
4) Heat the vegetable oil in wok or saute pan over high heat. Add the pork slices and stir continuously for 3 minutes.
5) Add 1 cup of water. Then add the snow peas, cornstarch mixture, the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and cook for another 5 minutes.
6) You’re done! Remove and serve.
Eating healthy is the best medicine against diseases. Don’t forget to enjoy the summer fresh fruit: watermelon, fresh cherries, cantaloup, strawberries, green beans, apples, pears, blueberries and you’ll find you are full, have more energy and won’t need pizza, pop, hot dogs and sugar in all its forms. Fresh fruit is all the sweet taste we need to satisfy our nutritional needs.
Remember that the Chinese were masters of using the healing powers in seafood. They knew the secrets to good health for centuries. Stir-fry cooking uses a minimum of oil and a minimum of time. Because of this shortened exposure to cooking the nutrients are not destroyed as in deep frying. Stir fried wild salmon or shrimp in tomato sauce or excellent food choices. Fight osteoporosis and help your body absorb calcium by enjoying Perch with mushroom. Sharpen your eyesight with wonderful combination stir-fry dishes like Chicken with Walnuts. Increase your metabolism with dishes that include hot green peppers mixed in with chicken. The ancient art of cooking, using good food sources to build up the body’s ability to ward off disease, resulted in healthy methods of preparation and combination dishes.
You need to be proactive when it comes to anti-aging practices of food preparation.