‘Diet’ Articles at Nuganics

Nutrition and Your Mental Health

Is there a link with nutrition and mental health? In this video Natelie finds the truth about the links between nutritional deficiency and mental illness.

Nutritional problems can cause all sorts of psychiatric symptoms including insomnia, apathy, concentration problems, irritability, low energy, agitation, fatigue, low energy, aches and pains, weight changes, including weight gain or weight loss. These are common symptoms of depression. The truth is the average diet containing a lot of fast food is low in essential nutrition that you need for your body to function correctly.

Not all depression is caused by bad nutrition but it’s certainly can be a contributing factor in many cases and bad nutrition will always make depression worse. We have to understand that anti-depressant drugs also do not correct the underlying nutritional problems. So if your depressed because of nutritional problems an antidepressant will only partially cover up the problem. Lifestyle changes are needed to correct the problem.

Eating Garlic is Good for the Heart

Researchers have cracked the mystery of why eating garlic can help keep the heart healthy. The key is allicin, which is broken down into the foul-smelling sulphur compounds which taint breath. These compounds react with red blood cells and produce hydrogen sulphide which relaxes the blood vessels, and keeps blood flowing easily. Lead researcher Dr David Kraus said: “Our results suggest garlic in the diet is a very good thing. “Certainly in areas where garlic consumption is high, such as the Mediterranean and the Far East, there is a low incidence of cardiovascular disease.”
Read more at BBC Health

Fish Oil Helps Control Acne

Getting sufficient essential fatty acids is importance in clearing acne. It’s these fatty acids that help control the production of androgens – the hormones that surge during the teen-age times, which causes excess sebum oil to clog your hair follicle and contribute to creating your acne.
The three fatty acids you need daily are omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9. You need more omega 3, fish oil , than omega 6. When you are deficient in the essential fatty acids, you will have,

* A weaken immune system
* Inflammatory disorders
* Poor skin
* Skin eruptions that won’t heal
* Increase sebum production causing acne
* Sebaceous glands size increase

Eating essential oils is necessary to provide the right oils that are used in the sebaceous glands. These oils can come from fish oils or from oils in specific foods such as nuts and seeds. Use flax seed oil (omega-3 oil) and olive oil (omega-6 oil) in your salad. These are the best oils to eat and are called polyunsaturated fatty acids. The other oil that is even better for you is called monounsaturated fatty acid, omega-9. This oil is found in avocados.

Most diets people have contain an excess of omega-6 oils, so mostly likely you need to concentrate on getting more omega-3 oils into your diet. You can get omega-3 oil from,

* avocados
* sesame seeds
* pumpkin seeds
* walnuts
* dark leafy green vegetables (spinach, mustard greens, kale)
* wheat germ oil
* salmon
* sardines
* albacore tuna

and fish oil supplements

Or, you can take one to 4 tablespoon of flax seed oil, omega-3 oil, each day. This will give you the amount of omega-3 oil that your body needs to reduce or eliminate acne blemishes. You can add this oil to your morning cereal, soups, smoothies, salads and other liquid foods. Each tablespoon of flax seed oil contains about 100 calories. You can get omega-6 oil from,

* Flaxseed oil
* Flaxseeds
* grape seed oil
* pistachio nuts
* olives
* olive oil
* sunflower seeds
* evening primrose oil
* pumpkin seeds

Taking 2-3 tablespoons of omega-6 oil a day will give you the amount of this oil that you body needs. You can add olive oil and other oils into your salad with the flax seed oil. You can get omega-9 oil from,

* Olive oil
* Avocados
* Cashews
* Almonds
* Olives
* sesame oil
* pecans
* pistachio nuts

Taking around 1 ½ tablespoon of olive oil per day will give you the omega-9 oil that your body needs

Fish Oils

In addition to supplying your diet with omega-3 and omega-6 oils, you need to supplement your diet with fish oils. Fish oil contains EPA and DHA fatty acids. Normally, enzymes in your body break down omega-3 into EPA and DHA fatty acids.

* Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA)
* Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)

These two fatty acids eventually change into prostaglandins. What are prostaglandins? Prostaglandins are chemical hormones that come from omega-3 and omega-6 oils and that help, regulate every function in your cells and organs. Postaglandins also keep androgen hormones in control so that excess sebum is not produce in the hair follicle, which results in acne. However, eating plenty essential fatty acids may not insure that you produce enough EPA and DHA, which produce the essential prostaglandins.

It is critical for acne and more importantly for your health that you get enough EPA in your cells and organs so they can produce the required prostaglandins. To increase the prostaglandins in your cell walls, it is necessary for you to take a fish supplement, which contains EPA . Of course eating salmon, halibut, and mackerel twice a week will be a plus in providing your body with more EPA.

Dr. Dean Ornish tracks the dramatic spread of obesity

In a sobering 3-minute talk, Dr. Dean Ornish tracks the dramatic spread of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease around the globe — as people outside the US start to eat, live and die like Americans do. “This may be the first generation in which our kids live a shorter lifespan than we do,” Ornish says. The good news? These trends are preventable and even reversible through diet and exercise.

According to Dr. Ornish “Cardiovascular diseases kill more people each year than in the US. And worldwide than all other illnesses combined… Of these 95% are preventable and reversible.”

Make Yourself Heart Attack Proof

Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, chief of surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, discusses his 18-year study whereby he reversed severe heart disease in every patient in his program — who had all been sent home to die by their cardiologists. Dr. Esselstyn shows you how by changing your diet you can prevent and reverse heart disease. A low-fat plant-based (vegetarian) diet is the key.