Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Assuming Control Of Your Fitness With Rock Star Nutrition

By Trent Lockner

Do you want to look after your health? Do you hear nourishment recommendations from doctors, physical fitness trainers, and diet books and eagerly implement the best tactics? Are you trying to find better methods to integrate fresh, organic and local raw fruit and veggies into your diet? Me, too! And I'm wondering if you can relate to the following story about my private experiences...

Although I haven't ever had any major health problems, I believe that diet and exercise play a critical role in helping us maintain our well being and increase our longevity. In truth, I started working out in 6th grade, after my father thought it would be good for us all to get in better shape.

I always played sports and been active, kept my weight in line, and have always gotten a good health check from the doctor.

But now I've started reading a book called "The China Study" which is truly making me rethink the "diet" portion of the "good health" equation and question whether I am on the right track to better health.

According to "The China Study," which is a wonderful, comprehensible, research-based book citing over seven hundred systematic studies, there is ample evidence to support the hypothesis that animal protein, including eggs, milk and meat, isn't the solution to good health and muscle-growth that we have all been led to believe. I was fully stunned to find out that skim milk is not a super-food when it comes to strong bones, teeth and muscles. In fact, the author points out that in the face of all his own research studies (and much to his dissatisfaction since he grew up on a dairy farm) he has switched to a vegan diet. He now believes a diet free from animal protein is actually perfect for boosting our health and reducing the symptoms of aging.

The China Study book endorses a vegan diet rich in unprocessed plant-based foods.

Many advocates to this philosophy take this approach a step further and focus on eating raw plant foods, forgoing foods like rice, barley, pasta, etc. These raw food advocates believe that we preserve and ingest the most nutrition in our foods when we don't prepare them by cooking them.

One of the toughest issues to preparing and eating a lot of plants is that it can just plain take a very long time. Cutting, washing, etc. Is a laborious process. Particularly once you begin to look at incorporating vegetables like lettuce, spinach, kale, and celery - greens that are vital to our growth.

That is where a robust juicer can solve your issues. Making juice out of your fruits, veggies and greens with the Breville Juice Fountain Elite is a good way to mix your fruits and vegetables into a fresh, tasty and mouth-watering drink that might guarantee you get all the nourishment you would like, even if you don't have time to sit down to "a healthy breakfast" of bacon and eggs.

Consider recipes like carrot-apple-ginger juice or blueberry, strawberry, grape and kale juice. Green smoothies made with bananas and spinach are a fave raw-food vegan classic - the fruit is cheap, the taste is great and it's vitamin-packed!

If you have a regular blender (like the one my husband bought for making margaritas ), or maybe a name-brand juicer like Jack LaLanne's from TV, you will find that they don't hold up to regular juicing. Since their main function is not to make juice, or if it is, they are often underpowered for the task, they don't do this challenging task well. The ones that do make juice easily enough surprise the first time juicer with the length and intricacy of the tedious clean-up process.

The Breville Juice Fountain Elite solves all these issues. It is German-engineered to be a top-of the line juicer for people who make juice each day and need a quick-and-simple way to make their juice. In fact, you can produce an 8-oz cup of juice in under five seconds and as the juicer takes Huge pieces of apple, carrot and other hard fruits - you do not have to do much slicing. THe juicer even does a pleasant job with leafy or stringy products like lettuce and celery. Including veggies like this in your juice will actually increase their nutritional value.

If you are prepared to make some changes in your diet to become healthier, more energetic, and maybe lengthen your lifespan - begin with including more fruits and vegetables. Like "The Omnivore's Dilemma" recommends - Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

Start with tasty juice from local organic produce made with the Breville Juice Fountain Elite.

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