Food For the Heart - The Hype Surrounding Olive Oil By Christopher JA Wang

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The use of Olive oil as a culinary ingredient began in the Mediterranean, where the traditional tree crop was commonly cultivated. Today, it is used in dishes all around the world not only for its unique pungent taste but also for the health benefits that comes with consuming this type of organic oil.

Olive oil is a main ingredient found in the Mediterranean diet, a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by traditional dietary patterns of communities in some parts of Mediterranean nations such as Spain, Italy and Greece. The Mediterranean diet centers on heart-friendly components that are low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fats and fiber.

There are several types of this oil but the most common is extra-virgin olive oil or EVOO, as culinary TV star Rachel Ray likes to call it. Extra-virgin is the most pure, concentrated form which has no chemical additives and has not undergone any chemical treatment. Because it is processed organically, most people prefer extra-virgin because its natural chemical composition and nutrients are retained.

Olive oil has a number of great health benefits that have been celebrated by scientists, chefs and regular individuals alike. Studies have concluded that olive oil contains high levels of antioxidative substances that not only removes toxins from the body but also enables the body to defend itself from heart disease by managing cholesterol. Its antioxidative elements have been observed to lower bad cholesterol such as LDL cholesterol and increase good or HDL cholesterol.

More than just an aid for cholesterol management, olive oil is also seen as a natural way to treat ulcers and gastritis. It has found to be better in alleviating symptoms of said gastric disorders by activating the secretion of bile and pancreatic hormones that help regulate normal digestive rhythms.

Because olive oil plays a vital role in the Mediterranean diet, more and more people are adapting to this kind of culinary habit to experience its health benefits. Another great reason to try out this type of diet is the newfound results from a study conducted in the Netherlands, where scientists have finally linked the consumption of olive oil to fertility. The study showed that women who follow the Mediterranean diet over a long period of time have higher chances of conceiving. Another study done in Spain revealed that in line with olive oil's natural ability to fight heart disease, it can also prevent cell inflammation by repressing genes that induce inflammation.

Whether you're a health buff looking to try other diets or just an ordinary person looking to improve your health, consider selecting a diet that caters to your physiological needs. The Mediterranean diet is one of many that bring you a number of health benefits, so make sure to select one that fits your lifestyle as well.

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Stressed? Here's 3 Quick and Easy Ways To Beat Stress And Instantly Feel Calm By Ntathu Allen

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Have you ever felt as if life is spinning your wheels and situations spiraling out of control? How do you feel when this happens? What do you do, to regain your sense of calm and inner balance?

Here are three simple stress relieving tips you can use to find comfort, balance and ease.

3 Tips For Instant Calm And Balance

1. Stretch: As a yoga teacher, you know I had to include this as one of the quickest ways to let go off stress and feel calmer and happier! A gentle yoga stretch at the beginning of your day helps to energise and awaken your body and puts you in a happier frame of mind to start your day.

During the day, especially if you spend long periods of time, sitting down working on a computer, a few minute Yoga Break, does wonders to reduce stress and ease stiff neck muscles.

Calm Moment Tip #1: Take five minutes to practice a simple relaxation exercise. It will ease tension from your shoulders, lower back and neck and draw your attention inwards away from the hustle and bustle swirling around you.

2. Relax: Learning how to relax and rest makes a huge difference to your ability to stay calm and carry on. The pace of everyday life has got so fast that most of my yoga students start yoga simply as a means to learn how to relax. It is easy, especially as busy working mums to get too caught up in work and doing things for your family that you simply do not have time to relax and even if you did create time; your mind is still in overdrive running through the never ending list of things to do.

Calm Moment Tip #2: Treat yourself. Give yourself a simple hand massage guaranteed to ease knots and soreness in your shoulders and neck.

3. Breathe: Top of my instant calm list is breathing. Learning how to stop what you are doing and bring your attention to your breath is vital to your everyday well being. Your breath is your constant companion and the quickest way to boost your energy and be a happier you.

Calm Moment Tip #3: Turn your attention to your everyday breath, close your eyes and become aware of how you are breathing. Stay still and focus on listening to your breath for 2 minutes. You will instantly feel calm and peaceful and have more energy.

Final Words

There you have it. Three simple ways your yoga practice helps bring more calm, balance and tranquility into your day.

Next time you feel a wobbly coming on and your family start getting on your nerves or work colleagues stressing you out, just take a step back... Stretch, Relax and Breathe. You will feel better, lighter and brighter, have more energy and feel happier as you go through your day

Thank You

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From Ntathu Allen - Yoga and Meditation Teacher

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How Yoga Reduces Stress, Anxiety and Depression by Shelley Costello

The physical practice of yoga holds many benefits for mind, body and spirit.

By focusing our attention for longer periods of time during specific asanas (postures) we can work to release difficult emotions that over time have manifested as stiffness, aches, pains, injuries, illnesses and diseases in our body.

To understand this, let us take a step back and look at ourselves as the whole being we are. The trilogy of mind, body and spirit are truly one and thus what we think in our mind will ultimately affect our body. Otherwise, we are merely of the viewpoint that we are a disjointed, disconnected being, which simply is not true. Quantum physics teaches us that everything, including us (!) is a vibrating mass of energy. From this perspective we can see that we have the power to impact on how we channel that energy to affect the outcome, who we are.

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During yoga, the breath connects us to the quantum level of energy and we can begin to work on the subtle aspects of ourselves, that we cannot see.

Although we can experience symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, these are merely the effect of an underlying cause that we may be unaware of. Certainly with anxiety and depression this is the often the case. Yoga works on a much deeper level enabling us to bring feelings to the surface that we can process and release emotions that will enable a shift leading to greater self awareness and growth.

Hips, hamstrings and back are three areas of the body where we can store deep seated emotions.

In Ashtanga yoga, Paschimottanasana (Western Intense Stretch), the seated forward bend, stretches the hamstrings, opens the hips and the back side of the body; often associated with opening up the past. Sitting with legs extended, bringing the toes towards you while pushing the heels away, lift the chest, draw in the lower abdomen engaging mula and uddiyana bandhas and fold forward over the legs, leading with the chest. Holding the posture for longer than the usual 5 breaths enables a deeper asana, connection with our inner self and allows emotions to surface. Drishti (gaze) should be to the toes, although I often find once settled deeper into the pose you can ease your neck and rest your head on your knees or beyond if comfortable. Remain with the focus on the breath and allow the synergy of breath and posture to weave its magic.

Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Posture) is a strong hip opening pose. Sitting comfortably bringing the soles of the feet together as close to the groin as possible, open your feet with your hands while gently pushing the knees towards the floor with the elbows as you do so. As you exhale and go deeper into the posture you can work your chin beyond the feet towards the floor. I have found there is a point in this pose where you really begin to feel any emotional pain as the hips open. This pain is felt physically but with careful guidance and working with the breath, you can remain in the posture comfortably for around 15-20 breaths. As you come up and the hips open you may experience the emotional release by a sudden outburst of crying. This is perfectly normal and part of the process. To finish the posture you can rest your head on your feet, finally coming up and bringing the knees back together.

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Posture) in Ashtanga yoga is the first of the finishing sequence and a strong back bend that is preceded by several warm up back bends. This asana opens the hips, chest and back of the body. It is vital to work with breath, safely guiding you into the back bend. It can be achieved by pushing up from the floor (as in a crab like posture) or dropping back, which takes time to work towards. As you bend backwards, energy travels through the spine and cleanses the nervous system. Backbends work to clear emotional blockages stored along this channel, releasing strong emotions. Backbends can be a little daunting and are best practiced under the guidance of a teacher who can help you through the obstacles.

The goal of yoga is self realisation; to understand and accept ourselves. Yoga is to focus on the breath uniting mind, body and spirit, enabling a connection with our true self and higher energy that is life force (prana) and that which permeates every living thing. Through the avenue of the breath yoga enables us to connect and gently bring to the surface emotions that have become 'stuck' in our bodies. The emotions stored as blockages in the body manifest as pain, injury, illness or disease. As well as yoga postures working to release emotions and connect with the cause of these, the accumulation of breath flowing through the body works to clear blockages and enable energy to flow more freely. Bandhas (subtle energy locks) used in Ashtanga yoga, keep energy circulating freely inside the body. It is said that a person who is healthy has energy flowing freely within the body, whereas a person who is unwell has energy flowing out of the body.

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Ultimately, yoga cleanses and purifies the mind, body and spirit, healing from the inside out, leaving the whole system refreshed, rejuvenated; restoring homeostasis, our natural balance and harmony.

Shelley Costello is a yoga teacher, writer and wellness coaching helping others to overcome challenge and change to live a happier, healthier and more fulfilled life.

A qualified yoga teacher and life coach, she has studied many areas of wellness to include nutrition, relaxation, Ayurveda, meditation, relaxation, Indian Head massage, Buddhism and different self development programmes and techniques.

Shelley has published two books and several articles with the International Yoga Magazine. She writes and publishes articles regularly on self development and wellbeing and is currently writing her third book.

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5 Nutrients That Help Women Over 50 Lose Belly Fat by Dr. Becky Gillaspy

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After the age of 50 women tend to deposit fat at the belly more easily. This is due to a number of changes that the body naturally undergoes in the fifth decade of life. One factor is a drop in the production of estrogen and progesterone. Decreased production of these hormones leads to a slower metabolism and an increased ability for your body to store fat in the midsection.

This is a frustrating side effect of aging; however, it can be combated with the addition of certain dietary nutrients.

5 Nutrients that help women over 50 lose belly fat:

1. Omega 3. This is an essential fatty acid which means that your body cannot make Omega 3 and must therefore obtain it through the foods you eat. Not only will a daily dose of Omega 3 help your body burn belly fat, it may also help ease joint pain, improve heart health, and balance blood sugar levels.

2. Irvingia Gabonensis. This is a tough ingredient to pronounce, but it is even tougher on body fat. Participants in a study on Irvingia lost an average 6.7 inches from their waistline. It works by making your body cells more receptive to the fat-burning hormone called leptin.

Leptin is a key hormone that controls many facets of the weight loss puzzle. Its job is to protect your body against starvation. When you go on a diet your body inhibits the secretion of leptin. This puts the brakes on fat burning and can decrease your ability to burn fat by up to 50% after only one week of strict dieting.

Any nutrient that increases your body's production of leptin or your body's sensitivity to leptin will boost your ability to burn belly fat.

3. Modifilan. This is another beneficial nutrient that can enhance the production of leptin by stimulating the production of thyroid hormones.

4. Green Tea. This is a natural extract that has been shown to increase resting metabolic rate and fat burning. It has also been credited with working as an appetite suppressant.

5. Shan Qi. This is a traditional Chinese herb has been shown to have beneficial fat-burning properties, including natural appetite suppression and the ability to increase leptin sensitivity.

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Gaining weight around the belly is a frustrating occurrence that comes with aging. It is not only an issue of appearance. It also comes with an increase in health problems. Belly fat is said to be "metabolically active" fat, which means that it can more easily release fatty acids into the bloodstream. This is one of the reasons that women over 50 experience an increase in diseases such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Adding these nutrients to your daily diet can help combat belly fat and improve overall health. At this point you are likely wondering where you can get these 5 fat-burning nutrients and how to take them in the right dosage.

Finding and figuring out how to take these separate nutrients in the right combination for fat loss would take a lot of research and experimentation.

Fortunately all of the research and prep work has been done for you leaving you with a drop dead simple way to keep your body burning fat efficiently. Discover how to easily turn up your metabolism with these nutrients by following the link.

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How to Stop Overeating When Diets Aren't Working By Chelsea Lorynn O'Brien

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How many times have you seen a "skinny" person eating some sort of junk food, and thought to yourself, "I don't know how she does that. If I ate that it would go straight to my thighs!?"

Do you know the difference between the skinny person that can eat whatever they want and you, who feels you can't?

The difference lies in the perception of the food.

If you perceive that the food is a treat, a delight to indulge in, and you eat it with pure joy, your body is relaxed. Your body receives it in a relaxed mode. When this happens, your mind tells your body, "This is okay." It's enjoyed and passed along. Gallons of ice cream are not needed to get the pure joy when you are indulging in the delight of it.

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But if you think, "Oh, I shouldn't be eating this... " or "I'm eating too much... just a little more though... ", you start to feel guilty, shameful, angry with yourself, whatever. With these emotions, your brain releases stress hormones into your body, like cortisol and norepinephrine.

According to Wikipedia, "Stress hormones such as cortisol and norepinephrine are released by the body in situations that are interpreted as being potentially dangerous. The hormone regulating system is known as the endocrine system. Cortisol is believed to affect the metabolic system and norepinephrine is believed[by whom?] to play a role in ADHD as well as depression and hypertension.

Stress hormones act by mobilizing energy from storage to muscles, increasing heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate and shutting down metabolic processes such as digestion, reproduction, growth and immunity.

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Constant stress causes continual release of various stress hormones which can cause:

- A depletion of energy storage
- Stress-induced hypertension
- Effects on metabolic processes
- Ulcers (digestion)
- Hampered growth
- Decrease in testosterone levels in males and irregular menstrual cycles in females.
- Increased likelihood of infectious diseases."

So when you're eating with negative emotions fueling your body with stress hormones, your metabolism changes--among other things. Your body shuts down, loses energy and becomes vulnerable to ulcers, sickness, heart disease and more. As your metabolism slows, the calories you just ingested can't be burned. And so they go into storage in your fat cells.

Not only do the extra calories get stored because the metabolism slows, but they get stored as protection. If your body is under attack from stress hormones, it goes into protective mode. It knows that something is up. Something is happening that is causing these hormones to be released. Not knowing how long the attack will last, or if it's coming again soon, the body hangs onto as much as it can.

The same thing happens when you restrict your food intake. When you start restricting, this triggers the metabolism once again. This creates stress, as your body thinks it's being starved. Once again, the stress hormones are released and the metabolism slows. If the body thinks it's being starved, it will hold on to all the energy that it can. The calories that may have ordinarily been burned up are now stored for safe-keeping in the fat cells.

When you take on the rules of a diet, you employ willpower as your guide. It can work for awhile. However, as it becomes a requirement for the success of your diet, you set yourself up to protect against vulnerabilities: you remove all the "bad" food from your house, you avoid going out to social situations where food not on the diet will be involved, etc. Your control has shifted from inside of you to outside. When this happens, you no longer have control over food. It has control over you.

If diets were simply about restricting food intake, the success rate of gastric bypass surgery would be much greater. According to one 11-year study of gastric bypass patients by Drs. Nicolas V. Christou, Didier Look, and Lloyd D. Maclean, they found that just 34% had maintained a loss of 80% of their excess weight. Listing multiple other studies, they say that the average gastric bypass patient maintains a loss of between 50% and 75% of their excess weight 10 years after surgery.

The stomach has the ability to stretch, so it's not unusual for people to gain most or all of the weight back that they have lost from surgery--just like diets.

A friend of mine that I grew up with had gastric bypass surgery a few years ago. It went well, and she had no complications. Several weeks after the surgery, she checked in with a 38 pound weight loss. You would think she'd be happy, but it was actually the opposite. My friend said that she felt like she had "lost her best friend". She slumped into a deep depression. In the year that followed, she stopped taking her vitamins and eventually had to be hospitalized until she was stable again. 8 years later, she's gained back a little more than half the weight lost. She had 5 years of counseling to coach her through her depression so she could start to enjoy her life again.

Why does this happen? Why do we so often hear about (or experience) weight gain after dieting or surgery?

Because the attack was on the physical result, not the internal triggers that had caused the result. It's like a band-aid. If the emotional needs and psychology that causes weight gain aren't addressed, the result is a life-long battle with weight gain and constant dieting.

Sometimes the internal shift can happen in a few moments, and the physical change in the body follows. It's a process that evolves with a persistence in self-development. By understanding yourself in a new way, you can begin incorporating new behaviors around food. As your internal beliefs shift, you can work to build a support system around you to build your momentum.

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Diet: The Essence of a Healthy Life by Vai Mod

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Each person thrives for a healthy body and sound mind. A healthy diet plays a crucial role in achieving such a goal. It would be really great if everyone could be slim and maintain a sleek figure. However, genetically some people are more susceptible to obesity than others, not to mention that each person has a different metabolism capacity. Still, a little discretion in food habits along with physical activity and exercise can help us to achieve and maintain a good body weight without being obese. A healthy diet also paves the way to a healthy lifestyle and may help avoid chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, some kinds of cancer etc.

The diets mentioned in this article are the most followed and successful diets in the country. All of them involve organization of a person's eating and lifestyle in some way or other. By maintaining a specific routine and controlling sudden urges to eat high calorie foods a person can easily lose weight and achieve a desired goal. Whether exercise is essential or not for the specific diet plan a person is following, it is essential for our life. Lifestyle filled with activity as well as routine wise, sensible food intake leads the way to a healthy body and sound mind and therefore in essence to a great life.

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There are various diet related programs and guidelines for losing weight. Each emphasize on a different approach to losing weight. However, studies have shown that by sticking to any one of them a person may successfully lose weight and improve their cardiovascular health as well as lower their bad cholesterol and blood sugar levels. This is because all diets restrict the random intake of food introducing discipline to eating habits and calorie burning.

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