Easy Salad Dressings - Part 2

This is the second part of my blog posts on simple, yet affordable, salad dressings.

Note: These recipes were not created by me, but are adapted from Jamie’s Ministry of Food

Lemon Dressing

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Lemon
• Seas salt and black pepper

To create the dressing, we put the oil and the salt and pepper into a jar. We then squeeze in the lemon juice (all of it!) and mix together well. Easy!

Balsamic Dressing

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt and black pepper

All we need to do is put all the ingredients into a jar and mix well. Simple, tasty and cheap. 

Each of the salad dressings in the two blog posts are simple and taste great. They are also far more affordable than what you buy in the shops.

Leave your comments and let me know what you think of each of the dressings!

Walk-To-Burn-Calories – Diet Aid

A US study suggests that a menu that displays the amount of exercise required to burn off the calories contained in the food may help people to consume fewer calories.

A team at the Texan Christian University found that when the menu displayed the amount of exercise required, the diners ordered lower calories. The trials were conducted with a group of 18-30 year olds, who were split into three groups. Some were given menus with no calorie information, some with the amount of calories displayed, and the final group had both the calories and the amount of exercise needed to burn the calories off. The results showed that the group with extra information consumed around 100 calories less.

The test is now to be taken further, and onto a bigger scale in order to confirm the findings.

This could be a very interesting find if it proves to be useful. It may just help a good number of people to eat that little bit less and to get in better shape. A lot of people are unaware of how hard it is to actually burn off the calories we consume so this could be very useful. It is also important to remember though, that just eating fewer calories does not necessarily mean that we are eating healthily.

To read the full article, click here.

B Vitamins

B vitamins were once considered as one, single vitamin as opposed to 8 distinct vitamins. This blog entry will look into B Vitamins as a whole.

What are B Vitamins?

B Vitamins are water soluble vitamins and play an important role in the metabolism of cells. In total there are 8 B Vitamins (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12) and each has its own name.

Health Benefits of B Vitamins

With there being different individual B Vitamins the health benefits are more widespread. Each one has different properties. However, as a whole, B Vitamins are important and there are a number of health benefits associated with them. Below is a list of some of the main health benefits associated with the consumption of B Vitamins:

• Help to convert food into energy
• Helps to maintain healthy skin, hear and muscle tone
• Promotes the growth of cells
• Help with red blood cells
• Reduce the risk of heart disease
• Can help to fight depression
• Helps our immune system
• Can reduce anemia

What are the sources of B Vitamins?

There are a number of natural sources of B Vitamins before we begin looking into supplements. Some of the best sources of B Vitamins are; animal products, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, bananas, potatoes, milk, eggs, yoghurt, nuts, fish and wholegrain rice and cereals.

So it is clear that we definitely need B Vitamins in our diet and luckily there are plenty of foods available that are high in B Vitamins so there is no excuse!

Is Chocolate Good For You?

We all want chocolate to be good for us right? Well, this blog will examine what, if any, health benefits we can get from consuming chocolate.

Is chocolate good for you?

It has been strongly suggested that the answer to this question is yes. There are, according to research, health benefits associated with eating chocolate, particularly dark chocolate. Dark chocolate contains the most amount of cocoa and this is where the good stuff is found.

What are the health benefits of dark chocolate? Why is dark chocolate good for you?

Research indicates that there may be a number of health benefits to consuming dark chocolate. It is good for our heart; eating dark chocolate two or three times a week can help to lower blood pressure and in turn will help our heart! It can also impact our brain; research indicates that a healthy blood flow, helped by consuming dark chocolate, can improve cognitive function. Dark chocolate can help to control our blood sugar level and this can help to prevent type 2 diabetes. Dark chocolate is full of antioxidants, which help to fight free radicals in the body. It can help with tooth enamel as it contains theobramine and this has been shown to harden our tooth enamel. Finally, it contains high levels of vitamins and minerals; potassium, copper, magnesium and iron in particular.

Avoid Milk

Research suggests that drinking milk with our chocolate may neutralise some of the health benefits that we can gain from consuming chocolate.

Can I Eat Lots of Chocolate?

Unfortunately, this does not mean that we can just eat endless amounts of chocolate. There are still calories to think about! However, we can certainly eat chocolate, relatively guilt free as part of our calorie intake for the day.

Crash Diets and Why They Fail

Crash Diets – Why They Fail

What is a crash diet?

A crash diet, essentially, is a diet regime that lacks certain nutritional requirements in order to restrict the intake of calories and therefore help us to lose weight. The idea is to help achieve rapid weight loss, and to not last a long time.

These types of diet are typically not a healthy way of either living or dieting and are generally quite unsuccessful, certainly in the long term.

Why do crash diets fail?

Although it is often the case that people who partake in crash diets do see a loss of weight, it is extremely common that these people put that weight straight back on.

One reason for this is that when we lower our calorie intake, the body alters its metabolic rate. Once we increase our calorie intake again the calories are being burnt at a slower rate and so the weight can easily be put back on. Essentially, when we lower the calorie intake our body goes into a fat storage, as opposed to fat burner, mode.

Generally, crash diets shed muscle rather than fat and so our body shape will not alter very much, while all along we are burning off muscle that we want and need. This is due to the body storing the fat that it has for energy reserves. Essentially, muscle is more disposable to the body than fat. Therefore, although we are losing weight on the scales, it is not the right weight, and we will be just as flabby as ever.

Another reason as to why crash diets fail is that restrictions of foods are hard to stick to. If we do not allow ourselves a certain food, we are far more likely to crave it and then eat far too much of it! So by restricting a certain food to lose weight can often have the opposite effect.

What we should do to lose weight

Losing weight is not as difficult as some people make it out to be. However, people do have problems with it and a lot comes from the fact that there is too much conflicting information available. Burning more calories than we use is the way to go, but we need to do it in a healthy manner, that we are able to maintain. We must set realistic targets and avoid the yo-yo culture that seems so easy to get into. A healthy weight loss program should look to lose around 2 pounds of body fat per week. This is the healthy and right way to lose weight. We will be less likely to put the weight on this way.