Tag: DIET

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Why eating dark chocolate is good for you

Eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate may positively affect your health and well being…

It is Easter time and we all enjoy indulging ourselves. Lucky for us, dark chocolate is the food to do just that without all the negative effect of other sweet foods. It sounds like a dieters nightmare but eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate (minimum 85% cocoa) will actually positively affect your health.

Dark chocolate contains flavanols such as Theobromine which make arteries produce Nitric Oxide that helps improve blood flow to the heart and reduce the calcification of arteries thus lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of blood clots and other cardiovascular diseases.

Dark chocolate contains Phenylalanine which encourages the release of endorphins creating feelings of happiness. It can also improve cognitive function by increasing the blood flow to the brain. Dark chocolate also contains small amounts of caffeine which has been shown to help with concentration and energy levels making you feel more alert and focused.

Dark chocolate is packed with anti oxidants. Anti oxidants help combat free radicals which are reactive molecules in our bodies that cause damage to surrounding cells. It is believed that free radicals may cause certain cancers and speed up the ageing process. Eating dark chocolate may slow down ageing as well as reduce the risk of cancer.

Dark chocolate is rich in vitamins and minerals. It contains high concentrations of Potassium, Magnesium, Iron, Copper and Manganese. It is also an excellent source of fiber which makes it great for the digestive system and feeling full thus assisting weight loss efforts.

It should be noted that dark chocolate also contains plenty of calories and sugar therefore it is best to keep to one bar a week for maximum benefits.

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Tips to help your weight loss diet

Find out how to boost your weight loss efforts when dieting just isn’t enough. Read more…

Our weight loss supplements can markedly increase your metabolic rate. However, the only permanent way to increase your metabolism so you burn more calories is to decrease fat content in your body and increase the proportion of muscle. Every pound of muscle added to the body burns an additional 35 to 50 calories per day.

Power training or even light weight bearing exercise is essential to muscle gain, which over time will help strip away fat by burning extra calories.

Other tried and tested methods include:

Chewing gum – On a recent study it was discovered that chewing a sugar free gum during the day can increase the daily energy consumption resulting in a weight drop of around 10 lbs over one year. For even better results try a 5-HTP gum which will help keep the serotonin levels boosted and experience well being while the caloric intake is reduced.

Eating spicy foods – Hot dishes such as curries will temporarily increase the body temperature and make the heart beat faster. The results are increased metabolism and sweating which will both contribute towards weight loss. Taking supplements containing chilli or pepper extracts will provide similar effects.

Drinking green tea – There have been several studies on the effect of green tea for weight loss. In experiments, a green tea extract taken with caffeine appeared to raise thermogenesis (the rate at which calories are burned off as heat) whereas caffeine alone didn’t have the same effects. The researchers believe a substance called catechin in green tea may be what causes the positive effect.

Eating little and often – Splitting the total daily calorie intake into 5 smaller meals may help burn more calories than eating 3 bigger meals. Every time we eat, the digestion process uses energy. Repeating this process 5 times a day rather than 3  will result in more calories being burned. An important point to note is that the total calorie intake must be the same for regardless of how many meals are consumed.

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Love Your Body: Detox Your Body

Yoga leads to wellness of both your body and mind.

Yoga helps achieve control over yourself and this well being exercise has been practised to stay healthy and live a long life. Performing various yoga poses, helps detoxify the body by getting rid of toxins that you would have accumulated through food, water and air.

Take a look at our top tips for Yoga and take time out to love the body your in!:

Find a good teacher

It is much easier and more enjoyable, to learn yoga, with all its detailed and subtle physical and mental aspects, from a real person, rather than from a book or video.

Respect your body

Don’t push yourself to do anything that feels dangerous or wrong for you. The practice of non-harm exercise, is essentially skillful and beneficial to the practice of yoga.

Create your own space

Always leave space between yourself and others so that if you topple over, you don’t knock over your neighbour too. There is a certain etiquette of respectful awareness of sharing space with others that is a lovely part of yoga practice.

Change your diet and lifestyle

Fit your diet around your lifestyle. Ensure to eat healthy and drink plenty of water before and after your exercise. Yoga is also about cleansing inside and out. Eat clean and you will feel clean.

Purchase the look

Work our in comfortable clothing which reflects how you feel, ensure it’s loose fitting and comfortable. There’s nothing worse than doing Yoga in a tight fitting outfit. Trust us it will help you reach that relaxed and happy state.

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Juice It!

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Miranda Kerr and Nicole Ritchie swear by the health benefits of the juice diets…

The western world has been encouraged, with key celebrity names at the forefront, to try juice diets. With many variations and the health benefits going through the roof, it’s the easiet way to get your 5-a-day fix! In times when sitting down for a long dinner seems like a luxury, a tall glass of juice tends to make up for time as well as nourishment.

All you need is a selection of fresh fruit and vegtables in rainbow colours and a hard working blender to kick start the benefits.. The blender will slowly crush the fruit or vegetables; ending up with healthy and highly-enriched juice, with preserved colour and nutrients.

You absorb all the goodness – Cooking and boiling the ingredients, lead to the destruction of a majority of the vital anti-oxidants. Juicing helps prevent this loss and fortifies your dietary intake with a well rounded ingestion of all necessary nutrients.

More Is More – Carrots, Spinach, Kale and Brocolli; all in one sitting? All you got to do is throw together all of the infamous leafy veggies into the blender and you won’t even recognize them anymore. Try it today!

Drink Up Quick! – Juice only what you need. Under highly monitored conditions, vegetable juice can stay fresh for a maximum of 24 hours due to its unpasteurized nature. After this time span, the nutritional value declines steadily and the taste will also suffer.

Try our favourite juice recipe below:

The ABC juice
1 apple
2 beets
3 large carrots
1 (1-inch) piece of ginger
Spinach or kale (optional)