White Bread vs Whole Wheat - Any Questions?
Nicky Pilkington

For any kid who grew up eating doughy, thick Wonder Bread for lunch, the encouragement by dietitians and nutritionists to switch to whole wheat bread can be a tough transition.

Bread, like any other part of our diet, is an acquired taste. Starting out early helps since children are much more adaptable to accepting foods than adults. This does not mean that children LIKE as many foods as adults - children are renowned picky eaters. But if you only expose them to healthy, whole grain foods they won't have the opportunity to develop a taste for white bread or other non-nutritious foods.

Adults, however, must learn to change their diet preferences because of knowledge. Understanding why whole wheat is superior to white bread can help you feel good about the compromise and encourage you to make it the standard for your children. Who knows - you may even like it!

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
The two biggest differences between white bread and whole wheat are the processing and the nutritional value.
Flour is made from wheat berries. The wheat berry is made up of the bran, the germ and the endosperm. All parts are filled with nutrients and are used in whole wheat flour.

White bread on the other hand, uses only the endosperm - the starchy inner layer. There is a total of 30 nutrients missing in white bread. The nutritional difference is immense and has measurable impact on our health.

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF SWITCHING?
The fiber content of whole wheat bread has several health benefits.

Fiber helps the digestive system. It also creates a 'full' sensation and thus can help with weight control. Research has been conducted by Harvard and other organizations that shows men and women who eat high-fiber foods have less heart attacks and strokes than those who don't.

There is also an increased risk of diabetes in children who eat refined white flour - a risk that has been proven by the increase in cases of childhood diabetes.

WHAT DO I LOOK FOR?
Watch out for words like 'wheat flour' or 'enriched wheat flour' as they can be mostly made from white flour with just a small amount of whole wheat added in.

Look for 'whole wheat' or other whole grains, like oat. And don't be mislead by the name of the product. Names like wheat, whole bran, stoned wheat, 12 grain and others are still mostly white flour. The only way to know for sure is to read the label.

Healthy Living With Peaches
Kevin Pederson

Peaches are known to have originated from China and later on, found their way to other parts of the world. Peaches are a great source of carbohydrates, protein, dietary fiber, vitamin C and vitamin A. It has been highly recommended to fight cancer. Having peach in your daily diet fights deadly diseases like cancer. It has good amount of boron which encourages the estrogen level in postmenopausal women, which is great boon for women. It also stimulates your brain and prevents the chances of osteoporosis. It is also known to lower your blood pressure. It is low on calories which make a huge difference to people who want to maintain their weight.

Peaches are very useful for digestion due to its alkaline content so you can say goodbye to all our stomach problems. It is a good source of dietary fiber which works superbly for constipation problems. It helps to prevent hemorrhoids which can give lot of trouble. It helps to recharge your immune system which can prevent many diseases including shingles. If you have trouble with your heart, this fruit helps to put a stop to the heart strokes. You can also avoid any constipation problem by having this fruit. It is rich in potassium, sodium and calcium which can provide a good complexion. With 88 per cent water content it is known to be thirst-quencher.

It is a great way to clean your kidney and bladder due to its laxative properties. It can perk and energize you if you have good amount of peaches. Can you believe there more than 200 varieties of peaches and more than 175 varieties of nectarines. It also contains good amount of carbohydrates which has the ever essential phytonutrients (plant-based nutrients), anti-oxidants and carotenoids. The presence of carotenoids means, it would be great for your eyes. Lutein and zeaxanthin filter present in peaches protects your eyes from scotching heat. It also protects your eyes from other disorders related to your age like macular degeneration and cataracts. The anti-oxidants and nectarines helps you fight diseases which are related to aging.

Home Remedies
Eating peach along with its skin before going to bed would help you to sort your constipation problems.

Dried peaches are rich in iron and are very useful for anemia.

If you are baking peaches, leave the skin on it to provide more benefits to you.

Planning to be on a diet, have peaches. It being low on calorie makes a whole lot of difference in your diet.

Warning: The reader of this article should exercise all precautionary measures while following instructions on the home remedies from this article. Avoid using any of these products if you are allergic to it. The responsibility lies with the reader and not with the site or the writer.

4 Steps To Understanding Your Weight Loss Triggers
Glenn Freiboth


Triggers are certain foods, situations and feelings that prompt us to overeat and gain weight or prevent current or future weight loss. Different people have different triggers when on a diet. For some people boredom is a trigger, for others it’s stress; for some people it’s a party, for others it’s being alone. People bottom line need much better food nutrition. No matter what your individual triggers are they bar your way to successful weight loss. If you have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight before, one of the things that have prevented your success was that you never learned to identify or control the trigger foods, situations and feelings that cause unconscious overeating. You never turned “I’m out of control” into “No, I’m in control”.

See if you can relate to this pattern: It starts out slowly. Something prompts you to eat some of the foods you cut back on while you were dieting. Perhaps you are at a movie, or feelings stressed, or simply smell some freshly backed cookies. You feel a little deprived because of your dieting and so you decide to just treat yourself with certain foods you used to eat when you felt stressed. Believing you are in total control of those foods now, you test the waters and decide to have “just a little bit” of them. However, “just a little bit” pretty soon grows to be, “a little bit more” and then rapidly progresses to “a lot more”. Before you know it, you are right back where you are started in terms of food control. Then your weight starts inching upwards.

The trip-up point is this patter is where you cannot recognize that certain foods you “gave up” while dieting are not foods you can just start eating again once you have lost weight. The realities are that certain foods, especially eaten at certain places or while experiencing specific feelings, have the power to control you.

How to Turn “I’m out of control” into “No, I’m in control.

Like any behavioral change, learning how to control triggers is a process. Awareness of the influence of triggers and acknowledgement that they are deterring you from your weight loss goals is the starting point for this process. After that, it can be broken down into four steps to help to understand how to lose weight and keep it off for good.

1) Identify
Identifying the foods, situations and feelings that trigger unconscious overeating is your first step. The best way to do this is by using a journal. You can divide it up into three sections for each of your trigger foods, situations and feelings, or just note everything in one place.

2) Decide
Once you have identified a number of trigger foods, feelings and situations, your next step is to decide that you are going to learn to control them. Believe in your ability to do this.

3) Stop
The best way to control your triggers and increate food nutrition, therefore, is to consistently stop responding to them. Not just for a day, a week or a month. Not just while you are trying to lose weight, but until you can control the conditioned eating habit, and in some cases this may mean permanently. True control means that you, not the trigger decides where, when, and what you will eat. On the other hand, if you have a problem say for instance eating popcorn at the movies, not responding to the trigger does not mean you can never eat popcorn again.

4) Practice
Controlling weight loss triggers takes practice. Now that you have an understanding of triggers, put into effect what you have learned. Use the following as examples.

* Trigger Situations- Write a statement describing the trigger situation. Phrase it in the past tense: “I used to eat while watching TV”.

* Trigger Foods- Write down what your favorite foods were as a child, a teenager, a young adult, and now. Have they changed? For most people they do, which tells us that taste buds can change over time and with choice. Think about how you learned to like the taste of alcohol for example!

* Trigger Feelings- write down several of your trigger feelings and state why you respond to the food in that way. For example, “I eat after a stressful situation because food calms me.”Remember, weight loss and maintaining a diet involves dealing with triggers to stay aware and think before you eat. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.