10 tips to eat healthy.

This time I will give you some tips that I use in order to eat low-calorie products without having to buy expensive ones:

1. If you are used to eating cereal in the morning, try to prepare it with skim milk and add fruits like banana, strawberry, peach or pear. This way you will eat more fiber, less sugar and you will be more satisfied.

2. If you like sweet and high-calorie cereals, I recommend purchasing a large box of unsweetened cereal like oatmeal (Quaker), corn (Corn Flakes),or rice (Special K), then buy the small presentation of your favorite cereal and mix them; this way you will reduce the calories you eat at breakfast without sacrificing the flavor.

3. If you like sweet bread, cut each piece in half and eat one piece each time.

4. If you like cookies, choose the ones that do not have any filling and prefer the ones with fiber.

5. Change whole milk to skim milk.  If you're braver switch to soy milk.

6. If you're a fan of aged cheeses like Machego, Gouda or Edam, make sure that on your weekly grocery shop you buy half of them fresh like mozarella or cottage cheese and half of the ones you like.

7. If you like your eggs scrambled, prepare them in a non-stick pan to reduce the fat, use only one per person and add vegetables like squash, peppers, onions, corn, etc. You will feel more satisfied, increase your fiber intake and will reduce fat (and they will look so tasty).

8. Change to cooking oil spray and choose non-sticking pans.

9. Take 2 glasses of plain water before eating and a cup of tea or coffee after dinner. You can use stevia to sweeten your drinks (each teaspoon of sugar has 20 calories).

10. If you like soda or flavored water, try diluting them gradually, first add 1/4 of water to your soda and increase it gradually.

See you next week!

And to all this ... What are the BAD fats?

Every single bad fat is man-made.  Once again, thanks to humanity for the hole in the ozone layer, global warming, pollution and deforestation.

Commonly called "Trans", these fats are made by bombing unsaturated fat  (the good ones) with hydrogen, until they become solid and the molecules are arranged like animal fats (saturated).

According to scientific studies (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition), 30,000 deaths annually are caused by eating Transfats, due to four main reasons:

• When we include Transfats in our diet, we exclude the good fats (poly/monounsaturated).

• Since they are artificial, Trans fats stay in the bloodstream for much longer and are more capable of clogging arteries or being stored as body fat.
• Transfats block the beneficial effects of the "good" fats we consume.
• Transfats increase the levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while lowering levels of the good one (HDL).

I hope I was clear that Transfats SHOULD NOT EXIST in our diet at all. It's the only food we can define as "universally BAD". There is no way to combine or modify them in order to make them beneficial for our health.

GOOD FATS

The general recommendation is that our diet includes 30% fat, much of which is found in the meat, egg and dairy we consume, so it is recommended that we eat 3-5 servings of fats a day to prepare our food (oil, seasonings and nuts).

Finally these are some of the products that contain a good amount of healthy fats:

Almonds	Macadamia	Olives
Cashews	Peanuts	Avocado
Hazelnuts	Sunflower Seeds	Salmon
Walnuts	Linseed Oil
Pistachios	Olive Oil

See you next week!

EAT FAT …LOSE FAT

We continue with Athenea Lara...

To lose fat you have to EAT fat, yes ... I know that at first seems that this statement makes little sense, all these years of anti - fat campaign have managed to convince us that fat is responsible for the closures tight jeans, lost buttons and increasing sizes... but surprise! THAT IS NOT TRUE! Did you know that some polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat actually speed up yourmetabolism?

EAT FAT TO GAIN MUSCLE

To begin with, building muscle requires a lot of energy. Because a gram of fat contains a little over twice the energy of one gram of carbohydrate or protein, this makes an ideal muscle building element, PROVIDED THAT is the right type of fat and you are exercising.

EAT FAT TO STAY YOUNG

Sooner or later we have to accept it: we are getting older with each passing day ... but that does not mean you are destined to a dramatic physical and mental decline.

To date, scientists have not been able to determine what exactly makes us age, but the most popular theory is that of "free radicals ", which says that aging arises from the bombardment of free radicals to our genes .

If we protect our cells from free radicals, then we will gradually grow old and healthy. There are two ways to do this, the first is exercise and the second eating fat. Both create a protective environment to our cells if we include them in our life style on a daily basis.

Bottom line is: If you want to stay young, exercise frequently and include unsaturated fats in your diet.

Fat: Friend or Foe

This time we have invited an expert in nutrition and fitness, Athenea Lara, with over 6 years of experience, she shares her secrets:

Despite many years of hearing arguments for "anti- fat,” it is increasingly clear that the right kinds of fat make us healthier, smarter, more muscular and less fat!

In the 80 's, everything we saw or read about nutrition tried to eradicate all common dietary fats, thus giving the message that any food containing any kind of fat was harmful to our health. 

Athletes and people concerned about nutrition adopted the idea that the less fat their diet had, the better. From that moment on, a low-fat diet was fashionable.

Today it remains a challenge to change the mindset of people, and to make them understand that the correct fat is not only essential, but also very beneficial to our body. 

I’ve seen this example with my clients: none seems to have any conflict with eating a muffin, brownie, or burger ... however the vast majority shows major concerns over olive oil, dressings or a small handful of almonds in their diet.

The message that I want to give today is: FAT IS NOT THE DEVIL, but quite the contrary, it is one of our best allies to get in shape.

An important fact: Walter Willett, director of the department of nutrition at Harvard, has devoted the last years to show that since the start of the anti-fat movement, obesity has increased further and health in the general population did not improve at all.

It is true that there is a type of fat (let´s call them " bad fats ") that block our arteries, increase our adipose tissue, and accelerates aging, but it is also true that there is another type of fat ("the good one") that protects us against heart disease, damage from free radicals, increases our metabolic rate and fat burning, and can help gain muscle and testosterone production.

Next week we will talk in detail about which are good fats and how to use them to improve our health and live better...

Reading labels in ten seconds... SODIUM

Unfortunately, as most processed foods contain Sodium as a conserving element, it is difficult to find one that is free of this element.

Try to choose food with less than 140mg per serving. If you have blood pressure problems, kidney problems or fluid retention, I suggest that you avoid instant food.

As always, the best food is fresh; no matter how wonderful and magical food is presented by the food industry, it can never compete with natural and homemade options.