Fruit Juice Saves Lives

Can fruit juice save your life? probably not, but a recent health/news release by the UMHS-University of Michigan Health System-indicates that fruit juice that was previously linked to obesity in children may not have anything to do with making kids get fat after all. The studied reported that there was no link between children drinking 100% fruit juice with no sugar added and obesity. In addition there are some added benefits to drinking certain juices depending on what you may be looking to avoid-such as, orange juice may help to avoid recurrences of kidney stones, and cranberry and blueberry juices may help to prevent UTI’s. [Urinary Tract Infections]

For more information or to read the news release click on the link below!

Power of Fruit Juice
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/hmjuice.htm

Sunday September 30th, 2007

Good Eating

In our present day lives we all have to be aware of what we eat and drink and make conscious decisions on what to include in our diet. The four basic food groups that I grew up hearing and learning-fruits/vegetables, meat, milk/cheese, and breads-have been replaced with the newly updated pyramid. It’s a pyramid that includes the previous four categories, but has been updated with a new modern look. It has eight categories. The fruits and vegetables have been separated so that we now have-dairy, meat, fruits, vegetables and grains from the old pyramid along with a few new ones-oils, exercise and “discretionary calories”. The discretionary calories are simply extra calories that we eat throughout the day. These might be extra bread or juice we may have when we’re hungry, or sweets like candy when we’re snacking.
This is all designed to help us choose better foods in our daily lives. The web site is very informative and useful in determining the types of foods that are currently thought to be healthy and provide a good diet for us.
I’ve seen the pyramid morph from the basic four boxed pyramid with the fruits and vegetables across from the breads and cereals, and then the meats paired up with the dairy on the top. Many years later I studied nutrition in college and say the new pyramid with the grains located on the bottom with fruits and vegetables next up and then meat and dairy farther up and fats on top. The idea with that pyramid was to have the grains be the basis of your day’s meals. The higher up you went the fewer servings you were to have of that group. Now we have a newer pyramid yet. Each updated generation of the food pyramid is designed to make it easy for us in our daily lives to pick and choose healthy foods to help us stay healthy longer.
I encourage you to read through the web sites I have below.
Bon Appetite!

MyPyramid.Gov
http://www.mypyramid.gov/

Food Pyramids: Nutrition Source, Harvard School of Public Health
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html


Sunday September 30th, 2007