Nutritional Immunology - The Best Solution

Prevention Versus Cure

We are born inherently with the best doctor in the world - our immune system. When the immune system is funtioning proberly, it should serve as a strong defense from most illness. Nutrition and proper care of the body can do wonders for the immune system. Regardless of the condition of our health, our bodies constantly require nutrition. When we are healthy, wholesome nutrition can prevent us from getting sick. Similarly, when we are sick, proper nourishment can help us recover from illness.

Nutritional Immunology is a science that studies the relationship between nutrition and the immune system. Healthful foods contribute to a strong immune response system, which fights disease-causing bacteria. Many people make an extra effort to be aware of nutrtition when they are sick, but few take the preventive measures that could have stopped the illness before it started. The essence of Nutritional Immunology promotes overall health regulation rather than trying to repair the problem once it occures.

Concerns of Modern Medicine

Even though medical drugs can provide us with symptomatic relief, there are many considerations to weigh carefully regarding the intake of elements in our bodies. Is the desired effect occuring? Are there adverse side effects? What is the precise dosage needed for the illness? Will this drug interact negatively with other drugs? It is the responsibility of every consumer to ask these questions and learn the essential facts. The patient should take an active participation with a thorough and symphathetic doctor if a drug is needed.

The Best Solution

Essetially, each time we choose whole foods and excellent nutrition, we allow our "internal doctor" to do the work. By filling our bodies with the finest treasures harvested from the earth, it is possible to achieve a healthier lifestyle without detrimental side effects. The most notable difference in consuming whole foods rather than harsh chemicals is the unknown effects. Clearly, the best solution is to avoid illness together. It is time to live proactively: to foster proper nutrition in our diets, to gain the rewards of a powerful immune system and in turn to enjoy the fruits of a healthy body.

The Essence of E.Excel Family

E.Excel family is dedicated to the research of Nutritional Immunology. Education is the lifeblood of our industry: by sharing our understanding with each person we contact, we give the gift of health and knowledge. By gaining the insight on how to prevent illness, we can maintain a healthy and energetic lifestyle. Also, by knowing the side effects of different drugs, we can prevent major harm to our bodies. At E.Excel, we understand the power that exists in knowledge and want to offer that proficiency to each of you.

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What You Should Eat For Optimum Health

We often wonder what we should eat for optimum health and even the government has recently flip flopped its food pyramid which you can see at MyPyramid.gov.

Here’s an overview of the 2005 dietary guidelines from the government.

First off, according to the new government guidelines a healthy diet is one that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk products and will include lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and nuts.

The diet will also be low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars.

The main theme the government is proposing now is to eat a diet rich in grains and to make half of the grains you eat whole grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel -- the bran, germ, and endosperm, some examples would be:

• whole-wheat flour
• bulgur (cracked wheat)
• oatmeal
• whole cornmeal
• brown rice

Next you should “vary your veggies” and in general buy fresh vegetables in season, stock up on frozen vegetables and buy vegetables that are easy to prepare.

For the best nutritional value, choose vegetables with more potassium such as sweet potatoes and spinach and limit sauces which can add fats, sodium and additional calories.

Prepare more of your foods from fresh ingredients to lower sodium. Most sodium comes from packaged and processed foods.

One suggestion for a healthy diet is to try using a salad as the main dish for lunch and go light on the salad dressing.

Focus on fruits. To help you keep focus, have a bowl of fruit always available on the table, counter, or in the refrigerator. Keep cut fruit in the refrigerator and buy fresh fruits in season whenever possible. Buy frozen, dried, and canned fruits as well so you will always have some kind of fruit on hand.

Choose whole fruits or cut fruits over juices whenever possible for the fiber benefits. Choose fruits high in potassium such as bananas, apricots, and cantaloupe. Put cut fruit on your breakfast cereal. At lunch, take a tangerine, banana, or some grapes. For dinner, add crushed pineapple or mandarin oranges in a tossed salad.

Get calcium rich foods and include low fat or fat free milk as a beverage at meals. Have fat-free yogurt as a snack. Use low-fat cheeses on salads and casseroles.

For those who cannot consume milk products due to lactose intolerance choose lactose free alternatives to get your calcium such as cheese, yogurt, and lactose-free milk.

Go lean with protein. The suggestions for your protein intake are to use the leanest cuts of meats such as top sirloin and pork loin and whenever choosing ground beef go with extra lean that is identified as at least 90% lean.

Buy skinless chicken parts as the fat is in the skin. Choose lean turkey and all kinds of fish.

To keep your meat intake lean and as free of fat as possible, broil, grill, roast, or boil your meat choices instead of frying and drain off any fat that appears during cooking.

Choose dry beans such as kidney beans and use them as the main part of a meal often. Make use of nuts for snacks and use them to sometimes replace meat or poultry.

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Getting The Most Nutritional Value From Fruits And Vegetables

You’re eating lots of fruits and vegetables every day, but are you sure you’re getting the most nutritional value from them, and what can you do to improve how many nutrients you are getting. To understand we need to take a deeper look at the trip that fruits and vegetables make to get to your table.

Many different factors can affect the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables before they reach your table. The two most important are time and traveling conditions. The shorter the time frame that the fruit is packed until it reaches your table the better. If you are lucky enough to have a home garden try to pick your vegetables early in the morning for peak flavor and nutritional value. The next best choice is to use a local market stand. Generally the foods they are selling were picked within a few hours of being set out for sale. If there are no local markets in your area like most people you’ll be forced to shop at a supermarket.

Before any produce reaches your local supermarket it must first be picked, and packaged. If the food is coming to you from the same state or neighboring state chances are it was picked within 48 hours of reaching the stores shelves. If you’re produce is making it way from California to New York chances are it was picked 7 to 10 days ago. Why do you need to be concerned about when something was harvested? When any produce is picked off of the vine it is at its nutritional peak value. It starts to lose that value as time passes, the more time that passes, and the more value it loses.

The second biggest contributor is handling. If care is taken no to bruise or damage the exterior skin produce will last longer. Additionally storing a produce at the proper temperature will also help slow down the loss of nutrients. Here’s where it gets a little tricky, some fruits like temperatures as high as 60 degrees, and other prefer temperatures in the mid 30’s. So the longer your food is in transit, and the more care that it shown to handling it properly the more packed with nutrients it is likely to be when it hits the shelves of your local supermarket.

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Just a Bite: Encouraging Kids To Try New Foods

Eating a variety of healthy foods is the best way for your child to get needed nutrients. But how do you encourage kids-notorious for being picky eaters-to explore the wide world of food? According to the health and parenting experts at KidsHealth, the answer is pleasant persistence.

It turns out that once is not enough when it comes to kids and trying new foods. It may take up to 15 tries before children warm up to new tastes, research shows. So if your child turns up his nose at green beans or broccoli, don't assume he will never like those good-for-you green veggies.

Consider starting a new rule at your family table: Everyone takes at least a bite of what's being served, even if they tried it before and didn't like it. This exposes kids to new tastes again and again, increasing the odds that they'll eventually accept some of them. It also makes trying new foods just part of the normal routine. The KidsHealth experts offer these tips for implementing this one-bite strategy:

• Put a small portion of the new food on your child's plate. Or, if your child's old enough, allow her to self-serve.

• When serving a new food, be sure to also include a familiar food on that night's menu. Too much new stuff can be off-putting, especially to a hungry child.

• Keep the mood light and upbeat. Don't make the one bite seem like a punishment.

• Talk about the new food you're serving, where it comes from, other recipes it's in, or even how to spell the food. (For instance, you might tell a toddler that zucchini starts with "Z.")

• Be a sport by following the one-bite rule yourself.

Visiting restaurants, farmers' markets and specialty markets can also expose kids to different foods. Use those outings to let your child choose a new food to try. Reading books about food and paging through cookbooks is another way to encourage experimentation. If a recipe looks good to your child, consider making it together. That new dish could become a favorite. But for now, start with just one bite.

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High Mercury Content in Fish

We all know that adding fish to our diets can help increase our body's ability to repair itself, as well as its ability to burn body fat and keep our energy up, but it’s important to choose fish that’s also going to improve your health as opposed to silently poisoning you…

Being exposed to too much mercury can cause memory loss, tremors, neurological difficulties, advanced aging, decreased immune functions, and death.

But how is all this mercury getting into our body?

Well here’s the top 4 places that contribute to the levels of mercury in our body (not in any specific order):

Vaccines (past and present)
Dental fillings
The environment
And Fish

We’re going to focus on fish right now because that’s the prime source of mercury in our diets. When coal is burned, inorganic mercury is released into the air and eventually ends up in our lakes, rivers and oceans. There, bacteria mixes with it and transforms it into methylmercury which is easily absorbed by fish (especially large or fatty fish), and is also easily absorbed by us when we eat those fish.

The good new is that our most recent studies indicate that the human body naturally rids itself of mercury over time – assuming we stop ingesting it long enough for our body to do what it was made to do, and to help the process here’s a list of fish that naturally have a low, medium and high level of mercury:

High mercury: Mercury levels differ from one species of fish to the next. This is due to factors such as type of fish, size, location, habitat, diet and age. Fish that are predatory (eat other fish) are large and at the top of the food chain, and so tend to contain more mercury. Fish that contain higher levels of mercury include:

Shark
Ray
Swordfish
Barramundi
Gemfish
Orange roughy
Ling
Canned or fresh tuna
Mackerel
Grouper
Tilefish
Chilean sea bass

Moderate mercury: Alaskan halibut, black cod, blue (Gulf Coast) crab, dungeness crab, Eastern oysters, mahimahi, blue mussels, pollack.
Low mercury: Anchovies, Arctic char, crawfish, Pacific flounder, herring, king crab, sanddabs, scallops, Pacific sole; tilapia, wild Alaska and Pacific salmon; farmed catfish, clams, striped bass, and sturgeon.

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