Aloe-Vera - an effective medicine?

Aloe vera is a very useful plant. It is very often used as a medicine to treat skin conditions such as burns and eczema, where it can help to stop the pain and reduce swelling. It is also very pleasant and soothing in its smell, which is likely why you will have heard of it: it is very often used in soaps, shampoos, and similar products.

This is not the only way to buy aloe vera, however. It is also available in capsule and gel form, as well as in juices and drinks, creams and lotions.

However, scientists are not altogether in agreement on the effectiveness of aloe vera as a medicine. It is difficult to research the effects of aloe vera properly, because it is such a complicated herb. Aloe vera contains 75 different nutrients, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, sugars and acids. Supposedly, it can help with muscle growth, be anti-bacterial, aid digestion, heal wounds, and much more – but then alternative medicine always tends to claim too much when it comes to its remedies. It is widely believed that aloe vera is effective against the common cold, although no medicine has ever been proved to cure it.

Natural Aloe-Based Solutions for Skin Care and Health

Aloe vera, especially when combined with other natural ingredients, can greatly enhance the skin and its ability to replenish skin cells. As skin cells die, new skin cells must replace the old to promote healthy skin. This also slows the aging process and helps keep the skin moist and beautiful. Aloe creams and gels on the market can help enhance this process. There are also creams and gels to help with itching, burns, cuts, psoriasis, shingles, and other skin conditions. 

Aloe vera is also known to have antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties, which allow skin ailments to heal while reducing risk of infection. Some aloe-based products are said to help soothe and dry up chicken pox as well. Aloe gel can work as a natural anesthesia to reduce or alleviate pain caused by burns, cuts, and skin rashes. For severe sunburn and/or sun poison, aloe vera gel can cool the burning skin and speed up the healing process.

How to Buy Natural Aloe Products

Besides growing your own aloe vera plants, the next best thing is to buy natural aloe-based products. But before buying, be sure the products are all natural. Read the ingredients on each product and learn why the ingredients were added. You'll find some products, such as Alveo, to have added natural ingredients to enhance health properties. Alveo often provides more benefits than even the actual aloe plant alone.

10 Diet Rules You Can Break

There are actually diet rules out there that are meant to be broken? Yes, recently many dated diet guidelines and myths are up for speculation. You’ve probably heard all these silly rules before, but experts weigh-in on the worthiness of these supposed truisms - most of which won't help you lose weight or make dieting any easier.

10 Food Rules You Can Ignore:

1. Eating at night will pile on the pounds. The total calories you consume over a 24-hour period or over a week is what causes you to gain weight, and when you eat these calories doesn't matter.

2. It's best to eat at the same times every day. Eat when you're hungry, not when the clock says it's time to eat.

3. Dieting with a buddy always makes weight loss easier. Common goals may pay off but weight loss is a personal journey.

4. Dietary fat keeps you feeling full longer, so you'll eat less. Fat does take longer to digest, but it will not help you control your appetite. Foods likely to fight off hunger the longest are protein foods, followed by carbohydrates, then fats.

5. When you blow your diet, you might as well wait until the next day to get back on track. Nothing could be farther from the truth- always try to get right back on track with your next meal.

6. Refusing food at a party or when visiting is rude. Turning down food that you know will blow your diet is socially acceptable.

7. Skipping a meal every now and then will help you lose. Skipping a meal means you will be so hungry at the next meal that you are likely to overeat. This can also help lead to a slowdown of your metabolism.

8. Bread is fattening, nuts are fattening, pasta is fattening. Whole-wheat bread/pasta is a great source of nutrients, and it won't make you gain weight more than any other food with the same number of calories.

9. All calories are equal. This is somewhat true, however; you'll get more nutrients from a 100-calorie apple than from a 100-calorie portion of white bread. Choose healthier items if you are losing weight, or controlling your hunger.

10. If you don't clean your plate, you're wasting food. If you just don't feel right leaving the table until you've cleaned your plate, underestimate your hunger and put less food on your plate to begin with, or you may overeat.

Don’t believe everything you hear! Much of it is just superstition. Now you can tell your friends the real truth. In the end, nutrition experts say, many of the food and dieting rules we hold dear are meant to be broken - without guilt!

What do you think? Can you get everything you need from the food you eat?

Not long ago, most doctors, nutritionists, and government agencies told us we didn't need nutritional supplements. They said we could get all of our nutrition from food. But then the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) studied the daily food and nutritional intake from a cross section of over 21,000 men, women and children. Their findings shocked them.

The USDA discovered that not one single person in the study was getting all their minimum recommended daily allowance (RDA) requirements from the foods they were eating. The RDA’s were considered to be only “adequate,” by the people who set them up. They’re the bare bones minimum nutritional amounts necessary to prevent some known deficiency diseases, such as scurvy, beriberi and rickets.

The RDA’s are not the optimum level of nutrients necessary to create buoyant, vibrant health. And yet not one single person in the study was getting even “adequate” nutrition. Adequate versus Optimum Nutrition

The RDA for vitamin E is 30 International Units (IU). Two very good sources are peanuts and brown rice, but in order to get "adequate" vitamin E from these two foods you would have to eat: at least 10 oz. of peanuts with 1,050 calories or 2 and 1 pounds of brown rice at 1,575 calories.
No way, right?

Now let’s look at the ODA for Vitamin E. Research shows in order to take advantage of the many health protective benefits of E, you should be getting between 200 and 400 IU's.

So how much food would you have to eat to get the ODA for Vitamin E? Well, I hope you’re hungry! Because to get "optimum" nutrition you’ll have to eat: a minimum of 40 cups of peanuts at 33,600 calories or 130 cups of brown rice with 91,000 calories!
Digging Deeper – How Your Food is Grown

To make matters worse, of the 26 nutrients known to be essential to human beings, only 16 are necessary for plant growth. Going for bigger profits from higher yields, modern commercial industry uses artificial fertilizers, which overlook these 10 other essential human nutrients. For example, our food has plenty of phosphorus because plants need it to grow. But plants don't need chromium or selenium to thrive, so artificial fertilizers leave out these important minerals. Therefore, most commercially grown food is deficient in chromium and selenium. And these are essential minerals for protecting against cancer, diabetes and premature aging.
So what do you think? Can you get everything you need from the food you eat?

Maybe in a textbook, lab or pristine fantasy world with pure, non-toxic, high-nutrient food, where everyone eats exactly what they're supposed to eat. But in this real world - No.
What You Can Do to Get and Stay Healthy?

Increase your intake of healthy high fiber foods. And take high quality 100% natural supplements – Alveo.

You can always look and feel your best – naturally.

More about Alveo:  http://www.good-future.co.uk/about-alveo.php

Grocery shopping part: top 10 tips for reading food labels

In an ideal world, our grocery cart is filled with an abundant amount of local organic fruits and vegetables, raw nuts, seeds and grains, maybe some wild alaskan salmon and organic animal protein. But when reality sets in, we hit the shelves looking for quick fix solutions. Packaged goods certainly have their place, but only if they contain healthy, nutritional ingredients. With so much marketing hype in supermarkets, television ads and packaging, how do you fend for yourself? Educate yourself with these 10 tips for reading food labels:

Top 10 Tips for Reading Food Labels

1. Ingredients on a label are listed from highest to lowest by weight. Items listed first are main ingredients; items listed last would be least.

2. Avoid ingredients you can’t pronounce or recognize which are likely unhealthy such as artificial preservatives, flavorings, etc.

3. Divide grams of sugar by 4 to get the amount in teaspoons per serving. Four grams of sugar is equal to one teaspoon. Most soda has about 40 grams of sugar; divided by 4 is ten teaspoons. Most fat-free, "diet" foods are also loaded with sugar.

4. Avoid foods with high levels of sodium (watch out for frozen foods, soups and sauces which can contain 700mg-3000mg). The daily recommended limit is 2300mg.

5. Look for foods with 2 grams of fiber per 100 calories. Aim for 25-40 grams of fiber a day.

6. Purchase foods that contain as few ingredients as possible.

7. Sugar or words ending in “ose”: Sucrose, fructose, etc all mean sugar (there are more than 40 different names for sugar). Look for less than 5 grams per serving.

8. Items might have several types of sugar, cane juice, sucrose, fructose, honey, etc which may not be toward the top of the ingredient list but if added together might be high.

9. “Enriched” or “wheat” flour: means white flour, which has been stripped of fiber. Look for “whole wheat” as the first ingredient.

10. Avoid foods labeled with high fructose corn syrup, trans fat ( Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils also means trans fats), high levels of saturated fats, sodium nitrate (found in processed meats) and artificial sweeteners.