AstroNutrition's blog

Let’s get back to basics. If you wanna lose weight you gotta exercise people! Regular physical activity is an important part of effective weight control. It helps to control your weight by using excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. Exercise, combined with healthy eating, also helps prevent many diseases and improve your overall health.

Regular exercise can help prevent:

There are five steps to a healthy heart that can all be included in your everyday lifestyle. Make these lifestyle changes and you may be able to prevent certain heart conditions and live a longer, healthier life. Why take any chances?

Healthy Eating: It starts here! Too much saturated fat and bad food can clog up your arteries and put a strain on your heart. Eating fish, poultry and vegetables etc can help.

This Sunday, September 24th is World Heart Day.

A healthy heart is vital for living life to the full, regardless of your age or gender. Controlling the major cardiovascular risk factors, by choosing a healthy diet, being physically active and by not smoking can prevent heart attacks and strokes and may help the heart to age more slowly. That's why this year's World Heart Day will encourage people around the world to adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle to help maintain a young heart for life.

Well for one, the kids are back in school and routines are falling back in to place. Now you can pick up where you left off before the summer came and took up all your free time, filling it with vacations, picnics, and BBQs. Fall is the perfect time to launch a diet and fitness regimen to put the focus back on you.

A recent survey of 1500 moms showed the moms said they look forward to getting back to their regular routines and having more time to focus on themselves when their kids go back to school. They ranked summer second (behind the winter holidays) as the time of year when they tended to put on the most weight. Now it is time to work it off!

Looking for guilt-free convenience in the shape of a small processed bar? Then you have likely tried the vast array of dry nutrition or energy bars from the chocolate bar counter of your local store. But rarely do they taste nearly as good as their cocoa counterpart, or, are they always a healthy alternative. The promise of a low-carb meal replacement or a sugar-free energy booster may just be another marketing grab.

Eeek, not E Coli! Food-borne illness or food-borne disease, whatever you call it, it isn’t pretty! We normally see contamination in raw foods from animals, such as eggs, meat and poultry, shellfish, produce and unpasteurized milk.

It occurs when you eat or drink something contaminated with any number of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, or parasites. And it can result in diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, which can be serious if prolonged.

Food poisoning usually can be prevented by handling food safely. Here’s how:

Worldwide, blue is the favorite color, reports a psychologist for The Financial Times. At the "cool" end of the spectrum, blue can induce such physiological effects as lowering blood pressure, slowing breathing and releasing muscular tension.

When you don’t have time, frozen fruits and veggies are the quick, convenient solution to put a meal on the table without the hassle of washing, peeling, or chopping. But nothing beats fresh produce. When it comes to nutrition what’s the difference?

Frozen varieties are an easy option that ensures you get your daily dose, but they're also just as nutritious because they're picked fully ripe and then processed right away. Frozen vegetables are generally preferable to canned, except when it comes to tomatoes.

Here are a few guidelines you should follow when buying canned or frozen fruits and vegetables:

Watch out, it could backfire. People who put in long hours on the job are more likely to suffer from hypertension than those who work less, according to researchers at the University of California-Irvine.

In a study of survey responses from 24,205 working Californians in 2001, the scientists found that employees who clocked more than 51 hours a week were 29 per cent more likely to have diagnoses high blood pressure than those who worked fewer than 40 hours. Even just a few hours of overtime - between 41 and 50 hours of labor a week - increased the risk of high blood pressure by 14 per cent.

Okay face it, fall is just around the corner. Now you can breathe a sigh of relief as that next big BBQ may have put you up a jean size and another weekend vacation would mean more missed exercise. You need time to focus on your health. Fall is a great time for renewal and fresh starts.

The thought of having to wear a bathing suit is often enough motivation for people to shed a few pounds over the spring and summer months. The trick is to keep that weight off even when fun in the sun is a distant memory. Experts weigh-in on how to maintain the good habits you’ve acquired so you can keep that summer body throughout the year.

Experts are now suggesting 5 servings of fruit and veggies a day are not enough, that 7-13 cups daily is best for adults to get all the essential health benefits. You just found a way to sneak in some broccoli and spinach and now this! How are you going to get more produce in your diet? Try these simple ways:

Attention calorie counters: Whether you are overweight or not, you may want to start to double your calorie estimate when you look at your next big meal. Most people underestimate calories in large meals, researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Why cut it and clean it when you don’t have to? Many can appreciate the convenience of having already-washed and chopped salad greens sitting in the crisper. Bagged salad greens are now available in all types in the produce section, but are these no-fuss products worth the cost?

Superstar singer Beyoncé Knowles recently lost 22 pounds for a new role in the film Dreamgirls. How did she do it? She went on a crash diet that consisted of drinking a mixture of water, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup as a substitute for regular meals. But even she recommends this isn’t the best way to properly lose weight.

Her quick weight loss sparked a run on maple syrup and a renewed fascination with fad diets as news and photos of her new figure spread. Experts say her quick fix diet is void of essential nutrients and doesn't promote healthful eating and lifestyle habits that would sustain any weight that is lost. The ‘syrup diet’ is just one more example of a fad diet for the weight-crazed consumer.

So the debate rages on…which is better for you, margarine or butter? Now you can put your questions to rest. To determine which one is better for heart health, let's look at the fat content of both butter and margarine.

If hostility is your middle name, it is time to buck up and change your ways before you suffer the consequences. Being angry all the time may speed up aging in the lungs among men, a new Harvard study shows.

Time for a week off work…time to relax, de-stress, clear your head…but what kind of effect does a holiday have once you’ve returned to the workplace? After a few days back many of us can already contemplate another long break from the office.

Flax seed…the latest health ingredient in bread, cereal and bakery goods. It has even been called the ‘modern miracle food.’ Why does the name of this small seed seem to be popping up on the packaging of our favorite products?

So you’re exercising more and getting into the gym, among other things…but are you getting the most out of your workouts? Good food choices and the correct timing of meals may enhance performance. Here are some useful simple sports nutrition guidelines to help you gain that competitive edge.

So you’ve heard it a thousand times! Don’t skip out on breakfast if you want to lose weight or maintain a healthy body weight. Eating breakfast means you’re less hungry throughout the day. Not into eggs on the go? There are many ways you can make your morning meal taste good and still be good for you.

Don’t give in to the books and the talk and the hoopla! Fad diets are everywhere – most of the authors are people looking to make money and earn success by preying on people’s desperate need to lose weight. Remember- a healthy lifestyle can be achieved with your own education on good food and diet.

Low-fat granola…or is it? We really have to start paying more attention to understanding the health labels on food because what you read on the packaging in bold font may not be what you’re actually getting.

The regulations dealing with how foods are labeled is ambiguous and hard to regulate. Many believe the term “low-fat” is used to increase the sales of foods in today's market.  Low compared to what? Often, all it means is that the food is lower fat than it was at one time. A new lower-fat version may still have 100 grams of fat.

Ever wondered how long condoms have been in existence for? And what they were made of? Okay maybe you don’t think about it every day, but if you ever have, here’s your answer.

The oldest surviving condom in the world has gone on display in an Austrian museum. The reusable condom dates back to 1640 and is completely intact, as is its original users' manual, written in Latin. The manual suggests that users immerse the condom in warm milk prior to its use to avoid diseases.

Our immune system is what protects us from bacteria and infection. Sound important? It is! So we don’t want it to weaken – then we get that nasty cold or flu or worse. Certain foods with potent nutrients, minerals and organic compounds can supercharge your immune system and help fight off disease. The following will keep you healthy, and maybe prevent your next doctor visit:

Don’t give up! You can do it! You’ve put in all that hard work and it will start to show, diet success will be yours! Sticking to your diet is hard so make sure you have the skills and self-knowledge to keep you on track.

Interested in a cheap, healthy way of losing weight? A new study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, shows that using smaller bowls, plates and spoons may curb the amount of food you take in. Based on the findings "obese patients may want to use smaller bowls and spoons at home to reduce over-consumption," while "larger bowls and spoons would encourage more food intake than the smaller bowls and spoons that are often provided," for undernourished individuals.

In previous studies, researchers from Cornell University found that teenagers poured 77 percent less juice into tall narrow glasses than they did into short wide glasses. In a similar study, Philadelphia bartenders poured less liquor into "highball" glasses than they did into tumblers. 

OT at the office leaving you stressed? Burning the midnight oil, as they say? Women, you may be even more affected by long work hours than men, a British study shows.

Researchers studied 193 men and 229 women who were, on average, about 40 years old. Participants completed surveys about their work environment, personality, height, weight, food intake and other demographic information.

Marriage…an emotional disaster for some, but rewarding and happy for many.  Marriage isn’t easy and definitely has its ups and downs, but the love conquers all is a romantic notion. And marriage has benefits - a stable, loving marriage can keep a person positive, motivated, and happy.

Accepting your body starts at a young age and a positive body image is integral to a healthy adulthood, especially for women. Apart from the self confidence that goes along with it, teaching women to accept and trust their bodies may be the key to treating eating disorders, an Ohio State study finds.