3 Important Health Tips: Beans, Alcohol and Healthy Breakfast

Have A Bean Salad 2-3 Times Per Week

Many people are increasing their intake of fruits and vegetable and eating more salads due to the awareness that plant-based foods are loaded with disease- fighting/anti-aging nutrients, but beans and peas are often forgotten about in the mix.. Red kidney beans, chick peas (garbanzo beans) lentils, white navy beans, and most other beans contain a type of fiber that literally drags cholesterol out of your body. These much under utilized legumes in the North American diet are a key foods in preventing the build up of plaque in the artery wall that leads to premature heart attack and stroke. Make it a point to have a bean salad, or a bean soup (with no cream or sour cream) 2-3 times per week. Or make beans a side dish to your main course instead of pasta, rice or potatoes. Remember you also add beans to the salads you are making to aid some protein as well to get the benefits of their cholesterol-lowering and bowel-cleansing fiber.

Watch Your Alcohol Consumption

You may have heard that can alcohol lower risk of heart disease, but more than one alcoholic drink, on average, per day, is linked to increase risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and other gastrointestinal cancers as well cancer of the pancreas. The National Cancer Institute points out that after cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption is the second most important cause of cancer from the environment. The body can only safely metabolize one alcoholic drink in a 24-hour period (12 ounce beer, 5- ounces of white, one ounce of hard liquor). Alcohol produces many free radicals that can cause genetic mutations linked to cancer, it weakens the immune system, depletes the body of cancer-fighting nutrients and it drives cancer-causing agents into cells with greater efficiency (co-carcinogen effects). Alcohol also speeds up the aging process. So make it a point to have no more than one alcoholic drink on any given day, or refrain from drinking it altogether. You will age more slowly and reduce your cancer risk significantly.

An Anti-Aging Breakfast

For breakfast I suggest you try putting about 8-10 ounces of a non-fat, plain yogurt into a bowl. On top of the yogurt add a high fiber cereal (low in simple sugars – no higher than 22 gms carbohydrates per serving), as well fresh blueberries and other colourful fruits. If you need more calories have one or two pieces of a high fiber toast and add a natural jam to sweeten it if necessary (no butter). The yogurt provides over 400 mg of calcium to help strengthen your bones, as well as 10-12 grams of a high biological source of protein, as well probiotics to improve the health of the large bowel and fight environmental toxins. The cereal provides complex carbohydrates for energy as well as some bowel-cleansing fiber. The blueberries and other colourful fruits are a rich source of flavonoids, carotenes and other protective nutrients that slow the aging process, aid in detoxification and reduce risk of cancer. I use this as a breakfast option at least 2 times per week.

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