Good health and choices from a natural's perspective

Eating healthy is becoming more an more important to some people and it doesn't matter what age we are or what culture we belong too, it's just smart to eat healthy and make other healthy choices. Today I wanted to share a recipe by a friend who goes by the name of Apple! She's a natural and one of her favorite thing to cook/eat is a baked fish dish that she concocted the first time she decided to bake some fish! Below are a  few pictures of her fave homemade "Lemon spice baked fish" and more about her. In my next post I share more about her recipe: http://goodhealthdiva.blogspot.com/2011/08/good-eatlemon-spice-baked-fish-recipe.html

Apple's Bio in her own words:
"I am a 21 year old undergrad student who is currently working on a bachelor in psychology and associates in biology and sociology. I love to play piano, create artwork, being generally creative and then seeing how they turn out, and then organizing cultural events and dance routines with my roommate/school sistahs.

I have, since I was in middle school, always been interested in healthy living and like to eat healthy and exercise, and my taste buds actually quite like healthy foods. I am not a chef I am simply observant and willing to be my own test dummy when it comes to food. I often start with a bunch of guessing what might taste nice with what and then try to take notes JUST IN CASE it actually turns out tasty lol.

I have, since I was in middle school, always been interested in healthy living and like to eat healthy and exercise, and my taste buds actually quite like healthy foods. I am not a chef I am simply observant and willing to be my own test dummy when it comes to food. I often start with a bunch of guessing what might taste nice with what and then try to take notes JUST IN CASE it actually turns out tasty lol.

I like this recipe because I really like fish, and seafood in general. I also really like citrus and to be able to taste the seasonings working with the fish and the lemon juice. However, being that I am black the people around me don’t often bake their meats but I really like to figure out ways to eat meat without having to fry it. I also really like to taste seasoning because I have a sensitive palate so that is another reason I prefer for my meat to not be smothered in grease. Now mind you I do like my fried chicken haha but I just prefer to not fry (not to mention I have always been cautious of grease popping because it gets me every time).

I don’t have a special diet, just try to be healthy and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables  because I like a lot of junk type foods haha, mainly potato chips and ice cream, every here and there I get a special craving for something more pastry like. However I am blessed to be a mesomorph, which is a body type. A person with a mesomorph body type can easily gain muscle but can also easily gain fat so I generally weigh about the same weight, within 15lbs, since I was a freshman in high school. I usually either am gaining muscle and loosing fat or losing muscle and gaining fat, I may also be a bit of ectomorph because I usually only gain a certain amount of fat.

Although I prefer to exercise regularly college and work get busy and life gets you distracted, hence the weight fluctuation, but in general I am a healthy person who tries to appreciate my body and treat it right so that it will treat me right. Other than that I like all types of exercise, although I rarely if ever weight train. My favorite forms of exercising are yoga, Pilates, and dancing.

I recommend the same thing everybody recommends which is to try to maintain a high fiber but balanced diet, because even too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, for instance oil.

Good luck to everyone on their Healthy Habits Journey !"

Like Apple, I too love fish and seafood and I love dancing. I do not pratice yoga per say but do enjoy stretching daily. The recipe to Apple's favorite creation will be shared in my next post! http://goodhealthdiva.blogspot.com/2011/08/good-eatlemon-spice-baked-fish-recipe.html Stay tuned and have a great week-end!

N'na

Why eat salmon?! A little introduction to the benefits of Salmon and roles of some vitamins

1. 

Salmon is one of the most nutritious and delicious food on the planet and it seems that some people who don't even like fish would admit to liking Salmon. It's available fresh, frozen, smoked or canned. It's loaded with beneficial properties as it  has lots of vitamin D,selenium, B vitamins like Niacin,  vitamins B6 and B12, magnesium, as well as the prized Omega-3 fats.
Well you just read that and might still asked yourself: " Well, so?!!! What's the big deal if I don't eat salmon?! "  Well I think that sometimes when we know that things are good for us, we might not eat them because we don't fully realize what exactly they do for us. So I wanted to explain a few of  the benefits of some of those vitamins and minerals that are available in salmon so that when you hear about those vitamins/minerals available in salmon or in other food you might ( I hope) be more motivated to add them to your diet.

Selenium plays an important role in the prevention of generative disease such as cancer, inflammatory diseases, neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, infections and aging.
Vitamin D's major role is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium, helping to form and maintain strong bones. Recently, research also suggests vitamin D may provide protection from osteoporosis, hypertension (high blood pressure), cancer, and several autoimmune diseases.
 Magnesium's benefits are many and include solving or preventing osteoporosis, heart attacks, hypertension, constipation, migraines, leg cramps, kidney stones, gallstones and more. I have heard before that if someone wanted to never be constipated again they should add some magnesium to their diet!


Delectable grilled salmon sandwich with guacamole and much flavors that make you go crazy and...ease stress...lol

     Nota Bene: Just for the record , I did not eat those chips !!! That was my hubby's tray and I had water with my order! The proof is on a picture below! ha ha! My order that day came with a corn chowder soup! Vitamins B or not you will be greatly happy after eating that sandwich. Went with friends last Sunday, I ordered the same sandwich and a salad this time and the friend who took on my recommandations to try the sandwich was all "Hummm this is gooood Hmmmm.." in a delighted Cuban accent! He was so happy!!!!

B Vitamins are mood boosting vitamins and can ease stress, treat anxiety and depression, aid memory, relieve PMS and reduce heart disease risk.

Niacin is actually vitamin B3. It greatly helps with the reducing and controlling high cholesterol levels  and is also known to benefits our bodies in maintaining a healthy skin condition and good blood circulation.  Niacin helps in maintaining good brain function, it boots memory power and it also can aid the digestive tract to absorb sufficient carbohydrates,fats and proteins.

Vitamin B6 also known as pyridoxine, helps brain function and helps the body convert protein to energy. It works with Folic acid and vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 is often called the "energy vitamin" of the Bvitamins as some athletes or people with low energy often talk of needing a B12 injection.  Apparently clinicians use B12 injections to assist people  with low energy level and to support their nervous system.  B12 injections is more common among people suffering from pernicious anemia as their body can't absorb it from dairy products or other foods.
Please watch the video:

B12  might also be important in the production of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. B12 can even be associated with weight loss due the fact that it increases our energy and metabolism when consumed daily.The vitamin B12 is actually called cyanocobalamin or just cobalamin because it contains the metal ion cobalt. B12 can help keep your mind, heart and nerves healthy! Your body needs this vitamin to make blood cells and maintain a healthy nervous system. B12 also helps with the synthesis of both fatty and amino acids.

Well, this is just a little introduction. Vitamins and minerals both work so mysteriously in term of their beautiful role and efficiency in our bodies and salmon is "loaded". I think that in knowing some of the major benefits of those vitamins and minerals it become more clear as to why/how eating some salmon (preferably wild salmon) at least twice a week could be so important to our health.

Delicious grilled salmon sandwich, a bowl of soup and a bottle of water! You can eat healthy and still be happy!(lol)

I don't know if it's the B vitamins in the salmon that boost my mood but I am always happy eating that sandwich! The truth is I love good food so just smelling a dish and thinking of the flavors will boost my mood!

You might have noticed that I did not mention the benefits of Omega-3! That's because I plan on talking more about them in one of my upcoming post next week!So make sure you come back!

In the meantime I am curious to learn a few things from you: Do you take any of those vitamins/minerals above as supplements? Do you suffer from any condition due to the deficiency of those vitamins? Do you have a diet/lifestyle that offer many of those vitamins and minerals? What's your preferred source of Bvitamins, vitamin D and magnesium?


N'na