The Top 3 Field Greens For Losing Weight

Dieting is an economy that depends on a deficit of calorie intake along with a maximum intake of nutrition or you will not lose weight. This means that you must eat the densest foods possible in order to shed the points.

To eat well and lose weight it is best to choose vegetables, fruits, and grains offer important vitamins and minerals to keep your body healthy. Foods must have very little fat. They also have no cholesterol, have a low glycemic index and be a known anti-inflammatory.

Here is a look at the top three greens that have the most pay off when you are trying to make those calories count nutritionally.

Collards are one of the most nutritionally dense foods available. They have saturated fat or cholesterol. It is 92% a whole food and has a low glycemic load of only 4, which means that it provides you with steady energy. It has an inflammation factor rating of 279 which over five times the target of eating a food with an inflammatory rating of 50. This makes this a very healing food that is ideal for weight loss.

A bundle of organic collard greens.

Collards also a good plant source of vegan-sourced Vitamin E, A,C, all of the B vitamins, folate, iron, magnesium and phosphorus. It is also has very high levels of vitamin C and A.  It is also a good dietary source of fiber.

Collard Greens are also nearly a complete protein. All it is missing is tryptophan. Eat it with a bit of lean turkey or trimmed sirloin and your meal is a complete protein. 

Eat it steamed very lightly, without butter and with a dash of walnut oil and cider vinegar for best weight loss results.

Kale also has no saturated fat or cholesterol. It is 85% a whole food and has a low glycemic load of only 3, which means it does not cause blood sugar spikes. It has an inflammation factor rating of 257, which makes it about six times more healing to the body then many foods.

Kale is also a good source of dietary fibre, that help you eliminate toxins and fats and it contains all of the B vitamins, folate, iron, magnesium and phosphorus. It also contains very high levels of vitamin C and A.

Kale is aloes almost a complete protein, so all you have to do to make it a complete protein is add a bit of raw oat bran, Chinese chestnuts or sesame seeds to your kale salad to make it a complete protein.

The darker green the kale is, the better it will be for you. Cook it with garlic and apple cider vinegar to enhance its weight loss properties.

Bok Choy also known as Chinese Cabbage is also devoid saturated fat or cholesterol. It is 85% a whole food and has a low glycemic load of only 1. It is ideal for those who are diabetic and dieting. It has an inflammation factor rating of 127 that makes it profoundly healing.

Bok Choy is also a good source of dietary fibre, the B vitamins, magnesium and phosphorus. It is also has very high levels of vitamin C and A. folate, calcium, iron, potassium and manganese.

It has an amino acid score of 67, which means that you need to combine with other foods to eat it as a complete protein in a meal. It is missing Methionine and Cystine so to compensate eat Bok Choy with ingredients that are rich in these nutrients: Brazil nuts, sesame seed kernels, chinese chestnuts, a sprinkling of raw oatmeal or braised pumpkin chunks.

Bok choy is best eaten steamed or braised lightly in a healthy oil like coconut oil.

Maintaining weight loss is an essential part of the Healthy and Active Program. For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

The Top Food Additives to Avoid

Part of leading a healthy and active life style is learning how to buy groceries that do not contain additives. It is best to eat raw, organic and from the farmer’s field whenever possible because additives in foods are very addictive. Furthermore, additives in food can expand your waistline, prevent your body from absorbing minerals and vitamins and encourage a fatty liver and insulin resistance.

Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners are combinations of chemicals designed to make food taste sweeter. They are often found in foods that seem healthy or that are labeled hose are combination of chemicals that make food taste sweeter. Beware of finding them in baby foods that are labeled “natural”, “sugar-free” or organic.

These sweeteners cause cravings for more sweeteners and train the brain to mindlessly eat foods full of calories. Most foods that contain artificial sweeteners, like packaged bakery goods are also of poor nutritional quality.

Red dye additives are found in many foods such as Red Velvet Cake

Except for Stevia and Xylitol, that have larger molecules that are not absorbed by the body, it is best to avoid all artificial sweeteners.

Artificial Colors

Artificial colors do not occur in nature. Many are made from coal tar and can contain up to ten parts per million of arsenic or lead and still be met with approval by the FDA.

Here is a list of the worst coloring agents:

Blue #1, found in soft drinks, baked goods, and candy, and soft drinks, has been shown to damage the chromosomes in a cell’s nucleus and lead to irreversible free radical damage

Blue #2, which is found in fruit juices and candy, may cause brain tumours.

Citrus Red #1 is sprayed on green oranges to give them a pleasing orange color and it causes cancer

Citrus Red #2, used to dye the peels of some Florida oranges, can cause cancer.

Red #3 is often added to ice cream, muffins, canned goods and ice cream. Studies have linked this dye to nerve damage and to thyroid cancer.

Red #40 is found in gelatine, soda, candy, pastry, pet food, and it is also used to dye red meat so that it looks fresh in butcher case.

Yellow #5 is the second most widely used colorant, and it contributes to mood changes, and can cause allergic reactions. It is found in gelatine desserts and baked goods.

Yellow #6 can cause tumours in the adrenal glands and kidneys. It is found in baked goods, beverages, meat products, baked goods, candy, and gelatine.[1]


BHA and BHT
These preservatives stop food oils from going rancid. These additives seem may cause insomnia, and have been associated with liver and kidney damage, baldness, behavioural problems, cancer, fatal abnormalities, and premature aging.

Sodium Nitrate and Nitrite

Nitrates preservatives that are added to processed meat products such as bacon, corned beef, ham, hot dogs, lunchmeats, and sausage. They prevent the growth of bacteria in the product. However, hopefully you will be eating organic, grain-fed beef (and not a lot of it) rather than beef strewn with chemical preservatives when you are on the healthy and active program.


For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

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[1] Scotti HHC, Kelly “The Dirty Dozen: 12 Food Additives to Avoid and Why http://fooddemocracy.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/the-dirty-dozen-12-foodsfood-additives-to-avoid-and-why/

Alkaline Diet Theory – A Brief History

Before it was called the alkaline diet, the alkaline-based diet that is now current part of the Happy & Active lifestyle program was known as the Ash Diet or the alkaline/acid diet. The reason it was called the Ash Diet is because alkaline foods contain minerals: mainly calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper. In biochemistry these elements are incombustible, which means they catabolize differently when they processed by the body.  When digested, they create ash in water, which in turn creates an alkaline state in the body.

Robert 0. Young’s Theory About Alkaline Foods

One of the most well-known contemporary proponents of the Alkaline was Dr. O. Robert Young, who created many of the Western alkaline/acid food charts still in use today. Since the early seventies, Dr. Young written a series of groundbreaking books on the subject with the most famous being The pH Miracle (2002).

Robert O. Young

His claim was that health depends primarily on proper balance between an alkaline and acid environment in the human body. According to this theory, when the blood becomes too acidic, the body does whatever it has to do to regulate the acid-alkaline balance. This can result in all kinds of symptoms including food cravings, digestive symptoms, weight gain, yeast overgrowth, fatigue, raised cholesterol, raised insulin resistance and more.

Young claims that this one sickness and one disease is acidosis, the over-acidification of the blood and then tissues due to an inverted way of living, eating, and thinking. The "one treatment" is to maintain the healthy design of the body through an alkaline lifestyle and diet.

The Alkaline Diet

The original Robert Young diet recommends eating fish, vegetable and some grains. This groundbreaking theorist also recommended abstaining from "acidic" foods — such as red meat, shellfish, eggs, dairy sugar, refined foods, artificial sweeteners, coffee, alcohol, chocolate, and sodas, However, long before Young and his series of miracle pH books came into the picture there was a wide spread recognition that alkaline foods and liquids restored health to the body in the spa communities throughout the world.

For example, many of the mineral springs and mineral waters in Europe were recognized to be alkaline in character and therefore healthy for the body.

Of course, Robert O. Young originally got his information from a much earlier work.  Young’s work was based on one of the first books on the subject. It was penned by an alternative health advocate named George S. Weger who wrote a book called The Genesis and Control of Disease which identified acidosis as the cause of a many conditions including fatigue, infections and “mental disharmony and sleeplessness.”  It was penned in 1840 and talked about acidic states in the blood. Revised editions of this book also were printed in the 1930s.

Alkalinizing Using Fasting

One of the most famous books about achieving body alkalinity through fasting was written a century later. The Master Cleanse included instructions for Three Day Cleanses, 21 Day Detoxification Cleanses and ones that last as long as three months. This book was written in 1940, by Stanley Burroughs and is considered to be a foundation text about how to use fasting to detoxify and alkalinize the body. The book made a comeback and was massively reprinted in the seventies.

Burroughs purported that consuming no food at all and drinking a concoction made from lemons, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and purified water for a period of days (as long as you can stand) is the key to getting rid of acid wastes in the body and restoring them to a healthier alkaline state that does not support disease.  

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Micheal Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

Foods With Good Fats That Nourish Skin and Hair

If you want to have beautiful glowing skin and fast-growing, thick lustrous locks then be sure to make these particular foods part of your diet.

1. Salmon

Salmon nourishes the skin and the hair because it contains Omega-3 fatty acids. It is rich in one particular Omega-3 fatty acid known as DHA that is found mostly in fish and seaweed.

DHA is well known for its anti-inflammatory properties and ability to thin the blood. This in turn aids circulation, which in turn, helps speed up the body’s ability to not only bring nutrients to the surface of the scalp and skin so that they can be nourished but also its ability to clarify the system of toxins.

The fact that salmon is also an anti-inflammatory also discourages your skin from breaking out and your hair follicles from becoming vulnerable to the kinds of immune responses that can cause hair thinning and hair loss.

Wild salmon contains the highest amounts of DHA. It is quite easy to incorporate salmon in your diet by eating tinned fish, fresh salmon that is grilled or baked or by eating it raw rolled in sushi or as sashimi.  Sushi is especially recommended as the seaweed wraps also have high quantities of DHA acids.

2.  Sardines

Like salmon, sardines contain a remarkably high amount of Omega-3 fatty acids and especially DHA acids that can help give your skin elasticity and a soft glow.

Sardines are especially nourishing because they contain a lot of calcium and phosphorous rich bones.  Calcium and phosphorous improve the tensile strength of the hair strand, which means that if you pull the hair it does not break.  These two minerals also skin tissue connectivity making it less likely to wrinkle. 

Pile sardines on whole grain toast to maximize their nutrient potential as the B vitamins in whole grain bread are synergistic with oils in the sardines.

3.   Snapper

Snapper is a tropical fish that is natural source of selenium.  Selenium is the mineral that can helps the skin repair itself sunburn and skin breakouts and that also can help give it a youthful glow. Snapper is also very high in the DHA that keeps skin and hair youthful looking.

The ideal skin and hair enhancing meal would be red snapper, drizzled with olive oil and then baked with almonds sprinkled on top. The almonds provide extra calcium and the olive oil enhances the Omega-3 content of the meal.

4.   Olives and Olive Oil

Olives (and by extension olive oils) are another excellent source of omega-3 acids and oleic acid.  Oleic acid is a good fatty acid that is naturally clarifying and that helps keep your skin smooth and blemish free.

Olives can also be easily added to bread recipes, salads or just eaten raw.

They contain vitamins E and K. Although small black olives contain vitamins A, E, calcium, iron, and copper, they are quite high in sodium. Look for olives with lower sodium that are preserved in vinegar or extra virgin olive oil.

6.  Avocadoes

Avocados contain many B vitamins, vitamins, C, E, and K, magnesium, copper, manganese, and potassium. In fact, avocados contain more potassium than a banana. The synergistic action of these vitamins can help prevent hair loss and improve because they improve circulation.

Avocadoes contain soluble fat can also help your body absorb vitamins more efficiently. The antioxidants in avocadoes help repair damaged cells and prevent further damage to stressed-out skin and hair.

Avocadoes can be eaten raw, added to salads and blended in smoothies. You can also make a skin-and hair-enhancing guacamole from olive oil, garlic, onions, tomatoes and avocado.  The garlic and onions are anti-inflammatorily and contain the skin healing mineral selenium. The tomatoes contain lycopene, which is a powerful antioxidant for the skin and the scalp.

7.  Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower Seeds lower seeds are good for hair because they are high in protein, biotin, potassium, calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium and vitamin E. They also supply and abundance of omega-6 fatty acids. Biotin, in particular, plays a role in improving the tensile strength of the hair. They pack a powerhouse of nutrition and are fat-free.

Sunflower seeds can be eaten raw as a snack, sprinkled on salads or mixed into bread or cookie dough.

The good fats in these foods help clean your arteries, increase circulation and assist with cell regeneration so that your skin always appears to be glowing with health and your hair strands always have tensile strength and shine.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41)440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Micheal Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.