Insights & More

Fit Tips for What You Sip

As the barometer rises, good hydration is key

By Mareya Ibrahim

Growing up in a warm country, a prerequisite for a blistering hot day—which was about 10 months out of the year—was to pay a visit to the juice bar around the corner from our apartment. The proprietor would stack the counters up with colorful pyramids of oranges, beets, mangoes, guavas and pomegranates, depending on what was in season.

Vases filled with rods of sugar cane and long carrots anchored the artful arrangements to create an edible landscape. Once the juicers started to whir, the sweet scent of freshness would dance through the steamy streets, luring customers in like a pied piper. The proprietor would create his own signature fruit and veggie “cocktails,” mixing beets with oranges, carrots and mangoes, a soulful blend of sweet and savory.

Little did we know that fresh pressed juice provided us with pure goodness in a glass. Packed with live enzymes, vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants, fresh juice also helps boost metabolism, fight infection, build tissue and strong bones … and help everything move along the way it’s supposed to, if you know what I mean.

Before you reach for that diet soda or mega-can energy drink, you might want to think before you drink. Caffeine and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives can zap you of vital nutrients that keep your system running smoothly.

Now that the barometer is rising, it’s more important than ever to stay hydrated. But before you reach for that diet soda or mega-can energy drink, you might want to think before you drink. Caffeine and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives can zap you of vital nutrients that keep your system running smoothly.

How does proper hydration keep you fit and healthy? One of the most important features is to keep the body cool. When you’re active—hiking, biking, riding, swimming—it’s even more essential to keep replacing fluids lost through sweat. You may not feel thirsty but your body needs it. Try these simple tips to sip and quench your thirst for better hydration for the whole family.

Hydration Tips:

Drinking half your weight in ounces of clear liquids each day is key to keeping everything running smoothly. In fact, every cell function requires hydration, but most people wait until they’re thirsty before they drink.

- Carry a lightweight, reusable water bottle everywhere. Pick a BPA, PVC, and phthalate-free model and make it part of your repertoire. My favorite is called the Bobble, and it has a filter inside, so you can fill it from any tap and enjoy clean, fresh water while doing your part for the environment. You can get the equivalent of 300 water bottles from one Bobble filter!

- Ditch the energy drinks. Most of the options out there are filled with stimulants and artificial colors and flavors that actually zap your body’s ability to recharge itself. Options like coconut water contain more give you a real pick-me-up while helping to regulate blood pressure and heart function. O.N.E. Coconut Water comes in a variety of flavors and kids’ varieties, mixed with juice in aseptic containers with straws for on-the-go convenience.

- Try rainforest superfruits instead of coffee. Açaí blends offer a natural kick along with an army of antioxidants to help raise immunity and fight disease. Smoothie packs make a refreshingly cool pick-me-up. Sambazon makes their blends ready to drink along with frozen smoothie packs so you can create your own delicious drinks.

- Make time for tea. Getting green tea and flavored water into your daily routine is a good way to keep it fresh. I love the Takeya Flash Chill Tea Maker and Fruit Infuser for an elegant, easy way to enjoy great iced tea and fruit-infused water with the beautiful pitcher system.

- Get your nourishment from Mother Nature. If the heat zaps your appetite, fill up on fruit and veggies along with a good quality protein powder—like Vega One All-in-One Nutritional Shake—into a glass. Fruit and veggies have a high water content and help keep you hydrated. Add watermelon, spinach, cucumber, and celery to your blender and get your daily supply of produce in a snap! Cucumber is also high in potassium, so it’s a good electrolyte replacement.

Mareya Ibrahim is The Fit Foody, an award-winning chef on ABC’s Emmy-nominated show “Recipe Rehab,” and author and founder of EatCleaner.com. Her book “The Clean Eating Handbook,” a guide on how to eat cleaner and get leaner, was released in May 2013.

via Fit Tips for What You Sip » The Epoch Times

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Bounce Back With Linseed

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Bounce Back With Linseed

By Luke Hughes
Epoch Times Staff

Probably the most beneficial and widely unknown use of linseed flax as a household medicine is the external application of the raw oil to any area where ligaments have been torn, cut, or strained, and even where they are too tight or loose. A small amount daily, massaged in thoroughly is all that is required. Too much and you will be left with oily stains on clothing.

When applied in this way linseed oil has the effect of toning and lubricating the affected tendons and ligament tissue.

If you are an office worker with repetitive strain in the wrists, or if you have recently twisted your ankle while out for your morning jog, or you are recovering from surgery or any accident that has resulted in damaged or cut tendons, then linseed oil applied every day can gradually soften and restore flexibility to tendons and ligaments. It should be a permanent fixture in your training bag if you are the type of person who is constantly pushing your body to its physical limits.

For the Skin

If you live in a hot dry climate or just suffer from dry skin at certain times of the year, then you should do as many desert dwelling cultures have and apply the raw oil to your skin to prevent dehydration. In ancient Egypt, linseed oil was used as an additive to preserve the paints that decorated the walls of the ancient tombs and temples. It can do the same thing for your skin, and when regularly applied it will help to prevent dehydration, and yes, prevent the formation of wrinkles!

Linseed oil is not an instant fix, nor does it have anti-inflammatory or warming properties, but if it is used regularly, it can in time restore elasticity to tendons, ligaments, and skin.

Medicinal Tea

A tea brewed from the crushed seeds is helpful in cases of constipation if a dry bowel is the cause. The oil content along with other waxy and resinous substances that are present in the crushed seeds is sufficient to line and lubricate the intestinal tract. The seeds are readily available from health food stores. To prepare the tea just lightly bruise the brown outer cover of the seed and brew as you would any other tea.

Linseed meal has a nutty and slightly bitter flavor. It is sold on its own or sometimes included as an ingredient in muesli mixes, and can also be used as a healthy additive to flour. The seeds are high in vegetable protein, which is very helpful if you are vegetarian. It is also high in lecithin and other phosphorous compounds. Acetic acid is present, which has a stimulatory effect on enzymes and a balancing effect on blood viscosity.

Throughout History

The cultivation of linseed goes so far back into antiquity that it is unknown exactly where this plant originated. Educated guesses place its point of origin in Egypt or Central Asia. Its use was certainly well recorded by the ancient Egyptians, who set aside large tracts of land for its cultivation near the ancient city of Thebes. These fields of linseed produced all manner of essential products for that civilization, including medicine, cosmetics, fine linens for the noble class, as well as bandages for the process of mummification.

It was also important to the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. The Roman author, naturalist, and military commander Pliny the Elder writes of linseed, “What department is there to be found of active life in which flax is not employed?”

In Teutonic mythology linseed was held to be under the protection of the Goddess Hulda, who was said to have first taught mortals the art of growing, spinning, and weaving it.

Remember to only eat the crushed linseed meal, not the whole seeds. Refined and cold pressed linseed oil can be added to other oils for cooking and salad dressings. Raw linseed oil should only be used externally.

Luke Hughes is a classical Western herbalist and horticulturist based in Sydney, Australia.

via Bounce Back With Linseed » The Epoch Times

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