More
    Home Blog Page 36

    Are Bananas Good For You?

    joshgreene
    -
    0
    Are Bananas Good For You?

    At one point i’m sure we have all heard that bananas are bad for you because of their sugar content, and it sometimes gets compared to a candy bar.  But is this true?  Does the sugar make bananas bad for you?  

    Single BanasIf we look just at the content of sugar (not the source) just strictly the sugar per grams of weight, yes a banana has a lot of sugar.  However all sugars are not created equal.  Natural sugar is by far a lot better for you than refined sugar.  In my non-accredited opinion on bananas I think they are fine to incorporate into your diet, that have a ton of healthy benefits, they taste good, and I feel fruit is fine to be a part of your diet.  I personally eat a lot of it per day, and am still able to lose weight and fat.

    Key Benefits

    Tons of Nutrients – Bananas contain nutrients such as potassium, vitamins B6 & C, magnesium, copper, and Manganese,  which isn’t bad for one piece of fruit.

    Improve Your Digestive System – Bananas contain fiber which helps keep you regular.

    Aid in Weight Loss – contrast to popular belief bananas can help aid weight loss. By eating more fiber dense foods such as fruits and vegetables it has been linked to weight loss (1).   It is also been researched that eating an unripe bananas have resistant starch, which helps curb your appetite.  (But it could be just the taste of an unripe bananas is the source of your curbed appetite too!)

    Recovery and Performance – Bananas are predominantly known for their ability to help with muscle cramps and muscle fatigue which comes from their minerals and digestive carbohydrates.  

    This is why I personally started eating bananas daily.  A few times in the recent past, my legs pretty much stopped working.  It was rough to get them to move.  I can’t explain it but my leg muscles were exhausted.  It was recommend to me to eat more bananas. I wasn’t eating much fruit, because I was afraid of the carbohydrates from sugar, and didn’t do any research on my own.  Now I eat one or two bananas a day, and really have not had any muscle fatigue since then.  

    My diet is pretty consistent. When I incorporate something new into my diet, I try to keep everything else I consume the same as before. This is so I can see if I can notice a difference, and pinpoint why.

    Easy of Travel – Bananas are easy to throw in your bag and have as a quick snack while running around through your day.  It has some natural sugar in there to give you a nice pick me up in the afternoon, while also not weighing heavy on you, so you become tired.

    Bananas and Acne

     As I mentioned before I had heard from someone I actually admired in the fitness world and blindly took what he said for gold.  He was making his “Green Hulk Juice” recipe and explain the importance of each item.  He started talking why he put bananas into his drink and how it was for good for the skin. Well my back has acne on it, and to me that sounded like another good reason to continue to eat bananas daily.  Something natural that helps get rid of this acne? Sign me up!  

    However that wasn’t true when I started researching in depth what I was consuming. Acne is by definition an inflammatory skin condition from a collection of sticky skin oil and dead skin trapped in your pores.  Bananas are ranked high on the glycemic index which means it absorbs faster than most other foods.  And since a banana contains a good amount of sugar, that sugar makes your skin more oily. (3)  

    Conclusion 

    What are your thoughts on bananas?   Please contact me or start a discussion below, I’m sure others are thinking the same as you, but are waiting on YOU to start the discussion. (2)

    Cinnamon

    joshgreene
    -
    0
    Cinnamon

    One of my favorite tasting and beneficial spices that I use all the time is cinnamon.  I’m a big tofu user.  Tofu is probably the number source I use for protein.  And the thing I like about tofu is you can have it pretty must taste like anything you want by how you prepare it.  And one of the main staples in about every way I prep my tofu is cinnamon.

    Key Benefits

    Cinnamon is a good source of fiber, manganese, and calcium which is important to me since, they help me flush my system, and help me recover from my workouts.  You can see from the choices of spices I use a lot of the key benefits overlap, and I have no idea if that is good or redundant.  I just know it has been working for me so far. (1)

    Cinnamon is a great source of Antioxidants, in fact it is believed to be one of the more powerful sources of an antioxidant.  It gets shadowed by the Acai berries, but a good consumption of cinnamon can be just as impactful.

    It also have been found that cinnamon has compounds that help minimize anti-inflammatory in the body. And has been documented to helps inflammation associated with cancer, skin conditions, autoimmune diseases and cancers.  That is some pretty powerful spice right there!

    And the main reasons why I add cinnamon to my diet besides for the taste, is that it helps with weight loss and blood sugar.  While the studies are not conclusive it has been linked to lower blood sugar levels by reducing your insulin resistance. It has also been shown to lower our blood sugar levels while consuming carbohydrates.  Since your body uses more energy to process cinnamon is help speed up your metabolism.  How cool is that?  (2) 

    Conclusion

    While I probably go over the daily recommended amount (by a lot) it’s been recommended to have about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon per day. Closing I use cinnamon to help counter balance the taste of some powerful spices that I don’t really care the taste of.  The main one that comes to mind is Turmeric.   So for those of you who don’t like the taste of turmeric try adding cinnamon when you use turmeric to help offset the taste.

    Other ways I incorporate cinnamon in my diet is by adding to my oatmeal, tofu, lemon water, and coffee.   What ways are you going to try to add it to your diet?  Or if you’ve been using it, how?  Please comment below. Have more questions on Cinnamon?  Please contact me or start a discussion below, I’m sure others are thinking the same as you, but are waiting on YOU to start the discussion.

    Are All Rices Created Equal?

    joshgreene
    -
    0
    Are All Rices Created Equal?

    While looking at the macros of different kinds of rice, they are pretty much the same, for what I can see. Where the real difference comes in is the micronutrients such as the fiber and how it ranks on the glycemic index. I don’t know much about the glycemic index but in a nutshell it ranks carbohydrates from 0-100 base on the extent they raise your blood sugar (glucose) levels after consuming.  The higher the number the faster the faster the carbohydrates absorbed, metabolized, fluctuation in blood sugar levels.

    White Rice

    White RiceThe most commonly and most widely consumed of all the rices.  This rice gets a bad rep from having the highest glycemic level. However that makes it ideal to consume after a workout,  because of its faster absorption rate to getting into your muscle right after you have broken them down by working out. It’s not recommended over his counter parts for this reason. As for an everyday rice because it is fast absorption so you get hungry faster. If you are not discipline you may each more and the carbs may turn into fat on the body.

    Another area the white rice is lacking is in its fiber content.  Since white rice has 3 layers removed (husk, germ and bran) by having this extraction process in place you lose a lot of the fiber and nutrients you can find in other rices. It is also worth mentioning the a Basmati,  Doongara or Jasmine long grain white rices have a lower GL (glycemic level) than other white rices.   But still not as low as brown rice.

    Brown Rice

    Brown Rice SeedsBrown rice has grown in popularity over the years, and has been known as the “healthy rice”  but what makes a lot of people feel that brown rice is better for them, then let’s say white rice.  Like white rice, brown rice has a decent amount of protein per 100 grams.  I believe just over 7 grams per 100 grams of rice while white has over 6 grams per 100. Were brown rice has its advantages over white rice is with the micro nutrients.  It is a great source for magnesium and also has a decent amount of zinc.  

    Brown rice has the husk layer so you get a good source of fiber from that layer. Another benefit of brown rice is the GL, brown rice has a lower level than white rice, about 1/2 as high on the scale which gives it a medium rating.  So it won’t absorb as fast as white rice meaning you will stay fuller for longer oppose to consuming white rice.

    For me some of the negatives of brown rice, it takes a lot longer to cook, and if you cook it in a rice cooker make sure it has a brown rice setting, or the brown rice will NOT taste good.  It is also a lot sticker then white rice, which makes it harder for me to eat smaller amounts at a time and makes it chewier.  Also I don’t think it taste as good as white rice.  So if you are not going to eat it regularly it is hard to incorporate into a routine.

    Wild Rice

    Wild Rice SeedsA nice alternative to brown rice.  Wild rice has about the same GL as brown rice, while the benefits of wild differ from brown and white.  The nutrient values in wild rice has magnesium, B vitamins, folate that help protect against cancer, and a personal favorite of mine, it helps boost your testosterone levels. For you technical nuts out there, wild rice is not technically rice.  Wild rice is an aquatic grass seed.   I can’t really tell  you more about aquatic grass seed than that.  Besides the macros and micro-nutrients of it are rather good! Like brown rice, wild rice takes longer to cook, so make sure if you use a rice cooker it can accommodate wild rice. 

    Red Rice

    Red Rice SeedsRed rice is probably the one rice of these five that I don’t remember having, if I even having at all.  I have a feeling I’m not alone on this, it is not even listed on the GL index site.  Red rice does have around 7 grams of protein per 100 gram serving size.  And about 2 grams of fiber for the same serving size. Compared to a white rice, red high has higher amounts of nutrients per serving, but your cost per serving is going to noticeably higher. What white rice lacks in nutrients comparable to a red or black rice, it makes up for it in the price per serving.  What separates red rice from the others is its antioxidants. Red rice gets its boost in antioxidants from the color which is from anthocyanin (which is a color pigment).

    Black Rice

    Black RiceNow black rice is my personal favorite type of rice.   I was introduced to black rice while traveling to Columbia with my friend Ryan. I believe we where in Cartagena.  I had never had black rice to this point and thought why not give it a go.  The taste profile of black rice (probably had something to do with how and what it was cooked with) was amazing, and I was hooked. I had also learned that black rice has a lot more protein than while (roughly 9 grams per serving vs 6) as well as more fiber than brown, wild, red, and white.  And for those worried about the GL index it is lower than the other four we’ve talked about.  

    Like the other non-white rices black rice takes longer to cook. All around it is a better rice for you. As long as you like the taste of it.  If you don’t like it, odds are you won’t eat it, so you are better to find a rice you can eat.  If you are going to make rice a staple in your diet you have to enjoy it.  If not, you won’t eat it and you will revert back to bad habits to fill you up. That pretty much goes for any diet.  Your diet has to become your lifestyle, a lifestyle you can maintain or your fitness goals are going to be a challenge to achieve.  The old saying is true “you can’t outwork a bad diet”.

    Conclusion 

    As for me on what rice do I eat?  I eat them all.  I don’t get too crazy and eat certain rices at certain times.  I usually buy a 25 pound bag of whatever I’m feeling or what is on sale and  I mix it up every time I need a new bag.  My go to is probably a Jasmine rice.  I enjoy the smell and taste of it.  If black rice was available in bulk where I shop, I’d probably buy black rice. Another thing I’ve started to do, and I did this strictly for flavor was add coconut oil to my rice while cooking it.  I thought is made the rice taste better.  

    I just learned from CBS News that adding coconut oil to your rice reduces the calories by half. The article recommends cooking the rice as normal but adding the coconut oil while cooking your rice and let the rice then cool in the refrigerator for 12 hours before consuming.

    This process allows the oil to enter the starch granules while it cooks and adds a protective layer.  The layer makes the rice resistant to the digestive enzyme.  And from what I understand by this article, only about half of the  calories from the rice are absorbed.  

    What do kind of rice do you prefer?  Have you tried all types of rices?  Do you consume different types of rice each day?  Please contact me or start a discussion below, I’m sure others are thinking the same as you, but are waiting on YOU to start the discussion.  (1) (2)

    1...353637...39Page 36 of 39

    Popular articles

    Featured

    © Copyright - Forever Young Publishing 2022-2025