Getting up in the morning doesn’t just start the day; it also starts your activity after a good nights rest. So, having a good nutritious breakfast cereal, full with healthy fibers, is great boosting fuel for the body.

In the morning, when people are preparing to go to work or school, there isn’t much time for cooking; and the easiest way to ‘eat like a king’ is a bowl full of cereal with milk. Cereals are full of nutritious healthy fibers low in fat, minerals, and vitamins. They fill the body with energy that it needs throughout the day.

Now, there are some that question the nutritional characteristics of good cereal meal, stating that some cereals contain more sugar than usual. Thus, giving more answers to the appetite then the nutritional body needs.

Cereals with a little more sugar is not that dangerous at all, not to the small children either. The logic of it is that when you metabolize proteins and fibers in the morning, you will definitely spend it throughout the daily activities. Skipping breakfast is more dangerous then that.

Almost 10.000 children between the age of 9 and 18 participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2006. 20 percent of children between 9 to 13 years old and third of children between 14 to 18 years old are ‘breakfast skippers’.

Why do children skip breakfast? The number one reason for it is weight. Children think that skipping breakfast will lower their chances of getting fat or lose fat. Skipping breakfast makes quite the opposite. Having lunch on an empty stomach makes the body put calories and proteins ‘in stash’; keeping it there to the next time it is left without breakfast. The car won’t drive if it has no fuel in it. The same goes for the body.

Another reason why children don’t have cereal breakfast in the morning is the fact that some families have low-income status and cannot afford cereals every day. This situation is more common in the minority families.

Studies were actually done by independent labs that showed that fast cooking and slow cooking brown rice really did not differ in the vitamins and minerals they contained, and they also had a somewhat surprising find as well. They found that fast cooking brown rice actually had a slightly lower glycemic index than it’s slower cooking counterpart. Why that would be, who knows!

However, it’s important to note that it was a really significant amount, so go ahead and keep slow cooking your brown rice if that’s the way you prefer it. I know that I like slow cooking brown rice because it is easy to throw in a rice cooker and get a fantastic tasting, just right and tender outcome, and you just throw it in that rice cooker does it all for you.

I actually also like to slow cook my brown rice because I put some seasonings in the water it’s being cooked in, and this allows those savory spices to better soak into the rice and make a more flavorful side dish.

Brown rice is a great way to get several nutrients into your diet, and it has actually been studied and proven that it is beneficial compared to white rice because it lowers the overall rate of diabetes in people that consume it, while white rice does the opposite, it actually increases blood sugar rates and therefore raises risk of diabetes.

The vitamins and minerals that brown rice offers, whether slow of fast cooked are manganese, magnesium which is excellent for keeping your ticker going at the right amount of beats and keeping it “well timed” shall we say, selenium, which is only found in trace amounts in most foods, and of course, dietary fiber, which brown rice is a great source of.

Brown rice, while healthy, is still a significant source of carbohydrates though, so you don’t want to totally over do it on the stuff.  Reasonable portions, maybe once or twice a week are good enough to provide you with the potential health benefits it offers.  It makes a great side dish to things like lean grilled fish or chicken and a big pile of veggies too, and it’s very satiating to the appetite and can help suppress hunger for hours after consumption.

The whole-wheat pasta has a slightly different taste and texture than the whole-wheat variety, and that is the main reason that so many people prefer processed pasta, and many people have become accustomed to processed pasta. It is true that whole grain pasta is better for the body, offers health benefits that can’t be found in the processed pasta.

Whole-wheat pasta has not only higher content of natural nutrients but it also contains more fiber and vitamins. In addition, whole-wheat pastas have a lower glycemic index. This means – good for diabetics – do not raise insulin level.

This is very important for people who are a diabetic or are on a diet with low glucose. People, who are familiar with the taste and feeling of the pasta from refined flour, can taste a new product richer with proteins and vitamins. When it cooked with some spices it becomes delicious when served with flavorful sauces and vegetables.

There is one well established misconception that pasta is a fattening food. But pasta is not fattening as it is made from grain, which is a naturally low fat food. The sauce and other dressings that are put in the pasta add the calories to the meal. If someone wants to eat pasta but keep calorie count low, he must eat whole-wheat pasta topped with a green raw vegetables and little spices without sauces, oil or any kind of dressing.

Today, whole-wheat pasta that is made from whole grain is healthier and has better taste. But what exactly is ‘whole wheat’ pasta, and what does it contains?  Whole wheat flour is basically the flour where the whole grain is grounded to get the flour. Also it contains more nutrition values, derived from the processed whole grain without any lost of the nutrition in the manufacturing process.

As the concept of ‘healthy foods’ has caught on, a widespread awareness about the health of whole wheat products; bread, pasta, and all bakery products is rising on. Pasta is one dish that is easy to make and enjoyed by all, children and adults, as an everyday serving. Also paste is an everyday part in everybody’s diet so changing the way of eating habits is the best gift that everybody can give to himself.

There is no need of help or scientist advice to switch from refined flour to whole-wheat pasta, everybody can go to the nearest shop and by some whole-wheat pasta and make at home.
By choosing whole grain pasta, you can choose something healthy for your body and mind and this is worth and easy to try.

There is another brand too that has a similar concept, Odwalla, but I’ve foudn the Naked ones to have more flavors that I personally like – just a personal preference, nothing against Odwalla.

If you are a person who watched their calories, or even more so their carb intake, you may look at the back of one of these smoothies and think it’s really high in both. However, I’ve found that just a few swigs is a great tide over to dinner and lunch when you’re just starting to get hungry and need a quick natural blood sugar pick up.

I have never drank a whole one at one sitting, I’ve found them more beneficial when you keep them around for a little “snack” in between meals.  My two favorite blends are the Green Machine, which contains everything from apples, to broccoli, to spirulina for an even great energy boost.  And it tastes nothing like vegetables, and yet it’s got them in it.  That one is probably my all time favorite, plus there are tons of good nutritious ingredients in it.

The runner up for me is the mango flavor with beneficial probiotics added, for digestion and waste elimination efficiency. It helps you to be regular, since mango is filled with fiber, and also helps replenish your healthy intestinal flora that keeps things moving in that regard, if you know what I mean.

When I’m buying the smoothies, I try to really look at what’s in them, including their “boosts” and see if those vitamins and nutrients are something that I might be lacking in or not.  This way, I know I’m getting the right benefits from drinking them, in addition to the benefits I’m getting from drinking something that helps tide my appetite over for big meals.

Chocolate is one of my favorite foods. I’m not unlike millions of other women who feel the need to reach for their favorite velvety chocolate treat when they are either PMS’ing or are having troubles ranging from romantic to on the job issues.  Chocolate sometimes really does “make it all better”. It’s been shown in some studies to release feel good chemicals into the blood stream, which helps to explain why some find chocolate so dang addictive. Myself included.

Chocolate, or the cocoa bean, is not in itself bad for you. It’s the fattening milk and sugar that is added to the cocoa bean to make it into what we know as pure bliss chocolate bars, pecan turtles and truffles that makes it bad for us, and makes it stick to our thighs.  There are actually health benefits to dark chocolate. It’s rich in antioxidants and benefits the heart, but even that should only be eaten in moderation because of the sugar and fat content, and oh yeah, that little thing called calorie density.

Now, some research is pointing to the theory that depression and chocolate consumption may be related. Why? Because they found that those that ate chocolate more experienced feeling depressed substantially more than those who did not consume much chocolate or didn’t really like it at all (this is a totally foreign concept to me).

The thing is, it’s not clear whether depressed people just look for that instant pick me up that chocolate gives, and are using it to “self medicate”, or whether consuming the chocolate actually lends itself biochemically to imbalances in the human brain that contribute to depression, anxiety, etc.  I know that when I put a piece of luscious chocolate in my mouth, it seems to solve my problems.

However, if I’m not careful and I over indulge, which it’s easy to do with chocolate, let’s face it, then I actually feel worse in the next hour or so after the sugar crash. Maybe this is the depression they’re referring to