My daughter and I spend a lot of time outdoors and yesterday was no different. I introduced physical activity into her life at an early age. Now she would think it odd to be cooped up in the house continually. If she saw that I wasn’t physically active she would think something was wrong with me. She would be correct since that is the only time I’m still.

Besides weight loss what are some of the health benefits of exercise?

Boosts the Immune System
Did you know doing moderate exercise will actually boost your immune system? Yes, it’s true. Doing some moderate form of activity actually increases the macrophages (those are the cells that attack bacteria.) Research has proven that if you consistently work out exercise can lead to a significant boost in your immune system.

I know for a fact that this is true with my daughter and me. We are rarely sick; however, if we are under the weather we bounce back the next day. I’ve observed this with my father also. He exercises a lot and although he doesn’t make all the healthy choices that I do he rarely gets sick. My mother and brother are a different story. Any germs that are going around will find a great home in their bodies. Simply, because their bodies cannot fight off the infection they don’t make healthy choices regarding their food choices, and they don’t exercise.

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Improves Your Mood
If I’m facing a challenging situation with a project or my personal life I know that I need to hit the gym. One of the reasons why I’m in the gym more now is caused by my business, freelance work, and personal life is very challenging right now. Making sure I get my butt to exercise is an excellent way to release the stress and the occasional frustration I experience.

Several years ago I read an article that said exercise helps stimulate certain brain chemical.  This stimulation can help you feel happier and more laid back after your workout. If you continue to exercise, and make healthy eating choices you’ll most likely look better, which could lead to making you feel better about yourself. I’ve always been self-confident; however, the more I work out the better I feel about myself.

Better Sleep
I’ve noticed when I exercise I sleep much better. Regular exercise can help you fall asleep faster.

The beauty of exercise is that you don’t have to go to the gym to get into shape. You can do simple low impact exercises at home. The benefit is that not only will it improve your health you most likely will feel good about yourself also.

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Fat is good for you

A certain amount of fat in the diet is good and necessary to be healthy. Adults should get 20%-35% of their calories from fat. However, nutrition experts agree that most Americans should eat less fat than they currently do.

Research shows that excessive intake of fat – especially trans fat and saturated fat – and cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease. Eating too much fat can cause excess body weight, since a gram of fat has about twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates (see below) and proteins. (There are 9 calories per gram of fat compared with 4 calories for protein and carbohydrates.)

Fat is made up of compounds called fatty acids or lipids. Depending on their chemical structure, these fatty acids are called monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated, or trans fats. Trans fats and saturated fats are the unhealthiest fats to eat.

Trans fats are formed when manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats, such as with shortening and hard margarine. Trans fats can also be found in many foods, including crackers (even healthy-sounding ones), cereals, baked goods, snack foods, salad dressings, fried foods, and many other processed foods.

Problems with too much dietary fat can also come when 10% or more of your daily calories come from saturated fats such as those found in meats, high-fat dairy products, and butter and foods cooked or made with hydrogenated fats. And consuming trans fats in any amount is also not recommended. These practices may lead to high blood cholesterol levels and heart disease.
Cholesterol Levels

Many people are confused about the effect of dietary fats on cholesterol levels. At first glance, it seems reasonable to think that eating less cholesterol would reduce a person’s cholesterol level. In fact, eating less cholesterol has less effect on blood cholesterol levels than eating less saturated fat.

However, some studies have found that eating cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease even if it doesn’t increase blood cholesterol levels.

Another misconception is that people can improve their cholesterol numbers by eating “good” cholesterol. In food, all cholesterol is the same. In the blood, whether cholesterol is “good” or “bad” depends on the type of lipoprotein that’s carrying it.

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats do not promote the formation of artery-clogging fatty deposits the way saturated fats do. Some studies show that eating foods that contain these fats can reduce levels of LDL-cholesterol in the blood.

Polyunsaturated fats, such as safflower and corn oil, tend to lower both HDL- and LDL-cholesterol. Edible oils rich in monounsaturated fats, such as olive and canola oil, however, tend to lower LDL-cholesterol without affecting HDL levels.

While people aware that they should get their cholesterol checked, Most people don’t know how to interpret their blood results. There are certain terms related to your Blood Chemistry that you should understand.
HDL (High-density lipoprotein or good cholesterol)

A type of cholesterol that good or protective. If small amounts of plaque (LDL or bad cholesterol) have been laid down in your blood vessels and you have enough HDL, you’ll be able to dissolve this plaque and use it as an energy source.

Good HDL is 40 mg/dl and above for man.
Good HDL is 50 mg/dl and above for a woman.

LDL (Low-density lipoprotein or bad cholesterol)

The bad type of cholesterol that collects in your blood vessels as plaque and clogs them if you have to much floating around in your blood stream, or if you don’t have sufficient HDL to dissolve it. According to the new cholesterol standards for both genders recently published by the Journal of the American Medical Association:

An LDL of less than 100 mg/dl is optimal.
100-129 mg/dl is near or above optimal.
130-159 mg/dl is borderline high.
160-189 mg/dl is high
190 mg/dl and up is very high.

LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol act differently in the body. A high level of LDL-cholesterol in the blood increases the risk of fatty deposits forming in the arteries, which in turn increases the risk of a heart attack.

Thus, LDL-cholesterol has been dubbed “bad” cholesterol. On the other hand, an elevated level of HDL-cholesterol seems to have a protective effect against heart disease. For this reason, HDL-cholesterol is often called “good” cholesterol.
Triglycerides

Another form in which fat is transported through the blood to the body tissues. Triglycerides are the fats that appear in the blood soon after your meals. Normally they are stripped of their fatty acids when they pass through various type of tissue, especially adipose (beneath the skin) fat and skeletal muscle.

Most of the body’s stored fat is in the form of triglycerides. Another lipoprotein – very low-density lipoprotein, or VLDL – has the job of carrying triglycerides in the blood. Triglycerides are converted into stored energy that is gradually released and metabolized between meals according to the metabolic needs of your body.

NHLBI considers a triglyceride level below 150 mg/dl to be normal. It is not clear whether high levels of triglycerides alone increase an individual’s risk of heart disease. However, they may be an important clue that someone is at risk of heart disease for other reasons.

Many people who have elevated triglycerides also have high LDL-cholesterol or low HDL-cholesterol. People with diabetes or kidney disease – two conditions that increase the risk of heart disease – are also prone to high triglycerides.

Almost everyone loves sugars and other kinds of carbohydrates. But if you consume more than you require daily your triglyceride level will elevate. When this happens,your disease risk for hyperglycemia and diabetes can increase and you will become more susceptible to coronary heart disease.

A normal triglyceride level is 150 or below.
150-199 is borderline high.
200-499 is high.
500 or over is very high.

Your total cholesterol

This is calculated by adding your HDL plus your LDL plus your triglycerides divided by five.

A total cholesterol less than 200 mg/dl is desirable.
200-239 mg/dl is borderline high.
240 mg/dl or greater is considered high.

Piti Niyomsirivanich, M.D., B.Sc, is the webmaster of http://www.weightloss-insider.com, providing tips tricks & techniques, resources, a free letters, etc. to help people get healthier. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Piti_Niyomsirivanich

There are a couple of things you should know about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Two of the enzymes used, alpha-amylase and glucose-isomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable.

Enzymes are actually very large proteins and through genetic modification specific amino acids in the enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme’s “backbone” won’t break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they become unstable.

If you’re trying to avoid genetically modified foods you should avoid HFCS as it’s almost certainly made from genetically modified corn, and then it is processed with genetically modified enzymes. Some estimates claim that virtually everything (almost 80 percent) of what we eat today has been genetically modified at some point, since the use of HFCS is so prevalent in processed foods.

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But there’s another reason to avoid HFCS. You may think that because it contains fructose (which is associated with fruit, a natural food) that it’s healthier than sugar, but a team of investigators at the USDA has discovered that this just isn’t so.

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems, especially when the rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as copper.

The researchers wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose that was causing the problems, so they repeated their studies with two groups of rats; one given high amounts of glucose, and one given high amounts of fructose.

The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats didn’t reach adulthood. They had anaemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy, which means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded.

Are you sure you want to risk your health? Are you sure HFCS isn’t one of the things making it hard for you to keep a healthy weight? Are you sure the food industry has your best interests at heart?

Click here for a more detailed explanation
http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html