Natural Way Health Blog

Nuts about Health

For boosting heart health, this nut’s got one up on olive oil. That’s right. Walnuts are better than olive oil at combating the harmful effects that saturated fats have on arteries, which may make walnuts the mightiest nuts of all. Here’s what makes them special.

When you eat a meal high in saturated fats, it causes your arteries to narrow and stiffen. And although you may have the best intentions of shunning nacho cheese and bacon-wrapped hamburgers, everyone slips a little now and then.

So here are a few things you can do to minimize the impact of the nasty fats on your arteries.

• Eat a handful of walnuts. In a study, arteries stayed more relaxed when walnuts were added to a high-fat meal. They did an even better job than olive oil of helping blood to flow unrestricted. Researchers credit the alpha-linolenic acid in the nuts with helping keep arteries flexible.
• Take a walk a couple of hours after you indulge. Physical activity partly offsets the blood vessel dysfunction caused by eating a high-fat meal.
• Top off your meal with a tiny piece of dark chocolate, some hot tea, or a bit of pomegranate juice. These items are rich in compounds that help your arteries relax.

Source:  www.realage.com

Salad on Steroids

Topping spinach salad with half a cup of sliced avocado helps you absorb 14 times more beta carotene from the greens. Lycopene and beta carotene are fat-soluble carotenoids — meaning they need to piggyback with fat to be absorbed in your small intestine. Avocado, olive oil, pine nuts . . . any source of healthful fat will do the trick.  What do you get in return? Healthier eyes, a stronger cardiovascular system, and possibly even protection from certain types of cancer.

Red – Means Go

Tomato-y Treats That Are Truly Tops

Whether it’s revving up our veggie burgers or toning down our barbecue sauces, ketchup is one condiment few people could live without.

So squeeze more out of it by going organic. Organic ketchup packs three times more lycopene than the regular stuff and almost twice the level of flavonoids. Here’s what all that extra nutrition means for your body. Lycopene gives fruits (like tomatoes!) and veggies a rich red color, and it may give your body a leg up on loads of diseases — from cancer to clogged arteries.

Here are a few more tricks for getting more lycopene from your tomatoes with less effort:

1. Slice, dice, or puree them. Processing tomatoes helps unleash the lycopene.

2. Eat them with a bit of fat. Lycopene must latch on to fat (so you might as well make it healthy, like olive oil) to be absorbed by the intestinal wall.

3. Heat ’em up. Heat converts the lycopene in red tomatoes into a form that’s easier for your body to absorb.

And what about that superfood synergy we were talking about creating…

Well, here is an easy way to boost the power of another favorite tomato-y food: salsa. Just because good things are in your salsa doesn’t mean you’re getting all the good out of it. If you toss some avocado chunks into the spicy red stuff, you’ll absorb 400 percent more lycopene from the tomatoes.