We all love peanut butter, well, not all of us but most of us. The peanut butter that we buy from the supermarket are full of preservatives, some of them harmful to our health. Today we learn how to make our own peanut butter from scratch at home.
Making your own peanut butter lets you determine how much salt you want in it. And it is easy, very easy to prepare. You can also make variations to the peanut as much as you want.
Today we look at how to prepare simple peanut butter.
Ingredients.
3 cups Peanuts, roast them yourselves.
3 tsp Honey
½ tsp Salt
3- 4 tsp Oil (optional)
Procedure
Place the roasted peanuts in a food processer or a blender.
At first, the speed should be low to break up the peanuts, then increase the speed. After a minute or two, stop the processor and scoop the peanuts from the sides to ensure all the peanuts are well processed.
Continue processing at high speed for about two minutes until a thick chunk is formed.
Then add the salt and honey. You can also add the oil, it helps to keep the peanut smooth. Continue processing for a minute or two. Allow it to cool.
Store the peanut butter in an airtight container and keep refrigerated.
Note: you can replace the honey with cocoa for chocolate peanut butter.
We have all heard about the benefits of losing weight, increased energy, reduced pains, better mobility, improved confidence, and more active social life. We rarely hear of the negative impacts that losing weight might have. Before you go ahead and lose those extra pounds, read this article so that you are well prepared.
Sagging skin and stretch marks
Losing weight too fast can result in your skin sagging and stretch marks forming on your body. This is because the skin does notshrink as quickly as you lose weight. To prevent skin from sagging specialists’ advise that you have a gradual loss. Have a work-out plan that will allow you to have a steady decrease in weight and build up your muscles mass.
Lack of sleep
What you eat affects how you sleep, and your sleep patterns affectwhat you eat. This is the complicated relationship between food and sleep. Changing what you eat, a familiar feature for those who are trying to lose weight may affect your sleep. To improve your sleeping habits, ensure you incorporate proteins with carbohydrates in your food. This is essential for you to get a vital amino acid called tryptophan that is converted to serotonin, a hormone that controls your sleep patterns. The hormone, is also important for stabilizing your mood, and well-being feelings, digestion, and eating.
Changing what you eat can affect your sleep pattern. Photo by Ivan Oboleninov from Pexels
3. Depression
This comes in when all that you had expected to happen after losing weight does not occur. People lose weight for different reasons, to find love, to feel loved, to improve their self-esteem, and so on. If one or two goals are not achieved, one may end up having challenges dealing with this fact.
Depression may arise due to unmet expectations. Photo by Kat Jayne from Pexels
Your hair may fall off.
If part of your losing weight diet plan includes reducing the number of carbs and calories, then you might end up losing your hair. This is because your diet might have insufficient nutrients such as iron, vitamins, and minerals, this is essential for hair growth. There might also be other changes, such as a change in the color and structure of your hair.
Hair may fall when your body becomes deprived of nutrients. Photo by Samarth Singhai from Pexels
Inconsistency in the menstrual cycle.
Losing weight too fast may cause your menstrual cycle to stop or fluctuate. Losing weight causes stress on your body and make it think that you are starving when you reduce the amount of food that you eat. This causes the body to stop the menstrual cycle to prevent you from getting pregnant.
These negative impacts do not affect every person. You might also have one effect, not all. Although there are negative impacts associated with weight loss, this should not stop you from achieving that goal. There is a need to consult your dietician and body trainer on the best method to follow to minimize the effects.
Did you realize that most of the cholesterol in our bodies is generated by the liver? Cholesterol is vital in ensuring the cell walls remain flexible, makes up part of the cell membrane structure, makes hormones, and the conversion of sunshine to vitamin D.
Our bodies have both the “good” and “bad” cholesterol. Those that are referred to as “bad” cholesterol, or otherwise known as Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL), are made in the liver and transported to the blood cells. These are the ones that can lead to arteries being obstructed and thus result in stroke and heart attack. On the other hand, the “good” cholesterol known as High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) removes the LDL from the bloodstream and takes it back to the liver.
A blood test done by your general practitioner can detect your levels of cholesterol. High levels of LDL pause a health risk, and thus need to regularly check and regulate the amount of cholesterol in the body.
In this post, we will look at ways in which we can regulate our cholesterol levels without using the medicine and thus help us reduce the chances of getting conditions related to high cholesterol.
Mind what you eat.
Although food has little influence on the level of cholesterol in the bloodstream, some foods can make the situation worse and thus need to ensure your diet is comprised of food that will help reduce the cholesterol level and eliminate those that increase it.
These are some of the food types that you should include in your diet.
Soluble fibers.
These are fibers that provide food for bacterial found in the gut. These are important for removing the bad cholesterol from the body. Sources include fruits such as apples, psyllium, kidney beans, whole grains including oats, and barley and so many others. Avoid refined grains.
Plant protein.
Foods such as all types of beans and peas are good for reducing the cholesterol in your body.
Food rich in Omega-3
These include fatty fishes. Omega-3 lowers triglycerides in the body and protects the heart.
Avoid these:
Trans-fat and saturated fat foods.
These include margarine and vegetables, dairy products, coconut oil, and palm oil. They are responsible for increasing cholesterol levels in the bloodstream.
Being physically active helps to lower your blood cholesterol by stimulating an enzyme that moves LDL from the vessels back to the liver and increases the size of the lipoproteins that carry the cholesterol and make them non-harmful. You need to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. Aerobic exercise, full-body resistance, and stretching exercises are good for your heart. Apart from lowering cholesterol levels, they help to strengthen the heart and make it more efficient.
3. Reduce alcohol consumption.
Taking small amounts of alcohol helps to increase the levels of good cholesterol in the blood. However, excessive alcohol consumption has major effects on the heart and your body health. It may lead to an increase in triglycerides and cause obesity.
Lose some pounds.
Losing weight will help reduce the amount of bad cholesterol and triglycerides levels in the body and increase the amount of good cholesterol.
Being overweight also increases risks to the heart and the chances of fat being deposited in the blood vessels.
Cigarette smoke also leads to an increase in bad cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood system. It also lowers good cholesterol. Thus it will you do you good to quit smoking. These will lead to your levels of good cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart diseases.
Get this! According to WHO about 1.13 billion people have highblood pressure. 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women have hypertension. Fewer than 1 in 5 have it under control. Hypertension is the lead cause for premature death worldwide. (WHO Fact-Sheets/ Details/ Hypertension, Sept, 2019). According to CDC nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure.
High blood pressure can be easily managed at home by doing certain things such as reducing the amount of salt intake and exercising. Below are some ways that can be used to manage hypertension.
1.13 billion peoplehave hypertension worldwide
Exercise more often.
Participate in regular exercises such as walking, swimming, jogging, running. Exercising for 30 to 60 minutes a day is satisfactory for your heart, it strengthens it and helps reduce your blood pressure.
Exercising for even longer is much better as it helps improve your mood and vitality and lowers your blood pressure even further.
Exercising such as walking, jogging is good for your heart
Incorporate potassium and reduce sodium.
Potassium is important for lowering the blood pressure by helping lower the amounts of sodium in the bloodstream and lessens tension in your vessels.
Eating foods rich in potassium such as
Fresh fruits such as apricots, oranges, avocados.
Vegetables such as green leafy vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes.
Low-fat dairy products.
Nuts.
Fishes are very important for your body.
Reduce the amount of salt that you take if you are sensitive to sodium. These make it necessary to reduce the amounts of processed foods.
Minimize your stress levels.
In life, we always find ourselves exposed to sources of stress, might be your job, your kids, the traffic. When we allow them to get to us, it affects our health.
Being continuously stressed will most likely lead to high blood pressure. The body always reacts to stress the same way as when you are frightened, your heart rates increases, and your vessels become constricted.
Try to relax and find ways that work for you in relieving stress, such as listening to music, yoga, and meditation. It is also crucial to identify the source of stress and work on it.
Check your diet.
Ensure your diet has nosaturated fats in high amounts and thus remember to reduce the processed foods, full-fat dairy products, and meats
Eat dark chocolate, berries, and fruits.
Reduce foods with added sugars and refined carbohydrates.
Check your waistline.
Accumulation of fat around the waist is harmful to organs in the abdomen and may lead to an increase in blood pressure.
Losing a few pounds, around 10, can also help lower the pressure considerably. Thus exercise and what you eat is very crucial.
Cut you nicotine in-take
Cigarette smoke, even if it is secondary, raises the pressure for some time. Thus heavy smoking is likely to cause high blood pressure.
People with a high blood pressure condition are more likely to suffer from stroke and heart attack due to greatly increased pressure when they smoke.
Reduce the amount of alcohol that you take.
Taking a lot of alcohol is bound to raise your blood pressure. It also affects your heart and liver. Alcohol also reduces theeffectiveness of high blood pressure drugs.
It is proposed that you take one drink per day for women and two drinks for women if you take alcohol. These might even help lower your pressure.
You should also ensure you visit your doctor to ensure your blood pressure is under control.
You suddenly realize that your favorite jeans do not fit. You seem to have added some extra weight during the Covid-19 break. Now you need to lose some few pounds to go back to your normal weight and gain back your flat tummy.
Here are some of the things that can help you reduce a bulging stomach fast such as drinking water and minding the type of food you eat.
Eat a well balanced diet with less carbs
DRINK A LOT OF WATER
Our body is mainly made up of water, about 70%. Some people think that reducing water intake will reduce the amount of water the body retains, the opposite is true. The body will end up retaining more water to compensate for the shortage and lead to bloating.
Water is essential for good health and aids in digestion. This ensures that your body takes up important nutrients required by the body.
Ensure you drink enough water, two liters each day, or more to keep the body hydrated.
AVOID REFINED CARBOHYDRATES.
Refined carbs have a higher glycemic index (GI) than the unrefined carbs.
For better digestion, absorption, and metabolism the GI value needs to be low (55 and below). This leads to a slow intake of glucose and consequently, the rise in blood sugar is slowed.
Refined carbs are quickly digested and this may lead to bloating and gas. They also cause short-term fullness and thus you end up feeling hungry very quickly leading to one eating again and again. Thus a major culprit for people being overweight and increased belly fat.
Thus it is advisable to avoid refined carbs as much as possible if you want to get that flat tummy fast.
Check on your refined carbs intake
INCORPORATE FIBRE.
Soluble Fibre is important for the elimination of belly fat. It helps naturally suppress appetite and thus help reduce the intake of calories.
They are also important in the body especially during digestion, while emptying the bowel, and for the whole body. They prevent food decay in the body which may lead to flatulence and bloating.
Go for fiber-filled foods such as bran flakes, and food rich in fibers if you intend to lose that belly fat.
AVOID SOME VEGETABLES AND FRUITS
Some vegetables can cause your stomach to bloat such as broccoli and cauliflower as they are not fully digested as the small intestine lacks the enzyme required to digest them. This leads to fermentation in the large intestine forming gas and cause bloating. Avoid them if this is true for your case.
Plums and other sugary fruits have a lot of sugars which can also ferment and cause bloating and gas. Ensure you are very careful with the vegetables and fruits that you eat.
Although vegetables are necessary, avoid some that can lead to bloating
CHEW YOUR FOOD WELL.
Chew the food slowly and thoroughly before swallowing. This leads to you feeling fuller and reduce the number of calories you take. This eventually leads to weight loss.
AVOID TAKING A LOT OF FOOD.
Eat more often but in small quantities. Eating a lot of food is more likely to increase calorie intake and thus increase body weight.
It is also important to track your food intake to not take in more calories. And eat more proteins and fewer carbohydrates.
Go for small quantities of well balanced food minding the calories
AVOID SUGARS AND SWEETS FOODS AND DRINKS.
Avoid foods with artificial sweeteners. These are bad for metabolism. They also lead to an increase of fat around the abdomen and liver.
Sugars and sweeteners are a major culprit when it comes to being overweight. Go for natural flavors such as lemon, lime, peppermint for drinks that you take. This will also help you cleanse and detoxify your body.
Many people in the world have a problem with their weight. While most are trying to cut weight, others are trying to gain weight for one reason or another. Being underweight is the main reason why one would need to gain weight.
Factors that may lead one to bring underweight varies from one person to another with some being: the genetic make-up, rate of food breakdown in the body, lack of proper nutrition, and lack of appetite.
Gaining weight is just as challenging as losing weight. Some of the ways to gain weight in a healthy way include:
Eat regularly: Take small amounts of food after short intervals, say after every 3 hours. These meals should be wholesome and with a lot of nutrients. Ensure to incorporate proteins such as meat & legumes, a lot of healthy carbohydrates e.g brown rice, try not to go for processed foods as they have fewer nutrients, and good oils.
Eating regularly ensures that you have a higher intake of calories than the amount burnt by the body to produce energy. The surplus is used to build the body and increase weight.
Consider healthy snacks: If you cannot manage to eat after short intervals due to having tight schedules or a job that cannot allow, snacking is the best alternative. However, be careful about the type of snacks that you have. Junk snacks will lead to weight gain quickly but are very unhealthy as they are deficient in nutrients. Go for those with healthy carbohydrates and more proteins such as wholesome yogurt, protein balls, roasted chickpeas. Nuts and fruits are also a good source of oil.
Exercise regularly: Exercise is a good way to turn the good calories gained into the muscle so as to avoid fat build-up and it helps the body repair muscle tissue. Go for squats, deadlifts, yoga, push-ups, and other exercises that are good for the body. Ensure to exercise the whole body. Avoid doing a lot of aerobics as this will burn a lot of calories.
Drink water at regular intervals: The recommended amount of water to be taken per day is one to two liters. This should be taken at regular intervals to ensure that the body retains most of it. A glass (300-400ml) every hour is okay. Most importantly remember to take water first thing in the morning. Water is good for rehydrating the body organs, helps in digestion, energizes your muscles, and balances body fluid. This helps in adding weight.
Remember, weight gain does not occur overnight, it takes time and discipline. Be patient and keep doing what is right.
Healthy You 