Guide to Weaning

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Weaning is when a baby is introduced to other foods other than her mothers milk. The age to start weaning a child varies from one another. A baby can be introduced to new foods from the age of 4 months. You should start it with some light foods fruit juice, light clear soups and keep adding things gradually, week by week. Weaning should not exclude milk or breastfeeding from your babys diet.

Till the age of 6 months, mothers milk or formula milk is sufficient. A baby doesnt require anything else, other than normal 6-8 feeds a day.
Fruit juices, mashed and pureed fruits and vegetables can be introduced to him after 6 months of age. The quantity of the food should be started from a couple of spoons a day and can be gradually increased if the baby likes the taste. Never force the baby to have more if he is not willing to.
At the age of eight months, a few more things can be included in a babys diet, like finger foods, pureed chicken, vegetables, lentils etc. Ensure that the food is cooked properly and soft enough for him to swallow it. Now you can feed him with the solid food two to three times a day. This will result in reduction of his breastfeeds.

By the time a baby becomes 9-10 months old, he wants to eat by himself. Let him eat the finger food by himself and learn how to handle a spoon. At 10 months you can also give him slices and cubes of cooked vegetables instead of puree.

After 10 months a baby can eat whatever you cook for the other family members. Just be careful that he doesnt eat big pieces of the food and chews the food properly.

Encourage the habit of brushing their teeth at least twice a day.

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Low Fat Recipes to Lose Weight

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

There are many diets on the market that claim to shed pounds without any exercise. This is not a healthy way to diet, nor is there any diet that will work without exercise. However, if you are tired of dieting without results, it may be time to revamp your everyday food intake. Here are a few low fat recipes to help you lose weight naturally.

Filling Chicken Bake

You will need 2 boxes of chicken stuffing, a can of cream of chicken soup, 2 egg whites, 2 chicken breasts, a pat of butter substitute, 1 bag of egg noodles and 2 cans of chicken broth. First grill your chicken breasts and then cut into bite sized pieces. Add the egg whites, chicken broth and cream of chicken soup to a baking pan. Mix these together well. Cook the two boxes of chicken flavored stuffing by following the directions on the box. Add the chicken breast pieces into the mixture in the baking pan along with the egg noodles and butter pat and mix well. Spoon the stuffing over the top of the entire pan and spread out evenly so that the entire mixture is covered. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes and allow to cool before serving.

Many low fat recipes to lose weight don�t allow for any trading of ingredients, but the above creation allows for you to substitute egg whites for egg beaters, chicken noodle soup for the egg noodles and chicken broth and even regular butter for the butter substitute. You can change the cream of chicken soup to any cream style soup as well.

Low fat recipes for weight loss abound on the internet. Here is another tasty recipe to try out:

You will need ten ounces of frozen spinach, 1 jar of spaghetti sauce, one egg, a bag of low fat mozzarella cheese, a box of manicotti shells, 16 ounces of fat free ricotta cheese and a tablespoon of parmesan cheese. Boil the manicotti noodles to your desired tenderness. Mix the ricotta cheese and desired spices together with an egg and add half a cup of the mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese together in a bowl. Defrost the spinach and then squeeze out all liquid. Add the spinach to the cheese mixture and then blend all other cheese based ingredients together. Using a spoon, stuff the manicotti shells with the mixture and lay in the bottom of a baking dish. Add spaghetti sauce over the top of the shells and place in the oven at 350 degrees for half an hour. Remove from oven and immediately place half a cup of mozzarella over the top of each shell and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

You can substitute freshly diced tomatoes for the spaghetti sauce to avoid additional salt, as well as using wheat manicotti shells to bring down the calories. Low fat recipes to lose weight do not have to taste bad, as you can see. Simply avoiding calorie stuffed, fat laden foods will help your body to not store fat eaten, and will cause the body to use the fat storage already present.

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Best Breakfasts to Lower Cholesterol

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

As we have all heard many times, eating a healthy breakfast every morning is critical if you want to start your day off on the right foot. In fact, eating a healthy breakfast is the only thing that has been correlated with sustained weight loss other than exercise. As the weight goes down, cholesterol levels often normalize. In addition, eating a healthy breakfast gives you an opportunity to include many wonderful cholesterol-lowering super foods into your diet. The trick is to know what constitutes a healthy, cholesterol-lowering breakfast.

To start, let’s talk a bit about what you do not want to eat for breakfast if you want to be healthy and lower your cholesterol too.

Most energy and breakfast bars
Most cold cereals including granola
Bagels
Pancakes and waffles
Conventional bacon and sausages
Instant oatmeal
Juice
French toast

You may be surprised that I didn’t add eggs to the above list. Conventional thinking states that you shouldn’t eat eggs because they contain high levels of cholesterol; however, eggs are actually a very healthy food in many ways. Even though eggs contain cholesterol, they raise most people’s cholesterol levels only slightly. Eggs are low in saturated fat and contain a host of other nutrients that are good for you too. You are much better off eating a hard-boiled egg than eating the other foods listed above. Even so, I would still eat no more than two to three eggs per week.

Some of you may also be surprised that I put cold cereals on the list. You may be thinking that the cold cereal you are eating is healthy because it is high in fiber and contains whole grains. Most cold breakfast cereals that have been tested to date raise blood sugar levels significantly. Even if your cereal doesn’t have added sugar, your blood sugar will respond just like it would if you were eating sugar. Why are sugar and other foods that raise blood sugar levels an issue? These types of foods will raise triglycerides which in turn will have some effect on raising total cholesterol levels as well.

If you must eat cold cereal, let me share with you a few tips on how to choose the best option even though I believe eating cooked whole grains is a preferable way to go if you want to eat grains for breakfast because cooked whole grains raise blood sugar levels less in most instances. So if you want to still eat cold cereal, make sure it is high in fiber, low in added sugar, and low in fat.

The other concern with foods that raise blood sugar levels is that they also increase inflammation in the body. Inflammation is now being thought of by some to be one of the root causes of heart disease. In addition, high cholesterol levels may be the result of an increase in inflammation and may possibly have protective benefits in a situation in which the body is inflamed. So what are a few quick, healthy, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol-lowering breakfast ideas? See a few suggestions below:

Strawberry Cream: Put about 1 cup of frozen, organic strawberries in a blender, add a tablespoon of whole flax seeds, add ½ cup to 1 cup low-fat yogurt, a small packet of stevia (just under ½ teaspoon powered stevia) and blend. You may need to use a spatula to stir the mixture. NOTE: Stevia can be purchased on-line or at a natural food store in your area. It is an herb that is significantly sweeter than sugar. It does not raise blood sugar levels at all and has zero calories)

Soaked Oats: Put one cup of traditional oats (not instant) in a bowl with nuts, seeds, and a small amount of dried fruit of choice. Pour water into the bowl until it is about ½ inch above the oat mixture. Cover and put in the refrigerator to soak overnight. Serve warm or cold with a cup of fresh blueberries or strawberries on top.

Mustard Sardines on Whole Grain Toast: Put one can of water-packed sardines with bones in a bowl. Mix with 2 tablespoons of mustard, one chopped stalk of celery, and 1 tablespoon chopped onion. Serve on whole grain toast.

There are a number of things that are great about the above recipes from a cholesterol-lowering perspective. Strawberries are high in soluble fiber which is a key to lowering cholesterol. Nuts and seeds contain healthy fats that are thought to raise HDL the "good" cholesterol and lower LDL the "bad" cholesterol. Oats are one of the top cholesterol-lowering super foods as most of you know. Sardines contain those wonderful omega-3 fatty acids as do flax seeds. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential in terms of improving overall heart health and your cholesterol profile.

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Home and Kitchen Accessories - Smart Alternatives to Plastic Containers

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

For decades, the family as a leader in many plastic containers. However, as people become more environmentally conscious, they now had to lead the plastics. Apart from the non-biodegradable plastic also contain cancer-causing toxins were considered.
Fortunately, there are many smart alternative to plastic pots, you can use your daily life. Substitute this will allow you and your family health, the contribution to green living, earth-friendly lifestyle. Find out the following: thermal lunch bags
Cardboard - Many people use a different house, such as books, stored in plastic containers, clothes, etc.

Unfortunately, this product is harmful to the production environment. This requires a lot of energy, thereby increasing carbon emissions. Such as cardboard boxes or liquor law, choose a box for storage products, books and clothes, the best choice. For small things, you can even use a shoebox. Board certified green products, recycling, reuse and recycling.
Glass - glass container is a good choice for storing food, cooking equipment, sometimes even twice. For the sauce, jam, salsa, and the residual liquid, you can use glass bottles instead of plastic food storage as usual. There are glass microwave, oven, refrigerator, freezer and use solutions. Stainless steel bowl lunch
Bamboo - Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plant varieties, only the 3-5 year growth cycle. Great, sustainable, does not require replanting, without pesticides or fertilizer plant. There are many handmade bamboo tank is currently on the market, making it as a store of sugar, salt, spices and other goods of natural selection bamboo.
Stainless Steel - Stainless steel is probably the most durable plastics than any other alternative fashion. It is a very high resistance to corrosion and damage, no smell, thin, of course, 100% of the earth-friendly. Many stainless steel food container is ideal in any food to go, just like lock tiffins. Through the use of stainless steel tanks, you can easily bring lunch, school, office, or picnic in style, without having messy spills or contamination of food concern. In addition, you can even use stainless steel containers, such as holding small items such as stationery
When we experience the adverse effects climate change, it just becomes more meaningful in many ways, we can help save the planet's consciousness. A smart choice considering plastic top, it would certainly be a good start to implement green living

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