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Health
& Wellness
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Go Mad For Mangoes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/health_and_fitness/4273006.stm
It's half-time, you're
out of breath and in serious need of an energy boost. Time
to tuck into the oranges.
Or is it?
It's been the footballer's food of choice for years, but
it looks like our favourite citrus fruit could be in for a
spell on the bench. On in its place comes an exotic new
talent from the far east. Full of flair and bursting with
energy, this fruit is certain to give its team-mates a
lift.
And its name? Mangifera indica - the mango.
New research has found the tropical fruit to be the
ultimate half-time reviver.
It has three times as much carbohydrate (the body's main
energy source) as oranges and gets energy to the muscles a
fifth faster.
But don't just think about mangoes at half-time. This
extremely tasty and versatile fruit can be eaten before or
after any sport, and as part of your breakfast, lunch,
dinner or dessert.
Or how about making a smoothie?
Mix up your mango with a banana, some raspberries and a
dollop of low fat fromage-frais and you've got a delicious
drink rich in slow release fruit sugars - the perfect
energy boost!
Here's what you need:
1 mango, peeled and stoned
75g/3oz raspberries
1 banana
200g/7oz low-fat fromage-frais, or 150g/5oz natural or
soya yoghurt or
75ml/3oz cold milk
Puree the whole lot together until smooth and drink.
The BBC food website has loads of other great ideas for
mango-based meals.
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Good drinks, bad drinks
This is the print version
of story
http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/s1592547.htm]
by Peter Lavelle
Published 16/03/2006
A hundred thousand years ago, the
choice was simple when it came to a drink ? there was no
choice. It was water or nothing.
What a different world we live in today. Diet soft drinks,
ice teas, fruit juices, coolers... Every year, about 1,000
new beverages come onto the market, targeting our rising
incomes and our innate fondness for anything sweet.
And they're changing they way we get our nutrients. Over
the past 20 years, we?ve added between 630 kilojoules (150
calories) and 1260 kilojoules (300 calories) to our daily
diet ? and half of this additional amount is from drinks.
About 20 per cent of our total energy intake now comes
from beverages.
Not only are they high in calories in themselves, but
drinks don't make us feel full the way food does; we keep
consuming them and end up with a higher kilojoule intake
overall.
It's a big reason why, as we reported last week, 62 per
cent of Australian men and 45 per cent of women are
overweight or obese.
Still, we have to drink or we'll dehydrate and die. So
what should we be drinking? Are all drinks bad for us?
What?s safe and what isn?t? A panel of US researchers
reviewed the available medical literature on drinks and
health benefits (or harms) in an attempt to answer this
question.
They looked at the energy intake, the nutrient content and
any health benefits (or drawbacks) of a range of popular
drinks and ranked them from best to worst. They published
their findings in the latest American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition.
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Water the winner
Top of the list is
water, they said. It has no kilojoules at all - though no
nutrients either, but that's not a problem. Ideally, we'd
drink only water and let the nutrients come from a
balanced food diet. This was, after all, how our bodies
naturally evolved.
How much water? There's no recommended amount. Drink when
you feel thirsty, the researchers advise. It's almost
impossible to drink too much ? the kidneys excrete the
excess out almost straight away.
But water is also tasteless and it's not much of a reason
to get together with those old friends. ?I know a great
little garden tap? isn?t much of an invitation. What about
the alternatives?
Next best, from the point of view of health is tea. Both
black and green tea contain antioxidants and studies have
shown them to lower the risk of heart disease and possibly
cancer.
Coffee is also high on the list ? it appears to lower the
risk of diabetes (decaffeinated coffee does too, so it's
not the caffeine that's responsible). Coffee might also
lower the risk of bowel cancer. But too much caffeine can
increase the risk of heart disease ? less than 400 mg a
day (which equates to four or five cups) is safe.
Adding milk, cream, and/or sugar means added kilojoules
and fats and pushes both tea and coffee further down the
list, however. It's best taken black
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Low fat milk
Next on the list
are low fat milk products; low fat (1.5 per cent or 1 per
cent) and skim milk. They're a good source of protein and
of calcium and Vitamin D ? a high milk intake is
associated with strong bones and is recommended for kids
and for older women especially. Full cream milk on the
other hand is high in calories and saturated fat and has
been linked with heart disease and should be avoided, the
researchers say.
Next comes diet soft drinks ? drinks sweetened with
artificial sweeteners rather than sugar. They do help
people lose weight, compared to sugary soft drinks, the
research suggests. There's no evidence these sweeteners
are harmful, but there?s no evidence that they?re safe
over the long term either.
Next ? further down on the list than you might have
thought ? are fruit juices. These are high in calories;
they do have some nutritional value but not much fibre -
it's better to eat the fruit itself. Vegetable juices like
tomato and multi-vegetable juices are a good substitute;
they h
less calorie than fruit juices, but even so it's better to
eat the vegetables. Smoothies are especially high in
kilojoules and should be avoided.
Then there?s alcohol; and whether it?s good or bad for you
depends what you drink and how much. Small to moderate
amounts - one drink a day for women and two for men ?
seems to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. But
in large amounts alcohol causes serious disease like liver
cirrhosis and cancer. Beware spirit-based coolers which
are sweetened with sugars and are high in calories.
At the bottom of the list are soft drinks. They?re usually
sweetened by high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose, which is
high in kilojoules. These contribute dental caries,
obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It makes no
difference whether they're fizzy or not. Sports drinks too
are in this category ? they?re gaining in popularity at
the expense of soft drinks, but they too are high in
kilojoules and often have caffeine and other stimulants
added.
So the message is; avoid soft drinks and fruit juices, and
opt for water, black tea or coffee, low fat milk and a
little alcohol instead
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How to Lead a Stress
Free Life
No matter what we do each day
there is frequently something that we do that will cause
us to become tense. That's what we commonly call 'stress'.
Read transcript
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/innovations/stories/s1601724.htm
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Why Stress Makes You
Sick
Scientists have
confirmed what's been suspected for years: stress makes
you sick, from the common cold to cancer.
Read transcript
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/innovations/stories/s1601716.htm
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