How to have Good Eyesight

Good eye care habits cultivated from young can prevent the worsening of one's eyesight and also prevent the development or worsening of myopia in children. For adults, spending long hours using computers or watching television can cause detrimental effects to our precious eyes too. Therefore, here are 6 points you should take note in order to achieve better eyesight.


Eat carrots or other foods rich in Vitamin A
If you currently have problems seeing well at night or have a host of other eye problems, it could be due to the lack of vitamin A in our bodies. Carrots protects the eye by reducing the risk of cataracts and preventing night blindness. Ensure you have enough vitamin A by eating foods like carrots or other fruits!

Spend more time outdoors instead of indoors
This is especially important for growing kids where research has show that kids who spend more time outdoors are less likely to suffer from myopia or short short-sightedness. However, do avoid periods where the weather gets really hot (eg 11pm to 3pm) as strong UV rays emitted by the sun can harm the eyes if no proper sunglasses are used.

Avoid spending too much time on a screen
Spending too much time on the computer or television puts great strain on our eyes as it causes our eyes to be more particularly adjusted to a certain focal length. This makes it difficult for our eyes to focus on distant objects if this continues for prolonged periods. Therefore, after every 30-40 minutes of looking at the screen, give your eyes a break by focusing on distant objects for 2-3 minutes before proceeding back to your screen. Try to focus on far away objects such as trees or grass as studies have shown that the colour green helps relax our eyes.

Ensure proper lighting when reading or studying
Insufficient lighting while reading or studying can cause our eyes to squint as it tries to make out the words in the dark. This squinting causes strain to our eye muscles and may damage our eyes in the long run. Hence, ensure sufficient lighting before proceeding to read or study

Exercise and do eye massages
Exercising increases overall heart rate and therefore blood circulation. Increased blood flow towards the eyes ensure our eyes absorb more nutrients and oxygen.
Doing gentle massages to our eyes can also sooth our eyes and increase blood circulation. One such method is to grab our nose area between our two eyes and massage the area up and down gently to increase blood flow

Go for regular eye checkups
Lastly, always go for regular checkups with a doctor to check for your eyes. This would allow you to discover early if you are suffering from any eye ailments so treatment can be given early.

Our eyes are precious, so take good care of them!

Preventing Hair Loss

Hair loss could be the cause of our diet, lack of nutrients, medications, stress, or basically, our genes. Hair loss mostly affects middle aged to older people, and usually happens more to men. If you happen to feel that you are suffering symptoms of hair loss, have no fear, because here are a few tips on how you can make hair loss less of a problem to you.

How to prevent Hair Loss:

1. It's all about your diet

Eat foods that are rich in protein such as fish, beans and tofu. Foods rich in protein will help you maintain healthy hair as hair is primarily made of protein. However stick to healthier sources of protein as rich meats such as steak are high in fat.

To ensure a healthy scalp, we need to ensure our blood is well circulated to that area. It is only through good blood circulation to the scalp that allows our scalp to stimulate and promote hair growth. Hence, foods rich in iron should be consumed as it promotes the creation of hemoglobin in our blood which functions as a carrier of oxygen to all parts of the body. Foods such as liver, cherries and cereals contain high iron content.

A high number of people who suffer from hair loss do not have enough zinc in their bodies. Zinc promotes cell reproduction and helps maintain hormonal balance, which helps in hair growth. They also manage the glands that attach to our hair follicles. When our zinc levels are low, these follicles become weak, causing strands to break off or fall out. To prevent this problem, try to eat zinc-rich foods such as mussels, shrimp and oysters. However, take these zinc rich foods in moderation as excessive amounts can cause hair loss too.

2. Reduce your stress

Stress is one of the main reasons for hair loss. When one faces stress, the frequency of hair loss increases. Hence, once can try to reduce their stress levels by sleeping early or by meditating.

3. Keep exercising

Now that we all know a well circulated scalp can promote hair growth, exercise is also key! Exercising increases our heart rate which increases blood circulation throughout our body, including our scalp! This helps prevent hair loss as well.

4. Treat you hair well

Don't subject your hair to frequent heating and drying. Heat weakens hair proteins and in worse cases, it damages the hair follicles permanently. Constant heating and drying of hair can cause our hair to be brittle and weak which causes hair loss.  Minimizing the usage of accessories like hair dryers or hair straighteners can make our hair last longer. If need be, use cool air from the hair dryer to dry your hair instead of hot air.

5. Massage scalp daily

Massaging our scalp helps circulate blood and brings nutrients to the scalp. To complement the massage, one tip is to use coconut oil while we massage our scalp as it acts as a natural conditioner that improves our hair growth. This is due to lauric acid found in coconut oil that moisturizes our hair, protects our hair roots and prevents breakage of our hair strands.

Hope this helps!

How to Fall Asleep Quickly

Even though now we  the know the benefits that sufficient sleep can bring, many of us still do not get sufficient amount of rest. One of the main reasons why this is so is because many of us are unable to sleep early.

With this reason plus the fact that most of us need to wake up early to go to work the next day, it results in us having insufficient hours of sleep and puts our whole body under stress, causing us to have grogginess and feel moody throughout the day.

Today I'll be sharing with you five tips to enable your body to sleep faster plus a very special tip involving technology that I use everyday to ensure I wake up not feeling tired.
Here are the tips:

1. Reduce your daily amount of caffeine intake
All you coffee and tea lovers out there take note. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, hence, an optimum on it can keep us alert. However excessive amounts of caffeine can make one feel restless and overly alert. These results can cause a person not to able able to sleep well at night, which causes him or her to have insufficient hours of sleep. Therefore, reduce caffeine intake!

Also take note not to take caffeine products from late afternoons onwards as the effects of caffeine can last for more than 6 hours, and this may cut into our sleeping time.

2. Do not exercise after dinner time
After dinner is usually a time where your body winds down as the day is about to end. Exercising after dinner produces adrenaline which stimulates our body and mind near bedtime, and this may cause difficulty sleeping. It is also very bad for our digestion and may lead to appendicitis.

3. Pamper your body before you sleep
As your body prepares for the next day, pamper it by giving yourself a hot bath before you sleep. A hot bath relaxes your muscles and allow you to sleep more easily. If need be, sprinkle some fragrances such as lavender oil on your pillow and bedsheets as reports have shown that lavender does indeed help a person sleep more soundly.

4. Drink a hot cup of camomile tea
Camomile tea does not contain caffeine and is well known to help a person sleep easily. This is due to natural properties found in camomile which promote restfulness and drowsiness to a person.

5. Set a habitual sleep pattern
Try to sleep and wake up at the same time a day. This will naturalize your biological clock in such a way that it automatically causes your body to feel tired when you approach your sleep time.

How to Wake Up Fresh:
Lastly, the tech tip you all have been waiting for. You may or may not know it, but this is the tool really works for me to ensure I wake up not feeling tired. I use an iphone app called "Sleep Cycle" on my iphone to ensure I wake up feeling fresh. This app works by basically using the accelerometer in my iphone to monitor my movements when i'm sleeping to determine which sleep phase I am in. It then uses a 30 minute alarm window that ends my set alarm time and wakes me during my lightest sleep phase. For more details, you can check http://www.sleepcycle.com/ for more details!

That's all for today folks. Hope this helps!

Health Benefits Of Sleep

Hello people. Today I will be talking about the benefits of sleep and why it is important to us. Sleep is important as it gives our body a rest and allows it to prepare for the next day

Before I begin, I would like to show you the recommended amount of hours an individual should sleep everyday, sorted according to age.

Newborns 12-18 hours
Toddlers 12-14 Hours
Children 10-12 Hours
Teenagers 8-9 Hours
Adults 7-9 Hours

Having enough sleep is important as:

1. It leads to better results
Be it if you are a student or a worker, having enough sleeps helps you to be more alert and fresh for the next day. Hence one is able to perform better.

2. Sleep improves memory
Students listen up! Having enough sleep makes our brain able to processing new experiences and factual knowledge better. It helps increase analytical reasoning and knowledge as well.

3. Sleep improves our mood
Have you realised that most of the reason people give for having a bad mood during the day is due to not having enough sleep? A prolonged period of lack of sleep may even lead to more serious problems like depression. Enough sleep helps take away the groggy feeling felt during the day. Therefore it is important we have enough sleep to improve our mood.

4. Sleep improves our  weight
Researchers have found that dieters who have enough sleep loose more fat! Sleep ensure the balance of hormones are well balanced so our craving for high calorie foods would be much lesser.

5.Sleep helps you live longer
Studies have shown that people who sleep less than six hours a day have high higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins. These will lead to a higher chance of suffering heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging. Therefore ensure you get enough sleep to prevent heart related problems and a range of other ailments

With sufficient sleep, we are one step closer to good health!

Health Pyramid - Your Guide to Eating Better and Healthier!

Hello people, I have decided to talk about the health pyramid so you can make better informed choices when you pick the foods you eat.

To start, have you ever heard of the phrase "What you eat is what you are?". I'm sure you all have, and I'm here to tell you about different types of foodstuffs
It is very important that we know what foods to take frequently and also those that we should avoid or take in moderation. Hence, watching your own diet is a very important factor to lead a healthy lifestyle. With a healthy life, one falls sick less often and is more alert mentally as well.

The choice of food you choose to take can give you better health or could increase your chance of getting diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. So treat you body well and make wise decisions when choosing what type of foods to eat.

The food pyramid below shows you foods you should take frequently, and those you should avoid or take in moderation.

Image Credits: http://www.hpb.gov.sg/HOPPortal/health-article/2638

Right choices have to be made in order to nourish your body. We all have to eat a wide variety of foods in moderation to ensure our body takes in the right amounts of nutrients. As you follow the guidelines below on foods to take based on the pyramid, it will certainly help you to achieve a more balanced diet and a healthier body.

Things to take note:

Eat your grains

Grains contain alot of carbohydrates that provide your body energy to support our daily activities.
If you can, eat whole grain foods like wholemeal bread or brown rice as they contain more nutrients than refined grains such as white bread and rice.

Remember the fruits and vegetables

This is what this whole website is about. Fruits and vegetables provide various amounts of natural Vitamins and nutrients to nourish your body so you can be fit and healthy without falling sick so easily. Antioxidants found in many varieties of fruits prevent cancer too!

Remember your calcium and protein

Our body uses protein to build and repair tissues. You also use protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. Food rich in protein includes, eggs, fish, meat, and cheese. However, meats or cheese which are high in fat and cholesterol should be avoided.
To strengthen our bones and teeth, we would need calcium. Calcium also reduces the risk of osteoporosis. Foods such as dairy milk, yogurt, and cheese are very good sources of calcium. For lactose intolerant people, you can look to soya milk or tofu as alternatives.
However take note that because foods rich in calcium and protein are placed in the third level of the pyramid, servings taken should be lesser than fruits, vegetables and grains.

Avoid foods at the top of the pyramid

Foods placed on top of the pyramid should be use sparingly as they are harmful to our body if taken in large amounts. If need be, use healthy types of oil such as olive or sunflower oil to cook food as they contain no cholesterol. Salt and sugar should be used sparingly as they may cause liver problems and diabetes respectively. When buying food from supermarkets, do take note of the salt, sugar and oil content of the items and choose stuff that do not have much of these in them.

Take care of your health people!

5 Ways to Keep Healthy

Finally, my first post on general health instead of fruit juice recipes!

Okay to begin with, I realized many people do not know how to keep healthy and fit although they want to. Therefore as a start, I would like to share with you 10 tips on how to enjoy good health as a start.


1.Eat Plenty Of Fruits and vegetables

Just as what this website is about, fruits and vegetables are a great source of vitamins and minerals to keep you body strong and healthy. Many fruits and vegetables lowers a person's risk of getting cancer, stroke or heart attack as well. It is recommended that one should eat at least 2-3 servings of fruits and vegetables everyday so as to keep healthy and fit. Do remember to take different varieties of fruits and vegetables and not just the same few so that your body can take in different types of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. This is the first step towards a healthy diet and achieving good health for your body.

2. Avoid Processed Foods

Process foods are foods that altered from their natural state. Methods that are used include canning, freezing, and dehydration. Examples of processed foods include canned food, packaged cakes and cookies, sugary breakfast cereals, potato chips and cookies.

All these foods not only lack nutritive value but also contain many high levels of fats, trans fats, sugar, oil and carcinogenic elements that may not be good for health. Consuming these processed foods regularly may lead to cancer, liver failure, heart disease and diabetes hence such foods should be avoided at all costs.

3. Exercise Daily
Exercising daily is very important to maintain fitness. By exercising frequently, in increases our blood circulation and protects us from heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and various other diseases. Exercise is also good in controlling obesity as fat is burnt off as we exercise.

Exercising refreshes the mind and relieves tension and stress. Ensure that you exercise at least 30 minutes a day to maintain good health and a long life

4. Avoid Smoking

Smoking is the leading cause of fatal lung disease and can also lead to various cancers, coronary heart disease, strokes and reduced blood circulation. This is due to the harmful components in cigarettes such as tar and nicotine. Avoid smoking to avoid such problems!

5. Have sufficient sleep

It is important that one has enough sleep everyday. This explains why, after a good night's sleep, you feel better, your thoughts are clearer, and your emotions are less fragile. Without adequate sleep, judgment, mood, and ability to learn and retain information are weakened. Also, sufficient sleep gives help our body repair damaged cells at a faster rate.


Alright, this is the 5 main points I can think of, if you have any more ideas, please contribute them in the comment box! See you all soon!

Updates

Hello people!,

I have decided start a section in my website on healthy living in addition to juicing recipes. I will share various healthy lifestyle tips, exercise tips, and natural foods that can help prevent certain common diseases affecting us today like heart disease, high cholesterol and most importantly, how to prevent cancer. In upcoming posts, I will share what is healthy food and what is healthy eating just to name a few :).

Also, in this modern era where most of us spend working long hours in front of the computer while working and go without exercising for long periods of time, I will cover why is healthy lifestyle important and also what we can do to improve our general well being whether in the office, or outside of work.

Till then, see you guys!