Masenka.Be - your guide to a healthy lifestyle Blog of the latest health news and advice for improving your life the healthy way. What to eat, what to avoid and Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 23 0 18 1155

Articles from Masenka.Be - your guide to a healthy lifestyle

Wash your apple instead of peeling it 2007-12-12 09:26:06 It’s is better to wash an apple before you eat it than to peel it, because the peel contains triterpenoids. Triterpenoids are antioxidants which have shown in laboratory tests that they slow the growth of different kinds of cancer cells. Science does not know the full potential of this substance yet, but it could be that triterpenoids are mainly responsible for the cancer fighting properties of fruit. ... Apple

Cut your cancer risk in half 2007-12-12 09:00:36 Here is an eye opener for you: at least half of all instances of cancer are caused by a unhealthy lifestyle. This is the conclusion of a study done by the Dutch Cancer Foundation. The biggest risk factors are: smoking alcohol excess weight bad nutrition too much sun too little exercise And not, like many people assume, the environment or hereditary factors. ... Cancer

Average toilet seat cleaner than telephone 2007-12-12 08:44:35 On a desk there are 400 times more microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites) than on a toilet seat according to a study done by the University of Arizona. An average telephone is the dirtiest followed by the keyboard and then the mouse. When you have a cold, it all gets worse. Some viruses can survive for up to three days on your desk. So clean your desk as often as your toilet. ...

How to drink a soft drink 2007-12-06 08:16:59 Tell me how you drink a soft drink and I will tell you where you will get cavities in your teeth. This is the message of Mohammed Bassiouny, professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA. In an article in General Dentistry he describes the mouths of two teenagers. The first is a 18 year old boy who drinks 2 liters of soda per day. He drinks it directly from the can or a bottle. The consequences are clearly visible. His teeth are crumbling, they have brown and black stains and he has bad breath. To hide all this he presses his lips together when he doesn’t have to speak. The second mouth Bassiouny reports about is that of 16 year old girl. The last years she had drunk almost a liter and a half of soft drinks per day through a drinking straw the ends directly after her lips, so still before her teeth. Her teeth are also badly damaged, but in a different place. The boy has mainly damaged his molars with the acid and sugar from the sodas, but the girl has damaged mainly her fr ...

Watch the calories when eating healthy 2007-12-06 07:51:53 Eating healthy is good, but a study by the American Cornell University and the Institut Européen d’Administration de Affaires shows that people who order something that is labeled as healthy by a restaurant tend to order drinks, side dishes and desserts which are rich in calories. The theory is that you think you have already made a healthy choice, but this way you don’t lose weight. The researchers also asked people how many calories they thought were in certain sandwiches. The test subjects estimated that the sandwich from the “healthy” restaurant had 35% less calories than the sandwich which came from a restaurant who wasn’t claiming to be serving healthy foods. But healthy doesn’t automatically mean low in calories. Olive oil for example is more healthy than butter, but does contain more calories. ...

Fresh brew coffee machines bad for cholesterol levels 2007-12-05 10:55:31 In coffee there is a substance called cafestol that naturally occurres in coffee beans. Is has been known for quite some time that cafestol increases cholesterol levels and thus increases the risk of a heart attack. At home people mostly drink filter coffee. Filtered coffee contains a lot less cafestol than coffee from fresh brew machines, which are often found in the workplace. These machines grind the coffee on demand and the coffee is often only coarsely filtered. The dutch consumer organization tested 12 fresh brew coffee machines. Some machines, like the Autobar Valencia and the Bremer Via, produced cups of coffee with 1.9 mg of cafestol. Drinking five cups of coffee from these machines is equal to eating 5 slices of bread with full fat butter in terms of danger for your cholesterol levels. Other fresh brew machines, like the Vicenza, produced coffee with only 0,2 mg of cafestol, which is significantly lower. If you drink 5 cups of coffee daily from the ‘bad’ machin ...

Oregano oil against salmonella 2007-11-29 10:05:50 A study done at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands shows that oregano oil is a very effective inhibitor of bacteria. Bacteria like salmonella and E.coli are killed by adding the oil to chicken fillets for example. Researcher Sara Burt discovered the active component carvacrol which has a detrimental effect on such bacteria which can cause severe food poisoning. Carvacrol can be added to other articles of food in the form of vapor. Carvacrol vapor reduces the amount of salmonella bacteria on a chicken fillet drastically at 4C, is one of the conclusions of the research. ...

Coffee as sunscreen 2007-11-01 12:47:49 A study done at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA, shows that caffeine in combination with exercise gives protection agains UVB. This is the radiation in sun light that can cause skin cancer. The Americans gave hairless mice (which are very sensitive to skin cancer) water with caffeine, or a wheel to run in or both or neither. All mice had UVB light shone on them from a lamp. The mice that had the water with caffeine and the wheel had the least incidents of skin cancer. Only caffeine or only exercise worked as well, but not as well as the two together. The scientists haven’t found an explanation for this yet. Also they emphasize that it still has to be researched if it works the same in humans. ...

Bread crusts are healthier than the bread 2007-11-01 11:45:28 Even though bread and its crust are made of the same stuff, flower, water, yeast and salt, the crust turns out to be healthier than the bread. German researchers found out that bread crusts contain the antioxidant pronyl-lysine. This antioxidant helps the body make so-called phase II enzymes. These enzymes play a very important role in the detoxification of the body. The antioxidant also plays a role in preventing cancer. So eat your bread with the crust. ...

Healthy lifestyle can prevent cancer 2007-10-31 07:05:09 In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the results of a big worldwide research into the connection between lifestyle and cancer have been presented. Scientists have reviewed thousands of studies about prevention and causes of cancer. In the presented report are advises to reduce the risk of cancer. Vegetables, fruits, exercise and low alcohol consumption are recommended. Consuming large amounts of sausage, ham and meatloaf are recommended against. According to a Dutch scientist who worked on the rapport, the conclusions are not a surprise, but were never so well argumented. ... Cancer

Vitamins can prevent hearing damage 2007-10-25 10:15:59 Scientist who fed guinea pigs with magnesium and vitamins A, C and E noticed that the animals were insensitive to hearing damage. The guinea pigs who did not get the supplements suffered a great loss in hearing. In the research, published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, it is said these nutrients help reduce the amount of free radicals in the ear. Free radicals are an important cause of hearing loss. Test on humans are being prepared ...

Hemp is healthy if you eat it 2007-10-25 09:48:15 You shouldn’t smoke them cause they will give you a headache and worse, they are 5 times as dangerous as cigarettes for your lungs. But if you eat hemp seeds they are quite healthy. The seeds contain more protein than meat or fish, six grams per spoon! They are also full of alpha linolenic acid (ALA), which is good for the heart and the blood vessels. You can eat them straight out of the bag or mix them with salads or cereal. ...

Less salt, less chance of heart disease 2007-10-25 09:34:48 Researchers from Harvard University have discovered that by eating less salt you can prevent heart diseases. In the research conducted with 3000 individuals, they asked half the people to restrict their salt intake to one half teaspoon, about 1,15 grams of sodium. Fifteen years later there is 30% less heart disease among this group. High sodium intake can harden arteries, says the research leader. So don’t eat too much salt is the advice. Avoid canned foods or ready made meals, those are generally high in salt. ...

Avoid diesel fumes 2007-10-25 09:23:49 More news on the fumes front. Particles in the exhaust fumes of diesel engines react with fatty acids in the bad LDL cholesterol in the blood. They activate the genes that cause inflammation processes in the blood. Because of this, lumps can start to form in the blood vessels which can cause problems like heart attacks and strokes. ...

The dangers of watching television 2007-10-25 09:13:07 Although watching television is not dangerous for your eyes, it is dangerous for the rest of your body. This is the result of an American study. The number one reason is that you eat 71% more when you watch tv. And of course you watch tv sitting down and not being physically active. Also prolonged exposure to a too bright light decreases the amount of melatonin, a sleep regulating hormone. You also increase the risk for a lot more of physical symptoms: Hours of tv per week: Physical symptom: Increased risk: 12+ metabolic syndrome 48% 14+ type 2 diabetes 140% 17+ obesity 97% 20+ erectile dysfunction 30% 21+ insomnia 105% ...