5 Ways Lemon Water Improves Your Health and Speeds Up Weight Loss

Squeezing lemon juice from a fresh lemon into a tall glass of water each morning will work wonders to help you lose weight, detoxify your body and strengthen your immune system.

Along with helping you detoxify and cleanse your body, drinking lemon water on an empty stomach first thing in the morning helps speed up your weight loss and boost your metabolism.

Below are 5 ways in which drinking freshly squeezed lemon water every morning helps you to lose weight and maintain a healthy body.

1. By Increasing Your Energy and Enhancing Your Mood

We obtain our energy from the molecules and atoms in our food. When the positive charged ions go into your stomach and interact with negative charged ions, a reaction occurs that energizes your cells.
Lemons contain a high amount of negative charged ions which give your body energy when entering your digestive tract. Being more energetic and alert is a natural mood enhancer. Lemons also smell very good which helps to clear your mind and brighten your mood.




2. By Improving Your Digestion

Lemons are a good source of dietary fiber which helps keep your digestive tract healthy by improving your digestion and reducing your appetite. Lemons help your liver produce bile, which is essential for proper digestion, reducing constipation and heartburn.

3. By Boosting Your Immune System

Lemons are a great source of potassium and vitamin C. Vitamin C is a powerful immune system booster and helps your body fight colds and viruses. High stress levels from work and a demanding daily schedule weaken your immune system. Lemons keep your immune system strong which reduces the frequency of common colds and the flu.

4. By Acting As a Natural Diuretic

Lemons are a natural diuretic that flush out dangerous toxins from the liver. Your body has a natural toxin removal system that keeps you alive and healthy, lemons increase the rate at which your body removes toxins.

5. By Keeping Your Skin Clear

The vitamin C in lemons helps keep your pores clear and decreases wrinkles in your skin. Since lemons help detoxify your body and act as a natural diuretic, they help clear out waste by-products from the blood which keeps your skin clear.

Be sure to purchase Organic lemons as they are free of pesticides that can accumulate in your body. Also, stay away from bottled lemon juice as it contains preservatives and sulphates which aren't good for your health.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Adi_Crnalic/650845

Five Foods You Should Avoid At Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, most people either avoid eating breakfast altogether, thinking that it will help them lose weight or because they don't feel like eating, while others consume the wrong kind of foods. You might wonder why you should watch what you eat at breakfast if you are not trying to lose or gain weight. Here's why: If you continue to have an unhealthy breakfast everyday, it increases your risks of heart attack, as well as of contracting diabetes. Breakfast is called so, as we 'break' our 'fast' of almost 7 to 8 hours. What you eat for breakfast, is the first thing that goes into your body after a gap of an entire night. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to pay attention to your first meal of the day. Given below are some foods that are considered 'normal' or even healthy to be consumed as breakfast, but aren't quite so:-

Wheat bread - Once wheat bread gets digested, it instantly turns to sugar and raises your insulin levels. It would be all right to have bread if you have a very active lifestyle, but not if you have a sedentary office job. Thus, bread does you no good. Wheat is almost always contaminated with mycotoxins, which can lead to contraction of diseases like osteoporosis, arthritis and allergies.

Bakery products - These include muffins, cupcakes, waffles, doughnuts, as well as beacon, ham and sausage. An average doughnut has about 200 calories, and the more sugar coated, the more unhealthy it is. You would have to walk for an hour just to burn these calories. All these foods lack in vitamins, minerals and proteins which are vital to keep up your energy level throughout the day. Processed meat like ham and bacon are high in fat and sodium, especially sodium nitrate. Constant consumption of these can lead to heart problems and sodium nitrate intake augments your risk of cancer.




'Healthy' and 'fat-free' food - Although a lot of packaged food is claimed to be healthy, it is quite otherwise. Healthy breakfast cereals for example, have sugars and salts in some or the other form, which can increase your blood sugar and cholesterol level. Besides, anything that has a long shelf life, is loaded with preservatives, which are harmful for your body in the long run. Even packaged orange juice is unhealthy, as nutritious juice, from real oranges, and without preservatives cannot last for more than two or three days. Do not be deceived by the 'fat-free' label on most products. When fat is removed from food products, some of the flavor also has to be removed, and manufacturers often add sugar, salt and artificial flavors to make up for that. Besides, while consuming fat makes you feel full, because these are fat-free products, you might actually end up eating more till you feel satiated.

Fried food - Fried foods are high in calories, cholesterol and fat. They should be avoided at all costs. When you eat fried foods first thing in the morning, they tend to deposit against the walls of your stomach and intestines, and make it harder for your digestive system to assimilate food throughout the day.

Pasteurized milk - Raw milk or organic skimmed milk is one of the best and healthiest foods you can have. It provides calcium, vitamins and protein to your body and helps you to feel full. But pasteurization of milk destroys beneficial bacteria, enzymes, protein and vitamin content and helps the growth of pathogens. Therefore, it is much better to opt for organic skimmed milk.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kya_Cassiuss_Victoria/717877

5 Common Foods To Avoid For Effective Weight Loss

Have you been trying to lose weight to no avail? If you feel that you are not getting the desired results in spite of exercising or dieting then you are definitely doing something wrong. Very often, the biggest culprit is what you eat and not how much you eat. There are certain foods that you should avoid eating as much as possible because they have a terrible effect on your body. Avoiding the following foods will help you lose weight quickly and easily:

• Baked goods: They have a lot of fats, sugars and refined flours. Baked goods are extremely fattening even if they do not have any frosting or topping. This means that you should say no to cakes, pastries, croissants, muffins and the like. Many people think that baked foods are less fattening than fried foods, and this may indeed be the case, but both types should be avoided as far as possible.

• Sodas: Regular sodas contain large amounts of sugar. What's even worse is that these calories come with no nutrition, fiber or protein at all; they are classic empty calories.

• Sugary breakfast cereal: They might be made of corn, oats or rice but they are loaded with sugar to make them very tasty. These foods give you a sugar high so that you have plenty of energy but sugar levels in the blood drop equally fast, leaving you craving for another meal.




• Full cream milk: Whole milk contains high levels of saturated fat that can result in high levels of bad cholesterol. Low fat milk is a better alternative because it contains all the protein, vitamins and calcium necessary for good health but only a fraction of the fat.

• Processed meats: Bacon and sausages are undeniably very tasty but they are extremely rich in fat and salt. It is best to go for low fat options if you really cant do without these foods.

You should eliminate these foods from your diet at the very earliest in order to start losing weight. You should also add lots of fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet because they will help you lose weight easily. It is also necessary to drink lots of water every day. If you are able to change your diet and lifestyle then it is unlikely that you will put weight on back again. Not only will you look slim and good but you will also feel healthy as a result.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rizvana_Manzoor/1397216