The Benefits And Advantages Of Moving Towards A Vegan Diet

By Lexor Emman

Leading a healthy life is very important and that is the main objective of each and every one of us. There are many factors that go in making a person hale and healthy and food plays a very important role. We come from different types of societies and our cultures are different. In keeping with our cultures and traditions our food habits are also quite different and it varies from person to person, region to region and country to country. While there are many food habits, according to some people sticking on to a vegan raw diet is considered as a very important part of what is called a healthy food. As we have progressed economically and technologically our food habits have also changed significantly.

We have today split into nuclear families and the concept of joint family which was quite relevant in some Asian countries is no longer practical. Today we have families where both husbands and wives together have become bread winners and hence it has now become a regular habit to go in for readymade food or instant food as it is commonly known. These foods are generally are processed in nature and therefore have a number of preservatives that are used. Additionally there are rich in saturated fatty acids which lead to people putting on weight and developing cholesterol which start accumulating in the arteries. This causes a number of health problems like hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, renal failure, liver disorders and the like. Hence, many people have started understanding the importance of vegan raw diet and have started moving towards it.

Before we understand the features and benefits of these raw diets we should understand what exactly is a vegan raw diet? This is a diet that essentially consists of raw fruits and vegetables and various types of nuts, vegetables, grain products and fruits fall under this category. To put it simply, these food items are not cooked and are eaten raw. The first requirement for becoming a person who wants to survive on raw diet, you should refrain from eating any meat products, fish, dairy products, eggs and all types of fish. This sounds extremely interesting but in real life it could be a challenging change to your lifestyle. These foods are extremely rich in vitamins and minerals, but the question that comes in the minds of many people is whether they provide our body with the required amounts of proteins. Some vegetables are good rich in carbohydrates and hence this problem can also be solved. There is also no problem with proteins as all fruit and vegetables contain protein.

There are some inherent advantages with these types of vegan raw diet. First and foremost they provide the body with the right kind of minerals and vitamins which may get lost because of the process of cooking. Secondly, since most of the fruits come in a predigested stage it does not put unnecessary strain and stress on the digestive system. They are considered to be the ideal healthy food because of the fact that they are not very rich in saturated fatty acids and hence the risk of cholesterol building and fat accumulation is reduced to almost zero. These kinds of vegan raw diet habits help to keep our body and mind trim and alert and if we are able to follow it on a long term basis we could avoid all problems of obesity and lead a normal and disease free life.

However critics are of the view that vegan raw diet is difficult to sustain over long period of time because of the fact that they do not pamper the taste buds enough and the absence of oil as a cooking medium is something that may not interest many people. To provide the right kind of calcium and other minerals there are certain fruits and vegetables which have these vital nutrients in plenty. This calls for a bit of information gathering and could take some time and efforts. However, the fact of the matter remains that this is indeed a very healthy food habit and if one does a careful SWOT analysis they will surely find out that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. The only thing required to succeed in this vegan raw diet is a bit of determination and commitment during the initial stages. Once the body gets adjusted to the diet pattern, then it would be difficult for you to move out from this diet. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6553509

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Three Awesome Health Benefits of Carrots

By Steve D Wright

We are all familiar with the bright orange, crunchy vegetable known as the carrot, and whether you like them or not, they are a food that is bursting with nutritional benefits. In this article I am going to portray 3 awesome health benefits of carrots for you, which will hopefully either educate, or remind you, as to why this is a food that you just can't afford to leave out of you diet.

Do you know how many calories are in carrots, or perhaps which vitamin the carrot is able to provide you with in excess of your total daily dietary requirement? There really is a lot to learn when it comes to how, and why a food is going to do your body good. We are all responsible for only really eating the foods that we like the taste of, whether or not they are having a positive or negative effect, rarely crosses the mind. The carrot is one example of a vegetable that tastes fantastic and is crammed with nutrients that your body craves, doing you no end of good.

Without any further ado let me explain 3 brilliant nutritional benefits of carrots that will have you crunching away like Bugs Bunny in no time at all.

Vitamin A goldmine

There is no doubt that the biggest and best benefit that can be obtained from eating carrots is the fact that they are a gold mine of vitamin A, in fact if vitamin A was a currency those that grow carrots would be rich! You need vitamin A for good vision long lasting vision(particularly your ability to see better in the dark), to maintain a strong and effective immune system, as well as for maintaining healthy and radiant skin.

So how much vitamin A are we talking about here?

Well with 1 large raw carrot weighing 72 grams you are able to get 2,028 international units, which is an enormous 241% of the total required in a day for the average adult. This includes a large dose of alpha carotene and beta carotene, which is made into vitamin A inside your body.

When you consider that most fruits and vegetables contribute to the total dietary requirement of all of the essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs, it truly is an outstanding feat for just one vegetable to be able to provide such a large amount.

A great source of potassium

Potassium is a mineral that is known as an 'essential mineral'. It has this name because your body requires a higher level of it than other dietary minerals that are referred to as 'trace minerals'. One brilliant carrot nutrition fact is that you can get 230 milligrams of potassium from one large 72 gram raw carrot, which is a sturdy 7% of the total you should be consuming each day. This makes a serving of carrot a great contributory factor to getting a very important nutrient.

Potassium is needed in order to help your muscles work, and to recover when they are tired. It also acts as a source of energy, as well as helping to regulate your blood pressure and nervous system. As you can see this is a pretty important nutrient and one that you should not be going without.

Contributes nicely to your manganese levels

A highly important mineral, even if it is only a trace mineral. You are going to be getting just 0.1 milligram of manganese by eating a large raw carrot, but this is in fact 5% of the total you need in a day. So carrots can provide a very positive contribution when it comes to the manganese in your diet.

For something that we need so little of, manganese is a mineral that is responsible for some rather important things. This trace mineral allows the body to convert fat and proteins into energy, it helps the body in it's ability to absorb other nutrients that it needs, as well as helping your blood to clot when you experience any type of bleed. What's more, manganese is critical to your nervous system working properly.

Put the above three nutritional benefits of carrots together with the fact that they are also a brilliant source of dietary fiber, and surely you have enough of case to give them more of a chance.

Are there any negative aspects to carrots?

Other than orange being a color you might not like to wear, there is nothing that I can point out that would sway you towards not considering the carrot as part of your diet. Of course there is the fact that you eat them as opposed to wearing them as well.

When it comes to negative aspects of food such as their sugar, fat and cholesterol levels, I can assure you that the carrot wins top prize here too. It does not contain any cholesterol, it is low in sugar, and with only 0.3 g of fat for every 100 g of raw carrot, it is very low in that to. I would also like to point out of that 0.3 g of fat, none of it is saturated fat.

These are just three of the many health benefits of carrots, and if you were to dig a little deeper as to the various carrot nutrition facts based upon the other vitamins and minerals that it contains, you will be even more impressed.

I'm not sure that there are too many vegetables as versatile as the carrot, in that you can eat it both raw and cooked, hot and cold. It can be one of a variety of vegetables you have with a main meal, or the focal point of a salad. You can have carrot sticks as a snack on their own or with a dip. In fact if you eat carrots with something that has fat in, you are helping your body to absorb the fat soluble carotenoids that your body contains.

My advice to you is to make carrots a regular food in your diet, in order to reap the nutritional carrot benefits that they provide. Miss it, and quite simply miss out. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7171967

Top Health Benefits of Carrots

By Jeff K Andrews

The health benefits of carrots can be traced back to when it was originally cultivated in the Middle Eastern, central Asian countries and parts of Europe thousands of years ago. These original carrots did not resemble the carrots we see today. There were purple, red and yellow colored carrots. During the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe, carrots were widely cultivated and were initially brought to North America around this time.

In the commercial marketplace today, China produces approximately one-third of all the carrots that are bought and sold all over the world. Russia is second and the United States is a close third. Currently American adults consume approximately 12 pounds of carrots yearly.

The name "carrot" is derived from the word "karoton", which is Greek. The first three letters -kar designate a horn-like shape, referring to the part of the carrot that is underground and generally eaten.

The Nutrient Value of the Raw Carrot

The Food Chart that details the percentage of daily value of a single serving of carrots shows that each serving provides an excellent, very good or good %DV of the necessary nutrients and confirms the health benefits of carrots. Because of this, carrots are considered one of the world's healthiest foods. Carrots contain over 80 nutrients. One cup (122.00 grams) of raw carrots has 52.46 calories.

Health Benefits of Carrots

The carrot a root vegetable that is renowned for its rich supply of beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is an antioxidant nutrient that gained its name from the carrot because of the large quantities the carrot contains.

A carrot contains many other nutrients as well. The carrot offers a multitude of other nutrients that benefit the cardiovascular system, have anti-cancer properties and assist the immune system.

Antioxidant Benefits in the Carrot

All the different varieties of the carrot contain very valuable amounts of nutrients with antioxidant values. The more traditional antioxidant vitamin C and the phytonutrient antioxidant beta-carotene are just a couple of the many antioxidants the carrot contains.

The amount of phytonutrient antioxidants varies depending on the variety of carrot. For example, the purple and red carrots are well-known for their abundance of the antioxidant anthocyanin. The orange carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, accounting for 65% of their entire carotenoid content. Half of the yellow carrots carotenoids are from lutein. It does not matter which variety is chosen, each contains excellent antioxidant benefits.

The Cardiovascular Benefits of the Carrot

It is not a surprise that numerous studies have shown that the health benefits of carrots extend to cardiovascular benefits. Much of this is due to their rich antioxidant content. The cardiovascular system is in need of constant protection from free radical damage. This is especially true for the arteries because they are responsible for transporting highly oxygenated blood throughout the body.

In a study that was recently done in the Netherlands, participants were monitored over a period of ten years. This study has provided us with some riveting new information concerning carrots and the role they play in preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD).

During this study the participants' fruit and vegetable intake was categorized according to color. The focus of this study was on four colors: orange/yellow, green, white and red/purple.

The orange/yellow variety of fruits and vegetables was found to be more protective against CVD than the other colors. The deeper the shade of orange/yellow the more protection the food offered.

In the dark orange/yellow group of foods, carrots were found to be the one main risk-reducing food concerning CVD. The participants who did not eat very many carrots had the smallest amount of risk reduction for CVD. Even so, they still received some reduced risk of CVD from their carrot intake.

Participants, who consumed 25 more grams, which is almost one-quarter cup of carrots, had a significant decrease in their risk of CVD. The participants who consumed 50 to 75 grams more demonstrated an even higher reduction in their risk of CVD. This study surely demonstrates how easily the risk of CVD can be reduced. The best-researched polyacetylenes found in the carrot are falcarindiol and falcarinol. Preliminary research has shown that the polyacetylenes that are found in the carrot have anti-aggregatory properties and anti-inflammatory properties. The anti-aggregatory properties assist in preventing the red blood cells from excessively clumping together.

The Carrot and Vision Health

Growing up our parents always told us to eat our carrots because they were good for our eyes. However, there are not many studies documenting the benefit of carrot consumption on human eye health. The majority of studies have focused on the carotenoid levels in the bloodstream and the carotenoids activity themselves, not the foods, like carrots, that contain them. Even so, there have been smaller scale studies done on humans that show benefits to the health of the eye with the consumption of carrots.

For example, one study showed that women who consumed carrots no less than twice weekly have a lower rate of glaucoma (optic nerve damage generally associated with excessive eye pressure) than women who only consumed carrots on occasion.

Geranyl acetate is one of the photonutrients present in the carrot seed and has been shown to reduce the risk of cataracts in animal studies.

The Anti-Cancer Benefits of Carrots

The majority of the research on the cancer fighting benefits of the carrot was in the area of colon cancer. Some participants in the studies actually drank carrot juice. Other research studied the various human cancer cells in the lab.

Much more research is necessary; however, the results of the studies that have been done to date have been very encouraging. Lab studies indicate that carrot extracts have the ability to inhibit the growth of the cancer cells of the colon. The polyacetylenes that are found in the carrot, especially falcarinol, have been particularly linked to inhibiting the growth of these cells.

A Few Quick Serving Ideas

Raw Carrots

Shredded carrots are a nice addition to a salad as well as being one of the purest ways to enjoy the health benefits of carrots.

Eat carrots as a salad by shredding them and then adding them to chopped beets and apples for a healthy snack.

Cooked Carrots

The best way to cook carrots is to steam them.

Summary

As well as the numerous health benefits of carrots outlined above, the carrot can add a variety of colors and textures to many vegetable dishes and can be enjoyed raw as a tasty snack, cooked or as carrot juice for a nutritious drink. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6788989

This Is Why I Hate Raw Vegan Diets