Nutrition for Cancer Patients

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, a balanced and healthy diet is of utmost importance for someone undergoing treatment for cancer. This is a time when there is a lot of demand on the body.  There are two main nutritional objectives for individuals living with cancer. They are:

1. To maintain a healthy weight.
2. To select and eat healthy foods that supplies the body with energy and nutrients for repair and healing.

When the body is battling cancer, behaviors and eating habits often change and the way the body uses nutrients change as well.  The side effects of the cancer treatment can cause loss of appitite and cause food to taste bland.  It is at these difficult times, when it is difficult to cope with changes in your eating habit,  that the body can benefit from good, wholesome liquid nutrition.

Studies done by the American Institute of Cancer Research shows that it is not uncommon to experience changes in the way your body handles sugar or in your blood sugar level. You may experience hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). It is less likely you will experience hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). If you encounter this, adietitian can advise you on ways to control your blood sugar through diet.

Consult the food guide pyramid for the recommended daily servings of the different food group.  But if you are having trouble getting the nutrition that your body so desperately need at this difficult time, consider liquid nutrition, it could be the answer for keeping your body healthy.

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Awesome Acai Berries!

Acai Berries are hailed as an antioxidant superfood and continues to be one of the natural wonders of the world. Found in the Amazon, this exotic fruit is said to hold the keys to the fountain of youth. One of the benefits that has put Acai Berries on the map is its ability to aid in weight loss.  However, Acai Berries is beginning to show tremendous potential in protecting the heart and cardio vascular vascular system, helping to lower cholesterol and is powerful in helping to slow the aging process.

The benefits of Acai Berries are endless and include Natural Energy, Antioxidants, Polyphenols, Omegas (3,6,9), Essential Amino Acids, Trace Minierals, and Vitamins.  Acai Berries are also antiviral and antiallergenic. Its applications are also endless and only limited by your imagination.  Use it in snacks, smoothies, with yogurt, shakes, deserts  or just enjoy a cool refreshing drink.

For optimal health and wellbeing, include Acai Berries in your diet as a supplement.  Now, I am not suggesting that it is a magic potion.  It is important for you to recognize the value of eating a healthy well balanced diet including fresh organic fruits and vegetables.  I say organic because the conventional produced is so heavily inundated with all sorts of harmful chemicals that hurt our bodies.  But if you can’t eat organic, at least try to eat healthier.

Acai is such a popular source of  high quality antioxidants and so revered that many companies include it in their Nutritional Supplement Products.  For the health concious and active individual and more importantly for everyone who desires good health, adding an Acai supplement to your diet can go a long way.

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Rest and Water as a Remedy

Some of us make ourselves sick by overwork. The remedy? Rest, Freedom from care, and a healthy diet are essential to restoration of health. In sickness and in health, pure water is one of nature’s greatest blessings. Drink pleanty of water it promotes health. A suffient supply of water to the body is necessary to assist nature in resisting disease.

Water makes up 70-75% of the body weight of the average human being. While a person can survive for up to 4 weeks without food they cannot survive for more than 3 days without water. Water performs many different functions inside the body. It forms the bulk of blood and tissue fluid and is therfore essential for tansporting nutrients, hormones and wasteproducts around the body. Water helps control the delicate balances of concentrations within the cells.

?To keep the tissues in the mouth, eyes and nose moist.
?To regulate your body tempreture
?Protects the tissues and organs of the body
?To lubricate your joints
?Help prevent constipation
?Lessen the burden on the kidneys and liver by flushing out waste and toxins
?It forms the bulk of blood and tissue fluid and is essential for transporting nutrients, hormones and wasteproducts around the body
?Help dissolve minerals and nutrients and make them readily available to the body
?Carries nutrients and oxygen to the cells and controls the delicate balances of concentrations within the cells

Water is the second most important requirement of living being after air. Water used externally is one of the easiest and most satisfactory ways of regulating the circulation of the blood. A cold or cool bath is an excellent tonic. Warm baths open the pores and aids in the elimination of impurities. Both warm and neutral baths soothe the nerves and equalize the circulation.

Hopefully you have just found a new appreciation for water!

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Cancer: Prevention is Better Than Cure

Can Cancer be prevented?  

According to the American Cancer Society, poor diet and inactivity are the two key factors that can increase a person’s cancer risk. In fact, a third of the deaths associated with cancer are related to poor diet and inactivity.

Let’s  take a look at some of the known causes of cancer as identified by the American Cancer Society: genetic factors, lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, diet and physical activity, certain types of infections, and environmental expsoures to different types of chemicals and radiation.

From this information, it seems that most cancers are preventable by making healthy choices and controlling our environment.  If this is the case, why then, is there such an emphasis on the cure rather than the prevention?  Yes, I agree, that some types of cancer cannot be prevented but others can, yet the cure is all we ever hear about.  What about doing more to educate the general public about preventing cancer in the first place?

There is big money in cancer research and cancer treatments and not so much in cancer prevention.  You see cancer prevention requires a proper diet of fruits and vegetables coupled with exercise, really just better choices.  Eating healthy and exercising does not cost very much when compared to cancer treatments. Plus, the drug companies have a vested interest in providing treatments rather than cures.  If everyone made better choices or for that matter, the choices that would prevent certain cancers, the market for cancer treatments will be diminished. ” Things that make you go hmm!”

Don’t treat cancer as though it is a rite of passage.  You don’t have to get cancer or any other disease for that matter.  Our bodies were created with the ability to heal itself, that is why we have an immune system,  and our food was created to assist our bodies with that process by providing the important vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants.   Try to eat organic as much as possible and when you can’t, be sure to wash your fruits and vegetables really well.  You owe it to yourself, to make the decision to protect your body  by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and controlling your weight.

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Acai Berry and Your Diet

More and more people are including Acai Berries in their diet.  Know as an antioxidant superfood, Acai has become a household name.  It is said to have chocolaty flavor but not the best tasting fruit.  But somehow, someone saw past the taste to reveal the true nutritional value of this fruit.

I recently read a blog about one fellow’s experience using Acai to lose weight.  He was turned on to the product by a fellow doctor and has experienced amazing results.  Not only did he lose weight, he reports experiencing anti-inflammatory benefits as well.  Another positive attribute of the Acai berry is its ability to curb the appetite which allows those seeking to lose weight to control how much they eat.

More important than just dieting, it is important to understand that part of controlling your weight is making changes in the way you eat.  Proper nutrition is one of the key ingredient in controlling your weight.  In addition to Acai, you should incorporate other fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet.  No one source of antioxidants is the best.  Nature intended fruits and vegetables to work together as a team to keep the body healthy.

So why is there so much ado about Acai and antioxidants?  Because antioxidants builds up our body’s defenses and allow it to fight of diseases such as cancer and degenerative heart disease.  The diseases like cancer start because of DNA oxidation and heart diseases because of oxidation and inflammation.  Antioxidants are designed to control cell oxidation and relieve inflammation.  Providing our bodies with all the antioxidants and trace minerals that it needs to keep our cells at optimal health will go a long way in preventing many diseases.

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