White Potatoes Vs Sweet Potatoes

Should you avoid white potatoes and eat sweet potatoes instead?

Both white potatoes and sweet potatoes contain a variety of nutrients. Here’s the comparison:

7-ounce white potato with skin: 220 calories, 5g protein, 51g carbs, 20mg calcium, 115mg phosphorus, 2.8mg iron, 16mg sodium, 844mg potassium, 4g fiber, .22mg thiamin, .07mg riboflavin, 3.3mg niacin, 16mg vitamin C
7-ounce sweet potato: 208 calories, 3.5g protein, 49g carbs, 56mg calcium, 110mg phosphorus, 1mg iron, 20mg sodium, 693mg potassium, 5g fiber, 4350 RE vitamin A, .14mg thiamin, .13mg riboflavin, 1.2mg niacin, 49mg vitamin C.

So, as you can see, sweet potatoes are a good source of vitamin A, and have a little more vitamin C and calcium (but less iron) than white potatoes; otherwise they're pretty much equal. We eat the potato skins as well as the flesh; the skins of many vegetables and fruits are concentrated sources of nutrients and fiber.

Simples.

10 Nutritional rules.

Here are ten key nutritional rules.

1. Eat every 2-4 hours.

Are you doing this – no matter what? Now, you don’t need to eat a full meal every 2-4 hours but you do need to eat 6-8 meals and snacks that conform to the other rules below.

2. Eat complete, lean protein each time you eat.

Are you eating something that was an animal or comes from an animal – every time you feed yourself? If not, make the change. Note: If you’re a vegetarian, this rule still applies – you need complete protein and need to find non-animal sources.

3. Eat vegetables every time you eat.

That’s right, in addition to a complete, lean protein source, you need to eat some vegetables every time you eat (every 2-3 hours, right?). You can toss in a piece of fruit here and there as well. But don’t skip the veggies.

4. Eat carbs only when you deserve to.

Well, not ALL carbs – eat fruits and veggies whenever you want. And if want to eat a carbohydrate that’s not a fruit or a vegetable (this includes things like simple sugars, rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, etc), you can – but you’ll need to save it until after you’ve exercised. Yes, these often heavily processed grains are dietary staples in North America, but heart disease, diabetes and cancer are medical staples – and there’s a relationship between the two! To stop heading down the heart disease highway, reward yourself for a good workout with a good carbohydrate meal right after (your body best tolerates these carbohydrates after exercise). For the rest of the day, eat your lean protein and a delicious selection of fruits and veggies.

5. Learn to love healthy fats.

There are 3 types of fat – saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. Forget about that old “eating fat makes you fat” maxim. Eating all three kinds of fat in a healthy balance (about equal parts of each) can dramatically improve your health, and even help you lose fat. Your saturated fat should come from your animal products and you can even toss in some butter or coconut oil for cooking. Your monounsaturated fat should come from mixed nuts, olives, and olive oil. And your polyunsaturated fat should from flaxseed oil, fish oil, and mixed nuts.

6. Ditch the calorie containing drinks (including fruit juice).

In fact, all of your drinks should come from non-calorie containing beverages. Fruit juice, alcoholic drinks, and sodas – these are all to be removed from your daily fare. Your best choices are water and green tea.

7. Focus on whole foods.

Most of your dietary intake should come from whole foods. There are a few times where supplement drinks and shakes are useful. But most of the time, you’ll do best with whole, largely unprocessed foods.

8. Have 10% foods.

I know you cringed at a few of the rules above. But here’s the thing: 100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference, in results, between 90% adherence to your nutrition program and 100% adherence is negligible. So you can allow yourself “10% foods” – foods that break rules, but which you’ll allow yourself to eat (or drink, if it’s a beverage) 10% of the time. Just make sure you do the math and determine what 10% of the time really means. For example, if you’re eating 6 meals per day for 7 days of the week – that’s 42 meals. 10% of 42 is about 4. Therefore you’re allowed to “break the rules” on about 4 meals each week.

9. Develop food preparation strategies.

The hardest part about eating well is making sure you can follow the 8 rules above consistently. And this is where preparation comes in. You might know what to eat, but if it isn’t available, you’ll blow it when it’s time for a meal.

10. Balance daily food choices with healthy variety.

Let’s face it, when you’re busy during the week, you’re not going to be spending a ton of time whipping up gourmet meals. During these times you’re going to need a set of tasty, easy to make foods that you can eat day in and day out. However, once every day or a few times a week, you need to eat something different, something unique and tasty to stave off boredom and stagnation.

Eat Well

Train Hard

Live Life

How Many Types Of Sit-ups Should I Do?

Sit-ups are without doubt the most overrated exercise in the gym. That’s not to say that they are not important, it’s just that they are over-used by the majority of gym goers.

Keeping the abdominal muscles strong is essential to help prevent back pain and help maintain core stability, but performing 10 different types of sit-ups, most of which look as if they are adapted from the Karma Sutra is a waste of time.

Varying all types of exercise is certainly encouraged by most personal trainers and abdominal exercises are no exceptions but trying out sit ups that are overly complex and difficult to perform correctly is often more of a hindrance to your routine.

The maximum number of abdominal exercises I give to my clients per session rarely exceeds 3 or 4 basic movements. By ensuring that every exercise is performed slowly and correctly, the abdominals can be worked intensely in a simple fluid movement without the client worrying where their arms and legs should be.

Changing the type of abdominal exercises you perform every few weeks or so is a good idea. This keeps your interest up and works the stomach slightly differently, but avoid following everyone else’s example at the gym and looking like an amateur contortionist! Ask a fitness professional for 3 simple stomach exercises every few weeks and ensure you perform each one slowly and as instructed.

The Pasteurisation Process of Milk

A Brief History:

Though not as well-known as the man who gave his name to this process, Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) laid the groundwork for germ theory by showing that microbes do not just 'appear' spontaneously.

His early work with the heat sterilisation of food in the 1760's formed the basis for research done by French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) nearly a century later.

In the 1850's, Pasteur began to examine why products like wine and beer sometimes went sour during the fermentation process. This led to his discovery that the souring was caused by certain unwanted strains of bacteria and yeast, or 'germs,' as he called them.

Taking a cue from Spallanzani, he found that heating below boiling, then rapidly cooling wine, killed the spoilage organisms busily trying to turn it into vinegar. This heat sterilisation process, d'pasteurisation'sation' (not 'pasture-isation' as some call it), was first proposed for use on milk in 1886 by German agricultural chemist Franz von Soxhlet.
The first commercial pasteurisation machines came on-line in the mid-1890's and remained the standard for decades. Recently, ultra-high temperature pasteurisation, commercially available since 1948, has become more common due to the increased shelf-life and total sterilisation it gives milk.

Types of Pasteurisation:

There are basically two methods of pasteurisation in use today - batch and continuous flow.
In the batch process, a large quantity of milk is held in a heated vat at 149°F./65°C. for 30 minutes, followed by quick cooling to about 39°F./4°C

In the continuous flow process also known as HTST, for high temperature, short time, milk is forced between metal plates or through pipes heated on the outside by hot water.

While flowing under pressure, the milk is held at 161°F/72°C. for at least 16 seconds. Before being chilled back to 39°F./4°C. or cooler, it flows through a heat exchanger to pre-warm cold milk just entering the system.


Effects of Pasteurisation:
The ultimate goal in heat treating milk is the destruction of all pathogenic or disease-causing microbes. Usually (but not always), assuming the machinery is functioning properly, the process accomplishes this task effectively.

Numerous studies have shown, however, that bad bugs are not the only thing destroyed by the heat: delicate proteins, enzymes, immune factors, hormones, vitamins, mineral availability- all undergo definite changes during the heating process. No one seriously disputes this fact.

What is not clear though, due to conflicting science and belief systems, is to what extent the food value of the milk is actually impacted. When man-made nutrients (often inferior to their natural form) must be added back in to replace those destroyed by heat, there is no argument. The quality of the milk has suffered.

And who speaks for the hundreds of factors and components present in raw milk, known and unknown, that synergistically create a whole, healing food?

What truly becomes of raw milk's many natural hormones, immune modulators and enzymes if, say, certain other key substances designed to assist their proper function are ultimately destroyed (and not replaced)?

Is the calcium our bodies absorb from pasteurised dairy somehow altered so that it goes to places other than needed or wanted? The unanswered questions continue to pile up...

Raw milk is an incredibly complex substance, the science of which we've still only begun to tweeze apart. Bear in mind, also, that the majority of milk research from the mid 1940's on has been, and continues to be, performed using pasteurised product.

There's no question that pasteurisation, while far from flawless, is a valuable and necessary process, especially where heavily unregulated (Non EU) farmed milk is concerned, but the ability to buy and consume clean, living foods with their myriad bits and pieces intact should also be an option for those who so choose.