MEN'S CURE » Healthy Foods

8 Foods that Pack on Muscle

menscure — Tue, 01 May 2012 07:18:23 +0000

If muscles were made from chips and beer, we’d look huge. But they aren’t, and we don’t—unless you count that sack o’ fat up front and dead center.

If not Doritos and double bock, then what? We decided to delve deep into the human anatomy to find the secret spot on every muscle where the word “ingredients” is stamped. With the help of Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Connecticut, and a really big magnifying glass, we found it. Eight foods are on the list: eggs, almonds, olive oil, salmon, steak, yogurt, water, and coffee. Add these ingredients to your stomach and faithfully follow the directions on the package—”Lift heavy weights”—and you can whip up a batch of biceps in no time.

Eggs: The Perfect Protein

How they build muscle: Not from being hurled by the dozen at your boss’s house. The protein in eggs has the highest biological value—a measure of how well it supports your body’s protein needs—of any food, including our beloved beef. “Calorie for calorie, you need less protein from eggs than you do from other sources to achieve the same muscle-building benefits,” says Volek.

But you have to eat the yolk. In addition to protein, it also contains vitamin B12, which is necessary for fat breakdown and muscle contraction. (And no, eating a few eggs a day won’t increase your risk of heart disease.)

How they keep you healthy: Eggs are vitamins and minerals over easy; they’re packed with riboflavin, folate, vitamins B6, B12, D, and E, and iron, phosphorus, and zinc.

Almonds: Muscle Medicine

How they build muscle: Crunch for crunch, almonds are one of the best sources of alpha-tocopherol vitamin E—the form that’s best absorbed by your body. That matters to your muscles because “vitamin E is a potent antioxidant that can help prevent free-radical damage after heavy workouts,” says Volek. And the fewer hits taken from free radicals, the faster your muscles will recover from a workout and start growing.

How many almonds should you munch? Two handfuls a day should do it. A Toronto University study found that men can eat this amount daily without gaining any weight.

How they keep you healthy: Almonds double as brain insurance. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that those men who consumed the most vitamin E—from food sources, not supplements—had a 67 percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease than those eating the least vitamin E.

Salmon: The Growth Regulator

How it builds muscle: It’s swimming with high-quality protein and omega-3 fatty acids. “Omega-3′s can decrease muscle-protein breakdown after your workout, improving recovery,” says Tom Incledon, R.D., a nutritionist with Human Performance Specialists. This is important, because to build muscle you need to store new protein faster than your body breaks down the old stuff.

How it keeps you healthy: By reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Researchers at Louisiana State University found that when overweight people added 1.8 grams of DHA—an omega-3 fatty acid in fish oil—to their daily diets, their insulin resistance decreased by 70 percent in 12 weeks.

Yogurt: The Golden Ratio

How it builds muscle: Even with the aura of estrogen surrounding it, “yogurt is an ideal combination of protein and carbohydrates for exercise recovery and muscle growth,” says Doug Kalman, R.D., director of nutrition at Miami Research Associates.

Buy regular—not sugar-free—with fruit buried at the bottom. The extra carbohydrates from the fruit will boost your blood levels of insulin, one of the keys to reducing postexercise protein breakdown.

How it keeps you healthy: Three letters: CLA. “Yogurt is one of the few foods that contain conjugated linoleic acid, a special type of fat shown in some studies to reduce body fat,” says Volek.

Beef: Carvable Creatine

How it builds muscle: More than just a piece of charbroiled protein, “beef is also a major source of iron and zinc, two crucial muscle-building nutrients,” says Incledon. Plus, it’s the number-one food source of creatine—your body’s energy supply for pumping iron—2 grams for every 16 ounces.

For maximum muscle with minimum calories, look for “rounds” or “loins”—butcherspeak for meat cuts that are extra-lean. Or check out the new “flat iron” cut. It’s very lean and the second most tender cut of beef overall.

How it keeps you healthy: Beef is a storehouse for selenium. Stanford University researchers found that men with low blood levels of the mineral are as much as five times more likely to develop prostate cancer than those with normal levels.

Olive Oil: Liquid Energy

How it builds muscle: Sure, you could oil up your chest and arms and strike a pose, but it works better if you eat the stuff. “The monounsaturated fat in olive oil appears to act as an anticatabolicnutrient,” says Kalman. In other words, it prevents muscle breakdown by lowering levels of a sinister cellular protein called tumor necrosis factor-a, which is linked with muscle wasting and weakness (kind of like watching The View).

And while all olive oil is high in monos, try to use the extra-virgin variety whenever possible; it has a higher level of free-radical-fighting vitamin E than the less chaste stuff.

How it keeps you healthy: How doesn’t it? Olive oil and monounsaturated fats have been associated with everything from lower rates of heart disease and colon cancer to a reduced risk of diabetes and osteoporosis.

Water: The Muscle Bath

How it builds muscle: Whether it’s in your shins or your shoulders, muscle is approximately 80 percent water. “Even a change of as little as 1 percent in body water can impair exercise performance and adversely affect recovery,” says Volek. For example, a 1997 German study found that protein synthesis occurs at a higher rate in muscle cells that are well hydrated, compared with dehydrated cells. English translation: The more parched you are, the slower your body uses protein to build muscle.

Not sure how dry you are? “Weigh yourself before and after each exercise session. Then drink 24 ounces of water for every pound lost,” says Larry Kenney, Ph.D., a physiology researcher at Pennsylvania State University.

How it keeps you healthy: Researchers at Loma Linda University found that men who drank five or more 8-ounce glasses of water a day were 54 percent less likely to suffer a fatal heart attack than those who drank two or fewer.

Coffee: The Repetition Builder

How it builds muscle: Fueling your workout with caffeine will help you lift longer. A recent study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that men who drank 2 1/2 cups of coffee a few hours before an exercise test were able to sprint 9 percent longer than when they didn’t drink any. (It’s believed the caffeine directly stimulates the muscles.)

And since sprinting and weight lifting are both anaerobic activities—exercises that don’t require oxygen—a jolt of joe should help you pump out more reps. Skip it if you have a history of high blood pressure, though.

How it keeps you healthy: By saving you from Michael J. Fox’s fate. Harvard researchers found that coffee drinkers have a 30 percent lower risk of Parkinson’s disease than nondrinkers.

Source: Men’s Health

You Really Are What You Eat

menscure — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:30:59 +0000

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Recent dietary research has uncovered 14 different nutrient-dense foods that time and again promote good overall health. Coined “superfoods,” they tend to have fewer calories, higher levels of vitamins and minerals, and many disease-fighting antioxidants.

Beans (legumes), berries (especially blueberries), broccoli, green tea, nuts (especially walnuts), oranges, pumpkin, salmon. soy, spinach, tomatoes, turkey, whole grains and oats, and yogurt can all help stop and even reverse diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and some forms of cancer. And where one might have an effect on a certain part of the body, it can also affect the health of other body functions and performance, since the whole body is connected. With these 14 foods as the base of a balanced, solid diet, weight loss gimmicks and other fly-by-night programs can become a thing of the past in your life. Conversely, the ill-effects of an unbalanced diet are several and varied. Low energy levels, mood swings, tired all the time, weight change, uncomfortable with body are just a few signs that your diet is unbalanced. An unbalanced diet can cause problems with maintenance of body tissues, growth and development, brain and nervous system function, as well as problems with bone and muscle systems.

Symptoms of malnutrition include lack of energy, irritability, a weakened immune system leading to frequent colds or allergies, and mineral depletion that can trigger a variety of health concerns including anemia.

And since the body is connected, realizing that an unhealthy body will result in an unhealthy spirit only makes sense. When we nourish our body with these superfoods and complement them with other nutrient-dense and healthy fresh foods, our spirit will be vitalized and healthy as a direct result.

Many modern diets based on prepackaged convenience foods are sorely lacking in many vitamins and minerals, which can affect our mental capacities as well, and cause irritability, confusion, and the feeling of ‘being in a fog’ all the time.

Superfoods can be the basis of a sound, healthy, nutritious solution to curing many of these ailments and more.

Healthiest Foods – Best For Your Body

menscure — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:36:01 +0000

Below is the list of some of the healthiest foods you can obtain and help you to find the best for your body. Healthy food are important for your health body.

FRUITS

Apricots
Apricots good for your eyes it has Beta-caraten which helps it to protect and prevent essential damage. A single apricot contains 17 calories, 0 fat, and one gram of fiber. It can be taken soft or dried.

Mango
To boost your immune system and prevent arthritis you need to take Mango daily. A simple medium size contain antioxidant of 57 MG of Vitamin C.

Cantaloupe
You want to lower your blood pressure then take melon. Just half a melon contains 2 grams of fibre, 1 gram of fat, 97 calories and 853 mg of potaassium which is nearly twice compare to banana. It also contains 117 GG of vitamin C.

Tomato
One tomato daily helps to reduce half the risk of colon cancers, stomach and bladder. The good news it has 0 fat, 26 calories and only 1 gram of fibre.

VEGETABLES

Onions
A cup of onions offers 61 calories, 0 fat, and 3 grams of fiber and it can too help to to protect against cancer

Broccoli
One cup of chopped broccoli contains 25 calories, 0 fat, and 3 grams of fiber. Broccoli can help protect against breast cancer, and it also contains a lot of vitamin C and beta-carotene.

Spinach
One cup of Spinach contains 7 calories, 0 fat, and 1 gram of fiber. It also contains carotenoids that can help fend off macular degeneration, which is a major cause of blindness in older people.

GRAINS, BEANS & NUTS

Peanuts
One ounce of peanuts contains 166 calories, 14 grams of fat, and over 2 grams of fiber. Peanuts and other nuts can lower your risk of heart disease by 20 percent.

Pinto beans
Half a cup of pinto beans contains 103 calories, 1 gram of fat, and 6 grams of fiber. A half cut of pinto beans offers more than 25 percent of your daily folate requirement, which protects you against heart disease.

Skim milk
One cup skim milk contains 86 calories, 0 fat, and 0 fiber. Skim milk offers calcium and vitamin D. It also offers vitamin B2, which is important for good vision and along with Vitamin A could improve allergies.

SEAFOOD

Salmon
A 3 ounce portion of salmon contains 127 calories, 4 grams of fat, and 0 fiber. All cold water fish such as salmon, mackerel, and tuna are excellent sources of omega 3 fatty acids, which help to reduce the risk of cardiac disease.

Crab
A 3 ounce serving of crab offers 84 calories, 1 gram of fat, and 0 fiber. It is also a great source of vitamin B12 and immunity boosting zinc.

Hope that this guide will help you to find your healthy food.

Powerful Strategic Eating Against Fat

menscure — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 11:30:56 +0000

When it comes to eating, there are most of us are just don’t realize that you are what you eat. People forget about an important factor of why are we eating. We eat for living but not live to eat.

Here we list some important factor for you to start a strategic and a healthy eating habit’s.

1. Downsize Your Dishes

Unless you’re eating off decades-old dishes, you probably have the newer, plus-size plates–the kind that cause your eyes to override your appetite. Give them to Goodwill, and pick up either the 16-piece Santiago set by Dansk (10 1/2-inch dinner plates, 8-inch salad plates, and 7-inch soup bowls, $80) or the 20-piece Platinum Band set by Majestry (10 5/8-inch dinner plates, 7 3/4-inch salad plates, and 7 3/4-inch soup bowls, $60).

2. Be Small-Minded About Snacks

In a recent experiment at the Cornell University food and brand lab, researchers gave study participants either a single bag containing 100 Wheat Thins or four smaller bags holding 25 Thins each, waited for the munching to subside, then did a cracker count. The tally: Those given the jumbo bag ate up to 20 percent more. Outsmart your snack habit by sticking with the tiny 100-calorie packs now being used for everything from Doritos to Goldfish.

3. Raise Your Glasses

Since even experienced bartenders pour more into short, wide glasses than they do into tall, narrow ones, you’ll need to be creative when you play mixmaster at home. Start by using highball glasses to replace the squat tumblers you use for scotch and brandy. Next, put away your pint beer glasses and buy the pilsner kind. Finally, if you own balloon wine glasses, switch them with regular wine glasses.

Just watch the red: Cornell researchers found that people inadvertently pour more red wine than white into the same-size glass.

4. Divide and Dine

Until all restaurants become BYOP (bring your own plate), you’ll need to shrink your serving in a different way: When your entrée arrives, dive in and eat half, then wait at least 10 minutes before coming out for round 2. While you chat and sip water, your stomach will have a chance to digest and decide whether you’ve had enough, no matter what the plate’s saying.

Men’s Cure Team

How Much Protein?

menscure — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:42:06 +0000

The perfect diet, which can provide the right kind of nutrition, is composed of a diet with rite combination of carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and vitamins. Among all these components protein has a different and very essential role to play to keep the body in shape and make it strong. The main function of protein is reviving the dead tissues and enabling the growth of cells. Another essential function performed by proteins in body is making of hormones in the body and other serums required by the body. Proteins from plants are as nutritious as animal proteins. The total calorie intake should comprise of 20 percent of it. Proteins are made of essential and non-essential amino acids.

Protein Intake

A normal diet should contain 15-20% of protein. The intake of protein shouldn’t be more than 20% as suggested by the new researches. Protein contributes 4 calories of every gram consumed by the body. The right combination of essential amino acids as per the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) 1989 is: Isoleucine (10 mg), Lysine (12mg), Leucine (14 mg), Phenylalanine (14 mg), Methionine (13 mg), Threonine (7mg), Valine (10 mg) and Tryptophan (3.5 mg). These are those amino acids, which the body needs but cannot make them and are thus only made available to the body from food intakes comprising of these amino acids. And the protein needed by an infant is Histidine (28 mg). These amounts of proteins are taken in accordance with the body weight, per kilogram of it per day, by the body.

Protein Requirement

Requirement of protein depends on different factors like weight of the body, sex, age and the physical condition of the body. A normal human need for protein varies from that of the needs of an athlete or a body builder, or a person who is sick and lacks essentials required for a fit body. The body intakes essential amino acids that further help in making other non-essential amino acids required by the body to replenish the complete protein requirement of the body. The protein requirement of a body-builder is different from that of a normal workingman; the protein required by them is whey protein. Proteins from plants and from animals are the only outer sources of protein; milk has all the 8 different amino acids that the body requires for building muscles, hardening of bones and repairing cells. Eggs also provide complete protein, especially the white part of the egg.

An individual should take proper amount of protein, because any lesser than that or more than that can affect the body functioning adversely, which may result in body discrepancies. The amount of proteins suggested by physicians all over the world and by Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) has been agreed universally as the right intake of proteins for individuals with normal physical needs. The right combination of protein should be the proper combination of proteins from vegetarian food and non-vegetarian food. Vegetarian people are advised to take some dairy foods along with vegetables to keep the protein level in body at par. Dairy foods have high and good quality of proteins in them.