Breakfast Foods to Avoid

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for people of all ages, and what you choose to eat in the morning is equally important.

A healthy breakfast is linked to many benefits, including weight control, improved performance, good metabolism, better concentration and overall good health.

A 2006 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health reports that the trend of skipping breakfast increases as adolescents grow older and is linked to increased weight gain.

Eating an unhealthy breakfast is as bad as skipping breakfast. So, plan your breakfast menu properly and pay attention to eating healthy always.

Here are the 10 worst breakfast foods to start your day.

1. Sugary Cereals

Cereals are considered ideal breakfast foods, but you need to choose the best ones. The market is flooded with sugary cereals, which are not healthy for your body.

These cereals taste good because they have added sugar and artificial flavors. When you eat these cereals, the body converts the extra sugar calories to fat, thus increasing the risk of obesity.

Furthermore, the sugar causes blood sugar levels to spike, making you hungry again and you start craving more unhealthy, sweet and fatty foods. Plus, the food dyes used in colored cereals are not healthy.

According to a recent analysis by the Environmental Working Group of 1,556 cereals on the U.S. market, many are as sweet as cookies and should not be considered a part of a healthy breakfast.

Choose your breakfast cereals carefully. Look for those made with whole grains, as the fiber will help you stay full longer.

Plus, the vitamins, antioxidants and minerals found in whole-grain cereals can protect against problems like obesity, digestive issues, cancers and heart disease.

2. Fruit Juice

Fruit juice is another staple breakfast item. The problem lies with processed fruit juices, which contain added sugars and preservatives.

Plus, processed fruit juices are often low in nutrient value, lacking healthy fiber, enzymes, minerals, antioxidants and vitamins.

In fact, to get the most health benefits from fruits, it is recommended to opt for whole fruits rather than fruit juice. Although the juice has as much sugar as the fruit, it does not contain fruit pulp which is rich in dietary fiber.

Unlike the juice which gets absorbed faster, the whole fruit with its fiber content that can help tame hunger pangs until lunch time.

A 2013 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that intake of whole apples or clear apple juice has contrasting effects on health.

While whole apples are rich in polyphenols and pectin, these constituents segregate differently during processing into juice form, thus the clear juice lacks these constituents.

Pick whole fruits over fruit juice for a healthy breakfast menu. Whole fruit will provide your body with all the necessary vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Some tasty, low-calorie fruit choices for breakfast include apples, grapefruits, papayas, watermelons and berries.

3. Bacon

Make sure you are not eating something rich in saturated fat like bacon as part of your most important meal of the day.

Starting your day with bacon may increase your risk of heart disease and cancer due to its saturated fat, sodium, nitrate and nitrite content.

According to the American Heart Association, eating foods high in saturated fat raises blood cholesterol levels, which in turn may increase the risk of heart disease and strokes.

The World Health Organization says that high red meat intake increases the risk of colorectal, pancreatic and prostate cancers.

A 2005 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests an association between high intake of red meat and processed meat and an increased risk for pancreatic cancer.

Make sure to eat something nourishing and sustaining for breakfast to keep you energetic throughout the day.

4. Cereal Bars

Cereal bars, also known as breakfast bars, are often considered delicious and healthy breakfast options, but in reality some of them are a nutrition nightmare.

Most cereal bars are high in calories, sugar, unhealthy saturated fat and salt. Being loaded with added sugars, cereal bars are digested quickly and don’t satisfy hunger for long.

There also is a particular concern over the poor nutritional value in certain breakfast foods aimed at children.

A 2013 study done by the University of Hertfordshire reports that children’s ‘healthy’ foods, such as yogurts, cereal bars and ready-made meals, are higher in fat, sugar and salt than those marketed to the general population.

When it comes to breakfast bars, choose those containing whole grains that can give you the desired amount of energy-producing carbohydrates. Calcium-fortified cereal bars are also a good choice.

A 2015 study published in PLOS ONE emphasizes eating calcium-fortified cereal bars to significantly increase calcium intake, especially among women.

5. Doughnuts

Many people indulge regularly in doughnuts for breakfast, but doughnuts are one of the worst breakfast foods. These fried pastries are full of sugar, white flour and trans fat.

The high sugar content will raise your blood sugar level and can lead to significant weight gain over time. In fact, people with diabetes should avoid this sugary food as much as possible.

Doughnuts are made of white flour, a simple carbohydrate that contains close to no fiber. Fiber is essential for digestive health, and it helps lower cholesterol and control blood sugar levels.

Store-bought doughnuts are made up of about 35 to 40 percent trans fat. A 2015 study published in the BMJ reports that intake of trans unsaturated fat is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and Type 2 diabetes.

Just like doughnuts, muffins and other pastries are also not a good choice for breakfast. Instead of these sugary items, even a glass of plain milk is a better way to start your day.

6. Instant Noodles

When you have a busy morning schedule and need something easy to cook and tasty to eat for breakfast, instant noodles is often the answer. But instant noodles are not at all good for your health.

The two main preservatives, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and t-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), used in instant noodles can have adverse effects on your health.

A 2005 study published in Drug Metabolism and Disposition notes that long-term constant exposure to TBHQ may prove carcinogenic.

Moreover, the wax used in instant noodles is not digested easily and takes at least 3 days to flush out of your system. These noodles are also filled with empty calories and too much sodium.

A 2014 study published in The Journal of Nutrition reports that high intake of instant noodles may increase a person’s risk for cardio metabolic syndrome, especially in women.

7. White Bread

White bread is one of the worst foods that you can have for breakfast. White bread has a high glycemic index (GI) as it is made from refined grains that are rapidly absorbed during digestion.

This causes sharp spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels. High GI foods increase your risk for weight gain, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Also, white bread is low in fiber content, so you will usually feel hungry again before lunch time. These breads are also low in essential nutrients and may even have an adverse effect on your health. Plus, they are packed with yeast that can make you feel bloated.

Replacing white bread with a healthier alternative is easy to do. When buying bread, opt for those made with whole grains, such as whole wheat, whole oats or whole rye.

These breads may be a little more expensive than white bread, but they are worth the money in terms of being healthier for your body.

8. Pancakes

Typical pancakes are made with white flour, sugar, sodium and butter, thus making them unhealthy. It is recommended not to start your day with this sweet, calorie-rich food.

Being low in fiber, pancakes are less filling, thus making you hungry more quickly. They also do not contain any protein that keeps you feeling full.

Plus, the sugar and syrup used in pancakes can rapidly increase your blood sugar and harmful triglyceride levels that raise your risk of heart disease.

Even the butter used in pancakes is not good for your heart. Butter is high in saturated fat, and when eaten in excess can boost blood cholesterol levels.

But you don’t have to give up the fun of a pancake breakfast. Just make them using healthy ingredients.

Make the batter with whole grains and add mashed, grated or chopped nuts, fruits or vegetables to add a punch to the taste as well as nutritional value.

9. Flavored Yogurt

Flavored yogurt is another popular and convenient breakfast item that is not healthy due to the presence of artificial colors and flavors. Plus, it contains lots of added sugar and syrup.

Flavored yogurt is low in nutrient value as compared to plain yogurt. It is low in potassium, protein, calcium and vitamin D.

Plus, the mouth-watering flavors actually don’t come from the real fruit, but rather the pureed form that is high in sugar content, which provides instant energy but no nutrition. The sugar also increases your calorie intake, thus making you gain weight.

Instead of flavored yogurt, opt for plain yogurt for breakfast. Plain yogurt is a good source of calcium, protein and gut-healthy probiotics.

You can make your plain yogurt tastier by adding chopped fruits and nuts, such as apples, pomegranates, berries, almonds and walnuts. These add-ons will promote slower digestion and increased satiety.

10. Coffee

For many, a cup of coffee is a delicious way to boost their mood and brain function in the morning. But coffee is something that you should avoid including in your breakfast menu.

A 1999 study published in Physiology & Behavior reports that when coffee and breakfast cereal is compared, caffeine increased blood pressure and pulse rate, whereas breakfast cereal only had an effect on pulse.

Plus, many add-ons like non-dairy creamers or sugar in a cup of coffee can add excessive carbohydrates or sugar in your body. This in turn is not good for your weight as well as heart health.

Instead of coffee, start your day with a cup of green tea, which is good for your overall health.

Health Benefits of Drinking Water in the Morning

1. Drinking water balances the lymphatic system of your body. This prompts the lymph to reach your heart in a continuous motion. The lymph glands also help strengthen the immune system, which ultimately helps your body fight infections.


2. Drinking water first thing in the morning, it purges toxins from the blood, which results in glowing and better-looking skin.


3. Drinking water in the morning increases your metabolism by almost 25%, which ultimately leads to weight loss.

4. Drinking water helps in rehydration, which would help you get rid of headaches and back pain. These are often caused by dehydration.

5. Drinking water early in the morning would make you a regular cycle, as it helps in digestion of food and prevents constipation.

6. Drinking water helps you think better, as your brain is made up of fluid.



7. Drinking water also boosts your energy levels as the nutrients are absorbed better.

Also, when you start the habit of drinking water in the morning, start with not more than 4 glasses of water. Increase the intake eventually as you start to realize the advantages.

Milk Vs. Yogurt: Which is Healthier?

Since centuries it has been said that a person should have a glass of milk everyday. Health experts say that milk has many important nutrients which are good for growth and maintenance of the body. However, many people today have lactose intolerance, such people simply can't have milk and milk products. But, there is one milk product which seems healthier and easier to digest than milk itself. This product doesn't give a stomach upset to people with lactose intolerance. 

Here is a comparison between milk benefits and yogurt benefits:

Easier to digest than milk: Many people who cannot tolerate milk, either because of a protein allergy or lactose intolerance, can enjoy yogurt. The culturing process makes yogurt more digestible than milk. 



Contributes to colon health: There's a medical truism that states: "You're only as healthy as your colon." When eating yogurt, you care for your colon in two ways. First, yogurt contains lactobacteria, intestines-friendly bacterial cultures that foster a healthy colon, and even lower the risk of colon cancer. Secondly, yogurt is a rich source of calcium - a mineral that contributes to colon health and decreases the risk of colon cancer. Calcium discourages excess growth of the cells lining the colon



Improves the bio-availability of other nutrients: Culturing of yogurt increases the absorption of calcium and B-vitamins. The lactic acid in the yogurt aids in the digestion of the milk calcium, making it easier to absorb. 

Boost immunity: Researchers who studied 68 people who ate two cups of live-culture yogurt daily for three months found that these persons produced higher levels of immunity boosting interferon.

Aids healing after intestinal infections: Some viral and allergic gastrointestinal disorders injure the lining of the intestines, especially the cells that produce lactose.  

Decrease yeast infections: Research has shown that eating eight ounces of yogurt that contains live and active cultures daily reduces the amount of yeast colonies in the vagina and decreases the incidence of vaginal yeast infections. 

Rich source of calcium: An 8-ounce serving of most yogurts provides 450 mg. of calcium, one-half of a child's RDA and 30 to 40 percent of the adult RDA for calcium. Because the live-active cultures in yogurt increase the absorption of calcium, an 8-ounce serving of yogurt gets more calcium into the body than the same volume of milk can.  

Excellent source of protein: Plain yogurt contains around ten to fourteen grams of protein per eight ounces, which amounts to twenty percent of the daily protein requirement for most persons. 



Lowers cholesterol: There are a few studies that have shown that yogurt can reduce the blood cholesterol. This may be because the live cultures in yogurt can assimilate the cholesterol or because yogurt binds bile acids, (which has also been shown to lower cholesterol), or both.

Yogurt is a "grow food.": Two nutritional properties of yogurt may help children with intestinal absorption problems grow: the easier digestibility of the proteins and the fact that the lactic acid in yogurt increases the absorption of minerals.

Yogurt & Curd
There is a lot of confusion about yogurt and curd. These two milk items might seem similar, but are not. They are produced by two different methods. Curd is liquid milk, which gets transformed into solid form by adding an acidic substance to it like, lemon juice or vinegar. While yogurt is produced by adding live bacteria to milk and the lactose part gets metabolized. Also, yogurt is more liquid form, compared to curd.

Why Digestive System Doesn’t Function Properly: Reasons & Solutions

Your digestive system plays a major role in the overall health of your body. Digestive problems are particularly common in Western society and have become part of the daily routine of many of us, but in normal condition they are not supposed to appear at all. Too many people have become accustomed to living with digestive disorders such as abdominal pain and bloating, irritable bowel and constipation.

Here I would like to show you 5 factors that can affect your digestive system and cause it to function improperly. I will also suggest you solutions to overcome these factors:

1. Stress


You don’t need a doctor to know that stress plays a major role in the health of our gut. The biochemical changes that occur when we are stressed have significant and immediate impact on our gut function. When the brain feels very stressed, it releases  various hormones that cause changes to the digestive system in the short term, such as lack of appetite, heartburn, nausea, diarrhea and stomach pain. In the long term, prolonged stress can worsen chronic diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and heartburn.



It not only affects existing chronic diseases, but may also lead to the development of a variety of gastrointestinal diseases such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcer disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and even food allergies. Stress can cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal system, and makes you more susceptible to infection. A healthy lifestyle should include stress reduction techniques that will improve not only your digestive system, but your overall well-being.

2. Enzyme Deficiency

There are many factors that can affect your body’s ability to produce a high enough enzyme level to maintain good health. These can be: unhealthy diet, air pollution, emotional stress, lack of sleep and more. Enzyme deficiency is the root of many digestion problems in our society. Your digestive enzymes, which are mostly produced in your pancreas, help you break down the food into nutrients so that your body can absorb them. Enzyme deficiency results in poor digestion and poor nutrient absorption,  and this creates a variety of gastrointestinal problems, including: constipation, bloating, cramping and heartburn.

We get many enzymes from the foods we eat, especially raw foods that directly help with our digestive process. To maintain a healthy enzyme levels it’s important to eat raw foods that are enzyme-rich. Consuming them helps your body’s to produce its own enzymes and reduces the burden on your body to produce the enzymes it needs. In addition to raw foods, read my article how to make digestive enzyme detox smoothie which contains digestive enzymes that help to ease the burden of the complicated process of digestion.

3. Magnesium Deficiency

Magnesium deficiency causes, among many other things, constipation and digestive-related disorders. Your body uses this important mineral to aid in the digestion process. Without magnesium, your body cannot properly digest foods, as it activates enzymes that let the body digest and break down food into smaller pieces for energy, and it also works to produce and transport energy during digestion.

You may not get enough magnesium in your diet. Having the right amount of magnesium in your body is important to your digestive and overall health, so make sure to include magnesium-rich foods, such as dark green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans, lentils, avocados, bananas and dried fruits. Magnesium is also available as a supplement, but you should not take magnesium supplement without a physician’s approval as it can interfere with current medications that you take.

4. Intestinal Flora Imbalance

Our intestinal tract is full of various species of bacteria and yeasts that help digestion, kill harmful and pathogenic infections as well as helping to produce many vitamins and other chemical substances needed for our health.  These organisms that live in our intestines are called the intestinal flora. When the good or friendly flora are missing or in low concentration, it allows other harmful pathogens to multiply in the intestine. This affects the digestion of food, and can cause many other symptoms, since the pathogens create toxins that are absorbed into the body.

The causes for intestinal flora imbalance can be due to illnesses, improper diet, antibiotic use,  other medications, food chemicals and more. In these cases you may want to consider taking probiotics. You can refer in this matter to my article 9 reasons to take probiotics and why it’s so good for you. Or you can eat live-culture yogurt that often provides plenty of probiotics and is the simplest way to get them.  Make sure that the label states that it is live culture yogurt, as some companies pasteurize or kill the probiotic organisms after they have fermented the milk to make yogurt.

5. Heavy Metal Toxicity

The presence of toxic metals, such as too much mercury, aluminum, cadmium, arsenic, lead and nickel, has a damaging effect on the intestinal flora for some people. These metals flood the environment and can be found in cookware, household cleaners, cosmetics, air pollution, insecticides, herbicides and smoking that causes cadmium poisoning. They invade our body and cause or contribute to a long list of diseases.

To help fight heavy metal toxicity you can use clay to detox your body, or consume foods rich in pectin fibers (such as apples). Those fibers bind cholesterol and heavy metals to cleanse blood and intestines. Cilantro or coriander also aids our body to get rid of mercury and other heavy metals that end up in our bloodstream. Also chlorophyll rich-foods are food in this case. Chlorophyll is the green color in green leaves ,fruits and veges. It is not just a pigment, it connects with the toxins and free radicals and turns them into neutral materials. Studies have shown that chlorophyll helps in cleaning heavy metals that tend to accumulate in our body in different places, and has anti cancer properties, that specifically affect the liver. Read more about it in my article how to detoxify your body using chlorophyll. Also the green algae chlorella has been shown to help remove heavy metals, such as cadmium and mercury, pesticides and industrial pollutants from the body, thus helping to detoxify it. You can find more information in my article how to boost your health by eating seaweeds and algae. You can also prepare herbal infusion from red clover blossoms that also cleanse heavy metals and chemical toxicity, include those caused by the use of drugs.

Source of article:
http://www.healthyandnaturalworld.com/reasons-your-digestive-system-doesnt-function-properly/

Acidity & Ayurveda

Due to depressed mental condition, there is continuous secretion of digestive juices (which contains a greater quantity of Hydrochloric Acid). The capacity to digest food gets weaker. Therefore undigested food in the stomach starts to get toxicant. This is the reason why the parson suffering from this problem feels heaviness in the stomach immediately after taking meal.

Sometimes, he also feels pain in the stomach. Burning sensation is felt in the stomach and throat. It may cause vomiting which is a way to release the toxicant stuffs out of the body otherwise it would lead to ulcer in the stomach which can be very dangerous. In case of ulcer, there happens unbearable pain in the middle part of the stomach but after vomiting, the patient feels relaxed. But some patients feel pain after taking meal. If dark brown clots of blood is released in vomiting, the patient should such ice which will give cooling experience to him. Perform Kunjar Kriya in case of hyper acidity which will give relaxation to the patient. Give evening and morning clay on
the stomach, also give anima. Then according to the condition of the patient, let the patient bath till his or her waist. Regularly massage backbone for 15-20 days. In case of hyper acidity, don’t give acidic chemicals like soda as it is harmful. Anima of baking powder gives relaxation to the patient. Also perform steam wash for the patient twice a week. The patient should perform light asanas in airy space.

May laboratory tests and experiments in different countries of the world, following fruits juices and vegetables have been found very useful in ulcer:
1. Cabbage juice added with water
2. Cucumber juice
3. Carrot juice
4. Bottle gourd
5. Coconut water
6. Milk
7. Very ripe banana
8. Bael (stone apple or wood apple) juice added with water.

When the patient shows the signs of recuperating, then he or she can be given fresh curd, orange, vegetable juices, Papaya, watermelon, raisin, Munakka (Blackcurrant), boiled fruits and vegetables. If acid formation is low, then give lemon and honey. If it is required to lower the level of acid, give one spoon pure olive oil after 15 minutes of meal. Never take heavy meal and maintain a gap of three hours in taking meal.