When it Comes to Pregnancy Nutrition – Get the Facts

Planning for the best pregnancy nutrition requires expectant mothers to gather as much information as possible. While your doctor is a great resource for the most important nutrition facts, the library, bookstore, and Internet offer other options for learning how to meet your pregnancy nutrition needs.Understand the Basic Nutrition Facts when Planning Your Pregnancy Whether expecting a baby or not, the most important nutrition facts include the need for a balanced diet, proper hydration, and a mix of vitamins and other concentrated nutrients. Each of these criteria can become especially important where pregnancy nutrition is involved. After all, you want to help your baby grow and develop to its full potential, and eating a healthy diet that includes plenty of whole foods is a wonderful way to give your little one the best start in life.Eating whole foods is a great way to get the pregnancy nutrition that is so vital, but many expectant mothers can also benefit from additional supplements. For example, your body may require extra calcium to help baby’s teeth and bones develop without completely robbing your own body of its resources. The nutrition facts show that by adding supplements with whole food ingredients, you can increase that calcium intake while benefitting from other nutrients at the same time.Eating More of the Right ThingsThe mother-to-be will need to balance her growing need for calories with her continuing need to choose the right kinds of foods. Just because your recommended caloric intake goes up does not mean that these should be empty calories. By following the basic rules of good pregnancy nutrition, you are giving your baby every opportunity possible. This means that instead of simply eating more food, you make a conscious effort to eat more of the right kinds of food.While supplements can certainly be an important part of your pregnancy diet, don’t overlook the basic nutrition facts. For example, fruits and vegetables are an incredible source of the nutrients that both you and your baby need. Fresh produce will have the most impact on your nutritional needs, with frozen fruits and vegetables coming in second. By making produce a part of your pregnancy nutrition routine, you are protecting the health of your child, not to mention taking care of your own dietary requirements.Just as an expectant mother may require a boost in her calcium intake, she should also be sure to get folic acid in her diet. Also referred to as “folate,” this nutrient helps the fetus to develop properly. Whether taking folic acid as a supplement (check the nutrition facts on the label for the amount) or through your regular consumption of whole foods, it is essential for healthy pregnancy nutrition plans.Have a Healthy OutlookIn a weight-obsessed culture, a woman may feel pressure regarding how much weight she should gain during her pregnancy. While you should always consult with your doctor to learn what is the right pregnancy nutrition plan and amount of weight gain for your situation, one way to avoid problems is to adjust your diet to make sure you are eating the healthiest foods available. Get all the nutrition facts you can and determine the best way to move forward.If your pregnancy nutrition plan is full of healthy whole foods and nutrient dense foods, then you are going to be more satisfied and in better shape. As you gain weight, adhering to some basic nutrition facts will help you to be sure that it is for your baby’s benefit, rather than simply from eating empty calories that aren’t good for either of you.

Can Nutritional Supplements Help You Look Younger?

Why do we need nutritional supplements? Many of us, in today’s hurried lifestyle, do not eat a well balanced diet. Because of this we need nutritional supplements to boost our daily diet. We have seen numerous commercials for overweight bodies. When was the last time you saw a commercial about getting nutritional supplements, not just broad spectrum vitamins? We have become a nation of over fed and under nourished citizens.Eating the right foods is great…BUT. The nutritional value of our food has diminished considerably in the last 50 or so years and this makes it necessary to take nutritional supplements. Our diet contains too much refined food and not enough pre-processed food. Unless you grow your own fruits and vegetables you will need to get your nutrients from another source, like nutritional supplements.Nutritional supplements fill the holes that processed foods leave in our diet. Not having enough vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants,
Speeds the aging process
Contributes to poor cardiovascular health
Helps cause poor eyesight
Produces a weakened immune system.
Many factors cause degeneration of your body’s cells. Some factors are
Radiation exposure
Cigarette smoke
Overexposure to the sun’s rays.
Some nutritional supplements work at cell level, some do not. Make sure your nutritional supplements work at cell level. The nutritional supplements must contain enough vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to supplement our daily diet. Combining a good diet with nutritional supplements and regular exercise will provide us with the basics to fuel our bodies. Adding nutritional supplements and exercise to our busy lives will give us more energy. The use of nutritional supplements can also slow the aging process.For the past 5 years or so we have heard much about antioxidants and free radicals, and for a good reason. If the free radicals in our systems are not neutralized they will run rampant in our bodies. The free radicals will damage our bodies at the cellular level. Here is where nutritional supplements can help. This damage over time will escalate and eventually lead to the acceleration of the aging process. The aging process usually manifests itself as heart disease, cancer, or osteoporosis. Diets alone do not supply enough antioxidants to combat this process. That is why your nutritional supplement must contain these antioxidants.Health and nutrition experts say that the basis for good cardiovascular health is a nutrient rich diet, exercise, watching your cholesterol level, and monitoring your blood pressure. The cholesterol and blood pressure levels should be periodically checked by your health provider. Nutritional supplements added to your diet can help improve these factors. Your nutritional supplements should contain a garlic extract (unless you are a garlic lover like me and eat it every day!). Garlic has been shown to be of great benefit in decreasing cardiovascular disease.Nearly all eye damage and loss of vision can be linked to poor nutrition! Poor nutrition can be directly linked to blood shot eyes, blurred vision, and nearly EVERY eye irritation we suffer. Nutritional supplements can help here too. To help reduce vision problems the nutritional supplements needs to contain Vitamins A, B, C, and E, in large enough quantities. Natural food sources for these are in dark green leafy vegetables (Kale and mustard greens, etc) orange fruits and vegetables (like carrots and oranges).I have only listed just a few factors here to show how important nutritional supplements are. Nutritional supplements are normally a combination of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Taking one of the nutrients (like Vitamin C for example) and or one antioxidant and ignoring the rest isn’t good. The vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants all work together to promote a healthy body.Get a list of the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants from your health care provider. Armed with this information read the labels of the nutritional supplements that you are considering (check several). Your health is too important to not check these. Get high quality nutritional supplements and you are on your way to a healthier life!Find a game plan and if it works, stick with it. I did!

What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime

What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.

As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.

That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.

Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.

Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.

Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.

Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.

That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.

Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.

Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.

My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.

Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.

And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.

All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:

• Farm eggs

• Fresh vegetables

• Cow’s milk

• Freshly baked bread

• Coal for our open fires

Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.

Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.

Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.

Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.

My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.

The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.

Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.

Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.

People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.

In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.

Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.

• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.

• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.

• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.

On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.

Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.

We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.

Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.

My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.