Expert: Rachael Richardson
Contact: www.nutrolution.com
Bio: Rachael Richardson is a registered dietitian and a Florida-licensed nutritionist.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller

Duration : 0:1:14

Technorati Tags: diet, facts, food, health, healthy, nutrition, obesity

It’s Day 22 of Vibrant Vegan 30 Days, 30 Fruits for You Project!

Because we here at Vibrant Vegan want you to be the healtiest you can possibly be, and we want you to live a most Vibrant life, we’re doing this Fruit Project to help you incorporate more and more and more fruit into your daily diets. We know that if you eat oodles and oodles of fresh fruits each day, you’ll be on your way to living the health- and exhuberance-filled life of your dreams! So join us as we share information and low fat, raw vegan recipes some of our planet’s most amazing foods!

The fruit of Day 22 is the AVOCADO!

I know, I know, one of the themes of this Project is “low fat,” and since when was an avocado low-in- fat? Ok, they do contain quite a bit of fat (30 grams in one–but it’s “good fat” and has been shown to help lower LDL cholesterol levels), but I’m not recommending you eat bunches and bunches of avocados each day. As you’ve probably noticed, an avocados flavor goes pretty far–you don’t need much to make a delicious “avocado” difference in whatever you’re eating.

And now for the AVOCADO info I think you’ll find interesting:

-There are over 500 different avocado varieties!

-Avocados are an excellent source of:
Protein
Carotenoids–specifically Lutein
Vitamin E
Fiber
Potassium
Folate

-The high carotenoid and mono-unsaturated fat content have been shown to lower the risk of prostate cancer, lower LDL (”bad”) cholesterol, and raise HDL (”good”) cholesterol levels.

-Of all fruits, avocados have the highest amount of Lutein–a carotenoid shown to help protect against macular degeneration and cataracts.

-Avocados have the highest protein content of all fruits.

-Avocados are the best fruit source of Vitamin E. (Vitamin E has been shown to help protect against many diseases and help keep you healthy!)

-Studies show certain nutrients are absorbed better when eaten with an avocado.

- One serving, 2 tablespoons, contains 55 calories and 5 grams of fat.

-Texas and California combined eat more avocados than the rest of the US.

Now it’s the time for your LOW FAT, RAW VEGAN RECIPE featuring the AVOCADO!

AVOCADO-VEGGIE BURRITO

A filling, somewhat hearty, and totally tasty low fat, raw vegan version of a burrito!
It’s quick, easy, and bursting with flavor! Oh, and the texture’s nice too–soft and smooth avocado, crunchy corn and red peppers, the watery sweetness of a tomato, with touch of tart lime–yumm-a-roni! This dish contains just about 400 calories.

Ingredients

1/2 avocado, cut into chunks
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
kernals of one fresh raw ear of corn
1 red pepper, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
juice of 1/2-1 lime (depending on how “limey” you like it)
3-5 romaine lettuce leaves
pinch of salt (optional)

Toss all of the above ingredients, except the romaine lettuce leaves, into a bowl and stir gently until it seems nicely mixed. Fill your lettuce leaves with the avocado mixture from the bowl, and whoooopeee! Your low fat, raw vegan AVOCADO-VEGGIE BURRITOS are ready for you to devour!

Eat Avocados!
Eat buckets and buckets of fruit!
Be Vegan, Be Vibrant!

Duration : 0:4:58

Technorati Tags: 80/10/10, 811, easy, food, living, natural, raw, recipes, vegan

“WASHINGTON – If that craving for chocolate sometimes feels like it is coming from deep in your gut, that’s because maybe it is.

A small study links the type of bacteria living in people’s digestive system to a desire for chocolate. Everyone has a vast community of microbes in their guts. But people who crave daily chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than people who are immune to chocolate’s allure.

That may be the case for other foods, too. The idea could eventually lead to treating some types of obesity by changing the composition of the trillions of bacteria occupying the intestines and stomach, said Sunil Kochhar, co-author of the study. It appears Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Proteome Research.

Kochhar is in charge of metabolism research at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The food conglomerate Nestle SA paid for the study. But this isn’t part of an effort to convert a few to the dark side (or even milk) side of cocoa, Kocchar said.

In fact, the study was delayed because it took a year for the researchers to find 11 men who don’t eat chocolate.

Kochhar compared the blood and urine of those 11 men, who he jokingly called “weird” for their indifference to chocolate, to 11 similar men who ate chocolate daily. They were all healthy, not obese, and were fed the same food for five days.

The researchers examined the byproducts of metabolism in their blood and urine and found that a dozen substances were significantly different between the two groups. For example, the amino acid glycine was higher in chocolate lovers, while taurine (an active ingredient in energy drinks) was higher in people who didn’t eat chocolate. Also chocolate lovers had lower levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL.

The levels of several of the specific substances that were different in the two groups are known to be linked to different types of bacteria, Kochhar said.

Still to be determined is if the bacteria cause the craving, or if early in life people’s diets changed the bacteria, which then reinforced food choices.

How gut bacteria affect people is a hot field of scientific research.

Past studies have shown that intestinal bacteria change when people lose weight, said Dr. Sam Klein, an obesity expert and professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

Since bacteria interact with what you eat, it is logical to think that there is a connection between those microbes and desires for certain foods, said Klein, who wasn’t part of Kochhar’s study.

Kochhar’s research makes so much sense that people should have thought of it earlier, said J. Bruce German, professor of food chemistry at the University of California Davis. While five outside scientists thought the study was intriguing, Dr. Richard Bergman at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, had concerns about the accuracy of the initial division of the men into groups that wanted chocolate or were indifferent to it.

What matters to Kochhar is where the research could lead.

Kochhar said the relationship between food, people and what grows in their gut is important for the future: “If we understand the relationship, then we can find ways to nudge it in the right direction.”"

Duration : 0:2:28

Technorati Tags: bacteria, better, biochemistry, chocolate, craving, food, hater, implications, label, microbe, new, study, term, water

Duration : 0:3:33

Technorati Tags: cholesterol, diet, eggs, food, health, Meat, natural, Supplements, Vitamins

Duration : 0:2:23

Technorati Tags: advice, american, answers, arteries, association, bad, cholesterol, comments, diet, dishes, drugs, ebook, ebooks, eggs, esperts, facts, fastfood, Fat, films, food, foods, for, free, guide, hdl, heart, help, high, hospital, ideas, Information, infos, latest, ldl, lessons, levels, list, listing, lists, Low, Lower, Lowering, medications, menu, meter, movies, news, numbers, of, overview, pasta, photos, pictures, products, questions, range, ratio, recipes, reducing, resources, reviews, secrets, sources, test, testimonials, That, tips, Triglycerides, videos, website

Expert: Rachael Richardson
Contact: www.nutrolution.com
Bio: Rachael Richardson is a registered dietitian and a licensed nutritionist in Florida with more than a decade of experience.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller

Duration : 0:1:13

Technorati Tags: calories, diet, exercise, fitness, food, health, workout

Expert: Christine Marquette
Contact: www.marquettenutrition.com
Bio: Christine E. Marquette is a registered and licensed dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic in Austin, Texas.
Filmmaker: Todd Green

Duration : 0:1:52

Technorati Tags: diet, facts, food, health, healthy, nutrition, Vitamins

Expert: Rachael Richardson
Contact: www.nutrolution.com
Bio: Rachael Richardson is a registered dietitian and a licensed nutritionist in Florida with more than a decade of experience.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller

Duration : 0:1:22

Technorati Tags: calories, diet, exercise, fitness, food, health, workout

Duration : 0:3:19

Technorati Tags: cholesterol, dr, food, foods, health, heart, Joe, Keenan, Sacramento

Duration : 0:1:4

Technorati Tags: artery, attack, cholesterol, density, drink, fitness, food, hdl, health, heart, home, ldl, lipoprotein, medical