Food/Nutrition

Fill up on Fibre

It's midafternoon and your stomach is grumbling. It's time to reach for a fibre-filled snack. Fibre will keep you feeling full longer, helping to reduce overeating by sustaining you until
dinnertime. The two types of fibre, soluble and insoluble, work in different ways. Soluble fibre breaks down as it moves though the digestive system, forming a gel that attracts and traps substances like cholesterol and moves them out of your body. Insoluble fibre, much like a sponge, absorbs many times its weight in water. This helps make stools heavier and speeds their passage through your body. To get fibre's benefits, avoid processed foods, such as cereals and crackers, which have most of their fibre removed. Instead, choose whole, unprocessed plant foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and beans, peas, and legumes. Drink plenty of water to replace the fluid fibre absorbs in your body.

Tired? Headaches? Hydrate Yourself

One of the easiest things you can do for your health is drink more water. Keeping your body well hydrated has numerous benefits. Water is required by the body to digest and absorb vitamins and nutrients. Water also helps detoxify the liver and kidneys and helps carry waste from the body. When headaches happen and you flag with fatigue, dehydration is often the reason. Most health practitioners recommend at least eight glasses of water a day. Buy an attractive one-litre bottle and fill it twice during the day. Not crazy about water? Herbal teas and broths offer similar benefits.

Wonders of White

You've likely already heard about the benefits of drinking black and green teas. Add another healthy tea to your cupboard: white tea. This tea comes from the young leaves of the tea plant, before the buds have fully opened. The young buds are covered in fine silvery hair, which gives white tea its name. The taste is light and sweet, unlike the grassy taste of green tea. Another advantage: white tea is lower in caffeine than both black and green teas, at only 15 mg per 250-mL cup of white tea compared with 20 mg in green tea and 40 mg in black tea. Some studies suggest that white tea contains more cancer-fighting antioxidants than green tea. Find varieties of white tea at your local health food store or specialty tea shop and drink your way to good health.