Thursday, September 25, 2008

Health Tips for September 25

Health Tip: Satisfying Food Cravings

Food cravings are common, and most people have them at one time or another.

The Cleveland Clinic offers these facts to help you satisfy your cravings without wrecking your weight:

* Satisfying a food craving can help improve your mood, relax you and give you more energy.
* Women are likely to crave certain foods during certain times of the year and month, and are more likely to be happy when they've satisfied their cravings.
* Don't deny yourself something that you are craving. Instead, allow yourself a small portion.
* Denying yourself a small treat that you crave can lead to an intensified craving, and eventually binge eating.
* Take care of your craving shortly after it starts. The more time you have to think about it, the stronger the craving probably becomes and the more likely you are to binge eat.

Health Tip: Eating a Brain-Healthy Diet

What you eat can go a long way toward keeping your brain sharp and efficient.

AARP.org offers these brain-healthy nutritional suggestions:

* Vegetables -- Eat as many as you can, of all different colors, shapes and varieties.
* Antioxidants -- Found in vitamins C, E and beta carotene, you should get plenty of these substances. They occur naturally in many fruits and vegetables.
* Omega-3 fatty acids -- They are found in fatty fish such as mackerel, herring, sardines, anchovies, whitefish, tuna and sablefish.
* A B vitamin -- Take one daily.
* A multivitamin -- Also take one daily, but never exceed recommended dose. Taking more vitamins doesn't make it healthier -- doing so could be dangerous.

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