Keep Your Health Tips

Bodybuilders aren’t the only people who drink protein shakes every day. In fact, protein shakes make an excellent health food - great tasting, convenient, portable, and highly nutritious. Whether your goals are to lose weight, build muscle, or just improve your overall health, incorporating protein shakes into your daily meals can be a great way to reach your goals.

If you haven’t already guessed by now, protein shakes do more than just aid bodybuilders pack on muscle tissue. For everybody (not only bodybuilders & athletes), a good protein shake can help you:

- increase energy levels

- increase your lean muscle mass (It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female - this is always a good thing!)

- enhance your immune system

- promote healing/recovery

- boost metabolism (which in turn, burns fat quicker)

- reduce appetite and food cravings (protein digests slower than carbohydrates)

- increase your heart health

- lower cholesterol and blood pressure

Unfortunately, choosing a great tasting and high quality protein powder is not easy. Make the wrong choice and you’ll be stuck with having to drink shakes that taste like chalk (not that i’ve tasted chalk).

Not only that, protein powders can be really expensive when compared to the tin of MILO or Horlicks or packet of Milk you’re so used to buying.

Some brands have recipes that are geared towards taste, and not nutrition and are loaded with sugar often 30 grams or more and frequently have no more than 10 or 15 grams of protein. Thats the nutritional profile of a milk shake not a protein shake!

So, to do everyone a favour, I’m going to do the choosing for you.

Now, I’ve tried all flavours from EAS Myoplex, Designer Protein, GNC’s Pro Performance Range, Weider’s Muscle Builder, Horley’s and Optimum Nutrition’s 100% Whey. So trust me when I say that I’ve tasted all sorts of protein powders out there to have learnt that sometimes, flavours like ‘Vanilla Ice-cream’ actually means ‘leftover Vanilla pudding from last week’s bachelor party’.

Taking into consideration the quality, results, taste, price, recommendations from others, I strongly suggest Optimum Nutrition’s 100% Whey Protein. If you’re a Chocolate lover, try mixing 1 scoop of powder with a glass of milk. The taste alone would blow you away - believe me. If you think you can find a better tasting protein powder with a higher protein content, less sugar, etc, all at a great price - dont bother. Trust me. There just isnt anything better you can get at this price. It is 100% value for money. I practically stopped trying new protein powders the moment I tried this. This is my protein powder of choice and I’ve been consuming this for the past 2 years at least. And I also know of many others who have done the same.

Josh Stone, also known as DM, is the author behind the site http://www.dailymuscle.com which offers the author’s personal views on real-life fitness, bodybuilding, sports nutrition, cardio, fat loss, training information, and on all things that surrounds fitness.

Share This

Without a doubt there is something very relaxing and pleasurable about cooking and eating grilled food. There are countless ways you can turn your grilling not only into a flavorful and enjoyable way to cook, but there are also many healthy and tasty alternatives. Like anything else in life, what you put on your grill is a choice. Grilling healthy first means that you have decided to eat healthy. Cooking on a grill can be a great way to reduce fats on while adding wonderful flavor however we must also be careful when grilling as there can be certain risks if precautions are not taken. Eating healthy always begins with choosing healthy foods that are low in fat and using marinates to reduce unhealthy caseinogens.

We know that charcoal grilling can produce carcinogenic smoke from the high temperature cooking of foods containing fat and protein. This can produce unhealthy chemical changes in the outer layers of flesh foods. To avoid these dangerous chemical formations we must avoid inhaling the smoke and avoid the black char on the outside of charcoal cooked food caused by high heat and/or overcooking. It is also advised that any lighter fluid or self-lighting packages be avoided as they can also add toxic chemicals directly into your food. Instead, use a starter chimney and newspaper to get your charcoal lit. While this method may initially take a few more minutes, in the long run it’s faster and healthier. The use of marinades can also help greatly lower caseinogens in food. By using a marinade your food will not only take on extra flavor but even a simple marinade consisting of olive oil and a citrus juice can reduce the harmful chemicals by as much as 99%. A marinade will also assist in tenderizing and enhancing your food’s natural flavors.

There has been a lot of talk about grilling and the risk of cancer. While the risk is real and this should be kept in mind, there are some simple things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of cancer caused by grilling. The harmful chemicals that can form are created by putting food, primarily meats, under intense heat and flame. These are cancer forming agents however by taking a few simple precautions you can greatly reduce and even eliminate the risks. Grilling isn’t the only cooking method that causes these agents so there is no reason to give up on your grill. If done right, grilling is one of the healthiest methods of cooking.

To reduce the risks follow these basic tips:

• Trim excess fats from all foods. The fats are the main contributors to harmful chemicals so avoid fatty foods as much as possible.
• Using marinades based on olive oils and citrus juices with greatly help reduce the risks.
• Maintain a clean grill. This will also help reduce harmful cancer forming chemicals.
• Avoid letting your grill flare-up. Extreme heat and flame will also increase risk.
• Do not overcook foods. If you do accidentally char your food simply scrape or cut that portion off.

The marinade recipe below is simple, versatile, and tasty and will significantly reduce harmful cancer forming agents. The marinade will work perfectly with poultry, pork, vegetables and seafood and should be combined with your food of choice at least 1 hour prior to grilling.

Simple Marinade

Share This