Every day we learn more and more about how the food we eat affects our bodies.

Not only does our diet provide us with protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and fiber, but it may also unwittingly expose us to antibiotics, pesticides, and growth hormones.

If you want to avoid these unwanted additives, you may want to consider purchasing organic food.

For fruits and vegetables to be certified organic, they have to be grown on a farm that can prove that for a period of three years, the farm has used no chemical products (like fertilizers or pesticides, for example) in the growth of their foods.

For meats to be certified organic, the animals have to be raised on 100% organic foods and they have to be allowed access to the outdoors at least once a day.

Will you be healthier if you eat organic food? There’s a good chance you may. If you choose organic, for example, you will be consuming meat that has a better fat profile, including more essential fatty acids, more vitamin A, vitamin E and beta carotene. All this and the food just plain taste better!

It isn’t just meat that is better for you when you choose organic. Organic fruits and vegetables, and organic dairy products, contain higher level of antioxidants.

Natural antioxidants are important because they can help protect our bodies from free radicals which may cause cancer and heart disease.

Organic fruits and vegetables may contain up to 40 percent more antioxidants. Organic produce has higher levels of vitamin C, important for wound healing and tissue health, as well as trace elements such as iron, important for healthy red blood cells, and zinc, which may help ward off disease.

There have been studies that have shown that people who consume organic food are healthier than people who do not. Obviously, the better nourished you are, the more your body has to work with in terms of keeping you healthy and functioning optimally.

You might find you spend a little more on organic food, but hopefully that will translate into spending less on medications and doctor’s visits.

It is also a good idea to avoid the added antibiotics and hormones that are added to many products, particularly dairy and meat.

It is thought the widespread use of antibiotics in food production may be contributing to the rise of disease resistant bacteria.

The consumption of hormone laden milk and meat may be one factor contributing to early puberty in children.

The more natural your diet—the more you consume food grown the way nature intended it to be grown—the healthier you may be.

Many women use strength training routine working out with resistance, such as weights to tone and slim their muscles.

Without special training and diet, women do not develop the large, bulky muscles so common in men who work out with weights or using resistance training.

Still, women do develop muscle, and because muscle naturally burns more calories than fat, this type of exercise helps keep women fit.

Even though older women may no longer be building new muscle mass, resistance training can help them be stronger.

A recent study compared two small groups of women, some in their 80s, and some in their late teens/early 20s.

Before the study, the older women had smaller thigh muscles than the younger participants, and showed less strength with extending their knees. After the study the older women could lift more weight, showing that their muscles were stronger, even though the size of their muscles did not change.

Muscle loss often happens as we age. Regular exercise not only helps us maintain muscle mass as well as health, regular weight bearing exercise also helps us keep our bones strong and avoid the problems associated with osteoporosis. Older women now have a new option for maintaining their health.

We’ve all been there–those dreaded tossing and turning, sleepless nights that have us looking at the clock every five minutes thinking, “If I fall asleep now, I’ll get at least 4 hours.” Well, fret no longer. Below are some common sleep myths debunked, and suggestions for how you can turn your anxiety-ridden nights into peaceful Z’s.

1. Eight is the magic number.
Fact: There’s nothing special about that exact number, it’s just an average. “Everyone has different sleep needs, and you’ll know you’re getting enough when you don’t feel like nodding off in a boring situation in the afternoon,” says New York University psychologist Joyce Walsleben, Ph.D., co-author of A Woman’s Guide to Sleep.

How to beat it: Listen to your body. If you’re constantly reaching for snacks or need an afternoon caffeine jolt–go to bed earlier. Your body is craving other ways to stay alert via sugar and caffeine. As an added bonus, you’ll be amazed at the weight lost when you start getting the proper amount of rest. In fact, according to a Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, women who slept five hours or less a night were a third more likely to gain 33 pounds or more over 16 years than women who slept seven hours.

2. You can make up for lost sleep on weekends.
Fact: Sleep binging on the weekend and forgoing sleep during the week upsets your circadian rhythms and make it more difficult to get into a deep sleep state. So instead of making up for the past sleepless week, you set yourself up to fail for the week to come. “The body loves consistency,” says Donna Arand, Ph.D., spokeswoman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

How to beat it: Try and wake up and go to bed at the same time every day–even on weekends. Like everything else in life, the key here is balance. A couple hours difference probably won’t make a huge impact, but don’t sleep in until the afternoon.

3. Some peoples’ bodies only need a few hours of sleep.
Fact: Despite the legendary stories we’ve all heard about Di Vinci only sleeping four hours a night, too little sleep is bad for your health and your happiness. It can impair performance, judgment, the ability to take in new information, weaken your immune system, and can contribute to weight gain.

How to beat it: If you don’t feel drowsy within 20 minutes of lying down, get up and do something that is not too active until you feel sleepy. Then try going back to bed. Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol after 8 p.m. on weekends and 6 p.m. on weekdays.

4. You need to be on medication if you have chronic insomnia.
Fact: Sleeping medication is designed to be used solely for short term sleep disorders such as travel adjustment or a stressful incident. People who suffer from insomnia benefit more greatly through behavioral changes and cognitive therapy, such as learning better sleeping habits.

How to beat it: Look into Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). “People think there’s something wrong with them if they wake up in the middle of the night, so when it happens, they look at the clock and start to worry, which prevents them from getting back to sleep,” says CBT therapist Dan Walsleben in a recent MSNBC article. “A therapist would explain that sleep is made up of both deep and light phases, and it can be perfectly normal to awaken every 90 minutes or so. Instead of worrying, we tell patients to congratulate themselves for sleeping so normally and let their bodies drift off again,” Walsleben says.

5. The older you are the less sleep you need.
Fact: As we age our quality of restorative, deep sleep declines, making it more difficult to stay asleep. According to a New York Times article, “The composition of sleep changes. There is also a greater likelihood that sleep will be disrupted by chronic illness, pain or some other discomfort. As a result, you end up with fewer hours of sleep each night–and subsequently a need to make up for that loss during the day.”

How to beat it: Just say no to naps. Studies show that seniors need just as much sleep as everyone else, they’re just getting it at different times. If you want to have a restful evening, try to avoid daytime naps, especially after 3 p.m. ]]> http://www.meditrendz.com/archives/2009/beating-5-sleep-myths/feed/ 0