How To Optimize Your Body’s Natural Defenses

Eating a healthy diet is on the top of the list to achieve overall well-being. One of the easiest and tastiest ways to eat more healthfully to optimize your body’s natural defenses is to increase your consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Over the past 30 years or so, researchers have developed a solid base of science to back up what generations of mothers preached--eat your fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are low fat, low calorie, high fiber, and high in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. The goal is to get five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

But if you’re like 75 percent of Americans who have a hard time getting the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet each day, according to government studies, here are some ideas to help you:

Improving Your Diet

• Juice it up. Fruit and vegetable juices generally have the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients found in the produce itself and can be easier to consume. Just be sure to drink 100 percent juice without the added sugar.

MonaVie (M)mūn™ provides a body-beneficial blend of 19 fruits and Wellmune, which has been clinically shown to strengthen the body’s immune defenses.

Formulated with AçaVie™--the purest, most potent form of açai available—this scientifically advanced juice combats cellular oxidation while helping protect your body year-round. (M)mūn is fortified with beneficial fiber and key vitamins A, C and E, providing essential nutrients to support and sustain your overall health.

It also features a low score of 44 on the Glycemic Index (GI), which measures how the foods you eat impact your blood sugar levels.

Just like wearing a seat belt or brushing your teeth protects your body, drinking as little as 4 ounces of MonaVie juice daily helps support your health.

• Include a rainbow of produce in your diet. Variety is as important as quantity. No single fruit or vegetable provides all the nutrients you need to be healthy. The key lies in the variety of different vegetables and fruits that you eat.

• Get some every meal, every day. By making sure to have fruits and vegetables at every meal throughout the day, you’ll easily reach your goals. If that’s too difficult, add at least one extra serving each day.

• Make it a meal—combine juice like MonaVie (M)mūn with yogurt, some protein powder and ice for a meal in a glass when you’re on the run and can’t take time to eat a meal.

• Make sure to drink vegetable or fruit juices before and after exercising.

Elite athletes, such as marathon runners, place a significant amount of physical stress on their bodies, which can tax their health. Similar to other burdens on the body, exercise stress can compromise your immune system. In a four-week study published in the “Journal of Sports Science and Medicine” examining the effects of Wellmune in marathon athletes, participants who took the supplement reported an improvement in their feelings of well-being and in the maintenance of their overall health.

Other easy ways to improve your diet include:

• Eat less red meat and more fish and poultry. Replacing one serving of beef, pork or lamb with one of chicken or turkey would lower coronary heart disease risk 19 percent, reports Adam M. Bernstein, M.D., ScD, of Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues. Replacing them with a serving of fish could cut it by 24 percent.

• Eat more nuts, which are rich sources of healthful unsaturated fats including monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Studies show that consuming nuts improved total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and the ratio of “bad” LDL to “good” HDL.

source: napsnet