Many of us heard about the benefits of soy protein, which became a subject of public discussions and close attention of modern scientists. If a decade ago soy protein powder supplements were used only by professional athletes and bodybuilders to buff up, nowadays soy protein became a common ingredient of our healthy meals and drinks. What do we need to know about soy protein and its effects on our health?

Soy protein is produced from soy flour and usually goes in two types: soy protein concentrate and soy protein isolate. Both of these two types of soy protein are rich in a number of very useful phytonutrients (including aminoacids, isoflavones, and so on), contain no fats and cholesterol. Soy protein is the most common type of proteins and an alternative to other known types of proteins: egg protein, rice protein and whey protein. A great number of researches and studies were carried out to analyze the properties of soy protein vs. whey protein, finding out that soy protein is the most compete, but whey protein can be more helpful to athletes, especially if mixed with milk.

Most benefits of soy protein are derived from its being a plant protein, which is free of all possible harmful substances like steroids, cholesterol, etc., as well as parasites and bacteria. Soy protein is very easy to digest that is why it is considered to be one of the best substitutions for animal proteins. In addition, soy protein is a great source of vitamins A, E and C, as well as other natural antioxidants, which are known for their powers to prevent many types of cancer and slow down aging process on chemical levels.

Soy products and soy protein powder supplements can be successfully used by those people who are working on reducing body mass and are looking for effective natural ways for that. Cholesterol lowering effects of soy protein are definitely among the most important benefits of soy protein as it helps to considerably lower the risks of heart disease. In addition, it can be used by those patients, who are following the 30 percent fat diet, recommended by the AHA. Therefore, taking soy protein powder supplements can provide these cardiovascular benefits.

Finally, according to a recent study of Japanese scientists, soy protein has positive effects on bone health and can lower the risks of osteoporosis. Japanese specialists attributed these benefits of soy protein to a high content of isoflavones in this product. Those are the main facts and benefits of using soy protein, and if you want to find own opinion as to the soy protein vs whey protein debate, remember that any comparison of these two types of proteins should be made according to a certain criteria (like amino acid or glutamine content, biological or nutritional values, etc.). Both soy and whey proteins are healthy and beneficial for our overall health.

We all know that slight stresses can play a positive role and do good for us by stimulating our abilities to focus and find effective solutions, generate innovative ideas and so on. But the same can’t be said about chronic stresses: they are very harmful and every one who is constantly affected by chronic stresses should be aware about increased risks of many diseases, like mental disorders, heart disease and so on.

Moreover, the specialists from Anderson Cancer Center in Houston are convinced that prolonged exposure to chronic and acute stresses, as well as prolonged depression, is associated with the environment favorable for cancer and tumor development. For many years the world’s leading scientists were proposing similar theories, but only now this theory found scientific evidence in biological context.

The team of the scientists was studying the effects of stress hormones on various types of cancer. According to Anil Sood M.D. from The University of Texas, one of the leaders of the research, the people who suffer from stresses and depression have increased amounts of protein called Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK). Excessive amounts of this protein favor cancer cell formation.

In addition to that, according to the finding of the study, those people who are affected by prorogued depression and chronic stresses develop certain modification of a protein called norepinephrine, which also stimulated cancer cell formation. The scientists are sure that their research will help to find an effective remedy for these consequences of chronic stresses and depression. “We’re really trying to understand the biology. We hope it will help us identify better therapeutic strategies,” says Sood. For more information, check out April issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

It is estimated that about 10-15% of people regularly use vitamin supplements. However, the specialists are warning us that having excessive amounts of vitamin pills and supplements, including antioxidant vitamins A, C and E, will not increase our lifespan but can be harmful to our body. The specialists came to such conclusions after analyzing a number of relevant studies of the properties of synthesized vitamins.

The findings of this summarizing study, were published two years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was carried out by the International Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, and the experts  say that only natural phyto-vitamins which we can receive from natural foods like fruit and veggies are useful to our body. The Danish experts claim that using synthesized vitamins in excessive amounts can  increase the risks of having certain diseases and even the risks of premature death.

In particular, people who regularly take artificial vitamin E have 4% higher risks of premature death, those who take beta carotene have 7% higher risks, and those who take Vitamin A have 16% higher risks of premature death. These conclusions were made after studying the results of 47 researches of various institutions, which involved  181,000 participants. “The main message is that prevention by beta carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E cannot be recommended. These three antioxidant supplements may increase mortality,” Dr. Christian Gluud, a leader of the University of Copenhagen research team says.

Recently, I had a great chance to speak to Prof. Doctor Bingyr Sonmez, a specialist on cardio-vascular diseases and differential diagnostics, as well as a famous anti-tobacco enthusiast, who worked here in the UK in St. Thomas Hospital and recently visited our hospital on a special occasion. He shared a lot of very interesting ideas with me, but what impressed me the most is his viewpoint on the benefits of eating eggs

Dr Sonmez says that for more than 40 years doctors were saying to people not to eat eggs very strictly. They did that with their full belief till early 90s. Actually, for 40 years some voices were telling us: egg is actually not that bad for heart and egg actually does not have much cholesterol. Some scientists were saying that.

In the 90s there were serious researches indicating that egg has minimal or almost no effect on rising cholesterol levels. The practitioners were aware of that and started suggesting their patients eating eggs. Now, egg is suggested strictly to protect from the Alzheimer’s disease and elder people should eat an egg a day.

Egg is a very useful food and there are lots of benefits of eating eggs on a regular basis. Eggs can protect us from breast cancer and lots of other problems. It slows down aging processes in our body. If we manage to diver people from the wrong understanding about egg as doctors, we will be serving for public safety much better.

Egg fulfills our body’s protein needs and keeps a person full for long period of time. It also can correct hear arrhythmia, rise good cholesterol (HDL). There is small amount of bad cholesterol in it, but it is a really minimum amount and has no harm at all.

If eggs could be enriched by omega 3 acid, they would be extremely useful for people. Enriched eggs are good, but normal are also very valuable. For a normal egg  without no other food , a little bit warmth and humidity adjustment a normal chicken can come out, that indicates incomparable nutrition value of this food. This can make us see the importance of this food a a nutrient packed natural food.

Vegetables play the main role in our dietary plan and help to support normal function of all our body systems, and there are many benefits of eating vegetables every day. For many people, vegetables are the main sources of vitamins, minerals, carbs, organic elements, essential oils, phytonutrients and so on. However, not everyone of us likes eating vegetables every day: people prefer sweeter and more tasty natural foods – fruit.

At the same time, regular consumption of fresh vegetables improves our digestion and normalizes our intestinal bacterial balance, as well as helps to cleanse our body systems and lower the amounts of toxic elements in it. In addition, vegetables are the most valuable and recommended foods for those people, who need to follow a healthy diet. Other benefits of eating vegetables include their therapeutic properties, such as positive effects on our immune system, and so on. To receive maximum of these effects, fresh vegetables need to cover up at least 20% of your daily diet.

However, eating raw vegetables is not always as useful as it is considered to be. British nutritionists from the Institute of Food Research studied the proprieties of raw and boiled vegetables, and the results came out quite surprising. In particular, they tried to compare the nutrient contents of raw and boiled carrots, spinach, broccoli, tomato, eggplant and potato. It turned out that it is better to digest the beta carotene we receive from boiled carrots than the one that we receive from raw carrots. In addition, boiled carrots have three times more antioxidants.

The same can be said about carotenoids that we receive from boiled spinach and broccoli. 10-30% of these carotenoids can be digested, but only 3-4% of the carotenoids we receive from raw vegetables can be digested. Similarly, we can easily digest the lycopenes we receive from boiled or baked tomatoes than the ones we receive from raw tomatoes. And what about eggplants and potatoes? The nutritionists say that after baking or boiling most of the toxic elements are removed, that is why their nutritional value increases.

Before writing about health benefits of dark chocolate, I must confess that it is my most favorite food. I can live without any most delicious foods and consummately cooked meals, but eating no dark chocolate for 2-3 days always results for me in depression. As a matter of fact, women need dark chocolate because this food is a great source of potassium. Besides, we all know that dark chocolate anitoxidants make miracles: they help us maintain normal weight and look young and attractive for many years.

Lately, the scientists and nutritionists from all around the world have been studying therapeutic values and health benefits of dark chocolate. In particular, a week ago American specialists at Angiogenesis Foundation (Massachusetts) reported that dark chocolate should be considered among the most effective cancer killers. They underline that eating a bar of dark chocolate once a week can lower the risks of cancer, but what is more important: dark chocolate can be used even to inhibit the growth of cancerous cells.

William Li, the head of the foundation, reported about these findings at TED Conference earlier this February. “We are rating foods based on their cancer-fighting qualities,” Li commented on the researches done. In this context, he estimated cancer-fighting qualities of dark chocolate absolutely excellent, saying “What we eat is really our chemotherapy three times a day.” This opinion, however, should not make us go and eat ounces of dark chocolate 3 times a day, guys!

According to the findings of another brand new research, regular consumption of dark chocolate in small doses can decrease the risks of stroke. These long-term trials involved about 44,500 participants, who ate 1 serving of dark chocolate a week and demonstrated 22% lower incidence of stroke. At that, a smaller group of people, whose weekly dose of dark chocolate was about 50 g were more than 45% less likely to have a stroke. These new scientific discoveries are to be presented in Toronto at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in April 2010.

More and more specialists are talking about the advantages and health benefits of dark chocolate. But this product should not be considered a medication or a cure for various ailments. Consumed in small doses 2-3 times a week, dark chocolate antioxidants can slightly improve our overall health condition and lower the chances of certain diseases, but nothing more! “It’s not anything major, but it’s still an advantage, and even slight advantages can make a difference for some people,” comments Katherine Tallmadge, an experienced nutritionist and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

Many of us are very well-familiar with the symptoms of CFS, or chronic fatigue syndrome. Modern people, especially women, have so many things to do and tasks to accomplish, and sometimes we feel that something’s got broken inside of us. We feel apathy, fatigue, extreme weakness and hopelessness. Some specialists tend to believe that chronic fatigue syndrome is linked to certain sicknesses, and some suggest that those are the symptoms of old age. Well, those are just theories, but now we need to know what to do if notorious CFS is your frequent guest. Below, you can find the tips on how to beat chronic fatigue syndrome and always remain energetic and positive.

1. Wake up in the morning and go to bed at the same time. Also, have your meals and exercise at the same time of the day. Scheduled activities will help you to get adapted to physical and metal difficulties we all going through in spring.

2. Take a shower in the morning. On of the best relaxing procedures you can offer your body in the morning.

3. Exercise twice a day. Every morning do a short 10-15-minute exercise program, in the evening do some cardio or other training for 30-60 minutes.

4. Try to give up your bad habits. They are extremely damaging and harmful in terms of CFS.

5. Keep your daily nutrition under control. No need to say about the importance of healthy nutrition, just remember that your daily diet has to be rich with such elements and nutrients as zinc, selenium, magnesium, iron, Vitamins A, B and C.

6. Practice effective weight management techniques. It is proven that extra weight is linked to sleeping disorders (and many other problems, of course), which can be especially harmful to the people who suffer from CFS.

7. Regularly use herbal remedies and medicinal herbs to support your body in spring. Such herbs as St. John’s Wort, echinacea, horsetail, ginseng, milfoil, hawthorn berries, peppermint, Valerian root and other can have excellent calming down and rejuvenating effects on your body, helping you overcome the symptoms of CFS in spring and feel healthy and confident.

Nowadays, hair loss is a very common problem, and very often young men start losing their hair in their early twenties. Male baldness in young men always puts them down and brings a lot of negative emotions, but now there’s something that can cheer ‘em up a little! According to the findings of a group of specialists at the University of Washington School of Medicine, losing hair in early age is linked to almost twice lower chances of having such a common disease, as prostate cancer.

About 2,000 men of age 40-47 participated in the experiments, and about 50% of the men had prostate cancer on various stages. The scientists interviewed the men and compared the rate of cancer of those who started losing hair before 30 with the condition of the men who did not lose hair. It turned out that the risks of having tumors is twice lower for those men, who suffer from hair loss in their early twenties.

Professor Jonathan Wright, a specialist in cancer at the University of Washington School of Medicine, comments on the findings of his colleagues as the following: “At first, the findings were surprising, but we found that early onset baldness was associated with a 29 per cent to 45 per cent reduction in their relative risk of prostate cancer.” Another expert, Dr. Helen Rippo, says that these findings could be helpful in understanding of how male hormones behave and affect body tissues.

The results of this scientific research are to be published in the coming issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, and they are controversial in many contexts. In particular, most of the previous studies showed that losing hair in early ages is actually linked to higher risks of cancer, because male baldness and male type hair loss are caused by excessive production of male hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. It is known that in most situations hair loss is caused by such factor as genetics.

It is a known fact that fruit and veggies play one of the main roles in everyone’s diet. Those, who consume good amounts of fruit and veggies every day receive all necessary vitamins and nutrients, and have lower chances to have such diseases as stroke, cancer and other health problems. But it is not always possible to deliver fresh gifts of nature right to our tables, and that is the time when we pick up some frozen fruit or vegetables to get them in our diet. But what is the best option? Fresh veggies vs frozen veggies, who wins?

12 years ago the FDA confirmed that frozen veggies and fruit have not less of nutritional properties than fresh ones. However, recently a group of scientists from the Institute of Food Research came to a conclusion that frozen veggies actually have GREATER amounts of useful elements and nutrients than fresh ones. The specialists point on the fact that sometimes it takes up to 2 weeks till so called “fresh” fruit and veggies are consumed. At the same time, frozen fruit and veggies are processed shortly after being picked, thus they have more of useful elements preserved.

“The nutritional content of fresh vegetables begins to deteriorate from the minute they are picked. This means that by the time they end up on our plate, although we may think we’re reaping the vegetable’s full nutritional benefits, this is often not the case,” Dr. S. Schenker, an experienced nutritionist, comments. The study showed that so called “fresh” veggies we can buy in a grocery shop or a  market lose up to 45% of their nutritional value by the time we consume them. In particular, after 16 days of being stored in good conditions, green beans lose up to 45% of their nutritional value, cauliflower and broccoli – about 25%, and carrots – up to 10%.

That is why many nutritionists recommend using more of frozen fruit and vegetables in our daily diet. As a rule, veggies and fruit “…are frozen at their peak ripeness,” says Keri Gans, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. “With fresh, you don’t know how long it has been since it was picked. Also, frozen vegetables will keep in the freezer without going bad. Since they are already cut up, it makes it easy for the cook.” However, it is not worth giving up on fresh veggies and fruit, because the process of freezing and storing frozen foods is still damaging to the nutritional content.

Recently, Forbes magazine published an overview of the world’s healthiest traditional cuisines. The study was carried out by Harley Pasternak, a nutritionist and healthy lifestyle promoter. He based his research on his own observations while traveling around the world, as well as on some statistics: namely, life expectancy and obesity index, which reflect the effects of good eating habits the best. The specialist came to very interesting conclusions and he strongly recommends borrowing certain dietary tips from the mentioned cultures. Below, you can see the list of the world’s most healthiest diets, according to Pasternak.

1. Japan (life expectancy 82 years, obesity rate 1.5 %). The Japanese have extremely low obesity rate not only because it is very common for them to eat small amounts of foods, but also since their cuisine is focused on very healthy foods, like fish, soy products, broccoli and others. Buckwheat noodles, one of the most popular Japanese foods, is rich in complex carbohydrates and is very nourishing, but very healthy.

2. Singapore (life expectancy 82 years, obesity rate 1.8 %). Though this cuisine is based on increased rise consumption, the Singaporeans compensate their carbohydrate consumption by eating very small amounts of meat (they prefer fish and vegetables) and choosing fresh tropical fruit and low calorie treats for desert.

3. China (life expectancy 73 years, obesity rate 1.8 %). According to Pasternak, about 65% of meals in Chinese cuisine are made of fruit and vegetables, grains and beans. Also, Chinese cuisine should be preferred for the abundance of specific healthy foods like ginger, soy beans, garlic, etc. The disadvantage of this cuisine is using too much of fried foods.

4. Sweden (life expectancy 81 years, obesity rate 11 %). Despite of obvious shortage of fresh fruit and vegetables, the cuisine of this northern country is based on dairy products and fish. However, it is necessary to remember that the tradition of leading a healthy lifestyle is strongly embedded in Swedish social life.

5. France (life expectancy 81 years, obesity rate 6.6 %). French people usually are keen lovers of good foods and wine, but they have one of the lowest obesity rate in Europe. Why? Because traditionally they tend to prepare meals in ovens, this way avoiding frying. Also, the French have no tendency to overeat.

6. Italy (life expectancy 80 years, obesity rate 13 %). No way, you can say! Wine, cheesy pasta and pizza lovers eat one of the world’s healthiest diets? Ha ha! Healthy way of preparing meals and using only healthy fats can also play a role, guys!

7. Spain (life expectancy 80 years, obesity rate 16 %). Pasternak is convinced that the Spaniards eat lots of dietary fiber, fruit and fish. Also, healthy cooking is practiced widely.

8. South Korea (life expectancy 79 years, obesity rate 10 %). The scientist attributes good overall health of modern South Koreans to their low-fat diet. Also, this country has one of the lowest rate of red meat consumption per capita.

9. Israel (life expectancy 81 years, obesity rate 24 %). This cuisine is focused on using lots of specific spices and herbs, as well as olive oil, which are rich in nutrients and useful elements. That is why Israel’s cuisine is linked to better health.