1. Not Eating Nutritiously or Variously Enough

A well balanced diet, with meals and snacks rich in nutrients is essential for your health. Nowadays people seem to be too busy to take care of their own diet. This phenomenon has led to the increased demand for pre-prepared or semi-prepared food which is low in nutritious value, thus leading people to supplements. Prevention is always better than treatment, so instead of wasting your money on supplements, it would be better to just take your time and make yourself a well balanced and nutritious diet.

2. Skipping Breakfast

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Most people, however, don’t have time for it and just grab a sugary snack which calms their appetite. Sugar does make the hunger go away, but it only lasts for about one or two hours and it doesn’t help in terms of nutrition…not mentioning the weight gain. Make time to eat a consistent breakfast and you’ll start your days much better and you will improve your health.

3. Fast-food

Fast-food products have a high content of sodium and a lot of calories from saturated fats. Such products lack a lot of nutritious elements and, therefore, relaying too much on them might cause vitamins and minerals deficiency. Sure, fast-food is not poison and it’s not a crime to indulge yourself once in a while, but be careful not to make a habit out of it.

4. Eating Late in the Night

It’s not a good idea to dine right before going to bed. During sleep, the stomach reduces its activity, thus taking longer to digest food. Also, calories have a higher chance of turning into fat due to body’s inactivity. This is also why you should avoid snacks after dinner.

5. Lack of Exercises

Exercise is vital for a healthy body. It increases metabolism and burns the food we eat as energy. You don’t have to exercise just for the sake of it. If you enjoy activities like: running, soccer, basketball, dancing, tennis, bike riding, skating, or even taking a walk in the park, stick to them and your body will have a lot of benefits and you will fell much better.

6. Relaying on External Stimulants When Eating

Surveys have shown that US citizens stop eating when they have a clean plate, while some Europeans relay on their internal stimulants (like feeling full) to stop eating. Furthermore, the serving sizes differ greatly from country to country thus bringing a possible explanation as to why some nations are more exposed to obesity than others. It’s simple to solve this problem: just listen to your body and stop eating when you feel full, even if you’re at the restaurant or fast food, you don’t have to eat everything on your plate.

7. Using Food To Calm Down

Often, when we’re sad, impatient or bored, we relay on food to calm us down. But this never really help dealing with the cause of the emotional problems, so experts advise us to recognize when we’re really hungry or at least to pick up a healthy snack.

8. Excessive Snacking

Most people turn to snacks to get them through a stressful day at work. This doesn’t necessarily have to be unhealthy as long as you choose healthy snacks and you don’t exaggerate.

9. Eating in Front of the TV or Computer

Studies have shown that watching TV often distracts you from what you’re eating and you’re likely to consume with about half more than what you really need to. Sure, indulging yourself with some popcorn in the company of your friends at the cinema or some chips on your horror movies marathon night is fine once in a while, but taking your meals in front of the TV is just an exaggeration. The TV doesn’t belong in the kitchen so just relax and just try to enjoy your meal.

10. Not Drinking Enough Water

Some people fail to see the importance of water for our body. Water is important for the brain and all other organs. It also reduces hunger and helps detoxify the body. It is recommended to drink about 2 liters of water a day, plus the water from fruits, vegetables or other food products we eat. Some drinks, like soda and coffee, deplete our water reservoir so it’s best to avoid them when thirsty.

Hippocrates

The summer is long gone and now autumn is here. But, how do you see autumn!?! Autumn has its charm as this is the season when grapes are ready to be tasted and when leaves become more and more colored. However, autumn also has a certain „dark side”. In addition to the fact that a lot of us fall into a strange depressive mood (mainly due to the bad weather conditions like rain, cold etc.), autumn bring the „flu season”.

Flu season is that part of the year in which there is a very high increase in flu cases. This season starts as soon as weather becomes colder. Flu is mainly caused by Influenzavirus A, Influenzavirus B or Influenzavirus C, which are also known as human flu virus strains. During the years, Influenza virus has suffered genetic changes in order to adapt to human hosts. This virus never goes away completely as it passes from person to person.

For those of you that think that this is not really a big problem, I would like to say that flu season, in the U.S. for example, results in more than 200,000 hospitalizations and approximately 35,000 – 40,000 deaths each year. In addition, this season is also responsible for a total expense of more than 10 billion dollars in the U.S. As you can see, this is indeed a serious problem and everyone should consider it as such.

But how can this be explained? What really triggers this flu season to occur? This might be explained by reasons like:

1. Cold temperatures make the air drier, which may lead to mucus dehydrate. This prevents the body from expelling virus particles;

2. Also due to cold temperatures, viruses resist more on exposed surfaces with which we enter in contact and infected hosts shed the virus for a longer period of time;

3. Viruses are more easily transmitted as persons are in close contact due to more time spent indoors. Also, the aerosol transmission of the virus is enhanced when the air is cold and dry (research studies have shown that moist air provokes a degradation of the virus particles). The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) conducted a study on influenza virus and found that the virus has a “butter-lie coating”. This coating melts when entering the respiratory tract. Cold temperatures make the shell harder and, therefore, allow the virus to survive more.

Probably a lot of you are now thinking of how we can defend against this virus. Well, here the immune system plays a very important role. The immune system comprises multiple mechanisms within an organism that protects against diseases by identifying and destroying pathogens, tumor cells etc. The immune system is able to distinguish pathogen agents from healthy cells and tissues.

In order to reduce the risk of infection, we have to make sure that our immune system in functioning at full capacity. For this reason I tried to find the BEST WAYS OF BOOSTING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. Here is my selection:

1. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits

Because they are best source of vitamins and minerals for the human body. Of them, to help your immune system fight against infections, the best would be to include in your diet:

- Foods rich in vitamin C – Besides flu, vitamin C can reduce the risk of dying of premature illnesses. Although the optimum level of vitamin C is 500 mg each day, even small quantities of vitamin C can help. For example, if you include just one vitamin C rich food in your daily diet you can live longer. Some of the best sources of vitamin C are: kiwi, oranges, strawberries, broccoli etc. Beside such fruits and vegetables, vitamin C supplements can also be considered.

- Eat red foods – Lycopene is an antioxidant that is responsible for the red colour of some vegetables (like tomatoes). A study conducted by University of Milan found that this antioxidant keeps white cells in the blood, which helps in the fight with infections.

- Eat garlic – Before refusing garlic from your meal you should consider that garlic contains more than 25 antibacterial and anti fungal compounds and, therefore, is a great ally in the fight against infections.

- Eat more fibers – they help especially against digestive infections as they promote friendly bacteria in our gut

- Drink natural juices (made of fruits and even vegetables) – Usually such juices are full with vitamins and antioxidants and other great substances that help fight infections. For example, cranberry or blueberry juices are full with antioxidants called flavonoids with helps prevent urinary infections.

2. Eat yoghurt

Studies have shown that people who eat at least one yoghurt a day catch a cold more rarely than people who do not eat yoghurt often. This protection is provided by probiotics (friendly bacteria) in yoghurt (like bifidus or acidophilus). Probiotics means “for life” in Greek and refers to living organisms that provide health benefits when consumed in proper quantities.

3. Take nutritional supplements

If you consider that you do not assimilate sufficient vitamins and minerals through your daily diet, nutritional supplements are the solution for filling up the gap.

4. Echinacea

Taking Echinacea reduces the risk of infection. This plant leads to an increase of immune cells in the blood. Echinacea increases the ability of cells to destroy harmful bacteria and viruses and also activates body reactions meant to increase immune level. It is recommended to take it over limited periods of time with breaks in between.

5. Drink a lot of water

Water prevents infections by keeping respiratory tract mucus membranes moist and healthy. In addition, water helps the flow of lymph in our bodies ( the lymphatic system is responsible for waste disposal by breaking down toxins before passing them into the blood stream – a low intake of water will disturb the flow of lymph in our system, making the body less resistant to infections).

6. Do not take antibiotics too often

Antibiotics are effective against numerous infections. However, they must be used wisely in order to prevent them for causing more harm then good. Although this might sound strange, antibiotics won’t do a thing for viral infections such as flu… in other words, they can’t help you if a virus is responsible for your illness (like flu). Such products are used for treating many bacterial infections, fungal infections and some parasites. By using antibiotics in improper situations we risk to destroy friendly bacteria within our bodies. In addition, this might lead to developing antibiotic-resistant germs (some effects of antibiotic resistance are: illnesses last longer, the risk of developing complication increases, persons are contagious for longer periods and, therefore, are able to spread the resistant strains bacteria to others, treatments last longer and are more expensive).

7. Wash your hands more often

Especially in cold season, viruses are more resistant on exposed surfaces with which we enter in contact and, therefore, by washing hands more often we reduce the risk of infections. Some studies have been conducted concerning this matter and the results were that people who wash their hands at least 5 times per day reduce the risk of catching a cold or other infections by half.

8. Keep exercising but do not exaggerate

Exercising 30- 40 minutes a day, 3-5 times per week, can make our immune cells more active. Studies have shown that persons who do not exercise get sick more often than persons who do exercise. However, long exercise sessions can do just the opposite. In such long sessions, the level of stress hormones adrenalin (boosts the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles) and cortisol (increases blood pressure and blood sugar) rises, leading to a suppress of the immune system activity.

9. Reduce stress level

Stress level has a direct connection with illnesses. Numerous studies have been conducted on this matter and proved that stressed people are more likely to become ill. We have to make sure that we keep stress to a minimum by taking time just to sit back and relax, watch a good movie, read a good book etc. It is good to know that laughter can counteract many of the effects of stress.

10. Get enough sleep

Sleeping less than 6-7 hours per night can increase the risk of catching a cold because during deep sleep your body increases the production of natural killer cells. Sleep deprivation weakens the immune system leaving us vulnerable to diseases (like flu). Also, sleep deprivation increases the level of stress which, again, weakens our immune system.

More researchers recommend 8 glasses of water a day in order to maintain our health, but sometimes this quantity might vary depending on life-style, nutrition, environment temperature, humidity, etc. The human body needs so much water because almost every cell in our body need water to function properly.

Still, if you think that the human body accumulates daily 2 liters of water, think again! Our lungs expel daily about 3 cups of water through normal breathing, if we perspire we eliminate two cups of water a day (not including exercises), etc.

Some of us prefer soft drinks to water. In this case we should bear in mind that sugar slows down the absorption of fluids into the body. Additionally, such drinks contain calories that might sometimes make the difference between weight loss and weight gain.

Besides drinking water, another important method of increasing water intake in our bodies is eating food with a high content of water. Such sources of water are fruits and vegetables.

The top 5 fruits with one of the highest content of water are:

1. Watermelon (92% water)
2. Strawberries (92% water)
3. Grapefruits (91% water)
4. Cantaloupe (90% water)
5. Peaches (88% water)

Additionally, the top 5 vegetables with one of the highest content of water are:

1. Lettuce (96% water)
2. Cucumber (96% water)
3. Celery (95% water)
4. Radish (95% water)
5. Zucchini (95% water)

If drinking water is not that easy for you, here are some tips that will make it easier for you to drink water:

1. Drink less but more often (every two hours drink a cup of water, take water with you in the car, when you watch TV, etc.)
2. Include some natural flavors in your glasses of water
3. Use ice, lemons, straws, etc.
4. Use colorful containers
5. Drink cold water (it might taste better)
6. Replace soda with water at lunch
7. Drink a glass of water before you eat (recommended especially when you are trying to loss weight, as water decreases your appetite)

Additionally, for those who think that drinking less water means less kg on the scale, we should bear in mind that the more water we consume, the less we retain, because a clean inner body works more effectively.

Water consumption has a lot of health benefits. There is not a single diet in the world that restricts water consumption.

The most important 10 health related benefits of water consumption are:

1. External benefits: additional moisture for our skin, prevents the aging process, a more fit body, etc.

2. Headaches: 75% of our brain is made of water. So, when the body has a water deficit, the brain will be the one of the first who will signal the problem, causing headaches. When drinking alcohol, although some might not recommend, water might be the solution to get back in shape because it eliminates toxins and re-hydrates the brain.

3. Back pains: are often caused by fluid deficits in our bodies. The disks within our backs are filled with fluids, mainly water, and act like shock absorbers. Regular movement and a proper fluid level will keep these disks hydrated and will allow them to support the weight of the upper body.

Usually, the fluid inside the disks support 75% of the weight, while the shell supports 25% of it. When the fluid level drops, the shell is forced to support a higher weight level, causing pains and other problems.

4. Reduces infections: The lymphatic systems in our body is responsible for waste disposal. This system breaks down toxins before passing them into the blood stream.

A low intake of water will disturb the flow of lymph in our systems, making our bodies less resistant to dangerous infections.

5. Hypertension often occurs when the human body is trying to adjust to blood volume loss. Our blood is almost 85% water, so its volume depends a lot of the water intake.

When the body detects a drop in the blood volume, it closes less active capillary beds in order to maintain active areas proper fueled with blood. When vessels close, they cause an tension increase in the muscles. So, water helps by increasing the blood volume and thus, reducing tension.

6. Concentration: water is used to flush out toxins contained by certain food products (preservatives, additives, etc.). By drinking water, these toxins are flushed quickly from the liver, making you more active and increasing your concentration capacity.

7. Arthritis: water is used to lubricate joints between our bones. When water intake is low, the friction between cartilage surfaces increases, causing swellings, pains, etc.

8. Breath: bad breath is a clear sign that your body needs more water. Our saliva helps the cleaning process of our teeth of bacteria and keeps our tongue hydrated.

9. Cramps: oxygen is transported to our muscles by blood. If the blood is not properly oxygenated, muscles create lactic acid causing cramps. By drinking water we make sure that our blood is fueled with oxygen.

10. Other important benefits: asthma, digestion, fluid retention, morning sickness, etc.

There are many other benefits of drinking water. A proper hydrated body is a more healthy and resistant body!!!