Coronary Heart Disease

The Healthy and Unhealthy Drinks

The Healthy and Unhealthy Drinks

Wondering why you don’t eat too much but still keep on gaining weight?  Then maybe you drink is not healthy at all.  There are hundreds of beverages out there that can boost your waistline.

You have to be cautious of what you drink.  Coffee, although it has significant health effects, can be making you fat.  If you drink coffee with full fat dairy and artificial flavorings, and do not forget about chocolate sprinkles, then it is highly likely that this is more detrimental than beneficial.

To maximize the health benefits of coffee, it is better to drink it plain or with soymilk.   Or you can just switch to green tea which is much better for you since it is a rich source of anti-oxidants.

Sugary summer drinks like margarita or a pina colada doubles your sugar and calorie intake.  A can or a glass of this can give you 800 calories.  If you’re looking for cool, alcoholic beverage to share in a hot night, then switch to red wine or light beer.

Red wine can reduce coronary heart disease and can lower cholesterol count, thus, reducing risk of high blood pressure or hypertension.  Red wine can also maintain the immune system.  It also have polyphenols which is an excellent anti-oxidant.

Polyphenols lower cholesterol levels, blood pressure, risks of cancer.  It also has anti-bacterial properties.  Aside form polyphenols, red wine also has flavonoids which is also an anti-oxidant.  Wine can also be associated in reducing stress.  It has a calming influence that helps the body to relax and unwind.

Before buying your juice drink, be careful on reading the label.  There is difference between “100 % juice” and “made with real juice”.  There can be a big amount of artificial sweeteners and big amount of calories included in your juice drink.  Drinking real juice drink can give you the necessary nutrients and vitamins, while there re juice drink which is not different from drinking a glass of sugared water.

Whether it is diet or regular soda, soda still has no nutritional value.  Unfortunately, this unhealthy drink is the leading and most favorite beverage.  There are studies showing soda related to obesity.  Soda is known to be high in calories and sugar.  Even diet soda shows no significant difference in sugar and calories.  Both regular and diet sodas are associated to weight gain.

Drinking soda has also been related to tooth decay.  It is still attributed to high consumption of sugars which is present in all soda drinks.  Caffeine is also present in sodas.  So children who drink too much sodas can develop caffeine dependence.  This may interfere with the development of the brain of children.  Although, this is not yet proven, several medical researchers and health care professionals are expressing concern.

Unfortunately, there are more of unhealthy drinks than healthy drinks out there in the market.  More and more people are forgetting to focus on healthy drinking.  Yes, we try to be cautious with what we eat but we still neglect what we drink.  Then definitely, we will be missing our healthy mark.

So if you would like to create your own drinks minus the sugar and calories, then definitely go ahead.  There are health guides and magazines, even the internet, can help you concoct a savory but healthy drink without the risk factors.

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Health Drink: Alcohol?

Studies have shown that those who consume alcohol in moderate amounts may have better health than does people who do not drink at all.  So would you qualify alcohol as a health drink?

These researches showed that those who drink alcohol moderately have lower risks and fewer heart attacks and strokes.  They are also less likely to have hypertension, peripheral artery disease, Alzheimer’s disease and even the common cold.

In the Old and New Testament, the medicinal properties of alcohol were mentioned.  In the early 1900s, moderate alcohol drinking was already associated with  decreasing the risk of heart attacks.  Since then, there are continuous research studying on the medical attributes of alcohol.

Drinkers who drink sensibly are said to have longer lives.  Harvard and Chinese research showing men who drink has lower risk of death compared to those who does not drink at all.  Average difference would be from 21 to 28 percent.  Longevity is associated with lower risk of coronary heart disease, cancer and respiratory disease.  Moderate drinkers showed that they have less cases of hospitalization.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism discovered that in 20 countries world-wide, those who have 20- 40 percent lower chances of having coronary heard disease are those who moderately drink alcohol.  Those who abstain and drink heavily has higher rate of mortality due to coronary heart disease.  A Harvard study was also conducted and showed that women who drink half a glass or five grams of alcohol a date lower the risk of coronary heart disease by half.

Aside from decreasing heart disease risk factors, moderate consumption of alcohol also increases the survivability of those who fall victims of this disease.  Light to moderate drinking of alcohol a year before an acute myocardial infarction or AMI can reduce the risk of death after.  While those who drink two to four drinks of alcohol after a heart attack are less likely to have a second heart attack incident.  Compared to those who abstain from alcohol, the risk factor is cut into half.

An American Heart Associate research states that light to moderate alcohol consumption can also lower the risk of stroke both in men and women, regardless of their age and their ethnicity.  While those young adults who drink one to three drinks a day have the lowest levels of hypertension.  Moderate drinkers are also less likely to have the Type 2 diabetes compared to high drinkers and abstainers.

Light to moderate drinkers are also more resistant to common colds compared to those who does not drink at all.  They also have lower risk of kidney cancer.  They also have lower risk of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma or cancer by 27 percent compared to abstainers.  And it goes on.  Alcohol consumption, as long as it is light and moderate have significant health benefits.

But once alcohol is consumed in large doses and amounts, then there we will encounter a problem.  When we talk about drinking moderately, medical researchers and professionals would say that is about one to three drinks a day.  For women, it should be 20 to 30 percent less than the average consumption of a man.  It is attributed mainly on smaller size and biological differences.

There are also some studies indicating the consumption of alcohol, even if in moderation, have significant effects on having higher risk of certain disease.  For women, there are studies that showed that an average one to two drinks a day can increase their risk of breast cancer. Pregnant women drinking can also fall victims to miscarriage or fetal alcohol syndrome which can have negative effects on the nervous system of the unborn child.  Cirrhosis of the liver, heart muscle damage and stroke can still e attributed to alcoholic consumption.

There are always two sides of a coin.  For alcohol it can be a drink beneficial to our health, but too much would lead to more sickness than cure.

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To your health and fitness,
Lisa Health

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