by Michaela Kennedy | Nov 23, 2015 | Health
Laughter and other displays of positive emotions are essential secrets to our well-being. For great health, diet plays an important role. Yet that's not all there is to it. To achieve optimal health, you need a combination of a healthy diet, exercise, and a positive mood. This is where “Laughter is the best medicine” comes in.
Every fall I travel to the South of Europe to a nice warm village to stay in over the winter. Usually, it's a great time of the year. I enjoy planning and packing. But this particular year was stressful for me. It started the month previous, not knowing if we were going at all. Something was needed and fast. Then I remembered Laughter Therapy – after a few laughs I started to feel much better, I stayed stress-free and enjoyed planning, packing, and travel.
Laughter releases tension
Laughter is often infectious. When you hear the sound of laughter, you can’t help but laugh yourself. When giggles are shared among others, they create a bond between people. It increases both intimacy and happiness.
It is well known that smiles trigger healthy bodily changes and healthy changes in the mind. Laughter can increase your energy level, lessen pain, strengthen the immune system, and protect you from stress. Laughing is the best medicine because it is free, fun, and easy.
Laughter is strong medicine
Laughter can be a strong antidote to conflict, pain, and stress. There is nothing else that works more dependably or quicker to bring your body and mind into balance than laughter. The use of humor can lighten your burdens, connect you to others, inspire your hope, and keep you focused, alert, and grounded.
With this ability to renew your health and heal you, laughter can be a great resource for whatever problems you may have. It can also strengthen your relationships. It can support your emotional and physical health and well-being.
How are giggles good for your health?
Laughing can have many benefits for your health, including:
- an increase in the strength of your immune system. It can decrease the level of stress hormones within the body and increase the number of immune cells and antibodies you have, which will help you become more resistant to disease.
- helping to relax. A wonderful laugh can relieve you of stress and physical tension so that your muscles can be relaxed for up to 45 minutes following laughing.
- a release of endorphins. Endorphins are the body’s feel-good hormones. When your endogenous endorphins are released, you feel a sense of well-being and a reduction in the sensation of pain
- support for the heart. Laughing can increase the ability of the blood vessels to nourish all parts of the body. It can increase your blood flow, which can help prevent heart attacks and other types of heart diseases.
The benefits of being happy
Laughter is known to have many health benefits, including physical, emotional, and social benefits.
Some of these include the following:
• Decreases stress levels
• Increases immunity
• Relaxes muscles
• Protects the heart
• Lessens pain
• Lessens fear and anxiety
• Relieves stress
• Adds joy to your life
• Enhances mood
• Improves resilience
• Attracts other people to us
• Promotes the bonding among group members
• Improves teamwork
• Strengthens relationships
Happy emotions can help your emotional health
Having a good belly laugh simply makes a person feel good. This good feeling persists even when you are done laughing. Laughter helps you maintain an optimistic and positive outlook. Which means you can easier get through situations of loss, disappointments, and other difficult situations.
Laughing often is more than just protection against pain and sadness. It gives you the strength and courage to find other sources of hope and meaning. Even when you find yourself in the most difficult of times, laughter or even a smile can take you far when it comes to feeling better. Laughter really is a bit contagious. When you hear someone else laugh, it primes your brain and sets you up to join that person in laughing, too.
Laughter and mental health
Laughter is associated with better mental health. Some things laughter can do to improve your mental health include the following:
• Laughter allows you to relax. A good laugh can lessen stress and increase your energy levels so that you can remain focused and get more things accomplished.
• Laughter can lessen distress. It is hard to feel sad, anxious, or angry when you are instead laughing.
• Laughter shifts your perspective. It allows you to see things in a less threatening and more realistic light. Being humorous helps create a psychological distance between you and stressful events so that you don’t feel so overwhelmed.
Laughter has social benefits
When you use humor and engage in playful communication with others, your relationships become stronger. You trigger positive emotions and an emotional connection with those you are laughing with. A positive bond develops—one that can act as a powerful buffer against disappointment, disagreements, and stress. When you laugh with others, this is a more powerful thing than when you laugh alone.
How to create more opportunities to laugh
There are things you can do to increase your chances of laughing. Here are some you might try:
• Attend a comedy club
• Watch something funny on television
• Watch videos of funny animals there are tons on YouTube, or just add the search term “funny into the YouTube search bar
• Read the comics in the newspaper
• Be with people who are funny
• Share a funny story or joke with another
• Read a funny book
• Sponsor a game night with your friends
• Play with your pet
• Play with children
• Do something you think is silly
• Engage in activities you consider fun
Laughter can do a lot to help you feel better on a physical, emotional, and cognitive level. Don’t be afraid to share a good laugh with others for overall better health.
by Michaela Kennedy | Nov 8, 2015 | Food Guide
If you are a beer drinker you already know about Guinness´ plan to go vegan in 2016. What is the buzz about? Guinness has been around for 256 years and it that time never felt the pressure from vegan, that is until now. Maybe it´s an Irish thing. The brand has decided it is time for an improvement, although they call it change. Great news for vegans either way.
Since the 19th century, Guinness has filtered out yeast from its signature stout with isinglass. A by-product of fish bladders. Most of the isinglass is removed before the beer hits the market. Guinness answered in several emails, that there are still leftovers in the finished product. You may want to check the answers at http://www.barnivore.com/beer/26/Guinness . This is the reason, Guinness is off-limits.
Yet, many of us vegans still love our Guinness. According to CNBC, online petitions have been circulating asking Guinness to change their filtration process. The brand has announced that, indeed, they are planning to open a new filtration plant in 2016. A plant will finally make our beer vegan-friendly. “Whilst isinglass is a very effective means of clarification, and has been used for many years, we expect to stop using it as the new filtration asset is introduced,” a spokesman told Ireland’s The Times.
Now if only we can petition Baileys to replace cream with coconut cream, finally we vegans can drink our favorite drinks. 🙂
Should you wish to check other beers for being vegan here´s a fine website dedicated to inform you about just that.
http://www.barnivore.com/ – their search base also includes wine and liquor.
by Michaela Kennedy | Sep 18, 2015 | Lifestyle
A cake mix by itself is vegan, but often not the ingredients given in the directions. You can still use a cake mix and substitute your own vegan choices, like flaxseed for eggs and almond milk for milk, or just water. I couldn't believe it when I read how to make a vegan cake using cake mix and Coca-Cola! I don't drink Coke, but my thought was to try with orange juice and canned fruits. Coca-Cola is not strictly vegan, for it contains fish gelatine that stabilizes the color.
I've made an infographic. Check out my vegan cake mix substitutes below:
by Michaela Kennedy | Sep 15, 2015 | Food Guide
Introduction
When you eat healthy foods, you feel fuller longer. Some foods naturally deliver a smaller calorie investment while giving your stomach a full feeling. You feel full, so you eat less, your calorie count goes down, and you feel great.
When you eat foods that provide little nutritional value with their calories, your mind tells you to eat more. It says, “Hey, we need nutrients, minerals, and vitamins!” So you reach for more of the unhealthy food that is sitting in front of you. You eventually become full but take in way more calories, fat and processed nasties than your body needs.
The result? You pack on the weight and fat, your heart, circulatory system and entire body suffers, and you find yourself hungry again relatively quickly. Eat the following.
1 – Beans and Legumes
“Beans, beans, the magical fruit; the more you eat, the more you toot!” That children's rhyme refers to the flatulence-causing property of most beans. Yes, they can give you gas, no doubt about it. But on the positive side, they are high in protein and dietary fiber.
They can also fit into just about any budget and meal plan since they are inexpensive and versatile. Beans are also a heart healthy food.
2 – Fresh Fruits
Fresh fruits deliver fewer calories per gram, much fewer on a comparative basis. So you can eat several servings of superfood fruits blueberries
- apples
- bananas
- blackberries
- cantaloupes
- citrus fruits, grapes
- pomegranates
- plums
all without paying much of a calorie penalty.
You double your fat-burning when you replace foods like potato chips, chocolate bars and candy snacks with healthy fresh fruits.
3 – Soups
Make sure you avoid store-bought soups unless you are going to do some intelligent nutritional label research. A single can of soup that you buy at your favorite grocery store often delivers several times your daily-recommended of salt.
Homemade soups give you total control over their contents. It is fairly easy to make a large batch of soup, and then portion off individual serving sizes that you can keep in your refrigerator and freezer for easy access. Soup is also easy on the budget, and because of its liquid base, it makes you feel full. At the same time delivering a limited number of calories and loads of vitamins and minerals.
4 – Fermented Foods
Do you like crunching down on a crisp, tart pickle? That's great because fermented foods send a signal to your brain that starts a production of hormones that makes you feel full. This is true because of the short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in foods that have been fermented, like kimchi, sauerkraut, and pickles.
A side benefit is the healthy probiotics found in most fermented foods. Probiotics are healthy bacteria that promote proper digestion. They actually live in your gut! Some health experts and physicians also believe that probiotics reduce your appetite. So enjoy some sauerkraut or pickles. You will not only find yourself eating less, but your digestive system receives benefits as well.
5 – Nuts and Nut Butters
Nuts are packed full of healthy unsaturated fats. A healthy body needs fat, and the fats in nuts are just what you are looking for. On a per calorie basis, nuts and nut butter are rich in fiber and protein. What are the 2 leading natural components that make you feel fuller longer? You guessed it, fiber and protein.
Just don't eat too many nuts or too much nut butters at one sitting. Those healthy fats are high quantity in nuts, and should not be over-consumed. So reach for a handful of almonds or walnuts the next time you are stuck between meals and craving something to eat. The heart healthy nature of nuts is just a wonderful side benefit of this versatile and tasty raw food.
6 – Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts
Repeat after me, “cruciferous vegetables”. Vegetables like brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower belong to the cruciferous family. Cabbage, bok choy, kale, collard greens and horseradish are also a part of this healthy vegetable subdivision. They deliver high levels of healthy dietary fiber.
As with other filling foods on this list, they are inexpensive and versatile. The antioxidants and cancer-fighting ingredients in cruciferous foods are also worthy of note. Another reason you need to be getting more of these healthy whole foods into your diet.
7 – Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries and Other Berries
Most berries are high in wonderful antioxidants that fight dangerous free radicals in your body. They are also heart healthy and deliver high levels of phytonutrients, minerals and vitamins that promote body health, inside and out. Your immunity system receives a huge boost when you eat berries regularly. This means that your natural defense system is much better prepared to ward off infections, disease, and sickness.
It also means that you recover from injuries and sickness fast. Berries contribute a few calories considering the amount of filling fiber they deliver. Just 1 cup of raspberries offers a full 8 g of fiber. (The average adult needs between 25 and 30 g of dietary fiber each day from food items, not supplements.)
Protein is the most satisfying type of food. More than carbohydrates and fats, protein satisfies your hunger more effectively than any other type of food. And guess what? Researchers are not even quite sure why protein acts like a stop sign, signaling your mind to stop eating. But it does. So make sure that you are getting the recommended 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight (about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram) every day.
And don't forget filling, healthy, digestive track regulating fiber. The “modern-day” diet is lacking in dietary fiber. Foods like the brans, grains and oats listed above do a great job of delivering protein and dietary fiber. And limiting the number of carbohydrates and calories you consume.
To summarize, for a solution to feeling full eat foods high in fiber and/or protein. They have high satiety index scores, which is a fancy way of saying they are healthy foods that make you feel fuller longer.
by Michaela Kennedy | Sep 7, 2015 | Food Guide
Cauliflower has a bad reputation because either it is considered to taste too cabbage-ish or being with no taste. Yes, it's hard to be a cauliflower, from my childhood we only had it served (overly)boiled with a peculiar taste. As an adult, I learned that cauliflower is a versatile veggie, when it comes to cooking it. In the Indian kitchen, it is used as a potato & cauliflower dish called Aloo Gobi and in curries as well. In the vegan raw kitchen, you can make a lovely pizza.
Below are 5 suggestion for cooking with cauliflower
[huzzaz id=”vegan-cauliflower-recipes” vpp=”5″]
