Raw Honey is Another Elixir

Raw honey is more than just a natural sweetener. Honey has a variety of uses in your beauty regimen and for medicinal purposes.Raw honey, which is not pasteurized or refined, can be especially useful because of its nutritional properties.Although you may have heard about the benefits of raw honey, you might be surprised at some of the creative ways it can be used:

Eight new ways to use raw honey

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

A new study has proved an old saying 'healthy mind lives in a healthy body'.

Researchers from University of Gothenburg in Sweden have revealed that regular exercise boosts brain power of young adults.

It improves blood flow to the brain that could help build new brain cells.

All whole grains are not alike

Women younger than 50 need about 25 grams of fiber per day, and men younger than 50 need 38 grams (the daily values are a few grams lower for adults older than 50). But on average, American women get about 13 grams and men 17 grams, according to a 2005 report by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine.

The Power of Habit

by Charles Duhigg
Random House, $28.00 
274 pages

The basal ganglia is a golf ball-sized lump of tissue in the brain, the importance of which was not well understood until the early 1990s. It was then that a team of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology noticed that rats with impaired basal ganglia developed problems with tasks such as remembering how to open food containers.

By surgically implanting tiny sensors into the test animals' brains, the scientists were able to track the way the brain responded as rats hunted for chocolate in a labyrinth. There were no set patterns of behavior as the rats sniffed out the chocolate. To the casual observer, it appeared as if the animals were idly meandering about. The electronic sensors told a different story, however: the rodents' brains were working furiously as they navigated the maze.

199 Pounds in Less than a Year

It started out as one of those typical New Year's resolutions, a friendly -- but spirited -- bet between spouses that likely would be forgotten once the calendar turned to February or March.

This one, though, was far different.

Peanut Butter is a Quick, Healthy Choice

Here is my case for the perfect get-out of-the-house-quickly breakfast.

As children we knew it intuitively. The much-celebrated and loved peanut butter sandwich, with a few nutritional twists, can send us out into the world with energy and a smile on our faces. The Aztec native Americans first made peanut butter by mashing peanuts, and other nuts, into a gooey paste. George Washington Carver brought care.com. widespread planting and cultivation of the peanut to the South.

Five Good Fiber Habits

To have proper digestion and a fast metabolism, regular consumption of fibre and water is essential. They are necessary for your system to run efficiently and effectively. Poor food choices speed up the breakdown of body tissues, which leads to the existence of fat in your body. We are, definitely, what we eat.

Weightlifting: Whys and Hows

Why am I lifting weights?

That is the biggest question that a lot of people that hit the gym can t answer honestly. And then, they wonder why they don t see a change in their body and lose interest just as fast as they gained it.

First of all, you must decide what your goals are for hitting the gym. What is it that you want to accomplish with your weight training and cardio regimen. Do you want to be more competitive in your sport of choice? Do you want to lose weight, or tone up, or get bigger or stronger? Once you answer that question, then and only then, can you devise a program that is right for what you are trying to do. And, then the fun part begins, and that is trying to tailor a workout designed to fit your needs.

Are Low-Fat Diets Right for Runners?

If you're thinking about or already training to run or race-walk in the Bolder Boulder next month, or perhaps planning to do a longer race event this summer, don't forget diet as part of your pre-event preparations.

And don't be misled into thinking that going low fat is the nutritional pathway to the finish line.

Walnuts Anyone?

Prostate cancer is a major health concern for men that strikes approximately one in six men and is a leading cause of male cancer deaths in the United States(1). New research offers hope in this fight - according to findings published in the British Journal of Nutrition, walnuts may help reduce prostate cancer risk. Researchers at the University of California - Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Regional Research Center in Albany, California found that prostate tumors in mice fed the human equivalent of three ounces per day of walnuts were approximately 50% smaller and grew 30% slower than prostate tumors in control mice. In addition to lower plasma Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a biomarker strongly associated with prostate cancer, walnut fed mice had lower LDL (bad) cholesterol as well as distinct differences in their liver metabolome, a chemical inventory of what the liver - a major source of both IGF-1 and cholesterol - is doing (see also California Walnut Commission).

Kirk Robertson Sheds 170 Pounds, Becomes Ultra Runner

Old friends no longer recognize him.

"I've been fat since I was five," said 33-year-old Kirk Robertson of Broken Arrow.

The man transformed himself from a 340-pound liver disease sufferer to a healthy 170-pound ultramarathon runner in less than two years.

Walking Works

The next time someone tells you to "take a hike," do it.

Doctors says the cardiovascular workout is great for the heart, fitness trainers say it's a good way to lose that paunch, physical therapists say it strengthens the back.

Worm Elixir for World Record Holder

On a trip to New York in January to receive a prestigious international sports award, Chinese running phenom Wang Junxia, 20, told reporters that her daily regimen consists of up to 22 miles of running and a diet that usually includes worms, extract of caterpillar fungus, and the blood of soft-shell turtles.

26 Years Between Marathons

The last time Shirley Douglas ran a marathon, she was 35 - young confident, and a little naive.

When she toes the start line of the Oakland Marathon on Sunday, Douglas will be 61. While she might be a little slower, she feels a lot better prepared, and she says there's a good chance she'll be healthier and happier when she finishes her 26.2 miles.

Tea is Good for You

The health effects of tea have been examined ever since the first infusion of Camellia sunensis about 4700 years ago in China .The legendary emperor Shennong claimed in The Divine Farmer,s Herb-Root Classic that Camellia sinensis infusions were useful for treating conditions including tumors ,abscesses, bladder ailments and lethargy.

Some studies have been made of the other types of tea derived from Camellia sinensis, such as white, oolong and black tea.Green tea has been claimed to be helpful for atherosclerosis, LDL cholesterol , cancer , inflammatory bowel disease , diabetes ,liver disease ,weight loss ,neurodegenerative diseases and even halitosis.

What makes green tea so special?

The Berry Boost

Scientists are identifying a growing range of benefits from eating berries, says WHETHER they are in or out of season, berries are in demand for more than simply tasting good and adding colour to mealtimes. More and more nutrition specialists say berries are a powerful boost for our bodies.

An increasing range of nutritional benefits is also being identified, says UK dietician Dr Catherine Collins.

Is 30 Miles a Week or More too Much?

For people who exercise but fret that they really should be working out more, new studies may be soothing. The amount of exercise needed to improve health and longevity, this new science shows, is modest, and more is not necessarily better.

That is the message of the newest and perhaps most compelling of the studies, which was presented on Saturday at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in San Francisco. For it, researchers at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health and other institutions combed through the health records of 52,656 American adults who'd undergone physicals between 1971 and 2002 as part of the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study at the Cooper Institute in Dallas. Each participant completed physical testing and activity questionnaires and returned for at least one follow-up visit.

The researchers found that about 27 percent of the participants reported regularly running, although in wildly varying amounts and paces.

The scientists then checked death reports.

Running is Good for You

A new study links cardiovascular fitness in early adulthood to increased intelligence, better performance on cognitive tests, and higher educational achievement later in life. This comes from proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Middle-aged professional athletes who ran about 50 miles a week and had done so for many years had cellular proteins more effective in preventing cell death than healthy, non-athletes of similar age who did not exercise regularly. Translation of this report in the journal, Circulation, is that exercise can keep the body young in middle age.

Moderate-to-high intensity exercise such as jogging, swimming or tennis may help reduce stroke risk in older men by as much as 60 percent, but a similar protective effect was not seen in women, as reported in the journal, Neurology.

A Runner Who Smokes?

Roger Smith sets a digital scale on the floor of his Teaneck apartment. Then he takes two gentle steps on top of it.

The 5-foot-10 Smith weighs a feathery 143.4 pounds this morning. If he goes running later, that number may drip down closer to 140.

Walnuts: Another Wonder Food?

WALNUTS are the healthiest nuts to eat, according to scientists

They are loaded with antioxidants and snacking on just seven a day could help ward off disease and lower cholesterol.  Walnuts contain very high levels of polyphenol, an anti-oxidant which can protect the body from molecules which damage tissue.