Let’s Be Healthy

6 Worst Things to Eat at the Movies

Watching movies at theaters excite us and we buy a lot of food to munch while watching. It’s yummy to have those bags and boxes of oily and crunchy food and we are forgetting how these food affect our health. So, better make home-made sandwiches and healthy finger food such as celery, sushi, and a lot more.Just be creative with the preparation.

Anyways, here are the common food that we love to have when watching movies. But, be careful with these because they are not nutritious.

Large Popcorn 1,283 calories 78 g fat (49 g saturated) 1,850 mg sodium Each American consumes more than 200 cups of popcorn a year, and it’s no surprise considering a movie theatre’s large bucket is 20 cups in itself! But snub the butter soak and you’ll save yourself from two-and-a-half day’s worth of saturated fat.

Large Nachos with Cheese (40 chips, 4 oz.) 1,101 calories 59 g fat (18.5 g saturated) 1,580 mg sodium This movie-time snack has more calories than two large orders of McDonald’s French fries. In fact, you’d still be saving fat and calories if you smuggled in two Quarter Pounders with Cheese instead!

Snickers Popables (5 oz., 46 pieces) 692 calories 33 g fat (14.6 g saturated) 73 g sugars The name’s cute, but think about this: your chewy-nougat body in a bathing suit. The Snickers will be following you in two ways. The combined fat-load of these little popables is equal to two-and-a-half full-sized Snickers bars. So even if you split the bag, you’d still do better to down a real candy bar.

Whoppers (5 oz. box) 676 calories 24 g fat (20.3 g saturated) 88 g sugars How many malt balls does it take to run up a day’s worth of saturated fat? About 70, the number in a theatre-sized box of Whoppers. This candy’s a long-standing classic, but so are fat-guy comedians. You want to join that jowly double bill?

44 oz. Cherry Coke 572 calories 0 g fat 154 g sugars The theater owners say it’s all about convenience: They give you the super large size cup, so you won’t have to come back if you want seconds. Oh, and they can charge you twice as much up front while they’re at it. That’s why movie-theatre cups (and everything else in the theatre) have grown to such mammoth proportions. This beverage, for instance, has 50 percent more calories than a half-pound of ground beef, and every bit of it comes from —yikes! — high fructose corn syrup. (For other drinks that will lay waste to your waistline, check out this eye-popping report on America’s worst drinks!)

Large Soft Pretzel with 3 oz. Nacho Cheese 643 calories 14.5 g fat (3 g saturated, 4 g trans) 3,068 mg sodium The pretzel weighs in at 5 ounces, and it holds nearly 100 calories in each ounce of soft bread. Top it with a massive load of warm, trans-fatty cheese sauce, and you’ve got the plot of a disease-of-the-week movie. This “snack” packs more calories than a proper dinner, and well over a day’s worth of sodium. If you buy one of these salty dogs, don’t eat it: Just throw it over your shoulder for good luck. (Do the same with these saltiest foods in America!)

Source: Yahoo, Men’s Health

Healthy Snacks

When choosing your snacks, be sure that it’s healthy and nutritious. Choose the best snack that has great health benefits so you won’t worry with the calories and fats that you intake. Got this article at Yahoo.

Nuts and Seeds Keep You Young
Healthy and appetizing, nuts and seeds are absolutely the best snack of the bunch. Helping yourself to a handful of nuts and seeds every day can improve circulation and muscle tone.

And nuts and seeds are especially full of arginine, an amino acid that helps to combat heart disease, impotence, infertility, and high blood pressure, and it also facilitates the healing process. Additionally, arginine can stimulate the pituitary gland at the base of the brain.

The pituitary releases growth hormones, which begin to decline quickly in humans after age 35. This means that after 35, your hormones start to plunge and you experience some aging symptoms. The skin loses elasticity, the muscle loses mass and strength, the lean body tissue decreases, fertility and virility decrease, and other signs of aging start to set in.

Many nuts and seeds are rich sources of vitamin E, lignants and omega-3 fatty acids, which protect you from heart disease and also from the ravages of aging.

Almonds, pine nuts, sesame seeds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, peanuts, and pistachios: mix them in any combination and enjoy! Keep in mind that there are more nutrients in the raw form than roasted. Make sure that the nuts and seeds are fresh and not old and rancid.

An Apple a Day for Heart Health
There are many reasons to eat an apple - or two or three - every day. One study discovered that subjects who ate five apples or more a week had a healthier lung function than those who ate no apples.

And scientists have confirmed that apples also contribute to a healthy heart. Thanks to the fruit’s rich pectin content, eating two to three apples per day leads to decreased cholesterol levels. Pectin also helps prevent colon cancer, one of the top causes of death in adults over age sixty.

Bring On the Berries
In season again, berries are bursting with antioxidants. The enticing red, purple, and blue skins of berries contain bioflavonoids, antioxidant compounds that reduce free radical damage.

These flavonoids are more potent antioxidants than vitamins C and E, and they also help to reduce inflammation - more effectively even than aspirin!

Avocado: Packed with Nutrients
Among the many antioxidant nutrients, glutathione is known as the “master antioxidant.” This naturally occurring compound, found in avocados (as well as asparagus, walnuts, and fish), is made up of the three amino acids glycine, glutamic acid, and cysteine. Glutathione regulates immune cells, protects against cancer, and assists in detoxifying.

A deficiency in glutathione can play a part in diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, low sperm count, and premature aging. Avocados are also a source of L-cysteine, which helps protect your body from the harmful effects of pollution, chemicals, radiation, alcohol, and smoke. L-cysteine may also help boost immunity, protect you from heart disease, and build muscle. It is also useful for combating inflammation and encouraging healthy hair and nail growth.

Pair your avocado with whole-grain crackers or whole-grain crisp breads for a fiber-rich tasty treat.

Apricots for Anti-Aging
One of the staple foods of the famously long-lived centenarians in the Hunza valley of the Himalayas is the apricot. Research has discovered that apricots have the highest levels and widest variety of carotenoids of any food.

Carotenoids are antioxidants that help prevent heart disease, reduce “bad cholesterol” levels, and protect against cancer.