Fun, Fitness and Flab

Older Woman: Is there a problem, Officer?
Officer: Ma'am, you were speeding.
Older Woman: Oh, I see.
Officer: Can I see your license please?
Older Woman: I'd give it to you but I don't have one.
Officer: Don't have one?
Older Woman: Lost it, 4 years ago for drunk driving.
Officer: I see...Can I see your vehicle registration papers please.
Older Woman: I can't do that.
Officer: Why not?
Older Woman: I stole this car.
Officer: Stole it?
Older Woman: Yes, and I killed and hacked up the owner.
Officer: You what?
Older Woman: His body parts are in plastic bags in the trunk if you want to see.

The Officer looks at the woman and slowly backs away to his car and calls for back up. Within minutes 5 police cars circle the car.
A senior officer slowly approaches the car, clasping his half drawn gun.

Officer 2: Ma'am, could you step out of your vehicle please! The woman steps out of her vehicle.
Older woman: Is there a problem sir?
Officer 2: One of my officers told me that you have stolen this car and murdered the owner.
Older Woman: Murdered the owner?
Officer 2: Yes, could you please open the trunk of your car,please.

The woman opens the trunk, revealing nothing but an empty trunk.

Officer 2: Is this your car, ma'am?
Older Woman: Yes, here are the registration papers. The officer is quite stunned.
Officer 2: One of my officers claims that you do not have a driving license.

The woman digs into her handbag and pulls out a clutch purse and hands it to the officer.
The officer examines the license. He looks quite puzzled.

Officer 2: Thank you ma'am, one of my officers told me you didn't have a license, that you stole this car, and that you murdered and hacked
up the owner.
Older Woman: Bet the liar told you I was speeding, too.

A blonde woman was speeding down the road in her little red sports car and was pulled over by a woman police officer that was also a blonde.
The cop asked to see the blonde's driver's license. She dug through her purse and was getting progressively more agitated. "What does it look like?" she finally asked.
The policewoman replied, "It's square and it has your picture on it."
The driver finally found a square mirror, looked at it and handed it to the policewoman. "Here it is," she said.
The blonde officer looked at the mirror, then handed it back saying, "Okay, you can go. I didn't realize you were a cop.

Two guys are in a supermarket when their carts collide.
Bob says, "I'm sorry, I was looking for my wife."
"What a coincidence, so am I, and I'm getting a little desperate," says Joe.
"Well, maybe I can help you. What does your wife look like?" asks Bob.
Joe replies, "She's tall, with long hair, long legs, firm breasts and a magnificent backside.
What does your wife look like?" "Never mind," says Bob, "let's look for yours!"

Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven.
When they get there, St. Peter says, "We only have one rule here in heaven: don't step on the ducks!"
So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one.
Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw.
St. Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!"
The next day, the second woman steps accidentally on a duck and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.
The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, VERY careful where she steps.
She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on ... very tall, long eyelashes, muscular, and thin.
St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.
The happy woman says, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?"
The guy says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!"

Antioxidants are nutrients in our foods that can prevent, or slow, the oxidative damage to our body. Every cell in your body uses oxygen to make energy. The molecules that make the cells consist of one or more atoms joined by chemical bonds. Atoms often complete their outer shells by sharing electrons with other atoms. By sharing electrons, the atoms are bound together and satisfy the conditions of maximum stability for the molecule.

When cells in your body use oxygen to make energy, free radicals are produced, just as exhaust gases are formed during the ignition of the fuel in your car when you drive. Free radicals are dangerous and unstable because they're missing an electron. They attack the nearest stable molecule, "stealing" its electron. When the "attacked" molecule loses its electron, it becomes a free radical itself, beginning a chain reaction.To rebalance themselves, they can snatch electrons from any cell, be they brain cells, or heart cells. When a free radical targets one of your healthy cells, the healthy cell often dies. And the death of these cells accelerates your aging process -- in the same way a piece of bread goes stale when it's exposed to the air.

Apart from the free radicals arising normally during metabolism, the body’s immune system purposefully create them to neutralize viruses and bacteria. However, environmental factors such as pollution, radiation, cigarette smoke and herbicides can also spawn free radicals.

Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our foods which can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to our body by acting as "free radical scavengers". They neutralize free radicals by donating one of their own electrons, ending the electron-"stealing" reaction. The antioxidant nutrients themselves don’t become free radicals by donating an electron because they are stable in either form. This helps to prevent cell and tissue damage.

The vitamins C and E protect the body against the destructive effects of free radicals. Vitamin E is One of the most efficient chain-breaking antioxidants available. It can protect against cardiovascular disease by preventing your "bad" cholesterol (LDL) from hardening (oxidizing) and forming artery-clogging plaque. Vitamin C can combat free-radical formation caused by pollution and cigarette smoke. It also helps return vitamin E to its active form.

Which foods are rich in antioxidants?

Antioxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables, as well as in other foods including nuts, grains and some meats, poultry and fish. The list below describes food sources of common antioxidants.

• Beta-carotene is found in many foods that are orange in color, including sweet potatoes, carrots, water melon, pommegranates, apricots, pumpkin, and mangos. Some green leafy vegetables including spinach are also rich in beta-carotene.
• Lycopene is a potent antioxidant found in tomatoes, watermelon, guava, papaya, apricots, grapefruit, oranges, and other foods.
• Foods rich in vitamin A include liver, sweet potatoes, carrots, milk, egg yolks and mozzarella cheese.
• Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, can be found in many fruits and vegetables and also in cereals, beef, poultry and fish.
• Vitamin E, also known as alpha-tocopherol, is found in almonds and other nuts, mangos and broccoli, and in many oils including wheat germ, safflower, corn and soybean oils.

You can see some of my health-related articles on superfitzone.com

For the last two decades, doctors have been telling people to avoid practically all dietary fats, resulting in the present ubiquitous craze for fat-free food. The doctors’ recommendations are based on the experiments by an American doctor Ancel Keys in 1953. He compared the death rates from Coronary Heart Disease and the amount of fats eaten in certain countries that suggested a positive correlation. Dr. Uffe Ravnskov in his book ‘The cholesterol myths’- has exposed the fallacy that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease’ and says that Dr. Keys selected graph with only 6 countries, but the complete picture with all 22 countries shows no correlation at all.

The vegetable oil and food processing industries who were the main beneficiaries of the research then began promoting and funding further research designed to support the ‘diet/heart’ hypothesis.

As we now know, the body needs dietary fat, and it is the type of fat that determines the health outcome. We must make a distinction between "good fats" and "bad fats."

Fat is the 'energy reserve' of animals, plants and humans. Most foods contain several different kinds of fats — including saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and trans fats. An average healthy intake of good fats in the diet should be approximately 40 grams a day.  Weight for weight, fat provides more than twice the amount of usable energy than carbohydrates or protein (you'll find 9 calories in every gram of fat).

All fats contain carbon, hydrogen and a little oxygen to form what are called fatty acids.

Unsaturated Fat

Unsaturated fats are derived from plants. An unsaturated fat is a fatty acid in which there are one or more double bonds in the fatty acid chain. If it contains one double bond, it is termed monounsaturated and if it contains more than one double bond, polyunsaturated. Double bonds are rigid and prevent the fatty acids from packing close together and as a result, unsaturated fats are liquids and have a lower melting point than do saturated fats.

Unsaturated fats do not increase the low-density lipoprotein (LDL — the bad cholesterol) and are able to increase levels of  high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. It is important to increase the levels of HDL as it can help in the removal of LDL by escorting it to the liver where it is broken down and eventually removed from the body.

Monounsaturated oils are relatively stable, do not go rancid easily and therefore can be used in cooking — for example, olive, almond and peanut oil as well as avocados.

Polyunsaturated oils (sunflower, soy, corn and safflower oil) remain liquid, even when refrigerated, go rancid easily and must be treated with care. Rancid oils are characterized by free radicals, which attack the cell membranes and red blood cells. New evidence links free radicals to premature aging and an assortment of diseases including cancer.

The two major categories of polyunsaturated fats are Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Oils are described as Omega 3, 6, 7 or 9 oils, according to the position on the carbon chain of the first unsaturated hydrogen space — if the space is 3 carbon atoms from the end of the chain, it is an Omega 3 oil, and if the first space is 9 carbon atoms from the end, it is an Omega 9 oil. In general, the lower the Omega number is, the more delicate and unstable the oil is likely to be, and will therefore need careful handling to prevent the oils becoming rancid.

Omega-3 fats are extremely healthful in that they protect against sudden death from heart attack. They can also help people lower their triglycerides. Omega-3s are used by the body to produce hormone-like substances with anti-inflammatory effects. The best sources of Omega-3s are fatty fish, such as salmon and sardines. Canola oil, walnuts, and flaxseed also contain some Omega-3s.

Omega-6 fats have a double bond in the sixth space from the end of the carbon chain. These fats are found in oils such as corn, soybean, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, evening primrose oil, walnut oil, and sesame oil.

Saturated Fats

In a saturated fat there is no double bond that can be broken into a single bond and take on a hydrogen atom. In other words the fat is "saturated" with hydrogen atoms. There are no gaps in the fatty acid chain and they are able to pack together very tightly. This makes them highly stable, solid at room temperature, and normally do not go rancid, even when heated — for example, coconut oil and butter.

Saturated fats constitute at least 50% of all cell membranes. They enhance the immune system and protect us from harmful micro organisms entering into the digestive track. Some healthy saturated fats are:

•  Butter

• Stearic Acid

    Mostly found in lamb and beef tallow, stearic acid is THE preferred fuel source for the heart. The heart can convert fatty acids into energy for itself. Lamb tallow is also rich in oleic acid, another very beneficial fat for the cardiovascular system. Palm oil, lard, and olive oil are also rich in oleic acid.

• Coconut oil

 Coconut oil is loaded with lauric acid. As with butter, most of the saturated fat in coconut oil is of the short and medium chain variety which means coconut oil is not fattening, but used for energy. Because of its high saturated fat content, coconut oil is very stable under high temperatures, ideal for cooking and baking. Far from causing cancer or heart disease, a healthy person needs to make room for saturated fats in their diet. Avoiding them could do more harm than good.

Hydrogenated or Trans Fat

In the past, hydrogenated fats were widely used in foods as a replacement for saturated fats. Hydrogenation turns polyunsaturated oils that are normally liquid at room temperature into solids, like margarine and shortenings. These are manufactured by adding hydrogen to a polyunsaturated fat, making it solid at room temperature. Then it was discovered that this was even worse than saturated fat in terms of its effects on health. In addition to raising LDL cholesterol, as saturated fat does, it also decreases the level of HDL cholesterol. Most of these man-made trans-fatty acids are toxins to the body.

You can see some of my health-related articles on superfitzone.com