Dr Pete's Health Secrets

      Losing weight to achieve the “killer figure” has been all the rage over the past few years. But it’s about more than just self-image, it’s about your health.  When you have excess fat in the body, you increase risk factors for diseases that affect the heart and the other vital organs of your body. Many people turn to crash diets, a very unhealthy way to lose weight. Another draw back is you tend to put it back pn when you stop the diet. Did you know that there are certain foods you can include in your diet to help loose weight.  In this article I will examine 10 foods that you can incorporate into your diet, that will help you loose weight and better still, keep the weight off. 1. Chilles Chilli peppers belong to the plant group, Capsicum. The bioactive ingredient is called Capsaicin , the substance responsible for the heat in chili peppers.  It has been found to have numerous health benefits, from reducing the risk of heart disease t...

      Garlic 'Allium sativum', commonly known as garlic, the world's favourite culinary herb, is a species in the onion genus, Allium.  In this article I will examine the health benefits of adding this ancient herb to your meals. In foods and beverages, fresh garlic, garlic powder, and garlic oil are used to add flavor. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo.  It is thought that garlic is native to Siberia, but spread to other parts of the world over 5000 years ago. Heart and blood vessels Garlic whoose active ingredient is Allicin, is used for many conditions related to the heart and blood system.  These conditions include high blood pressure, low blood pressure, high cholesterol, inherited high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, heart attack, reduced blood flow due to narrowed arteries, and arteriosclerosis. According to a 2007 study done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, garlic can help relax b...

    There are lots of supplements and multivitamins out there being marketed aggressively by big pharma, no wonder we get confused.  When one of the highest paid sportswomen in the world, tennis star, Maria Sharapova, failed a drug test, she tested positive for Meldonium.  She claimed that she used the drug to treat a magnessium deficiency which adversely affected her health and exercise tolerance. Whatever the merits of her case, it brought into the limelight the importance of magnesium a largely overlooked mineral. Magnesium is a very valuable mineral to the human body, but it is not a nutrient you usually hear about. For the rest of us we probably don't know we are deficient. Unfortunately, because of this lack of information about the mineral, many people come out as magnesium-deficient. It is the 4th most abundant mineral in the body after Calcium, Sodium and Potassium. Yet 60% of American adults are deficient in Magnesium. The daily requirement of t...