Coffee’sgood!

Once suspected in a variety of disease, coffee now has animpressive resume: mounting evidence suggests that coffee drinks have a lowerrisk of develop in type 2 diabetes, gallstone, Parkinson’s Disease, cirrhosisand certain types of liver, breast and colon cancers. Better than fruit juice?Hundreds of compounds, including antioxidants, seem to be responsible forcoffee’s many protective benefits. In a recent drinkers had a lower risk ofdying from cardiovascular causes than nondrinkers. Black coffee is probablyeven better for you than high- calorie beverages. A Norwegian study found thata typical serving of brewed coffee is richer in antioxidants than a serving ofblueberries, raspberries, pineapple or many fruit juices. Brain bonus coffeemight help your mind as much as your body. One study found that sleep-deprivedrats were much calmer after simply inhaling roasted coffee beans.

Sipping tips many dietitians believe more ration is still bestand recommend drinking only one or two cups of coffee a day- without wholemilk, whipped cream, and sugar. Drink much more than that hand the caffeine candehydrate you or raise your blood pressure. Pregnant women will want to limittheir intake, too, as coffee can boost the risk of miscarriage.     If you worried about cholesterol, stick to paper-filtered and instantcoffees. Unfiltered and instant coffee. Unfiltered coffees, which are typicallymade with a french press, contain more of a cholesterol-raising substancecalled Cafestol.

Fixit with food

Boostyour good cholesterol

HDL is often called “god cholesterol”, but really it’s great:for every point you add to your score, you get a 2 to 3 percent drop in yourrisk of heart disease. Cholesterol-cutting statins are not particularlyeffective at raising HDL- but, happily, new research shows you can crank levelup by eating these foods.

DarkChocolate

In a recent study, volunteers who ate 100 grams of darkchocolate (the gourmet of that’s 70 per cent cocoa) every day for a week raisedtheir HDL by 9 percent. That’s a load of chocolate(about 550 calories worth! )but study so-author dr paul a. Gurbel, says eating smaller daily does (say, 15grams) over an extended period of time should also help.

Salmon

HDL rise 4 percent in adults who ate two 115 gram servings ofsalmon a week for four weeks, according to a us university study. Other fattyfish-mackerel, herring or sardines should deliver similar benefits,researchessay.

Berries

They needn’t be fresh, just plentiful: HDL levels rise 5 percentwhen adults ate about a cup of frozen berries day for eight weeks.  Eggshealthy adults who ate a whole egg every day for 12 weeks increased HDL as muchas 48 percent in a study from thailand. Eggs are rich in lecithin- which,animal studies have shown, raise HDL.                                                        

Nuts -about pistachios

Pistachios are a good source of protein and fiber. But pista hasan advantage- being low in both calories and fat it is one of the fact thatnutrition experts endorse it is the “skinny nut.” A single pista has just threecalories!