Can You Eat Too Many Vegetables?
If you’re a voracious vegetable eater, you probably have several servings of vegetables beyond the daily required amount, but do you eat too many vegetables, and is that really possible to do? At Gym Slayer in Elk Grove, CA, I get that question quite often. If three cups is good, then is six cups of vegetables even better? Eating vegetables and drinking water are both important and both have something else in common…you can get too much of them. Water intoxication that can cause a coma and even death occurs when you consume gallons of water in a short period. Eating too many vegetables consistently, more than seven servings and sides of four servings of fruit, will over time cause problems. Luckily, it’s hard to do.
No, potato chips do not count as a vegetable serving.
French fries and potato chips all come from a vegetable source—potatoes—which is a vegetable. However, it doesn’t count as a serving of vegetables when you eat. Instead, it counts as a starch. If you’re eating four servings of potatoes daily, thinking you’re consuming your servings of vegetables, you’d be wrong. In this case, starchy vegetables, like potatoes, corn, peas and lentils, don’t count as part of your vegetable intake. If you’re including these in your serving count, you definitely can eat too many vegetables.
Make your diet include a balance of vegetables.
Eat vegetables liberally, as long as you prepare them right. Don’t saute’ them in butter or serve them with a cream sauce and congratulate yourself on how healthy you’re eating. Adding sugar or salt can also make them unhealthy choices. Make sure you have variety. No matter how healthy some foods are, eating them at the exclusion of others can mean nutrient deficiency and even can cause harm. For instance, too much spinach, rhubarb or beet greens means too much oxalic acid and that can impede the absorption of calcium and iron.
Vary the color of the vegetables you eat.
Plants contain more than vitamins and minerals for your health. They contain fiber and phytonutrients. The phytonutrients give plants their color and flavor, while providing other benefits. Each color provides different health benefits. Red colored foods, like strawberries and tomatoes contain carotenoid lycopene. Orange and yellow, such as carrots and sweet potatoes, have beta cryptothanxin. Green, like broccoli and asparagus, contain sulforaphane, isocyanate, and indoles. Blue and purple have anthocyanins. Blueberries and purple cabbage are in this group. White and brown, like onions and garlic, have allicin.
- You can get more nutrients and even eat cheaper if you opt for seasonal vegetables and fruit grown locally. Buy at a farmer’s market or directly from the farmer if possible.
- Frozen vegetables are less expensive and contain just as many nutrients, if not more, than fresh. These are frozen immediately at their peak, while many of the vegetables in the grocery are picked before ripeness and spend days to the store and in it.
- While oranges and tomatoes are healthy and delicious, too many can cause stomach issues like acid reflux. They’re acidic, so stick with just a maximum of two servings daily and skip other acidic foods on those days.
- At Gym Slayer, we can help you with nutritional guidance based on your ultimate goals, preferences and needs. We make it easy by providing recipes and shopping lists as well.
For more information, contact us today at Gym Slayer
If you have blood pressure that’s higher than 120/80, it’s elevated. That doesn’t mean you have to panic, especially if it’s mildly elevated, up to 129/80. No matter what your blood pressure, there are things you can do to keep it normal and ways to deal with hypertension risk factors so you don’t develop chronic hypertension and can bring your blood pressure back to normal naturally.
If you’ve gone to a doctor and been weighed and measured or even used those blood pressure machines in pharmacies, you probably had your BMI measured. BMI stands for Body Mass Index and uses your height and weight to predict the amount of body fat you have, ultimately addressing health issues that can be caused by too little or too much fat. Is it an accurate predictor of health? The problem is there are far more factors to consider, such as total body composition and bone density.
Many of my clients at Gym Slayer in Elk Grove, CA, bring a snack to eat immediately following a workout. It helps boost their energy level and the right combination can help build muscle tissue, too. One of the easiest snacks to transport is an apple topped with peanut butter, the healthy type that only contains peanuts. It provides the carbs for energy and protein to build the muscle tissue. There are health benefits for apples, which help keep the doctor away.
If you’ve heard that yoga was good for weight loss, you heard right. Does yoga burn as many calories as strength training? That all depends on not only the effort put forth in strength training, but the type of yoga you use. On the average, yoga actually doesn’t burn many calories. However, it’s more than sitting on the couch watching television or chatting on social media. Some faster paced types of yoga, such as vinyasa yoga, may qualify as moderate exercise, while the more sedentary styles burn few calories and don’t boost your heart rate, but are more restorative.
Whether you come to 
If you want to take your workouts to the next level you have to make some changes that will help you get more from your present workout. One change, if you don’t already do it, is warm up properly. Warming up is important for your muscles to work efficiently and maximize the benefits. That ten minute warm up also should be warming the right muscle groups. If you’re running in place on the treadmill for a session of weight lifting, you’re not getting the most from your warm-up time. Do dynamic stretches that use the same muscle groups you’ll be working and ones that also mimic the movements you’ll be making for the best results.
I’ve discussed the link to weight gain and gluten before, but never really addressed whether going gluten-free is the best possible option for my clients in Elk Grove, CA. It’s certainly becoming a very popular catch phrase, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that gluten-free has any benefits. One of the biggest reasons to go gluten-free is being gluten-sensitive, gluten-intolerant or having celiac disease. In cases like that, the answer is to definitely eliminate gluten from the diet, but for the rest of us, the answer isn’t that clear.
There are two things that will cause people to quit their workout program. One is boredom, but the worse is lack of progress or plateauing. Both of these things can be solved by adding new exercises for variety. If you’re bored beyond belief from doing the same routine daily, you probably won’t be getting as much out of each workout. It takes focus on each muscle group as you work it. That focus also makes it more rewarding as you feel each muscle function exactly as you want. If you’re at that boredom level, switching out your old workout for a new one is important.
You don’t have to be glum, angry and depressed, you can improve your mood naturally. One way is to come to Gym Slayer in Elk Grove, CA, start a program of regular exercise and a healthy diet. In fact, we made it even easier by offering the option online. Every day you’re faced with stressors, whether it’s a traffic jam, no milk for cereal or an angry boss. You don’t have to allow circumstance to dictate your happiness and peace of mind. Take charge and you’ll find there’s a beautiful world awaiting you.