Well here is something interesting about how you know when your hungry!!

The clearest signals that your body wants food, right now, are the physical reactions from your stomach and your blood that let you know it is definitely time to put more food in your mouth and ---eat!

An empty belly has no manners. If you do not fill it right away,your stomach will issue an audible..something embarrassing--call for food. This rumbling signal is called a hunger pang.

Hunger pangs are actually plain old muscle contractions. When your stomach's full, these contractions and their continued waves "down" the entire length of the intestine--known as peristalsis--move food through your digestive tract. When your stomach's empty, the contractions just squeeze air, and that makes noise.

People that know me, know that I have been seeing alot of my dentist lately, and its not cause I'm dating him. I am just having a lot of work done. Let me tell you there is nothing more embarrassing then hearing your stomach pang for an hour!! I'm sure you can relate!

Well, here is what I think is women's most vulnerable food!

Westerners have been fools for chocolate ever since the Spanish conquistadors discovered it. And why not? The cocoa bean is a good source of energy, fiber, protein, carbohydrates, B vitamins and minerals.

One ounce of dark sweet chocolate has 12 percent of the iron and 33 percent of the magnesium a healthy woman needs each day. So go for it Girls!!!!

Despite being high in saturated fats, chocolate may actually be heart-healthy. A recent study at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Peoria, Illinois, shows that men who eat lots of stearic acid, the saturated fat in flavonaoids (apples) the natural chemicals credited with making red wine heart-healthy.

Finally, chocolate is a veritable happiness cocktail. It has caffeine(a mood elevator and central nervous system stimulant),theobromine(a muscle stimulant)and phenylethylalanine(another mood elevator).And in 1996, researchers at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego announced that chocolate also contains anandamide, a chemical that stimulates the same areas of the brain that marijuana does. No, eating chocolate won't get you "high" You'd have to consume 25 pounds or more at one sitting to get the smallest marijuana-like effect.

So who can't function without their in the morning??

Here is a little tidbit about one of our favorite morning drink!

For years there was nothing but bad new about coffee. Pancreatic cancer. Cystic breasts. High cholesterol. Heart disease. Stroke. Birth defects.
Sometimes it seemed the list of possible adverse effects would never end.

Well, the coffee bean has definitely turned. No increase in any of the above and more. Of course, coffee may still upset your stomach and keep you up at night, but for most people these effexts are almost always linked to excess consumption.

In moderation, though, coffee qualifies for anybody's Ten Best List. Its benefits(as well as its drawbacks) are due entirely to its caffeine that elevates mood, may improve athletic performance,can help shrink the swollen, throbbing blood vessels that make your head ache, increases your ability to concentrate, and boosts the analgesic effect of painkillers, which is why it is often included in over the counter analgesic products.

I do love my coffee in the morning. Especially when I get to talk to my Maggie, and on a good day beasty too! I love my coffee with carnation fat free hazelnut cream. ummmm!!!

Okay, can't do coffee without mentioning

Here's the skinny on the world's other caffeine drink. Like coffee, it has mood-elevating caffeine. Like chocolate, it has the muscle stimulant throbromine. And that's only the beginning of its wonderfulness.

Drinking tea seems to lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar levels, and yes, prevent cavities.

Most of this good stuff appears to be due to naturally occurring antioxidants in both the green teas popular in Asia and the black tea favored in the West.

If you hate tea, you can find some of these same compounds in the coriander, sage, and thyme.

I only have tea when I visit my mom! She is straight up irish!! Not that she doesn't have coffee, but having tea with her just seems right!

Never eat anything containing a raw

Raw eggs are a haven for salmonella microbes. Even when the shell is intact, the egg inside may be contaminated. Cooking eggs(or cooking with eggs) requires the same caution you'd apply to other raw foods from animals.

Don't taste the cake batter. Cook all eggs(and egg dishes, such as custards) until the entire egg is firm, not runny. And you can forget feasting on Easter eggs. What with painting, and hiding, and finding, they've been out of the fridge for more than two hours, exceeding the USDA a danger zone.

Now what am I to do, I just love a good caesar salad. Hasn't hurt me yet. I just wanted to pass this information along.

Well you know the old saying "Ana day keeps the doctor away"!!

Apples really are a neat nutritional package. They have virtually no fat, lots of pectin(a soluble fiber known to lower cholesterol levels), and plenty of vitamin C.

They're also high in flavonoids, the natural chemicals in many fruits, vegetables, red wine, and tea that appear to protect your heart. In 1993 scientists at the National Institute of Health in Bilthoven, The Netherlands, reported that men who consumed large amounts of flavonoids were 50 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack than were men who ate small amounts of flavonoids. How much is enough? One large apple a day. So guess thats where the good old saying came from.

Well I don't have a problem with that. I love apples!!

Does anyone know how importantreally is??

Did your grandmother call fish "brain food"? If so, it was certainly because fish is rich in iodine, the mineral that makes it possible for your thyroid gland to churn out thyroid hormones vital to your ability to think and move. Once upon a time, people living far from the ocean(our best source of iodine) were often sluggish, sometimes even mentally retarded, due to lack of iodine. But this became rare int the U.S. after the introduction of iodized salt in the 1920's.

By the way I have had part of my thyroid out, and have to take a suppliment pill every day for the rest of my life.

Fish's modern magic is its ability to reduce the risk of heart disease due to its omega-3 fatty aids. These fats appear to protect the heart by preventing blood clots or keeping other fats from injuring artery walls. It's clear that laboratory pigs and monkeys have cleaner arteries when their feed includes omega-3 fatty acids, and studies suggest human beings may also benefit.

I am from the east coast and love and enjoy a lot of the fresh fish when in season.

Eating Out Smart

Eating out is in. You don't have to cook, and somebody else washes the dishes. The trick is to eat out sensibly. So I will give you a few tidbits, that hopefully will work for you.

From a nutritional point of view, restaurants have three basic pitfalls:
The serving sizes are too big.
The garnishes and side dishes are too rich.
the meal has too many courses.

Not to worry, Exercise a little care and caution, and you can order from any menu, secure in the knowledge that pleasing your palate doesn't mean tossing away all nutritional common sense.

Keep the first course simple.

Set the nutritional tone of dinner right off the bat with your choice of appetizer. You have two possible alternatives. The first is to opt for something really rich, and high calorie. The second alternative is to choose a tasty but low calorie and lowfat, such as a clear soup, a salad or shellfish such as shrimp cocktail(10 to 30 calories a shrimp) with a no-fat (catsup/horseradish) sauce. This choice allows you more food later on.

Order an appetizer as a main dish. Some appetizer's in a lot of restaurants are like a main course, just add a salad and an extra piece of bread a glass of wine, and this appetizer becomes your main meal. With a lot less calories and cheaper too!

Don't butter your bread. Don't oil it either. Many trendy restaurants now serve up a dish of flavored olive oil in place of butter. True the olive oil has less saturated fat than butter, and it has no cholesterol. But the calorie count is exactly the same. All fats and oils give you about 100 calories a tablespoon.

Don't assume that your bread is lowfat just because you didn't butter it. Many different types of bread come already buttered. To test the fat content of your bread, pick up a piece or put it on your napkin. If your had feels sticky or the bread leaves an oily spot on your napkin, you have your answer.

Call for naked veggies. Now, smart restaurant cooks rely on herbs and spices, reduced (boiled down and thickened) fat free bouillons,unusual salad combinations, and imaginative treatments such as purees and kabobs to make their veggies tasty and trim.

Avoid veggie dishes that read
Au beurre(with butter)
Au gratin(with cheese)
Batter-dipped
Breaded
Fritters(fried)
Hollandiaise(sauce with butter and egg yolks)
Tempura(battered and fried)

Sideline the sauces. Dining out is a treat, so treat yourself-within reason. You can have your sauces, as long as you have them in reasonable amounts. Ask the waiter to bring the sauces on the side

When a menu says Healthy on it, ask for proof.
The restaurant may write "lowfat" or "healthy" next to the item. When a restaurant does this, the Nutrition Education and Labeling Act says it has to back it up.