Olives

Olives are mainly known because they are used to decorate pizzas. Olives come from the sunny Mediterranean area such as Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal. There are lots of olive trees growing.

Vegetable or fruit?
Sometimes there's confusion about whether olives are a fruit or a vegetable. The Nutrition Center says an olive is a vegetable as it is equipped with a stone pit.

Olive trees up to 1000 years old
Olive trees can ber very old, sometimes up to 1000 years. The older the olive tree, the riper the fruit. Non ripe olives can be toxic. The tree itself does not need much water, they are fit to survive in hot and dry areas.

The fruit
It may take up to 5 years before an olive tree bears fruit (olives). In this round fruit there's one hard pit. The ripening of the fruits happened approximately from July to September. The olives they pick from the tree are not yet ready for consumption because they still are bitter and hard. After picking, they first need to soaked in to a solution of water, salt and vinegar. The olives must then be carved. Great olives or carved on 2 sides. Sometimes you can see at the top of the olive that there is a cross. Many factories sell olives without a pit and fill it up with: nuts, peppers and feta cheese (cheese from sheep or goats).

Green and black olives
Green olives are actually still olives that are just not mature enough. If they get a purple color than they are just ripe. Black olives are overripe. Many people may either green or black olive or neither of them. The flavor of the olives is additionally determined by the amount of sunshine that the fruit has been given. The darker the olive, the more and the stronger the flavor.

Olive oil
Manufactures create Olive oil. With this you can bake and fry meat in the pan.

Health
Olives contribute to a good health. Each olive contains: Vitamin B6, Sodium, Salt, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron, Selenium, Copper, Zinc and Carbohydrates. This is already a very big part of our daily vitamins that we need as human beings. Olives are sometimes used in medicines.

4 crucial tips for a better health

Everybody wants to be fit and healthy. Therefore there are many ways to help you get fit and healthy. But mostly it's a matter of having a healthy lifestyle and stick with this lifestyle. Because those frites, that bag of chips or sweets or that one cigarette is so tempting.

It is not enough to only let the bad things, you also have to do positive things. There are many ways to get fit and healthy and stay fit and healthy. It is not a matter of doing this, but more a way of life. We describe four key elements that you need to do to stay fit and healthy.

Stop Smoking
A smoker can have many benefits from stop smoking. Quitting smoking is not easy, maybe you've already tried this but without success. My motto: always keep trying! It's your health and you have to fight for it. Smoking cigarettes can damage your body very much. By smoking you get a smaller lung capacity and that's the reason for having a physical limit. Carcinogenic substances enter your body through your lungs and increased the chance for having lung cancer. At the very least, it increases, the risk of lung cancer.

Sport
A healthy mind in a healthy body. People having enough movement each day, can count on a physically healthy body. And this only give you advantages. When exercising or moving, your entire body is getting more oxygen and waste in the body will be removed faster body, for example by sweating. Not only your body gets the benefits of the extra oxygen but also your brains receive more oxygen and are able to work better. You can do more because of a healthy body. You get a longer endurance, you will be more positive and you are much more favorable. You can get more, you're more active and this has only a positive effect on everything you are doing. And a big plus: you will be less likely get sick and can better cope with stress.

Eat healthy
Do not overdo your body with candy, coffee and greasy food. Don't harm your body by order a suit fries with mayonnaise and a burger every day. Rather than that, eat fresh fruits and vegetables. You should eat two pieces of fruit daily. So your body get vitamins instead of useless fat that only will be accumulated in your body.

You know the saying: "An apple a day, keeps the doctor away". This is exactly what healthy food does. Fruit contains many vitamins, like vegetables. Meat and fish should still be eaten of course. Because fish is rich of omega 3 and vitamin A. Meat restores the necessary protein and vitamin A.

So you don't need to follow a strict diet that you cannot sustain but simply eat healthier.

Nature
A walk in nature can do wonders. The forest, the sea air, ... Nature gives you extra healthy oxygen. The sun gives you extra vitamin D. Nature, a wonder for your body. You will get a good mood and it reduce any kind of stress.

So here you have all the most important things you can work on to get a better health.
One very important tip: never give up, keep doing all this because it is a way of life.

From which fruit do you get the most nutrition's and vitamins? The nutrients and vitamins in fruits.

Everybody is more or less concerned with his health. It is necessary to eat healthy. This means that our body daily needs to convert nutrients and vitamins to work properly. Fruit is an ideal nutrient.
Scientists concluded that two pieces of fruit a day is an ideal addition to a normal balanced diet to give your body the necessary vitamins and nutrients it needs. Most vitamins in fruits are: vitamin A, B, C and D.
So fruit is a kind of supplement between meals to give enough energy and vitality to our body. Yes you get more energy from eating fruits!
That's why we put the most important fruits in a list, each with their specific nutrients, vitamins and other healthful properties.

Benefits of eating fruits
- you live healthier
- less chance of excess fat
- less risk of diabetes
- you can think better because you give your brains a feast meal
- there are less toxins in your body
- you get more energy
- your senses will work better
- your body performs better
- you remain slim if you replace fatty snacks or sweets by a piece of fruit

Orange fruits
Contains approximately 50 milligrams of vitamin C as well as fiber, carbohydrates and bio-active substances. Orange fruit has many benefits for our body. You can also make orange juice from it to drink it easy.

Yellow Kiwi cut in half

Kiwi fruits

The kiwi fruit nutritional value, in percentage terms, includes the most vitamin C. A kiwi would correspond to 166% of our daily needs. A kiwi also contains potassium, cholesterol-lowering pectin, amino acids, beta carotene, folate, magnesium, copper, zinc, phosphorus, carbohydrates, protein, manganese, vitamin A and vitamin E. Two kiwis a day and you're good on your way to the give the right vitamins and other much needed nutrients to your body.

Banana fruits

Banana fruits
Contains several vitamins and minerals. Per 100 grams, there is approximately 88 mg of potassium, 8.7 grams of vitamin C, tryptophan, magnesium and selenium. A banana includes many carbohydrates. At the beginning of the growth converts the banana into sugar at the last of the growth is it just vice versa. Bananas provide mainly energy to our body.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Apple fruits
Contains vitamin C, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, B12, A, E and K. Apart from the vitamins contents an apple also: calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, sodium and zinc. Just, like the saying 'An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away', is this a very healthy fruit full of different vitamins. And that's a fact.

Pear fruits
Contains potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, vitamin C, carotene (found in carrots), vitamin B1 and B2.

Lemon Fruits

Lemon fruits
A lemon contains about 53 mg of vitamin C and gives an energy value of 121 kJ. A citrus in turn could gave a good affect to lose weight. Please note that too much citric acid may cause heartburn, so eating lemon moderated, don't eat a whole pure lemon at once. 1 / 2 squeezed lemon to lemon juice per day, mixed with water, is already sufficient.

Source: Wikipedia NL, it's a translation of the Dutch article on this website: Uit welk fruit haal je de meeste voedingswaarde en vitamines? De voedingsstoffen en vitamines in fruit.

City air pollution shortens our life

Exhaust

Scientists have studied pollution and other factors such as health services and exercise.It has taken a quarter of a century, but US researchers say their work has finally enabled them to determine to what extent city air pollution impacts on average life expectancy.

The project tracked the change of air quality in 51 American cities since the 1980's. During that time general life expectancy increased by more than two and half years, much due to improved lifestyles, diet and healthcare. But the researchers calculated more than 15% of that extra time was due to cleaner air.

You do have a choice on whether you smoke, drink, exercise or what type of food you eat - but you do not have a choice on what air you breathe.

Dr. Douglas Dockery, at the Harvard School of Public Health
'We think about five months of that is due to the improvement of air quality,' said Dr. Douglas Dockery, head of the Environmental Health Department at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, which undertook the research. He added that, due to the relatively clean air in the US, the impact was far larger than anticipated.

Dr. Dockery said there were many factors which had an impact on life expectancy. But he added: 'Clean or dirty air is something that is being imposed on you. You do have a choice on whether you smoke, drink, exercise or what type of food you eat. But you do not have a choice on what air you breathe.' Dr. Dockery believes that if his research was transposed onto the heavily polluted cities of the developing world, such as Beijing or Mexico City, the life expectancy impact would be far greater.

Lung damage
'We would be talking about several years,' he said. 'Three to four years - a significant change in how long you live for. We looked at fine particles that penetrate deep in the lungs, those that are not caught in the nose and the mouth, and directly damage the blood vessels. Most of those come from combustion, from automobiles, diesel trucks and buses and power plants. On a bad day, I can taste the particles.'
Dr. Dockery hopes his findings will encourage governments to work towards making air even cleaner over the next 25 years. Even in Boston, which has comparatively clean city air, pollution levels change suddenly from being safe to highly dangerous. Bruce Hill, a scientist with the Clean Air Task Force, measured two sets of pollution levels. One was on a bridge over a highway with only cars and the other over a highway with diesel-powered trucks.
'Just now that truck passed and the levels spiked up to five times higher than they were in the rest of the city,' said Hill. Now, see, it's gone 25 times higher.' From there he went down onto the underground platform of a commuter train station. 'This is bad,' he said. 'The monitors can't go any higher, meaning the level here could be a hundred time higher than the cleaner air outside.
'Some people commute for five per cent of the day, which is the amount of time they're being exposed to these particles.' Comparable to smoking

Hill describes the damage caused by regularly breathing such air as like living with someone who smokes. Exhaust fumes are a major contributor to air pollution. In the long term, he argued, it can cause cancer and cardio-vascular problems. In the short term, it can create asthma attacks and allergies.

Cait Maas, who already has a respiratory problem, lives in an apartment that looks out on a shipping terminal, an oil depot and a multi-lane highway.  A main road near her home is a key route for diesel trucks. 'On a bad day, I can taste the particles. I feel them constricting my airways and I have to cover my mouth so that I can breathe.'

Over the next generation, however, it's expected that pollution, especially that created by dangerous diesel particles, will be cut dramatically. Standard filters are now being fitted to buses. Bio-fuels and cleaner energy in general, brought about by climate change pressures, will make the air safer.

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