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How many grapes do you eat every week? Grapes are a wonderful addition to a healthy diet. Responsive Health takes a look at the ten health benefits of eating grapes along with some recipes for incorporating grapes into breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

1. Prevent heart disease. A study from the Journal of Nutrition showed that eating fresh grapes could prevent the accumulation of harmful oxidized cholesterol and atherosclerotic lesions. This means less coronary heart disease from plaque build up on the walls of your arteries. The polyphenol called “resveratrol” in the grape skin breaks down bad cholesterol. It can also be found in grape juice, grape jelly, and wine.
2. Fight illness. Grapes are high in another polyphenol called “tannin.” Canadian scientists discovered that tannin eliminated disease-forming viruses in test tubes; tannins move into the intestinal tract and protect from viruses and tumors alike.
3. Fight  cancer. Grapes have a high level of caffeic acid. Caffeic acid helps fight cancer. Read more about this in Johanna Brandt’s book, The Grape Cure.
4. Prevent brain damage from strokes. Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia show that grapes prevent brain damage in the event of a stroke.
5. Boost brain activity. Grapes have a significant amount of potassium and increase brain activity.
6. Boost metabolism. Grapes have a light laxative effect that boosts metabolism. A handful of grapes can do wonders for dieting.
7. Increase calorie burning. As grapes clean out your cholesterol and intestines and strengthen your heart, they increase your blood flow and help with calorie burning. They compliment workouts very well.
8. Enhance endurance. Grapes flush the system out and make it more active for longer; don’t worry about exhausting yourself as quickly with your workout when you have grapes on your side!
9. Helps stave off tuberculosis. Patients in the first stage of tuberculosis are told to include a higher amount of grapes in their diet.
10. Grapes are mostly water. Grapes are anywhere from 65-85% water, which means low calories and high hydration.

Of course, it’s fair to mention one cautionary factor about grapes: they’re no good for a mouth with cavities. Make sure to rinse your mouth out with mouth wash after consumption, especially if you have cavities for the grape juice to eat away at.

Try one of these three exciting recipes to add grapes to breakfast, lunch, and dinner:

Breakfast: Lemon Yogurt

Whip 1/2 pound of low fat yogurt with a tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/3 pound of grapes. Enjoy!

Lunch: Grape Pancakes

• Mix 2-3 tablespoons of flour, 1/2 glass of water of water and one egg. Make a few pancakes.
• Wrap the pancakes around 1/4 pound of low fat cottage cheese, 1 tablespoon of mineral water, and 2 oz of grapes.
• Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Dinner: Rice with Shrimps and Grapes

• Boil 5 tablespoons of rice. Add 1/4 pound of grapes.
• Fry 5-6 shrimps with olive oil and put them on top of rice mixed with grapes.

Does your child eat healthy lunches and snacks?

Our nutrition is determined early on in our lives based upon the food we eat. Studies have shown that metabolism is both genetic and developed, meaning that our youth have a higher likelihood of battling otherwise bad genetics–or supporting good ones!–through physical exercise and early healthy eating habits.

Unfortunately, school lunches have been a widespread debate that has led to an overall sub-par youth dining experience. Slow Down for School Lunches looks how lunches could be improved in today’s K-12 industry.

As a parent, what can you do to improve the diet of your child?

If you have a child that’s picky about the healthy foods you put in front of him or her–veggies, fruits, and such–get them into the kitchen! A child will stubbornly refuse food set in front of them, but if they are part of the cooking / preparing process, it suddenly becomes an adventure to try a new food out.

Do creative things with healthy foods. I’ve read about how moms will make “beancicles” with frozen green beans and how parents make homemade dried fruits that children love as fruit snack substitute. Next time your child wants a fruit roll-up, get an organic FruitaBu smashed fruit and hand that to them instead.

Then there’s the sneaky method. Cook healthy things into your spaghetti sauce, pancake batter, and baked pies, and your children will be eating things they’d otherwise turn their noses up to. Offering undesirable fruits and vegetables in a juice form is also a proven success.

Last but not least, the old saying “Don’t play with your food” is one of the worst things imaginable–if food’s a game, it’s bound to get eaten! For younger children, make eating healthy something fun and it’ll become a much-loved recreation.

Trying to think of what to eat and drink for this Halloween? (Besides candy, of course.) Make sure to add water to your list!

Water makes your metabolism burn calories 3% faster so that you can survive through the candy binge without too much extra weight gain. (Check out other ways to help fight fat through intake besides water drinking.) It’s also easy for you to mistake your body’s thirst for water and eat candy when your body is really just crying out for some good ol’ H20! If you’re one of those people that thinks that water doesn’t have a flavor, try pumpkin spiced tea with your water to give it an extra Halloween spook.

And make sure your children are hydrated this Halloween as well. When you are out trick or treating, as fun as it is for the kids, it is still considered physical movement (often with screaming and laughing children running at full speed down the sidewalks) that exerts energy and needs rehydration to sustain. Water is a crucial element in our everyday lives that we easily slip up when the holiday-of-sugar is involved.

That doesn’t mean to hand water bottles out in the empty pillow sacks and pumpkin heads this Halloween, though; children only get to be children once, so make sure to have plenty of candies available for your neighborhood ghosts, witches, princesses and super heroes on Halloween evening.

Here’s some other fun reads about water to get you excited about your H20 during your trick or treats:

• Five Easy Ways to Eat Less
• Water Retention

One of the benefits of an economy’s downturn–the only benefit, really–is the price tags going down. Basic living expenses become marginally more affordable as people struggle to make ends meet.

But food isn’t looking like it plans on sticking to that trend. With only a glimmer of economic hope peeking out from the clouds, there are already discussions abound about how meat, eggs, and seafood could be climbing in 2010 by as much as 5%. Daily Finance is referring to this as “sticker shock,” where the consumer will be suddenly floored by the visible growth in prices on the labels of their foodstuffs and at the checkout line of their local grocer.

This is not a phenomena that is just affecting the United States, either. The UN is also reporting anticipated record growth for food prices in 2010. The economy is globally brushing upon the basic living needs that sustain us. And the news isn’t new; back in 2008, CNN predicted this would be happening for 2 years or more, meaning that we’re already around-about halfway up this hill, with no turning back.

In the education industry, rising food prices have had a visible impact on the nutrition of our K-12 students. The health of our future generations relies on the school lunches we provide for them, and yet we struggle to keep the standards high when it comes to the collision of K-12 student meals and the rising costs from the grocer.

What are your thoughts on the costs of food as the economy rolls into the next year?

A trip to the dentist is never fun, but it’s even worse when we hear that the dentist say those dreaded words: “You have a cavity.” Usher in the filling and Novocaine and we’re even more disheartened. Beyond brushing, though, what can we do to protect our teeth from cavities?

Snack Less

It will probably make sense when you hear that snacking can increase your susceptibility to cavities. The more frequently you snack, the more likely food will get lodged in between your teeth. This food can linger in between brushing sessions and, in turn, cause cavities as they break down and release corrosive compounds. Also, the increased snacking can increase acid production, which wears on the enamel of your teeth.

Beautiful teeth takes some work

Avoid Sugary Beverages & Foods

Sugary soft drinks and treats may taste great, but they can also lead to cavities. This includes not only carbonated sugary drinks, like colas, but other drinks such as lemonade and sports beverages. It is better to eat a bunch of candy or drink a lot of sugary drinks in one sitting than to continue to snack on them all day.

Mouth Wash

Mouth wash is a great tool for preventing cavities, especially those with fluoride. The fluoride helps keep cavities at bay by strengthening the enamel and keeping them resistant to germs. Try a toothpaste that contains fluoride for extra protection.

Dental Sealant

If you haven’t heard of a dental sealant, then you might want to ask your dentist about it at your next appointment. It is a plastic coating that can be applied to your molars. It serves as a barrier between your teeth and sugary deposits that can exacerbate your teeth’s health. They do not serve as a guarantee that you will not get a cavity, though – they are just an aid to help prevent them.

Good Oral Care

This may sound trite, but general good oral care cannot be overrated. This includes not only brushing after each meal, but flossing as well. Brushing is not completely effective against the food that can lodge in between your teeth and cause cavities. Even worse, the cavities in between your teeth are harder to see and catch before they become bigger problems. Flossing catches those little bits of food that your toothbrush cannot reach.

Check-ups

Regular check-ups with your dentist are important because they help you prevent problems from becoming worse. The dentist can often tell you if you have a potential cavity or if you are not cleaning your teeth well enough. A small filling can be enough of a pain without adding a whole crown to the mix!