Delivering your body a constant supply of Protein throughout the entire day is essential for optimum muscle growth. Protein is made up of amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of your muscles and body. Without them, it would be impossible to build, repair or even maintain muscle tissue. Protein is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Having a sufficient amount of protein will put you in a positive nitrogen balance, or an anabolic state. Being in an anabolic state will allow you to build muscle.

Because the human body cannot produce all amino acids essential to bodily function, you must get some types from the food you eat. Soy provides a full spectrum of all essential amino acids that your body needs and which it cannot produce on its own, making it a complete protein. With no cholesterol, low fat and all essential amino acids, soy can provide a healthier alternative and total replacement to animal proteins.

Other Benefits of soy protein:

• Helps to improve nutritional value of foods
• Lowers cholesterol
• Reduces the risk of heart disease
• Suitable for vegans

Almost all people can get the protein they need from whole foods and drinks in their diet. Adding Soy Protein to your smoothie will not only aid in the effects of your work out but keep you satisfied longer. The recommended daily intake of protein for healthy adults is 0.75 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, or about 45 to 56 g of protein a day.

Soybeans start their rich history in ancient Chinese myth, around 2853 BCE, being proclaimed as one of the five sacred plants along with rice, wheat, barley and millet. It was not until after 1895 that soybeans were introduced to the rest of the world when Japan began to import soybean oil. Originally the bean was used as a forage crop or fertilizer.

After World War I, during The Great Depression, the drought stricken regions of the US were able to use Soy to regenerate their soil because of it’s Nitrogen-fixing properties, giving it the title of ‘The Miracle Crop’.

Leading the soybean industry was Henry Ford, spending nearly 1.2 million on soybean research, helping to develop it’s use in both food and industrial products. Today soy has proven to be a useful vegetable in our everyday lives as an ingredient in everything from edible products, animal feed, to industrial.

Why Is Hydration Important?

Hydration is important for your overall health, regardless of your daily activity level. A large percentage of your body is made up of water, and proper hydration means ensuring that your body maintains that level of water, as we are constantly losing water. Water helps your body regulate temperature, transport nutrients to organs and tissues, transport oxygen to cells, remove waste, and protect your joints and organs.

Hydration, however, is more than just drinking water. Proper hydration is essential for concentration and attention to detail, whether you’re running a marathon, or a marathon of errands. Even a small decline in dehydration levels can result in a decrease of mental and physical performance.

Why Does Dehydration Happen?

Your body looses water each day when you go to the bathroom, sweat, and even when you breath. You can loose quicker when it is hot out or you are exercising. When you are sick you can loose a substantial amount of water and if you do not replace it you can become dehydrated.

An estimated 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration most often occurs when you do not drink enough water nor regularly enough. On a day-to-day basis, most people won’t realize they are dehydrated until they start to feel the symptoms and by this time, the damage of dehydration has already set in. Dehydration can result in muscle fatigue, cramps, headaches, dizziness, nausea, decreased performance level, and rapid heart rate.

How Much Water Should You Be Drinking?

Different recomendations make it confusing to know what your daily water intake should be, ussually stating 6-8 8oz glasses of water per day. Though this is a good goal and a base standard diffrenent people need diffrent amounts of water to stay hydrated. Most healthy individuals sticking to this and then drinking when you are thirsty should be enough.

Another school of thought is that you should be drinking half your body weight in fluid ounces. Say you way 130 lbs, then you should be making sure to get in 65 oz of water a day. This is just where you start, for every hour of exercise you should drink another one to two glasses of water to replenish your fluids.

Tips For Staying Hydrated:

• Keep a bottle of water with you during the day.
• If plain water doesn’t interest you, try adding a slice of lemon or lime to your drink.
• If you’re going to be exercising, make sure you drink water before, during and after your workout.
• Start and end your day with a glass of water.
• When you’re feeling hungry, drink water. The sensation of thirst is often confused with hunger. True hunger will not be satisfied by drinking water.
• Drink on a schedule if you have trouble remembering to drink water. For example, drink water when you wake up; at breakfast, lunch and dinner; and when you go to bed. Or drink a small glass of water at the top of each hour.

You grew up eating theM every summer, the juicy red fruit warm from the sun and perfectly ripe, little did you know they were so good for you! Hopefully what you are about to find out will only make you love them more.

Strawberries are considered one of the best sources of antioxidants, a key factor in improving immunity. Antioxidants also keep your eyes healthy add strawberries high Vitamin C content and you have some healthy happy corneas. Strawberries have a soft spot for you heart as well, containing essential elements of lipoprotein and flavonoids, which improve the health and over all function of your heart.

Ever hear of free radicals?  Free Radicals are a natural by-product of your body’s metabolic process. They are associated with an increased risk of many chronic diseases, like cancer. Don’t fret just yet, strawberries are a great weapon in this fight of repairing your cells from the damage caused by free radicals.

They do not stop there though, the Vitamin C found in strawberries helps promote the production of collagen, the elasticity in your skin that keep wrinkles at bay!

So enjoy your next heaping bowl of the succulent fruit knowing all the good it is doing you inside and out.

‘According to Roman Legend, When Adonis died, Venus wept uncontrollably. Th tears rolled down her cheek and dropped to the earth turning into heart shaped strawberries.’ Just one of the many fantastical stories strawberries have inspired.

Though many are myths plenty are tre, as in the origin of the strawberry shortcake we know today. American Natives were already eating strawberries when Colonists arrived. They would crush the berries and mix them with cornmeal to bake into a strawberry bread, after trying this Colonists developed thier own version, which we still enjoy today.

Being one of the few berries to grow wild on most continents the strawberry has been in our history nearly 2,200 years. The first cultivation of the berry was in France during the late 18th century. Since then we have grown to nearly 600 varieties and produce one billion pounds out of California alone.

A rich history in myth and reality the strawberry is a precious berry that breaks the winter season and marks the begining of the fruit harvest period.

The sun is out and the heat is up. Come and celebrate the sunny days with the Baja Beavers taking over Pangea inside the MU. Cool down with a refreshing Sangria, indulge yourself with a spicy brownie or turn up your own heat with a spicy mango carnita. Vegan? No problem, we have choices for you too! Come try our Green Gardein burger or a bowl of our delicious mint fruit salad with lime drizzle. Who knew the Baja Peninsula could be so close? Come check us out on May 25^th from 10:30-3pm. GO BEAVS!!!

Natures very one first aid kit In one neat package: a high-calorie food, potable water, fiber that can be spun into rope, and a hard shell that can be turned into charcoal. It is no wonder the coconut was revered in many cultures, but just where did the coconut originate? No one really knows. Early Sanskrit writings from the 4th century BC as well as Tamil literature dating from the 1st-4th century AD mention the coconut tree. Coconuts were featured throughout the Hindu epic stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata (from the Puranas of India). The southern coast of India became familiar with the coconut long before the country’s northern region and it was adopted even later into Aryan rituals. The coconut has a prominent role in Indian ritual and mythology. It so closely resembles a human head (with eyes, mouth and fibers for hair) that it was known as sriphala (or fruit of the gods). The coconut palm was held in such high esteem that no one dared cut one. The fruit has a special mention in the Mahavamsa texts of Sri Lanka too, dating back to the 1st century BC.

Fossils found in New Zealand are indicative that the palm thrived along the New Zealand coast as far back as 15 million years ago. In Asia, fossils have been unearthed in Kerala, the ‘Land of the Coconut Palm’, that are much older. The oldest fossils of coconut palm have been found in  Khulna, Bangladesh.

The coconut quickly became a popular traveling companion often being pitched aboard ships for flotation and sustenance. Marco Polo mentions the coconut existence during his travels, referring to it as the “Pharaoh’s Nut” in Egypt. Accounts mentioned by Antonio Pigafetta, aboard one of Ferdinand Magellan’s five ships, wrote of the coconut after reaching Guam where they were greeted the native tribes who had coconuts as weapons, masks, and armor. They were so impressed with the fruit that they carried enough to be transported back to Spain. We can credit these explorers for the name ‘coconut’. The name was derived from the Iberian ‘El Coco’, which referred to a mythical hairy monster. The kernel and hair around the fruit probably generated the connection. The suffix ‘nut’ was added to refer to the seed-bearing palm, as most other tree seeds are referred to in the English language. The name stuck, and today the whole world benefits from the presence of the palm and fruit.

With such a rich history in traveling it is no surprise that the fruit tree can be found as far north as Norway, where the people have for centuries ensured that the seed germinates under the right, ‘created’ conditions. With such care being taken to preserve the fruit it is happy to return the favor, Pigfetta wrote that a family can be sustained by merely two coconut trees, and that the tress would take care of them for a 100 years. Today, the coconut is even referred to as the tree for the soul because of the sustenance that it can give to whoever wishes to grow and nurture it.