Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Thursday, May 5, 2011

The South Beach Diet

One of the top 5 weight loss diet plans in the country today.
It never allows starvation and deprivation of foods.
It is divided into 'three phases'.

- Phase 1
It lasts for about 14 days. This is the strictest phase as there's a strict regulation on what to consume. Carbohydrates are avoided and poultry products, fish, turkey, shellfish that usually eaten with vegetables, nuts, eggs and cheese are to be eaten but in moderation. Coffee and tea is allowed but taken in moderation.

- Phase 2

This phase is much easier than the first. It will last until the desired weight is achieved. The carbohydrates rich foods that were removed from the diet are reintroduced. You can eat brown rice and whole wheat bread but not a white bread.

- Phase 3

This is the phase where your body is already adjusted to start of a way of life that you will have to adopt for a lifetime.

The Golden Gate Diet

The Golden Gate Diet is a medically sound way to lose weight. It is based on the experiences of my patients and on the scientific literature.
I am a physician with expertise in nutrition, and my patients want to know two things from me. First, they want to know what foods will cause them to lose weight. Second, they want to know what foods are healthy to eat. By healthy foods, I mean foods that prevent disease or at least do not cause disease. That is, foods that prevent heart disease and foods that prevent cancer.
These are separate problems. Certainly many foods that will cause you to lose weight are healthy. But there are also foods that will cause you to lose weight but will cause heart disease. And there are even some foods—for example, nuts—that will cause you to gain weight but are so effective at preventing heart disease that you should eat them anyway. And, of course, there are many foods that cause you to gain weight and are very unhealthy.
So this book answers two questions:
How do I lose weight?
What foods do I eat to stay healthy?
How do you lose weight? The key to losing weight is eating foods with a low “caloric density.”
Now this book is not hard to understand. You don’t need to know any math to follow this diet. I have done all the math for you.
As you will see, if you eat foods with a low caloric density, you will lose weight. If you eat foods with a high caloric density, you will gain weight. The caloric density of any food is a number—and that number is listed in the charts in chapter 9.
If the caloric density is less than 2, eat the food, it will help you lose weight. The lower the number, the better.
If the caloric density is between 2 and 3, go easy.
If the caloric density is greater than 3, in general you should eat very little of that food—it will cause you to gain weight.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Hormone Helps You Sniff Out Food, Study Finds

A hormone called ghrelin enhances the nose’s ability to sniff out food, researchers report.
It was already known that ghrelin promotes hunger and fat storage. The new study suggests that the hormone may increase the ability to use smell to detect food and link that input with the body’s natural regulation of metabolism and body weight, said University of Cincinnati scientists.
The study, which included experiments with humans and rats, appears in the April 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. It was led by Dr. Jenny Tong and Dr. Matthias Tschop, both of the university’s endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism division.
“Smell is an integral part of feeding, and mammals frequently rely on smell to locate food and discriminate among food sources. Sniffing is the first stage of the smell process and can enhance odor detection and discrimination,” Tong said in a university news release.
“Other studies have shown that hunger can enhance odor detection and sniffing in animals,” Tschop added in the release. “Since ghrelin is a hunger-inducing stomach hormone that is secreted when the stomach is empty, this hormone pathway may also be responsible for the hunger-induced enhancement of sniffing and odor detection.”
The researchers plan further research to identify the exact.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

How To Eat Healthy

There are many popular diets on the market today, but most of them are unhealthy and sometimes even dangerous. This article will explain how to eat a healthy, balanced diet for life and avoid unhealthy diets.


  • Determine how many calories your body needs to function each day. This number can vary wildly, depending upon your metabolism and how physically active you are. If you're the kind of person who puts on 10 pounds just smelling a slice of pizza, then your daily caloric intake should stay around 2000 calories for men, and 1500 calories for women. Your body mass also plays a part in this: More calories are suitable for naturally bigger people, and fewer calories for smaller people. If you're the kind of person who can eat without putting on a pound, or you're physically active, you may want to increase your daily caloric intake by 1000-2000 calories, a little less for women. Also consider that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you need to function. The bad fats are saturated and trans fat. Someone on a 2000 calorie diet should consume fewer than 20 grams of saturated fat a day, and trans fat can and should be avoided all together. The good fats are poly- and monounsaturated fats, which you should eat about 30% of your calories in.
  • Don't fear fatty foods. You need to consume fat from foods for your body to function correctly. However, it's important to choose the right kinds of fats: Most animal fats and some vegetable oils are high in the kind of fats that raise your LDL cholesterol levels; the bad cholesterol. Contrary to popular belief, eating cholesterol doesn't necessarily raise the amount of cholesterol in your body. If you give your body the right tools, it will flush excess cholesterol from your body. Those tools are monounsaturated fatty acids, which you should try to consume regularly. These are the good fats, and they help lower the bad cholesterol in your body by raising the good cholesterol. Foods that are high in monounsaturated fatty acids are olive oil, nuts, fish oil, and various seed oils. Adding these "good" fats to your weekly diet can lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease. Consider sautéing vegetables in small amounts of olive oil, and grabbing a hand-full of mixed nuts for a snack instead of a candy bar. There are also various supplements that contain these good fats that you can take daily.
  • Eat plenty of the right carbohydrates. You need to eat foods high in carbs since they are your body's main source of energy. The trick is to choose the right carbs. Simple carbs like sugar and processed flour are quickly absorbed by the body's digestive system. This causes a kind of carb overload, and your body releases huge amounts of insulin to combat the overload. Not only is the excess insulin bad on your heart, but it encourages weight gain. Insulin is the main hormone in your body responsible for fat storage. Eat plenty of carbs, but eat carbs that are slowly digested by the body like whole grain flour, hearty vegetables, oats, and unprocessed grains like brown rice. These kinds of food not only contain complex carbs that are slowly digested by the body, but are usually higher in vitamins and other nutrients that are beneficial to the body and they are higher in fiber which keeps your digestive system running smoothly.
  • Eat larger meals early in the day. Your metabolism slows down towards the end of the evening and is less efficient at digesting foods. That means more of the energy stored in the food will be stored as fat and your body won't absorb as many nutrients from the meal. Many American families tend to have their big meal at dinner time. The problem with this is your day is basically over, and your body's need for energy isn't as great as it is early in the day. This large meal, late in the day, can also make you feel tired, and who wants to feel too tired to have fun now that the workday is over? Try eating a medium-sized meal for breakfast, a large meal for lunch, and a small meal for dinner. Better yet, try eating 4-6 small meals over the course of your day. That keeps your body fueled for the whole day without dumping a large amount of food into your stomach, which your body might have a hard time digesting.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Healthy Fast Food

Fast food is cheap, convenient, filling, and to many of us it tastes good. If you are eating out, a fast food restaurant is often the cheapest option, but unfortunately not a healthy one. Eating just one fast food meal can pack enough calories, sodium and fat for an entire day or more. Eating fast food on a regular basis can lead to a host of different health problems, both physical and psychological. Still, in a bad economy the quick-and-cheap temptation can often be hard to resist. As an informed customer, though, you can make healthier choices and still enjoy the price and convenience of fast food restaurants. Making healthier choices at fast food restaurants is easier if you prepare ahead by checking guides that show you the nutritional content of meal choices at your favorite restaurants. Free downloadable guides help you evaluate your options. If you have a special dietary concern, such as diabetes, heart health or weight loss, the websites of national non-profits provide useful advice. You can also choose to patronize restaurants that focus on natural, high quality food. If you don’t prepare ahead of time, common sense guidelines help to make your meal healthier. For example, a seemingly healthy salad can be a diet minefield when smothered in high-fat dressing and fried toppings, so choose a salad with fresh veggies, grilled toppings and a lighter dressing. Portion control is also important, as many fast food restaurants serve enough food for several meals in the guise of a single serving.