Daily Diet Blog

May 31, 2008

Starting Off Day with Carbs : Not Good

Filed under: Health & Fitness Tips — EatingToLive @ 7:12 am

Well, I must admit.  My boyfriend and I have just indulged in a day of total diet debauchery, without an ounce of care for what is good for us, starting our day off with the worst foods you can imagine for beginning your day.  First of all, there was not a good piece of protein to be found in our breakfast, where we ate at our local Cracker Barrel restaurant, which happens to have the best pancakes and maple syrup in our town. 

He got bacon, and my lousy excuse for protein was a pile of scrambled eggs with some processed American cheese thrown on top, which I barely even touched, instead opting for the luscious mounds of cheesy hash brown casserole and the buttery biscuits and pancakes.  Yeah, real well rounded and nutritious, huh? 

Needless to say, about an hour after we ate this carb filled breakfast - and none of it was the good kind of carbs with all that fiber and nutrition, oh no, we were ravenous once again, opting for yet anothe carby, fattening food when we went to the food court at the local mall, and got none other than Sbarros pizza, and to boot, a bread stick to go with it! 

It seems that when you start your day off wrong, that is, with all simple carbohydrates like refined breads and sugary sweets like pancakes drenched in maple syrup - and no, we’re not even talking buckwheat pancakes which at least have a saving grace of bundles of fiber, we’re talking those delectable, fill your belly for an hour then drop you like a rock in blood sugar, buttermilk variety! 

So, in a decided effort to eat a little better for dinner, we decided to go to Boston Market for dinner and make it a day of eating out.  Hey, at least at Boston Market, you can guy some things that aren’t absolutely heinous for your health, like chicken and veggies and sometimes a low fat soup or salad. 

However, of course, after having consumed starches and simple carbs all day, it seemed almost impossible to not go for the carbs one more time for dinner, so I got mashed potatoes.  Hey, tomorrow’s a new day, right?  I just need to make sure I start it with my usual low fat yogurt with berries and veggie sausage links - now that’s a good breakfast that doesn’t leave you feening for garbage all day long! 

May 28, 2008

What are Slim Shots?

Filed under: Weight Loss — EatingToLive @ 5:22 pm

Well, I have to admit, I’m just as curious about the latest and greatest findings in the diet pill world, including herbal weight loss pills, different natural types of appetite suppressants in various forms like liquid, pills, powders and even homeopathics ones that you hold under your tongue until they dissolve.  So this new Slim Shots appetite suppressing product that I saw in the middle aisles at Wal-mart just the other day - you know, the displays of items that they know are bound to get the attention of the dieters and summer conscious people?

I also noticed the steep price, which was around twenty five bucks for only a 21 day supply of the shots, which appeared to look like they were the size of coffee creamers you’d get at restaurants, or the kind of liquid creamer you get with your coffee at McDonalds and other fast food restaurants.  I was reading the labels, hoping to find some breakthrough or interesting information on why these might be worth the price, other than their novel approach at getting people to buy them by putting them in a one shot container and calling them “shots”, appealing to the novelty lover in all of us - including me! 

However, I couldn’t find anything out about the ingredients - at least not any that I thought were the active ingredients which made the appetite suppressing quality of them work, because it was called a “proprietary blend”, which means they did not disclose what was in that proprietary blend on the label, leaving the buyer to wonder what exactly it was they were ingesting.

However, the packaging did state that it was “clinically proven” to reduce appetite by about 30% when the product was taken in the morning.  I read some reviews online and couldn’t find much except that the product worked for some people, and that it tasted a lot like milk of magnesia, with not a lot of flavor but a thicker consistency.  If anyone has any reviews of the product or has tried it, please post them here so others can read them if they’re thinking of dropping a lot of money and want to get information before doing so. 

May 26, 2008

Obesity May Be Regulated Like Smoking

Filed under: Diet and Weightloss News — EatingToLive @ 10:09 pm

Many in the health world are calling for the American obesity epidemic to be treated like smoking currently is here in the US.  What this may mean is that in the recent past, we’ve seen cigarettes extremely regulated in the way they can be marketed and not marketed, and even to what age groups they could be geared toward, including where they can even spread their advertising message. 

Junk foods are currently marketed to kids, big time, and we are already seeing better foods being marketed to the nation’s youngsters, such as smaller 100 calories snack packs, and even healthier options in kid’s meals at our landmark fast food joints such as McDonalds and Wendy’s, in an effort to at least give the nation’s kids a good start in life and get them off on the right foot when it comes to their future weight and weight maintenance, not to mention their future tastes for fats and sugars, the nemesis to the thin, trim you that everyone tries to beat when they’re adults.

What the new guidelines may include in an effort to nip obesity in the bud, is to put guidelines forth for public schools in how they feed the kids, making them feed them meals that meet a certain nutritional criteria instead of some of the junk today that is high in fat and sugar and sets the stage for obesity and diabetes, a growing problem for our nation’s youths today.

They say the problem is that in industrialized nations such as ours, we have food companies coming out with highly processed and refined foods that, sure they taste good, but at the expense of the basic fulfilling nutrition.  By eating them, you basically get  more hungry and get more cravings for bad foods, so it becomes a self perpetuating situation that can only be rectified by eating wholesome, real foods that are minimally processed and have minimum preservatives and additives. 

We need to get back to basics in the way we eat.  I think when that happens, most of the battle against obesity may be taken care of.  Of course portion control always matters as well, but the quality of the foods we eat would be a huge step in the right direction. 

May 23, 2008

Body Composition and Weight Control

Filed under: Fat Reduction — EatingToLive @ 10:17 pm

Body composition is related to your metabolism as science and biology clearly state.  The higher the ratio of muscle to fat, the faster your metabolism will be.  It is a fact that a pound of muscle at rest will burn 60 times the calories than a pound of fat will.
Apply this theory to what type of workout you do when considering diffferent types of exercise for weight control.   Cardiovascular types of programs are great for your heart and lungs but may not have as much benefit for as long of a time as a weight training program would do.
So, the ideal workout would combine a cardiovascular and a weight training routine into your exercise program.   A weight training program will help you to build muscle and therefore fuel your metabolism to burn your calories faster and more efficiently.
As we age, we often lose muscle mass which can result in gaining weight even when we cut calories and constantly diet.  Often, people do a cardio workout alone to attempt to control weight.  With a cardio workout only, you will burn calories during the workout and for a short time afterward.
If you weight train and build muscle mass, you’ll burn more calories 24 hours a day, even at rest.
Weight training should be done at a level appropriate for your personal fitness and age.  It should be started with guidance from a trainer, gradually starting with resistance training.
Combine the weight training with cardio and adjust your diet to include more protein, vegetables and carbohydrates that are unrefined whole grains.  You’ll notice you’ll feel better, look better and have improved weight control.
Weight training is not just for body builders. It is part of a complete exercise routine that should not be overlooked.  Weight training has the added benefit of slowing bone loss that occurs with aging.

May 21, 2008

British Man Loses Nearly Half Body Weight Eating Baked Beans

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 11:19 am

Well, this guy’s weight loss story is definitely a newsworthy one!  A man named Neil King from Britain who formerly ate large english breakfasts, which I didn’t know until now, consist of very fatty meats like bacon and sausage, toast, and stewed tomatoes, which sound like the only healthy part, and had up to eight pints of beer per day, has pared off almost half his body weight - formerly 420 pounds, by eating around six cans of baked beans per day. 

Not only that, the guy lost that weight while accompanying his baked beans with rice for his lunches and with potatoes for his dinner.  The baked beans made sense to me, but the potatoes and the rice (unless it was whole grain), kind of threw me for a loop.  Was he taking a good carb blocker or something of that nature?  Potatoes have been blamed somewhat for our obesity epidemic here in the US, but there has been some positive press on the Irish favorite (and one of my personal weaknesses, I must admit) as being resistant to being stored as fat.

This gentleman went on his baked beans diet after he was informed by his doctor that he was at a high risk for colon cancer with his current diet and obese body weight.  He says he loves baked beans, so this particular diet hasn’t seemed to be so tough for him, and he even says that he hasn’t gotten gas with the diet, ever since he gave up having his toast with the beans (perhaps a bad combination).  He also says the weight just keeps coming off, so he plans on keeping up with it. 

I’m wondering though, if this means he ate canned baked beans with the barbecue sauce and whatnot on them, which of course adds to the calorie count as well as the “glycemic index” if you believe in such a thing, or if this is some other recipe for baked beans that doesn’t include all that sugary stuff in it. 

May 18, 2008

Total Body and Total Body Mega Formula Still Causing Health Scares

Filed under: Herbal Supplements — EatingToLive @ 5:33 am

If you are taking either of the following dietary supplements for weight loss or calorie burning, you need to stop taking them immediately, as they have been recalled and are causing major health issues in those taking them.  They are called Total Body Formula and Total Body Mega formula, and the problem is they contain several times more selenium in them as indicated by the label. Selenium is a mineral that is good in trace amounts, but not much is needed by the body, and in high amounts the mineral is actually toxic to the human body. 

There has been a warning issued by the FDA about the product, and the company that makes it voluntarily pulled it from shelves, however, reports are still coming in about negative side effects after taking the product, and this indicates to officials and investigators that there are still people out there taking the product, unaware of the detrimental health effects. 

The problem is, the product is sold in certain stores as well as online, so it is impossible to trace all users, so the FDA is relying on news outlets to spread the word about the recalled product, and we all know that not everyone gets to read the news all the time.

Althought there have been no deaths reported in conjunction with this dietary product, there has been one hospitalization.  Reports of health issues associated with Total Body formulas are hair falling out at alarming rates, painful fingernails, joint pain, muscle craps and fatigue.  Although selenium has been painted as the culprit to the health woes of those taking the supplement, field tests on the supplement concluded that it also had many times more chromium than indicated on the label. 

Although the levels of chromium are inconclusive as to their potential effects  on the human body and it is not known whether high levels of chromium can be harmful in any real way, this is another factor that has been cited as getting this product out of the hands of consumers, just in case. 

Just another reason to be mindful that, even when taking a natural or herbal weight loss product, you should still be mindful that there are no reports of harmful side effects.  Perhaps before you purchase a supplement like this, you could go online and google search it to see if there are any complaints out there to be safe and put your mind at ease.  At least it’s some sort of safety precaution. 

 

May 16, 2008

Diet Pill May Hinder Brain Development in Young

Filed under: Prescription Diet Aids — EatingToLive @ 7:18 am

The latest blockbuster diet drug that actually went bust in the US and is only sold now in Europe, Rimonabant, otherwise known as Acomplia, has been pegged as having an effect on young mice who were studied in the lab (poor mice!) as having an effect on normal brain development during growth phases. 

It was shown to inhibit their adaptability, so that the brain could not learn to adapt to certain situations as the individual mouse grew, as a normal youth would be able to.  This is just another blow to the drug, although they never indicated that it should be used in children, and it is actually not even allowed to be prescribed for children currently where it is approved for use. 

The drug works by suppressing the appetite by way of hindering the same chemical process by which people who smoke marijuana get hungry in the brain.  However, the reason that the drug was not approved in the US is that it was demonstrated to cause some forms of psychiatric problems in the patients that it was given to in controlled studies - to the effect of 40%, which is of course totally unacceptable. 

Most alarmingly was the reports of suicidal thoughts that accompanied the use of the drug, and this was unacceptable for the FDA to approve the drug.  Just another reason to give a good herbal weight loss pills a try, right?  It seems like a lot of these blockbuster pharmaceutical weight loss drugs just cause more problems than they’re worth, way more than outweighing (no pun intended) the health risks that excess weight brings. 

Acomplia is set to come back out as a treatment for type II diabetes in 2009, but it is unclear whether they are trying to reformulate the product at all to make it safer for human consumption and reduce the potentially life threatening side effects of suicidal thoughts. 

 

May 14, 2008

Diet and Genetics Play Role in Longevity

Filed under: Diet and Weightloss News — EatingToLive @ 1:53 pm

I just wrote about a man who lived until he was 114 from an article I read, and how scientists had performed DNA tests on him to see if he was in possession of a specific set of genes that has been identified as the possible reason for why some people who share these specific genes, as with in long lived family members, why some people live so much longer than others.

For the particular man in question, he lived on a mediterranean island, and had a very low key, stress free lifestyle, he biked nearly every single day at least up until he was 102 years old, and he also ate a mediterranean diet, which consists of a lot of omega 3 fatty acid rich foods as well as other dietary foods that have been proven to help with a variety of health problems as well as are suspect in a lot of diseases as a helping hand in preventing them as well as helping control them.

The conclusion that science has come up with after running tests on people who have lived past 100 years old, is that there is no definitive answer, lifestyle or genetic combination that makes people live so much longer than others.  Rather, it’s most likely a combination of the factors themselves that play a role in their longevity. 

For example, some people may not possess the right genes, but if they consume a certain diet that agrees with their body chemistry, they have a low key lifestyle and they also live in a pollution free environment and have minimal toxins in their bodies and the food they consume or the materials they come in contact with, this may push them past 100 since disease and illness is less likely to consume their bodies before they die of natural causes - aka old age instead of an actual disease. 

I remember reading a story about a particular long lived male a while ago who was studied and it was found that his diet consisted of sausage and waffles every morning.  Hardly what most of us would consider a healthy start to the day, however he had other factors at work which may have contributed to his longevity, such as the fact that he had no children, a minimally stressful life, and by most indications he was  man who was rarely stressed out. 

I still think diet plays a huge role in our health and the prevention of disease, but there are also so many other factors that come into play.  Perhaps this man who ate sausages and waffles all the time controlled his portions wisely.  He probably was not overweight, which plays a large role in prevention of disease and the longevity aspect.  There are too many factors at work in the longevity world, however, we do know that restricting our caloric intake and eating certain high antioxidant foods as well as getting our necessary vitamins, minerals, fibers, and other micronutrients greatly enhances our quality of life. 

May 11, 2008

Diet Pills Don’t Work By Themselves

Filed under: Weight Loss — EatingToLive @ 5:19 pm

Well, duh, right?  How many times have you tried a new diet pill, and lo and behold when it’s appetite suppressing effects or fat blocking effects, or whatever else in the diet pill claims to be the magic bullet to helping you lose weight, wears off, you return to your old eating habits, or you start to pile the weight back on because you don’t have that benefit of the pill at it’s fullest power like it was from day one on your side. 

Heck, sometimes even when I’m on a diet pill that suppresses my appetite naturally I know that I still need to use a lot of my own good old fashioned will power and desire to lose weight and fat because I’ll even keep eating after I’m stuffed - it’s just a psychological thing for a lot of us.  Take the new diet pill Alli for example, the very reason that many are afraid to take it may be the reason that it really gets people to lose weight, but they may put it back on when it’s off if they don’t use their own self control and desire to keep it off.

What I’m talking about with Alli is the side effect that has gotten so much press, and taht is that some people lose the control of their bowels when they use it, if they accidentally or on purpose consume too much fat, which Allie is designed to block a portion from absorbing into the blood stream (kind of like how carb blockers work, but only with fat).  The makers of Alli do suggest that if you use it, then try using it the first few days when you don’t have much going on, so you know how it may affect you, and then adjust accordingly.

It helps lots of people because they don’t want to have the embarrassment of diarrhea, so they really tend to watch what they eat, so they’re less likely to eat a whole pizza because they know what type of effect this will have on their system and they lose weight.  So guess what, you still have to use your own willpower and common sense, on any diet pill, for it to be effective. 

I’m and advocate of diet pills as long as they’re safe, because I think they do get you in the right mindset to jump start a diet to lose the weight you need to, I’m just saying that people think there may be a magic bullet to weight loss and of course there isn’t, you still have to eat right and be active, and that’s how it should be, otherwise our bodies wouldn’t be healthy. 

May 8, 2008

DexC20 Ads Claim to “Reduce Fat Cell Formation”

Filed under: Herbal Supplements, Fat Reduction — EatingToLive @ 6:01 am

I had seen a brief news story on this new weight loss and fat loss supplement called DexC20, with what is the latest plant based herbal weight loss ingredient that is likely to cause a sensation if people start to notice results, called Caralluma Fimbriata, and thought it sounded really interesting.  The short news story was about how the company had commissioned a guy to do a special small study involving ten people (yes, a small study indeed), and also lasted around 30 days.

He said that all study subjects ended up losing weight while on the product, and they also had a guy on that looked like a personal trainer and who’s resume included that he was a model as well who said he’s used the DexC20 diet product for around four months and lost roughly ten pounds of what he feels was fat, without changing his diet or excercise regimen at all.  They didn’t say whether this guy was affiliated with this product, but I had to wonder if he was compensated in any way for making those statements - just the skeptic in me I guess.

I then went to the DexC20 website where it showed me that this product could be purchased in several store, including Walgreens, CVS and GNC, and could also be purchased online.  It also held my interest a little because Shelia Kennedy, a player in the Big Brother reality show which I happen to be addicted to, was one of their testimonials, and I can testify that she looked better than she did on the show in a bikini, but I also remember her losing weight throughout the season, but I don’t know if it was because of this or just because of the stress of the game. 

They have some before and afters that look good, however, my one problem with this product is that it claims to help “reduce fat cell formation”, which shouldn’t even be a statement, because you already supposedly have all the fat cells you’re going to have for the rest of your life once you hit adulthood, so to claim to reduce fat cell formation sounds like an incorrect statement that they may need to re-evaluate.  Heck, maybe it helps shrink fat cells, but it should be stated more clearly.  Have to admit though, the product does pique my interest, and the company is supposedly now commissioning an even larger study to test the efficacy of the diet product. 

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