Diet and Weightloss News

For Weight Loss, Cut Carbs in PM?

My husband and I are trying to lose some weight – he more than I, I’m just trying to lose about 8 pounds and get back into my personal comfortable weight zone.  We ran into a wall though lately, and I think the reason that we hit that wall was that we are eating too many carbohydrates in the afternoon – or for dinner, and that is what is causing our immovable plateau.

We are following a simple calorie and fat restriction diet, restricting our calories to around 1500-1600 per day, and that seemed to work great for the first few pounds to come off. However, we noticed that we leveled off for several days, and I’m not attributing that to our consumption of high carb Lean Cuisine meals for dinner.

We do combine them with a large side salad, just so that they are  more filling, but the fact that these Lean Cuisines have things like rice and pasta in them, although they are still low calorie, they are piling in the carbs before bed time.

This is probably the problem, since we don’t burn off carbs in our sleep really, they are just left there to convert to fat, so what we are trying to break through to our next weight loss goal is to cut out the carbs for dinner, unless they are carbs that came from a vegetable or fruit.

This way, we’re not going to bed and sleeping with carbs still in our system, such as rice and pasta, and our bodies can more effectively burn the fat and calories off since the carbs don’t provide that instant energy that calories usually go to.

Calories are energy, especially when it comes to calories garnered from carbohydrates, and when you go to bed after dinner, it makes sense that those “instant energy” carbs may have a hard time getting burned off when the only physical activity you’re doing involves dreaming and snoring!

Carb blockers may help to bind and release some of these carbs from the body, but it’s still a good idea to keep your carb consumption to the day time when you have plenty of the day still ahead of you to burn them off before they get the chance to convert into fat and extra weight.

Popular Food Additive Inulin Can Cause Stomach Ache

Have you ever wondered what is the thing attracting you to eat more chocolate bars and various snacks? The answer is Inulin, a carbohydrate fiber that stimulates so called ‘good bacteria’ in the colon and is able to cause body gases, flatulence, bloating and diarrhea. Naturally Inulin can be found in bananas, onions, garlic and wheat.

A negative outcome may arise from consuming Inulin food too often. Its addictive nature causes gastrointestinal problems in the digestive body system.  Joanne Slavin form the University of Minnesota at St. Paul, department of food science and nutrition, has conveyed a study that involved healthy 26 men and women from 18 to 60 years old. In five weeks time, once a week they were give breakfast with cream cheese bagel and orange juice.

The breakfast meal was served on an empty stomach without a previous night dinner. The orange juice contained 5 to 10 grams dose of normal inulin products – shorter-chain oligofructose and native inulin; or a placebo.

Over two days the participants were asked weather they have felt any symptoms from this type of fiber consumptions; symptoms like nausea, flatulence, diarrhea, gas, GI rumbling and constipation. Results came in with mild symptoms from those that had inulin in their nutrition, mainly from the 10 grams of oligofructose dosage. The most common symptom was flatulence – yeah, pretty embarrassing!

From the research it has come to the conclusion that consuming 5 grams of “sweet” inulin and 10 grams of native inulin a day are tolerable for healthy people.   With a target of reducing calories and fat in food products; and increasing the amount of fiber and flavor; food production has found a way of chemically structuring inulin in order to perform its “addictive seduction” role.

High calorie food tends to be more addictive then a normal nutritious type of fruit. People chose Chocolate bars over fiber bars. The taste of a sweet chocolate bar works great for the appetite, reaching a point that a fiber bar is unable achieve. But a fiber bar is far more nutritious and healthy then a high calorie chocolate bar. The heart and stomach don’t have to work overtime in order for fiber to be distributed through the blood flow.

To start fighting the addictive nature of products containing inulin, people need to start with making firm decisions about what to consume. It is always difficult at the beginning when you change a habit. Start slow and finish strong.

Grapefruit with Each Meal and Drop Pounds?

I read something very interesting the other day. It was about a study that showed that people who ate a half of a grapefruit with every meal lost about 3.5 pounds in three months that were trying to lose weight. Now granted, the piece I read actually didn’t give specifics, like if these people were eating light all the way around, but I assume they were. I also made the assumption that the grapefruit sort of helped to satiate these people when eaten with every meal.

A sort of “built in dessert”, if you will, that helped them feel like they had all their essential fat, salt and sweets all in one meal, and therefore made them not crave any of the three major flavors after they were done. Grapefruit has almost always been considered a “diet fruit”.  It has long been speculated that grapefruits possess unique properties that help us to burn fat more readily and may also stabilize our blood sugar, which helps us to not eat as much food.

It helps us not eat as much food, or even crave it throughout the day because instead of eating more to stabilize our blood sugar, we can just have stable blood sugar by eating grapefruit with our meals.

Grapefruits apparently help you to burn fat and stabilize insulin levels because they lower your insulin levels after you consume a meal. Insulin spikes are known for causing cravings and increases in appetite, and are a major reason that people tend to over eat. That and a pesky little hormone called ghrelin, whose properties are just now being studied and better understood, are the major factors behind bingeing, over eating, and craving the worst kinds of food for weight management.

In other words, if someone could find the magic potion to kick ghrelin out of the picture, and minimize it’s effect on our bodies, would become instantly wealthy.  Who knows, maybe one of those new prescription weightloss meds that are going through the FDA in the next year or two for approval will fit that bill!

Wow – Fast Cooking Brown Rice is Healthy?

It has been a long held belief that, like fast versus slow cooking oatmeal, that slow cooking brown rice is healthier and may maintain more nutrients and fiber as well as have a lower glycemic index than it’s sister, the quick cooking brown rice. Fast cooking brown rice pretty much cuts the cook time down less than half the time it takes to cook whole brown rice, which is about one hour or a little less to get it cooked until it’s just right and tender enough to eat.

Studies were actually done by independent labs that showed that fast cooking and slow cooking brown rice really did not differ in the vitamins and minerals they contained, and they also had a somewhat surprising find as well. They found that fast cooking brown rice actually had a slightly lower glycemic index than it’s slower cooking counterpart. Why that would be, who knows!

However, it’s important to note that it was a really significant amount, so go ahead and keep slow cooking your brown rice if that’s the way you prefer it. I know that I like slow cooking brown rice because it is easy to throw in a rice cooker and get a fantastic tasting, just right and tender outcome, and you just throw it in that rice cooker does it all for you.

I actually also like to slow cook my brown rice because I put some seasonings in the water it’s being cooked in, and this allows those savory spices to better soak into the rice and make a more flavorful side dish.

Brown rice is a great way to get several nutrients into your diet, and it has actually been studied and proven that it is beneficial compared to white rice because it lowers the overall rate of diabetes in people that consume it, while white rice does the opposite, it actually increases blood sugar rates and therefore raises risk of diabetes.

The vitamins and minerals that brown rice offers, whether slow of fast cooked are manganese, magnesium which is excellent for keeping your ticker going at the right amount of beats and keeping it “well timed” shall we say, selenium, which is only found in trace amounts in most foods, and of course, dietary fiber, which brown rice is a great source of.

Brown rice, while healthy, is still a significant source of carbohydrates though, so you don’t want to totally over do it on the stuff.  Reasonable portions, maybe once or twice a week are good enough to provide you with the potential health benefits it offers.  It makes a great side dish to things like lean grilled fish or chicken and a big pile of veggies too, and it’s very satiating to the appetite and can help suppress hunger for hours after consumption.

Americans Still Battling Obesity at Record Rates

Apparently our war on obesity here in the US is yielding smoe pretty lackluster results as far as actual effectiveness at reducing people’s body weight. You’d think with the awareness of how important it is to stay trim and fit being at all time that we would all be walking around eating the healthiest, lowest cal fare we can get our hands on.  However, that is not the case.  Americans are still battling the bulge, and it seems that we are actually getting fatter, not thinner as desired.

Not only that, there is a definite disparity between races and also between socioeconomic class when it comes to obesity. The poorer experience obesity more, and it appears that african americans and those with hispanic background tend to be obese more often.  This may have everything to do with income, however, there are also plenty of people who are wealthy or in the middle class as well who are obese or overweight, it just happens to be in higher concentrations in certain populations.

What might help explain this disparity is the fact that cheap food is usually higher in fat, preservatives, and sodium and sugar. This may account for part of the fact why those that cannot afford the better, healthier foods like organic veggies and less process, more “whole” foods turn to less expensive, and much lower quality foods that tend to lend themselves to obesity.

It also may be more accepted in these populations to be obese or overweight, but that is probably it’s own study!

Happy 4th – Healthy Grillin!

Here’s to healthy grilling on the fourth of July, Independence Day, the birth of our nation!  Can you believe that it happened only a little over two hundred years ago? That’s kind of crazy if you think about it in the sense that many people can live over 100 years today, that’s only two lifetimes really!  We’ve come a long way, and the fourth is always a fun holiday to celebrate. It has always had the reputation of being one of the most carefree, cookout driven holidays there are. That and memorial day usually compete for the title of biggest grilling out day.

It’s a day to be with friends or family, grill out some healthy eats on the grill, or even some slightly unhealthy ones if that’s what floats your boat that day, and maybe even toss back a few high quality beers or some wine if that’s your poison.  I know for us, we will be taking it easy with some friends, definitely grilling out, and enjoying fresh foods, including the latest fresh produce on the grill.

Here are some fun, healthy ideas to cook out today.

Grill some pineapple. Grilled pineapple tastes delicious, and you can pair it with a steak or some chicken that’s been marinated. Meat and pineapple make a great combo, especially if you marinate the meat with the pineapple for a few hours before you pop it on the grill. The enzymes and natural acids of the fruit actually break down the toughness of the meat and make it more tender and flavorful, all without adding any fat or sodium  – yum!

Marinating chicken in some easy to make tequila lime marinade is always awesome. Just mix some tequila, lime juice, garlic and a little sea salt, and you pretty much have a ready made tequila lime marinade that has no fat – unless you add a bit of healthy olive oil, but it’s all good!

Then, for dessert, you can make a low fat strawberry shortcake. Get some angel food cake, which is super low in calories and fat, then slice up oodles of strawberries, and spray or spread some cool whip or other low fat whipped topping on top – voila – cool, refreshing, and low fat and low cal dessert for your fourth cookout folks!  Whatever you end up doing today, do it safely and most important have yourself some fun before you start that work week again – you deserve it!

600 Pound Woman’s Goal of 1,000 Pounds Infuriates Some

I must admit, when I read about a 42 year old mother of two trying to become the fattest woman in the world to break current records (of the fattest person alive, not who has died), I was kind of disgusted. I think you can probably disguise her self acceptance as something that is good, but in reality, the fact that someone can barely walk twenty feet without sitting down isn’t doing herself or her family any favors, let alone setting a good example for her children.

The woman is currently 600 pounds, and she is trying to eat her way to becoming 1,000 pounds, which means she would need to gain 400 pounds, and further endanger her life.  Look, I think that self acceptance is a good thing, I really do. But this is just taking self acceptance and saying that slowly killing yourself and surely putting yourself at risk for a certain early death, especially when you have a family, is just selfish, no matter what the angle.

I can’t imagine that living an immobile life with diabetes is much fun.  The woman says that she just enjoys fatty, greasy foods, and has always wanted to enjoy eating what she wants rather than bowing to the demands of what society deems as an acceptable weight and eating habits. She said that she was mercilessly teased in school, and took diet pills her whole life to try to lose weight, but then she just decided to make a sort of pastime out of being overweight.

She models for a large woman’s website, and she claims that she feels good about herself and isn’t putting herself at risk and that she is “healthy”. I’d like to see her doc get on and say that.  I’m sorry, I support women’s self acceptance, I really do. But, being the health conscious person that I am, I just can’t condone the promotion of such a blatant disregard for one’s body. Like the cliche goes, your body is your temple. You only get one, and you gotta take care of that one and give it TLC until the day you die.

She does have her supporters, but I think she may be confusing self acceptance with self abuse.

Acid Reflux: What are the Dietary Causes?

Certain food and products can potent acid reflux symptoms. Some food can cause and emphasize the acid reflux. When planning the diet you must take in consideration the following thing. You must avoid certain foods who are direct causes of acid reflux in your diet.
But there are some foods that have no or little impact on causing heart burn.

We can first start with advices of what food to avoid and another advice for changing of eating and drinking habits, in finding a way to switch on healthier life and diet habits.

-    Fried fatty food, “junk food”, try to avoid food rich with fats, hidden calories, fry food, food called “junk food”, eliminate dressings, souses, pure oils. This food tends to spend more time in your stomach, because it slows down digestion, and for increasing the rate of the digestion more acid is need, and therefore acid production is stimulated. This food retention in the stomach increases the pressure, which make a pressure on the acid reflux. Secretion of the more acid makes this process to go round and round, and the problem is getting worse.

-    Bad eating habits, eating too much or once a day. Try to take care and pay attention what you eat, look in your dish instead in the TV or computer monitor. Sit down on the table and eat slow, enjoying every bite. Eat 5 regular meals with raw fruits and vegetables. Having no time is no excuse.

-    Large meals, eating large meals can decrease a digestion process too, try to eat 5 times a day, raw food, raw vegetables and fruits, cooked meal, home-made meal is an ideal solution.

-    Eating under the stress or when you are nervous. Because under these conditions you don’t enjoy what you eat, you only “put” food in your mouth and stomach as well.

-    Coffee, tea, drinks with caffeine. Although everybody think that this beverages can “lift you spirit for the day” try to avoid them on empty stomach, in the morning before the breakfast, and just before going to bed. This also applies for the alcohol.

-    Intolerance to some food, you can be sensitive to some kind of food, tomatoes, citrus, pepper, potatoes, garlic and onions. Also some dressings and spices that contain vinegar can worsen the acid reflux situation.

-    Chocolate contain theobromine that can cause heartburn also.

-    Smoking, some hazard chemicals in cigarette can cause heartburn.

And one final advice is to drink plenty of water, min 2.5 litres of water every day. Water dilutes the stomach acid and lessens the acid reflux symptoms.

How Do You Feel About Regulating the American Diet?

I noticed that I’m seeing more and more in the news about the government and it’s various departments and legally extended arms, reaching out and trying to regulate various aspects of the American diet.  I’m not sure if, with the increasing awareness of the health care problems in this country, the government is wanting to Big Brother us more on our diets because it is causing severe taxing of the health care system since so many health issues are diet and weight related, or if it’s just an increasing movement to help make American healthier.

I personally think that it’s a little of both.  I think that the agenda is really to help lower our exorbitant health care costs so that we can help make this Obama healthcare thing work better and be more efficient.  However, I do have to admit that it raises my hackles thinking that the government may be able to some day tell me how much salt I can consume in my diet, or how much sugar, or fat for that matter.

This whole movement really started with cities requiring restaurants to put the calorie counts of their dishes and offerings on the menus in conspicuous locations. New York City was one of the first, and several other metropolitan areas followed suit. Heck, some restaurant chains even instituted this on their own. Perhaps to look like they were part of the solution and not the problem or perhaps part of a pre-emptive strike for new laws that might require it anyways.

It think that there are arguments both ways about where this whole food regulation thing is going. I think that the menu item calorie listing thing is a great benefit to consumers. What harm is there in showing people the calories in items, as they can still make up their own mind about eating that item?

However, where I think it gets a little sticky is where the government may start regulating how much salt can be added to foods. This is a direct control over what we are eating, and could be construed as a loss of basic inalienable rights. Sure, that right may be to screw up our bodies and run them into the ground. But you get what I’m saying here.

You could argue that reducing sodium in foods and processed foods could be a good thing also though, because we have built up such a taste for salty foods that gradually reducing the salt may make us re-adjust our old tastes, and help us to start naturally desiring lower sodium foods.  Still, the anti establishment part of my conscience is saying that this should still be up to the individual and not the government. It’s almost starting to remind me of a utopian/big brother society type of thing like Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World – no?

Sleep Deprivation Another Obesity Factor?

I remember reading an article a few years ago, and reporting on it, about how there are several (I think it was ten) environmental and lifestyle factors that have evolved over the years and contributed greatly to the obesity problem we face today as Americans. One of them was lack of sleep. We find ourselves today, in this fast paced workaholic world, getting less and less quality sleep.

What scientific research has shown repeatedly is that people who are sleep deprived have larger appetites, and tend to consume more food and crave carbohydrates more after a night where they have received less sleep than the ideal. The ideal is still 8 hours, but 7 hours usually works for most people as well. More than this can actually also work against you, so it’s good to operate on the 8 hour rule of thumb for most people’s metabolism.

What I’ve noticed personally is that I do tend to want to munch more when I haven’t gotten adequate sleep, and I seem to crave the worst possible junk foods as well. Maybe this is my body’s way of trying to energize artificially, through excess carb consumption?  I’m not sure, but this rule of lack of sleep and increased food consumption DEFINITELY applies to me.

A higher BMI (body mass index, which measures the amount of body fat your body is composed of vs. muscle) is also associated with people who consistently do not get enough sleep, so there is a real correlation here.

Sleeping is vital to not only your mental health and physical health, but it also helps you to focus, gives you the needed energy to get through your day, and amps up your body by revitalizing and restoring a lot that was lost during the day. Sleep is so important to us that lack of sleep on a consistent basis has been shown to lead to psychosis, and even more severe mental problems, including temporary insanity in severe situations, and delusions.

So as you can see, sleep is a function of the body that we cannot live without or skimp on for too long without serious consequences.  Plus sleep feels good, I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to slip onto that pillow top mattress after a hard day’s work every night!  Ahhhhh……