Daily Diet Blog

August 21, 2008

Ever Have a “Binge” Day?

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 8:10 pm

OMG, I’m so having one of those days where I literally feel like a bottomless pit. I’m not sure if I just started the day off wrong and am now paying for it with an unrelenting appetite from hell, or whether this is my typical, couple times a month, non stop hunger day.  You probably all know exactly what I’m talking about too. 

It’s like you know you should be full and satisfied by all the stuff you’ve been piling in your mouth, and yet, either because of a blood sugar or hormonal issue, or perhaps because of being mentally bored, you keep eating, and eating and eating….and…you get the point.

Let me tell you how I started off my day, and how it snowballed into a pure carb day, and consuming a whole lot of carbs at that!  I started the day with a large bagel.  Stop right there before you chastise though, because at least it was a whole grain bagel.  Well, go ahead and chastise now, because guess what I had on top of that bagel?  A couple nice pats of butter!  And not the low fat or low salt variety either.  Nope, it was real, hard, bonified dairy butter!

So with a heavily buttered bagel starting my day, I knew I was in trouble by the feeling of malaise that set in immediately after I finished it.  It was like I felt like I needed dessert or something, which if you are a carb freak, you know is fairly common after eating carb loaded meals, no matter the time of day.

I held off the “dessert” part though, and was  good girl and avoided the vending machine at work to get some M&M’s (although those did come later), and instead opted for the delicious, huge nectarine I had brought with me.  For anyone who is not familiar with their fruits, a nectarine is a hairless version of a peach basically, except I happen to like the flavor and texture of nectarines better.

I was ok right after the nectarine, but about 45 minutes later, I was craving sugar, like refined, bad sugar, so I dug into my desk and found a small handful of jelly belly jelly beans.  Still feeling unsatisfied I decided to just wait it out til lunch.  At lunch I had what I brought from home, a large serving of brown rice and beans, topped with petite diced tomatoes.  It was delish as usual, but I still wasn’t satisfied, so after I went to the gym at work and exercised, I had a huge bag of honey mustard pretzels.  Do you think I might benefit from a good carb blocker now?  I’m sure it couldn’t hurt!

I’m currently rounding out the day with a bag of plain M&M’s, and I’m hoping this’ll do it, because Lord knows my poor thighs were just beginning to enjoy a bit of slimming down from previous efforts! Hopefully I can control my ravenous appetite at dinner, I’ve probably already consumed over 2000 calories today!

July 30, 2008

Good Carbs : What Are They?

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 5:10 pm

If you haven’t heard by now the term “good carbs” and “bad carbs”, well you might just be living underneath a rock somewhere, seeing how the most popular diets over the past year or two have been ones that focus not totally on low carb foods soleley, or even on carb loading and foresaking a lot of proteins and fats, but rather they focus on a good balance, mostly of course focusing our carb consumption on what are called good carbs, instead of bad carbs.

“Good carbs” or healthier and more diet friendly carbohydrates, are foods that are relatively speaking, high in their carbohydrate count, but they are what is termed by some, “slow burning”. This means your body does not just burn through them faster than you can bat an eyelash, but rather they burn off/are used up slower than simple carbs, which make them a better blood sugar stabilizer and leads to longer periods where you remain feeling full and satisfied.

You know what that means, it means that you end up eating less in quantity because what you are eating is satisfying for longer periods of time. Some of the foods that are in the “good carbs” category are beans and some legumes (like my personal favorite, black beans), brown rice, whole grain breads, some whole grain pastas, high fiber and low sugar fruits and veggies and basically any other high fiber and low fat food you can think of that you can eat a lot of without expending a large amount of your daily caloric allowance.

One of my personal favorites (incidentally, vegetarian) dishes is actually a good fit for a good carb and high fiber dish, and that is brown rice and black beans. It’s great too because not only is it low fat and high fiber, but it also can be made to taste great and is satisfying and filling.

July 21, 2008

Low Carb Diet Proves Successful in Cholesterol Lowering

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 7:48 am

In a new, and very extensive research study on the benefits to be had by the various popular diets out there today, including the still-popular Atkins style approach, the Meditteranean diet and the low fat diet, a conclusion has been reached that many doctors and nutritionists have not agreed with or conceded to at least over the last decade. That is that the low carb diet results in just as much, if not more, cholesterol level lowering as it’s other diet counterparts.

This is a significant win for those that advocate the low carb diet, specifically the Atkins approach which is a somewhat hard nosed approach to the low carb diet that I happen to not agree with fully because it limits certain foods that are high in antioxidant and disease prevention value.

The interesting part about the study is that it is actually the longest and most controlled one ever done on comparing diets like this, since it was done in an isolated environment and many of the participants stuck to their respective diets for two full years, which is almost unheard of on such a large scale.

The low carb diet and the Mediterranean (which in effect acts as a carb blocker, working to offset carb intake) resulted in the best and most consistent weight loss goals, while the low fat resulted in the lowest weight loss, however, they all resulted in a reduction of bad cholesterol levels, which is counter to what many thought about low carb diets, because they do not really limits fats that much, but instead focus solely on carbohydrate intake.

An interesting note though on that, is that the people on the low carb diets in the study actually were encouraged to try to make their protein a vegetable, rather than animal source, so I’m not really sure what impact that has on the whole outcome of the cholesterol testing. Another interesting note is that the women seemed to have more success on the Mediterranean diets in their weightloss, which was attributed to them having more experiences and knowledge about dieting and proper food selection.

June 30, 2008

Food Combining Significant?

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 2:43 pm

You may have heard of diets that advocate eating only certain combinations of foods together, to make sure your body is the ultimate calorie and fat burning machine it can be, and also to aid in digestion and elimination of foods. I certainly have tried that one, in fact the funny thing is, a food combining diet was the first diet I had ever tried, when I was in my teens and needed to get rid of some baby fat, and it really worked well and made me feel good with lots of energy.

Why didn’t I stick with it permanently? Well, I do try to still use some of the principals of food combinations in my daily diet routine, but I also feel that at times it can be very restrictive and is nearly impossible to abide by in some restaurants unless you are getting your meal made with almost none of the ingredients or very many of them eliminated.

Now, there is even more research on the benefits of combining foods correctly that have to do with optimal absorption and utilization of nutrient more than they have to do with the elimination and digestion aspect for optimal calorie use.

For example, research shows that you should not eat caffeinated drinks or other caffeinated foods or beverages, or anything with those great little nutrients called polyphenols in them, with iron, because polyphenols actually slow or inhibit the absorption of iron, to a significant enough degree that it’s not just negligible advice. Another piece of advice is to eat your foods packed with antioxidants, such as veggies and fruits, with some healthy fat.

Why? Because fats can help the body absorb antioxidants much better into the blood stream to be absorbed and used by the body to its benefit. For example, put a little olive oil on those leafy greens such as kale or spinach leaves, or eat some almonds (with the healthy fat omega 3 acid) with your blueberries. For example, my breakfast every morning is yogurt with blue or straw berries, with almonds - this means I’ll be absorbing their anitoxidant power to the maximum limit possible.

June 27, 2008

Body Content Measurers (BMI)

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 9:53 am

There are devices on the market today that measure your body composition and also your metabolic age.  The reasoning behind these machines being useful tools in assessing your health is that the number of pounds you weigh is not as important as the proportion of fat to muscle.
These measurement devices look, for the most part, similar in shape and usage to a bathroom scale.  Prices can range from $30.00 to $300.00.  The manner in which they work is called bioelectrical impedance.  A small current passes through either foot pads or hand held electrodes.  The current slows down in fat tissue but passes quickly through muscle.
Therefore, the measure of impedance together with the mathematical figuring of the machine determine the percent of fat to lean body mass.  The ideal measure for men is to have less than 20 % of their body composition from fat.   For women, the ideal percent of fat should be under 33% of their body composition.
Some of the machines measure more than body composition of fat to lean muscle.  In addition, some measure hydration levels, how many pounds of bone, how much muscle, fat around vital organs and calories you need to eat in a day.  With all this information, these devices measure your metabolic age. 
Here’s a few examples of monitors for body composition information that are available today.  The Tanita UM061 sells for about $32.00 and it measures you from the feet and gives you your weight, body fat,  and percent water information.   The Homedics 540 sells for approximately $60.00 and measures your weight, body fat, percent water, percent muscle, bone mass and daily caloric estimate.  This one measures you from your feet.
The Omron Body Logic also sells for $60.00 and measures from the hands instead.   It informs you of body fat, and your body mass index.  For $120.00, you can purchase the Omron Full Body Sensor.  This device measures from both the hands and feet and informs you of your weight, body fat to muscle ratio, daily caloric estimate , visceral fat, body mass index and your metabolic age.
The Tanita Ironman sells for about $300.00 and measures you from your hands and feet.  It gives you statistics on your weight, body fat, percent water, muscle, bone mass, visceral fat, physique rating, metabolic age and a daily calorie estimate.
If you like information about your body composition in addition to your weight, there are many new devices to choose from and they are surprisingly affordable.

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. 

April 13, 2008

Man Credits Low Carb Diet with 500 Pound Weight Loss

Filed under: Dieting Trends, Diet and Weightloss News — EatingToLive @ 2:34 pm

We all hem and haw about losing that last five, ten or fifteen pounds, don’t we?  I’m not excluding myself by the way, I constantly find myself saying “if I could just lose five more, I’d be happy”.  But what about people who are morbidly obese and find themselves having to lose hundreds of pounds?  How hard would that be?  I’m sure most of us who just have a few extra pounds on us can’t even fathom how hard that would be. 

We think that because people who became morbidly obese must have eaten so much to become that way, that just cutting down wouldnt’ be that hard and the weight would shed with no problem.  That isn’t always the case though, since many of them have developed insulin resistence and also have problems with a stalled metabolism.  They may require double time work and calorie cutting to lose those pounds, so for them it’s actually many times harder than it is for a person who is a normal weight to just lose a few. 

Imagine how tought it must have been for a man to lose over 500, almost 600 pounds of weight - that’s a lot of weight for anyone to lose!  Well, the world’s former “fattest man” alive credit a low carb diet with helping him to shed around 570 pounds of weight, and hopefully saving his life and heading off a multitude of health problems in the interim. 

Low carb diets can be helped with carb blockers that work by helping to block the affects of carbs, since they help to block the blood stream from being flooded with insulin, which is what happens when we eat high sugar or high carb foods.  They break down too quickly in the blood stream and cause a chain reaction that ends in weight gain ultimately by increasing hormone levels that make us eat more and make us feel full for less time, tricking us into thinking we are in a constant state of hunger.

Manuel Oribe lost his weight following the low carb diet, and plans on losing the balance of his weight, around another 300 pounds or so, by following an even stricter regimen of peanuts, fish soup and grapefruit.  He refused gastric bypass surgery in favor of following a natural diet method that allowed him to lose the weight naturally, which is commendable. 

He was bedridden for six years and had to quit his job as a mechanic because of his obesity, and he admits he stuffed down pizzas, burgers and other highly fattening and addictive foods to become over one thousand pounds and earn the title of the world’s fattest (known) man, and he’s determined to get to a healthy weight, of about 265 pounds, with the help of a natural, healthy diet.  Good for him! 

April 4, 2008

Blizzard or Shake as Meal Replacement?

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 5:19 pm

My boyfriend and I used to be hard core Atkins diet followers, and we did actually lose a lot of our weight being on that diet regimen, however, it was not always the easiest thing in the world.  Especially at the beginning, when we were only allowing ourselves meat, cheeses and low carb vegetables like broccoli, and I hardly even ate any fruit (yes, this makes me cringe now, I think it’s incredibly unhealthy now that I look back on the Atkins regimen), and splurging on something like sweets or breads or pastas was an extremely rare occasion.

As we eased up a bit on the Atkins low carb to no carb regimen though, we allowed ourselves splurges about once a week of a meal replacememt where the meal replacement would be either a shake, or a blizzard from Dairy Queen.  Believe it or not, this weekly splurge did not affect our weight loss nor did it pack any pounds back on.

I think it was because we at this as a meal replacement, rather than how many people approach these types of fattening high sugar foods, which is as a dessert, after a meal is eaten, packing even more calories into their day, rather than just eating the ice cream product itself, and curbing some of those calories that certainly add up very fast.

My Blizzard of choice at DQ would be either the pecan cluster, which makes my mouth water still to think of it, with it’s salty pecan pieces, chocolate shavings, and butterscoth flavoring in vanilla soft serve.  Either that or I would get a limited edition flavor they had but I think they have since discontinued (not sure why, it’s delicious), the French Silk Blizzard, which was a blend of vanilla soft serve, a cocoa flavored fudge topping, and pieces of chocolate shavings with little pieces of pie-crust like chunks. 

It was delicious, and if you know how to eat these types of “bad” foods in moderation, the right way, then you can indulge in this type of food once in a while, it certainly doesn’t hurt once in a while, you just have to be careful that it doesn’t lead you on a binge period where your body starts craving these types of high sugar and fat foods all the time.  Heck, you could try using an effective carb blocker to use before eating this type of stuff (still once in a while, not all the time), to help curb the effects and slow the surge of blood sugar it causes. 

March 4, 2008

Stress and Appetite

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 12:23 pm

When I talk to my girlfriends about how stress affects their appetite, it’s curious to me that many of them will answer different ways.  Some of them will say that stress takes their appetite away and makes them lose weight very quickly (mind you, this is NOT a preferred method of weight loss), and some say that they begin to experience a larger appetite, and feel like they are eating anything that isn’t nailed down.

I for one, happen to take different types of stress in different ways.  If it is a type of stress from an incident, or maybe a family death, I have no appetite, however if it is job related stressors or just too much on my plate, I generally begin to eat more and make poor food choices, which lead to rapid weight gain.  Oh yeah, and if it’s a boyfriend or some type of romantic trouble, it would always cause me to lose my appetite.  Good thing I’m in a healthy relationship now!

No matter how your appetite is affected by stress, in the end, stress simply is not a good thing.  It elevates our blood pressure, increasing likelihood of stroke and heart disease, and it can even increase the hormone cortisol in your blood stream, which has been linked to elevated weight and “stress eating” in those that like to eat their stress away.

Not only that, stress and anxiety cause extreme emotional distress, and can even cause us to go through temporary or extended meltdowns where we are not productive and feel we can’t function, so controlling stress is vital to heatlh, whether it makes you lose or gain weight in the end. 

February 23, 2008

Food Combining Diets

Filed under: Dieting Trends, Diet Reviews — EatingToLive @ 9:12 am

An interesting method of dieting and keeping slim, trim, healthy and keeping your digestive system harmonious and plugging away is the method of food combining that is sort of catching on, in a cultish kind of way I guess.  This theory has been around a while.  I remember one of the first diet books I ever read called Fit for Life was based on the principle that combining foods properly was key to keeping the digestive system health and clean.

Not only did it advocate proper food combining but it also advocated steering clear of meat, especially red meat, and eating lots and lots of veggies.  The food combining principle seems complicated at first, but the basic principles are that you may only combine meats and dairies and starches with vegetables, never with eachother.  So a well combined meal would be say a piece of chicken, spinach, and green beans, but you should not combine it with any starch like potatoes, pasta or bread, and there should not be any fruits in their either.

Fruits were only supposed to be eaten by themselves, and preferably in the morning before anything else entered the stomach, so they would just be eaten up by the system very quickly, usually 45 minutes or so.  When I followed this diet regimen after reading it when I was young, I must say I felt great and had minimal digestive issues.  Now, I believe that there have been several more books written on the subject, and they may also have some better and newer information on food combining.  It’s a great concept. 

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