Showing posts with label Diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diet. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Top Ten Practical Diet Tips

Are you tired of diet tips espoused by people with apparently unlimited income and time? For a lot of us, it may just not be practical to spend half of our Sunday preparing carefully portioned meals for the rest of the week, or financially feasible to buy all our meals prepackaged in just the right portions. And there are those of us who cringe at the thought or mention of weighing food to achieve "optimal portion sizes."

Here are 10 free diet tips for practical people…

1. Eating out a lot? Restaurant portions tend to be enormous, and if it's on the plate, we are inclined to eat it. If it's possible, order from the kid’s menu or select an appetizer, where portions are more reasonably sized. You can also split an entree.

2. Keep healthy snacks and make them easily accessible. A bowl of fruit on the kitchen table, a container of celery or carrot sticks in the fridge, or a couple of pop-open cans of fruit salad in your desk at work will help you grab for something healthy when those first snaking desires begin.

3. Substitute frozen vegetables for canned. Canned vegetables tend to be high in sodium, which you don't need, and low in real nutrition, which you do. Use economy size bags with zip closures to make it easy to pour out a single serving for a meal.

4. Get a vegetable steamer. Steaming is one of the healthiest ways to cook vegies. The food retains nearly all of its natural nutrients as opposed to leaching them out into the cooking water. Even better, it makes your veggies taste great -- which means you'll be more likely to eat them instead of filling up on fatty foods.

5. Never eat standing up. One of the easiest ways to sabotage your diet is to "eat without thinking." Treat eating with the respect it deserves. Fix yourself a plate and sit down and eat properly. You'll be less likely to just pop food into your mouth without paying attention.

6. Spread out your meals. When you eat three meals a day, your body tends to store whatever it doesn't need at that moment. By adopting a "grazing" habit, you'll keep your metabolism working throughout the day.

Have a small breakfast, a piece of fruit with crackers or toast at mid-morning, a light lunch and an "after school snack" mid-afternoon. Just remember that you're breaking up the same amount of food into smaller meals, not ADDING more food to your daily diet.

7. Grab a fruit juice instead of soda. Soda is nothing but empty calories. No nutrients, lots of sugar and carbonation. Grab a bottle of 100% fruit juice, or pure water.

8. Drink water. When you're dieting, you should drink even more. It's not just that full feeling -- water helps your body digest properly and cleans out your system.

9. Can't afford a gym membership? Make a pact with friends and exercise together. Set a date at least three times a week to play volleyball, take a walk, or spend half an hour doing something active.

10. Skip on the potato chips. Fatty snacks fried in hydrogenated oil like potato chips contribute fat and calories and are terrible for you. Instead, grab a handful of dried fruit or a cup of yogurt. You'll get the same amount of calories and these contain a lot more nutritional benefit!.

When you add these tips to the amazing tried and proven Herbalife programs, you will be even more astonished by your results.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

White [Bleached] Flour


Alloxan, a chemical that is used to bleach flour, also destroys the beta cells in your pancreas. If you occasionally eat bread or pasta, choose those made from whole grain.
On our good food list you may find it interesting that we have included both chocolate and caffeine, these two both have a place to play in our antiaging wellness program diet.

Trans Fat

There are four types of fats:

   1. Monounsaturated fat – good fat
   2. Polyunsaturated fat – good fat
   3. Saturated fat – bad fat
   4. Trans fat – worst by far

What is Trans Fat?

Trans fat is formed when a liquid vegetable oil is partially hydrogenated. This chemical process changes a liquid fat to a more solid fat. It also keeps the fat from spoiling quickly.

Why Limit Trans Fat?

Trans fat raises LDL cholesterol levels. It may also lower “good” HDL cholesterol. People who eat more trans fat are at greater risk of heart disease.

Tips for Limiting Trans Fat:

Read food labels: You’ll want to check the ingredients list and the Nutrition Facts panel. The Nutrition Facts panel lists the amount of saturated fat and trans fat in one serving. Choose foods that are low in both of these fats. The ingredients list will show if a food contains partially hydrogenated oils. If you see this kind of oil, the food has trans fat. Note that if a product contains partially hydrogenated oils but has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, the Nutrition Facts panel will list 0 grams trans fat. However, if you eat more than one serving of that food, you may get a lot of trans fat. Do not choose a food just because it is labeled “trans fat free.” Read the Nutrition Facts to see how much saturated fat the food has. A product with 6 grams of saturated fat and no trans fat has similar LDL raising effects as a product that has 3 grams of saturated fat and 3 grams of trans fat.

More Tips to Keep Trans Fat Intake Low

When you eat margarine or a “buttery” spread, pick a tub or liquid product. Look for spreads with less than a total of 2 grams from saturated and trans fat per serving.Be careful with cookies, pies, doughnuts, some crackers and snack products. These baked goods and convenience foods may be made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.Avoid fried fast foods. These are often fried in partially hydrogenated fats.Keep the sum of your saturated and trans fat below 7% of the calories you eat.

Hidden Sugar

Many of the foods you purchase contain corn syrups.
Fruit Juice - Juices contain around 8 to 10 percent sugar; usually added sugars extracted from grapes, apples or other fruits rather than from sugar cane. Diabetics shouldn't drink fruit juices because they drive blood sugar levels too high, nor should people who are trying to lose weight drink fruit juices because a rise in sugar calls out extra insulin that makes you hungry.
And, in spite the juice bar craze, juices are not healthier than whole fruits or vegetables. How can an extract from food be more healthful than that food? A glass of orange juice contains about one tenth as much fiber as an orange and twice the calories.
Colas - each can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55 mg of caffeine, and is loaded with artificial food colors and chemicals. Studies have linked soda to osteoporosis, tooth decay, and heart disease. Despite this, soda accounts for more than one-quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States; the average American drinks an estimated 56 gallons of soft drinks each year. Each can contains:
  • Phosphoric Acid -may interfere with the body's ability to use calcium, leading to osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is not an “old age” disease. It’s a lifestyle disease. Phosphoric acid also neutralizes hydrochloric acid in your stomach, which can interfere with digestion, making it difficult to absorb nutrients.
  • Sugar: Most sodas include over 100 percent of the RDA of sugar.
  • Aspartame - used as a sugar substitute in diet soda, has over 92 different health side effects including: brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders, and seizures. When stored for long periods or kept in warm areas it changes to methanol, an alcohol that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, which are known carcinogens.
  • Caffeine - cause sleep problems, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps, and perhaps some forms of cancer. Caffeinated drinks can be as addictive as coffee.
  • Tap Water - is the main ingredient in bottled soft drinks. It carries chemicals including chlorine, fluoride, trihalomethanes, lead, cadmium, and various organic pollutants.

Toxic Foods


There are three key food groups that we can regard as "toxic foods" in that they are known to produce high levels of free radicals, that is, they do not support the antiaging wellness program.

   1. Sugar and industrial fructose (high-fructose corn syrup).
   2. Trans fats
   3. Bleached flour

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Symptoms of an Optimal Wellness Diet

We all have different metabolisms and different abilities to digest and absorb nutrients, vitamins and minerals. So how do you know if your diet is right for you? There are physical and functional symptoms of an optimal wellness diet that is the correct balance for your individual needs. These include:
  • Lasting energy throughout the day
  • Clear thinking and good concentration
  • No indigestion
  • 2-3 bowel movements per day
  • Good skin conditions
  • White eyes
  • No furry tongue
  • Even general moods and stress management
Likewise, there are reliable markers that your diet is not right. Poor skin, rings or bags under the eyes, and discoloration of the eyes.
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