Archive for the 'Healthy Diet' Category

For years we have been told to avoid sugar. And it’s true that many of us have diets filled with more sugar than we realize.

But amid claims that artificial sweeteners can be hazardous to our health, people are taking a fresh look at natural sweeteners, including stevia, agave nectar, honey, and sugar.

Can sugar have a place in a healthy diet? The answer may surprise you.

In terms of calorie content, all except artificial sweeteners provide about four calories per gram. Many artificial sweeteners contain fewer calories, many of which come from added fillers or fiber.

No sweetener really provides significant nutrition, though the less processed the sugar source, the greater the possibility that there may be other nutrients along for the ride.

And that’s the real answer to our question. Sugar can have a place in a healthy diet if it primarily comes into your diet via fruits and vegetables, which are also packed with nutrition and fiber.

If you want to add sweetness to any other food, your healthiest option is molasses, which contains some antioxidants. If you don’t like the taste of molasses, your next healthiest choices are brown sugar, honey and maple syrup.

Today obesity presents one of the biggest public health problems.

Research shows that during the last 25 years the rate of obesity has almost quadrupled in UK.

Obesity is termed as the mother of all diseases. The factors predisposing obesity are genetic factors, environment, and socio-economic influences.

Childhood obesity is becoming one of the major concerns. Obese children have more problem losing weight later in their lives.

So what can be a remedy to this problem? The only prevention, treatment and cure for this problem are “Healthy balanced diet”. What exactly is a balanced diet?

As per the food guide pyramid there are six  food groups consisting of cereals, pulses, fruits & vegetables, milk & milk products, fish & poultry, fats & sweets.

A balanced diet is basically the balancing of all these food groups in your diet.

Carbohydrates form the major part of your diet. Of the daily total calories consumed by you 60-70% should be from carbohydrates of which majorly comes from cereals.

Many people see carbohydrates as bad food. No, it is very important to focus on complex carbohydrates which are high in fiber & other nutrients.

Breakfast may indeed be the most important meal of the day — as long as that meal is not a doughnut — a study suggests.

Using data from a national health survey of U.S. adults, researchers found that people who ate lower-calorie foods for breakfast tended to have a higher-quality diet overall.

Furthermore, men who ate a healthy breakfast generally weighed less. Among women, breakfast eaters — regardless of the food involved — tended to weigh less than those who skipped the morning meal.

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, give some support to past studies finding that breakfast eaters are less likely to be overweight — and that eating a high-quality breakfast, rather than grabbing a pastry, is the key.

Research has shown, for example, that people who eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast have a lower average weight than either those who skip breakfast or those who sit down to a plate of steak and eggs.

What’s “unique” about the current study is that it suggests that breakfast foods low in “energy density” — low in calories for a given amount of food — “appear to predict better food choices for the rest of the day and may help with better management of body weight,” Dr. James Rippe, one of the researchers on the work, said in a written statement.

In lean economic times, we may need to tighten our food budgets, but it is important to do so wisely. Processed foods are definitely cheap.

A dollar buys 1,200 calories of cookies or potato chips, but only 250 calories of carrots; or 875 calories of soda, but only 170 calories of orange juice.

Filling up on cookies and soda, however, is a prescription for weight gain, cardiac disease, and other health problems.

Jennifer Ventrelle, clinical nutritionist and registered dietitian at Rush University Medical Center, maintains it’s possible to grocery shop on a budget while staying healthy and maintaining your waistline. She offers these tips:

Eat foods with fiber: “Fiber Food keeps you feeling full because it takes longer to digest than simple carbohydrates,” Ventrelle says. “Consequently, you eat less.”

Sweet potatoes are high in fiber, and also inexpensive and packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants. White potatoes can be high in fiber if you leave the skin on.

Bean, lentil, tomato, or broth-based soups take up more space in your stomach and help to keep you feeling satisfied. Lettuce and mixed greens do the same. You can buy them in bundles instead of pre-cut to save on cost.

Fatty foods may not be the healthiest diet choice, but those rich in unsaturated fats - such as avocados, nuts and olive oil - have been found to play a pivotal role in sending this important message to your brain: stop eating, you’re full.

A new study by UC Irvine pharmacologists shows that these fats trigger production of a compound in the small intestine that curbs hunger pangs.

This discovery, the researchers say, points toward new approaches to treating obesity and other eating disorders.

Daniele Piomelli, the Louise Turner Arnold Chair in Neurosciences, and his colleagues have studied how a fat-derived compound called oleoylethanolamide regulates hunger and body weight.

In their current work, they found that an unsaturated fatty acid called oleic acid stimulates production of OEA, which in turn decreases appetite.

Oleic acid is transformed into OEA by cells in the upper region of the small intestine. OEA then finds its way to nerve endings that carry the hunger-curbing message to the brain.

Read more at Medical News Today

Are you aware of thin foods that can help you better in your weight loss program? If you fail to take proper advantage of thin foods, then your job of maintaining appropriate weight can become a tough task for you.

To make your weight loss process much easy and long-lasting, here is the list of certain effective and important thin foods that can help you greatly in your weight loss process.

Fiber!

How much fiber do you take in a day? Many studies recommend that 25-38 grams of fiber [fiber diet] is very essential for a human body.

This is because of the reason that lower level of fiber content in your body considerably contributes to a wide range of chronic health diseases, including cancers.

So, it is very essential for you to take sufficient amounts of fiber in a day.

Fiber mainly provides a kind of feeling of fullness of your stomach. As a result, you can limit your calories and at the same time it also provides essential proteins and vitamins for your body.

Fruits and vegetables are certain best sources of fiber. So, don’t forget to include them in your regular diet routine.

Did you ever feel that stress is making you fat? Weight gain under stress is partly due to hormonal imbalances that can significantly make you to put on some weight.

When you frequently experience stress in your life, it can be quite difficult for you to maintain healthy eating habits.

Whether you are eating to fill your emotional needs or snack fast food as you find no time to prepare something healthy, it is believed that a stressed-out lifestyle is possibly unhealthy for you.

Cortisol hormone plays a critical role!

Cortisol is the stress hormone, which is responsible for various actions in your body. This stress hormone mainly stimulates your body fat and carbohydrates for metabolism process to release energy quickly.

It also stimulates insulin release and maintenance of appropriate blood sugar levels in your body. As a result of these actions, your appetite levels can increase.

When cortisol is excessively secreted during certain situations of psychological or physical stress, the normal pattern of cortisol function is altered. This excessive secretion of cortisol promotes weight gain.

Certain studies show that stress and elevated levels of cortisol mainly lead to fat deposition, particularly in abdominal areas of your body.

Do you know fast food can also become a part of your weight loss or healthy diet plan? Not regularly, but occasionally you can include fast foods in your healthy diet plan for weight loss.

But, here the main key is to make wise food choices.

So, if you really want to enjoy fast food in your regular weight loss plan, here are certain tips that can help you to make wise meal choices when you want to include fast food occasionally in your diet plan.

Look before you leap!

Most of the fast food restaurants often mention the nutritional information regarding their food offerings on their web-sites.

So, try to check them once. This can help you to avoid less nutritious and high calorie foods.

Eat consciously!

Develop mindful or conscious eating, which means try to pay more attention on what you eat and choose foods, which are both delicious and rich in nutrients.

Eating consciously helps you to relax yourself, which in turn helps you in better digestion and makes you feel much satisfied.

Choose grilled foods!

Almost every one of you, over eat at some situations in your life, which is quite common.

But, if you try to overeat regularly at certain situations like stress, anger or loneliness, then you might be suffering with emotional eating disorder.

Emotional eating is the practice of eating more quantities of food than usually required. It is considered as emotional response to your feelings instead of hunger.

Usually, people with emotional eating snack junk or comfort foods, whenever they lose their control over emotions.

So, if you are the one suffering with such kind of eating disorder, before exploring the exact solution for your problem, try to know the connection between mood and food.

How mood is linked with food?

Certain major life events such as health problems, divorce, traumatic events, unemployment and daily life hassles like stress at work, bad weather and changes in routine life mainly triggers emotions, which can certainly lead to emotional eating. But, why does this happen?

Some foods in your routine life might apparently have certain addictive qualities. For instance, when you eat certain tempting foods, such as chocolates, your body tends to de-stress your mood level and provides better satisfaction for you by simply elevating hormones. This example simply proves that the pleasure of having tempting or comfort foods usually offsets your negative emotions.

While nothing beats an all-around exercise program and a sensible diet, there are a variety of little things you can do to help yourself along the route toward losing weight.

Did you know that if you chew sugar-free gum several hours a day by the end of month you could lose up to three or four extra pounds?

Here are a few ideas for very simple, even no-brainer, steps that you can take to maybe toss out another five to ten pounds a month.

Shop on a full stomach: Never go to grocery store on an empty stomach. That is such a no-brainer that you already know it, but you don’t follow it.

And you should because studies have proven that going to the grocery store on a empty stomach not only means bringing home more fatty food than you would have gotten if you had shopped right after eating, but you will also spend more money.

In fact, some studies have indicated that those who do their grocery shopping on an empty stomach can expect to spend up to 30% more than they would have if they’d gone shopping on a full stomach.