Tag Archives: Carbohydrate

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4 Food Rules to Shrink and Soothe Your Belly for a 21-Day Tummy


4 Food Rules to Shrink and Soothe Your Belly for a 21-Day Tummy

 Reblogged: From Yahoo Health                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  So, this is a little awkward. But a few years ago, I began to notice that my digestion was becoming less regular. I had almost constant pain and bloating and had gained nearly ten pounds. Then I read the stats: From burps and groans to discomfort and moans, millions of Americans have similar tummy issues. So I did what any health journalist would: I researched the issue, and I asked my staff of editors at Reader’s Digest to help. We uncovered reams of pioneering studies and learned that the very foods that make your belly feel better are the same ones that make it flatter.

It’s a diet dream: an eating regimen that trims my tummy can also solve GI problems like heartburn and reflux, gas and bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In a nutshell, we found that two keys for a slimmer, happier stomach: balance gut bacteria and lower inflammation. An unhealthy mix of gut bacteria can lead to constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, and IBS. Inflammation can upset your stomach and pack on pounds if it becomes chronic.

I asked Kate Scarlata, a registered dietitian who specializes in digestive disorders, to help convert all of this new science into an eating plan, and I called it the 21-Day Tummy diet. If you follow it, you’ll enjoy plenty of foods that soothe your stomach (I call them Belly Buddies) and eliminate those that aggravate it (I call them Belly Bullies). To start, read up on the plan’s four main food rules:

Nutrition

1. Load up on magnesium-rich foods.

Deficiency in this key mineral is linked to obesity and inflammation. The 21-Day Tummy diet features delicious spinach, brown rice, and pumpkin seeds, among other whole foods, to boost your magnesium intake.

More: 7 Best Foods for Your Belly »

2. Eat plenty of anti-inflammatory fats.

Pair the MUFAs in foods like dark chocolate, olives and avocados that specifically target visceral belly fat with omega-3’s (found in foods like salmon and walnuts) that combat inflammation and the many diseases associated with it. You’ll protect yourself from heart disease, depression, type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer, and, of course, gastrointestinal disorders and weight gain.

More: 7 Worst Foods for Your Belly »

3. Cut back on carb-dense foods.

This tip may change the way you look at “good carbs” and “bad carbs” forever. Carb-dense foods can alter the balance of our gut

flora, triggering inflammation. Foods are considered carb-dense if they have a high ratio of carb grams relative to their weight. A small potato, which many consider a bad carb, weighs 170 grams, but it’s mostly water; only about 23 percent of it is carbohydrate. A plain rice cake, by contrast, weighs only nine grams, but almost 80 percent of it is carbohydrate! To minimize carb-dense foods, the 21-Day Tummy diet cuts out sugar, refined carbs, and most grains. Instead, it adds carb-light, natural foods like bananas, potatoes, and leafy green vegetables. Lean proteins and healthy fats are also carb-light.

4. Steer clear of FODMAPs

Clear your system of FODMAPs, the rapidly fermentable carbs or sugars that can play an ugly role in your digestive system, causing gas, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation. Everything from the fructose in agave nectar to the lactose in milk can be fast food for the bacteria in your gut, which is bad news for those of us with sensitive stomachs. The 21-Day Tummy diet minimizes FODMAPs, then guides you through a test to see which ones you can tolerate after three weeks. To learn more about the plan and get the book, click here.

MORE FROM READER’S DIGEST

 

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Jump for Joy and Juice!


Jump for Joy and Juice!juice box!

Juice can actually be considered a natural water source and provides the body with protein, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that can be absorbed quickly and efficiently.  Fresh juice also contains necessary enzymes, and pigments such as carotene, chlorophyll, and flavonoids.

Juicing fresh fruits and vegetables provides numerous nutritional advantages that are extremely important to weight loss.  In addition, diets containing a high percentage of uncooked foods are significantly associated with weight loss, improved blood sugar control, and lower blood pressure.

Orange, pear, apple

Your appetite finds a raw foods diet more filling.                                               Cooking can cause the loss of up to 97% of water-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.  Since uncooked foods such as juices contain more vitamins and other nutrients, they are more satisfying to the body, so it does not feel starved for nutrients. This means the metabolism will keep running efficiently and keep your weight loss efforts headed in the right direction

Juicing kick-starts your body’s digestive process and enables quick absorption of high-quality nutrition, which can result in increased energy. This is one of the great advantages of achieving weight loss through improved nutrition.  Fresh juices, combined with a well balanced diet will provide you with the energy needed to burn more calories, fat, and provide you with the fuel you need for physical activity.

However, juicing does remove the fiber from these nutrient-dense foods. So be sure to include an appropriate amount of fiber-rich foods in your daily diet.  Juicing should be a complement to a well-balanced healthy diet, not a substitute.

So with a little planning and creativity, juicing could enhance your well-balanced diet and add some zest.  The internet is a great resource for juicing recipes and information, and with the realization that raw foods and juicing is a great health boost, books and magazine articles are touting the benefits and offering recipe ideas.                                        Calorie, Carbohydrate, Dieting, Health, Healthy Ways to Lose Weight, Human nutrition, Juicing, Loss Weight, Nutrient, Nutrition, Raw foodism, Top weight-loss, Vitamin, weight loss, Weight Loss Tips, weight tips

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The Cure for Carb Phobia?


Reblogged:from Huffington Post                                                                                                                                                                                      The Cure for Carb Phobia?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Imagine you’re out to dinner at a fancy restaurant. Which makes you more anxious: the bread basket or the fact the menu doesn’t list prices? Be honest. If you’re like a lot of women, the thought of a warm, aromatic basket of freshly baked carbs right in front of you makes your heart race and your palms sweat. The reason for this, says Franco Carlotto, a six-time Mr. World Fitness and author of the book Carb Cycle, is that we are suffering from “Carb phobia.” Carlotto calls this mass delusion a “travesty,” saying that not only does completely eliminating carbs make you feel sluggish and deprived, but it’s actually bad for you. “You don’t lose weight . In fact, you are training your body to preserve fat.”Carlotto’s mission is to take the fear out of eating carbs, and his trick, honed by experimenting on his own chiseled physique since he was 16, is a practice called “carb cycling.
“Carb Cycling: The Basics“  Carb cycling involves alternating periods of low-carb intake with periods of higher-carb intake. For example, you could go almost carb-free for four days and then eat a lot of carbs for one day. Repeating this process makes for a carb cycle. To do Carlotto’s particular program, detailed in his book, first you have to go back to the science.

 “The body has two separate energy storage systems,” he says. “You store fat, yes, but you also store carbohydrate in your liver and muscles.”

The theory goes that if you eat no carbs, thereby depleting your stores, then your body goes into starvation mode. And anyone who’s been on a crash diet knows how awful that feels. On the other end of the spectrum, if you eat so many carbs that your carb storage is always full, then any excess carbs you eat are stored in your body as fat.

“The key is to keep your carb storage full and then slowly (slowly!) empty it by cutting your intake of grains, starches, and exotic foods in half,” Carlotto says. Once your carb storage is depleted, you can start replenishing it without fear that the calories will be stored as fat. If you do this, he promises that you will be able to eat what you like without fear of gaining weight.

Carb Cycling: Does It Work?   Carlotto is living proof that carb cycling is effective. “I was loading up on Swiss chocolate right before the Mr. World Fitness competition ,” he says. “People couldn’t believe it! But this is how I feel good.” Being half-Italian, it made Carlotto sad to hear his fellow competitors brag about how they hadn’t had a potato in months. “I love oatmeal! And brown rice and even frozen yogurt!”

Rachel Cosgrove, celebrity trainer and author of The Female Body Breakthrough, agrees that women shouldn’t be afraid of good carbs and manipulating them can be a powerful fat-loss tool.

“Carbohydrates give you energy and help retain muscle, yet they can also stimulate fat storage. When you eat fewer carbs and replace those carbs with protein, the body ramps up fat-mobilizing enzymes and hormones, resulting in accelerated fat loss ,” Cosgrove says. “However, a prolonged period of low carbs will leave your muscles weak and lacking in glycogen.”

To maximize the benefits, Cosgrove recommends her clients cycle their carbs using a pattern of three days low-carb followed by one day of higher carbs to restock glycogen stores.

Carlotto and Cosgrove aren’t the only ones who have found success with carb cycling. Both have used their methods on countless clients with incredible results.When done properly, carb cycling works for everyone because our bodies are programmed to respond to natural fluctuations in food intake, Carlotto says. “Our bodies are smart. This is how our ancestors ate 5,000 years ago.”

So while you still shouldn’t go on a cake binge, there’s no reason to fear the bread basket for life!                                                                                                                                                                                      Calorie, Carbohydrate, Cyclic ketogenic diet, diet, Dieting, dieting programs, Eating, Food, Health, Healthy Ways to Lose Weight, Human nutrition, Loss Weight, Low Carbohydrate, Low-carbohydrate diet, Top Weight loss, Weight, weight loss, Weight Loss Tips, weight tips, World Fitness

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10 Weight-Loss Myths Debunked


10 Weight-Loss Myths  Debunked                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         I found this on Shine from Yahoo: they talk about all the Myths we here about weight loss and dieting. Then they give us the facts. So before you go committing your self to a diet or weight loss program I really think you should read through this. Remember you can’t believe every thing you hear,you have to know the facts.  Diet myths Misconceptions about how to lose weight abound, especially on the Internet. Get the facts on shedding pounds now: Start by dispelling these 10 commonly held – but wholly inaccurate – notions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Myth:1 carbs spell trouble for dieters                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 fact: Carbohydrates are actually an important source of energy. Even so, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn from low-carb diets. Carbs are not all created equal, and to help you Drop 5, you want to limit processed carbs such as white bread and croissants. Instead, enjoy beans and whole grains, such as brown rice and whole-wheat bread. And don’t forget fruits and vegetables, which provide a host of nutrients and fiber, are low in calories, and can help reduce the risk of obesity and heart disease. The body also uses carbs as fuel during exercise to burn body fat – another great reason to keep bread (and sandwiches!) on the menu.    Related: 11 Worst Foods for Your Health.                                                                                                                                                                                                          Myth 2: Frozen fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than fresh ones.                                     fact:That’s true only if you live on a farm. Produce picked at the peak of ripeness does have more vitamins and minerals, but nutrient levels drop during shipping and storage. And they sink even further if you add the days that the produce lingers in your crisper. Frozen veggies and fruit, on the other hand, are usually picked ripe and immediately flash frozen, so they retain most of their nutrients. For calorie control, be sure to select frozen produce without added sugar, syrup, sauce, or cheese.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Myth 3: The cholesterol in eggs is bad for you                                                                    Are eggs bad?                            fact: One large egg has 213 milligrams cholesterol, and health experts suggest limiting dietary cholesterol to 300 milligrams a day or less (200 milligrams a day if you have heart disease, diabetes, or high LDL “bad” cholesterol). However, dietary cholesterol’s effect on blood cholesterol is still a mystery, and studies suggest that saturated fat and trans fat may have a much bigger impact. If you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or high LDL cholesterol, you should eat no more than 2 eggs per week, but you can have as many egg whites as you like (the cholesterol is in the yolk). Try products like Eggology On-the-Go Egg Whites (zap for 95 seconds in the microwave and presto – a scramble filled with 13 grams of hunger-sating protein) and Egg Beaters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Myth 4: Skipping breakfast will help you lose weight.
Fact: Skipping meals can lead to weight gain. A recent British study that tracked 6,764 people found that breakfast skippers gained twice as much weight over the course of four years as breakfast eaters. Another research group analyzed government data on 4,200 adults. They found that women who ate breakfast tended to eat fewer calories over the course of the day.
Related: Easiest-Ever Workouts
                                                                                              Myth 5: Eating the day’s foods in certain combinations will help you slim down.                           Fact: Seventy years ago, Good Housekeeping Research Institute experts declared this fad nonsense, and we say the same thing today. Almost all foods are combinations of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. In whole milk, for instance, about 20 percent of the calories are from protein, 50 percent from fat, and 30 percent from carbohydrates. The digestive system has no problem handling different types of food at the same time. If you do happen to shed pounds on a “food-combining” diet, it’s simply because you’re eating fewer calories overall.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Myth 6: Your genes determine your metabolism and body weight.
Fact: Only 25 percent of your body weight is determined by your genes – the rest is the result of your behavior. At any time in life, you can drastically change your body weight by combining low-calorie eating and exercise. And you can increase your metabolism at any age by performing strength and resistance exercises.                              Related: Flatten Your Belly in 2 Weeks
Myth 7: You can spot-reduce to lose weight.
Fact: On the contrary, the way to achieve sleeker legs or a flatter stomach, if that’s where you’re carrying your body fat, is to increase your lean muscle tissue throughout your body. By working all your muscles, you increase your metabolism. Up your metabolism and watch your eating, and you’ll start looking the way you want to.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Myth 8: Early morning is the beBest time to exercise?Best time to exercise?st time to exercise.
Fact: “The best time to exercise is anytime you can do it,” says Samantha B. Cassetty, M.S., R.D., nutrition director at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute. You get the same payoffs and burn essentially the same number of calories whenever you work out. What’s important is doing it regularly. Some studies have shown that first-thing-in-the-morning exerciser’s are more likely to stick with a regimen than those who start late in the day, but that’s because it’s probably easier to postpone an evening workout until tomorrow. So whether you have more time or energy in the morning, afternoon, or at night, the important thing is that you do it.                                                                                                                                                                                       Myth 9: Your body won’t burn fat unless you exercise for more than 20 minutes.
Fact: You burn fat around the clock, whether you’re exercising or not. For the biggest calorie burn, exercise as hard as you comfortably can (you should still be able to carry on a conversation) for as long as you can.
Related: 100 Ways to Fight Flab
Myth 10: It’s best to starve yourself before an event.
Fact: This plan will backfire because you’ll use the “I haven’t eaten all day” excuse to stuff yourself when you arrive. Instead, save calories for a party by cutting back slightly at each meal for several days beforehand. Then, make the best use of your calorie allotment. For extra weight-loss insurance, increase your activity a few days before and after a big event.

Healthy Ways to Lose Weight,Calorie, Carbohydrate, diet, Dieting, dieting programs, Eating, Fitness, Food, Health, Human nutrition, Low-carbohydrate diet, Nutrition, Portion control (dieting), Shopping, Top weight-loss, weight loss, weight loss programs, Weight Loss Tips, weight tips, Yahoo
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For the Best Breakfasts, Look to Our Neighbors


For The Best Breakfasts,Look to Our Neighbors                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The benefits of breakfast are almost too numerous to list. Breakfast wakes up your metabolism after sleep and starts you burning calories. It reduces stress hormones and improves your mood. It improves your memory and your alertness, and gives you energy for work. And for reasons that are still not entirely understood, it is widely demonstrated that people who eat breakfasts are slimmer, and find it easier to keep weight off once they lose it.So it’s not hard to see that breakfast is an easy win. Yet many people are almost afraid of this simple meal because they’re unsure what they’re supposed to eat. Eggs? Cereal? Yogurt? Is there a magic recipe?

Let’s think about what people eat in other cultures. When I was growing up in Peru, I don’t remember opening a box of cereal. We ate fresh, whole foods — like whole-grain bread with marmalade, fruit, and eggs. On the weekends we often ate a sort of beef stir-fry (lomo saltado), served on a sandwich, or even tamales. If you had a hangover, breakfast was ceviche. (That’s raw fish cured with lime juice!) When I look at other cultures, I see something similar — traditional breakfasts involve whole foods that mix protein, carbohydrate and fats. In Japan, for instance, rice, fish and miso soup come together for the morning meal. In Israel, it might include eggs, bread, cheese and a tomato/cucumber salad.

What all these breakfasts have in common is that they are not made of processed foods (other than breads — but even then, these are whole-grain breads) and they are not all from one food type (carbohydrates or proteins). They have the same qualities that make up a good dinner: fresh ingredients and a blend of protein, fat and carbohydrates. In fact, in many countries a typical breakfast is composed out of the leftovers of what was used to make traditional dinners! So if you stock your refrigerator with fresh ingredients, and keep on hand basic, healthy staples like eggs, meats, vegetables, fruits and whole grains, you will always have the makings of a superb breakfast.

Here is breakfast at the Espresso Bar. Pros: Y...

Here is breakfast at the Espresso Bar. Pros: Yummy plates. Nice big eggs. Excellent coffee. Cons: ok salad, ok bread, ok juice. Personal tilt: loved the place. Overall: 8.5/10 About The 7 Breakfasts series: My employers gave me seven free double-breakfast coupons with a certificate of appreciation thingy. Me and Moran, hopeless breakfast fanatics, decided to document each of the morning glories. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here are my four principles regarding breakfast:

1. Any breakfast is better than no breakfast. Eat something, even if it’s little.

2. Eat what you like. This is a corollary to #1. If you don’t like it you won’t eat it, no matter how much you think you should.

3. Be guided by moderation. A bagel is not a great breakfast because it is all refined carbohydrates, but it isn’t going to kill you if you eat it once a month. Try to create balance across a week, rather than be perfect every day.

4. Diversify your food types. What makes a good dinner makes a good breakfast — that is, a mixture of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Just eggs? Not great. Eggs with tomatoes and some fruit? Not bad.

diet, Weight, Weight Loss Tips, dieting programs, Top Weight loss, Health, Human nutrition, Eating, Cook, Whole grain, Carbohydrate, Japan, Wine tasting descriptors, Breakfast, Peru, Yoghurt
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Eating And Exercise


Protein & porridge

Protein & porridge (Photo credit: septuagesima)

It’s Important to know anytime you exercise, you do so in order to try to maintain good health. You also know that you have to eat as well, so your body will have the energy it needs to exercise and maintain for the everyday tasks of life.  For making the best of your exercise, what you eat before and after you workout is very important.No matter if you are going to be doing a cardio workout or a resistance workout, you should always make it a point to eat a balanced mix of protein and carbohydrates.  What makes that determining percentage of carbs and protein you consume is whether or not you are doing cardio or resistance exercise and the intensity level that you plan to work at.The ideal time for you to eat your pre workout meal is an hour before you start.  If you plan to work at a low intensity level, you should keep your pre workout meal down to 200 calories or so.  If you plan to exercise at a high level of intensity, you will probably need your meal to be between 4,000 and 5,000 calories.

Those of you who are doing a cardio session will need to consume a mix of 2/3 carbs and 1/3 protein. Doing so will give you longer sustained energy from the extra carbs with enough protein to keep your muscle from breaking down while you exercise.

For resistance exercise, you’ll need to eat a mix of 1/3 carbs and 2/3 protein, as this will help you get plenty of energy from the carbs to perform each set you do and the extra protein will help keep muscle breakdown to a minimum while you exercise.

Eating after you exercise is just as important as your pre workout meal.  Anytime you exercise, whether its cardio or resistance, you deplete energy in the form of glycogen.  The brain and central nervous system rely on glycogen as their main source of fuel, so if you don’t replace it after you exercise, your body will begin to break down muscle tissue into amino acids, and then convert them into usable fuel for the brain and the central nervous system.

Keep in mind that mostly during resistance exercise, you’ll break down muscle tissue by creating micro tears.  What this means, is that after a workout, your muscles will instantly go into repair mode.  Protein is the key here for muscle repair, as you don’t want muscle breaking down even further to create fuel instead of lost glycogen.

Once you have finished a cardio session, you’ll need to consume mainly carbohydrates, preferably those with high fiber.  Rice, oatmeal, whole wheat pasta, and northern fruits are excellent sources. Also, try to consume 30 – 50 grams of their types of carbs after you exercise.  After your cardio workout, it is fine to eat within 5 – 10 minutes.

Once you’ve finished a resistance workout, you will need to consume a combination of carbs and protein.  Unlike cardio workouts, resistance workouts will break down muscle tissue by creating micro tears.

You’ll need protein as this happens to build up and repair these tears so that the muscle can increase in size and strength.  The carbs will not only replace the lost muscle glycogen, but will also help the protein get into muscle cells so it can synthesize into structural protein, or the muscle itself.

After your resistance exercise, you should wait up to 30 minutes before you eat, so that you won’t take blood away from your muscles too fast.  The blood in your muscles will help the repair process by removing the metabolic waste products.

Aerobic exercise, Carbohydrate, Eating, Fitness, Glycogen, Health, Muscle, Physical exercise, Protein, Resistance training
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Managing You’r Metabolism


What I'm Reading: Master Your Metabolism By Ji...
What I’m Reading: Master Your Metabolism By Jillian Michaels (Photo credit: puck90)

Many people like to blame their weight on their metabolism, Which is the rate at which the body burns calories. Diet and exercise will increase your metabolic rate,doing so will contribute to weight loss. But maintaining a lower weight will be an ongoing struggle because your metabolism doesn’t remain boosted without constant effort. whatever lifestyle changes you made to lose weight, you will have to continue in order to keep it off, People who are able to keep the weight off in general have to reinvent themselves. Your metabolism is built to resist rapid weight loss, which meant that if food ran out, your body could switch to survival mode by lowering metabolism. Boosting your metabolism through diet and exercise will provide quick weight-loss in the beginning, but as you lose weight your metabolism will actually begin to slow down.When you attempt to maintain or lose weight, your body is fighting back. It’s burning calories more efficiently, even more so when you exercise or do other activities like walking around.This is one of the reasons why people have great success in losing weight up to a certain point, but then suddenly stop seeing results. Their metabolism has slowed to match their new level of fitness; there is less body mass to fuel, so the metabolism doesn’t have to work as hard.Here’s a few ways you can overcome your metabolism lose weight, and keep it off.

 You need to eat even less as you lose weight because your body needs fewer calories to sustain itself. Or you could increase the intensity and duration of your workouts. Either strategy can help break a fitness plateau.                                                                                                                                                              Try different types of exercise to work new muscles Strength training is known to help keep your metabolism high, because muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does.

Complex carbohydrates should make up at least 50 percent of your daily diet, to  keep your body properly fueled.You can eat fewer carbohydrates and more lean protein for a few days the change could bump you off your plateau.Since it takes more calories for the body to convert protein into fuel than carbohydrates or fats.

Maintaining weight loss will be a long-term struggle.Over 75 percent of  the people struggling to lose weight will return to their previous levels of body weight within a few years. This is the result of combined metabolic, behavioral, endocrine, and autonomic nervous system changes that  favor the regain of lost weigh.This is why it is necessary to make long-term lifestyle changes to sustain weight loss.If your interested in a copy of the book  here’s a link http://astore.amazon.com/pr0216-20

Body weight, Calorie, Carbohydrate, Dieting, dieting programs, Eating, Fitness, Health, Human nutrition, Loss Weight, Metabolism, Physical exercise, Top Weight loss, Weight, weight loss, Weight Loss Tips, weight tips
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