Archive for August, 2010
How Hard is the Atkins Diet?
I’ve tried many diets by the years, and I must say that one of the easier diets I could stick to by a period of duration was the Atkins style diet, which is low carb and nearly complete avoidance of things like pasta, bread, potatoes and the like.
Basically, you watch the carb count in your foods rather than the fat or calorie count so much. However, whether you want to be heallthy, I think you should still watch the fat intake as well, so for instance, buy low fat cheeses and meats for your low carb diet lifestyle.
High fat diets aren’t good for your body, and you may be losing weight whether you indulge in bacon and eggs every dawn, but you may additionally be putting your body through a lot of processing, and the less fat you take in, the less processing and stress your digestive system has to take on, which is a good thing, and makes your working parts – well – work a lot longer!
Another risk with Atkins is whether you don’t get ample fiber in your diet and you shun fruits and veggies, you will definitely get constipated. So prepare certain you at least eat an apple here and there, and form big salads with chicken in them for at least one meal a day so that you are still getting roughage or some style of fiber in your meal with each bite.
Eating just cheese and meat will put you in serious pain whether you don’t get that fiber in there too. My personal favorite is to do a combination of Atkins low carb and a fiber diet. I simply can’t eschew all fiber containing foods in favor of lower carb options, my system isn’t built to be regular under all circumstances like some humans are. I need fiber and bulk in order to have any sense of regularity and comfort, and it’s just not worth the weight loss whether I can’t have that.
I additionally try to eat a lot of fiber containing nuts, like raw walnuts and almonds. Almonds particularly are a great nut to eat for low carb diets considering they contain tons of omega 3 fatty acids which are ultra healthy, and they additionally contain lots of natural fiber to help you stay regular.
I use spinach leaves and dark leafy greens in my salad for higher vitamin and fiber substance instead of plain old iceberg lettuce, which has poor nutrient and fiber value. It’s the little choices like that which produce my Atkins style diet a bit healthier – and keeps things moving along!
Original post by EatingToLive
Low Fat/Low Carb Egg Salad : The Trick
Ok, so I accidentally discovered that one, and it may sound a little gross when I tell you how I made it, but it’s a low fat alternative to egg salad. I love egg salad. It’s funny, considering I used to hate it as a kid and never wanted any part of hard boiled eggs. Hard boiled eggs in a salad!? Oh, that was the worst when I was a kid, I thought my parents were totally nuts for thinking that combination was tasty!
Now, I love to add a hard boiled egg to my salads. But the difference is, I only allow myself half of the yolk. As you know, the yolk is the fattiest part of the egg, and it plus contains a lot of cholesterol. It’s really good tasting though, and it actually does offer some nutrients that the egg white, it’s lesser calories, high protein counterpart, does not.
In one large hard boiled egg, there are about 77 calories, and just the yolk accounts for 59 of those calories. The egg white, even though it’s larger in surface area than the yolk, only has about 17 calories in it and it’s a great source of lean, fat free protein.
So, my low fat egg salad alternative is as pursues. All you do is take a hard boiled egg, I like to use jumbo eggs since they give more egg white. Throw away half of the yolk. cut it up into small squares like you would for regular egg salad. Mix with about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of low fat, small curd cottage cheese. I like to add a dash of sea salt and pepper – voila – low fat, high protein, no mayo egg salad – yum-o!!!
I actually discovered that little trick one at work considering I was running low on my usual cottage cheese and had brought a hard boiled egg with me to eat plain. I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to mixing foods and experimenting, so I figured why not mix the two, they’re both low fat sources of protein that are filling and nutritious.
So I mixed them and add a little salt and pepper. It’s a nice low carb snack or part of a meal whether you like egg salad but don’t want all the fat. Kept me full for a few hours too!
Original post by EatingToLive
The Best Low Fat Dressings Choice Goes To…..
My choice for the best lowfat and low calorie dressings has been decided for a while. It’s considering that specific type has the tastiest dressings at the best calorie counts, and with the least artificial “weird” taste that often accompanies these lower fat versions of the fattier creamy dressings on the market.
In other words, they build you feel like you’re indulging, but really you’re saving about 30-50% of the calories that are in their higher fat, non low calorie counterparts. Wish Bone has the best low fat and low calorie cream dressings I think, hands down.
Their zesty Sweet and Spicy red french dressing is one of mine and my husband’s favorites. And another favorite is their low fat Creamy Caesar, which unfortunately is really hard to find at grocery stores any more.
Another good low fat creamy caesar dressing that’s good, but not as good as Wish Bone type, is Marzetti. It’s got that same pungent taste that a lot of good caesar’s have, thanks to the anchovi oil (I know, sounds gross, but it really makes for a tasty caesar dressing!), but just not as much flavor overall as the Wish Bone.
I really like mixing the Sweet and Spicy French lowfat dressing with a low fat ranch. It makes a nice sort of thousand-island-ish sort of flavor, and creams up the french a bit more too, making it taste a bit more indulgent. Believe it or not, Wal-mart has a pretty tasty low fat, low cal ranch dressing that’s plus easy on the wallet at less than two bucks for a bigger bottle.
One thing you have to be careful of when you’re using low fat or low calorie dressing is that you don’t use more of it than you would a normal dressing, since we tend to do that subconsciously when we use a low fat/cal product. You can easily by do it on a light dressing too, and defeat the purpose of a healthful, low calorie salad in a couple additional pours of the bottle.
Try measuring it out into tablespoons, and keeping it to one serving or 1 1/2 servings, depending on how big the salad is. You’d be surprised at how far some dressings go in coating your lettuces and veggies with just the right amount of zesty flavor!
Original post by EatingToLive
Low doses of BPA alters gene expression
A study posted today (Wednesday, August 25) at the online site of the journal Biology of Reproduction reports that exposure of pregnant female mice to the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A may produce adverse reproductive consequences on gene expression in fetal ovaries as early as 12 hours after the mother has first been exposed to the chemical……..
Original post by myemail@myemail.com (Your DisplayName here!)
Rheumatoid arthritis signaling protein
A signaling protein released during rheumatoid arthritis dramatically reduced Alzheimer’s disease pathology and reversed the memory impairment of mice bred to develop symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease, a newly released study by the University of South Florida reports. Scientists observed that the protein, GM-CSF, likely stimulates the body’s natural scavenger cells to attack and remove Alzheimer’s amyloid deposits in the brain……..
Original post by myemail@myemail.com (Your DisplayName here!)
A better way to grow stem cells
Human pluripotent stem cells, which can become any other kind of body cell, hold great potential to treat a wide range of ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. However, researchers who work with such cells have had trouble growing large abundant quantities to perform experiments in specific, to be used in human studies. Furthermore, most materials now used to grow human stem cells include cells or proteins that come from mice embryos, which help stimulate stem-cell growth but would likely cause an immune reaction whether injected into a human patient……..
Original post by myemail@myemail.com (Your DisplayName here!)
Is Portion Control the Hardest Part of Dieting?
In my opinion, the absolute toughest part of dieting for me is the portion control aspect. whether I could just get that one down, I’d probably never have so many fluctuations amidst that 5-10 pound range that I do.
Actually, I dare say that portion control is the most challenging part of dieting for just about everybody. I think that’s why diets that promise you can eat all you want are so popular, like the Atkins diet which doesn’t focus so much on portion control, but rather the amount of carbs you are taking in at each meal.
I still think though, that weight loss is best achieved by using portion control in conjunction with whatever type of diet you choose – low carb, high carb but low fat, or something like the Zone diet (which is portion controlled, but uses specific combinations of food to rev up your fat burning potential).
We have a lot at our disposal as far as tools to enforce portion control in our meals, but it’s not always easy to actually execute it considering you’re often still hungry after consuming a “portion controlled” meal.
It’s really how we’ve become programmed to eat considering we were brought up on the super size mentality many times. Some of us are lucky and have a built in “stop” button when we’re full, but most of us have that other button that tells us we’re still hungry when we’re really not needing the additional food.
Natural appetite suppressants can certainly help, but it additionally take discipline to do it at first, and shrink that stomach so you become accustomed to eating less. There are even special plates and bowls you can buy that do the portioning for you that have helped a lot of public do it without just eyeballing it.
There are plus a lot of portion controlled foods available, like 100 calorie snack packs and prepackaged meals that are a preset amount of calories that can help you start off on the right foot when trying to control portions for the first moment, or re-learning it.
I’ve found that for me, the initial first week is the toughest, when I’m trying to reform my portion control and compose certain I’m only eating what I have to in order to be “full” and at least satisfied til my next meal. A lot of it is the concept that we eat as a way to joy, instead of eating to “live”. whether you can get by that notion and only eat what you need, soon after your body will follow and reduce it’s fat substance and all that excess baggage it’s been carrying around in response!
Original post by EatingToLive
