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INFORMATION THAT I READ AND WANTED TO PASS ON!!!
Eat
9 Foods That Can Fool You
During my 1970s childhood in South Dakota, my mom used to order something called the "Diet Plate." Common in most Sioux Falls-area and greater-Minnesota region restaurants, it consisted of a scoop of cottage cheese, a couple of canned peach halves still dripping syrup, a hamburger patty, some iceberg lettuce, and a sprig of parsley.
While delicious by mid-20th century Midwestern standards, it wasn't nearly as calorie-restrictive as you'd think compared to the chicken-fried steak and baked potato my dad was eating across the table. Still, the perception was that this was diet food, most likely because each element in the Diet Plate had a vague resemblance to another healthier foodstuff (except the hamburger, that is). But that had to be there because this was South Dakota, and any other meat would be deemed un-American.
Today, it'd be nice to think we've transcended the Diet Plate. Sadly, this isn't the case. Even today, there are dozens of foods we fool ourselves into thinking are healthful when in truth they do nothing but pad our hips and arteries. Here are nine of the worst offenders on your grocery store shelves.
- Yogurt. It starts out as good stuff. Fat aside, there's the calcium and protein you find in all milk products, along with probiotics, which make it easier to digest for those with lactose issues. The only problem is that straight yogurt can be pretty bitter, so manufacturers load the stuff with sugar and masquerade those carbs as fruit in an effort to make the whole thing more palatable. Have a look at most flavored yogurt and you'll find the second ingredient to be sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. One container of Yoplait® Original Strawberry has 170 calories, with 5 grams of protein and 33 grams of carbohydrates, 27 of which are sugar. Oddly enough, these are the exact same nutrition facts for Yoplait's other, less healthy-sounding flavors, including Key Lime Pie and White Chocolate Raspberry.
Solution: Buy plain yogurt and flavor it yourself. You'd be amazed at how far a handful of raspberries or a tablespoon of honey will go to cut the bitter taste. And while you're at it, choose the low-fat or fat-free stuff. You'll still get all the nutritional benefits. Wheat Bread. If you're reading this, you probably know enough about nutrition to understand that whole-grain wheat is better for you than refined wheat. By keeping the bran and germ, you maintain the naturally occurring nutrients and fiber.
But for some reason, manufacturers constantly come up with new chicanery to lead you back to the refined stuff. One of their latest tricks is to refer to refined flour as "wheat flour" because, obviously, it's made of wheat. But just because it's wheat-based doesn't mean it's not refined. The distracted shopper can mistake this label for "whole wheat flour" and throw it in his cart. Another loaf of cruddy, refined, fiberless bread has a new home.
Solution: Slow down when you read the label. That word "whole" is an important one.- Chicken. Just because you made the switch from red meat doesn't mean you're in the clear. If you opt for dark meat—the wings, thighs, and legs—you're losing protein and gaining fat. Three ounces of raw chicken breast, meat only, has 93 calories, 19.5 grams of protein, and 1.2 grams of fat. Three ounces of dark meat, meat only, is 105 calories, 18 grams of protein, and 3.6 grams of fat. It may not seem like much, but it adds up.
Solution: Go for the breast, and while you're at it, ditch the skin. It's nothing but fat. Frozen or canned fruit. Any food swimming in juice or "light syrup" isn't going to work in your favor on the scale. Furthermore, most canned fruit is peeled, meaning you're being robbed of a valuable source of fiber.
Frozen fruit is a little trickier. While freezing preserves the fruit itself, adding sugar during the freezing process preserves color and taste; so many store-bought frozen fruits throw it in.
Solution: Read that ingredients list! You want it to say fruit, water—and that's it.- Canned veggies. "What?" you declare. "There's light syrup in canned string beans too?" Nope—actually, they add salt to preserve this produce. A half-cup serving of canned string beans has approximately 300 to 400 milligrams of sodium.
Solution: Many companies offer "no salt added" options. If you can't find one to your liking, go frozen instead—no salt (or light syrup), or better yet, buy fresh. - Peanut butter. Squish up peanuts, maybe add a little salt. How hard is it to make that taste good?
Apparently, it's so incredibly difficult that many companies feel compelled to add sugar or high-fructose corn syrup into the mix. Why? I don't know. Some manufacturers, such as Skippy®, are up front enough to admit this and call their product "Peanut Butter Spread," but many others still refer to this sugary concoction as good old "peanut butter."
Solution: Read the label. (There's a theme emerging here.) Considering real peanut butter has one ingredient—two ingredients, max—it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out. Juice. The range in the nutritional value of store-bought juices is massive. On one end, you have "fruit drinks" with just a modicum of actual juice in them. On the other end, you have fresh-squeezed, 100 percent preservative-free juices like Odwalla® and Naked Juice®. But no matter which one you choose, it's important to remember that it's never going to be as healthy as whole fruit. And if you're trying to lose weight, it's a flat-out bad idea. First off, it's been stripped of fiber, so you absorb it faster, which makes it more likely to induce blood-sugar spikes. Secondly, you consume it faster and it's less filling, so you're more likely to drink more.
Solution: If you must buy it, go fresh-squeezed, but you're usually better off just skipping it entirely.- Canned soup. As is also the case with canned veggies, you're entering a sodium minefield. Half a cup of Campbell's® Chicken Noodle Soup has 890 milligrams of sodium. That's 37 percent of the recommended daily allowance—and who eats half a cup?
Solution: Read those labels carefully. Most companies make low-sodium versions. Fat-free salad dressing: Dressing by definition is supposed to be fatty, and thus highly caloric. You use a little bit of it, and in doing so, you get a healthy hit of the fats you need for a nutritionally balanced diet. Unfortunately, people prefer to buy fat-free versions so they can drown their greens while avoiding excess fat. Nothing's free. All this stuff does is replace the fat with carbs and salt, so you've basically gone from pouring a little healthy unsaturated fat on your salad to dumping on a pile of sugar. For example, Wish-Bone® Fat Free Chunky Blue Cheese has 7 grams of pure carbs and 270 milligrams of sodium for 2 tablespoons, which you'll never stop at anyway. Also, given that there's no fat or protein in this particular dressing, one can only imagine what makes it chunky.
Solution: Make your own salad dressing. One part vinegar and one part olive oil with a blob of Dijon mustard makes an awesome vinaigrette. And here's another trick: Make your salad in a sealable container, add a tiny bit of dressing, and shake it up. It'll coat so much more than tossing will.
And finally, make that salad with romaine lettuce, spinach, or some other nutrient-rich leafy green. As far as we're concerned, nutrient-poor iceberg lettuce should have gone the way of the South Dakota Diet Plate.
*Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
From BeachBody.com
Monday, August 22, 2011
Dr Oz - Suggestion for when you hit your weight -loss plateau
3 Surprising Ways to Break Through Your Weight-Loss Plateau
Too often people experience a plateau in their weight-loss plan: they hit a wall and stop dropping pounds. This frustrating bump in the road often occurs after the first month into your weight-reduction program. Your body starts to become “lazy,” having adjusted to the new reality of fewer calories and more exercise. However, there are effective changes you can make to solve this problem. Dr. Oz is serving up 3 surprising new ways for you to knock down that wall and continue losing weight.
1. Start Every Day With a Sundae
This is not an ice cream sundae – it’s a metabolism-boosting breakfast sundae that’s just as delicious. This treat contains Greek yogurt, banana, strawberries, unsweetened coconut, ground flaxseed and last but not least, Dr. Oz’s secret ingredient: matcha green tea powder. Eat this sundae and you’ll be starting your day off with lean protein and good fats, plus the metabolism-boosting properties of matcha green tea, which is prized in both Japan and South America for its health-benefits.
Like other types of green tea, matcha not only speeds up your metabolism, but is chockfull of antioxidants and other powerful superfood properties such as aiding stress reduction, lowering cholesterol, boosting brain health and fighting cancer. Matcha is available in a concentrated powder and can be found at health food stores.
2. Zigzag Your Calories
You may be staying on track with your weight-loss plan, but by consuming the same amount of calories every day, your body weight can actually come to a standstill. For example, your body simply adapts to 1,200 calories and stops slimming down.
To keep your body working hard at shedding those pounds, vary your caloric intake. Consume 1,200 calories one day; then reduce to 1,000 calories the next day; and 1,100 the following day. Keep this pattern going, and your body will have to exert more energy to make adjustments, which can trigger bigger weight loss.
3. Eat Your Water
A recent study showed that women who ate water-rich foods lost 33% more weight in the first 6 months than women on a low-fat diet. Choose both water-rich and nutrient-rich foods. Fruits like watermelon and cantaloupe, and vegetables like celery and green lettuce contain lots of water and vitamins. Soups made with low-sodium broths are a good choice, too. By eating your water you can actually eat more food and cut down on calories at the same time.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
THINGS THAT WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ALLERGIES
The Truth About Fungal Allergies
By Lisa D. Ellis
Fungal allergies are common, and people with a mold or other fungal allergy are also at increased risk to experience allergic asthma, according to the latest research findings.
Do you notice your allergies seem to be trigged by exposure to mold spores and other types of fungi? If so, you certainly aren't alone. Fungal allergies are particularly common, and people with a mold or other fungal allergy are also at increased risk to experience allergic asthma, according to the latest research findings.
Beware of a Fungal Allergy
When outdoor activities leave you coughing and sneezing on days when the mold spore count is high, you'll feel tempted to hibernate inside. Just keep in mind that indoor mold and fungi can also be a trigger, too, leaving you nowhere safe to hide.
Further complicating the situation is the fact is that the mold and fungi connection to allergies isn't completely clear. In fact, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who studied the mechanisms of fungal allergy reactions couldn't prove a direct correlation between indoor or outdoor exposure to fungi and the onset of specific allergic rhinitis symptoms. Their findings, which were included in The Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society in May of 2010, mean that even though you may feel the link all too well in your eyes, nose, and chest, it may be hard for the experts to clearly identify and address.
Difficult to Classify
Part of the problem in tracking the relationship between different types of fungi and the allergic reactions they cause is that the extracts can vary quite a bit, making them difficult to study or predict.
What is known, though, is that as many as 150 separate fungal allergies do exist, and in addition to anecdotal evidence of their link with general allergic symptoms, they also have a strong link to allergic asthma, with some estimates showing that as many as 80 percent of asthmatics with allergies have a mold sensitivity. Other illnesses can also be related to a fungal allergy, including allergic sinusitis, hypersensitivity pneumonia and atopic dermatitis.
Desensitizing Patients
Scientists in the U.K. conducted the Fungal Asthma Sensitization Trail (FAST) study and had participants undergo a 32-week course of fungal sensitization therapy to see if this has any impact on symptoms. Their findings, which were published in the International Archives of Allergy and Immunology in 2008, revealed that following completion of the therapy, more than half of the participants did have significantly marked improvements in their allergy and asthma conditions.
What this Means for You
If you believe that mold or a fungus allergy may be making you sick, here are some simple steps you can take to help keep your reaction in check:
- Educate yourself about sources of mold and other fungi and notice what types seem to set your symptoms off.
- Understand that when temperatures rise in the spring and summer, often so does the mold count. Therefore, stay indoors on warm, windy days whenever you can so mold spores don't get in your face and hair.
- Follow the National Allergy Bureau (NAB) local mold levels available on the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology's website so you'll know what to expect each day.
- Close your windows and run your air conditioner when the levels are high or you feel your symptoms flare.
- Avoid activities that could stir up mold in the soil and plants, such as mowing the lawn and raking leaves. If you must do any yard work, at least wear a mask to protect your nose and mouth and avoid breathing in any mold spores in the air.
Also talk to your allergist about different treatment methods and see what he recommends. Antihistamines may help control mild symptoms, but if your fungal allergy reactions are more severe, you may want to find out if you're a good candidate for immunotherapy to desensitize your body to this trigger.
Sources
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society (ATS)
International Archives of Allergy and Immunology
US National Library of Medicine
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