What is the anti aging secret weapon? It’s water. Yes, plain old water – our best friend in the battle to restore or hold on to our youth.

Without water there would be no life. It’s that important. Water is something that NASA looks for on new planets to establish whether there might be life on the planet. Although for humans, oxygen is a more urgent need and we would die very fast without it, there are known forms of life that do not need oxygen or even are poisoned by it. But every living thing needs water.

Water makes up 55% to 75% of the human body, depending on a person’s build and size. It is essential for all of our metabolic processes. It helps transport nutrients and eliminate toxins. These substances are dissolved or held in suspension by our bodily fluids that are mostly water, and carried around the body. It is important for a healthy colon, kidneys, liver, brain and just about everything else. Read the rest of this entry »

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Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: Alzheimer's disease, bloating, food, heart disease, high blood pressure, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, stroke, US National Research Council

Unless you have been under a rock all this while, you must have heard of the 3-day Detox diet or master cleanser Diet, more popularly known as the lemon diet. Do you know that your weight gain is partially caused by toxins and other waste products that get deposited in your body over time?

Lemon is said to act as a detoxifier by cleansing your body of all these toxins. When your body gets rid of these harmful toxins, it not only becomes lighter, but also healthier. Further, after going through detoxification, you would find it easier to lose weight. Now that you know about the pros of detoxification, let’s go into the actual detail of how far useful this lemon diet is.

Apart from cleansing your body of toxins and making you lose a few pounds of weight in the process, lemon diet has many other pros: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bloating, energy level, food, food choices, food guide, regular accounting, waste products

Just like obesity, diabetes is also fast becoming a threatening disease with every passing year. And as strange as it might sound, you could actually get rid of both of them by using the same method. Obesity is caused by an excessive amount of calorie consumption, and the same holds true for diabetes as well.

In fact several recent studies have pointed out that diabetes is closely linked with obesity. Now if you want to get rid of both your fat belly as well as those dreaded insulin injections, monitoring your daily calorie intake is the only way to kill the two birds with one stone.

Since most junk foods are high on calorie and sugar content, they tend to increase your blood sugar level apart from making you overweight. The recommended way to control your calorie intake is by counting your daily calorie consumption level using a calorie counter. So let’s see how a calorie counter could offer you fast weight loss. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bloating, diabetes, electronic device, food items, food journal, food restaurant, insulin injections, obesity, threatening disease

New diet programs seem to crop up almost every month, so much so that at times I find it difficult to remember all of them. A new kid on the block is the Ketogenic Diet. You may or may not have heard of it because it hasn’t been able to reach the popularity levels of Atkins Diet or South Beach diet. Nonetheless, weight loss has little to do with the popularity of a particular diet program.

In my experience I have found that people have lost weight with little known diet programs, and the opposite has also happened – that of people getting disappointed with the most popular diet program! The big question is: is the Ketogenic Diet just another fad or does it really work? That is what I would be exploring in detail in this article!

To understand the Ketogenic Diet, you need to know about ketones first, since this diet is based on how ketones function in our body. In short, ketones are the enemies of fats, and the more ketones your body has, the quicker you would be able to shed the extra pounds!

Now, as a matter of fact, our body has a soft corner for fat. It would rather burn your valuable muscles for the purpose of producing energy than that ugly fat. The Ketogenic Diet burns your fat deposits and produces the readymade energy your body can use. This is a win-win situation for you: neither you would need your body’s help to burn fat as it is done artificially by the Ketogenic Diet, nor would you lose your lean muscles!

Now the important part: which foods are you allowed to eat under this diet? Since carbs turn into fat and make you overweight, you should reduce their intake and increase the consumption of fatty foods. This means that you should be eating more of dairy products such as butter, milk, cheese, etc., and less of cookies, cakes, biscuits, chocolates, white breads, rice, pasta, fruits, etc.

The bad part of this diet program is that just like other fad diets, this one too is not without its share of side effects. Some side effects you may suffer from as a result of using this high-fat-and-low-carb diet are abnormal behavioral changes, stomach problems such as bloating and constipation, kidney troubles, as well as high cholesterol levels!
On top of that, there is no scientific or clinical evidence of the effectiveness of this diet with regards to weight loss. So far, only epileptic patients, that too mainly children, have benefited from the use of this diet. If you decide to opt for this diet, you shouldn’t do so without consulting a doctor or nutritionist!

Tags: atkins diet, bloating, constipation, dairy products, energy, low carb diet, nutritionist, readymade energy, south beach, South Beach Diet

Fiber is one of those things that we are told to eat mroe of yet there should be some confusion. Not all fiber is alike.

Most Americans know that foods high in fiber are full of nutrients because they are less processed. There are two kinds of dietary fiber and you need both.

Insoluble fiber (the type that does not dissolve in water and is found in wheat bran, oats, whole grains and vegetables) helps promote regularity, prevent hemorrhoids and diverticulosis. It may also help prevent colon cancer.

Soluble fiber (the type that dissolves in water, found in oat bran, oats, beans, apples and carrots) helps lower blood cholesterol levels and control blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: American Dietetic Association, bloating, colon cancer, diabetes, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, site site

Carbohydrate loading is a method that has been used for at least 20 years now by marathon runners and other endurance athletes. The idea behind carb loading is that you would eat a huge amount of carbohydrates, usually complex carbohydrates in the 12-18 hours before competition. The Mayo Clinic came up with this great primer on the how, what and why of Carb loading.

Carbohydrate loading can improve your performance during high-intensity endurance exercise. Use this strategy to prepare for a marathon, triathlon or another endurance event.

Perhaps you’re training for a marathon or triathlon. Or maybe you’re a long-distance swimmer or cyclist. Whatever your sport, if you plan to complete 90 minutes or more of high-intensity exercise, carbo-loading (carbohydrate loading) may improve your performance.

Carbohydrates: The body’s fuel

The food you eat contains carbohydrates, protein and fat. These nutrients supply the calories your body uses for energy. Although your body needs all three nutrients, carbohydrates are your body’s primary source of energy.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: athlete, average athlete, bloating, carbohydrate-containing sports, cramps, cyclist, dairy products, diabetes, energy, food, Loading Carbohydrate, long-distance swimmer, Mayo Clinic, registered dietitian, soccer, Sports Medicine, Swimming, triathlon, weightlifting

Talking to most women over 50 you will quickly find that menopause and weight gain are linked in their experience. It is very common to put on weight at this time and while some of this may be due to lifestyle changes, that does not explain why suddenly we develop a tendency to put on weight at different parts of the body, especially the abdomen, while any weight gained when we were younger tended to be centered on the hips.

The truth is that hormonal changes do have a part to play in this, although the process is not completely understood. At menopause a woman stops ovulating, her monthly menstruation periods end, and her body produces much lower levels of the female hormone estrogen which is responsible for the ovulation process. Low estrogen has been shown to cause weight gain in animals and it almost certainly is the reason why our bodies change shape. While women of childbearing age store fat in the lower body, after the menopause they store it on the abdomen instead, like men. This leads to a greater risk of heart disease.

At the same time, both men and women tend to find muscle turning to fat as they grow older, and the metabolism slows down. This means that if you do not adjust your eating habits you will probably find that your weight increases. A person of 60 just does not need as many calories as a person of 40.

Hormone therapy with estrogen is sometimes prescribed to control menopausal symptoms. Many women will be surprised to hear that studies have shown that hormone therapy does not cause weight gain. Some women experience bloating and water retention in the early stages of hormone therapy but this is usually temporary and they have not gained any fat. Hormone therapy can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the changes in storage of body fat around the abdomen and lowering cholesterol. However, hormone therapy has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in some studies.

If you find that you are gaining weight around the menopause, there are several things you can do.

- Eat a healthy, low fat diet with plenty of fiber, avoiding sugar.

- Take regular exercise. As people get older their physical activity levels naturally drop. Work often becomes less physically demanding, there are no kids to run around after, we take less active holidays and do things more slowly. 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day will help to balance out the effect of this.

- Maintain your muscle strength and mass. Use weights for arm muscles and walking or cycling for legs.

- Accept the changes to the shape of your body. If you are not overweight, but simply have a thicker waist and slimmer legs, that is fine.

Consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program if you have any medical conditions or your fitness levels are low. Your doctor can also help with symptoms of the menopause and weight gain.

Tags: bloating, breast cancer, heart disease, hormone therapy, low fat diet

I don’t know why I keep noticing these detoxing articles although today I do. I made a turkey for the first time this weekend and messed up making the gravy. After a few hours of suffering from all the fat in the gravy I have come to the sudden realization that I would like to detox it right out of my body

When we want to detoxify our bodies naturally, we usually look to herbs to cleanse our bodies. You can’t get any more natural than greens that come from the good earth, now can you? However, how efficient are herbs in taking impurities out of our system? This article features a list of Pros, Cons and general guidelines in using herbs as a natural detoxification of your digestive system.

The Good news about herbal detoxing

1. Herbal detoxing is all natural. There’s no suspicious complex formula or secret ingredient, so you don’t have to worry about bloating and other side effects brought on by strange chemical reactions. You should find out, though, which herbs will do what to your body. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Author, bloating, constipation, digestive and circulatory systems, digestive system, enemas, flaxseed, food, high technology lab, laxatives, natural detoxification, psyllium, strange chemical reactions, The Good news

I have mentioned before and I am sure I will mention again the idea that you need to eat small meals several times a day and most importantly you need to plan your meals and meal times. I can tell a story to illustrate this.

On Thursday I went into work and before I got a chance to site down I got called out to another building for a meeting. My regular morning starts with a bagel and jam and then another snack halfway between then and lunch but not today. I got to the first meeting (a little foreshadowing here) and had a cup of coffee, the meeting went long and I got dragged into another long meeting. By the time my first two meetings were done it was 11:30 and my wife called me to invite my to lunch at the Olive Garden. I accepted, had an apple and then went to the Olive Garden were I stuffed myself.

After eating too much for lunch I dragged myself through the afternoon and then finally ate a couple pieces of pizza for dinner at 8:00 and went to bed at 10:30.

Thursday had to be my worst eating day in months. I had two crappy quality meals and nothing much else. Not a proud day for me that is for sure.

So how do you get around these kinds of eating days? Well there are a few ways:

• The night before plan what and when you will eat the next day
• Have three meals planned and good healthy snacks that are easy to make
• When you start your day make sure that you have a good look at your calendar so that you know if anything will get in the way
• Do not bring any extra treats, if you have them you will eat them first (I would)

One of the things that I really do is to usually follow these rules and after next to no time you do not have to worry about eating these bloating giant meals and your energy will be more balanced and higher on a regular basis .

Tags: bloating, diet_choices, diet_program, Eating Tips, eat_healthy, energy, healthy_snacks, health_tips, Olive Garden, quality_meals, weight_loss

Is Caralluma the next Hoodia?

As we have all heard and I have written here. Hoodia is one of the most popular weight loss products on the market today even if there is very little research confirming it but in the world of weight loss anectodal evidence is all that really matters. Caralluma is the same type of plant, a succulent and many people believe that it will be the next hoodia with some research,however small, showing positive results and people are making some weight losses. The really nice thing about Caralluma and Hoodia is that they have been used voer thousands of years and we know that in using them in moderation there are no obvious health issues.

Caralluma fimbriata is a succulent plant, in the cactus family. Where have we heard this before? Hoodia anyone? Caralluma has been used as a natural appetite suppressant in India for centuries. Caralluma is a “new” disovery in the west in the family of cactii and succulent plants that are becoming increasingly popular for their appetite suppressant, and weight loss properties, as well as their ability to lower blood sugar. Supplements made from the popular hoodia gordonii cactus from the Kalahari Desert in Africa, are very popularfor weight loss in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Like hoodia, Caralluma Fimbriata has been used to suppress appetite, and as a portable food for the outdoors as opposed to how we in the west have always used dried fruit and dried meat. It is used to suppress hunger and appetite, and enhance endurance throughout India. It is also sometimes considered a “famine food,” used during periods of famine to suppress appetite.

Caralluma Fimbriata is essentially a vegetable of daily use in tribal India. It is eaten in several forms. It is cooked as a regular vegetable with spices and salt. It is used in preserves like chutneys and pickles and is even eaten raw. Indian tribals chew chunks of Caralluma Fimbriata to suppress hunger when on a day’s hunt. This succulent is used amongst the labor classes in South India to suppress appetite and enhance endurance.

Two clinical trials of a proprietary Caralluma fimbriata extract (Gencor Pacific, Inc., Austin, TX) found the product to be without any serious side effects.6,11 The extract is described as a powder alcohol and water extract of the shade-dried aerial parts of the plant and containing not less than 10% total saponin glycosides, 3% bitters, and 25% total pregnane glycosides.7 Specific active components are noted to include luteolin-4?-O-neohesperidoside, kaempferol-7-O-neohesperidoside, sitosterol, tomentogenin, and pregnane glycosides, including caratubersides A and B and various boucerosides.6

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial on potential weight-loss effects, the Caralluma extract was administered in gelatin capsules initially to 62 obese subjects, 50 of whom completed the 8-week study. Subjects were of both genders, in normal health, not taking medications, and had not dietary restrictions during the trial. Reasons why the 12 subjects failed to complete the trial and the dosage used and quantitative results are not found in the summary made available for this report. According to the trial summary, reductions in the indicators of weight-loss were statistically significant and all adverse effects were gastrointestinal (constipation, moderate acidity, and flatulence), reported by both the placebo and the extract treatments groups, and transient (subsided within 7 days without further incidence).6

A 4-week, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of Caralluma was conducted in 26 overweight subjects (7 in the placebo group and 19 in the extract group; 9 men and 15 women ages 31 to 73). The extract was supplied in gelatin capsules at a dosage of one 500-mg capsule 30 min. before each meal. Subjects were instructed to maintain their previous exercise pattern and food intake and not to make any changes in their diet during 4 weeks before the treatment period, neither of which are described in the publication made available for this report. One male in each of the treatment arms of the trial failed to appear for final assessments; however, the reasons for their absence were not stated in the publication. The only adverse effects reported were from one subject in the final placebo group (3 males and 3 females) and one in the final extract treatment group who both complained of bloating and acidity shortly after beginning treatment and upon starting treatment again after ceasing. Subsequently, both discontinued the Caralluma capsules. The trial summary states that over 80% of those in the final treatment group (5 men and 13 women) lost weight with 11 out of 18 subjects losing approximately 6 pounds. Others lost 1-2 pounds (n=4) or maintained their starting weight (n=2). The exceptions in the extract group were one woman who lost 8 pounds, another who lost 9 pounds, and one who deviated from the trial instructions by increasing her calorie intake and gained 17 pounds. Three subjects in the placebo group (n=6) gained a pound and one subject lost one pound.

Take this as you would like but it seems that Caralluma is poised to be one of the new most popular weight loss products. One thing to watch for in the news is how easily this product will be to grow and produce as there are many companies that can package and market and with few if any side effects there will be very little resistance to a “new” indian weight loss product.

Tags: Africa, Austin, bloating, Canada, constipation, Europe, famine food, food intake, Gencor Pacific Inc., India, indian weight loss product, Kalahari desert, portable food, United States, weight loss products