For years experts have taught us that fasting is bad for weight loss, because fasting takes our body into the ’starvation mode’ and when our body is in starvation mode, it slows down the fat burning process by lowering our metabolic rate.

While it is true that long periods of fasting do more harm than good to our body, a recent study has found out that people who went on intermittent fasting were not only successful in losing weight but also in improving their overall health! If that sounds too good to be true, read this article to find out exactly how intermittent fasting could help you get rid of fat!

When the results of this study came out, it fuelled a lot of controversy and head turning. At first many people thought that this is just another fad diet which would make people unhealthier. However, further research has proven that the intermittent fasting diet not only makes us stress-free but also keeps our body away from harmful maladies by improving our immune system. It was also found out that people who followed this diet to lose weight tended to live longer than others. But there is more to be said about it!

The kind of fasting you do under this diet is a far cry from the crash dieting method many of us are familiar with. With crash dieting, you would be virtually starving for days on end, living off merely on a bite of carrot or a glass of fruit juice. With the intermittent fasting diet, you get to eat to your heart’s content for one day (I mean, you can eat whatever you like), and then starve the very next day, consuming nothing except plain water!

As you can see, the fasting conditions set by this diet program are so lenient that I am sure anyone would have success with it! I don’t know about you, but if someone lets me eat all of my favorite junk foods on the condition that I have to fast on the next day, I would gladly take up on the offer!

It is a fact that our body is actually designed to follow this eating routine right from the primitive age. In primitive times, when the staple food for humans was hunted animals, the availability of food was quite unpredictable. On one day, you might be able to hunt down a large animal and have your fill; but if you were unable to hunt another animal on the next day, you would have nothing to eat on that day!
Back then, food supply used to be scarce and as such, eating full on one day and going hungry on the next was the norm! Now, when those people used to fast, their bodies would use the stored fat inside for sustaining itself.

This explains why your body helps you lose weight when you fast intermittently!

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: food, food supply, staple food, starvation

Todays news seems to be full of salmonella in tomato stories.Mcdonalds and other fast food restaurants have pulled the tomato off of the menu although most supermarkets do not seem to be doing the same.

The problem with tomato salmonella seems to have been occurring for about two months now and seems to be found in about half of the US state.

I have questioned in the past why we have all of these outbreaks over the last couple of years and apparently the cause is government cutbacks at the FDA. The FDA is supposed to be watching the food supply by checking and testing farms and produce but through cutbacks this testing has been reduced over the last 20 years by up to 80%. With cuts that deep to testing it is no wonder that we are seeing so many problems with our food sources.

Actually one of the ladies on the news was just saying that a meat farm where salmonella is thriving has cows that poop and this can move through the to the neighbors tomato farm and then these tomatoes could have salmonella. this can not be washed off as it can leach into the tomato itself, that description was worth watching as was the reaction from her co-host. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: fda, food restaurants, food sources, food supply, United States

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today will celebrate the centennial of the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 at an event dedicated to the agency’s past, present and future service to the nation.

The ceremony, which will be held at the FDA’s Harvey W. Wiley federal building, will feature U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt and Acting FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D. Also in attendance will be senior leaders of the agency, and scores of current and former FDA employees and special guests including former Commissioners of Food and Drugs, representatives of consumer and trade groups, and descendants of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, the scientist whose early support of food and drug regulations earned him the title of “Father of the Pure Food and Drugs Act.” Dr. Wiley served as the first director of the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture, which later became the FDA.

In addition to presentations by Secretary Leavitt and Acting Commissioner Dr. von Eschenbach, the program’s highlights include an overview of the coming public health opportunities and challenges by FDA’s Deputy Commissioners and other senior leaders of the agency. Sean K. Sullivan, Associate Publisher of Good Housekeeping magazine, will speak about Dr. Wiley’s work following government service as Director of the Bureau of Foods, Sanitation and Health for Good Housekeeping magazine.

The modern FDA dates its origin to June 1906, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act and Congress embarked on a policy of continuous strengthening of public health protections and of their enforcement, first by the Bureau of Chemistry, and later by the FDA. Since then, Americans have benefited from increasingly comprehensive, science-based safeguards for a myriad products essential for health, survival and high quality of life.

Today, these products represent almost 25% of all U.S. consumer spending and include 80% of the national food supply as well as all human drugs, vaccines, blood products, medical devices, tissues for transplantation, radiation-emitting equipment, and animal drugs and feed.

The FDA’s centennial celebration, which include conferences and special forums in cities from coast to coast, have the following aims:

Observe FDA’s role — past, present and future — domestically and internationally in protecting and promoting the health of the public; Inspire future efforts to advance science, innovation, and public health through partnerships and alliances with key FDA stakeholders; Attract new generations of regulatory scientists; and
Salute the contributions of FDA employees, alumni, legislators, academicians, industry, consumer groups, and public health leaders to fulfilling FDA’s mission.

Tags: Acting Commissioner, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, blood products, Bureau of Chemistry, Bureau of Foods, Commissioner, Congress, Deputy, director, fda, FDA Celebrates 100th Anniversary, first director, food, food supply, Good Housekeeping, Harvey W. Wiley, Health and Human Services Secretary, Michael O. Leavitt, myriad products, president, radiation, Sanitation and Health for Good Housekeeping, Scientist, Sean K. Sullivan, Secretary, Theodore Roosevelt, trade groups, transplantation, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, United States, United States Department of Agriculture, vaccines

I just stumbled upon a Newsday article that looks at a few pieces of research to try to find out what a good diet is. Is a good diet high or low in fat? There is so much conflicting evidence these days but I think this kind of article helps you ask yourself a lot of questions and then it is up to you to decide what to do about it by listening to how your body reacts to different diets.

When it comes to defining a healthy diet, it’s easy to become confused. Recent reports from the Women’s Health Initiative study, which followed 40,000 women for eight years, concluded that low-fat diets and calcium with vitamin D supplements do not decrease a woman’s risk for heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer or hip fractures. Upon hearing this news, after being schooled for years on the merits of low-fat diets and calcium, a health-conscious person might be tempted to eat any old thing.

But hold on. While these types of large-scale trials help researchers and policy planners, they do not by themselves help consumers craft a healthy diet. That is because standards for conducting such studies and analyzing data have built-in limitations.

The dietary pattern studied in the Women’s Health Initiative – low fat with five servings of fruits and vegetables and six servings of grains – was based on research available when the study began in the early 1990s. This diet stressed proportions of fats and carbohydrates. But more recent research takes into account the quality of fats and carbohydrates, not just quantity.
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Tags: animal products, breast cancer, colon cancer, food, food culture, food industry, food supply, heart disease, low fat diet, low fat diets, Newsday, olive oil, physician, registered dietitian, Vitamin D