Theoretically, you could get adequate protein from a strictly vegetarian diet, but practically it would be extremely difficult. For one thing, it would require the eating of huge amounts of food. Most vegetarian diets make excellent use of eggs, milk, and cheese, and to that extent are only partly vegetarian.

Animal proteins are stressed in your reducing diet for another reason. Recent knowledge indicates that Vitamin A is not always well absorbed in the form in which it occurs in green plants. Such plants, normally rated as excellent sources of the vitamin, contain it in yellow pigments of which the chief is carotene.

This does not become the vitamin until it is altered in your liver. It has been found that some persons absorb as little as 5% of available carotene; hence, though their food contains plenty of Vitamin A units, they derive no benefit from it.
Animal foods, however—eggs, butter, liver, milk, cheese —contain the true vitamin. The animal has done all the work of converting the carotene into Vitamin A, saving you the trouble. Read the rest of this entry »

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One of my goals this year is to pull some of the posts off of this blog and create blogs that are more tightly focussed. Don’t worry about the posting frequency or the content, I just want to make sure that this blog concentrates on diet, exercise and fitness. Over the last year or so I have been diving a little bit away from this focus and giving you posts about a few other topics.

Today I want to announce that I have moved off all of the acne and skin care posts over to a new blog. That blog is Acne Info Today. Acne info today will be focussed exclusively on skin care.

So as I start looking through the 600 or so posts on this blog what would you like to see? I have been thinking of doing more muscle building but of course the motivation for diet and exercise are important as we get near the end of January and the quick death of the new years resolutions. Do you want more diet articles? More supplements? I started new categories for both supplements and for nutrition so that I could start getting a bit more concentration on those two important topics.

More to come.

Get a Six Pack Stomach in 10 Easy Steps

Many people wonder how to get a six pack stomach fast. Most of them aren’t aware that fat cannot be turned into muscle, nor do they understand that six pack abs won’t appear until you burn off your belly fat. Anyone can have a six pack stomach, even without doing a single sit-up or crunch. However, strength training (and especially abdominal exercises) will speed up the process of helping you get a six pack (and make your abs look better too!).

To begin with, try and avoid following any fad diets. Consult your doctor especially if you plan on following any of these diet plans:

Negative calorie diets

Very low calorie diets

Very low carb diets

Any other type of unbalanced fad diet

Changing your diet should be considered a part of a healthier lifestyle. Do what you can to learn everything about nutrition. The more you understand, the easier it will be to implement healthy nutrition in your diet.

Let’s take a look at ten ways to speed up the process of burning fat, for achieving a six pack stomach quickly, through safe and healthy ways.

Instead of using butter or margarine, substitute fruit purée. They are quite simple to prepare with a food processor and will greatly reduce calories and fat.

Cheese can be good for you, but the saturated fat is not. Try this: microwave cheese for a few seconds to drain off any excess grease, or choose a lower fat substitute.

If you exercise before eating, you will just end up more hungry. Seek to perform exercise AFTER you eat, so the body will work harder during digestion.

Avoid television while eating. Focusing too much on something entertaining will take your mind off your appetite, and you will end up eating more than you should.

Don’t skip breakfast. Your metabolism is higher when you wake up, so you will burn more calories. Also, breakfast will temper your desire to eat a large lunch and dinner.

If you mix water with fructose, it will be more effective in suppressing your appetite than water with glucose or diet sodas. A glass of orange juice 30-60 minutes before a meal can reduce your appetite.

Stay away from trans fatty acids as much as you can. Instead, use canola oil or olive oil. Anything that lists partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fatty acids, which slow fat burning and increase your risk of heart disease.

Drink skim milk. You’ll get all the nutrients without the extra fat.

Remove as much fat as you can from meat before cooking. This one step alone will drastically reduce your calories and fat intake.

Use health Supplements. I can honestly say that I could not have built the body I have today without the convenience and enhancements supplements provide. This is a choice that you must decide for yourself. You will be spending your money on these products, so make sure that you know their place in your program.

Another article on the South Beach Diet?

I am a bit of a fan of the South Beach Diet, well as much as I can anyway. I still believe that good common sense should beat out good marketing. The South Beach diet is one of the most popular on the planet right now and it is hard to open up people magazine or entertainment weekly without a reference to south Beach somewhere.

The South Beach Diet is essentially an eating plan that holds the principle that one must eat the right carbohydrates and right fats in order to have a healthy life full of vitality and a great looking body. Consequently, what you eat; and indeed what foods are good and what are bad for you, is a paramount principle in the South Beach Diet.

In the South Beach Diet plan, you must eat the right carbohydrates and the right fats. South Beach Diet plan is very trendy, with a lot of people following it these days. Although a lot of people consider the South Beach Diet as a popular diet, many are still not aware about the foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet.

The first thing you need to know are the principles of the South Beach Diet, so that you can then fully understand the foods that are good and bad for you. The South Beach Diet is specifically divided into three different phases. Each phase has its own distinction and limitation. However, knowing the foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet requires a great focus on the phase one of the diet. Why? The foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet are largely stated in Phase one.

The first phase of the South Beach Diet is considered to be the most challenging and strict phase of the diet, because there are so many foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet� first phase. The main foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet particularly in the first phase are beef rib steaks, honey-baked ham, breast of veal, all yogurts, ice cream, milk including whole, low-fat, soy, and full fat cheeses, beets, carrots, corn, yams, fruits and fruit juices, all alcohol.

It is also essential to remember that aside from those foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet, there are also some sorts that are included in the foods to generally avoid in the South Beach Diet and these include all starchy foods such as bread, cereal, oatmeal, matzo, rice, pasta, pastries and baked goods among other similar foods.

What then are the foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet?

So the foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet are really carbohydrates. It is recommended to avoid carbohydrates on the South Beach Diet for so many reasons. The main theory behind this reasoning is that once weight decreases, the followers of the diet begin to metabolize carbohydrates properly and the longing for carbohydrates will consequently disappear.

In the South Beach Diet it is also recommended that the dieter must to eat three balanced meals a day, and to eat enough so that the dieter does not feel hungry all the time. It is estimated that on average, the expected weight loss which a dieter can achieve during the phase one of the diet is eight to thirteen pounds.

On the second phase of the South Beach diet, basically the foods that were barred during the first phase are now allowed in this second phase. It is recommended that the dieters remain on phase two and continue losing weight until they have reached their weight goal. As far as how long it actually takes to lose the weight, that really depends on how much the dieter wants to lose.

The third and last phase of the South Beach diet is one where one continues maintaining good eating habits for the rest of the dieter�s life. By this stage, the dieter would have adopted the South Beach diet plan as their natural eating habit for life.

By simply following the South Beach Diet, you can achieve your best body weight. You can be healthy for life and also have a great looking body. By knowing the foods to avoid on the South Beach Diet, you can achieve any weight and fitness goals you may have.