I have always pushed my kids to eat a better breakfast by having toast and natural peanut butter or cereal but there is anew study out today proving me right. It seems that cereal and milk are a great, easy to digest form of protein.

Exercise physiologist Lynne Kammer, from The University of Texas at Austin, led a group of researchers who investigated the post-exercise physiological effects of the foods. Kammer and her team studied 12 trained cyclists, 8 male and 4 female. In contrast to many sports nutrition studies, however, the exercise protocol was designed to reflect a typical exercise session. After a warm-up period, the subjects cycled for two hours at a comfortable work rate, rather than the more frequently seen test-to-exhaustion. Read the rest of this entry »

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: Exercise physiologist, exercise protocol, Lynne Kammer, sports drinks, sports nutrition studies, Texas, University of Texas at Austin

Three new studies have suggested that consuming meals after exercising may go against the overall health benefits that physical work outs create.

The three studies, published by kinesiology researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, suggest that, unless you are a competitive athlete, consuming sports drinks or high-carbohydrate foods such as energy bars right after exercising may negate the health benefits that physical exercise creates.

According to Barry S. Braun, associate professor of kinesiology and director of the Energy Metabolism laboratory at UMass Amherst, most people who exercise are not competitive athletes. They exercise to help their overall health, seeking to manage their weight and reduce risk for diabetes, heart disease or other health problems. For them, the potent benefits of exercise are quickly reversed by consuming high-carbohydrate foods such as sports drinks and energy bars after workouts.

But, for ordinary people who are using physical activity to improve their health, exercise is a medicine. Though each ”dose” of exercise gives benefits, the effects are lost in one to two days. Like other medications, exercise also has interactions with food.

Recommendations for athletes seeking to optimize their performance may be precisely the wrong advice for people using exercise to improve their health. “The latter might be wiser to avoid sports drinks and energy bars during, and for one to three hours following, exercise to maximize the positive effects of each exercise dose,” said Braun.

In three recently published studies, graduate students under Braun’’s direction looked at how the total calories, the carbohydrate content, and the timing of post-exercise meals influence metabolic health.

To understand whether the negative effects of the post-exercise meal were due to the total calories or to the carbohydrate content of the meal, Braun’’s student Kaila Holtz tested two different meals given immediately after 75 minutes of moderately intense bicycle exercise. The meals contained exactly the same amount of calories but one was high in carbohydrates and the other was very low in carbohydrates. Her results showed that the effectiveness of insulin to clear sugar from the blood was greater after either exercise/meal combination compared to participants who did not exercise. The effects were larger, however, when the meal was low in carbohydrates.

These results suggest that, when the post-exercise meal is low in carbohydrates, more of the metabolic benefits of exercise are retained. Although there were a few subtle differences, the results were similar among all three exercise/meal combinations, suggesting that timing of the meals was not an important consideration.

Tags: associate professor, Barry S. Braun, carbohydrate content, competitive athlete, diabetes, director, energy bars, Energy Metabolism laboratory, food, health benefits, heart disease, Kaila Holtz, physical exercise, professor of kinesiology, sports drinks, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Well it is that time of year again, you are a little pale and the spare tire is a little bit bigger than it was in the fall and now you want to lose some weight and look better in those skin showing summer clothes. What you need is a plan and a bit of a change in schedule.

Here is a simple list of things that you can do starting today to make sure that you are buff and ready as the summer and summer activities come in a couple of months.

Eat Smarter

The key to a healthy diet plan is to eat smarter than before. Over the winter you may have been eating a little badly, keeping on track but cheating. Now is the time to start eating in a very structured and focused way.

No matter how you have been eating you must now start eating every couple or three hours. Really this just means toad snacks, good for you snacks. Let’s say that you eat breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, dinner at 6. Now all you have to do is add snacks (really just smaller meals) at 10 am, 3 pm and 8 pm. Now you must be wondering, what you should be eating.

The next important thing is to be sure to eat smaller meals and small snacks. The idea of eating so often is that your body will be better able to use the food that you are eating and a side effect of this is that it will raise your metabolism.

Raise the protein, drop the carbohydrates

What you eat is the next thing that is important. You should get a good idea of what is a carb based food and what is a protein based food and we all know what is fatty and these high fat foods should be avoided when you are trying to lose weight.

I said that you need to eat small meals but most importantly you need to make sure that you have lots of protein and less carbohydrates than you are used to. This may be initially harder than you expect but in the end this adjustment will pay great dividends in having a healthy diet plan for summer.

Stay hydrated when you exercise

When you are working out you will want to of course drink water and sports drinks so that you can keep not only your liquids up but the magic of sports drinks like Gatorade is that they bring back the electrolytes that you are losing by sweating. Getting dehydrated will drop your energy and in the end will stop your body from functioning normally.

These steps to a healthy diet plan will make a big difference this spring and summer to make you healthier and more fit.

Tags: carbohydrates, drink water, energy, food, healthy diet plan, metabolism, protein, sports drinks, summer clothes

That one last drink may have seemed like a great idea last night, but now you have to face the computer screen to search for home remedies for hangovers, you may be regretting it just a little bit!

The good news is you do not have to look any further. We have all the information you need!

Stop Your Hangover In Its Tracks

The answer is to drink – but not alcohol! Alcoholic drinks actually use up your body’s water stores, causing dehydration. This in turn causes some hangover symptoms, so drinking water is a good start.

Be careful because it is possible to drink too much water too fast. Large quantities of water can strip electrolytes from the body so it is better to try to replace these as well, or keep to around a half liter of water per hour.

Sports drinks are one of the best ways to get you feeling human again. They will boost your blood sugar, rehydrate you and provide the vital electrolytes (potassium, sodium etc) that you will have lost through the kidneys while you were drinking and overnight.

If you prefer not to have the refined sugar and additives that are in sports drinks, have plain water and eat bananas for potassium and fructose. Or make a banana smoothie by putting a couple of bananas in the blender with a little water or milk.

If you do not have bananas and cannot face going to the store right now, use apples or other sweet fruit (not citrus) or even plain honey dissolved in water. Honey contains electrolytes too. The less refined your honey is, the better.

Feverfew is a well known herbal remedy for headaches and can be taken in place of aspirin or other chemical painkillers. Raw persimmon and raw cabbage are also said to help with headaches. Aspirin can damage the lining of the stomach so it is not the best solution for a sensitive morning-after digestive system.

Exercise will help your circulatory system to detoxify. Take a brisk half hour walk as soon as you are able.

Next Time Around

Here are a few things that you can do before you go drinking to prevent the same thing happening next time around.

Drink water to prevent dehydration. The best rule is to have one glass of water between each alcoholic drink, but failing that, drink a couple of large glasses of water before you go to sleep.

Buy some Bifidus powder. This is friendly bacteria that detoxifies acetaldehyde, a byproduct of alcohol that is a major cause of hangover symptoms. One teaspoon in a large glass of water drunk before going to sleep should mean that you wake up hangover-free.

Foods high in unsaturated fats can reduce the effects of alcohol. American Indian lore says that 6 raw almonds eaten before drinking will stop you getting drunk. African tradition recommends peanut butter. Evening primrose oil is another option, especially for women who can benefit from taking it anyway. Take any of these before you start drinking to avoid having to search for home remedies for hangovers after your next night out!

Tags: chemical painkillers, dehydration, home remedies, primrose oil, sports drinks

Eating before or after a workout is one of the most important determinants to whether you perform at the peak of your ability and recover from the workout as best as possible. There is a lot of science behind exercise and eating and in this article, I found this article in a magazine at a hockey rink a couple of weeks ago and could not believe how great it was, thanks to the Calgary minor Hockey Association we can tell you exactly how to eat. Following this pregame and postgame eating should make your workouts better and your performance better as well.

THE PREGAME MEAL

What you eat each day can have a big effect on how you perform. What you consume right before a game can be critical. Wrong choices can slow you down and even take you out of the game, while right choices can give you that competitive edge. The pregame meal can supply your body with significant amounts of energy, although don’t rely on it to supply you with everything you’re going to need. You’ll want to have eaten the right kinds of food for several days prior to your game to charge up your muscles with glycogen. Your body converts food into glycogen – the key energy source your muscles use during intense physical activity such as hockey. The pre-event meal can help with the following; Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alberta, competition eating, dehydration, diarrhea, eating exercise, energy, fat dairy products, fatigue, food, food choices, food remaining, hockey, Illinois, key energy, nausea, postgame meal, pregame meal, registered dietitian, Sport Medicine Council of Alberta, sports drinks, sports performance, the Calgary minor Hockey Association, University of Illinois, vomiting

Obesity in children is an issue throughout North America and the habits that you learn when you are young are the ones that will carry through to adulthood. Bill Clinton has brokered a deal through his organization to have all schools offering healthier snacks by going through the manufacturers of the snack food themselves. This is a great good news story.

Just five months after a similar agreement targeting the sale of sodas in schools, Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association announced a deal Friday with several major food companies to make school snacks healthier � the latest assault on the nation�s childhood obesity epidemic.

�By working with schools and industry to implement these guidelines, we are helping to give parents peace of mind that their kids will be able to make healthier choices at school,� said Dr. Raymond Gibbons, president of the heart association.

The agreement with Kraft Foods Inc., Mars Inc., Campbell Soup Co., Groupe Danone SA and PepsiCo Inc. sets guidelines for fat, sugar, sodium and calories for snack foods sold in school vending machines, stores and snack bars. Those companies make everything from M&M�s, yogurt and granola bars to Frito-Lay potato chips, Snickers bars and canned soups.

Under the guidelines, most foods won�t be permitted to derive more than 35 percent of their calories from fat and more than 10 percent from saturated fat. There will be a limit of 35 percent for sugar content by weight.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alliance for a Healthier Generation, American Heart Association, baked potato chips, beverage industry, beverage industry leaders, Bill Clinton, Bob Harrison, Campbell Soup Co., Charles Nicolas, diabetes, executive director, food, Frito-Lay, Groupe Danone SA, junk food, Kraft Foods Inc., Mars Inc., north America, obesity, PepsiCo Inc., potato chips, president, Raymond Gibbons, snack food, snack-food industry, spokesman, sports drinks, William J. Clinton Foundation

Sometimes we just do not eat very well and I ran across these 100 eating tips that would improve anyones diet very quickly in a very good direction, so gobble them up!

1. Add just one fruit or veggie serving daily. Get comfortable with that, then add an extra serving until you reach 8 to 10 a day.
2. Eat at least two servings of a fruit or veggie at every meal.
3. Resolve never to supersize your food portions–unless you want to supersize your clothes.
4. Make eating purposeful, not mindless. Whenever you put food in your mouth, peel it, unwrap it, plate it, and sit. Engage all of the senses in the pleasure of nourishing your body.
5. Start eating a big breakfast. It helps you eat fewer total calories throughout the day.
6. Make sure your plate is half veggies and/or fruit at both lunch and dinner.

Are there Any Easy Tricks to Help Me Cut Calories?

7. Eating out? Halve it, and bag the rest. A typical restaurant entree has 1,000 to 2,000 calories, not even counting the bread, appetizer, beverage, and dessert.
8. When dining out, make it automatic: Order one dessert to share.
9. Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.
10. See what you eat. Plate your food instead of eating out of the jar or bag.
11. Eat the low-cal items on your plate first, then graduate. Start with salads, veggies, and broth soups, and eat meats and starches last. By the time you get to them, you’ll be full enough to be content with smaller portions of the high-calorie choices.
12. Instead of whole milk, switch to 1 percent. If you drink one 8-oz glass a day, you’ll lose 5 lb in a year.
13. Juice has as many calories, ounce for ounce, as soda. Set a limit of one 8-oz glass of fruit juice a day.
14. Get calories from foods you chew, not beverages. Have fresh fruit instead of fruit juice.
15. Keep a food journal. It really works wonders.
16. Follow the Chinese saying: “Eat until you are eight-tenths full.”
17. Use mustard instead of mayo.
18. Eat more soup. The noncreamy ones are filling but low-cal.
19. Cut back on or cut out caloric drinks such as soda, sweet tea, lemonade, etc. People have lost weight by making just this one change. If you have a 20-oz bottle of Coca-Cola every day, switch to Diet Coke. You should lose 25 lb in a year.
20. Take your lunch to work.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: appetizer, Baltimore, beverage, Brown University School of Medicine, Cal Dinner, cancer, Coca-Cola, counseling, dehydration, dietitian, energy bars, food, food journal, food portions, Food suppliers, fresh fruit, heart disease, leftover food, microwave, no-cal beverage, nutrient-rich food, olive oil, online diet programs, online weight loss programs, peanut oil, Pennsylvania State University, Peter Pan, registered dietitian, smallest fast-food burger, sports drinks, veggies

Long weekends and hot weather are coming for everyone over the next few weeks and it is a very good idea to be careful about how you treat yourself in the heat. here are some tips:

Drink more fluids especially water, regardless of your activity level. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. Warning: If your doctor generally limits the amount of fluid you drink or has you on water pills, ask him how much you should drink while the weather is hot.

Don’t drink liquids that contain caffeine, alcohol, or large amounts of sugar, these actually cause you to lose more body fluid. Also, avoid very cold drinks, because they can cause stomach cramps. Also remember that Gatorade and other sports drinks are really only needed for excercise, water is fine otherwise.

Stay indoors and, if at all possible, stay in an air-conditioned place. If your home does not have air conditioning, go to the shopping mall or public library, even a few hours spent in air conditioning can help your body stay cooler when you go back into the heat. My family in the past has gone shopping at the mall during the hottest part of the day just to get out of the heat.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: heart disease, heat exhaustion, heat-related illness, low-salt diet, sports beverage, sports drinks, stroke

Here are the last 25 best diet tips from Renees fit site. She finally revealed the source of these tips. These are from Prevention magazine.

How Can I Conquer My Downfall: Bingeing at Night?

1. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The large majority of people who struggle with night eating are those who skip meals or don’t eat balanced meals during the day. This is a major setup for overeating at night.


2. Eat your evening meal in the kitchen or dining room, sitting down at the table.


3. Drink cold unsweetened raspberry tea. It tastes great and keeps your mouth busy.


4. Change your nighttime schedule. It will take effort, but it will pay off. You need something that will occupy your mind and hands.


5. If you’re eating at night due to emotions, you need to focus on getting in touch with what’s going on and taking care of yourself in a way that really works. Find a nonfood method of coping with your stress.


6. Put a sign on the kitchen and refrigerator doors: “Closed after Dinner.”


7. Brush your teeth right after dinner to remind you: No more food.


8. Eat without engaging in any other simultaneous activity. No reading, watching TV, or sitting at the computer.


9. Eating late at night won’t itself cause weight gain. It’s how many calories–not when you eat them–that counts.

How Can I Reap Added Health Benefits from My Dieting?

1. Fat-free isn’t always your best bet. Research has found that none of the lycopene or alpha- or beta-carotene that fight cancer and heart disease is absorbed from salads with fat-free dressing. Only slightly more is absorbed with reduced-fat dressing; the most is absorbed with full-fat dressing. But remember, use your dressing in moderate amounts.


2. Skipping breakfast will leave you tired and craving naughty foods by midmorning. To fill up healthfully and tastefully, try this sweet, fruity breakfast full of antioxidants. In a blender, process 1 c nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt, 1 1/3 c frozen strawberries (no added sugar), 1 peeled kiwi, and 1 peeled banana. Pulse until mixture is milkshake consistency. Makes one 2-cup serving; 348 calories and 1.5 fat grams.


3. If you’re famished by 4 p.m. and have no alternative but an office vending machine, reach for the nuts–. The same goes if your only choices are what’s available in the hotel minibar.


4. Next time you’re feeling wiped out in late afternoon, forgo that cup of coffee and reach for a cup of yogurt instead. The combination of protein, carbohydrate, and fat in an 8-ounce serving of low-fat yogurt will give you a sense of fullness and well-being that coffee can’t match, as well as some vital nutrients. If you haven’t eaten in 3 to 4 hours, your blood glucose levels are probably dropping, so eating a small amount of nutrient-rich food will give your brain and your body a boost.


5. Making just a few changes to your pantry shelves can get you a lot closer to your weight loss goals. Here’s what to do: If you use corn and peanut oil, replace it with olive oil. Same goes for breads–go for whole wheat. Trade in those fatty cold cuts like salami and bologna and replace them canned tuna, sliced turkey breast, and lean roast beef. Change from drinking whole milk to fat-free milk or low-fat soy milk. This is hard for a lot of people so try transitioning down to 2 percent and then 1 percent before you go fat-free.


6. Nothing’s less appetizing than a crisper drawer full of mushy vegetables. Frozen vegetables store much better, plus they may have greater nutritional value than fresh. Food suppliers typically freeze veggies just a few hours after harvest, locking in the nutrients. Fresh veggies, on the other hand, often spend days in the back of a truck before they reach your supermarket.


7. Worried about the trans-fat content in your peanut butter? Good news: In a test done on Skippy, JIF, Peter Pan, and a supermarket brand, the levels of trans fats per 2-tablespoon serving were far lower than 0.5 gram–low enough that under proposed laws, the brands can legally claim zero trans fats on the label. They also contained only 1 gram more sugar than natural brands–not a significant difference.

Eating Less Isn’t Enough–What Exercising Tips Will Help Me Shed Pounds?

1. Overeating is not the result of exercise. Vigorous exercise won’t stimulate you to overeat. It’s just the opposite. Exercise at any level helps curb your appetite immediately following the workout.


2. When you’re exercising, you shouldn’t wait for thirst to strike before you take a drink. By the time you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Try this: Drink at least 16 ounces of water, sports drinks, or juices two hours before you exercise. Then drink 8 ounces an hour before and another 4 to 8 ounces every 15 to 20 minutes during your workout. Finish with at least 16 ounces after you’re done exercising.


3. Tune in to an audio book while you walk. It’ll keep you going longer and looking forward to the next walk–and the next chapter! Check your local library for a great selection. Look for a whodunit; you might walk so far you’ll need to take a cab home!


4. Think yoga’s too serene to burn calories? Think again. You can burn 250 to 350 calories during an hour-long class (that’s as much as you’d burn from an hour of walking)! Plus, you’ll improve muscle strength, flexibility, and endurance.


5. Drinking too few can hamper your weight loss efforts. That’s because dehydration can slow your metabolism by 3 percent, or about 45 fewer calories burned a day, which in a year could mean weighing 5 pounds more. The key to water isn’t how much you drink, it’s how frequently you drink it. Small amounts sipped often work better than 8 ounces gulped down at once.

How Can I Manage My Emotional Eating and Get the Support I Need?

1. A registered dietitian (RD) can help you find healthy ways to manage your weight with food. To find one in your area who consults with private clients call (800) 366-1655.


2. The best place to drop pounds may be your own house of worship. Researchers set up healthy eating and exercise programs in 16 Baltimore churches. More than 500 women participated and after a year the most successful lost an average of 20 lb. Weight loss programs based on faith are so successful because there’s a built-in community component that people can feel comfortable with.


3. Here’s another reason to keep level-headed all the time: Pennsylvania State University research has found that women less able to cope with stress–shown by blood pressure and heart rate elevations–ate twice as many fatty snacks as stress-resistant women did, even after the stress stopped (in this case, 25 minutes of periodic jackhammer-level noise and an unsolvable maze).


4. Sitting at a computer may help you slim down. When researchers at Brown University School of Medicine put 92 people on online weight loss programs for a year, those who received weekly e-mail counseling shed 5 1/2 more pounds than those who got none. Counselors provided weekly feedback on diet and exercise logs, answered questions, and cheered them on. Most major online diet programs offer many of these features.

Tags: (800) 366-1655, Baltimore, Brown University School of Medicine, cancer, counseling, dehydration, food, Food suppliers, heart disease, nutrient-rich food, olive oil, online diet programs, online weight loss programs, peanut oil, Pennsylvania State University, Peter Pan, registered dietitian, sports drinks